Her robe came a little undone, and the air thickened as Elijah caught sight of her nakedness underneath.

  ‘Fates,’ he murmured, the sound turning her core molten. Electric nerves firing as his fingertips brushed her skin. ‘Do you know what a waste this would be with him?’ he said, stepping back to unbutton his sleeves. ‘He wouldn’t even know what to do with you.’

  ‘Him?’ she asked, her brain disconnecting as Elijah pulled his shirt over his head, her eyes taking in every defined muscle of his slender torso.

  Elijah paused, shirt still in hand, and raised a brow. ‘August? The dinner? Keira, about that…’

  Her mouth quirked at the corner, remembering now that she never made it back to the cottage to tell him; never made it back to say that she had chosen him. ‘Oh right. I never had the dinner.’

  His shirt dropped and so did his knees onto the bed. Her heart drummed in her chest as he prowled closer, pulling her to him. ‘What, exactly, are you saying Keira?’

  Her cheeks strained as she struggled to hold back her smile. ‘I’m saying’—she wrapped her legs around his hips and pulled herself halfway into his lap. ‘That I never had the dinner. I wanted the appetiser.’ She ran her hand over his abs and watched in fascination as his skin trembled.

  His chest heaved as the words settled with him. ‘I’m going to need minute,’ he breathed, voice thick with emotions, and the most ridiculous thrill surged through her at realising that she had rattled him, the Djinn of Lust himself.

  She bit her lip. ‘Don’t take too long. I might run off again.’

  ‘Is that so?’ he murmured, gaze sweeping over her mouth, her breasts. ‘I think we ought to have another lesson then. Just to make sure you won’t.’

  It took everything in her not to grin like a silly schoolgirl, even as she trembled with trepidation.

  ‘The third one?’

  He regarded her, eyes studying her expression. ‘Hmm, I’m thinking something extracurricular instead,’ he said, licking his way to the sensitive nook of her neck. ‘Something to truly remind you where you belong – or to whom.’ His weight shifted over her, pressing her down on her back as he moved her arms over her head.

  ‘And how are you planning to do that?’ she whispered, attempting and failing at bravado as she felt his hips press against hers. A shiver went through her body. ‘One would have thought you’d shown me all of your tricks by now.’

  ‘All my tricks?’ he mused, pitching his voice to sound humorous before it darkened into a low husk. ‘Darling, I haven’t shown you anything yet.’

  Something slithered around her wrists, and she yelped as the bed curtains came loose, holding her in place.

  ‘Elijah!’

  Smirking, he snapped his fingers once more, and it was as if all sound from downstairs evaporated – as if sucked out of the room – and she had a sneaking suspicion that no sound from them could be heard outside either. Her whole body tightened at the thought.

  ‘Why did you⁠—’

  ‘Clearly, I’m not doing my job right if you’re riding into Faerie to play with nymphs,’ he said, shifting down her body and pulling at her robe. ‘I know better ways of making you scream if it is violence you prefer.’

  She’d surely forgotten how to breathe, blatantly aware of how exposed she was to him and of his arousal, straining against his trousers. ‘Will you⁠—’

  ‘Oh, no. Not yet, Peaches. That would be more like a reward, not…’

  Punishment, she swallowed.

  ‘Like I was saying,’ he murmured, circling his finger around her taut nipple. ‘There are other ways of making you scream.

  Mortified. She was absolutely mortified, hiding her face behind a pillow. And what was even worse, was that Elijah lay next to her, looking like the cockiest bastard that ever lived.

  ‘I thought it was amazing. Like a squirt of peach juice with my meal.’

  She raised her head and glowered at him. ‘Peach juice is not enticing.’

  ‘Cantaloupe juice, then? No? Apple juice?’

  She threw her pillow at him as he chortled, trying her best not to pay attention to the way his muscles rippled.

  He’d kept her on edge for ages – playing with her body and going down on her – until he let her shatter. And shatter she had. All over him. She felt pretty certain she would never live down the humiliation, even now, until he crawled up beside her, kissed her knee, her shoulder, and her cheek, before pulling her into his arms and burrowing them under the duvet.

  ‘Honestly, Keira. It’s nothing to be ashamed of. It is, in fact, quite the desirable trait.’

  ‘Really?’

  ‘Mmhmm.’ He nodded, kissing her softly while running circling motions on her arm, his fingers lingering on her scar contemplatively.

  ‘Don’t you have a room of your own? Shouldn’t you be using that one?’

  ‘And leave you here to play with yourself?’ He yawned, eyes already closing. ‘I don’t think so.’

  She harrumphed. ‘You should have just let the nymphs take me. Perhaps, I’ll head back into Faerie while you sleep.’

  His hand paused and she met his gaze, deep and solemn.

  ‘Promise me,’ he murmured at last, ‘that if you go on another adventure, you won’t go without me?’

  Her heart thudded a little harder at the intensity in his voice. ‘You’d come with? Why?’

  ‘I think I’d go to the ends of the world with you, if only to keep you safe.’

  Smiling, Keira finally gave in and burrowed closer to his chest, her leg firmly placed between his legs. She could feel him against her, hard and straining, wakening a dull ache at her core. He’d been so patient with her, she thought. Unlike August, he had not asked for a thing in return even though he would take every opportunity to give her the pleasures he could. Part of her wanted to do something about that, the other part pondered whether she would be brave enough, until she fell asleep.

  But the ache only grew so violently that Keira woke in the middle of the night, feeling restless and impatient.

  Behind her, the djinn lay sprawled out on his back, one arm beside him on the pillow, the other under her waist. His chest was marvellously chiselled, and she traced the lines of his abs down where the duvet had slipped off him, her eyes catching on the bulge straining against his trousers.

  Her core throbbed harder and her mouth went dry at the sight, her attention rapt upon the shape of him until the djinn shifted and spoke, startling her. ‘Where’s your mind at?’

  She met his gaze, drowning in smouldering pools of dark desire mirroring her own. His fringe hung in a curtain, dipping loose strands of hair before his eyes. It struck her then that he was keeping the same features he had worn when he had saved her from the lake and the morning after her drink was tampered with. This time, however, his face did not change, as if he no longer felt the need to keep up appearances with her. As if he was choosing to be himself instead.

  Djinn of Lust, Lord of Pleasure.

  She shuddered, thinking of all the things the title promised, and dug her nails into her skin.

  ‘What do you need?’ he whispered.

  ‘I want to see you.’ She wanted to do more than that. She wanted to feel him. Wanted to extend the night until they’d done all the thing she wanted to try with him. Her insides aching to the point she was surely going mad.

  But all that she was able to do when the djinn made the rest of his clothes disappeared, was stare.

  She didn’t know what to do with herself.

  Whatever the Nightladies had said about the holy grail of male members, his had to be it. Long and slender, it stood at high attention, veins protruding around the shaft.

  ‘May I…touch it?’ she asked breathlessly, catching a glint in his eye as she glanced at him. It made her cheeks burn, but his lips merely twitched into a half-smile that made her dizzy.

  ‘You certainly may,’ he said, male arrogance playing in his voice. Yet his breath caught as her fingers wrapped around him, and the playfulness in his eyes shifted to something far more raw and needy. She knew it too well.

  Unlike August’s, Elijah’s felt perfect in her grasp, thrumming with power and hardness. She still didn’t know anything about sizes or the like, but what she did know was that if Elijah fully claimed her body, she’d never be the same. And her legs wobbled at the thought of it. Even on her knees.

  ‘Keira—’ Elijah started as she shifted and placed herself across him, still holding him in her grasp.

  ‘You owe me a lesson on how to please a man,’ she interrupted. His mouth closed and his chin dipped, as if he understood that she needed this moment. Needed it after what had happened with August.

  Of course he did. He always understood her. Read her and her needs like an open book. Perhaps that was why it felt so different. With August, the thought of doing what she was about to had made her squirm, as if it made her lesser than him, somehow. Tarnished, almost. But with Elijah, the idea made her feel bold. Empowered.

  Gradually, she began to move her hand along his shaft. Up and down, then back up again, her insides fluttering as he groaned and leaned back against his pillow, his eyelids closing. She inhaled sharply as she cupped his balls with one hand, watching his slender form go taut like the muscle she held in the other. She caressed it further, listening until his breath turned uneven and ragged. Then she sat back a little more, lowered her head towards him, and waited till Elijah turned his gaze back on her, before she placed her lips around his length – eyes upon him as she did.

  A bang of triumph shot through her as she saw the mighty djinn’s mask of control slip, and she shifted her attention back to his member, contemplating how deep she could take him. What move she’d make next to make him fold and unravel.

  Yet no sooner had she thought this than the memory of what had happened with August washed over her. Soon, with the same crippling uncertainty as she had felt then, her jaw locked, and her muscles trembled.

  For every taste her tongue had of Elijah, her mind flashed to August.

  She was utterly paralysed, caught between the present and the past. And to make matters worse, tears began to trickle pathetically, one by one.

  Quietly, Elijah’s strong arms pulled her back up to his chest and wrapped around her, lulling her while she sobbed it all out, his lips leaving gentle kisses on the top of her head.

  ‘I’m sorry,’ she whispered in the end, when her crying had finally quietened. ‘I…I just wanted to please you after…everything.’ After all her silliness. After all her mistakes.

  In response, Elijah fisted his hand in her hair and gently tugged her head back to caress the column of her neck with his finger.

  ‘First off, you don’t ever have to do something you don’t want in order to “please” me or any man, ever again. Secondly,’ he said, in a voice that made her shiver, ‘don’t apologise. I’ll be inside this fine throat of yours one day – when you truly wish it.’

  She scarcely dared to breathe, tears still lingering in the corners of her eyes. ‘Are you certain?’

  He dried her tears, kissing her gently. ‘Positive. I have you to myself now, Keira. I don’t plan on taking it for granted.’

  She shook her head. ‘I don’t understand. I mean, why me? I’m emotional, inexperienced, imperfect—you said it yourself; they’ve taken my claws. I’m nothing but flawed.’

  ‘You’re impulsive, passionate, and headstrong, I’ll give you that.’ He smirked. ‘You follow your heart, your wants, even when you think you’re not. But your only flaw is thinking that it is wrong.’ He shifted their weights so that she was cocooned in his embrace, her back against his chest. ‘Is it infuriating trying to make you see the truth? Indeed. But I enjoy the challenge.’ Her breath came out in a shiver as his lips caressed the sleek column of her neck, fanning small embers lapping at the remainder of her humiliation. Replacing it with assurance.

  ‘Is that so?’ she mumbled, curiously noting how the rest of her embarrassment seemed to die with his touches. She wanted more of that. More distractions. ‘And how would you rise to the challenge after what just happened?’

  ‘We could always go for another meal?’ He purred suggestively, nipping at her shoulder with his teeth. She nudged him with her elbow, frowning until his chest stopped trembling with quiet chuckles and his arms tightened around her, one hand sliding over to her breast, the other brushing by her entrance. She inhaled sharply.

  ‘Or, I could play you some music?’ His hand began to trace the skin around her nipple, coaxing it to harden, while the other hand began to massage her below.

  ‘Is fornication the answer to everything to you?’ she asked demurely, tilting her head against his shoulder, glancing up at his hooded gaze.

  ‘No, but it is in my nature. As I suspect it is in yours. It’s why this feels like⁠—’

  ‘Home,’ she whispered. The reason she found herself so drawn to him. The reason she could not confront him. Because he spoke a language that her soul seemed to understand, and she feared she would be lost without him. His gaze heated further.

  ‘Exactly.’ His movements quickened with precision – above as well as below – causing a sensation to spread through her body, racing her towards a different, deeper release. Keira whimpered, digging her nails into him, her body straining with building wave. Her mind delirious with need.

  ‘Saints!’

  ‘They can’t help you now,’ he murmured against her ear. ‘They can’t help you at all.’

  ‘My nan was entirely correct about you,’ Keira mused, ‘you’re as wicked as they come.’

  Elijah sniggered, nuzzling his face into the nook of her neck, having just whispered in her ear all the things he was planning to do with her once they returned home. But it was only the promise of those things that stopped her from taking the reins herself and steering them back to the privacy of the inn.

  They were riding back to E’Frion, with Keira seated in front of him, his hand firmly tucked around her waist. They had not gone all the way yet, but he had played her body like an instrument and made her come, repeatedly. After, he had put her on her back again – this time with his length pressed between them, naked and hard as he rolled his hips, teasing with a pre-taste of the third lesson until she nearly lost her mind. How neither of them had given in was beyond her.

  ‘And what else did your dear grandmama have to say about my kind?’ Elijah teased coyly, his hand slipping a little below her navel, rubbing against the fabric of her skirt. ‘And let me preface that by saying that whatever sexual prowess she mentioned, mine is far superior to that of the average djinn.’

  Keira rolled her eyes, then hesitated a little. ‘She always said djinns were demon spirits, and that they’re eternally damned. Much like the Cardinal Seven.’ She almost held her breath, waiting for his response. Although she was coming to terms with the idea of him being the Djinn of Lust, it didn’t change the fact that they still had a lot to talk about. But he needed to admit the truth to her first.

  Elijah stiffened behind her. ‘And what do you think?’

  ‘I’m just hoping she was wrong. I mean…you’re a pain in my behind, but I don’t like the idea of you being condemned.’

  He softened against her. ‘It’s alright, Keira. I’ve been to the Court of the Damned before. It is a rather wicked place, with all sorts of frivolous behaviour.’ He kissed the back of her head. ‘I think you’d enjoy it. We could have as many lessons as you’d like there, straight in the middle of Hel’s throne room should you want to. Then I’d show you what kind of pain I’d truly be to this fine arse of yours.’ She felt a pinch to her buttocks and yelped, twisting in her seat, prepared to give him a scolding for not taking the conversation more seriously, when the words died on her breath.

  There was a vulnerability lingering in his gaze, a fear almost, and it struck her then that perhaps she was not the only one scared of rejection, and that perhaps making such jokes was his way of shielding himself from it.

  ‘Shouldn’t you change your appearance before we get to E’Frion?’ she asked instead, deciding that if he needed more time to tell her the truth, she would give it to him.

  He shook his head. ‘I’ve every intention of courting you once we get there. I won’t have people thinking we’re related in any shape or form.’

  She melted against him, thinking that they couldn’t reach the village fast enough.

  For the rest of the trip they kissed and laughed, talking about all and nothing until they returned to the cottage and Elijah led the way to the door, the anticipation of what waited inside humming through the both of them.

  ‘Let me go inside and take care of something first,’ Elijah said, turning on the doorstep and blocking her from entering.

  ‘What?’

  ‘It’s a surprise,’ he said sheepishly, opening the door. She raised a brow. ‘Did you use my bed while I was at the dinner?’

  ‘That,’ he paused, looking guilty as sin, ‘is another surprise.’

  ‘I knew it!’ she exclaimed and stumbled in right behind him, colliding with Elijah’s slim figure as he’d come to an abrupt stop. He stood as though rooted to the spot, his expression dark and morbid facing the kitchen. His jaw was set in such a hard line that she thought he might grind his teeth to dust. And before him, at the kitchen table, sat a familiar figure, who at the same time didn’t seem familiar at all.

  ‘August?’ she started, and the cruel iciness in his eyes gleamed in a way that she had never seen before.

  ‘Hello, Keira.’ He smirked.

  ‘What–who are you?’ she asked, because as certainly as she was seeing August’s body before her, she knew that he was not him.

  ‘Ah, good, we can skip the pretences, I see,’ the man crooned and leaned forward, hands folded on the table. The door smacked shut behind her and she jumped, startled. Elijah jerked, as if he had been prepared to leap forward, but remained a little before her, shielding her with his body. August’s eyes hardened. ‘I was getting tired of pretending. Allow me to properly introduce myself. I am⁠—'