Chapter 37
Lionel
Metatron had a mouth on her, but with her gone, I wasn’t alone. I wished I was alone, but no. There was this big, Devil-shaped problem in whose lap I was sitting.
Lucifer bent forward, pushing my hair away from my neck. “You used my shampoo,” he said, his breath heating my skin. “I like it.”
“And what else would I have used after you dragged me back here last night?” I huffed as I reached for some toast. It was cold, but I didn’t really care.
Lucifer’s breath washed over my ear as he chuckled. “Quite a complaint from a man who couldn’t walk straight not too long ago.”
“I had no trouble walking at all before you showed up!” Much, much quieter, I said, “Stupid…plug.”
I bit into the toast. The aspirin was working, as was the coffee. I was beginning to feel human again.
“What did you say?” Lucifer sounded as if he were having fun. If the toast hadn’t been such a good distraction, I’d have kicked his Devil ass.
“Nothing.”
“Are you sure, Nelly? I think I heard you mumbling.”
“You fucking didn’t. I don’t mumble.”
“Keep telling yourself that.” As my teeth closed around another bite of toast, he shifted me on his lap so he could squeeze my butt cheek. “You like this?”
The way he touched me made the damn plug rub against my prostate again, and I had to suppress a small shiver.
“No,” I said. Lied? Damn. Maybe my blood alcohol was still too high to make good choices.
His other hand went to my crotch. “Hmm, I wonder what has you almost hard then. Can’t have been the parfait.”
I’d had enough. I jumped to my feet. “Maybe I really like parfait, not that that’s any of your business. I’m leaving.”
He blinked up at me, his eyes electric blue sparkling. “Why?”
I stuffed the last bite of toast into my mouth and swallowed it quickly. “Because I don’t want to be here. But apart from that? I actually have a job to do, in case you hadn’t noticed.”
He gave a dismissive wave. “Yes, yes. Collecting questionable substances on the soles of your shoes so Trony gets to go really inventive with the cleaning products.” He rose. “But if you insist, we can head out.”
“We?”
He shrugged. “Nelly, I have no wish to find you trying to sway another man’s cock into stuffing any of your holes again, so I will supervise. Also, why would I let you run off somewhere with that butt plug where it is?”
He needed his logic checked, but I was in no mood to tell him about it.
“Fine,” I bit out.
“And I have to walk Soul, obviously.”
“Fine.”
I turned and stomped toward the fireplace room as gingerly as anyone could stomp with a magical butt plug up their ass.
My shoes were once more waiting for me by the door, and again, they looked better than they had since the day I brought them home from the store.
Soul’s clicking claws were the only thing I heard behind me, but I had no illusions about Lucifer spontaneously combusting.
The poodle gave a low bark as I put on my shoes, moving somewhat awkwardly on account of how the plug made me feel all kinds of things.
Still, I wanted to be gone sooner rather than later, so I hurried with the laces.
Inadvertently, I moaned, and out of the corner of my eye, I saw Lucy swagger after me, looking pleased. Fucker.
“Do you need any help, Nelly?”
“Oh, fuck you, Lucy.”
“Babe, I told you. The other way around. I’ll show you soon enough.”
“Fuck off then.”
He crossed his arms. “You heard the Dragon Mother. I can’t do that.”
I decided that resistance and reason were both futile and focused on my laces.
Once shod, I pulled the door open and hurried down the flagstone path to the road.
Soul was right behind me. The Devil probably was too, but once more, I didn’t hear him.
I turned, seeing only Soul. Lucifer, after all, wasn’t there.
Oh, the bliss. I hurried, hopeful that I could possibly just slip away and be gone before the Devil remembered he’d wanted to tag along.
The curb was still a good five steps away when a small hot-pink car pulled to a stop just ahead of me. I froze. Soul dashed past me toward the car, and Lucifer got out from behind the wheel, running a hand through his hair and grinning at me as he rounded the hood.
“I stole Trony’s hybrid. Don’t tell her.”
Well, so much for escaping. “Very inconspicuous,” I said dryly.
Lucifer pulled the back door open for Soul, and if anyone had described that sight to me—the Devil, a white poodle with an overabundance of drool and a temper, and a hot-pink hybrid—I would’ve laughed my ass off.
But here I was, and once the dog was in the car, Lucifer stepped up to the passenger door and held it open for me.
“Well?”
I ground my teeth. The only way out of this was through. And maybe I could even find out what had actually happened to Lily while I was at it. I walked toward the car. Lucifer watched me climb in with a knowing smirk. Butt plug pleasure was a fucking torture device.
Sitting down caused an additional small shiver that raced up my spine and echoed back to my balls. Oh, fucking hell. I hoped for smooth roads.
“Settled in and comfy?” Lucifer asked, humor making his voice crackle like a pine cone thrown to the flames.
“Totally.”
I heard him laugh as he closed my door. He walked around the hood again, but slower this time, making damn sure his muscular thighs and ass showed, as well as a glimmer of skin when he “accidentally” pulled his shirt up as he put the car keys in his back pocket.
He was so fucking fake.
Growling from the back seat made me look around. Soul was standing right in the middle of the seat, stringy drool dropping down. She stared out the windshield. It was probably too much to hope she was growling at Lucifer.
The driver’s door opened, and the Devil slid behind the wheel.
“Seat belt, babe.” When he didn’t start the car, I rolled my eyes and complied. “Nice. That’s it, Nelly.”
“Oh, fuck off.”
“I’d rather not.”
I tried to ignore the smoothness with which he shifted gears as he finally accelerated. I forced my mind not to take note of his smell or his strong hands. I also definitely wasn’t fantasizing about what he could do with those hands. Nope, my imagination wasn’t doing anything at all.
“Where to?” he asked as we got to the intersection.
“Chymical Street.”
Chymical Street wasn’t actually called Chymical Street, it was Wellington Avenue in Brunswick, but in any larger town or city, Chymical Street was the street or area where the magic users sold their skill and craft.
If anyone could tell me anything about what had happened to Lily and the other victims—or help me remove a spelled butt plug—I’d find them there.
“Not much rotten meat for you to raise there,” Lucifer said as he accelerated.
“I’m not going to—raising bodies isn’t all I do, I—nn-aaah…fuck.”
Lucifer had taken the left turn at the end of the long and lonely road that led to his property with enough speed to push me into my seat, hard, and push the butt plug hard as well.
He chuckled, and Soul gave a small bark.
“So sensitive.”
“Fucking hell,” I said, panting. “You did that on fucking purpose.”
Lucifer glanced at me, and the way his eyes were heavy-lidded, but laser-focused on me made me blush all over again.
“Did I? I think you’re projecting. Hmm.” He let his gaze drop to my crotch. “I see Metatron’s point about your virginity. You’re quite easy to arouse.”
“I’m not a fucking virgin, and even if I were, it would be exactly none of your damn business!”
“Nelly.” Thankfully, he looked back at the road. “I would’ve liked to be your first.”
I snorted. “Sorry to disappoint you, but Marc Deacon got there a long time ago.”
Lucifer’s gaze sharpened. “And who is that fascinating character?”
“We shared a room in the orphanage, not that that’s any of your business.”
“Did you enjoy it?”
“What the fuck kind of question even is that? Whoever really enjoys their first time? We were two horny teenagers, and we got off, that’s about all there was to it.
” Why was I even telling him this? Oh, right.
Aftereffects of the hangover, and also, he’d forget all about me once he was done with me, pretty much like I expected Marc Deacon had.
“Hmm” was all the reaction I got from Lucifer. After that thoughtful noise, a modicum of peace finally settled, and the Devil no longer drove like an ass clown on ice skates.
He parked the super inconspicuous car near Chymical Street, and I tried to focus on what I had to do here. For Lily. She had been burned, but the hate that had lit those flames, that was what I needed to understand, to stop. It was high time this ended.