“And you’re sure she told the truth? Vengeful beings, no matter their species, do not create a magical loophole without a nefarious reason. What if breaking the curse—” she used air quotes “—causes you more harm than good?”
He shifted in his seat. “And what if she expected me to fear breaking the curse so much, I wallow in misery, doing nothing, while holding the key to my happiness?”
Yeah. Fair point. “Is the witch still alive?” Maybe, if Sunny pressed a razor-sharp horn against her carotid, she’d null and void her curse. Simple, easy.
“If Lilith lived, she’d be chained to my side so I could torture her every minute of every day.” Relish fizzed in each word, giving her a glimpse of the diabolical underworld prince who lurked beneath the pretty face...and her dark side loved it. “I cut off her head.” With Lucifer’s help.
Lucifer. Hate him!
Sunny bit into another strawberry, and William snapped a second pen in two. Her pulse leaped. Why had he—his gaze had dipped to her mouth, she realized. Clearly he’d lost track of the conversation.
Could she distract him even more?
Infused with feminine power, she traced the strawberry around her lips. He watched, his pupils expanding, causing warmth to dance over her skin. She told herself she licked the juice away to torment him, but she also tormented herself. So sweet! She imagined dripping the juice over his body and laving away every droplet. He’d never have reason to feel sad again.
Another groan left him, shattering her musings. Good! She did not need to concern herself with his emotions.
“Your five minutes are up,” he announced.
Pulse fluttering, she rasped, “Do us both a favor, and reset the countdown clock. I have more questions...and more strawberries.”
“I will not reset—”
“Do it, and I’ll kiss you,” she blurted out, the words leaving her unbidden. A flush heated her cheeks. If he rejected her...
He jolted upright in his chair, saying, “Resetting the countdown clock now.”
9
“Willy’s life hack #69. Always use an ax. They hack up a life better than anything.”
She craves my kiss. Might even ache for it. William nearly pounded his chest in a beastly display of masculine satisfaction.
Ever since she’d entered the office, lust had seethed inside him, demanding its due. A naked Sunny splayed across his desk, long legs spread. He would feast, and she would come with a scream. Twice.
Pride demanded he turn fantasy into reality. Pride, only pride.
He should have done as claimed and used someone else to slake his desires. One-night stands were his go-to form of stress relief, after all. He just... The thought of being with anyone else left him cold right now.
The power of a lifemate. He pressed his tongue to the roof of his mouth.
He’d always believed he craved variety in order to make as many memories as possible. But he’d forgotten the women as soon as he’d come. Therefore, his rationale made no sense.
What if he didn’t need variety to be satisfied?
What if he just needed...her?
Why not kiss her and find out? With her death off the table, thanks to the prediction about Lucifer’s defeat, William had nothing to explain to her first.
If their second kiss was as bad as their first? What, then? And what if she got better, and he fell for her?
Better to tell her no. And he would. No. Nay. Nyet. Any second now, he’d say the word...
She perched in the chair across from his desk, her amber eyes bright pools of arousal, her chest rising and falling in quick succession, her breasts straining her T-shirt.
She pants with arousal—for me? She must. His keen senses picked up the harried speed of her heartbeat. And her nipples...still sweet little peaks. How the beauties must ache.
Tell her no? Not in this lifetime. Why fight the inevitable?
Desire drove him to his feet, the chair rolling behind him. Head high, he rounded the desk. Rather than approaching her directly, he stopped just in front of her and leaned against the desk’s edge. Let her explain her unexpected urge for a kiss before he made a move. For all he knew, she’d only hoped to tie him in knots. Hadn’t she promised to punish him for keeping her in captivity?
Well, mission accomplished, beauty.
He crossed his arms, and she clocked the movement with a heavy-lidded gaze. Her scent changed from deliciously sweet to... What the hell is that? She smelled like the incarnation of sex and pleasure, turning his every inhalation into an internal caress.
He hardened in an instant, his blood heating. His hands trembled, his gut clenched and he ached...everywhere.
What did Sunny experience?
“You claim to find no pleasure in my kisses,” he reminded her, his ego taking another hit. “Why ask for a repeat?” Did she want something from him, perhaps?
A calculated gleam lit her eyes, and he had to silence a groan. About to deal with her dark side again.
“You’re hot and strong, with all the right equipment—” she leered at his erection and wiggled her brows “—and there’s a good chance I’m a shallow, hard-up size queen.”
“Are you, then?” He massaged the back of his neck. To keep her guessing, he said, “I’ve been with shallow, hard-up size queens before. I think I’ll pass.”
Her nails grew into claws, a good sign. “Fine. Mating season approaches, and I’m losing control. In other words...I’m horny. Anyone will do.”
A laugh lived and died at the back of his throat. Sunny, consumed by sexual desires... He quaked with riotous need. Then the rest of her words registered. Anyone will do.
Between gritted teeth, he rasped, “Have you ever had an orgasm, duna?”
“Oh, yes. When I’m flying solo, I’m an incredible lover. The best I’ve ever had.”
He white-knuckled the edge of his desk to stop from reaching for her. “Have you ever had an orgasm with another person?”
“I...yes...no...maybe?”
He went motionless, not even daring to breathe. “Let me clear up your confusion, sundae. No, you haven’t.” But I will introduce you to shared pleasure. I will teach you to love it. Me, and no other. “Tell me how you felt when we kissed?”
After a moment of hesitation, she admitted, “I felt distracted, stressed and unsafe. Granted, I feel unsafe every minute of every day.”
“That’s it?” No hint of arousal?
She didn’t answer, which was answer enough.
He grinned, and she sputtered, her innate fragrance intensifying, drugging him. But the grin didn’t last long. To pleasure this girl, he’d have to first earn her trust. The only way to do that? Time. Time he didn’t have.
Sunny ran her bottom lip between her teeth, leaving a sheen of moisture behind. A sheen he wanted to lap up. Her skin flushed, and he wondered how hot it burned.
Maybe he could pleasure her without earning her trust. He just had to turn her focus to something other than fear. If he whipped her into a furious lather, he could smuggle passion past her defenses. In theory.
Worth a shot. “We’re going to try this again,” he told her. “I’m your master, after all, and you must learn to respond to me appropriately.”
Her eyes narrowed. A promising start.
“My darling sundae,” he continued on. “This is the part where you say thank you.”
Narrowing further... “I have no master, you pompous douchebag.”
Ding, ding, ding. Fury. Time for a little passion smuggling.
Her tirade intensified. “There’s no way in hellebore I’ll say thank—”
William shot out his arm, cupped her nape and yanked her against the hard line of his body. Her lips parted on a surprised gasp, and he swooped down, claiming her mouth with his own, thrusting his tongue past her teeth.
At first, she accepted his kiss as passively as before. Then she gripped the hem of his shirt, holding on for dear life, and actively participated, chasing his tongue with her own.
His pulse quickened. He rewarded her with a suck and a nip. Plaintive moans spilled from her. So sweet. Those plump, irresistible lips...so perfect. Every inch of her...so mine.
“Wrap your arms around my shoulders,” he commanded. She obeyed, zero hesitation, and he shoved a hand into her hair, then used the other to grip her ass and grind his erection against her core.
The bliss! Had he ever experienced something, anything so good? Want more. He spun her around and lifted her onto the desk, then spread her legs farther apart with his hips. When he pressed his erection against her core yet again, a ragged moan left her. A siren’s song he couldn’t resist.
She makes me crazed.
No, no. Focus. Must ensure her pleasure. He licked, sucked and nibbled, tilted his head this way, tilted his head that way, exactly how most females loved but... Sunny returned to passive acceptance.
Damn it! What the hell had even happened? What had he done wrong this time?
He lifted his head, ending the kiss, and pressed his forehead against hers. His pulse did not slow.
“Why’d you stop?” she asked, and he was pleased to note she panted ever so slightly. “You were doing slightly better than before.”
Slightly? Slightly! He worked his jaw. She baits me, nothing more. “You enjoyed the kiss. For a bit. What changed?”
“Honestly? You changed.”
He pinched her chin, forcing her gaze to lift to his. Uncertainty and sadness blazed in her eyes, the gleam of calculation gone. Her defenses had toppled, giving him a glimpse of the real Sunny. It affected him on a level so deep, he couldn’t analyze it.
Finally he told her, “I don’t understand.”
“At first, you were like a live wire. But the more we kissed, the more detached you became, as if you were a robot programmed to kiss everyone the exact same way. I could have been anyone, and you wouldn’t have cared, which meant you weren’t invested. Which meant you didn’t care about my pleasure, or even your own, only the outcome. Which meant your reasons for kissing me had nothing to do with genuine desire. Which meant you could go from my bed to another’s in a blink. Which meant—”
“Enough,” he snapped. “I get your point.” And what a sharp point it was, his ego already in tatters.
Somehow, William found the strength to pry his hands from her silken hair and off her perfect ass, and take a step back. As many women as he’d bedded, Sunny was the first to complain, and the only one he’d hoped to impress.
Not good enough. Never good enough.
He rubbed the spot just over his heart. What prince of darkness couldn’t satisfy his woman?
“Why do you sleep with so many women?” she asked, soft, so soft.
“Why else?” he quipped, going for a light tone, as if he hadn’t a care. Needing contact, any contact, with the woman who maddened him as no other, he pinched a lock of her hair between his fingers. “Pleasure.”
“I don’t think so.” She shook her head, pulling the lock free of his fingers. “I think there’s more to it than that.”
“There isn’t,” he said, his tone flat. “As a young prince of the underworld, I had a startling epiphany. If being wanted by one woman thrilled me, how much more amazing would it feel to be wanted by many women?”
“Or you were searching for...your mate.”
“I wasn’t.” Maybe I was? Mates were supposed to complete you, something he’d always longed to feel. What if he had searched for his, but he’d been too afraid to admit it, even to himself?
The mere possibility... Reeling...
He needed to talk this through with someone. Shockingly enough, he wanted that someone to be Sunny. She’d proven quick and bright, her insights astoundingly accurate. But as he peered at her, his gaze rapt, the calculated gleam returned to her eyes, and he knew. The only thing I’ll get from her now—trouble.
Did he kick her out? No.
She jutted her chin and glided closer, closer still. When she stood a whisper away, she reached out to touch his face.
He caught her wrist, stopping her. Then he had to mask a tremor of excitement with a cough. What did she have planned for him?
A sweet smile bloomed. Too sweet. She batted her lashes at him. “Don’t beat yourself up, baby doll. So you’re not as sexually suave as you assumed. So what. We’ll keep practicing. Together. Just you and me.”
He knew she played some kind of game, but still he thought, Practice, yes. You and me.
Scowling, he released her and stalked behind the desk, where he plopped into the plush leather chair. He would hand her a stack of photographs and send her on her way.
Any second now.
He had things to do. Like craft a game plan of his own. Something to help him resist her allure. He could want her, yes. Fall for her, no.
Any. Second.
“Yesterday, you mentioned you keep track of your sexual fantasies. Tell me about them.” Damn it! Not even close to what he’d planned to say. Did he take back the question, though? Hell, no.
Still batting those lashes, she said, “I’ll tell you, happily, if you’ll tell me how often you beat off and what you think about when you do it. Use the lotion, get the potion, yeah?”
Hoping to embarrass him? Soon she’d learn. Nothing embarrassed him. “I prefer the expression whack the meat, spring a leak. And if you average the last eight thousand years or so, including a decade of abstinence, I’d guess twice a day.”
Her eyes flashed. “Seriously? An entire decade without a little nooky hooky? But you’re just so...you.”
Shrug. “I was in my early hundreds, still just a lad, when Lucifer and I were brand-new enemies. Hades told me abstinence would increase my strength, helping me win the feud. A decade later, when I was out of my mind with lust, he admitted he’d punked me.” Fun times. William waved his hand, telling her, “Your turn. Let’s hear a sexual fantasy.”
She thought for a moment. Eyes going dreamy, setting off all kinds of warning bells inside his head, she said, “I picture a strong, gorgeous man. He’s dressed, but not for long. He strips. I watch.”
William’s mouth went dry. The warning bells? Forgotten. “And then?”
She purred with pure, sexual carnality, nearly unmanning him. “He strips me, too, and...does a load of laundry, washing our dirty clothes. Oh, yeah. Oh, baby.”
William snickered, genuinely amused by her wit. Which irritated him! She’d successfully avoided his question, while getting an answer from him, and it was sexy as hell.
Definitely need a game plan. He handed her a stack of photographs. “Go over these. If you discover any kind of message, contact me immediately.”
“Sure. But contact you how?”
Since his cell phones tended to get destroyed by bullets, daggers and fire, he purchased or stole prepaid burners all the time. Wanting some kind of 24/7 link with Sunny, he dug through his top desk drawer to find the phone he’d already bespelled to work in any realm. Tossing it her way, he said, “You’ll find my number in the address book. The passcode is—”
“Let me guess. Sixty-nine sixty-nine?”
“Please. I am not so childish as that. The passcode is e-m-k-c-u-f, no spaces. In case you forget, that’s fuck me backward.”
Amusement crinkled the corners of her incredible eyes as she shifted from one foot to the other. “How are you able to speak profanity in front of me? No one else can.”
“My age and experience, perhaps.” He hiked a shoulder. “I’ve killed gods. I’ve gained and lost powers most people can’t even fathom.”
“Or...your species?”
He gave a stiff nod. He had no clue about his lineage. Was he a fallen Sent One, like Axel? Maybe a hyb
rid of some sort?
Did Axel remember their parents?
Longing squeezed William’s chest. Ignore it. He’d had to make a choice. Speak with Axel or believe Hades’s prediction—some part of him would die, if ever he met his brother. He’d chosen to believe Hades, and he would live with the consequences. No matter how bad it hurt.
“You have really long eyelashes,” Sunny blurted out.
Interesting segue. But he could roll. He leaned back, crossing his ankles, saying, “My eyes sparkle like sapphires. I’m built like a tank and hung like a stallion.”
Now she wrinkled her brow, clearly confused. “I don’t understand what you’re doing.”
That makes two of us. “You started a list of all the things you like about me, yes? I contributed.”
A tinkling laugh left her, the sound of it melodious. He closed his eyes briefly and savored the audible caress. “I do keep lists in my diary.”
His shaft jerked beneath his fly. “I remember. You keep a list of sexual fantasies.” And damn it, he needed stronger defenses against her allure, before he morphed into a lovesick puppy who followed her around, yapping at her heels. He needed...magic.
He sucked in a breath, a game plan taking shape. Of course, the more magic he possessed, the more it would interact with his emotions, increasing the likelihood of “birthing” another “child.” The most excruciating experience of his life. Couldn’t be helped, though. He would do anything to combat his growing fascination with the unicorn.
To acquire more magic, he had only to kill demons. His runes would do the rest, absorbing their immortality and converting it to magic. Much like trees converted carbon dioxide to oxygen.
Snap, snap, snap. He blinked.
Sunny braced her weight on a single palm and she leaned his way, snapping her fingers in front of his face.
He snarled a curse. He’d gotten lost in his head—again. Do I want to die?
“What thoughts keep dragging you from my spectacular presence?” she asked, the calculated gleam brightening.