Page 55

She screams, but there’s nothing soft about her resistance. Her nails rake at my arm, my shoulder, anywhere she can reach. Even with the tang of her fear in her veins, it is nowhere near enough to drown out the taste of her. The humming, golden current of magic that burns through her blood sends me fucking reeling.

My cock is so hard it’s painful.

I pin her, holding her body still. I’m half-drunk on how alive she is under me, every instinct screaming to claim, to take, to break every inch of her apart and put her back together. Nobody else gets to see her like this.

Nobody.

Her taste explodes across my tongue, bittersweet with the sharp traces of forbidden power. She moans and tries to twist away, but her slickness clenches around my fingers, spasming so tightly I nearly lose what’s left of my composure. Her body is trembling, caught between terror and pleasure, and it’s so fucking perfect that my control shatters impossibly more.

I want her.

Not just her blood.

Not just her cunt.

Everything.

She whimpers when I suck harder at her throat, blood pooling against my tongue. I know I should pull back. I know the rules, the curse, and the fucking limitations the mages put on me, but I can’t stop, not until I feel it.

Her power spills out of her, hot and furious, blasting me. My entire body jolts, and I’m tossed off her onto the floor with a thud. My heart stutters for a couple of beats as I try to gather myself. I’ve managed to remain conscious, but I don’t give that much thought as panic fills me.

My eyes move to her on the bed, and she scrambles back against the headboard, the blanket clutched to her chest as if it could shield her from me. Fear flashes across her face as those expressive eyes widen with terror.

The sight cuts deeper than it should. I’m accustomed to fear. I cultivate it, use it, thrive on it. Yet her fear doesn’t satisfy me; it burns like acid.

“That wasn’t supposed to happen,” I say, keeping my voice low, though it still comes out as a growl. “I’m sorry. That wasn’t . . .” I shake my head, trying to get rid of the fog. “I have control now.”

She doesn’t believe me. I can see it in the way her gaze darts to the door, the way her body curls in on itself, ready to bolt, despite the exhaustion dragging at her limbs from me biting her.

“Where am I?” she whispers, her voice barely audible over the creaking ship and the distant shouts of the crew. She clamps a hand over her neck, which is bleeding, and I look away.

“My ship.” I straighten, forcing space between us before instinct overrides reason. Proximity to her makes it difficult to think clearly, and I need my wits about me. “We’re bound for the demon kingdom.”

She watches me, and I can feel her gaze trying to burn holes through me. Her eyes, a striking blue, remind me of the deepest glacial ice, assessing me with a calculation that belies her fear. She’s thinking, planning.

“You passed out,” I say. “You weren’t unconscious for long.”

Her eyes narrow slightly at this information, suspicion evident in the set of her jaw, then her face turns that adorable flush of pink. “So what, I pass out and you try to—”

“Try to what, little mortal?” I ask. Her mouth closes, and I grin. “You started that sentence so strongly. Don’t you wish to finish it?”

She looks like she might try to claw my face off. For one second, I’m hoping she makes a move.

I’m disappointed when she sinks her nails into the blanket instead of me.

“You are a monster.”

I tilt my head, letting the smile drop from my face. “I know.”

There’s something almost lost in her expression before the anger surges back. “You don’t touch me,” she snarls.

It’s cute, honestly, how she tries to sound threatening when she’s curled up in my bed, with nothing but a dress and a sheet to protect her from me.

“I just did, and you didn’t ask me to stop.”

She pulls herself up straighter, her gaze moving to the door behind me like she is calculating the odds of reaching it before I catch her. “I agreed to come with you. I never agreed to you touching me like that. You’re not entitled to my body. I don’t care if you’re a king.”

I step closer, shameless about how much I enjoy the way her pupils blow wide when I do. “Are you sure? Because your body seemed very interested in me thirty seconds ago.”