Embers (Dark in You 4)

Knox stroked her arm. “I know you think it a weakness that you can’t conjure an orb of hellfire. Maybe it would be if you couldn’t produce hellfire at all, but you can. I don’t see your ability to only infuse it into objects as in any way a limitation. In fact, I’d say it’s more destructive.”

“Yeah, unless I need to throw a ball of hellfire. Then it’s a problem.” Glancing at Asher again, she asked Knox, “How old were you when your abilities first started to surface?”

“I’m not sure,” said Knox. “I don’t remember ever not having abilities. It wasn’t a question I’d ever asked my parents. I remember being excited whenever a new ability surfaced. My parents would always panic, though, and urge me to hide them. They didn’t want the other demons to know what we were.” As an archdemon, Knox would never stop growing in power. That was one of the things that made his breed so dangerous.

People believed that what was born in hell should remain in hell. His breed tended to live in hordes deep within hell itself. Despite that the children were born from the flames, the adults all shared in the care of them. Some adults “adopted” children, treating them as their own, just as his parents had done.

“You said your horde separated when it came to Earth. What happened to the others?”

“Lou told me they’d returned to hell of their own accord well before the law had passed that archdemons were forbidden from leaving it.” After a rogue archdemon once almost destroyed Earth, Lou agreed to keep the breed in hell. But since he hadn’t agreed to round up any archdemons still roaming the Earth, he left Knox well alone. “People here don’t exactly welcome our kind. No lairs would accept them. No one trusted them. They felt they had no place here.”

“Why didn’t you go back to hell after your parents died?” Harper asked.

“It would have felt too much like running. Hiding. Accepting defeat. That’s not who I am.”

“So … you’re, like, the only archdemon on Earth?”

“Yes.”

Her eyes clouded. “Must be lonely to be one of a kind. Cool too, in some ways. But mostly lonely.”

“It never really affected me one way or the other. And how can I be lonely when I have you?” Cupping her nape, he took her mouth, keeping the kiss slow. Deep. Lazy. Indulging in a thorough taste of her that never failed to enliven him … so it was pretty annoying that they were disturbed by the laughter of the sentinels.

Knox looked to see them traipsing through the shallow part of the sea, heading for the shoreline. “Who won the race?” he called out.

Tanner snorted, as if offended by the question. “Me, of course. I wanted to—shit, jellyfish!”

Harper raised a brow at Knox. “What did I say?”

He just shook his head.

Digging her fingers into his shoulders, Harper did her best to keep her moans low as he ate at her pussy but, dammit, it was hard. God, he was ravenous as he licked, nipped, and savored. Every flick of his tongue to her clit made her wind that much tighter. Every light scrape of his teeth made her stomach clench. And when he began pumping his tongue inside her, stabbing and swirling, she felt herself start to fracture. He growled, the vibrations rumbled up her pussy, and then her release barreled into her, making her back bow and her fingers claw at the bedsheet.

Cock as hard as a steel spike, Knox kissed his way up her shuddering body. “Fucking love making you come, baby.” He latched onto her nipple and suckled, plumping her other creamy breast with his hand. Her skin was soft as silk. He loved fucking her breasts, but not tonight. Tonight, he needed to be inside her.

As her lips parted and she went to argue, he took her mouth. Sank his tongue inside and glided it against her own.

Her fingers dug into his shoulders, and she arched into him with a throaty moan he felt all the way in his balls.

The moment his mouth had touched hers, her entire body just lit right up. No one had ever kissed her the way Knox did. He didn’t just stroke her tongue with his. He licked at her teeth, nipped at the corners of her mouth, sucked on her bottom lip, rubbed the inside of her top lip. Devoured her until her brain was mush and her emotions were spinning.

The sexual aggression pouring off him made her pulse quicken, her nipples pebble, and her pussy clench. His cock, hard and long and thick …

He pulled back, and she would have chased his mouth for more if it wasn’t for the hand fisting her hair and holding her in place.

As she wrapped her limbs around him and arched her back to grind against his cock, Knox delivered a sharp tweak to her taut nipple. “Roll over.”

She frowned. “Huh?”

“Roll over.”

Knowing he just wanted to look at his brand while he fucked her, Harper almost rolled her eyes. “Will you just fuck me already?”

“I won’t tell you a third time, baby.”

“But I want—”

He slapped her clit. “Right now, this isn’t about what you want. You’re here to make me come. To satisfy me. Once you’ve done that, you’ll get what you want.”