Page 35 of Demonic Affliction

I consider making something up, but there's no reason to. Dravik won't judge me for being too scared to sleep after a nightmare. He would never make me feel small like that.

“I, um… had a bad nightmare. I couldn’t go back to sleep, and figured coming down to the baths might help calm my nerves.”

His jaw tightens, the teasing edge from a moment ago replaced with concern.

"What did you see?" he asks.

I shake my head. "I don't really want to talk about it."

Dravik doesn’t push. He nods, silent, shifting his hand to my knee where his thumb traces slow, gentle circles. His touch is like wildfire, filling my head with a loud whooshing as my heart rages against its cage.

His hand doesn't stop at my knee. It drifts higher, slow enough that I could stop him if I wanted to—but I don’t. I can’t.

His fingers trace the inside of my thigh, gliding higher until they stop just a few inches away from where I actually want him. A whimper tumbles from my mouth, and I try to shift closer, but he holds them just out of reach.

“Is it helping?” he asks, his voice low. “Being here? With me?”

He looks up from his lashes, and my breath catches in my chest. He looks hungry. He looks mad.

“I don’t know.” My heart thuds in my ears. “I’m not exactly calm right now…”

“What are you then, Willow?” He presses up, his lips brushing my ear. “Do you want me? As much as I want you?”

“Yes,” I breathe, the word escaping before I can second-guess it. “Yes, I do.”

His control snaps. Dravik pulls back for a heartbeat, then his mouth is on mine. Fire pulses through my veins as he kisses me, and I lose myself in his touch and the feel of his lips working with mine.

I reach up, fisting his horns and using them as leverage to pull him down, needing more, needing everything he can give me. Dravik groans against my mouth, and his teeth find my bottom lip, giving it a gentle nip before his tongue slides over the area, soothing the ache.

Dravik's hand slides up my spine, fingers splayed wide, and he pulls me flush against his chest, letting out another moan at the feel of my breasts pressed against him. “Gods, you’re perfect,” he growls. “So fucking perfect.”

We break away, and Dravik presses his forehead to mine, panting hard. I tip my head back, softly kissing the tip of his nose, and his eyes flare bright at the small gesture, the veins at the side of his neck flaring. “Gods, Willow… we shouldn’t…”

“Shouldn’t what?” I ask, nipping the same spot on his nose I just kissed.

He groans, low and rough, his body shuddering with the effort to hold on to his control. “I should get you back to bed. You need rest.”

“What if I’m not tired?” I look up at him beneath my lashes, and he swallows hard, his gaze flicking from orange to black.

“I should get you to bed anyway.”

We stare at each other for a long beat, neither of us making a move to close the distance or lean back from it. The muscle in his jaw twitches, and I watch his expression change the moment he decides to break.

“Fuck it.”

He closes the distance with another bruising kiss that steals my breath.

Somehow, I don’t think I’m getting any sleep tonight.

11

Willow

Kissing Dravik short-circuits every other thought in my head. There is only him, and me, and this fire between us, threatening to consume us both. It's not gentle anymore. It’s desperate, and hungry, and I can’t get enough of it. Can’t get enough of him.

His hand slides up my spine and grips the back of my neck, angling my head exactly where he wants it. He bites my lip hard enough to sting, then soothes the same spot with his tongue, and my core pools with heat as the pain and pleasure blur into one.

I moan into his mouth, the sound embarrassingly loud in the quiet of the room, but Dravik doesn’t seem to mind. In fact, it seems like he really, really likes it.