“We’re getting snow. Can you believe that?” Emma’s head popped up, looking away from her phone. Our gazes clashed, and I stared at her, raising an eyebrow. “Oh, don’t look at me like that, sir. We never get snow.”
“It happens on a few rare occasions,” I murmured, shaking out the cream-colored tablecloth.
The mansion we were renting out allowed us to do a pre-setup. We couldn’t deploy all the decorations, but Emma, the adorable nervous wreck she was, insisted on seeing how the entire setup would look just to ensure it was perfect. I tried to explain we’d have to take everything down because the party wasn’t for another two weeks, and there could have been other events planned between that time, but how could I say no when she’d looked at me with her puppy eyes and sad smile, apologizing that she’d even mentioned it? She wasn’t trying to manipulate me. There wasn’t an evil bone in that woman, and she would no sooner chew off her leg than use someone.
Emma slid her phone into her pocket with a sigh. She approached the opposite side of the round table to help me fix the cloth. “People are shay...people are shay...shay.” She scowled and stomped her foot. “Shay!” Emma growled and clapped her hands together.
I smoothed my hands on the cloth to remove all the wrinkles while I waited for her to find her words. This wasn’t the first time she had issues with getting something out. Sometimes, she combined two different words, not realizing it, and talked in a jumbled mess. I’d read on some websites that this disorganized speech was known as a “word salad.”
“People aresayingthat it’s climate change.” She grinned, proud that she’d gotten the words out. She looked at me like all the other times she couldn’t remember, searching for my praise.
I offered her a gentle smile, straightened, and walked to the next table to lay the cloth on it. “It could be,” I whispered, not realizing the weight it would put on my little mate.
“You don’t think...” She hesitated, and I looked at her. Emma timidly came to the other side of the table and reached out for me to shake out the weighted cloth. When I waved it out, she caught the other end, helped me adjust the cover on the table, and smoothed out the wrinkles.
“I don’t thinkwhat, sunshine?” I asked when she didn’t continue her train of thought.
She dragged her bottom lip between her teeth and stared down at the table with a worried expression. I watched her face, curious to know what went through her mind.
“You don’t think the planet will kill us anytime soon, right?” Her cheeks pinkened, and she kept her head ducked down.
I walked around the table and grabbed her wrist, dragging her into my arms. It was faint, but I heard her sharp intake of breath. Emma leaned back, looking up at me as she curled her fingers into my suit jacket over my chest. Pinching her chin between my fingers, I held her still so she could look at my face and see that I didn’t think badly of her for her questions and concerns. They reminded me of the same ones she’d asked before the car accident, and I noticed a pattern of things she said before she lost her memories. I’d repeated things I told her before, hoping if it would spark a memory, but she hadn’t shown any signs that she remembered.
“Do you remember what I told you last time?” I said, hoping she’d remember.
Emma stared at me with doe eyes. She shook her head. “No. We’ve talked about this before?”
“Yes,” I answered gently.
“What did you say last time?”
I furrowed my eyebrows. I couldn’t tell her, because it meant revealing that I was a demon. Emma wouldn’t take it well, and she’d run from me like before. My inner demon was already impatient and trying to burst out, so if Emma ran, he’d chase her and scare her half to death.
“I told you that everything will be fine and there’s nothing to worry about,” I said. It was half of the truth, but it should have been enough to assuage her fears.
Emma rolled her lips and looked away as she stepped out of my hold. I dropped my arms and slipped my hands into my pockets. I knew that answer wasn’t good enough, but I couldn’t tell her I’d take her to a different realm without explaining what I was.
We went back to setting up the decorations to see how they looked. I stayed silent, thinking about how much I missed my mate having her memories and knowing our history. There was also the frustration from having to be gentler with her while having sex. Each time I took her, I’d held back—as painful as it was for me—so I didn’t alarm her. My inner demon understood to a point, but after creeping to the surface to feel Emma wrapped around our cock, he was becoming feral with need. It was hard to keep him in check when I was balls deep in Emma.
Once we finished setting up, Emma looked over everything, made some adjustments, and then we broke everything back down.
I watched her face as we gathered the decorations. Her lips moved as she whispered something beneath her breath that even I couldn’t hear. My demon watched along with me, intrigued by our mate. At that moment, as I gazed at her, I realized I wanted to marry her. She’d never said a word about it in the past, but I knew somewhere deep inside her she’d wanted that. It was now just a matter of making her fall in love with me again and proposing. For now, I’d visit a jeweler and find the perfect ring for her.
Ipanted as I rocked back and forth on Dimitri’s lap, his cock deep inside me. His grip on my waist tightened as I neared my orgasm. “Oh, Dimitri,” I moaned. I threw back my head as I came.
He growled and forced me to keep grinding on him with his hands on my waist while I trembled from the earth-shattering climax. “That’s it, baby. Come all over me.” He thrust his hips upward, pushing more of himself into me. I felt so full, and my inner walls squeezed him until it became uncomfortable.
The bed creaked with my rapid movements, and the headboard knocked against the wall. As my orgasm ebbed away, I squeaked when he rolled us over. He pounded into me, not caring that he was hurting me. The mixture of pain and pleasure created an exhilarating feeling. Dimitri dropped his forehead to my shoulder, groaning as his hips slapped against mine. I didn’t know how much time had passed before he climaxed with snarls. I scratched my nails down his back, returning the same roughness he gave me. His muscles shivered, and animalistic sounds came from him, urging me to keep hurting him.
After spilling the last of himself inside me, he stopped moving and stayed in my heat. We panted together, silence stretching between us that I didn’t feel the need to fill. He squeezed the pillow beside my head before he dragged his erection out, then slammed back into me. I whimpered and recoiled, only for him to thrust again with the same viciousness. His breathing picked up, and he growled. It wasn’t a sound a human could ever make. A shiver crept up my spine, and I cracked open my eyelids. My fingers burrowed deeper into the skin on his back as he continued his ferocity like he was punishing me.
“Dimitri?” I whispered. I tried to look at him, but he kept his face hidden against my throat. “Sir?”
He shuddered, his cock jerked, and he snarled simultaneously as he thrust into me with urgency. My head knocked against the headboard, and I shrieked as he bit the tender flesh between my neck and shoulder until I was sure he’d broken the skin. I orgasmed, shocked by the way his animalistic movements turned me on. More snarls came from him and sent a spike of adrenaline through my veins. A tiny voice at the back of my mind screamed that I should run. Something wasn’t right.
Dimitri flung himself off me and sprinted into the bathroom, slamming the door behind him. I sat up on my elbows, staring at the closed door as I tried to catch my breath.
Did I do something wrong?
