by R. Scarlett
Tensley watched the glorious sight of this beautiful goddess soaring, her thigh trapping him against her, her ankles pressing into his ass, her nails clawing down his back and her breathless moans singing in his eardrums.
He tensed, and sinewy muscles bulged across his broad shoulders, over his biceps and down his rocky stomach. He emptied inside her, pumping lazily into her as he collapsed against her.
When they both came down from their mutual high, panting for breath and glistening with perspiration, she laughed softly into his chest.
He smiled wryly back at her.
She sleepily smiled at him and he pulled her into his arms, holding her to his chest and tugging the blankets around their naked skin.
“I care about you,” she muttered tiredly and sounding drunk off of him, so soft, so gently he almost missed it. She peppered ghost kisses across his sweaty chest.
He idly stroked her hair, pressing a chaste kiss to her temple. “You and I need to rest, dolcezza.”
She nuzzled in closer, her fingers lazily tracing the scars on his chest. “I care about you a lot. Too much. So much it hurts, right here,” she said before pressing her soft, pillowy lips where his heart thumped wild, just for her, only for her.
He wiggled the covers from underneath her and wrapped them around their bodies. She hid her face against his chest and shoulder and he cradled her.
If anyone found out how kind he was being, he would be exiled, excommunicated, or worse, his heart would be taken—but it was a risk he was willing to take.
“Night, dolcezza,” Tensley said, staring up at the ceiling and waiting for her to pass out so he could see Fitz Senior about the contract.
“Night, Tensley,” she answered, smiling into his body with such sweetness, such joy, that he couldn’t leave. He found himself trapped between her and the bed, trapped between her society and his.
His jaw tensed, but he continued to stroke her hair until she fell asleep. His chest pounded, the ache within building far more than it had in ages.
He was torn about letting her go or keeping her for himself. A beast shouldn’t care, shouldn’t allow himself such weak emotions and wicked things.
Fuck, he thought as that dreaded heat spread to his ribs. A calming, gentle kiss mixed with a sting of fire.
That dangerous heart growing for her.
He was damned.
MOLLY STIRRED FROM her slumber, reaching out to find the bed empty. It was still nighttime, and she wondered where Tensley had wandered off to.
She sat up, the covers pooling around her waist, and searched for the man who lived in her head, in her taste buds, deep in her chest. After throwing on a robe, Molly walked down the silent hallway and downstairs. The faint rumble of voices could be heard far off, and Molly followed them until she stood in front of Mr. Knight’s office, the door slightly ajar.
She heard Tensley speak.
He sat at his father’s desk, seeming perfectly at home, and the Fitzes had taken the two leather armchairs across from him.
“You’re making the right choice. I hope your father takes the news well,” Fitz Senior said.
Tensley scowled. “I’ll still need to talk it over with them before I sign anything.” He slid a paper back toward them on the desk.
“You’re a wise, boy. I’m confident you’ll run both our territories well if you’re able to make decisions like these without issue.” Fitz Senior shifted in his chair and took the paper, angling it so that Molly could see the scorpion crest—black and gold, poised for attack—in the header. “The daemon would only be a liability in such a position.”
Molly’s blood froze in her veins.
There was a shuffle, but she couldn’t move—not fast enough to avoid standing face to face with Tensley in the doorway.
“Molly?”
“What were you just talking about?” She hated how much her voice shook, but she made sure her burning gaze stayed on him, not allowing any tears to pass.
Tensley pressed his lips together. “I can explain. Later.”
“No, right fucking now,” she said, moving past him into the office.
“Oh dear.” Fitz Senior hummed and stood. “I’m sure you’re aware we came here for a deal, Molly, an exchange of territory for something in return.”
“I’m aware.” She kept her expression neutral, ignoring Tensley’s encroaching presence to her right.
“And I suppose you’d be finding out soon anyway,” Fitz Senior continued, his powerful, smoky voice making her knees go wobbly. “The ‘something in return’ is you.”
“What does that mean, exactly?” she whispered.
Fitz Senior removed a handkerchief from his breast pocket and dabbed at his nose, utterly at ease. “After your display with Evelyn, it just makes more sense to have you out of the public eye. The Knights don’t need another scandal on their hands, so it’s best to send you elsewhere until required.”
“You’re lying,” Molly hissed through clenched teeth. Tensley gripped her shoulder, but she shrugged out of his touch. She couldn’t even look at him. This isn’t happening. “You didn’t agree to this.”
“Once Tensley signs this paper, it’ll be done.” Fitz Senior had the nerve to smirk and tossed a sheet of paper onto the coffee table between them. He nodded at it.
Molly couldn’t move, not until she’d read the page.
He didn’t want her.
He was throwing her to the lions.
“He’s a smart man. He’s coming into power, wanting to make a good impression on the High Court. He knew the troubles of having a daemon wife such as yourself,” Fitz Senior said calmly. He tapped his fingers along the edge of the desk, the only constant noise in the room. “You’ll marry Fitz Junior and maintain the power of our family’s name.”
Molly parted her dry lips, aching to throttle every demon in the room. “No.”
Fitz Senior continued to smile, which was more eerie than if he’d thrown something at her. “No?”
“No,” she said, dropping the paper to the floor. “I’m not some object to be exchanged.”
Fitz Senior ’s anger vanished and he laughed heartily, as if she were a toddler throwing a tantrum. “Oh, Miss Darling, but you are. Tensley marked you, claimed you as his property, and now he’s trading you for something better.”
She fisted her hands, begging herself not to strangle him.
Senior pointed to Tensley, who looked ready to murder both of the men in the room. “In our society, you’re not a demon. You’re more human than anything. You don’t hold any power, any status in our realm. You’re an object that he can do with as he wishes.” He paused, an eerily calm smile appearing. “And he doesn’t want you anymore.”
Tensley’s hand shot out and wrapped around Fitz Senior’s throat, squeezing until the man’s skin paled. “You know nothing, bastard,” Tensley said, shoving the old man into Mr. Knight’s desk. “Nothing’s been decided yet, so it’d be wise for you to shut your goddamn mouth.”
“Father, please, stop,” Fitz Junior said from where he was cowering in the corner, not even attempting to defend his father against Tensley’s wrath.
The spark of violence ran up her spine and danced along her temples and fingertips. She wanted to throttle him. “I’m not a human and I’m definitely not one of you. I’m a daemon. I’m beyond your fucked up rules.” Fitz Junior moved forward and she turned her head to glare at him. “Touch me, and you’ll scream.” Her voice spat venom and her fingers ached to claw his widening eyes out. “I promise.”
Both men stood stiffly in front of her, Tensley’s heated body close behind her, and she spun, wanting desperately to escape him and this hell. She strode to their bedroom.
“Molly!” Tensley called, but she didn’t stop until she’d made it to the bedroom and packed her things.
His bedroom.
He had betrayed her. The anger flared up inside her, but she could feel the sadness aching underneath the surface. She loved him and he didn’t want he
r. He wanted to trade her like some useless plaything he’d grown tired of, bored with.
“Molly, let me explain. It’s not what you think,” Tensley said when she’d returned to the foyer, blocking her from leaving.
“Leave me alone,” she snapped.
“Just listen.”
That was it. She spun, her glowing eyes trapping him in her essence. “If you really cared for me, if you really wanted me, you’d fight for me. For us. You’re just a fucking coward.”
She released him from her gaze, the glow dimming. His expression fell, his forehead wrinkling. He looked away after a moment. She halted by the front door, her heart bleeding onto the old floorboards.
“Goodbye, Tensley.”
She left him there, dragging her luggage to one of their many drivers. She told him there was an emergency and Tensley would follow her later.
As she slouched, staring out the back window at Tensley’s dark figure standing on the driveway, Molly could still taste his poisonous, addictive kiss on her lips, her aching skin. She was poisoned and rotten and raw, and all she wanted was to hear his low timbre, his husky hum.
No. Screw him. He can take his new territory and choke on it.
Her phone buzzed and buzzed, and Molly ignored it the first few times until she saw who was actually calling her.
“Hello? Tina?”
“Molly?”
Molly sat up higher, barely able to understand Tina through her sobs. “Tina, what’s wrong?” She heard shuffling and a male’s deep voice in the background.
“He wants you to come.”
All the blood left Molly’s head, going straight to her galloping heart. “Who? What’s going on?”
“Pearce.” Tina sobbed. “He says if you don’t come now, he’ll hurt me.”
Molly gripped the phone in her clammy palm. “Where?”
HE’D MURDER THE bastard, Tensley thought as he strode through the office, glaring holes into the Fitzes’ heads. “I told you to keep the news between us until further notice.”
When he thought of Beau, he thought of what he would become with Molly if he gave her his heart. The scars along his back stung with the reminder of Beau’s wrath, of his unnatural anger and lack of care for who gets hurt. Beau didn’t feel anything for so many years; Tensley didn’t want to harm Molly any more than he already had. He would destroy himself by growing a heart, having it ripped out, and becoming what he feared most: a truly heartless demon. Then he wouldn’t be able to control himself. He’d hurt Molly, would hurt everyone around him—but now he had already hurt her. He wanted to be with her, but he had thought of trying to free her from him and his world.
Now it had backfired.
Fitz Senior straightened to his full height, which was still two inches shorter than Tensley. “We thought it would be best to notify the daemon immediately.”
Tensley flashed his teeth and growled. “Where is it?”
Fitz Junior raised his brows. “What?”
“The contract.”
The scorpion crest glinted in his peripherals and Tensley dove for his desk, ripping the contract to shreds before Fitz Senior could stop him. “You can have your territory,” he ground out, throwing the pieces in the old man’s face.
He wouldn’t lose Molly. He’d give up anything to be with her—even his title.
Fitz Senior’s face turned bright red. “You can’t do that!”
“I just did.”
“You’ve just started a war, boy,” Fitz Senior spat. “We want her, and we’ll get her.”
Tensley turned and gripped the old man by his collar, choking him until his complexion went purple. “Go ahead. Threaten me. With her by my side, I’ll be a god and you’ll be the scums unworthy to glimpse her.”
He let go, watching the old man stagger and grip at his neck, gasping.
“Get the fuck out of my house,” Tensley seethed, tossing the old man to the side as Fitz Junior dodged out of the way.
Tensley stormed out, flexing his fingers—ones that craved to cradle Molly again.
He wanted to fill the emptiness, find his addiction and claim her all over again. He was done being a coward. Even if it damned him and she stole his heart, he’d let her take it, willingly. He’d find her and hold on forever, making sure she was never hungry, never harmed, and never uncared for again.
She was his.
His dolcezza.
His daemon.
His innocence.
A beast craved a beauty, and oh, how he fell.
Hades wouldn’t rest until his queen was back in the underworld.
THE WAREHOUSE BEFORE Molly seemed to shriek as its loose metal beams swung in the wind many stories overhead. She dropped her suitcases and edged inside, scanning her surroundings until she came upon Tina at the other end of a huge room. Her friend’s head was bowed, and sobs shook her entire frame.
Molly wanted to call out but restrained herself. She took another step inside and saw Pearce standing behind Tina, his hand latched around her bicep.
“Finally,” Pearce said, a heavy sigh leaving his lips. He beamed at Molly, gesturing with his free hand to come closer.
“Molly,” Tina croaked, wiggling in Pearce’s embrace.
“Let her go, Pearce,” Molly said, taking slow steps forward as she noted the countless bruises covering Tina’s face, neck, and limbs. From the looks of it, he’d pummeled Tina like a punching bag.
Pearce gripped Tina so hard she shrieked. “I’ll let her go if you come with me.”
Molly stopped, putting her hands up in surrender. “Okay, okay—please stop hurting her. Can I ask why you need me?”
His eyes darkened, wicked and maniacal as the same aggression Tensley produced spilled off of him. “Because someone with a lot of power wants you. Now come!”
She stared at him—his shaking frame, his wild, chaotic eyes. His demon side had taken over. Who wanted her? Someone powerful? Someone high-class?
“Right now, for fuck’s sake!” he screamed, making Tina’s shivers double in intensity.
Molly jolted at his booming voice, one that echoed in the empty warehouse. She licked her lips, assessing whether she could attack without Tina getting hurt—not when he was this angry, this out of control.
“Pearce,” Molly said, slowly edging closer. “Tina isn’t involved in this. Just let her go.”
Pearce laughed violently, making his large body sway as Tina tripped over her feet to stay upright.
“Please Pearce,” Tina whispered, peering up at him. “I love you, please don’t hurt me!”
At her pleas, Pearce’s nails dug deep into Tina’s biceps through her white blouse and she cried, the redness spreading an ugly stain across the pure sheer fabric.
Tina’s pleas, her begging, her cries made Molly’s chest ache and her throat unbearably thick.
“Let her go,” Molly commanded.
Pearce gripped Tina’s jaw and forced the girl’s bloodshot eyes to meet his wild ones. “Shh, sweetcheeks.”
Molly could feel the pheromones fill the space, and she glared at the psychotic demon as Tina swayed in his arms.
“I love you,” Tina mumbled tragically.
Pearce shushed her. “I know you do, sweetcheeks.” He softly kissed her forehead then moved to either cheek.
“Pearce,” Molly warned, “stop and think about this, she’s an innocent girl—”
“But there’s something you need to hear,” Pearce went on, Tina hanging on to his every word. “Demons don’t love, they destroy.” He plunged a knife into Tina’s chest, and Molly couldn’t tell which scream was her friend’s and which was her own.
“Stop, stop!” Molly rushed forward as Pearce dropped Tina—the knife still lodged in her chest—and seized Molly.
Tina’s brown, dazed eyes found Molly’s and she wailed, hands hovering over the blade.
Pearce gripped Molly’s arm and shoved her to the exit.
“I’ll come back, okay? I’ll come back, just hold on!” Molly
shouted over her shoulder, meeting Tina’s gaze for a moment.
Molly’s breathing was ragged and clipped as Pearce dragged her closer to a black car idling down the road.
No. No way am I getting taken.
She elbowed Pearce in his ribs and he grunted then chuckled. “That’s all you got, daemon?”
“Who are you taking me to? Why are you doing this? Tensley’s your friend!”
“Fuck, you ask a lot of questions. I’ll answer one—I’m taking you to someone who’ll use you for the right reasons.”
The closer they got to the car, the more Molly’s panic set in.
She wouldn’t be weak, wouldn’t be the damsel.
She concentrated, feeling the cool heat of her gathering strength kick in. She head-butted him and blood poured from his nose as he was thrown off balance, giving her enough time to maneuver away. He may have been strong, but she was quicker.
She plunged her hand into the gravel, throwing a pile of rocks and dirt into Pearce’s eyes before darting back to the warehouse.
“Fucking bitch!” Pearce squawked. When his heavy footsteps shook the ground behind her, she stretched her legs out wide, hoping to win, hoping to beat him, but he grabbed her ponytail and flung her back into him.
She went down hard, forehead bouncing against the concrete.
Molly rolled, kicking him repeatedly in the shins until he landed a punch against her ribcage. Molly yelped as her bones crunched, her powers weakening because of the pain.
Pearce stood and yanked her up, and she managed to land a fist to his cheek. A sting in her side startled her, and she looked down to see a small blade buried deep in her torso, Pearce still holding the hilt.
Molly moved quickly, shoving him back and pulling the blade from her flesh. She pounced on Pearce, burying the knife right where his beating heart was.
He gasped, falling to his knees in the dirt. “You—fucking—”
“Say something original,” she spat, catching her breath as she twisted the knife, twisted it even farther until the light behind his eyes faded.
Pearce was dead.
Molly took off, racing back to the warehouse and clutching her side. Tina was in the same spot they’d left her, sprawled on the concrete in a pool of her own blood.