“I do love you. Maybe you misread my expression. You’re not a mistake, but I fear I’ll be yours.”
“You won’t be.” Of that he was certain.
No argument surfaced from her, but by the way she chewed on her bottom lip, he knew she wasn’t convinced.
“I was jealous. Am jealous.”
She squeezed his hand, but her face offered little comfort. “I wish I could alleviate your fears. I really do. But I won’t lie to you. I refuse to start another relationship built upon lies.”
He respected that stance. “Tell me what happened in Hell.”
“Will knowing make you feel better?”
“Probably not. But I need to know.”
Mads looked down and away. She extracted her fingers from his. Nix allowed her to distance herself because he believed she needed that small disconnection. Maybe because she anticipated he’d turn away from her, but that type of relationship was all she knew. Hers and the King of Hell’s had been founded upon what he wanted and needed without any concern for her wishes.
She cleared her throat. “They each gave me their blood. The power in it….” Her eyes clouded with memory.
“Micah told you while we were in Hell there was power in blood. Especially the soul’s blood. It’s why I created that pool in your honor.”
“Right.” She nodded. The hesitancy in her eyes when she met his gaze made him want to wrap her in his arms, provide comfort regardless of what she’d done. “Micah was going to fuck me on a ceremonial slab while I consumed his blood to complete the anchoring. His brothers were watching. We’d already gotten underway with some foreplay when I was pulled out.”
It felt like she’d slapped him. But it could’ve been worse. He had expected worse. He hoped he kept the hurt off his face. “Did all of them touch you intimately when you took their blood?”
“No. Just Micah.” She blinked several times and took a deep breath. Tears darkened her lashes. “I wanted him.” A slow exhale and more confessions followed. “Like I told you in the bathroom, he got me….” Pink hit her cheeks and she looked away.
“Wet?” A darker blush was his answer. He slid his knuckles across her cheek and buried his fingers in her hair. “A part of me thrills at the idea of watching you with him.”
Her mouth parted in shock, and her eyes rounded as her stare whiplashed to him.
“I get aroused thinking of both of us taking you simultaneously. He and I working together in tandem to make you climax for us.”
“I—I have no idea what to say to that.”
The things he could imagine. One of them licking her pussy as she sucked the other’s dick…that was only one of many scenarios he could conjure. Hearing her scream as they both got her off, not just priceless, but something he’d fantasized about in Hell. And so not his Southern belle, regardless of the flash of excitement in her gaze. “Because part of you is stimulated by the idea.”
Mads licked her bottom lip and curled her fingers in his shirt at his waist. “That small flare of arousal over the concept terrifies me, too.”
“Let me.” He touched her knees and she shifted, sliding onto the edge of the desk. Her legs parted and he moved into her personal space, supremely pleased she held no grudge about his irrational behavior in the bathroom. She anchored her arms around his neck. He circled her waist and pressed a hand to the small of her back. The other fingered the bands holding the knife strapped to her thigh. “Even at home you arm yourself?”
She played with the shorts strands of his hair. “With the right provocation, anyone can become my enemy.”
“It’s sexy secured to your thigh.”
A humorous grin tilted one corner of her mouth. “If you think that’s sexy, you’re not normal, Nix.”
“Thank God, or I’d never have met you.” Thumbing the leather tie, he released the fastening and unsheathed the blade. “You allow me to disarm you?”
“I trust you.”
He glanced at the knife. The one he’d given her for her birthday. God, that seemed like decades ago, but it’d been less than six months. “Do you know what I could do to you with it?”
He dragged the metal across her throat, and she tilted her head, exposing the main artery. Not just hollow words, but, also, through her actions, she offered him her faith.
“Cut my clothes off?”
Flabbergasted by her answer, he studied her. A teasing glint sparkled in her eyes. He chuckled. “I love the way you think, baby.”
“Did you have threesomes with Micah?”
“Yes.” Among other things, the threesomes were some of their tamer exploits.
“Tell me about them.”
“No.” He shook his head. No way would he give her those details. “I won’t discuss that with you.”
“Why?”
“There’s no reason you need to know how bad I was.” Or how much he’d relished the darkness. He’d gone to Hell for her and he wouldn’t risk her guilt for something he’d chosen.
“Was it fun?”
What was it with all the questions? “Was fucking me fun?”
“You know it was.”
“And Micah’s foreplay with you”—he could imagine what that’d entailed—“in front of his brother Kings, was that fun?”
“Yes,” she said, her tone breathy.
Did the memory reignite her excitement, or embarrassment?
Nix dragged the blade between her breasts. She shivered. He tossed it on the table and pulled her against him. “Then know this. If you desire to be the Queen of Hell, I’ll follow you. I’ll teach you each dark pleasure. Bliss so perverse you cannot conceive of it.” He nipped her bottom lip. “Just be prepared for your husband to join the adventure. We’ll take you together, penetrate you at the same time”—a flash of pink in her eyes—“and make you scream in pleasure and pain. We’ll make you beg for both, crawl for a chance at experiencing the erotic nature of our inner beasts. You’ve no understanding of Hell’s delights until you’re immersed in them so far you cannot drag yourself out of it.”
He highly doubted her husband would offer her up sexually to everyone, as he had him. A banquet of sexual exploits, an orgy to induct him into the dark realm of Hell after his Fall, he’d been feasted upon, and he’d gorged on those demons present, as well. Orgasms wrenched from him until he’d collapsed, unable to perform. Unsatisfied, the King had doused him with something dark and primitive—angel dust—reigniting his lust. The festivities had resumed and gone on for a long, long time, so lengthy, he’d had no scope of the passage of the clock. They could’ve transitioned through seasons and he would’ve been oblivious.
Mads circled his lips with the pads of her fingertips. “Dear God, you’d return.”
“With you at my side, hell yes.” He cupped her cheeks with both hands and tilted her head back. “It wasn’t all fun. Killing innocents, having to reconcile that some of them were children…that would stop me from going back. The guilt will rip your soul apart, Mads.” He wasn’t sure his soul would ever completely heal.
“Thank you.” She hugged him and buried her face against his chest.
Nix clenched a handful of hair, resisting the urge to strip her and take her on the desktop. “For what?”
“For letting me in and telling me your experience in Hell.” She looked up at him. “I want you to remain my Nix, the one I fell in love with. The one united with my husband was a little creepy.”
Charmed by her honesty, he lowered his head and claimed her lips in a kiss full of aggressive arousal.
Chapter Seven
The knock on the door brought them apart, but Mads clung to him, staring at his mouth. “I cannot get enough of you.”
Her words hit him in the crotch with an instant hard-on. Comments like that left him with fantasies of her naked and him inside her. But the tormented expression wrinkling her forehead and creating fine lines around her mouth left him pondering if she considered her reaction a good thing.
The door pushed
open and his aunt peeked her head around the corner. “Sorry to interrupt.”
“Come on in.” Nix motioned with his hand to Georgie and gave Mads a quick kiss. “We’ll talk about that in a minute.”
His aunt approached cautiously. “You have a call on my cell.”
Odd. “Who is it?”
“I don’t know. A charming young man. He wouldn’t give me his name, said you’d been close recently.”
Nix stepped out of Mads’s embrace, but kept one hand on her thigh. “You don’t find that peculiar, Georgie?”
“Extremely.” She offered him the cell and gave them a shrewd smile.
He accepted the phone and placed it to his ear. “Nix speaking.”
“Hello, Phoenix.” Micah’s voice filtered through the connection. His gaze slashed to Mads. “My wife in the room with you?”
“Yes.”
“Allow me to speak with her.”
“Fuck you. No.” Nix didn’t realize he clenched Mads’s thigh until she laid her hand over his. He tempered his sudden anger and forced his tense muscles to relax. “If you wanted to speak with her, you should’ve contacted her, not my aunt.”
On the other end of the line a bell chimed. It sounded like one of those that announced a customer. Where the hell was the bastard? “I don’t have Madison’s telephone number.”
Micah? Mads mouthed at him.
Nix nodded.
“Put him on speaker.”
At the request, Nix frowned and shook his head.
“That man on the phone is your husband, Madison? The King of Hell that’s been chasing you for so long?” Georgie’s mouth rounded in surprise at the possibility.
“Yep,” Mads answered. “He can be charming when he wants.”
I disagree. “Charming like a demented mountain lion.”
Mads’s smooth-talking husband chuckled. “Thank you, Phoenix.” Muted chatter came through the receiver. “I seem to remember you liking my charm just fine.”
Couldn’t deny that if he wanted. “Look…you son-of-a-bitch—”
Mads ran her palm up his arm. “Don’t let him goad you.”
“Listen to my wife. She’s wise beyond her years.” He wanted to kill her fucking husband. This phone call was about Micah flexing his control, showing him the King still held leverage over her. He’d have to fight for her, and he had no idea if he was capable of winning.
Her hand dragged across his shoulder and cupped his cheek. “Nix, put him on speaker.”
Unable to refuse her much of anything, he sighed. “Hang on, Micah.”
“Would you like privacy?” Georgie tucked short, curly strands of hair behind her ears.
Mads shrugged. Nix glared at the phone as if the cell, rather than the man on the other end of the line, offended him.
Mads’s husband was the one who answered Georgie’s question. “Privacy is preferred, doll.”
Nix waited until his aunt shut the door behind her before he spoke. “What do you want?”
Mads flicked her fingers toward the door. The metal lock latching jerked his attention. A smile tilted the corners of her lips, one that reminded him of a child discovering she had power over something for the first time. She’d learned her demonic talents quickly. Much too quickly for his peace of mind.
“Madison, kitten, are you harmed?”
“No.” She made a face. “Why would I be?”
The muffled sound of Micah’s voice emerged. “Coffee. Black.” Nix’s best guess was he’d shifted his phone away to respond to someone, wherever he was. “I wasn’t sure I could trust Zennyo Ryuo after Hell. Speaking of Hell”—the rattling of dishes emerged through the line—“you were supposed to return. And since I cannot get to you mentally, I’m guessing you’re trapped in a Demon Lock?”
“Yes. It’s….” She glanced at Nix and chewed on her bottom lip a moment. “It’s why I didn’t return.”
“I suspected.”
“Is that the princess on the phone?” Elias was with him. And that particular demon only exited Hell when something massive required his attention.
A scuffling reverberation had him thinking Micah nodded at his brother’s question. “Madison, I know where you are. I’ll come remove the Demon Lock.”
“It’s intertwined with an Angel Lock,” Mads said.
“Goddamn it!” Dishes and silverware rattled after a loud bang.
Nix grinned. Violence from the King went a long way in mollifying his agitation. “Not taking any chances when it comes to protecting her from your sorry ass.”
“Phoenix, she’s my fucking wife.” It sounded like the King spoke through clenched teeth. “Release her.”
Nix held Mads’s gaze. “She’s mine now. You have no claim on her.”
The fire that sparked in her eyes indicated their hostilities displeased her. She shoved his hand off her thigh and pushed off the desk. “FYI to both of you…I am my own person. I make the decision who I build a relationship with, not either one of you. So can the caveman bullshit. I will not tolerate it.”
“Sorry, Mads.” He touched her cheek with the backs of his knuckles. She nodded, but he could tell by the tension in her body she was far from appeased.
“Kitten—”
“I wouldn’t push her right now, Micah. If you could see her eyes, you’d know she’s pissed.”
A long moment of tense silence ended with a weary-sounding sigh from the fallen angel. “Demon?”
“Yep.”
“Phoenix, I need to meet with you immediately.”
Nix frowned. Dealing with the King grew tiring. He wanted just twenty-four freakin’ hours of uninterrupted peace to enjoy with Mads before having to dicker with him “Why?”
“If it concerns me, talk freely.”
“Of course it concerns you, kitten. My entire life is centered on you.”
“That’s the fucking truth.” Elias’s muted voice sounded disgusted.
“Either start talking or Nix is disconnecting the call.” Mads’s hands balled into fists at her sides. He loved her sexy pissed-off side.
“Madison, this is serious—”
“I’m serious, too.” She was dead calm. “No more games. Or when this Demon Lock falls I’ll return to Hell with Amos, but nothing in my covenant with you says we have to remain.”
Micah laughed. Actually laughed. He had to be deranged because if he could see Mads’s expression, he’d be very grave. “I always did think your quick wit was sexy, kitten.”
“Hang up, Nix.”
He went to depress the button, but the King quickly said, “Wait!” Unsure how to proceed, Nix did nothing but stand there with the phone in his palm. “What I need to meet with Phoenix about is more important than the covenant, Madison. You’re released from it.”
Mads’s jaw dropped with a tiny gasp.
“Phoenix, that meeting—immediately. I’m at the local café in town. The only one in this backwoods hick city.”
She said nothing, just lowered her gaze to the floor as she chewed on her bottom lip. Being released from the covenant spoke volumes to the severity of the fallen’s intentions. “Why would you release me from the covenant, Micah?”
“You and Amos both are in peril.” Her husband’s harsh tone convinced Nix the King wanted to—and would—rip apart whatever threatened his family. “Those fucking Locks trap you and put you in more danger. I will not tolerate it. Make sure they’re removed before you meet me at the café, Phoenix.”
“If she’s in that much danger, you should come to us.” Nix jerked at the sound of Zen’s voice. “We’ll have a family meeting.”
He had no idea when the immortal had entered the room. He’d obviously teleported because Nix faced the door and Zen stood at his back.
“What’s your hidden agenda, Zennyo Ryuo?”
Valid question and he didn’t blame Micah for asking.
“None.” Zenny walked to Mads and looped his arm around her shoulder. He must have said something telepathically to her beca
use she nodded. “I’ll allow Elias entrance, also. Your departure without Madison is a given.”
A chair scraped across the floor from the Kings’ side of the line. Nix was surprised when Elias spoke.
“Deal. We’ll be there momentarily.”
Disconnecting the call, he met Mads and Zenny’s gazes. “I originally thought this might be a con, but if Elias is on board….” Nix shook his head and quirked his lips. That motherfucker was the wildcard to this situation. “And willing to walk into Zen territory without more assurances than he just gave, I’d guess whatever they have to say is legit.”
Chapter Eight
Micah and his brother came through the portal together. Madison stood on the front porch awaiting their arrival. Beside her, Phoenix clenched his jaw when they appeared.
The immortal stood nearest to Micah and his twin, on the lawn not more than four feet from where they’d come through. Zennyo Ryuo’s arms were crossed over his chest. “The Lock remains intact until you exit.”
Elias smirked. “Don’t trust us?”
No emotion tweaked the immortal’s features, and he was straightforward as always. “No.”
Once, they’d been allies with Zennyo Ryuo, but the friendly days had long since passed. They’d spent a lot of time attempting to kill one another since.
They were there for a legitimate purpose. Not even an uptight prick like the immortal would hinder his protection of his wife.
Micah held the immortal’s stare as he stepped into the Angel Lock. Trapping himself with his wife suited his aim, allowed him to shelter her from the motherfucker that would dare to harm her. He walked past Zennyo Ryuo, resolved to do anything to maintain the safety of his family. His gaze padlocked on Madison as he strode straight to her.
The reminders of things that had transpired in Hell were like snapshots in his vision. His mouth on her breasts, her belly, and his fingers inside her. Never in their marriage had she been aroused for him. In Hell, she’d been very wet.
The way she’d moved beneath his touch, her hips flexing to meet the glide of his finger-fucking. Passion a dull pink in her blue eyes, indicating both demon and woman present, while his brothers watched on as he readied to enter her.
Genesis Queen (The Road to Hell Series) Page 6
