Rowan turned to face me, a curl of red hair falling before her face. A sly smile crossed her lips. “We’re alone, finally.”
My gaze slid down her body, and I breathed in her scent. I pulled her close to me, purring, “Rowan, you perfect creature. You brought the Lilu back.”
She looked up into my eyes and responded with her own dazzling smile. “We both did.”
I locked eyes with her and let the back of my hand slide down her cheek. Energy crackled where I touched her. “You’re not going to bite me again, are you?”
“I might.” Her voice held a seductive promise, and I can’t say I hated the idea of it.
This cocky, succubus version of Rowan was nothing like the Rowan I’d first met—and I loved them both.
“I swore I wouldn’t kiss you until you trusted me,” I said. Our mouths were inches apart.
“And you understand that I trust you now?” Rowan’s lips looked plump and red, ready for mine.
“You gave me the book,” I said, my index finger on her chin, tilting her face to meet my kiss.
Instead of her sweet mouth, however, my lips found the first two fingers of her left hand, raised to block me.
My brow furrowed with an unspoken question. Who refused a kiss to an incubus?
I wanted her. She wanted me. But she intended to toy with me tonight—and I can’t say I minded that, either.
With unexpected force, she shoved me flat on my back and leapt onto me like a wild creature—which she was. In the moonlight, I could see the flush of her cheeks, the untamed light in her eyes.
She straddled me, the hem of her dress riding up, and leaned closer. “Remember when you told me I didn’t have it in me to take you down?”
I smoothed my palms over her thighs. “You haven’t entirely forgiven some of the things I’ve said, have you?
She unbuttoned the top of my shirt and pressed her palms on my skin. A wicked smile curled her red lips. Her fingernails raked over the top of my chest, ripping the shirt open more. “I may exact my revenge little by little. You belong to me now.”
Desire flared in me, and sparks ignited in the darkness at every point where our bodies made contact. “I do.”
But even with Rowan, it was nearly impossible to suppress my instinct to dominate. A demonic impulse snapped through me, and in the next moment, I’d shifted her off me until she was facedown on the mossy earth, her dress hitched up from behind. Her gasp made me stir with lust.
I pinned her wrists to the ground, then pressed over her, drinking in her delicious scent—ripe fruit. I wanted to mark Rowan’s body and soul as mine. I fought the urge to rip through her underwear and take her right now. I had to savor this.
I lowered my face to hers. “I want you to never again think of another man like you think of me.”
She turned to look at me and licked her lips. I hardened even more as I watched the movement of her tongue sliding over her lower lip. “Still jealous, are you? I thought you were supposed to be a god or something.”
I yanked her dress up higher, exposing her arse in tiny lace underwear that nearly made me forget how to speak. “The gods are all jealous,” I snarled. “It’s why they get so angry when you worship other ones.”
“I never should have told you about Tammuz.”
“Let’s not talk about my dad right now.” With one hand pinning her wrists, I used the other to trace over the dark silk between her thighs. She moaned, shifting her hips upward with my touch. Just under the silk, I could already feel how much she wanted me. I fought the urge to pull the silk aside and dive in because I delighted in tormenting her.
“Orion,” she moaned my name. And I could hardly take it anymore.
I found myself covering her with my body, my erection pressing against her through my trousers. “Yes, love?”
Unexpectedly, she shifted her hips upward and elbowed me in the chest. This was more strength than I could possibly imagine from someone so small, and I was flat on my back again, the wind knocked out of me.
Holy hells.
One of her perfect thighs slid over me once more, and her hair was a wild tangle around her head, embedded with a few leaves from the forest floor. She looked like a gorgeous wood nymph with her thighs spread over my hips. Her dress had hitched up, and I had a view of that little triangle of silky underwear again, where I’d just been stroking her. I already knew how much she needed me, but she was determined to be in control—for now.
This time, I let her pin my wrists down—welcomed it, even. And when she leaned over to lick my neck, the heat shuddering through me told me I’d made the right choice. Gods, she was divine.