Total pages in book: 55
Estimated words: 51407 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 257(@200wpm)___ 206(@250wpm)___ 171(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 51407 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 257(@200wpm)___ 206(@250wpm)___ 171(@300wpm)
“Thank you, sweet girl.” Zhenya rises, causing my fingertips to brush over zir sex, then releases me. “Inna prefers the terms ‘chest’ and ‘cock’ for their body. Danik as well.” Ze turns and walks back to the couch, a swivel in zir step that makes me squirm in my seat.
I want Rusalka. I’m not supposed to desire more people. Wanting her is complicated enough. Apparently I am just as bad as my parents always said, just as eager to fall into sin. No, damn it, no. I don’t believe what they believe, and I refuse to let their hate ruin the party Rusalka set up for me. Even so, I can’t help looking at her. “I’m sorry,” I whisper.
“Lust is natural, darling.” Rusalka twines a strand of my hair around their claw. “Acting on it is pure and good as long as it’s consensual. Zhenya loves to show off, and everyone in my court shares one another’s bed from time to time, as well as has sex with others. As long as everyone is in agreement about expectations, then no harm done.” She tugs a little, just hard enough to make a dull ache rise in my scalp. “But I’ll be put out if you fall face-first into someone else’s sex before I get a taste of yours.”
My skin heats and then heats more, until I feel like an inferno just below the surface. Out of the corner of my eye, I see Zhenya giggle and Danik say something, but I can’t tear my gaze from Rusalka. “You want me?”
She gives an exasperated sigh. “Yes, Belladonna. And not simply for what you can give me—but for what I can give you. Now, settle in and enjoy the show.”
10
RUSALKA
When I agreed to this deal with Azazel, I didn’t expect to feel so conflicted. I figured it would be an easy thing to manage this strange human’s tendency to commit to actions that would harm her. Simple. Then I met Belladonna and realized the strength of the metaphorical demons riding her no matter how hard she tries to escape them.
My girl doesn’t exactly want to be a martyr, but she seems to feel she doesn’t have any other choice.
Now she sits next to me, shivering in some combination of trepidation and want, as Zhenya straddles Danik and leans over to kiss Inna. Incubi and succubi can’t feed from one another the way we can feed from human dreams, but we’re all hedonists at heart. We love pleasure for pleasure’s sake, and no one gives pleasure like my Insomnior Court.
It’s impossible to relax with Belladonna’s conflicting desires practically screaming in my ear. I finally twist to face her. “There’s no shame in this.” I try to say this gently but can’t help the sharpness in my words.
“Are they . . .” She swallows visibly. “Are they polyamorous? That’s what it’s called, right?”
“Danik is mated to a fellow succubus, and he isn’t romantically involved with either Zhenya or Inna.”
Belladonna turns those bright eyes my way. “He looks involved right now.”
“Pleasure isn’t taboo. There are those among my people who prefer to be monogamous, but many of the mated pairs choose not to be. His mate, Feofan, openly encourages him to find his pleasure where he may, and he does the same.” I tamp down on the tiny sliver of impatience I feel at explaining something as common as gravity. It’s not Belladonna’s fault that the other territories look down on us for this practice or that they reduce it to something of a joke. That’s not why she’s asking the question. She doesn’t understand. I can’t expect her to.
“But . . .” She presses her lips together.
“Ask.”
“But what about children? What if someone gets pregnant or gets someone pregnant that isn’t their mate?”
Again, I swallow past my instinctive snapping response. There’s no cut in her question, just genuine confusion and curiosity. I take a slow breath. “Children are sacred, Belladonna. We don’t have them as often as our ancestors did.”
“Why not?”
“There are a number of theories, but the most prominent among them is that with each generation, the human elements in our bloodlines grow thinner, and our propensity for plentiful procreation decreases in relation.” I rush on before she can offer to have a child again to fix that. “However a child comes about—and it’s always a choice, not a requirement—they’re a blessing. They are welcomed with open arms. Not only the biological parents are parents to them. We all are.”
“I don’t understand.” Her gaze tracks to where Inna has pulled off Danik’s pants and is sucking his cock deep into their throat. “I don’t understand any of this.”
She may not understand it, but she isn’t trying to fight the spell of desire being cast in the room. She almost melts into my side. I study her profile. “Do you have to understand in order to accept?”