“Tell me what you want, Laila,” he said right before tracing the line of my waistband with his tongue.
Talking was impossible at the moment. I couldn’t catch my breath, never mind actually think and articulate real words.
I gasped when he nipped at my hip, then licked away the sting.
“Answer me, sweetness,” he said, fingers toying with the button of my pants. “I need to hear you say it.”
“I want you,” I gasped. God, I wanted him more than I wanted to breathe.
He moaned, popping the button and working my jeans down enough to expose my panties. It wasn’t anything he hadn’t seen before, except this time the material was drenched with my need for him. His eyes zeroed in on my sex. He looked at me like I was the most amazing thing he’d ever seen, then ran a single finger over the fabric, his touch too light to relieve any of the pressure building there, but it was enough to make my desire spike.
His eyes closed as he groaned. “You’re so wet for me.”
I wasn’t sure if that was something I should have been embarrassed about, but at the moment I was too desperate to care. I moved against his hand, chasing more friction.
We were both wearing too much clothing. I wanted all the layers gone, no barriers left between our bodies. Asmodeus’s words from earlier flitted through my mind. Joriel and I were both untouched. This would be new for both of us—it should be special. But I couldn’t hold on to those thoughts for more than a second. They were being drowned out by the heat building where Joriel’s fingers moved along my panties. Nothing mattered but the feeling, the need for relief.
Suddenly Joriel pulled back, springing to his feet and backing away so fast that he was halfway across the room before I registered what was happening.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“We can’t do this.” I could see the struggle in his eyes. He was fighting some kind of internal battle. “Not like this, snow angel. Your first time isn’t going to be like this.”
For a second his words broke through the lust, and a trickle of unease slithered down my spine. This wasn’t the time or the place. We were in a curtained alcove in the middle of a party. Joriel had just learned that demons had been messing with his head, making him believe things that had never happened, meaning he had no idea what reallydidhappen.
Another wave of heat washed over me, making it hard to focus on anything.
“Fuck,” Joriel muttered. He pushed through the curtain and was gone.
The crack of wood sounded a second later, followed by a grunt of pain.
“Feel better?” Roth’s voice asked with the kind of calm that seemed at odds with all our high-running emotions.
“You knew what would happen if we went in there,” Joriel growled.
“And you chose to ignore me,” Roth answered. “What exactly did you expect me to do, go in there with you? Somehow I think you would have hated that outcome far more.”
“How do I get her out? If I get close to her, I’ll cave.”
“Then there’s nothing you can do. She’ll come out eventually.”
Joriel didn’t say anything to that. I needed to leave this room, to go out there before Joriel decided to hit Roth instead of the wall. That was a fight that couldn’t possibly end well.
I reached to fix my pants, but when my fingers grazed my sensitive skin, I couldn’t remember why I was trying to put my clotheson. They weren’t very comfortable, and I was already too warm. My whole body was buzzing, and the dull throb between my legs was only getting worse.
My fingers slipped inside my panties like they had a mind of their own, my body overriding my brain. Air hissed through my teeth as my fingers brushed against my sweet spot. Closing my eyes, I imagined Joriel hadn’t left, that it was his fingers touching me instead of my own.
I worked my fingers through my folds, recalling what Joriel had looked like on his knees, imagining what he would have done if he hadn’t stopped. My limbs trembled and my heart beat wildly in my chest until finally the tension broke and I clenched around empty air as my release washed through me.
I slumped back against the cushions beneath me, breathing hard, feeling spent and yet so empty at the same time.
TWENTY-ONE
Laila
Things had beenawkward since our visit to Asmodeus’s mansion. I couldn’t even look at Joriel, or Roth for that matter, without thinking about the alcove and what I knew they’d heard. It wasn’t my fault… supposedly. The alcoves in the Prince of Lust’s house were little pockets of temptation, acting as an aphrodisiac. They heightened feelings of lust. But heightening means that the feelings were already there.
It didn’t help that the feelings hadn’t really faded. Every time I looked at Joriel, I remembered what it had felt like when he touched me, even though there had been a layer of fabric between us.
