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My breaths come short and shallow, and for once, it’s not from overwhelm or panic. I’m surrounded, and it’s wonderful, this grounded feeling of safety that spills through me as dazzling and consuming as a flame.
Ah, hell. If Theo’s the fire, then I’m the dumb moth who’s willing to brave the burn.
I return his kiss, battling for control or at least equilibrium in the constant push and pull of whatever this thing is between us. His hold on my waist tightens, and we become a tangle of tongues and a clash of teeth.
The wildness inside me that I keep locked so deeply, wanting no one to see, needing no one to know about so they won’t blame it on my ADHD? The ferocity uncurls and expands as though she’s a goddess waking up and stretching to my fingertips and toes. I play with the soft strands of hair teasing my fingers and push my tongue to stroke those fangs of his. His growl of approval only urges me on. He nips at the same time I do.
A bright spot of pain flares at the edge of my tongue and a rush of coppery taste hits me like when I miss my chewing gum and chomp the inside of my cheek instead.
“Shit,” Theo whispers. “Hang on.” He sucks my tongue into his mouth, sliding his against it. The ache dissipates, fading as though I popped two extra-strength pain killers. Sure, endorphins can do wonders, but not this fast.
I pull back, managing not to freak out at the side of red and blue blood on his lips as he licks.
“It’s my venom you’re feeling,” he says. “It was created with pain killers and pleasure enhancements.”
“You have a sex drug pumping through your veins?”
“Close enough.” He scratches his claws lightly over the nape of my neck, and wow, that feels good. “You taste delicious.”
“It’s the butter pecan. Best flavor of ice cream in the world.”
“That explains it.” He smiles, and it makes my heart swell to see the snarky, cocky version of my demon prince back instead of the wounded son with awful parents.
I rock against him, needing the friction at my core and finding him erect.Reallyerect. And huge. Worry slides through my lust, sending reason and tumbling thoughts where there had only been a visceral craving for release.
He squeezes my hip. “Take what you want, Vicious, but know that a release will only bring us closer to completing the mating bond.”
A new fear floods me. “You don’t want me?” The question costs me everything to ask aloud. It’s the one I hide inside from everyone—that I’ll be the outcast, the misfit, the jinx. That no one will be okay with me just beingme.
“I crave you on a level I’ve never experienced. I would destroy all the realms in all the universe to bind you to me, but…” He pauses, his princely mask descending, and I can’t read him, can’t catch one of my million thoughts long enough to guess at what the exception to thathella hotdeclaration of lust might be.
As always, I can’t leave it alone. I’ll pick at the issue until it bleeds in a much less sexy version of what we just swapped. “But?”
“I don’t want…” His words halt and stumble as though he has to force them out. “I don’t want you to regret me.”
My heart plummets, and I’m not sure it doesn’t spiral toward where the promise of what this mating sex magic everyone keeps talking about builds, builds, builds in my core. Yet I can’t stand for him to think himself unworthy, to voice and embrace my greatest fear. Worse, tobelieveit about himself.
“You’re a fucking prince of hell. You deserveeverything.” I swivel my hips to tease us both, and the low growl coming from his chest tells me I’ve tormented him as much as myself. Straightening my shoulders, I level him with my own empress-worthy,slay all daylook. “Besides, I don’t make mistakes. Don’t force me to stab you to prove a point.” Yeah, yeah, terrible pun. I own it.
His sin-soaked chuckles make my core tingle and pulse as though I’m hardwired to his every emotion, and his lust might as well be a hyper-powered, magical vibrator dialed to the max and trained on my own need. “Fair enough. Just know I don’t have a throne to offer you.”
“Then we’ll just have to win your crown back.”We. The word feelssoright. Wrapping the certainty of it around me as tightly as Theo’s wings encircle me, I let need and desire take over until I take and take andtake. Sparkles, stars, and whole damn dimensions explode in my vision, and my climax crests, making me writhe in ecstasy.
I slump against him, worrying about his injuries too late. A quick glance tells me he’s healed as well as if he’d been mainlining healing potion for hours. Mating magic at work, I guess. Except… “Other than the massive orgasm, I don’t feel any different.”
Theo brushes a sweat-dampened curl behind my ear. His heart pounds against my cheek in a deep bass worthy of a club beat, lulling my frantic and frenzied ADHD-wired mind into a calm better than any drug. “My vicious mate.” His voice rumbles through me, and I want to rub against it like a cat. “Everythinghas changed.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Theo
Val hurries through the suite with Montejanus flying behind her and a list clutched in her hand. Actually, I was told it’s a list of lists. She acts as though she’s planning a wartime invasion of another realm. Given the perfume, colorful bottles, and seemingly foreign language of the mask and makeup party that she and Nic are hosting, I almost wish she’d picked launching a battle instead. Those I understand.
While stacking dainty bags of something called product samples—not an easy task with claws, I lash her around the waist with my tail as she runs by again. Having her do a one-eighty from orgasming atop me last night to practically ignoring me today drives me insane, but I need her safe and happy before I teleport out to track down the traitor. “Your party will be great.”
She chews on her bottom lip, and gods, I have to remind myself of the reasons why I shouldn’t haul her against me totaste her again. I’m in this for the long game. If she can wait for me to win back the crown, I’ll earn her.
“What if no one comes since Nic announced it last minute?” she asks.
