She couldn’t fight from this position, could only squirm, which made his lips graze her belly. His warm breaths ghosted over her damp skin.

Each sweep of his lips seemed to weaken her resistance. The unyielding muscles of his chest and arms flexed, his skin so hot against hers. When she shivered from the sensations, he groaned.

He’d trapped her utterly, was now supporting her. What was he going to do? She couldn’t see—

His tongue flicked her skin.

She froze, stunned. His rumbling growl made her belly tighten.

When he dipped his tongue to her navel, her lids went heavy. Damn him, it wasn’t unpleasant. She couldn’t see his wrathful face, could only hear him and feel. . . .

He adjusted his grip, moving his hands. She jolted again. Under her panties, he cradled her ass, each of his splayed fingers heating her skin like a brand.

With another groan, he rubbed his face against her, then his horns. Reminded that a barbaric demon king was groping her, she brought her knee up. “Stop this!”

He kept kissing, didn’t seem to have heard her. Still holding her aloft, he removed one hand. What is he going to do with that hand?

Her eyes went wide when he hooked his fingers around the waist of her panties and began to lower them. . . .

THIRTEEN

Against all reason, the fey’s attack had only fueled Sian’s arousal.

He couldn’t remember the last time he’d felt this alive. His heart pumped; his breaths heaved. Her scent and taste put him into a lather. When he’d first cradled her taut ass in his palms, he’d feared he would spontaneously come.

In this state, drawing down her panties and licking between her silken thighs seemed the perfect idea. Licking his mate till she came upon his pointed tongue—

“Stop this, demon!”

He nuzzled below her navel. Stop?

She’d begun squirming again. “You said you weren’t a villain.”

Comprehension hit him. With a will he’d never known he possessed, he somehow relinquished his prize, lowering her down his body. Her skin rubbed his pierced nipples, her mons sliding past his swollen cock.

He shuddered when he set her on her feet.

As she backed away, she stared at his groin. His shaft strained against his leather pants, his balls aching like they’d been struck with a forge hammer.

She looked spooked—but her own nipples were hard.

Gods almighty. When he pictured her haughty, insolent, sexy smile just before she’d sent him flying, he almost grabbed her again.

To cool his need, he recalled his last fateful meeting with her in her previous life—the day of her wedding. Her words echoed in his mind: I could never love you. . . .

He had clutched his head in anguish, unable to do anything as she’d set off to marry another male.

One she’d loved all along.

Wrath renewed, Sian began to circle her. She pivoted to face him.

“How old are you?” She looked to be in her early twenties. She must soon be turning immortal, which meant she would be suffering from overstimulation. At the possibility, his pulse quickened even more.

“Twenty-four.” Her answer had a knife’s edge to it, as did her question: “When did you first realize you were a sadist?”

“When I ran afoul of you in the past.” Still he circled her. “Were you trying to kill me with that poison?” And why does picturing your haughty smile make my cock harder?

“Ideally.” Each brusque query and reply was like a blow between sparring partners. “How old are you?”

“Ten thousand. How did you learn to build traps?”

“Reading—you should try it sometime. Did you like my use of stone dicks?”

“If you wanted rock-hard, you needn’t have looked farther than me,” he said with a smirk. “Where is the Magic Kingdom?”

“Right between Rivendell and Narnia, asshole. Shouldn’t an ancient relic like you have more control over yourself?”

Relic? “You bring out the very worst in me. How did you overcome your fear of spiders?”

“I reminded myself that they’re less repulsive than you are.”

Little bitch! Fists clenched, he rammed his horns against the nearest wall, and the tower rocked.

She swallowed, but she didn’t flinch. “You have no right to keep me here, demon! No right to make me your plaything! What do you imagine I’ve done to you?”

“In this life, you were sent here by Nix as a spy. If you want to know your past crimes, then remember.”

“I’m no spy. And this Nïx person can go fuck herself.” She crossed her arms over her chest. When he failed to keep his gaze from dropping, she made a sound of frustration. “Are you ever going to give me clothes?”

He told her breasts: “I find myself particularly incentivized not to do so.”

She bristled.

Leave her, Sian. Nothing good could come from this interaction.

He almost wished he hadn’t cowed his demon warriors so easily. After calling off the battle against the Vrekeners, he’d ordered those legions back to their interminable punishments—with only a vague promise of a future war against the fey. He’d hoped for a mutiny.

But when Sian, now the primordial of their species, had stretched his wings and bared his fangs, even the bravest of those hell demons had fallen quiet and retreated.

Not so this female.

He recalled his threat to throw her to the legions. After this attack, he thought it more appropriate to threaten the legions with her.

Find something else to occupy you. He could go pay the Vrekener queen her land bounty, but he was in no hurry. The process of building land, hell manipulation, was grueling.

He could go on another doomed search for the fabled hellfire. That way lies madness. . . .

Wind gusted into the tower, and airborne sparks fluttered around them like snowflakes of ember. When his prisoner had finished coughing, her eyes watered. “You belong here. I—do—not. Release me now!”

This creature seemed to have a demonic temper when provoked enough. So unlike his mate in the past. For all that he’d once adored her, Princess Karinna had been the mistress of sneering indifference.

His gaze lit upon the untouched food tray in the courtyard. “Why should I provide you food if you’re not going to eat it?”

“I can’t stomach things that are still moving.”