Page 13 of Wickedly Yours

Luna was nothing like I’d imagined, and yet she waseverything.

When she’d come walking my way in the bar, her eyes had sparkled with determination. It had filled me with hope. But there was no recognition in her eyes.

Did she not feel our bond the way I did? There was no sign she feltanything. I growled at the thought. She wasn’t a demon. Of course, she wouldn’t feel the same.

WhathadI expected? That I was going to show up here, whisk her off her feet, and bring her to the demon realm with a snap of my fingers? I could have. I was powerful enough that it was possible.

The idea swirled through my head. Going back in there now. I’d played a part tonight, and I knew it. What would she think if I showed her the real me?

As much as the thought appealed to me, I didn’t want to force her to do something she didn’t want. I wanted her to choose me in the same way that I wanted to claim her. She might have been destined to rule by my side, but that wasn’t enough.

Dammit, Lilith.I hated when she was right.

Cloaked in the shadows, I stood across from her apartment, watching as the light switched off in her apartment.

I needed to get back. That was the excuse I’d given to pull away. To not take her mouth in mine, to kiss the soft, pink lips that had been calling my name.

Growling, I pulled my eyes away, hating to leave but knowing I needed to.

Just a few more minutes,I thought to myself.Just so I know that she’s safe.

“Well?” Talon was leaning against the pillar of my room as I teleported back. “Did you find her?”

“Mhm,” I answered with a grunt, closing my eyes as I pictured her sweet face. Those bright green eyes. Her perfect porcelain skin. How she’d lit up when I’d called her beautiful. How much my senses had been screaming at me to kiss her,takeher, to claim her as mine.

But I’d controlled those primal urges. It wasn’t because I didn’twantto. It was that I knew once I’d had her, I’d never be able to let her go. Demon biology didn’t work like that.

“And?”

“And what?” I crossed my arms over my chest, giving him my best scowl.

He gave me a smirk like he knew something I didn’t. “You didn’t bring her back with you.”

“Of course not,” I grumbled. Notyet.

Despite what my brother thought—what the entire court thought, for that matter—I didn’t enjoy being an asshole. Part of being the crown prince was that people respected me. Listened to me. Demons only understood that in one way. I’d only ever known violence.

But I was giving her a choice. Doing this differently.

Though I wasn’t admitting that Lilith was right to her face.

“When are you going to see her again?”

Soon. I pulled the piece of paper out of my pocket. Her number. Not that a phone would work here, anyway.

“I don’t know.” I tucked the scrap into my desk drawer, locking it with a wave of my hand. It was my magic, so if anyone tampered with it, I could tell. “Do you think anyone noticed I was gone?”

“Your father threw an extravagant, over the top—” He grit his teeth like he was choosing his words wisely.“Party. Not sure anyone would have missed you, let alone realized who was there with the amount of bodies…” A full-body shudder passed through his body. “Let’s just say you should be glad you weren’t there.”

But I would have been. When I was younger, he’d forced me to watch as he’d had women service him. As they’d all gotten drunk on demon wine spiked with aphrodisiacs. I hardly could stand to think about those memories, let alone relive them.

Moving over to my desk, I rummaged through the papers on top, reading through other minor reports of the happenings in the palace.

Growling, I threw the pile of papers to the floor. More shit for me to deal with. More things that needed fixing. If only I just had a bit more power…

“Fuck.” I raked my hand through the strands of hair, pulling at them tightly.

Steady as ever, my friend just gave me a nod. “You need her.”

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