Page 53 of All's Hell That Ends Well

She pushed into my hand while her energy twined around me, echoing my own need. “You know I do,” she whispered.

I leaned down and placed a kiss on the side of her neck, right where I’d bitten her when we’d bonded. The sudden spike of lust that arrowed over the connection between us told me she remembered the intense flood of pleasure and emotions we’d experienced during the bonding.

“I think,” I murmured against her skin while I kept caressing her breasts with my hand, still stroking her between her thighs with my power, “that we should repeat the blood exchange from time to time.”

“Oh?” was all she could say in response, and even that small word came out breathy, caught as she was in the relentless sensual assault of my fingers and energy on her.

“Blood play usually doesn’t involve drinking,” I continued, “for obvious reasons, seeing as most demons want to avoid an irrevocable attachment.” I made my power lick down from her clit to her entrance, where her wetness had to be drenching her panties already, going by the heavy scent of her arousal. “Butthat is a moot point for you and me. With our bond in place, we are free to explore this aspect.”

She gasped for air. “That’s a lot of words for saying ‘Let’s have even wilder sex.’?”

I chuckled and mock-bit into her neck. “Is that a no or a yes?”

“Have you met me?” Her power undulated over my cock. “When would I ever say no to break-the-bed-and-my-mind sex?”

“Good.” I licked over the fast tick of her pulse at her neck. “But not right now. I’m not done working you up yet.”

She made a sound of frustration and wriggled in my grasp.

“Babe,” I said with a laugh, “I haven’t even undressed you fully.”

She stilled, and I had a brief moment of wondering what she was about to do before flames engulfed her, from her shoulders down to her feet. With the potency known to hellfire, the blaze ate away her remaining clothes in seconds, ash pooling on the floor around her.

But the flames didn’t stop there. They sprang over onto me, too, burning off my own clothes as well before I could stop them.

“Zoe,” I sighed.

“Problem solved,” she replied with a grin in her voice.

The fire wasn’t extinguished, though. I’d thought she’d stop it once the clothes were all gone, but now flames danced over the rug at our feet, spitting sparks toward the furniture.

“Oh, shit!” She jerked in my grasp, and I let her go. Making erratic gestures at the fire, she hopped from one foot to the other, uttering expletive-strewn commands for the flames to die.

To no effect.

I let her try to put out the fire for a moment, mainly because her hopping made her ass wiggle ever so delightfully, then I snapped a finger, and the blaze turned off as if responding to a light switch.

She turned to me with her face adorably scrunched up. “Sorry. And thank you. I haven’t exactly figured out how to do this yet.”

“No matter. You’ll learn.”

“Yeah, well.” Her features twisted, and I felt a pang of hurt coming from her. “Going by everybody’s comments, I’m super shitty at this and taking much longer than demon babies to get the hang of it.”

I tilted my head. “Do you know how long young demons are considered children and not in full control of their powers yet?”

She shook her head, misery cloaking her like a mantle.

“Half a century.”

“What?” Her eyes widened.

“We grow more slowly than humans, given our immortal lifespans. It takes us several decades to achieve complete command of our magic. Up until then, we are wreaking havoc all around. I don’t even know how many rooms I burned to cinders when I was a young boy. Azmodea once exploded an entire wing in Daevi’s palace, and Mammon’s uncontrolled fire accidentally burned off the clothes of dozens of demons who were nearby.”

Giggling, she pressed one hand to her mouth, her eyes dancing with humor. The tightness in my chest eased at seeing her shed the hurt and embarrassment from before.

“Considering that you weren’t born to this,” I said, closing the distance between us, “and were thrown into having powers as an adult, you’ve been handling all of this incredibly well.”

She bit her lip and wound her arms around my back. “You say the sweetest things.”

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