She didn’t move as I kneeled beside her, not even when I swept a lock of her hair from her face and tucked it behind her ear. The usual pink of her cheeks was darker, her face blotchy from crying and anger. Betrayal would do that to a person, and I had to remind myself it wasn’t only me who’d betrayed her. Her father had lied to her. Whether he did it to protect her or himself was irrelevant. She loved and trusted him far longer than she’d known me, and she’d be grappling with that as well.
I wanted it to be all about me, selfishly, and I wanted all of her attention, even if all that was directed at me was hatred.
“I came to say I’m sorry,” I said.
“Okay.”
She turned to me, leaning back on her heels and placing her hands on her knees, waiting.
“Um,” I started, and she raised an eyebrow at me. “I’m sorry,” I said lamely, watching her eyes for a clue as to what she wanted to hear from me, “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you what I knew… I was only trying to protect you.”
“Protect me from the truth, or were you just trying to protect yourself?”
“To protectyou,”I insisted, and she nodded as though she believed me but looked into the distance, her eyes unfocused. The wind brushed her hair along her cheek, and when she stared back at me, something in her eyes had changed.
“What do you think of me?” she asked.
There weren’t a thousand things that swirled around in my mind at her question. In fact, there was only one. She was Nikki, a strong presence that had forced herself irrevocably into my mind and heart, but how do I explain that to her? I didn’t think Icould. Nor would this be the right time because her eyes weren’t shimmering with tears, but swirling with emotion and rage, and I feared she hated me.
“Nikki—”
“I’m not some weak little girl, you know? I’m not scared and upset, sitting here clutching to the gravestone and cryingwhy God, why.”She glanced at the gravestone, scoffing quietly.“I’mpissed off,Cade. Because if all thisistrue, then the man I loved most in the worldliedto me for as long as I knew him. Then you come along, and you lie to me too, and I felt…” she trailed off.
What?
She feltwhat?
I wanted to know. Did she feel what I was feeling? These emotions can’t have been as foreign to her as they were to me. Demons didn’tfeelthings, and we certainly didn’t admit it. Emotions were weakness, and my susceptibility to them had already made me an outcast at home.
How to tell her without actually telling her? I could only think of one thing. I wanted to tear her clothes off, claim her, and fuck her with everything I had until she came undone. There wasn’t an inch of her body I didn’t want to touch because I knew already the way her nipples hardened under my fingers and tongue and the taste of her. I knew how she clenched around me as she came and the slight tremble of her leg as she came down from her high. There was nothing in this world as intoxicating as the feel of her, and nothing else would do.
Demons weren’t known for being good with words. I could use my fuck-me voice all I wanted, but there was no meaning behind it. But there was one thing I did know, and it was the connection that existed when we came together, the air between and around us simply exploded with electricity.
I’d never get enough.
Nikki watched me, and I couldn’t read her face. Her pupilsshifted slightly as her gaze darted between my eyes, not focusing on either one. Then she bit her lip, my expression darkened, and there was a change in the air.
My back hit the ground as she launched at me, and I landed with the edging of the adjoining grave digging uncomfortably into my lower back, but I didn’t care. Nikki’s body was on top of mine, her breasts pressed against my chest, free from the restraints of a bra she hadn’t bothered with, and I groaned at the feeling as she shoved her tongue in my mouth. She was so hot, the heat of her surrounding me as she ground her hips against the growing bulge in my pants.
This was wrong.I shouldn’t touch her. I should be talking to her and making this right,I thought, even as I ran my hands down her back, grabbing her ass and pulling her against me as she moaned into my mouth.
Fuck.
A growl rumbled through my throat as my demon stirred. The scent of her arousal was in the air between us, and I wanted to taste her, to swallow her moans and her cum, and fuck her until she couldn’t walk.
We were on top of her father’s grave.
Fuck.
“Nikki—” My protest was cut off as she grabbed my face with both hands, silencing me with a passionate exchange of lips, tongues, and teeth, desperation seeping off her. She wanted release, needed to forget, and whether she was confused or angry or all of the above, she wantedme.
I couldn’t deny her, not when her hands wandered down over my shoulders and arms, nails digging into my skin with a pain so sweet and pleasure I didn’t deserve. There was nothing I wouldn’t give her, and if what she wanted and needed was me, then she could have me,all of me.
No more questions, not now.
Rolling over, I flipped Nikki around so she was underneath me, and she let me take control, panting as I kissed my way down her body. I shoved her top up, bundling it so I could graze my teeth along the erect bud of her nipple and growling again as she moaned. I neededmore.Yanking her boots and pants off, I discarded them, nestling myself between her legs and breathing in her scent. The small damp patch on the front of her underwear was all I needed to know, and I pressed my tongue over the fabric, rolling it over her lips and clit. Nikki grabbed at my hair, swearing and moaning, writhing under my touch.
She was mine, and I wasn’t going to let her go, not now, not ever. Even if she never forgave me and I had to satiate myself by watching her from a distance, I’d force that upon myself as punishment for being what I was. The taste of her pussy would never be enough, but I would take as much as I could now to remember it for as long as I needed to until she let me touch her again.
