Page 58 of Lord of Dance and Desire

His expression softened. “There’s no need for you to feel pain or fear. I wouldn’t do that to you.”

He sat on the edge of the bed and took my hand. “You understand, my swan, this is the only way we can live a full, rich life together. The brat thinks you’re his, and his merry band of dwarves support his every whim. We must start over again, both of us. I’m almost certain that by dying together in the same realm, we’ll be born again within close proximity. I’ve. . .experimented. I believe the tags I’ve placed on my soul will draw me to you. Just as it drew you to me here in Casakraine.”

I blinked at him. “What do you mean? I didn’t seek you out. I hopped in the slipper and the giant balloon took off.”

Damnit damnit. I was struggling to eventhinksomewhat rationally, and when I opened my mouth, my brain synapses stumbled.

I leaned forward, putting my hand on his cheek, and inhaled as his pupils dilated. Inside, I let my succubus unfurl, the satin in my blood rising to the surface. She wasn’t affected by the Ixnie. It amused her.

“I need more time with you,” I breathed. “Don't let him win. Don't let him take us from each other.”

I would never get past Dartanyon by running, and brute force was out. Not only was I still physically weak despite a few hours of sleep, but he'd drugged me with Ixnie. It was a struggle to control even a part of my mind. How could I control my mind when the Wicked Witch was in the Whitehouse? They were sending a rocket to Mars, and that would ruin everything. Mars was where the exiled Dark Fae lived. They’d accidentally release the ancient Wild Hunt and I’d never eat Snickers again.

I couldn't work against Dartanyon.

So I would work with him.

Placing my other hand on his shoulder, I leaned back, drawing him down over me. The part of me that screamed and wriggled in horror I shoved away. Instead, I let the succubus rise as I smiled, enveloping him in my glow the way he'd pumped my lungs full of potent narcotic.

“Come to me,” I breathed. “Be with me.”

Let me eat your heart.

Let me drink your soul.

But Dartanyon wasn't a fool; he understood my nature.

He struggled. A hand wrapped around my throat, pressure increasing. “You seek to trick me, my swan,” he said, voice low and rough.

Even as he ground his hips against me. He was almost mine. And I’d already wrapped my pretty noose around him, I now just had to tighten it, and cut off his balls.

“Do you think I am so easy to seduce?” he asked.

Was I supposed to answer that? Had any man I’d ever wanted told me no?

. . .never. Which was part of the problem. Maybe if they’d been able to say no, I would have been spared a few cycles of pain and aching. I supposed it was a kind of self-inflicted karma. They’d been my victims as much as I’d been theirs.

I let my legs fall open, cradling him, not fighting the sensual motion or the threat of his fingers around my throat.

“Kiss me,” I said, letting my eyes drift closed.

My stomach rebelled, but I suppressed the visceral response and tightened my noose a little more, drinking down a trickle of energy that helped clear my mind.

Andrei was coming, I needed to give him time.

I ran my hands through gray and rose-pink hair, deciding the hue was natural, just unusual. Andrei had green hair, after all. And it wasn't dye, because I'd been watching his roots grow out, spent evenings running individual strands between my fingers and examining the color as he laid pliant and preening, eyes warm with amusement at my expense.

“If you're going to kill me, then let me taste your lips before I die,” I whispered, letting myself love him a little, letting him see it in my eyes. “How else will I know you in my next life? Your taste, your feel. Your scent. Your skin on my fingertips.”

My hands drifted down the locks of his hair to his shoulders, slipping my fingers under the collar of his loose shirt to meet bare skin. Smooth, bare skin. Muscle underneath the silk, heat in the body pressing me into the mattress.

Still, he struggled. He knew it was a trap. But my succubus wouldn’t let him care. I hadn’t realized I was strong enough to entrap aLord. . .but maybe he wanted to be trapped. He had a death wish, after all.

“If you intend to die,” I said, “then die in my arms.”

The fingers around my throat loosened, and finally, finally, he broke.

“I will have you first,” he said, “but you will die again, my swan. In this life, they will have nothing of you but your corpse, and let them do with that what they please. We’ll both be long gone.”

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