“I got a job when I was younger and learned the business. Then I made some good connections and investments and it grew from there.”
Selena hmphed. “Those must be some connections.”
“One in particular,” I agreed. “A widow had fallen for me back in San Francisco. She didn’t have children and didn’t care for her relatives who she called leeches, so she left me a few properties.”
“Oh.” Selena’s expression hardened and she glanced down. “You had a relationship with her?” She fumbled with the container that had contained her clam roll.
“I had sex with her.” When Selena pursed her lips and didn’t raise her eyes, I prodded, “Are you—jealous?”
She pushed the plate forward, even though it still had plenty of her clam roll and half the fries. “Of course not. That’s ridiculous.”
“Good. Because there’s no reason to be.” I took her hand. “I’m here with you.”
She smiled, but it was tight, like something bothered her. “Just for a few more days.”
Was that why? Did she possibly want me to stick around longer? A demon could hope.
She pulled her hand away and stood. “Come on. Let me kick your ass in air hockey.”
An hour later, Selena had kept her promise by beating me in two out of three games of air hockey. We returned to it every so often after playing other arcade games, and I eclipsed her scores in Skee-Ball. Many of the times that I’d messed up while we played games was due to distraction. She attracted attention wherever we went—male and female.
We were designed to entice humans, but I couldn’t deny the possessiveness that had grown. It took all my willpower not to hold her arm as we navigated through the arcade and growl at anyone who looked at her for a second too long.
After the attractions shut down, we walked hand in hand back to her place. I couldn’t get enough of her, touching and kissing her all the way back. Once we entered, I pulled her into my arms and devoured her in a kiss.
After our lips parted, she panted. “What’s gotten into you tonight?” Her eyes brightened with inquisitiveness.
“You. Haven’t you figured that out yet?” She was under my skin and in my psyche. Whether it was from this bond alone, I no longer knew.
She kissed me. “It’s time we turn that around.” She smiled with simmering underlying seduction. “Now you need to be in me.”
Chapter Seventeen
Selena
Over a delicious breakfast of eggs and bacon the next morning, Daron convinced me to go hiking. I don’t know how he did it. It sounded terrible. All that walking and bugs. Who needed that?
Yet, he insisted that he wanted to get me to experience nature. I admit, I was a city girl, spoiled by the ease to obtain just about anything I wanted. Why venture to where none of those things were accessible?
I took two hearty sips of coffee. “But, we’re demons. We can teleport. Why hike up a mountain?” I waved my hand to emphasize my sensible solution.
“It’s the experience. And also stress relief. You can’t find that by teleporting as quick as this.” He snapped his fingers.
“Oh, the old, it’s the journey, not the destination kind of crap?”
“Not crap. It’s the destination, too.” He speared some eggs and ate them. “I promise you will like it”
An hour later, we were at the trailhead, staring at a stand with a vertical map. Daron pointed a trail by dragging his fingers. “We’ll take an easy one.”
“We better,” I mumbled.
Once we set off on a path leading through a gap in the pine trees, he said, “Look around. Isn’t this nurturing to the soul?”
I grunted. “We’re demons. Not supposed to have one, remember?”
“Says who? People who don’t have a clue as to what we are?”
“True.” The path was too narrow for us to walk side-by-side, so I fell back behind him. No point in trying to lead when I’d only get us lost. “Do you think two predators like us have souls?”
“Who knows?” Daron glanced over his shoulder and continued to trek. “Like all the mysteries of the world, we’ll probably never find that answer.” He motioned to the forest and mountains surrounding us. “What I do know is that I’m not going to let some clueless, narrow-minded human categorize me in some box that shoves me to a lower level than them.”
I sighed. “That’s a good way of looking at it. Especially since we’re higher on the food chain.”
Daron glanced back again. “Exactly.”
We didn’t say much over the next few minutes as we trekked over pine needles and around ferns. The terrain wasn’t difficult to navigate, but with the slight incline, my heart pumped more quickly, and my body heated up.
“Don’t worry, it’s only a short ascent. I promise it will be worth it.”
In a few more minutes, the sound of falling water grew louder, a soothing backdrop in the near silence of the forest. Silent save for the sounds of rustling leaves and skittering animals.
Not long after, we broke out of the woods. On the left, a waterfall crashed over rocks into a stream below. With the varying levels of rock and trees flanking each side, I had to admit, it was quite impressive. Wondrous.
“What do you think? Worth the trek?”
“It’s pretty—impressive,” I admitted.
“Romantic?”
I turned to face him. “I suppose.”
“Good.” He stepped closer and caressed my cheek. “I hoped you’d like it.” His eyes appeared deep and intense as he stared down at me.
I swallowed. “You don’t strike me as the romantic type.”
“What type do I strike you as?”
He cupped my cheek and stepped closer still. My pulse quickened and skin flushed. A reminder of the jealous flash that came over me yesterday returned. But he was with me now and there was no need for me to get possessive.
“Dark. Sexy. Smoldering,” I managed to say. “Someone who knows what he wants and how to get it.”
His fingers traveled lightly over my jawline before he tipped up my chin. “Do you know what I want?”
My mouth opened as I prepared to retort with some snappy comment, but I shut it just as quickly. I had to learn not to ruin things, especially with Daron. He’d brought me out here to show me something he enjoyed, and yes, it was super romantic.
Instead, I asked, “What do you want, Daron?” My voice turned a shade huskier than it had been.
“You should know by now.” He tipped his head. With his lips a fraction from mine, he paused. “You, Selena. I want you.”
I sucked in a breath. “You have me this week—that’s long term for our kind.”
His eyes gleamed. “It doesn’t have to end then. We can give us a go.”
He captured my mouth and I sighed against his lips. He kissed me with a gentleness I didn’t know was in him.
Could we do as he suggested? Keep this going for longer than we’d planned?
We continued to kiss. Surrounded by all that unspoiled nature, I imprinted all I was feeling onto memory. The scents of Daron and the forest, somehow complementing each other as both wild and unspoiled by the commercial world. The sounds of the water falling and of singing birds nearby. The intimacy of the two of us alone out there.
And his touch.
Everywhere that Daron ran his hands along my body was like a slow simmering wildfire. Nobody had ever had that effect on me before.
What would happen when we broke the bond? Would we carry on the way we lived before, moving from one meal to another?
A part of me wondered if it was that easy. Because bond or no bond, something about my short time with Daron had started to change me. On my own for so long, I started to understand the connection between lovers.
Once you shared something like that, could you walk away?
Uncertainty made me tremble and I pulled away, breaking the kiss.
* * *
Daron
Days at Selena’s flew by too quickly
. I dreaded when we’d part. She hadn’t shot me down when I’d suggested we keep our bond going for longer than the week, but she had pulled back. Although we typically gave each other space during the day, we met at her house every evening for dinner and then what not. Last night included a competitive game of Scrabble over a few Summer Shandies outside the safehouse while the sun set before we ended up in bed. Tonight, we were headed into town. Rather than competing against each other, we were joining forces playing on the same team at a local trivia night.
We entered a dark-paneled Irish pub with numerous bright Guinness signs twenty minutes before trivia started. The scents of burgers and beers were most prominent.
“Let’s order some food and drinks,” Selena suggested. “We don’t have any time to waste once the game starts.”
“Competitive, eh?” I squeezed her butt before we slid into a booth.
After she sat, she raised her brows. “You haven’t figured that out about me yet?”
“Oh, I have.” I slid in across from her. “Most recently last night when you slipped in ‘zipper’ with a triple word square near the end.”
The grin she flashed was both a tease and challenge. “I don’t like to lose.”
“Nobody does.” It had been a close game the night before as well as when we played a trivia game online. I walked away the champion when she handed it to me with a question about Hawthorne. I’d visited the House of the Seven Gables the day before.
“We’re not losing tonight.”
I scanned our competition. There were plenty of small groups and a handful of couples.
“I’m guessing they’re our biggest competitors.” I nodded at the group of five thirty-something decked out in pop culture T-shirts.
“Sometimes freaky and always geeky?”
“What?”
“That’s their trivia group name.”
I straightened in the hard, wooden chair, preparing myself for business. “We need one.”
“Beauty and the Beast?” she posed with a teasing glance.
I laughed. “I’ll take it.”
She glanced around the pub and brought her gaze back to mine. “With the way all these women have been staring at you like you’re on the menu, they may protest.”
“I like seeing you get jealous over me,” I teased.
“I’m not jealous.” Her spine straightened. “That would be as stupid as two sex demons trapping themselves with monogamy.”
* * *
Selena
Multiple women staring at Daron during trivia almost made my claws come out. Literally.
These weird new feelings of jealousy undermined my resolve to break our bond. Sure, I’d told Daron that I wasn’t jealous, but it was a lie. Damn, my possessiveness raged out of control around him.
After we teleported back to the safehouse, I said, “To congratulate us on our epic trivia win, I have a surprise for you.”
His eyes brightened. “I’m intrigued.”
I caressed his palm and gazed at him with my best bedroom gaze. “You should be.” I led him to sit on the sofa.
Using my sultriest, hip-swaying walk, I strolled over to the entertainment center to play music. I’d heard Daron listen to classic and alternative rock when he wasn’t singing along to Ol’ Blue Eyes in my kitchen. I found a playlist on his phone and selected a song to fit the mood.
When the opening of Robert Plant singing “I Can’t Quit You Baby,” began, I swayed my hips from one side to the other.
“Zeppelin never looked so hot.” He leaned forward and rubbed his jaw.
I continued to dance in slow, seductive moves and tease him with glimpses of skin.
“Come here.” He curled his finger, motioning me toward him.
“Not yet. I thought you were keen for a strip tease.”
“Hell yeah I am. I’m already hard as a rocket.”
“Good.” I smiled with satisfaction.
As the song continued, I slowly slithered my way out of my dress.
Daron moaned. He uttered, “Beautiful.”
Then I removed my bra. And panties. Daron sucked in a breath.
When nothing was left covering me, I kneeled down and crawled over to him. I spread his legs wider and stroked his hard bulge straining in his pants. After I unzipped them and cupped his hard length, his breath hitched.
“Can I touch you now?” His voice held an edge of urgency.
My sigh mirrored his need. “The sooner, the better.”
In the next second, he scooped me up and carried me to the bed. “You drive me crazy, Selena.” His voice lowered to a whiskey croon. “Now it’s my turn to do the same to you.”
Chapter Eighteen
Selena
After a hot night and another quickie in the morning, Daron and I rose late for breakfast. We sat at the round wooden table in the kitchen near the window with a view of the ocean. Sunlight streamed in, a bright and cheery welcome on a September morning. I had to admit, it was kind of nice having him there.
Once we were both caffeinated on our second cups and polishing off our pancakes and bacon, he said, “We had a great day yesterday. Can I convince you to spend another day with me?”
“Careful, Daron, you might grow too attached to me,” I teased.
He reached under the table and squeezed my knee. “Too late.”
“That’s only because of this bond,” I dismissed and put down my fork.
“Maybe.” His tone sounded unconvinced.
Was there any truth to it? Could we actually be growing to like and care for each other outside of the bond?
“Sure, we can hang out today. Anything particular in mind? After all we’ve squeezed in this week, we’re going to run out of ideas.” I glanced outside the window at the sliver of an ocean view at a diagonal angle. A boat was leaving the dock. Humans heading out early for some time on the sea.
“Yes. I thought we’d do the whole touristy stuff in Salem today.” Daron lifted some brochures featuring witch museums and other attractions. “Unless you’ve done that already.”
“Can’t say that I have.”
“I’ll get a couple of those attraction passes and we’ll gallivant from one to the next.”
“Gallivant,” I repeated with a laugh. “That sounds like how you approach life.”
An hour later, we started our route through town. A museum dedicated to monsters was a given. We wandered through the exhibits, a treat for horror, sci-fi, and fantasy movie buffs.
“Amusing, isn’t it?” Daron said. “Humans and how they perceive the supernatural.”
“Since they don’t know, they guess. Sometimes they come up with ideas more bizarre than reality.”
After we left the gallery, we headed over to the Pirate Museum and learned a bit about piracy in the area. Then, we wandered through witch-owned stores and gift shops. In one, Daron brandished a plastic sword and challenged me to a duel.
“I prefer your other sword,” I whispered.
His infectious grin matched my flirtatious tone. “You can play with it later.”
After a picnic lunch of sandwiches on the waterfront, we visited the Salem Witch Museum and the Witch History Museum, hearing more about what had happened during the witch trials in 1692. The tone turned from frivolity to somber. Although we’d amused ourselves that morning with the way humans represented us, the executions of witches were a horrible reminder of how dangerous human ignorance could turn. It became more apparent during a reenactment of a trial. Human actors accused young women of witchcraft and they were sentenced to death. My stomach tightened.
After the show, we wandered through the nearby cemetery where many of the women were buried. With each grave we passed, my turmoil increased.
Daron asked, “You okay?”
I swallowed the distaste after witnessing those events “Yeah. Human arrogance and ignorance sicken me.”
“Let’s move on to something less intense.”
Behind Daron, on the other end of the grave
yard, I spotted a man staring at me. He wore a worn long charcoal coat despite the seventy-degree weather. The only reason he’d need that was for concealment.
Weapons.
My blood iced. How had he found me?
The hunter’s glare turned hateful as he bounded through the cemetery in my direction. He reached beneath his coat. His hand confirmed it—the crooked index finger with the blackened nail that had made me shudder.
“Daron.” I clutched his arm. “Teleport with me. Now!”
Seconds later, we were back in my safehouse. I glanced at the windows and doors as if they’d burst inwards with hunters crashing through them. After a few seconds, I fell forward and clutched my knees as I gulped breaths.
Everything had been going so well here in Salem, and the recent encounter with the hunters had started to fade. It all came rushing back. Being bound, unable to move. Their threats. Their leers. That incapacitating feeling of being captured and controlled by the hunters. I should have known better than to grow complacent. I was on the run. They wouldn’t stop until they killed me.
And I would do anything to avoid being caught and touched by them.
“What happened?” Daron brushed hair away from my eye and tucked it behind my ear.
“A hunter.”
His brows furrowed. “A hunter? I thought you were getting upset by the reenactment.”
“I was.” My hands shook like I’d overloaded at one of the countless Dunkin’ Donuts in the area. A sheen of cool sweat coated my skin. “But, then I saw him in the graveyard—one of the three I’d escaped from in New Orleans.”
Daron led me to the sofa and sat beside me. “I won’t let them get to you, Selena. Let me help you.”
“How?” My terror came through with the high-pitch in the word.
“Tell me everything so I know what we’re against.”
We? He wasn’t hunted. At least not yet. Not until he was found with me. My gut twisted and skin turned clammy. Being around me might have endangered him. I bent forward and shuddered.
SCORCH: An Incubus versus Succubus Demon Romance Page 12