36. Evelyn
I sat on the plush couch in the penthouse’s living room, a bowl of popcorn in my lap. Ian, Aziz, and Levi sprawled around me, engrossed in an over-the-top action movie playing on the massive TV. Explosions and gunfire echoed through the room, but my attention was wandering. The chaos on the screen was almost laughable compared to the chaos inside me.
Aziz reached his hand into the popcorn bowl on my lap, his fingers grazing my thigh. He shot me a wicked grin, mischief dancing in his deep brown eyes. I rolled mine at him playfully. Aziz was always pushing boundaries with his flirtatious touches and innuendos. His raw sexuality and hair-trigger temper kept me on my toes these past few days.
I stretched and set the popcorn aside. “I think I’m going to call it a night. I need a long bath, shave my legs, maybe read a book. You guys enjoy.”
Levi tossed a handful of popcorn at me. “We’ll try not to miss you too much.”
I laughed, dodging Aziz’s hand as he reached for me, and waved them off as I headed toward the master bedroom. Closing the door behind me, I leaned against it for a moment, letting the quiet envelop me.
I looked around the opulent bedroom, the luxurious furnishings both comforting and overwhelming after my humble background. Moving toward the en suite bathroom, I ran the water for a bath, adding a generous pour of lavender-scented oil. The calming scent filled the air as steam rose around me.
Stripping off my clothes, I glanced at myself in the mirror. The bruises from past encounters had faded, but emotional scars still lingered beneath my pale skin. My curves and pretty face felt like a stranger’s reflection staring back at me. So much had changed.
As I turned toward the inviting tub, a sudden coldness swept through the room, snuffing out the warmth of the bathwater and flickering candles. I froze as the shadows in the room seemed to gather and coalesce into a chilling, unnatural darkness. Fear prickled down my spine.
I turned and locked gazes with a man that somehow I knew wasn’t a man at all.
“Who the hell are you? Why are you here?”
Lucifer hissed through my mind, answering the question. The memory of him coming to me, shining in the desert.
His golden stare burned with intensity as he stepped closer, his presence overwhelming. “You are mine, Lilith. You always have been. I’m here to ensure you never forget that. And to take you back where you belong.”
I backed away, but there was nowhere to go. My back hit the wall, and Lucifer’s large hand shot out, pinning me in place.
“Get away from me,” I said, my voice shaking but defiant.
His expression was calm, almost detached, but his amber eyes gleamed with a dark hunger. “You’ve forgotten. Let me remind you.”
“Ian! Aziz!” I screamed at the top of my lungs. “Levi!”
Silence. It was as if the sound of my words was swallowed by the bathroom walls.
I grabbed a crystal ornament on the sink, just within reach, and swung it, hitting his head with all my strength. It was like hitting a wall, pain from the blow radiating from my hand all the way down to my shoulder.
It didn’t even break his flawless skin. He grabbed it from me, tossing it to the side, then wrapped that hand around my other wrist. I struggled against Lucifer’s iron grip, but he was impossibly strong, his touch searing my skin.
“This moment is ours alone,” he purred, almost tenderly.
Even kicking and throwing myself side to side, Lucifer moved both my wrists to one of his large hands. He pinned them both above my head high enough that I had to go on tiptoe. Gazing at me, he licked his lips.
At the site, unwanted arousal pooled low in my belly, as if I knew that expression and I knew what would follow it. The uncanny familiarity whipsawed through me with a flood of other emotions. Lust, anger, grief... all of them intense enough to make me freeze.
Lucifer traced his other hand down my body, starting it my cheek then my neck down my breast to circle my nipple and then sliding to my thighs. Even though his nail looked normal, a thin trace of blood sprang up where his finger had traveled. He leaned in and delicately licked my nipple as his fingers found me.
Panic coursed through me as Lucifer fingered me. Every movement of his fingertips led to a burst of pleasure. It was if he knew exactly what would arouse me, what would make me yearn. And he exploited it without mercy.
“No!” I yanked at my arms, and it did about as much good as if I had chains around my wrists.
Despite my protests, my hips bucked forward, heat pooling low in my stomach. Like my body knew him and wanted him even though I wanted to do nothing more than him where he stood.
“I said no,” I snarled, writhing under his touch, tears of rage and humiliation streaming down my face.
“That body remembers me,” he purred in my ear. “Even if your mind doesn’t. Give in. Submit. You’re mine, and there’s no escape.”
My lips drew back from my teeth as I glared up at him. “Then just do it, asshole.”
“No, my dear,” Lucifer said, his breath hot against my ear, “I’m going to savor every moment of your degradation. You’ll suck my cock and thank me for the privilege before I’m done.”
Lucifer’s smile as he spoke sent a chill down my spine as he used his free hand to remove his belt. I was already naked, exposed and vulnerable. I closed my eyes, trying to escape the moment, but that only made it worse as my other senses heightened. The coolness of the wall against my back, the way Lucifer’s hot breath caressed my neck, and the sound of his belt slicing through the air just before it connected with my skin.
The first hit was like a bolt of lightning across my belly, searing through my body and stealing my breath. Tears streamed down my cheeks, mixing with the sweat that had formed on my brow. I bit my lip so hard it bled, trying to stifle the moan that threatened to escape. The second hit fell on my thighs, the pain radiating through my entire body.
Then, without warning, Lucifer let go of my hands, yanked my thighs apart and rammed himself into me. My head slammed back into the wall with the force of his thrust.
His invasion was brutal, as if he couldn’t wait any longer to claim me as his own. Thick and hard, I screamed in pain as I felt like I was being split in half, even though I was wet and ready.
“Relax,” he breathed, magic rolling over me, a thousand sensual caresses touching all my most sensitive spots.
Even as the pain lessened with the pleasure rising, memory rolled over me. With each thrust, each spasm of ecstasy, I saw us together.
Both of us at a long table, his hand on my arm, too tight, too controlling. Demons gathered, watching us as I rose and slapped him.
I was no demon’s toy! Not even the King of Hell! I was Lilith, and I submitted to no one!
The scent of food and dishes crashing as he swept them off the table and slammed me onto it, spreading me and fucking me in view of all invited to the feast. Made me scream in pleasure as he did it.
Rage beyond measuring mixed with the ecstasy, as I struck him, grabbing a knife, stabbing him repeatedly as he still thrust into me.
Lucifer pulling out of me, slick with my juice, an arrogant smirk on his face, and the knife arcing, slicing his eye. The astonished rage on his face as he called hellfire and blasted me.
The bleak cold of nothingness.
And in the present, my body was a thread away from violent orgasm. My body moved with him, responding to him as if it were programmed to submit.
With the pleasure, my old power rushed into me, the memories calling it back.
I hated him. As my climax reached its peak, so did the power and memory rushing into me, and I gasped, almost losing what made me Evelyn to the rushing surge of the memories of the ages I lived as Lilith.
The room rippled with power, darkness coiling around us, the shadows that were my friend.
Lucifer roared as he came, his own magic burning in the darkness.
He stared down at me. Satisfaction and lust blazed on his face. “There you are. My queen. My mate. Bow to me Lilith, and then we will go home.”
The shadows wrapped around me as I spat boiling rage at him, my entire being trembling with hatred. “I will never bow to you.”
Lucifer raised a brow. “Not even to preserve the existence of the fools in the next room?”
Fury bubbled up from deep within, and I snarled at him. “Never.”