Free Even the Devil Needs Love by Nadia Aidan Page A

“Then that soul stays with me.”
    He sidestepped her and she whipped around to face him. “If you do this you will create a war between Valhalla and Hell. Don’t do this. It’s me you want—”
    “Then give yourself freely and spare all the lives that would be wasted in a bloody war.”
    She glared at him. He was a bastard. A selfish, spoilt bastard used to getting anything and everything he wanted. How wrong she’d been about him.
    “You’re despicable, completely without feeling.” She turned from him.  “I can’t believe I was so wrong, that I made such a fool of myself for you. I would have been better off with Samael or Odin—anyone else but you. At least—”
    He moved so quickly and quietly that she didn’t know what was happening until he had her pinned against the wall. She gasped for air, his hard body pressed against hers, forcing the air from her lungs. He held her trapped, her wrists clasped in his hands.
    He was wild and dangerous, his eyes glowed a fiery red, and her body heated as the anger inside him radiated outward, warming everything that touched him. She rarely saw his incisors—he rarely showed enough emotion for them to lengthen—but this time he was enraged, his sharp fangs exploding from the roof of his mouth.
    In that moment, he was The Devil, the King of the Damned, and she should have been frightened, but her traitorous body recognised its mate and knew he would never hurt her. Her pussy grew hot and wet, the slick folds of her sex swollen with need. Her own incisors lengthened, and she knew her eyes glowed when everything around her turned red, her breathing short and choppy as she struggled for air.
    She gasped when he ripped her leather bodice from her, freeing her heavy breasts. He could have removed it with his mind, but he wanted to make a statement, a bold one, that she was his, his to do with what he pleased.
    “At least what, Lilith?” He asked against the crook of her neck, his warm breath stroking her sensitive skin. She didn’t know what he was asking, what he was talking about. It was hard to focus with his hard cock digging into her belly.
    “At least Samael or Odin, or whoever would have what? Had you married my cousin, or my nemesis, given yourself to one of those idiots, they would have…what?” He punctuated each word, and she knew she was in dangerous territory. Samael and Lucifer competed over everything, including her, but it was harmless. Yet Odin and Lucifer…they were different. They genuinely couldn’t stand each other. But when it came down to it, there had never been a true contest.  No man, demon, or god compared to Lucifer. She’d always been drawn to the brooding prince, even more so after the tender way in which he’d ushered her into womanhood. Samael was handsome and flirtatious, Odin gentle and kind, but there was something dark and mysterious about Lucifer, something which drew a woman in with the promise of more. But there wasn’t more. The stoic prince was incapable of baring his heart, his soul, which was why she’d left.
    “They would have nothing.” Defeat weakened her resolve and she pushed at his broad chest, but when he wouldn’t budge, her anger redoubled. “Had I married anyone else, he would have probably left me alone every night while he fucked other women, making me feel unwanted and unloved. Had I married someone else, he probably would have treated me just as you did.”
    He leant back so that he could meet her gaze, his eyes wide as he shook his head. “I never slept with other women—”
    “How would I know that? You never came to my bed—”
    “That’s because…because…” He roared out his frustrations and she thought he would hit something, but instead he lifted her into his arms, dropping her unceremoniously onto his bed.
    He followed her down, covering her body with his, and she began to panic.
    “What are you doing?”
    “I released that soul the moment you walked in here. She’s probably in