Because he had broken my legs.

They gnarled behind the blur of tears covering my eyes, taking on the crooked shape of a dog’s hind-legs, even as the pain slowly eased away. It shouldn’t. With my legs this badly broken, shouldn’t I scream in pain?

“There, there.” Strong arms lifted me, pressing me against an even stronger chest. “Look what you made me do, little one. No king should chase his runaway servant, and certainly not into lands he hasn’t stepped on for nearly two centuries.”

I didn’t want it to, but my face fell into the crook of his neck, letting tears run down his collarbone. “You broke my legs.”

“Twisted,” he corrected, as if it made a difference. He carried me over another bridge and from there, into a dark corridor. “Behave, and I’ll straighten them.”

“Where are you taking me?”

“To bathe, as my woman requested.”

Gray bone turned into what appeared to be actual stone, dark like slate, which opened into some sort of cavern. Traces of mildew clung to the humid air the deeper we ventured until wafts of steam settled damp on my cheeks. They billowed from the surface of what had to be a hot spring, the water gently bubbling against the stone edge that surrounded it.

Beside it stood Orlaigh, her chin pressed to her chest, hands fumbling with the cotton of her dress as she mumbled, “Nothing good would’ve come of it, lass.”

My head ached at my foolishness and a knot formed in my stomach for this betrayal. “So you ratted me out.”

“Ach, lass, ye cannae ken—”

“Leave us,” the King commanded as he lowered me to the ground, steadying me on my disfigured legs. “What a mess you made of yourself, little one.”

I stared behind Orlaigh as she left, if only to keep my eyes from how the King let his breeches thud to the ground. My chemise went next, which he carefully tugged over my head as I swayed on unreliable legs, before he let the fabric pool between us.

Lifting me once more, he wiggled my crooked feet until the shoes slipped off, then he climbed into the water. “You’ll never see the outside world again.”

Oh, but I would. “Never is a long time.”

Heat encapsulated me as he lowered us into the water, the way he gently wet my hair so unlike the beast who’d broken my legs. He let his hand run over my body with no restraint, washing me clean.

“You’re mine, Ada.” His dark whisper against my ear pebbled my skin. “My servant, my plaything, my woman. I’ll never let you go.”

No, he wouldn’t, but I would escape him at some point. Had to get away from this devil who—

His tongue trailed over the side of my damp neck as his fingertips ventured between my legs. They circled, dipped, seduced until I whimpered with a need that bordered on pain.

A moan left my lips without consent. “Stop.”

“Perhaps I was too harsh during our last encounter.” His finger curled inside me, pressing against my walls, creating a sense of fullness. “Leaving you unsatisfied… Tsk, tsk, how rude of me.”

Hands clasped around my waist, he lifted me from the water and sat me on the edge. I clenched my eyes shut when he prodded my knees apart, making me spread wide for him.

I jumped when his thumb circled my nymph that throbbed with ungodly need. “I hate you.”

“Only until I kiss you… right here.” He pinched the little bud, making me squirm, yet I sensed myself arch into the rough touch. “Suckle your juices and fuck you with my tongue until you beg for my cock. Has a mortal man ever given you pleasure like this?”

The question shivered through me, robbing my voice, my breath, so I only shook my head.

“Allow me.” He trailed kisses up the inside of my thigh toward my sex. Like velvet, his tongue stroked along over my entrance, higher, higher, until—

“Oh my god!”

His grin-hardened mouth covered my sex as he mumbled, “Quite so.”

“Please…”

“I’ll please you like no other can.” He suckled on my folds before his broad tongue lapped at my center, tip circling my entrance, dipping in, working me to heights I hadn’t known before. “Ah, my little mortal, how delicious you are.”

“Please…” Stop. The word rested on my tongue, creeping toward shivering lips as they parted, but all that came out was, “Mmm!”

When I dug my hands into his raven strands, grabbing it by the fistful like a woman possessed, he groaned and buried his face deeper. He ravaged me so thoroughly, the word ‘stop’ faded out of existence against the pants and lewd sounds he teased from my lips. Every nerve in my body quaked, and I cried out as if in pain when my walls flexed, spasmed, until—

“Beg.” He pulled back, lifted himself out of the water, and pinched my nipple until my peak died away. “Beg for forgiveness, little mortal, and I’ll play with you some more.”

“I don’t want your forgiveness, if this is what it gets me.” Anger rode me hard over what he’d done to me—what he refused to do—but I wouldn’t give him this. “I’d rather have you sard all my holes than take pleasure from the mouth of the devil.”

“Ah, why not say so sooner, mortal?” The ground softened and shifted underneath me, and the next moment, he flipped me around until my belly rested on hides. With his arm slung around my hips, he lifted me onto my knees, arse on outrageous display. “Uh-uh, no wiggling away. Remember? Good little mortals get their legs straightened. Given how much effort it takes me to make you kneel, I doubt you want to crawl about court. Do you? No. Now, little one, reach behind and spread your cheeks for me.”

My arms reached back on their own accord, even as rage pumped through my veins. Fingers hooked into my cheeks, I spread myself wide, presenting myself like a bitch in heat. Whined like one, too, rolling my hips, arching my back as my womb flooded with lust that wasn’t my own.

Couldn’t be. Would never.

But it was there now, making me hurt for him to push his length inside me. “What are you doing to me?”

“Oh, little one, have you forgotten who I am? You called me the King of Flesh and Bone.” He nudged his crown at my slick entrance as his fingers buried into my waist. “I am the heat between your legs, the throbbing in your cunt, the moan in your throat, the tremble in your bones, and the ache inside your belly, hungering to make me sate it.”

I moaned, relishing how he dipped into me ever so slightly, stretching me, only to pull out and let his flesh pound my entrance with wet smack-smack-smacks to complete my eager humiliation. “You’re the devil.”

“On more than one occasion, mankind has called me the devil.” He pushed down between my shoulder blades until my arms gave out. “Let me show you pleasure like only the devil can.”

A devil who let his crown slip higher.

Too high.

“Pleas— Ah!”

He thrust up into my darkest place, past untrained muscle that wanted to clench against the sudden invasion. A painful one that strangled all air from my lungs, making me dig my fingers into the hide as he forced himself deeper inside me.

“Shh, I need you to be still while I use this hole.” He shoved his length inside my arse, making it sting and burn in a million places. “You’ll learn to love this, my mortal. Will come apart from pleasure with your ass tight around my cock. Yes, you want that, my little plaything… So good with how you open up for me.”

My muscles slackened at his praise.

“Ah!” His masculine groan vibrated deep in my flesh, letting the burn around my hole morph into a warm tingle. “Yes, my woman likes this. Look how nicely you’re spreading your cheeks wider, taking me so deep. So good.” He stroked into me with quickening thrusts, spreading my hole wide, letting a second pulse pound around my nymph. “Mmm, come apart on my cock. Let your ass clench around my length. Yes, like that. I’ll leave a nice load of seed deep in your belly.”

Gradually, the hunger at my core roared into something ravenous—as did my disgust, mostly for myself. No, I couldn’t possibly enjoy the demon’s cock up my arse.