Chapter 75

The door closes behind Leif, leaving me alone with a frenzied Damion. It's quiet for a moment, just the sound of our breathing and my racing heart beating wildly in my chest. From where I stand behind him, I can see that his shoulders are taut with tension, straining against the fabric of the white tunic I'd watched him button up with a lazy smile not more than ten minutes ago. I swallow roughly, squeezing lightly on his forearm I'm still holding.

"Damion?" I ask softly, hesitantly, "Are you alright?"

He doesn't say anything, but his muscles flex under my gentle touch. When he still doesn't respond, I start to worry. I move with slow steps as I step around his back and side to stand in front of him, worried I'll startle him in this more wild, unhinged state. His face is blank, eyes darting around the room as if searching for any signs of threats, nostrils flared, jaw tight. And more surprising than any of that is the fact that his eyes are flashing with swirling shifting colors. It's like staring into a shifting kaleidoscope and my breath catches in my throat at the beauty of it.

"Damion," I try again, lifting a hand slowly to his face to gently cup the sharp edge of his jaw, trailing my thumb across the rough stubble there, "It's just us now. Everything's alright. Can I get you anything?" I wonder if he can even hear me with how far gone he seems to be.

His rainbow eyes flash down to my face, pupils dilating as he takes in the sight of me where I now stand in front of him. In the next second, one of his large palms comes up to grasp my wrist. Holding it firmly between his callused fingers, he tilts his head to breathe in deeply along my wrist and leaning in, face going slack as if he's completely enthralled by my scent as he soaks it in.

I shiver as his nose traces up my wrist, trailing its way up the skin of my forearm all the way up to my neck. He pulls me in completely until I'm pressed flush against him, the strong bands of his arms wrapping around his back as he breathes in at my neck. His body wracks with shudders, like he's taking a hit of one of the more addictive fae drugs.

I stand as still as possible, feeling his body relax where it's now pressed firmly against mine except for the feel of his steely hard erection where it's straining against his pants pressing into my stomach. Warmth spreads through my veins, and my core pulses at the feel of this wild unconfined energy emanating from him.

His lips brush against the sensitive skin along my throat in a soft heated kiss. When the brush of his tongue follows his lips, tracing the racing pulse there, the apex of my thighs clenches in response. I wonder if my body is going to overheat or snap from the building tension.

I try to hold back my moan of pleasure, pressing my lips together tightly, but a soft whimper still manages to escape. Damion hears it, a responding growl echoing through his chest and up his throat right before he tears his lips from my neck to lay claim to my mouth.

My knees go a little weak, wobbling against the onslaught of feeling rippling through me, but Damion holds me up, keeps me steady against him. It's unlike any kiss we've ever shared- more animalistic, more sensually carnal than anything I've ever experienced. And I can't help but wonder if it's Damion that I'm kissing now or the berserker part of himself that's always held back behind rigid bars of control.

His tongue plunders my mouth and I let him, more than happy to have him there, kissing him back with just as much fervor as he's laying on me.

I can feel it when the wilder, frenzied side of Damion begins to recede, *my* Damion coming back to the surface as slowly, so slowly, that wilder manic side of him is tucked back behind those careful layers of restraint he's known for. The kiss loses its feverish edge turning to more careful, but equally passionate control.

When the kiss slows enough that we're able to pull back to catch our breath, his eyes are no longer the multicolor flashes, but have gone back to their normal steady shade of scarlet they turn when he's kissing me. My fingers clench where they're fisted in his tunic, happy to have his more steady, reasonable side returning.

My lips twist up in a happy smile, "You're back." I say, giving him a short peck on the lips before twisting back enough from our embrace to get a better view of his face.

"I am," He agrees with a heavy breath, running a hand roughly through his hair ruffling up the dark curling strands.

"Are you alright?" I ask him.

His eyes shift from their crimson shade to a darker shade of purple, "I'm more worried about what you're thinking than anything else," he admits in a gravelly voice. "Monstrous enough for you yet?"

My eyebrows pull together, "Why? Do you think I'm going to go running?"

"I couldn't say I'd blame you if you did," he says jokingly, but I can hear the hint of truth in his words, the purple shade of his eyes still telling me he really *is* worried. Worried about what I'll think about his loss of control to his more animalistic nature.

I reach up with both hands, grabbing his face between my palms, "I'm not going anywhere Damion. I meant it when I told you that there's no where else I'd rather be than here with you. Nothing's changed, I'm just waiting for you to believe it," I grin up at his blatantly bewildered expression, "I'd have been happy to have sealed our Bond last night if you'd have listened to me and I'll be just as glad to do it whenever you're satisfied that I'm telling the truth."

"Let's do it now then," he says in a low gravelly voice that makes a blush rise in my cheeks as a heated shiver wracks its way down my spine. Butterflies flutter low in my belly and my thighs clamp together at the simmering heat in his gaze, "I'll take you right here, right now. Bend you over the back of my couch until you're spread out enough to take my knot and just as the pleasure starts building, begins to be too much, I'll sink my teeth into your skin marking you as mine and mine alone before taking you over and over until your legs are shaking hard enough you won't be able to walk. Is that what you want?"

Gods, yes. I want that more than anything. His words make my inner walls clench, my mouth going dry. But before I can give into what my body is begging me to do, I remember the other responsibilities waiting for us outside of these four stone walls.

The words are painful when I say, "We can't- you're already going to be late for your meetings as it is."

"I'm the King, Lily, I'm *never* late," he says with a smirking grin.

I roll my eyes with a laugh, "Come on, *Your Highness*, Leif is waiting for you out in the hall."

He grumbles low in his throat, though moves with me as I start for the door, "Let's see if I can make it through today's meetings without accidentally killing someone."