Garden of Serpents (The Demon Queen Trials #3)(64)

She straddled me, the hem of her dress riding up, and leaned closer. “Remember when you told me I didn’t have it in me to take you down?”

I smoothed my palms over her thighs. “You haven’t entirely forgiven some of the things I’ve said, have you?

She unbuttoned the top of my shirt and pressed her palms on my skin. A wicked smile curled her red lips. Her fingernails raked over the top of my chest, ripping the shirt open more. “I may exact my revenge little by little. You belong to me now.”

Desire flared in me, and sparks ignited in the darkness at every point where our bodies made contact. “I do.”

But even with Rowan, it was nearly impossible to suppress my instinct to dominate. A demonic impulse snapped through me, and in the next moment, I’d shifted her off me until she was facedown on the mossy earth, her dress hitched up from behind. Her gasp made me stir with lust.

I pinned her wrists to the ground, then pressed over her, drinking in her delicious scent—ripe fruit. I wanted to mark Rowan’s body and soul as mine. I fought the urge to rip through her underwear and take her right now. I had to savor this.

I lowered my face to hers. “I want you to never again think of another man like you think of me.”

She turned to look at me and licked her lips. I hardened even more as I watched the movement of her tongue sliding over her lower lip. “Still jealous, are you? I thought you were supposed to be a god or something.”

I yanked her dress up higher, exposing her arse in tiny lace underwear that nearly made me forget how to speak. “The gods are all jealous,” I snarled. “It’s why they get so angry when you worship other ones.”

“I never should have told you about Tammuz.”

“Let’s not talk about my dad right now.” With one hand pinning her wrists, I used the other to trace over the dark silk between her thighs. She moaned, shifting her hips upward with my touch. Just under the silk, I could already feel how much she wanted me. I fought the urge to pull the silk aside and dive in because I delighted in tormenting her.

“Orion,” she moaned my name. And I could hardly take it anymore.

I found myself covering her with my body, my erection pressing against her through my trousers. “Yes, love?”

Unexpectedly, she shifted her hips upward and elbowed me in the chest. This was more strength than I could possibly imagine from someone so small, and I was flat on my back again, the wind knocked out of me.

Holy hells.

One of her perfect thighs slid over me once more, and her hair was a wild tangle around her head, embedded with a few leaves from the forest floor. She looked like a gorgeous wood nymph with her thighs spread over my hips. Her dress had hitched up, and I had a view of that little triangle of silky underwear again, where I’d just been stroking her. I already knew how much she needed me, but she was determined to be in control—for now.

This time, I let her pin my wrists down—welcomed it, even. And when she leaned over to lick my neck, the heat shuddering through me told me I’d made the right choice. Gods, she was divine.

“Do you remember me begging you to fuck me when you healed me?” she murmured into my neck. “Let’s see how you like it.”

My muscles coiled tightly, and all the blood had rushed from my head. “An incubus never begs, love.”

“Just pray to Lucifer that you beg well enough that I give you what you need.”

With that, she let go of my wrists and ripped the rest of the buttons off my shirt. Then she moved further down, stripping off my trousers. With the fingernail of her index finger, she traced my length from the tip to the base. Every muscle in my body tensed, and I throbbed at her touch.

I was at her mercy.

There was nowhere I’d rather be.





36





ROWAN





Already, I wanted him inside me. Like an animal in heat, my body had immediately responded to the way he’d pushed me down and yanked up my dress. To the way he’d dominated me and pinned me. What I really wanted was for him to take me hard right now.

But I was going to draw this out anyway. I wanted him to feel a little of the erotic torment he’d blessed me with so many times.

I kissed his neck, tasting the faintest hint of salt—from the sea, or the heat. With my thighs spread over his hips, I rocked against him and heard him catch his breath. He reached up, threading his fingers into my hair, gripping it hard and pulled me in for a kiss, his tongue sweeping against mine. This was it—the kiss he’d withheld from me. With this kiss, I claimed him as mine, and he claimed me as his. A kiss of such overpowering sexual pleasure, it could almost be enough to kiss all night…but not quite, because the rising ache between my thighs demanded more. More friction, more fullness between my legs.

I moaned into his mouth as he gripped my hair, holding me in place. One of his hands was on my hips, pinning me over his length. He nipped my lower lip, pulling away from me to look into my eyes. Desire hummed through every inch of my body.

His thumb stroked my cheek, then brushed my lower lip. “I loved you the first time I saw you, but I refused to let myself believe it. Not just because you looked like her, but because I never wanted to feel the maddening grief of loss again.”

My lips hovered above his, and I breathed in the perfect scent of Orion. “What made you change your mind?”