Page 405 of Flirting with Darkness

Call me another name and watch what happens.

His dark hair falls against his profile, and he takes a moment before turning to face me once more.

You dare strike a king?His snarl in my mind sends waves of heat straight through me.

Demon.I correct, back straightening.I struck the demon who—

I’m on my knees. My hand—newly entwined in his— is the only part of me still upright as flames of desire burn me through and through.

His silky voice rolls over me, tempting my resolve. “I am the king of darkness, Liesl Aderyn. Under the cover of night, I have dominion over everything. I am the king of secrets and lies, the king of dreams, and most importantly, I am the king of desire. You’ve known that truth since I first tempted you to free me all those years ago.”

I shudder at his words, at the blatant want heating my blood, my sex.

He yanks me to my feet, tilting my chin to meet his gaze.

“But if it’s a demon you want, little bird, a demon you shall have.”

Fire shoots up my spine, treading the border between pleasure and pain, and I fall against him with a whimper.

“Is this what you want, Liesl? Is this how you need it to be?”

Another arc of unseen hellfire rips through me, and I cling to him, body molding to his, craving more of the divine torture while also wanting to be set free from it.

“I’ll take that as a yes,” he murmurs against my ear.

His large hands travel from my waist up my back. He takes hold of the neckline of my dress and rips it until cool night air kisses my back before tracing a pattern on the exposed flesh.

Then he tears it off my shoulders.

Another yelp breaks through my resolve as the satin puddles on the ground.

I huddle against him, nude but for my muck boots, trembling with feverish need.

Nudity doesn’t bother me. It never has.

But being stripped bare before this man who offers me everything I could never have? Everything scripture and being a Keeper took from me…

I can’t make sense of all the noise in my head, the doubt, the hesitation. As one breath tells me this is wrong, another yearns to be utterly possessed by this…

This…

King.

So I don’t. I don’t make sense of it.

I let go, giving in to what we’ve both wanted for so long by lifting my head off his shoulder and meeting his gaze.

A low groan rattles in his throat as his eyes connect with mine.

And I’m stumbling backward, propelled solely by his inertia, until I crash into the bark of a tree trunk. My back scrapes against the jagged bark as the telltale creak and moan of leather unfastening heat my cheeks.

Agony sears through me as another wave of delicious hellfire courses through my body.

I can no longer tell which of his fires he teases me with. If it’s the agony of pain or the burn of unrelenting pleasure. I no longer care.

The king grabs my jaw, wrenching it to look at him, while he hitches my leg over his hip with his other hand. “I would have been anything,” he murmurs, sliding his hardness against my wetness. “Given you anyone you needed.”

He lifts me by the rear, pinning me to the tree. “But you only want the worst parts of me.” With a grunt, he enters me, and I’m breathless.

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