Chapter 32
Chapter
Thirty-Two
Leda
My eyes were barely open as Bokkan dressed me in my bra and shirt. He draped my pants around my hips, making sure my lower body was fully covered. Then, he carried me through the woods in the direction I’d been running earlier.
Today had turned me inside out. I was raw and disconnected. Vulnerable. I’d had excellent sex before, but what I experienced with Bokkan was beyond that.
The way he looked at me. The way he touched me. It transcended all my past encounters. I felt as though I was the only thing he could see. The only person who existed for him while he was inside me.
Now, he carried me across the grass to the kitchen door of his manor. The sun had set not long ago, so I didn’t have to worry about any of the daemon soldiers seeing me half-naked.
When we entered the kitchen, Masu and Guldan were seated at the table.
Masu leaped to her feet when she saw me. “Lady Leda! Are you well?”
Relieved to see for myself that she was all right, I opened my mouth to answer her, but Bokkan interrupted me.
“She is unharmed. Please leave a tray outside my chambers. You may speak to her tomorrow.” He paused for a moment. “Actually, have Guldan leave the tray. You need to rest.”
A knowing smirk crossed the imp’s face. “Of course, Master,” she answered.
Guldan seemed intent on keeping his gaze off of me. “General, we should talk about Venna—”
“Tomorrow.” Bokkan’s voice was gruff and firm.
His second-in-command sighed. “Very well.”
I clung to Bokkan with my arms and legs as he carried me through the house to his bedchamber. The door slammed shut behind us, and he dropped the bar across it, holding me flush against his torso with one hand.
Once we were locked in his bedchamber, he walked into the bathing room and set me on my feet next to the bathing pool. I flinched a bit when I took a step away from him.
My pussy ached from taking all of Bokkan’s huge cock. It wasn’t quite as large as my forearm when erect, but it was close. I could barely believe it fit inside my body, much less how amazing it felt when I rode him. It was worth the pain if I came that hard every time we had sex.
His hands were gentle as he stripped my clothes from my body. Once I was naked, he stroked his palms down my sides and over my hips, crouching down at my feet where I still wore my boots. He removed them, his fingers trailing up my inner thighs and stilling suddenly when he reached the apex.
“You are bleeding,” he said, his eyes wide.
I glanced down and saw the small streaks of blood on my inner thighs. “I’m okay. Just a little sore. It’s been a long time since I had sex, and your cock isn’t exactly small.”
“I should get the healer,” he said, getting to his feet.
“No, don’t do that,” I argued. “I really am fine. It’s not that much blood.”
“Any blood is too much.”
I grabbed his wrist before he could walk away. “Bokkan, I’m fine. I don’t need a healer. Just a bath and a good night’s sleep.” I paused. “And maybe some food.”
He stared at me, indecision all over his face.
“Do not call for a healer. I’m telling you that I’m fine and you need to respect my wishes.”
His tense muscles relaxed at my statement, and he sighed. “Very well. But, if you are still bleeding tomorrow, I am calling the healer.”
“How about we try the healing tincture first and, if that doesn’t work, we call the healer?” I proposed. “If it healed deep scratches within twelve hours, it should be able to handle a few small injuries to my pussy.”
He scowled at me, but I ignored it as I skirted around him and stepped down into the bathing pool. The hot water felt like heaven on my skin. Scrapes and bruises stung when they dipped below the surface, but the pain quickly faded as I sank in up to my neck.
I dipped my head back to wet my hair. When I reached for the bottle that held the daemon version of shampoo, Bokkan beat me to it.
“I will care for you,” he stated. The expression on his face brooked no argument.
Since I also enjoyed it when he bathed me, I shrugged and let my hand drop back into my lap. Unfortunately, Bokkan didn’t climb into the bathing pool with me. Instead, he sat on the floor behind me and began to wash my hair.
It felt wonderful, but having his body surround me while he bathed me was my favorite part.
“Why aren’t you getting in with me?” I asked.
He continued to massage my scalp in silence.
“Bo?”
“Why do you call me that?” he asked instead of answering my question.
Two could play that game, I decided. “Answer my question, and I’ll answer yours.”
He sighed, his giant, clawed hands combing through my hair with infinite gentleness. “I hurt you, Leda. It is the last thing I want to do.”
I tilted my head back so I could look at his face. He was upside down, but the furrow in his brow was clear as day. “It won’t happen again.”
He nodded. “Of course. You are so much smaller than me. I should have known I would harm you.”
I rolled my eyes. “No, what I mean is that I won’t bleed the next time we have sex.”
His hands stilled in my hair for a moment. Then, he guided me to turn and dip my head in the water so he could rinse it. From this position, I could see the red rims around his eyes.
“I think it would be unwise,” he finally said.
“Why?”
His gaze met mine, and my breath caught in my chest at the look in his black eyes. Now that I had been around him for a while, I’d learned to read his expressions. It helped that he was more open with me than he was with Masu, Guldan, and his soldiers.
“Because I will not be able to keep my vow to you.”
I reached up, touching his cheek. “Which vow is that?”
“To help you return home.”
He lifted my head out of the water and smoothed conditioning oil through the ends before he picked up the bar of soap from the recessed shelf.
“I talked to Guldan,” I said.
He frowned at me. “I do not understand. You speak to Guldan almost every day.”
When he reached out to try to rub the soap on my shoulders, I shifted away and moved across the bathing pool to the other ledge.
“I also spoke to Masu,” I continued.
“What about?” he asked, rinsing his soapy hands off in the pool.
I lifted my arms, resting them on the edge of the bathing pool behind me. “I’m not answering any questions until you’re in this pool with me.”
Though the position lifted my breasts out of the water, his gaze remained on my face. Whatever he saw there convinced him because he climbed to his feet and untied his trousers, shoving them down his legs. He wasn’t wearing boots today, so all he had to do was kick them to the side.
Purple blood had dried on his deep bronze skin. There were scratches and cuts marring the intricate black tattoos on his chest and shoulders. As he stepped into the water, he reached up to take the leather strip out of his hair, the black length tumbling over his shoulders and back.
He settled on the ledge opposite mine and mimicked my pose, resting his elbows on the rough stone.
“I am in the pool,” he said. “Tell me what you discussed with Guldan and Masu.”
“Guldan found me this morning after the two of you spoke in your office. He explained that my chances of returning home were slim to none. That, even if I was able to make my way there, I would be in danger from every magic user or supernatural creature who came across me.”
Bokkan tensed, his arms bulging as he studied me. “It is possible, but you are stronger than most humans. I have no doubt you would be more than capable of taking care of yourself. Maybe with a little help from a witch.”
There was something about his tone that had me cocking my head. “Let me guess… you had a witch in mind to talk to about protecting myself.”
His massive shoulders shrugged.
“Guldan also explained that my body was being changed by the magic that exists in Penumbra. That I would eventually develop magic of my own. Not as strong as what daemons possess, but strong enough to use it myself.”
Bokkan sighed. “You have only been in this realm for a few days. It should not be a problem as long as you leave in a couple of weeks.”
“I can feel it, Bo. I’m already changing, already different.
I was able to outrun Talus today and fight him off as long as I did because of it.
I’m stronger. Faster.” I looked down at my inner forearm.
I’d scraped my skin against the bark of a tree earlier, and the scab had already fallen off.
The skin was pink, as though it had been healing for days instead of hours.
"And I'm healing far more quickly than I should.”
“The effects should wear off once you return home,” he finally said.
I shook my head and huffed out a laugh. “It won’t, and you know it.” I lowered my arms back into the water and brought my knees up to my chest, suddenly feeling exposed. “Do you want me to return home?”
The stoic expression on his face cracked then, revealing tortured anguish for a split second before his features returned to neutrality. “I want you to be happy and to be safe.”
“That’s not an answer to my question.”
He broke my gaze then, looking past me into his bedchamber.
When it was clear he wasn’t going to answer, I shifted off the ledge, crossing the bathing pool.
I climbed into his lap, settling with a knee on each side of his hips.
My hands curled around the back of his neck beneath his hair.
He stared down at me, his lips parted to reveal the tips of his fangs.
He didn’t touch me, didn’t reach for me as he usually did.
Fear squirmed inside me, fear that he would deny it. Would deny anything he felt for me.
Why did this feel so important?
“Do you want me to go home?” I whispered.
His hands clamped down on my hips, holding me tightly. Bokkan’s neck tensed in my hold, and his arms were rigid, as though he was preparing to push me away.
That fear inside me swelled, shifting into hurt. He was going to say yes.
With a hoarse groan, Bokkan moved, his arms wrapping tightly around me, crushing me against his chest. “I should let you go. It would be the honorable thing to do,” he said.
Then, he was kissing me, his mouth almost harsh against mine. He held me so tightly that it was as if he wanted to fuse me to his body.
I lost myself in his embrace. For the first time, he was laying himself bare for me, and it was overwhelming. I could sense his yearning and his desperation.
I tore my mouth away from his lips, resting my forehead against his. “What does that mean?”
His fingers moved against my hips. “What does what mean?”
“That you should be honorable and let me go?”
His head fell back, and his eyes closed as he heaved a sigh. “It means I should put your desires and your safety above what I want.”
“And what do you want?”
He lifted his head, looking back at me, and he no longer seemed monstrous to me at all. Even with his horns, fangs, and pitch-black eyes, he looked… soft.
No, he looked at me like I was his reason for existing.
“I want you.”
“For how long?”
He moved until his lips barely touched mine. “Until there is nothing left of me.”
I shouldn’t want to hear that.
Shouldn’t want him to care for me.
But those words opened something inside me, a part of me I’d shoved away and locked down. A side of me that had been hurt too many times to trust a man again.
Except Bokkan wasn’t a man.
He was so much more.