Chapter Twenty-Two Charlotte
Chapter Twenty-Two
Charlotte
I expect Lucifer to drop me at my apartment, but instead he takes me back to his penthouse for the night. The silence builds between us, the tension so thick that by the time an attendant opens the door for us and we’re standing in his foyer, I regret baiting him.
No matter how much it thrilled me.
I follow him inside, uncertain of what sort of punishment waits for me. He hasn’t said so much as a word since we left the foundation opening, and the anticipation is killing me. I can still taste the salt and iron of my own blood on my lips. Where one of his fangs nicked me. Or where he bit me intentionally.
Honestly, I’m not sure.
It isn’t until the penthouse door falls closed behind us with a cruel echo that he finally addresses me.
“What sort of game do you think you’re playing here?”
“Excuse me?”
He turns toward me, hands in his suit coat pockets. “Don’t play coy, darling. You heard me.”
“We’ve been through this.”
“Lest you forget, Charlotte, I’m the devil. Punishing humanity is my oldest and greatest pleasure. You didn’t think there would be repercussions to defying me?” His eyes darken.
I shake my head. “You won’t hurt me.”
But even as I say it, I’m not certain it’s true.
Lucifer is a true monster. When he chooses to be.
“You want to play, little dove? I’ll bite.” His gaze falls to my mouth. “But don’t come crying to me when you can’t walk come morning.” He steps past me, heading toward his home bar as the words register.
“Is that a threat?”
He uncaps the crystal whisky decanter and pours himself a finger, returning it to the shelf more roughly than necessary. “It’s a promise, darling. That’s what you’re here for, after all. A little religious rebellion against Daddy.”
“No.” I look away as the inside of my throat thickens with shame.
“Don’t lie, Charlotte.” He says my name like a hiss. Like the poisonous snake I know he can be. “Your self-righteous victim act is growing tiresome, quickly.”
My jaw drops. “Self-righteous? You’re the one who—”
He rounds on me then, the look of contempt in his eyes enough to stop my breath short as he circles me like a predator does its prey. “The press isn’t here now. Cut the bullshit. You walk into my brother’s club searching for me. You apply for a job at my company. You foolishly place yourself in my path at every opportunity and then, when you get exactly what you bargained for, you turn down your pretty little nose at me. You think that because you grew up in the church, you’re better than me? Try again.”
I shake my head. Heart racing. “I never said that.”
“Didn’t you?” A hint of hellfire sparks in his eyes, and he scoffs before he stares down his nose at me. Like what he sees there isn’t impressive, and it infuriates me how small it makes me feel. “I see you for what you truly are, Charlotte. But it isn’t me that disgusts you, is it? It’s your own desire.”
“Lucifer,” I say in warning.
“You’re exactly what your father would have wanted for you. Sanctimonious. Self-righteous. So disgusted by your own needs that—”
“I am nothing like him!” I shriek.
He falls silent then. My chest heaves, from where I’m panting suddenly, and I realize then he’s already done it.
He’s broken me.
He barely even had to try.
“Perhaps you’re right.” He glances down at the city before he smirks at me. “He’s a prideful man, your father. One of my biggest supporters, you see.”
The words land like a blow. Exactly how he intended.
But I’ve always known that my father was a monster.
A self-aggrandizing hypocrite. It isn’t news to me.
We’re both quiet for a beat, the weight of his words slowly poisoning my insides, before I finally manage to say, “You’re one to talk.”
Lucifer goes still. A predator caught unaware by its prey.
“You’re a hypocrite too, you know.”
His eyes narrow. “I beg your pardon.”
But I don’t allow him to interrupt me. “You want to call me out for being self-righteous? For using you to rebel against my father? Fine. But you’re no better than me.” My gaze rakes over him, taking him in from head to toe. “That’s why you did it, after all. Started this eternal war you have with humanity. All because Daddy didn’t love you enough.”
The glass in Lucifer’s hand shatters.
“You know nothing of what you speak, human,” he snarls, holding one of the shards in his hand to my throat.
But he won’t hurt me.
I think . . .
“Don’t I?” I hold his gaze for a moment, the adrenaline sending my pulse racing, even as the danger thrills me. “You don’t get to criticize me for not listening to you, for rebelling against my father, when you’re the world’s original rebel. The first black sheep.” My gaze flits over him as I scoff. “You don’t like who I am because deep down you’re exactly like me. At least I have the balls to admit it.”
The shard at my neck pricks against my skin, enough that I feel blood run down my neck.
“That’s where you’re wrong, darling.” Lucifer drops the shard, and his hand is at my throat, gripping me. “I am nothing like you, and the sooner you recognize that, the safer you’ll be.”
I don’t know who kisses whom first, but suddenly his mouth is on mine.
We tear into one another, each of us so unleashed and starved it’s like the other holds the key to our last breath.
This isn’t gentle. It’s a hate fuck. Or it’s going to be.
Neither of us is powerful enough to stop it.
“Breathe, Charlotte,” Lucifer growls as he releases my throat.
I suck in a harsh breath of air, practically choking as it burns on the way down.
“Can’t have you passing out on me, can I now?” Lucifer sneers. “Not until I’m through with you, anyway.”
I want to ask what he plans to do to me, but then his mouth is on mine again, and all my thoughts are lost. We clash against one another, each one of us scratching and biting as we tear the clothes from each other’s bodies, both fighting in a bid to gain the upper hand.
Lucifer lifts me into his arms as my mouth clamps down on the soft part between his neck and shoulder, and he snarls at me, claiming my lips as I turn molten.
It isn’t until a moment later, when my back slams against the cool metal of the elevator, hard enough that the wind is knocked out of me, that I realize where he’s taking me.
His playroom.
Finally.
Seconds later, the elevator deposits us onto the fifth floor, and by the time we reach the soft glowing outline of the door, he’s already torn my dress from me.
The lingerie I’m wearing is new. Courtesy of Sophie.
Or Lucifer, so it seems, from the way his gaze rakes over me appreciatively.
“Does Daddy know what a dirty little slut you can be?”
I pull back my hand and slap him. Hard.
Hard enough to make his head rear to the side.
I expect him to be furious, but all he does is let out a cruel, vicious laugh as he throws me over his shoulder, bringing his hand down on my ass and pussy so hard I scream and then soften for him. He rips the crotch of my underwear aside, his fingers probing me as his thumb circles my clit furiously until I can’t help but squirm at what he’s doing to me.
My gown lies in a heap on the hall floor behind us, and for half a second, I think it’s a shame for such a beautiful creation to go to waste. But once you reach a certain level of celebrity, there’s no such thing as wearing an outfit twice, and I’m pretty sure I reached that level tonight. Lucifer ensured that for me.
I’ll never have true anonymity again, thanks to him, and the thought sends a fresh round of hatred coursing through me. I glare at him as he stops fingering my pussy and looks down his nose at me from where he’s deposited me into his chair. The power of it wraps around me, and for a moment, cast on the wall behind him, I think I see a pair of dark, shadowy wings before I blink, and then they’re gone. As quickly as any hint of kindness he shows me.
Lucifer swipes a hand over his lips, lapping at where I drew blood. And for the first time ever, I notice the end of his tongue is forked. At least, when he wants it to be.
“Spread your legs.”
He doesn’t hide his contempt for me as he says it, but still, I do what he says.
I spread my legs wide, baring myself to him, my sheer lace panties hanging on by a thread.
“Already soaked for me, I see,” he says, running a finger over the seam of my wet pussy lips in a way that makes be shiver. “Do I need to repeat the house rules for you, or are we clear?”
I nod, nearly breathless. “We’re clear.”
“Show me you understand.”
“Yes, sir,” I whisper.
“Louder.”
“Yes, sir,” I snarl.
Satisfied, Lucifer takes a step back, circling as he surveys me. “The safe word is inferno.”
“And if I use it, you’ll stop?”
He chuckles darkly. “You think so little of me?”
Punishment indeed.
I hold my breath. Fear flashing in my eyes.
“Now you’re starting to understand, Charlotte,” he says, as he comes to stand in front of me once more. “We’ll use the stoplight method. Green means your pleasure, yellow means slow down, red means stop. Do I make myself clear?”
I nod, swallowing.
We’re both chasing the edge of pleasure and pain, riding the line between cruelty and enjoyment. But like in Azmodeus’s club, I trust that he won’t allow us to cross it.
Not without permission from me.
Lucifer drops to his knees suddenly, lifting my ass and ripping my panties off so he can feast on my cunt, but with all the power from his chair thrumming through me, I can’t imagine a universe where I don’t allow him to do whatever he wants to me. The pleasure is overwhelming.
Fuck.
“God help me,” I whimper.
“You won’t find my Father anywhere near here tonight,” Lucifer purrs as the fork in his tongue meets the softest parts of me. “Not even He can save you, I’m afraid.”
He plunges his tongue into me, and I practically come off the chair from the delicious shock of it. None of my previous partners ever came close to putting their mouths on me, and the feeling is so wicked, I ... I think I might die.
Though whether from pleasure or embarrassment, I’m not certain, really.
I feel a flush creep through my chest.
“Fuck, you taste like sin,” he growls against me.
I curse as the fork in his tongue massages circles around my clit.
“Trust me, I’d know.” He chuckles darkly.
The thought of sin in this moment, of Heaven and Hell, of good and evil, feels a little absurd, and yet, it’s all I can think of as I start to laugh hysterically. My muscles go limp.
I am fucking the devil.
Or I’m about to be.
Lucifer’s tongue flicks over me, his movements deliberate and certain. Like he’s an expert in my pleasure. And I think for one insane moment that he might be.
That’s what he does, after all.
Tempts us to be our most wicked selves.
“Lucifer, please,” I keen, practically coming out of the chair as I buck against him, his tongue lapping and thrusting into my cunt in such a delicious rhythm that I can hardly think straight. Spots line my vision. “Holy fuck,” I breathe.
“There’s no place for anything holy here tonight. Only pleasure. And pain. You’ll see.” He dips one of his fingers inside me, curling it in a way that strokes a spot deep, deep inside me that nearly makes me come undone.
I arch forward, moaning.
“Come for me, Charlotte.”
“I ... I ... can’t.” I pant like a dog in heat, taking everything he gives me.
And I can’t help but want more. More, more, more.
My whole body aches for him.
“Don’t tell me no one’s ever touched you here before.” His eyes hold a hint of fury.
I shake my head. On his lips, it sounds damning.
Like he wants me to be a slut.
Like he values that side of me.
“Good,” he purrs. “Virgins are of little interest to me. Now, come all over my tongue like a good girl.”
“I ... can’t ... I need ...” I bite down on my lip, nearly drawing blood this time as I nod down to my swollen, aching pussy. “Not while ... you’re watching me.”
He chuckles like my embarrassment is amusing, licking his lips. “All right, Charlotte. I’ll grant you this, but the next time you come tonight, you will look at me.” He meets my eyes from between my legs. “What’s the point in fucking the devil if you can’t take me horns and all?”
Without warning, he flips me onto my stomach, shoving my face into the chair’s cushion as he tongue-fucks me. His mouth and his hand find a delicious, greedy rhythm.
But it’s his hand in my hair and the brush of his cock outside my entrance a moment later, when he stands and pulls my head back by my roots that nearly undoes me.
“Come for me, Charlotte,” he growls as he thrusts into me. “ Now. ”
And I do.
I come all over his cock as he drives into me, filling me to the hilt until I feel his balls slap against me.
“No longer Daddy’s little girl now, are we?” he purrs as I shudder and seize, struggling to adjust to the size of him mid-orgasm.
He twists my head back to look at him, turning me only enough that he can stay inside me for a few more thrusts before he unceremoniously finds his own release. He pulls out before he shoves me back down again. This time, to the floor.
“Now crawl to the rack on your knees for me.”