free. Clad only in heels, I sashayed forward and rubbed myself against Lucien's hard body. I began to kiss his chest, working my way to a nipple. With a broken growl, Lucien's arms wrapped around me and lifted me off my feet. His mouth met mine and his tongue conquered. We tumbled onto the bed.
“You beautiful, vicious, whore,” Lucien snarled as he rose above me. “You are mine now, and you will lust for no one but me. Do you understand?”
“Yes,” I whispered.
“Good.” He shoved my legs apart and settled himself between them.
“I thought I was supposed to show you my gratitude,” I said breathlessly, desperately.
“Later,” Lucien growled. “Right now, I want to take my bride.”
He slammed his hips forward, and I braced for penetration, but all I felt was soft flesh squishing against my sex.
He snarled and looked down. “What the fuck?!”
Lucien reached between his legs and grabbed his limp dick. Leaning over my thigh, he started stroking himself. He growled and stared at my bared sex, then upward. As I gaped at him, Lucien surged up over me and grabbed my breast. His mouth latched onto my nipple and started sucking hard, pulling at it and biting it. He moaned and writhed against me, then moved to the other breast, eagerly sucking it, all while his hand moved frantically over his shaft. But it didn't harden.
Finally, Lucien roared in frustration and lurched back onto his knees to stare down at his flaccid member in accusation. “You cannot fight me forever, Brother! I will have her!”
“Lucifer,” I said softly, in wonder. He had fought himself for me. Even now, he tried to protect me. Something cracked open inside my chest and tears flowed down my face.
Lucien shifted into his devil body and snarled, “There are other ways to fuck her, Brother. I will be cruel if I must, but I will get inside her.”
Leathery wings cracked open as the Devil surged over me. His tail snaked between my thighs and its barbed tip parted my sex. I flinched in fear; it would tear me to ribbons. But, suddenly, Lucien cried out again and rolled off me, his body shifting back into Lucifer's.
“Damn you!” Lucien shouted. “I will have my bride! I will fuck her! You cannot stop me!” Then his eyes widened in shock. “No!”
Lucien lifted one hand and claws sprang forth. He brought that deadly hand down, straight for his genitals. His other hand gripped the first one's wrist, stopping its descent just as it nicked the limp flesh. The clawed hand twisted about and wrenched free, using the momentum to surge straight to Lucien's throat. I shrieked and reached out to him automatically as blood gushed from a jagged wound. Lucien fell to the bed but wouldn't stop cutting himself. He slashed and slashed at his neck as he choked on blood. I realized that he was trying to take his own head off, trying to kill himself just to save me.
“Lucifer! No! Please, stop!” I shot forward and grabbed his wrists. “Please, don't do this!”
Lucifer went still so he wouldn't hurt me, and I held his clawed hand tightly against my chest, long enough for him to heal. As the ragged flesh of his throat closed, I sobbed in relief. Lucifer just stared up at me forlornly, panting with bloody breaths. My heart was breaking and blossoming all at once. The trauma that stood between us melted away. That dirty feeling I got when he touched me, the panic and fear, it was all gone. I was finally able to look at him and separate what we had done from who we were. Lucifer hadn't hurt me; he would never hurt me. He loved me and I loved him.
No, my love for Lucifer wasn't the same as the love I had for my husbands and consort. It was love born of friendship and kinship, of shared pain and understanding, but it was love, and I had hobbled it by blaming him for what happened between us and by not accepting all that Lucifer was. By labeling a part of him as evil as I had done to Faenestra.
I want your love; it's the only thing that can make me whole.
The words may not have been his, but they were true—for both of us. Love had made me whole after I had cut out Faenestra; the love of my men had helped me to accept who I was. Now, I would love Lucifer enough to make him