Page 24 of Raising the Sun

“On the contrary,” he purred, draping himself over his corner of the couch, arms stretched out. “I do enjoy the occasional deflowering.”

I rolled my eyes. “Let me guess, you get off on dirtying the innocent?”

“It is rather riveting.” He dropped his voice even lower, its rich tone like honeyed silk. “Being the first to map out your skin with my fingers and tongue, to seize your sighs and moans. The way you’ll look at me like I’ve given you the entire world on a silver plate. Yes, that’ll be riveting indeed.”

A bead of sweat gathered at my nape. “But you could have anyone else.”

“Yes, and I wantyou.” He said the words with such certainty, his face showing no signs of mischief, that it derailed me a tad and made me wonder what I was even dithering for. But it was only brief. His natural smarm and flirtiness returned post-haste. “And since you are in need of my assistance, it would kill two birds, as they say. A mutual arrangement formutual benefit. We both get what we want, and have fun in the process.”

“But it feels like I get the better end of the deal.” I shrugged. “Sex with youandhelp with my business.”

“You sell yourself short, pet.” He raked his gaze over the whole of me, leering. “I assure you, I am very, very content with the terms. I would have asked for a higher price for my services, otherwise. Your firstborn, perhaps.”

I scoffed at the not-so-subtle nod to our first meeting, wondering if, in hindsight, that option would have been any easier.

“You also needn’t worry yourself about my virtue,” he added as if sensing my doubts. Not that hisvirtue, or lack thereof, was being disputed, but the matter of his free will was. “I’m quite capable of knowing what I want.”

I’d admit, it was my second biggest hang-up. The guilt for not only trapping him here without prior knowledge of the true implications, but also having to use him for my benefit. Hearing how sure and eager he was did make me feel marginally less like a twat, though. I’d probably still feel ashamed for being the reason he couldn’t leave until he actually could, but since the only solution to that was biting the bullet and getting the ball rolling, why not just do it?

It was a no-brainer, really. I’d know that I’d done everything to save my business, and he’d be free to go home sooner.

Win-win.

Before I could end my silence with either acceptance or rejection, Ash chimed in. “Do you not wish to be intimate with another? Is that why you stall?”

“Huh? Of course I do,” I said, maybe a bit too defensively.

The demon shrugged, unperturbed. “I have a brother who does not care for the act, therefore, does not participate. He finds his pleasures elsewhere—in battle, for example. I wondered if you were of the same inclination.”

“Oh.” Understanding dawned on me. “No, I have the desire, it’s just never been at the top of my agenda. I’m definitely not into battling anyone.”

“We all have our hobbies.” He smirked. “But I wouldn’t wish to keep tempting you into something that you have no interest in being tempted into. Your body may be tuned in to the act, but if your mind is not, it would be a fruitless endeavour. I only persist as every time our eyes meet, it’s as if you want to devour me… orbedevoured.” I felt my cheeks heat. Was that true? “I react to the energy I’m given, pet, but if you truly wish for me to desist, I shall. We can live in immaculate harmony; it would make no difference to me.”

“That’s…” I scoffed lightly. “Mighty moral of you.”

“What can I say? I like my pets drooling for me.” Now there was a visual, and probably not far off what I’d been doing with his lips wrapped around my cock. He smirked again. “Disinterest is, after all, very disinteresting.”

“Well, my inexperience has nothing to do with me not wanting it, trust me.” I huffed a short laugh. “Growing upin a really nosy household put me off trying with anyone when I was younger, and I saw no point in sneaking around—the town’s way too tight-knit for that. Then, by the time college ended, I was so invested in floristry and opening the shop that months turned into years, and suddenly, I’m a twenty-eight-year-old virgin who’s only dated”—using the term loosely—“a handful of people. It’s just how it worked out.”

He nodded in acknowledgement. “Then…?”

It was a prompt, a final effort to know where I stood with him. With his advances. “I... I don’t want you to stop,” I heard myself admit, and though the somewhat impulsiveness of it startled me, it was the truth.

I’d given myself a chance to think. I’d looked at the evidence through defeated eyes and realised I had backed myself so far into a corner that I couldn’t pretend everything would sort itself out anymore. No matter what I did or how hard I worked myself sick, my tenacity wasn’t enough. I needed help. Pride, spite, and stubbornness had forced me to cling on, but for what? All it did was kill every last bit of hope I’d had, knock my confidence to the floor, and damage my life so irrevocably that I needed to make a deal with a literal demon to save it.

It was disheartening to learn I’d fallen so deep into a hole that only fairy tales and magic spells could drag me back to the surface, but as long as Wayne didn’t find out, I was safe from the ‘I told youso.’

Probably.

“I want you, and I want your help,” I said with more conviction, gazing up at him to show my sincerity. “I just… I don’t know what I’m doing.”

Ash studied me for a moment, his fierce eyes boring into my soul. It was unnerving, but also had my belly heating in ways it probably shouldn’t have, which must have been his intention as his expression turned predatory.

He reached for a tumbler I hadn’t noticed on the side table, two fingers of amber liquid in the bottom, and took a slow sip. “Well, luckily, I do.”

“Lucky,” I said intelligently, my mouth hanging agape as I stared at his Adam’s apple bobbing on a swallow. How could he make something as simple as drinking look so… sexy? I didn’t even like whisky, it just sat in the cabinet for whenever my dad decided to come over, but I craved it now.

I’d have downed the whole bottle if Ash had offered it to me.

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