“What?”Oh, she was going to be apoplectic with him when all was said and done. And he couldn’t wait.
“You heard me.” He pulled back on the makeshift leash again, watching her body go taut beneath him as a shudder of pleasure wracked her body. Loving it. Hating it. Wanting to surrender. Wanting to fight. Wanting to betaken.Wantingpower.Wanting to give it up.
Everything he could ask for.
He began to pump his fingers inside her, waiting and watching for the moment that she began to crest and?—
Releasing the pressure on the leash, he let her collapse back to the altar.
She wailed in fury.
And he could only laugh. “Two.”
“Six.”
Nadi was going to lose her mind. She was going tolose her moons-damned mind.Everything was starting to blur together in a sea of rage, desire, and agony.
“Seven.”
“I am going tokill you,”she ground out between her teeth. She had run out of all the swears she knew in both languages and had devolved into threats. “I am going to cut off your balls and make you eat them before I do—” Her words broke off into a gasp as Raziel pulled back on the leash. He was doing it a little harder each time, and this time she saw spots in her vision.
Maybe she’d pass out. That’d be a relief.
But he knew her better than she would have guessed. Because no matter how close she got—to oblivion or bliss—he neverquitebrought her either.
Air rushed back into her lungs. His fingers inside of her stilled.
“Eight.”
She let out a sob and whacked her forehead on the altar. She’d given up punching the stone surface.
He chuckled. “Careful. Don’t leave a bruise. Or would they even appear in your other form, anyway?”
“Fuck. You.”
“That is what I’m waiting for you to say. Do you think I’m notalsoin misery?” He leaned over her, resting his arm on the altar near her as he nuzzled in close to her ear. “I have never wanted anyone so very badly as I wantyou,my little fae…”
She shuddered at his words. “Don’t lie to me.”
“Why would I?” His hand left her for a moment, only to be replaced by the pressure of his hips. She could feel the outline of him, every inch of him, desperate in his own obvious need. His voice was a thick, dark growl. “Something in me cries out for you, Nadi—your blood, your body—but it’s evolved past that. I wantyou.I wantyouhere, with me. Beside me. Don’t you understand? I’m not offering you what I am because I don’t have other options. Don’t you get how much of a risk you are?”
He couldn’t possibly mean what he was saying. He couldn’tpossibly.
“But that is a topic for another night.” He chuckled, his tongue running along her cheek briefly before he continued. “Tonight, I want to fuck you in the moonlight. I want to desecrate this holy altar. Because no matter what—whether I succeed or fail—this moment will linger on.Just think, Nadi. You and I, right now, will have just a little bit of revenge on the rest of my family. The next time a Nostrom comes here to perform some sacred ritual, the ghost of our act will haunt them.”
Nadi shuddered. What a mental image.
“Just say the words, little fae, and you can have as much of me as your sweet little body can handle. And we’ll fuck like the animals we are, right here, with the painted faces of my ancestors looking on.”
She wanted and needed him dead.
She wanted and needed him.
She hated him.
But it was more than that.
Wasn’t it?
