Chapter Twenty-Six #2
Luke cocked his head slowly, then glanced over my head like he was searching for something. “I heard you talking.”
A chill ran down my spine. I didn’t know whether Shadow could be harmed, but I didn’t want to find out. Even when it pissed me off. “You mean you live here alone, and never once talked to yourself?”
“Kara.” Luke said my name softly, yet sternly. “Do you want to be reprimanded?”
“If you want to touch me, Luke, just say so. Stop making up all these pointless punishments. We know I’m going to do what I wish, regardless.
” I didn’t know why someone with no sense of touch wanted to keep handling his prisoner, but it was clear every punishment involved his hands on me.
That dude-slash-monster was very obvious about it and handsy.
Luke’s grip on my arms tightened. “I think you’re forgetting something.
Someone died to keep you alive.” Guilt trickled up my stomach and chest. I swallowed the bile rising in my throat as Luke continued, “What do you think would happen if you left Hell? Harvest would find you again. When you’re mortal, he’d kill you. ”
“Why do you care?”
His nostrils flared. “Until I say so, you belong down here.” He didn’t imply that he meant with him, but my heart went into a slight frenzy.
I swallowed. Hearing the word belong did something weird to my stomach.
“You’ll see the end like I said you would,” he continued. “I want you to see that nothing you could have said or done would change the outcome. I decided your fate long ago.”
“How is that so when you don’t allow me to do anything? Let me go, then I’ll believe you when the time comes—that my family couldn’t beat you if that were to happen.”
Luke’s jaw tightened, and his whole body appeared to vibrate.
He was shaking so badly. I couldn’t tell if it was anger or something else.
“I can’t leave this place for more than a few minutes.
Sometimes, I can’t at all.” It was like he had to force the words out, confess his vulnerability despite being who he was.
“If you’re not here, Harvest can reach you.
Why won’t you listen? Your father let it happen long ago.
Harvest attacks your father’s woods relentlessly.
It’s not safe there, and if your father were still alive, I wouldn’t have been able to bring you here. ”
My eyes bulged. “Wait. Harvest kidnapped me way before Isabella and the vortex. You knew about that? Why?”
“I’m the Devil. I’m aware of everything that goes on. I’m trapped in Hell, but the Underworld belongs to me.”
I stared at the towering monster. No, I had to stop referring to him as one.
He was more man than anything else to me.
And everything I continued to learn shocked me.
My lips parted. I hated that my mind made assumptions based on everything Luke said or did.
“You didn’t bring me here to be cruel, did you?
For whatever reason, you don’t want me harmed.
You’re keeping me safe from Harvest. Why? ”
Luke froze, eyes locking. Time stood still. At least it felt like it did until he chuckled in a way that made me shudder. “I don’t care what happens to you. I care that someone dares to threaten me with you.”
I gestured toward his hips. “You even hid your tail.” I still tried to reason I wasn’t wrong. He knew the appendage bothered me. He teased me with it at first, but already, he hid it.
In a blink, he was breathing in my face.
He was so close. A tightening sensation blanketed my legs.
I didn’t have to look down to know it was his tail by the way it slithered around me.
“Just because I’m not as cruel as you’d expect for the Devil, don’t mistake my leniency as some sort of false feelings. ”
Hades, he smelled good, and I was tired of pretending he didn’t. Although it was wrong to close my eyes, I did as I inhaled, then trembled as he dragged his nose across my neck and breathed in, in, in as if he could smell me. Maybe he wished to know my scent as well as I did his.
“Look at you,” he murmured, pulling away to yank at my shirt enough to reveal my shoulder. “You behave like a woman burning with desire. It’s been so long since I’ve touched another, I fear how easily I could be fooled.”
He brought a claw-tipped finger to my lips. I flicked my tongue up brazenly and licked the tip of the digit, then covered the claw with my mouth. Luke sheathed his claws as I did, eyes brightening as he watched me suck.
“I find myself willing to be a fool for your trickery,” the words sounded like vibrations ripping from his chest. “Does that please you?”
When he yanked his finger out of my mouth and gripped my hips possessively, my legs instinctively wrapped around his waist as he hauled me up.
“Don’t dematerialize your clothes,” he warned as he sat me down on the edge of the table, knocking off countless items of food as he shoved everything aside. “I want to rip them off.”
My body buzzed, nipples hardening against my bra. My heart beat frantically. My attraction to Luke made me slightly nervous, knowing it was wrong, until he gripped the top of my shirt and tore the material like he said. He shoved my bra cup down next, leaned in, and covered a nipple with his mouth.
My body jerked like someone had attached a live wire to me.
Hades, that tongue and mouth.
I held onto his horns, letting my head fall back. Bliss rolled through me as he sucked and licked. “I want you to do that to my clit.” I practically moaned the words.
There was a snap, and my bra ripped in the middle. My breasts jiggled a little, and I arched into Luke’s giant palm. My nipple was red and puffy by the time he pulled away. His eyes brightened as he inspected his handiwork, smoothing his palms over my breasts.
Luke liked to stare, so I took his wrists and guided his attention lower, to the button of my jeans to hurry him along. “You’re not just a glutton, are you, Kitten? Been needing something I can give you.”
I hated how intensely his words struck true.
How right it felt, how deeply his touches resonated with my soul, though it shouldn’t.
Clarity hit me like a freight train, and I froze.
He was wrong—even if it didn’t feel that way.
What I wanted from him wasn’t just sex. I wanted to ruin him.
Or maybe to let him ruin me. To unravel him as my mate—just once.
But those thoughts weren’t good ones. Luke couldn’t be who I wanted him to be. There was nothing sweet between us. He was my enemy long before I was born.
“Ah, there it is.” Luke stood tall and studied me. “You can pretend, but only for so long.”
He mistook me. There was no pretending, but I should try to fight the attraction I felt for Luke.
“What will it take?” he asked suddenly, bracing his arms on both sides of me.
“What?” I frowned.
“Say I let you venture back to your family,” he whispered. “Let you attempt to stop me. Change your fate.”
My eyes widened as Luke retrieved the torn shirt from the floor and placed it over my chest.
He materialized something in his arms. I didn’t get a good look at it before he snapped it onto my wrist. “Make no mistake, you will come right back here. If you take too long to return, I’ll pull you back.
If I sense something I don’t like, I’ll pull you back.
If there’s trouble, you return. I better not catch you anywhere near Harvest.”
I rubbed the loose black bracelet. It looked like nothing more than dark, glittering jewels, but it didn’t budge when I tried to slide it off.
“It won’t come off. This ensures I don’t have to come to get you. You’ll return when I want,” he stated.
When the shirt began to slide over my breasts, I gripped it. “You’re truly letting me leave?”
He smiled, flashing those fangs. “Nothing will change. In the end, you will stand by and watch me claim my destiny. You’ll be powerless to stop me.”
His words felt like tar clinging to my insides. I couldn’t believe the words I blurted, “But you have more than one destiny.”
Luke’s body locked up. “More than… One?”
“You have…” Hades, even all the bravado in the world couldn’t erase the heat burning my cheeks. My mouth went dry. The air between us turned electric. But still—I lifted my chin and straightened my spine. “Me.”
He shook his head, a sudden eeriness blanketing his features. “There’s nothing you won’t try or do to save your family and the humans.”
“I had every intention of embracing my marked mate before I learned it was you. I think it’s quite simple, in fact. If you gave your loyalty and affection to me, I could do the same. What’s so good about ruling over a world in ruin, anyway?”
“Enough!” he shouted. “I’m the fucking Devil. I know what I look like, how you see me. Your lies infuriate me. Your presence irks me. Everything about you pains me.”
“Then stop with this and let us meet when the time comes!” I yelled back.
“I can’t.” Veins protruded from his forehead, and he looked miserable as he said, “Not seeing you would kill me more.”
We both froze. A wild flush erupted over my skin. Luke turned away. “I shall allow you to travel in and out of my domain for a few hours each day. You can return on your own, or I can force it with the bracelet.”
“Thank you,” I said, sliding off the table.
He continued into the darkness. “Don’t thank me. This is your last chance to say goodbye. Use the next few days wisely. You’re running out of time.”
So was he. Only, he hadn’t realized it yet.