Page 37 of Taken to the Deadlands

Do you resent me?

The words circled my mind over and over again with no reprieve. We just watched as Yien went through the house, destroying six more wraiths before she went back to her world.

We had days together where we just…lived.Days of sleeping next to Aris in the most restful sleep I had gotten since coming here. Days of traveling her realm. Days of trying new foods. Days of listening to her stories and learning that, although she was a demon, we might not be that different in the end.

We hadn’t talked about Cara. Nor had we mentioned anything about the humans she had murdered. We ignored all the obvious things that threatened the peace we had here.

But still, I couldn’t get her words out of my mind.

Even as her arms wrapped around me and her lips trailed my shoulder, I couldn’t stop thinking. I didn’t resent her, but I couldn’t put my emotions into words either.

The real question was…Would she resentme?

After she found out that I had lied to her, then what? Would she feel betrayed? Would she be angry?

She might end up being both, but I somehow knew that she would do anything in her power to keep me safe anyway.

“What if we never make contact?” I asked, my voice barely above a whisper.

We were in her bedroom again. We were supposed to be sleeping, but we never really cared to. Not when my body seemed to hum whenever she even so much as brushed her hand against my skin.

She stalled before her hand grabbed my thigh and hooked it over her leg, opening me so my pussy was bared to her. The image of her between my legs only caused me to grow wetter.

Nothing could stop my reaction to her. Not wraiths. Not ghosts of her old companions. Nothing.

We didn’t bother with clothes in bed anymore. And now that Aris had gotten used to my scent, she hadn’t needed the muzzle.

I gasped when her hand touched my cunt. My body was always ready for her to play with. It didn’t matter the time of day nor how many times we had already fucked, as soon as her hands brushed my hips or her lips trailed kisses on my neck, I was already melting for her.

It made this whole thing that much harder.

“Then I’ll have an excuse to keep you here,” she whispered. Her fingers brushed across my clit teasingly.

My heart skipped a beat.An excuse.

“You would keep me?” I asked. She hummed against my skin. My nipples raised to points at the sound, and a shaky breath forced itself from my lips.

“Is it wrong for me to want to?” she asked. “I haven’t felt like this in decades. I can’t imagine this realm without you.” She paused, her hands trailing down my cunt before teasing my wet entrance. “Unless you want to leave me?”

She pushed her fingers in just enough to tease me, but not enough to give me any relief. My clit was swollen and aching,just begging for her touch. I tried to buck against her, but she wouldn’t move.

“Tell me,Mia.”

God,the way my name sounded from her lips was enough to cause my head to spin.

Of course I want to leave… right?

I had a cat, a shop, alifeto get back to. Aris had been so open about giving me the chance to go back there from the start that there was no reason to believe she was lying about it.

“Aris, I?—“

My voice cut out when she forced two fingers inside me. She wasn’t gentle this time as she fucked me. She knew how to make me come after weeks of being together, and she employed all the tricks she had learned. Her tongue trailed my skin. Her fingers circled inside me. Her thumb abused my engorged clit.

“Your pause tells me everything I need to know,” her voice had turned hard. “Don’t worry, I’ll fuck you good until then. So even when you leave here, you’ll still find yourself aching for me.”

I cried out as my orgasm hit me faster than it ever had before. I shook against her as my pussy clamped down on her fingers, but even as I came, she made no move to stop. If anything, she picked up the pace.

“Aris, too much?—“

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