I gasped as he pushed me down onto the rugs, though we weren’t far from the bed. I looked up at him with wide eyes as he kneeled, as he reached out and flipped me over until I was on all fours in front of him, on my hands and knees.
Looking over my shoulder, I licked my suddenly dry lips. He’d never taken me like this before but I found the position curiously erotic. My legs squeezed together, more than ready for him.
Then his eyes shifted over me. His gaze caught on my back and his expression changed as he brushed my long hair to the side.
His jaw ticked as he looked at the three scars across my back. From the whip. He traced one, his touch starting at the top of my shoulder, going diagonally across my spine, ending at my hip.
I looked at him, wondering what he was thinking. I knew he hated seeing them. He’d never said so, but I could feel his sudden tension.
My brow furrowed, tears welling surprisingly quickly in my eyes, when he leaned over and kissed the scars, brushing his lips over my flesh. Softly, gently, he kissed every last inch of the old wounds I’d received on his order. And I knew what his kiss meant. What it was.
It was an apology. It was his regret, his guilt.
I’d already told him that I didn’t hold these scars against him. I’d let that go, even when I’d still been healing. He’d been bound in his duty as I’d been bound by his race’s laws.
But my demon king had obviously still carried this with him and it was pouring from him now, all over my scarred flesh.
“Seerin,” I choked out.
I thought that I loved him. I thought that was what this was, what it wasalwaysgoing to be, from the first moment I felt him taking my soul. Me…a human who didn’t know the first thing about love, who found herself in love with a powerful, beautiful horde king of Dakkar. It was almost laughable, but I didn’t care how strange it seemed.
“Come here,” I whispered, not trusting my voice. I felt exposed and vulnerable. Yet I felt completely safe. It was such an odd combination of emotions.
He leaned over me and I craned my neck.
Capturing his lips in a slow, soft kiss, I whispered, “Enough. Enough now.”
When he pulled away, his eyes flickered between my own. He knew what I was telling him. That the past was behind us. That how we’d come to find one another was behind us. I’d forgiven him a long time ago.
His nod was slight, but I knew he understood. He captured my lips one last time and then drew back.
“Oh,” I breathed when I felt his hand brush underneath me, when I felt it brush against my swollen clitoris. Desire returned to me, even stronger than it’d been before,fueled, not extinguished, by what just happened.
He stroked between my thighs until I was rocking against his hand, my breasts swaying under me, Blue’s feathers drifting across the rug.
“Seerin,” I whispered, looking over my shoulder at him. “Please!”
With a growl at my begging, he positioned his throbbing cock at my entrance.
“Lysi?” he rumbled.
Frantically, I rocked my hips back and he slid inside a couple inches. His hiss filled thevoliki.
Then his hands were anchoring my hips, gripping them until I couldn’t move.
With one powerful thrust, he slid all the way inside and held there. My head lolled, my mouth dropping, and my eyes fluttering shut. There was only a brief pinch of pain this time, which quickly faded.
“I cannot wait any longer,” he growled. “Need you now.”
At his words, he pulled out from my body before slamming his hips into me again.
“Ahhh,” I cried out. “Oh yes, Seerin!”
He didn’t stop. He continued to pound and thrust and grind into my sex until the wicked sounds of mating filled thevoliki. Until everything fell away. Until it was just him, me. Until it was justus.
Rough grunts and purring groans reached my ears and my fingernails curled into the plush rugs underneath me, my breasts bobbing forcefully with every teeth-chattering thrust.
Just when I thought I was hanging on the edge of orgasm, Seerin’s hand wrapped around my throat.
