Holly looked at him in what appeared to be surprise and disappointment. He could tell she was shocked that he was turning her down, then just as suddenly she became pissed. She got a look on her face that clearly said “screw you!” and pulled her hand away from him abruptly.
“Don’t think you’ll get the chance again!” She looked defiantly up at him.
Does he think I take someone home every night? Fuck him! I’m not a one-night stand. In her agitation, Holly had once again shared her thoughts. She wrapped her pride around herself like a shield before silently dismissing him and turning on her heel.
Dagon only knew that he had to fix this before she walked away. He shot his hand out and grabbed her shoulder roughly, whipping her around in place. Screw her misconceptions. He wanted her to know exactly what he was thinking. He gave her a little shake.
“If I go up with you, I’ll want more than polite talk or eggs,” he ground out hoarsely. “I’ll want every piece of you, under me and around me.” He lowered his hands and pulled her hips into the cradle of his thighs, letting her feel his rigid cock that announced the extent of his desire. His eyes sparkled down at her as he watched Holly’s widen at the size and hardness of the erection that was pressed between her legs. “Do you get that?” He continued gruffly. “But unlike many in today’s world, I’m willing to wait to take what is mine.” The hard bulge in his pants belied his words.
He grabbed her ass and crushed her against his groin even tighter. But to contrast the rough want in his lower body, Dagon slowly and deliberately brought his head down to gently capture her sweet lips in a delicate and soul-searing kiss.
Holly twined her arms around his neck, and he felt her softness melt into him. At the tender insistence of his nudging tongue, she opened under him and, gripped by the sudden madness of being in her mouth, he became all hardness and demand, grinding down on her mouth and filling his senses with her scent.
Holly met every thrust of his tongue with one of her own, pressing her body into his in a maddening way that had him feeling every inch of her. The nipples that had hardened to diamond points contrasted sharply with the soft heat between her legs. Dagon became slightly maddened. He was going to fuck her right now, right here. His serpent began to take over, and Dagon welcomed his presence as an excuse to keep his gentlemanly side at bay.
His senses picked up a vacant alley to the right, and he began dragging Holly toward it. She didn’t resist, but a motorcycle speeding by shattered the moment and, with a hiss, Dagon woke from his selfish impulse. What the fuck was wrong with him?
Dagon pulled away, disgusted. Holly stumbled and would have fallen if Dagon hadn’t caught her up again. He berated himself harshly. “I’m such an ass, Holly. Please forgive me,” he stuttered. “I…I’m so sorry.” The apology tore through his heart. “I say I’m not going to hurry things, and the next minute you’ve got me so crazy that I’m going to take you in a dark alley.” Did he just feel her shiver…but in a good way? Shake it off, Dagon.
He took a deep breath to clear his brain. “Do you work tomorrow?” he asked, running his hands up and down her spine, cupping her backside, igniting the flames again. For some reason, thank the gods, she hadn’t slapped him or run away.
“Don’t apologize.” She dragged his head down again and ground her lips into his.
His serpent roared, I told you so!
“Monday night,” she was able to murmur through swollen lips when she finally pulled back. “I have tomorrow off.”
Dagon breathed himself back under control, then leaned down and kissed Holly again; this time a sweet, light, lingering kiss, so that she would remember him as a gentleman.
“Then I’ll see you Monday.” Dagon put her away from him, instantly missing her heat, but spun her around and sent her off with a little push toward the door.
“Oh…and that thing in your tongue…” He actually groaned. “Sexy as hell.”
He smoldered then she reacted to the heat of his words, but also saw doubt in her eyes before she drew away. He could read her now. She thought he wasn’t going to come back, that he’d had second thoughts and would never return. He tried to assure her.
“Don’t worry, Holly. I promise I will see you Monday.” As an afterthought, he asked. “Can I have your phone to share numbers?”
She handed it over without hesitation.
After a quick exchange, Dagon gave her a jaunty wave and an assured nod of his head. She still looked skeptical, and he was at a loss. He knew she watched him until he was out of sight, chuckling when he heard her final thoughts before turning a corner.
Damn. Isn’t it just my fucking luck to find the only true gentleman in all of Chicago?
Chapter Twenty-Eight
It was Monday, and Dagon felt like a total idiot. He’d had a hard time staying away from Holly’s apartment building Sunday night. He had purposely avoided it and the bar where she worked, hoping not to raise any undue suspicion by Matthew or the whole fucking group of Blue Hills immortals.
Unfortunately, he had heard from the war god this afternoon and, although not making good inroads with his language skills, Erra had assured Dagon he was cleaning house in Plymouth and was ready to do the same in Chicago. His ETA was three days. That meant Dagon had two, maybe three nights with Holly to decide what he was going to do. Didn’t that just suck?
Monday came too slowly, and his expectations were ramped up. He expected an empty barroom at eight on a Monday night, and was disappointingly surprised to see the establishment already at half capacity when he arrived. Dagon made his way to the corner barstool, and noticed a hand-printed RESERVED sign propped up against a pretzel basket on the bar. Well, whoever it was for, they could kiss his ass. This was his seat for the next few nights.
He reached a hand forward to crumple the paper.
“Hey!” He heard the staccato call and hesitated. “It took me two minutes to make that sign.” Holly gave him a big, shit-eating grin, and Dagon realized she had saved the spot for him.
He laughed. “Then why don’t you put it in a safe place so you can use it again tomorrow night,” he suggested. Holly approached and leaned in close. She looked overjoyed that he was planning ahead.
“I like that idea,” she crooned. “What can I get you?” She deliberately breathed him in, and every one of his nerve endings tingled.
“Do that again, and I’ll toss you right up onto the bar and show you exactly what I want,” he whispered into her curls. Dagon’s cock had been hard ever since he walked in. He couldn’t help reacting instantly to her nearness. It was going to be downright impossible to walk away from her tonight.
“Maybe we’ll have to try that some night after closing.” She lowered her lids and sashayed to the other end of the bar, where a patron was demanding her attention. Dagon could only groan. He would have killed the prick for calling her away, but Holly’s short trip allowed Dagon to get a good look at her muscled posterior, so he decided to be forgiving.
Holly’s boss Max entered from the back room, perused the bar, and given Dagon a little nod. He approached Holly and said something Dagon couldn’t hear. She gave the older man a big smile and moved smoothly back to Dagon’s spot, leaning over to get close to him again.
“Max is going to take care of three quarters of the bar tonight. He appreciates that I never ask him for anything, and he says to spend as much time as I want with the guy who’s got me all googly-eyed.”
Dagon didn’t know what googly-eyed meant, but decided it must be good. He was both happy and disappointed when Holly drew up a tall, utility stool on the other side of the counter to sit down. It meant she was going to engage in conversation, but she wouldn’t be close enough touch. Trade-offs were a bitch.
She started by tapping him, not so gently, on the back of his hand. “Hey. Caveman. Did you pay for the electrician who came to my building this morning?” she questioned. “The landlord didn’t know anything about it, but the guy said he’d already been paid and wouldn�
��t say by whom.” Dagon couldn’t quite keep the sheepish grin off his face.
“Aha! I knew it!” She smirked and snaked her touch further up his arm. “That was a very sweet gesture. Thank you.” She tightened her fingers on his sleeve. “So, now that I have a chance to get to know you.” Holly seemed to be treading softly. “Tell me where you’re from.”
“Plymouth, Massachusetts,” Dagon told her.
She grunted. “I’m a New England girl myself,” Holly admitted. “But it’s been a long time since I’ve been back.” She looked at him questioningly. “Did you move here, or are you in Chicago for vacation? Business?”
“Business,” Dagon mumbled, looking down, wishing now he’d ordered a beer so he had something to do with his hands that clenched and unclenched in front of him.
Holly must have noticed. “Let me get you a nice Oktoberfest draft.” She slipped from her stool and grabbed a mug, pulling the nearest tap. She put the beer in front of him. “Now you’ll have something to do with your hands while you lie to me about your job.”
Dagon’s head came up and he looked straight into her ice-blue eyes as she regained her seat. “What makes you think I’m going to lie about my work?”
“I’ve been a bartender long enough to recognize the signs—indistinct speech, fidgety. You either hate your job, or you don’t have one.” She took another long look at Dagon and he knew what she saw. Her brain was listing his attributes: handsome, expensively dressed, well groomed, handsome…hmm…and did she already think…handsome? Dagon barely kept himself from preening at her assessment.
“I’m guessing that you’re the hating-your-job type.” She kept up her speculation, and Dagon was amazed at how close to the truth she came.
“You look like you must be the boss or a partner in some venture, and you don’t like either the exploitation that your job requires or the people you work with. Am I right?”
Dagon took a big gulp of beer. “Right on both counts.”
When she didn’t continue, Dagon did something he hadn’t done in thousands of years. He broke down and spilled his problems out into Holly’s lap.
“I hate what I’m supposed to be doing,” he started slowly. “The guys I work with are assholes.” Another pause. “And there’s no good way to extricate myself from the current…job I have to do.”
Like the good bartender he knew she was, Holly stayed quiet while Dagon collected his thoughts.
“A long time ago, I worked with this great bunch of guys. We had a lot in common and every day we had, well, fun actually.” Dagon was astounded to remember just how amused he used to be, working alongside Marduk’s band of gods. They were a cheeky, irreverent bunch, especially his cousin Anshar, whom he really missed being with on a daily basis.
“I don’t know what I was thinking, but I saw an opportunity to advance with a different group, and I changed allegiances. I regret the move now. The people I work with are cutthroat and unethical.” He knew she was going to ask why he didn’t just quit. He ran a finger through his hair, pulling several black silken strands out of the leather thong, and answered before she could get the question out. “I have way too much to lose if I try to sever ties with them.” He took another drink from the frosty mug.
“Now they want me to do something that goes against every natural instinct in my body. Something despicable that I’ll regret for eternity.”
That’s a strange turn of phrase, Holly thought, and Dagon heard her. He stopped talking so he wouldn’t compound his mistake. He would have to censor himself better, but right now it would be easier to shut up and wait for her opinion. Somehow Dagon knew that Holly wouldn’t pull any punches with her advice.
“Well, I say screw it. You can make money, or you can be happy. If this thing your boss wants you to do makes you so miserable, tell him to stick it.” Dagon watched as Holly paused and then sucked her lush bottom lip into a decisive line. “You should go back to the guys you worked with before you fucked up and apologize. Maybe you can get your old job back. There’s got to be one person at your old firm who isn’t totally pissed off that you left,” Holly mused. “If I were you, I’d to talk to that individual and tell him everything. I’ll bet he can help.”
Dagon looked at Holly as if she was an alien. Why did everything she say sound so right?
Dagon shook his head slowly, dazed by the possibilities. “What if I just found out something about this one particular friend…a lie that one of my new partners has perpetuated for years, something that pretty much ruined my friend’s life? Would he want to hear that from me? Would he forgive me for believing the lies and doubting him?”
“I can’t tell you that, but really? What have you got to lose?” Holly touched the back of his big hand. “Just go for it. The worst thing that can happen is that he won’t listen or believe you, but you’ll hate yourself if you don’t try, and you might just be pleasantly surprised.”
Dagon speared her with a look of hope, mingled with desperation. “If this works, if I can reconnect with this old friend, who, um, happens also to be my cousin, could I bring him here to meet you tomorrow night? He and his…my…this girl he’s in love with, Lenore?”
“Sure. He’s your cousin? That’s even better. Family usually has to forgive shit if you apologize.” Dagon saw a funny look pass over Holly’s face and was brought out of his own morass for a minute, knowing she was thinking of her own long estrangement from her family.
Well, if things worked out, maybe they’d both get back to where they truly belonged.
“Holly, you’re pretty damned smart.” Dagon knew he looked at her with such veneration, he wondered if she’d think he was crazy.
“Nope.” She ducked her head. “Just a bartender doing my thing.” Holly was definitely embarrassed. Dagon made a snap decision.
“Would it be awful of me if I left right now?” He was reluctant to let Holly out of his sight for a single moment, but the urge to see if Anshar could trust him again or would help him protect Holly was too compelling to ignore.
He allowed Holly to see all the hope in his eyes, and she finally nodded. “Finish your beer and meet me around back in the alley,” she said, with color staining her cheeks. “Before you go, I want to see if last night’s kiss was an anomaly, or if you really are the hottest thing on two feet.” She stood and slowly took off her apron, shooting him the most smoldering look he’d ever seen.
Dagon downed his beer in one gulp, surreptitiously rearranged his eager dick, and hurried out the front door while Holly slipped out the back. He didn’t mist, but ran around the outside of the building, trying to convince himself that his haste was because he didn’t want her to be alone in a deserted alleyway for too long. His libido begged to argue.
She stood framed in the doorway. The diffused light spilling from an ancient fixture above her head did little to illuminate her features. Her face was in shadows, and Dagon wondered if, when he got close enough to see, her visage would be filled with the same scorching need he felt on his own.
Holly ran lightly from the doorway and met him between the big, blue dumpster and a pile of recycling. She launched herself in his direction, trusting, knowing he would catch her. His hands came up under her ass as she wrapped her legs tightly around his waist.
“I missed you,” she purred, and Dagon knew just what she meant, even though it had only been minutes since they’d spoken. He gathered her as closely and tightly as possible without bruising her flesh.
“I’ve missed you all of my life,” he rasped. Holly couldn’t possibly know how many thousands of years that had been.
She looked up at him like he was the only man on earth, and he wasn’t about to disappoint.
Dagon grazed her cheek with his lips then nuzzled her ear. Shivers moved down her spine and her nipples hardened against his chest. She threw back her head to give him better access and, knowing what she wanted, he kissed down her neck until he met the material of her shirt.
Holly groaned. Gods! He wante
d to whip her top and bra off right here and suck her tight buds. Her need radiated between them. Dagon shifted, freeing one of his arms, while supporting her against him with the other. He hesitated. This was no whore…this was Holly. Dare he touch her so brazenly? The decision was taken from him. She reached for his indecisive hand and placed it squarely on her small breast. He moaned at the contact.
Holly’s face, so close to his, dissolved in pleasure. His big, hot palm covered her tit, squeezing with what he hoped was just the right amount of pressure. He could feel her excitement building, along with his. The engorged shaft that bulged in the front of his jeans throbbed with need. She rubbed her crotch on him, almost frantically.
A little more pressure, she was thinking, and Dagon, hearing her loud and clear in his head, complied. Now squeeze that nipple. He honed in on the sweet protrusion and caught her gasp in his mouth. God! I’m so close to coming, and we’re both still fully clothed! Dagon was enflamed by her inner dialogue, and swooped in for an aggressive kiss. He loved that she wanted him hard and rough.
The rational part of Dagon knew that this was insanity. They were in an alley, for gods’ sakes. Someone could appear at any moment. He plunged his tongue deeper, playing with the piercing in her mouth, wondering what the small bit of metal would feel like on other parts of his body. How had his needs gotten out of hand so rapidly? He almost wished she’d reach between them and lower his zipper so that he could shut his brain up and let his cock do the talking, but he was first and foremost a gentleman. He pulled back from her sweet lips reluctantly and held her face to his chest.
His voice felt like metal filings as it left his throat, and he was rasping a bit around fangs that had begun to descend. “I won’t take you the first time in a dirty alley.”
He heard her sigh, and then kissed all the soft curls on top of her head. “I may feel like an animal when I’m around you,” little did she know how much, “but I refuse to act like one.” How close his serpent was to revealing itself! He kissed her upturned nose and left her with a promise, “I’ll be back tomorrow night with or without friends. No matter how things work out for me, I can’t…I won’t let you go.”
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