Fire & Brimstone

by R. L. Mathewson

  “So, what’s the safe word?” Arik, the little shit that should have been drowned at birth, asked to the amusement of all his fucking brothers, cousins and uncles.

  “Fuck. Off,” Lucifer said, wondering why he’d allowed his mother to herd him out of the room like that.

  “Fuck off?” Jason, the reason that everyone in their fucking family was here tonight, said in a thoughtful tone that was going to get the shit kicked out of him. “That could be a little confusing, don’t you think?”

  “You do realize that I’m going to kill you one day, don’t you?” he asked as he glared at the little prick, making sure to include Trevor, his accomplice in every fucked up thing that he did, in that glare.

  Jason shrugged it off like it was a given.

  “So, how long have you been dating?” Darrin asked as he lounged in the waiting room chair across from him, officially starting the interrogation that he’d been trying to avoid for weeks now.

  “How’d you break her ass?”

  “Does she realize that you’re an asshole?”

  “Can I have her number after she dumps you?”

  “What’s wrong with her? Because there has to be something wrong with her.”

  “I’m still waiting to hear how he broke her ass.”

  “Fuck that. I want to know why he wont let us in his restaurant.”

  “That’s a good question,” someone seconded, which started them on a whole new line of questioning that ended with him putting Jason in a chokehold.

  “Seriously, what did he do to her ass?”

  “Umm, since you’re busy rolling around on the floor with another guy, I’m going to go ahead and get a ride with your brother,” the soft voice that used to make his right eye twitch, said ripping his attention away from the little bastard trying to tag team his way out of this and onto the brother that had waited until he was distracted so that he could swoop in and steal Rebecca out from under him.

  Aidan.

  When his eyes narrowed accusingly on his brother, the little prick swallowed nervously, took a step back, turned around and made a run for it and if it hadn’t been for the small woman rolling her eyes as she shuffled towards the door, he would have gone after the little bastard. As it was, he had some major damage control to do and he couldn’t do it with an audience.

  Chapter 28

  “How’s that?”

  Squeezing her eyes shut, she shook her head, trying not to cry as Lucifer reached into the tub and helped her onto her other side only to end with the same results.

  “Do you want to try laying on your stomach again?” he suggested, already helping her move back onto her stomach, which in theory should work, but since she was short and didn’t want to drown, that position required her to get on her hands and knees with her ass in the air.

  “I just want to call it a night,” she said, trying to sit up so that she could climb out of the tub and curl up in bed so that she could lose herself in a marathon of horror movies. Instead, she was suddenly forced to grab hold of the side of the tub and hold on for dear life when Lucifer suddenly let her go.

  “Hold on,” he said as though she actually had a choice in the matter.

  “Umm, could really use a hand here,” she said, trying to draw her knees closer so that she could sit up, but she quickly gave up on that idea when her ass screamed in agony.

  “Just hold on,” he said, sighing heavily, which at the moment she really didn’t appreciate.

  “What do you think I’m doing?” she snapped, tightening her hold on the side of the tub as she tried to figure out a way that she could possibly crawl out of the tub without causing further injury to her ass.

  “Being a pain in the ass,” he said dryly as he once again grabbed her and shifted her around the bathtub full of water.

  “Ha, ha, ha,” she said dryly as she allowed him to move her aside so that he could step into the tub.

  “What? Too soon?” he asked, chuckling as he carefully sat down and once he did, he rearranged her so that she was sprawled out on top of him.

  “Better?” he asked when she was able to relax.

  She nodded as she savored the feel of the hot water covering her backside, which was actually starting to provide some relief. Closing her eyes, she decided to let him live and forget all the manhandling that he’d done tonight.

  “We’re having a hell of a time figuring this thing out, aren’t we?” Lucifer asked as he wrapped his arms around her. He kissed the top of her head as she closed her eyes.

  “We’re not doing so bad,” she said, drawing wet circles on his chest as she laid there, trying not to think about how many people had seen her bare ass tonight.

  “You really think so?” he asked as he traced her spine with his fingertips, careful to avoid the bruise marking her tailbone.

  “Yeah,” she said, a little surprised at how easily she could say that, because Lucifer really wasn’t what she would have called “Relationship material.”

  Then again, could she honestly say that she knew him that well before? She’d teased and tormented him over the past five years, but before he’d decided to take an interest in her medical mystery, she really hadn’t known him well enough to assume anything. Maybe this was the norm for him, asshole to the world but an incredibly sweet, understanding and funny guy to whichever woman was lucky enough to be with him?

  No, that wasn’t it, she decided as she thought back on all the women over the last five years that had taken his indifference as a challenge and went a little nuts. So, maybe it was her? She liked to think it was at least. Not that she was one of those women that was going to lose her mind if he ever started ignoring her, again, because she wasn’t. If he ever pulled another stunt like that again she’d walk away, no matter how much it hurt and something told her that it was really going to hurt.

  “Your parents are assholes,” he suddenly said, surprising a laugh out of her, because she could honestly say that she hadn’t expected that.

  Most of the guys that she’d dated would have either asked her what happened or pretended that he didn’t know what was going on so that he wouldn’t have to deal with her crap. Not Lucifer it seemed. He liked to cut to the chase and get to the point. Her parents were in fact assholes and it was really nice to hear it from someone besides Melanie for a change.

  “You want to talk about it?” he asked, making her smile, because she seriously doubted that he wanted to hear another “Poor Rebecca,” story. He was probably sick of hearing about all the things in her life that sucked.

  God knew that she was.

  She’d rather the focus be on someone else for once and she had a feeling that after tonight’s events that Lucifer would most likely be that someone else. Poor, hot bastard, she thought, biting her lip to stop herself from laughing, but she couldn’t fight it. The look on his face when his mother had dragged him out of that room had been priceless.

  She tried to stop laughing, tried to hold it in, but trying to hold it in only made it worse. It also hurt her ass, which effectively stopped the giggles.

  For now.

  But, she knew that years from now when she needed a good laugh that all she would need to do was close her eyes and think back on this day and picture the look on his face when his mother had dragged him out of the room by his ear.

  Bruising her ass had been worth that memory alone, she decided with a pleased little sigh as she settled more comfortably on top of him. He really did make a great mattress, she thought sleepily as the warmth of the bath and his arms around her made it impossible to stay awake.

  “Are you done laughing at my expense?” he asked, rewarding her with another one of those kisses that she liked and letting her know that he wasn’t mad.

  “For now,” she admitted, turning her head so that she could press a kiss against his shoulder in apology.

  “Are the pills kicking in yet?”

  “Some of us are trying to sleep here!” Melanie, their constant companion, yelled from t
he other room before she could answer.

  “We’re trying to soak in here!” Lucifer shouted back as all the warm fuzzy feelings that were making her fall asleep instantly evaporated.

  “The two of you are going to drive me to drink,” she said, shaking her head in disgust, because really, the two of them never seemed to stop bickering.

  Even when the two of them were hanging out, and yes, they did that now. Lucifer would walk in with his laptop, sit down on the couch, forcing Melanie to move over and steal her baked goods while she glared, stole them back and explained in minute detail what would happen if he kept touching them. Then there were the times when Lucifer would be downstairs sitting in the dinning area, doing paperwork while he ate lunch and Melanie would sit down next to him and start talking his ear off while he would occasionally glare at her, but other than all that glaring, he really didn’t seem to mind.

  It was actually nice not having to worry about her best friend and boyfriend getting along for once, she thought with a disgusted shake of her head as she shifted to climb out of the tub.

  “Where are you going?” Lucifer asked with a frown as she carefully, oh, so damn carefully, climbed over the side of the tub.

  “To get away from you bickering hens so that I can get some peace and quiet,” she said with a wince as she tried to straighten, failed and settled for grabbing a towel.

  “We’re not bickering!” Melanie yelled from the other room, sounding highly offended.

  “No, no of course you’re not,” she murmured with a pained gasp as she struggled to wrap a towel around herself.

  “Rebecca, wait,” Lucifer said, getting out of the tub and grabbed a towel. “Where are you going?”

  “I just need to lay down,” she said, stepping out into the hallway to find Mojo, who’d been pouting since Lucifer had started coming around more, lying in front of her door.

  Since there was no way in hell that she was going to be able to step over him with a bruised ass, she stopped shuffling in that direction, sighed heavily, turned around and began to shuffle in the direction of her front door when she realized that her new meds that were supposed to make her happy were not in fact working yet.

  So, instead of trying to shuffle her way to the door and probably do more damage to her poor, abused bottom that would require another disturbing trip to his family’s medical practice, she waited for Lucifer to step out into the hallway. Once he was beside her, she sighed heavily as she regally gestured to him. “You may commence with the manhandling.”

  Chapter 29

  “A little to the right.”

  Please, someone fucking kill him now!

  “No…yes, oh, God, right there!’ the woman that was determined to drive him out of his fucking mind said as he settled her in the middle of his bed.

  Completely. Naked.

  “Oh, wait. Can you shift me a little more to the right?” she asked, sounding completely innocent, but there was no way in hell that she didn’t know the effect that she was having on him.

  Licking his lips, he tried to make his hands stop trembling, but he couldn’t get his mind off how good it felt to touch her. He tried to keep his eyes trained on the spot between her shoulders, but every time he touched her, he lost control and allowed his eyes to devour every fucking inch of her.

  His only saving grace was that she was lying on her stomach otherwise he probably would have been reduced to a slobbering moron by now. It had only been two weeks since they’d had sex, but it felt like fucking decades. Sex had never ruled his life before, but since the moment that he’d touched her that’s all he could think about.

  He thought about how good it was to hear her moan his name, how it felt when he slid inside her, so fucking wet and tight, and the way she licked her lips as he fucked her. When he was supposed to be going over timecards, making schedules or talking to venders, he was thinking about all the different ways that he could slide deep inside her.

  It was seriously fucking with his head.

  The only time that he could focus on anything besides sex was when he was near her. It should have had the opposite effect on him, but being near her was usually enough to help him relax, but that probably had something to do with the fact that she was normally wearing clothes.

  It would really fucking help if she would wear some damn clothes right now.

  Maybe he should take Melanie up on her offer and let her take over? At least then he wouldn’t be on the verge of losing his mind. He opened his mouth to suggest that he carry her back to her apartment when he realized that he couldn’t do that. She needed him and that was all that mattered.

  His cock bounced hard against his stomach in protest, letting him know that it wasn’t on board with this plan. Telling his cock to get over it, he reached down, and oh God did she feel fucking good, and gently shifted her to the right, praying that this was the last time that she was going to put him through this hell tonight.

  “Could you could rub some of that lotion on my back?” she asked only to follow that up with, “Did you just whimper?”

  “No,” he said quickly, clearing his throat as he reached over and grabbed the lotion off his nightstand that his father had given them earlier.

  Telling himself that he could handle this, and also to move his ass since there really was no need to prolong this kind of torture, he squirted a large amount of lotion into his hand, not really caring when he got some on his sheets, and proceeded to quickly, yet carefully, rub it on her back.

  “I could fall asleep,” she said, and he prayed that was true, because that meant that he could escape into the bathroom and drown himself in a cold shower.

  “That’s probably a good idea,” he said encouragingly as he tried to tell himself that his hands were nowhere near her ass.

  “Mmm, that feels so good,” she moaned, making him wish that he knew what he was doing, because he would stop doing it immediately for the sake of his sanity.

  “Just like…oh, yeah, just like that,” she continued to moan, shifting a bit beneath his touch and inadvertently making his hand brush against the top of one beautiful cheek.

  “Oh, God,” he whispered, grinding his teeth together as his breath caught in his chest.

  He’d barely brushed his hand against her ass and here he was, kneeling on the bed beside her, panting as though she’d just licked his cock and moaned like she fucking loved it. He was so fucking pathetic.

  “Is everything okay?” she asked, sounding sleepy.

  “Yes,” he said soothingly, refusing to do anything that would break through this sleepy haze that was going to save him.

  “Oh, oh! Right there!” she suddenly moaned, shifting beneath his hands. “Oh, that feels so good. Yeah, just like that, baby.”

  His eyes narrowed suspiciously on the little brat that had spent the last five years tormenting him for her own fucking enjoyment.

  “Oh, God! Don’t stop now!” she yelled dramatically, giggling like a fool as he decided that yes, yes she did have a death wish. “That’s it! That’s the spot!”

  Sighing, he looked from her to the angry erection between his legs and thought about all those times that she’d fucked with his head simply because she could and decided that she definitely had this coming.

  *-*-*-*

  “I was kidding!” she yelled, trying to stop giggling, but she just couldn’t stop.

  The look on his face had been-

  “Oh my, God!” she screamed as Lucifer, the meanest bastard alive, brought her into his massive shower and stuck her beneath what felt like a hundred jets of ice cold water stabbing into her.

  “Is something wrong?” the bastard asked, all innocence as he moved her out of the cold water and then just as quickly, put her back in.

  “Lucifer!” she managed to yell before she was hit in the face with a particularly cold spray of water.

  “Did you want to say something?”

  “No!”

  More cold water hit her, this time on her ass!
/>
  “Really?”

  “You’ll regret doing-argh!” she ended her promise of violence on a high-pitched scream as he somehow managed to get her ass and face at the same time.