After Hours: Tequila Sunset

Chapter One

Zack gritted his teeth, finished off his second whiskey, and glared at his companion, barely managing to feign polite interest. “So then what did you do?”

For a seventeen-hundred-year-old demon, Leo looked alarmingly whipped. “I introduced her to the damn demon. It was that, or get kicked out of my own bed.”

At least he wasn’t the only powerful man around who’d been brought to his knees by a human woman. “You realize how ridiculous that sounds, don’t you?”

“Yes.” Leo dragged his fingers through his blond, disheveled hair and sighed. “Fuck. If you tell anyone, I’m going to have to kill you.”

Zack wished he had another drink. He wished he hadn’t run into Leofric. He wished someone would order a damned Tequila Sunrise already, so he could go upstairs and forget the fact that he was still sleeping alone.

Instead, he sighed. “So, your sweet little girlfriend had a vision about some demon’s eternal damnation, and this was alarming to her? You’ve got her snowed, Leo.”

“Normally I’d agree, but Ianthe’s different. She’s…” For a second, Zack thought he saw regret in Leo’s eyes, but it was gone too fast to tell. “Shit, she makes me look like the poster boy of evil. I’m talking soup kitchens and feeding the homeless and who knows what else. If there were a back door out of the demon gig, she’d have taken it two hundred years ago.”

Something about the look on Leo’s face made Zack arch an eyebrow. “You introduced your new flame to an old one? You’re either brave or stupid, man.”

Leo blinked. “What? Oh, fuck no. No, I wouldn’t have fucked Ianthe for money back when she was the dark Queen of the Night, and she won’t do anyone now that she’s all sweet and good.” That obnoxious, irrepressible grin returned, the cocky one that had been tinged with far too much satisfaction since Leo had met Caitlin. “Trust me. I tried. For like, four decades.”

And he wouldn’t have bothered if she’d just put out. “Charming. No means no, Leo.”

“Fuck you, man. I know what no means.” The cell phone on the table in front of him went off, the vibrations making it dance across the table. Leo snatched it up and flipped it open, then grinned. “Cait’s on her way.”

The knot of misery in Zack’s gut twisted tighter. Leo looked happy, and he felt like an ass for wanting to run like hell before Caitlin’s arrival. Buck up, Elliott. You’re an ass, and you deserve to have to watch them make googly eyes at each other.

He should have remembered that the man seated next to him could sense the darkest desires of those around him more easily than breathing. Leo’s green eyes looked almost sympathetic as he shifted and reached into his back pocket. “It’s getting bad, isn’t it?”

Self-denial made him grumpy. “Stay out of my head.”

Leo flipped a credit card onto the table. “Man, I’m not even in your damn head. Every demon within ten feet of you knows what you need. And that could get awkward when Cait shows up with Ianthe, considering her past.”

Zack turned his attention to the bar in the middle of the room. “You want me gone before they get here.”

“You want to be gone before they get here,” Leo countered. “Even I can tell that much. But hey, you could stick around and hit on the reformed demon. Back in the eighteenth century you would have been just her type.”

“No, thanks.” Even if a demon could offer the sort of submission he sought, it would be tied up in complicated power struggles and manipulation. He reached over and nudged Leo’s credit card across the table. “I can buy my own drinks, though. It’ll be worth it not to have to watch you be schmoopy with your girlfriend.”

Leo flashed him a grin. “Go on, Elliot. Order your damn drink. I’ll catch you next time you come through.”

“Yeah, sure.” Zack rose, determined to get the hell upstairs before Caitlin showed up with anyone who might want to hit on him.

Surprisingly, he wasn’t in the mood to play nice.

* * *

Caitlin tugged on Iris’ hand with surprising strength. “Late. We’re late.”

Arguing was useless. She’d tried a dozen times over the past week, but Caitlin was young and determined, and nothing Iris said would dissuade her.

And Leo, damn him, had stood by the entire time with the smug smile of an infatuated man.

They reached the doors of the bar, and Iris dug her feet in one last time. “Remember what I said about the name. Your boyfriend’s probably the only demon in town who can recognize me on sight, but my name -- my demon name -- it’s well known. And it will get me in a lot of trouble.”

“What?” Caitlin looked around distractedly at the people milling around outside the bar, then stepped around the queue and headed straight for the VIP entrance. “I’m not going to announce you, Iris. Besides, I’ll know. Or I should, anyway.”

Iris fought a shiver. “The one who’s going to save me from my dark path?” The thought was almost laughable. Any person she would meet tonight was three hundred years too late to save her from tumbling into darkness. And the one person she wanted…

No. Foolish, to think of this night as a betrayal to the man she would never touch. Could never touch. The man who thought the strength of his needs would destroy her.

The man who, rumor had it, came here to find someone who could give him what he needed.

Panic shot through her as Caitlin tugged her past a burly bouncer. “I shouldn’t be here. You don’t know everything about me.”

“I know more than you think.” The psychic’s eyes were dark as she glanced back at Iris. “Leo told me what happened to you. About the wizard.”

Even in her oversized blue coat, even in the warmth of the club, Iris felt ice creep through her veins. She closed her eyes against the sight of Caitlin’s too-earnest face. “Leofric meddles too much.” And so does his new girlfriend.

“He heard me say your name during my vision,” Caitlin explained. “Your real one, I mean. We’re both just trying to help, Iris. Leo’s very fond of you.”

“I am.” It was Leo’s voice, low and cheerful, and the older demon appeared at her side looking as casual and irreverent as usual. If she closed her eyes, she might see him the way he’d been seventy years ago, the day he’d leveled a dark wizard’s stronghold and walked through the burning carnage as if he didn’t see the dozens of men dying at his feet.

Caitlin had no idea who she went to bed with every night. Iris met Leo’s eyes, and fought the urge to say to him the same thing she told herself every night. We don’t belong with them. We don’t deserve them.

Leo nodded his head, whether in greeting or silent acknowledgement, she didn’t know. Then he turned his attention to Caitlin. “You know what she’s supposed to do here yet?”

“No, I…” She fell silent as the music did, her head lolling back a little. “Wait. Now.”

The speakers overhead crackled a little, and the bartender’s voice announced, “Last call for the gentleman here. Tequila Sunset, coming up.”

“Submission,” Caitlin whispered. “That’s him, Iris. The one you need.”

She barely heard Leo’s muttered curse. The patrons of the bar turned their attention to the low platform in the middle of the room, and her eyes followed even as she fought it, suddenly sure she knew what she’d find.

And she did. A hundred nights of yearning dreams had branded those broad shoulders in her mind forever. She let her gaze follow the line of his arm down to the large, capable hands, the hands that she’d stared at just the week before as he’d fixed her broken cable box.

Zack sat at the bar, tense and wary, and she had to get out of there before he saw her. Before he discovered that she was no more human than he was, and destroyed the delicate balance of their already strained friendship.

It couldn’t be coincidence. She jerked around and glared up at Leo. “How did you find out? Did you -- is this a joke?”

But it was too late, because the next time she hazarded a glance at the bar, Zack was staring straight at her.

The chill from before vanished under the heat of his gaze. But then, it always did. Zack made her feel all of the things she’d turned away from the day Leo had dragged her from the burning rubble of the trap her own pride had set for her.

“You’re the one,” Leo whispered. “You’re his untouchable human. He doesn’t know.”

Even as she watched, realization washed over Zack’s strong features, and the set of his jaw hardened. Iris tightened her fingers around her jacket and fought a shudder. “He does now.”

Caitlin bit her lip. “You have to go to him.” Her dark eyes clouded a little, and she wrapped a hand around Iris’ arm. “You think I can’t know anything about you or Leo, but you’re wrong. I know, because I listen. Now you have to listen.”

Zack would be furious. She could already see the tight look in his eyes shifting from shock to anger. If she gave in to the temptation and reached out with her power, she doubted she’d find that his deepest desire involved taking her upstairs to do dirty things to her.

More likely his darkest desire at the moment involved strangling her.

Iris shook Caitlin’s hand free and turned her back on the bar. “I’m leaving. Leofric, you’d do well to teach your psychic not to meddle with demons. We’re not all as soft-hearted as you.”

Annoyance flashed in Leo’s eyes, and he curled a protective hand over Caitlin’s shoulder. “Lie to yourself all you want, Ianthe. But don’t take it out on someone who’s just trying to help.”

Heat flooded her cheeks when she realized Leo had used his magic to read the darkest desires of her heart. He knew what dreams kept her up at night, kept her panting into her pillow as she fought temptation and the need to tell Zack the truth and give herself to him, body and soul.

He acknowledged her embarrassment with a cocky little grin, and Iris felt her temper spike. “We don’t belong with them,” she snapped. “You’ll only hurt her in the end. And I’m not taking that chance with him.” And because her words were nothing but bluff held together with the unraveling shreds of her self-control, she shoved past Leo and headed for the door, determined to reach it before Zack recovered enough to follow her and demand an explanation.

She made it past the bouncer outside before Zack caught up to her, his arms bare in the cold night air. “Who are you really?” His eyes were flinty. “How do you know Leofric?”

Anger laced his voice, and instinct overrode self-control. The dark magic she’d shunned for decades bubbled to the surface, hungry for Zack and his power. Hungry for his desires.

Fury arced through her, and that she could have handled. But it was the hint of betrayal, the desperate need to know why she’d lied to him, that held her rooted in place when she should have turned and fled.

Instead she gave him the truth, half hoping it was enough to drive him away and save him from the darkness inside her. “I’m a demon.”

He shivered. “And a liar.”

“And a liar.” In seventy years, nothing had hurt as badly as seeing the pain in his eyes. She shifted her gaze to the wall behind his head and struggled to remember all the reasons she’d deprived herself of the comfort of his touch. “You were better off without me, Zack. I destroy men.”

He took a step closer, his breath clouding the space between them. “You knew what I was, Iris. You could have let me make that decision.”

“So only men get to suffer the noble pangs of self-denial?” A tiny spark of temper burned through the pain, and she rose up on her toes. It only put her eyes on level with his chin, but she focused the sleepy tendril of unused power into the strength of her gaze, turning it into a challenge. “Maybe I already know you can’t handle me.”

He growled and moved again, the hard wall of his chest pushing her back a step. “You don’t know half of what you think you know.” The fire in his eyes faded a little, and he raised a hand. “I’m getting a cab, and I’m taking you home.”

Her mouth fell open. “Excuse me?”

“You heard me.”

The sheer arrogance should have infuriated her instead of weakening her knees. But that had always been Zack’s dangerous allure -- the power that radiated from him and promised the sort of dominant strength that she craved.

And if she gave in now, she’d drag them both into hell.

She spun and stalked away, toward the alley that led behind Last Call and spilled out on the other side of the block. “Have a nice night, Zack.”

“Shit. Iris.” He caught her arm, his touch gentle in spite of the leashed strength she knew he possessed. “We don’t need to make a scene, all right?”

“Zack…” His name came out pleading, and she cursed her weakness. “Don’t make me do this. Don’t make me hurt you more than I already have.”

His stare softened a little. “You haven’t hurt me.” Then he sighed. “Come on. Let me see you home.”

Give an alpha werewolf an inch and he’ll take twenty miles and call you lucky. Even with her predilection for dominance games in the bedroom, she’d never toyed with an alpha wolf in the three hundred years she’d walked the Earth. As a demon, she’d always liked to know the power rested squarely in her hands at the end of the day.

But refusing to go home with him was foolish. He lived in the apartment next door to her own. If she didn’t resolve this now, he’d find a way to force the issue. She had to sever their relationship now, while she still had the self-control to do what was needed to keep him safe.

A thousand years of living in misery would be better than knowing she’d lured Zack down the seductive path to damnation.

“Home,” she whispered, the word forming fog in the cold night air. “We… can talk at home.”

Chapter Two

Even a cab ride out to Brooklyn barely gave Zack enough time to calm his riotous instincts. He was a detective, for Christ’s sake. His job entailed gathering facts, making connections, and following those connections until he arrived at the correct conclusion. Still, he couldn’t seem to wrap his brain around the facts that had presented themselves tonight.

Iris Belrose was a demon. And not just any demon, but a renowned seductress who’d led numerous men to trade their souls for the pleasure of her touch.

No. Iris Belrose was a social worker. He’d assembled her cheap futon because she didn’t have any tools of her own. He’d almost kissed her once, when the firefighters on the fourth floor threw that Halloween party.

Iris Belrose, not Ianthe.

He paid before he climbed out of the cab, and he took Iris’ arm and led her up the steps to the front door. The elevator only worked half the time, so he started up the stairs to the third floor. He said nothing until he stopped in front of her door and took her keys from her hand. “Do you want to talk tonight or in the morning?”

She didn’t look much like an infamous demon at the moment. Her gaze didn’t quite meet his as she wet her lips nervously. “Tonight.”

Zack opened the door and waved her in. Something told him she’d be more at ease in her home rather than his. “Whatever you want, Iris.”

He’d been in her apartment enough times to be familiar with its sparse furnishings and its hand-sewn decorations. Iris was poor as hell and full of stubborn pride, but it hadn’t taken long to figure out ways around her insistence that she didn’t need help. He’d been feeding her under the guise of getting her to cook dinner for him for so long that they’d grown accustomed to sharing their meals together a few nights a week.

And in all that time she’d never seemed to be anything other than a sweet human woman.

Iris unbuttoned her thick blue jacket and hung it on the hook he’d installed next to the door for her. Her fingers hesitated next to the spackle that covered a hole in the wall a few inches to the right, and he knew she had to be remembering the day when she’d asked to borrow a screwdriver. She hadn’t known how to hang the hook, or even what wall studs were, and he’d ended up stifling helpless laughter at her frustrated swearing.

Belatedly, he realized he’d left his own jacket at the bar. He cleared his throat and sat on the edge of the futon. “I guess we have a lot to talk about.”

She turned, and he could almost see her gathering her determination around her like a shield. “I owe you an explanation, and I’ll give you one. But I’m not going to change my mind. You’re a good man, and you need a good woman.”

He chose his words carefully. “And you think that’s not you?”

“I’m a demon, Zack.” Gentle words, spoken as if she wasn’t sure he understood -- or believed. “I’ve played human for seventy years, but it doesn’t change what I am.”

“So I’ve heard.” He rose again, just to keep from fidgeting like a kid on his first date. “Guess that means you think Leo’s making a mistake with his new girl, too.”

“Caitlin’s too young to understand what he is.”

Her condescension set his teeth on edge. “And me?”

Iris met his gaze, and the challenge in her eyes wasn’t enough to cover the tiny thread of nervous vulnerability -- or the desire that stirred in her every time they were alone together. “Alpha werewolves think they can handle anything.”

He ignored the challenge, though doing so made his hands shake and his words rough. “Leo’s as whipped as any man I’ve ever seen. So either his girlfriend’s an astronomically terrific lay, or you demons aren’t as immune to emotion as you make it sound.”

“I never said we were immune.” She took a step closer, crowding his space, and for the first time he felt power rise in her as she stared up at him with dark, dangerous eyes. “If I didn’t love you enough to want you safe, I would have fucked you straight into hell by now. You can’t trust me.”

He wanted to grab her. Kiss her. Instead, he took a deep breath and steadied himself. “Love doesn’t send people to hell, Iris.”

“The things I want you to do to me might.”

Don’t even think about asking, Elliott. “That’s bullshit. Give me another excuse.”

Her mouth opened and then closed again, as if she hadn’t been prepared for such a casual dismissal of what was apparently her best argument. “I… that’s reason enough.”

It didn’t come close to balancing out the nights alone in his bed, dreaming of her. “No. It isn’t.”

She huffed and spun on her heel before stalking toward the door. “That’s it, then. If you’re so cocky you don’t think anything can touch you, it’s pointless to argue. You should go home now.”

His steps were longer. Zack overtook her before she could open the door and pressed his chest to her back, trapping her against the wood. “I never said nothing could touch me.” The scent of her filled his nose, heated his blood, and he nudged her ass with his hips. “Tell me what you want that’s so wrong, and we’ll see.”

Her breath caught, and he could smell her arousal as she braced her hands against the door. “An alpha werewolf told me once that nothing made him as hot as a strong woman’s submission, and that was my specialty. I decided he wasn’t worth the risk, and I stayed away from strong werewolves after that.”

“Your specialty was faking it… or not faking it?”

She shivered, and the words came hesitantly, as if she wasn’t sure she wanted to give him the truth. “I faked submission. But I didn’t always want it to be an act.”

If he’d tried to imagine Iris telling him these things, it wouldn’t have worked. Yet here she was… His hands clenched against the door. “Is that the problem you keep talking about? That you want to submit to me?”

“I would submit to you. And giving up control is dangerous for a demon.”

Refuting her words would be easy. Refuting them confidently, on the other hand… “I think I can handle it.”

“You think so?” The whispered words sounded like a challenge, and a moment later he found out why.

Power flooded the apartment, unleashed from whatever restraints she’d kept it under for so many years. He was used to the steady prickle of Leo’s magic, but Iris’ felt different. Not stronger, but more persistent. Magic curled around him, brushed his aura and left behind a tingling feeling of arousal. And deeper, underneath it all, was the silent promise that he’d found a woman who would take everything he could give her and revel in the sexual abandon.

His mind darkened until only a single image remained, a vivid scene painted in shades of longing and lust. Iris, standing before him as she was now, only naked and trembling.

Zack sucked in a ragged breath as he pictured pinning her hands against the wall over her head and sliding his hands down her back to the curve of her ass. She moaned and bared her throat when his fingers slipped between her legs, and he --

He shook himself from the fantasy. If it had been anyone but Iris, he’d have dragged her to the bedroom and fucked her into exhaustion and beyond. Instead, he swayed closer. “Let me try, baby. I’ll be careful.”

She moaned, and the stiff line of her spine melted into a submissive arch as her head fell forward. “This is why I didn’t dare tell you. I’ll let you do anything you want to me, Zack. Do you understand? Anything.”

It took a willpower he didn’t know he possessed, but he let his hands fall to his sides and stepped back. “Then invite me to your bed, Iris. Now.”

Iris turned slowly and gathered the hem of her dress in her hands. Large brown eyes stared at him as she pulled the fabric up and over her head. When her face appeared again, her eyes were closed and her face held nothing but slack, desperate need. “Take me to bed. Take me wherever you want. Just… take me.”

Zack hauled her into his arms before the dress hit the floor. He covered the scant distance to her bedroom quickly with long, eager strides, barely able to stop himself from tossing her on the bed and tumbling after her. “How? Tell me.”

“Don’t ask me that unless you’re sure you can handle the answer, Zack.”

He did toss her on the bed then, but stepped back and lowered his hands to his shirt. “I asked. I want an answer.”

She rolled onto her stomach and up to her knees, presenting him with the smooth curve of her ass encased in white panties with honest-to-God lace edging them.

When she spoke, her voice was nothing more than a husky whisper. “Sometimes I have dreams that start like this. Only my hands are tied to the bed and I’m blindfolded, and all I can do is wait for you to touch me, to make me come again and again…”

“I can do that, Iris.” If she wanted domination, he’d give it to her. He’d make her come so hard she couldn’t see, and then…

Then, when she was still shaking with the force of her pleasure, he’d make love to her.

* * *

Iris curled her fingers around the worn fabric of her quilt and tried not to think about how weak she was. Behind her she heard the sound of leather whispering against a belt buckle, and a dark tendril of magic unfurled inside her, taunting her with the possibilities. So many ways she could tempt him, so many things she could goad him into doing. Inside her, the power whispered for her to find a way to take control again, to give him just enough of what he wanted to bring him to his knees. Enough to make him beg for more.

She closed her eyes and focused on the sound of his shoes hitting the floor instead, fighting a whimper as her magic flared and gave her another taste of his desire, this time infused with the pure radiant heat of love. So many men had desired her, but none of them had loved her. Wanted her, without a doubt. Coveted her, even. But love…

No one had ever loved her. No one had ever been this dangerous.

The bed dipped under his weight, and denim chafed her bare legs as Zack gripped her hips and rolled her onto her back. His fingers skated up her arms, guided them to the pillows above her head. “Don’t move your hands, and don’t open your eyes.”

She curled her fingers around the sad, threadbare pillowcase and fought another wave of temptation. “Be careful. I don’t know if I can keep the magic under control.”

“What will happen if you let go?”

Iris fought a shiver. “You’ll meet my dark side. I’ll fight you for dominance and you might not like it.” You might not like me.

He just snorted. “After all this, you want to keep lying to me?” His hand skimmed up her leg, over the back of her thigh, and his fingers slipped under the edge of her panties. “Let go.”

She didn’t want to, but the heat that shot through her in the wake of his touch was too much. Ianthe would break free sooner or later, and Zack would see who -- and what -- she truly was.

And maybe he’d end up walking away from her after all. Better now, before she knew what she was missing. When he was still whole and could go on to live a full, safe life without her.

It was easier than it should have been to unleash the demoness hidden beneath the skin. The magic that had circled before spiraled inward, bringing with it a rush of pleasure. Her body felt liquid as goose bumps rose on her arms and her nipples tightened painfully beneath the constricting fabric of her bra. She arched her hips a little and opened her eyes, fixing her gaze on Zack’s face.

He looked almost feral. His jaw clenched and his eyes blazed, and he tugged lightly at the delicate fabric of her panties. “I told you not to open your eyes.”

Husky laughter filled the room, low and dark, and it had been so long since she’d heard it that Iris barely recognized it as her own. But the words that came next felt all too familiar -- truth that finally escaped after decades of living a lie. “And I told you my dark side isn’t always a good little girl.”

“So I see. But even bad girls know to play nice until they get what they want.” Zack bent his head with a growl and nipped at the sensitive skin of her stomach. “Close your eyes.”

A tiny voice whispered for her to push him more. To challenge him and see how far he’d go. To see how far she could make him go.

But it was Zack, and her body ached for his touch more than her magic hungered for the chase. She squeezed her eyes shut as the first tiny thread of hope grew inside her. Zack’s love for her made him dangerous, but she’d never considered the converse.

Her love for him made him powerful.

“Thank you.” He gathered her hair in his hand and urged her head back. She felt the wet brush of his tongue on her throat and then the sharp bite of his teeth, almost distracting her from his other hand sliding inside her panties.

She sucked in a breath and reached down to tangle her fingers in his hair. “Again. Harder.”

“Uh-uh.” His fingers ventured lower. “Tell me more about those dreams of yours.”

Frustration rose hard and fast at his refusal, but Iris ignored it and stroked at the back of his head instead. “I could… I could show you.” It came out sounding more nervous than seductive, and she braced herself for a swift rejection.

He froze and whispered, “All right. Show me.”

The trust was almost intimidating. Iris closed her eyes and let the magic rise again, this time focusing on the soft brush of his fingers and the heat of his body. She let him see the things she’d dreamt of, knowing the images would flash through his mind in vivid Technicolor. First the fantasy of being backed against the wall, her hands pinned over her head as he taunted and teased. Then his fingers in her hair, him growling encouragement as she sucked his cock. The feel of his hand as he landed a stinging slap to her ass and soothed her at once with his tongue in her cunt…

Zack tensed, and a low, tortured growl shuddered out of him. “Is that what you want?” His teeth scraped her chin, and one fingertip teased over her clit and was gone.

Her hips jerked, chasing the touch. “Yes. All of it.”

He bit her again, this time on the shoulder, and pulled his hand from her underwear. “Get up and finish undressing.”

Iris felt the heavy weight of his gaze as she moved to the edge of the bed and climbed carefully to her feet. When she turned she found Zack relaxing against the mattress, his eyes intense.

It was impossible not to tease him. She lifted her hands to her bra but avoided the small plastic clasp nestled between her breasts in favor of brushing her fingertips over her too-sensitive nipples.

He rose up on his knees and beckoned. “Come here.”

It was only one step back to the bed, but she paused with one knee braced against the edge of the mattress. “I thought you wanted me to get undressed.”

“You’re too slow.” He curled his fingers down into the cups of her bra and jerked. The thin garment yielded with a loud snap as the clasp broke.

Her other knee hit the bed and she whimpered. “You are so much hotter than anything I dreamt about.”

A muscle ticked in his jaw, and Zack groaned softly. “I don’t know how much longer I can pretend you’re not driving me out of my mind, Iris.” His thumb swept over her nipple. “Bend over the bed.”

Leaning down to brace her hands against the bed brought her face even with his cock where it strained against his underwear. Longing gripped her, and she nuzzled her cheek against the shaft with a soft sigh. “Let me make you come,” she whispered, the words a soft plea. “Then you can do anything you want to me.”

His cock jerked, and another groan rasped out of him. “That wasn’t my plan, you know.”

“Then tell me your plan.” And I’ll do it. I’ll do anything… The thought should have terrified her.

He moved off the bed, one hand trailing down her back, and knelt behind her. “I’m going to make you come until you can’t stand it anymore. Then I’m going to take you.” As he spoke, he tugged her panties down her legs.

Iris fisted her hands in the thin quilt and locked her knees. “I spent a hundred years as a notorious seductress and you’re the first man to turn down having my lips wrapped around his cock.”

The stubble on his cheeks rasped over the backs of her thighs. “I’m only saving it for later.” His hand curved around her hip, and he stroked her ass with his thumb. “I saw this in your head. You want me to spank you while I eat your pussy.”

It was the perfect reverse of everything sex had always been. She’d spent her life plucking fantasies from men’s minds and playing them out. Now Zack had seen into her mind, and she had given him the power. Only the knowledge of what that power had cost her made her hesitate. “Don’t do it just because I want it. Don’t do anything you don’t want to.”

His deep laugh vibrated over her skin. “You’re kidding, right? Honey, I’ve been dreaming about getting my tongue inside you for months.” His hands moved, fingers parting the slick, swollen lips of her cunt, and his tongue dipped around her clit in a lazy circle.

Heat shot through her, followed by a wave of languid pleasure that made her body tremble. Nothing had ever reduced her to helplessness so swiftly. The demon disapproved, not just of her vulnerability but the willingly relinquished power. She wanted to twist free of his grip and drop to her knees, to go down on him so fast and ruthlessly that Zack was the one unable to resist the lure of pleasure.

The urge rode her hard, and she whimpered and rocked forward a little. “She’s winning, I can’t -- I can’t stop her --”

The heat of his mouth disappeared, and his open hand landed on her ass in a painful slap. “Shh.” Then he returned, licking and sucking, stroking her with skill and determination.

Her head flew back and she cried out, torn between conflicting needs. His tongue teasing at her clit might be clever enough to wrench pleasure from her body, but the power inside her was only impressed with the strength. The domination.

The plea escaped her before she could stop it. “Again.”

“Shh.” He bit her, a quick graze of teeth, and smacked her ass again. “Greedy.”

Arousal reached the point where pleasure bordered pain. The magic escaped her grasp, twisting around him even as she struggled to bring her power back under control.

But fighting was the wrong thing to do. This time the vision slammed into both of them, forcing her breath from her body as the vivid image formed behind her closed eyes. She whimpered as she watched the Zack of her vision drag the drawer out of her bedside table and spill its contents onto the floor.

In the vision his strong fingers closed around the solid weight of her vibrator, and Iris fought a wave of embarrassment as her magic showed Zack how she’d squirm if he thrust it into her cunt, and how she’d beg if he worked it into her ass.

His growl echoed in the room, and his fingers tightened on her hips. “Are you doing that on purpose, just to drive me insane?”

Iris closed her eyes and fought a shudder. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry, Zack, I can’t stop it --”

“Why does it embarrass you?”

“Because you -- you’re seeing --” She tried to control her panting breaths, but her entire body ached with the need to relieve the twisting pleasure inside her, the need to come. “Please, Zack, please… let me -- help me --”

“Anything you want.” He bent his head as one hand slid down from her hip. Two fingers grazed her cunt and then slid inside, curling and stroking. After one more fierce growl, Zack closed his teeth on her ass.

She’d never come so hard before. Pleasure slammed into her, weakening her knees and driving her to the bed. Everything throbbed in time with the spikes of pleasure, and his name left her lips again and again.

It was perfect bliss, and it was all because of him.

He stopped only long enough to pull away and flip her over onto her back. One of her feet hit the floor, but the other leg wound up draped over Zack’s shoulder as he leaned over her and thrust his fingers into her again. “One more time, Iris, and I swear to God, I’ll fuck you so hard you can’t stand up anymore.”

She curled her trembling fingers around the quilt above her head and stared up at him as anticipation gripped her. “I haven’t had a man inside me in seventy years, Zack.”

His eyes blazed, but a surprising smile curved his lips. “Then it won’t take long, will it?”

The words drove a whimper from her, and this time she didn’t even try to stop the magic as it spun its web around them. She didn’t know what Zack saw, didn’t know whose fantasy played out in his head.

And she didn’t care, because whatever it was, he could handle it.

He could handle her.

Chapter Three

They were locked in an embrace, his cock deep inside her. They barely moved, were too busy staring into each other’s eyes and whispering things he couldn’t make out but understood anyway.

Then the mental image -- his fantasy -- faded, and Zack focused every bit of his attention on making Iris whimper again, on making her arch off the bed and convulse under him. “I’m going to fuck you, Iris. And when I’m done fucking you, I’m going to make love to you.”

Iris moaned at the words and dug her head back against the bed. She was tight around his fingers, so tight that being inside her would be torture. Watching her was torture. She begged with every movement, begged him to claim her.

It wasn’t the kind of temptation he could resist for long, so he gritted his teeth and lowered his mouth to her neck. “Do you want it now, sweetheart? Tell me what you want.”

Her gaze snapped to his, and red eyes stared up at him even as power prickled along his skin. Her voice was nothing but a husky whisper, but he could sense her sudden fear. “Do you still want me like this? Can you love a demon?”

She expected him to shy away, to say no. He nipped her lower lip and kissed her softly. “You’re beautiful, baby. Fucking gorgeous.”

When she bit him there was nothing soft about it. Her teeth caught his lip and she hissed out a low, desperate breath. “Fuck her. Fuck us. It’s been so long since I let her out. She needs -- she needs --” A tiny hitching breath left her, and he caught another flash of vision, this time tinged with an edge of shame. Her fingers curved around the footboard, his hand tangled in her hair as he rode her hard and out of control.

His cock twitched, and he groaned as he pulled his fingers away. “I’ll give it to you now, Iris.” Zack rolled away and came to his feet beside the bed. His boxers hit the floor, and he gripped his shaft with a hand still slick from her pussy. “On your knees.”

Her moan sounded both relieved and aroused. She was a little clumsy as she crawled to her knees and reached for the headboard.

Zack slipped onto the bed behind her and teased her by rubbing against her ass. “I’m going to start slow. Then, when you’re begging, I’ll ride you. Fast and hard.” He didn’t know how long he could keep that up, but he’d waited too long to screw things up now. Not when she was so close to being his.

“Fast and hard,” she echoed, her voice shaking. She arched her back and rocked into him with a needy sound. “I want you so much.”

He leaned over her, his hands on either side of hers, and slid into her with a slow, steady thrust. “Tell me how. Why.”

“I --” The word disappeared in a low moan. Her body was every bit as tight as he’d imagined, but she pushed back eagerly as if she couldn’t get enough of him. She made a tiny little sound of pleasure, then twisted her head so his lips rested against her cheek. “It’s because… because of the way you look at me.”

Zack groaned against her skin and fought the urge to pull back and plunge into her. “How do I look at you?”

“Like you’ll never let anything hurt me.”

“I won’t.” He whispered the words into her ear and then bit the lobe. “Nothing can touch you. You’re mine.”

He felt her shiver underneath him. “You don’t think it’s wrong for me to want these things. Everyone always -- always told me --”

“It’s who I am, Iris.” He straightened and gripped her hip with one hand. The other he twisted slowly into her silky hair. “Does this feel wrong?” He yanked her back to meet one quick, rough thrust.

Her back arched as she cried out, answering his question without saying a word. “That’s right,” he whispered. “It feels right. This is who I am, baby. How I was made.”

“I want you like this.” Her voice shook, heavy with pleasure and a raw desperation. “I need you like this.”

“Damn straight you do.” Her submission threatened his already brittle control. Zack rubbed his hand up her back and forced himself to rock gently as he growled, “Say it again.”

“Need you, Zack. Need --” A gasp, and her body clenched around him. “Oh God, God it’s too good…”

It was all too much. The feel and scent of her overwhelmed him, and he plunged into her again. She screamed this time, something that sounded like his name, and his next thrust drove her down to the bed. He set a hard pace, fast and demanding, knowing her need would answer his own.

And it did. The back of her head slammed into his shoulder. The grip of her body around his cock grew impossibly tighter, but even that wasn’t as hot as the breathless, panting way she whispered his name before she fell apart underneath him, all desperate noise and absolute surrender.

Her orgasm spurred his own. Wet heat rippled around his cock, and her cries of fulfillment echoed in his ears. He thrust harder, slamming into her, his teeth scoring her skin as she dragged him down into an abyss of pleasure.

She was still trembling when he finally stilled, her soft whimpers filling the room and mingling with the sound of their frantically beating hearts. “Zack…” His name sounded hoarse and unsteady, but full of such satisfaction it sent a rush of warmth through him.

Mine. He’d taken her, claimed her; there could be no doubt about that. “Are you all right?” He didn’t move.

“Yes.” She turned just enough to rub her cheek against his jaw. “You can’t hurt me by mistake. I’m one of the weaker demons, but I’m still… sturdy.”

Zack smiled as he nuzzled her face and neck. “I didn’t necessarily mean physically.”

“You’re the one who found out that the sweet, shy social worker next door wants you to tie her up and do dirty, wrong things to her sometimes.” The light, sleepy tone of voice couldn’t hide the same tense shame that had plagued her from the moment he’d set foot in her apartment.

“Mmhmm.” He rolled carefully to his side and kissed her shoulder. “I’m also the one who thinks those dirty, wrong things… aren’t.”

She turned her head and rested her cheek against her arm, and her eyes drifted open. “I was raised in a different time. And as a human. I don’t think I’ve adjusted to the changes in the world as well as people like Leo.”

Zack kept his arm draped over her, his hand tracing sweeping figure eights on her back. “Is that your way of explaining that, even though you’re a demon, you’re something of a prude?”

Color rose in her cheeks. “Maybe. But it’s not just that. Everything moves so fast now. The computers and all of the technology… sometimes I drive them crazy at work because I can barely access my files.”

His chest ached for her, for the confusion that must come with watching the world spin crazily around you. “Starting to feel the years, baby?”

“I think I just need time to catch my breath.” The corner of her mouth lifted in a tiny, shy little smile. “Leo kept trying to give me money. I had to take it at first, but I wanted to learn how to take care of myself. I was mostly doing it, too, until you came along and started feeding me.”

The soft bow of her lower lip beckoned, and Zack kissed her quickly. “Uh-uh. You’ve been feeding me. I just bought the stuff.”

“I liked eating dinner with you.” The color in her cheeks deepened as she lifted a hand and brushed her fingers lightly over his lips. “You wouldn’t believe the things I wanted to do every time you came over here.”

“I think I would.” He tapped his temple with one finger. “I got the gist in those mental pictures you were sending me. And let me just say…” He grinned slowly, letting every bit of his approval show. “I’ll get right on all of it.”

That earned him a smile, an honest one this time. “My bed’s not very comfortable, and the fridge is empty. If you wanted…” A tiny pause, but she seemed more nervous than ashamed now. “Maybe we could go over to your place? I could make us something to eat, and maybe… maybe stay the night?”

In his bed. Zack nipped at her lip and laughed. “Get some clothes on. Hell, I’ll even make sure the hallway’s clear if you want to dash over there naked.”

Iris sat up with a sleepy laugh and moved toward the edge of the bed. “No, I don’t think so. I have a nightgown, but you’ll probably laugh at it. I… bought it a long time ago.”

“All I care about is what’s under it.” He rolled to his feet and looked for his pants.

Her feet whispered against the cool hardwood floors as she moved toward the bedroom door. “I’ll be right back. Or I can meet you over there in a few minutes, if you want.”

“I’ll wait for you outside.” He let his gaze roam her naked body and cursed the arousal that threatened again. If he stayed longer, he’d bend her over the bed again. “Uh… yeah. Or at my place. In a few minutes.”

She paused and glanced at him over her shoulder, another of those wicked little smiles curling her lips. “I won’t take long.”

Zack clenched his hands around his pants and yanked them on. He didn’t bother to find his shirt or shoes, just dug his keys out of his pocket and dashed down the hall.

His apartment was neat, at least, not that he gave a damn. All he cared about was the fulfillment of a fantasy -- Iris, naked in his bed, moaning his name while he made love to her.

He stood at the end of his bed, hands shaking, unsure of whether he should get on the bed or wait for her. Fucking hell, Elliott. You’re thirty-five, not seventeen. Snap out of it.

“Zack?” He could hear her bare feet against the floor as she stepped into the room behind him. “I locked your door behind me.”

She was wearing some kind of demure silk gown that shouldn’t have been as sexy as the smooth expanse of her naked skin. But his heart stuttered, and he nodded stupidly. “Okay.”

“Okay.” She reached out a hand and pressed it lightly against his chest. “Are you sure you want me here?”

He laid his hand over hers, trapping it against his skin. “Iris, all I’ve ever wanted is you here.”

“For tonight?” Her eyes drifted shut. “It would be too easy to never leave. You… you need to tell me.”

He moved her hand over until it rested over his pounding heart. “I don’t want you to leave. Not after a night. Not for a long time.”

She moved slowly, her hand slipping out from under his as she sank to her knees. Her hands came to rest on the waistband of his pants as she opened her eyes and stared up at him. “Not for a long time,” she agreed in a whisper.

There were a thousand things Zack wanted to do to her. “I don’t know where to start,” he told her self-consciously. “Everything feels so different with you, and I still can’t really believe you’re here.”

“I’m here.” She tugged at the button on his pants and smiled when it came loose. “And I have a few ideas about where to start.”

“Tell me about them.” Zack slipped his fingers into her hair. “You showed me the hot fucking. What did you imagine when you thought of taking it slow?”

“Do you want me to tell you?” Her fingers got his pants open and she stroked her fingertips lightly along his cock. “Or can I show you?”

He couldn’t tear his gaze from her face, even as he gasped and thrust against her hand. “Whatever you want, sweetheart. Both. Anything.”

She closed her hand around the base of his cock, and her breath feathered over him as she spoke. “It starts like this. With me on my knees, your cock in my mouth. And you’re in control until I close my eyes…” Her eyelids fluttered shut. “And I do this.”

Her lips closed around the head of his cock as her magic flared. A vision took him, one of Iris in his bed, her wrists bound above her head and her voice rising in hoarse, needy whimpers as his tongue rasped over her clit.

The combined sensation of her hot mouth around his cock and her fantasy in his head stripped him of control, and a low groan ripped free of him. “Jesus Christ, Iris. Fucking hell.”

She pulled back and stroked him. “You’d have to tie me down, because I’m not very patient. I always want to go faster and harder, but you could stop me. You could make me feel every touch, every kiss. And when I couldn’t take it anymore…”

Her mouth returned, and this time the fantasy was of her on her side with Zack curled around her, joined but barely moving. One of his hands held both of hers trapped over her head, and the other slipped between her legs as he accentuated every slow rock with a teasing caress. His lips brushed her ear, and he whispered to her, whispered how much he wanted her, how he’d fuck her so slow and deep that she’d never want it to stop.

His head fell back with another curse and a raspy groan. If she didn’t stop, he was going to hit his knees. He gave her hair a firm tug and growled. “You know exactly what you’re doing to me, don’t you?”

She moaned and pulled her lips back again. “You said you wanted all of me. Can you handle all of me?”

“Could do it a lot better if I didn’t have to stay on my feet.”

“So put me where you want me.”

She felt slight and delicate when he lifted her in his arms and crossed to the bed. “Here.” Her dark hair spread out over his pillows when he lowered her to the mattress. “Look inside me again, Iris. See how badly I needed you here.”

Her fingers brushed his chest and settled over his heart as her eyes drifted shut. He felt the tingle of magic, and her lips parted on a soft noise, one of wonder and longing.

Zack kissed her eyelids, her cheeks, the corners of her mouth, and listened to her heart race in time with his. “I love you, Iris. Ianthe. Whatever you want me to call you.”

“Yours. I want you to call me yours.”

A familiar wave of emotion washed through him, lust and love and longing, along with a completely new, almost content, sort of possessiveness. “You’ve always been mine, Iris.” He began to gather the worn silk of her nightgown, baring one leg. “Always.”

She smiled slowly. “Leo told me a few years ago that the sort of sins that damned my soul are so common now that people hardly blink. Maybe he’s been right all along. Maybe…” Her eyes drifted open and she lifted her fingers to touch his lips. “Maybe you’re safe with me.”

“You can’t hurt me, baby.” And, even if she could, the hell of being without her would outweigh anything she’d possibly put him through. “I’m tough, and I know what’s right for me.”

“You’re tough.” Her fingers smoothed along his cheek and down his neck. “And you love me. Hundreds of years, and you’re the only man who’s ever loved me. You’re the only man I’ve ever loved.”

There was no way he was the first to love her, but it didn’t matter. He’d be the one who counted. The one she loved in return. “Kiss me, sweetheart.”

She curled her fingers around the back of his neck and dragged him into a hot, drowning kiss, a kiss that claimed him even as she gave herself to him with every soft whimper, with every eager movement.

His hand reached the top of her thigh, and he stroked his tongue over hers while his fingers searched and then slid inside her. She moaned into his mouth, and Zack steeled himself against the soft allure of her body. He could wait, all night if he had to, to make sure he’d drawn forth and exhausted every ounce of her pleasure.

Her body trembled as she tore her mouth from his and panted against his cheek. “You’ve seen everything I want. Tell me what you want. Tell me your fantasies.”

“This is all I want,” he rasped. “You, calling out my name when you come. Being inside you, feeling you around my cock…” Need shuddered through him, and he bit her neck. “Stay. That’s all I want.”

“Zack.” It was a whisper, soft and needy. Her breath tickled against his forehead as she rocked up against his hand and said it again, and a third time. She chanted his name as he lifted his thumb to rub her clit.

“Come.” He alternated gentle thrusts of his fingers with firm pressure on her clit, and gritted his teeth when her body tightened around his fingers.

She screamed his name when she came. Her head dug back against the pillow as her eyes squeezed shut, and her fingernails dug into his shoulders until they broke the skin.

Instinct took over, a drive more primal than rational, and Zack settled between her thighs. He pinned her wrists to the bed and thrust into her with a growl. He knew he must have looked wild, almost feral, and even after everything they’d shared that night, he half expected her to recoil.

Instead she moaned and dragged her legs up his sides, urging him deeper. Her eyes drifted open and he saw nothing there but acceptance, nothing but blind need. She licked her lips and spoke in a voice gone hoarse. “You don’t have to do this for me. I -- I think with you I’d even like soft and gentle.”

“This is what I like,” he panted, his arms trembling with the effort his restraint cost him. “This is what it means to be mine, Iris.”

He heard her heart skip a beat as she offered him her throat in perfect, trusting submission. “Then give us both what we want. Let go.”

He closed his teeth on her neck with a tormented growl, then whispered against her skin. “I trust you, Iris.” And he did, with everything he was, and every bit of his heart.

He let go.

* * *

There was something vaguely sacrilegious about the realization that she’d finally found Heaven, and for once it wasn’t the fact that she was a demon. Zack’s fingers tightened around her wrists and she thought for a moment that she’d come just from the sheer thrill of being able to give up control to the man she loved and know he wouldn’t be hurt.

Zack drove into her with another growl. “Say it. Say you belong to me.”

The possession in his voice soothed all those dark places inside her that had yearned for this, the places that had never been satisfied by the fake submission she’d offered the string of men she’d corrupted over the years. “All -- all of me… All of me belongs to you.”

He lowered one hand to her leg and raised it higher. This time, when he plunged into her, it was deeper, sharper. “Again.”

It was hard to speak with her body trembling on the verge of another orgasm. This time she could only manage one word, but she let everything she felt show in her face as she whispered it. “Yours.”

“Fuck, Iris.” His lips descended on hers, wild and bruising, and his pace quickened. Every thrust came faster, harder, and his muscles tensed as his tongue swept her mouth.

She wanted to revel in it, to bask in the anticipation, but his next thrust snapped the tension inside her and scattered it to the wind. She’d never come so many times before, never come so hard or out of control, but she could feel every spasm as she screamed into his mouth and gave herself over to madness.

Zack closed his teeth on her neck as he froze and then shuddered over her, a low growl rising in his throat. He stayed like that, unmoving, though he braced his weight carefully on his arms. “Jesus Christ.”

It took forever for the pleasure to fade enough to speak. “I love you, Zack.”

He rolled over to his back, pulling her with him. “I love you too. Feels like I’ve loved you forever.”

“Me too.” She dropped her cheek to his chest and closed her eyes, listening to his heart beat strong and fast. “Do you… do you really want me to stay here? I mean, in your apartment?”

“Mmm.” He wove his fingers through her hair. “I understand if you need more time, or your own space. But, sooner or later, I would like it if you’d move in.”

She felt a little guilty about the moment of giddy relief that rose up inside her. The stubborn pride that had kept her alive for so long had kept her from accepting Leofric’s offers of assistance, but the barren, exhausting existence she’d made for herself had started to take its toll. The only happy times she’d had in recent years had been the ones in Zack’s apartment, showing him how to prepare the absurd quantities of food he’d bought with the intention of making sure she didn’t go hungry.

In the end it wasn’t even a question. She turned her face just enough to kiss his chest. “I’m subletting that apartment from Mrs. Carson, and I can give it up whenever I want. If you helped me move my things over here, I’d never go back.”

Zack grinned even as he tugged her up for a kiss. “I’ll take care of you, baby. I’ll make you happy.”

She wrinkled her nose before nuzzling it against his cheek. “If you’ll teach me how to use a computer everyone in my office will love you forever.”

He laughed. “I thought loving me forever was your job.”

“Mmmm. And it’ll be easy.” She kissed his chin before settling back against his chest and closing her eyes again. A sleepy peace crept over her as she relaxed in his embrace. “I’m sorry I lied to you, Zack. I should have trusted you to be strong enough.”

“Me too, Iris.” He flashed her a serious look. “I shouldn’t have stayed away just because I thought you were human. I should have at least tried to make it work.”

She couldn’t even blame him for being wary. If she had been human he never could have let go the way he wanted to, the way he needed to. A human wouldn’t be curled on his chest now in a post-orgasmic haze, not after the rough, primal sex that had called to everything inside her. A human would be broken, damaged.

Her demon nature had been the bane of her existence for decades. Now it was the blessing that had given her the strength to be everything Zack needed.

She lifted her head and stared down at him. “Do you know why I was at Last Call tonight?”

He closed his eyes. “Because Leo’s little girlfriend dragged you there, kicking and screaming?”

“To save me from my dark path.” She traced his lower lip with one finger and almost laughed at the thought that a few short hours ago, salvation had seemed absurd. “I don’t know what she saw. She wouldn’t tell me. She just kept saying someone I would find at that bar would keep me safe. I suppose I owe her an apology for doubting her.”

“Dark path, huh?” Zack nipped at her finger and growled playfully. “We could invite them over for dinner. Leo and I have a lot in common, after all.”

Iris blinked, unable to hide her surprise. “You do?”

“Mmm, we’re both hopeless and very secret romantics,” he told her solemnly. “Have you seen his face when he looks at that girlfriend of his? It’s the same way I look at you.”

She had to close her eyes this time to keep him from seeing the tears that threatened. “I won’t tell anyone that my badass alpha wolf boyfriend is a secret romantic.”

His lips brushed her closed lids gently. “You won’t have to, baby.”

Because he’d love her so completely that no one would ever doubt it. It was more than she’d dared dream of, but as she settled down into his embrace there was no room for doubt. And for the first time in too many years, Iris didn’t drift to sleep with the whispers of regret plaguing her. With even the darkness inside her sated, there was nothing left but hope.