Page 61 of A Queen Of Broken Realms
“That’s not what I meant.” Ashen stills at the low timbre of my voice and stops to really look at me. I stand from the couch and grasp the hem of my shirt, sliding it up my body and over my head. I drop it to the floor as I take a step closer to the fuming demon, his eyes darkening as they latch onto my body. “Take it out on me.”
“Take it out…wife…no. I am too angry to be trusted,” Ashen says, taking a step back as I take another forward, my chest flaming with desire as the wordwifeechoes in my mind. But despite his protest, Ashen’s eyes roam the contours of scalloped lace that hugs my breasts, the curve of my waist.
“You could have kept ripping off limbs until your rage subsided, but you came home. You must have wanted comfort. And I can give it, though I make no promises about making it easy on you,” I say, giving the demon a devious grin as I undo the button of my jeans. I drag the zipper down slowly, tooth by metal tooth, then slide the waistband down over my hips. The denim pools at my feet and I take another step closer to the Reaper. He takes another back in return. “Ashen of House Urbigu, are you running away from me?”
“No,” he scoffs. We do another little dance of one step forward, one back, but he has nowhere left to go unless he wants to be absorbed by the wall. “Yes.”
“Well,” I say as I saunter closer to him. Ashen’s back presses against the wall, his wings splayed wide behind him against the white plaster. “You’re doing a terrible job of it, thankfully.” I press my hands to his chest and rise to my tip toes as I take his earlobe between my teeth, keeping my eyes trained on his shimmering snakeskin wings. “What are you so afraid of, Reaper?”
“Hurting you.”
“You won’t.”
“I might.”
“Youwon’t.”
Those wings flutter against the wall. Smoke flows around them like spilled ink, coating the plaster, coasting across the floor. Ashen’s hand trails across my hip and splays across my back. His other joins it, and a breath later the clasp is released from my bra, the straps going slack over my shoulders. I pull back and look into his eyes, their red rings glowing with bright crimson light.
“I know you won’t hurt me, Ashen. I trust you.”
“You shouldn’t,” he says as he pushes me back. The gleam in his eyes is deadly, but I feel more than just fury in my mark. There’s desire too, burning hotter with every breath. He pushes me another step as a slow and wicked smile grows on his lips. “Vampire…”
“Yes, Reaper?”
“Run.”
My smile broadens and I take a step back, then turn and bolt across the room. I run to the couch. My foot sinks into the cushions and I spring over the back. Ashen’s hand grazes my calf and I squeal. I run down the hall and nearly crash into the doorframe as I skid to a halt and pivot into the bedroom. But I don’t make it far. I’m halfway through the room when the force of Ashen’s body knocks into me from behind. Snakeskin wings and heat and smoke envelop me as we twist and fall, landing just short of the bed. Ashen cages me in his arms and grunts with the hit, and the momentum hasn’t stopped when his mouth is on my neck in a burning kiss, swallowing the tremor of my laugh.
“You havewings. How did you miss the bed? It’s right there,” I say through a giggle as Ashen’s roaming hands tickle my ribs.
“I couldn’t make it that far.”
“I might have to make you pay for that landing, Reaper.”
“Pay, hmm? How?”
“Direct deposit.”
Ashen’s huff of a laugh warms my neck before a gentle bite tugs on my earlobe as he eases his weight from my body. “Get on the bed, vampire.”
There is little in any realm that I enjoy more than telling this demanding demon, “No.”
“Please.”
I raise my hand to his hot cheek, the boil of rage still heating the blood beneath his skin. Poor thing. I almost feel sorry for him and how much I’ll make him suffer. I give him a slow, bright, devious smile. “Make me.”
A rumbling growl vibrates in the hollows of his chest as Ashen’s arm slips beneath my back, his wings soft against my skin where they remain wrapped around my body as they protected me during the fall. “Stubborn creature.”
“Creature? No, Ashen…” I say as he lifts us from the floor and closes the distance to the bed. “Not a stubborn creature, but a demandingQueen.”
“You may fight me all night if you wish, in everything I ask. And yet, Queen or not, you will still give me what I want in the end.”
“Will I though? I’m not so sure.”
“I am,” Ashen says, his wings fluttering across my back, the edge of each scale a crescent of warmth against my spine. He lays me down cocooned in his smoke and scent, a line of kisses searing my flesh from the edge of my jaw to my collarbone. I try not to shudder in the urgent need I feel with every press of his lips or grip of his fingers.
“And what is it that you want, exactly?” I ask as his nip to my breast draws a gasp from my lips. He suckles on the flesh, swirling his tongue around the bud of my tight nipple, relishing every catch of breath in my lungs with an answer in the stuttering beat of his heart. He takes his time to reply, first kissing his way to my other breast and devoting the same attention to it until I start to writhe with the need for friction.
