Page 13 of Claiming a Demon

“No.”

My rambling stalled, and I looked up at him. Even sitting next to him, he towered over me. His deep purple eyes were soft, and he tipped his head slightly when I fidgeted next to him.

“No?”

He shook his head slowly. “No, I’m not upset. I was a little, but you made me feel better.”

A huge breath whooshed out of me, and I almost melted with relief. “Okay, good. Are you hungry? I don’t know about you, but I’m starving.”

It was an easy distraction and luckily, Mal took the branch I was offering, moving the conversation onto less awkward topics. We hit up a pizza place nearby, and I asked Mal more questions about his work. He kept bringing the topic back to me and I figured he wasn’t comfortable being the center of attention. Lucky for him, I loved to talk, and I burst into chatter, answering any question he threw at me.

After Mal went to join his friends for poker night, I scurried home. He’d asked before if I wanted to join him, but tonight was a little awkward, so I didn’t bring it up. I threw myself onto my bed, groaning into the pillows, doing everything possible to banish the image of his erection tenting the sheets from my mind. Why did he have to be so damn sexy?

It took forever for me to fall asleep. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw Mal. My body throbbed with need, but I refused to give it any sort of release. I was not going to be jerking off over a client. That was a recipe for disaster. Instead, I hugged my body pillow, doing some meditative breathing until I finally passed out.

* * *

When I blinked, I was back in that room with Mal, rubbing oil onto his chest. He groaned in appreciation, those gorgeous purple eyes half lidded and locked on me. I felt my breath catch, my hands moving lower automatically.

“Zach… Please…”

Ah, shit. That was the sexiest thing I’d heard in forever. I bit my lip, trying to remind myself to keep it professional. But my hips rocked automatically, and I felt him tense underneath me as I ground down on him. His hands moved to my hips, encouraging me, and when his cock brushed against my entrance, I couldn’t hold back. I shifted back, reaching between us to rub the oil over his length, and sank down on him the second I could. His groan was quiet, like him, but still gave me goosebumps.

Resting my hands on his massive chest, I lifted myself up and sank back down, my mind melting from the intense pleasure coursing through my system. I couldn’t focus on anything other than riding Mal. He lifted his hips, meeting me thrust for thrust, until I was exploding over his stomach without warning. My cry of relief was drowned out by a growl so inhuman it made me shiver. I dropped forward, the pleasure still washing over me in waves, and smiled at the handsome demon beneath me.

“Mal…”

He smiled softly, his claws running through my hair. I waited for him to say something, but when he opened his mouth, a buzzing sound came out that I wasn’t expecting. I blinked a few times, confused, but the sound kept going, jarring me from my sleep.

Sitting up with a gasp, I looked around wildly. It was a dream. One of the hottest dreams I’d ever had. I groaned, scrubbing my hands over my face. This was bad. I couldn’t be having dreams like that over a client. I told Mal he had nothing to be embarrassed about, and yet here I was dreaming about it. I should’ve known it was a damn dream. I didn’t need to sit naked on top of a client to massage their chest.

My phone buzzed again. My alarm was what woke me, and I was both grateful and resentful of it. I wanted to know what he was going to say. Even in a dream, I hung off his every word.

This was bad. Really bad. I had a crush on my client. And if the wet spot on my body pillow was any indication, it wasn’t going to go away any time soon.

I’m so screwed.

CHAPTER NINE

MALAKAI

Zach kept his promise and never brought up my embarrassing reaction again. It didn’t suddenly stop happening once I knew it was normal, but Zach was always professional about it and didn’t comment. I always left his care feeling more relaxed and in control. I looked forward to our appointments every week. We always ate dinner together afterwards, and I walked him home. It was nice. It made me late to the poker game, but no one seemed to mind. Callum even mentioned that I was looking more relaxed than usual. But good things never last. Almost six weeks after my first appointment with Zach, I got another phone call on a Monday morning from my mother that sent me in a tailspin and I couldn’t cope. I tried to keep it together by myself like I always had before, but this was beyond what I’d ever dealt with in the past. Even before my next appointment with Zach rolled around, I was more tense than the first time I showed up there.

I normally coped better with setbacks and didn’t let it affect my work. But even Mikhail noticed I was out of sorts by Wednesday afternoon and decided to send me home early to spare the rest of the staff from my mood. That was saying something, coming from him, since normally he was the one with the short temper. I debated back and forth about going to see Zach, but he said I could stop by whenever and ask for him, and I couldn’t think straight.

Since it was around lunch, the spa was busier than when I showed up here most nights. I got a lot of wide-eyed looks, which I was used to, but didn’t help my mood today. Waiting in line at the front desk, I kept my head down, my mind racing with everything that was happening in my life. Being this out of sorts wasn’t like me and I didn’t like it, which only made the stress worse.

“Can I help you?”

The woman behind the front desk wasn’t the one who was usually here when I was. She looked a little worried, but she didn't flinch or cower when I stepped up to the front desk.

“Is Zach here?”

She pursed her lips, shaking her head slowly. “No, not today. Did you have an appointment with him?”

I fought back a grimace. I couldn’t expect him to work every day, but the disappointment was just another weight on my back and I felt panic well in my chest. My ability to hide my emotions slipped and she must’ve noticed because a sympathetic look flashed over her face before she gestured to the back.

“Did you want to go to the meditation room? Take a few minutes to clear your thoughts?”

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