“Isn’t there something we can do?” Suki looked at Abigail, even when she knew there was nothing they could do for Agatha now.
If Agatha had been taken, her fate was in the hands of the gods.
“I’m keeping the shop running,” Abigail said with a hollow smile and Suki’s heart went out to her, because she was doing the only thing she could to help Agatha.
She was keeping hope alive.
“I’ll ask around town when I get the chance, and I’m sure she’ll make it back to us… so we’ll have to make sure everyone has been buying at her store, so she’ll be ridiculously rich when she gets back.” Suki took hold of Abigail’s hand and squeezed it. “I’ll tell the clan that Agatha got the latest iPhone jacked into the magical network. You make it happen and you know you’ll sell out in a heartbeat. If the succubi don’t buy you out, the incubi will. You know they can’t let us have anything better than they have.”
Abigail nodded. “Thanks. If you do hear anything, let me know.”
Suki jerked her chin towards the display case behind the witch. “I need a phone. One like mine. I don’t think he’s equipped to handle anything different to what he knows.”
“A man? You’re buying a phone for a man.”
She shrugged stiffly. “Don’t start.”
Abigail’s green eyes brightened. “You like him.”
She shook her head and grabbed the phone that Abigail offered. “He’s a host. Nothing more.”
Abigail refused to release the phone. “Never seen a succubus buy a phone for a host before.”
“Shut up.” She tugged the phone free of her grip. “He’ll need a few charging packs too. He lives south of here.”
Abigail looked as if she wanted to probe and then bent over and lifted a box onto the counter. “How many?”
“Two should do it.” She was quick to take them as Abigail slid them across the counter. She waved the phone at the witch. “Bill me.”
She disappeared, landing in the alley beside Tegan.
He growled and turned on her, flashing fangs.
“Down boy!” She grinned when he eased back and scowled. “Didn’t mean to startle you.”
He took one look at her and immediately closed the gap between them, his gaze searching hers. “Something happened. You are upset.”
This time, she didn’t try to pretend she was fine or keep the truth from him.
“A friend of mine was taken in a raid a couple of months back and I didn’t know.” She looked down at her feet. “I should have checked on her. Some friend I am.”
“A raid?” He smoothed his palm over her cheek, and she stole all the comfort she could from that touch, closed her eyes and nodded. “Do you know where she might be?”
His voice had changed, losing all softness and warmth. Now he sounded like a warrior, hard as stone and unyielding, ready to make someone regret what they had done.
“Archangel.” She seized his hand when he went to withdraw it and her eyes leaped to meet his, her heart lodging in her throat. “Don’t even think about looking for them.”
“Why not?” He canted his head, his black hair falling to his right to brush his horn and forehead.
She wouldn’t hide this truth from him either. “Because I’m afraid you’ll get hurt.”
His expression softened again and he reached for her, looking for all the world as if he was going to kiss her breathless for that.
She panicked and shoved the phone at him, wincing when she slapped him in the centre of his chest with it.
He arched an eyebrow down at it.
“Sorry. Just. I’m a bit hungry and I’ll probably hurt you, and I refer you back to what I just said. I don’t want to see you hurt.” Her heart pounded, blood rushing as adrenaline jacked it up, and her hands shook where they remained planted against his chest.
What the hell was she doing?
He lifted his hands and gently covered hers with them. “If it worries you, I will not kiss you.”
“But?”
“But what?”
She swallowed her racing heart. “What about Archangel? Don’t go after them.”
“I have no intention of doing that. I was merely going to suggest I ask King Thorne of the Third Realm to inquire about your missing friend.”
“Oh.” Her eyebrows lifted. “You know royalty?”
He nodded and grimaced. “It is a long story.”
One he didn’t want to tell her for some reason.
“How does this king know Archangel?” She wouldn’t probe about how he knew the king. From his wind turbine project? She recalled he had mentioned this king had installed some wind farms.
“His fated one was a hunter for the organisation and they recently aided him in a war.”
“Wow. Didn’t see that one coming. A demon with a hunter for a mate.” She couldn’t imagine how difficult that courtship had been and she doubted the method Tegan had mentioned, one that sounded awfully as if the demon normally just grabbed his mate and claimed her with or without her consent, had worked on this hunter.
“What is this?” He took the phone from her fingers and peered at it. “It is not your phone.”
“Well, you seemed to really like advancing, so consider this one hell of a leap forwards.”
“It is for me?” He raised his gaze to meet hers.
“It’s magically enchanted, which means it can work in Hell.” She held her hand up before he could speak. “I know what’s coming. Magic allows it to use the portal pathways into Hell as transmitters that relay the call to the phone network in the mortal world and connect you to the person at the other end, no matter where they are. It’s all the rage right now. The latest greatest thing. Magic meets technology. That has to knock your socks off.”
His dark eyes lit up. “It does. I never considered the two things might be compatible. The avenues this opens up are endless, Suki. What if I could somehow couple magic and technology in the Second Realm… or across all of Hell?”
“Well, Agatha would probably make a fortune since she patented the spell and she would make everyone buy the phones from her. Demand would go through the roof. She’d be the richest woman in the realms overnight.” Suki thought about that as she stared at Tegan, enjoying that glimmer of curiosity mixed with excitement in his eyes and the idea that struck her. “If you did the footwork in Hell, convincing everyone to buy into this technology, Agatha would pay you and probably make you rich too.”
His eyebrows dipped low. “I am rich.”
Her eyes widened. “How rich?”
Did that come off as a little grabby?
It was still weeks until her monthly allowance hit her bank account and brought her back into the black, and that side of her nature she tried so hard to deny was rearing its ugly head, stealing control of her once again.
He tilted his head back, blankly looked at the cavern ceiling as his lips pursed and eyebrows knitted, and eventually rolled his shoulders in a shrug. “I do not honestly know. I have bank accounts in this world.”
He handed her the phone and opened the leather pouch on his hip, fished around in it and proudly produced several debit and credit cards.
“I have plastic.”
It was sweet that he thought plastic made him rich.
She looked closer at the cards, the two black ones in particular.
Her jaw dropped.
“Holy gods… I thought the black American Express was an eye-opener but is that a Coutts World Silk Card?”
He turned them towards him, his eyebrows pinned high on his forehead. She wanted to slap him when he shrugged. Every succubus worth her salt knew what to look for in a man’s wallet, or leather pouch. Her kind found it hard to keep jobs and most of them didn’t want to work to begin with, so they relied on taking as much from a man as possible—both sexually and financially.
If what she was looking at was real, she had hit the jackpot with Tegan.
“I think you just made it to twelve. Although, Solid
Twelve doesn’t have the same ring to it.”
He inspected the Coutts card. “It is worth a lot?”
“You don’t know? My gods… how do you not know?”
He was strolling around with every exclusive card out there, some even people uneducated in the best cards to look for on a man would know, like the black American Express, and he didn’t have a damned clue what that meant.
“I merely asked for plastic and was given it. These accounts are good?” He flexed the black Coutts card in his fingers, bending it back and forth, and she nearly had a heart attack as she lunged for it, afraid he would break it and somehow destroy the account at the other end in the process.
She gripped both of his hands and looked up at him, finding him watching her with an arched brow.
“You like money.” He spoke those three words slowly, a wicked light entering his eyes that screamed he was dreaming up ways to abuse this knowledge.
“Did I not mention how my hair colour bankrupts me each month because I’m a total failure and have to live on a meagre allowance?”
The smile that had been curving his lips faded. “You are not a failure, Suki. Whoever tells you these things… they are wrong.”
They weren’t, but it was sweet of him to think that.
He looked at all the cards he held. Among the pile was a gold metal one she recognised as a JP Morgan card. He noticed her eyes on it and pushed his thumb against it, edging it forwards in the group, looked as if he wanted to offer it to her and then closed his hand around all his cards.
“I should pay you for the phone.” His fingers flexed around them.
She shook her head. “It’s a present… and really, I don’t want your money.”
He looked as if he couldn’t quite believe that. “At least allow me to pay for something. Your hair colour perhaps?”
She refused to read into that. It didn’t mean he was thinking about sticking around, about them being together that long.
“Really, I don’t want to be that girl.” It hit her that she really didn’t. Another failing. Her sisters would have charmed the JP Morgan card right out of his hands. She was refusing it.
Why?
That damned voice said it was because she had always thought what her sisters did tarnished the name of their species. Sure, succubi needed money like everyone else and it was hard to get that when they had a tendency to accidentally charm anyone they worked with when they were hungry and a lot of the times that got them fired or their bosses killed, but taking money from men they had pleasured?
It crossed a line in her eyes.
She stared at the card. But curse her, she did like money. Not because she wanted material things, but because she liked the security of it.
Another why.
Another answer that rose from within.
Because she feared that her clan were going to kick her out and if she had money, she would be able to find a place to live, would be able to rebuild her life and maybe survive without them.
“I keep upsetting you today. Perhaps I should go.”
She shook her head. Stupid emotions. They had been running amok since she had met him and no matter what she did, she couldn’t quite get them under control.
She needed a distraction.
She lifted the phone she gripped in her right hand. “You have your own digits now.”
“I do?”
She nodded as she pulled her phone from her skirt pocket and brought them together, swapping their contact details. When she was done, she brought up his name in her phone book and flashed the screen at him.
“And now I have your digits.”
He frowned. “I did not give them to you.”
Suki refused to let them mean anything less to her because of that. “It’s the least you can do since I bought you the phone.”
He glared at his collection of cards. “Can I not pay you for it?”
“Nope.” She held back a smile when he huffed and she focused on his aura, wanting to see what he was feeling as he grumbled something beneath his breath.
Shadows rose from his shoulders and head.
She peered hard at them, trying to penetrate them.
No dice.
He shoved his cards back into his pouch and her gaze roamed over him, drifting across his broad shoulders and down the impressive bulge of his biceps. He stilled. Looked at her. His gaze landed on her in a scalding rush of fire that lit her up inside, had her pressing her thighs together as a flicker of energy washed through her.
“What are you thinking when you look at me like that?” She bravely lifted her eyes to meet his.
They were dark pools of violet, flooded with desire that had her taking a slow step towards him so she could get another hit of pleasure and energy from him.
His voice scraped low, thick with the hunger she could sense in him. “The dream I had of you… you were swimming.”
“Naked?”
He swallowed hard. Nodded. Blushed a little in a way she found sexy.
“Did you enjoy the dream?”
Another stiff nod. His gaze raked over her, giving her another delicious hit of energy. “It did not leave me satisfied though.”
“Oh. Why not?” She edged closer, unable to resist the desire to press against him as her hunger mounted.
“Because now I yearn to know you in reality… to know if your taste is as sweet and heavenly on my tongue.”
Good gods. She shivered, her knees almost buckling beneath her as his words rolled over her, bringing her hunger to boiling point.
She blushed now. Her hot geek had a wicked tongue and damn, it fired her up.
“It takes a strong man to withstand that sort of thing with a succubus, and I already said I don’t want to kill you.” She felt as disappointed as he looked and she couldn’t stop herself from adding, “Not when I’m just starting to like you.”
The words slipped from her before she could stop them, and he looked as if they had hit him as hard as they hit her.
His eyes blazed, flooded with arousal and need she had stoked with the simple confession that she liked him.
She was probably going to regret this, but resisting him was impossible, was a torment she didn’t want to endure. He was strong, and wasn’t she meant to be seducing him? He was right where she wanted him.
She eased up to him, skimmed her hands over the hard slabs of his chest, and murmured, “I can think of something you can give me as payment for the phone.”
He lowered his face towards her, a serious edge to his expression. “What?”
She tiptoed, bringing them closer together, whispering, “A kiss.”
His throat worked on another hard swallow. “A kiss?”
He choked on those words and heck, that was a major turn on. She had never managed to fluster a man like that before.
She nodded, deadly serious now. “That’s what I want most.”
He drew down a deep breath. “Do you intend to feed on this kiss?”
She shivered at the thought. She hadn’t considered it, but now it was all she wanted. She wanted to taste him properly, even though she feared she would lose control and hurt him.
“A kiss it is then,” he husked, voice a throaty rumble that heated her insides. “But not here. Somewhere private. I need to be alone with you… because I am not sure what will happen.”
Oh gods, she wasn’t sure either. Right now, she felt as if the entire world might detonate if he kissed her, exploding into a shower of stars.
She couldn’t answer him. Barely managed a nod.
He gathered her close, banding strong arms around her that had her temperature soaring and need flaring hotter in her veins, cranking her tighter. His hard body met hers, sending a thrill through her, and she pressed closer as they dropped into the darkness.
She wasn’t surprised when they landed in the private cove.
Just pressed closer still, looping her arms around his neck to keep him pinned to her as her hunger reached a cres
cendo and her eyes locked on his lips as words fell from hers in a desperate tone that she knew would leave him in no doubt of the need she felt.
A need of him.
“Kiss me now.”
CHAPTER 15
Feeding a succubus was probably an unwise idea, but gods, Tegan could feel how much Suki needed it, how fiercely she craved his kiss as her soft curves pressed against him and her hooded gaze locked on his lips. Her irises sparkled in iridescent shades of emerald and azure blue, gold glittering in them in the warm sunlight as that need he could sense in her rose even higher, had her rubbing against him, her breasts teasing him as her hard nipples brushed against his chest.
The instincts she stirred in him awoke, a powerful need to please her rising inside him in time with the desire in her, driving him to obey.
He dropped his head and captured her mouth, her taste flooding him the moment their lips touched, that nectar sweet with a hint of spice drugging him in an instant. On the heels of it, a haziness swept through him, awareness that she was stealing his strength causing a momentary swell of panic that quickly subsided when she moaned, the sound of her pleasure almost as intoxicating as her kiss.
He gathered her to him, clutching her backside and fisting her black skirt, twisting it in his grip as his claws emerged and a new hunger blazed inside him, stealing control. He angled his head and deepened the kiss, plundered her mouth with his tongue and stole his reward.
Another sultry moan.
He could feast on those just as she feasted on the energy that crackled between them, craved them and wouldn’t stop until he squeezed another from her, and then another. They were his addiction, together with this pleasure he could feel building inside her, desire he swore he would satisfy for her.
His instincts flared again as the drain on his strength grew more intense, but he refused to let it panic him. Suki wouldn’t hurt him. She was in control.
Which sparked a different sort of instinct within him.
Seduced by a Demon King Page 17
