Page 12 of Demonic Prince

His ember eyes meet mine.

“Pyrah,” he says, his voice rougher than granite. He tilts his head. “How long were you watching?”

I’m going to die. Either he’s going to kill me, or I’m going to self-combust.

“Long enough,” I say.

He lowers his head as if his horns are too heavy. He stalks toward the beach on legs that betray his shakiness.

“Rook.” I follow him. “I didn’t mean to watch.”

“I sincerely doubt that.”

He washes himself by the lake before hiding under those damn leather trousers. I can’t stop looking at his ass.

“I—”

“Go to sleep.” He buckles his belt.

“Rook?”

“No.”

Why can’t he look at me? Admit he was thinking of me? Confess I’m not the only one distracted by desire?

Rook returns to camp, wordlessly, and lies on his bedroll.

“Your shadow,” I say. “It had wings and a tail.”

He says nothing.

“It doesn’t bother me. I have them too, when I’m a dragon.”

“I know.”

“Are you hiding yourself from me?”

“Go. To. Sleep.” He closes his eyes as if shutting me out.

I can’t sleep, not with his groan echoing inside me ever since he came. But I refuse to crawl over to him and beg for more. Hiding under the blanket makes me sweat. I suck in the night air, though it does nothing to cool me down.

I try counting to one thousand. I don’t make it past one hundred.

My hands slip between my legs.

It’s hard to touch myself with rope around my wrists, but I’m already on the edge. I close my eyes and arch my hips upward, imagining Rook watching me too, as I touch myself. Aellurium can’t bind this inferno in my blood, this sweet ache so close to transformation.

Unlike him, I know how to be silent when I come.

* * *

Morning.Golden sunlight slices the mist. I’m awake before Rook, who’s sleeping with his back to me.

Shame creeps through me like a stain. Last night, he refused me again. Why was I ever stupid enough to imagine anything more with him? When he pleasured himself, that must have just been physical, a release of tension not meant for me.

I’m just a prisoner. A monster.

And he’s a monster hunter who wants me for my dragonfire, nothing more. He must think I’m desperate. That I would have whored myself out to the first dragonslayer who unbuckled his belt and demanded my body.

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