Page 101 of How Does It Feel?

Callie kissed me hard, pressing every part of her soft body against mine, yet somehow there wasn’t enough of me touching her.

I quickly rectified that by winding my fingers into her unbelievably soft hair and pulling her against me. Her soft moan as she flattened into my body almost made me come right then.

My heart slammed against my chest with delight—finally feeling full. All I had needed was this woman—this tiny, powerful woman’s touch—and I felt like . . . I felt unstoppable.

Of course I had touched others; I was no stranger to bedding a woman. They shamelessly threw themselves at me, and a few times, I had played the game, attempting to feel something—anything other than a need to feel blood. But it never worked. The only thing that ever made me feel alive was killing. The feel of being the last person that creature saw before they left this realm. Hearing them beg, that was the only thing that ever made me feel anything.

Until now.

Her tiny hand crawled under my tunic, and I couldn’t help but melt at the way her hands seemed to grow more hungry and erratic the more of my skin she touched. It was delicious seeing her need for me.

I did my best to harness my control, but it was taking more than I had.

All it took was one tiny, needy moan from her and I couldn’t hold myself back any longer. Anything she wanted was hers as long as she was with me . . . and whether she liked it or not, that would be for forever. I must do something about her fragile human mortality—I could barely stomach the thought of her leaving me even in death.

I pinned her wrists to the wall above her head as I stepped into her, and my thigh parted her legs as far as her dress would allow.

I hovered just above her lips, unmoving. Her heavy eyelids fell as she panted. The fast up and down caused her cleavage to strain tight against the neckline of her dress. She waited impatiently for my lips to close the distance and touch hers. But I didn’t. I hovered, relishing the feeling of control and the need I could feel pouring from her through the bond. She moved forward first to press her mouth against mine, but I pulled back just out of her reach, teasing her.

She huffed and tried again to capture my lips, but I hovered just out of reach. She pulled back, defeated, and I pressed my mouth to hers, letting her know I was in control. I couldn’t hold back the approving moan that floated from my lips as I deepened the kiss and skimmed my fingers lightly down the arms that I still held above her head, down the velvety skin of her side, then down to her hip. She shivered in response, and I had to adjust myself. Iron blocks were not as hard as my cock in that moment. I’ve never been so strained as I watched my little lamb beg for me.

I wanted to torture her the way she had tortured me. The way that had stopped me from having the ability to think of anything else.

Grime and blood covered her filthy dress from the trial—

I shook myself out of the lust-filled daze to realize she hadn’t had a chance to sleep or recover from her second trial. She hadn’t even had a chance to bathe before I had pounced on her, unable to keep myself away from her any longer. Now that the poison and anything that could have been lying in wait was out of her system, I needed to get her cleaned up and rested. I would get a witch to finish healing the rest of her wounds from the first trial.

Mother had been furious when I told her I would not allow Callie to enter the third trial. The pieces just happened to fall together after I had forced our bond in my jealous rage. I killed the Seelie royal on neutral territory because he had wanted her, and the queen was rightfully furious with me for the war I had invoked.

But, in a second, I would do it all again.

When Prince Aurelius had tried to shuffle her away and take her to the Seelie realm, I could have burned the world down—and that’s exactly what would’ve happened had he not stopped.

No one would take her away from me. Ever.

I would murder every Seelie bastard alive if I had to, and then I would steal their yellow sun from them just because my Callie admired it.

Mother would retaliate by sending her to the trial before she had rested and healed from today’s burdens. No matter how much I needed to be inside her tight human body, it would wait until she was truly safe, for good. The queen was semi-barbaric like me, and I knew she would send her to the gridiron of the fates. She knew that would be the only place I couldn’t help her.

We would see about that.

After this trial, I would make Callie my queen and dethrone mother. If she didn’t go peacefully, that was on her, but either way, she would go. One way or another.

I lifted Callie into my arms and creased a smile so deep I felt it in my blood when she wrapped her tiny arms around my neck and nuzzled into my chest as I carried her down to our room.

“Where are we going?” she asked breathily, her body still thrummed with heat, and I could feel her arousal.

“To my room,” I said, squeezing her against me as if she were a pet mouse that might drop down and run away.

“Are you going to fuck me, Mendax?”

I nearly dropped her and came in my leathers, but thankfully I did neither. The sound of her voice rough with need for me—and only me—was almost too much. How was I going to get her rested when all I wanted to do was throw her to the marble floor and bury my hard cock so deep inside her that neither of us would ever think straight again?

Goose bumps racked my body at the thought of how my tip would feel parting her. Sliding ever so slowly into her slick—

“She’s dead, Mendax.”

A snarl rippled from me as I turned to face the queen. Of its own accord, my smoke wrapped protectively around the beautiful human I held in my arms, shielding her from the queen’s view.