27 Ariuk #3
“Old demon woman who lived three doors down from my first apartment.” His eyes stayed closed as he continued breathing through whatever Lust was doing to him. “Hairy chin. Six toes. Smoked cigars and screamed at pigeons while naked.”
The image hit me hard enough that I had to cover my mouth to keep from laughing too loudly. Deus didn’t join me. He stayed braced against the counter, counting quietly beneath his breath until some of the tension finally left his shoulders.
“You really do this every time?” I asked.
“When I need to.” He opened one eye, accidentally looked toward me, then immediately closed it again. “And now I’m starting over.”
That only made the laugh escape anyway.
By the time he finally turned around, most of the black had retreated from his eyes, though his horns remained. His gaze dropped immediately to the hickey he’d left on my neck, and the satisfaction that crossed his face made it obvious he had no regrets.
“I’d say I’m sorry, but I’m not remotely sorry.” He came closer but stopped before touching me again, bending just enough to breathe me in. “You taste like Heaven, Sweetness.”
I frowned at him. “Is that supposed to be flattering?”
“From Lust?” His smile returned. “Absolutely.”
Nick’s attention settled on the hickey darkening along my neck the moment we got back to the table, his eyes narrowing before they shifted past me toward Deus.
“Jesus, that’s literally visible from here.
” I lifted a hand to cover the mark, which was pointless considering all three of them had already seen it, while Deus laughed quietly behind me.
When I turned to glare at him, he lifted both hands with an innocence completely ruined by the satisfaction on his face.
Zel’s gaze moved to Deus, recognition settling between them. “Been a while,” he said, leaning back against the booth.
“Not long enough.” Deus stayed close behind me, his tail giving one lazy sweep near my ankle.
Luc let whatever history existed between them sit for later. His attention came back to me instead, his expression softening as he looked over my face. “Ari, are you okay?”
“Yes.” I let my hand fall from my neck and glanced toward Deus, remembering exactly what had happened in that bathroom. “I’m fine. More than fine.”
Nick didn’t look convinced. He rested one arm along the back of the booth and studied me for another few seconds before his eyes returned to the hickey. “He really did touch you.”
“You weren’t even there.” I looked from Nick to Luc and then Zel, and all three of them were staring at me with varying levels of expectation.
Deus wasn’t helping from behind me either, considering I could practically feel the smugness rolling off him.
“Oh my fucking God. Fine. Yes, he touched me, okay? He’s Lust. It kind of just happened.
” I turned toward Zel, expecting him to confirm what seemed obvious. “That’s how it works, right?”
“Not always.” Zel leaned one elbow against the table, his expression losing some of its amusement when he realized I actually didn’t know. “Deus’s touch doesn’t feel like that if it isn’t wanted.”
I frowned and looked over my shoulder at Deus before returning my attention to Zel. “What do you mean, doesn’t feel like that?”
“When you want him touching you, it heightens everything,” Zel explained, his fingers tapping once against the tabletop. “Pleasure, sensitivity, arousal. If you don’t want it, your body reacts differently.”
Nick shifted farther back into the booth, his voice calmer when he added, “It burns, Ari. Badly. Not something you could confuse with pleasure either. If you hadn’t wanted him touching you, you wouldn’t be standing here wondering whether you enjoyed yourself.
Your skin would’ve answered that question for you. ”
My eyes dropped to my arms and then to my waist, remembering every place Deus’s hands had been. Nothing hurt. If anything, I could still feel phantom warmth beneath my skin. I looked back at him. “You burn people?”
“Only when they don’t want me touching them.” He said it simply, without apology or hesitation.
I stared at him, thinking about his hand down my jeans and how close I’d come to forgetting there was an entire restaurant outside the bathroom. “That probably should’ve come up before you put your hand down my pants.”
Deus’s eyes stayed on mine. “You said yes, Sweetness. And you meant it.”
The certainty in his voice sent another little pulse of heat through me even without his hands anywhere near me. I turned back toward the table and folded my arms. “That still doesn’t mean any of you know how much I liked it.”
Deus moved before anyone else could answer. His chest brushed lightly against my shoulder as he stepped closer, and when I glanced toward him, he bent and dragged one slow stripe of his tongue from my jaw up across my cheek.
Pleasure snapped through me so hard my shoulders jerked.
A shudder raced down my spine before I could stop it, and my eyes squeezed shut for half a second while every inch his tongue had touched seemed to light beneath my skin.
When I opened them again, Nick was laughing into his drink, Zel had lowered his head with a grin, and Luc wasn’t bothering to hide his smile.
I wiped my cheek with the back of my hand and glared at Deus, who stayed close enough that I could feel his breath against my skin. “That proves absolutely nothing.”
“Sweetness, I can tell exactly how much you like it.” His green eyes held mine as his tail curled loosely around my ankle again.
“I hate all of you.” I turned back toward the table, but my body had already relaxed into the warmth around my ankle before I could stop it.
Zel’s eyes dropped beneath the table and then came back to me. “That’s what I meant about the heat. Another connection starts forming, and everybody feels it before they’ve had time to settle around the last one.”
I looked down at Deus’s tail around my ankle, then back at Zel. “So what happens now?”
Luc reached for the check and glanced between the four of us before pulling his wallet out.
“We leave before this turns into something we shouldn’t be doing in the middle of a restaurant.
” Nobody argued, and Deus finally let his tail slip free as we gathered our things and headed toward the entrance.
The cooler air outside helped clear some of the haze left beneath my skin. Luc, Nick, and Zel started toward the car while I followed a few steps behind, only realizing Deus wasn’t with us when I stopped hearing his footsteps.
I turned and found him standing near the restaurant entrance with his hands tucked into his pockets. Most of his demon traits had settled again, though his tail still flicked slowly behind him. “What are you doing?”
“You four are leaving.” His attention stayed on me, but he didn’t move closer.
I frowned. “So?”
Something shifted in his expression, some of the certainty from the bathroom easing away. “So I’m not assuming I’m invited.”
I walked back toward him and held out my hand. Deus looked down at it before lifting his eyes to mine, and for once he didn’t immediately fill the silence.
“Come with us,” I said, keeping my hand there until he finally reached for it.
His fingers closed around mine, and warmth bloomed beneath my palm the second our skin met. “You sure?”
“Yes.” I tightened my grip and started guiding him toward the car. “You can come with us. That doesn’t mean you get to do whatever you want.”
His thumb moved once across the back of my hand. “Good thing you already know the word.”