Darkyn's Mate

"I, um, don't know," she murmured then shook her head. "I mean, this is temporary. It won't happen that way."

Darkyn's hand rested on her hip. He drew her against him. Deidre found herself leaning into his solid frame without resistance, entranced by the combination of his hot, hard body and cool fire on her swimming senses. The faint, sweet scent was close. Calling to her. Tugging at her ability to reason.

She nuzzled the hand cupping her cheek, and his thumb traced her lips. He lifted her hand to his heart. Instinctively, she flattened her palm against his chest once more to feel his heartbeat. It was the opposite of hers: calm, steady, strong.

"You don't sound certain enough to make a deal with me."

"I … I'm not sure why I should."

Touching him felt too natural. He was saturating her senses, seducing her somehow. She'd walked away from Gabriel, because he all-but-pushed her away. Darkyn's intentions were the opposite. He was using the truth to hammer down her resistance and his power to seduce her. She didn't expect it; she expected him to lie rather than point out the flaws in her desperate logic.

The fog around her thoughts grew heavier.

Waiting for him to snap or yell as he had when she arrived to Hell, she touched him timidly with her other hand to begin exploring the ridges of the scars on his chest.

"Touch me, taste me, scratch me, bite me," he whispered. "You can't be too rough for me."

"You can be for me," she said uneasily.

"I made you a deal. I know how to give pleasure without pain." By the distaste in his voice, he wasn't happy about it. "I won't hurt you, unless you ask me to."

Her hands ceased quivering as she ran them across his chest, over his firm shoulders and shapely arms before returning to his chest.

"Yes or no, love?" he purred. "Will you take your place in my bed as my mate?"

"You won't wait a week?" she asked.

"Only if you make me a deal."

She groaned. The same instincts that warned her against the last deal with him told her she'd never win any bet with the devil

"I'll give you the terms first this time. You can gauge the risk." He chuckled, a sinister sound. "You can fuck me here, now, the way mates should. Or, when you lose our deal, you can fuck the Dark One." He nuzzled her neck, and she tilted her head. His teeth grazed the sensitive skin without biting.

"Oh, god," she breathed. No part of her was willing to risk an encounter with Darkyn's other form. The world around her was dark around its edges. The fever had taken her out of her mind and into the alternate reality of a dream.