Like demons and the Nephilim.
He glared at her. She was so very different from what hed expected. Her protective coloring hadnt fooled him when hed first taken her, but even in her real form, she was a far cry from a sex goddess. Her breasts were on the small side, the curves of her hips subtle; her chin was stubborn, her mouth tight, her eyes filled with either anger or fear. Hed known sirensdemons and humans, creatures who tried to lure any man into their clutchesand hed even given in a time or two, for the sheer pleasure of it.
But the Lilith was like no siren or demon he knew. Her clothes were plain and baggy, her face free of paint; she wore no adornment of any kind. It was almost as if sex were simply not a part of her life.
But he knew otherwise. He knew that beneath her drab exterior the heart of a raptor existed, a predator who was ready to claw a man to pieces once shed mated with him. Lamia, cursed shriek owl; Lilitu, the wind demon, monster of storms. And he was drawn to her anyway.
Your bedroom is at the end of the hall, he reminded her. He needed her gone. The scent of her was maddening, elusive, bewitching.
Im not tired anymore. She moved into the formal parlor, taking a seat and looking at him out of those warm brown eyes. I want to know what Beloch meant. What kind of test is he expecting you to perform?
He let his eyes drift over her, slowly. He knew what Beloch was ordering, challenging him to do. He wanted Azazel to touch her, taste her, bed her. Azazel was supposed to fuck her and then prove he could walk away from her, turn her over to the shattering destructiveness of the Truth Breakers and then celebrate the destruction of one more demon.
He could no longer fool himself. They would destroy her. She might have demon blood, but she no longer had the ability to change form. She had the frail human body of a woman now, one that would break under the Truth Breakers hands. And he would have no choice but to give her to them.
He looked at her and his body stirred, and he despised herand himself. Every reaction was a betrayal of who he was. He could tell himself it was simply her wiles, her powers, that were doing this to him. But he wasnt asleep, he wasnt drugged.
And he wasnt going to do it. Not tonight, when need vibrated through his body and he wanted to shove her up against a wall and take her. By tomorrow hed be back in control. By then he could take her to his bed and then walk away, untouched, unchanged. He could expose the demon the only way possible, through the act of sex. And she could no longer pretend she didnt know what she was.
What it was. Go to bed, he said gruffly. Or youll wish you had.
She simply raised an eyebrow, the foolish creature. It was unwise to underestimate him. He could squeeze the life out of her in moment, break her neck, end her as hed come so close to doing, more times than he could remember. He could end this farce.
She must have read some of the violence in his
eyes. She rose, shoving her hair away from her face, and sighed melodramatically. She came up to him, pausing in the doorway. Im not afraid of you.
You should be, he said. Just a taste, just a warning, he told himself through a haze of desire. So she knew what was coming. And before she knew what was happening, he shoved her up against the door and slammed his mouth down on hers.
I FROZE, IN SHOCK, OUT of necessity. His hands were on my arms, imprisoning me. His body crowded me against the doorjamb, and his mouth was hard, angry, punishing.
I would have kneed him in the balls, but he was too close, trapping me between his hard body and the wall. I kept my mouth shut, wondering whether I could bite him hard enough to draw blood, wondering why my breath was coming fast and my heart was racing. It wasnt fear. Id told the truthI was no longer afraid of him. I remembered his kiss from the dockside, the rush of desire that had suffused my body.
As it did now. My pulse raced, my skin heated; I was wet and ready. I thought, Fuck it, and opened my mouth for him, taking the sweet invasion of his tongue with a shock of pleasure, and I knew Id been waiting for this, longing for this without knowing it. Longing for him, my enemy.
His hands slid down my arms to the hem of my loose T-shirt and then up underneath, cupping my breasts in the thin bra I wore. I could feel my nipples harden at his rough touch, and I hated it, hated that I wanted him, that I needed him so badly my legs shook and my hands trembled, and he was hurting me.
And then, just as I was about to struggle, he gentled, and the kiss became a sweet wooing, a delicious temptation, and his long fingers slid beneath the flimsy bra, pushing it up and out of the way, and I wanted to gasp with the sharp pleasure of those fingers against my pebbled flesh.
He brought his hands up to cradle my head, as impossibly the kiss deepened, and I wanted my clothes offnow. I wanted to strip him naked and feel him inside of me, pulsing and thrusting. I could sense it, anticipate it, feel the thick push of him, and I cried out against his mouth as a small climax startled me.