Page 76 of Run Like the Devil

Still, I held myself back from fully giving in. A part of me still worried that it would end up too much for her, that she’d panic and hate me.

And here, in the Path, where I was so unsettled, I didn’t trust myself, either. I still recalled when I’d taken her that first time, when I’d lost myself to my demon side. I’d used my wings as a balance while I’d thrust into her, rough and mindless.

My demon side made me uneasy, made me struggle to accept it. I hated that part of myself, the lack of control, and shifting into it always felt as if I’d failed.

I ran my life on control, on managing not only everything around me, but myself as well. When I sprang those wings, when my teeth sharpened and my claws grew larger, it didn’t feel like me at all.

It was a bitter reminder that I couldn’t even control my own body.

So no matter how badly I wanted Loch, how much I wanted to let go of my own tightly held sense of self and give myself to the pleasure, I couldn’t. I held it back and leaned up enough to kiss her, my lips playing gently across her lips.

I ran my hand up her side, starting at her knee, which was pressed into the blankets by my hip. I worked up her outer thigh, then over the flare of her hips, the curve where her waist pulled in, her ribs. All of it excited me, and each place I touched felt like the first time.

I’d seen her naked, I’d tasted all of her, but somehow it still felt fresh and new. The mole at the small of her back, the scar at her stomach from the gunshot wound that had killed her, all of it drew me in. I wanted to know more, to discover places on her that she didn’t even know she wanted touched.

Eternity had seemed so long before, as if it stretched on forever, as if there would be no way to fill it, at least until I met Loch.

That had changed, now. I doubted an eternity would be enough for me with her, would give me enough time with her.

But I would never utter such a pathetic thing, so instead, I nipped her full bottom lip, drawing a soft whine from her. The sound was better to me than the most famous symphonies. I wanted to record it and put it on repeat, to lose myself in it. Loch normally held tight to everything, fighting everything, but she gave into me. She surrendered herself to her own needs and, more importantly, to me.

I slid my hand between us, swiping my thumb across her erect nipple. She shuddered above me, showing how on edge she was already.

You really do need this, don’t you?

And she’d come to me for it. She could have gone to Hale, who was downstairs on the first watch shift, but instead, she’d come here. It made me want to puff out my chest, as if I’d won something.

When she broke the kiss and slid down just a bit, enough to rub her bare cunt against my erection, I was certain I’d won.

“Waking others is rude.” Gorrin’s sleepy voice drew my attention to where he’d rolled out his blanket across the room, and when I looked that way, glowing golden eyes met mine.

Loch also froze, the action so sudden I nearly laughed.

Or rather, I would have if my cock didn’t ache quite so much, if I didn’t crave her movement so badly.

Gorrin sat up, his weight rested on one of his hands as he stared at us. I certainly hadn’t ever thought I’d end up naked in the same room as that man—that angel, I suppose. It was strange at times when life slapped me in the face with truths I had never seen coming.

Despite all my scheming, despite all the work I did to manipulate things, to get what I wanted, to foresee what others would do, Loch managed to throw that all into disarray.

“Should I leave?” Gorrin asked, an edge to his voice that showed the question was far from rhetorical.

Loch pressed a hand to my chest, using it to sit up and look over at him, the room lit by the dancing light cast from the flames. Again, she struck me as almost magical, as ethereal in the best and darkest of ways.

And I had never thought the sensation of someone pinning me down would be enjoyable, yet here I was, my cock hardening further when I felt like a sacrifice to her lust.

She looked down at me, the question in her pretty eyes obvious.

She wanted us both, just as she had before with Hale, but she couldn’t just invite Gorrin without my permission.

Hale was one thing—we already had a love-hate relationship that swayed heavy on the hate side—but Gorrin was different. We weren’t all trapped together, and I didn’t know Gorrin as well. It required more trust from me.

I pulled my gaze from hers to look back over at Gorrin, weighing the options. I could say no, could tell them I wasn’t comfortable with that. I knew both well enough to guess the result.

Gorrin would leave the room, head downstairs to give us privacy. I could enjoy Loch to my heart’s content, letting her sweet sounds spill from this room as I had her all to myself.

But…the idea of that made me uneasy for a reason I couldn’t pinpoint. My brain screamed that letting a man like Gorrin close to me at such a crucial point was foolish.

I’d tasted betrayal before, so could I make myself that vulnerable near a man like Gorrin?

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