Madison flipped him on his back and rose over him, smiling as she scored her nails from his wrists to the insides of his elbows. He didn’t react, just lay passive beneath her, his hooded eyes studying her. Blood oozed from the scratches she’d created. She leaned forward and licked the fluid away as she clamped her other hand over his wound and chugged his magic. This mojo—the color of choppy ocean seas—wasn’t as good as the golden power. But she wouldn’t turn it down, either.
Euphoria swept through her, and she threw her head back, squeezed her thighs to hold down the man beneath her. He didn’t struggle as she’d suspected he would. As he should. He did not even issue a grunt of protest.
Something is wrong.
Madison blinked. Blinked again. She snatched her hand off her victim and peered down at him.
Kur.
Alarm scurried along her spine. Normally tanned skin had gone ashy and dark circles ringed his eyes. His cheeks were hollow as if he’d been starved for days, or decades. Rather than a white streak of hair, a hank of sapphire had emerged. Dear God, had she caused that?
“God.”
“Wrong…person,” he croaked out between parched and cracking lips.
“Oh, God, Kur!” She cupped his face. “What have I done?”
Madison scrambled off him. She’d nearly killed Kur, almost became the kind of monster she fought against. And Nix—
She swung about and located him standing next to Zen. Tired creases fanned from his eyes and his lips were a little pinched. The hesitation in his gaze clenched at her heart like a tight fist and threatened to crush her.
“Momma, you’re okay now.”
Madison jerked at the sound of Amos’s voice.
Dear God, he watched me do that to Nix and Kur! Hysteria tickled the edges of her sanity.
She wasn’t okay, not by a long shot. “I’m sorry.” The words ripped a piece of her heart away because she’d been forced to utter them. She’d never imagined she would stoop so low.
Madison ran from the bedroom into the bathroom and slammed the door. She threw the lock and would’ve blockaded it with a chair if one had been in the room. She stalked to the mirror and looked at herself. Eyes blue. Not Lynx, thankfully. Her skin glowed, like an organic tan. Cheeks rosy and lips plump, she looked ready for seduction. Or as if she’d just risen from being fucked to the best orgasm of her life.
Hands trembling, she turned on the tap. The door opened behind her and she spun around, gripping the marble counter. Nix kicked it shut, not bothering with the lock.
“How’d you get in here?” She shook her head. “Doesn’t matter. Leave, Nix, please.” Before I lose control again.
He didn’t even pretend to exit, but stalked toward her in his unique, cocky swagger. “Any of the three out there could work their magic on the lock. I know how to pick one in ten seconds.”
He yanked her against him, and she caught his bare chest for support. Strong fingers speared into her hair and tugged her head back.
She couldn’t dismiss eye contact. She wouldn’t be that big of a coward even though it’d be easier. “Someone should kill me before I do more damage.”
Nix kissed her instead of commenting. Madison should’ve protested, but instead opened to him and moaned when his tongue flicked across hers. Her arms went around his shoulders and she clung to him. His free arm circled her waist and he shifted their position. Her back met the wall with a hard thump.
“No one is fucking killing you,” he growled against her ear. “No-fucking-body.” His tongue swiped the spot behind her lobe, and she buried her fingers in his hair.
“I’m so sorry. So sorry.”
Stubble enticed her body awake, heat snaking and burning between her thighs, as he dragged his mouth down her neck. She angled her head to provide him more landscape.
His lips moved against her collarbone. “No apologies.” His gruff voice demanded no arguments. “I’d have given you it all.”
He nipped her shoulder and his hand shifted out of her hair. Both of his palms clamped over her shoulders. He dragged both his forefingers downward in a V and they met in the middle of her chest. They slid between her breasts. He jerked her shirt upward and off, tossed the Hell-made garment aside.
“Nix—” His mouth stifled her protest. Not to be distracted, she jerked his head back by his hair. “I still have Micah and the Kings’ blood on my tongue. Their presence is…inside me somehow.”
She couldn’t begin to explain that. He didn’t ask for clarification, just released her pants and shoved them and her panties down.
“I’m about to be inside you, forcing them out of your thoughts.”
“That’s crazy. Sex is the last thing on my mind.”
He bent slightly and caught the back of her knee, lifted it to wrap around his hip. Her jaw dropped when his erection bumped against her folds. When had he released his pants?
The crown of his cock spread her lips, pressed against her entrance. “You’re wet.”
Madison sucked in a breath and clamped her hands on his shoulders. “Nix, no, you didn’t get me wet. Micah….” Her husband wasn’t solely responsible, but he’d started it. Nix’s kisses increased her arousal.
A flash of hurt shifted in his green eyes. His free hand moved to her throat, and she’d have done anything to expunge his pain. “But I’ll be the one who finishes it. The last one inside you, erasing him from your goddamn memory.”
He thrust deep and she gasped, clenching his shoulders for purchase. Holding her gaze, he set a hard, fast pace. No gentleness as his thick length pounded into her, driving her against the wall in quick jerks. She forgot to breathe, forgot to blink, just stared at him and focused on the awe of his body inside hers.
Only he could make her feel this. Only Nix!
Madison climaxed as quickly as he took her, and he silenced her release with his mouth. Were the others still in her bedroom? Able to hear them? Insanity! Neither of them was thinking.
He lifted his head. “Micah cannot have you back.”
He plunged to the hilt and went motionless. Groaned as he spilled inside her. She clasped his face between her palms and watched his expression, caught between pleasure and pain. She fed off his release.
“I love you, Nix.” But I’m not good for you.
He pulled from her. Snatched up his jeans that were mounded around his ankles. His movements were jerky as he buttoned them. What’d she say wrong? Do wrong?
As if he read her thoughts, he sent her a wounded glare. “Don’t tell me you love me while looking at me as if I’m the worst mistake of your life.”
Nix turned and stormed out of the bathroom, slamming the door behind him. Madison flinched and slid down the wall, crumpling on the tile floor.
He wasn’t her mistake, but she’d be his if he didn’t run fast.
Chapter Four
Nix strode from the bathroom, horrified to observe all three occupants still in their bedroom. Jesus Christ! He’d left them in order to console Mads, assuming they’d give them some privacy to work out her issues, not wait for the dirty details. “Can’t a man get some privacy?”
“There’s no such thing as privacy when I can get in your head.” With Zen’s blank expression, Nix couldn’t be certain if he were serious.
“You can’t leave it like that, Nix.” Amos grabbed his arm, halting his stride long enough for him to gape at the boy. “I didn’t tell you to go in there and make things right for you to end it that way.”
“It’s creepy just thinking you might know what went on in there. Don’t make it worse.” He tugged his arm free and walked to the bedroom door. “I need some air.”
God knows he hadn’t intended to fuck Mads against the bathroom wall. He’d gone in there to comfort her, to demonstrate neither he nor Kur were angry. It wasn’t her fault the motherfucking Kings had jacked her up on their blood—or so Amos said. She’d been at the tail end of the anchoring ceremony when they ripped her out of Hell.
But the moment h
e spied her, hair tangled, eyes over-bright and frightened, all he’d been able to think about was marking her, claiming her, reminding her she was his, goddamnit! The sight of her on top of Kur, swigging his power…his brain locked tight on the visual and refused to evict it from his memory. It’d been too sexual, too big a turn-on, and the scene had played a huge part in him fucking her against the bathroom wall.
He swiped his fingers through his hair and stalked past his family seated in the living room. It sounded as if he took the front door off its hinges when the wood rattled shut.
He kept walking.
Went past the parked vehicles, his Charger, Mads’s Land Rover, and his uncle’s King Cab pickup truck.
He continued onward.
Goddamn all my problems to Hell!
Not even a whole day and he was already screwing up his relationship with Mads. But what’d he know about relationships? He’d never been in one. And jealousy rode him harder than a motorcyclist gunning for Bike Week at Talladega. The damn emotion eroded his logic. He wasn’t proud of that. Neither did it help that he didn’t trust Mads in the presence of her husband. She coveted Hell and admitted she desired Micah’s seraph. She’d returned only for Nix.
That slowed his steps.
What might’ve transpired in Hell between her and the Kings bothered him most. No idea if she’d resisted the Kings’ sway, Micah’s charm, or even her own desires. She’d been so out of her mind when they wrenched her from Hell, he suspected resistance hadn’t been her agenda in the fiery realm. Not even once. How could he continue a relationship with a woman whose commitment was so fragile, just twenty-four hours into the liaison?
Coming to an abrupt halt, he stared at the landscape. Moon low in the sky, not a cloud in the starry night.
No way could he leave her. He loved her too damn much. And she needed him. She’d become his world, his reason for existing long before he’d told her he loved her. Long before he entered into that fucked-up covenant with her psycho husband.
So what do I do?
He expelled a breath. Unsure how to proceed, he stared at the darkened terrain. What did women even expect in this scenario? He slumped against a tree. Sherlocking was easier than relationships. Less complicated. He guessed that said a lot about him, that he thought being a paranormal hunter who dedicated his life to killing monsters was simpler.
“What’d you do, dumbass?”
Nix ground his molars together and just barely managed to keep from taking Zoe’s head off. His cousin’s girlfriend had a way of getting under his skin at times. “Don’t start, Zo. I’m not in the mood.”
She nudged him with her shoulder. “I’m trying to help you.”
“What makes you think my screw-up can be fixed?”
“Because women who are in love don’t work that way. Unless you were fucking another woman, and then you would be limping instead of wearing that woebegone face.”
“I’m not wearing a woebegone face.”
“Yeah, you are.”
“Zo, do you realize how messed up your logic is?”
She laughed. “Not when we’re talking about Madison. We both know she’d castrate you before she would put up with you cheating. So….” Zo sent him a pointed look. “Back to my deduction. You did something stupid.”
“I loathe your deduction skills.”
“You like them just fine in the field.” That was when they hunted freakin’ monsters and she knew it. She squeezed his arm. “Talk to me, Nix.”
“How do you know my fuck-up even involves Mads?” He was avoiding the topic. Zo was perceptive enough to realize.
“Woebegone look, remember?” She tapped a finger to her temple. “And my deduction skills are genius.”
Silence descended. He crossed his arms over his chest. Chick-flick moments weren’t his thing. Detailing intimate moments to Zo was an alien concept. Those were the types of things he discussed with no one.
Zo shoved her hands in her back pockets and began to rock on the balls of her feet, making it obvious she had no intention of departing. Patience should be her middle name. She could out-wait him in any situation.
He sighed. Best to get the girly talk over. The faster the better.
He spilled his guts. From Amos waking him, screaming that Micah had Mads, straight through the events where she almost killed him and Kur, and when he took her against the wall. He ended with his reaction to Mads’s expression when she said she loved him. So far out of his comfort zone, the first of it came out in stilted sentences. By the time he finished, he was talking so fast he wasn’t sure Zo heard his entire confession. Once it was all out there, he felt like an ass for handling the situation the way he had. If Zo could offer some advice, he’d listen.
“So, instead of giving her the reassurances she needed, I bitched at her about the way she looked at me when she said she loved me. Then I stormed out of the bathroom.” He rubbed his sweaty palms against his jeans.
Zo nodded and scanned the area. Silent. Way too quiet for his peace of mind.
“You’re killing me, Zo.” He dragged a hand down his face. “Fucked up bad, huh?”
“Not as bad as you think. You need to talk to her.”
How, after the way he’d treated her? He should’ve at least given her a chance to defend herself. That would’ve been the right thing to do.
“You don’t need me to tell you to discuss this with her.” Zo grabbed his arm, yanked him out of his defensive pose, and looped it over her shoulders.
“I don’t know, Zo.” Grateful for her opinion, he hugged her to his side. “You didn’t see her expression when she said what she did. Or the pain in her eyes when I bitched.”
“You’re a good guy. A total ass-wipe at times, ignorant, like now—but what man isn’t?”
“Zo—”
She poked him in the gut. “Shush. I’m not finished giving you my phenomenal counsel.” Zo squeezed his waist. “You probably shocked the hell out of her making love to her the way you did. She’d just come back from Hell, wallowed all over that gigantic dragon and…FYI, he freaks me out, by the way. But back to Madison. There’s no telling what she was thinking.” She gazed up at him, the moon bright enough he could see her features. “Talk to her, Nix. That woman’s crazy about you.”
He put Zo in a chokehold. “You sure that’s not your girl-crush on her talking?”
“Not a chance.” Zo jabbed him in the ribs and he grunted. Releasing her, he kept his arm hooked over her shoulders. “Relationships take work and all you’re used to doing is killing things that piss you off. This is your family; you have to chat when there’s a problem.”
“My family?” He hadn’t thought of it like that.
“Well, yeah. You love her, right? Want to be with her? Went to Hell for her.” He nodded. She sighed, a world-weary sound, as if his photo should be featured in Webster’s beside the definition for moron. “Then she and Amos are your family. Protecting them is personal, and you feel like you failed her tonight.” Jesus, she knew him too well. “You’re both on edge. I repeat, go talk to her.”
“Her being part demon doesn’t bother you or the rest of the family?”
“Of course it does. But how’s that any different from all the other years we’ve known her? Last time I checked, you have all she needs. Power she can feast on and, as big a whore-dog as you are, if you can’t keep her sexually happy, there isn’t a man alive who can.”
It was his turn to poke her in the ribs. “What does the rest of the family think about me being with her?”
Zo snorted. “Please. Georgie is taking one-hundred-percent credit for getting you two together.” She rolled her eyes. “How, I haven’t figured out yet since all she did was see it in a vision.”
Nix chuckled. He loved his messed-up, neurotic family. Life was never boring. Especially with his Aunt Georgie’s psychic abilities. Her visions kept them all on their toes.
“Gage is a little on the wishy-washy side. He’s worried about the bigger, scari
er picture.”
It’d surprise him if at least one of them wasn’t thinking of the potential future hazards. “Good to know you all care, Zo. Thank you for being my hero-ess—”
“Heroine.”
“That too. But—” He scrunched up his face. “What are all of you doing up? It’s the wee hours of the morning.”
“That scary dragon I mentioned, he and his daunting buddy were dropping fiery ice outside the house. Kind of hard to sleep through that.”
“Ah…that’d be the Angel and Demon Locks Amos requested.”
“The Angel Lock intended to keep Amos in or Micah out?”
They both knew it wouldn’t keep the King of Hell out unless he had no intention of being trapped. “Maybe both.” He shrugged. “I didn’t hang around long enough to ask.”
“Nix—”
“I know. I know. Talk to her.”
Pastel rainbow orbs swirled in front of them moments before Zen crystallized. There was no hello, no you’re-a-dumbass comment, just a dry, “Your presence is required in the study.”
Study equaled Zen and Mads’s make-do dojo.
He went alert immediately and came away from the tree. “Something wrong with Mads?”
“Except for what you and Micah have done to her?”
A meaningful pause.
Nix cringed.
“No.”
Chapter Five
Shoulders slouched, Kur slumped in the chair with his head thrown against the back of the seat. His mouth sagged in exhaustion, and his lips were almost as white as his skin—which was normally olive-toned. His eyes were closed, but she could sense his alertness. His shoulder-length blue-black hair fell away from his face, giving him a skeletal appearance. Dark shadows discolored the tender flesh beneath his eyes, and those shadows weren’t there because of his ridiculously long, sooty lashes either.
Dear God, knowing the blame lay at her feet nourished her guilt. Nix’s understandable fury didn’t help. She needed her hero on her side, not feeding his anger in the bathroom.
She’d been well on her way to becoming the Genesis Queen of Hell when they’d snatched her out. Not a moment too soon, either. The Kings wanted her to claim the same distinction as the first book of the Holy Bible…a new beginning for mankind and Hell. With a new Holy Trinity—Father, Son, and Holy Mother—earth would become the training ground for a new religion governed by a fallen angel with nasty daddy issues. Not an outcome she wanted to contemplate. She rubbed her eyes with her fingers. Thinking about what would have happened if they hadn’t retrieved her when they had caused her uneasy dread…she would’ve embraced Hell and all it offered. She prayed her trembling knees didn’t give out and put her butt on the floor.
Genesis Queen (The Road to Hell Series) Page 4
