“You can’t just free me,” she said incredulously. “It’s against the rules.”
I spread my arms wide, turning back to her. “Do I look like Belial? My arena, my rules.”
Vyra gripped my shoulders until I lowered my arms, rubbing my taut muscles. “I think you need to go kill a training dummy.”
“Right. I’m going to go do that, and you… go make sure the Chainlings have the right kind of sparkles. You’re the sparkle expert.”
Lady Savage wandered back to her chambers, apparently sated with my promise to win Blind Luck for her, and I found the training room my little cult had cleared out for me.
Within an hour, I’d reduced a dummy to nothing but twisted iron and shards of wood, and my tension hadn’t abated one bit.
It was nothing like the high of fighting flesh and blood in an actual arena.
I tossed my axe aside and left the annihilated mannequin.
Before I even opened my door, I knew someone was waiting for me. There was a strange lack of emptiness to the air, something tugging my heart.
“Lucifer!”
He sat on the edge of my bed, wings carefully folded behind him. All the bruises and scratches on his tattooed limbs had healed perfectly, leaving no sign they’d ever been there at all.
I shut the door behind me as he rose, silver gaze taking me in from head to toe. “Melisande…”
“No, let me say something.” I steeled myself. Step one in swallowing your pride: admitting you were wrong. I could do this. “I’m sorry. The last time I saw you, what I said was… not what I meant. At all. You aren’t a second choice to me, Lucifer. You’re not someone I want just because I have nothing else.”
I took a step closer, my hands shaking a little. “We are alike. I understand what you mean about free will, and having a choice. When I choose something, it’s because I want it, not because I feel compelled.”
He smiled, crossing his arms over his chest. He probably knew exactly what the solid flex of his muscles did to me, given the fact that he was shirtless, and my eyes hungrily traced the lines of his tattoos all the way down his well-defined Adonis belt.
“Good. Because I came here for a reason.” Lucifer took a step of his own, shrinking the gap between us. “I felt you, when you healed me.”
“You weren’t awake for it.” I swallowed hard. He was only inches away, the heat of his skin caressing me.
“No, but I felt you all the same. And I felt it when you left.”
I’d barely blinked before I found myself lying on the bed, Lucifer’s massive form arched over me. His lips found my neck, teeth grazing my vulnerable throat. “Now, where were we before that?”
“Right here,” I managed to whisper. This time I didn’t hesitate.
His bare shoulders flexed under my hands. I stroked the silky skin over corded muscle, ran my fingers over his chest, tracing the swirling dark lines that decorated his skin from throat to ankle.
“I felt you, and when you were gone, I wanted you back.” He raised himself on his forearm, thumb stroking my lower lip.
“I’m right here,” I breathed, my fingers finding his feathers. Lucifer shuddered as I ran my fingers through them. “I’m not going anywhere.”
He leaned down and kissed me hard, forcing my mouth open for his tongue. Heat shuddered through me, becoming a fire when he reached up to grip my wrists and pull them down, pinning them over my head.
Lucifer’s hips angled forward, his cock already hard and grinding against me. I had no shame at all in wrapping my legs around his waist, pulling him closer and arching my back. After what I’d interrupted last time with my poorly-chosen words, I had no intention of saying a single thing that would stop him this time.
My tongue ran along the edge of his lower lip before I bit him, gently at first, then harder. Lucifer groaned in my mouth, his tongue searching deeper and legs flexing.
I tugged my arms a little, testing the strength of his grip, but he held me fast.
“Do I need to call for Azazel and his ropes?” he asked, a tiny smile flickering across his face. “Try to break free and I will.”
I shuddered pleasurably at the threat. My hard nipples brushed his bare chest, sending shocks through me. “If you don’t hurry up and take all these damn clothes off, you’ll have to. This is just cruel.”
He laughed a little, transferred both of my wrists to the grip of one of his hands, and tugged one of the laces of my shirt. The ribbon slid open easily under his hand and he pulled it away, eyes darkening as he took in my flushed skin and peaked nipples.
Lucifer’s mouth found my throat, working downwards until his teeth grazed a nipple. I gasped, writhing under him as he sucked it, his fingers stroking over my stomach to the edge of my training pants.
I unclasped my ankles and lifted my hips obediently, letting him peel the thin fabric away.
It was still impossible to break his one-handed grip, and he wasn’t even concentrating on holding me down as he yanked off his own pants, settling between my legs so his cock was pressed right against me, sliding against my wetness.
I slurred some unintelligible string of words when I felt the heat of his cock, arching my hips and wrapping my legs around him again.
Lucifer’s wings lowered until they covered us, his quicksilver eyes still shining in the dim light. “This is what I want,” he said, his voice rough. “You and me.”
“You and me,” I promised. I folded my fingers together far over my head, practically panting for him to push inside.
He thrust forward, the head of his cock just entering me. “Forever. I want to make you mine, understand?”
Lucifer slid in another inch and my eyes rolled
