Page 19 of Bound

She swallowed nervously. “Are…yougetting hungry?”

Slate stopped at the bedroom doorway, the dog spirit on his heels. “If you are asking whether I will eat you, I cannot. And the hunger is…” He paused, frowning. “It is not a true hunger. I do not feel genuine hunger often. It is an opportunistic hunger, only conjured when I come across a mortal in the flesh.”

“In the flesh,” Ruby repeated. “As opposed to…”

“The mortals whom I encounter in this realm are usually dead,” he replied. He cocked his head. “What do mortals eat?”

“Oh,” Ruby said, suddenly forgetting everything she had ever eaten. It took her a moment to come up with: “Well, we eat meat. Eggs. Grains. Dairy. Dried fruit.Freshfruit, when it’s in season.”

She paused, wondering whether to push her luck. But he’d made her a dress. Why not this?

“Chocolate,” she said cautiously. “If you have it.”

“I will find these items.” His head inclined as if he was going to bow. Then it jerked back up in a strange almost-nod, and he headed into the hall.

The door thudded shut behind him. The dog spirit darted out after him, jumping through the closed door with a playful bark.

Ruby threw herself onto the bed, mind reeling. There was a part of her that kept expecting something horrible to happen: for those shadows trailing off his cloak to swarm up and swallow her, for his jaw to unhinge and expose a great red maw.An opportunistic hunger,he had admitted,only conjured when I come across a mortal in the flesh.

It wouldn’t even be to fill his stomach. He would eat her out of pure want.

Ruby shivered. Even if he fed her and made her a dress, he was still dangerous. His fangs and his obvious interest in eating her proved that—not to mention the sketch of that bloody demon head proved that. She wished she still had her dagger, which was waiting for her with her old dress. Maybe she could find her way back to the anointing room somehow. The castle couldn’t bethatbig.

Not that a dagger would do me much good, she thought as she remembered his massive stature and his huge fangs. But it would be better than nothing.

Even if she was starting to convince herself that she didn’t have to worry about him.

She pushed the thought aside and blew out a shaky breath, shifting against the bed. The dress felt glorious against her bare skin.

She raised her leg through the slit. The dress puddled around it, revealing her leg up to her plump thigh. She touched the spot where the fabric parted and imagined Slate watching her, those dark eyes filled with a focus nobody had given her before.

She…enjoyedhow he looked at her—even if it was mostly hunger. She liked it the same way she liked the dress: with a strange, murky excitement she didn’t fully understand, even as it made heat pool in her stomach.

She slid a hand up the slit in her skirt until she was touching her core. It was swollen and sore at the entrance. Her clit was so sensitive she let out a hiss when she grazed it.

She closed her eyes and pictured Slate leaning over her, holding her legs open. But not for his tongue—for hiscock.

She slid a finger inside. Slate’s tongue had stretched her so wide that soon she could fit a second finger and then a third. Wet noises filled the room, so lewd her cheeks burned.

Ruby rubbed that sweet spot he had found so easily with his tongue, her fingers moving faster as she imagined him filling her up.

I have prepared you well,said imaginary Slate, his voice full of scraping rocks.Look how easily you take my cock, little witch.

“Yes,” Ruby sighed. She reached down to rub at her sensitive clit, both hands faltering as she imagined Slate swelling inside her, his cock jerking as he filled her up.

Take it,said imaginary Slate, forcing his knot inside.And come for me.

Ruby tensed and came, her dress rucked up around her hips. Wave after wave of pleasure rolled through her, even as her clit stung with overstimulation.

After, she slid her fingers out and stared at them.

Three small human fingers and nothing more.

They had a lot of preparation to do.

Six

“Brother,” Slate said. “Is this a suitable meal to give to a mortal?”

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