“Thirty?” I exclaimed, whipping my head up to look at him. He flattened his hand harder on my back to keep me from moving enough to strike him again. Not that I would with how my hand ached.

One dark brow raised. “Unless you’d like to hear why no one knows my name?”

I bared my teeth. He spanked me again. And again. And again.

Our gazes never unlocked.

We might have been far from the Angels, but a battle was playing out all the same. Rokath’s pupils dilated with each strike. Heat pooled between my thighs as he smacked lower and lower. On the seventh, something between a pant and a moan escaped me.

Why did I like this so much?

The bond thrummed and pulled taut, like it wanted us to come together again.

Rokath paused, his hand hovering a breath off my skirt. “You haven’t been counting. Do I need to start over?” His voice was all gravel, and the possessive energy rolling off him made my core clench.

This is so fucked up.

Like everything else with him.

“Ten,” I gritted out. He spanked me again, this one the hardest yet.

“Eleven. Twelve. Thirteen. Fourteen.” On the fifteenth, a yelp escaped me. My ass burned, and despite the fabric between my skin and his hand, it was starting to hurt more and more.

“What number was that?” Rokath questioned.

“Fifteen,” I whimpered. I wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction of breaking me. I’d reach fucking thirty just to prove a point.

He gave me five more in quick succession, and I counted them out. More and more desire swirled between us, and his dick was so hard a brief worry of it ripping his pants flashed through my mind. The memory of how thick he’d been inside me, of how hard I’d come around it, appeared next, and I shoved it away before the bond got any crazy ideas about forcing that to happen again.

“Are you certain you want to continue?” Rokath checked in with me. Sweat beaded both our brows like we’d been fighting rather than sitting.

“Just fucking go,” I snapped, digging my fingers into his thigh. For some strange reason, I felt like I had some control over this situation, unlike when I’d been with Vagach. Rokath wasn’t trying to hurt me for his own sick, twisted pleasure. While I didn’t understand why the fucking brute loved his rules so much, I would win this exchange if it killed me.

“Count,” he ordered, spanking me again.

“Twenty-one,” I said, voice wavering. The sting brought a wave of euphoria over me, and I embraced the pain, using it to steel my resolve.

“Twenty-two,” I panted on the next one. And the one after that. And the one after that. At twenty-five, arousal gushed down my thighs. I squeezed them together, trying to relieve the ache.

Instead of doling out the last five, Rokath’s fingers dipped beneath my ass and caressed my slit. A moan slipped out of me before I could smother it, and I hid my face. Closing my eyes, I attempted to think of anything but what Rokath was doing to my body. He shifted us slightly, and then, my legs opened wider, giving him better access to my center.

He cupped it again, and I almost combusted.

“Five more,” he growled, removing his hand.

I whimpered out the remaining five numbers. When he finished, both our chests heaved. We sat there for a moment, him caressing the spots he’d made ache, and I moaned again. “The reason no one can know my name is because then I won’t be an omnipotent figure. If I have a name, I am someone who can be killed. If I have a name, I am not someone to be feared. Much like the Weaver, the Giver, and the Reaper. Their honorifics make them easier to venerate, easier to obey.”

He hauled me upright and settled me in his lap, my dress bunching up around my thighs. I hissed from the press of his muscled legs against my rear. Those riotous burgundy eyes tumbled with furor. He dipped a hand between us and stroked my overheated core. “As the Halálhívó, these males both respect and fear me. They listen to orders without question. That keeps them alive.”

At that moment, I hated that I was wearing pants with how I wanted to feel him against my skin. There was entirely too much fabric between his expert fingers and my dripping pussy. He pressed harder against me, and I had to brace my arms on his broad shoulders to prevent myself from tumbling backward. In one powerful motion, he captured my waist and rose from the chair, leaving my legs dangling in the air. Using his free hand, he unlaced the pants and ripped them from my legs.

“It will also keep you alive.”

He settled me on his lap again, his cock digging into me. Then, he hiked my skirts around my waist and fingered the underwear still covering me. He twisted and ripped it away, stealing a gasp from my throat.

Arousal dripped, unrestrained, onto his hand. A low, masculine groan rumbled in his chest. He swept a single finger though the wetness, then swirled it around my clit.

“Do you understand?”

My hips bucked as he pressed harder. Then, he slid to my entrance and teased it with the back of his knuckles. “Answer me,” he growled, ceasing his movements.

“Yes,” I breathed, lust overtaking all rational thought. I shouldn’t want him to touch me as desperately as I did.

“Believe it or not, little imposter, protecting the Demons is all I am trying to do.”

He slipped a finger inside me, so torturously slow. “I’m going to make you come, because you deserve it after taking that punishment so well.”

A small laugh slipped out of me. “Is this how you treat your soldiers after they fuck up?”

Rokath released a warning growl. “I’m making an exception for you. Don’t make me regret it.” Then, he slipped a second finger in and curled.

“Oh,” I whimpered, gripping him harder. My head lolled back as he stroked that perfect spot that made me clench.

“Are you going to say my name in front of the army again?” he asked, a threat woven into his tone.

“No,” I whimpered, rolling my hips in an attempt to keep him moving inside me.

“What will happen if you do?” He sank deeper, and I spread my legs wider.

“I’ll be punished,” I replied, walls tightening around him. The tease of pain from my sore ass had me careening toward the edge of an orgasm. When he added his thumb to the mix, I was ready to promise him whatever.

“Good girl. I feel how close you are to coming. When you do, I want you to do it quietly, so no one hears how good I make you feel,” he commanded.

I dripped at his words. A slick sound filled the air as he worked me into a frenzy of pants and muffled whimpers. “Oh, fuck, I’m–”

Ecstasy shattered through me, and I sank my teeth into my bottom lip to stifle the explosion of sound that wanted to rip free. My core fluttered around Rokath’s fingers, and he didn’t stop moving them until my hips stilled and I released a shuddering breath.

Exhaustion pulled at my limbs, and if it weren’t for Rokath holding me upright, I probably would have collapsed on the floor. Removing himself from me, he wiped his hand clean on the inside of my dress. Like I was nothing but a feather, he lifted me and laid me on the bed, then fetched a cloth and the water pitcher and rinsed me off.

I remained there, dizzy and reeling, as he stripped off his armor and changed into more casual clothing for the evening. Then, he came to sit beside me on the edge of the bed. “I hope you learned your lesson. Should you test me like this again, I will not hesitate to increase the punishment. Now, I have some other reprimands to dole out.”

And with that parting statement, he swept out of the tent, leaving me to process just how fucked I was to be mated to the most dangerous Demon in Keleti.

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