Sinners' Kingdom #1: The Book of Lust (Complete)

20

We stood in the middle of a blizzard even more violent than the snowstorm we had just exited stage right on. In the three silent seconds that followed, snow and ice piled on my head and shoulders and froze my hair together.

"... What did you just do."

In response, warm arms enveloped me, strong and muscular. Immediately, heat flowed from the fire-hot body pressed against my back and warmed me from head to toe. Some of the ice frosting the tips of my hair even turned to water before trickling down my clothes.

"We'll have to get you somewhere more comfortable," Lust murmured in my ear. His breath tickled me with intimate warmth, and when I tried to twitch away from him, his arms only tightened even more. "I was hoping for a place we could relax and you could get to know me a little more, but that would have been too easy, I suppose."

"You didn't answer the question. What did you just do, and why are we standing in the freaking mountains right now."

I meant to put all my strength into my voice and bring him to heel with pure assertiveness, but the chattering of my teeth ruined it at the end. It was so frigid here that I'd lost the feeling in my toes just in the first few seconds of materializing. Thanks to the unnatural heat spreading from Lust's body to mine, I would be spared any frostbite -- I hoped? -- but the wind still cut my face like icy claws, slashing right down to the bone.

"We were pulled to the next closest shard of my true form, of course. We traveled through my reflection and wound up here. Naturally, the shard is close by, so very soon, you'll be safe and sound again... No one will take you from me."

He kissed the side of my neck, moving aside my hair. Okay, then. Because everything he said made perfect sense, obviously.

"We're in the middle of the mountains," I repeated. "Where even is this? The Alps?"

"Hm? My knowledge of human names for geography is a little lacking, but no. This is likely one of the hidden mountain ranges in the human realm, revealed only to those with magic strong enough to enter through the wards. This place is flooded with magical power."

"Hidden mountain rang -- wards? Okay. You know what? Let's find shelter first. You can explain more about these shards when we're there." Probably weapons or dangerous artifacts or something. You never knew with demons. "Which way? I'm assuming since you brought us here, you know where to go next."

"Ah... I'm just as surprised as you are to end up here, my love. But you're right to think I have an idea of our destination. I spy with my little eye... a temple of some kind. Do you see that over there?"

"A temple?" I narrowed my eyes and peered hard past the wall of rushing snow and wind. Strange how they all melted into rain before they could land on me, but I might as well enjoy the perks of being attached to a demon. A fugitive on the run from witch hunters, my past coming back to haunt me, long-lost legacies of the infamous Lilith and, what the hell, even Adam and Eve -- "Yeah, I see it. But that doesn't look like an ordinary temple to me."

"An ordinary temple?"

"It's way too big."

The heated chuckle he breathed against my ear made me feel like we were talking about something very different from temples, and maybe something much closer to the hardness pressing against the small of my back right now.

"Don't even think about it," I threatened. "You pull that out again and I'll wring it off. We're going to that building and we're going to shelter from the elements, and then I'm going to think about my next move. And we're going to leave now before I turn into an icicle. Whatever trick you're using to keep me warm is great, but it's starting to fade already."

"Mm... yes, my vitality is draining little by little. I'll need to retrieve my shard soon. But Sable... I think I rather like the effect the chill has on you." His hand slid up my belly, and before I could stop him, he covered my breast and pressed down on the hardened crest hiding under my clothes. I gasped when he dragged his fingernail over it next, making my nipple tighten even more through the layers.

"Get off of me! I told you--"

"Get off of you? But we have to stay close, or else you'll freeze without my warmth. I have a better idea."

He lifted me out of the snow that had begun melting in a slushy pile around us and cradled me in his arms. With a whirl of the long robe he wore that had become black and red -- when did that happen? -- he turned us toward the temple's direction. He stretched out his arm in a forward sweeping motion, clawed fingers pointed, and a melted path drove through the snow directly ahead of us, a powdery white trail.

"We'll be there before you know it," he purred. "Patience, Sable."