I shivered as his warm breath hit the sensitive part of my ear. His lips brushed against me, barely making contact, as he whispered, “Tell me when to stop.”
Heat pooled low in my stomach, but my brain didn’t seem to be working. I unraveled beneath the curve of his lips as he trailed them down my jaw. The last thing I saw as my eyes fell closed was his expression: hungry, but vulnerable. A moment passed, suspended there as our breath mingled. That scent that I couldn’t define filled the air around me; intoxicating as I breathed it in.
It was wrong. I knew it was wrong, because nothing this good was ever right. It was rare that I found someone who so fully captured my attention as he and the Horsemen did. I was a damn fool for caving, and I almost pulled away. Until he said, “You’re everything I didn’t know I wanted.”
His lips met mine, smooth and sweet, but the gentleness didn’t stay for long. He shifted his arm from the back of the couch to wrap around me as I uncrossed my legs and turned into him. His fingers tangled into my hair, cupping the back of my head, pulling me closer as his tongue parted the seam of my lips. Coaxing me. Claiming me. I reached out, fisting his shirt, pulling him closer than I’d dared to with anyone in such a long time, the other night notwithstanding. That was because I was high. This was exhilarating and frightening, but the air crackled with a tension that couldn’t be denied.
I kissed him like my life depended on it, but that was nothing compared to the way his lips destroyed me. Fuck living. He kissed me like he was dying. Like this was the first and last kiss we’d ever have—and maybe it was. But he was doing an awfully good job at branding it into my memory.
He broke the kiss just when I realized I needed air or I’d faint, but his lips didn’t leave me. He kissed his way back up my jaw, and left stinging bites all down my neck. I arched into the little dose of pain, silently urging him on. Pushing him to give me more. He pulled the crook of my sweater to the side, exposing my shoulder so that he could taste every inch of me. He left a string of reddened skin, slight purple teeth marks to the very edge of my shoulder before making his way back. A low moan escaped my lips as his teeth scraped the sensitive part of my neck, just beneath my ear.
His hands moved to my hips as I straddled his lap and ground myself into the hard bulge beneath me. The breath hissed between his lips, and he bit down on my earlobe.
“What do you want?” he asked. My hands seemed to move on their own accord as they slipped beneath the edge of his shirt. He bit my earlobe again, a touch more pressure. I let out another breathy moan as he said, “What. Do. You. Want? Tell me. Soon enough, I won’t be able to stop.”
His breath was cold against my burning skin.
I scrambled to get off his lap as fast as I could, but he didn’t let go.
“Let go of me,” I said. I bit the inside of my cheek to stop from moaning as his hand slipped underneath my shirt. The circles he drew against my lower back with his thumb sent an inferno blazing through my self-control, but I held strong.
“Why?” he murmured, leaning into me.
“Because we can’t do this.”
“Give me one reason why, and I’ll let you go,” he whispered, his face against my neck, his words against my skin. I’d avoided this conversation for the last week, and again at the diner when Allistair confronted me. Trapped with Rysten between my legs, I had to speak up now, or whatever happened next was on me.
“Tell me why you want me,” I said. Rysten ran his lips along the edge of my collarbone, and his non-answer was point enough. “You don’t even know, do you? That’s the problem. You have no choice but to want me, and I can’t screw someone who has no choice in the matter.”
Rysten froze beneath me, but did not release his hold. I became painfully aware of the slow, steady thrum of my own heartbeat as it reverberated beneath my skin. Rysten slowly pulled back.
“Ruby, have you been torturing yourself this entire time thinking that we could only possibly want you because we have no choice?” he asked, a smile playing on the corners of his lips. I didn’t find this funny in the slightest.
“I’ve never met a man where that’s not the case,” I replied tersely. He slipped his entire hand underneath my sweater and flattened it against my back.
“We’ve already had this conversation before. I’m not a man.”
“Man. Demon. You are still male. You’re all the same where I’m concerned. I’ve had women come onto me before, so it’s not gender specific, really. My point is that if I sleep with you, it won’t be your choice, and that’s kind of rapey, if you ask me.”
Rysten didn’t hold back from laughing at me. I pushed his chest trying to wiggle my way off him, but he wasn’t letting up any more than he was before. His laugh trailed off into a heavy silence, the air between us stretched taut with pressure.
“Ruby, love, I can’t believe we’re having this conversation right now, but if we need to have it for you to feel comfortable, then we’ll have it. I want you. And not because it’s my job, or because you’re a succubus. You think I can’t see past the draw of a succubus? That the allure captures me and renders me unable to make my own decisions? Yes, I want you because the very smell of your skin makes me hard. Every time you bite your lip, I imagine what you taste like; what it feels like to bite that very same lip and hear you moan. But those are not the reasons why. Those are simply wants.” He paused, letting out a strained breath. “You have a fire in you that I have not seen in anyone in a very long time. A wildness about you. I told you once already: you are not what I thought you’d be. But now that I know you, I don’t know how I could possibly imagine you any different. You are everything that we could have ever wanted you to be, and so much more. When I am with you, I realize how lucky we are that no one ever swept you off your feet, because I don’t think that any of us would have let them live if they had.”
My mouth popped open. I didn’t know what to say to that. His eyes were dark and lustful, but he didn’t seem to have the crazed obsession I was used to seeing. He’d be fumbling a lot more if he did, and he sure as hell couldn’t string his thoughts together so well.
“How do you know you’re not being affected without realizing it?” I asked.
“You do realize who you’re talking to? You know what I am. I’d make for a poor Horsemen if I didn’t have the knowledge or strength to fight off desire. And not even you, Hell’s heir, are strong enough to make me do anything against my will. That’s why we were created: to be the only equals that could protect and balance you.”
Aside for the being Hell’s heir part, he had a point. The legends never told what kind of demons they were, only what you would find if you ever crossed them. I couldn’t argue his logic that my few latent powers weren’t nearly enough to force his hand.
Then the door opened. And Moira walked in. Her eyes wavered between Rysten and me, and she let out a dramatic sigh.
“I see why you’re beginning to think they’re not so bad,” she commented. My face burned as a blush crept across my cheeks. I scrambled back, and this time Rysten let me go. Moira cocked an eyebrow and nodded towards him. “Time to go, pest,” she said unapologetically.
Rysten didn’t argue. He simply stood and said, “I’ll see you tomorrow, Ruby. Get some rest.”
I watched him disappear outside my front door and I turned towards a rather pissed off Moira. She didn’t say anything as she walked back to her room. Her silence spoke louder than any words she could have chosen.
Chapter 12