Page 31 of Mending Mayhem
“Well, for one…I have your mark. Kill me, and you’ll be vanquished.” I scooted to the edge of my seat. “No more hunting fae for you.”
His chuckle vibrated in my chest. “And two?”
I shrugged one shoulder dismissively. “I just know you won’t.”
My stomach tightened the moment the words left my lips. Did I just know, or were Ash’s words skewing my perception of the demon? We were about to find out.
Ash sank onto the corner of the sofa and rested the grimoire in her lap before taking both my hands. We read the incantation in unison three times before I felt the first tingle. My lungs seized mid-breath, and a boom from the deepest part of my being shook the entire room, knocking a picture frame from the wall.
I gasped, my entire body feeling as if I’d swallowed a box of staples, the tiny shards of metal raking through my veins and filleting my insides. I coughed so hard, I nearly lost a lung. Purple smoke poured from my mouth, burning my throat and threatening to turn me inside out.
As the final bits of Mayhem left my system, I rose, backing away from the skull. He circled around it, forming a funnel cloud and lifting it into the air. Ash and Chaos stood across the room, watching Mayhem reform.
“Are you okay?” Ash asked for the umpteenth time.
“I’m good.” Anticipation tightened my stomach, making my heart race.
Electricity crackled, filling the room with light. The smoke swirled and spun, wrapping around the skull and turning into flesh and bone. The storm dissipated, and Mayhem in demon form stood before me, menace and desire dancing in his eyes.
“Ember.” He reached me in two strides and grabbed my shoulders, lifting me from the ground. My pulse thrummed, a strange mix of fear and want flooding my veins and making heat pool below my navel.
“Mayhem…” Chaos’s voice dripped with warning.
“You deal with your witch. I’ll take care of mine.” As if I weighed nothing, he carried me down the hall and into my room, slamming the door behind us. Setting me down, he held my shoulder with one hand and locked the door with the other.
Returning his attention to me, he let go and morphed into his human form. His naked human form. Woof.
“Are you okay?” He tucked a lock of hair behind my ear, concern etching lines on his forehead.
“I wish everyone would stop asking me that. My vim is taxed, but I’m fine.” My gaze slid down his body, over his defined pecs and chiseled abs and locking on his package…unwrapped and standing at attention. My mouth watered. I pressed my lips together so I wouldn’t drool.
“Ember!” Ash pounded on the door. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine. Everything is fine. We’re umm…talking.” I blinked, looking into his lavender eyes. “Everything is fine, right?”
“You’re sure you’re okay?” His gaze dipped to my lips.
“Yes.” My head spun a little, but I was certain the naked man standing before me was the reason and not the events that had just transpired. In fact, all I could think about in that moment was how badly I wanted to climb him.
“You are coherent enough to make good decisions? To speak up if you don’t approve?” He arched a brow.
I furrowed mine. “Yes…”
“Good. Then tell me to stop.” He clutched my shoulders and crushed his mouth to mine.
10
MAYHEM
Her lips felt like velvet, plush and soft as they yielded to the pressure of mine. I expected her to pull away. I half-hoped she would, because I knew with every fiber of my being that, if we saw this through to the end, there would be no going back. Not for me.
Not for her, if I could help it.
She lifted her hands, tentatively brushing her fingertips against my chest. The sensation nearly crumbled me. Her lips parted, welcoming my tongue into the moist heat of her mouth, and if I wasn’t immortal, I could have drowned in her essence, died in that moment a happy man.
I broke the kiss, and she gasped. “Tell me to stop. Say you don’t want this, and I’ll walk away.”
She touched her swollen bottom lip, tugging it down slightly as her gaze wandered over my body before meeting my eyes. “That’s the thing.” She looked at my cock and swallowed hard. “I don’t want you to stop.”