Page 26

The male butlers and servants jerk their heads down, averting their eyes as I pass by them and storm into the parlor.

Laughter bubbles in my chest, and I let it out.

“Arkana, what are you doing?” Bell stands at the door.

“She is in an unusual form, my lord,” Delia murmurs.

I laugh harder as I drag the dagger down the front of my gown. It takes all of my strength to cut through the three layers of tulle, satin, and lace. “Your thighs were much more malleable, Lord Erebus.”

His eyes light up with amusement as three of my daggers slip from my skirts and clank to the floor. “Yes, she is. And it is… exquisite.” He turns to my frightened housemaid and nods. “Leave us. And let the staff know if any of them so much as tilt their heads in my wife’s direction, I will rip out their eyes.”

“Yes, my lord.” She practically sprints out of the parlor. I can hear the click of her heels running full speed down the hall.

I let out another grunt as the bottom part of my gown finally falls away from my body. I take a deep breath and exhale slowly. “Sweet fucking air. The most divine I’ve ever tasted.” I shudder when we lock eyes. He’s mesmerized, a devious smirk on his lips.

“You are positively diabolical, woman,” he rasps.

I feel as I am. Wild. Untethered. Free. “Help me get the windows open. I need more air. All of it. I wish to drain Raven’s Gate dry.” In nothing but a pair of black lace panties, I fly to the large window behind me and pull down on the lever with all my strength. But its thick iron hinges are nearly impossible to crank.

“Let me do it, Arkana.” He is at my back, his hands on my waist. My entire body quivers at his touch.

“It’s a stubborn window,” I murmur as I lean back against him.

He brushes my hair to the side before caressing my shoulder. My breath hitches as he slides his hand across my chest. “I’m only helping you because we’re on the first floor, and it will do you no good to push me out of this one.”

I chuckle as he reaches past me and lifts the lever without any effort. I release a sigh of contentment as he pulls the window toward us. The coldest, most delicious breeze wafts over us. I arch my back as I embrace it and all the diabolical sensations it stirs in me.

Bell palms my belly, his hand equally as cold, to my delight. “I want to taste you like this… when you are wild.”

I whimper as he slips his hand inside my panties and palms me. “You don’t think I’m being too much.” I have been told that I am my whole life and that it will repel others.

He slides his other hand up my neck and cradles it. “You are more than too much. You are everything. You consume as fire does, melting the world to fit your desires. You are fucking perfect.”

“You must be mad too, then, Lord Erebus. For I am as unkempt as a wolf under a full moon. I may even howl from this window next.” The rush of emotions hitting me is dizzying. There’s the ache between my thighs, the need for his fingers, while I battle with the chaos in my heart. The darkness that threatens me as it seduces. The craving that keeps me up at night. The utter desperation to feel the heat of his forked tongue again.

“Arkana… my beloved. We shall howl together.” I hold my breath as he presses his soft lips to my shoulder. A devious chuckle unfurls right before he licks up my neck. And the shudder that follows rocks through my body so hard I drench the hand he has cupped around my cunt.

BELL

“I am drunk on you,” I whisper into her ear. I hold her cunt in my hand, taunting her. If she thinks she’s mad now, I will drive her to literal incoherence by the time I give her what she craves. With just a flick of my fingers, I will own every orgasm that drips from her body.

“Bell,” she whines. “How is it that I still cannot breathe?”

I drop the hand I have around her neck and circle my fingers around her taut nipples. “Because you suffocate for me, beloved. You cannot endure anything inside of you but me.” I growl against her jaw before nudging her head back.

She gazes up at me with heavy lids, her eyes glazed. “You’ve made me feverish, Lord Erebus. Whatever this is between us, it’s a sickness.”

“And I welcome the disease. I pray we never find a cure.” I must taste every inch of her. I thrust my tongue into her mouth and nearly black out from the heat. She lets out a gurgled moan as I kiss her. This destructive need to consume her takes over, and I split my tongue around hers.

She arches back, and her juices spill, drenching my hand. I growl and scrape my teeth across her lips as she unfurls for me, both her mouth and her cunt.

“Arkana… Fuck.” Her name is etched into my bones now. I pull her down to the floor with me and lay her down on the cold marble. I watch as she shudders, delighted by every shiver as I remove my pants and my shirt.

Her eyes dart around the room, suddenly aware of the fact that we are naked in the parlor with a full staff scurrying about. “We will surely be tossed into a dungeon for this debauchery.”

I spread her legs apart and kneel in between them. “Then I shall burn it down.”

She arches for me, eager for me to consume her. “You would do that for me?”