Page 50 of The Devil and His Goddess

I took a step back and bumped into the window behind me, right in front of the band poster. I held my breath, now reeling from the new question in my mind.

Was this Perseus?

Was my masked demon, my boss, and the guy I loved to banter with the same person?

I couldn’t find the courage to ask any of the questions burning my tongue. I was too afraid to hear the answer, because if it was true …

My heart began to pound, and I released a shuddery breath, suddenly picturing what face could be just beyond that cloth. The body that could be confined beneath those fitted black clothes.

The thought made flames lick at my middle, and that was when I knew that I couldn’t stand here any longer.

I pushed off the wall and sped down the sidewalk. Harsh frosty air hit my face as I ran, and the cold funneled into my throat, making it raw as I panted. Despite the cold of the night around me, I’d never felthotter. My entire body practically thrummed with heat from the inside, lighting me up like molten lava. I turned a corner and dared a look behind me, but instead of seeing him, all I managed to glimpse was a blur of black right on my heels.

I whipped back around and made a sudden right onto another street and then another right. After already being worn-out by the intense work day, my limbs ached and fought me now, yet I ran on, too afraid of what would happen if he caught me.

Or rather, too afraid of what I’dfeelif he caught me.

I cut down another street, and as I darted past an alleyway, hands reached from the darkness to snag me. A black-clawed hand covered my mouth while the other hugged my arms to my sides, pulling me against a hard torso. I struggled to catch my breath as I fought futilely against the demon’s hold, all while he pulled me deeper into the darkness of the alley.

“You should know better than to run from me,” he purred against my ear.

I tried prying my face and arms free, but no amount of strength in my body was a match for his. Suddenly, he fell backward, taking me with him. Only after we settled did I realize he’d been sitting down on some metal stairs that climbed the side of the brick building beside us. My petite body rested between his legs as he continued to hold me against him.

“I think you should be punished for running. What do you think?” he questioned, sliding his arm down my frame to hold me near my lap.

I tried shaking my head beneath his hand, but the gesture merely made him chuckle. The sound of it and his voice weren’t Perseus’s. The demon’s was deeper and smokier. I tried telling myself they couldn’t be the same, even as my heart rebelled slightly at the notion.

Abruptly, shadowy wisps filled my vision, and the arms that had been restraining my limbs and mouth were replaced by cold, airy ropes of pure shadow.

The masked demon stood in front of me, leaving me bound and settled on the steps to stare up at him. I attempted to break free of the shadows he’d created around me, because they werejustshadows. Yet the material seemed to be stronger than any duct tape or chain shackles.

He plucked my fallen bag off the ground with his black-clawed hands, and, after only a second of consideration, began rummaging around in it.

“What do we have to play with, hmm?” he asked me, and even with the mask obscuring his face, I couldhearthe smile in his gravelly, distorted voice.

He pulled out a pair of pointe shoes from my bag. Maybe he’d find it strange, but I always carried a pair with me. Just like readers always had a book, regardless of the occasion,Ialways had pointe shoes.

His wide shoulders shook as though he were laughing, though the blood rushing in my ears made it too hard to hear. Turning his skull-like face in my direction once again, he beckoned me with a crooked finger. The shadows wrapped around my body lifted my arms out toward him like a dinner being served on a silver platter. He gripped my wrists hard, and with a quick wrap and tug, he had my wrists tied with the ribbon of the pointe shoes. He yanked my arms over my head, and I gasped behind my shadowy gag as he tied the dance shoes around a railing of the stairs.

My heart lurched as I shifted more onto my side to alleviate the strain of the new position of my arms, but he quickly grabbed my ankle and forced me to roll completely over onto my stomach with my bound hands tied to the stair railing above me.

“Who knew pointe shoes had more than one use?” he chuckled darkly, the sound coming right by my cheek.

I turned my head in that direction to confirm how close he was, only to find plump lips stretched into an intoxicating and fanged grin. He’d pulled the mask up enough to expose his mouth, and the second I looked in his direction, the shadowy gag vanished so he could crush that mouth to mine.

I moaned into his parted lips, relishing in the electric shiver that swept through me and came to land between my thighs. My body strained as he hovered above me with one arm braced near my head and the other by my hip. His massive frame bent over the steps to cocoon me in place. I instinctively fought against the way my ribcage pressed into the stair edge or the way my hip bit into the metal, though I really couldn’t give a damn about the discomfort. Not when the demon kissed me so fiercely.

His lips claimed mine as though he were a dying man, and I was somehow his salvation. His tongue tangled with my own in a need so raw, it had my blood igniting and stars dancing behind my eyes.

His clawed hand slipped beneath the band of my leggings and underwear, sliding down my crease and between my thighs. I gasped into his mouth, and he devoured the sound as two digits plunged into my soaked pussy. I tensed, expecting to feel a burst of pain from his claws, yet no pain came. I couldn’t confirm, but it was as though his fingers lost the talons before entering me, and as he curled those two fingers to stroke inside of me, I went slack-jawed and nearly came.

“You love being dominated in this decrepit alley, don’t you, slut?” he asked, letting his tongue flick my ear before he bit down on the lobe.

I pulled reflexively against the ribbon restraining my arms and pressed my back further into his chest and groin, which still caged me in. “Why?” I croaked between moans. “Why are you here? Why now?”

He chuckled. The rumble vibrated my back and made my core throb even hotter with want. His fingers were divine, but I wantedsomuch more.

“Because my human hasn’t been showing my cunt any attention since my last visit. I can’t have you constantly denying what it wants.”

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