Page 61 of The Blood of Gods and Monsters

Finally, I do what I’ve been wanting to for the last several days. I gift to him the challenge I want to see him complete.

“Then prove it,” I whisper against his ear. “Show me how powerful Ruen Darkhaven is. Not because you’re the son of Azai, God of Strength and Virility, but because you are Ruen, a Mortal God with just as much ability, just as much strength as any pure-blooded Divine Being.”

“You are a temptress,” Ruen hisses back at me.

I laugh. I like that title. Temptress. Maybe I am. No, I know I am. And I’m okay with it. If being a temptress will get him to realize that he’s bound by more than the walls around the Academy, then I’ll be whatever he needs me to be. I’ll sow the seeds of doubt and make him and the others realize that they—like I—were not born to be pawns on someone else’s chessboard.

Chapter 26

Ruen

She is … inevitable.

That is my one consolation as I wrap my hand up in the silvery strands of her hair and drag her to me. She always has been.

Kiera comes to me willingly, her lips parting even before my mouth is on hers. Her body against mine is everything I imagined it would be. Fire and ice dances between our tongues and I lose myself to the mindless eroticism of the kiss.

I flip her around and urge her towards my bed. No more. I can’t hold my desire in stasis any longer. The need for her is a grotesque beast that consumes me and I think she knows it—sees it, understands the volatile animal far more than I ever could. As angry as this woman makes me, the knowledge that she connects to the darkness that often dominates my mind only makes me crave her more.

The backs of her knees hit the mattress and her hands slap against my bared chest, stopping me from dropping her onto the surface. I pull away, only enough to give her a sliver of space. Few have ever been allowed to touch me like this. Fewer still have ever touched me beneath my clothing. Those rights belong to her now, and I will not take them back.

I am starved of touch and my hunger for hers beats at me like a never-ending ocean wave against the cliffside’s edge.

“Do not stop this.” I don’t care if it sounds like I’m begging. I will beg if it means I can have her.

She shakes her head, the strands of her hair whispering against my chest as she reaches down and grips the hem of her tunic before drawing it up and over her head. Her skin is a supple honey color, pale in many lights and golden in others. I grip the under corset and rip straight through the strands with nothing but my strength. What might normally take a blade to unleash comes apart under my harsh desire for her to be bare to my eyes. The discarded clothing falls to the ground and I cup her jaw in my palm again. Just before I lean down and press my lips to hers, I hear her sardonic chuckle. “You Darkhavens are so costly to a woman’s wardrobe…”

“I’ll buy you as many clothes as I can rip apart.” I answer her comment with a harsh kiss. Kiera responds to the meeting of our mouths with the kind of fervor I expected from her. Violent and needy, she doesn’t just let me devour her. Instead, she meets me stroke for stroke.

As small as she is, I can picture a number of positions that would bring the both of us to the height of fast pleasure. I don’t want fast. I want to linger, to coax, to tease, to torment her the same way she’s done to me with little more than her fucking scent. Unfortunately, my body and cock throb with demand. Each brush of our skin sends my senses into erratic amplification. Every touch is heightened and it doubles as it separates and bounces off the need pulsating inside me.

She feels it too. That much I’m sure of as her breasts brush against my muscles, her nipples peaked and hardened into the finest points. They scratch through the thin layer of hair between my pectoral muscles. I cup one deliciously full mound, flicking a thumb over one nipple and dragging a sharp inhalation from her mouth.

In this moment, the most uncontrollable flame of a woman becomes a spark that dances for me and me alone.

I can’t stop. Even if the logical part of my mind somehow managed to crawl from the depths of wherever it went and tried to rip back control, I know that I’d squash it in an instant. It’s been too long and she and I have been circling each other for what feels like ages. I don’t want to stop this and if anything comes between me and this woman right now, I know that even Kalix wouldn’t be able to stomach the atrocities I’d commit just to keep her by my side.

“Let me have you.” The words are a caress, a demand.

Her hands skim up my sides, over the dips and hollows of my body, and up my chest. Silver lightning eyes open, practically glowing out of her face as she gazes up at me. There is a fire inside her, so brilliant that it’s a wonder I haven’t seen it before now. No. Perhaps it isn’t that I didn’t see it, but that I purposefully ignored it because to admit to it would mean that I’d have to also admit that this woman intrigues me and she has since the first moment I laid eyes on her.

Guilt eats at my insides. That vicious part of my mind that takes over and won’t be assuaged until I see the glint of dark ebony brimstone against my skin and freshly spilled blood bites at me.

This vibrant, beautiful creature—part of the darkness and part of the light—was hurt because of me and I deserve to be flayed alive for it.

“Stop.”

Sharp nails dig into my cheeks and my eyes shoot open. I hadn’t even realized I’d closed them until they land on Kiera’s face and I recognize the fury there. How she senses my inner turmoil, I don’t know. I only know that I am grateful for her interference because I could feel myself slipping back into that dark place, the very same place that my life as a Mortal God was born. A place I detest with every fiber of my being.

“If you’re going to be with me, Ruen, then be with me.” Her pupils are wide, but her eyes are narrowed on me. “Do not fall into that place. Do not ignore me and return there when I am right in front of you. I know you are not that weak.”

No. I’m not. I’ve survived loss and pain and torture. I’ve survived death, but I’ve also survived something so much worse. I’ve survived life and all of the torments therein.

My arms close around her once more, squeezing her tightly and pulling her so hard against my chest that I wonder if some subconscious part of my brain wishes to meld her to my very existence. If it were possible to tie two souls together, I would do so to her. I would do whatever it took to ensure that she could never regret this choice and leave me.

The feel of her in my arms drives me into the darkness I knew I possessed. Except, this time, I am not alone.

There is no turning back now.

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