Page 70 of Empire of Dark

Her look dropped to my mouth, then lifted back to my eyes. “I feel like this was a much better outcome than what I imagined would happen as I ran up here.”

“You thought I’d try to kill you?”

Her right cheek lifted in a half-cocked smile. “I thought you would try.”

“Doesn’t mean I didn’t think about it.”

“I wouldn’t expect any less from one of your kind.”

The words biting, but she said them with just enough humor that I didn’t take offense.

“It is a good thing you are more than your kind.” She looked to her right at the curved wall littered with half-finished paintings. “I never would have touched a thing in this room had I known. Your brother was a true artist. Are any of his paintings hanging in the castle?”

I shook my head. “I’d had them taken down the first time I was back at the castle after his death. I couldn’t stomach looking at them.”

“That’s a shame. They deserve to be seen.” Her head tilted to the side as she studied the painting in front of us. “Can I have this one for my room? We tend to engage in activities in your room, so you won’t have to look at it.”

“The rain of demons?” My eyebrows arched. “A bit dark for you, no?”

“If you look at it like gravity is winning out.” A soft smile lit her features as she motioned up and down toward the painting. “I more think that the demons are trying to reach the ground, but the family is keeping them at bay. They’re not oblivious at all to what’s above them. They’re just choosing to ignore what is coming for them and living in the moment, in the light, and refusing to let the darkness in.”

Instead of the painting, I stared at her profile. At the smooth line of her jaw, at her full lips still curled into a smile of wonder and my cock hardened.

I saw demons. She saw sunlight.

She fuckingwassunlight.

Hell and brimstone, I needed that sunlight. Needed what bled from her pores.

Light. Salvation.

All things I was wired not to need.

But I needed it.

In one swift motion, I moved in front of her, my hand wrapping around the back of her head as my lips crashed down onto hers.

For one second, she froze, unsettled by my onslaught, but then I could feel her body loosen, her hips drawing toward me. For all her mind still tried to rationalize us out, to deny how we wanted each other, her body was no match for this maniacal energy between us.

Our bodies wanted, needed each other on some visceral level that neither one of us understood or could explain.

Her hands lifted, curling into my hair as she took in everything I was giving her, sending it back to me tenfold. I tore at her clothes, yanking them from her body, needing her skin against mine like never before.

Her hands were just as quick on my clothes, ripping off my shirt and pants as I kicked off my shoes. The second air hit me, her breasts pressed against my chest, her tongue trailing ravenous down my neck. I wasted no time and lifted her, impaling her on my cock.

We crashed down onto the ancient worn table, paint jars cracking and splintering under her back, and when I tried to pull her up, she just wrenched me down to her, her right calf lifting high on my back, her heel digging into my spine, demanding I fuck her hard.

Thank the demons that—apparently—ran through both of our souls.

I’d never denied her during sex. Never would. I started pumping in and out of her, hard, driving with a fury I had no hope of holding back. Raw and savage until I lifted myself higher on each stroke, catching her clit along my shaft, and it sent her into madness, a vicious groan lifting from her chest.

Her fingernails gouging into my shoulders, her hips bucked under me, her body already starting to quiver around my cock.

I’d taken her fast. Taken her slow. But this—this was just rabid need on both of our parts and I had no power to stop it.

The frenzy of my body pumping into her accelerated to a pace I couldn’t control. My balls tingling, I was coming, the lightning building within me too forceful to stop, and I could only pray she was right along with me.

A scream echoed into my ears and her body started writhing, her nails scraping down my back as her inner walls clenched like a vise on my cock, sending me over the edge with her.

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