32. Prince of Shadows
ELOISE
Here’s the thing about Damien’s monsterhood. I know he’s not like me. He’s not even from this planet originally. But since the day I first called him, I’ve felt oddly safe in his presence. “I know what you are, Damien, and I want all of you.”
He responds with a skeptical tilt of his head. “This man you see before you is an illusion. It’s the form I take on this planet to blend in.”
“Then show me what you look like without it. It won’t change anything.”
“You sound so sure.”
“I am sure.”
The lights flicker and then go out. Damien breaks into shadow as I’ve watched him do before, only this time, he holds the form I’ve only witnessed in passing. I blink my eyes to force them to adjust to the dim light. Before me stands the demon I glimpsed in the shadows. Black leathery skin spans a wide, heavily muscled chest. Two thick horns twist from either side of his head, tapering to sharp points that tower above me and almost scrape the ceiling. A dark mane of hair falls in waves to his shoulders. Massive wings, like a bat’s, with a claw at their apex, span the length of his body from horns to hooves. Cloven hooves below shaggy black legs that meet at an intimidatingly large phallus.
He extends a hand to me. His fingers end in deadly black claws. Damien, in his shade form, is something out of my deepest nightmares, a monster in every sense of the word. I’ve noticed this form in passing when he’s shifted into the shadows, but I’ve never had time to process it. Not like this. Not up close with time to truly absorb that this is the real him. He looks like a demon, a devil, a creature of the night. And although I know he’s none of those things, the man I’ve known, whose lips have touched my flesh, is only an illusion.
His barbed tail flicks, twitching like a nervous cat’s. Just like that, a smile tugs at the corner of my mouth. Damien may be a monster who can tear me to shreds as easy as breathing, but right now he’s terrified of me, of my judgment. I study him with new eyes, like I might a work of art. While this form challenges my preconceptions, it is a window into his soul. Damien is made of shadow, and he is offering himself to me —all his darkness, his entire beastly nature.
Slowly, I wrap my fingers around his big, warm palm, careful of his talons, and run my hands up his torso. A deep rattle vibrates against my touch. A purr. My God, he’s purring like a cat. His eyes glow silver and he smiles down at me with a mouth full of razor-sharp fangs. The effect is terrifying at first, but I focus on the way his skin wrinkles at the corners of his eyes. Definitely a smile. Slowly, my heart rate evens out. This is Damien. I’m safe.
Curious, I let my touch drift around his sides, stroking up the ridged skin of his back and massaging the place his wings attach to his body. The rough ridges of his flesh there are fascinating. I ease my fingertips along the edge of one wing. His eyes close on a sigh. Coasting my hand lower, to the base of his spine, I ring his tail with my thumb and forefinger and tug it gently. His skin is smooth and soft here. The purr I heard earlier turns into a gruff moan and his erection grows thick and long between us.
Massive, dark, and ridged around the head, it’s the largest cock I’ve ever seen in my life. Releasing his tail, I skim my nails along his sides and wrap my hand around it. Well, I try. My fingers aren’t long enough. I use my other hand and stroke from base to tip, running my thumb over the bead of moisture that forms on the head of it. His purr grows stronger, but reality sinks in. I haven’t been with a man in years. This thing would wreck me.
“You’re beautiful like this,” I say, “but maybe... for our first time....”
A bark-like laugh rumbles from his chest and he digs his claws into my hair. A moment later he’s transformed in my arms to his human shape. The lights flicker back on. “Is this better, little dragon?”
I shrug and flash him a coy smile. “I rather like the tail, but this will do.” Trailing my nails up the back of his neck, I dig them into his hair. “Is that the only thing you have to show me?”
“Yes,” he says with a dose of relief in his voice.
“Then will you stay with me tonight?”
“You’ve been teasing me with that little blue dress all evening. Did you think you’d be rid of me so easily?”
The way he looks at me sends a rush of heat straight to my core. My heart springs to a gallop, and my inner muscles clench in anticipation. I want him. I’ve wanted him for weeks. Like always, he’s waiting for me to make the first move. I may no longer have the candle, but he won’t act without an agreement, without my consent.
I reach behind me and unzip my dress. His stare is a palpable thing as I brush the straps from my shoulders and let the dress fall in a heap around my pumps. All dark grace and lithe muscle, he wraps a hand around my waist and draws me hard against his chest, a hairsbreadth between our noses. My breath comes in pants, and my nipples strain against the black lace of my bra.
“Turn around,” he commands. The low gravel of his voice does sinful things to my insides. My lids flutter. I turn in place and find I’m facing the oval mirror mounted to the wall. Self-conscious, I glance away from my reflection.
“Oh no.” His arm slides around me and props up my chin. Gaze locked on my reflection, his lips brush my temple as he says, “Watch, Eloise.” My name on his tongue is erotic as hell. “You’ve seen the real me. Now it’s time for you to see the real you. Look how beautiful you are. How powerful.”
My eyes lock on the reflection as he unhooks my bra and lets it drop to my toes. The dusky pink tips of my full breasts pearl, and when his hands smooth around my sides to pinch and roll them between his fingers, shivers travel down the very center of me, causing my body to twitch and my core to throb with need.
“You like that, little dragon?” His lips brush my neck, my hair, as he continues to cup and knead my breasts, plucking at my nipples. Arching, I grind my ass against him. He’s hard, and I glory in the feel of his erection against the back of me, as well as the growl I elicit. I’m drawn flush against his body, held in place by one iron hand pressed into my sternum.
I gasp.
“Oh, Eloise, are you offering me this tight little ass?” His hand snakes between us, sliding between my cheeks and circling the puckered skin of my rear entrance.
I stiffen, my pulse ratcheting. “I want you, but not that way. Not the first time.”
His lips trail kisses down the side of my neck as his fingers move from my backside to my belly, stroking up to brush under my breast and then down to just graze under my thong. I lean my head back against his shoulder, throbbing with need, wanting his fingers to ease the ache between my legs.
“How do you want me… the first time?” He licks behind my ear, sending heat surging through me.
Will there be more times than this? I don’t know. But if this is our one and only time together, I’m determined to make it count.
“Face-to-face, so I can see you.” My voice cracks. Have I ever felt safe enough to ask for what I want from a man? With Damien, I can. He’s always done as I asked. Maybe that was because of the candle. Maybe now that he is free, he’ll turn into the monster Maeve insists he is and take me as he pleases. I’ll let him. I’m so wet and needy that I’d probably go along with anything.
But he turns me gently in his arms and takes my face in his hands, his eyes going soft in the firelight. “Face-to-face, then.”