Heat pooled low in my stomach, but my brain didn’t seem to be working. I unraveled beneath the curve of his lips as he trailed them down my jaw. The last thing I saw as my eyes fell closed was his expression: hungry, but vulnerable. A moment passed, suspended there as our breath mingled. That scent that I couldn’t define filled the air around me; intoxicating as I breathed it in.
It was wrong. I knew it was wrong, because nothing this good was ever right. It was rare that I found someone who so fully captured my attention as he and the Horsemen did. I was a damn fool for caving, and I almost pulled away. Until he said, “You’re everything I didn’t know I wanted.”
His lips met mine, smooth and sweet, but the gentleness didn’t stay for long. He shifted his arm from the back of the couch to wrap around me as I uncrossed my legs and turned into him. His fingers tangled into my hair, cupping the back of my head, pulling me closer as his tongue parted the seam of my lips. Coaxing me. Claiming me. I reached out, fisting his shirt, pulling him closer than I’d dared to with anyone in such a long time, the other night notwithstanding. That was because I was high. This was exhilarating and frightening, but the air crackled with a tension that couldn’t be denied.
I kissed him like my life depended on it, but that was nothing compared to the way his lips destroyed me. Fuck living. He kissed me like he was dying. Like this was the first and last kiss we’d ever have—and maybe it was. But he was doing an awfully good job at branding it into my memory.
He broke the kiss just when I realized I needed air or I’d faint, but his lips didn’t leave me. He kissed his way back up my jaw, and left stinging bites all down my neck. I arched into the little dose of pain, silently urging him on. Pushing him to give me more. He pulled the crook of my sweater to the side, exposing my shoulder so that he could taste every inch of me. He left a string of reddened skin, slight purple teeth marks to the very edge of my shoulder before making his way back. A low moan escaped my lips as his teeth scraped the sensitive part of my neck, just beneath my ear.
His hands moved to my hips as I straddled his lap and ground myself into the hard bulge beneath me. The breath hissed between his lips, and he bit down on my earlobe.
“What do you want?” he asked. My hands seemed to move on their own accord as they slipped beneath the edge of his shirt. He bit my earlobe again, a touch more pressure. I let out another breathy moan as he said, “What. Do. You. Want? Tell me. Soon enough, I won’t be able to stop.”
His breath was cold against my burning skin.
I scrambled to get off his lap as fast as I could, but he didn’t let go.
“Let go of me,” I said. I bit the inside of my cheek to stop from moaning as his hand slipped underneath my shirt. The circles he drew against my lower back with his thumb sent an inferno blazing through my self-control, but I held strong.
“Why?” he murmured, leaning into me.
“Because we can’t do this.”
“Give me one reason why, and I’ll let you go,” he whispered, his face against my neck, his words against my skin. I’d avoided this conversation for the last week, and again at the diner when Allistair confronted me. Trapped with Rysten between my legs, I had to speak up now, or whatever happened next was on me.
“Tell me why you want me,” I said. Rysten ran his lips along the edge of my collarbone, and his non-answer was point enough. “You don’t even know, do you? That’s the problem. You have no choice but to want me, and I can’t screw someone who has no choice in the matter.”
Rysten froze beneath me, but did not release his hold. I became painfully aware of the slow, steady thrum of my own heartbeat as it reverberated beneath my skin. Rysten slowly pulled back.
“Ruby, have you been torturing yourself this entire time thinking that we could only possibly want you because we have no choice?” he asked, a smile playing on the corners of his lips. I didn’t find this funny in the slightest.
“I’ve never met a man where that’s not the case,” I replied tersely. He slipped his entire hand underneath my sweater and flattened it against my back.
“We’ve already had this conversation before. I’m not a man.”
“Man. Demon. You are still male. You’re all the same where I’m concerned. I’ve had women come onto me before, so it’s not gender specific, really. My point is that if I sleep with you, it won’t be your choice, and that’s kind of rapey, if you ask me.”
Rysten didn’t hold back from laughing at me. I pushed his chest trying to wiggle my way off him, but he wasn’t letting up any more than he was before. His laugh trailed off into a heavy silence, the air between us stretched taut with pressure.
“Ruby, love, I can’t believe we’re having this conversation right now, but if we need to have it for you to feel comfortable, then we’ll have it. I want you. And not because it’s my job, or because you’re a succubus. You think I can’t see past the draw of a succubus? That the allure captures me and renders me unable to make my own decisions? Yes, I want you because the very smell of your skin makes me hard. Every time you bite your lip, I imagine what you taste like; what it feels like to bite that very same lip and hear you moan. But those are not the reasons why. Those are simply wants.” He paused, letting out a strained breath. “You have a fire in you that I have not seen in anyone in a very long time. A wildness about you. I told you once already: you are not what I thought you’d be. But now that I know you, I don’t know how I could possibly imagine you any different. You are everything that we could have ever wanted you to be, and so much more. When I am with you, I realize how lucky we are that no one ever swept you off your feet, because I don’t think that any of us would have let them live if they had.”
My mouth popped open. I didn’t know what to say to that. His eyes were dark and lustful, but he didn’t seem to have the crazed obsession I was used to seeing. He’d be fumbling a lot more if he did, and he sure as hell couldn’t string his thoughts together so well.
“How do you know you’re not being affected without realizing it?” I asked.
“You do realize who you’re talking to? You know what I am. I’d make for a poor Horsemen if I didn’t have the knowledge or strength to fight off desire. And not even you, Hell’s heir, are strong enough to make me do anything against my will. That’s why we were created: to be the only equals that could protect and balance you.”
Aside for the being Hell’s heir part, he had a point. The legends never told what kind of demons they were, only what you would find if you ever crossed them. I couldn’t argue his logic that my few latent powers weren’t nearly enough to force his hand.
Then the door opened. And Moira walked in. Her eyes wavered between Rysten and me, and she let out a dramatic sigh.
“I see why you’re beginning to think they’re not so bad,” she commented. My face burned as a blush crept across my cheeks. I scrambled back, and this time Rysten let me go. Moira cocked an eyebrow and nodded towards him. “Time to go, pest,” she said unapologetically.
Rysten didn’t argue. He simply stood and said, “I’ll see you tomorrow, Ruby. Get some rest.”
I watched him disappear outside my front door and I turned towards a rather pissed off Moira. She didn’t say anything as she walked back to her room. Her silence spoke louder than any words she could have chosen.
Chapter 12
Four days had passed, and Moira hadn’t said shit. The morning after she saw me with Rysten, I had woken up to her continuing on like everything was normal. Except it wasn’t. In the time since, not once had she bitched about the Horsemen. Hadn’t engaged in her usual antics with Rysten. She was acting normal…but that wasn’t ‘normal Moira,’ and it was driving me fucking nuts. At least our plans were still on for tonight. I closed shop early in the hopes of trying to talk with her without the Horsemen showing up, but she was particularly good at avoiding me when she wanted to.
Standing in the shower, I glowered into the plume of steam that wrapped around me. The water was turned up as ho
t as I could get it, and it still wasn’t hot enough. Flipping the nozzle off, I used the other hand to wring my hair out. Strands of wet, dark hair clung to my fingers, reflecting indigo in the light.
The bathroom door thudded twice as Moira called out, “We need to leave in half an hour if we’re going to make it there before the switch.”
The switch? I frowned, wrapping the purple towel around me. She made it sound like we were going to a prison. I crossed the cold tile floors, slick with condensation. The door knob was slippery in my grasp as I turned the handle and asked, “What do you mean ‘make it there before the switch’?”
Moira smiled, and I saw a little bit of the stunning banshee underneath the glittering pale eyeshadow. “You’ll just have to see, now won’t you?” she said, turning on her heel. The black baby doll dress she wore swished just past her ass, her legs barely protected by black floral tights. Her mint colored skin practically glowed beneath the sheer fabric. It’s such a shame the humans couldn’t see her in her full glory. She would be wearing a glamor tonight, just as she always did, and that beautiful green would disappear.
At least we weren’t prison crashing. Not even Moira would get all dressed up for that. Looks like we were going partying at an unknown indoor location, given that it wasn’t even thirty degrees outside and she liked the cold about as much as I did.
I closed the bathroom door and got to work on my hair, blow drying it into soft billowing waves that really showed off the stunning blues. I applied only the bare essentials in makeup and moved on to my outfit when Moira came back in.
“Why are you still wearing a bathrobe?” She swung open my closet door without waiting for a reply. It took less than a minute before she was ripping things off the hangers and tossing them at me. “Put these on. We gotta go.”
I disrobed and dressed in the skinny jeans and the crop top she gave me, making a mental note to grab a jacket before we left. Moira grabbed my shoulders and turned me towards the metal framed mirror. A branch of iron thorns surrounded my scantily clad body. Moira had chosen well; the crop showed off my curves while still flattering my tall frame.
“I think you should—”
I zoned out as something caught my eye. The number of dots seated on my sternum had increased. Previously, there were two sitting across from each other. There was now a third that sat an inch lower on the right side.
“Ruby, are you even listening to me?” she snapped, pulling me from my thoughts.
“Yeah,” I said, rubbing my chest where the dots were.
“Excellent,” she said gleefully, smacking her nude lips together, a pair of spiked black heels in her hand. I took one look at the shoes and groaned. “What are you waiting for? Hurry up!”
I could do little more than comply. At least she was acting like herself.
Within the next two minutes, we were out the door and on our way, hooker heels and all. Bandit kept grabbing at my leg wanting to come with, but I knew he wouldn’t be welcome in whatever public shindig Moira planned on taking us to. In the end, all it took was can of sardines and he was content to let me go.
Fifteen minutes later, and almost two car accidents, thanks to Moira’s driving, we pulled up outside Pandora’s Box, the hottest and most exclusive nightclub in town. I’d only ever heard rumors about what went on inside, usually from my clients. How Moira was going to pull this one off was beyond me.
Outside, the club was sleek and void of any windows or doors, apart from the front entrance that currently had a line wrapped around the block. Moira pulled up to the curb, and the valet that approached us gave her a questioning purse of his lips.
She hopped out of the car and handed him the keys, ignoring his mutterings about how he wasn’t sure if we were in the right place. I couldn’t blame him. Her ten-year old Camry didn’t really fit the bill with one taillight out and a dent on the front bumper. True to form, Moira didn’t give two shits. She passed him a fifty and said, “Keep the change.”
The valet, pleased with his tip, changed his attitude as I clambered out of the car. With the damn heels, I was well over six feet tall. Moira was wearing some impressive shoes as well, and that made our height difference almost minimal. I glanced between her and the line, because I didn’t know about her feet, but mine were not going to put up with standing in line for three hours just to be turned away at the door.
As if she’d read my mind, Moira linked our arms and leaned in. “Relax. I have connections,” she muttered as she led us up to the front of the line. A bouncer took one look at us, and just when I thought he was going to turn us away, his face lit up in a warm smile.
“Hey, Moira, this the friend you were telling me about?”
Moira nodded demurely, but even in the low light coming from the sign above, I could see a faint blush creep across her cheeks. Bouncer boy flashed his dimples again and unclipped the rope, ushering us through.
We hadn’t even crossed the threshold when I leaned in to ask, “So, what did you have to do to pull this off?”
Moira’s smile only increased as we took our first steps into the dazzling lights that were Pandora’s Box. “You don’t want to know,” she said and smirked at me. She’s right; I didn’t.
Still linked arm in arm, we walked toward the bar. Purple and blue lights danced across the crowd of bodies on a dance floor that was packed so tight, I didn’t think even Moira could slip between them. Rhythmic dance music pulsed through the air, the vibrations thrumming against my skin, luring me with its hypnotic melody.
The bartender turned towards us, his gold bow-tie shimmering in the light. Moira flashed him a come-hither look as she crooked her finger and beckoned him closer. I rolled my eyes as he asked, “What can I get for you ladies?”
“Dirty martini,” Moira rattled off, looking over at me expectantly.
An odd feeling crept through my veins. I couldn’t place what caused it, but I didn’t like it.
“Ruby! What drink?”
“I’m not sure…” I muttered. I took a quick glance around the room, but there wasn’t a demon in sight. We’d been out drinking hundreds of times, and nothing ever happened. So why was I feeling paranoid suddenly? Because drugs and an imp with grabby hands in the middle of butt-fuck nowhere…
“It’s your birthday,” she said crossly. “I did not suck tha—”
“Birthday girl, eh?” the bartender said, cutting her off mid-rant. He gave me a lopsided smile and said, “I’ve got something for you. On the house.”
“Alright,” I agreed. Moira and I settled in at the bar and I took another sweeping glance of the club. There was just so much to look at: the dancers, the lounge, the winding staircase that led up to darkened hallways with unmarked doors, hiding secrets of their own. All bathed in shifting violet light.
“What do you think’s up there?” I asked her.
“No clue.” She shrugged, turning back to the counter as the bartender came with our drinks. Moira took a sip of her martini and let out a little sigh of happiness while I stared at the swirling concoction before me. It was pale white with just the faintest hint of blue whorls. I took a daring sip.
“Oh,” I murmured, blinking. It was good! Really good. It reminded me of a piña-colada, but somehow tangy and less sweet.
“You like it?” she asked. I nodded as a steady warmth built in my chest. I felt lighter, but not out-of-my-mind-sexed-up like I was at the demon bar. I finished my drink within minutes and ordered another.
“Ruby?” I turned in my seat, just as someone put their hand on the small my back. I knew that voice, and it definitely didn’t belong in a club with me.
“Josh?” The steady buzz building inside me made my lips loose. “How’d you get in here?”
“I know a guy,” he said smugly. His hand still hadn’t moved. He was getting cozy as he placed himself between me and the empty barstool. I frowned.
“Stop touching me,” I said. The bartender chose that moment to appear with my drink and I smiled gratefully. Josh
dropped his hand from my back, but didn’t move away from me otherwise.
“I just—I need to talk to you, Ruby. Me and you, without your…bodyguards.”
I took a long sip of my drink. Bodyguards…that sounds about right.
“Josh”— my voice was obnoxiously loud, even by my standards—“how many times do I have to tell you that—”
“You don’t get it, Ruby!”
I swallowed hard, considering his once bright blue eyes, now bloodshot…but there was something else there. It didn’t look human. What is wrong with him?
“I can’t stop thinking about you. I know you’re having a hard time forgiving me, but please hear me out,” he pleaded. I took another swig of my drink, prepared to cut all pretenses of civility from my voice.
“Leave. Her. Alone,” Moira said in a voice like death. “Stop following her. Stop showing up at our house to talk to her. If I see you come around one more time, I’m getting Rysten to come take care of your ass and make you disappear. You hear me, Josh? Go. Away.” Moira jumped to my defense with a fierceness I couldn’t have predicted, and what’s more, she even brought Rysten into it. I turned to my best friend, temporarily stunned, but her glowing green eyes were focused on Josh.
“You just don’t get it!” he said, louder than before. “I can’t eat! I can’t sleep! I can’t think about anything but Ruby!”
Devil fucking take him already. This was getting old.
His obsession was getting worse, and I wasn’t even around him enough to fuel it. Without warning, he placed another hand on my back, rubbing it in fevered, rhythmic circles. His need to touch me, to be with me, was getting out of control. I swung around in my chair and bared my teeth, the little bit of power I did have rose to the surface and made my hair crackle.
“Don’t fucking touch me. You’re crazy. Obsessed. And you know what? You and Kendall deserve each other.” Any normal person would have let me go by now, but he wasn’t normal anymore. This wasn’t normal. He was close enough to me that I could feel the hard on in his pants, and the way it twitched every time I spoke told me all I needed to know.
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