Dark Promise by Annika West
40
With numb lips, I asked, “Did you just kidnap me and threaten to burn down Faery to tell me that you… want to compromise?”
He rolled his eyes to the heavens, as if I was the one overreacting.
“You could have just left a sticky note,” I insisted. “Or been like, ‘hey Miss King,” I mocked in the deepest voice I could manage, “did you still want to be completely under my legal control, or nah?”
“Aster, you’re ruining the moment.”
I threw my head back and laughed. The tension melted from my body, and beneath me, Hux’s chest shook.
I held his smiling, hesitant gaze. “Do you swear?”
The hesitation melted into resolve. Every plane of his face was smooth and serious. “I swear. It will be done the moment we return to Vulcan Corp. I don’t know how I’ll protect you from Jericho’s Council intrusion. It will be impossible for me to shield you completely.”
I snapped my fingers, ideas pinging through me. “I think I have a plan. In fact, I know exactly what to do to get Jericho off our backs. Trust me.”
He caught my hand. The caution had returned. He was such a big, strong devil, and that’s why his vulnerable, worried frown made my heart squeeze.
He propped himself up on his elbows, somehow managing to look in charge. “So, you’ll come back with me.”
For some reason, the mating haze wasn’t overpowering us. It was almost as if our bond could sense the desire and intention between us, and that was enough to satisfy it.
Seeing that his clothes didn’t reappear after a dragon shift, and I still wore my pants, it gave me a little bit of leverage as I arched my spine and circled my hips, teasing him.
His eyelids flickered.
“I want a life with you, Huxley Cayne. So yes, I will be going back.”
He stilled, eyes flashing open. Filled with shock. He surged forward to a seated position and wedged me into him. He held me so tight that I nearly lost my breath.
My arms went around him, and I tucked my head into the crook of his neck.
Come on, buddy. That was a surprise?
That was the truth of what I wanted. The real, unfiltered answer.
It’s been on my mind since Willow had first asked it. Despite everything he’s done and all the hurt he’s caused, I wanted a life with him.
Tough shit included.
Who knows — maybe I’ll be eating my words once a century passes, and I’ll realize he’s an absolute scourge upon the earth.
But for now, there’s no one else I’d rather have at my back. No one that I trust or admire more than him. No one that I desire more than him. He’s who I think of the moment I wake up and remember until the second I fall asleep.
I know, I know.
I’m practically a stalker.
If Hux can promise to be at my side and not playing the puppet strings above me, then that’s all that mattered.
When he kissed me, I shuddered in his arms. My breath came out in shallow pants as his mouth slanted over mine, and we lost ourselves. It felt like we’d been separated for too fucking long.
My chest ached in relief just beneath the rune. Like a throbbing, healing bruise.
“You are positively divine, Aster. And you are mine,” Hux purred. He nipped the edge of my ear and growled in approval when I gasped.
The way he was grinding into me was enough to give me endorphins for a week. I didn’t stop my hips as they rocked forward to meet him.
Hux groaned and nudged my head up, staring at me with molten honey-and-gold eyes.
A lazy, teasing smile pulled on my lips, I stated, “I have gonorrhea —”
“You are so funny,” he drawled. He cut me off with another bruising kiss.
It was like being enveloped in black silk. Dizziness swept over me, more aggressive than any other intoxication. No amount of vodka could quite match this kind of impairment.
I moaned and tried to blink past the haze of lust. I was just… really attracted to this guy, wasn’t I?
I groaned. “I hate you more than anything in the world.”
“Why?” He’d pulled my shirt off, and his tongue circled my sensitive nipple
His scent sunk into my skin. His warmth made my blood hum. I could still taste him on my lips.
My nerves were rubbed raw. The fights, the flight, the raw emotions…
Stop hiding. Stop running away.
I lifted his chin and met his honey gaze. “I hate you because despite everything, I love the shit out of you, Huxley Cayne. You fucking moron.”