by Mina Carter
The tall demon snorted to himself. Yeah, Jaren was more likely to slap him in a straitjacket and cart him off to the paranormal equivalent to a mental ward. Probably slap him around a little en route for his sheer stupidity. Jaren was one demon who held the ancient enmity between vampire and demon close to his heart.
He heard her before he saw her, a feminine muttering emerging from the other side of the door as he approached the building. He smelled her before she came into view. The fragrance of a new wound hung on the air like an exotic fragrance. Tiny's brow furrowed. What was up with him? He'd never been this sensitive to fresh blood before.
The door opened and she was there, a frustrated expression on her heart-shaped face which disappeared when she saw him. Her eyes widened in recognition and anger. “You!"
"Me?” Tiny leaned one shoulder against the doorframe. By the gods, she was glorious when she was mad. Her eyes flashed with fire, her features came alive and even her hair crackled with energy.
"Yeah, you! You're the bloody problem!” she snapped, advancing on him and jabbing him in the chest. Tiny noticed two things at the same moment. One, her eyes were wet with what looked suspiciously like tears and two, her hand was bandaged.
He grabbed her wrist, careful not to put any pressure on the dressing over her palm. His eyes narrowed as he registered the placement. “What did you do?"
"Nothing."
Anger hit him broadside, washing over him as he twisted her palm upwards and stripped the dressing away with quick, efficient movements. She struggled, swearing at him, but Tiny ignored her as he revealed her palm. Or rather the mess she'd made.
She'd tried to carve the marks out of her palm. But she hadn't managed it. Blood oozed around the ragged edges criss-crossing her palm and in one section the skin was missing completely. Almost as if she thought by removing the skin she could remove the mark. It hadn't worked; the mark was still there in the flesh below. His lips compressed as he looked up at her, his gaze glittering and hard.
"Doesn't look like nothing to me. I was going to ask you what these were,” he said, holding his own hand up, the palm decorated with similar markings. “They're obviously not something good if you tried to do this. Fancy cluing me in any time soon?"
"Go screw yourself.” She snatched her hand back, cradling it against her chest as she pulled a clean handkerchief from her pocket to use as a dressing. Worry threaded through his chest, winding around the anger. What were these marks and why had she tried to get rid of them in such a drastic manner?
"Tell me.” His hands curled around her upper arms to drag her hard against him. Perhaps a little harder than he intended, but when the result was her breasts pressing again his chest in such a manner, he wasn't going to apologize.
She flicked her hair back over her shoulders and glared up at him in challenge. “Or what?"
Tiny dropped his head back, his eyes closed as he prayed for strength. This woman was going to be the death of him. “Never challenge a demon.” His voice strained, he counted to ten, a hundred…hell, he might as well go for broke and make it a thousand.
"Why?"
He jerked his head up, the look in his eyes feral and dark. The fierce challenge in her eyes wavered for a moment, as though she was unsure. As well she might be. Demons weren't the most stable of creatures, and being in the arms of a pissed-off, sexually frustrated demon probably wasn't the best place in the world to be. Tiny smiled as he watched the realization enter her eyes.
He slid a large hand into her hair and cupped her nape. The bones of her neck seemed so delicate and fragile as his large fingers stroked them, applying pressure to tilt her lips up to his. “Because,” he breathed through lips barely a hair's-breadth from hers, “we like it. It gets us…me…hot."
He took her lips, biting back a groan at the sensation. They were like cool silk beneath his. Luscious and full, they quivered for a moment under his sensual assault, but the softest brush of his tongue against her lower lip had her opening for him. Triumph washed through him like the incoming tide. Tiny murmured in pleasure, and drew her deeper into his embrace to deepen the kiss. It felt good—felt right—and to hell with anyone who said it was wrong.
When he lifted his head a moment later, they were both breathing raggedly. Need and something else, something softer Tiny didn't want to define, raged through his blood. It urged him to pull her outside into the darkness in the lee of the building, and slake the thirst which claimed him.
Their eyes locked in a long moment of shared, stunned realization. Tiny watched the darkness flare in her eyes, matching the darkness racing through his own body. She wanted this as much as he did.
"Your place? Or mine?” The question was more of a plea than he wanted to think about. Naked need and longing rang in his voice. He wanted her and he didn't care what he had to do to get her where he needed her, on her back under him.
She didn't answer. The seconds ticked by as she studied his eyes, her own going from one to the other as though looking for the answer to an unknown question. Finally she nodded, her lips pursed for a second before she smiled. “My place, on one condition."
"Which is?"
"This time, I'm in charge."
Chapter 5
Cass, what the hell are you doing? This is such a bad idea. The thoughts circled in Cassia's head as she turned to lead her demon lover back up to her apartment. How he'd found her, she didn't know, but as soon as she'd seen the marks on her palm she'd known he would come for her. Bonded mates couldn't stay away from each other for long. Not even, it seemed, when one of them wasn't a vampire but a demon instead.
His larger hand engulfed her uninjured one, and his thumb stroked over the delicate flesh on the inside of her wrist. The gentle movement sent sparks of awareness through her, all meeting to pool low down in her belly. Cass's footsteps sped up—the need to get somewhere with a comfortable and horizontal surface uppermost in her mind.
He must have felt the urgency in her grip. He matched her step for step as they turned the last corner on the stairs and her door came into view. She'd been lucky and managed to get the apartment closest to the stairwell. Made it easier with her coming and going at all times of night. She led him down the corridor to her door in silence, the sexual tension stretching between them like a third person in the narrow hall.
Without a word, she unlocked the door, swallowed her nerves and stood aside to let him in. This was a big thing for her; she didn't bring men here, back to her “lair,” a laughable description of her tiny apartment.
Her calm expression as he walked past her hid a seething mass of nerves. The kiss downstairs had re-ignited the need which had been a constant ache since the night at the club. Not only re-igniting it but fanned it to the blaze racing through her veins, causing liquid heat to dampen her panties. It was a need which transcended even her drive to feed, an overriding desire for her mate which couldn't be denied.
Mentally she shied away from that fact in favor of watching him. Even standing still, he was the sexiest thing she'd ever seen. The last few days apart seemed to have increased his attractiveness, even though she knew that was baloney. Her grip tightened on the door handle, knuckles showing white as she fought the urge to do something stupid like march over and rip all his clothes off.
He had agreed she was in charge though, hadn't he? Her mouth went dry, and she closed the door behind her with a decisive click, cutting off his escape to the outside world.
"Bedroom. Now."
* * *
Tiny didn't need telling twice—not when she was ordering him about in such a sexy, take-no-prisoners voice. It made him think of leather-clad dominatrices and whips. Unbidden, an image of her in a leather corset leapt to mind. He bit back a moan of need as his cock, already half hard from their kiss downstairs, came to full attention.
A tiny jerk of her head clued him into the right direction for the bedroom, and he headed that way, barely seeing the neat apartment around him. All he cared about was getting them in
to a room with a bed so he could get them out of their clothes, slide his cock into her warm, willing body and ease the ache that had tormented him since she'd run out on him the other night.
Once inside the bedroom though, he slowed and started taking notice. This place was her sanctuary, and finding himself wanting to know everything about her, he drank in all the details. The room was neat with the small, personal touches that said this was a home rather than just a place for someone to lay their head.
The only clue to her true nature was the heavy shutters on the inside of the window, between the gauzy net and the curtains, which were open to the night air at the moment but in the day would protect her from the sun's harmful rays.
Tiny pot dragons in cute poses cavorted between the cosmetics and perfumes scattered across the top of the dresser. Tiny's lips quirked. He knew a few dragons, none of whom looked quite as innocent as that. It was cute though, a hunter who collected pot dragons. Didn't do much for her fearsome reputation, but the revelation of a softer side to the woman did things to him on levels he didn't want to think about.
His gaze moved on, flicking over the bed and the deep scarlet satin draped there. Arousal knotted hard in his stomach as he turned to her, eager to pull her into his arms and onto the bed with him. His hands itched to strip off the jeans and top she was wearing, revealing her luscious body to him again. Already he could feel the weight of her breasts in his hands as he molded and caressed them, his lips on the soft skin of her throat, before lifting one darkened nipple to his lips and —
"Strip."
Tiny jerked out of his erotic daydream at the command. He blinked in surprise. When she'd said she was in charge, he hadn't thought she meant it that way. Her expression, full lips drawn into a determined pout and her eyes hard on him, told him that oh yes, she'd meant it.
Excitement hit him in a dizzy surge, like a sugar rush after drinking too much soda, and he ditched his jacket and removed his T-shirt in the same move. His boots hit the carpeted floor with two dull thuds, the footwear quickly covered by his pants and boxers until he stood proudly naked in the middle of her bedroom.
Her eyes wandered over him, taking in the breadth of his shoulders and the hard planes of his chest. Tiny puffed up with male pride at the look of admiration in her eyes, unable to resist posing a little. He knew he looked good, a combination of genetics, species and trying to keep up with Knuckles in the gym. Since getting married, the guy had become obsessed with making sure he didn't get fat or anything else that could mean his wife lost interest in him. Why he bothered, Tiny didn't know; anyone with eyes in their head could see the woman was besotted.
Her eyes widened slightly and he knew she'd spotted the silver ring through his nipple. There were a few paranormal races who could withstand the burn of silver—the Fae, for example, were only susceptible to iron—but demons weren't one of them. The ring through his nipple burned every day, as did the one through his eyebrow. They were there on purpose. Pleasure mixed with pain, the hallmark of the demon courts, reminders of who and what he was.
A demon.
Currently a demon with the hardest erection he could ever remember, and a hot woman looking at him as though she'd like to eat him whole. His cock jerked, signaling its approval of the idea, blood pulsing and pooling in the engorged shaft. He resisted the urge to reach down and palm himself. He wanted only one set of hands on his body, and they weren't his own.
Her dark chocolate eyes slid from his face down to his rigid cock and back up again. A groan reverberated in Tiny's chest as her small pink tongue flicked out to wet her full lips.
"A man can only take so much teasing, honey,” he told her hoarsely, but she was already moving towards him, a sway in her hips.
"Oh, I don't think so.” Trailing a finger up from his waist, she placed her hand on his chest and fanned out her fingers. He bit back a gasp as her fingertip caught the ring, and a lance of pleasure-pain shot through him, from his nipple all the way down to his cock.
"In fact, I think…” She leaned down. Her mouth hovered just over his pierced nipple, and her warm breath whispered over his heated flesh. His body tensed in anticipation. Her lips were just millimeters away. All she had to do was open her mouth and he'd feel her soft tongue against him. “…you'll take everything I dish out."
Then she did what he was waiting for. Her tongue snaked out and circled his nipple in a lazy spiral before she sucked it into the warm cavern of her mouth and suckled.
"Fuck yeah, baby, do that more."
His hand latched into her dark hair, holding her to him as she lapped at his flat male nipples. She alternated from one side to the other, seemingly fascinated by his piercing. Her small nips and licks were heavenly, not that a demon like Tiny had any concept of heaven, but it felt damn good. Better than anything he'd felt before. Then she moved, pulling and teasing the ring with her tongue and teeth, leaving him cursing. God, he wanted her clever mouth working his cock.
* * *
She pulled away, smiling as she noticed his pout of disappointment, but he didn't stop her. For such a hulking, well-built guy—she had to face it, he was built along the same lines as the average linebacker—he had some expressions which reminded her of the small boy he'd once been.
"On the bed, lover-boy, and be quick about it,” she ordered as she reached for the silk scarves over the chair at the side of the bed.
He was quick, easing his long frame onto her bed almost before she'd finished the sentence and watching her in the intent way he had, like a cat watching a mouse. Cass avoided his eyes and stole a glance down his body to the impressive erection lying rigid against his flat belly.
He was as well built down there as she remembered, or rather, as her body remembered since she hadn't actually seen him that night in the office. So she drank her fill now, biting her lip as she lashed his wrists to her bed. She wanted that cock inside her again. Liquid heat slid from between her thighs as she imagined straddling him and guiding that thick shaft to her wet pussy and slowly, oh so slowly, sinking down onto it. Then she'd ride him until they were both slick with sweat and sated with pleasure.
Hands trembling with need, she checked the knots against both his wrists. The scarves held his arms captive above his head. Silk could be slippery, and it had been a long time since she'd had someone tied to her bed. The last thing she wanted to do was hurt him and end up in whatever the demon version of the Emergency Room was. She had far more interesting things in mind.
"Comfortable?” She tweaked his pierced nipple, the eager thrust of his hips answer enough.
"I will be when you stop fucking about and sit on my cock."
Cass grinned and leaned down until her lips brushed his ear. “Patience is a virtue.” With that she left the room.
* * *
What the hell? Where had she gone? She couldn't leave him high and dry like this, not when he was about ready to burst with need. Hell, all he needed was a minute with her hot little body wrapped around his cock like a velvet glove, and he'd be shooting his bolt faster than a bloody rifle.
"Cassia? Cassia! What the fuck are you doing? Naked guy on your bed feeling a complete twat…” he called out, the demand in his voice unmistakable. Craning his neck, he glared at the door she'd disappeared through, hearing the sounds of movement from beyond.
It wasn't the door they'd come through so she hadn't just led him down the garden path, tied him up and left. Although, if she left him here much longer he'd be expecting the guy with the hidden cameras to step out of a cupboard or something.
"Smile, Prince Seren, you're on Candid Camera!” Gods, wouldn't that screw the pooch completely? If he was caught out by something so stupid, it would be more than embarrassing. Worse, it would lead to his father finding out where he was. Going back to the demon court for another couple of centuries of boredom was definitely not on Tiny's to-do list.
He started to pull on the silk. Flimsy restraints, they weren't strong enough to make even a pretense of holdin
g him. It was a sensual-erotic thing; they symbolized him giving up control to her.
"Cas—fucking hell!” Sensing movement in the doorway Tiny looked up halfway through his complaint and cut off with a curse. His mouth dropped open as he stared at the vision in the doorway. Gone were the black T-shirt and jeans he'd been fantasizing about peeling off her, and in their place she wore a black leather corset which nipped her tiny waist in and pushed her breasts up until they were in danger of spilling over the top with a pair of killer-heeled thigh-high boots.
A thousand erotic images hit him at once, and his cock swelled even further. Shit, once he got between her thighs, this wasn't going to take long at all.
"You like?” She sauntered towards him, a mysterious little female smile on her lips, and each step revealed a flash of her pale thighs and the scrap of satin masquerading as a thong which tied at the sides.
Ties she played with, running the silky ribbons through her fingers as she watched him. Tiny swallowed and nodded dumbly. In truth, he couldn't have framed a response even if he still had the power of speech.
"You want to see more?"
Another nod. Of course he wanted to see more. What did she think he was, some kind of monk?
The ties pulled taut, sliding from the bow centimeter by slow centimeter. All Tiny's attention was riveted on the thin scraps of ribbon. He'd never watched anything as intently in his life as he watched those little ribbon bows get smaller and smaller until they weren't there at all.
The satin fell away, revealing the bare mons at the apex of her thighs to his interested gaze. Blood surged through his body as his arousal deepened, tightening the skin of his cock and balls in a vise-like grip as she turned away, bending over and spreading her legs so he got a good look. The plump pink lips of her pussy glistened as she spread them a little, teasing him, and the scent of her arousal filled the air like fine perfume.
