He shuddered.
His fingers dug into my hips, holding me there, breath leaving him in a low, bitten-off groan right against my mouth. “Careful, lass,” he rasped, eyes gone dark and heavy. “You keep movin’ on me like that, and I’m goin’ to forget all about takin’ this slow.”
The demon snorted. “You really are a soft one, aren’t you?” he said, not even trying to hide his disdain. “You think she needs coddlin’? Look at her. She summoned us. She wants this.”
Lugh exhaled slowly, his gaze never leaving my face. “Maybe…” he allowed, voice quiet but firm, “maybe she doesn’t ken what she wants yet. Not really.” His head tipped, studying me like I was a riddle he fully intended to solve. “Hasn’t ever had a real lover worship her body like a damn temple.”
Something low and needy twisted in my gut at the way he said worship.
“The way you looked on your knees for me,” Lugh added, voice dropping, “it did something powerful, angel.”
His hand came to rest at my hip, fingers spreading, steadying me where I straddled him. “Sit up properly,” he murmured.
I straightened on his lap, spine lengthening, the movement pulling the silk of my slip even tighter over my body. For a beat, he just looked at me—really looked. His gaze swept slowly from the bare length of my thighs to the hem bunched high on my hips, then up the line of my torso, lingering on the rise and fall of my chest. There was nothing hurried in it, nothing casual; it wasopen, hungry admiration, as if he were memorising every inch of me.
“Sweet gods,” Lugh breathed, almost to himself. “Ye’re… unreal.”
Then he leaned in.
His hand slid to the small of my back, pressing me closer as his mouth lowered to the exposed skin at the top of my chest. Warm lips brushed there first, testing, then traced a slow, deliberate path upward—over the center of my sternum, along the hollow at the base of my throat, up toward the sensitive curve where my neck met my shoulder. Every inch he claimed left a trail of heat behind, my breath catching higher in my lungs with each lingering touch.
When he found a spot just beneath my jaw, he stopped running and started lingering. His lips sealed over that tender place, sucking gently, then a little harder, like he wanted to leave proof he’d been there. My fingers clenched in his shirt as a helpless sound slipped out of me, half-moan, half shattered sigh.
“That’s it,” Lugh murmured against my skin, his breath hot where he’d just marked me. “Let me taste every bit ye’ve been denyin’ yourself.”
The demon’s laugh slid over my skin like smoke.
“She’s probably never been teased until she’s pantin’,” he whispered, voice like silk laced with danger, close enough that I felt the faint brush of air at my other ear, “until she’s beggin’ for release.” His words curled around my spine, sinking in. “Never been pushed until she can’t take any more… never felt that sweet, delicious ache the next day, the kind that lingers—reminding her who took her apart…and who put her back together again.”
Every syllable landed low in my belly. My fingers tightened in Lugh’s shirt; I couldn’t have said whether I was trying to ground myself or keep from dragging him closer.
“Aye…” Lugh’s reply rumbled against my chest, low and rough with restraint. “I may not degrade women, demon, but,” he said as his lips ghosted over my skin again, tracing the edge of the mark he’d just left, then wandering lower in slow, maddening passes. Each barely-there brush sent my breathing snagging higher, my body arching without my permission. “That doesn’t mean I don’t get… deeply passionate,” he murmured.
He let his mouth trail down the column of my throat, leaving a path of heat and promise wherever he lingered.
“Doesn’t mean I don’t lose myself in the moment,” he added, voice a rough scrape against my skin. “And believe me, angel…” His breath dragged hot over the spot where my pulse kicked wild. “You’ll still feel me the next day.”
He tipped his head, catching my mouth in a kiss that was all hunger and barely-leashed control—messier now, less careful, as if the demon’s taunts and my answering shivers had finally cracked something open inside him. I melted into it, into him, into the way his hands framed my waist like he was holding back out of sheer stubborn honour.
“Well, well…” the demon drawled, a mocking edge in his tone, though there was real interest beneath it. “Maybe the demigod isn’t as righteous as I’ve been led to believe.”
Lugh broke the kiss with a soft sound that might have been a curse, his forehead resting against mine for a heartbeat. When he spoke again, his voice was hushed, wrapped in a hunger that vibrated through every word.
“Slowly now,” he murmured, eyes searching my face. “Let’s see what power you’ve hidden beneath all this satin.”
His fingers found the thin straps of my slip where they clung to my shoulders. He didn’t yank or drag; he simply toyed with one, sliding it back and forth along my skin as if to give me time to stop him. When I didn’t—when I rolled my hips the slightest bit in silent answer—he exhaled, a shaky, reverent sound.
Then, with agonising care, he eased one strap down my shoulder, then the other, the fabric gliding over my skin in a slow, sensual descent. Cool air kissed every new inch revealed, chased almost immediately by the heat of his gaze as it followed the slip’s downward path.
The satin slid, inch by inch, over my collarbones, past the top of my chest, down the curve of my ribs, pooling gradually at my waist. The fabric bunched there, trapped between our bodies for a moment—then he ripped it free and threw it to the side of the slab. I felt exposed and worshipped all at once, like a relic being unwrapped in a fallen temple.
“There you are…” he breathed against my ear, voice a heady mix of admiration and temptation. “A goddess made flesh.”
His hands moved over my bare skin with a possessive slowness, thumbs circling like he was already imagining more, while his mouth chased after them, kissing greedily. Every touch was a plea edged with hunger:this—give me this—give me more.
Then he cupped me tenderly. “Your breasts are the perfect size. They fit right into the palm of my hand.”
From somewhere behind me, the demon huffed, annoyed and aroused in equal measure.