The Darkest Pleasure (Lords of the Underworld #3)(37)
Author: Gena Showalter

Surely that warmth was drugging her, luring her down this road of temptation. Not Reyes himself. Yes, she’d blame the warmth. For now. The alternative scared her too much.

"Just get off me," she said, amazed at her calm.

"I do want you," he said, and he sounded tortured, as though knives were being shoved under his fingernails.

"Liar." She echoed his earlier accusation as she pushed at his shoulders.

He didn’t budge. He did frown. "Stop, angel. You do not want me to leave."

Angel. He’d called her angel again. Once, in the dungeon, he’d even called her his. She tried not to soften. Men had used endearments on her before, but none had ever uttered one with such a you-belong-to-me-and-only-me undertone.

"You don’t know what I want," she snapped, "and obviously I’m not what you desire." Be happy about that, you idiot.

Shame coasted over his rugged features. Shame and grief. His gaze fell to her shoulder, where her T-shirt gaped and cotton fell away from skin. "I want you. Swear to the gods, I do."

As he’d spoken, his lower body had brushed hers. He wasn’t hard. Her cheeks heated. When he’d first walked to her, his penis had been so hard and full it had strained past the waist of his jeans. One taste of her, and he’d gone limp. Am I that bad a kisser?

"Don’t make me tell you to get off again," she said. "I don’t know what game you’re playing, but I told you this was dumb. I need – "

"No game," he interjected hotly.

She continued as if he hadn’t interrupted her. "I need back inside the dungeon, pronto, and this is wasting my time. I need to talk to Aeron."

"First, you will listen to me."

"Reyes. Off. Now!"

"We will talk, Danika."

She glared up at him. "Force this, and I will hurt you."

His eyes closed again, hiding whatever emotion was banked in them. His lashes were like summoning fingers, beckoning her deeper into a world of shadows and dark seduction. "I can’t – I’m not – "

"Dungeon. Aeron. Nothing else matters. Talk time is over. Kiss time is over. Like we wanted, it’s over and done. I won’t wonder about your taste again." Sadly, she knew she would dream of that kiss for the rest of her life. She would dream of what might have been, fantasize about what would have happened if he’d truly wanted her.

"Danika, I – "

Again he paused, and she experienced a wave of painful curiosity. "What?" Her heart pounded against her ribs. "Just say it so I can go!"

His eyelids popped open, fire blazing bright in his pupils. He got in her face, pressing his nose to hers. White-hot breath blistered her skin. "Not another word from you. I have something to tell you."

These last few months, her will had been ignored completely. Her wonderful life had been taken away, her existence stripped to the bare necessities. Everyone she loved – gone. Painting, her lifeline to sanity – gone.

She wouldn’t capitulate on this.

"Not another word, huh?" You’ve trained for combat. You know what to do. Heart pounding, Danika flattened her palm on the cold mattress. Sweat beaded over her skin. Last time she’d defended herself, she’d killed. Careful this time. She didn’t want to hurt this man beyond repair. She just wanted to wound him a little.

"The Darkest Pleasure"

"I never wanted to tell you this, had hoped it would be different with you, but I cannot allow you to think I do not crave you."

Block his voice and his bittersweet words. Act!

"I – "

Danika struck.

With all of her strength, she propelled her palm up and into his nose. Crunch. Snap. Warm blood poured from him, spraying her. Reyes moaned. Not a moan of pain, she realized, but of pleasure – exactly the sort she’d longed to hear while his tongue had filled her mouth.

The shock of that moan froze her in place. What. The. Hell?

Slowly Reyes turned his head and faced her again. The blood had already ceased flowing, his nose readjusting itself all on its own. Her eyes widened. He was an immortal warrior, yes, she’d known that. He healed quickly. That, too, she’d suspected after the choking last night. But how could she have predicted the explosive need that would appear in his eyes because she’d broken his nose?

His c**k swelled quickly, again as she’d craved earlier, a brand between her jean-clad thighs. What would she have felt if they’d been naked? She swallowed, and Reyes licked his lips, as if he could suddenly taste her there.

A tremor catapulted down her spine. Their bodies brushed, her ni**les against his strength, her softness against his warrior-might, and electricity sparked. For a moment, only a moment, the sensation was painful and the pain was a pleasure inside her.

Reyes jolted away from her, that dark lightning gone in an instant. He stopped and stood at the far wall, the glistening head of his erection rising above the waist of his now too-tight pants.

"Reyes," she said, unsure. Needy all over again, scared and confused.

"I want you, but I cannot have you unless you hurt me." The harsh admission seemed ripped from his throat. His shame had returned. His guilt. And hope? "I can only experience pleasure with pain."

Slowly she sat up, her brain too fogged to make sense of what he was trying to tell her. "I don’t understand."

"Yesterday you asked what demon possessed me. Well, my demon is Pain. It makes me crave physical agony, and the more excruciating the better. Bodily suffering is my only source of pleasure."

Just as it had been hers in that single moment.

No, not a single moment. The truth slinked through her like an ice shower in the midst of a perfect day. It had happened before. Yesterday, when she’d awoken in Reyes’s bed. She’d bitten him, and she’d liked it. "Can your demon enter me?" Her stomach curled into itself. That was impossible. Right?

"No," he said, but his gaze had sharpened.

Don’t think about this right now. You’ll panic, lose focus. "What you’re telling me is that, to be with you, I’d have to torture you?" Over and over again?

He nodded.

Her mouth dried, and she suddenly tasted cotton. If she came to care for him – if? – and gave herself to him, what would be expected of her? Would she have to scratch him, pinch him, bite him? "Other women have…hurt you?"

He gave another grave nod.

Danika’s hands fisted, her nails cutting into the sheet. In that moment, she had no problem summoning the will to harm someone. The thought of Reyes with another woman propelled her toward a jealous rage she’d never before experienced. "Did that work?"

"For a while. Pain is pain, no matter the reason it’s meted."