Page 65 of Chained to the Devil's Daughter

“Poetry?” she clucked her tongue. “My bad boy is getting soft.”

“There isnothingsoft about me.” I yanked her hand higher until she clutched my half-stiff cock. The only reason it wasn’tfully rocked, rolled, and ready for a rodeo was the burden of the parchment crinkling in my hand.

She giggled, the twinkling sound like a balm on my jittery mind. I scooped her fine ass even closer until the heat of her comforted my cock and tossed her a nonchalant shrug. “For courage.”

“Mhmm.” She kissed the side of my mouth and gripped my hips, crowding even closer. “Take as much courage as you need.”

A growl rumbled from my chest. I moved to capture her mouth, but she dodged my advances.

I whipped the parchment to straighten it and tried to refocus. “This isn’t the original copy. My handwriting isn’t the best with a ballpoint pen, let alone a bloody claw. It’s also a bit choppy. I pieced a few together. And don’t judge my reading. I didn’t read aloud much. Also, I’m not a fucking poet, so, bear that in mind, too.”

Searra melded into me, her arms coming to rest behind my waist along with her legs, her head finding that special nook under my shoulder, grounding me. The beat of her heart helped steady my own. Four beats. Five, six, seven. . .

“Red silk blanket, dragoncherry wine

A stolen kiss in the empty night’s sublime

Your presence and absence felt in mine

A shadow, a wraith, demonic hands to deal destruction

Strip a piece of my soul to hide within

Curled up with you, my holiest sin

Half silent, half awaiting my day of judgment

Morals and boundaries obscenely bent

The moon’s aspect in your calming light be lent

The monster digs in fate’s loam

Teach me not every touch must be so rough, let me roam

So I may know I still have a home.”

I took two long, deep breaths, deep enough to inhale the calming scent of roses and cream, before setting the parchment aside. I briefly considered sending the whole thing up in black flames. From the moisture trapped between our skin, I was pretty sure she enjoyed it. Unless it was my poor dictation making her cry.

“Ash.” She sat back, but I clutched her hips for dear life. Her legs cinched around mine just as tightly as she bent our foreheads together. “I love you. I hate that my love has brought you such harm. You are my home, too.”

“I need you to understand something, dearest glow worm.” I kissed her nose. “You think your love caused me to suffer, but that’s a lie you’ve got to shake. Your love saved me. It saved me as a boy, and it kept me alive every damn day in that tower. All three thousand two hundred and eighty-seven of them. Please stop blaming yourself.”

“Okay.” She sniffled and nodded. “I hear you.” When her brilliant blue eyes met mine, they sparkled. “You know, I suppose I owe you a poem now. Because I wrote to you, too.”

I claimed her mouth like a ravenous soul, like kissing the queen of Hell would save my damned, empty heart. Like fucking holy magic, every swipe of her tongue had the cavernous ache in my chest filling with pure, unadulterated life.

Our bodies began to dance and writhe, my knot filling as swiftly as my soul, but I broke the kiss with a groan. She whimpered in protest, but I ignored her, activating the black flames in my wing with my little mate plastered to my chest.

“You, my dear,” I whispered into her ear between kisses, “are downright filthy.”

“Not as filthy as I’d like to be.” As I stepped from the ledge, her hand disappeared from my neck, a bold move for someone afraid of heights. She grabbed my length through my trousers, and I groaned into her mouth.

“I can fix that, Your Highness.”

“Oh? Is that a promise?”

I aimed toward a crack of ground between two glowing blue-and-violet springs. The golden crust of the earth bled in swirling, mindless patterns between the pools of vibrant liquid. The whole landscape appeared like a marbled masterpiece rendered by a professional pour painter. Wandering the enchanting scene were fire-and-ice flamingos only found here on the border shared with Hydra, the water elemental’s territory.

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