Page 110 of Demon's Beauty

It doesn’t work.

The damned thing won’t be silenced, and gets even louder when my mate lays her hand against my chest.

“Are you… purring?”

Heat creeps up my cheeks. “I… yes. I am.”

Her eyes dart to my face, searching my expression. “Is that… bad?”

“No… it’s just…”

It’s just something I can only do for my mate. It’s just something that signifies how very deeply I feel for you, how comfortable I am with you, how much I wish this thing between us would last for the rest of our—

“It’s not a bad thing,” I say softly instead, pushing all those dangerous feelings aside.

“Okay,” she murmurs, but her hand doesn’t leave my chest.

It lingers there, tracing a path from the center of my sternum to just above my heart.

I wonder if she can feel how hard it’s beating.

I wonder if she knows that beat is just for her.

A heartbeat later, her lips follow the path her hand has made, caressing across the expanse of my chest and then higher, until they meet the pulse point at the side of my throat.

I’m almost certain she can feel that heartbeat now, that she knows how much it’s racing, how little control I have over—

“I like it,” she whispers into my skin.

“Like what?” I ask, too carried away and overwhelmed by her to be even remotely capable of carrying on a conversation.

“The purr.” Her lips curl into a knowing smile, and her hand flattens against my chest. “It’s nice.”

If only she knew how nice it was.

If only she knew how much I wish I could purr for her every day, how much it would please me to keep her with me, to care for her, protect her, shelter her, give her my purr for comfort whenever she was feeling sad or stressed or afraid.

Goddess, I’m getting ahead of myself.

Soleil shifts impatiently beneath me, canting her hips and fitting them more closely to mine. She tilts them just right so the heat of her core lines up with my—

“Witch,” I warn through gritted teeth, doing everything within my power not to thrust deep, fill her with one hard stroke.

“Demon,” she says, and it comes out like a taunt.

Her eyes sparkle with challenge, and I move my hips forward, the tip of my cock poised right at her entrance.

“Are you protected?” I make myself ask, because I know I should.

Instead of answering, she cants her hips again, rubs the slickness of her cunt over my shaft, pushes me so close to the brink

“Keep doing that, and I won’t last beyond a few thrusts.”

“Good,” she quips right back. “Maybe I want to see how fast I can make you fall apart.”

“If you only knew, sunshine,” I mutter, and make myself be still. “And you didn’t answer my question.”

“Yes. I’m protected.”