“Why wouldn’t it be?” I replied, trying for an air of disinterest. But each word sounded strained, even in my own ears.
Her eyes narrowed, seeming darker now than they had before. “You’re lurking,” she said slowly. “And you’re hiding things from me, Damon. What’s going on?”
“Nothing, my sweet wife.” I touched her cheek lightly, feeling that burn again, that rush of unfamiliar emotion once again rising within me. “There is nothing you need to worry about.”
For a moment, all I wanted to do was lean down and kiss her. To finally understand what it felt like to have something I so desperately wanted.
I never wanted to be king, but I took the throne of Elysian because that was what Nyx wanted of me. What Pandora and her mates needed. What the demons of the Underworld craved. The most powerful of House Elysian, trapped for an eternity upon a throne that never should have been his to begin with, all because a king left his kingdom without looking back.
For the first time in centuries, I wanted something. I wantedher.
The brief touch of our lips replayed in my mind for a moment. She hadn’t pulled away. Would she now? Would she allow me the small pleasure of stealing a kiss?
I leaned in, watching as her eyes darkened, cheeks blooming with a pink flush. “Would you give me something, dear wife?” I asked, voice low.
A shaky breath passed her lips. “What?”
My gaze flickered to those lips, lips I’ve been dreaming of for days. “A kiss.”
Her eyes widened a fraction, shock passing through them for only a moment before hardening into something certain. “Yes,” she whispered. “Kiss me.”
I shuddered, relief rushing through me. I closed the distance between us and claimed her lips, the soft touch burning. It felt like a betrayal to everything I’d done to maintain myposition as King of Elysian, and yet it felt like the most honest thing I could give myself. A truth I could finally admit.
Something hot and red exploded in my chest as I deepened the kiss, taking more of her, pulling her soft body into mine. Ivy made a soft sound as her hands went to my chest, fingers splayed over my racing heart. Did she feel it? Did she understand that it pounded for her? Wanted only her?
The kiss deepened with a swipe of my tongue against her lips, each taste of her, every touch like a betrayal of my vows. And yet my magic yearned for more.
Iyearned for more.
Ivy stepped into me, her body flush against my own. Although our deal marks were no longer visible on her flesh, I could almost feel the snake from our marriage ceremony reaching for me. Begging to be matched with the one on my own hand.
The crash of thunder and pounding rain had Ivy breaking the kiss with a gasp. “Damon…”
I drew in a sharp breath, her scent filling my lungs. Goddess above, I wanted so badly to have more of her; taste more of her flesh, to finally feel her completely. I wanted so badly to understand what it might be like to be bonded to her.
To feel that snap of a mate bond, just as the stories told.
“Thank you, my Queen,” I whispered, bowing my head, “for giving into my dream.”
With that, I let the shadows form around me and take me back to the study, her touch imprinted on my body, taste still on my lips, heart racing only for her.
74
Ivy
Heart pounding, Xerxes’s words from earlier felt like a slap as I considered what I felt during that stolen moment.
Fire. Electricity. The presence of something greater than myself sliding into place. It wasn’t as clear and forceful as a mate bond, not like the times I’d completed them. But it was something so gentle and brief, it took me by surprise.
And I needed to know if it was real.
If what I felt was even possible.
With a shaky breath, I turned towards the creepy, dark hall I knew Damon must have disappeared down. He rarely spent time in any of the upstairs bedrooms, and like Rowan and Adrian, had taken one of the rundown rooms on the ground floor as his workspace.
I picked my way through the darkness into the unfinished wing of the manor. A chill rolled down my spine as the darkness settled in around me. A small part of me stiffened out of fear.
But I kept moving, following the pull I felt towards the demon king through the dark halls.
