The Demon Lord (A Demon Outlaws Novella) (Entangled Edge) Read Free Page A

breath as the night shifted around them. Shadows danced to the music of a wind that rustled dry, tumbled brush and tall, brittle grass.
    His gaze blackened. “You’re as immortal as I am. You have no more love for spawn than we do. Can you tell me the spawn goddesses create with mortals are any different from ours?”
    “There are no such offspring,” she said. “Goddesses are barren.”
    “It’s far more likely that mortal males could never plant their seed in an immortal womb.” He stepped closer. In order to evade him, she would have to reenter the pool, but this time, Allia refused to give ground. He again reached out to touch her, to trace a light finger down her cheek and along the side of her neck, to tease the length of her collarbone to the base of her throat. “Many magnificent things might result if a goddess and demon were to mate.”
    She had to smile at his arrogance.
    “We have no need for such magnificence,” she said. “Goddesses bring life to the world. Its people are our children. Our strength.”
    The light finger at her throat trailed lower to circle the tip of one breast. “Your children are your weakness.”
    Her thoughts scattered. Allia lifted her chin even as her body swayed toward him. With a start of awareness, at the last second she spun away before he could fully claim her lips with his. Water swirled around her ankles. As droplets of goddess rain sprayed into the air, she called it to her so that none would fall and burn him.
    He seemed unbothered by either her retreat or the scattered drops. Indeed, it was as if he enjoyed the pursuit. He came so close to the ripples tickling the water’s edge that she could not stifle a cry of alarm for his safety.
    He stopped. An eyebrow lifted. “I promised no harm would come to you,” he reminded her. “I won’t go back on my word.”
    It was not her life she feared for, or his word that made her afraid.
    Allia bit her lip. She was as eager for pleasure as he seemed to be—to give in to the desire she felt for him. The physical attraction was too much for her to resist. It slid over her bare flesh like a breath of cool air. It taunted her with the promise of pleasures beyond any she’d ever known, leaving her dizzy, and very conflicted.
    She wanted to touch him. To taste him. She wanted to feel him inside her.
    She wanted him .
    “I should never have come here,” she said. “I won’t come again.”
    Heat shimmered in his gaze as it dropped to her mouth. “If you don’t, then I’m the one who will be sorry.”
    Not if he knew the truth of why she was here. And yet she could hardly explain matters to him. Neither could she complete the task as it had been set for her.
    She could not enslave someone who had already enslaved her.
    The closeness of the night—the intimacy it created—grew suffocating. She could not possibly win in this situation.
    …
    He could not allow her to leave.
    Not until he discovered some way to break this connection between them. It was not at all what he had believed it would be, and he disliked that it gave her this baffling power over him.
    All he could think of was her, and how much he desired her. While he should not have made that promise, it no longer mattered. Even without it, he could not have harmed her.
    If he took her, perhaps this need for her would be satisfied and he would again be in control. He would own her.
    No one owned him.
    He contemplated entering the water to reach her. He cared little for any damage it might cause him. He was the Demon Lord. He didn’t fear goddess rain.
    He read the indecision on her face. The longing. Elation filled him. She did not wish to depart.
    He extended a hand to her. “Come. Sit with me.”
    At first she didn’t move, but remained as still as the night. And then, with slow steps, she reached to take his hand in hers and allowed him to draw her from the pool.
    He did not plan to rush her. He did not wish for her to vanish, as she would at the slightest