by Jaye Shields
They plummeted from the clouds, and Sephina’s arrows whizzed toward the hunters with lethal grace. Men dropped from their steeds one by one. Axel prepared to make his sweep and brimstone ignited within belly.
“Try not to get the horses, okay?”
Axel smiled. He loved his woman. “I’ll try.”
Instead of unleashing a wave of flames, Axel directed fireballs at the men still on horseback. One by one, they dropped from their steeds just like the men Seph punished with her deadly aim. Soon, no riders were left and Zahra and Lennox remained in the distance, unneeded.
“You are a good shot, my love.” Axel landed on the ground and set Sephina down on her feet gently.
“That was incredible. I love flying. And look, you even managed to avoid a horse BBQ.”
Axel pulled Sephina into him and covered her lips. She melted against him and moaned. Her hand gripped his shoulder as if to pull him even closer. The pleasure of her kiss was nearly dizzying. Axel opened his eyes slowly to gaze upon her, but saw a hunter on the ground aiming an arrow. Axel shoved Sephina out of the way, but it was too late. The arrow grazed them both, but his hardened scales had saved him. The warm crimson flooding his stomach wasn’t his. It was hers.
“Seph!”
Her eyes found his in a horrifying reflection of pain. The fire in her eyes was awash with tears. Axel laid her on the ground and left her there to go and finish off the hunter. Reaching down, he pulled the arrow from the hunter’s back. Jerking the man’s head back, using a fistful of hair, Axel sliced his foe’s neck with the blade of the arrow. Blood gurgled from the hunter’s fatal wound before Axel once again knelt by Sephina’s side.
“You’re going to be all right.” The quiver in his own voice betrayed his worry. He slashed his wrist over one of his hardened scales.
Sephina smiled weakly as she clutched at the bloody wound in her side. “You just wanna get me all hopped up on erotic dreams.”
Axel’s heart dropped into his stomach. She was in so much pain, and yet she still sought to make him smile. He wanted to capture her lips with his own, but knew what had to be done. He placed his bleeding wrist against her mouth. She had to heal quickly. He had to take away her pain.
As she drank the livelihood he offered her, the bright amber in her eyes bore into him. Sephina was the one that was wounded, but she drilled him with a courageous gaze that he knew was meant to heal the ache in his heart. She swallowed drink after drink. Fresh off his heat, he could afford to give her all he had. Even if he wasn’t, he’d give her every last drop until he bled dry to heal her.
“You’re going to be okay.” He repeated the mantra in his head, but his heart didn’t stop raging against his ribcage until serenity finally entered Seph’s gaze. The hand he held firmly against her wound detected the slow heal of her skin coming together. She’d need more blood though to heal the wound as well as take away the pain. When she tried to take her lips away, he forced more down her throat. He wasn’t taking any chances. Finally, her wound healed beneath his fingertips.
The brimstone in his bones kept him warm, but his veins had emptied out enough to leave him dizzy. But she was healed, and that was all the mattered. Axel took his hand away and immediately captured her lips. He needed to kiss her. Sephina thrust her tongue inside his mouth and met his passion head on. He cherished her. And he’d almost lost her.
“What happened?” Zahra’s worried voice interrupted them, but Axel didn’t release Seph. He continued to savor her. Even with the taste of his own blood, the kiss was exquisite.
“There’s blood everywhere. Seph, are you all right?” This time it was Lennox’s concerned tone that sought to halt the kiss.
Hellplane. Axel released her lips, but fought the urge to rip her brother-in-law in half. As soon as his lips released her, blackness swirled across his vision.
“Axel!” Sephina’s worried tone bounced through his brain, but her image waved before his eyes. And then finally, everything else disappeared. As the darkness of death consumed him, he gave himself up with happiness, for his love would go on. She would survive.
Epilogue
One month later
Sephina finished washing her hands in the elaborate bathroom inside Nymph’s Hideout. Ananda walked in. “Hey Seph, there’s a client giving Catrina a hard time in the BDSM room.”
“All right, I’ll be right there. I thought I’d never be able to get the scent of that troll’s balls off my hands.”
Ananda laughed, and when she did, her whole face lit up. Sephina was glad for it. Ever since she’d accepted the position as Security La Femme at the whorehouse, Sephina had made it her goal to boost that damn girl’s confidence.
The young human left the bathroom and Seph dried her hands off. When a troll had gotten overly aggressive with one of the concubines, she’d gone nutcracker on his ass, well, his testicles. And now apparently some asshole was giving Catrina a hard time in one of their hardcore playrooms. Well, Seph would put him out on his ass, just like anyone else that got too carried away this past week. Gods, she loved her job.
A second later, Seph barged into the BDSM room ready to set the brute straight. Instead, she walked in and found Catrina fully clothed standing beside Axel. The concubine flashed Seph a wicked grin before whacking Axel with her riding crop. “Here. You’re gonna need this. I say she’ll be a runner.”
“What’s going on here?” Seph looked between the brothel’s most popular concubine and Axel. Ever since the night they’d fought off the hunters, she and Axel had been inseparable. He’d helped her stay strong through the withdrawals, and she’d been sober a whole month. In turn, Axel had found a new way to keep the rough drugs off the street as the new town lawman. Catrina skipped past Seph and fled the room. The lock clicked in place behind Seph. “You wanna tell me what’s going on?”
Axel approached her. As he did so, his brilliant blue eyes glittered with sensual intention. “I’m here to tell you how much I love you, Seph.”
Her heart swelled. “I know you love me.”
“I came here, because I’m not leaving until I get the answer I want. Even if I have to torture you with hours of pleasure.”
Seph glanced around the kinky BDSM room. “Well...in that case, I might not give you what you want just for the fun of it.”
Axel knelt before her, and her breathing came to a sudden halt. Her palms trembled as he took them in his hands. He gazed up at her with eyes like warm steel. Framed by pale, blue skin and dark, black hair, he was her exotic, sexy beast.
His lips kissed her palm. “Sephina Antara. You are sensual, brave, kind, and you set my body on fire every moment of every day. I want nothing more than to be your fire, to set your body and heart aflame. I love you more than everything in this realm, and I always will. Will you be my lifemate?”
She swore she wasn’t a crier. But damnation and hellplane, tears came anyway. She laughed and sobbed at the same time. “If I say yes, can we still use the room?”
Axel’s grin brought her to her knees as she found his lips in an all-consuming kiss. When she released him, he took her hand and brought it to his mouth. He slid one of her fingers past his lips. The space inside his mouth rivaled the heat of a volcano. He breathed against her flesh and swirled the finger within his mouth. Heat flamed against her skin. The pain of his brimstone flicked against her, but she welcomed it. She was a woman who belonged to a dragon.
When he pulled her finger slowly from his mouth, his grin had her examining her hand. Her finger burned. Axel blew on it, and as he did so, a golden fire traced its way around her finger and left a blazing red tattoo around its circumference.
“Axel! It’s beautiful.” The marking he’d left on her cooled against her skin, a permanent reminder of their everlasting love. The only thing more beautiful than the new marking around her finger was the incredible man kneeling before her. “I want to spend forever with you.”
“I love you, Seph.”
“Good. Now, let’s get
started on this forever thing. Pretend I didn’t say yes. What was that thing you said about punishing and pleasuring?” Seph gave herself to the smile that took over her cheeks.
Axel took her into his arms and backed her against one of the wooden bondage wheels. Sephina gasped as heat flooded her body in anticipation.
Tonight would be good.
Forever with Axel would be even better.
About Jaye Shields
Jaye Shields holds a degree in Anthropology from San Francisco State University with an emphasis in archaeology. Her previous claims to fame include being a bass player for a grunge band called the Hymens, being mistaken for Britney Spears while in Tokyo, and commercial model. She insists the commercial still counts even though her lines were cut.
Born and raised in Seattle, she now lives in the realm of fog, skyscrapers, and redwood trees. Happy to call San Francisco home, she spends her time writing sensual paranormal romance and urban fantasy. Thanks to her grandmother, she’s been reading romance novels since she was ten years old. Jaye sprinkles her love of history, mythology, and the occult into flaming hot reads.
Jaye’s Website:
www.JayeShields.com
Reader eMail:
[email protected]
About The Sex Demon Trilogy
Book 1: Confessions of a Sex Demon
Now Available
Book 2: Claiming of a Sex Demon
Now Available
Book 3: Addictions of a Sex Demon
Now Available