Demon Chained (Shadowfae Chronicles) (29 page)

He squirmed his hand between us and rubbed his palm over my nipple, catching the hard bead between his fingers and tugging. Pain and delight stabbed straight to my sex, and the sting of sensation tipped me over the edge.

***

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Her eyes squeeze shut, her thigh crushes me to her, her body convulses like she's dying. Her nails scrape my back, tearing my skin in delicious scratches, the sting sweet and erotic. A little scream forces from her pretty mouth, hot and breathless and beautiful and God, I love this. I love what we're doing. I love watching her come, and now she's doing it on and under me, it's amazing. Her little muscles grip me deep inside her, wringing her pleasure from her, and she's tight and hot and smooth and everything I dreamed she'd be.

Her nipple swells in my fingers, hard and round like a gemstone, and my balls wrench tighter. She's got me so painfully hard and damn, she feels so perfect on my cock, her warm wet flesh around me and those lovely muscles rippling so deep, it's a while since I did this kind of thing but I don't remember it being like this.

She's finished, and she opens her eyes for me, those saucy black eyes I can't get out of my mind, and for once I'm glad I'm dead and my blood starts slow and cold. I didn't come yet. Maybe I can get her off again before I do. But urgent desire ripples my skin at the feel of her. She'd better get on with it.

She can't catch her breath, my luscious lady, and that sexy pleasured glaze lights her eyes as she shudders beneath me. "More. There's another one. Don't . . . oh, God."

Tension tears up from my balls, and I can't put it off any longer. I pull her thigh around me and thrust into her, hard, searching for the spot she likes before it's too late. She pushes up against me, her body molding to mine like we've done this a hundred times. Her hair's so soft on my hand, her skin's smooth like cream under my palm, and her glorious, smoky scent burns into my brain like a frontal assault and all I can do is surrender. God, what an amazing woman. She sheathes me so tight her flesh burns my cock, and the heat spills over me, fills me, ignites urgency in my blood. When it happens, it happens fast.

She screams, louder and longer this time, and her deep muscles tighten, so hard around me and that's all I've got.

Release rips from my guts with sharp claws, dragging burning sensation through my balls and out along my cock to spill into her. It hurts, Christ, but it's the most pleasurable pain I've ever felt. Hell, I don't know the difference anymore. I take her mouth, swallow the wonderful sounds she's making and fill her with mine, our teeth bang together and there's blood but we don't care, she's coming on me and I'm coming inside her and who gives a shit about anything else?

I don't know how long it is before I smell rain, and realize there's still a world outside us. Minutes, maybe.

She's still got me wrapped in her arms and legs, her breathing short and shallow beneath me. Her cheek's still pressed to mine, her nose buried in swathes of my hair. I'm still inside her, and heat flushes my skin all over again. Shit. I should move, let her get up, clean up the mess I've made in her sweetness. But I don't want to. I want to stay here, wrapped in her embrace forever, and Jesus, Tam, did you forget something?

It's almost morning.

Almost. There's no light yet. Just a few more minutes.

A couple of fat raindrops penetrate our leafy shelter and fall on my back. I can feel them, splat, splot, sliding on my skin. I smell the dusty scent of rain. I hear raindrops, pattering on wet leaves, and Jewel's dusky taste sparkles in my mouth. My heart's still pumping, my skin alive with her sweat.

I smile. Alive, just for a while.

***

He grinned, his cheek moving against mine, and I smiled back at him, lazy with satisfaction. "Still with us?"

"Only just." He sighed, and slowly rolled us over so we were lying side by side, my limbs still wrapping him, his hair still tangled over my arms.

I felt him start to slip out of me, leaving me cold and empty, and I whimpered in protest and squeezed closer so he'd stay there for just a little longer. "Don't go. It's not time yet, is it?"

Immediately I wished I hadn't said that. I sounded needy, jealous, helpless without him.

But he just folded his arm around me. "Nope."

I swallowed. "Once you've . . . once my lamp's gone, do you think . . . ?"

He just kissed me, long and gentle and loving, his tongue wrapping around mine, our bodies still joined.

I guess that was an answer.

But still my heart melted. I'd made the right decision. If this was my last hour of freedom, I'd spent it well.

He broke off at last, before I was ready, and for a moment we stared at each other. His eyes were so beautiful. Dark and fevershot, the lashes crusted, but so vital and full of life that it hurt my soul to look at him. Emotion swelled in my chest, too powerful and smothering to be swallowed down. Words spilled into my mouth, words I had no right to say to him, that he wouldn't want to hear. Words like
more
and
love
and
forever
.

He lifted his fingers to caress my lips, or maybe to stop me speaking. "Jewel?"

My throat tightened, and I tried to swallow but failed. "Yeah?"

His candid gaze flickered at last. "Go to sleep."

I stared, and tried to fight it, but no use. Fatigue fogged my mind, my vision washed out, and too quickly the glorious sensation of him faded and I sank into darkness.

***

Chapter Twenty-Nine

"Until it's morning," I finish, but she's already sleeping, her sweet little mouth relaxed and her muscles loosening around me.

Guilt sharpens my mouth, ruining her aftertaste, and I want to spit it out on a curse. What else could I do? Walk away with her staring after me? Leave her here with that look of disappointment on her lovely face?

Just because making love—or whatever the hell else I can find to call what we just did—just because it was her idea doesn't mean I have to feel good about this. If she's sleeping when I leave, at least I won't have to watch her suffer.

Gently I unwrap her arms and legs from around me, and my cock slips from her for the first and last time. The early morning air wafts cool on my skin now she's gone, and the light patter of rain dampens my hair, lifting the scent of jasmine blossom. I can't tell whether it's her or the creeper from Delilah's place. I choose to believe it's Jewel.

I get up, and rearrange my jeans that we never got around to getting off properly. I'm damp with our juices, dark and mingled, and I don't want to clean up but I do. I collect her clothes and dress her, lifting her hips to slide her silken pants back on and threading her limp arms through the sleeves of her pretty shirt. She doesn't stir. She just murmurs and smiles in her sleep, and I have to bite my lip to keep from waking her up for one last kiss.

Goddamn it. I so want to leave her, forget her. But this one'll stick, Tam, she's the one whose face you see on every stranger for weeks afterwards, whose scent and smile and firecracker kiss haunt you, until you hunt through your phone for her number, hoping she hasn't forgotten you. Only this time she doesn't have a phone, and she'll hate you forever. Let it alone.

I fasten the last button, stroke her hair back from her cheek and let her be, curled up on the grass like a succulent little fairy. The rain's clearing. She'll be okay here for a few hours, under the tree where no one can see her. I slip my shirt on, dust myself off and shake blossom and a few tangles from my hair. My body aches from loving her, but it's a good ache, deep and warm like muscle relaxant. There's new blood on my skin, new wounds, and green venom still stains my shirt. When I think about it, those Joey-slashes on my chest are stinging faintly. The toxin will get to even me eventually, and this little accident of ours will speed up my metabolism for a while. I should wash. But there's no time for that now. Pale dawn doesn't ring the horizon yet, but it will soon. No time for anything but Kane.

I don't touch her. I don't look at her. I just grab the lamp from where I left it in the dirt at the base of the tree, and slink beneath the branches and away.

***

In Toorak, the trendy suburb where Kane lives, the houses are grand and well-kept, the gardens neat, the gutters washed clear by the rain. It's a clean and pretty place, lived in by clean, pretty people who drive their shiny expensive kids to school in shiny expensive cars, and look at people like me like we're about to break into their polished houses and rip off everything they own. Usually, we are.

But I don't see any of it. All I see is time. In the sweep of the early morning breeze through treetops on the nature strip, in the leaves falling slowly to the yellowed lawn, in how long it takes me to walk each block or wait for traffic crossing the street or take a breath. I spent Jewel's last twenty on a cab. It didn't get me all the way. I flip my phone out as I walk in the fleeting darkness, and the clock tells me just how cruel and remorseless time can be.

It's after five. Soon, it'll be dawn.

A fat green spriggan rolls naked in the wet gutter, gurgling and kicking his legs, leaves plastered in his wiry hair. He grins at me and sticks one gnarly finger up his squashed nose. Dude, I so want your life.

I step around him to hop up on the pavement. Kane's place is tall and yellow, skulking behind a wrought iron fence and a wide slate courtyard bright with floodlights. There's a large electric gate for cars, and a little one for people. The small gate swings open silently when I push it, the iron cool on my wounded fingers. Somehow, he always knows when I'm coming.

I leave it open behind me. Fuck him. Hope his cat gets out.

Water burbles, a stone-edged water feature where fireflies dance around the night lights. There's a banshee passed out on the lawn, her face buried in a mass of wet scarlet hair, her thin summer dress tangled around stick-thin thighs. The slate path's slippery, the air tangy with wet grass and mulch and the faint slur of . . . chocolate and dark fairy blood.

My heart tumbles like a falling rock. I pause and wait for it, the moisture leeching away from my mouth and somehow collecting behind my eyes.

"Tam." Low, breathy, beautiful. He's crouched like Gollum on a rock by the wall, his wrists crossed between his ankles. Blood drips onto the concrete from his chewed hands, and rose-tinted bruises make a mess of his face. His hair's a cocoa jumble, stained and ripped ragged, and there's a wet mess on his shirt where Joey thumped him. Beaten up, bloodshot, tense. Kind of like he always looks.

My skin swells, nerves shuddering. I don't know what to say to him. Hell, I never know what to say to him. "You okay?"

Gavain flexes bloody fingers and chews his lip with red-stained teeth. "I didn't mean it."

Ire stings my veins, cold like the lamp in my hand. What does he want, forgiveness? I've already forgiven him. I'll never forgive him. "Just get out of here before Kane tears you a new one."

I try to walk on, but he scampers into my path on all fours and twists upright before me. His gaze is steady, lucid, unafraid. "She promised me—"

"It doesn't matter." I sidle around him, careful not to touch.

He grabs my arm, stopping me. His supple fingers burn. "You, Tam. She stole my dreams and she promised. I didn't know what else to do. I love you, Tam."

My heart jerks, painful.

Me.

He did it because he wanted
me
. Stupid fairy idiot's in love.

Clueless dead moron had no idea.

Of all the things I'd ever thought about him, I'd never credited him with a heart. Fuck, what an asshole I've been.

In a rush of heat, I remember him touching me, kissing me, his mouth a wet burst of wonder on my skin. I remember laughing in fits with him at that silly woman on the tram. I remember his grace as he scraped me from the pavement, helping me walk, wiping blood from my eyes, washing my hair.

We could have been friends. It didn't have to be like this. I was lying to myself to pretend it was him that was afraid. Christ, he terrified me, his swelling lips and his broken, bleeding heart. If I'd only been honest with him, none of this would have happened.

I'd still be out there, hunting DiLucas with a cold and happy heart. Joey would never have kicked the crap out of me, Delilah never bruised Gavain's angel face. Kane would've had his lamp a day early, and I'd never have known Jewel. Never kissed her. Never loved her sweet body in some dusty park with blossom in her hair.

I care. I don't care. I don't know if I care. Goddamn it.

Gavain tightens his fingers on my forearm, his cherry lips quivering. "And then she says you'll die, and . . . shit. I didn't mean it. Truth. Please."

I close my sticky eyes so I don't have to see. He's too near. He's too far. What a fucking waste. "Gavain, I . . . shit."