The chambers were bathed in the softest red light, filtered through heavy drapes that kept out the screaming skies of Gehenna. The bed was massive, fit for a king, and in this case, for the Sin of Wrath himself. The silk sheets were warm, tangled, scented faintly of embers, spice, and him.

You woke first. Your limbs were trapped in an entanglement of heat and muscle. Satan’s muscular arm draped across your waist like a living restraint, his leg thrown lazily over yours, his face buried somewhere in your neck, hair soft against your skin, horns brushing your temple. He was always like this in the mornings, clingy, half-lucid, unwilling to face the world unless you were beside him. Most days, you let him have it. Most days, you liked being claimed. But today, you had plans. The willpower to break free from Satan’s smothering grasp.

You moved slowly. Carefully. You slid your arm out from under his. His grip slackened slightly, breath even. You peeled the covers back with surgical precision. One leg out. Then the other. You eased your weight to the edge of the mattress, holding your breath as the sheets whispered beneath you. You thought you were free. Then your foot touched the cold floor.

And that’s when the trap snapped shut.

An arm, his arm, snaked around your waist with inhuman speed, yanking you back so hard you gasped, tumbling into a mass of pillows and his solid chest. The covers fell back over you. Satan’s voice rumbled against your shoulder, thick with sleep, low and possessive.

“Where do you think you’re going?” he murmured, lips brushing the shell of your ear. His breath was warm, his tone darkly amused, but laced with a threat veiled in velvet. You twisted in his grip, only to find those crimson eyes half-lidded, glowing faintly in the dim room. His pupils were blown wide, hair tousled and wild around him like a crown of moonlit fire, one curved black horn catching the morning light. Satan nuzzled into your neck, dragging his nose along your throat with maddening slowness, teeth just grazing your pulse. “You leave this bed again without permission, I’ll tie you to it with chains.”