I sit there, a stunned and overly watchful audience of the sexual push and pull between them.
Her trembling fingers fist through his inky locks. As much as it seems like the demon wants to kiss her, his hard muscles strain to keep a safe amount of space between their parted lips.
The glimmering light from within her fades to a dim hue before the flecks of black and gold dissolve against the man’s tongue.
Then she goes slack against me. Her head drops, and she’s entirely soundless in my arms.
But she isn’t dead.
“What—what the fuck did you just do to her?” I finally manage a sharp whisper.
The demon wipes his lips slowly as if he’s finished a meal and is now remembering the savory taste.
“Aries and I have a special friendship,” the guy says to me like a total fucking creep.
And he’s still holding himself above me like a total fucking creep.
I mean . . . I guess I did just third-wheel watch the two of them get each other off, so I suppose I don’t have much room to talk.
“You fuck her often?” I ask carefully.
Is she with him?
Why did she come on to me if she was with him?
She was desperate.
That hits my ego so hard I feel it in my gut.
I haven’t been with anyone in so long, she would only want me if she was desperate.
“I’ve never fucked her. Our relationship is not about fucking.”
My lips part as I blink through that statement.
“She called your name, and you came running just to literally finger-fuck her into unconsciousness. How exactly would you describe your relationship?” I say.
And why the fuck are we still all half-naked and tangled together like this?
A heavy breath pushes from my lungs, and I shove a hand through my nearly dry hair.
“It’s business, love. You ever tasted dark lust?” He asks as he leans closer, his arm brushing against mine once more.
His iron gaze is so hooded, all he’s focused on is my lips.
What’s sad is my cock hasn’t been hard in over a year, and I really do want to know how her orgasm tastes against his lips.
It’d be reckless and wild, just like she is.
But this guy’s a sick fuck for doing business like this with her.
“Get the fuck off me,” I finally whisper in a tone that trembles just slightly.
His smile is a carving slash against his arrogant lips. He shrugs a shoulder before shoving back and climbing out of the empty bath. When he stops there and pulls her limp body from my arms, I’m surprised by how much care he puts into cradling her against him.
“Got a towel?” he asks with the first ounce of seriousness I’ve seen from him since he breezed his ass into my life.
I make my way over to an intertwined rack of vines that hold white towels and washcloths. My gaze rakes across her round breasts and the valleys and dips of her body before slowly covering her up the best I can.
The smirking heat of his gaze is felt against my face. I glance up to him and his knowing, obnoxious smile.
“Tell me why you didn’t fuck her, and I’ll tell you why I didn’t, either,” he says as I open the door for him.
I almost warn him about Corva, but I stop myself.
She doesn’t like strangers snooping around. I hope she finds him in her house. I hope she slaughters this creep where he stands.
But would Ari want that?
Shit. Why did I even think that?
Ari clearly doesn’t make good choices in life. This guy is walking fucking proof of that.
I lead him up the uneven wooden stairs to the highest level above. When I stride across our netting nest, he does, also, with too much effortless composure.
I hate him.
I don’t even know him, and I hate him.
Ryke and Zav look up when we get to the platform, and the two of them share a similar but opposing look. Their brows are raised high, but where Ryke has interest, Zav has nothing but distrust.
My brother’s smart for not trusting people.
I trusted this beautiful fae woman, and it got me lured into some kind of fucking third-wheel voyeurism.
“Who the fuckin’ hell are you?” Zav asks.
His play on words wasn’t intentional, but it makes the demon smile anyway.
“Krave. And you are?” The hellacious man asks with taunting politeness.
“He’s a sex demon that Ari hired to get her off,” I say.
The way the demon tries to look offended by stifling his smile isn’t very believable.
“She didn’t hire me,” he says as if that’s the issue at hand. “You make it sound like I’m employed or that she’s my mistress.” He pauses, gazing into the deep blue sky as if all of that registers only when he says the words aloud. “Hmm, perhaps I am employed by Mistress Aries.” The happiness shining in his eyes only annoys me more.
“How do you know her?” I ask with a contained growl.
He lowers her carefully onto the netting, and the towel draped over her shifts enough so that all four of us are peering down at the smooth expanse of her hip.
“A delightful accident.” The random way he says words makes it hard to know if he’s answering or just spitting out words that drift through his ridiculous mind. “She drunkenly said my name three times while eating some kind of cereal one morning.”
Krave . . .
Strange.
“We’ve been non-friends for years now.”
Non-friends.
Have I mentioned that this girl makes painfully bad decisions?
“What do you know about the thing inside her? The spirit or whatever. Why can’t someone more powerful just exorcise her?” I ask.
Krave’s theatrical persona lowers its mask. I can see it even in the way he holds his shoulders. The light in his eyes darkens, and the smile on his face is gone when he looks at me.
“She would not like me telling you her secrets,” he whispers, as if he’s guarding her virtue. His amusement quirks his lips all over again, and he lowers himself down to lie flat on the floor and gaze up at the thick white clouds. “She’ll be furious, but she’s always furious with me so I suppose I’ll tell you anyway.”
He lifts his long fingers above him. As he starts to speak, thin smoky lines drawl out like a moving sketch for us to see.
“Three years ago, Aries was a member of the prestigious but secret group called the Shadow Guard.” His ink-stained fingers twirl with glittering magic, and the drawing portrays a beautiful girl with cascading hair climbing a graveyard fence of some kind. “The Shadow Guard stands against her father, King Gravier. Its sole purpose is to help demons within the fae realm. Equality and all that.”
“She helps demons?” Zaviar asks quietly, his cruel gaze assessing the man lying near his feet.
“She’s always helped demons. She’s always loved them. Except for me.” His words dwindle off into a quiet whisper, but he simply clears his throat and with a flick of his wrist, the whisking drawing changes to stream along with his story. “She stole something the crown wanted, though. Aries stole the essence of Hell Lord’s mate from the castle’s necropolis. She stole a Queen of Hell’s ashes.”
Hell Lord’s mate . . .
“Who’s Hell Lord?” I ask quietly.
“He’s a King of the Voren Empire. He’s one of the rulers beneath the Four Princes,” he explains. “Anyway, her brother caught her with the small urn of ashy remains that tie the demon world to this one. It’s a cursed token. The ruler of hell, Hell Lord was furious King Gravier stole his beloved. So he cursed her remains to allow his demons to live among us. We don’t have to wait for someone to summon us outside of our lands anymore. We’re free. In a way.” He shakes his head at that statement but continues. “Aries was caught stealing the hidden ashes her brother wanted so badly. Instead of handing the token over and allowing Prince Nathiale to control the portal piece between the two realms . . .” His lips sneer into a pleased smile. “She snorted it.”