Seduction was what he did. “Your views on this are naïve. Not surprisingly.”
She pulled on her T-shirt. “Your loss.”
He was fine with his life right now. Or, at least, not utterly miserable, as Dalli had said. Any other male would kill to have Rune’s existence, traveling worlds, warring, and swiving new females each night.
Now this vampire wanted to change Rune once more? “You’ve known me for four days—and you were passed out for two of them. Yet you think you know me well enough to have a relationship?”
She shrugged. Yes, Rune. “I know I won’t sleep with a guy without a commitment first.”
“Naïve,” he repeated. “I’ll talk you out of this. Like I said, we’re going to work on your jealousy issues.”
“I vow to the Lore I will never have sex with you unless we’re—”
He traced in an instant, putting his palm over her mouth. Exclusive? “Don’t say that word. You do not mean it.”
She squirmed from his grip. “You sound terrified!”
“Have you not learned your lesson? These vows are not to be played with.”
“Okay, okay. You know how I feel on the matter.” She fetched her combat boots and socks. “And you know how stubborn I can be.”
“Demons need sex multiple times a day,” he informed her, stating a fact well known by Loreans. Did he believe she was a Forbearer? Not particularly. But he believed she knew as little as they did. “I’m going on days without.” Not since the four nymphs.
When he recalled that rendezvous, he felt not even a twitch below the belt. But imagining Josephine up against that courtyard wall as he pistoned between her thighs got his shaft so stiff, it pained him. “Don’t you even want to try to land me through sex?”
She stomped into her boots. “Pass.”
No matter. Her resistance now would make her eventual surrender all the more rewarding. He turned to the set of drawers, opening one. Inside was a backpack and a scrapbook with the edges of pictures sticking out. She’d drawn abstract designs on the cover.
She sidled in front of him, closing the drawer with her hip. “I’m ready.”
“Now I know where to look when I return.” So many secrets for a master to uncover.
“Better make sure your return doesn’t have anything to do with the mission to kill Nïx, or I’ll never get to drink again.”
What if he went to a nymph covey and Nïx showed up? If he killed the Valkyrie there, that assassination would trigger Josephine’s vow! How could he leave the vampire at all? Again, the pressure to kill Nïx weighed on him. “Come, then. We need to start hunting. Besides, I’m keen to leave this pitiful place.”
“Go to hell, Ruin.”
His shoulders tensed. “I told you not to call me that.” The vampire did not want to challenge him, not when he was still hard from watching her change and his demon half suffered from lack of sex. Not when their futures were becoming more entangled with every hour. Pressure increased from all sides. “So shut the fuck up.”
Her eyes went wide. “You shut the fuck up, Ruin.”
Gods, she was sexy when pissed. “I wasn’t jesting about tanning your ass, little girl.” Picturing that got his demon in a lather.
She gave a haughty laugh. “Try it, old man.”
Her defiance . . . it called up his every primal need to pin her down and make her submit. To cover her and rut till the pressure within him relented. “You wouldn’t be able to sit for days.”
“I dare you, Ruin.” She shoved at his chest with a flash of her fangs.
Like flipping some kind of switch.
The demon in him reacted outside of Rune’s control. He lunged at her, one hand gripping the back of her head, the other palming her ass as they flew into the wall. Cinder blocks cracked. He trailed his lips down her neck. “You defy me?” She wouldn’t if I marked her. She’d be too busy coming, surrendering. “When I’m so much stronger than you?” She’d respect the male who mastered her.
“Wall’s still standing. Is that all you got, limp dick?”
He shoved between her legs. “I’ve got your fucking limp—AHHH!”
She’d sunk her sharp little fangs into his neck.
He threw back his head. Fighting not to come at once, he growled, “You can’t get enough of me!”
She nodded, lapping and sucking.
“Ah, gods, that’s it, baby. Drink me. I want you to swallow me down.” Using his grip on her ass to hold her in place, he rocked his swollen shaft between her thighs. I need on her, in her.
She couldn’t seem to get close enough to him either. Her claws dug into his back, her legs locking around his waist.