She had known demons were strong, but something about the way he had effortlessly lifted her had every feminine instinct in her rising to the fore. She shivered from the onslaught as it filled her with the urge to palm his muscles through his black shirt and ask him to lift her again, or do something else to flash his strength at her.
Stupid biology.
She was nowhere near her fertile stage, something that only happened once every fifty or so years. There was no reason for her to be getting all quivery over being around a powerful male.
“You could have asked me out to lunch,” she said to fill the silence as she pieced herself back together, shutting down her biological urges until only one remained, one she would never be able to switch off.
Partly because she wanted him so badly she was close to screaming whenever they were together, or tackling him to the ground and riding him until he surrendered to her, and partly because she was a succubus and she was hungry.
Which meant she was in a permanent skirting-the-edge-of-horny state.
He released her wrist and scrubbed his hand around the back of his neck, a beautifully awkward edge to his dark eyes that told her everything he wouldn’t.
He hadn’t known where to find her.
“You were waiting here.” She couldn’t stop herself from putting that out there, even when it caused his cheeks to pinken and he looked away from her, stealing the delicious sight of his face from her. “You were waiting for me.”
He shrugged stiffly. “I asked a witch where you might live and she was vague, and I did not wish to ask anyone else who might know.”
His voice pitched downwards at the end, becoming a vicious snarl that spoke volumes. He hadn’t wanted to ask someone who might know where the succubi lived because that someone would be a man.
Had he been imagining the worst? What was the worst in his opinion? That the man he asked would know her personally?
Intimately?
The violet in his eyes flared brighter, pushing back the black, and his horns curled, drawing her gaze there.
She stared at them, seeing for the first time that it had been gold that had glimmered in the light. Patterns had been carved into the polished onyx of his horns, inlaid with gold that looked as smooth. The fine detailing in the design bewitched her, had her following each swirl to the point or onwards to the next graceful arc. She had thought his horns sexy before, but now she itched with the need to reach out and run her fingers down them, hungered to know whether he would feel it.
And whether he would find it pleasurable.
His hand lifted between them, he tensed, and dropped it to his lap, an awkward gesture that screamed at her that he didn’t like her staring at his horns.
Silence stretched between them as she fought to find the strength to drag her eyes away from the temptation of his horns, because she didn’t want him to feel awkward around her. She had enjoyed their easy camaraderie the previous times they had been together and she wanted to experience that again.
So she searched for something to say.
Her eyes fell to the book balanced on his black-leather-clad knee.
She cocked her head to one side, her wavy hair falling away from her violet leather-and-lace corset.
“Is that the same book, the one about windmills?” She peered closer, trying to read the title printed across the top of each page.
“No.” He reluctantly revealed the cover, and it wasn’t a different book about windmills as she expected.
It was a book about hydroelectricity.
“You’re really into renewable energy.” She tried to grab the book.
He closed it, pinned it to his knee and drummed his short claws on it. “It is the only viable sort of energy in Hell.”
Suki took the plunge, sure she was about to get lost and make herself look like an uneducated idiot, but willing to take that risk. “Have you learned anything that might work for the Second Realm?”
Surprise flitted across his face as he turned it towards her. Shocked that she wanted to talk about his book?
“You don’t have to,” she quickly said. “I was just interested.”
That hand went to the back of his neck again as he cleared his throat. Charmingly awkward. Devastatingly confident. A contradiction that she was starting to like about him.
“You don’t like that I keep catching you reading, why?” She wanted to bring her knees up and hold them, but she also didn’t want to flash her modest panties at everyone in the crowd, so she settled for slowly swinging her legs, letting the heels of her violet boots bang off the dark grey stone beneath her.
He cleared his throat again, looked down at the book in his lap, a myriad of emotions crossing his face, so swiftly she couldn’t decipher any of them.
But she did get the feeling that he was torn. Between what? Telling her something and keeping it secret? Or was it that he wasn’t really sure how she might react and it was unsettling him for some reason?
It struck her that he was awkward about the reading thing because he believed she was liable to tease him about it. Had others teased him? She could see why they might. He was a demon. They weren’t exactly known for being bookish and educated. They were known for being warriors and warmongers, dedicated to battle not books.
She eyed him closely, studying his profile as he stared at the book, clearly conflicted. Was he ashamed that he enjoyed reading?
That softer part of her whispered to let it go, but the part that needed to know more about her sexy enigma pushed her to keep going, because she wanted to get to the bottom of him.
She glanced at his backside.
A fine bottom it was too.
“I am… I am not used to people wishing to talk about this kind of thing.” He lifted the book and let it fall back to his knees.
So, his friends weren’t bookish like him then. She jotted that down in her mental file about him.
“I’m interested.” She didn’t falter when he glanced at her out of the corner of his eye, his filled with disbelief. “Honestly. I’ve never met anyone who reads like you do.”
He flinched. She cursed. She hadn’t meant to make him even more awkward. She had wanted to make him relax about the whole reading thing.
“I just want to better the lives of those in the kingdom,” he grumbled and then lifted his head, his awkwardness falling away as his dark irises gained a glimmer, a spark that had her relaxing as she realised she hadn’t messed up. At least not badly. “Electricity would be a huge leap forwards, and although thermal plants are not feasible due to the lack of such activity in the kingdom, I believe it possible to harness both wind and water to bring power to many of the villages and towns.”
There went her hot geek. She twisted towards him, lifted her left foot onto the walkway and rested her elbow on her bent knee. She propped her chin up on her palm and smiled as his pitch-dark eyes sparkled, deep purple stars flickering in them.
“After we met, I put forward a plan I had been working on for the last four seasons, and the court have reluctantly accepted the proposal. I am hoping to see work begin soon. We must gather all the necessary components and it is possible we will need to hire in contractors or at least send some men to learn in secret from mortals before we can build anything… but it is a start.” He was engrossed again, talking her ear off, his eyes on her and only her, and damn she was loving it.
Being the centre of his attention was exciting, warming and downright wonderful, lifted her spirits like nothing else could and had her wanting to ask him a thousand questions to keep his gaze on her, even if she didn’t understand the answers.
“How many places are you planning to build these electricity plants?” She tried to imagine how big a demon kingdom was and failed. Larger than the United Kingdom?
“Around a dozen or so at first. We have funding in place for the first seven, but I believe I can stretch the coin to cover twelve. Small ventures to see what will work and what will fail. King Thorne of the Third Re
alm has areas with wind turbines and they are working well, generating power for farms that allow the females to grow vegetables and fruit for themselves.”
She frowned. “Females need fruit and veggies?”
He nodded.
“All females within the kingdom are from other species. The blood curse means all demons in our realms are male. Our fated ones are therefore always from outside the species and require sustenance of different sorts to us for the most part,” he said in a matter of fact tone.
A chill tumbled down her spine.
All fated mates of demons were females from other species?
How the hell hadn’t she known that?
She swallowed, a vain attempt to wet her suddenly parched mouth, and stared at him. It wasn’t possible he was anything other than a conquest to her. Succubi didn’t have mates. She was just being jittery. It was common knowledge that her kind couldn’t have that sort of relationship with someone. Love wasn’t possible for her species and neither was finding a mate. Her kind bred with suitable strong males infrequently, whenever the clan agreed they needed to increase their numbers. It was done systematically, not because of love or mates.
The relief that swept through her was short-lived.
Because it meant that somewhere out there was Tegan’s fated mate. The woman he would probably drop everything for, would do anything to make belong to him.
Including ditching whoever he was with at the time she entered the sphere of his biological radar.
She reminded herself that succubi couldn’t have relationships like others enjoyed, so it was a moot point anyway. Whatever poor sap was dumped by him when his mate rolled on by, it wouldn’t be her. This was a seduction, plain and simple. It ended the moment she had bagged and tagged him, and her clan knew what she had achieved.
It was a means to an end.
She wanted her clan to accept her, and he was her method of achieving that. That was all he was to her.
So why was she having to think of a thousand ways to convince herself of that?
She struggled to tune into what he was saying as his mouth moved soundlessly to her ears, the ringing in her mind and the strange tight feeling in her chest stealing her focus.
Why did the thought of another female being held in his arms, kissed by him, hurt like a bitch?
CHAPTER 13
“Suki?” Tegan murmured, a frown furrowing his brow as he lowered his head to look into her eyes. “Your smile disappeared. Something is wrong? I am talking too much, aren’t I?”
Suki shook her head, swallowed the lump in her throat and forced a smile. His frown didn’t go anywhere. If anything, it deepened, and he looked as if he was considering touching her cheek. To do what? Chase away the tears that had that damned lump in her throat returning?
“Sorry,” she muttered and shrugged. “I’m a bit tired today. Cranky too. My sisters have been winding me up and pressing my buttons.”
A reasonable excuse for her shift in mood.
When his hand lifted and he looked in danger of touching her, she scrambled for something to talk about that would distract him from her mood, because she wasn’t strong enough to handle him touching her right now. She craved him too deeply, and the unsettling thing was it wasn’t sex she wanted from him, it wasn’t his energy.
It was the tenderness that would be behind that touch.
She couldn’t let him affect her like that. This was meant to be a seduction. He was going to be her host. The build up to that was just happening at a slower pace than a succubus normally moved at and that was his fault for throwing a spanner in the works the night they had met. He didn’t want fast and flirty, and she didn’t want to lose her quarry.
“I’ve never really thought about the lack of power in Hell.” She lifted her other leg and crossed them, making sure her skirt draped in the centre of her parted thighs so no one would see anything. “What’s it like? I imagine it’s rustic… and very dark… and challenging. Sort of like this world centuries ago.”
He took his hand back, planted it against the stone slabs beneath him and scowled at her, his voice as dark as the realm he hailed from. “I have witnessed changes in this world, and I have seen it grow in surprising ways. Progress is swift here, but it does not face the same difficulties as Hell does. There are no coal deposits there. No nuclear power is available. Things are changing, but it will take longer. It is not as dark and rustic as you and the people who lounge in luxury here imagine it. We are not dwelling in caves and rubbing sticks together. There is industry happening… progress. The wheels are in motion.”
Way to poke a sore point, Suki.
She hadn’t meant to upset him, or maybe she had. She wasn’t sure what she was doing anymore. Had she wanted him to distance himself because she hadn’t been strong enough to do it herself?
Did that make her a bitch?
Whatever it made her, she didn’t like how it made her feel.
“So you chose to harness what’s available, which is smart of you.” It was a weak attempt at winning him back over, one that drew another scowl from him.
“Do not pay compliments you do not mean. I hear enough of those without them issuing from your lips.”
Hold on a moment. Who the heck was complimenting him all the time? Her brain slapped her with the answer. When she had met him, he had said she was like the others and he had hoped she would be different. He didn’t like women fawning over him.
“I’m sorry. I forgot you have a harem of women throwing compliments under your feet like rose petals wherever you walk.” She dropped her legs over the edge.
He seized her arm, his grip firm and unrelenting as he held her in place.
“Where do you go?” he barked, a demanding edge to his voice that had her hackles rising.
“Wherever you’re not.” She twisted her arm, attempting to work it free of his hand. Her skin burned when he didn’t release her.
He tightened his grip and his horns curled.
Definitely from anger this time.
Suki winced when her bones ached.
Panic flared in his eyes and he quickly released her. “My apologies.”
“Yeah, apologise to your harem of bitches. Or I guess you don’t have to apologise to them. They probably like it when you’re a bastard to them.” She rubbed her reddened wrist and turned her cheek to him.
“I do not have a harem.” He sounded exasperated about that for some reason, but she wasn’t going to probe into the why of it. “Suki… stay. I apologised and I meant it. There is no reason to be upset with me.”
“There’s probably a dozen reasons to be upset with you,” she snapped and refused to apologise when he flinched. She was allowed to be angry about this. “For one, the compliment was genuine. You’re probably the smartest person I know… and the fucking stupidest. A walking contradiction as always.”
She pushed off from the wall, dropping to her feet on the cobbles below, her heart pounding in her ears as she battled her raging emotions.
He leaned down and stopped her with a light touch, a caress that whispered across her cheek as he cleared her hair from her face and gently tucked the waves behind her left ear.
“I am not good at this,” he husked and she refused to look at him. So what if he was as pained as he sounded? He deserved it for doubting her. He sighed. “This is… new to me.”
A thousand needles prickled over her skin and as much as she fought to deny them, his words echoed inside her in her own voice, rising from her soul.
It was new to her too.
Whatever this was, it was rapidly becoming something other than a game. He was rapidly becoming something other than a means to an end.
Something impossible.
She shook her head, causing his knuckles to brush her cheek again. “I get it. A succubus wanting to talk with you and apparently enjoying your company must mean she’s up to something, right?”
She hated that she was meant to be up to something. At least that had b
een the plan, but then she had started getting to know him, and she had found herself just enjoying his company. She felt good whenever she was around him, warm whenever he looked at her, and light inside as the world and her worries melted away.
A perfect example of what a defunct succubus she was.
She couldn’t even successfully seduce a man who wanted her without screwing something up.
In this case, it felt as if the something she was screwing up was herself.
“Suki.” His low voice had warmth curling through her and it had a startling effect on her—it chased away the hurt that had been building inside her, born of the thought that whatever this was, it would end.
And it wouldn’t be because she had gotten her wish and her clan had accepted her as a worthy member.
It would be because something would ruin it.
He twisted his hand, opened his palm and cupped her cheek, his tone soft. “Look at me.”
She shook her head again. She wasn’t strong enough to look at him right now. Not when down felt like up, and up felt like down, and everything inside her was jumbled. She cursed him and all shadowed males if they had the same power over other succubi as he wielded over her, twisting her in knots and leaving her shaken, unsure of anything.
He dropped from the wall, landing silently in front of her, and pushed his hand back, burying it in her hair to grip her nape. His other hand caught her jaw and she frowned. What was he doing?
She opened her mouth to ask him that question.
He claimed her lips and it came out as a squeak as he hauled her against him. A thousand hot shivers rolled over her as his grip on her nape tightened, holding her immobile as he waged war on her, stripping down her defences with a single, intoxicating kiss.
She tried to resist him, but the heat of his mouth as it brushed hers, his tongue as it breached her lips to tease the tip of hers, burned away all her fight and she melted against him. She gripped his hips, shuddered and moaned as his muscles flexed beneath her fingers, filling her with an itch to tug the hem of his tight black shirt up to feel the silken heat of his bare skin.
Seduced by a Demon King Page 15