I chucked darkly, toying with the empty glass in my hand. I tested myself by spinning it on the countertop atjustthe right angle—good. I still had my reflexes intact, even as the liquor wasbeginning to burn through my veins with the blood and aether, emboldening my desires.
“Oh, Arken,” I breathed, eyes gleaming as I stared back at her. “You’ve barely even scratched the surface of that depravity.”
She slipped a delicate hand behind my back, running her fingertips up and underneath my shirt. They were cool to the touch, but the shiver she’d drawn forth wasn’t from the chill.
“I guess I’ll have to try harder, then,” she murmured in my ear.
Now what did she mean by?—
I sucked in a sharp breath, eyes blowing wide then meeting the back of my skull as Arken fucking Asher took her perfectly manicured, almond-shaped nails and dug them into the hard muscle of my back. I groaned as she dragged them down viciously, hissing in both shock and approval.
Fuck me.
I turned around, one hand grabbing her by the waist while the other took hold of her errant wrist, shackling her newfound weapon of choice.
“Careful,” I warned her again, maintaining searing contact with her molten gaze.
I didn’t actually want her to be careful. Not really. The warning was still sincere, butfuck.I wasn’t a masochist, but I didn’t mind pain—it sharpened my own edges. And her aggression? Well. That was about to turn me into a monster.
“I’m not afraid of you and your so-called depravity, Kieran,” Arken stated, defiant challenge in her eyes.
“You probably should be,” I replied dryly.
I took care to deliver those words like a flippant tease rather than what they really were: a confession.
But warnings and confessions aside, I really didn’t want her to be afraid of me right now. I just liked it when she got all nervous and skittish. I liked making herreactto me, in anynumber of ways, really—but when her eyes grew wide and wild, her breath catching and hitching with those pathetic little pants, I came undone.
Seducing Arken’s mind was as satisfying to me as placing pleasure upon her flesh.
Thankfully, she didn’t look scared right now…Not at all. Arken looked like she wanted to eat me alive.
“Fuck that,” she snarled in response to my warning, shoving her free hand down between my legs so she could push the chair back from the counter with no small amount of aggression.
I was startled enough by her audacity to release her wrist as she straddled me on top of the barstool. Startled, and exceptionally turned on.
Oh, fuck yes. Bare those fangs for me, pretty girl.
I knew she had a vicious streak. I’d only caught glimpses of it, little flickers here and there, often gone so fast that I had to wonder if they truly existed at all. It was entirely possible that I was just seeing what I wanted to see, desperate for a level of compatibility between us that couldn’t possibly be real. And yet…
As she wrapped her thighs around my waist, Arken’s hands were in my hair again, tugging it back, exposing my throat. With what felt like utterly indecent intent, she ran her tongue from my collarbone to the hollow of my throat, all the way up until she paused against the side of my neck, nipping at one of my earlobes. Again, harder than I’d come to expect from her, butfucking Hel,I enjoyed it.
Yeah. Just like that.
“Godsdamn,you are so hard already,” Arken groaned as she began to grind herself against the length of my cock straining beneath my pants. “Isn’t that supposed to be a struggle or something when men drink?Whiskey dickand whatnot?”
“For starters, I’ve been drinking gin,” I said as she bucked her hips even harder, seeking pressure, demanding friction. “And more importantly, this realm will be swallowed by the depths of the fucking Abyss before I ever struggle to get hard aroundyou,Arken.”
If liquor was enough to temper the demands this woman drew from my cock, I’d have been at risk of becoming an alcoholic by now.
There was an awful lot of self-satisfaction present in her responding giggle as she slipped one hand between us to caress the throbbing erection she’d summoned. Her other arm wrapped around my neck, both steadying herself and pulling our bodies closer. Her tongue made its way back to my neck, eliciting a sharp inhale as I felt her bite down.
Sweet fucking Fates.
It wasn’t like this was the first time she’d kissed my neck, or even the first time Arken had bitten me. Our bodies played a savage game once we fell prey to our baser instincts together, but this was different. She may have been drunk, but Arken was lucid enough to be doing this withintention.
I groaned, running my hands from her thighs to grip her ass cheeks, hard. Fuck, if only she were wearing a dress. I wanted to rip these accursed leggings off her body with my bare hands—never mind that I’d bought them for her—so that a quick fumble with my belt would be all I needed to get inside her. That urge only seemed to intensify as she worked that tongue against my pulse point, laving at it, suckling where she had bitten, trading off between nips and licks and—holy fuck.
“Are you trying tomarkme, Asher?” I rasped.