DemonicPersuasion

by Kim Knox

  Caley groaned. “People pay a fortune for the best fuck of their lives. One they can never remember. Crazy. Though there’re those rumors. That it can change you. Heal you.” She straightened, her gloved hand gripping the pike. “Stay away from Foster.”

  “I am. I will.”

  “Good luck.”

  “Thanks.”

  Fade closed her eyes and let out a slow breath. Silently she also thanked whatever they were in her head for not touching her. She held back a groan. Whatever this was, it would drive her insane. Maybe that’s why the clients didn’t remember—

  “It’s not their right.”

  Air hitched in her chest at the deep, sure voice filling her mind. And she had to ignore the need flaring warmth into her flesh at the promise lurking in its words. She focused and her fingers flexed around the pyramid, the sigils pricking at her fingertips. “Where do you want me to take this…gift?”

  “It must stay with you. For now.”

  Fade ignored the little twist of regret that burned in her belly. But she had to be realistic. She couldn’t have Athanasios as a permanent fixture in her life. Her life was screwed. She had to stay unnoticed, unobtrusive if she wanted to stay alive. There was also Foster. And how she was betraying him.

  “Him.” Derision thickened the voice and a sliver of emotion, hot and angered cut through her thoughts. “A man you’ve never had. A man who refused you—”

  “Enough!” She snapped the word out and pushed herself away from the rail. Bitterness put speed into her feet. “I’m not discussing him.”

  The silence in her mind was a relief and she couldn’t question how Athanasios could know that. What else did he know about her? She pushed her way into the service area, the wild thump of music and the scent of sex thankfully dulled.

  She wiped the sweat from her face and pulled in a cleansed breath. Get changed and get out of the club. A shower could wait until she was safely bolted into her tiny flat. She needed the safety of her own walls around her. As dubious as that safety was.

  Chapter Three

  Smog and dirt swirled around her in biting winds. She squinted at the platform, working herself up to make the dash to her door. Three seconds. That’s all it took to jump from the open door of the transport, verify her tells, push her way into the room and lock herself in.

  In a few heartbeats, it was done.

  Fade leaned back against the thick door and closed her eyes. In the club she felt safe. She knew the staff, the workers, and Foster’s security meant there was never any trouble. In her room there was a dubious safety. Metal walls she knew every part of, every dent, when a knock or clatter was wrong.

  She pushed away from the door, drew the silver pyramid from the depths of her suit and set it on her small table. Light flowed from it in rippling streams and the temptation to run her fingers over the strange script tingled across her knuckles. She was a natural linguist. Languages came too easily. Her hand curled away. Her skill had her on the run and people wanting to kill her.

  There was nothing she could do about it but accrue money and buy herself another new identity—her Fadeyka Bryce persona was a fast grab and brittle—a new face and genome listing. “Cleansing the beast” had brought her closer to that goal. The light curve on the wall beside her bed hissed and spat, but no new information had appeared. Whoever hunted hadn’t made planetfall. Yet.

  She stripped off the suit and threw it over a plastic chair. The scent of sex on her skin drifted across the air filters and her heart rate kicked up.

  Athanasios had remained silent since the club, and for that she was grateful. She could imagine the perverted joy the driver would get from seeing her writhe on the backseat of his transport.

  She stepped into her washing cubicle and the door shut behind her. The thrum of the tank surrounded her and she lifted her face to the first splash of water. Her hands against the smooth walls steadied her and the weight of stress lifted.

  “Would you wash us away, Fade?”

  A squeak escaped, but the sudden thrill of want shot through her. The need for him, them washed over her as quickly as the warm spray of water. “You make me want you.”

  “The more we have you.” A long tongue swept down her spine and she arched into it, her flesh tight as it curled between her cheeks. She hissed, the rush of water pricking against her suddenly sensitive skin. “The more you want us.”

  “You’re an addiction?”

  Teeth grazed her backside even as clawed fingers skirted over the backs of her thighs, rising to caress and part her lips, inviting the sure lick of another tongue. Fade’s flailing hands smacked against the walls and she groaned.

  “Aren’t we?”

  “Yes.” Her mental moan deepened as rough palms pushed up against her breasts, claws flicking across her nipples. Already, the tension twisting in her belly promised a fast, hot release. She licked her lips, her throat drying with the thought that it’d be one of many—

  All touch vanished.

  Fade staggered, her unsteady legs flopping her back against the wall. She cursed…and stopped. There was a noise beyond the cubicle, and not one she knew. She snapped off the flow of water, pressed a fist to her chest to fight the sudden rise of panic and stepped closer to the sealed door.

  She stilled, her fingers curling into her palms and she braced herself against the smooth wall of the cubicle. Her head dipped. She fought to listen over the hard pounding of her heart. Of course this would happen. That she’d be caught half-aroused and trapped, unable to escape.

  Unhooking a towel, she wrapped it around her body, wincing as her feet squeaked against the synthetic floor. The door flashed open and a stranger lounged in the open doorway. Fear and the fading flickers of her arousal ran through her.

  Behind him, someone else moved. Two men. She had no chance against two men. “Who are you? What do you want?”

  “Stheno, what’s this?”

  The man before her glanced back. His partner had lifted up the glistening pyramid and its silver light ran in a stream down to the small table. “Bag it. Dolon will want it.”

  Dolon. The man who owned the corporation for which she’d worked. Her father’s cousin. And the scrupulously honest man who’d been hunting her for the past four months because she was very aware that he wasn’t as honest as his public image portrayed him. She’d read the encrypted evidence and knew exactly who Aleander Dolon was. The upstanding citizen was also the head of a vast criminal cartel.

  Stheno looked back to her and a sharp glint cut his gaze. “He will also want you. Alive was not in our contract.”

  Terrified heat shot through her, bringing with it the desperate urge to run. Her back hit the wall of the cubicle, her skin squeaking against the synthetic. She wanted to scream. To cry for help. But she knew no one would hear her. And if they did, where she lived no one interfered. Or cared.

  “Why does he want me dead?” The question came out in a rush. Her attention darted between Stheno and his partner. Something caught in that man’s gaze, a shining hint of silver, and it hitched her breath. “I don’t know anything.”

  “This isn’t a game, Zoya.”

  Her old name. The one she had abandoned as she stripped away everything in her life that Dolon could trace. Seems it hadn’t worked all that well.

  The other man joined Stheno in the open doorway of her cubicle. He’d had the genetic grafts, it was there in the hard, sleek beauty of his face and body. His head tilted and a dark smile touched his mouth. “We know exactly who you are. Don’t insult us. As for what you know? We don’t care.”

  “I…”

  He held out his hand and light flickered across his fingertips. “You’re ours.”

  “Iasion, what the fuck?” Stheno frowned. “We agreed. Interrogated, dead and wrapped for easy transport.”

  Fade stared at the silver staining Iasion’s fingers. It looked familiar… The pyramid, the pyramid she’d brought out of the Cage. The one Iasion had just bagged. He’d touche
d it…and Athanasios had touched him?

  She reached out, stroking over his knuckles and the bitter hint of coal drifted across her senses. “Athanasios?”

  Iasion’s fingers threaded through hers and he tugged her forward. She hit his solid chest, the buckles of his great coat digging into her bare flesh. “Lose the towel.”

  Her heart pounded. What was she doing? This man was here to kill her. His partner had just admitted their plan, but something, something in the twist of silver through his dark eyes forced her to believe that Iasion was no longer in control of his body.

  Fade couldn’t look away from him. The heat, the want in his gaze found a mirror in her own flesh. She tugged at the towel and let it fall to the floor.

  “I don’t fucking believe this.” Stheno turned away. He kicked the frame of the cubicle, the dull sound of metal vibrating up the wall. “We haven’t got time for you to fuck a mark, Iasion.”

  “Hold this.” He handed his bag to Stheno. “And we have time.” His large hand, rough with calluses, skimmed her spine down to her ass. He squeezed and Fade jerked against him. “She’s ours for the taking.”

  “Ours? I don’t want—”

  “Don’t want what?”

  With his free hand, Iasion attacked his buckles, his long fingers deliberately brushing her breasts, her belly, stroking across her pussy, before he shrugged out of his long coat and it followed her towel to the floor.

  Fade fought to breathe, her focus on his dark, mesmeric gaze and the little hints of fire he wove under her skin. She wetted her lips, wanting to believe that this was somehow Athanasios. That it wasn’t something woven into his graft that had her falling under his spell.

  Both his hands found her ass and he lifted her, easing her over his exposed dick. She grabbed at his shirt, finding hot, hard muscle and her chest tightened. Something in his touch, her touch of him screamed that he was the same…being who’d been with her in the shower moments before the two men broke into her flat. He was Athanasios and that fact tightened her thighs against Iasion’s hips. It was insane not to care that there was another man in the room. But she didn’t. She thought only of the creature who possessed the man whose dick tormented her. And she wanted him, hot and hard inside her. This wasn’t who she was, but she couldn’t, didn’t care.

  Iasion’s wicked smile deepened. “Don’t want her sweet flesh, Stheno?” He turned to find the nearest stretch of wall and Fade gasped at the cold press of metal against her bare back. He ground himself against her, skin against skin, and fire licked in her belly. “I know I do.”

  Fade touched his jaw and the spark of heat coiled the want in her flesh. Silver light crackled under her skin. “It’s you…” She murmured the words against his firm lips, the taste of coal and bitter spices drumming her heart.

  “Maybe.” And he surged into her. Fade cried out, arching her spine against his sudden, intense invasion. He pinned her to the wall, his gaze fierce. “Maybe not.”

  “How does she feel?” Stheno’s voice broke through the haze of her thoughts. There was something different to it.

  “Tight. Wet.” He ground against her, the rough material of his trousers scratching the sensitive skin of her inner thighs and heightening the feel of him inside her flesh. “It’s been a while, hasn’t it, Fade?”

  She held on to him, one hand fisting his shirt, the other on his neck, her fingers caught in his hair as she pressed her forehead to his. “If you call an hour a while.”

  He thrust up and Fade gasped, biting her lip to stop the whimper threatening to escape. “Not a dick.” His fingers bit into the flesh of her ass. “And never two.”

  Darts of fire flashed across her vision and she arched into him, taking him deeper as she met another of his fierce strokes. “Two?”

  “You want that?” His voice was a low growl and he drew back to slam into her again and the hollow ache in her belly screamed she needed more. All of him. Over and over. Athanasios had said she’d crave him, but she never thought… Another thrust and she cried out. “Tell me.”

  Iasion increased his pace, his gaze spearing her and the intimacy of that silver-edged look rushed fire thought her blood. “Do you want him to fuck your mouth? Or your ass?”

  Fade fought to breathe, the tightening coil in her belly driving her to the edge of her release. How could she choose? Athanasios had taken her, filled her, but it was nothing like the feel of flesh. “Both. Please. Both.”

  Her words were ragged, breathless and met with Iasion’s dark laughter. “Good girl. But first…” He took her mouth in a searing kiss. He tasted different, the sharp hint of Athanasios under the wet heat of another man’s mouth. But it was enough.

  She fisted her fingers in his hair and moved with him, rode him, her mewls swallowed by his hungry mouth. The flash of heat burned up through her body, her damp skin on fire and slick as she slid against the hot metal wall. He surrounded her, his hands tight on her ass, the smooth rub of his shirt against her breasts a sharp contrast to the rhythmic graze of rough material against her thighs. His scent, dark and overlaid with familiar spice filled her, scattering her higher thoughts.

  He fucked her. Hard and fast. Taking his pleasure, giving hers. His mouth…his mouth devoured her. No one had ever tasted or felt so good.

  The wild flare of pleasure bloomed in her flesh, taking her to the edge of her release. Holding her there, her need to come a tight and burning ache hard in her belly. She ground down against Iasion, breaking her mouth from his. “Make me come. Fuck me.” She gasped the raw words into the hot skin of his neck.

  “You need more.”

  It wasn’t a question, but she didn’t care.

  He turned, lifting her from the wall, exposing her…and new hands grabbed her hips, urging on the hard rhythm of Iasion’s thrusts. The bitter burn of coal swept around her and Fade arched into this second touch. But still it wasn’t enough, the promised fire of her release tantalizingly out of reach.

  “Taste her.”

  Iasion’s voice was a low growl and Fade groaned as Stheno licked a line along her shoulder. “Sweet,” he agreed. His hand skimmed her spine, the touch featherlight and adding a sharper edge to her need. Teeth grazed her skin and Fade swore under her breath, Stheno huffing a laugh against her shoulder. His fingers teased across her ass before dipping into the cleft. “What should I do, Fade?”

  “Fuck me.” A tremor shook her and the insanity in her flesh only tightened. They were going to kill her. Just not in the way they originally planned. “You have to…”

  His mouth teased a slow line down her spine and a whimper escaped her. She clung to Iasion, letting him take her as Stheno’s hands moved over his partner’s, his tongue drawing tormenting patterns at the base of her spine.

  The promise of what he was going to do, of where his tongue was destined rippled need through her flesh. His hands tightened, parting her and the tip of his tongue teased down to her puckered hole.

  Fade twitched, Iasion’s strong arms wrapped around her as Stheno pushed his tongue into her hole. She cried out, the tight twist in her flesh almost a pain now. All too quickly, he matched the rhythm of Iasion’s strokes, but the quick, shallow darts of pleasure weren’t enough, not nearly enough.

  She bit Iasion’s shoulder hard to deny her scream of frustration and Iasion’s “Take her” growled low and deep splintered a quick, unsatisfying flare under her skin.

  Bare, hot skin pressed against her spine and Stheno’s knuckles brushed against her ass. “You want this.”

  The head of his dick breached her stretched hole and Fade’s fingers curled into shaky fists against Iasion’s back. She breathed. The wanted fullness pushed fierce joy surging in a slow wave up her spine. It was almost too much to bear.

  “Practically a virgin.” Stheno breathed out a sharp breath against her neck as he sank deep into her ass. He swore over her skin. “I can’t remember when I last had one.”

  “Last year.” Iasion pulled her head from his shoulder and tha
t familiar dark smile caught her breath. Her eyes glazed as he licked her top lip. “That girl from Alpha-Tauri-4.”

  Stheno laughed as his hands slid over her ribs to push between her body and Iasion’s. He squeezed her breasts, his thumbs flicking against the hardened nubs and driving fresh heat down into her belly. “We broke her.”

  “We did.” Iasion tugged on her bottom lip. “Want us to break you, Fade?”

  “Yes…” She would agree to anything, anything, if they did something to let her come. Her thoughts whirled, her body not her own, whipped with insane need and the cutting promise of the most incredible orgasm of her life.

  Iasion took her mouth, starving her of air and both men moved…together.

  Fade screamed, and the crush of their bodies, the heat, the overwhelming feel of both men filling her, fucking her, seared through her flesh. Light flashed under her eyes, the hot scent of sex swirling around her and the fierce, hollow ache lessened, pulling fast in her flesh. Promising more. Promising—

  Burning white light flashed over her and she cried out, arching back against Stheno, taking him deeper as Iasion thrust into her pussy. The push of her orgasm smashed in waves and she shook, flailed, losing all control of her body. And still they fucked her, chasing fresh heat and the last echoes of her release.

  She clung to Iasion, his gaze spearing her, taking her breath as her heart hammered. Already, the promise of another orgasm rose up through her flesh, teasing her, and she kissed Iasion. His taste had sharpened, the bitter hints of Athanasios burning against her tongue. She deepened the kiss. Wanting him. Needing him.

  “Yes…” Stheno bit her shoulder, the sudden shock of pain forcing a moan from her. “You’re ours.”

  Fade let them have their way, let them fuck her hard and fast, squeeze and bite as the tension of her orgasm twisted and tightened until they came and the fire of their release swept over her in a second wave of blistering joy.