She blew out a breath, trying to think of some witty comeback that would not push me into living out my threat immediately. There was no choice but to grin at the multitude of thoughts flying through her confused mind, every potential conclusion leading her back to the same assessment—she would not win this time. I was just too powerful for Cathy.
“I’m ready to sleep now.” Her voice was barely a whisper, her attempt to push me away reminiscent of a small, petulant child who could not talk themselves out of trouble.
“Really?” My brow arched on impulse. I already knew what effect the gesture seemed to have on the writhing woman, and yet again, it did not let me down. “How coincidental that I raise the matter of spanking, and you are suddenly sleepy.”
Biting down on her lip, she glanced around the room nervously, but there was nothing else to see. Every other corner of the space was cast into shadows, only her embarrassed face illuminated by the light I had created.
“Look, I take your point,” she replied through gritted teeth. “I know you have supremacy here, Master. I know I can’t overcome you, and I will try to be more respectful, but a spanking?” Her brow creased. “Seriously? I’m a grown woman, you know?”
I ran my tongue over my teeth appreciatively. I did know, having devoted time and attention to many facets of the woman myself. “Yes, I know, but you are never too old to be spanked, young lady, especially if you deserve it.”
Especially if you secretly long for it.
I never vocalized that final sentence, but I sent the words to her; nonetheless, their impact registering in her gaze beneath me.
“I don’t long for it.” But her voice was brittle, her sentiment vacant. “I’ve never even thought about it before!”
That, at least, might be true. I had never identified any conscious contemplation of the erotic punishment before, but now that I had planted the seed, there was little doubt about how the idea had affected her.
“Well, now you are,” I goaded with a smile. “You will have your sleep, but you shall also mark my words. The next time you flagrantly disobey or disrespect, I shall reprimand you with a spanking, and I will not be gentle.”
She stared up at me with large, frantic eyes.
“Do you understand?”
“Yes, Master.” She reeled off the appropriate response at once, obviously hoping I would just leave her be for a few hours, and perhaps, by the time she roused tomorrow, I would have forgotten about the whole filthy idea of tanning her wonderful hide.
But Cathy was wrong.
In fact, now I had mentioned it, my cock ached for the act. For the physicality of it. For the sound as my palm cracked against her upturned exposed ass, and for her vulnerability as she was finally made to relinquish.
My lips grazed hers before I rolled away, permitting her to curl into the fetal position she seemed to find so fascinating, but the gauntlet had already been laid down. Tonight would be the last time she was rude or dismissive without consequence, and as the light behind her vanished with one flick of my wrist, the idea cemented in my head.
I would keep Cathy, for as long as it pleased me. I was the leader of Hell, and I would damn well do as I pleased. I would keep her, I would fuck and humble her, and when the time was right, I would remind her of her new place at my feet, with a very red and sore bottom.
Chapter Nineteen
Cathy
“Good morning.”
Just those first two words from his lips sounded smug and unbearable, and as my eyes opened to reveal his devilishly handsome face, the conversation we’d shared the previous night came flooding back to me in an instant.
Satan had threatened to spank me like a child!
He’d promised that the next time I overstepped some pathetic line in the sand, he would hurl me over his thighs and smack my ass until I was sorry. I inhaled, squeezing my eyes closed again for one painful moment.
Oh God, he had warned me he’d inflict corporal punishment, and somehow, the idea was impossibly alluring. Of course, there was a normal, rational part of me that was outraged by the menace. He had no right to strike me at all, just as he had no right to keep me here, no right to prevent my liberation from the house I owned, and no permission to dampen the flame burning within me. I accepted his dominance on those matters because I had no choice, but equally, I could not ignore the way those dark promises made me feel, the way the passion knotted at my core, spreading electricity throughout my body. The idea of being brought to heel by this strong and sexy demon was overwhelming. I already knew how damn horny he made me. How just a few whispered commands could demand my supplication, and the hedonism he offered when I submitted, but the thought of the spanking took things one step farther.
A step too far.
It was one thing to be his lover, to consort with him, and to allow his magnificent cock to bring me heaven, but the thought of the discipline was something else. It would be another very real reiteration of our roles. How he was the brooding one in control, while I was the smaller, weaker one, forced to comply. I swallowed as I imagined how it might be, thrown over his lap like a doll, my naked ass forced to bear the brunt of one of those large, intimidating hands. It was terrifying, but I had to be honest, as well as the intimidation, there was something else. That same low-lying thrum of arousal he always seemed to invoke. It was a scintillating prospect—to be taken and humiliated in such an overt way—and I shivered at the idea of having to endure it. I’d just have to make sure it didn’t come to that. I’d just have to remember to treat him with respect.
I could do that, couldn’t I?
I could be good enough to avoid the sting of his palm?
“I said, good morning.”
Shit, he sounded irritated already, and I turned to find him glowering at me from across the room. Had he heard my scrambled thoughts on the subject of the spanking? Did he know what I was thinking?
“Good morning, Master.” I met his gaze, forcing a smile that almost certainly didn’t meet my eyes before my gaze fell back to the dark satin sheets wrapped around my body.
“I have made a decision.”
I lifted my chin, the gruffness of his voice drawing my focus before his words had time to resonate. “A decision?”
“Yes,” he took a step closer, the bubble of reality that had become this room shrinking with his advance. All there was now was Satan and the things he did to me in this bed. I could scarcely recall the last time my other physical needs had been met. When did I last eat a meal or even brush my hair? “About your future. About us.”
His brow rose with the final word, the gesture sending a tingle of apprehension racing through me.
Us?
My heart hammered at the prospect. So, all the time I had been brooding on the proposed punishment, banishing the thought with sleep, he had been here, making decisions about what would happen to me? The idea that anyone had the audacity to make plans on my behalf riled me. I was a grown woman. I didn’t need any being making choices for me.
“Careful.” His voice had dropped to that deeper octave that vibrated straight to my clitoris. “Remember, I can hear what you think, little Guardian.”
I sighed, resigned to the personal intrusion, yet unable to prevent the unraveling thought processes from coming, from pouring through me like water from an open faucet. He was there, beside me, around me, on me, over me, consuming me, inside my mind. There was nowhere to run to avoid him. Hell, I couldn’t even take a step away or glance over my shoulder without fear of recrimination.
“What have you decided, Master?”
My toes clenched as I asked the question, but I might as well know what he had in mind, and no doubt, he was decided to tell me. Why else would he have declared a verdict as soon as I roused?
“It is as I have said. I will keep you.” He smiled, apparently pleased with the conclusion. “You are too sublime to destroy, yet too dangerous to liberate.”
“Keep me?” I gulped. “What does that mean?” I had
half expected the verdict, based on the things he had told me and the way I had been confined and cosseted. It was sweet intoxication, yet still captivity, and I mustn’t let his hot touches fool me into believing anything different. “But you can’t! I have things I must do.”
“Saving souls, you mean?” His shins grazed the edge of the bed now, his dark gaze knowing.
“Yes,” I replied, kneeling up to meet his gaze.
It didn’t matter that, as usual, I was naked while he was dressed in his normal stylish attire. The black leather trousers that showed off his tight ass to such perfection, and a dark shirt, opened at the chest to reveal just the ideal amount of soft hair—those things could not be a distraction now. I had to make him see sense, make him understand this wasn’t just about lust and desire—there were lives at stake, souls in mortal danger.
“They are no longer your responsibility,” he told me in a soft, unemotional tone. “You, Miss Bateman, are mine. Did I not tell you already?”
“I didn’t think you meant it.” Though, as he smirked at my reply, I knew that wasn’t the truth. I had known, hadn’t I? Duplicitous, demons might be, but Satan had always seemed rather straightforward. He had made no secret of his intentions for me. They had always been nefarious, and in many ways, I recognized I was lucky to have avoided the full wrath of his power. Somehow, I had lulled him, his passion for me diluting his true wicked resolve. “I thought you only wanted me for a few days, then you’d just leave me be.”
“Leave you be?” He snorted at the idea. “I think not, Cathy. You are far too important to be left, and since I have decided to let you live, that now means your place is with me.”
“But what about my work?” I don’t know why I made the plea again. Hadn’t he just given me his answer? Wasn’t his decision clear?
“It is over.” His voice was sterner, and I shrunk back to my haunches at the sound of it. “I do not want to hear about it again.”
“And my light?” I craned my head to meet his gaze. “What happens to that? Will you take it for yourself?”
All of a sudden, it was the most pressing matter.
He had swept into my life and distracted me with all this glorious lust, with the hot eroticism of his body, and in the process, I’d lost sight of the most salient thing I had. My light. The light that was everything. It was the spirit that helped me to rise each morning, the fuel which fired me when my will threatened to falter, and the warmth which wrapped me up in the cold nights. It was also the reason I had been able to stand up to demons like him for so many years, the power of the illumination inside me strong enough to cast out every dark creature I’d encountered—until him. Satan was the only beast I hadn’t been able to exorcise, the only one who had won me over. Though I had caved to Damon’s forbidden lips, even he had not been able to dampen the flames rising within me.
Satan’s lips twitched, as though the fiend was fighting to suppress his amusement at my despair, and at that moment, I loathed him more than any other creature in the world. Anyone except perhaps myself, the weak mortal who had given in to his lewd demands.
“It still exists,” he muttered. “For now, at least. But every time I have you, it gets a little weaker.” His lips, those same lips I had craved the touch of, shifted into an evil smirk. “Can you feel it, Cathy?”
My eyes slid shut at his jeering tone, needing to block out the self-righteous expression painting his face. He was so handsome, the perfect luring predator, but moments like this revealed the real beast inside—the one who reveled in my despair, who enjoyed the pain he inflicted—and the sight of him was too much to bear.
“Do you feel how diminished your power has become? How insignificant you are compared to me?”
Closing my eyes could do little to shield me from his goading tone, and my hands balled into fists at my side, my nails cutting into palms as my frustration grew.
“Stop it,” I whispered the words at first, my breathing increasing as I willed myself to remain calm.
Don’t rise to his taunts.
Don’t give him the satisfaction of seeing how much he affected me.
Even though it was patently clear. Even though I was the naked one still on the bed, the same place I seemed to have been for hours and hours, with no hope of relief.
“Please, just stop it.”
“You have, though, have you not?” His voice was louder, and I gasped as one of his hands grazed a gentle line down the side of my jaw. “You have felt the shift, and you know I am right.”
“No.” I couldn’t resist the urge to refuse him, to not give him this one final, important remnant of power. “No, I don’t feel it.”
“You are lying.” Glee dripped from his tone, his amusement evident. “We both know you are not half the sorceress you once were. My mere presence ebbs at your skills.”
Damn him. A fresh spike of anger burgeoned inside me as I processed his assertion. Damn him, he was right. I was weaker, spineless, and more cowardly, just like my virtue and resolve; less than I was before, and it was all down to him. Satan was the genesis of it all.
I breathed hard at the realization, my angst directed more at my own limitations than his overarching authority, but nonetheless, as it grew, it consumed me, clouding my brain every inch as thick as lust had done before it.
“Cathy.” His voice was curt. “You will answer me.”
My eyes flew open at the instruction. “Fuck you!” Rising to my knees once more, I practically spat the words in his face, his widening dark gaze the only sign that he had recognized the hostility in my tone.
Silence settled over us. Heavy, oppressive quiet loomed, sucking the air out of the room, and the only things I was conscious of were the pounding of my heart, its desperate, relentless rhythm, and the hardening of his expression.
“Fuck me?” One eyebrow rose, though his voice was calm. Eerily calm, actually. “Is that what you would like?”
My fury dissolved in an instant, something about his silent composure sending warning signals to my brain.
Fuck. I’d really done it this time, hadn’t I?
I’d pushed back at his provocation, taking the first piece of bait he had waved under my nose, and I’d snapped. I searched his face for any sign of anger, and while there were no obvious indications, I couldn’t escape that sinking feeling gripping at my stomach. The sense that I’d overstepped the mark he’d laid out in the sand. The idea that there would be hell to pay.
“I’m sorry.” My throat dried with the apology, my body sinking back to the bed and scrambling back, as though there was some way—any way—I could avoid his glower. “I didn’t mean it.”
“Yes, you did.” He lifted his chin, his rib cage flaring though there was no physiological reason for him to take a breath. “You meant each word, little Guardian. There was conviction in your voice, strength, and authority. Do not fool yourself into believing otherwise. You hated the facts as I presented them, and you wanted to tell me so.”
I lowered my gaze to my knees. “But I was rude, and I didn’t mean to be,” I mumbled the words into my chest.
“You mean, suddenly, you remember the warning I gave you last night?” Satan dropped to his knees, crawling in my direction in a heartbeat. “Now that the venomous words have slipped from your lips, you regret them? You wish you could take them back?”
I raised my gaze to meet his glare. No, that wasn’t the truth. I didn’t regret the sentiment. He had deserved it, but yes, I feared the consequences of having admitted so.
“Tell the truth, and perhaps I will not be so harsh on you.” He tilted his head as both hands came to rest on either side of my face. “You cannot injure my kind with the truth. We do not fear it as humans do.”
“I didn’t think you held it in such high esteem, either?” My heart thundered with the reply, the atmosphere in the room shifting until there was nothing but his expression and the sounds of my labored breathing.
“We do not,” he admitted with a laugh. “But it
pains me to see you lie to yourself. So now, let us have the truth. I anger you, do I not?”
I swallowed, unable to break free of his grasp. “Yes,” I conceded. “Master.”
“You did not appreciate the quips about your diminished authority?”
“No.” Tears threatened again, but I blinked them away, uncertain why he was making me endure this final act of humiliation. “It may be true, but I do not want to hear it. I don’t want it rubbed in my face for all time.”
“Good.” He looked pleased. “That is the basis for your fury, and I adore it! Do not lose that fire, Cathy. Those will be the last emotions to leave you, and you shall need them for what is to come.”
My breath caught at his thinly veiled threat, but there was little time to dwell on it, for all around us, the landscape began to shift. The dark hues of the bedroom scene he’d conjured shifting into something different.
Something cooler, the air surrounding us fresher, and as my gaze took in the new scene, something else became apparent.
I may still be naked, but now, we were outside.
We were in the woods.
Chapter Twenty
Satan
In the end, it was easier than I had imagined. Disappointing almost. I had hoped, as a mortal with some power, she would have been able to resist my provocation, push back in the face of my baiting, but that expectation had been dashed. The very first time I had pushed, she had bitten, snapping so hard she very nearly rivaled me for ferocity. Of course, it was true, the challenge had not been fair. I had chosen a subject I knew to be sensitive, the question of her light was bound to be touchy, and I had exploited it, but that was what my kind did. In fact, that was what mortals did, too, and whoever said the world was fair was dishonest indeed. It just turned out I was better at applying pressure to the delicate spot, better at pushing until the levy broke, and now it was wide open, much like the blue eyes that blinked at me for signs of what was to come.
Damn Me: A Paranormal Demon Romance (The Demonology Series Book 4) Page 13
