A Demon's Plaything: The Elite Guards Read online

  “Did she? I find that hard to believe as my Lilith is quite skilled with weapons and doesn’t take kindly to strangers stumbling into her ruins.”

  “I stand by what I said, unless you are challenging it as truth?” Asrian growled, his chest reverberating with the threat.

  She turned, taking in the way he held himself, prepared to defend his person should the need arise, yet to an untrained eye, he looked relaxed. He stood straight, confident before a king known for twisting creatures apart with his bare hands; however there was not a single ounce of fear showing from any of the Horde who had entered this court.

  “I would never question your word. I only meant that she tends to need a firm hand. She is wild and untamed, which I am sure you’ll discover for yourself soon enough.”

  “She’s beautiful, and more than I expected. I don’t intend to remain here longer than is necessary, so if we could proceed with the ceremony?”

  “Yes, of course. I have had a dinner prepared as well,” the king stated.

  “After visiting your lands, don’t you think it would be wiser to invite the people starving outside the gates to your city inside to eat the meal, rather than the ones who look as if they could miss a meal or ten? We will stay for the dinner, and those starving outside shall be invited in.” Asrian watched the king, his eyes burning with anger as the kings face mottled, and turned red.

  “That is unheard of! It’s outrageous to even consider letting peasants inside to eat with royalty.” The king waved his hand as if the conversation was finished.

  “I insist,” Asrian continued, placing his hand on his sword that had remained on his hip.

  “In these lands, I am king.”

  “You are king because we allow it. Your people are starving, and yet the ones in this room are grotesquely overfed. Either invite them in to feast or send the meal out to them. A king who doesn’t protect or care for his people shouldn’t expect to remain king for very much longer. You have impressed my brother, the King of the Horde, but not me. You sit in here, bathed in gold and fine jewels while people starve right outside your gates. Your own staff is underfed, proving you are the wrong choice for king. Decide, and I will decide which tale I bring back to the king who supported your claim for this throne before he was the actual king. You may have forgotten how you rose to power, but we have not.”

  “Have the feast placed outside the gates, feed the people the dinner I had prepared for my daughter and her new husband,” he grumbled as he stared at Asrian, who hadn’t flinched under his dark stare. “You will be leaving directly after the ceremony?”

  “I will; the only reason we have even come is for you to see her handed off to the Horde. The next tithe will be paid, or a new king will be crowned.”

  “You don’t have that power!”

  “We have the Goddess of Faery on our side, do you?” Sinjinn chuckled as Lilith’s eyes swung to his.

  Holy shit!

  Chapter 6

  The ride back to the Court of Shadows was long and filled with silence. Lilith had pilfered bread and meat, along with cheese for supper. It wasn’t that she hadn’t respected what Asrian had done for her people, but she’d actually been starving for the meal which would have been a welcome distraction. Instead, she was now snacking nervously as he watched her.

  A fire had been lit by Lara, who had prepared the one bedroom that they’d been sharing. Lara would now be sleeping under the stars while she and Asrian shared the sister’s bedroom which had once belonged to their mother.

  “Are you warm enough?” he asked, his back still to her as he stroked the fire to a beautiful mixture of red and orange flames.

  “Yes,” she answered as she shivered, trembling against what she knew was coming. Something she had no idea how to deal with, or even how it occurred since she’d skipped over that day with her handmaiden, and hadn’t gone back since. “I don’t…I’m not sure how this next part works,” she continued hesitantly.

  “Fucking?” he chuckled.

  “You don’t have to be so crude,” she hissed as she stood and moved to the furthest wall away from him. She rubbed her bare arms, wishing she’d worn the long-sleeved dress of her mother’s instead of the shorter-sleeved one she’d chosen.

  “You’re not that young,” he pointed out crossly. When she continued to peer up at him, he swore beneath his breath. “I’m going to break his fucking nose for this.”

  “Whose nose?” she asked when he just continued to stare at her.

  “Ryder’s, he knows I’m not interested in uncharted territories.”

  “He is your king and the king of the entire Horde. You would be so careless with your life?”

  “You think us monsters, but he isn’t like that. He’s…kind, and yet deadly enough to hold his title because of what he holds inside of him. Here, drink this,” he said as he poured wine into a glass and extended it to her.

  She accepted it, sipping at it generously as she stared at the bed that sat in the middle of the room. It had silver sheets with the petals of the night blooms spread out over it. Lara knew the flowers would calm Lilith, or should have. Considering she was about to do the last thing she wanted to with this giant, nothing short of valerian roots dipped in the Fairy Pools themselves would calm her pounding heart and nerves.

  She tipped the glass up and then held it out for more, watching the red liquid as it flowed into the glass. Why was she so damn nervous? She just had to survive this deed once and be done with it and him, right? Her kind was notoriously fertile, but his kind wasn’t…she stared at him from beneath her lashes as he removed his shirt, revealing nicks and gashes that at one time had been horrid wounds.

  “Ouch,” she uttered without thinking. How many of those wounds had her people given him? Plenty, she hoped.

  “My father’s talented with a blade, or he was,” he explained, and she felt her face scrunching up at his answer.

  “Surely you got that from fighting people who couldn’t defend themselves,” she hissed, and then realized how stupid her own words sounded as they left her lips.

  “I did what I did to survive him,” he returned sharply. “Your people fought hard, but not nearly as hard as we had to in order to survive being his children. Remove the dress, Lilith. Lay down with me,” he growled.

  “You and your people slaughtered mine, and now I am to be your prize.”

  “And what a beautiful prize you are, princess. One fit for a king.”

  She blushed, feeling the heat as it flooded her cheeks and then he stepped closer, and she darted backwards, slamming her back against the stone wall she’d rebuilt with her bare hands. He chuckled as he slowly made his way to where she was backed against it, caging her in with his hands barring her escape. His mouth lowered, drifting towards hers as he tasted her mouth slowly.

  “You’re trembling; do I scare or excite you, Lilith?” he questioned before he sucked her full, plump lip between his teeth and held it gingerly before releasing it. A soft moan exploded from her lips as a foreign sensation sent sparks sailing through her, igniting something white-hot in her belly.

  “I don’t like you, or what you are,” she replied absently as she lifted her mouth for more, needing to know what that sensation had been. “I will do this for them, the starving people who already suffer because of the world and because I cannot change that. I can stop your kind from invading and doing to that court what was done to this one.”

  “Noble, but stupid,” he chuckled heatedly. The scent of wine mingling with masculinity had her head swimming in emotions she wasn’t sure how to process. She’d expected to hate him, and yet he was smooth, so fucking smooth, and said all the right things at the same moment she wanted to hurl an argument at him. “Your father was so quick to throw you at us, the Queen of Shadows, and Princess of the Night Court. Born and bred of pureblooded parents, a Queen of the Courts. Yet I get here, and I found you,” he murmured as he kissed her cheek softly. “Some fucking maiden who stares at me like I’m a fuck
ing monster and hates my guts,” he said amusedly. “And she’s the most beautiful thing I think I’ve ever laid my bastard eyes upon. You don’t deserve to suffer this, so do me a fucking favor; you can fill the wine, and when we’ve finished drinking it, we will sleep.”

  “What?” she uttered softly, questioningly.

  “What I mean is this: You don’t want this, and I have no intention of forcing it on you. I’m a bastard, but I’m not that much of one.”

  “No, no, you will finish this, and when you report back to your king, it will be with the truth, word player. I will not chance losing my court. Not again, so you will do what is expected, and now!” Panic threatened to consume her at the idea of him turning her down, what it could mean for her people.

  “Gods, woman, which is it? You don’t want me, yet you demand I fuck you, and yet you loathe me, you hate everything I fucking stand for. You want this? Down the wine, strip your delicate little ass naked, and we’ll play this game. I’ll give you a fucking monster.”

  She swallowed hard at the anger that burned in his eyes, the glow that lit them from within. Power ignited in the room and slithered over her flesh as he watched her lift the shaking glass to her mouth, downing the wine in a single gulp. She pushed the cup out in front of her, watching as he filled it once more, and she did it again and again until her nerves no longer had her trembling with fear or her own idiocy.

  He’d offered her a way out, but what if he was like the others and decided to admit they hadn’t completed their vows? She couldn’t chance it, not with who he had ties to. Not with so much riding on her doing this to save her people.

  She lit the candles in the room, using her power to burn them and extinguish the other light that would allow him to see the blush spreading through her system. Next, she slowly reached behind her with trembling fingers as she began to undress, but his hands rested over hers, stalling her clumsy attempt to strip.

  His hands were steady as he pushed hers away, using his fingers to trail over her naked shoulder before his heated mouth skimmed it, following the same dangerous path. Her skin pebbled as he kissed his way to the crease of her neck, slowly working his way to her ear before he nipped the lobe, pulling on it as a deep rumble escaped his lips.

  Asrian’s fingers worked the zipper of the dress, carefully removing it before letting it pool at her feet. He lifted his mouth, turning her to face him as his hands slid down her sides, stopping at her hips. He lowered his mouth to hers, claiming it in a jarring kiss that sent a shockwave pulsing through her entire body. She groaned, pushing her tongue into the depths of his mouth as she reached up, hooking her hands around his neck.

  The taste of wine and male hit her, buckling her knees as he kept her adrift in the sea of passion that threatened to consume her. The last time she’d kissed someone, there hadn’t been this heat. Cade’s stolen kisses hadn’t done this to her senses. He hadn’t made her feel as if she was adrift in a storm, crashing from one wave to the next with a single kiss.

  Asrian lifted her, and absently she wrapped her legs around him, holding on as he moved them towards the bed. A single thought screamed through her mind, He was her enemy. So why was she throwing herself at him again? Why did she never want his mouth to leave hers?

  She’d lost her ever-loving shit; that was what was happening, right? She felt her body lowering, and then he pulled away from her, standing back up as he deftly worked the jeans he wore. Heathen, he hadn’t even dressed up for their handfasting, and it would have merely taken a single thought to manage it, unlike her.

  His cock sprung free, and she sat up, her eyes watching as it bounced proudly before her. Oh hell, that thing was an actual monster. She now understood why he’d said he’d give her a monster.

  “Um…” she hesitated as she lifted her ice blue gaze to his, and found glowing green orbs of lust staring back. High Fae, High fucking Fae…and she’d forced the issue.

  “No, not happening now,” he warned as he bent between her legs and pulled them apart before settling there. He gazed down at her alabaster flesh, as white as the snow when it fell at the beginning of the year. His hands lowered, encircling her hips as he adjusted her body and then stared at her thinness.

  She was like a branch, a thin, delicate branch and he a massive oak tree, unbending, while she, on the other hand, could easily be snapped. Thick coils of muscles tensed on his stomach, rippling with strength as he released her, and lowered his mouth to rain kisses down her smooth belly. It was intoxicating, more so than the wine she’d downed to quiet the nerves.

  His mouth was magic, spelled by Merlin to lower her defenses and sneak past them. He continued until his mouth touched her clitoris and her back arched as her hands slid through his hair, pulling him away from her as a blush flooded her cheeks as apprehension shot through her.

  “What are you doing?” she demanded as a roguish smirk danced on his lips as the glow in his eerie eyes intensified. “You can’t eat me, I’m not food.”

  “You’re so fucking pure the bards could sing ballads about it,” he murmured before his mouth lowered again, uncaring that she yanked at his hair to keep him from biting her flesh…and then his tongue pushed through her slick folds, and all coherent thought left her.

  She moaned loudly as she parted her legs, giving him further room to work with. Her body hummed with an electrical current that threatened to bring the castle ruins down onto their heads. Lilith hadn’t ever imagined pleasure before, let alone this all-consuming pleasure his mouth was doing to her body. A ball of white-hot energy built in her belly and she lessened her hold on his hair as he worked her pussy, licking it as she grew heated until she thought she’d turn to embers and burn up.

  Asrian’s finger pushed into her body without his mouth leaving her, but it felt foreign, wrong. She wiggled her bottom, adjusting to the feeling until he added another. Her body was slick with heat, and sweat built between her breasts and her nape. That white-hot ball in her belly grew and grew until she was screaming as everything exploded and went wrong.

  Tears slid down her cheeks, her body trembled, continuing as he climbed up to wipe them away with his thumbs. His mouth claimed hers hungrily, stealing away the embarrassment of her body’s strange reaction to his. She felt him pushing against her opening and cried out as he pushed his body against hers, battering past her innocence.

  Pain exploded as her heartbeat thundered in her ears. He slowed, stalling as he stared down into her tear-filled gaze. His mouth lowered, kissing the tears away as his brands ignited, his hips rocked, and the pain was replaced with that foreign fullness. Her body clenched against his and her hands found his shoulders, holding onto him as he started to move in a steady rhythm. He filled her painfully full until it burned and ached. Moments passed and yet he continued, his mouth claiming hers as he kissed her gently, letting her guide his pace.

  Once the pain was a dull ache, she rolled them, lifting her body to tower over his as she stared down into his hungry glowing green gaze. Her hands slowly lowered, tracing the smooth path to his muscles, exploring the warrior beneath her as her hips began to move, seeking that earth-shattering pleasure his fingers had given her moments ago.

  Asrian reached up, cupping her full breasts in his hands as he explored her body with wonder in gaze, as if he couldn’t believe she was real. His mouth lifted which jostled his hips and sent his thick cock deeper, forcing a cry of pain to escape her lips.

  He rolled them, lifting her knees until they were against her shoulders. Deep, he was so fucking deep that she could feel him against her womb. His auburn head dropped, and his tongue traced a path over one pebbled nipple before mimicking the action with the other. He sucked it between his teeth, letting them scrape against it for maximum effect. She felt him moving again, even though he had yet to release her breasts with his hungry mouth.

  Her body started to heat once more, that white-hot ball inside her belly building as he worked her pussy and kissed her breasts before his hand slid between them,
working her clit until she was bucking against his intrusion, uncertain if she’d survive the magnitude of the storm he was creating. All at once, he jerked and growled as it hit, her body a never-ending ball of trembling need that left her visibly shaking against his massive frame.

  “Gods, woman,” he uttered as he stared down at the hot, disheveled mess he’d created. “You’re fucking perfect, and mine.”

  “I am not yours, not any longer than a year and a day, heathen,” she whispered as she pushed him away, embarrassment at her wanton behavior sneaking up as she replayed her actions. These beings had murdered her mother and yet here she was, screaming like a wanton nymph beneath him. “Get off of me.”

  “You wanted this, not me,” he grumbled as he rolled from her body, swiftly moving to retrieve his clothing. He didn’t put them on; instead, he tossed them into the fire and dressed with magic, his glamour effortlessly allowing him a smooth exit as she remained in bed, fighting traitorous tears as her actions and behavior swallowed her whole.

  How could she have liked it that much? She’d found it a chore to kiss Cade, and yet with Asrian, his kiss had consumed her, easing her nervousness as surely as any wine could. One year and one day, and after that, she’d never see him again. She sent a prayer to the heavens, asking the Goddesses to ensure that when the time came, it was an easy break from the heathen she’d just found pleasure from.

  Chapter 7

  Lilith stretched in bed, hating the subtle reminder of the night before as muscles she hadn’t even known could hurt ached and burned. It took her longer than usual to move from the bed, and as she did, she cocked her head and listened. Silence greeted her, and she smiled; maybe she’d been bipolar enough to send his ass running for the hills.

  She slipped into the bath, dressing in a soft white maxi dress with slits up to the hip. She strapped her weapons on, slinging her bow over her shoulder before attaching the quiver full of arrows, and adjusting the wristband on her arms. Without another thought, she exited her bedroom and stopped dead in her tracks.