Page 78 of Another Damned Storm
A spike of fear rocketed through me, threatening to steal my pleasure, along with the confidence Hook had been so diligently reminding me to have in myself.
“Look at me.” His voice was rough, strained, like he was barely holding on.
I did as he said, unable to recall when I’d let my eyes slip closed.
He searched my gaze. “I trust you.”
He slammed into me, hitting a spot that sent tingles up my spine and had me dragging my short nails down his shoulders.
With a grunt, he said, “Breathe, Never. Hold onto your control.”
The warning in the order pulled me up short, and I glanced down to see blood trickling from deep scratches on his shoulders.Did I do that?
Guilt slithered through me.
“Never,” he cursed under his breath as he hiked me up a little higher and drove deep. “I trust you,” he growled. Determination pummeled me through our connection.
He thrust again, and I screamed. Fuck me, I was so close. Between the command in his voice, the pleasure of his body, and his unwavering faith in me, he had me dangling at the edge of overwhelm.
I let my head fall back against the trunk. “Hook, please,” I breathed. I needed release. My body, mind, and soul were desperate for it.
The tree’s heart-shaped leaves shuddered with every spark-inducing impact that followed. His ragged breath on my neck became my new favorite sound in all the worlds, and when I finally broke, my orgasm created a blaze that rolled through me, consuming every worry, fear, and rational thought in its wake.
He came with a groan a few seconds later, his cock buried to the hilt and his teeth biting my shoulder hard enough to leave marks. And to add fuel to that delicious fire, his emotions flooded into me unchecked, filling every dark corner inside me. I’d never wanted to be owned or claimed, but this man’s primal possessiveness was its own kind of ecstasy.
26
HOOK
After taking Never against a tree like a true heathen, I carried her inside the small cabin and settled her on the springy bed before going back out to gather her clothes.
Between the fight, battling her own fear, and our rough intimacy, she was worn out. And true to her stubborn form, she insisted she was fine. The woman would run herself into the ground given the chance, but what she didn’t realize was that she was a long way from mastering her energy expenditure.
Fighting a demon of Lapalme’s caliber was no small feat. Calling upon as much power as she had—which still astounded me—was a surefire way to drain her resources in record time. Because his power came from the original source of dark magic: the Alius. It was the realm from which all true blooded demons were born, and Lapalme was amongst the oldest of his kind.
And yet, despite having as much life experience as Emerson and Theloneus, his development had clearly taken a very different path. He was selfish, entitled, and I would wager a narcissist at his core.
It boggled the mind that he gave any concern to his demonbrothers accepting him back into the fold. I would have expected someone like him to be much happier as a lone wolf.
Or a dictator.
I walked back into the quaint cabin to find Never fast asleep, and a smile ghosted my lips. Her rest wouldn’t last long, I suspected. Even now, I could feel the urgency pulling her through her dreams. For as badly as she’d been frightened by her demon side surging to the fore, it had only amplified her desire to fix all that was broken in her world.
I sat on the bed beside her, brushing a strand of hair from her face. Fixing things would mean losing her to the Alius, and I had yet to find a way to prevent that from happening.
Stripping my power from her wasn’t an option. Her life was tangled up with my magic now, as was my own. That didn’t leave me many options.
And if she made the decision to return to the Alius for good, I would have none.
A hollow ache spread through my chest like an omen, but I pushed it down. I had her now. That was what I needed to focus on. That and making sure we found a way to keep her family safe. I was confident I could convince Never to forgive herself for losing control and attacking me. The wounds she’d inflicted were ephemeral. But if she lost control with her brother or his daughter or Lily?
Eternity was a terribly long time to carry that kind of guilt.
I bent and pressed a gentle kiss to her forehead. Now, I just had to hope she would forgive me for what I was about to put her through.
I flashed first to Lily’s sanctuary. Fortunately, it took very little convincing to bring her on board with my plan. Matt, on the other hand, was a touch less receptive.
He leaned back against the door in the small quarters he’d reserved for Never and myself, his arms crossed over his chest. “If I’m hearing you right, you want to use me as bait in order to rile my sister up enough to make her uncontrollable. Do you get how insane that sounds?”
