Page 24 of Demon with Benefits
“I’ll be right back,” Iris muttered, and she leapt up from the couch and fled down the hallway to the bathroom, dodging Belial on the way and leaving Meph behind to face his bastard, cock-blocking brother.
“What the fuck is your problem?” he snapped at Raum as Bel came up behind him.
“That was payback,” Raum said. “You know you deserved it.”
“Payback for what?” Bel asked, but they ignored him.
Meph groaned and dropped his head back on the sofa. He had a clear memory of interrupting Raum with a chick the last time they’d gone out together, pulling some asshole shit. Raum had looked him straight in the eye and said, “You will pay for this.”
He had, apparently, just fulfilled his promise.
“We’re even now,” Raum said.
“Fuck you.”
And then he smiled. Not his evil payback smile, but a genuine, utterly nondemonic one. “Glad to see you’re... feeling better.”
He was, of course, referring to the fact that Meph hadn’t been out in months because of his no-touchy issues.
Meph glared at his brother.
Belial looked between them blankly. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“Nothing,” Raum said, and he turned and headed back to the kitchen. Belial shot Meph a look that said he was in trouble for something even if he didn’t know what it was, and then he followed Raum down the hall.
Alone, Meph dropped his head back onto the sofa. He needed to get home and into the shower fast, or he was going to have a serious case of blue balls. He was pretty sure Mist would kill him if he jerked off in Lily’s bathroom, so it was time to disappear.
And so, not two minutes later, he was calling out, “Later, fuckers!” before slamming the front door and hurrying as fast as he could toward home.
Yes, he was running home to jerk off. And yes, he had a hard-on the whole way back through the frigid winter winds. And yes, he felt like an idiot.
But it was totally worth it to have made Iris come. Damn straight.
5
BONE TO PICK
IRIS SPENT A GOOD TEN MINUTES IN THE BATHROOM. ITonly took a couple to clean herself up, and she spent the rest of time sitting on the closed toilet lid with her head between her knees, breathing in and out. In and out. Like she was fighting off a panic attack.
It was just... She hadn’t expected that. Which was dumb, really.
Meph had played her body like a violin. A concert grand piano. An entire goddamn orchestra. He made her come harder than she ever had, but that shouldn’t have been a surprise. Just looking at him made her wet. That kind of attraction could only bring earth-shattering results.
But now she was dreading emerging from the bathroom. She was going to have to look into his red eyes and find out how he would react to what had just happened between them.
Was he going to start ignoring her again? Or was he going to be a smug jerk and rub in her face how intensely she responded to him?
There was only one way to find out. And it wasn’t like she could hide in Lily’s bathroom forever anyway.
Except when Iris emerged, the sofa was empty. So she wandered into the kitchen where everyone was hanging out, figuring Meph must have gone there. But he wasn’t there either.
When she stepped into Lily’s kitchen, she got a few nods, and the casual conversation went on uninterrupted. She stood in the corner and pretended to be involved. She’d just had her world turned on its head and shaken vigorously—all from some heavy petting on the sofa—and she felt miles away from everything.
She caught Raum’s gaze from across the room.
He was leaning against the far wall, Faust in his arms. The facial hair around his mouth was like a frame for his full lips, and his perpetually furrowed brow only made his eyes pop more. The bright gold color made a striking contrast against his dark skin.
He was giving her this direct look that somehow revealed nothing of his thoughts while imparting a whole lot of weighty meaning. She didn’t read brooding-demon stare fluently, and yet she felt like she understood.
