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

47

Powerful arms encircled me. The movement was so fluid that I didn't register Lust's hands leaving my hips at first, how he went from insidiously pulling apart the edges of the robe he'd given me, to... embracing me, tightly. He pulled me against his chest and tucked my head under his chin in a possessive hold, dwarfing me like a dark cloak, heavy and hot. The cold resentment in my chest didn't go away, lodged too deeply for anything to remove it now, but his touch was Infernal, literally magic. So of course, my blood sang for him, coursing faster through me with every quickening beat of my heart.

Demon. Incubus. I hadn't wanted to believe it at first, but denying it only put me in greater danger. At least like this, I had one more barrier between us, the dread, one more layer of resistance before he penetrated every piece of armor and infected me with his corruption.

Don't fall for it, I told myself. Don't fall for whatever he says next.

"Use you?" he whispered. "You say it like it's so easy, love. You say it like I can wear you then discard you, like you aren't always wrapped around my senses and strangling them until all I can feel is you, you, you. And I love it, my Sable. I can never have enough. You've killed me from the moment I laid eyes on you, and I've been a dead man ever since. Now I only feel alive like this, when I'm touching you. Possessing you. Mine, Sable. For as long as we live."

I closed my eyes. It made no difference since I couldn't see, but closing them made me feel stronger, more resolved. And right now, I needed that more than anything, something to lean on so I didn't buckle and become swept up in the rich, low murmur of his voice whispering along my neck. Goosebumps prickled over my skin, and my nipples tightened as his treacherous breath ghosted over my nape.

Say something. I had to break this spell, this hypnotic seduction. I wouldn't let him fold me without resistance again. If I did this, I went in with eyes wide open this time. I swore it.

"... You're not even a man at all." It took everything I had to eke the words out, a flimsy retort.

But all he did was laugh. "Why is that? Because I'm not human?"

"You're... demon."

"A demon can be man. You know it all too well, don't you, my love. You couldn't possibly forget so easily."

Oh, God. My body. Everything was so much worse now that my sight was gone, too sensitive, too vulnerable, too everything. Even the sensation of my pulse throbbing in my neck overwhelmed me. He had to know. He had to know exactly what he was doing, whether it was intentional or just his passive aura — but he showed no remorse. When I tried to turn my head away from him, he wrapped himself even more tightly around me, crushing the very breath out of my lungs. But I couldn't think about needing something as banal as air right now. The piercing, searing, lightning-hot anticipation sliding up between my legs took over, demanding every speck of awareness in my head. My skin was still damp from my bath and rubbed raw from how hard I had scrubbed, and now I regretted it: even the slightest little shift of Lust's body against mine made me want to cry, moan, scream, beg for it to stop, begging for more, begging for anything but this —

"I'm not eloquent enough to tell you all the ways you have killed me, my Sable," he whispered. "I can only show you a little of the ecstasy of it. Won't you let me in again? Won't you let me remind you..."

His hand was suddenly inside the robe with no warning. The small moan that escaped me when he dragged his heated palm and clawed fingertips across my belly was pathetic, the helpless little mewl of an injured kitten, or maybe a frightened one. And I was frightened. I should be. A demon, a Prince of demons, was holding me down and telling me things so crazy that I couldn't help but listen even though I knew better than to believe them. This was a first-class Infernal monster who would consume me without a second thought if he thought it served him best. This was the enemy and tormentor who had driven me to this state in the first place, turning me into a fugitive, a criminal, an aider and abettor to Infernal intentions when all I'd wanted was a peaceful life away from my past.

All of that... and I was still falling, falling, body overheating as Lust's magic swelled in my veins and ate up every piece of me until there was nothing left.

Every time, he did this. Every time, I fell.

"Help me," he whispered, but the whisper was a desperate plea and I'd never heard him sound like that before. "Sable, it can't be anyone but you, anymore. It can only be you."

"Stop it." My voice was broken, cracked with anger and desperation. "Just — do it, okay? I don't want to hear any of this. Why are you bothering? Just do it! You're going to, no matter what I say anyway, aren't you!"

"I can't stop it, love. I can't slow down. I'm trying, but something's changed. I can't..." He rocked into me, grinding me back against him. The rigid heat pressing up into me grew even hotter. "Sable, how do I make you believe me? I'm always on the brink now, because of you. Only you. Tell me you don't feel it. Tell me you don't know that you've turned me into this."

"I didn't do — ngh! — anything to you."

"You could. You could do anything to me you wish. I'll take it all, Sable, every drop."

My teeth clenched as he dragged the tip of a forked tongue down the side of my neck, twisting and caressing as he tasted my skin. I swallowed the lone moan that almost made it out when he slipped the hand on my belly down, down, down, teasing just above my clit, while his other hand rubbed high up my inner thigh, coaxing my legs apart with harder and harder strokes. The subtle drag of his claw tips against my bare skin was menacing, dark, too dangerous especially with how close it was to my vulnerable center, but the thought alone made another rush of damp arousal swirl down from my belly. The thought of him putting his fingers in me when they were like that was terrifying, but the closer they stroked and scraped, the harder they pressed and rubbed, the more my body shivered and succumbed, preparing for him with needy, throbbing pulses.

"It can only be you." His voice was nothing but a raspy half-groan now as he thrust up toward me again. "There is no one else anymore. Only you, love."

Bullshit! Bullshit, all of it, from beginning to end. This must be how an incubus reeled in its thralls, for all I knew. And even if it wasn't, why would I ever believe a demon? Why would I believe someone who stalked me until I almost went crazy, then cornered me until I had no choice but to enter a contract with him? Everything he'd ever said to convince me I was special, I'd never believed it from the start, and I wouldn't start now.

Besides, did he think I'd forgotten what he tried to do to me earlier? Did he think I would write it off like it was nothing, just an accident? He was a demon, and I'd known demons could never be trusted, but I could still hold him accountable. I would never let him worm his way into me, and no matter how deeply his aura penetrated my body and soul, I would harbor that black coal lump of resentment forever. What a joke. If not for fucking Mammon intervening, the enemy, what would have happened? After brutalizing me, would he have lain there and asked me that same stupid question — won't you let me in again?

Oh, God — I bucked against his hand, choking back a sobbing moan when he slipped between my lips and grazed my entrance with a half-sharp fingertip. He did it again, coaxing it open, teasing me, making it flutter and tense as his other hand dragged up my belly toward my breasts. But it only danced underneath them with taunting caresses before turning away. A few tugs later, the robe hitched up around my waist, all of its voluminous folds somehow tucked away just right. Now there was nothing between our lower bodies as he thrust against me again, rubbing his hard, thick cock against my lower back with harder jerks of his hips each time.

Melting. I was melting, and if I grew any hotter my whole body would blacken and char all at once, burn to a crisp under the demanding push and pull of his hands. I would do anything to end this. I would do anything to reach the peak his touch promised. I had already sold my body to him — how many times now? And every time, he had given me more, more, more...

I surrendered this time. Again. But when it was all over, I vowed to be sickened by him. Any momentary sympathy and camaraderie I felt towards him had already disappeared. From now on, I would train myself to hate him, fill my head with a constant mantra of it until even just the sound of his name was unbearable. This hot, heady, overwhelming pleasure tingling all over my body as he peeled back the robe from my shoulders and slid it out from between us would vanish, and then I would be able to think straight enough to remember to hate him after. I had to. I refused to accept anything else. Refused...

"I'll show you," Lust whispered. "I only hope you're ready for me, my sweet. Now spread your legs."