If I was going to make bad choices, I may as well enjoy them.
“Yes,” I whispered.
“Keep your eyes open,” he replied.
And then he pushed me.
Chapter 7
I fell through the stars waiting for the moment I would hit the water and die.
It’s a strange thing being this close to death. Oddly freeing in a sense, as the inevitable washed over me. I probably had no more than a hundred feet left to drop, and while I could be asking myself all sorts of questions like, “How could he do this?” or “Why me?” The only thing I actually found myself hoping for was that Moira and Bandit would take care of each other.
The water rose up faster and the freeing feeling in my chest constricted. Wasn’t there a saying that death was easy and life was hard? I was going to find out. Lucifer’s daughter or not, I doubted a fall from several hundred feet was survivable.
Well, this is it. Your famous last words were trusting the guy that pushed you.
I hope Moira gives him hell.
My own reflection rose up to greet me, and I waited for the impact.
And waited.
And—
My body slammed into someone else. The impact rattled my bones, but their strength held me firm, an arm cradled under my leg and another cradled against my back. I hadn’t died. I blinked and my head swiveled around. The midnight sky was the same, but there was a ridge just like the one I’d been pushed from…I frowned and swung my head back to see if the car was where I remembered it. This was just too weird. My vision was blocked by whoever’s body I clung to. I followed the rise and fall of his chest up to the curve of his neck and stark cheekbones. All the way to the amber eyes that stared back.
All thoughts of dying aside, my fury clawed its way forward to greet him.
“You motherfucking bastard! How dare you push me off a—”
“You’re not dead, are you?” he asked.
“No! But that’s not the—”
“And you’re not hurt at all, right?”
“Well no, but I’m pissed you even thought—”
“Then what are you mad about?” I could almost believe he was genuinely unaware that this was fucked up. Almost. If he hadn’t been smirking down at me. He was every bit the prick I thought he was.
“Fuck you,” I spat.
Allistair let out a dark chuckle. “Is that an open invitation?”
I let out an inhuman growl and bunched up my fists.
“Put me down,” I snapped. Allistair swung me onto my feet but kept his arm around me. I pushed at him and tried to step away, but my legs failed me. The world tilted on its axis as vertigo hit me. “Wow,” I croaked. The second my vision cleared, and my legs were my own again, I turned on Allistair. He grinned down at me, not manically, but still clearly out of his mind.
I took a swing at his face.
“Ow, man! What the fuck are you made of?” I swore angrily, shaking my hand out. Fingers dug into my right hip, holding me in place. If he were human, he’d be bruised and on the floor, just like the punk that tried to rob me. But Allistair wasn’t human. Hell, he wasn’t even a demon, really. He was something more.
“Did you just punch me?” he asked, working his jaw out.
“Did you just push me off a fucking cliff?” I replied. His clutch on my hip tightened and I lay my hand over his, gliding up his forearm and scraping my nails down.
Before he pushed me, before the out-of-body experience, before I thought I was about to die, I had been aroused. His presence was enough, but his touch ignited something in me every time. Then when, I didn’t die, I was pissed. I wanted to hurt him. Now I just wanted him. Somehow it seems we’ve come full circle. My emotions swirled together in a dangerous and promising tempest within me, just waiting to be unleashed.
“Just when I think I have you figured out, you go and surprise me again,” he murmured, letting his other hand drop from his face and resting it on the other side of my hip. My mouth went dry as all the insults and curses in the world left me. “It’s rather refreshing, you know,” he continued, leaning back to sit on the hood of his car. His hands were slowly drawing me closer. I stepped into the space between his legs and pressed my icy hands onto the curvature of his chest. In the pale moonlight, his eyes darkened from amber to bronze, drawing me in deeper.
My inner beast purred. She liked this exchange. And she wanted more.
Never breaking eye contact, I leaned into him, running my tongue over my lips, my intentions clear. The hands at my waist slipped beneath the thick material of my many layers. Hot but cold, his fingers brushed the outline of my hip bones, along the edge of my pants.
Feeling almost out of control, my body jerked towards him knowing he could give me more of what I craved so deeply. I could never before be with a man in this capacity. The world of possibility left me wanting, and more than a little needy.
“So responsive,” he said huskily. His breath fanned my face as a sigh escaped my lips; his hand splayed across my back, beneath my shirt, moving to pull me in and close the space between us. I slid my hands up over his shoulders to rest at the base of his neck. My fingers brushed against stray curls of obsidian hair and tightened around the soft locks.
Allistair let out a low groan and captured my mouth with his.
His lips were not hesitant or sweet as they sought out mine and devoured me wholly. Allistair was not the kind of man to be gentle in his endeavors. Like me, there was something inside him that fed on the need and sexuality in weaker beings, and it was a downright high to taste something equal. One of his hands shifted from the grip on my back to the fabric of my bra. His dexterous fingers, skilled in seeking what they wanted, squeezed sharply, freeing my breasts.
My mouth opened more as I moaned into his mouth and he kissed me deeper, his tongue searching. He tasted of want, rich scotch, and something entirely his own. I clung to him, meeting his controlled ravaging with a fierceness that I could not contain. My fingers fisted in his hair, pulling hard, and the breath hissed between his lips, his mouth breaking from mine.
“Be careful, little succubus. My control only goes so far. I’ve yet to feed since I met you,” he whispered against my skin. His warning had the opposite effect, only increasing my desire for him. I leaned forward, taking his bottom lip in my mouth and scraping it lightly with my teeth, sucking while I pulled away slowly.
He reached beneath the loose bra cup, palming my breast, grazing the taut peak and teasing me. Cool fingers grasped my nipple, tugging it just enough to bring me to the edge of pleasure and pain. The sensation shot straight between my legs as an ache began to build. I bit his lip as payment.
He cursed sharply and drew away. His tongue flicked out, tasting his blood on his lips. I stared at him, cocking my eyebrow, daring him to respond.
“You’re savage in your desires,” he said. I couldn’t read his tone, but there was a wickedness to his smile. Surprise, challenge, amusement: he was making a mental note for what he would have in store for me later. His eyes didn’t leave mine as he reached down and clamped his hand over the apex between my thighs. I rocked my hips into him while he watched me with dark and hungry eyes.
Right here, right now, I wasn’t Ruby, and I wasn’t the beast. I was a sexual being consumed by a burning need that ached within me every single day, never sated, apart from the weak relief I could find with my own hand beneath the covers late at night.
I relished the pressure of his palm over my jeans, using three fingers to rub me back and forth along the seam, the fabric blocking contact but allowing the sensation to build me up. I matched his rhythm, rubbing myself against him. Allistair would give, but I had to play by his rules. That was my job in this game. To take what I was given. To do as I was told. But I couldn’t help myself. I ground harder against his hand, wanting more.
His hand stopped and a growl started in my chest.
“Careful. I didn’t bring you out here to fuck you, but I won’t leave you like
this so close to transition,” he groaned. I gave his hair a sharp tug and he pinned me with a glare. “You have to behave if you want it. I’m hard and fucking starving. For me to feed without fucking, I need concentration. Something I won’t have if you continue biting and pulling my hair. Can you be good?” His words held the promise of what I wanted most right now. I loosened my grip on him and nodded.
He gave me a dark smile as the hand on my breast tightened again and I breathed a low moan in pleasure and relief. I’d been here before. I knew what he wanted, and I wanted to give it. The look he rewarded me with almost had me climaxing on the spot.
Allistair pulled his hand from between my thighs and made a turning motion in the air, silently telling me to turn around . I froze and cocked an eyebrow, but I did as I was told, ignoring the smirk on his lips just before he disappeared from view. I was faced with the night sky as he pulled my body back against his.
With one hand he brushed my hair to the side, while his lips grazed my skin and bit into the pulse on my neck. My breath hitched in my throat, but I didn’t move. I didn’t dare grind my ass onto his rock-hard cock that was flush against it.
“Mmmm, I like you this way,” he murmured. I opened my mouth to reply, but one of his hands slipped underneath my shirt and flicked open the button on my jeans. My heart ricocheted in my chest.
He slowly unzipped the fly on my pants, taking his merry time. The only thing that made it bearable were the faint kisses he was leaving along my neck. His cool lips on my burning skin was a trail of straight ecstasy. He nibbled as he went, alternating sharp bites and sucking at patches of my bare flesh. I would never be this patient or play this game with anyone else. With Allistair it came naturally. I wanted to do as I was told; to please him. I wanted him to please me.
He tugged my jeans down a few inches and my excitement spiked. His fingers slipped inside my jeans and rubbed my clit through my panties. I couldn’t help it when my body jerked in response, my ass pushing against his cock. He nipped my neck in warning and I quickly regained control. My head lolled to the side, begging for more.
“Good girl,” he praised. I moaned as he pushed my panties aside, his skillful fingers entering my slick folds. I cried into the night as I tried to keep still, to play our game, my leg twitching with anticipation, my body screaming for him to make me come. Allistair hummed his approval against my neck as he massaged his fingers in deeper. The palm of his hand resting over my clit, rubbing me while he brought me closer.
“Please!” It was a guttural, useless cry. He wouldn’t give me my release until he was good and ready.
“Where are my fingers? I want to hear you say it.”
What…?
Through clenched teeth, I growled at him in frustration. “No…”
“I want you to tell me. I want you to say it.”
Focusing on the pleasure, clenching my jaw, I was determined not to say the words.
He slowed his hand and desperation flooded me. “Where are my fingers, Ruby?” he repeated firmly, pushing in deeper as he pressed against my g-spot, sending a shock through my limbs as he sped up inside me.
“Your fingers…are in…my pussy,” I managed to breathe out as my climax built further, not wanting him to stop.
“And what do you want?”
“I want you to make me come. Please make me come. Please…”
“Hmmm,” he murmured. “I like the way you beg. Maybe another night we can see how many sweet sounds I can draw from those lips. I still plan on making you scream.”
I kept as still as I could while the ache pulled at me, his pressure deepened, and his rhythm increased. I could feel my entire body twitching on the brink of release.
For some women, his controlling nature would have been a turn off. Hell, I didn’t understand why it did the things it did to me. Usually I was wanted to throttle him, but for some reason, my anger was lost when his fingers were buried inside me and I did and said things I didn’t understand.
“Say my name when you come,” he demanded.
I didn’t have the power to tell him he was a bastard as my orgasm hit me. My head tilted back as I clenched around his fingers and I gave up being good for the reckless abandon of riding it out. “Allistair!” I choked. My hands wrapped around his thighs on either side of me, clawing at the material of his slacks, pressing myself closer to him. Feeling him against me, riding and grinding in time with his fingers as continued to sweep inside me. A wave of euphoria pounded though my muscles, still spasming around his fingers. Amongst it all, there was this faint twinge inside of me as something fanned the flames and made my pleasure last longer than ever before.
Is he feeding? I wasn’t sure. I’d never been with an incubus, so I didn’t know what to expect, but the intense heat that flooded me was more than welcome.
I wanted more.
I pressed back against his hard length, sliding my ass up and down, reaching around for the buckle on Allistair’s slacks. His sharp intake of breath made the beast purr. I pulled at his belt, but he froze instantly. He pulled away from me and pushed me out of the confines of his arms.
“I—” I swallowed the statement in my throat. I turned to look at him, speechless at his sudden and icy rejection. I fumbled as I tugged my jeans back up and hastily buttoned them.
“It’s okay. You caught me off guard. I’ve never had—never mind. The point is it’s not happening tonight.” Allistair didn’t normally have jarred speech, but maybe I was having more of an effect on him than I’d realized. He pulled away from the car in a fluid motion and approached me gingerly. This hot and cold attitude was getting on my last nerve. What was it he said about apologizing for things?
Oh, yeah. Don’t.
If he wanted to be a dick, then I was just fine getting off while he got none. I crossed my arms over my chest as he raised a hand to my face and brushed his thumb over my lips. To my credit, I didn’t lean into him for once.
“I didn’t mean to—”
“Save it. You’re still not forgiven for pushing me off a cliff.” With my head clear and my body relaxed, I pushed his hand away and strode back to the car. We didn’t speak as we both got in and he started the engine. The dashboard lit up, reflecting the time. It was a little past two in the morning, and I was devil knows where with him. I scowled at the expanse before us as he pulled away.
“So why did you bring me out here, huh?” I asked as he pulled onto the interstate.
“I wanted to show you where I go to relax when my burdens get too heavy from time to time. I thought you would appreciate it.” His knuckles tightened against the steering wheel, but he kept his voice level when he spoke.
“You pushed me off a fucking cliff. I thought I was going to die—”
“And how did that feel?”
“I—I don’t know,” I stammered. “That’s not the fucking point!”
“That’s exactly the point,” he replied. I eyed him cautiously. This was some kind of game, I could feel it. He was fucking with my mind, but I’d yet to see how.
“You wanted me to think I would die?” I asked in a shaky breath.
“I wanted you to find yourself, even if only for a moment. The cliff I pushed you off is where an entrance to Hell used to be. It was closed centuries ago. With the portal no longer active, it acts like a feedback loop. You can jump as many times as you like, and it will always spit you back out. I took you there because it’s where I go when I’m faced with tough choices. It’s an instinctual response to thinking you are going to die. You realize what matters, and it’s the most freeing thing I have ever felt in my existence.”
Freeing. Isn’t that the word I used while I fell?
His words were sincere, despite the way he went about it. Suddenly the conversation in the car and his actions made sense. Not in a normal way. In the fucked-up way that only demons could ever seem to think is something close to logic.
“And after that?” I asked, my cheeks heated but the darkness made me brave.
“You say you take what you want…” My voice trailed off. I was unsure how to go about asking this question.
“Yes?”
“Do you want me because you have to?” I asked. He bristled at my questioning.
“We are equals, Ruby. I don’t want you because I don’t have another choice. I want you because I just do. It’s really as simple as that. Don’t overthink it,” he replied.
“But what about you being a Horseman? You’re not the only one that wants me. Is that because—”
“No, it’s not. Our duty as the Horsemen does not impose some kind of supernatural bond on us to make us want anything. Whatever the others feel”—he said it like the word was dirty—“it doesn’t come out of a place of duty. We simply want what we want, and right now you have all of our attention.” I couldn’t tell if this pleased him or if it was bothersome. The same way the dark hid me, it also hid him. I fell silent and leaned against the doorframe as a thought came to me, unbidden and savage as my desires.
What if I wanted all of them?
Now that was a wicked thought.
Almost as wicked as the answering smile from the beast within.
**Allistair**
I couldn’t predict her even if I tried, and believe me, I have.
One moment she is perfectly submissive, making sweet little moans. I loved the sounds that came out of that mouth. Perhaps a little too much. The next minute she fucking bites me and it becomes increasingly difficult not to bend her over the hood of my car. I’ve started to dream of the latter nightly.
She doesn’t know how desirable she is. She doesn’t know that I crave her filthy mouth for more than sucking my cock, but one day and one day soon—she will.
She almost fed tonight after I took from her. I could feel it. That tentative soul of hers reaching for mine and I don’t even think she realized it. If I hadn’t pushed her away, she would have fed and it would have triggered the transition instantly, and neither of us were ready for that. As much as I would love to be the only one to take her through the transition, the timing was all wrong.
Wicked Games Page 5
