Page 85 of Aberrant Monsters
I’d never used one, though. My stomach fluttered, and the need Lothos’s kiss had kindled between my thighs intensified. “Why are we in here?”
He stood with his back to me, shoulders heaving. “Barathos will expect us to come in here. He’ll be watching to make sure we stay a while, that I’m actually claiming you.”
So the midnight man’s name was Barathos. “Who is he?”
“A prince. An incubus. Powerful. He has impunity to feed at will when on this plane. Only humans are safe. You are not.”
Okay, August, focus. Think past the throb down below. “You told him we had a nova prima contract. What is that?”
“It doesn’t matter. All that matters is that he thinks you belong to me. Besides, we have an oral contract where I feed you sexual energy. He doesn’t have to know it’s not the kind of contract where I feed on your sexual energy.”
“But you just did, didn’t you?”
“I’m sorry, I had to show my claim.”
“I get it. It’s fine.”
He looked at me now, his eyes glowing like embers. “You tasted so fucking good.”
My stomach flipped because he’d never used that kind of language around me before. It sounded good coming out of his beautiful mouth, though. Dirty and wanton and—
Stop it, woman!
He licked his luscious lips. “You tasted of hunger, and the need for sex.”
My traitorous gaze dropped to his groin and the bulge straining against his trousers. My fluttering pulse broke into a canter. “Lothos…”
He crossed the room toward me. “You need to feed, don’t you?”
I pressed my thighs together. “Yes.”
He placed his huge hands either side of my waist and lifted me up, swinging me across the room and onto the leather chaise. “Let me feed you.”
His fingers dug into my thighs, commanding me to open for him. I obliged, and he slid his hips between them, pressing me into the chaise with the weight of his frame before claiming my hungry mouth.
Our kisses usually only had one purpose, to create a channel where his power could funnel into me, but tonight was different. Tonight was a push and pull, tonight my hands roved, touching, feeling, sliding across planes of muscle and diving into his silken hair. Tonight our tongues tangled, our moans echoed off the walls, and his power, his sweet, thick power, slid into my body and saturated my veins. Tonight, we moved against each other in a motion that was primal and as old as time, and then I felt something amber and pure, more powerful than anything I’d ever tasted before.
My chest grew tight, expanding to take this new fulfilling thing. Lothos yanked his mouth from mine, breaking the connection and taking away the source of the power to stare at me with a mixture of lust and horror.
The knot in my chest vanished, leaving me gasping.
“What did you do?” Lothos asked.
A new hunger clawed at my belly, a hunger for the amber stuff. “What was that?”
“Life force. You… You just fed off mine.” He gripped my chin and forced my head back before planting his mouth on mine and drawing from me. My chest tugged again. He moaned, releasing me.
“Oh, fuck, August.” He smoothed my hair back, his gaze like fire as it raked across my skin. “What are you? What the fuck are you?”
I didn’t care, I couldn’t think. I needed more. I needed him to give it to me. My hands went to his waistband, eager to free him, and my mouth found his again.
“August.” He gripped my wrist to stall me. “August, this isn’t you.” He pulled away, putting distance between us.
I cried out in frustration, throwing my head back and staring at the ceiling. My body was on fire. The hunger that I’d been holding back was an inferno in my veins, a deep throbbing in my core. I needed the amber stuff, but I needed it laced with the crimson sexual energy Lothos provided.
“Lothos…help me. Make it stop.”
He approached and crouched beside me, his gaze warm and sympathetic. “I’m an incubus, August, and I’ve been as controlled around you as I can, but I can’t do this. I can’t feed you when you’re like this. I don’t trust myself not to lose control and feed off you. I don’t trust myself not to hurt you.” He ran his fingers down my cheek. “Your power…Your life force… Sexual energy is enough, but life force is the ambrosia, and yours…Oh, August.” He turned his head away.
