Dark Desires After Dusk (25 page)

“Deal.” He turned for his room, collecting his hat and an envelope from his duffle bag. At the doorway between their rooms, he said, “Try not to break the law again before I get back,” then shut the door.

When she heard him exiting from his front door, she realized he was going to act as if he were merely a neighbor. Clever demon . . .

But what if something went wrong? What if they still demanded to see the room? She surveyed the debris in abject fear.

How can I get rid of the evidence?

Hitting on an idea, she began dismantling the remains of the table, breaking off legs and stuffing the pieces under the bed. Broken lamps and sliced pillows joined the collection.

Thirty nerve-shattering minutes passed before Cadeon returned. “What happened? Tell me!”

“Everything's taken care of.”

She frowned. “You smell like beer.”

He rolled his eyes. “Oh, yeah, Holly, like me and the cop were downing a beer together.”

*   *   *

Of course, he and the cop had completely been downing a beer together.

They'd sat in a booth in the motel's lounge as Cade
spun tales that the man didn't hear because he was too busy staring at the stack of cash Cade offered him. The small town cop seemed an honest enough guy, but he had five kids and Christmas was coming. What was he supposed to do?

“No one's going to want to come in?” Holly asked.

He shook his head. “Not unless you start back up again. The room looks great, by the way.” It was cleaner than when they'd first come—except now it had less furniture. “So, I did my part, Holls. Looks like it's showtime.”

“I can't believe you are going to make me watch something I'm opposed to.”

“You put it down, but you've never viewed it? The bra-burner's a tad hypocritical, no?”

“Though I've not yet tried drinking acid, I still put it down. And don't call me a bra-burner! There's no need to make fun of my feminism.”

“First of all, I'm not
making
fun—I'm
poking
fun. And second of all, I'm doing it to your face.”

“What does that mean?”

“If we bandy the subject, at least you know where I stand and you get a chance to persuade me to your way of thinking. Can you say the same about the other men in your life? The
yes men
?”

She narrowed her eyes. “Meaning Tim.”

“He's not as perfect as you like to think.” Naturally, Cade despised him with a deep and virulent hatred. But Cade had also gotten the feeling that Tim wasn't the lap-dog he appeared to be.

“No, maybe he's not perfect,” she said. “But I bet he doesn't consider women to be
tarts,
who should be in a man's bed twenty-four hours a day.”

“I was jesting about that. Mainly. Almost totally.”

She glared.

“For the record, male Lorekind have higher opinions of females than human males do. The playing field's more equal in our world.”

“Ha! I find it hard to believe that men who've lived for centuries—and might even be
medieval
—believe in equality more than a human male raised in the Madonna era.”

“The Lore is home of the Valkyrie, Furiae, Witches, and Sirenae. You underestimate females, and you find your balls nailed to the wall.”

As she digested that information, he said, “You're not going to distract me from this. We had a deal.”

“Made under duress. Did you ever think that I might be morally opposed to watching pornography?”

He snorted. “You're not the good girl you used to be. You get drunk and carouse with demons, sitting on their laps and giving them horn jobs in front of an audience. You went rock star on this poor mom-and-pop motel room. And just last night, you got me to show you my goods, though I was vulnerable and weak from a bullet wound.” He shook his head sadly. “Face it, Holly, you're a
bad girl
.”

Her lips parted. Though his version of events was utterly skewed, the fact remained that all that had taken place to some degree.

He patted the bed so arrogantly. “I believe we had a date. Come on, this is just porn lite. If it costs six-ninety-nine, it's lite. Ah, the things I could teach you, halfling.”

She gritted her teeth and sat on the bed as far away from him as possible. With her hands in her lap, she said, “Fine. I owe you one scene . . . .”

It started innocently enough. An attractive couple
began undressing each other while kissing.
I can handle this.

But her face flamed when they were naked and stroking each other between the legs. Her brows drew together at how
hard
they touched. Surely that would have to be painful . . . .

By the time the man entered the woman, Holly's mouth was dry, her claws were curled, and she couldn't seem to get enough air.

Her scrambled brain was screaming
Turn away! Turn away now!
Just when she forced herself to close her eyes, the demon said, “Ah-ah, Holly.”

She quickly faced him, and frowned. Cadeon hadn't been watching the movie.

His gaze was rapt on her.

“You're not even looking at it!”

“I'm a male—I'm going to watch whatever turns me on the most . . . .” As they stared at each other, moans, groans, and then finally yells sounded as the couple finished.

Once the scene had ended at last, Holly was wondering how she would ever be the same, but she refused to let him know how this had affected her.

“Well, that certainly was enlightening.” Feigning a yawn, she stood, heading for her room.

“You sure you don't want to stay?
Buxom Babes: Volume Eight
is on after this.”

“I'm going to have to pass.” She closed and locked her door behind her, knowing that wouldn't keep him out if he wanted in.

And right now, if the demon wanted in, would she truly want to keep him out?

She flattened herself against the wall, digging her curling claws into the wallpaper.

H
olly shot up in bed with a cry, clutching shredded sheets to her chest. She gazed around the room in confusion, surprised to discover what she'd just experienced was a dream.

The most erotic one she'd ever had. And yet it hadn't sent her over the edge.

She'd dreamed that the sword fight had ended with Cadeon tossing her to the bed and stripping off her clothes, then his own. Like the man in the film, he'd guided his erection between her legs, then held himself above her on straightened arms with his muscles bulging.

Once he'd entered her, he'd worked his hips, slow at first, but gradually building speed and power, until he was plunging inside her like a piston. She'd grown closer and closer under the onslaught of his teeth-clattering thrusts . . . .

Then she'd awakened.

Need to go swimming. Must find a pool.
But she was in the north, in winter!

Here she was in this vulnerable state, and a pornophile demon lay in wait in the next room. She clambered to her feet, snatching up the ruined sheets to stuff them under the bed with the rest of the items she'd destroyed.

After making up the coverlet, she hurried to the bathroom to take a freezing shower. Yet even after she was
dressed, she was still shaking, her hand tremulous as she tried to brush her hair. She repeatedly attempted to effect her perfect chignon. And failed.

She couldn't control her hair, her body, or her thoughts.

And the lightning firing outside seemed to mock her efforts.

*   *   *

Cade had woken, thrusting against the sheets, hard as rock for her.

The halfling's going to be the death of me . . . .

With a groan, he rose, staggering to the bathroom for a steaming shower. Under the water, he recalled her reactions last night as she'd observed people having sex for the first time.

As her eyes had gradually grown wider, her breaths had shallowed, making her breasts rise and fall until his hands itched to knead them.

Leaning his head to rest on his forearm against the tile, he gripped himself and began to stroke.

Her nipples had jutted so temptingly beneath her sweater, begging for him to suck—

A clap of thunder boomed outside. He shot upright when the lights surged on and off. His skin pricked, as if from electrical energy.
Holly . . .

Dashing from the shower, he shook out his hair as he hauled on jeans. He stumbled toward the door between their rooms, barely able to fasten his fly over his shaft. After breaking the lock and entering, he found her dressed, sitting on the side of the made-up bed.

She seemed dazed, staring at nothing. Had she had one of
those
dreams? Where she woke up coming?

From her shaky breaths, it seemed his female hadn't got all the way there . . . .

He stifled a groan. She was in discomfort, aching for what he would easily kill to give her.

He moved in front of her and helped her to her feet. “You're trembling.” He grazed the backs of his fingers over her cheekbone. Her breaths quickened from just that touch. “Ah, pet, you're about to go off just standing here.”

She shook her head hard, eyes wide and flickering from violet to silver. Her tongue rubbed over one of her tiny fangs.

“Lie to me, but don't lie to yourself.”

“This is why I need my pills, Cadeon!”

“That's not what you need.” His instinctive drive was to use his body to pleasure hers, but he couldn't. As if she'd ever allow him to, anyway.

What would she allow?

“You're attracted to me, and you know I sure as hell am attracted to you. So I suggest we help each other out.”

*   *   *

“What do you mean by
help
?”

Cadeon answered, “Not having sex, just giving each other a hand when one or the other needs it.”

“Y-you're assuming a lot.
I
don't need release multiple times a day,” she said, lifting her chin. “I'll be fine.”

“Bullshite. You need it as bad as I do.”

“That's simply not true. I don't even like you.”

“You don't have to like me.”

True. It's because he's such a cad that I can enjoy him.
Holly already knew better than to feel more for him. She could just use him as he'd proposed that first night.

He began to maneuver her against the wall. And she let him.

No, this is madness. I would never think this way . . . .
“It'd be wrong. I'd betray my boyfriend.”

Cadeon laid his hand on the wall beside her head, leaning in. “Look at it this way. We can both release some pressure or we'll blow.” At her ear, he murmured, “And when that happens, I'll be fucking you so hard to put out the fire. And you'll be loving it. When you moan my name,
then
you'll be betraying him.” He pulled back, leaving her breathless—and dying of curiosity.

“Exactly how would we . . . do this?”

“You could stroke me off, and I could finger you.”

She stifled a gasp at his coarse language, reminding herself that this was a very old
demon
.

If they did what he'd suggested, then he would see her naked, would touch her sex. A first.

Am I ready for this?
No! No matter how much she might
want
to be ready. “You act as if we don't have control of ourselves.”

He grazed one of her throbbing nipples, and she cried out.

“Does that sound like a female in control of her body? You need it so bad I could bring you off in three minutes.”

She gave a shaky laugh at the absurdity of that. Then, of course, her mind seized on it. He was saying he could make her orgasm in one hundred and eighty seconds.

What if he . . . could? What would it be like to be brought to climax by another?

But if he did it to her, she'd only want it from him again and again. It was simple human nature.