Page 69 of Dancing With Demons

“The only way to soothe this beast is to feed it.” Ronin’s voice reached me through the fog. “Oh, and that was just a freebie. The clock starts now.”

“Starts now, my ass!” I was still jerking and twitching from that freebie. “Don’t you dare touch me, Belphe, you asshole! I can’t believe you drugged me and called it a gift!”

He clicked his tongue. “You’re so defiant for a pet. Even more so for a bond who lives at my mercy. You presume to mar the face of sloth, blackmail me, and set in motion a coup that will upend the balance of hell, but you dare to speak as though I’ve betrayed you?” A hard, brutal kiss ravaged my lips and ate my moans.

I came again.

“Now shut up and take your punishment,” he growled, “while I claim my win.”

“Please,” I begged as he climbed on top of me. “This is too much, Ronin. This isn’t normal. How do you even know that drug is safe for mortals? What if—”

“Shhh...” Ronin reached down and stroked my cheek. “I’m going to fuck the shit out of you now.”

I gawped at him, straight stunned. What kind of overconfidence did a man need to have to deliver a line like that with no shame or irony?

Ronin started stripping, slowly peeling each layer off his body, and revealing inch by inch of his hard, muscled flesh. That was all he was doing, and I was already prickling like a million butterflies were fluttering beneath my skin—readying to take flight the minute he ignited another screaming orgasm.

“Listen,” I tried, forcing a laugh. I tried not to make it obvious I was yanking harder on my wrist and ankle binds. “I know you’re not pleased about the embarrassing pictures thing. Or that you’re ending your day with five fiancées you didn’t propose to, but I think you need to calm down and talk—”

Ronin tore his pants clean off his body.

Responses didn’t get clearer than that. “Calm” and “rational discussion” were a few other words that weren’t in his vocabulary right then.

Ronin slammed his hands down on either side of my head, penning me in even more effectively than my restraints. He plastered against me, molding my heated body to his.

I blushed as he stuck his face against my neck and breathed me in deep, exhaling a long, soft moaning breath as if he just inhaled the ambrosia of the gods.

“Ronin, stop, p-please,” I gasped, knocking my knees together. I held my orgasm down by sheer force of will. “I don’t want to—to do it like this. Not while drugged.”

“You didn’t care about doing this while under the vampire’s drug.”

My reply clogged in my throat. How could he possibly know the accusations I hurled at Santino when the two of us were alone in his bedroom?

“So what’s the difference, pet?” He tugged sharply on my hair, snapping my chin up and ripping free a cry. Or was it a moan? “Why are there different rules for him and different rules for me? Why can he drug you and suck your blood and pussy dry? Why can the leech offer you up to his vampire brethren, and then dangle his protection as a shield to the danger he created, but when I do the same you look at me like I’m”—his ruby orbs swallowed me—“a demon.”

“I... That’s...”

“I’m getting quite tired of your hypocrisy, Charlotte. I’m starting to think the real prejudiced bigot with a preference for one species over the other is you.”

I choked, indignation welling up in me hot and fast. “That is not true! And it’s not the s-same!” My voice cracked, breath hitching at the seeking, stroking hand climbing my thigh. “I reject you because you’re an asshole! An asshole who dragged my sister into all of this! While Radu is—well, he is—” I was quickly losing steam. “Okay, he’s an asshole too, but that’s not the p-point.”

Damn that hand! I shivered under Ronin’s ministrations. Why is it still going higher even while I’m chewing him out?

“Radu is not the point,” I plowed on. “I don’t have to be fair about this. I’m not hiring people to work in a factory. This is my body and I decide who—”

“No, it’s not.” Three simple, murmured words shut me down better than a shout. “It’s my body. Didn’t you know?” His smirk chilled me to the core. “My name’s on it.”

My chest heaved, pushing against him. How could anyone be like this? How could they be so awful, so ridiculous, so pigheaded, and so sexy? Why was it that, even now, all I wanted was for my own runaway mouth to shut the hell up... so he’d keep going?

His lips crashed on mine, answering the thought that never got a chance to leave my lips.

But a heated moan sure did. I couldn’t help it. His fingers had ended their travels, and found their destination between my legs.

Human-on-demon glaring eyes burned each other even as our mouths danced a different tune.

“Agh,” I cried, eyes rolling as two fingers pushed past my folds, burying deep to the knuckles.

That orgasm I was holding back was howling at the gate, shrieking and rattling the iron bars like a wild animal. She wanted loose. She wanted freedom to wreck me as she would.