Chapter 34 Surrendering to Shadows
Chapter Thirty-Four
Surrendering to Shadows
NORA
The bedroom is pitch black until Ere waves a hand and starts a chain reaction, one black flame flickering to life after another.
He tosses me on the bed, and I squeal as I sink into the plush mattress, biting my bottom lip as his laughter vibrates within my mind, breathing life into neglected corners of my existence.
“Every time I touched you before, it killed me that I could not be myself,” he stands before me, slowly unbuttoning his black button-up shirt and slacks, tossing them onto the floor as I lean on my elbows and watch him with no shame. “This time… I will not hold back, Nora.”
“Good. I don’t want you to,” I tell him with a smile, his horns creeping closer and his glowing eyes growing darker by the second as the gold shimmer melts away.
I’m smiling but fear lingers. I’m breathless, but his presence fills the void within me, making me feel complete with no need for air. As my heart pounds out of control, I realize it beats this way only for him.
Always for him.
He crawls across the bed toward me, leaving me no time to consider how easily he could ruin me or to fear the man who looks like a demon in front of me.
He roughly grips my face in his hand, the intensity making my cheek ache, but I won’t resist or pull away.
No. I want this. I run my fingers through his thick hair.
He groans, closing his eyes and giving in to the pleasure of my gentle touch.
He’s as desperate for this as I am. Gripping my shoulders, he pushes me backward onto the bed, a playful, aroused expression flashing across his face that has me wanting to beg for more.
Lifting my hips and forcing me back, he positions me comfortably at the top of the bed with my neck nestled on his satin pillow.
His eyes roam across my body and he shakes his head, gripping and tearing at the fabric clinging to my body until I’m completely naked and wide-eyed in shock.
My clothes are never safe with him. Arousal burns within his eyes, and I’m both fearful and excited at the thought of him not holding back so I can experience the pleasure he truly desires in that dark, shadowy mind.
His voice, low and cruel, whispers in my ear. “Do you like to play, my love?” His teeth lightly graze the sensitive spot below my ear as he pulls away from me, putting too much distance between us.
I reach out to grab him, to keep him with me, but he moves too quickly and is standing at the foot of the bed before I have a chance to pull him back to me.
A dark, charming smile spreads across his face as his gaze rakes over my bare skin.
The look he gives me nearly burns me alive.
A surge of need mixed with a tingling sense of fear courses through my entire body.
I lift my head off the pillow just as he commands his shadows to come out and play, encircling us within them.
I don’t move, not willing to risk pissing off him or his shadows for fear of what they might do to me.
But those shadows caress my skin so gently, so affectionately, that I can’t imagine them hurting me or anyone else.
I shiver from their soft, torturous touch just as they retreat back into him.
I moan quietly, silently begging with my eyes as I keep them pinned on him.
Being denied his touch is a slow death I won’t survive, yet he simply smiles, enjoying the sight of me in agony.
The shadows reach out for me again, teasing and tormenting my nipples and clit with an intensity and hunger that surpasses any other experience I’ve had with him before this.
My moans are desperate as I spread my legs wider, grinding my hips against his dark power, fully aware I should appear less needy, but unable to control myself any longer. I need more.
I am completely and hopelessly desperate for him.
Again, the shadows retreat, slithering away then vanishing completely and I throw my head back against the bed with a quiet whimper of frustration.
I can’t handle the teasing, torturous, cruel man who stands before me.
He will be the death of me, I’m sure of it.
My flushed cheeks burn as my lust filled eyes meet his, and then my head falls with another needy whimper the moment he licks his lips seductively.
He laughs, fully aware that he holds the key to satisfying my insatiable hunger for him.
“Look at you. You love it when we play, don’t you?” His wicked, seductive smile only makes me wetter, and I hate him for it. “You are so fucking beautiful when you are desperate for me to fuck you.”
“Please, Ere. I don’t want to play anymore. I need it,” I pant breathlessly, my desire for him raw and unapologetic.
His shadows pour out of him now like they, too, can’t take it any longer, stretching out from behind him and reaching for me hungrily.
I breathe a heated sigh of relief. Gods yes.
They swirl around me, the tendrils caressing my skin in gentle strokes and soft lashes.
Their tender, ravenous touch electrifies every fiber of my being, and I want more.
More. He doesn’t give me more. Instead, he swiftly draws them back within himself, and my heart stops at the realization that he doesn’t plan on giving me what I need easily.
He is going to make me suffer. He stands at the edge of the bed, licking his lips and staring down at me with bright, glowing eyes as if I’m the only light he needs in this world.
And fuck, I might not need light at all if I have him.
I crawl toward him and take his throbbing dick into my hands and then slide my lips down the length of him.
I suck and twirl my tongue against each jolt of pleasure I feel coursing through him, taking him in as deep as I can.
Swirling my tongue around the tip, I tease and lick and savor the delicious taste of him as his pleasure filled moans add fuel to my own arousal.
Keeping my eyes locked to his, I slowly glide my hand down my breasts and torso, his eyes following the movement the entire time, and then I caress my swollen clit, trembling as he growls breathlessly, his eyes widening and his mouth falling open at the sight of me pleasuring us both.
I refuse to wait any longer. I’m taking what I need from him.
Clutching my hair in his hands, he slowly tilts my head back, a wide smile on his face as his shadows wrap tightly around my wrists, gripping and pulling my hands away from both of our bodies, refusing to let me touch either of us.
His eyes no longer shimmer with liquid gold, the bright crimson glow as he watches me now makes the hair on the back of my neck stand in fear.
I fight his power, pushing and pulling against it but his tight grip on my hair keeps me locked in place.
I’m not afraid of him or his shadows, but somewhere deep within my mind a part of me screams that I should be.
With a mischievous grin, he leans in close to my face and whispers, “You have two options,” he says darkly.
“Either you want all of me, exactly as you see me now, or you want the old me who I will no longer give you because he does not exist here.” Those bright red eyes search mine.
“It is all or nothing with me. Tell me if you do not want this. If you do not want me.”
The words spill from his lips with such intensity that I would fall to my knees if I weren’t already on them.
He felt my brief moment of fear and my heart aches that he thinks I might not want him.
A part of me does fear this version of him, but it also excites me more than I care to admit.
Deep down, I believe he’s wanting confirmation that I won’t deny or reject him, because he’s afraid.
Even though he’s not the mortal Ere I fell for in the past, he knows how I feel.
He hears every thought that passes through my mind.
I want all of him regardless of what he is.
Demon, King of The Underworld, or Hell itself, it doesn’t matter to me.
Not long ago, I felt like a puzzle missing its pieces, searching for a way to make sense of the emptiness I felt.
He was always there to fill those empty spaces.
To remind me that I was enough even when I felt like I wasn’t.
He is the missing piece that completes me in this harsh, chaotic world.
The monster in front of me is no monster at all.
He’s just another lost soul wandering through a world full of darkness and pain that looms nearby ready to consume him entirely.
We are alike, him and I. He is as much of a victim to Nyx’s games as I am. And he is enough.
His smile as I look back up at him reminds me that he can hear every untamed thought racing through my mind, but I want to tell him how I feel anyway. I want to assure him that I embrace who he is and want him exactly as he is.
His shadows release my wrists, and I place my palm against his cheek, the warmth of him soothing the sting of him believing I wouldn’t want him.
“You are beautiful, Ere. I thought it the first day I ever met you, but I also thought the same when I first saw you here. Menacing horns and wings and all.” I smile, brushing my fingertips along his cheekbone.
“I accept you completely in all your forms, and that will never change.” Looking up at him, I smile through the tears that now fall from my burning eyes. “I want this. I want you. All of you.”
His face lights up in a way I’ve never seen before as his eyes flicker back to a soft, warm gold. A rush of heat flows through me as they suddenly shift back to the fiery red that drives me crazy.