Page 88 of Married to the Devil

“Being filled to the brim with me?” he hisses.

He tightens the grip on my hips as if he’s going to hold me in place while sinking forward. I stretch around the hardness of his knot, and that’s all it takes to break me. I clench the sheets and cry out in release, expecting the stretch to rocket me higher, for that thickness of his to push me past capacity and lock inside of me.

Pleasure rips through me like a wildfire, quick but starting to die off, searching for the next grove to devour. But there’s no greater swell. He doesn’t sink deeper. Instead, I lose the pressure of his knot only for it to be replaced with his fist squeezing around it.

He grunts and heat fills my body.

We gasp together, his chest warm against my back is a comfort, but doesn’t quiet the sudden dissonance of the moment. This wasn’t the way it was supposed to be.

He massages the place on my hip where he probably left bruises, the stroke of his hand on my skin helps. The trembling of my body quiets even as confusion roars.

I barely have my bearings before he slides from my body, leaving me sopping and empty. I turn, and the bed creaks as he sits up and throws his legs over the opposite edge of the bed. The glow of a phone screen is harsh in the dark.

“You didn’t knot me,” I say. My words are like fingers trying to claw into this gargoyle who swings from someone my soul recognizes into a stranger in the span of a breath. Disappointment that I can barely understand holds tight around my heart.

“A knot comes with more than just my seed filling your pretty cunt,” he says facing away from me. “It has the power to influence emotions.”

“And you don’t want those types of emotions for me,” I say. I idly wonder if the sinking sensation in my stomach will ever bottom out or if it will always feel like it’s falling into the abyss between us.

Stoneheart doesn’t reply to that. He stands, and in the low light I watch him straightening his kilt until it falls the way it should.

“You’re leaving?” I ask. Turns out my stomachcansink lower.

He grunts in affirmation. “I have a lead I need to follow up on.”

I sit up and blink at my lap, not knowing what I want to do or ask. It gets even more awkward when his cum starts seeping out of me. He really did fill me to the brim, just not the way I thought he was going to.

When I swallow enough to speak again, he’s come over to my side of the bed like he’s going to kiss me goodbye. I tilt my faceup, and his talons comb through my hair before he pulls away, sighing.

“Sleep, Stella. It’s early.”

And somehow, even with how full I am, I’ve never felt emptier.

29

STELLA

“What’s that?”I ask after swallowing my bite of Silas’s exceedingly sweet cereal. The lizard man is currently conversing with Francesca at the dining table while Ben shows me something from his place at the counter.

My eyes are still a little bleary. I was eventually able to go back to sleep, and in the light of day, what happened with Stoneheart only causes a light ache in my chest.

I have more to give than being a sad sap.

I have Ben who is holding out a piece of metal that I squint at. I have this territory to care for, even if half the time it’s hard to believe that I can make any difference.

I have Stoneheart’s obsession. He named the damned building after the term of endearment he has for me whether he ever admits it or not.

I don’t need his love.

Lust will keep the both of us warm, even if he’s as cold as his namesake.

If only I didn’t admire him so much. If only I was less needy. Maybe then I wouldn’t want to own his heart. Maybe then I wouldn’t carry the piece of labradorite around in my pocket likea good luck charm because the thoughtfulness of the gift warms me.

I need to stop being greedy and get over the way the lack of affection after sex this morning felt like a rejection.

Ben places the piece of metal in my hand, and I turn it over with a frown. The hum of it is so weird. Like it’s there and then not. The taste on my tongue is like nothing I’ve sensed before.

“Timmy stole it off one of the abductors. Celeste says they all wore one. I’m no expert, but I thought you may want to take a look and see if it’s what’s allowing them past wards.”

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