My lips curl back hard with the visual his words are literally painting for us to see.
“What the fuck,” Ryke whispers, disgust clearly written all over his face.
“She’s possessed by the mate of Hell? She’s possessed by a fucking Queen of Hell?” Zav’s brows are so low his eyes look black with all the hard-glaring confusion he holds there.
“She is. The Queen of the Voren Empire to be exact.” Krave nods with that same proud smirk.
He likes her. Too much.
“So why doesn’t she have someone exorcise the queen of the damned out of her?” I ask with more impatience. Why the hell does this woman make such terrible decisions?
Krave’s smile pulls down at the corners, and his fingers close into his palm, wiping away the image of Aries and the shit choices she makes in life.
“Because as long as the essence haunts Aries, the token is safe. The demon’s portal piece is safe inside her. Her brother will never have it.”
Zaviar’s brooding look softens, and he looks to the fae woman with a bit more compassion. It’s a rare thing for my brother to find compassion for anyone.
“She’s protecting the demons by suffering through it,” he whispers.
Krave nods while crossing one black boot over the other.
The incubus is really making himself at home here. I don’t like it.
“Thanks for the information, but I think it’s about time for you to shove off,” I tell him. My arms cross. I wait for him to acknowledge me, but he never glances my way.
“Actually, I always wait until she wakes up before leaving.”
“Why?” I ask.
“Because it makes her subtly uncomfortable to face me after I make her cum. For a few short moments, she clung to me as if I was the only person in the world who could make her life better. And I like to know that she remembers that.”
“You like to guilt her for hating you, is what you mean.” My gaze narrows on him but he doesn’t look my way.
“Oh, very much,” he says flatly, his smile as taunting as ever.
“Okay.” I sigh, trying to get this over with as quickly as possible. “How long does she usually sleep for?”
“Three days,” he says without care.
Three. Days.
I hate this.
9
It’s Complicated
Aries
Before my lashes open, memories swirl in my mind as the bright sunlight washes into the darkness of my thoughts.
These memories, they feel unobtainable, just out of reach, like a dream I’ll never be able to grasp the details of.
Until his low, shaking laughter slashes right through the fog, and then too many sexy images of him caressing my body and wreaking delicious bliss all through me in a way that only he can or ever will.
Krave Salvation.
That fucking asshole.
While I curse him, images of his body grinding against mine slip into my thoughts, and to make it worse, Damien’s there. And I’m kissing him. Moaning against the flicking of his tongue, clinging to him while I thrust against Krave.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
You did this to yourself, Catherine snarks.
Oh, my God, go back to sleep.
It’s too early for her. This is her fault, anyway.
Really? she asks with so much attitude I roll my closed eyes at her.
When my hands touch the heated blush stinging my cheeks, I realize I’m covered with a soft, warm blanket from head to toe. It’s my own personal cocoon to hide within.
I don’t have to get up yet. I don’t have to face Krave or Damien. I can die of embarrassment all by myself for just a bit longer.
“Good morning, love,” Krave says in that obnoxious voice he thinks is so damn charming.
My eyes close harder.
I’m forced to die of embarrassment with a full audience.
The soft blanket fists into my palm, and I pull it down slowly to face the morning air and the bright, warm sunlight. And of course, his fucking taunting smile.
“Did you miss me, love?”
And you say I’m a cunt, Catherine whispers in the back of my mind. I can’t help but agree.
“What are you doing here, Krave?” I fold my arms down tightly against my nudity to keep the blanket and my integrity intact.
Well, what’s left of my integrity.
“What am I doing here? You called out for me, don’t you remember? You needed me,” he says, his smile cruel.
I cock an eyebrow at the incubus, but the man seated at his side on the platform has a more demanding gaze. Zaviar’s attention is a piercing thing that slices right into me, searching for all the secrets inside.
“The only way to calm your demons is to fuck an incubus?” Zaviar asks with words as unkind as Krave’s but not nearly as amusing.
“What I do and who I fuck are none of your business.” My jaw clenches as I hold his glare.
“Except you’ll never fuck me. Isn’t that right, Aries,” Krave says.
Every single time that explicit word echoes into the breeze, it presses more tension through my chest.
“You can leave now.” My chin tilts up, but my confidence doesn’t deter his arrogant smirk.
“Is that what you want?” Krave’s dark wings flash out, and the sunlight glitters across his wide wingspan in a way that’s mesmerizing.
I used to think he was the most attractive man I’d ever laid eyes on.
I used to trust him. I cared about him.
Once upon a time.
He soars for a brief moment and lands perfectly above me. Strong thighs straddle over my hips, and he stares down on me with a glinting gaze. The shit-eating smile I’m so used to from him isn’t in place, though. For one short moment, he bares himself to me with all the pain I know he hides inside.
“If you really want me to leave, just say the words. But don’t tell me to go just because you can’t stand looking at the truth, love. The truth won’t change. You know that.” His words twist my stomach as if he just threatened me, but he’s entirely sincere. His sharp features are blank and waiting for the rejection he constantly puts himself through.
It does hurt to look at him.
He hurts me in a way he’ll never understand.
But when he lifts his hand and trails one gentle finger coated in demon dust along my jaw, I don’t pull away from him. My lashes close as too many erotic sensations thrum through my body and drive right down to my core.
I tremble but steel my spine against his alluring touch.
“What the fuck is he doing?” Ryke whispers.
Damien whispers something back about magical finger fucking, but for the most part, I can’t hear them.
Krave’s head dips and his lips brush along my neck so slowly. He always knows the smallest touches and the heaviest breaths to make me want him.
It’s just not enough.
“Don’t make me go, Aries,” he whispers against my ear, those sinful fingers skimming up and down the length of my neck in a hypnotic way.
I think I’d love him if I didn’t hate him so fucking much.
“Leave me,” I say sternly.
It’s a phrase he himself taught me. It’s spoken once, but I’ll say it two more times before he’s swept away by magic greater than himself.