Page 53 of Demon Queen
“All done then,” Hazen said, pulling out empty needles. I hadn’t even noticed him doing anything, but my arm had blue and pink webs under the skin around the bite, so I guess something had happened.
“Weird.”
“That’s what they say. That is, that’s what my wife says, and she is never wrong.” Hazen grinned at me and then vanished in a puff of dark smoke, leaving me coughing and waving my hand around until the air cleared.
sixteen
. . .
The next morning,I was at my shop, chatting with customers. Again Lucia found herself drawn helplessly to Dorian. I wanted to rip out hair and drag my demon somewhere I could chain him up where no one could look at him. I also really needed to get Dorian alone and talk about Wilkie, about the likelihood of him putting us at risk. But what if he hurt my baby? Chains would definitely help with that too.
I went into the kitchen to work on my model, the animatronics Frankenstein with a layer of candy over top. Or his monster. Whatever. I worked on the base until the scent of strawberry licorice wrapped around me and my mouth watered.
I spun around, and there was a demon, but no one I knew. Nope. This creature was different from most of the demons around here, leaner, and had a metallic gleam to his coppery skin as well as his black, rapt eyes.
“My queen,” he said, bowing low. Wait. I knew that voice, the Cajun flair he used to level up the drama.
“Maurice. I’m not your queen.” I whirled around, refocusing on my task. I wasn’t the best at soldering, and it was weird to seeanother supposedly human person in his demon reality. I was getting so tired of demon reality.
He smelled delicious two steps behind me, mouth-wateringly until my jaw actually ached to sink my teeth into him. He was distracting at a time when I was trying to focus.
He laughed seductively and moved until he was again in my line of sight. “Drigo isn’t any better than me. You know what he used to do? He owned a strip club. You wouldn’t know that kind of atmosphere a strip club run by demons has, but?—”
I whirled around to give him my full attention. “What do you want?”
He stepped closer to me, wings framing his perfectly muscular shoulders as he closed in, lids at half mast, lips parted seductively. “You deserve options. I know that you think you have no choice, but you do. You deserve better than an insensitive monster that will never give you the tenderness you deserve.” His sultry smile increased in intensity times five million as he edged closer, hardly any movement, but he was definitely closing in.
“Come any closer and I’ll eat your face off.”
He edged closer again, dark brows raising. “You make the most peculiar threats. Does Drigo not keep you well fed? You’re welcome to put your mouth on any part of me you desire.”
A wave of sticky lust rolled over me, nauseating, cloying. I also felt myself respond, moving towards him, arms lowering. He was attacking me with his incubus magic. Why now? And was there anything I could do to stop myself from falling helplessly into his arms?
His hands slid around my back, pulling me close, and that’s when I turned up my soldering iron. He yelped and jumped away from me, dropping the magic lust while he prodded his ribs in alarm.
“What was that for?” he demanded, baring his fangs.
I turned the flame on and off and grinned diabolically. “I warned you. Next time it’ll be your eyes.”
He sputtered. “You said bite off my face.”
“Obviously it was a matter of speech. I’m not actually going to bite a demon. Gross.”
He studied me for another moment with those gleaming eyes. “Interesting. There’s more to you than meets the eye.”
“I was going to say the same about you, only opposite. There’s less to you than meets the eye. Did you come here to deliver the cakes personally? If so, please go about your business and be on your way.”
His smile sharpened. “I’m not working with Drigo. Unfortunately, you seem unwilling to assist me in my needs, so I’ll be incapable of helping you.”
No cakes? He was going to back out of our contract? But demons loved contracts. It was in all the stories.
I raised my chin. “You’re in breach of contract.”
He shrugged elegantly. He looked so small compared to the other demons I knew. Except for Wilkie, but my baby could probably still beat him up. “And you could take me to court about it, but that would take months, years, and your duchess season will have been long past.”
He moved closer. “But if you were willing to give me what I need, to feed me like you fed Roberta, I will give you cakes like you’ve never had before.”
He was trying to prostitute me? Sex for cakes? Of all the revolting disgusting… I was a married woman with a child. Hardly common knowledge, but still. There was only one thing to do: Eat his face off.
