Chapter 20 Between a Rocky Wall and a Hard Place
BETWEEN A ROCKY WALL AND A HARD PLACE
Kat
The dancing had perhaps gotten wilder, but Kat wasn’t a very good judge, mostly because she knew staring was rude, and at least a little because her definition of wild was incomplete due to…a lack of wild experiences.
For now.
Azrion largely avoided the congregation, guiding her along its edges to sample food from a multitude of rocky ledges and small fires.
Everything was delicious, and she was glad for the incaendi moss’s encouragement to be adventurous, the usual fears of too much spice or bitterness swept away by the excitement of trying something new.
She kept her arm looped around Azrion’s, oblivious to the fact she had initiated the touch, and she rested her head against his shoulder while he described each constellation carved into the walls. That just seemed the appropriate way to let him know she was paying attention.
When they had lapped the massive chamber, there was nothing left to do but join the crowd on the dance floor, and the growing giddiness in Kat’s belly took over.
Azrion might have been avoiding it with his droning on about ancient carvings, but that only spurred her on—it seemed there was nothing he could do to turn her off.
She trailed her hand down his arm to entwine their fingers and pulled him toward the other demons.
He was oddly stiff as she clasped hands behind his neck. “You want to dance?”
“What does it look like?” She moved herself like she’d seen the others doing, unconcerned with the suggestive sway to her hips.
He cocked a brow, the blackness of his eyes dipping downward then climbing back up with a keen slowness.
She had no inclination to readjust her meager clothing.
His hands fell onto her waist, and soon they were moving in time to the music, but it was nothing like when they’d danced at the Vumheri wedding, not least of all because of where Kat’s mind went.
Not to embarrassment or concern, but only to what she wanted.
There were so many things. Big things like a home she could call her own and a whole chamber dedicated to sewing supplies and maybe even a window display in the mercer’s shop to show off her skill.
There would be consistent coin then and a way to support her sister, another thing she desperately wanted.
But she wanted small things too like another one of those puffy pastries filled with meat, and a new dress without sleeves and a hem she could shorten.
But most urgently, she wanted Azrion.
I have him now, though, don’t I?
Sure, she didn’t really have him, but there was barely a thread’s breadth between them, his fingertips were digging pleasantly into her hips, and he had stopped talking, which usually only meant something very serious was going on inside his mind.
It won’t last, she thought, tilting her head and lifting her chin, but I would rather have something for a little while than nothing forever.
The heat of their bodies mingled, drawing them closer, and a soft caress climbed up the back of her calf—his tail.
He said we could practice. And I do need practice.
Fangs flashed between the part in Azrion’s lips, and she all too viscerally remembered the feel of them, dangerous but never a threat. She snaked her fingers into the hair at the nape of his neck and pressed herself fully to his chest.
“What the fuck?” Azrion’s voice was low as his grip tightened, and his gaze darted across the cavern.
Kat whipped over her shoulder because she knew she hadn’t inspired the sudden spark of outrage. There were couples and groups engaging in a gamut of sensual dances, but perhaps thirty paces away and directly in their line of sight was a pillar of pink and gold.
There weren’t many pink demons in Heck, and maybe that was why Melora was such an excellent center of attention—it simply couldn’t be helped.
She spun in place, body dripping in multiple gold lavaliers and bracelets, her white gown just sheer enough to show off each of her perfect curves.
Gods, she was striking, but it shouldn’t have been a surprise that she was there—that was in fact part of Azrion’s master plan.
Oh, that fucking plan.
“What in blazes does Fenthorn think he’s doing?” Azrion’s voice was utterly bewildered in her ear, but it was enough to tell Kat what she wasn’t seeing.
The blue demon that Azrion had called his closest friend wrapped himself around the pink one, and the two fell into an intimate conversation, lips dangerously close to pointed ears, and fingers betraying affection as they danced.
She couldn’t hear them over the music and the crowd, but Kat could imagine the high, pretty sound of Melora’s voice, especially when the demon woman turned and irislessly made direct eye contact with Azrion.
“Well, she knows exactly what she’s doing,” Kat hissed, haughty annoyance shifting to anger with her very breath.
“Both of them do.” She snapped back to Azrion, confused hurt all over his face, and she wanted to chase it away, or rather to chase it down and beat it to death, but then something else happened.
Kat felt true envy.
It started in her belly and was quick to shoot into her chest, immediately sickening then disheartening then maddening. This thing, this new angry, desperate, sorrowful thing, completely took her over, and she propelled herself at Azrion.
The demon was stunned by her kiss, but only for a moment.
She bit at his lips, starved and frenzied, pulling him close by the nape of his neck.
Azrion broke himself of his petrification, and his arms encircled her, fingers tangling into her hair as a sound coursed through his chest and into her mouth, more animal than human or demon.
She swallowed it, hitching up a leg and leaving no space between them for even the skinniest of gods.
Her hips moved on their own, and she felt everything through the thin layers of fabric, every hard ridge and tingly jolt of pleasure.
He tugged at her hair, and the light pain sent heat through her body, making her hips hitch. She returned his animalistic sound as her core lit up, but then he broke apart their kiss.
“Kat,” he said breathlessly as he held her at bay with claws pricking at her scalp, “what are you—”
She lunged again, and he let her, hands roving down her back as his lips and teeth answered her furious kissing. His hair was soft and so easy to pull, and she gave him back what he had showed her, tugging his head to the side so she could flick her tongue into his mouth and taste his fangs.
There was sweaty slickness on their stomachs, so when she rubbed her thigh against his, she couldn’t quite get the pressure between her legs she suddenly craved.
As if he knew, Azrion’s hands slid down to her ass and hoisted her upward.
Kat gasped into his mouth, refusing to break away even as the surprise of having her legs spread made her heart feel like it might burst out of her chest. She wrapped her legs around his middle, and with the added height, she had more power, so she gripped the sides of his face and devoured him.
Azrion moved beneath her, body hard like a stone but winding like a snake. Delicious heat pulsed in her core, nothing but a panel of sheer fabric between her center and his…well, she wasn’t entirely sure what that was because this was all new to her, but she was thrilled to find out.
Then there was a more intense shifting as something ribbed slid over her and drew out a moan. But she was also sliding downward, and suddenly her feet were once again on the stone, and Azrion was easing her away.
Blood rushed past her ears, but the sound was different beyond that pulsing muffle, the music and crowd like a faraway dream.
She blinked into the darkness around them, the globes of lantern light no longer overhead.
The two were alone, though the party wasn’t that far off—it couldn’t be unless he had carried her a great distance while she slathered his face in her kisses.
“Why?” Her mind slid back into place as her hands slid down Azrion’s arms. “We were making her jealous.”
Azrion’s brow bent. “What?”
“Melora. She was watching. She was—”
“That’s why?”
Kat opened her mouth, but nothing came out. The answer wasn’t a simple one. In fact, she wasn’t even sure she knew herself, so she avoided it altogether. “Isn’t that what you want?”
“What I want?” Azrion inhaled sharply, arms spread wide. “What I want is…” His chest rose and fell slower as his words trailed off.
Kat watched its heavy expanse and reached out, tracing a finger behind a single bead of sweat. “Did she see you carry me back here?”
He nodded.
“Then at least she’ll think something’s happening.”
He nodded again then shook his head, clearly confused. “It doesn’t matter what she thinks—what any of them think.”
Kat flattened her hand and pushed him backward into the rocky wall. His eyes went wide with the bite of the stone. “Then why did you bring me here?”
Azrion stopped breathing under the pressure of her touch, but the thump of his heart pounded under her palm.
He licked his lips and took her by her wrist, gently lifting her touch away.
Tingles ran down her arm as he stroked her palm with his thumb.
“I enjoy your company,” he said with an unnatural tremor.
“Because you like showing off this world to a simple human?”
He shook his head.
“Because my presence here will get back to your family and upset them?”
He shook his head again.
“Because you wanted to see me dressed up like a demon?”
“No.” He swallowed. “Well, not exactly.”
She stepped closer so that her breasts brushed his chest. Her nipples peaked under the sheerness of the cloth. “What’s the matter, Azrion? You always have something to say.”
The demon’s jaw remained frustratingly in place.