It’s another sleepless night. The window in Daemon’s room is cracked open an inch, and the cool breeze feels nice on my skin next to his warm body. Even asleep, he radiates heat. The worry lines between his eyebrows have been smoothed out by sleep. He looks younger, almost boyish.
The embers in the fireplace crackle as sparks shoot into the air, and it draws my attention away from the sharp contours of Daemon’s face. One of the photographs on top of the mantelpiece catches my eye, and I slowly slide out from beneath the sheets. The cool stone bites into the soles of my feet as I pad over and pick up the frame. It’s gold and carved in a language I can’t understand. Daemon stands with Dariana tucked underneath his arm. Alaric is in the background, his eyes glowing red from the camera flash. They most likely stole it from one of their victims.
Brushing my finger over their carefree smiles, I sigh. Their lives were easier before I entered. Nothing good came from my curiosity.
“Stop thinking and get back into bed.” Daemon is lying on his front, his arms tucked beneath his pillow. I place the photograph back on the mantelpiece, climb back into bed, and lie down on my front too.
Daemon’s brown eyes make me feel things I shouldn’t as they gaze into mine. “Can’t sleep?”
My head shakes. “It won’t come.”
He’s silent for a moment before shifting onto his side and reaching out to stroke my hair behind my ear. “You don’t always have to be strong.”
“Who would be strong for me?” I ask. “You?”
His fingers trail down my cheek and he cups my chin, his thumb tracing over my lips. “You’re not alone anymore.”
The intensity in his eyes makes my throat go dry. “Dameon…” I whisper, but he won’t let me continue.
Leaning in, he brushes his lips over mine in a soft, sweet caress.
My heart feels too full.
“You’re not alone, little angel.” Deepening the kiss, he shifts on top of me, then clasps my hands on the pillow. His weight pushes me down on the mattress until I can’t breathe, but fuck if I want to feel him everywhere.
“Baby,” he whispers, trailing his nose over the bridge of mine before placing a soft kiss on my forehead. He lingers, his eyes squeezing shut as if he’s in pain, and I hold my breath. “I never fell from Paradise. That’s the heritage my father gave me, but I sure as hell fell for you.”
“Daemon,” I breathe out, but he presses his forehead against mine.
“No, you fucking listen to me, Angel. Just keep your pretty lips shut for once and let me tell you how I feel. Fuck…” His breath gusts over my lips, and his grip on my wrists tightens. “It doesn’t fucking matter where you are. I’ll follow you into Paradise and bow to the fucking Light. I’ll beg on my knees for forgiveness. Power means nothing to me, Angel. Not anymore. Don’t you fucking get it? I’m in love with you, and Heaven or Hell can’t keep me away.”
“Daemon,” I try again, but his lips on mine silence my words of reason. The embers in the fire spark again and the flames rise, casting flickering shadows across the walls.
When he enters me, I cry out, fighting against his tight grip on my wrists. I need to touch him, leave my mark on his broad back, but he holds me spread for him while he steals more pieces of my heart like a man completing a puzzle.
Determined to own all of me, he takes me with slow, deep, and delicious thrusts that hurt worse than the sharpest knife. My heart splinters in my chest, knowing I can never be his, and the pleasure he wrings from my body is bittersweet. As I yield to him, he swipes his tongue over my kiss-swollen bottom lip, sucking it between his teeth.
“Your moans belong to me,” he whispers, nudging my jaw with his nose, baring my neck to his sharp teeth that gleam in the flickering flames from the fireplace. “You belong to me.”
With his next thrust, he pierces my skin with his incisors and my eyes fly open. I fall apart, spasming around his cock as he continues drinking from me. There’s something so erotic about this moment. To be completely at his mercy.
He rolls us over and fists my hair at the same time his right hand slides down and palms my ass. “Drink from me, sweet angel.”
His pulse flutters steadily beneath my tongue as I drag it up his throat to his ear.
Fuck, he’s perfect.
“Do it, Angel.”
I know without asking that Daemon has never willingly let anyone feed from him before, and it should make me feel good knowing I’m entirely his in this moment, but it hurts instead. Love breaks you apart, piece by piece, and when the storm settles, you’re never the same again.
As I sink my teeth into his neck, he digs his fingers into my ass. His grip on my hair tightens to the point of pain, but he doesn’t stop me.
“That’s it, baby. Take what you need.”
His coppery taste slides like the finest scotch down my throat, warming my insides and swirling up a storm of complicated emotions. Tears wet my lashes, but I keep drinking, stealing his essence and his heart. More warm and coppery blood pools in my mouth with every heavy thump, awakening the slumbering darkness inside me. I don’t retract my fangs, and as I straighten back up, the blood on my chin trails a path down my throat, chest, and in between the swell of my breasts. Rising up on my knees, I guide his cock where I need him before sinking back down.
He grunts, his fingers digging into my thighs, his eyes entrapping mine.
My head drops back on a moan.
The slide of his cock, his rough touch, his burning eyes… I won’t survive this, him. “Daemon…”
“Good girl, ride me.”
Our eyes clash, and I dig my nails into his hard chest as I roll my hips. The bed creaks, my breasts bounce, and my breath catches.
I don’t stop.
I ride him faster and harder.
I ride him until my thighs quiver and my hair sticks to the sheen of sweat on my body.
Reaching up, he palms my left tit and tweaks my nipple.
“Daemon,” I moan as he shifts onto his elbow and takes the rosy bud in his mouth.
He swirls his tongue while his gaze burns into me, and the intensity in his brown depths slays me. How can I not hand my heart over to him when he fucks me like he wants to imprint himself on my soul? He doesn’t need to worry; he’s written all over it like felt-tip scribbles on a bathroom stall.
His elongating fangs graze his bottom lip and then he strikes the swell of my breast, but the sharp pain gets swept out to sea with the next roll of my hips. Moaning his name like it’s the holiest of prayers, I fall apart for a second time while clinging to his shoulders.
Daemon shifts me onto my front, pulls my hair, and then sinks into me from behind, chasing his own release. He fucks me hard and fast, letting go of my blonde, tangled strands to grab my neck. The headboard bangs against the wall with every brutal thrust, drowning out my loud moans and his deep grunts.
“Fuck, Angel,” he groans, stilling on top of me as every muscle in his body tenses. Rocking slowly but so fucking deeply, he fills me up with his cum while pushing me down into the pillow with a firm grip on the back of my neck. I take it all. I let him use me until he’s spent and wrung out. Then he collapses beside me, dragging me onto his sweaty chest and wrapping his arms around me. He kisses my head, and it’s so sweet that I squeeze my eyes shut. “I won’t ever let you go.”
That’s what I’m afraid of.
“Sleep, baby,” he whispers, covering us with the blanket as my eyes grow heavy. “We’ll figure it all out tomorrow.”
