Chapter 38: No Sex on the Ice*

"I promise to be gentle," Daemus murmured.

He didn’t break eye contact as his hand slowly slid past her knee, dragging up the sensitive, bare skin of her thigh. His palm was burning hot against the freezing air of the ice rink.

The closer his hand got to her center, the more Blair’s nerves became uneasy. Instinctively, she tried to press her knees together, her thighs clamping shut to block his path.

"Open your legs," he whispered.

Blair’s breath hitched. With her heart hammering wildly against her ribs, she hesitated for a second before her muscles yielded. She slowly relaxed, letting her legs fall open on the ice.

He kept his hand on the outside of her underwear. But even through the fabric, she could feel the heat radiating from his long fingers.

Daemus slowly traced a single finger up and down the length of her slit.

Blair gasped, her back arching entirely on its own. The sensation was alien. Her mind spun into a tangled mess of contradictions: she was terrified, she wanted him to stop, but an overwhelming, magnetic pull deep in her lower stomach begged him to press harder.

With every slow, deliberate stroke of his finger against the fabric, Blair felt the distinct surge of her own wetness. So this is what arousal feels like.

She squeezed her eyes shut. Quiet, breathy murmurs and small moans slipped through her trembling lips as the friction built a tight, coiled knot of heat between her thighs.

When Blair finally gathered the courage to flutter her eyes open, she found Daemus staring intensely down at her face. His silver eyes were tracking every twitch of her lips, every flush of pink spreading across her cheeks.

Being the sole focus of a beastman made her acutely self-conscious. She wanted to hide, or maybe just melt into the ice beneath her.

"Are they..." Blair panted, her chest heaving, "are they still watching?"

Daemus hummed a low yes, but he didn’t even turn his head to check.

"Does it feel good?" Daemus asked.

Blair’s face burned so hot she thought she might spontaneously combust. She bit her lip, refusing to answer the deeply embarrassing question.

"Come on, Bunny," Daemus teased, his thumb circling her clit right through the wet fabric. "It’ll be less awkward if we talk."

He sped up his strokes, applying a firm, rhythmic pressure that sent a jolt of electricity straight down her spine.

"Ah!" A loud moan tore from Blair’s throat, catching her off guard.

Daemus’s smirk widened, his eyes darkening. "Sounds like it feels good."

Blair didn’t have the breath to argue. The knot of tension in her stomach was pulling tighter and tighter, stretching like a rubber band that was about to snap. She had read her fair share of steamy romance novels hidden under her blankets at the orphanage, but reading about it didn’t even come close to preparing her for the blinding reality of edging toward a climax.

"Please," Blair whimpered, her hands blindly gripping his broad shoulders. She didn’t even know what she was begging for.

Her lower half began to move on its own accord, her hips instinctively rocking upward to chase the friction of his hand. Her breathing devolved into frantic, needy gasps. Her moans echoed in the empty arena, sounding like a sweet, intoxicating melody to the wolf hovering over her.

"That’s it," Daemus encouraged softly. "Let go for me."

Blair hit the peak. A blinding flash of white-hot pleasure shattered through her body, causing her to cry out as she came undone. Her thighs clamped tightly around his hand, her entire body shuddering against the ice as wave after wave of release washed over her.

As her erratic heartbeat slowly began to settle, Blair turned her head to the side, blinking away the hot tears of pleasure that had pricked the corners of her eyes.

Her breath caught in her throat.

Planted on the ice right next to her head was Daemus’s other hand, curled into a tight fist. His claws were fully extended, sunken so deeply into his own palm that drops of blood were seeping out and staining the white ice beneath him.

Blair looked back up at his face. He was still staring at her, but his jaw was clenched so tight a muscle ticked in his cheek. He looked like he was in agony.

"Are you... are you okay?" Blair asked nervously, her voice barely a whisper.

Daemus forced a strained, tight smile. "I’m trying to hold myself back."

Blair blinked, her exhausted mind struggling to understand. "What?"

"From ripping your clothes off and fucking you right here on the ice," Daemus stated bluntly, his silver eyes flashing with a primal, barely-restrained hunger.

Blair clamped her thighs tightly together as a treacherous, secondary jolt of pleasure shot straight to her core. Her blush deepened to a violent crimson. She shouldn’t want that. She was a human. He was a beastman. She didn’t want to go that far... did she?

Daemus slowly leaned down.

"Just one more kiss," Daemus muttered, his voice thick with need.

Blair felt like she was trapped under a hypnotic spell; she slowly nodded.

Daemus closed the distance, his lips gently brushing against hers.

"Yo, Daemus! No fucking on the ice!"

The loud, booming shout from a male voice at the edge of the rink shattered the air like a pane of glass.

The illusion broke instantly. Reality crashed down on Blair with the force of an avalanche.

She gasped, her eyes snapping wide open. The haze of arousal vanished, replaced by a wave of intense shame. What had she just done? She had just let a beastman touch her intimately. She had moaned for him. She had fallen right into the exact same trap as all the other desperate human girls she had quietly judged.

How was she any different from Heather’s shallow friends now? A piece of her innocence was permanently gone, traded away for a performance on a freezing hockey rink.

"Fuck," Daemus muttered under his breath, clearly irritated by the interruption.

He pushed himself up off of her, standing up to face his teammates in the tunnel.

Still lying flat on her back, Blair turned her head to look at him. Her eyes widened to the size of dinner plates.

She had a direct view of his bare ass.

The blood rushed to her head so fast she felt lightheaded. He was naked?! He had been naked this whole time?!

A pair of shorts suddenly sailed through the air, hitting Daemus square in the face.

"Put some clothes on, you animal!" one of the wolves laughed loudly from the shadows.

Blair let out a muffled squeak, slapping both of her hands over her burning face. She had seen way, way too much of the Wolf Prince today.