Ruby Shadows (Born to Darkness #3)(44)

“Shouldn’t give you pleasure, you mean?” he murmured, lifting me effortlessly so that my breasts were free of the water. “Or shouldn’t take pleasure myself in your beautiful body?”

Before I could answer, he pulled me closer, bringing my breasts to his mouth. I wanted to say something, to tell him to stop—but he was already sucking the tight bud of my right nipple into his mouth, drawing hard on the sensitive peak until bolts of pleasure shot through me, making me gasp and moan.

Laish sucked my nipple long and hard, his eyes never leaving my face as he took as much of my breast into his mouth as he could. I kept thinking I should try to stop him but he had such a firm grip on me and it felt so good. I was mesmerized by the sight of him sucking me—of my berry dark nipple and light brown breast disappearing into his red mouth.

Again I couldn’t help noticing the contrast in our skin tones—the way his lighter tan tones complimented my own creamy café au lait complexion. I have to admit, it was one of the most erotic things I’d ever seen—not that I watch or read much erotica. When you’re not allowed to do the dirty deed yourself, it’s better not to dwell on everyone else doing it.

At last Laish released me.

“Gods, your breasts are sweet, Gwendolyn,” he murmured, nuzzling me with his scratchy cheek. “Tell me, have you ever allowed anyone to suck your nipples before?”

Hesitantly, I shook my head. I’d allowed several boyfriends in high school to touch me there but none of them had put their mouth on me. That seemed too dangerous somehow—too likely to lead to other things.

“Then I am the first.” Leaning forward, he captured my other nipple briefly, giving it a hot, open mouthed kiss that ended with him circling the tight bud with his tongue.

“Laish!” I protested uneasily but my voice was high and breathy and the feel of his hot tongue lapping gently over my nipple was doing strange things to me below the waist.

“I hope to be first with you in many things,” he murmured, looking me in the eyes. “Starting tonight.”

“What are you going to do to me?” I asked in a trembling voice. “I mean…didn’t we already pay the Sin Tax just now when you, uh…?”

“Suckled your sweet nipples? No.” Laish shook his head. “If we had, you would have felt the ripple in the air as you did on the banks of the Styx. No, Gwendolyn, as I told you, a deeper and more serious sin is required to move into each circle of Hell. This time a little sexual pleasure is not enough.” He kissed my nipple again. “Tonight I must make you come.”

“Laish!” I protested again. “I can’t…I’ve never let anyone…”

“I know.” His eyes flashed. “Which is why I am very much looking forward to it. But first we need to get out of the bath and dry off. I want to be able to see your beautiful body spread out before me when I bring you to the peak.”

Fitting his big hands under my thighs and ass, he stood, lifting me easily and stepped out of the bath. He stood me on the cold marble floor and wrapped a big, fluffy white bath towel around me before tending to himself.

I clutched the towel and looked away, blushing furiously as he stripped off the soaked trousers and the black silk boxers he’d been wearing under them. I know it sounds silly and na?ve but I’d never seen a naked man before—well, except on a movie screen. But not up close and personal. Grams had warned me early on how once a guy gets naked, things start moving forward whether you want them to or not. So this kind of intimacy was something I had always carefully avoided.

Laish chuckled at my reaction to his nudity, apparently amused at my naiveté. Then he stopped laughing and became suddenly serious.

“Gwendolyn, look at me,” he murmured.

“I don’t want to.” I kept my eyes averted.

“Why do you blush so, mon ange? Am I that frightening to you?”

“I’ve just never…never seen a naked guy in person. Okay?” I said, feeling my cheeks get even hotter.

“You have seen Druaga,” he pointed out.


I knew he was referring to the boar-demon’s massively oversized, totally exposed genitals which, while disgusting, were just too big and weird to seem real. They were more like some kind of bizarre Hentai cartoon you’d accidentally run across on the internet than something you’d expect to see in real life on an actual person.

“That’s different,” I said, still looking away. “He’s a beast—an animal. And his…equipment is so big it’s like some kind of sad, sick joke.”

“His kind are able to grow out their ‘equipment’ as you put it, in the same way you can grow out your hair. I believe what you see as a deformity, Druaga sees as an achievement.” He cocked his head, still looking at me. “But you see me differently than him?”

“Of course,” I said impatiently. “You’re a real person.”

“Do you think so?” His deep voice was strangely distant now, filled with some emotion I couldn’t name. It made me look at him despite myself, though I kept my eyes above his waist.

“Well…yes.” I looked at him uncertainly. “Aren’t you?”

He sighed. “Some would say I am not. You might say so yourself if you saw me in my true form.”

I bit my lip uneasily.