Page 12 of Solstice

Shocked I was agreeing to this, I reached for my glass of wine and chugged the last giant swallow before pushing to my feet.

“Nothing on the face and if you rip my clothes, you replace them.”

“Agreed.”

I turned on the balls of my feet and took off.

* * *

Heart pounding,blood pumping, I raced up the stairs.

Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump.

The echoes of Lex’s footfalls behind me thundered off the walls, fueling an intense urge inside of me. I knew he’d catch me; he gained on me with each of his strides, but the thrill was in the anticipation.

Lex had absconded with me from the Capitol, taken me to some secluded cabin in the woods with no one around for miles in any direction, only so he could primal kink his way through our bet. God, he read me so well. I didn’twantto give in to him. I didn’twantto admit the way he made me feel. It said things about our marriage to each other and to Carter and Miri I couldn’t admit to myself, not yet. But once he started talking, I couldn’t stop it. Once he put the plan out there, I wanted it with every bone in my body.

Exhilaration flared in my chest as I darted into the primary bedroom, Lex nipping on my heels. His footsteps echoed behind me as I sprinted across the room, and he slammed the door shut, the snick of the lock reverberating off the high ceilings.

I turned to face him, backing away, skirting around the bed.

“Lex,” I said, playing into the game. He wanted to fight me for it? Fine. I’d give him something to fight. “Stop. This isn’t right.”

Yes, it is,a twisted part of me whispered, the part that knew it would always be like this between us. We could never do this with Miri or Carter because he wasn’t Carter, and I wasn’t Miri, and what Lex and I had was too fucked-up for anyone else. This part of me couldonlybe sated by this part of him.

What does that say about us?

“Lex, I mean it.” I moved toward the second-story balcony overlooking the woods. It had a foot of snow on it, so he knew I couldn’t really go anywhere. “Stop.”

He smiled, clearly pleased by my mock refusal. “No.”

White-hot lust puddled between my legs, and I cut right, launching myself across the bed. I scrambled on my hands and knees, but he circled my waist with his arm, slamming me back against his body. I squealed and wriggled free, rolling off the other side of the mattress while he struggled to get upright. I ran again, toes digging into the carpet to propel me to the door.

My sweaty fingers slipped on the lock, costing valuable time as I struggled to turn it. Just when I’d gotten the damn thing open, his hard body slammed into me from the side, taking me down.

Lex wrapped his arm around my hips, breaking my fall with his knees so he lay me on the floor only when I could safely land on my stomach. I tried to push up again, but he outweighed me enough to keep me firmly rooted. He circled his hands around my wrists and pinned them above my head, his hot breath pouring over my head as he panted. Then he nipped at the side of my ear and I went still, chills plunging down that entire side of my body.

“That was pathetic,” he snarled.

Ugh, leave it to Lucifer to turn me on and piss me off at the same time.

I growled and squirmed, managing to yank my arms out of his hold and use my weight to roll him to the side. But he was bigger than me and quickly regained his dominance, trapping my arms next to my ribs.

“For someone who spent their childhood wrestling with me, you’ve gotten rusty, X.”

That made me even more feral, and I bucked again, almost hitting him in the face with my head. He gave just enough for me to rip my arms away and roll under him, bringing us face-to-face.

Lex was fast and got ahold of my wrists, gathering them above my head with one hand. I kicked and flailed, nearly kneeing him right in the groin. That earned me a pissed-off glare.

“Careful,”he said inside my head.

I raised an eyebrow in challenge. He wanted a fight, didn’t he? And now he couldn’t keep up?

“Aw, poor Lucifer.”

He curled his free hand around my inner thigh to hold my knee out to the side so he could settle his pelvis against mine. My entire body tensed as his hard cock rubbed against my clit, and the weight of him on top of me combined with his thick heady scent nearly overwhelmed my senses. A surge of euphoria blasted through my chest that had nothing to do with the curse or the role-play or a pretend marriage in the woods. It wasn’t driven by lust or sex with our spouses or by the way my heart yearned for another.

It was real.

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