Chapter 11 #2
“I was in control enough to do so,” Carmine said, returning his view to the play as the curtains drew back. “Then in the next breath I was not. I managed to freeze myself somewhat to… prevent the matter going too far.”
He’d remained in control enough not to take part as I’d used him like a vibrator. “Thank you for doing that… and thank you for putting me in bed after.”
“I left you on the floor. A servant must have found you.”
My cheeks warmed at that, and Carmine chuckled dark and low at the sight. I didn’t care about his approval, but I did care that a servant had found me in that state and reeking of what Carmine and I had done. It would be all over the realm by the next round.
Grandfather would hear.
I forced my focus to the stage, barely noticing that a woman was sandwiched between two males.
A stock was behind them, so no doubt she would be locked in there in Act One, and would have to bargain her way out through seductive methods during Act Two.
Though sometimes one of the guys was put in that situation. Demon porn.
Carmine stroked my cheek, and I slapped his hand away. I was so relieved when lust didn’t overrun me that I didn’t immediately hear his growl.
But those in the lower rows did. They craned to steal a peek.
I fixed my sights on the stage as more and more demons turned to look. Carmine stroked his thumb over my cheek again, and I remained frozen in place. He trailed his fingertips over my jaw and then hooked his thumb on my lower lip to push it down.
My chest rose and fell, but I stayed put under the gleeful gaze of the other royals.
Carmine gripped my chin and forced me to look at him.
I allowed every trace of my hate to shine through, and he answered that hate with a smirk.
He dragged his thumb over my closed lips.
“Do you remember the play where you sat on my lap, enamai? The play where your breath grew faster and faster as I slipped my fingers between your legs so slowly. You were soaking, and I couldn’t resist the temptation of your slickness, though my subjects were so close.
I entered you, and you rode me—so oblivious to the presence of others.
As you walked from this room, you dripped with the signs of what we’d done. ”
I remembered.
I pressed my thighs together against how much I remembered.
And that wasn’t the only public sex we’d had. The emotions of a demon collective were powerful, and no one was immune to them—certainly not demons in a mating ritual. “What’s your point, Carmine?”
His lips curved. “Sit on my lap as I touch you, Syera. Writhe against my fingers, and when I enter you, chase all the pleasure my cock can give you. Roll your hips in the way I recall, and then walk out of this room dripping with the signs of me.”
Fear bolted through me. Fear and denial. Was that an order?
“Do this,” Carmine continued, “and I will grant you all the power you seek through the game.”
I held my breath, nearly sagging as some of the fear leeched away. Mother be, I’d thought he’d finally lost the battle to his icy soul. No one watching would miss how unsettled my breathing was.
The demon king leaned back in his throne, jerking his head at his lap. “Make your choice. This could all be finished in one fuck.”
I wanted fury to come to my aid.
I wanted the certainty of the woman I’d been two nights ago. But I didn’t feel like her tonight. She needed time to lick her wounds, and I should have known better than to believe Carmine would give me any time to process what I’d done in the hallway.
This was his attack. This was his plan to undo everything I battled for in the arena. He was tightening a noose that I couldn’t yet see. I’d held still under his fingers just now. Something that I wouldn’t have stood for a week prior.
He was using my desperation and uncertainty against me, but what about his? His desperation to finish this mating. His uncertainty that I would figure out how to sever our mating.
“After I learned a mating could be severed, of course that was the first question I asked my grandfather. You’re right to fear that I will do it,” I told Carmine.
I shouldn’t mess with this creature with a heart of ice. I shouldn’t, but I had to. Things were growing murkier by the second.
Carmine’s face hardened. “I will make his death painful.”
I lifted a shoulder. “Dead is dead in the end.”
“You plan to sever our mating, but not yet.”
“No.” I rose from the throne. “But I will in time. Unless you somehow convince me, of course. Whatever this offer is, it’s not doing that.”
Gray eyes glittered, and he didn’t adjust from his sprawled position on the throne. “I don’t need to convince you, Syera. You just need to convince yourself.”
I snorted. “Then your plan is destined to fail, Carmine.”
He looked at the play. “So says the demon who declared we would never share pleasure again. Return to your rooms, enamai. You will need your strength in the week ahead.”
I was leaving anyway, which was no doubt why he’d given the order, but I seized the opportunity to leave the royals behind.
Carmine wasn’t desperate or uncertain at all, unless he’d just made the biggest bluff of his life. If Carmine wasn’t desperate or uncertain, then he had an ace up his sleeve.
My brow cleared as the answer dawned on me. Of course.
My sister. Carmine planned to force the mating via bargaining my sister’s freedom, if he couldn’t convince me otherwise. That was how I would “convince myself.”
And I would have agreed to that once, back when I’d expected to die anyway. But now I’d figured out that I could win everything and have a future with Adeuto and Tempest.
So that was exactly what I intended to do.