Damned if I do | Damned trilogy #1

Chapter Nine: Drake

I could have forced her. Of course, I could have. I wanted her six ways from Sunday, that wasn't a problem. The problem was me not wanting to force her.

I'd spent literal ages – like, Ages – watching how well the men in my family forcing themselves on women had gone. Persephone was probably Dad's biggest failure to date. No amount of will he'd tried exerting on her had made her give in to him, even with the might of Demeter behind her to motivate him. And Grandad? I sincerely doubt I needed to go there for any of his manifestations.

So, I was going to do this the old-fashioned – or, the new-fashioned really – way and seduce her properly. I was well-practised in a lot of things sexual, but proper seduction was not one of them. A benefit to being the son of Lucifer was it didn't take a lot of effort on my part to get a woman of any species into bed, in Hell or on Earth. I had a natural power that made any conquest simpler.

Wren was nothing like any woman I'd ever come across. Thus far, getting Wren's interest was proving to create more problems than it was solving. I knew she wanted me as much as I wanted her. It was in her eyes when she looked at me, I could feel it in her heartbeat, and I could literally see into her mind on the two occasions I'd delved in there. But she was still holding on to ridiculous human notions like we had to like each other before we fucked, or Hell-forbid that we fell in love first.

And it was driving me insane.

Until I was going insane for a whole other reason.

I walked in on her changing the day after we didn't go to Dad's party.

When she heard the door, she pulled a blanket up over her body, barely covering anything scandalous. It still left the curve of her waist blossoming into her wide hips on show and that was just as sexy to me as anything else. That and the fact that the forbidden had always been tantalising to me – a curse of my birth.

"What?" she asked and I realised I hadn't said anything for too long.

"A man can't appreciate his wife's body?" I quipped and that's when it happened.

Instead of the chastising look and sigh any sort of flirtation had been met with for the previous week, she bit her lip and chuckled as she turned away.

I was busy marvelling at that fact when I was distracted by the sweet soft skin of her back. Keen to push my luck to the very edge of its boundaries, I walked forward and placed my hands on her waist, dipping my head to breath her in.

"Drake...?" she said slowly. It was a warning and a question.

"Wren?" I replied, running my nose up to her hair.

I could feel her body humming under my touch and I was burning to touch her more. But I could also feel her uncertainty. I didn't need to read her mind to know she wasn't ready. It was in the way she tensed almost imperceptibly. It was in the way she held the blanket against her tighter.

It ate at me to think that was putting me off from going after what I wanted. But what else was I going to do? The men in my family basically invented taking advantage of women because of who we were. Anything I knew would baffle my old man I'd do. And if that meant waiting until Wren was ready, then that's what I was going to do. Every afterlife be damned.

I felt her take a deep breath and relax. She turned to look at me and gave me the smallest smile. It was an apology. I wasn't going to have her apologetic. I wanted her fierce and confidant. I wanted the Wren I knew she was.

"I need to get back," I said softly.

I was trying to respect her boundaries, but I couldn't help pressing a small kiss to her shoulder before I moved away. I left her standing there, refusing to turn back to look at her no matter how much I was tempted for one last glimpse.