Page 40 of Demonchild

“We Sabaoth do not feed on meat and bread as you humans do. We feed upon humans’ sensations, pain and pleasure. Pain is the stronger of the two, but—”

“Then hurt me,” the woman interrupted. “Torture me. Do whatever you need to do to heal our baby.”

Beliath smiled. The little queen’s courage pleased him. So did her newfound sense of trust.

“That won’t be necessary,” he said. “For what I must do, pleasure will suffice.”

“Do you mean…?”

“Not sex,” Beliath said.

He understood the woman’s concern. She was not in the mood for sex at the moment—not with everything she had just been through—and frankly, neither was he. But there were other forms of pleasure besides sex.

“Roll over,” he said.

CHAPTER 21

Malissa did as the demon said, and rolled over onto her front. Her belly was still small enough for her to do so comfortably. The stone altar felt smooth beneath her, and its surface was warm from the sunlight and her own intense body heat.

She sensed that the crisis was over. The pain was gone now, and the baby seemed to have settled down inside her. Beliath had told her everything was going to be alright. A few minutes ago she would not have believed him, but now she did.

It was hisvoicethat had changed her mind.

During her ride through the forest, Malissa had somehow convinced herself that Beliath was responsible for whatever was happening to her baby. But when he had yelled at her, she had heard the very real desperation in his voice. Even the most skillful of liars could not fake that kind of emotion. She had known then that Beliath was telling the truth, and that he was genuinely concerned about their child.

Theirchild.

Heavenly Creator, that phrase made her feel good. The child was not simply hers alone. It was hers and his—the demon’s child—and he was going to do everything in his power to protect it. He had used his magic to remove the poison from her body, and now he was going to use his power to heal the damage that had been done.

But first, he needed to feed upon her pleasure.

Malissa wasn’t sure exactly what the demon had in mind, but she was willing to do whatever was required to save their baby. She was not in the mood for sex, but she would gladly let the demon have sex with her if it would help. She was willing to get down on her knees and service him for hours if necessary. She was willing to let him defile her in the most unholy ways imaginable.

She was willing to do anything, anything at all.

“Are you comfortable, little one?” Beliath’s voice was surprisingly soft and gentle. Malissa had never heard him speak to her like that before. She couldn’t deny, she liked the way it sounded, the way itfelt—like a warm, soft breeze caressing her bare skin. “Perhaps you would like to fetch your gown to lie upon?”

“No, thank you,” she answered.

The truth was, she liked how solid the stone altar felt beneath her. After everything she’d just been through, she needed that solidity.

“Very well,” the demon said. “Let us begin.”

He swept Malissa’s hair away from her back. Then he placed his huge hands atop her shoulders and started to knead her muscles the way a baker might knead a piece of dough.

His claws, Malissa realized, were like the claws of a cat; he could extend them or retract them at will. Currently, they were retracted, to keep from cutting her while he rubbed her shoulders. There was a part of her—a dark, twisted part—that wished he would extend those claws a little, just so she could feel how sharp they were.

But the rubbing felt good. Really good. No one had ever massaged her like that before, and she hadn’t realized until this moment how much she truly needed it. She was tense, not just from today’s barely-averted disaster, but also from the past several months she had spent living in constant fear of what her husband would do to her if she didn’t give him an heir. She had more knots than the rigging of a ship, but the demon’s skillful fingers undid all of them, leaving her muscles feeling loose and relaxed in their wake.

“Does that feel good, angel?” the demon asked.

“It feels incredible.”

Beliath purred softly as he worked his way down her body, massaging muscles Malissa didn’t even know she had. He found all of her pressure points, and he dug into them, gently at first, then firmly. Malissa moaned softly in response.

This pleasure was different from the hard, deep rutting the demon usually subjected her to. The release didn’t come all at once like an explosion. Instead, it swept through her by slow degrees, a tide of relaxation gradually washing over her body. By the time his hands reached her lower back, she was drifting on the edge of sleep.

Then his hands moved to her rump, and she woke up.

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