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She needed to see him, to read his expression.Please don’t let her be imagining this too-good-to-be-true attraction. Turning, she straddled him, watched his eyes fill with the surge of blackness shot through with dark flames, beautiful and dangerous in their depths. “Demon magic?” she asked, her throat rasping against the tightness, the sudden thrill.
“The royal kind, yeah.” His sandpaper voice sounded no more composed than hers. “Scared yet?”
“Fascinated. Your powers?” She wet her dry lips, and his mesmerizing gaze narrowed on her mouth. Gods, a storm brewed in his eyes as big as the waves she’d sent crashing to the deck of the ship with her blast, and she couldn’t fight the pull of whatever spell he’d cast on her. He’d said he could level a city, but she hadn’t asked how, hadn’t asked if madness caused by seduction might be part of the equation. “Do they have anything to do with temptation?”
He curved his hand around the nape of her neck, hauling her so close she could feel his breath ghost across her cheek. The press of his fingers anchored her, made her feel safe in the strength of that hold. “No, that magic would be yours,” he said.
She didn’t get a chance to respond before he kissed her in a crash of lips and teeth and tongue. He did more than claim, devour, take. He damn near owned her.Two could play at that. She met him in a tangle of tongues, not sure what to do but a fast learner. The kiss spiraled out of control, a departure from the restraint he kept on his magic. They would both need to rein in their powers now that hers had changed. But for now, in this bed, she wouldn’t settle for rules or restrictions. No, she cravedhis fierceness without limits, and if he was right about the mating bond, they could haveeverythingtogether for the rest of their lives.
“What do you want, angel?”
She couldn’t catch a thought, but she needed to be sure, to belong. “Tell me you’re mine.”
“Until the end of days, love.” He called herlovelike a vow. “I’ll give you anything you ask for except letting you go.”
Her heart beat faster, so fast she wondered if she would need to heal herself except the charm still hung around her neck. She pressed her hand against his chest, felt the pounding of his pulse that echoed hers as if he had been caught up in the same spell of desire and need. “Let me see your wings again.”
“I’ll even leave them out for you.” He grabbed her bottom and lifted her to stand in one powerful, savage move that proved how carefully he treated her. As if she’d been spun from glass instead of created from whatever Frankenstein lab like Noxx had alleged.Whoosh, out came his wings. “As my mate commands.”
“A girl could get used to that, and to these.” She drawled the last word because, holy amazeballs, his wings made epic seem an understatement. Twice as broad as him even when tucked and as tall as he stood, they made him look likehecould be the angel—her dark-winged angel. She stroked the webbing, making sure to avoid the razor-sharp undersides. He’d explained that the outer wings could shield and defend. “So soft.”
“Not funny.” He bounced her against his hard muscles, let her slip until she could feel his erection.
She giggled and wanted to kiss him, but she might not get this chance to have him agree to whatever she wanted again. He seemed far too dominant to allow her complete control anywhere including the bedroom. “What about horns or a tail?”
“No tail, but horns? Yes. And claws. Fangs too, although I’m not liable for biting you if you make vampire jokes.”
“I want to see.”
His expression went from playful to serious in a second. “No, I’ve come too close to losing you to risk scaring you off. Why don’t you start with the man before you take on the monster?”
“I showed youmymonster.”
“It’s not the same.” He moved as if to pull away, to deprive her of his muscles, wings, and everything he found flawed about himself that made him perfect for her.
Not happening. “You said I could ask for anything, and I want all of you.” She locked her legs around him, squeezing tight. No way would she let him out of their bargain. “You’ve been the hero already today, but right now, I’m in need of a villain.”
ChapterTwenty-Four
She wanted a villain?Alexei could more than satisfy that request. Except what if by giving her what she’d asked for,what ifhe scared her away? He couldn’t let that happen, couldn’t let her go. Not now, not ever.
Joelle tightened her thighs around him, making him want nothing more than to lose himself in her kiss until he forgot the danger she’d been in, how close he’d come to being without her forever, how foolish he’d been to think he could live without her as his mate.
“Come on.” She curved her lips into a smile far more devil than angel. He half-expected to see little fangs from that grin that might bite him whether he complied with her demands or not. The thought had him wanting to close his eyes in an attempt to regain control, but he might miss whatever delicious torture his mate conjured next. “Show me,” she said. “Don’t deny me.”
Her last words speared through him like an enemy’s barbed tail. He couldn’t deny her anything except freedom from him. “You won’t run.” While he’d meant to ask her, it’d come out as more of a command edged in a growl. He should soften it, should warn her, should tell her the consequences since she’d wanted to know everything before agreeing. Buteverything? Hell, he had hoped to seduce her into loving him as a man, and here she’d gone straight for monster. “You run, and I’ll chase you. Predator’s instinct.”
“Promise?”
He couldn’t stop the growl that rumbled through him, more beast than human. “Tease.”
“I’m not the one holding back.” She made atsksound with her tongue, and those gleaming symbols across her skin had the supernatural shades of her hair glinting metallic bronze, copper, and gold. He needed to slip those strands through his fingers, to lick and taste those magical symbols.
“Gods, you’re stunning.” His voice came out husky, emotion tightening his throat, his body awash in need.
“You said you’re mine.” Her tone held a dare. “You promised you would prove it, and you keep your promises.”
He wanted her like this always, naughty with the satisfied, taunting gleam in her gaze. Curling his wings around her, he shifted her weight to hold her against him with one hand. The slide of her bare thighs against his skin, the scent of her hair slipping over her shoulder as she leaned her head back to press into the most sensitive parts of his wings wrapped around her, the dancing flash of ancient symbols, the sensuality of all that wasJoelleleft him more intoxicated than any drug. High on the promise of pleasing his mate.
