Chapter Twenty-Four
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Val
“ O nly if you’re lucky,” I taunt Theo.
He jokes about me being the death of him, but I seriously think he may be the end of the life I thought I knew. The boring human one where my greatest fear was the press finding my apartment or Mom forcing me to do extra appearances on the show. Now, I’m in a world of monsters, portals, and a family fighting to the death for a crown.
Still, I could’ve dealt with Theo as long as he’d simply stayed the hot jerk who drives me crazy with wanting him. But no, he made me miss him when he’s gone.
Damn him.
I crave more than the cuddling and physical closeness. The asshole had to go fight for my friends, keep his word about getting Ava to me, and now he’s switched from you will do as I command because I’m the prince of all that’s awesome to asking me how we make this work.
I’ll figure out how to fix the world’s problems. Tomorrow. Maybe. If I can actually concentrate long enough to finish a single experiment. But right now? I only have one kind of chemistry in mind.
Avoiding him didn’t work.
Pretending we hadn’t kissed certainly hadn’t helped.
Getting interrupted by my best friend’s kraken mate? Yeah, I can’t process that right now.
“I don’t need luck.” The arrogance in Theo’s voice matches the possessive way he slides his hands beneath my lab coat to cup my ass like he owns me.
I open my mouth to argue. He kisses me to shut me up, and I end up sighing instead of rattling off whatever excellent points I’ve already forgotten. I’ll teach him not to interrupt me…sometime. But first I’ll win this war of making him as desperate for me as I’m feeling right now.
I push against him, taking over the kiss, but he teleports, yanking control from me yet again. I’m knocked off balance and spiraling through the shift until we land, his mouth still on mine.
In the kitchen no less. He lifts me onto the counter, and I part my knees to pull him closer. The heat of him all around me makes the cold marble beneath me more startling.
I can’t catch a breath and I’m not sure whether to blame the magic or the man. Or the monster if I’m being honest. Because while human Theo is hot, demon Theo steals all thought with the forbidden fantasy I can’t wait to live out.
Twisting my fingers in his shirt, I haul him to me in a fight for dominance. When he gives a low chuckle that has my insides tightening, I slip my tongue against his and hit a fang. A sudden pain stings as though I’ve licked a razor blade. I guess his human glamour isn’t completely demon proof.
A hiss slips from me, but he doesn’t let go.
“An accident,” he says, a dark rumble to his words that makes me think his fang cutting through the glamour was anything but accidental.
“ Riiight. ” I dig my nails into the nape of his neck, not bothering with gentle. If he wants to play rough, he needs to be able to take as much pain as he inflicts.
“I’ll kiss it better.”
“Mm-hmph.” It’s all the protest I can manage when he slants his mouth against mine, biting instead of licking. A sharp throbbing screams through me yet, just as quickly, it’s gone. In its place, a sparkling sensation worthy of the best champagne bubbles across my skin. Euphoria wraps me in its grasp, and I need more .
He pulls away, and I chase the kiss. “Venom,” he says. “Remember? It heightens desire. I don’t want you saying yes because?—”
“Shut up.” I flip the silencing script on him, pressing my mouth to his and stealing back my power, biting him as he did me. I don’t risk looking for whatever blood I might’ve drawn, scared the sight might cause me to lose my nerve. “I agreed to completing this mating bond before any magical influence. Don’t make me repeat myself.”
“Spoken like a true queen of hell.” He pushes into my mouth, the forked edges of his tongue tangling and wrapping around mine as though I’m kissing double the demon. “Let me be the first to kneel before you.”
“What?” He can’t be serious. Not the bossy prince of superiority complexes.
Except he drops to his knees in front of me. “You have sentimental attachment to these clothes?”
I tug at the soft cotton loungewear I found clean and folded on the bed after my shower. “No. Why?”
“Good.” His claws whip through the pants, dangerously close to slicing into me.
“What the hell, Theo?” Yeah, I realize the bad pun a second too late to keep from saying it. The fabric falls away, and suddenly the marble beneath me seems even colder. “You can’t rip off all my clothes.”
“I’m not,” he says, though his actions beg to differ. “The lab coat stays.”
“Got a hot doctor kink?”
“Not exactly.” He rumbles the words against my inner thigh. “I’ve got a you kink.”
Well, damn, how do I argue with that? Except worries surface, pushing away the lovely high of his venom. “Not bad for a human, huh?”
He tightens his grip on my legs, and I’m glad he sheathed his claws. “You are perfection.” His snarl should be scary, but nope, it’s just hot .
Heat crawls over my skin. I can’t agree. Not when everyone wants to change me. Everyone except him. Instead, I focus on the moment, pretending I’m indeed the queen he alleges me to be. “While you’re down there…” I lift my brow, daring him to challenge the innuendo.
“Impatient.” His lips brush against my thigh. “Reckless.” A nip of his fangs makes me shiver. “Flawless.”
Great, and now I’m breathless and wiggling as close to him as possible.
“Wait,” he warns.
“I can’t stand waiting.” I squirm more.
“I’ll make it worth it for both of us.” Instead of backing up his promise, he takes a hand off me.
“Hey—” I cut off my rant when a pint of butter pecan ice cream lands in his palm. “You’re craving a snack now ?”
“I’ve been craving this particular sweetness since our first kiss.”
“I told you it’s the best flavor in the?—”
He dribbles a bit on my thigh, only to follow it with his tongue. His hooded gaze meets mine, and my brain empties of its eternal busy energy. His eyes reflect my own desire. Need pulses through me.
“Theo, please.” I hate the whine in my voice.
“I love the way you beg.” Sliding a spoonful of ice cream into his mouth, he ignores the ache that’s quickly consuming me. “Perhaps I’ll stretch out your pleasure until you’re moaning and writhing and crying for me to let you come.” The asshole smirks, dimples and all, as though the thought of my pleading would delight him. “Or maybe.” He catches a finger in my underwear and the sight of a claw suddenly appearing at his fingertip has me soaking my panties. “I’ll have my sweet with a chaser of tart.”
A rip of fabric later, he dives between my thighs face first like he’s a starving man stepping up to his favorite dish at an all-he-can-eat buffet. The cold of his tongue licking into me has me gasping until the heat of his mouth catches up, sending pleasure through me with such dizzying speed I close my eyes to keep the room from spinning.
A quick smack and a slight sting against my hip has me jolting back to the present and snapping my gaze to the jerk who dared to spank me. Holy hell, I think I liked it. When my eyes land on Theo’s glistening chin and his wicked grin that promises more, I know I loved it.
“Eyes on me,” he says, pushing my thighs even farther apart. “I can’t have you missing the fact it’s me who gives you the best orgasm of your life.”
“Tough talk for?—”
He licks a path from my core to my clit, his forked tongue wrapping around that bundle of nerves as though I’m his absolute favorite dessert, and I come undone. My taunt turns into a scream.
“Fuck, Val, I can’t get enough of your taste. I could devour you all night. You take all the time you need to be sure about completing the mating bond while I bury my tongue in this sweet, tight pussy. Keep creaming on me, and I’ll drink it down.” He kisses his way up my thigh. “Maybe I’ll slide more of my venom you like so much through your veins.” Higher and higher he goes. “If you pass out, that’s okay. You’ll wake up with me eating you out and proving how I’ll spoil you for the rest of our lives. Choose me as a mate, and I’ll have you riding my face every single day.” He presses his mouth to me as if sealing a vow.
I can’t fight the next orgasm ripping through me, and with his filthy talk tipping me over the edge, I don’t bother trying.
“You come so beautifully for me. I need to see it again.”
My body’s limp from the orgasm. My every muscle trembles and shakes. “I can’t.” It might kill me.
“You can.” He extends his fangs and slides them against my thigh, glancing up at me through lowered lashes as though daring me to protest.
I don’t.
I won’t .
The sting of pain chases pleasure, and the thrum of venom has me threading my fingers in his hair and pulling him back for another kiss, another bite, anything he’ll give me. But not in this form. What he can only give in his demon form. “Change.”
“You like the glamour.”
“I like the real you better.” My voice comes out breathy, and I can barely push the words past the pulse of venom ripping away inhibition, leaving only euphoria and a deep ache low in my belly. I tug him up to my level, yanking on his clothes as if I could force him to his feet when he could overpower me in an instant. He plays along, the curl of his lips and crinkle around his eyes telling me he adores my power moves. “I need you inside me.”
The amusement vanishes from his expression, replaced by a hunger that matches my own. His human glamour slides away, and my prince stands in front of me, wings stretching and scarlet gaze burning through me, and holy shit, his two cocks so red they’re almost purple. One atop the other, and both hard.
My mouth waters, ready to taste. I lean forward, but Theo stops me, a claw hooking in my shirt and tearing through fabric like it’s flimsy tissue paper. I get impossibly wetter between my thighs. I move to clench them, to give myself the friction I need there, but he steps between my knees, forcing them to stay spread. His wings push my legs farther apart, his chest bumps against my breasts, and he tangles his claws in my hair, tipping my head back until I’m staring up at him.
“Tell me I can have you in every way.” His dark command excites me as much as his touch.
Anticipation zips alongside apprehension, a thrill that sends the prior venom high spinning into the stratosphere. “You already have me.” The truth settles the shivers of fear into nothing more than fierce, impatient desire. “You just need to take.”
“My brave mate, I’ll fill you, fuck you, and make you come so many times there won’t be any question of who you belong to. We’re barely getting started on an eternity together. Now, be a good vicious love and come again like I told you.”