devil 04 - the devil you know

by Cheever, Sam

  His lips pursed thoughtfully but he didn’t respond. Glynus hit a pocket of air and dropped unexpectedly. His muscular thighs kept him in place and his arm tightened around my waist when I tilted.

  I turned my head to look at him.

  Licking my lips, I couldn’t help wondering what he would taste like. Just like that my Settling flared and his scent infused me, the heat of his body tugged at me and my sensual core clenched in awareness of him.

  He must have seen the change in my eyes or smelled it in the air, because his dark gaze sharpened and the corners of his mouth tipped up.

  I felt color flooding my face and turned away, determined to ignore him.

  “You know you’re really pretty when you’re not covered in dragon spit and gore.”

  I snorted. “Gee thanks.”

  His hands were suddenly resting against my hips, sliding down my thighs. “I know a place where you can scour all that away.” His voice was a deep throb on the air beside my ear.

  I gasped as he skimmed a hand upward, narrowly missing the vee of my thighs, and flattened it against my belly, pulling me against the hard ridge of his cock at my back. “I’d love to share trade secrets with you.”

  I tried to laugh but the sound came out as a moan. The hand on my belly was skimming toward my breasts, as the other hand slid into the crease where my leg met my body.

  Hooboy! I grabbed both hands and stilled them. “Tell Glynus where to go.”

  * * * * *

  A few moments later we dropped from the sky onto a wide ledge on the face of the mountain. Glynus skipped to a stop and hopped toward a nearby cave. Just inside the cave’s entrance, she bowed to allow the Slayer and me to slide off.

  The Slayer indicated a wide nest within the cave, away from the entrance where it would be protected from the elements. “You can rest there, Glynus.”

  My dragon, a very smart creature, narrowed her large, beautiful eyes on the Slayer. I don’t trust him, mother Tweener.

  The Slayer looked at me and I couldn’t help thinking his gaze was a bit predatory. He seemed to understand Glynus’ concern. “She’ll be fine. I’ll get her cleaned up and fed. Then we’ll decide where to go from here.”

  Glynus looked skeptical. I had indeed taught her well.

  Arching an eyebrow at his phrasing, I suddenly realized we hadn’t told Glynus about her “problem” yet. I decided it could wait until I scraped dragon spew from my body. The Slayer was right. I needed to regroup before I made any important decisions about the future. I reached out and placed a hand on Glynus’ thick forearm. “I’ll be fine, Tadpole. Get some rest and we’ll talk later.”

  Glynus nodded and turned toward the nest, casting the Slayer a warning look. If you need me, I can be there in two beats of your heart, mother Tweener.

  Thanks, Tadpole. I can handle this one.

  She chuckled in my mind. In your current state, I’m not so sure.

  It was the first time she’d made any reference to my Settling. I wondered if I was sending out some kind of invisible signals that the dragon was picking up on.

  “Shall we?”

  I fell into step behind the Slayer, my traitorous gaze sliding to fixate on the perfect muscular roundness of his buttocks. He led me through a small opening that Glynus would never be able to navigate.

  So much for her being there if I needed her.

  “Anti-dragon access points?”

  He laughed. “You got it. Of course they could blast their way through eventually, but I’d be long gone out of my back entrance by then.”

  “You don’t trust the dragons much, do you?”

  “I don’t trust anybody much. It’s what’s kept me alive this long.”

  The narrow passageway opened up into a much larger space, filled with comfortable-looking furnishings and enveloped in a warm, golden light. He’d done a pretty good job of making livable space out of a cave. The rocky dirt floor was covered with an array of colorful rugs, and tapestries hung from the roughhewn walls to warm and soften the rooms.

  A heavy leather divan and two oversized chairs covered in the same rich, chocolate-brown leather were clustered together in the center of the space, facing a wood-burning stove with a thick pipe that carried smoke up through the rock ceiling high above our heads and out, hopefully, into the sky beyond the cave.

  On the far side of the cavern was a small food preparation area, and another human-sized door leading in the opposite direction from whence we’d come. “Is that your back door?”

  He glanced in the direction I’d jerked my head and nodded. “As well as my personal hygiene area. Come, I’ll show you where you can get cleaned up.

  I followed him down a short, low-ceilinged passageway, toward the sound of rushing water. We emerged into a fairly large cavern with a small waterfall and a pool on one end. The cavern felt like a sauna and steam danced above the small pool.

  I nearly had an orgasm on the spot thinking about immersing myself in the hot, clean water.

  “Since you left your bag back at the caverns, I think I have some clothes that might fit you. There’s soap and shampoo beside the pool, towels stacked there.” He pointed toward a small table stacked with neatly folded cloth in bright colors. It was like an old-fashioned bathroom. I liked it.

  I turned to him with a smile. “Thanks, this is great.”

  Nodding, he turned away and left. I wasted no time stripping off my ruined clothes and stepping into the pool with them.

  The water was hot enough to sting the center of my low back when I stepped into it, but I quickly got used to it and it felt wonderful. The pool was hip deep, and there was a wide, flat rock on one side I could sit on.

  I groaned with pleasure and lay on my back for a long moment, just floating on the surface. My hair floated lazily around my head in the hot, mineralized water.

  My muscles started to loosen and my mind wandered, at first considering the problems facing Glynus. But those thoughts quickly morphed to the Slayer. I realized with a jolt that I didn’t even know his name. I needed a name if I was gonna fantasize about throwing him to the floor and ravishing him.

  Or did I?

  My mind formed a picture of him and then set about stripping him naked, imagining the finely sculpted muscles and nicely packaged sexuality of a perfect male creature.

  There was little chance he’d fit my mental description, but it didn’t matter, since it was purely an academic exercise. I had no intention of finding out what he looked like naked for real.

  I floated happily, a grin on my face, and pictured him bending over me, his full, soft lips touching mine, pulling my breath away and sending spirals of delight to tighten at my sexual core.

  My pussy clenched hopefully at the thought, and my nipples peaked. I reached up and covered my breasts with my palms, pulling on my nipples. Pleasure spiked in my belly and moved lower, to pulse in my throbbing clitoris.

  I visualized his hot mouth moving from my lips to capture a rigid nipple, sucking it deep into the heated cave of his mouth and favoring it with long, slow pulls that tugged directly on my pleasure core, as if a thread of sensual desire attached the two parts of my passion-charged body.

  My tongue came out and swept across my lips, tasting his imagined kisses there. One hand slid across the wet surface of my belly and disappeared in the curls covering my moist core. I touched my pulsing clit and moaned, nearly sinking as my body stiffened in delight.

  Placing my free hand on the flat rock under the water’s surface, I regained my balance and renewed attentions to my clit. With every squeeze on the throbbing nub, bright tendrils of sensual expectation flared, until my toes curled and my muscles clenched in anticipation of the building release.

  I played his face through my mind, savoring the hard angles of his jaw and the soft outline of his full lips. My traitorous psyche filled in the outlines with hot, knee-melting detail and went further, drawing the silhouette of his broad shoulders, narrow hips and long, muscular legs.


  When my mind got to the shoulder-length, silky black hair and long-lashed blue eyes, I realized, with a start, that I was picturing Dialle. He’d nudged into my subconscious and shoved the other guy right out when I wasn’t looking.

  I embraced the change, feeling the guilt I’d been ignoring at the back of my subconscious sliding away to leave only delight as my fingers worked their magic and built the pleasure to a tipping point. I thought about Dialle’s scent, his heated touch, how his cock felt sliding deep within my dripping pussy. How he made that little sound in his throat when I pulled his cock deep into my throat…

  The sound of the waterfall was thunderous. It gave me the sensation of being in a cocoon, alone, free to do only as I wished.

  So when I heard the clearing of a throat it was a shock. Beyond a shock. My eyes flew open and I shrieked, losing my balance on the top of the water. I sank to the bottom like a rock, sucking a mouthful of water down my throat in the process.

  I came up spitting and spraying water, embarrassed, humiliated and angrier than I’d ever been. Forgetting for a moment that I was naked, I surged to my feet and faced him, fists clenched at my sides.

  The Slayer’s face was completely without expression, and he held a bundle of clothing in his hands. “Sorry, I did call out several times but you didn’t respond. I thought maybe you’d drowned.” Something flashed quickly through his eyes as his gaze slid down my dripping form. Something hot and…hungry.

  I pointed angrily to the table. “Just put the clothes down there and leave.”

  I knew I was being rude. I was okay with that.

  The Slayer stared at me for a beat longer, his gaze fixed politely on my eyes, and then he let it slide slowly down my body. This time the heat that skimmed through his gaze was unmistakable. “Do you need help with your back? I’m pretty sure some asshole wiped a whole lot of dragon spit on that area between your shoulder blades…it might have soaked through your sweater.”

  The corners of his sexy mouth tipped up in a devilish smile, but his voice was husky with longing. I let my gaze slide down his body and there was no mistaking the long, hard line of a ridge under his pants. When my gaze lifted upward again, I caught him licking his perfectly sculpted lips, as if he could taste me from where he stood.

  I shook my head, not trusting myself to speak.

  After another long, tension-filled moment he nodded, settled the pile of clothing on the table and turned away. He probably felt my hungry gaze on his delectable backside as he strode away. I didn’t even try to control myself. He owed me at least that much.

  When he was gone I sank back into the water with a groan.

  Me and my red face were never going to be able to show ourselves to him again. How embarrassing was it to get caught diddling myself.

  Bleurgh!

  I grabbed the soap and used it to quickly lather up my hair and body. I’d finish up, get dressed and then sneak out to get Glynus. She and I could be out of there, heading back toward Black territory to deal with her mess before he even knew I was gone.

  Having forged a plan that would save me at least a modicum of future embarrassment, I felt a little better.

  Though my body still hummed with sexual starvation.

  I’d just have to live with that for the time being.

  Chapter Six

  Dealing with the Afterglow

  Alas young miss doth find herself, in a lair without a ride,

  Who will send much needed help, when her scruples start to slide?

  Glynus was gone.

  I couldn’t believe it. I stood there looking at the empty nest and tried calling to her with my mind.

  She didn’t respond.

  Worry slammed through me and I realized, besides worrying about my dragon, I also needed to worry that I was trapped in the Slayer’s cave with no ride home.

  I walked to the entrance of the cave, emerging into the bright dregs of a fading sun, and looked out over the brown, craggy mountain ranges that comprised the Reds’ queendom. Aside from a type of enormous gray-and-black bird with a beak as long as my leg, nothing else stirred outside. No reds, no blacks. No Glynus.

  “She’s gone to speak with the Queen.”

  I jerked around, the sudden motion nearly toppling me off the narrow ledge at the mouth of the cave.

  The Slayer reached out and grabbed a flailing arm before I went over, pulling me up hard against a broad, warm chest.

  I looked up into wide, gold eyes framed in inky black lashes. His breath was soft on my face, filled with sensual musk. “It seems I’m destined to always and forever save your cute ass from dropping into the abyss.”

  He didn’t step back away from the edge so I couldn’t jerk my arm from his grip. As if I wasn’t already prisoner enough, he slid his other arm around my waist, dropping a heated hand over the place where my butt rounded away from my back.

  My Settling kicked in with a vengeance, making my nipples harden painfully and warm cream slide from my overcharged pussy. He dropped his lips to touch my cheek, just under one eye. “It’s a good thing I don’t mind. It’s such a sexy…delicious…ass.” His heated breath danced across my face and my eyes closed as I inhaled his essence, my knees weakening from the effects.

  Like the touch of a feather, his lips pressed gently against mine.

  I gasped, pulling his musk deep within my lungs. The effect was dangerously disconcerting. He paused, locked in the gentle touch of his soft lips against mine and then gently pressed the hand in the small of my back to bring my hungry body close to his.

  I could feel the long, hard ridge of his cock against my belly. My body wept at the feel of him, the taste and smell of him. My mind screamed at me to run as far and as fast as I could, but my slut-monkey side purred with delicious anticipation.

  He increased the gentle pressure of his mouth and I groaned, my hands sliding up his back to glide through the short, silky strands of his hair. I pulled him more deeply into the kiss, opening my lips to accept the tender assault of his talented tongue.

  He breached my lips with a swipe of his heated tongue and then dived inside to taste and tangle with my tongue.

  I felt his groan of desire rumbling against my chest and my body throbbed in response. His hands slipped along my sides and across my back, dragging me tightly against his hard body.

  His lips left mine and I sighed.

  “Do you have any idea what it did to me to watch you pleasuring yourself in the heated pool?”

  My eyes flew open and heat infused my face.

  He kissed my cheeks, trailing his lips across my nose, down my jawline and to my throat. I dropped my head back to give him better access. “Don’t be embarrassed. It was the hottest thing I’ve ever seen. All I can think about now is getting inside you, driving my cock deep in that juicy little pussy.”

  I bit my lip, swamped in the sensations of his body against mine, his scent in my nostrils and his hands sliding hungrily over the supercharged nerve endings of my skin. His words were creating a whirlwind of feelings in my breast. They excited me. There was no doubt about that, but I’d never indulged in dirty talk before. I usually indulged in the silent form of erotic activity. The silence broken only by the sighs and gasps of sensual delight.

  Whatever my mind thought of his words, my body was a definite fan. “What would you do to me…to my body?”

  He groaned. His tongue slipped out and tasted the tender skin beneath my chin. He followed the heated swipe with a tiny nibble, sending frissons of delight tearing through my lower belly. “First I’d cover that quivering pussy with my lips, sucking gently among those sexy auburn curls to bring you screaming into release.”

  I shivered violently as his lips left my throat and trailed downward, toward my literally heaving bosom. “Then wh-what would you do?”

  “I’d lick up the sweet cream that flowed from between your lovely white thighs. It would be like the sweetest ambrosia on my lips, making my cock painfully hard.”

  He nuzzled aside
the oversized shirt he’d given me to wear and nipped at the rounded flesh at the top of my breast, tantalizingly close to my rigid nipple, which was begging for his attention. His hot tongue swept the skin he’d bitten, swirling in a circle around the puckered flesh of my nipple without touching it.

  I grabbed his head in both hands, intending to force his mouth to my nipple. But he resisted, moving instead to the other breast, where he repeated the same tantalizing but infuriatingly evasive maneuver.

  A wave of expectant heat swept my body. I envisioned my hard nipples being sucked into his mouth, savored the thrill of it and willed him with my mind to take them. Finally, I couldn’t wait any longer. “Please!” My voice rasped with passion.

  He licked the underside of the breast he was currently torturing. “Please, what, Astra Q. Phelps?”

  His tongue swept toward my nipple again. And again stopped just outside the hungry circle of the brown, rigid flesh. My head dropped back. “Ahhh, God! Suck them! Suck my nipples, now!”

  Just like magic he complied. He covered the entire nipple with his lips and pulled the tortured flesh into his incredibly hot mouth, sucking hard. A strange combination of relief and enhanced sexual tension jolted through my system, centering in the throbbing bud between my thighs.

  He slid a hand down one hip and across my quivering belly, sliding it inexorably toward my pussy. I widened my stance to give him access, my rational mind shutting down as a wave of pure, unadulterated lust swept over me, swamping my will.

  He moved his lips to the other nipple and drew the aching flesh between his soft lips. But when his hand covered me, engulfing the tender mound at the vee of my legs in the heat of his thick fingers, I was suddenly nudged from my mindless lust by a jolt of another kind.

  My daemon hickey sparked and sent an electrical charge through my body, making me jump away from him with a gasp. Static flashed through my mind, leaving behind the impression of Dialle’s voice, though I couldn’t actually say I’d heard him speak a single word. His scent enveloped me, pulling guilt, like acid, from my chest. I stepped away, lifting my hands as if to ward him off. “Stop. We need to stop this.”