Free Demon of Mine by Ranae Rose Page A

vividly remembered the
sight of the engorged length of flesh that teased her now, thick
and hard with unfulfilled desire. Her core ached for him, and it
seemed the most natural thing in the world to part her lips when he
crushed his mouth against hers.
    His tongue was as smooth as his voice,
gliding past her teeth and entwining with her own. She melted
against him, wrapping her arms around his waist and clutching
handfuls of his coat. A lock of his hair brushed her cheek, and his
intoxicating scent filled her lungs. All the anxiousness and the
toll it had taken on her frayed nerves had been well worth it for
this.
    It was a long while before their lips
parted, and even then, she only complied so she could catch her
breath. Opening her eyes, she blinked up at the stars.
    They weren’t there. She stared in
bafflement at what first seemed an endless, lightless sky. But no,
it wasn’t quite that. There were stars, but they were smaller and
duller than usual, blurred almost beyond recognition. A sinking
feeling in the pit of her stomach caused her spirits to plummet.
She closed her right eye, and was promptly plunged into darkness.
Opening it again, she shut her other eye. Now she could see, but
her vision was poor. She clung desperately to Damon. “Don’t let me
go.”
    “ I won’t.” He wrapped his
arms even more tightly around her body.
    Her feet were useless against the
ground, the feeling in her legs gone. Caught up in passion, she
hadn’t noticed the numbness at first. She moved her head from side
to side, blinking. Everything was darker than it should have been
in the moonlight, and blurry besides. “God help me,” she
despaired.
    “ What is it?” There was a
sharp note of alarm in Damon’s voice.
    “ I can’t see.”
    He tensed against her.
“What?”
    “ My vision.” She struggled
to keep her voice steady. “It’s gone in one eye, and impaired in
the other.”
    He shifted his hold on her.
    “ No!” she protested. If he
let go of her, she’d collapse to the ground below. More than that,
she needed someone to hold on to, craved a human touch to keep her
grounded while she felt so close to panicking. “Don’t drop me. My
legs are numb, too.”
    “ An attack,” he breathed.
“You’re having one of your attacks?”
    She nodded, not trusting herself to
reply calmly. This was by far the worst episode she’d ever had.
She’d never lost her vision before, though it had been slightly
blurry at times. Outright blindness was a new terror
altogether.
    “ I’ll send for the
physician at once,” he said, still holding her steady.
    “ Please don’t. There is
nothing he can do. My attacks come and go on their own. It is a
waiting game.” At least, she hoped it was. Hopefully this episode
would pass with time, just like the rest. She tried not to think of
the doctor’s haunting story of how his patient’s symptoms had grown
worse and worse until she’d died, unable to rise from her bed.
Could this be the first of a series of permanently debilitating
attacks?
    No, she wouldn’t think that way,
wouldn’t cripple her health further with pessimism. This would
pass.
    “ What can I do then?” he
asked, his silky voice tempered with urgency.
    She sighed, resigning herself to
practicality. Deep down, she wanted to erupt into melodrama, wanted
to tell him to hold her through the night, to never let her go.
“See me to my bed. Please.”
    “ Shall I carry
you?”
    “ I’m afraid you’ll have
to.”
    He scooped her into his arms with
perfect grace, as if she weighed nothing at all. She closed her
eyes as he carried her toward the house, content to immerse herself
in his scent, in the feel of his muscles shifting against her. The
moment was as perfect as it dared to be in light of her
condition.
    “ Shall I take you to an
extra bedroom? There are many and you are more than welcome to
recuperate in one of them.”
    “ Take me to the maids’
quarters, please.” She didn’t want to imagine what the