Page 63 of Interior Design for Demons
A guttural, primal sound ripples through his chest, and his delicate features sharpen with ruthless intent. He may be a more elegant sort than Rath—the panther instead of the lion—but he can be just as violent.
Only when I ask him to.
He picks me up bodily, with such astonishing strength that I let out a shrill gasp. He hooks my thighs over his shoulders—my center is level with his face, and his tongue writhes into me. It feels so good I bite my wrist hard to keep from screaming. His claws are out again, and their points dent the flesh of my rear, tiny pricks of pain that somehow make the pleasure he’s giving me even sweeter. I’ve never sworn so much in my life. The crest of the pleasure is coming closer—I can see it, I’m almost there—right on the edge—
And then he drops me, right into the human-hair grass. I mew in protest and move my hand to finish myself, but Apollyon’s whip whistles through the air, stinging the backs of my knuckles.
“Not until I let you,” he says. “Take off your clothes.”
When I don’t obey at once, he cracks the whip again, with a savage grin. “Do as I say, dove.”
Once I squirm out of the bra and miniskirt, I’m standing naked and vulnerable in the dark, in this creepy field. Anyone could walk between the carnival tents and see me standing here, exposed. He’s still fully dressed, looking way too sexy in his ringmaster’s outfit. He must have left the hat in the tent—his hair flows and shimmers in the faint breeze.
“Spread your legs, Grace,” he says. “And put your hands behind your head.”
I’m trembling, half fear and half scintillating arousal. I obey, and Apollyon stalks around me, inspecting every inch of my body. I hope to god I shaved well enough and there are no stubbly spots—
His whip slithers across my backside, caressing—then a crack and a light sting. A sharp tingle of delight races through my core, and I nearly come. It’s a shock to me that pain could trigger pleasure like that.
Apollyon circles to face me again, and he whips my breasts lightly—a quick sting, nothing really painful. I can tell he’s being extra careful with me, since I’m not used to this kind of treatment.
Then the whip laces between my legs, a trailing caress, and my insides pulse, nearly there but torturouslynot quite.
“Apollyon,” I plead softly, and I give him the look that he loves.
He laughs lightly, tosses the whip aside, and sinks to his knees in that beautiful ridiculous coat. He licks the area around my new belly piercing, then trails his tongue lower, along my shuddering skin. Almost there. Almost to that spot.
“Please…” I whisper.
He pauses, looking up at me. “So you don’t love me then?”
“Monster,” I murmur. “This is blackmail.”
“Oh, absolutely.” He breathes on me, and I squirm. “You see, Grace, I find myself in the unprecedented position ofneedingyour love.” A tender kiss,almostin the right place. “What kind of worship would convince you to let yourself love me?”
“I thought I asked you to stop being gentle,” I gasp.
“I’m trying.” He laughs wonderingly. “I am compelled to cherish you. It’s all very odd. But if you insist—”
He seizes me by the shoulders, throws me down into the waving hair-grass, and unzips his pants. One clawed hand lands on my stomach, grazing long red scratches along my skin as he pulls me to him, rams himself inside me. The force of his thrusts steals my breath. One of my legs is thrown over his right shoulder, and he bites my ankle, sending a tiny trickle of blood over the delicate bones there. That little burst of crisp pain, coupled with the delicious surging friction of him inside my body, propels me over the edge and I crash into bliss. Apollyon spreads a hand over my breast, talons almost piercing the soft flesh.
“I’m nowhere near done with you yet,” he hisses.
Apollyon hasn’t come yet, but he pulls out, crawls over me, kisses me through the ebbing of my orgasm. I whimper into his mouth—I’ve never tasted anything like the cool sweetness of him. When I cut my tongue on one of his sharp teeth, he heals it instantly.
“I’m ruined for anyone else,” I murmur over his lips.
“Mission accomplished.” He kisses me again, harder, open-mouthed, like he’s yearning to crawl inside me, to exhale his soul into my body. I’m barely conscious that my back is being pressed deeper into the hair-grass, that it’s brushing and caressing along my sides.
Apollyon drags himself down my body again, nuzzling between my breasts, teasing their tips with his fangs, biting lightly into the sensitive curve of flesh along my side, right below my waist. He licks my jutting hipbones, grazing them with his teeth. Then he flips me over, rakes his claws along my back, and I moan because it feels so amazing, so satisfying. He takes two generous handfuls of my rear, drags me against his hips, and sinks hilt-deep inside me again.
There’s something unbearably erotic about being helplessly pounded from behind by someone as strong and beautiful as him. He reaches under me, and a claw-tip trails along my chest, my stomach—a sharp wicked line down to the place where another climax is swirling, tightening, clenching, shattering, and throbbing. Apollyon pulls me against his chest as he comes too, holding me tight, and if I could sink through his flesh and be part of the molten core of him, I would.
Another rush of ecstasy, like waves racing into the beach, one after another, glittering spirals through my stomach. Apollyon’s harsh breaths break ragged in my ear as he jerks inside me, again and again. My belly is quivering, quaking with the flooding pleasure. I never want it to stop. If there’s a heaven, I think it should feel like this, always, for eternity.
When it’s finally over, Apollyon doesn’t let me rest. He drags me to a small dark tent, lights a lantern, and splays me on his ringmaster’s coat while he teases me to another climax, until the muscles of my abdomen are deliciously sore from spasming delight. I’m spent and floppy, too limp to move. My skin has been scratched and bitten and bruised, but I don’t mind, not when it’s him.
“I can heal you if you like,” he says, trailing gentle fingertips along my hipbone.
