With a final lick of his flesh, she howled with release. Rumpel pumped her harder, milking every last drop of pleasure, and as he did so, he thrust his hips upon her. In a moment, a roar sprang from his lips, thundering to the heavens, and their muscles twitched together in the afterglow.
Languid in his arms, breathless and feeling as though she’d run a marathon, she laughed, hiding her face in his chest.
He tipped her chin up and kissed her lips, and she felt the movement of a smile. Then he was out of her arms and the sulfur was back.
“Open your eyes.”
And when she did so, he was as he’d been. Aloof and cold, and haughtily beautiful. His amber eyes literally glowed like the red behind them wasn’t quite yet contained. The smile was nowhere to be seen.
“Be well tomorrow, siren.”
And with that, he was gone.
Chapter Eleven
“Do you think she is the one?” Giles asked as they watched her through the two-way mirror.
Rumpel hadn’t slept at all last night, not after what he and Shayera had done. What he’d done to her. Her scent had saturated his senses, and the desire he’d hoped to quench had only worsened the moment he closed his eyes and remembered her breathy moans, the way her pale skin almost seemed to glow.
The witch’s curse had been nullified by his true demone form, but her charms had been raw and potent, priming him to a level of near delirium. He’d wanted to ruck her skirt up, drop to his knees, and suckle from between her thighs.
He’d known the instant he’d left that he’d have her again. He took no joy in her trial this day.
Rather than walk about the room this time, Shayera knelt and appeared as though she were praying; her fingers were clasped tight and she was murmuring something.
“I do not know, Giles.”
Giles looked astonished, eyebrows lifted and mouth slightly parted. “You do. You know.”
Gripping the armrest, Rumpel leaned forward, his desperation to take her again, to leave this castle, bordered on folly. True enough, she had siren’s blood coursing through her veins, but to a demone prince charms like hers, though powerful, were little more than a nuisance. Like the buzzing of a fly, easily swatted away if one so desired.
“I want her.” He looked to his man, daring him to say something.
“You should not do this then, master.”
The sharp prick of anger was quickly extinguished in the simple fact that it was a truth he could not deny. Miserably, he turned back to stare at her. “I know.”
Squaring his shoulders, Giles pointed to her. “Should I—”
“I should do a great many things, I’d imagine, and if I had a chance to do it over again, perhaps I would make different decisions. But this is the path we’re on now.” Turning his face so that he no longer looked directly at Giles, no longer had to see the censorious gaze, he dipped his head. “Your move, warrior.”
Faithful to a fault, his man had begun to waver into fog when Rumpel growled. “Do not touch her as a man.”
“Aye, massster.” Without a corporeal form to properly enunciate, Giles’s ghostly whisper was the last thing Rumpel heard before the next game began.
Once again the room shifted and Shayera thought she was prepared for anything. Anything but where she suddenly found herself.
“What is…?” Words failed her as the joy of seeing a home she thought never to see again suddenly blazed to life as her family home materialized before her.
“Mother! Father! Briley!” She squealed and ran up the steps, holding her peach-colored gown up so as not be hindered, banging loudly, laughing and crying all at the same time.
Briley’s face was the first one she saw. His little blond head was hidden behind his bedroom door, which was painted a bold yellow, red, and blue. It was based on his favorite superhero, Superman.
His eyes lit up and then he threw himself into her, knocking the breath from her body. But she didn’t care, she was too happy to care. “Briley, oh gods, I’ve missed you, sweet boy. So much. So very, very much.”
She peppered his cheeks with kisses. This may not be real, none of this. But, real or not, he felt warm and alive. His hair smelled of his favorite strawberry-scented shampoo, and his kisses were just as manic and happy as she remembered them.
“I love you,” she cooed, rubbing his silky hair through her fingers.
“Shay Shay.” He smiled the sweetest gap-toothed smile and she dropped to her knees, cuddling him into her body. There’d been a time when he’d done this exact thing with her.
Since the moment Briley had stepped foot into Kingdom, he’d been locked in perpetual youth. Mother had said the boy suffered a malady of the genes on Earth and he’d been instantly cured the moment he’d stepped into the new world, but he’d been terrified of growing up and had begged and pleaded with Danika that he should remain as he was forever, a boy of twelve.
Uncle Kelly, Mother, and Father hadn’t had the heart to deny him, and so here he was, her old-young cousin whom she adored.
“Is this real?” He laughed and nuzzled her throat, sniffing it as he always loved to do.
He claimed she always smelled like flowers and licorice, an odd combination to be sure, but one that seemed to make him happy.