Ryker was on his feet and across the room in a heartbeat, his right hand pressing to Tegan’s bare chest as it heaved.
“Calm, brother.” Ryker eased him back against the sideboard. “I apologise. I was wrong. You are right. Maybe people do expect too much from you.”
Tegan breathed hard as he clawed back control, desperate to maintain it as his bones burned, the ache in them fierce as he denied the rage Ryker had stoked in him. He had lost control once already today, and it always made it more difficult to keep hold of his emotions and not let them rule him.
Ryker breathed slowly, steady draws and exhales that Tegan followed, because he didn’t want to shift into his more demonic form again.
Doing so would send him straight to Suki, and she had been through enough today without having to deal with him in his fully demonic state, driven by a need to claim her as his mate.
He didn’t want to hurt her again and he feared he would if rage seized control of him.
“They expect me to be something I am not,” he growled and breathed steadily, scraping together calm little by little as his turbulent emotions began to settle again.
“You are a good king, Tegan.” Ryker’s words offered comfort Tegan seized on.
He hadn’t realised how much he had needed to hear such a thing from his brother, from someone. His advisers only told him what he was doing wrong, and his warriors blamed him for their lack of battle, and even his people complained about things to his face. The compliments were few and far between.
Ryker sighed. “You never wanted it, but you accepted the burden of leading the kingdom, and you work hard to better it. That is the mark of a good king.”
Tegan lifted the remaining decanter from the silver tray and drained it, spilling mead all down his neck and bare chest.
Ryker chuckled. “You still drink like the male you were. Edyn would have ordered fresh goblets.”
Tegan couldn’t hold back the smile that rose onto his lips. “True.”
He brushed past Ryker and slumped into the black leather armchair. “Sometimes, I do not feel like a good king… the times I want to turn my back on it all… even when I know I would never do such a thing.”
“Everyone is allowed to hate their duties or their life from time to time.” Ryker eased back down onto the couch. “The difference is whether you pick yourself back up and keep going, doing what you know is right in your heart.”
“It is not easy with advisers like mine.”
Ryker sobered again. “Are they still doing their damnedest to slow down progress in the realm?”
Tegan had complained long and hard into the night over a year ago, holding Ryker captive in his drawing room at the castle until his brother had looked as if he wanted to remove each of his advisers’ heads.
He nodded, but then shook his head. “I have a feeling they will not be as much trouble anymore. I may have put them in their place.”
“About time! What finally made you make a stand against them?”
“I wanted plastic.” Tegan weathered the confused look his brother tossed at him and pulled the cards from the pouch on his hip. “A shifter I met told me plastic was king. Suki believes cash is king… It is a form of currency used in the mortal world.”
“I know what cash is.” Ryker frowned and waved his hand dismissively. “Repeat the important part again.”
“Which is?”
“We get to have debit cards.” Ryker’s gaze lit up in the way Suki’s had when she had seen Tegan’s collection of plastic.
“Oh, no. I have seen that look on my female’s face. I get to have plastic. You would bankrupt the kingdom.” He hastily tucked the cards away when his brother looked as if he was considering attempting to seize one for himself.
Ryker huffed and relaxed into the couch again. “So your female likes money?”
He hiked his right shoulder. “Apparently. My wealth seemed to impress her. It increased my rank by a point.”
“Rank?”
He rubbed his horn, feeling he had said too much, but the look Ryker gave him told him he wouldn’t let it go until Tegan explained.
“She scores males based on a secret system.” He puffed his chest out a little. “I ascended to a solid twelve.”
“Out of what?” Ryker grinned mischievously. “A hundred?”
Tegan shot him daggers. “Ten.”
Ryker was lucky he was his brother and he loved him. If anyone else had dared to insult him in such a manner, he would have had them thrown into the cells.
Well, anyone other than Ryker and Suki.
“She will find out you know.” Ryker sobered again and Tegan wished his brother had kept the mood light.
He didn’t want to think about what the future held. Not right now, when everything was so uncertain.
He loosed a deep sigh. “I know. I can only hope that by then she is so madly in love with me that it does not matter.”
His brother chuckled. “What’s not to love about you?”
Tegan shrugged.
Ryker tilted his head to his right and pursed his lips. “She is an interesting mate though. A succubus.”
His brother swiftly raised his hands when Tegan snarled at him.
“I am not interested in her.” Ryker lowered his hands to his lap again and frowned. “You do have shitty luck.”
That earned his brother another glare.
“I am just saying. Your path is not going to be an easy one. Even when you are mated and bound, males will look at her.”
Tegan pinched the bridge of his nose. Hard. “I know.”
His only hope was that her faulty glamour and inability to charm males continued and he wouldn’t have to execute half the kingdom for gazing upon his beautiful mate and lusting after her.
Maybe he could cover her from head to toe at all times?
No. He couldn’t do that. He loved how she dressed, so colourful and differently to others. He would never do something to change her or demand that she changed for him.
“The upside is, you have her diet covered,” Ryker put in, pulling him out of his thoughts of her. “No need to worry about our choice of food not suiting her. She looked ready to gobble you up earlier.”
Tegan growled again. This time, Ryker didn’t apologise.
His brother was right though. Suki fed exclusively from sexual energy. He found himself wanting to be the only male she fed from for the rest of her life, lost himself in that pleasing idea and plotting ways to break it to her that she was his fated one, and that he was falling for her and wanted to be her mate.
“Have you considered the other downside?” Ryker just wouldn’t give him a moment to think about his female, would he?
“Another downside?” He frowned, trying to figure out what his brother might be speaking about.
“Well, you are the king. The kingdom and your court will expect you to produce an heir with your fated mate.” Ryker swigged his mead and pulled a thoughtful face. “I can recognise a succubus when I see one, but I admit, I do not possess much knowledge of them. Can she even have male offspring?”
Tegan hadn’t considered that. Normally, a demon’s mate always produced male offspring, a way of ensuring the continuation of the species. What if succubi were a species like his and always produced female succubi offspring?
It troubled him as he thought about it, charting all the implications and how everyone might react as his brother silently watched him.
Tegan nodded when he reached a conclusion, one that stemmed from the deepest pit of his heart.
“I would not care. If Suki honoured me with a child, I would love it unconditionally, regardless of its sex.”
That didn’t go down well with Ryker.
“But that means I would be in line for the throne.”
Tegan slowly smiled. “Oh dear.”
Ryker threatened to throw his crystal goblet at him.
CHAPTER 21
Suki woke alone beneath the layers of furs on the sumptuous s
uper-king-size four-poster bed in Tegan’s enormous bedroom. She rolled to her left side and reached out, strangely expecting her big demon to be there beside her, even though she had never slept with a man before. She rubbed her eyes and looked at the empty side of the bed, her hand draped over the cold furs. She had been dreaming of him again and had fallen asleep in it tucked in his arms, sated and boneless, and warmed right down to her heart.
Where was he?
She sat up and glanced around the room, gaze drifting over the mahogany furniture that lined the deep green walls and coming to rest on the armchair near the fireplace. The wood had burned out, leaving only the slender light from the oil lamps to chase the darkness back, but her eyesight was good enough to see Tegan wasn’t in the room with her.
How late was it?
She fumbled on the bedside cabinet for her phone and woke the screen. It was gone eight in the morning. It had been late afternoon when she had retired to his room, washed herself in his modest bathroom and nosed at his belongings. She was sure she had fallen asleep by nine, which meant she had slept for eleven hours. Had Tegan come to check on her at all?
She felt sure that if he had, he would have stayed, and he would have woken her. It wasn’t possible he had come and slept beside her without her knowing. She was certain the feel of the hard length of his body pressing against hers, his heat rolling over her, and his arms around her would have roused her.
She would have wanted to snuggle into his embrace.
Which was odd and unsettling, because this whole affair was nothing like she had planned.
She was meant to be seducing him.
Now she was sure she was falling for him.
That left her cold.
She couldn’t fall for him, even if love was possible for her. Falling for him meant turning her back on her clan.
Her family.
Succubi who decided to stick with one man, attempting to have a relationship like others could, were cast out of their clans. She had seen it happen. Her clan was everything to her and she was doing this so they would accept and respect her, and she would finally feel as if she belonged there.
She had to remember that.
She pushed the furs aside, padded naked around the bed, passing the three shuttered windows and then the fire as she rounded the foot of it, heading for the mahogany double wardrobe that lined the wall opposite the windows. She opened it, rifled through the white shirts that hung in it and picked one. She pulled it on. It swamped her, had her thoughts turning to the burly demon who owned it.
Where was he?
Suki looked down, making sure the shirt covered all of her. It reached to mid-thigh, long enough to conceal everything. Satisfied she wasn’t going to flash her wares at the servants or Ryker, she left the room and walked down the lamp-lit corridor, listening at each door in case Tegan was in one of them. All of them were quiet.
She took the stairs down to the next level and worked her way back to the drawing room. The door was open a crack, allowing firelight to chase into the hallway, a bright streak of gold that promised warmth. Her toes were freezing. She had forgotten that it could get cold in Hell, as chilly as her home in the mortal world.
She pushed the door open and peered around it.
Good gods.
Tegan lounged in his onyx leather wingback armchair, looking far too damned sexy in a heavy black housecoat that hugged his broad shoulders. The thick material clung to his biceps and framed his powerful torso, gaping at his waist where it met his dark leathers. His muscles flexed as he turned the page in the book he was reading, delighting her eyes and holding her focus, stoking the heat that rolled through her whenever she looked at him. Firelight chased over his skin, turning it golden, and reflected in his dark eyes as he frowned at the book.
Something was wrong.
It shook her from her reverie and had her stepping into the room. Why did he look so worn down?
Was it her fault?
Had she taken too much from him when they had kissed earlier?
He noticed her, his head lifting but gaze remaining sombre and troubled as he set his book aside.
He held his right hand out to her. “I apologise for my earlier behaviour.”
“Did you make up with your brother?” She moved towards him and took his hand, skimmed the fingers of her other one over his knuckles as she studied him. Now that she was near to him, in contact with him, she could feel his fatigue.
He nodded.
She was relieved to hear that. Family was important.
Suki leaned over and brushed the backs of her fingers down his cheek as her brow furrowed. “Haven’t you slept?”
He shook his head. “Much troubles me.”
His gaze dropped to take in her body and his eyebrows knitted hard as it turned heated.
“You wear my shirt.”
She looked down at herself and shrugged. “It looked comfortable.”
And for some reason, she had wanted to wear it, had been hit with a need to put one of them on when she had seen them last night.
She leaned closer, drew down a subtle breath and savoured his earthy masculine scent. It warmed her, offering the comfort she had thought she would find in donning his shirt, and she didn’t resist him when he pulled her onto his lap.
He wrapped his strong arms around her and that comfort she felt increased one hundred-fold.
His palm cupped her left cheek and he turned her face towards him, slid his hand around the back of her neck beneath her tangled hair and drew her to him. His lips brushed hers, the tenderness of his kiss lifting the comfort she felt in his arms to new heights, one where she felt dizzy and wanted to cling to him. She focused on his kiss as he held her seated on his thighs, on the addictive taste of him and the feelings that came through more clearly as the connection between them built.
He was troubled, but her heart said it wasn’t because of her.
He was strong too, and relief beat through her, eased the concern that had been growing inside her since last night and allowed her to relax into him and enjoy the feel of his lips brushing hers, a kiss meant for pleasure not for feeding.
When he moved away from her lips to kiss along her jaw, she found the courage to ask, “What’s wrong?”
He leaned back on a weary sigh and skimmed his hand up and down her thigh, sweeping the shirt higher with each stroke. Any moment now, he was going to realise she wore his shirt and only his shirt. She could just imagine how he was going to react to that, and gods, it was delicious, gave her a hit of energy that had a shiver chasing through her.
“A friend of mine and Ryker’s, Valdaine… I am worried about him.” A crinkle formed between his eyebrows as they knitted again. “Ryker was in the fae town with him when the Archangel raid happened.”
Cold slithered through her. “And you think he was taken along with Agatha and the others?”
He nodded, a troubled edge to his gaze as he lowered it to her legs. “Ryker was unable to search for him. He returned to the Second Realm after they were separated.”
She studied his handsome face, reading it and the emotions that flittered across his eyes, feelings she could sense a hint of when they were this close to each other.
“You feel guilty because you’re glad Ryker made it out.” She framed his face in both palms when he frowned at her. “It’s okay to feel that way. It doesn’t mean you care any less about Valdaine.”
“I worry,” he murmured huskily, a strained edge to it that she found endearing because it revealed the size of her demon’s heart and it was as big as the rest of him.
“We’ll find a way to get him and Agatha back. You mentioned a demon king had connections to Archangel.” She shifted her hands to his horns and stroked their lengths, from the root above his pointed ears down the curve that followed them to the points near his lobes, wanting to soothe him. “I’m sure he will help us.”
Tegan’s expression turned deadly serious. “I worry about you.”
She swallowed to wet her throat as her heart lodged in it. Her demon’s heart was bigger than she had thought. The look in his eyes revealed all his feelings to her, ones she was afraid of deciphering because it was all getting too complicated and her resolve was beginning to waver as a different path opened before her, one she wasn’t sure she was brave enough to choose.
His face darkened before it crumpled and he held her cheeks, drew her to him and pressed his forehead to hers as he screwed his eyes shut. “I do not like the thought you might have been taken… that these fiends might return and capture you… or…”
His voice broke on that final word, melting her heart in the process as his feelings flooded her.
He genuinely feared for her safety.
That touched her and she found it hard to remember why she was there as she fell into his eyes, drowning in the feelings they revealed to her.
To prove herself?
Or fall for this man who looked at her as if she was the most important thing in his world?
No one had ever looked at her that way before.
It was as addictive as his kiss.
“I thought you were sleeping.” His palm dropped to her legs and grazed her thigh.
Heat shimmered outwards from that caress, spreading through her as his gaze devoured hers, slowly darkening with desire she could sense in him.
“I woke alone and wondered where you were.” She trailed her fingers down his bare chest, the dark hair that covered it tickling their tips as her mind ventured down wicked paths, ones that had an ache blooming in her belly.
“So you came to find me?”
When she nodded, he gathered her closer and kissed her cheek. Her eyes rolled closed and she tilted her head back as fire blazed through her blood, each brush of his lips stoking it as he swept them along her jaw and down her throat.
He stilled, tensing in a way that had his entire body going rigid against her.
“What’s wrong?” She couldn’t find the strength to look at him, not while his breath skated over her skin, sending a thousand achy shivers rushing through her.
“Nothing.” That word was strained, hoarse, as tense as the rest of him.
Seduced by a Demon King Page 24