Mark of Damon by Eva Chase Page 0,20

sent a pulse of hunger and pleasure through me.

While I plundered the sensitive territory beneath her bra, drawing a whimper from her as her nipple pebbled, I yanked the skirt of her dress higher. Rose was already fumbling with the zipper of my jeans before I hooked my fingers around the edge of her panties. This wasn’t going to be any drawn-out, lingering love-making today, but there wasn’t much I liked better than my angel fierce and demanding in her desire.

I stroked the slit between her legs, a fresh wave of heat flooding me at the wetness of her arousal, so ready for me. When I flicked my thumb over her clit, Rose growled and clutched me harder. Her fingers curled around my cock, and the need to be inside her drowned out every other sensation.

I lined myself up and plunged into her slickness. Rose moaned, her other hand gripping the back of my neck with a pinch of fingernails I didn’t mind at all. She sheathed me so perfectly my head whirled with the bliss of it.

With each thrust, our bodies melded closer together. Pleasure raced through my veins and tightened my balls. Rose’s breath had narrowed down to little gasps. “Yes,” she managed to murmur between them. “Damon.”

There was no better sound than my name on her lips in the throes of passion. It set off a swell of emotion behind my ribs. I tipped my face to her hair. My voice came out ragged. “Love you so fucking much.”

She arched into me, opening herself up to me as much as she possibly could. “I love you too.”

I adjusted her against me, seeking that perfect angle that would set off her release—and there: I bucked into her, she shuddered with a cry of bliss, and her sex clenched around me.

That was all it took to propel me over the same edge. I came with another groan, my mouth pressed to her jaw.

Rose hummed happily and looped both her arms across my shoulders as we both sank into the afterglow. I nuzzled her cheek and stole another kiss, this one less urgent.

“Now that’s what I call a welcome home,” she said.

I grinned. “Happy to provide the service whenever you’re in need.”

A giggle slipped out of her. She kissed me again, hugging me to her for several heartbeats, and then eased back. “I should pick some of those apples so we can actually enjoy them now that they’ve made their early arrival. Maybe we’ll get apple pie for dessert tonight.”

“I could go for that,” I said, and an electric zap shot through my arm.

I must have flinched just a little, because Rose paused and examined my expression. “Are you all right?”

“After that? Couldn’t be better,” I said, giving her one last quick peck—and tucking my arm close to my side.

The scar was prickling again, not just beneath the cuff but farther up my arm and toward my wrist as well. I didn’t dare check it in front of Rose, but the certainty filled me that when I did look, I’d find that the silvery mark had grown, spidering out across my skin to claim new territory of its own.

Chapter Eight

Jin

As much as I rejoiced that Rose’s home was now mine as well, down to a room reserved for me to work my creativity in, walking into my own gallery still sent a quiver of joy through my chest. This place with its white-washed walls and pale, polished floor had been a labor of love in more ways than one. The faction of witches who’d opposed us had burned it to the ground last year, and it’d taken a couple of months to see the building reconstructed.

I liked to think it’d come out even better in the second iteration. I’d been able to offer input into every aspect of the space from the ground up this time, after all.

I stopped in the middle of the main gallery room on the first floor and turned slowly, taking in the paintings I’d chosen to hang on those walls, the stands that sprouted up from the floor holding more three-dimensional pieces I’d created, some sculpted in clay or metal, some built of found objects.

Was it as cohesive and impactful a collection as the one I’d lost to the fire? It was hard to judge. Probably not, considering the previous one had drawn from several years of work and I’d only had a matter of months to replace it. I was proud of what I’d