Nightbane (Lightlark, #2)(100)

He felt her own want for him and made a deep sound that rasped against the back of her mind.

“Are you always like this around me?” he asked.

Isla gasped again, then glared at him. He only grinned.

“You certainly think highly of yourself,” she said, breathless. Grim explored her with his hand, and she moaned.

“It’s hard not to, when I can feel the effect I have on you. Tell me, Hearteater, has anyone ever touched you like this?”

He knew the answer. He must. The demon just wanted to hear her say the words. She ignored him. Her eyes fluttered closed, as he pressed—

“Is it just me who elicits this response?”

Her head fell back as he kept circling. Her chest was bare to him.

“No need to reply,” he said. “The sounds you’re making are all the confirmation I need.”

She scowled. “You just like to hear yourself talk, don’t you?” His fingers slid lower, and her breath hitched.

“I do. But I like to hear you talk more. So, tell me.” He stopped suddenly. Withdrew his hand. “Are you always like this around me?” he repeated.

She scoffed at him. “Are you always this desperate for validation?”

“No. Not from anyone. Only you.”

She blinked, surprised by the admission.

“If you want me to continue, answer my question,” he said. He was breathing just as quickly as she was, chest heaving. “Please,” he added.

Isla knew he wasn’t used to saying that word at all. Yet, now he had said it to her multiple times.

Part of her wanted to portal away. Leave them both unfulfilled. But right now, the way he was looking at her . . .

She felt truly powerful for one of the first times in her life.

“Yes,” she said, and took great pleasure in watching his eyes burn even brighter in intensity. She wrapped her arms around his neck. Leaned in until her lips brushed his ear as she said, “Always.”

Grim was unleashed.

His hands gripped her waist, lifting her into the air with little effort. He hooked her feet behind him and brought them to the bed. Her back hit the sheets, and his hand returned to where it had been. Their chests were flush, just as they had been when he had shielded her from the arrows. He leaned down and looked her right in the eye, like he wanted her to hear every word. “Next time, I’ll use my mouth,” he said. “And then, after that—”

She needed to feel him. Her hand shifted below his waist, to the evidence of his desire, and all thoughts eddied away.

He filled her with all sorts of want, and she didn’t know what to do, didn’t know how to make him feel as good as he was making her feel, but just having her hand on him made his breath catch.

At least, until he gently removed her hand and laced their fingers together. He pinned her hand above her head. “Let me focus on you,” he said. “I don’t want to miss a moment of this.”

He filled her more than she ever thought possible, and she met him movement for movement, eyes fluttering closed. “That’s it, Hearteater,” he said. “Make it good for you.”

“Grim,” she said. His name caught in her throat and she clutched his shoulders.

He looked her right in the eyes and said, “Remember this, Hearteater, the next time you want to stab me through the chest.”

He swallowed her final moans with his mouth and pulled her into him, lifting her to his chest with a hand against her lower back. He held her closely, so closely. Only minutes later did he set her down.

Lost for breath, lost for sanity, she managed to say, “I’ll remember.”





REUNION


Isla didn’t want to remember anything else. He had stolen her people. He had forced them to his territory. How afraid they must have been. How unwilling.

It was time to bring an end to this.

At midnight, Isla sneaked back to her room. Oro would hate her if he knew what she was about to do. Everyone would. None of them would trust her again, because what she was planning was so traitorous, so foolish—

She stood in the center of her room, the moon wide as a judgmental eye through the window in front of her.

She pulled her necklace.

If she had feared he wouldn’t come, that he wouldn’t drop anything he was doing and rush to her, she was wrong.

Barely a second after her fingers left the black diamond, she heard a step behind her. Then, “Hearteater.”


She turned and he immediately swept her into his arms. He looked crazed, hungry, relieved, so relieved. He was an inch from pressing his lips against hers, and she was an inch from letting him—she was confused, she told herself, the memories were messing with her—before he saw her expression. Sensed her emotions. There was no thread between them. From her side, anyway.

He went still.

“You heartless demon,” she said.

Grim’s eyes had been pleased, delighted, but now he looked devastated. “You don’t remember.”

“I remember plenty,” she said, stumbling away from him. Her eyes glimmered with tears. Angry, angry tears. “How could you?”

“You got my note.”

“Yes, I got your note,” she said, spitting the words out with disgust. “How could you take them? How could you make them go with you?”