Page 57 of A Court of Sugar and Spice
Then he’s gone again.
Blood and pain well up together on my forearm. With agonized clarity I realize how foolish I was to propose playing this game with a faerie I’ve known for scarcely more than a week—one who was banished from court. One who dallies with the Unseelie.
“Cla-ra…” My name is a delicate singsong through the trees, coming from everywhere, and I pause, my body wracked with exhausted gasps.
I brace my back against a tree and hunt for him with my eyes, raking the shadowy depths of the forest, the gray spaces between the black trees. My breath puffs in ragged clouds of steam, but despite the cold, I’m sweating.
I’m wearing a pair of soft tights beneath my tunic—no undershorts. The crotch of the tights is soaked with my arousal.
In the closet of my bedroom, I used to imagine being chased by hideous or handsome monsters—being thrown down and stripped and taken roughly. Finias is the only being I’ve shared those fantasies with—and he didn’t make me feel ashamed for having them. He agreed to play them out with me.
We’re just playing. It’s only a game.
Just a game.
Finias explodes out of the night, a beautiful, hideous storm of malevolent eyes and claws and teeth. With a shriek I run again, but he zips in front of me, bars my way with one arm against a tree trunk, like he did on the first day I met him. I try another direction, but he’s there again, quicker than thought.
With a screech of frustration I turn my back on him and race for another gap in the trees.
His claws rake my back, snagging the fabric, the tips scratching my skin.
He clutches a handful of my tunic and jerks me toward him.
“No!” I scream, flailing and kicking. Then I put both arms up and I slither down, right out of the tunic. I’m in a light chemise and tights now, my skin burning despite the cold.
Pelting away from him, I begin to triumph a little over my escape—but his weight hits me from behind, knocking me flat.
He’s on top of me, crushing me face-down into the leaves and dirt of the forest floor.
“Scream,” he hisses. “Scream all you want. Beg someone to come and save you.”
His hardness is grinding into the soft flesh of my ass. I scream, writhing under him, and his cock thickens still more.
His claws snarl in my hair, gathering a fistful, and he yanks my head up, ducking his face down to my exposed neck.
“Such sweet fucking blood,” he murmurs against the pulse of my throat. “What if I rip your vein open right now, little one?”
I whimper, and his teeth press lightly to that vulnerable pulse point. He kisses, then sucks my skin—a pinch of pain mixed with a rush of heady pleasure.
I’ve been still for a moment, but the second he breaks the sucking kiss, I buck hard and wriggle forward.
He snarls, raking me back toward him. I manage to flip over and I kick him hard, first in the stomach and then in the jaw.
With a growl of frustration he drags his claws down my front, shredding my chemise. “I’m going to fuck you harder for that,” he seethes.
“You can try.” I twist and duck, crawling rapidly away and then rolling quickly, clambering to my feet.
His body slams into mine. Instead of knocking me down he’s gripping my arms, wrestling me over to a tree, crushing my bare breasts against the bark. He’s naked now—he must have vanished his clothes. But he doesn’t vanish mine—he tears my tights down to my thighs, until my bottom is exposed.
He pauses, taking a moment to grasp my flesh, to feel me. He’s shaking, breathing hard.
“Fuck, I need you so badly,” he says hoarsely. “I couldn’t stop if I wanted to.”
He grasps himself and wedges his cock into my drenched pussy. I vent a choked scream. His hand curls around my throat, and he thrusts, hard and brutal, still grinding my front against the tree. A broken cry cracks from his lips as he pushes deeper into my heat.
Five rough thrusts, and then he pulls out, throws me onto the ground. I start to scramble away on hands and knees, but he seizes my hips and shoves himself inside me again. This time it’s a vicious pounding, frantic and noisy, while his claws grip my waist for leverage.
I’m soaring inside, the pleasure I crave skating closer and closer—but he pulls out again, flips me over, and bares all his glittering teeth in a savage howl of exultation before burying his face between my legs.
