Bound By Lucifer by Aiden Pierce
Chapter Twenty-Six
Jessica
The River Styx – Past
The atmosphere that hung over our skiff grew thick and heavy with a blistering tension that had both of us sweating.
Lucifer’s nostrils flared, scenting my need, and his pupils dilated, leaving only a thin ring of gold around their perimeter.
“What are you doing?” he seethed between clenched teeth.
My cheeks flushed with horror. “I’m not doing anything…”
“The fuck, you aren’t doing anything. You’re putting off some kind of pheromone.”
His jaw flexed, and every muscle in his body clenched tight. The cords in his neck tightened against the collar of his shirt, and oh, how I wanted to run my tongue over their taut ridges.
My gaze roamed, starting from the wayward pieces of his ink-black hair that fell against his moon-pale skin taking in every detail. His thick lashes and how they framed the molten gold of his eyes. His lush lips and how they seemed to soften whenever he caught me looking at them. And his nose with the arched bridge, slightly askew, probably from healing wrong in the wake of his fight with Abaddon. Somehow the imperfection made him even more handsome.
The celestial was masculine perfection. My mouth went bone dry, drinking up his heart-breaking beauty, and my pussy was suddenly a damn geyser as I started recognizing all these little details I hadn’t before. Which seemed impossible because he was all I’d had to look at in this damn tiny boat for ages.
Of all the things to happen, why was this happening to me now? Why him?
“This has never happened before.” I winced, clamping my thighs together in hopes of smothering the scent. But it was all in vain. Every male in this layer would be able to scent it. But it would only resonate with my true mate.
I squeezed my eyes shut and focused on steadying my breathing. It was like a switch had been flipped. One second I was thirsty, tired, and aggravated. Now I was horny, thirsty for a different kind of fluid, and still aggravated.
I couldn’t look at Lucifer. After all this silence, my beast had decided to come alive with hot, fervent need. I didn’t trust the hungry bitch for a second. And if I kept looking at Lucifer’s delicious body, it was going to be a losing battle. She was so reckless that she didn’t give a damn how much she was about to embarrass me in front of the new king. All she cared about was getting laid.
“What’s never happened before?” His voice penetrated through my failing meditation. It was husky with need and sharp with irritation, scraping over my every nerve. I opened my eyes to see him there, sitting at my side, absolutely dripping in sweat. He looked every bit the damned celestial he was.
My heart fluttered in my throat, and I tried to hold it back with a thick swallow. “The shifter females of this realm only go into heat when their true mates are near.”
His eyes, glazed with equal parts hunger and fury, flashed. “Heat? Like an animal?”
I ground my teeth together, red hot anger making my blood boil in my veins. “Yeah, like an animal. Because I’m a damn demon, Lucifer. Don’t let my human form fool you. I’m not chaste and perfect like your celestial females. I have base instincts and urges that I am taught to embrace, not ignore.”
A vein twitched in his jaw. He dipped his head so that his gaze was affixed to the clenched fists in his lap, swathing his eyes in shadows and pieces of dark hair. “Well, make it stop.”
My chest tightened with anger. ”It’s not something I have any control over. It’s my beast that decides. The pheromones are to help the male track the female.”
He suddenly shoved to his feet, the sharp action rocking the boat dangerously. “Why can’t your beast wait until we’re on shore.” He jabbed a finger at the river’s blood-red currents, glaring down at me. “Your mate isn’t going to find you here unless it’s one of these souls.”
My mouth fell open, and I blinked at him, aghast. How could he be so stupid? Did he really not see what was going on here? That it was he who my beast had chosen? “Lucifer…”
The celestial gave a shake of his head, turning his back toward me. “I can’t be trapped here anymore. Not with you smelling like that.”
The taut muscles of his sinewy back stretched his shirt, making my beast burn with need at the sight. She wanted him so bad; she was intent on driving us both to the brink of insanity unless she got her way. But Lucifer wasn’t having any of it. His denial cut me deeper than I could ever have anticipated. Not that I would have ever have guessed any of this. Especially not the part about my beast choosing a celestial. And a loudmouth, sarcastic, cocky, outcast of a celestial at that.
But I wasn’t like Lucifer, who seemed to be ignoring all the calls of his beast. While I often detested the spirit of the demon inside me, I didn’t ignore her. I acknowledged her wisdom and accepted the fate she and my nieces had determined for me. Lucifer was to be mine. As a celestial shifter, he’d come from a society that taught them to suppress the desires of their true nature.
I had until he reached Limbo to help him realize how fucked up that was.
If I failed, I would lose my mate. He would go to this human, and she would not make him truly happy. Because I was his. Not her.
“It’s said that our true nature is the one that is in tune with the will of The Fates, that they are the ones who help guide our beasts in choosing.”
“That’s not true. No, no, no. That’s not true.”
“You don’t believe in true mates?”
“Of course I do,” he snapped. “But you’re insane if you think I’m going to believe for even a second that it’s your nieces steering your instincts in choosing your true mate. It’s God that determines that.”
“That’s not true, Lucifer. Especially not down here in the Underworld.”
“I have to get off this boat.”
My eyes went wide. “You can’t leave. The souls will drag you under the water. Their souls haven’t been parsed out to the different layers yet. They won’t recognize you as their king even with the crown.”
“Then you leave. You have wings, don’t you?”
Panic rushed through me, numbing my limbs. “No. No, I can’t shift.”
His lip curled as if what I had just said disgusted him. “A demon that can’t shift?”
I glared at him, my fists balling at my sides. “Of course, I can shift. I’m perfectly capable of it. I just won’t because I don’t want to.”
He scoffed. “So what’s with all the talk about listening to your true nature? You respect the demon spirit inside you but not enough to let her loose and play?”
He didn’t know what kind of wounds he was poking at. He was frustrated, confused, and by the raging erection straining against his pant leg, just as horny as I was.
“I don’t like shifting,” I said, hating how my voice shook. Flashes of ugly memories I thought I had buried tormented me, memories of Abaddon forcing me to shift while everyone watched him take me for the first time, threatening to snap my neck if I didn’t obey my king.
“Shift, Lilith. Fly away. Get yourself off this damn river. I don’t understand why you’re following me anyway.”
I didn’t understand either, up until now. I slowly shook my head, wrapping my arms tighter around myself. “I don’t want to. I’m sick of kings forcing me to do things. I’m done listening to orders. If you want to get away from me so bad, then happy swimming, asshole.”
He fumed down at me, rage and violence and dark energy rolling off of him in a toxic miasma that made my head swirl and my beast whine with need. He opened his mouth as if to say something but clamped it shut a second later. Then he slid into a sitting position, this time right beside me.
Acutely aware of his proximity, I closed my eyes again and focused on steadying my breathing. The heat cycle couldn’t last forever. I would just have to restrain my demon from doing anything stupid because Lucifer had made it abundantly clear he wouldn’t be making the first move.
“Why do you have to get off this boat so damn bad?”
It was a few seconds before he answered, and when he did, his tone was exhausted, weary, and now void of all ire. “Because your feminine hunger is driving me mad, Lilith. I can’t handle it.”
“Other than all the theatrics, you’re handling it just fine,” I snorted.
“Am I?” He let out a laugh devoid of all humor. “You don’t know what depraved, salacious, sinful thoughts are going through my mind right now. I have to fight my own beast. You’re lucky I can’t shift. If I could, he’d be too strong for me to fight, and you’d be on your back right now, with your legs spread, screaming my name until your voice gave out.”
A rush of heat raged through me like wildfire. Oh, Fates, how I wanted him to act on those instincts. Did he really not understand that other males wouldn’t be affected by this?
“Lucifer. My scent wouldn’t have this effect on you unless you were—”
“Don’t say it,” he growled.
“My true mate.”
The tension between us was so thick it was almost lethal. I could hardly breathe, though I wasn’t sure if that was in the wake of our fight or my blistering need for him to mate me. How could my beast be so reckless, so embarrassing? So damn shameless? But she didn’t give two shits. All she wanted was him.
“I have a mate. I need to get back to her.” His protest was weaker than the first. Like mine, his resolve was crumbling with every passing breath. Clearly, neither of us seemed super thrilled with the idea of our beasts resonating, but it wasn’t something we could fight for long, especially not forced together like this in this damned boat.
The only mate I had ever known was Abaddon. He wasn’t the one my beast or The Fates approved of, but he didn’t really care about anybody’s desires but his own. He took what he wanted, when he wanted. So Lucifer’s hesitance was new to me. I would never have pegged the desecrated celestial as a gentleman of all things, but hey, I guess he really was the change this realm need. The change I needed.
If he had been any other male, I would not fall asleep near him. Especially not in this state. But Lucifer was different. I trusted him. And my beast, twisted and fucked up as she was, wanted him to touch me whether I was conscious or not. She wanted him so bad, she filled my head with dirty dreams.
Usually, I had nightmares, with the cruel blue eyes of my ex-husband and his humiliating demands. But on this night, instead of the blue eyes of Abaddon the Destroyer, I dreamed of the golden eyes of Lucifer Morningstar. My beast imagined a fantasy where she had resonated with him, and he with me. A purr rose up from my chest, the call of my demon crying out for her mate. His thick, masculine growl of a purr sounded back, resonating with mine. Then his lips found mine in a heated kiss that turned my body to liquid beneath him. The kiss was so sweet, so right. The simple brush of lips was more pleasurable than anything else I’d ever experienced at Abaddon’s hands.
It felt so real. It didn’t feel like a dream. And knowing it wasn’t real had my beast crying out in pain. Then, another growl sounded in my ear. It was so loud, so close, so…real. I woke on a gasp, and my eyes flared open.
Lucifer was on top of me, holding my head between his hands, his lips on mine. It wasn’t a dream; I hadn’t imagined him kissing me. In my sleep, I had let out a heated purr, and his beast had answered mine. “Lilith…” My name on his lips was spoken like a plea of desperation, husky and swollen with need.
“Lucifer…” I answered him with a tentative whisper. I arched up off the skiff deck, pressing into him. When his rock-hard erection pressed against my thigh, he let out a guttural groan.
His head dipped, his brow coming to rest on mine. “You feel so damned good, Lilith.”
His words were like oil on flame. My entire being burned for him. My core was a hot, needy mess that had me writhing beneath him, desperate for the satisfaction of release that only he could give.
I eased my legs open, allowing him to settle between my thighs. His breath hitched as he lowered himself on top of me, slowly swaying his hips against mine to sate the arch. Even with layers of clothes between us, I could feel the heft of his arousal. Fates, I had never wanted anything so bad as I wanted him. I would forgo all water if it meant quenching the thirst between my legs.
I wanted him to fill me, to claim me as his own.
I wanted to be his everything.
I wanted him to bury himself in everything I was until he forgot all about his Eve.
My hand caressed the back of his head and pushed down gently to guide his lips back to mine. I nipped at his bottom lip, and his mouth stretched into a heated smirk against me. His taste was so good that it was unholy. He tasted like ash and depravity at its finest. He tasted of sin and paradise. It was a heady cocktail that had me seeing stars.
His muscles were wound tightly against me as if he were still fighting his beast. He was still battling his instincts.
Why? Why was he fighting this when it felt so right? Could he not feel with same blistering heat taking over his whole body, was his beast not screaming in his ear to take me?
I moaned against him, half in hopes it would encourage him and half because I couldn’t control myself. This wasn’t the place or time for a coupling. Not when my moans of pleasure coiled with the tormented moans of the sullied just over the skiff’s railing.
But I couldn’t help myself. I needed him so bad it fucking hurt. My clit throbbed as he rubbed his erection over my groin, making me curse the layers of fabric between us.
I arched into him, clinging to him. “Lucifer, please…”
For whatever reason, the plea on my lips had him prying me off of him. He backed away, his eyes frenzied and glazed with lust, his half bare chest heaving with his ragged pants. He scrambled away from me, the distance between us making me whimper.
“Lucifer. Fuck me. Please. I don’t care where we are. Just make this ache go away. Please.”
“I can’t,” he groaned. The celestial sagged against the stern of the skiff, holding his head in his hands, his dark tresses spilling over his splayed fingers. “You don’t understand, Lilith. I need to get back to Eve. If I don’t, I’ll never get my wings back. That was the deal. Make my fated one fall in love with me. Bring her back as proof. Get my wings back.”
Now I understood.
Even if he knew deep down that I was his true mate, his father was convinced that it was Eve, and from what I’d heard about Him, He was under the impression that He didn’t make mistakes. He would never believe a demon to be His son’s true partner.
Claiming me as his would mean Lucifer was choosing between me and his wings. Holding onto the hope that Eve was his meant he could have both.
My beast let out a pitiful cry in my ear, but I took a page from Lucifer’s own book and did my damnest to ignore her. Instead, I focused on a new sound. The ring from a bell announcing the approach of another’s boat.
The ferryman.