Page 63 of The Blood of Gods and Monsters

My teeth ache to sink into him as my hands curl, my nails digging into my palms as the need to draw blood becomes a burning desire inside me. I pull at my restraints. “Release me,” I growl.

“No.” That’s the only answer I get right before Ruen’s head dips and the harsh rasp of his tongue steals over the bundle of nerves above my core. My legs jerk in shock and then clamp down on either side of his head. Ruen doesn’t miss a beat, gripping my thighs in his palms and slamming them back open, even going so far as to push them slightly up and out so that he has a wider seat for his face to make a meal of my most vulnerable place.

Heat flashes through me, turning my chest a light shade of pink. My head thrashes back and forth and I struggle beneath the illusioned bonds he’s put me under. The moment these damn things are gone, I’m going to wrap my hands around his throat, force his cock inside me, and ride him until I’m cresting the wave of release.

Ruen releases my clit and then drags his teeth down the soft inner flesh of my thigh and then up the other. “Stop fighting me.”

“I’m not submissive,” I tell him through clenched teeth. “If you didn’t want me to fight then you would be beneath me, not the other way around.”

His dark head lifts and his gaze looks up my body, over the valley of my hips and stomach, and between my tightly budded breasts. “You may not be submissive for others,” he concedes, pausing a beat before he continues, “but you will be for me.”

The dry laugh that scrapes out of my throat is anything but amused. It’s a challenge. “No, I won’t.”

When Ruen tilts his head to the side it’s with that same feline grace as the panthera I’d thought him before. One finger slides between my folds and flicks my clit, forcing my body to bow in response. “Yes,” he repeats, “you will.”

Little fractures of power spark through me. My core seizes at the challenge in his tone and my breasts swell with anticipation. For several long, breathless moments, the two of us are tied together like that. Neither of us speaking, both of us wanting, needing, craving more than what the other is willing to give.

Perhaps this wasn’t such a good idea. Pushing the iciest of the Darkhavens past his limit was a risk. Now, there is no turning back.

“I should have known that you would bring me to the edge,” Ruen murmurs almost absently, breaking the silence as he moves up my body and then takes a hardened nipple between his teeth.

I gasp with pleasure and then pain as he bites down. My hands close into fists as I crave to clutch at the back of his head. My teeth clamp together while he switches to the other breast and performs the same action all over again, wetting the nipples he’d ignored as he’d teased my core.

In adolescence, when I’d been around many other members of the Underworld—more specifically, the few female members—I’d listened in on their stories of lovers and bed partners. The talk of love had always confused me as it seemed to be equated to the feeling of butterflies in one’s stomach and a strange sort of giddiness that overtook a girl’s mind.

My mind is filled with neither, but instead with cruel talons that scrape around my organs, demanding satisfaction. My pussy clenches with carnal insistence.

Ruen freezes and backs his head away as his eyes slide shut and he groans. “I can fucking smell you.” That admission is pulled from his throat as if the words are being dragged over sharp rocks. His voice is lower than it’s ever been, gravelly in the way that only a man lost to the haze of lust can be.

He opens his eyes and fixes them on me.

“Kiss me,” I growl, giving him an order of my own.

As if he’s possessed by the sudden need, he moves up further until our mouths hover a scant inch from one another. His lips, when they land on mine, taste of me. Just to punish him, I sink my teeth into his bottom lip hard enough to draw both blood and a masculine groan. We are a tangle of teeth and tongue. A clashing storm of two overpowering wills, neither bending for anything save for the other. Feminine delight swims through me as Ruen worships my skin with that fine attention to detail that is something purely him.

Muscles flex as he holds himself above me. With a vicious little grin, I lift my legs and lock my ankles around his hips, feeling the prod of his hard cock against my pussy. “Give me more,” I demand, nuzzling little nipping bites along his throat. “You know you want to.”

A hard grip seizes my hair and rips my head back. Ruen arches a brow down at me. “Do you think you’re in charge here, Kiera?” He shakes his head without waiting for a response. “No, I will take you when and if I decide—not before.”

If? What the fuck does he mean ‘if’ he decides? A snarl threatens to rip free of me. It’s only stopped by the feel of his palm landing against my throat. My whole body goes still, my heart thudding an inconsistent beat against the inside of my ribcage as I realize how trapped I truly am.

His hand holds my hair in his grip, keeping my head immobile as his other hand grips my throat, squeezing tighter and tighter until I can hear the rush of my own blood blasting through my ears. Oddly enough, I can still breathe. Sparkles flicker before my eyes, little visual hallucinations dancing around me like stars. The low, thrumming sound of Ruen’s amusement rumbles from his chest into mine.

“Look at you now, Kiera.” His voice shifts deeper than I’ve ever heard it before. “The great, strong assassin brought so low by her target.”

I try to shake my head. We both know that Ruen was never my target, but … he could have been. They all could have been.

Ruen leans down, setting his teeth on my bottom lip as he tightens his grip and those stars begin spinning. Around and around they go, driving my hazy mind into a distant land.

“Do you know why I don’t fuck around like my brothers?” Ruen asks as he releases me to the taste of my own blood on my tongue.

I’m set adrift on the wind. My insides clenching and unclenching in an unfamiliar need. His hands remain on me as I feel his hips move to lower themselves between my spread open thighs. I arch myself against him, feeling the graze of his cock against my wetness. A groan sears my throat.

“No, not yet.” The hot length of him moves away again and I almost whimper—almost. I’m not that far gone yet.

“I prefer to dominate women who are as powerful as me, if not more so,” Ruen says, answering his own earlier question. “I’ve fucked Goddesses, but few Mortal Gods.” Sharp pain attacks one nipple and I realize he’s stopped talking to bite down on my breast again.

My hips buck. Fuck him. I part my lips to voice that thought, but the hard hand squeezing my throat releases and a heady rush of blood fills my ears once more and all that escapes is a gasp of both pleasure and relief.

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