Chapter 27
DAMIEN
Focusing on work was impossible. I didn’t know why I was even attempting to pretend like I could.
I took my glasses off, resting them on the top of my desk with a sigh. Things had never been more perfect. Things had never been more dire.
It seemed like that was how my life was always destined to go.
The best moments with the worst. I’d finally got to touch Stella, exactly the way I’d been dreaming about for years.
But Clarissa was going to come back at any point, and I was no closer to figuring out a solution.
I was desperate, but so was she. As badly as I wanted to keep Stella, Clarissa wanted to keep her power.
I knew her logic. If I ignored her rules, that gave everyone in Hell permission to ignore her rules as well.
Before you knew it, her precious Balance would collapse, and her power would be no more.
I’d met a lot of people in my lifetime, but none so desperate to stay in control as Clarissa.
There was a soft knock at my office door, and I couldn’t stop the smile from appearing. Stella. ‘Come in.’
She peeked her head around the door, hair loose and wild around her shoulders. ‘Am I interrupting anything?’
‘Nothing of importance.’ Nothing was more important than her, anyway.
Stella stepped inside my office, leaving the door open behind her.
She was in her yellow sundress again, the one I’d made Agatha immediately procure after seeing her in the golden silk dress at our damned dinner party.
It swished around her hips, grazing the tops of her thighs that I now knew were the perfect amount of softness, and just how sweet her perfect—
‘Damien.’
I looked up, and Stella was staring at me with a smile.
‘What can I do for you?’
‘I was bored. It’s raining again and Agatha is making some kind of elaborate dessert in the kitchen that I couldn’t understand and she sent me away.’ Her fingers plucked at a loose thread on her dress, raising the hem an inch higher, an inch more of her perfect flesh on display.
I raised a brow. ‘You knocked on my closed office door because you were bored?’
‘And I wanted to see you.’ She smiled wider, crossing the floor between us, sitting on the edge of my desk. ‘Should I leave?’
‘No.’ Definitely not. Never. Besides, the way she was sitting pulled her dress up higher, any higher and I would lose all control, like a damned animal. Fuck it. ‘But I do have a question.’
‘Okay?’ She frowned, a crease appearing between her warm brown eyes.
I pushed my ledgers and my glasses to the side, spinning her around until she sat on my desk facing me, feet between my legs. ‘Are you trying to kill me?’
‘By knocking on your closed door?’
‘You know what this dress does to me.’ I pushed the soft material up on her thighs, enjoying the goosebumps that spread across her skin where I touched her. She was so responsive. ‘I think you wear it on purpose to torture me. You know I can’t control myself.’
Stella’s brow smoothed, and she smirked. ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’
My lips curled up. Brat. ‘I think you do.’
‘I assure you, my motivations in coming here were entirely innocent.’ She sighed as my hands brushed against the edges of her panties. Or where’d they’d be, if she were wearing any.
She met my gaze with a wicked smile.
‘I. Don’t. Believe. You.’ I punctuated each word with a soft kiss against her thigh.
‘Maybe I like it when you’re an animal,’ she whispered.
‘You like it when I’m an animal? When I’m a bloody beast who can’t keep his hands off you?’ I dragged my tongue up her leg, keeping my eyes on her the entire time. Fuck, she was delicious. ‘What a dirty girl you are.’
‘Shut up,’ she murmured. She lowered her face down to kiss me with a narrowed gaze. ‘Just shut up and kiss me already.’
I got to my feet, towering over her, all too happy to oblige.
I sighed as our lips met, feeling whole and right once more.
I’d fix this whole mess because there was no other option.
I refused to accept any time might be the last time I kissed Stella, the last time I held her, so I’d do whatever it took it fix it all.
‘Really, Stella, this dress… it makes me want to do depraved things.’
She laughed softly. ‘It’s not even revealing.’
‘It’s not the point,’ I groaned, wrapping her legs around me. ‘The point is that you are beautiful, and this dress makes me crazy, and now you’re here, on my desk, beautiful in this dress.’
Stella wrapped her arms around my neck, curving her body against me, pressing every inch of her skin she could against mine, and desperation was growing deep within me. She was mine, and I was never going to let her go.
I growled, kissing down her neck, her shoulder, any bare skin I could find. I’d do whatever it took. Sacrifice a thousand people. Mark her up. Claim her as my own. Stella would never doubt that she was mine, and Clarissa would never be able to take that away from us.
Stella rocked against me and my kisses, and I moaned into her soft flesh. I pushed the yellow dress up higher, over her thighs, and it ripped as I pushed it, desperate for more access to her skin.
‘Damien!’ she scolded, trying to push the dress back together even as she raised her neck so I could kiss it again.
‘I don’t care,’ I muttered. ‘I’ll get you another one. I’ll get you a thousand of them. One for every day in eternity.’
Oh, the things I was going to do to her in this dress, each of them more depraved than the last. None of them were appropriate for an audience. I snapped my fingers, the door behind us slamming shut.
Stella blinked, raising an eyebrow at me. ‘I always forget that you can do that.’
‘That one of the few perks of being linked to Hell for eternity is a few parlor tricks?’ I shoved the remnants of her dress down, leaving her entirely exposed to me, and ran my eyes greedily down every inch of her skin. ‘I thought you weren’t impressed by a little bit of magic.’
‘I’m not.’ She smirked, grabbing the back of my neck. ‘What else can you do?’
I grinned back. ‘Watch this.’
I snapped my fingers, and Stella found her arms immobilized by my shadows behind her back, stuck to my desk and to each other. The angle forced her breast out, closer to my eager mouth.
She looked up, wide-eyed, and then back at me, her pupils large. ‘Oh.’
I dragged one hand down her arms, knowing she wanted to wiggle away from me, but couldn’t. ‘I let you be in control once. This time, I’m going to show you what it’s like when I’m in control.’
She sighed, nodding, desperately fighting against the magic that had her stuck to my desk.
I sucked on the delicate skin of her neck, knowing I would leave a mark, and wanting to cover her in them. ‘I want you to show me how well you can listen for me. I want you to not make a single sound. Show me how well you can listen to instructions, and I’ll make you feel so good.’
Stella nodded again, quicker this time.
‘So good for me, Bambi. Such a sweet, sweet girl for me.’ I undid my pants, freeing my hard cock, fisting myself slowly.
Stella watched, eyes wide, captivated.
I licked my lips. ‘Is this what you want?’ I whispered.
‘Please.’ She spread her legs wider on my desk.
Her, spread like this on my desk, every single day would make my work so much more enjoyable.
I released my cock, sliding a finger into her, and then another, making sure she was wet and ready for me. Her heat was so delicious, the way she pulsed around my fingers, addicting. She was perfect.
‘Okay, Bambi,’ I murmured, pulling my fingers out of her and licking them clean while she watched, frozen. Fuck, she was delicious. ‘So fucking good. Now, be nice and quiet for me, and I’ll make you come on my cock. If you make a sound, I’ll stop.’
I widened her legs with my hips, and slowly entered her in one smooth, slow thrust of my hips. ‘There we go,’ I said as her pussy gripped my cock, her legs wrapped around my hips, and Stella breathing heavily against me. ‘Isn’t that better?’
‘Yes. Fuck. Oh!’ Her eyes widened as she realized she had already failed at being quiet.
‘Shh, Stella. You’re supposed to be silent.’ I smiled as I forced myself deeper, and deeper still, knowing I would never deny her pleasure. ‘You’re not very good at listening, are you?’
‘You’d be bored if I was. And I wouldn’t be on your desk if I did…’ Her voice trailed off as I pushed against her stomach, forcing more pressure.
‘True. Maybe I need to rethink my rules.’
With a kiss, I began to thrust inside of her with smooth, steady strokes. I wasn’t going to last long. ‘You have the most perfect cunt, Bambi. So sweet. So warm. So wet. All for me, isn’t it, Stella? All of this delicious pleasure, it’s all mine.’
‘Damien, please, make me come,’ she begged softly.
‘Yes, Stella, beg for me. Beg for me to make you come, just like that.’ I drove up into her with harder thrusts, rocking my hips against her clit.
She was already shaking in my arms, still unable to wrap her arms around me, and twisted frantically from side to side.
I sloppily kissed her neck, sucking another mark into her skin. ‘I should mark you all up. Cover you in marks. Ruin you so that no one else would dare lay a hand on you. Would you like that, Bambi? Would you like me to ruin you?’
‘Please,’ she sobbed faintly, rolling her hips.
‘Ask me nicely, Bambi. Say, “Please, Damien, ruin me.”’ I groaned, trying to slow my thrusts to make it last, but I knew it was nearly impossible. I wanted her, wanted to see her shatter around me, and once she did, that would be it.
‘Please, Damien, ruin me,’ Stella repeated, voice shaky, tugging at the magic keeping her bound. ‘Please. You already ruined me. Everyone else should know it, too.’
I groaned, fucking her harder and faster, until she was shaking in my arms, her orgasm rocking through her.
I fucked her through it, wanting to drag out her pleasure as long as possible.
I wasn’t sure I had ever seen something as beautiful as Stella, in Hell or Heaven or Earth or any realm in-between.
She had called me an angel once, but obviously, she had never seen herself, cheeks flushed from her release, dark hair tumbling down her back, breathing heavily, blissed out.
Even here, she was the purest thing I’d ever laid eyes on.
Acknowledging just how good she was, far better than I could ever or would ever deserve, had my heart pumping harder. ‘I’m going to come, Bambi. Going to fill you up, leave you dripping with me, dripping so full, you’ll never forget you’re mine. We’ll run away, Bambi, just you and me.’
Stella tightened her legs around me, pressing her lips against my ear. ‘Show me, Damien.’
With a soft groan, far quieter than I wanted, my body exploded.
I drove my cock into her, making sure every bit of my release stayed inside her, just like I promised it would.
I rested my head against her forehead, both of us catching our breath.
Finally, when I felt like we both could stand again, I slid out of her.
My come spilled out of her, just like I told her it would.
I watched as it stained my perfectly clean desk.
I released her arms, and she brought them around my neck, holding me close.
Pressing my face into her neck, I sighed.
This was all I needed to be happy. Just this.
Stella, in my arms. Fuck the rest of it all.
I had so many things to say to her; I just needed to find the right words. The ones she deserved.
‘Fucking disgusting.’
My head snapped up to see Clarissa standing over us, and whatever words I’d almost found were gone now.
‘I figured at some point, you’d have the decency to at least hide your obsession with this woman.
But no, apparently, you are so overconfident you want to flaunt this filth in our faces.
Instead, you feed Silas the most ridiculous lies and force me to find you like this, desecrating your office. ’
I tore off my sweater, wrapping it around Stella’s body.
‘Clarissa.’ My greeting was polite, but I laced fury into every single word.
‘Yes, yes, good to see you and all that bullshit humans seem to appreciate.’ She landed her sharp gaze on Stella. ‘Seeing as you’re mostly intact, I guess we’ll be going now.’
She was less put together than before. Rougher around the edges, almost feral. Lars and Silas were nowhere to be seen, either.
‘Going?’ Stella repeated, curling into my sweater.
‘Yes.’ She rolled her eyes. ‘Come now. I don’t have all day.’
‘She’s not going anywhere with you, Clarissa.’
‘On the contrary, she will be.’ Clarissa offered me a tight smile, unfurling a scroll of paper.
‘Seeing as you seemed to be so interested in changing our sacred laws, I took it upon myself to confirm those laws for myself. The Council has recommended immediate removal of the human woman from your care.’
‘You’re not taking her,’ I repeated. Fear and anger intertwined in my chest, a weight I couldn’t escape. She’d gone around me to the Council. I should’ve been quicker. Should’ve done more. Shouldn’t have dragged my feet so fucking much.
I should’ve done what I needed to keep Stella safe.
Before I could react, Clarissa had her hand wrapped around Stella’s arm, dragging her off my desk, holding her like a shield. A plume of smoke escaped me, spiraling up into the air, but I stopped. If I went to hurt Clarissa, I could hurt Stella in the process. Fuck.
‘Say goodbye now.’
Clarissa smiled, snapped her fingers, and in a flash, the woman I’d do anything for disappeared in front of my eyes.