Page 63 of The Demon Court

Frustrated with himself and the direction his thoughts were taking, Lust stared at himself in the full-length mirror on the opposite side of the bed. He was Lust. The king of this kingdom and the emotion incarnate. No one told him what he wanted or how he was supposed to feel.

Selene had wriggled her way underneath his skin, that’s all. She was a nut he wanted to crack open to taste the delicious, flavorful insides. And then he was thinking about spending an afternoon with his tongue deep—

Snarling, he turned away from the mirror before he could see how she affected him. The damned woman! She had no right to get into his head like this.

Why did it make him so angry that he couldn’t feel her lust? He knew she was affected. He’d felt the way she melted against the door at his kiss. How she let out a little sound in the back of her throat that she couldn’t quite catch and hoped he wouldn’t hear.

She’d enjoyed that kiss. Perhaps as much as he had, although he had a hard time imagining there was more pleasure than what he’d felt in that moment.

She was... soft. Everything about her. Soft. And she wasn’t asking for more than he wanted to give. She wasn’t expecting him to be the best she’d ever had, shake the foundations of what she knew sex to be, nor did she think he was some god slithering into her bed.

No. She’d simply enjoyed his kiss because it was him kissing her.

And that wasn’t something he knew how to deal with. People wanted from him. They wanted his body, his touch, they wanted to feel what only he could give them. That was how it went. He’d experienced that since before he had taken a physical form. It was natural for humans to desire something they could not have.

She wanted nothing he could give her, and that was frustrating. Perhaps that came from being a spirit before, however. He wanted to serve. He still wanted to give humans what they were looking for, even if that meant he was sacrificing himself in the process.

Tugging at his horns now, he seethed as he realized she was right. After all of this, she was something new. And he hated it.

“My lord?” The quiet knock on the open bedroom door interrupted his thoughts.

A brief flash of hope sent him spinning toward the feminine voice. Had she come to him of her own accord? Perhaps now she would finally relent to him. Let him kiss her more while she stopped whatever spell hid her desires from him.

But it wasn’t Selene standing in the doorway.

Lara shifted, letting the warm candlelight play through the thin fabric that barely covered her body. A blatant observation in the back of his mind noticed how lovely she was. How the curves of her waist had once fit his palm perfectly, and how she’d come to him many times like this when he was angry.

He could lose himself in her. Lust had before. He could find what little peace she offered him and then disappear for a few hours. Perhaps the entire night if he wanted to keep her up that long.

And yet... It was wrong. He didn’t want to lose himself in another woman when she didn’t have hair as dark as night, or the blackness of oblivion in her eyes. She didn’t look at him with distrust, even as she tried to keep herself away from him. It wasn’t the same. It wasn’t the fight he craved or the submission that he knew would happen no matter how hard they both fought it.

“Lara,” he growled, letting his hands drop to his sides. “What can I do for you?”

She slipped into the room, hips swaying as she tried to tempt him. “You know what you can do for me. And what I can do for you, my lord.”

All he knew was that he wished women weren’t so complicated. Men were easy to understand, and yet these creatures were like another species entirely. Their tumultuous minds were a labyrinth of thoughts and dreams and ideas, so convoluted even they seemed to get trapped in their own minds.

For now, he wanted to be left alone. His thoughts were far too complicated to deal with Lara while she stood there looking at him with expectations, planning for him to give her a reason to stay the night in his bed when she knew that he’d brought home a bride.

“Lara, you should not be here,” he sighed, keeping his gaze locked on her face. “You know that.”

“You have always been in my life, Lust. Always. One woman wandering into the castle won’t change that.” She reached up and flicked the sleeve of her gown lower, letting it slide down her smooth shoulder. “I know every part of you that makes you groan with pleasure. You have lingered inside my body for hours on end, so much so that I am shaped to you. You are mine. Just as much as I am yours.”

“We are neither to each other.” He frowned at her, realizing for the first time that perhaps he’d kept her a little too close. She truly believed this. She believed they belonged together?

The small smile on her face said she didn’t believe him. Lara approached and smoothed her hands down his bare chest. “You didn’t have to take your corset off yourself. You know I enjoy doing that for you.”

Her hands were... wrong. They weren’t the hands he wanted on him, and he gently took her wrists to move them away. “I did not take my corset off myself.”

“You had another servant?” Her eyes flashed with anger before she pulled herself back together and nodded. “I understand you have other favorites. You’re allowed to, after all.”

Still holding onto her wrists, he tilted his head to the side at the strange lilt in her voice. “Am I? Why is that?”

“Because you’re our king.”

No, that wasn’t why she thought it. She was still wearing that strange expression that made him hesitate. He might never understand women or humans, but he could see when there was something off about this one.

He squeezed her wrists lightly, ignoring the way she wriggled in his grip and moaned. It was a fake sound, anyway. “Why should it matter if I am your king? You do not allow kings to do whatever they want, or there would never be a rebellion or people who wished to overthrow me. And we both know those people live even inside these walls. So what is the truth, Lara?”

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