Chapter 4
My gasp sticks in my lungs as Lucan drags one finger from my cleavage to my feet with lightning speed.
I blink, and my dress falls to the floor—like he sliced right through it with ease.
But when I inspect his index finger, it looks human. Although his hands are larger than any man’s I’ve ever witnessed before.
His eyes rove down my body, now only clad in undergarments, with a hunger that makes me feel more exposed and vulnerable than ever. My eyes drop to make sure my skin is even still intact, but there’s not a single mark on me.
Now I can’t keep the grin off my face, the rush pulsing through my body. In another lifetime, I’d have been terrified.
But this? This menace of a male towering over me, looking so fearsome despite the fact that I know he’d never hurt me? It just makes me pulse between my legs.
Lucan crouches and gathers the fabric he’s torn to shreds into his arms before he calmly walks over to the fireplace and throws my dress into the simmering coals. Right before my eyes, the fabric catches fire and flames crackle to life.
When he turns back to me, a look of depraved satisfaction twists across his face. “You’re not wearing anything else picked out by any more Guardians ever again.”
I nod, my body suddenly aching to obey him just from the tone of his voice.
He cocks his head, eyes dark. “You want to follow orders now, little nightmare?”
A small smile plays on my lips as I consider it, make him wait for my answer.
Back in the palace, I was in charge of myself, with other people counting on me.
The thought of how I failed at saving them makes the smile slip off my face just as quickly.
I failed, and just for one night, here in this bedroom, I don’t want to have to take control anymore.
I need someone I trust to take charge—of my body, of my mind, of my soul.
I nod.
“Fair warning…” Lucan’s eyes gleam. “I don’t know how to not be intense.”
I nod again, eager to experience it all. “I know.”
I think it’s my favorite thing about him—how he’s just himself.
He inhales through his nose, steps closer, and wraps his hand around the vial again.
I stay still despite the tingle that connects down my spine. His presence fills my mind again, silently this time, like a dark shadow exploring every recess and trying to find something.
Understanding settles into me. I’m not in pain, I insist.
A satisfied smile spreads across his lips before he releases the necklace and his two enormous hands drop to my hips, his thumbs digging into the lace of my underwear that skims across my skin.
Like I’m weightless, he lifts me onto his large dresser. Sitting, I still don’t even reach him eye to eye.
“Lean back,” he commands.
I place my hands down flat on the cool wood and rest my weight on my arms.
He smirks. “Better. Now show me where you want me to touch you.”
Using my pinky, I trace my top and bottom lip before I gather all my courage and drop a hand down my body, caressing over my bra and underwear. Honestly, there’s nowhere I don’t want him to touch me. His eyes spark as he watches the path I take. Then he drags his gaze back to mine.
“I can’t stop thinking,” he whispers, glancing uncontrollably down to my lips, “about that dream.”
“Where you kissed me?” I ask with a small smile.
I’ve been pushing away the details of my most recent nightmare, but the way he brought his mouth to mine is the one thing that keeps brimming to the surface of my mind.
I never saw his face in that dream, but I felt his lips, and when I woke up, it felt too soon.
Like I would long for that kind of touch from him again for the rest of my life.
“But it wasn’t real.” Lucan pauses, stepping between my desperately widening thighs.
His presence is all-consuming. The way he fits his body between my legs overwhelms my senses. The smell of him, the feel of him, the raw power that emanates from him.
In a fury, his lips press into mine.
The world melts away, and it’s just us enduring a frantic storm. Hard. Soft. Nips. Licks.
A real kiss. Frenetic. Starved.
I part my lips, and his tongue fights against mine, both of us eager to taste each other. And fuck, how good he tastes. Like a dark, sweet cherry on the precipice of bursting.
Running my hands through his hair, I claw him into me. If there’s any space left between us, I want it gone. Now.
Lucan groans into my mouth, a rough sound that travels through my core, as he grinds his hips.
His erection rakes against my clit with a desperation I’ve never had the pleasure of experiencing.
I’ve never felt so wanted. So free. So wild and crazed.
This is pure desire. Pure lov—lust. And I’m a whimpering mess to prove it.
Reaching behind my back, I try to unclasp my bra, but Lucan bites my bottom lip, sending a zing down my spine, and takes both of my wrists in one hand.
Chest heaving, he pulls back with a fiery look. “I don’t think so. That’s mine to remove. And burn.”
His finger swipes at the center of my bra, and it miraculously pops open just like my dress.
I crash my mouth back to his and bite just as hard as he did—maybe harder—into his full lip.
Matching his intensity, I squeeze my thighs around his waist. The bitter taste of his blood coats my tongue as I run it over his bottom lip, and my hips squirm against his erection, aching for more friction.
“Fuck,” Lucan growls into my mouth before he plants kisses across my collarbone, down my sternum, until his face settles between where my bra hangs sliced open. “I’m not going to survive you.”
He tightens his grip on my wrists, pulls down hard to pin my arms. The pressure against my shoulders builds even more heat through my already ignited nerves. My head falls back as a lustful sigh escapes my lips.
“You like the pain, don’t you?” he teases me, running a flat tongue between my breasts. “When it’s just enough.” I nod. “It makes you feel alive.”
“Yes,” I murmur in confession, my cheeks heating. Maybe I shouldn’t be so turned on by it, but I have no control over my body. Maybe Lucan isn’t as into it as I am.
But then I forget my doubts as soon as Lucan takes my nipple in his mouth. I moan when he applies light pressure at first, a suction that makes me see stars dart across the ceiling. And then I gasp when his teeth sink into my sensitive skin, positive he loves this just as much as I do.
“Good girl,” Lucan coos, circling his tongue to soothe the sting and switching sides.
“I want to make you feel alive. I want to be the one that rips you to pieces and the one to put you back together again.” His free hand trails along my underwear, rolling over the wet spot that’s growing with each word that leaves his mouth.
As soon as he lets my arms free, my hand rests against the back of his head as he looks down, both of us fixated on his thumb running over my clit.
“Lucan,” I whimper, out of my mind with bliss.
“Watch closely, Saskia,” he says, the amber in his eyes liquid when he locks them with mine.
One finger slips under the lace separating us, and before I can blink, a claw tears through the fabric and slashes up to the elastic below my belly button.
I suck in a breath. And then he retracts it as quickly as it appeared.
Lucan uses both of his human hands to rip it the rest of the way off before he slides my bra straps down my arms and pulls all of the remaining fabric away from my skin.
He turns back to the fire and tosses my undergarments into it, where my dress is already a mixture of green and black and white ash.
His smile flickers wickedly, an orangish glow from the fire reflecting off his face, making his amber eyes spark. “Now there’s nothing left of that wretched place.”
With that, he spins on a heel back to me, where I’m fully naked now in front of him with only the red-vialed necklace on. Perched on a wooden dresser, panting.
“Spread your legs for me,” he commands.
I don’t hesitate, even though the action feels so vulnerable.
Completely exposed to him in every way possible, I watch as he sinks to his knees before me, positioning his head right between them, and stares at me.
Then his eyes flick up to my face, where he locks his gaze with mine and slowly drags his tongue up my center.
My heart nearly bursts out of my chest at the new sensation, and I writhe with a moan, but Lucan just pins my thighs to the dresser with punishing force and continues licking.
“Fuck,” he groans against me. Into me. “I am a monster. I could ravage you forever and it would never be enough.”
Please do. I don’t want this torture to end, I think, almost startled that his response doesn’t materialize in my brain.
He pulls away from me, lips already glistening from my arousal. “Are you ready to learn a new word, Saskia?”
“A new word?” I repeat, my mind buzzing and confused.
“Yes. This…” He drags his tongue back up my center again, then nips at my clit until I gasp, my back arching. “Is your perfect pussy. And I am going to devour it until your throat turns raw from screaming. Do you understand?”
“Yes,” I whimper, clutching the edge of the furniture with piercing fingernails.
“Up,” he says, taking a step back.
Mind thrumming with anticipation, my body listens instantly, sliding off the dresser and trembling to a stand.
Lucan is in front of me before I can take in a breath. His rough, warm hands roam my curves, over my breasts, down my hips, across my hips, and then dip between my legs to my… pussy. My legs almost give out when one of his fingers skims through my arousal.
I gather my courage and slip my hands into his shirt.
His plane of a chest is like a wall in its own right.
Hard angles, rigid lines. Grabbing the hem of his shirt, I push it up higher.
Little squares, two on top of two on top of two appear on his stomach, and my mouth drops open, practically salivating.