bed.
“You’re gorgeous first thing in the morning even when you’re soaking wet, my love.”
I yelp, my hand flying to my heart. “Jesus Christ.”
Arcayos is sitting in the chair I keep by the window, leaning back, fingertips pressed together in front of his face. The sun’s glare reduces his huge, cloaked frame to shadow. The hood obscures his features except for his glowing red eyes.
His white teeth flash in the darkness that seems to surround him like a second cloak. His fangs glint.
“You came through the fucking Gate again, didn’t you?” I roll my eyes. “Wait. I saw it last night. That was you.”
“It was.” He rises from the chair, towering. “I allowed you to see it this time.”
His eyes alight on my breasts, on my sex. Shit, I’m as naked as the day I was born.
I stride back into the bathroom and snatch up my towel, wrapping it around myself.
So last night wasn’t a dream. The images are fragmented and fuzzy, but the memory of him pounding me savagely is very clear. Goose bumps pop up on my arms even as my sex clenches.
I did fuck him. Where does that leave me?
I march back into the bedroom. “What the fuck did you do to me, you succubus from hell?”
A rumbling chuckle fills the room. The deep, masculine sound makes my toes curl into the carpet.
“That is not the correct word,” he says warmly. “I do not have the power to seduce women. At least not the way you are implying. And even if I did, I am male. The correct term for a male demon of that type is incubus.”
He draws his hood down, laying bare those smooth, gorgeous features. At least he’s not wearing his demon face. I couldn’t deal with that right now.
“And I am not from your hell, Cassidy Morgan,” he adds. “Hellinon is another dimension entirely.”
I make an impatient sound. “If you didn’t do anything to me, then how do you explain what happened last night? There is no way I would have done… what we did. Not with you.”
“There is no need for the towel,” he rumbles. “I already know your body as well as I know my own, and I enjoy seeing what is mine.”
“What is yours? Ohhh, no. That’s not going to happen.”
“It has happened. It is happening, my sweet.”
“Not a chance in Hellinon.”
He crosses his arms, burying his hands in the wide sleeves of his cloak. His face turns away, toward the window. “Was being with me so terrible for you, Cassidy Morgan?”
Ugh. Why does he have to put it like that? Despite his enormous size, he looks so vulnerable, so… alone. An inexplicable urge to comfort him steals over me, and that pisses me off. I want to be angry at him, and he has me wanting to put my arms around his huge, gorgeous body and hold him close as if we’re Romeo and Juliet.
“Look,” I snap, “it’s just Cassidy. Considering that we just banged like bunnies, I think you can drop the last name.”
He snorts softly.
“And whether or not I enjoyed it is hardly the point, Arcayos. I was out of my mind last night. It was like I had some kind of fever. And I was like that all day. Since I was with you.” I emphasize the last word. “That wasn’t natural, and it only went away after you fucked me.”
He turns his eyes to me.
“Are you going to tell me you didn’t make me like that?”
His enormous shoulders drop. “No. I will not tell you that. I am responsible for what was happening to you.”
“So you did do it. You put some sort of spell on me to make me want you.”
He crosses the room toward me slowly, a giant creature of the night. His eyes are a dark, wine-red now. Gentle and drawing me in.
“Did you not want me?” His voice is soft and husky, wrapping around me. “Did you not need me as badly as I needed you?”
I press my feet into the floor, resisting the urge to seek comfort in him from the darkness that’s suddenly overturned my world. His pull is extraordinary. I cross my arms. “What did you do to me?”
“I did not do anything to you. Not the way you mean.” He returns to the window, his face toward the city. “I would not have done, even had I possessed the power.”
“But you just said that you…”
“I did not use magic or compel you.”
“And I should believe you why?”
“I never