Demon King (Claimed By Lucifer Book 1)(22)

Finally, he sighed. “Oh, Hannah. Answering your questions is like opening Pandora’s box all over again. Once you learn these truths, there is no turning back from them. Are you sure you want to go down this path?”

I’d never been more certain of anything in my life. “I need to know.”

He nodded, his mouth twisting in a grimace. Then he rose to his feet, making me look up at his tall height. “Let’s adjourn to the other room for this conversation.”

I stood and he rested his hand on my lower back, the slight pressure sending heat between my thighs. Together we returned to the living room and I sank into one of the leather couches, while he perched beside me, his hand lingering on my knee.

“We’ve had this conversation hundreds of times, and yet it never gets any easier,” Lucifer mused to himself. “You’d think I would have a script by now, wouldn’t you?”

My brow furrowed. He wasn’t making any sense. “What do you mean?”

Lucifer took both my hands in his and gazed into my eyes. “I told you I once had a great love, but I lost her. That love was you.”

“Me?” I asked, even though his words rang with truth inside me. “Was it before the accident? Is that why I don’t remember you?”

He shook his head. “No, it was before even that. Before this life.”

I blinked at him. “I don’t understand.”

“Hannah, you have lived many lives, going back thousands of years.”

“Like…reincarnation?”

“Exactly. And in each life, you’re my mate. My destiny. My heart.”

My pulse raced fast as he talked. I looked deep into his emerald green eyes, and I couldn’t stop the feeling of falling. “Your mate?”

“Yes. Demons sometimes have fated mates, as do a few select angels, including Fallen. It’s rare, but it happens.”

“Like a soulmate…” I said slowly, feeling the rightness of it deep inside me, even as it sounded too impossible to be true.

He leaned closer, close enough that my gaze dropped to his lips, wondering if he would kiss me again. “We’re meant, through all eternity, to be together. It is our fate. Our destiny. And our curse.”

His words stirred something within me, something primal and true. The feeling of falling increased, and I gripped tighter to his hands, knowing he’d catch me. Everything he said was unbelievable, but then again, I’d thought the same thing about demons a few days ago. And with each word, it felt like a light was going off inside me, like something old and powerful finally waking up.

I closed my eyes and breathed in, searching deep in my soul. I always trusted my gut, and it told me that Lucifer wasn’t lying. That everything he said, about reincarnation and destiny and mates, was all true, no matter how insane it sounded. Of course, that only brought up more questions.

“Is that why I was attacked?” I asked.

“Yes—because they know you’re important to me. And why you could defend yourself so easily.”

I stood up and began pacing as his words sank in, resonating inside me. “How many lives? How many times have I died and been reborn?”

“Hundreds. Sometimes we only get a few days before I lose you again. Sometimes we get many happy years together.” He stood, but didn’t come any closer, like he sensed I needed space. “I’m hoping this will be one of the better lives.”

“And we’re together in all of them?”

“Yes, Hannah. Every time you die, I wait for you to be reborn. Those years without you feel endless, and my heart withers and dies, only to return to life once I find you again. And I always do. I find you, I claim you, and I love you, in an endless cycle.”

“Why?” I asked, the only word that came to my lips. “Why me?”

“Because you’re mine.” He stepped forward and took my face in his hands. “You've been mine since you took your first breath, and you'll be mine after you take your last. We are inevitable.”

The truth settled over me like a warm blanket. I still didn’t remember anything from before the accident, but everything he said felt…right, somehow. Like a truth I’d always known deep inside me. Some part of me had recognized him from the first time we’d met, and even though I should be terrified of Lucifer, I wasn’t. Not anymore.

“You find me.” It wasn’t a question. My soul knew it was true. “Every time.”

“Always.” He looked at me with such longing, it cracked a piece of my soul. Something kept me from remembering him, a bitter torture that wouldn’t clear from my mind. Maybe this would do it.

Pushing my mouth against his, I kissed the devil with everything I had in me. I was ready to give it all to him. He cupped a hand around the back of my neck and drew me in close, taking control of my mouth. His tongue slipped past my lips, and I knew the feeling. I’d felt it before. Not from another man, but from him. Always him. Lucifer.

My mind might not remember him, but my body sure did. And it craved more.





15





Hannah





Need pulsed inside my veins and heat pooled in my core as Lucifer’s kiss dominated me. His arms shifted around my waist, and he lifted me with an ease I still couldn’t believe. My nipples ached as they pressed against his hard chest, and he carried me across the room while plundering my mouth with his tongue like he owned it.

He set me on the very edge of the large, black piano and finally broke the kiss to look at me with his infernal eyes. His hand found the thigh-high slit on my long dress, and he dipped a finger under it, stroking my skin. Teasing me. A master of temptation.

Then he grabbed the slit and tugged the fabric, grunting in pure male satisfaction as it ripped easily in his strong hands. The act was so surprising and carnal, I gasped. Then he removed his own jacket with quick, determined motions, like a man about to get down to business. The business of claiming me.

With strong hands he gripped my thighs and spread them apart, flashing him a peek of my dark red thong. I reached out and grabbed his expensive white shirt, the buttons digging into my palms as I pulled him close. The piano was the exact right height for him to fit between my legs and press his hard bulge against my core. I wrapped my legs around him, and his reaction was visceral as he let loose a low growl.

His lips brushed my ear. “I can’t hold back if you do that.”

I ground myself against him slowly, looking up at him with a challenge. “Don’t hold back.”

That glorious fire glinted in his eyes again, a turn-on even now that I knew what it was, and he pulled me closer, lifting me from the piano. I tightened my legs and twined my arms around his neck, running my tongue over the dark stubble along his jaw as he carried me toward his bedroom. Need pounded through my body. I couldn’t remember ever being this desperate to be with someone.

When my mouth reached Lucifer’s ear, I bit it— perhaps a little bit harder than I would’ve if I hadn’t known he was the devil. His growl returned, and the next thing I knew, my back hit his plush mattress hard. Lucifer stood above me in the low light of his room, radiating power and control in his black suit, his face dark and his eyes hungry. For me.

With slow, measured movements, he yanked at the tie on his neck and removed it, while his eyes never left my face. My mouth watered, and I hoped he would continue removing his clothes, but he only stared down at me like the predator I instinctively knew he was.

And tonight, I was his prey.

He grabbed the hem of my already ruined dress before tearing it in half in one quick motion. The sound of the ripping fabric filled the room, and cool air rushed over my bared skin, heightening my desire. My pulse raced faster as I lay before him in nothing but my red lace bra and panties with my black heels. I waited for him to do his worst.

“So lovely,” he said, with that sexy accent that drove me wild. “In every life, you manage to stun me with your beauty.”

Heat rushed through as he finally lowered himself over me, then claimed my mouth again. His kiss was hot and desperate as his hands trailed down my naked skin, and then his lips followed, moving from my neck to my collar, then even lower. I tangled my fingers in his dark hair as his tongue glided along my skin over the top of my bra, my nipples so hard it was almost painful. Then he gripped the edges of the red lace and yanked the bra in half too with a loud rip, making my breasts spill out. I was losing a lot of clothing tonight to Lucifer’s lust, but he’d paid for them, so I supposed he could do what he wanted to them.

Lucifer looked up at me with a devilish grin, then lowered his head again to my breast. His mouth enveloped one of my already-peaked nipples, sucking eagerly as lightning shot to my core. I arched my back and moaned, needing more.

“Lucifer.” I gasped as his tongue swirled around my nipple. “Please.”

He let out a low, sensual chuckle. “I did say you’d be begging for me.”

Then he captured the other breast with his mouth, while his hands slid along my thighs, so close to where I needed him, but not close enough. His fingers brushed against my lace thong, but only for an instant before retreating again, just enough to make me wetter for him.

He really was the devil, and this was his way of torturing me.

“Please,” I begged again. “Let me touch you.”