Page 37 of The Demon's Queen

She orgasms with my name on her lips, and my heart is a fool ten times over because it’s certain this changes things, even as my brain knows better.

Some things can’t be forgiven.

The only thing I can do is remove the threat and send her home, pausing on the way out to ensure she has enough money that she never has to work again if she doesn’t want to. It will mean losing her forever—there’s no world where she’d welcome me as a client still, even if I were willing to continue endangering her. The contract will have to be nullified, but while that process is uncomfortable and will drain my power for a time, it’s a small price to pay. If I hadn’t been so damned selfish, Eve never would have been in danger.

Maybe, if I’d been honest from the start, it wouldn’t have come to this.

Eve reaches between my thighs to cup my balls. Her gaze is a little dazed, but she’s clearly not stopping until I come too. “Get out of that head, Daddy. You’re in my hands now.”

She squeezes, and there’s no holding back my orgasm. I forget myself enough to slam her down on my cock once, twice, four times, and then I’m spilling inside her.

Bargainers don’t believe in an afterlife the way humans do. Our gods are great and unknowable beings who formed the realms and then moved on to do whatever gods do with eternity stretching behind and before them. When we die, we become one with that universe, and sometimes a soul will be pulled back for another chance, many lifetimes in the future.

But if I believed in the concept of heaven—whatever that looks like—thenthiswould be it. Exhausted and spent, Eve relaxes in my arms, tracing abstract patterns on my chest.

She sighs and kisses the spot she was just stroking. “Azazel?”

“Mmmm.”

“If you keep fucking me like that, I might not have any choice but to forgive you.”

She means it as a joke, but I can’t take it as such. Not when it’s aboutthis. I hug her closer and press a kiss to her forehead. “You’ll always have a choice. If you ever do forgive me, then it will be in your own time, when your heart is ready.Ifyour heart is ever ready.” I want that time to come, but I’m not confident it ever will. Not with everything I’ve done.

Eve makes a face like she wants to argue but finally shakes her head. “No, you’re right. I’m sorry. The sex is too good. It’s making me silly.”

I tip her chin up and kiss her slowly. “I like you silly.”

“Yeah?” She nips my bottom lip. “Well, you know what to do.”

“I do.” I kiss her again.

There are many hours left until dawn. I plan to use every one of them.

CHAPTER 17

EVE

The next three weeks pass in a blur of... happiness. Azazel stops keeping me locked up in my room and starts bringing me with him as he takes up Ramanu’s duties. Not all the leaders of the villages we visit are as supportive of him as Alice is, but they clearly respect him and his policies. And his peoplelovehim.

We spend each night in his bed, fucking and cuddling and sleeping.

He even has me sit in on his meetings with Nuin and Ziven, where they give their reports on their efforts to locate and capture Brosh. I like them both quite a bit.

Nuin is shorter than me, with deep-purple skin and thin, straight horns like some antelopes. She’s clever and serious, laying out each stage of their search systematically.

Ziven is her opposite in every way. Ne is tall and lanky, with skin nearly the same shade as Azazel’s, curving horns, and a deep laugh that makes me smile no matter the situation. Ne seems to have plenty of experience with finding people who don’t want to be found.

It’s only a matter of time before they find Brosh and this all ends.

That’s what I should want. Azazel has promised to send me home once the danger has passed, which is what I was fighting for from the moment I woke up here.

Even so... I find myself hoping that Nuin and Ziven take their time.

The next morning, I wake up to find Azazel standing by the desk in his room, drinking his coffee and reading through an intimidating stack of papers. He’s usually up before I am, but after the disastrous moment the first morning I woke up in his room, he’s always here when I finally manage to roll out of bed.

I walk over, then wrap my arms around him from behind while pressing a kiss to his spine. “Morning.”

“Morning.” He squeezes my hand. “I have to go farther afield this morning, and unfortunately, it’s not safe for you to join me.”

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