Page 43 of The Demon Crown

Varya slid her hand up between them, gently touching all those hard planes of muscle that were so tempting. He was a man made for sex. A sledgehammer of pleasure that took out any woman he wanted in front of him. All she had to do was let go.

Still, she touched his close cropped red beard, tangling her fingers in the surprisingly soft hair. Tugging hard, she pulled him closer to her.

Her lips ghosting over his, she whispered the words against his skin. “I will ask you for nothing, Greed. You are going to give it all to me of your own free will. I will take from you all that I desire, and you will not complain.”

“I do not give anyone anything,” he snarled against her lips. “I am Greed. I will have you as I wish, when I wish, and how I wish.”

“Yes, you can have all that.” Varya pressed her lips to his, hard enough to bruise, and then wrenched back. “But I will take as well, demon king. I will take from you just as much as you take from me.”

He almost looked frightened at her words, but then something in him snapped.

His hands scooped down to her ass, lifting her up into the palms of his hands as he thrust her back against the wall. This high, he pressed against her core perfectly. Her face reached his where her legs had once been too short. Tunneling her hands into his fiery hair, she kissed him. Fierce and proud and giving no quarter when he tried to take from her.

All that passion, pain, and need coursed between them. Arcing back and forth like they’d both been struck by lightning.

He ground himself into her core until she felt herself slipping against the leather, soaking wet and needing him inside her.

“Aye, then,” he growled into her lungs. “Take from me, treasure.”

Hooking her ankles behind his back, she threw all her worries to the wind. It didn’t matter who he was or who she was. All she wanted was to lick and bite and fuck him until neither of them remembered words.

Trapping his lower lip between her teeth, she bit at him while he reached between them. His big hand worked between her legs before he let out a hiss. “Why are these still on?”

“Are you really going to fuck me in an alley for the first time?”

He bit her neck, his teeth grazing hard against her skin. “I’ll fuck you wherever I want, treasure. Against a stone wall and between cool silk sheets.”

She melted at the words. Her head fell back as he laved at her neck, his fingers making quick work of the ties between her legs. He was almost frantic in his movements as she rolled her hips against his to urge him on.

She wanted this. Gods, she wanted to feel like someone other than who she really was for a few moments.

Neither of them heard the faint sound of smoke hissing from a magical canister. But she felt him sag against her, then stagger a bit. And even though he was weakened by whatever spell had been thrown at him, Greed never once released his grip on her. He let her legs go gently, easing her down until she could stand on her own.

“What trap did you lay for me?” he asked, his words slurred.

She hoped he was looking at her face when she looked up and saw shadows moving toward him. She hoped he realized that terror ran through her veins as she recognized the faces that grinned at her.

“Greed,” she whispered. “Where are your guards?”

He shook his head like a massive lion, his hair a mane around his head as he struggled to stay upright. “Close.”

“Good. That’s good.”

Because she’d come here knowing that the Horde would try to attack him again. She’d felt it deep in her bones that they were going to do something that would make her need to protect this man. Greed had done what she’d asked, even though she hadn’t really asked for anything.

This was just one town. But now they had water, and that was because of him.

Tilting her head back, she let out a scream that they must have heard all the way at the other end of the town. Lunging around Greed, she ran right for the members of the Horde who had come here.

Perhaps they had already intended to steal from this town. Maybe they wanted to pick on people who couldn’t defend themselves. Or maybe they’d been hunting her. She didn’t care. Whatever it was they wanted, she would divert them from the demon king, who already fell onto his knees in the mist.

Whatever spell this was, she would destroy it soon enough. No one should have the ability to knock a man like him out.

Dodging underneath the arm of the first, she whirled around the second. Varya cast a single glance back toward Greed who had struggled to turn around and watch her go. And when one of the Horde members approached him, she let a knife fly. Embedded in the man’s back, it did its job.

The Horde was distracted just enough for Greed’s guards to meet her at the end of the alleyway. They didn’t look at her at all. They raced toward their master and then stood over him, teeth bared and knives gleaming in the sunlight.

He looked up at her, his eyes unfocused and his face pale. But he still snarled and his voice rumbled as he said, “Touch her and die.”

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