Chapter Thirty-Two
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
Val
I want him.
I hate him.
My body wants him.
I hate him.
My body craves him.
I.
Hate.
Him.
Except Theo looks at me, really looks at me, like he knows everything about me, and not the fake me I’ve spent years perfecting for the show, my family, the world.
I loathe how much he makes me rage.
How much I want him to stay this time.
How much I need him to say I’m enough. That I’m more than enough. And not because of some stupid destiny thing.
That he chooses me.
But he doesn’t. Not with how he keeps leaving me. My chest burns as though I’ve swallowed his Brimstone fire. The ache reminds me of the vulnerable position I’m in.
At least he stopped tearing at my clothes.
Liar . I’m such a dirty liar.
I tug my wrists against the leathery bite of his tail where he binds me. Instead of freaking me out, his hold gives me a thrill. I want to push against him, to test the limits of this new possibility. Is that his heartbeat I’m feeling or is it mine? His tail is as warm as the rest of him, and when he tightens it, I squirm closer to his naked chest. Damn, is being tied up with a demon tail a kink I didn’t know I had?
He flashes a smirk with fangs. “If I’d known pinning you to the bed would have you submitting so fast, I would’ve done it the moment I brought you to hell.”
Oh no, he’s not winning this round so easily. “Of course you’d be down for a hate fuck. Guess you wouldn’t be expected to actually put in some effort with that enormous ego. Just wave your two dicks around?—”
He leans in, his nose grazing my ear, his breath a warm caress on my skin. His wings loom above me, the chill of his horns slides against my forehead, and I shiver. His voice is a rough purr when he speaks. “Oh, Vicious, this isn’t any ordinary hate fuck because you’re mine to keep. We’re mates, and there’s no way out of that.”
“Actually, there is. I kill you.” I flick my fingers, reaching for the blade Shadowvale’s sure to send since the castle and I have bonded to the point we hardly need words. “Easy fix.” A knife appears in my fist, and I twist to aim it at his tail.
Theo doesn’t flinch, doesn’t blink those scarlet eyes. Instead, he tightens his hold on my wrists, tilting his head and widening his fang-filled grin—his smile a dare. “Bringing weapons into foreplay? Kinky.”
“That’s not what this is about, and you know it.”
“Do I? Tell me, Vicious. What is this about?”
“What part of me trying to stab you makes you think now’s a good time for a chat?”
“It’s as good as any. Now what makes you think you hate me?”
I jerk my hands against his hold and curse when I can’t budge against his strength. This burning inside me makes me want to lash out, to hurt him as much as he has hurt me. Truth can cut as deeply as any blade. “You spin me up, make me believe things you don’t mean, and then you leave me.”
“Not this time.”
“Promises, promises. Turns out I’ve learned that coming from you, they’re nothing but lies. You wanted mating magic, Theo, and you got it. You don’t need anything else from me.”
“That’s not true.” He settles over my hips, and my body betrays me at the delicious warmth and weight of him. I widen my legs to make way for him.
He’s so freaking big. I forget when we’re bickering, fighting, and driving each other mad. Theo’s massive. Yet I’m not afraid of him. Hell, I’ve never felt so safe as with my demon. Or so pissed off that he makes me want him and then leaves.
He presses close, and pain ricochets through my heart. I hiss at the sting.
“What is it?” He drags his claws along the front of my blouse, further ripping the fabric as he goes. The sound comes too loud in the silence of the room.
“I liked this shirt.” My skin is too hot, my lab coat too tight, and I can’t breathe with the ache in my chest.
“Shadowvale will give you as many new ones as you like.” He trails his knuckles toward my breasts, and I whimper. That hurts . “Fuck, Val. Why didn’t you say something?” He lets go of my wrists.
“About what?” The tension in his voice has me dropping the knife. Not that I could’ve used it anyway. Not with the way my arms have begun shaking. My vision narrows to him, spots dancing where solidness should be.
“You’re burned. Gods, what did my cousin do to you? I’ll kill him a thousand times over.”
“Burned?” My mind crawls, too slow to connect everything he has said. I blame lust. Theo’s like a drug I can’t get enough of. Withdrawal while he has been gone was a real bitch.
“Your skin is covered in blisters.” He releases my hands. “Tell me who did this, and I’ll end them, sweetheart.”
Sweetheart .
Arrogant asshole Theo is pretty damn irresistible. Unhinged Theo ready to end anyone who hurt me while being charming and kind to me? Sign me up for eternity.
“It wasn’t your shadow dick of a cousin,” I tell him.
“Then who did this?”
“Not who. What. My magic did it. Nic and I have found that training my magic has had some…side effects. A healing potion or two, and it’s been fine. Mostly.”
“This looks anything but fine. Shadowvale, we need a healing potion. Or a half dozen of them. Include a sleeping draft.” Brightly colored bottles drop into his outstretched hand, clinking against his claws.
“No.” I tug my lab coat, trying to hide my hurt from his view, but every movement sends pain rocketing through me. “You’re not drugging me and taking off again.”
“I told you I would stay.”
“Yeah, you said you’d be right back and then you bailed for days. I know jack and shit about fated mates, but what I’ve heard is more clinginess and raging hormones, not using each other and then teleporting off to wherever you got that massive cut on your neck and the bruising on your chest. What the hell happened while you were away?”
“We’re talking about your injuries,” he says in his prince voice that’s both infuriating and sexy. “Not mine.”
“I’m all for equality in this whole mates thing, so spill.”
He looks away, and I notice more scrapes and slashes. “I’ve been searching for ways to bring Gilly home.”
“One beating at a time?”
“Something like that.”
“Looks like you need those healing potions more than I do.” A better solution comes to mind. “Or we could use the mating magic to heal.”
He rolls off me, putting distance between us. “No offense, Vicious. But seeing you in obvious pain doesn’t put me in the mood for sex.”
“Talk about jumping to audacious assumptions. Like I’m letting you into my panties when you ghosted me the last few days. Again .” I toss back a healing potion, the purple kind without the weird blue glow of a sleeping spell. “I was suggesting a tiny bit of pain-killing venom. Bonus for you if it gets me horny instead of hopping mad and hating your hit it and quit it guts.”
“I have no idea what human speak that awful expression might be, but let’s stick to the more immediate concern.” He glances toward my chest, pushing my hands out of the way. “The healing potion hasn’t done much good.”
“It feels like I’m downing sludge, and the pain’s still there. Now’s not the time to get stingy with venom and mating magic.”
He rakes his fangs over his bottom lip and I can almost feel the scrape of them over my neck, my breast, my thighs. “Do you worry my venom clouds your judgment?”
“About what?”
“About us.”
“Did you lose your damn demon mind on this last trip? What are you talking about?”
He traces his claws a breath above my burn before settling his palm on my waist, giving me the skin contact I need for healing. It’ll be slower than sex, but it’ll work. Except the bastard doesn’t give me more than that one single touch. “Some might say I tricked you into mating. Between the kidnapping and the venom, you could’ve been coerced.”
“Are you suggesting I agreed to our mating because I was high ?”
“Did you?”
Rage burns through me, more motivating than even the excruciating pain I’m in. I shove at him, catching him by surprise, and he lets me roll him to his back, his claw-bloodied wings splayed beneath him. Straddling his hips, I poke at his chest, not giving a shit about how I look with crazy hair, stained lab coat, stiletto boots in glittery rainbow, giant burn marks, and my magic reaching for him like it wants to blast a hole through him.
“Val—”
“No,” I cut him off, jabbing my fingernail into his stupidly muscled chest. “I don’t know what damsel in distress you seem to have confused me with, but I’m Val Fucking Bonetti, and I make my own choices in life. They may not always be good ones, but they’re mine . I chose you.”
“But the venom?—”
“I grew up around Hollywood parties where they handed out drugs in candy dishes. The twins were in and out of rehab before I graduated high school, and I was never anything more than the boring, follows-the-rules, flighty sister?—”
“You’re not boring.”
“Still. Talking.” I punch my finger into his skin with each word.
Theo holds out his hands, claws glinting in the candlelight. Huh, I hadn’t noticed the candles around the bedroom. Those are pretty. “Listening,” he says.
“What? Oh, right. I’m not addicted to your venom, dumbass. I’m addicted to you.”
“You are?”
“You don’t have to sound so surprised about it. I agreed to the whole fated mates thing, I dove off the cliff, I committed to an irreversible magical bond. If you weren’t such an idiot who took off all the time, you might’ve noticed I love you. Oh shit, I said that out loud.”
“You love me?”
I debate taking it all back, hitting a giant rewind button on my last rant, and demanding a do over. But I’ve come this far on being in pain and pissed off. I might as well go all in. “I do.”
He stares at me, and those red eyes seem more intense than even his usual serious, sovereign of the realm stoicism. “Just a minute ago, you hated me.”
“Yeah, yeah, thin line, and all that. I wouldn’t bother to hate you if I wasn’t crazy about you.”
“But I poisoned you.”
“It was an accident, and every relationship has its little bumps in the road.” I smack him on the shoulder. “Before you get any ideas, that’s not some catch-all excuse for you to use on things like ditching me. Got it?”
“Understood.” He runs his tail above my boots to the sensitive spot behind my knee, then higher.
“You have something to say back to me?” I ask. I mean he doesn’t have to say he loves me, but it’d sure as hell make this less awkward.
“You suggesting something specific?” The bastard smirks. What I said earlier about missing his cocky, princely attitude? I lied. Except he sweeps his tail upward, and damn, can he slip it beneath my panties to demonstrate more skills with it than any human man’s fingers possess? Yes, yes, he can.
“Theo…” I struggle to form words and end up whimpering instead.
“I suppose I could tell you that I loved you from the moment you pulled a blade on me. Or when I saw you eating butter pecan ice cream on my kitchen floor. Or when you chose me without a crown. If you really need to hear me say the?—”
“You know what?” I crawl up his body, being careful not to twitch the wrong muscle and send my burn into screeching pain or to knee him anywhere I might need him to be functional. “Why don’t you put that mouth to good use, Prince of Darkness? Oh wait, does that make me a princess? I’m not sure I’m qualified?—”
All thoughts scatter as Theo’s hands land on my ass and he pulls me close. His horns brush the insides of my legs, he tugs aside my panties, and his tongue…dear god, his forked, wickedly long tongue…licks my core like he’s licking a lollipop and my clit’s the magical center.
He brushes his fangs against my thigh. “This what you want, wife?”
“Wife? I’m not your?—”
The prick of sharp teeth against my skin has me sucking in a breath. “Close enough. Besides, we can fix that.”
“Did you just propose?”
“Do I need to?” He bites, and I moan.
I squirm closer, the ache inside me so much more than just the burn—this all-consuming need for him. His claws dig deeper into my ass, and I don’t bother fighting his hold. Hell, I might even encourage it.
When he trails his thumb along my lower lip, I suck it into my mouth, not stopping when the copper tang of blood slides over my tongue. If I’m going to smother my man with my vagina, I’m not about to get squeamish about healing magic.
He holds me over his mouth, his breath teasing me everywhere except where I need him most. His tail wraps around my neck, a steadying weight that takes away all control and worry about how I look or what I need to be doing to make this good for him. No, he has made this entirely about me .
“Ride my face, mate,” he says. “Don’t stop until I tell you to, and for fuck’s sake, don’t stay quiet. If you do, I’ll leave bite marks up and down your legs to turn your skin into a black and blue masterpiece of my making. Then I’ll pour healing potion and mating magic in you so I can mark you up all over again.” He pushes his tongue inside me.
The filthy talk and filthier attention has me moaning and begging. I ride his tongue and grind hard and fast, losing myself in the sensation. His claws scrape the curve of my ass, and he gives a gentle tug, pulling my cheeks apart.
I freeze, but he taps his tail against my throat, and I start moving again, riding him while he licks me with a dedication and intensity that leaves me shaking. He slides a knuckle across the crease, teasing my ass.
I gasp at the sensation.
He growls in warning and goes back to feasting on me, his tongue working some sort of demon magic. Devouring me from front to back, he leaves no part of me untouched. It’s sloppy, sinful, and downright dirty in the best possible ways.
I close my eyes and give over to the pressure building inside me. The world narrows down to a single pinpoint of pleasure. The climax has me toppling over the knife-edge blend of pain and delight into ecstasy.
My bliss-soaked brain imagines a rush of Brimstone Bell petals falling around me like a soft rain, their exquisite softness brushing against my skin in stark contrast to the hard demon with sharp teeth between my thighs. I could swear I was floating
I open my eyes. “Shit! We’re floating.”