just seen, I should have been entirely turned off, horrified, disgusted. I should have been running.
But instead, I wanted him to wrap those blood-stained hands around my throat. I wanted him to manhandle me with even a fraction of the strength he’d just used to rip that thing limb from limb. I was staring down what was very likely the most dangerous man in Abelaum, and I wanted him to rip my clothes off right there in that graveyard.
“Thank you,” I said tightly. “I...I might’ve...if you weren’t here…”
“You would be dismembered, but alive, being dragged deep into the forest where they could consume your body slowly.” He smiled. “And I prefer thanks in actions, rather than words. Give me the grimoire.”
I backed away until my thighs bumped against a headstone behind me. Leon advanced, impatience in every step until he stood right before me. The rise and fall of his chest, his breathing heavy, was hypnotizing. His body was slim but his muscles had swelled. I wanted to caress my hands over the tattoos — saints and angels and snarling wolves — and over the scars beneath them.
“Why do you want the grimoire so badly?” I said, stalling.
“It contains my mark, my sigil,” he said. “It’s the last physical record of it remaining on earth, and having my mark means being able to summon me. Once I have it, I’m destroying it.” His eyes lit up. “And I’ll never return to this god-forsaken town.”
“If I give it to you,” I said slowly, “will those things go away? Will they stop coming after me?”
He winced, and gave a little shrug. “Maybe.”
“Maybe? What the hell am I supposed to do then?”
“Try offering me your soul.” His tone was cocky, but clipped, as if he’d allowed the words out only begrudgingly. “Offer me your soul in exchange for protection.”
I stared at him, stunned, until I began to slowly shake my head. “No. No way. I’m not offering you my soul.”
He shrugged again. “Good luck then. Now…” He leaned over me, those damned tempting full lips curled into a saucy smirk. “How long are you going to ignore that little problem of yours?”
I frowned, self-consciously squeezing my legs together. “What problem?”
His smirk widened. “You are dripping at the sight of me.”
Blood flooded my cheeks, and heat flooded between my legs. I sputtered, looking away — but I couldn’t deny him. I couldn’t lie.
“Fuck you,” I muttered.
“You’re welcome to.”
“Why don’t you just do it?” I blurted out, throwing up my hands. “You keep threatening and teasing and…and…looming over me.” I glared up at him, my fists clenching when I found him laughing.
“Just do it?” He chuckled. “Just bend you over and ravage you here and now? Just do it, so you don’t have to give in? No, no, no.” He clasped his hands behind his back. “That would be too easy. I want to see you squirm, I want to see you beg. If you’re going to be damned, you need to go willingly.”
The tension inside me was going to explode. My clit felt swollen, my panties were damp. The sight of him shirtless and bloodied, having just unleashed his true hellish self to save my life, was unreasonably arousing.
“Please, just —”
“Aw, please.” He pouted, mocking me again. “Please? Please, what? Use that pretty mouth of yours, come on. Speak.”
I clenched my teeth, a petulant whimper squeaking out. I was damned, just as he’d said.
“Do you want to set up your camera first?” he said. “This would make for great clickbait, wouldn’t it? Fucked By A Demon In A Cemetery?” He chuckled to himself. “I’d watch that.”
“You’re an asshole,” I whispered.
“You are what you eat.”
“Fucking hell,” I gasped, my hands clinging for the headstone behind me as if that would somehow keep me grounded. I hadn’t felt this unbearably, irrationally horny since I’d taken Ecstasy at my eighteenth birthday party. I lowered my voice, as if the dead themselves could hear me and clutch their pearls at what I was going to do. “Fuck me. Please.”
He shook his head and brought his face down closer, motioning to his ear. “Can’t hear you. A little louder please. Fuck you where?”
“Goddamn it, Leon —”
“I just ripped a living thing to shreds, doll. I’m in a very sadistic mood and will gladly let you stand there and stumble through humiliating yourself all night. Or, you can just say what you really want, and I’ll bend you over this headstone, eat your little cunt until you drip down your