On his knees between my thighs, he scooped his arm under my hips, lifted them off the floor, and pulled me into him. My thighs clamped to his sides—and his hardness pressed against my core, hot and ready.

I stared up at him, my chest heaving. With one hand pinning my wrists above my head and his other arm holding my waist off the floor, he had me utterly helpless.

His eyes glowed, pupils dilated. His arm tightened around my waist.

He pulled me up into him. His hard length slid inside me, filling me, stretching me. He growled roughly—then thrust deeper.

I gasped, head spinning, eyes rolling back. Held in place, I could do nothing but clench my legs around his waist as he drove into me, deep and hard, my shoulders sliding against the floor with each thrust. Sensation rippled out from my center, scorching hotter and hotter.

Controlling my hips with one arm, he plunged into me in a measured, powerful rhythm. Pleasure rolled through me in waves, each swell more intense than the last until I was crying out, until my entire body arched.

As pleasure swept through me, he pulled my hips up, burying himself in me as deep as he could. A low sound rasped from his throat as he rocked his hips without withdrawing, milking my every panting gasp and convulsing moan.

Nerves tingling, I sagged weakly, and he sank down with me, breathing hard. Finally releasing my wrists, he slid out of me. With my legs loosely wrapped around his waist, I lay where I was, totally spent and quivering with soft ripples of pleasure.

“Vayanin?”

I opened my eyes, unsure when I’d closed them, and found Zylas leaning over me.

“Hm?”

My vague mumble seemed to be all he’d wanted from me, because he sat back, then gently captured my hands. Drawing them up, he nuzzled my wrists, and I was surprised to find they ached from how forcefully he’d pushed them into the floor. Other parts of me ached too as the pleasure dissipated, but I didn’t mind in the slightest.

“Was that …” The words came out fluttery and weak. I cleared my throat. “Was that how you … mate with payashē?”

“Hnn.” He tilted his head. “You liked it, na?”

My cheeks heated and I was abruptly aware of how naked I was. “Y-yes.”

“Do you want more?”

I glanced down. My thighs rested across his, and I could see that he was clearly ready to go again—if he’d ever been not ready.

Warmth flushed through my center and part of me almost said yes, but that ache between my legs had intensified enough to cool the fire.

“Later?” I asked, dropping my gaze, suddenly shy.

A rumble in his throat. His warm hands wrapped around my knees, then slid up my thighs to my hips. “Whenever you want me, amavrah.”

My belly flipped as I stared up at him. “Amavrah? What does that mean?”

He smiled mysteriously, and with his hands on me and my body flushed with shivery warmth, I couldn’t even feel annoyed.

Chapter Twenty-Three

Around the time I started washing my hair in the shower, the reality of what I’d done—what we’d done—sank in.

I stood frozen with my hands in my lathered hair, a dozen emotions hitting me at once. Shock, embarrassment, anxiety, but also amazement, excitement, and a fresh pang of hot yearning. I lowered my arms and peered at my wrists. They were tender but my pale skin was unblemished. No sign of bruising.

He hadn’t hurt me—and even while completely helpless, I’d never felt fear.

A confusing cocktail of feelings swirled through me as I hurriedly finished my shower, dried off, and hastened into the bedroom to dress in soft yoga pants and a hoodie. Thank goodness I’d packed two bras, because Zylas had ruined my other one.

Another hot pang fluttered through me at the thought.

I rubbed the towel over my hair, then tossed it in the bathroom and returned to the living room, mentally bolstering myself. The blanket was back in front of the coffee table, and Zylas sat on it, the Vh’alyir Amulet in his hands. He glanced up as I appeared, and I instantly lost my nerve.

I minced over to the table but couldn’t sit beside him. Half of me wanted to run from the room, and the other half wanted to climb into his lap.

Twisting my fingers together, I coughed awkwardly. “Um … Zylas?”

He gazed up at me, waiting.

“When you said … that demons can choose when they want to have young … does that mean you can choose?”

“Var. I do not want young yet.”

Relief flooded me. In the heat of the moment, I hadn’t considered that particular risk. I couldn’t begin to guess if it was even possible, but at least I didn’t have to worry about it.

Exhaling in a rush, I picked up the shard of our broken infernus from the end table and stared pointlessly at it, my anxiety and embarrassment levels creeping up again. Why was it so hard to look Zylas in the eye now?

A hard tug on the back of my pants. I fell, landing in Zylas’s lap. Tossing the Vh’alyir Amulet onto the coffee table, he wrapped his arms around me.

“You are being zh’ūltis, amavrah.”

“Don’t call me stupid. And what does—”

“You are blushing. You have embarrassing thoughts now, na? You do not want to tell me what you are thinking.”

I gritted my teeth, my hand clenching around the shard of infernus. Right on cue, my face heated again. Was he ridiculously perceptive or was I painfully obvious?

“I can’t hear your thoughts anymore,” he prompted.

“Good,” I mumbled.

“Why don’t you want to tell me?”

Because it was embarrassing—a word that was even more difficult for him to grasp than “empathy.” I tried to push off his lap but he tightened his hold, pulling me back against his chest.

“I will let you go after you tell me.”

“You can’t do that!”

“I am stronger than you.”

My jaw clenched all over again, and I squirmed helplessly. “Zylas!”

“Are you afraid?”

“No,” I growled. “I’m mad.”

His husky laugh made me shiver. “You like it when I hold you, na?”

My blush deepened. “Fine! I just wanted to know if … if you always pin payashē down like you did with me.”

“It is safer. Sometimes a payashē gets scared being under a male.” As though demonstrating, he squeezed me just hard enough to compress the air from my lungs. “Or she decides she does not want to mate in the middle of mating. Holding her hands makes it harder for her to attack with vīsh.”

I blinked. “Payashē get scared?”

“Not from me, because I am not big like other males. But I still hold their arms to be safe.”

“I couldn’t blast you with magic, though.”

He pushed his face into the side of my neck and his teeth grazed my skin. “No, but you wanted me to hold you down.”

I flushed, my skin tingling and pulse quickening. The infernus shard slipped from my suddenly limp hands, bounced off my leg, and landed on the blanket with an almost inaudible thud.

Zylas lifted his head, peering at the broken relic. His breath caught—then he lunged forward, almost dumping me off his lap, and snatched up the shard.