Page 36 of The Devil Takes

I swallowed, waiting for him to continue.

“No.” Percy’s voice was a honeyed whisper. “I don’t regret that night.” Though he clearly regretted something. “I regret every night since.”

I stared at him.

Thump, thump, thump.

My dick pulsed and the feeling was so foreign it made my head spin. It would be so easy to grab him like this. To push his thighs open and force my cock inside him. He’d like it too. I could see the way he was watching me, pupils blown black with lust, his tongue flickering out to wet his lips.

“My life is a nightmare right now and I can’t seem to wake up from it,” Percy admitted quietly. He looked so…sad. His expression forlorn. Reminded me too much of Cerberus when he begged for scraps. I didn’t know what to do with that face. Didn’t know what to do with him at all.

His heartbeat quickened.

I chased the sound of it, my fingers clenching into fists. I shouldn’t humor him. I shouldn’t be listening to him at all.

“Your life is a nightmare and your response is to seek me?” It didn’t make sense. He should be scared of me. It was clear I wasn’t human anymore. I didn’t even remember what it was like to be one.

“I guess.” Percy shrugged, clearly unable to disagree.

Again, I was floored.

I didn’t know what to say, my skin too tight, my head fuzzy as I forced myself to hold very still for fear of frightening him. It was not lost on me, the irony that he’d only been in my bed for minutes and I’d gone from wanting him out of it, to wanting inside of him.

What was it about him that made my skin itch?

“Are you looking for distraction, pup?” I asked, because I wasn’t sure why else he’d be here, why else he’d find me of all people. I couldn’t give him what the living could. In fact, the longer he stayed here, the more dangerous it became for the both of us. Living souls were not meant to remain in my kingdom for long, or at all. Not that it had stopped Percy thus far. Regardless of how he managed to get here, his soul could not stay too long lest he risk it losing its way back to his body.

“I’m looking for escape,” Percy corrected me. Cheeky. Sad. A juxtaposition that made me endlessly intrigued. How could one have so many emotions at once? So many that I couldn’t keep track of them as he shuffled on my silken sheets, his lovely nose scrunched up in frustration, his eyes shining with desperation.

Desperate for me to save him.

From what?

Himself?

I could not be an escape and he should not seek me like this. Devil, demon, King—I had been called all these things. My purpose was to hand out punishment, torture, and justice. I had spilled more blood than tears, severed hope, created balance. I could be relied upon for many things. I could be called many things. But…never once had I been called “comforter.” Never once had a man lay naked in my bed, his eyes lost, praying to me for absolution from sins he had not committed.

Touch me, his eyes pleaded.

Help me forget.

“I don’t think I can give you what you want.” He wanted gentle. He wanted an emotional connection. Something I wasn’t capable of. I wasn’t sure if I ever had been. That was why I’d been chosen for this job, after all.

“Please?” The word was nothing but a breath. So quiet if we hadn’t been mere inches apart, I might not have heard it. It was a simple word. One I heard often. But not like…this. Not from him. He’d been so reluctant to beg me before that now…hearing that word from his lips so readily…fuck.

My dick throbbed, and I had to force myself not to touch, so surprised by the intensity of my own desire, I didn’t know what to do with myself.

Please, he said.

So sweetly.

Like it cost him nothing to give this to me.

And then I felt the gentle brush of his fingertips as they stroked over my cheek and my resolve continued to crumble.

“You gave it to me once before,” Percy reminded me, words soft. Memories of what exactly I’d given him assaulted my senses. I fought back a groan, my own lashes growing heavy as my balls began to ache. I had given him something that night. Something I hadn’t even known I could give. I’d fucked him in every definition of the word. Plowed into his slick hole till his pleasure dripped down my sac, till he’d sobbed, till his fat pink cock had leaked all over the dirt.

“You called so sweetly for me then.” The words left my lips without permission. I shouldn’t be reminiscing like this. Or at all.

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