Page 220 of Evil Hearts

“Of course you can,” Ruven said, as easily as breathing. When I stared at him, taken aback to hear a fae say something so provably false, he grinned at me. “Are you going to make me a liar? I’ll die. Quite horribly, in fact.”

“Asshole,” I said again, with raw disbelief. “Arrogant, egotisticalass—”

Ruven cut me off with a kiss. I moaned, shocked into it, and melted into the heat of his mouth. His hand cupped the back of my head, lips moving with worshipful care against mine. My lips parted before I could think better of it, tongue licking forward.

He answered me with the same hunger. Even the slightest brush of his tongue against mine sent heat shocking down my spine to bury itself in my gut. I panted out that need, burying my fingers in his hair and dragging him closer.

He obeyed with a groan of pleasure. His hot tongue slid into my mouth, the forks of it gripping me. Fuck, he tasted as good as he smelled, raw sex and summer heat made into a man, one who was on his knees in front of me, bending me backwards, hand stroking down my back with demand. One with a tail and hooves and horns, a fucking forked tongue and the sort of thighs I wanted to sink my teeth into.

Impossible, gorgeous,needyRuven. My rescue. My ruin. I dragged him to the ground on top of me, grabbed his naked cock, and I kissed him like my life depended on it.

He wasthick, my fingers not even meeting, and the muscle underneath his pebbled skin flexed against my grip. The wet tip dragged across me, his cock grabbing at my arm as I stroked my hand up the length.

“Fuck,” he snarled, driving his hips against my hand. Ruven kissed me again, fierce and demanding, then snagged me by the wrist. He yanked my hand off of him and pinned it above myhead, panting down at me with a predator’s gaze. “You’ll ride me first,” he said in a rough growl. Ruven turned his face to the side and licked my other arm. “Put a bit in my mouth and wrap those perfect legs around my sides. Make me your faery steed and I’ll give you any cock you choose. But you don’t. Get it. Until. Then.”

I lay there in the dirt, all my skin feeling hot and the blood pounding through my veins, staring up into the eyes of my wildling soulmate; I didn’t ever want to be anywhere else. “Faery bastard,” I said, the words thick with desire.

“Such love-bites,” he crooned back, his face dropping closer to mine. “Shall I think of some for you, my dear?”

“Let’s hear them,” I said, still breathing too hard.

Ruven reached up and took my hand out of his hair, running his face along my palm before pinning it up with my other one, moving with languorous decadence. “The end of my world,” he said, savoring every word like it was the best thing he’d ever tasted. “My devastation. My undoing.” His hands tightened on my wrists as he lowered his face to mine, purring the words into my ear. “You lay me bare, Avalon. No wall I raise stands against you. Were I a city, you would be my conqueror, and I would lay sprawled out for you in surrender before the gates had even fallen.”

He shivered, his hot breath fanning against me as I lay there, unable to move, transfixed by the bliss in his voice. “I lost the war the moment you looked into my eyes, and I would look again, knowing the price,” Ruven murmured, lips brushing my skin. “Kill me or love me, paradise. It doesn’t matter to me. Just don’t ever leave me.”

Progress

Ruven had claimedtwo of my hours, and while my panic attack had made it very clear that I would not, in fact, be riding Ruven today, that didn’t mean he was releasing me from his tutelage. He belted on a kilt-like garment that fell to his knees, the pleats in the back giving his tail freedom of movement, and informed me that we would spend the rest of the time mapping out what roused the terror lurking in my mind.

The knowledge that all we were doing was looking helped more than I’d expected. Ruven had set out all the tack needed for riding in the courtyard where he’d been waiting for me, and he had me walk him through all of it—and then had me clean and put it away, getting my hands used to handling saddles and bridles again. I might not have made it through hauling the saddle into the tack room of the barn, except that Ruven had his hand possessively on the back of my neck, and I could focus on the total ease of that touch instead of remembering what had happened the last time I’d been carrying a saddle.

By the time he let me go, I was sweaty and exhausted, but I hadn’t fallen over the edge of fear again. Ruven kissed me in a soft, lingering sort of way, and told me he’d be gone for the next couple days, but not to fret over him.

“Spy stuff?” I asked, a sensation uncomfortably close to homesickness wrenching at my chest at the thought of not having Ruven around.

He flashed me a grin, saber-teeth dropping forward into an aggressive pose. “Spy stuff,” he said in an agreeable tone. “Syalin would surely tell me to hold my tongue, and with anyone else I would, but if you’d like all the salacious details I’m pleased to share.”

My jaw and brows tensed at the word ‘salacious.’ Stupid. I didn’t have any right to be upset about him using his wiles on people, and especially not in his position as a spy. That was hisjob.

“Is that jealousy I see on your pretty face?” Ruven crooned, as satisfied as a cat.

I scowled at him. “No.”

“What a terrible pity.” He gave me a look of over-exaggerated sympathy. “And here I was hoping you’d feel proprietary over what you were so demandingly grabbing not three hours ago. I suppose I could go have some gratuitous sex with strangers to comfort myself—”

I whacked him on the hip, most of the way to a spank. “Ass.”

“Minx.”

“Prick.”

“Harridan.” Ruven tipped my chin up and kissed me full on the mouth. He smiled against my lips, lashes lowered. “I think you must like me.”

I grumbled, but it wasn’t like I could deny it. The dick-grabbing and shared bed made it pretty damn obvious. “I don’t want you sexing up other people when you won’t even sexmeup,” I muttered, not meeting his eyes.

“Good. I had no intention of it,” he said, flashing me a bright smile. “For what it’s worth, while I’ve certainly flirted and even slipped a little tongue for the sake of information or access, I’venever bedded someone for it. And, while I’ve had a great deal of casual sex with a great number of people through the centuries, when I’m in a significant relationship, I tend to be monogamous to a fault. That’s surely not going to change with you. Feel better?”

“Yes,” I said, still at a mutter.

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