Oziel doesn’t speak. He doesn’t need to. The desire inhis gaze is answer enough. Dark shadows gather around my wrists. Like an invisible rope, they wrap around me, pulling me back on the bed. My arms lift above my head, anchoring me in place. I try to move them, but they are glued in place.
“What the fuck?” I scream, heat rushing to my core. “What is this?”
“Submission, Kitten. This is submission.”
“Submission, my ass. I’ll—” But I don’t get to finish my sentence. Something wraps around my mouth, cutting off my ability to speak. My body flushes with a mixture of anger and desire. I hate that I fucking like this. I don’t want to like this. But not even I can deny how hot this is.
Like a snake, Oziel slithers toward me. His body climbs over mine, kicking my legs apart until I’m completely exposed to him. My nipples harden into painful points, but Oziel doesn’t miss a beat. He ducks his head and takes one of the sensitive nubs into his mouth. I cry out as his hand comes up to tease my other nipple. His heavy cock rests against my belly, so close to where I need it, but not close enough.
Oziel pulls back from my nipple, my arousal from earlier still shining on his lips. His dark gaze drinks me in, and despite the show he’s putting on, I know he’s barely holding it together. I don’t want a carefully guarded Oziel. I want him to unleash on me. To consume me from the inside out.
Oziel didn’t tie my legs, so I wrap them around his hips, my heels digging into his sculpted ass. His eyes flash, and the last bit of his restraint crumbles away.His lips are on me again, pressing punishing kisses to my neck. An embarrassingly loud moan leaves my lips before he bites down, easing the pain with his tongue. It’s too fucking much.
The next second, he drives his cock inside of me. I scream out, moans muffled by the invisible gag. My pussy stretches around him, desperately trying to get used to his size. He’s like no man I’ve ever had in my bed, and I’ve cycled through a lot of men. Probably because Oziel’s not a man at all. Something much more sinister. His darkness calls to mine.
Oziel doesn’t treat me like a glass doll. He doesn’t fear he’ll hurt me, because he knows I can take it. He starts to thrust inside me. In and out. In and out. It’s hard. Fast. I can’t catch my breath, but I think that’s the point. The low moans from Oziel are fucking erotic, making me squeeze his cock harder.
“Lucifer Rising, Kitten. So fucking sinful,” he says like a compliment. Watching the demon king come undone for me, even as he claims I’m the one submitting to him, is power. I find I quite like having this sort of power over Oziel.
Every muscle in Oziel’s body flexes, and he roars my name. His orgasm overtakes him, and his hot cum pours into me. It was the last thing I needed, seeing Oziel break, to find my second orgasm. It rips through my body, more intense than my first one. The gag disappears, so my shouts of pleasure echo around us until the only noise is our heavy breathing and my rapid heartbeat.
“You bastard,” I pant, no real malice behind my voice.Give me an orgasm, and suddenly I feel much better. Who knew?
Without warning, the bindings around my wrists vanish, leaving behind the ghost of their pressure. A rush of relief floods my arms, the ache from their confinement slowly fading. My legs slip from around Oziel’s waist, falling on either side of him. The demon king towers over me, his crimson eyes dark with something unreadable, sending a shiver down my spine. His gaze traps me in place, a predator assessing his prey.
He leans in, closing the space between us until his face is mere inches from mine. The heat radiating from his body is nearly suffocating, his presence overwhelming. My breath stutters, and my chest tightens under the weight of the moment. The sharp scent of smoke and something darker, something dangerously alluring, fills my lungs. I bite my lower lip, anticipation curling in my stomach like a coiled snake, bracing myself for whatever words will spill from his lips.
“This changes nothing,” Oziel echoes my words from earlier, delivering them like a dagger to the gut. Those were the same words I said to him before this all started, and I meant them then. Istillmean them. But hearing them from Oziel leaves me with an unexplainable ache in my chest.
He meets my lips once more, softer than the other kisses, but still just as dominating. When he pulls away, I feel his absence. “Enjoy the rest of your day, Miss Sinclair.” Those are the last words Oziel says to me before he leaves our bed.
His shadows cloud him, and when they disperse, he’sclothed again. He doesn’t so much as look back as he storms out of the room, leaving as quickly as the lust overtook us.
A strange, hollow sensation settles in my chest. Something eerily close to disappointment. I tear my gaze away from the door Oziel just disappeared through, as if looking any longer might somehow pull him back. The room feels emptier in his absence, the air still carrying the faint scent of him.
That’s when my eyes catch on the small table beside me. Two glasses of wine sit upon it, the deep red liquid reflecting the dim light. My own glass is already halfway empty, the rich, velvety taste still lingering on my tongue. That would certainly explain the almost desperate hunger I felt for him and the heat in my veins, pulling me recklessly toward the demon king.
But when my gaze drifts to his glass, a flicker of confusion snakes through me. It remains completely untouched, the surface undisturbed, as if he never once considered drinking it. A slow realization creeps in, sending a chill down my spine.
Was this deliberate? Did he simply humor me, watching as I drank, letting the wine loosen my inhibitions while he remained perfectly in control? The thought unsettles me, a shiver dancing over my skin as I stare at the untouched glass, wondering why he didn’t drink his wine.
Chapter 24
Isabelle
Idon’t see Oziel for the rest of the day as I explore the castle, and I decide not to wait for him when I return to our room that evening. The sheets have been changed, and the bed is freshly made, all evidence of our morning together stripped away. If I didn’t feel the delicious ache between my legs, I would think I dreamed up our time together.
The moment my head hits the pillow, exhaustion sets in. Free of wine lust and tired from the best sex I’ve had in my life, I fall into a dreamless sleep. I don’t think I even move once throughout the night because, when I wake up the following morning—or what I assume to be morning since it’s always like night here—I’m in the same position I fell asleep in: on my back with the covers pulled up to my chin.
Unlike last night, though, I’m not alone.
From the corner of my eye, I see Oziel lying on his back. I must have been exhausted because I never heard him come in last night or felt him slip into bed. I turntoward him, but he doesn’t move. He’s awake, his eyes wide open and fixed on the ceiling, unblinking. There’s no way he hasn’t noticed me, and yet he hasn’t acknowledged me.
“Oziel?” My voice comes out rough, thick with sleep. “What’s wrong?”
A heavy stillness clings to him, like a storm trapped beneath the surface, waiting to break. The dim light casts shadows under his eyes, deep, smudged bruises of exhaustion. He looks like he hasn’t slept at all.
When he looks at me with his tortured expression, I’m reminded that he’s an ancient being because exhaustion weighs heavily on him. “Four more demons turned to stone yesterday.”
