Page 33 of Between Soul and Vessel
“You’re always such a good boy,” she cooed softly as she stepped into me. Reaching up, she traced the macabre scars that marred my face, put there by her own hand. “You are hauntingly beautiful, my champion. You have the bone structure of an angel, but the scars of a demon.” She paused briefly, a hint of longing seeping into her voice. “If only I had been the one to create you. I would have placed my soul on my anvil, cracked it in half, and placed it right . . .” Her hand slid from my face, over my chin, down my neck, stopping at my chest. “Here.”
“You are the beautiful one, Your Majesty,” I said, the compliment poison on my tongue.
There wasnothingbeautiful about her.
“Avena,” she corrected. “When will you call me by my name?”
“When I no longer respect you,” I told her, adding to my pile of lies.
“A day that will never come,” she spoke confidently as she started toward the sofa. “Come. Sit with me.”
Obliging her request, I followed her.
The leather-wrapped cushion sighed under my weight as I sat down.
She placed the mask on the table and turned toward me, her blonde hair spilling over her shoulders. Propping her elbow on the back of the sofa, she used her hand to rest her chin. “The ladies were impressed by you tonight,” she said. “Not that that should come as a surprise.” She took another sip of her drink. “In fact, one of them made a bold request.”
“Oh?” I asked.
One second, she was reaching forward, sliding her cup onto the coffee table, and in the next, she was in my lap, her legs spread on either side of mine. She draped her arms over my shoulders. Leaning forward, she whispered in my ear, “She asked me how much it would cost her to ride you.”
Her tongue ran over the shell of my ear, the heat of her breath scalding against my skin. Unbearable. Yet, I sat there, pretending I liked it.
She pulled back, her eyes flashing with malevolence. “Do you want to know what I said to her?”
“Yes,” I replied, playing along.
“I told her that if she ever asked me anything like that again, she’d find a sword in her belly, not your cock.” Bolts of lightning sparked from the corners of her eyes, her immense power flashing throughout the room.
Instantly, the fire went out, as if it were scared to burn in her presence.
Her power recoiled and her expression softened. She held my face, bringing her mouth a breath from mine. “You are the one thing that I will never share with anyone. You belong to me, Shadow.” With a kiss, she seared her claim against my lips.
I closed my eyes, thinking of Avriel. I pretended it was her heart-shaped mouth I was kissing. I started off gentle, slowly building in speed, until it became rapturous.
“Mmmmmm,” the empress hummed in approval, taking me out of my fantasy—
No, it’s Avriel,I lied to myself until I believed it was the truth.
Until it really was just . . . us.
Avriel’s body began to move against mine, her hips grinding her sex against my stiffening cock. My fingers ran up the length of her side, over her shoulder, bunching in her hair. Gently, I pulled her head back, exposing her beautiful neck to me. I licked and nipped my way down it, gently scraping my teeth along the sensitive flesh.
The empress moaned.
It’s Avriel!I roared inside my head, trying so fucking desperately to hold on to the lie.
“Open your eyes,” the empress rasped the command. “Look at me.”
Unwillingly, I forced them open, looking up at her as I kissed her neck. My teeth throbbed—not because I wanted to drink from her, but because I wanted to plunge them into her throat and rip it out.
“Always my good boy,” she purred. Her words made me want to throw up. “Now, it’s time for your reward.”
In a flash, we were both on her bed, the fur against my back and her on top of me—our clothes gone, swept away by her ribbons of light. Her sex rested against mine. Her arousal leaked onto the base of my length, which was beginning togo soft—not enough that she would notice, but enough that I knew I needed to do something before she did.
The empress did not take kindly to males who couldn’t stay erect in her presence, her ego would not have it. Her rules were simple—no erection? No cock. No head. No soul.
Eager to keep all of those things, I began to stroke my length.
