The Demon's Song - By Kendra Leigh Castle Page 0,27
And as for the Council...they don’t like to lose. We count as unfinished business. They already tried for my brother Raum.”
“What happened?”
He looked smug. “The Infernal Council has one less member.”
Sofia widened her eyes, blinked, and looked away, shaking her head in wonder. “Good to know.” He was trouble any way you sliced it, an ex-demon mercenary on the run from Hell. And for some reason, he was here with her.
The words came before she could think better of them.
“Phenex, why are you doing this? Gadreel said you volunteered to watch me. Why? You’re a warrior, not a nanny. I’m not even going to pretend that I live an exciting life. That vampire you grabbed last night was so out of his league it was ridiculous, and I doubt this vampire king needed to waste one of his big guns here. So why?”
His face was impassive, though his eyes told another story. There were emotions roiling beneath the surface in him that Sofia couldn’t begin to guess at. Likely it was safer not to. Such an ancient creature would have some fairly extreme baggage. Just another reason not to get too close.
Except she’d already taken a couple of steps toward him before she realized it and stopped herself. The magnetic pull he seemed to exert on her was going to be a big problem if she didn’t watch it. It was like having a force of nature show up in her life for an unexpected and extended visit. She was too busy flailing to even try to nail down what came next. Understanding him, even a little, was something she needed. Maybe then she could figure the rest of this out.
Phenex moved forward, closing the distance between them with just a few steps, until there were only inches separating them. Sofia didn’t move a muscle. She could actually feel the heat radiating from him, as though he really did nurse a fire deep within him, just like the mythical bird he shared a name with. Even his eyes seemed to burn as he looked down at her. His focus was so singular, so intense, that her every nerve ending sizzled, waiting for the slightest touch. When he lifted his hand to her cheek, lightly brushing a lock of hair away from her face and tucking it behind her ear, Sofia heard her own sharp intake of breath and blushed. Her inability to hide her reactions to Phenex embarrassed her. And still, she couldn’t move away, hungry for another brush of his hand.
She knew next to nothing about him, and it didn’t seem to matter. This was attraction at a level she hadn’t thought existed outside of fantasy.
“Sofia,” Phenex said, and he made her name sound like a fragment of some exquisite song. “I’m here for a very simple reason. Eternity is boring. You’re not.”
She turned her cheek into his touch as he stroked his fingers down her jaw, making her shiver. The heat from his fingertips rippled through her, shimmering over her skin, turning her breaths shallow. Sofia’s lips parted when Phenex ran his thumb gently over them. Her eyes slipped halfway shut. She couldn’t seem to think, every possible protest of her better judgment scattering in the face of pure desire. She lifted her chin, asking without words for his mouth, for more. She caught a fleeting glimpse of Phenex’s beautiful face through her lowered lashes and saw an expression that bespoke a hunger so deep that it ought to have terrified her. Instead, it found its match in her own, rearing its head with shocking force.
His hands clamped on her hips. Her hands fisted in his shirt. Then his mouth was on hers, and Sofia gave a soft, broken cry an instant before his tongue swept in to taste her. Her hands flattened against the hard planes of his chest, then slid upward, over the place where she could feel the rapid beat of his heart, over the broad contours of his shoulders, into the silken softness of his hair, where she tangled her fingers. Phenex’s lips were warm and soft, a startling contrast to the hardness of the man. Sofia felt any control she might have had deserting her as his tongue rubbed against hers in a rhythm that matched the aching throb between her legs—legs that threatened to give out on her as he licked and nipped, teased and then plundered. She arched, pressing her breasts into his chest, the thin material of her shirt abrading