Page 89 of Devil's Doom

Before I have time to ask what he means, then, his mouth is on my throat, hot lips trailing gentle kisses over my sensitive skin. The pendant trapped under my collarbones lights up, casting the side of his face in a reddish glow. He smiles, looking up.

“It’s like it’s saying hello. Did I tell you how brave you were, hiding it like that? Because you were. So brave and strong. It must have hurt, yet you did it.”

I frown, unsure why he’s telling me that. I wasn’t brave—I was desperate.

“It was the only way to keep it safe.”

He smiles and shakes his head, gentle fingers trailing down my cheek. His lips are wet, glistening in the red glow.

“No, it wasn’t the only way but thebravestway. You are a very brave woman. And so beautiful.”

He kisses my forehead and my temple, and I squirm with discomfort. I got used to brushing his compliments aside as just more lies and manipulations, but now that I’m tied up and vulnerable, it’s harder. The hungry beast in my heart that clamors for acceptance and love wants to take all his sweet words and beg for more.

“Are you done?” I ask, my jaw clenched when he kisses the corner of my mouth, and then up and up my cheek, so slowly, I want to scream.

“I told you when I'll be done. Close your eyes.”

He kisses the left one, the one that’s green and normal. Then, he places another kiss on the other corner of my mouth and trails up my cheek, toward the eye that almost got me killed. The useful, though hated, magical eye that I had to hide. The ugly one. The one I sometimes dreamed of gouging out.

“Woland,” I say through clenched teeth.

“This one is hard for you,” he muses, soft lips brushing the skin under my eye. I squeeze it shut so hard, my entire face is scrunched up. “Why don’t you take just this one kiss, sweet thing? Just one. Relax for me. You have beautiful eyes. The prettiest I’ve ever seen.”

“Lie,” I say, refusing to relax my face.

“No. Sacred truth. Your eyes are gorgeous. I could spend entire days looking into them. Let me show you.”

I shake my head, and he blows gently, making my eyelashes tingle. My chest is tight, my body so rigid, it trembles. I can’t do it, after all. Iama coward.

“Just for a second,” he coaxes, his voice warm, infinitely patient. “Just open your eyes for a second, my pretty witch. It won’t hurt, I promise. I’ll reward you if you do.”

I exhale sharply, clenching my useless fists. This is ridiculous. I should do everything he wants to make him get it over with, and so I brace and open my eyes. He strokes my cheek with his thumb, watching me with tender awe.

“There she is.” His murmur caresses my lips, and I keep my eyes open longer than a second, after all, because the look on his face is too precious to lose sight of. “You are so beautiful. I adore your eyes, however you look at me. I adore them when you’re angry, puzzled, uncertain, afraid, but I love them the most in those rare moment when you look at me with wonder. I look at you often like that, but I’m too proud to let you see that. It will change.”

I turn my face away, swallowing with difficulty. Things shatter in my chest, but the shield I put up to protect myself from heartbreak stands strong. Woland kisses the corner of my purple eye, and when it flutters shut, he kisses my eyelid.

“That was so brave,” he says, not a hint of sarcasm in his voice. “I promised you a reward. It’s another thing I’m not good at, but I’ll make an effort to keep my word with you.”

I don’t have it in me to scoff with doubt. I am too busy reminding myself I can’t fall for it. He’s a liar, and all he wants is to use me, and it’s all a giant plot to make me give him my soul, and I don’t want him, anyway, and…

Woland’s tongue spreads me open, the warm bones of his antlers caging my hips. I huff with frustration, helpless to stop the pleasure as he parts my legs wider to make more space for himself.

“Give me your cock,” I demand, voice tight.

He licks me with infuriating thoroughness and pulls back. “All in good time. Take the orgasm I’m about to give you, and we’ll see.”

“Curse you,” I mutter, my head falling back on the pillow. He holds my thighs open, his tongue so hot and so leisurely, I want to scream. I swear, he’s doing it on purpose to torture me.

“I love making you come,” he murmurs, lips moving right over my clit. “It makes me feel powerful in ways nothing else does. Here is this strong woman who has told me no so many times, and yet, she can’t help but come for me. It’s a heady feeling. Maybe I can’t conquer you in ways that matter the most, but I get to make you scream and tremble for me.”

My lips purse, and I stare at the ceiling, doing my best to ignore the slow heat spreading through my body from every careful lick of his tongue.

“I should have known this is a game to you,” I mutter. “I won’t come, then. You can’t force me.”

“Maybe a friendly wager, then? If you come for me, I get to put my mark back on you—anywhere I like. And if you don’t, you get to put a mark on me that I will keep from healing. You could squeeze my throat. It felt interesting when you tried that.”

My nostrils flare as he takes my clit into his mouth and sucks gently, his antler grinding against my hip in an unpleasant way that still fails to mar the pleasure.

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