Page 115 of The Demon Court

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

The tips of his fingers turned into claws, pressed against the sensitive sides of her neck. “You know exactly what I’m talking about. They didn’t want you, Selene, and that’s bound to hurt. Avoiding it will only make it worse later. You are not cold and you are not empty. You are not whatever they made you believe that you are.”

Though she still couldn’t feel the emotions, a single tear tracked down her cheek. Warm and wrong and oh so weak. “I don’t want to feel any of that.”

“But you have to.” He smoothed the tear away with his thumb. “You have to feel it, little moon, so you don’t forget it. They were wrong for what they did. You didn’t ask them to give you up. You didn’t ask for them to make you feel unwanted.”

The ice in her heart cracked. It hurt. Zings of emotions rolled through her as more tears tracked down her cheeks. “I’m afraid they were right. No one has ever wanted me, and I’m so afraid that no one ever will.”

His hands spasmed against her back, and his jaw tightened. She watched something flip over inside him, like she’d stuck a knife in his very heart.

“You think I don’t want you?” he asked, his hand shifting down her back. Pops of fabric followed his movement as her bodice slowly gave to the sharp claws growing larger on his hands. “I’m not a man of words, little moon, but I will show you just how needed you are.”

Her heart stuttered in her chest. An answering rush flooded between her legs because yes, she needed this, she needed to forget for a little while. And he could help her forget.

Selene wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him. She poured all her emotions into him and he took them without complaint. He gathered her up in his arms, standing as her dress fell away from her.

“I won’t be gentle,” he said against her lips. “I’m not making love to you.”

A pang of pain rocked through her. “I know.”

He never would. She knew that. They both knew he could feel nothing beyond lust, and that was all right. She’d take what she could get.

He turned her in his arms, standing her in front of the full-length mirror. She was entirely naked in the arms of a demon, and he looked like one. The curved horns on top of his head jutted toward the ceiling. The sharp features of his face were cast with shadows across hard angles. Every part of him seemed larger, more immense, making her appear even smaller in his arms.

Lust trailed his hand between her breasts, flattening his palm on her stomach as he cupped her jaw with the other hand. He forced her to look into her own eyes in the mirror.

“I need you,” he growled, his voice low and echoing in her ear. “Your biting wit. Your insults. Your laughter. I need your heart that beats for the people of this kingdom. I do not want you, Selene. I need you. And I will stop at nothing to have you.”

He bit down on her neck. His hands roved over her body, squeezing her breasts, delving between her legs. His groan echoed as he found her wet was nearly enough to send her to her knees.

“You want a distraction, Selene, and I will give you one. You trust me, and now we’re going to test that trust.”

And though the words made her throat feel like it was closing, she nodded.

Lust moved past her and pulled out a bundle of ropes from one of his drawers. They looked similar to the ones he’d used to create the dress for her, but now she had a feeling it would be for a very different purpose.

He unraveled them, taking his time as he explained what he was going to do.

“We’ll start easy. No need to scare you. But you’ll put your entire trust in me, in the ropes, that neither of us will drop you. Do you understand?”

Again, she nodded. It felt impossible to speak.

Lust rounded behind her and looped the ropes over one of her shoulders, twisting them between her breasts before he flung it over her other shoulder. As he wound them underneath her breasts, safely around her ribs until she was presented to him with rope twisting around each globe, he whispered compliments against her skin.

“You’re so good,” he breathed against her neck as he finished tying around her chest. “You’re so beautiful like this.”

Heart racing, she said nothing as he bent in front of her and started winding another rope around her thigh. Twin circles that bit into her flesh as he tightened them a little too tight.

He stared up her body, holding onto the ends of that rope with both hands. “You once asked me why I wore the corsets, and I said it’s because I enjoyed the pain. There will be some pain with this, but not enough to scare you. Not my little moon.”

“How bad?”

“Only enough to leave a few marks. The same as a corset.”

Lust flicked his gaze to the ceiling. Selene glanced in that direction and noticed hooks that she’d never seen before. And as she watched, he threw the ropes over each one. Secure, safe, held in his hands.

But then he pulled on the rope attached to her thigh and lifted her leg. “Look at you,” he whispered against her neck, securing the rope to the bed frame and then circling behind her. “So pretty and wet. Perfect for me.”

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