He was godlike. A primordial in the throes.
She felt like she was witnessing something forbidden, something no mere Lorean like her should see.
Just as the thought occurred, he grated, "You are my mate. Mine." His eyes held a proprietary gleam. "For all time. Mine to pleasure and possess."
"Oh, gods, oh, gods." His words pushed her past the brink. "I'm going to--"
Bliss engulfed her body.
Wet.
Scorching.
Boundless.
Her head thrashed as she dug her fingers into the grass. His beastlike growls ratcheted up her orgasm till she couldn't contain her screams. . . .
"Yes, Lila, yes!" He could barely believe what he was seeing--his female mindless from lust.
Her screams rang in his ears, the sweetest sound he'd ever heard. She bucked and writhed, using his cock to draw out her ecstasy.
First time to come with my mate. He was going to release so hard he feared for his sanity. "Fuck, female!" Too hard. Too crazed--
The scent of her orgasm wrenched his culmination from him.
A godsdamned detonation.
"AHHHH!" His muscles seized. His back bowed. The ravaging pleasure forced a roar from his lungs. Waves of it made his body quake like his lands. "Lila!"
The dimension shook. Over and over and over . . .
A final groan. A last shudder. Nigh comatose, he collapsed to his side.
"Abyssian?" she murmured.
Head lowered against her chest, he raised a finger. "Moment." He tried to keep his weight off her. To catch his breath. To right his mind.
He'd known that pleasure with a mate was far different from a meaningless round with any other female. He'd heard males boasting about the sexual fortune a fated one had brought them. He'd predicted that coming with Calliope would be an experience like no other.
But this . . . this was like every release over his lifetime had combined into one--then been multiplied exponentially.
He reached down and swiped his thumb over the head of his cock, shocked at the amount of pre-cum he'd produced for her.
Soon she would free his seed; if he didn't go crazed in the process, all would be well.
After this encounter, nothing could keep him from enjoying more of her sizzling passion. He would go to any lengths to have her in his bed. And he needed her not to escape again.
As he fastened his pants, an idea arose. She'd asked him if there was anything she could do to prevent him from attacking Sylvan. As a matter of fact, firebrand . . .
His allies would be furious, but in time, they would understand--
Sudden pain flared in his head. "Damn it, woman!" She'd bashed him in the skull with a rock.
TWENTY-EIGHT
Lila had just scrambled to her feet when his hand clamped her ankle.
Yank. He snatched her back, catching her before she hit the ground. "You little witch!"
Despite this confusing detour with Abyssian, she still needed to escape. "No! Let me go!" She couldn't believe she'd just gotten off with the universe's primordial demon. "If you take me back to that tower, I'll kill you!"
"You're in no position to threaten me, female. Your speed only helps when you're free."
And she wasn't. Not now. For how long could she stand more of that confinement?
Dragging her against him, he teleported her from the glen.
They appeared in a firelit room. When he released her, she smoothed her ruined dress into place and surveyed her new surroundings.
An oversize bed with a stone headboard dominated the room. Opened terrace doors allowed in moonlight and a cool breeze. The fur of some quadruped sprawled in front of a large fireplace.
Mounted on the wall above the mantel was the head of a giant reptilian creature with slitted pupils, scaly green skin, and serpentlike fangs the size of her arms. This was the beast depicted on the gold doors outside the dining room! "Where are we?"
"My chambers." He rubbed his head.
She hadn't even drawn blood. A shame. "Why would you bring me here?" She pulled grass sprigs from her hair.
"You told me you didn't want to go back to your tower," he said, his voice roughened from his roars.
She made her way to the fireplace. With him standing not far away, she felt as if she were flanked by two fires. His heat . . . his scent . . . Her thoughts grew muddled. Had she really just ground against him till they'd both come?
And had he truly admitted she was his mate?
Stalling to regain her composure, she pointed to the trophy over the mantel. "What is that thing?"
"The Lotan, a Leviathan--half dragon, half kraken, with venom that could kill even an immortal."
"I thought the Leviathan was a sea creature."
"It sprang from the sea but lived on land as well, swimming in lava."
"You keep its head . . . here? In your bedroom?"
Shrug. "My ancestor battled it to claim this dimension. This trophy is sacred in hell."
She raised her face when a sea breeze filtered in through the opened doors. Hadn't he said his room overlooked the Mercury Sea? She headed outside to a tower terrace similar to the one she knew so well. Only this one looked unscathed by time.
Beyond the railing was the water! Whoa. The pale moonlight danced over the waves. She could hear them crashing all the way up here.
He followed her out and joined her at the railing.
She sensed that he wanted her to remark on the view. So she didn't.
"An improvement from your previous lodgings, no?" He faced her.
"Are you offering me the use of your room going forward? If so, I accept, but you'll have to throw a sheet over that thing above the mantel."
"Not quite." He crossed his arms over his chest and leaned against the railing. "Obviously, I need to keep an eye on you. We will be sharing my room."
Ridiculous. "I'm not going to live with you."
"I've decided you'll also be sharing my bed."
"Become your concubine?" She scoffed. "The demon has jokes! Just a few hours ago, I let you know how I felt about that prospect. Hell freezing over? Ringing a bell, relic? I would never have sex with you after your treatment of me."
No matter how frenzied he'd just made her.
She shivered to recall the sight of his mighty body as he'd roared . . . those primal shadows . . .
Even now--in the moonlight, with the wind ruffling his midnight black hair--she found him . . . compelling.
"My treatment of you? Then perhaps I'll do as you did and simply declare myself a different person now. I'll disavow my past actions--as you did Kari's."
"That's not the same." It's kind of the same.
"I'll never hurt you again, Calliope."
"Never hurting me again shouldn't be a selling point; it should be a given," she said, wondering why they were still discussing this subject. "I might be your mate, but that doesn't make you mine."
A muscle ticked in his wide jaw. His voice dropped to a menacing level. "Trust me when I say that you--as Kari--made that fact abundantly clear."
Because Karinna was his mate. All evidence pointed to Lila being her reincarnation. I'll have to . . . process that later. "Why didn't you tell me?"
"I plotted revenge for the past."
"More reason why I don't want anything to do with you."
"Do you not? You came quickly enough against my cock."
Her face heated. "You're the most arrogant asshole I've ever met. Have you forgotten that I have a fiance?"
Tick, tick, tick went that jaw muscle. "In hell, you have no one but me."
"There's nothing you can say to convince me to become your concubine. Nothing."
"No? How about peace for Sylvan? If you became mine, the Morior would refrain from attacking."
Her lips parted.
"Each hour I'm here enjoying you is an hour I'm not warring against the fey."
"And how long will that last?"
"A standard demonic concubine cont
ract lasts for a minimum of a thousand years."
A millennium? With this fucker?
"However, since you are my mate I'm interested in securing you . . . indefinitely. I will make you my queen."
She gaped at him.
"You were willing to risk your life to warn your kingdom about my invasion. Wed me, and you can end the specter of war entirely."
Marrying him would mean surrendering forever all of her pie-in-the-sky dreams: to live safely in Sylvan, to be the queen of that realm, to start a family that would also live in safety, and possibly to fall in love.
What if Saetth was innocent in all this? If she could get back to him, she could have a wedding and coronation this very season. They could start having kids right away.
Her fey children would run the forests as she had.