Page 70 of The Deer and the Dragon
I could have written poems on the way Azrames’s eyes stayed trained on Fauna’s face, amazed and intimidated all at once by the burning intensity of his unwavering gaze. Mine, on the other hand, flickered once more to her tell-tale toes.
God, these two were incorrigible.
I finished my beer, sipping as I watched the speckled smartass fumble with the dredges of her candy-apple drink and struggle to speak. I would have exchanged glances with the bartender if he’d had a face. Instead, I waited as the handsome demon laid out the red carpet with a little more shameless flirting before it was time for us to leave.
“You ready, Marmar?”
I pointed to myself with a little too much surprise. I’d almost forgotten I existed amid the intensity of their two-person play.
“She’s fine.” Fauna waved without looking at me.
“Off we go.” He winked.
Azrames waved goodbye to the shadow before pluckinga dark umbrella that I hadn’t realized he’d rested against the wall upon entry. He pushed the door open with one hand, sheltering Fauna and me with the other as he escorted us to a slick, black vehicle.
A renewed confusion coursed through me. I’d expected to be led to a hearse, a hellhound, a horse-drawn carriage. Instead, he led us to the most expensive car I’d ever seen in my life. The black night of driving rain couldn’t obscure the star-striking anomaly at the curb. The man drove a goddamn Bugatti. My gaze shot between him, Fauna, and the sports car. I didn’t know much about Hell, but I knew money when I saw it.
Azrames didn’t seem to notice my open-mouthed shock at what would have been north of a two-million-dollar vehicle in the mortal realm, with some models topping out in the fifteen million range. I gulped against the display of wealth, vividly remembering a client’s gripe about the race cars. He’d claimed he’d love to buy one but that the elite ones sat only two, and he had a wife and children to consider. He’d claimed he was unwilling to consider humiliating himself with the four-seater models. I’d recognized it for the bluff it was. The top models cost anywhere from five to fifteen million. He was a first-time client, and I knew from the way he’d tipped and cut the evening short that it would also be his last meeting with me. When it came to Maribelle and Bugattis, the man could afford neither.
I’d refrained from mentioning that “considering his wife and children” should begin with the ethics of hiring escorts rather than where they’d sit. I was a single working woman. They were the ones going to Hell. Or…perhaps I’d have to come up with somewhere worse for the bastards to end up, as Hell seemed far too cool for them.
I remained beneath the protective canopy, rain thumping overhead as I tried to calculate what one would have to do to own a Bugatti. While my cogs continued turning, Azrames busied himself opening the front door for Fauna first, thenthe back door for me. The doors lifted skyward, making me feel like an accomplice to a Bond villain as I slid in. The rain quietly dripped down his hair as he held the umbrella over her, then me, protecting us from its chilling bite.
I was pretty sure I was in love with him.
I scooted to the middle of the back in case I needed to be included in conversation but immediately felt like I had turned on the early dialogue to porn, which did nothing to lessen the star-struck crush I’d grown on the couple in the front seats. I didn’t know how to click out of the screen. The actors were already delivering their lines.
“It’s still the hottest chain I’ve ever seen,” Fauna said, four strong drinks clearly working as she ran a finger along the silver, rope-like necklace that had been draped around him like a lasso in four distinct tiers, intricate sigil dangling from the bottom.
“It would look better around your neck,” he said, “particularly once we get you out of your wet things.”
“But I didn’t get we—” She stopped in the middle of her sentence, squirming as his meaning clicked. He grinned, sharpened canines catching in the dimmed light from his chariot.
I was caught between wanting to disappear and being unable to look away. I wasn’t sure whether or not I wanted them to stop or if I was buzzed enough to ask them to let me watch the inevitable conclusion of their entanglement… Maybe if I’d been shooting whiskey instead of drinking beer…
Some part of me remembered a proverb about two wolves fighting within every person. One was for light, and one was for dark. I chewed on my lip as I considered the outcome. I was in Hell, after all.
It was a twenty-minute drive from the bar to Az’s place. While he kept one hand responsibly on the wheel, another rested on Fauna’s knee, his thumb working idly over her thigh.
We stayed put when he parked, equally speechless. IfFauna was too stunned to speak, then it was out of the cards for me entirely. She didn’t even look over her shoulder at me as he rounded the car to open her door, extending his hand to help her out of the passenger’s seat.
The walk from the vehicle to his apartment was the single, tensest moment of my life. I might have been imagining it, but Azrames seemed to have lost a bit of his swagger as he unlocked the large, black door to his place.
I pulled my lips inward as I battled the urge to make a curious face. Was he nervous?
Ever the gentleman, he ushered us into a home so grand that it turned my eight-thousand-a-month unit into comparative squalor. He tossed his keys onto the island and told us to make ourselves at home while he moved into the kitchen and poured glasses of water for everyone. I appreciated how well he’d decorated the large, upscale space, even if it was a tad masculine. The furniture, though expensive, remained stiff with a certain coldness. The art was tasteful, the place was enormous, and the entire floor was filled with the arousing smells of fire, authority, and the same incense that had burned in the metaphysical shop. I considered the scent and the memory of my trip toDaily Devils.Perhaps Betty had been it solely for her demonic business partner.
He offered me a glass of water, voice husky as he did his best to address me, though his attention was clearly divided. “Mar, you can stay in the room at the end on the left. It has its own bathroom. I’m pretty sure the items in the closet will fit you.”
I scarcely had time to react.
He turned to Fauna, but she didn’t give him a chance to say another word. She planted her hands on his chest and pushed him backward toward a bedroom that she obviously knew very well. His grin returned as he picked her up, scooping her into his arms with an unmistakable growl until her legs wrapped around his waist, cinching them together. Her mouth was on his with claiming intensity before I hadthe chance to look away. They’d barely closed the door to his room when I heard the unmistakable tear of fabric and the first of what would be two carnal hours of many, many moans.
If I were a better person, I would have politely ignored them.
But I’m not a better person.
I was very curious to know what someone might look like in a world devoid of color without the hassle of that sinfully thin white T-shirt, the cuffed jacket, the dark jeans. I would have clicked on a vanilla thumbnail of the two of them based on the visual curiosity of a gray, horned man and an impossibly beautiful woman alone, but something between the gasps, the yelps, and the distinct metallic sound of chains told me that whatever was happening behind those doors was premium content.
