Текст книги "Next-Door Incubus"

Автор книги: Emilia Rose

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Текущая страница: 16 (всего у книги 19 страниц)

CHAPTER 39

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Dani

“It was a pleasure getting to know you,” Lucifer said after Eros drove us back to his apartment. He stood in front of a portal to Hell in the center of Eros’s living room. “I look forward to next time, Dani.”

Eros curled an arm around my waist, resting his chin on my shoulder. “Meet us here in two days for the dinner party.”

Lucifer gave us one last lingering look and stepped into the portal. When he left, the portal closed up as if it had never even been there. Eros sauntered to his kitchen and pulled out two wine glasses from the cabinet. He was wearing a forest green sweater that hung comfortably on his body, and he was more relaxed than I expected him to be after that.

He popped off the cork to a bottle of wine and gazed over at me. “You’re quiet.”

My mind and body were both numb from the past three hours, I didn’t even know what to say. If I knew something like that was going to happen tonight, I would’ve prepared. Maybe did a little workout so I could keep up with two demons who were hell-bent on fucking me over and over and over again.

After he placed a glass of wine in my hand, he led me to the living room. He sat on the couch and pulled me onto his lap. “Relax,” he said. “I know that was a lot for you.” His fingers trailed up my arms, and he began massaging my shoulders. “How are you feeling?”

One of the living room windows was open a few inches, letting a cold breeze into the room to cool me off. I leaned against him, closing my eyes. “Good.” Really good. I just had questions.

“Why did you agree to that?” I asked. I should’ve asked before it happened, but I was so caught up in the moment that I couldn’t think straight. “I thought you only liked one partner at a time and didn’t want something like that.”

He tensed, his fingers pausing. “I just… wanted to gauge your reaction for… the future.”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“Nothing,” he said too quickly, rubbing my shoulders. He was hiding something. Again.

“What are you not telling me?”

“Nothing.”

I placed my hands on his. “Please Eros, trust me.”

He stayed quiet for a long moment. “It’s too dangerous to tell you now. Once I get everything sorted out with my parents and Javier, I will tell you. I promise.”

I knew that this whole family thing was bothering him, but I didn’t want to be lied to. It hurt more than anything to know he was keeping something big from me, and that something meant being with many other people in the future.

“We should talk about the rules in our relationship,” he said.

“Um, okay.” I sipped my wine. “What kind of rules were you thinking about?”

He took my glass of wine and placed it on the coffee table, then sat me next to him. His lips were set in a small smile, and his dark eyes were comforting. “I think that if—when we rule the Kingdom of Lust, we should keep our relationship closed.” When I furrowed my brows at him, he continued. “I mean, we shouldn’t see anyone else romantically until we think otherwise.”

“I thought that’s what you wanted to do.”

His cheeks grew the faintest color red. “It is, but you may feel different once you become queen. It’s a different world down there, and relationships with more than two people get messy in Hell. There are demons that are envious, wrathful, greedy, prideful, slow, hungry, filled with desire. They’ll backstab, kill, and cheat to get what they want.” He paused. “All I’m saying is that until our kingdom is strong and stable, we should refrain from other romances.”

“Okay…” I said. This man was so confusing. No open relationship. Three some with Lucifer. No open relationship. Was I missing something?

He shook his head and chuckled. “Dani, you’re so innocent. I think you’re getting this all confused. I don’t mind sex with other people once in a while, just no feelings. If you want us to share a bed with someone—like Lucifer—for the night, I’ll most likely agree to it, but it’s not something I’m looking for everyday or even every other day honestly.”

Whew. Okay, that sounded so much better. If I ended up in a romantic relationship with another person and Maria found out or—worse—Dr. U found out, I wouldn’t hear the end of it. But having sex—especially sex that amazing—with other consenting people, I didn’t mind.

“Do you have any rules that you want to talk about?” he asked, grasping my hands.

There was one thing that had been bothering me, and I wasn’t sure how to ask it without appearing jealous. But after taking a deep breath, I gazed down at Eros’s ring—feeling drawn to it—and brushed my finger against the darkness. “Are you going to be having sex with other people when I’m not with you?”

Tonight, I learned that his sex drive was extremely high. What if I couldn’t please him the way he needed me to? I didn’t want to come home one day to find him in bed with someone else—even if there were no feelings attached. Trevon had little control over cheating on me—since he was under Javier’s lustful spell—but it still hurt. I needed Eros to be honest with what he needed.

He placed a finger on my chin and lifted it until my gaze reached his. “I am faithful to you, Dani. Only you. I will not have sex with someone else, unless you’re there and/or you’re okay with it. And, honestly, I prefer to only have sex with someone I’m romantically attracted to.”

I smiled and slowly nodded my head. Okay, I could do this. We could work.

Dr. U flipped through a file at her desk, the overhead light reflecting off of her glasses. I peeked my head into her office and knocked. She looked up from her work, her eyes growing wide. “Dani! What’re you doing here this late? It’s nearly 7 o’clock on a Friday.”

There were a lot of reasons that I was here. I held up a brown paper bag from Crimson’s Nouveau and smiled. “I wanted to bring you something before the office closes the next few days for Christmas.”

She closed her file and gave me a soft smile. I handed her the bag and sat across from her, gazing out the window. It was a terrifying kind of dark outside tonight and reminded me of the night Mom was murdered. We were walking down Fourth Street on Christmas Eve, listening to Joy to the World which was playing in the city center a few blocks over. Mom was twirling me around, her blonde hair blowing into her face. We were happier than we had ever been.

And then she saw a woman across the street, stopped dead in her tracks, and kissed my forehead, telling me that she loved me more than anything. I tugged on her hand, wanting to get to the ice-skating rink before it got too packed. She gave me a smile, her lips twitching, and looked at the woman again who was hurriedly crossing the street at the crosswalk. Even in the darkness, that woman’s eyes were a piercing red.

Mom told me that we would have a race to the rink, that she’d give me a head start. So, I sprinted as fast as I could down the road to the rink that I’d been to a thousand times before and stopped when I noticed that she wasn’t following me.

I couldn’t remember what happened next, just that Mom was lying on the ground not moving and the woman was standing over her and I was screaming at the top of my lungs.

Dr. U was coming out of her office, briefcase hanging off her shoulder, when she found me. She crouched down to my level and asked me what was wrong. At the time, I didn’t know, but I knew that something wasn’t right, so I just pointed to Mom and the woman with red eyes a block away and clutched the necklace that Mom put around my neck earlier that night. Dr. U looked over to them, fear clear in her eyes, and grabbed me.

Before I knew it, she was running down the street with me to the police station, taking me away from the only family I had. When I got to see Mom’s body on Christmas morning—at the time we were supposed to be at church—I pushed a strand of her blonde hair from her face and told her a bedtime story.

“Fervor Crisps?” Dr. U asked, pulling one out of the brown paper bag. “I love these!”

I grinned. “You’ve had them before?”

“Of course!” She bit into one and sighed. “You’ve had them before?”

“Eros makes them.”

Her eyes widened, and she slowly chewed. “Eros, as in the man you’re dating?” she asked.

“Yeah.” I nodded. “I’m going to visit his family for the holiday and am nervous.”

She placed the Fervor Crisp on a napkin and dusted off her hands. “You’re going to see his family?” While she had become comfortable with my relationship with Eros, she suddenly looked hesitant. “You’re moving rather quickly, but…” She sat up, took my hand, and smiled. “You’ll do great. I know you will. You’ve turned out to be the strongest woman I know.”

We gazed at each other for a few more moments, and I closed my eyes. Hoping that I had made Mom proud like I had Dr. U.

After a few seconds of silence, I stood. “Well, I don’t want to hold you up. Have a good Christmas. I’ll see you next Monday.”

I tugged on Mom’s pendant and walked to the door. I’d see her if I survived Hell.

“Dani!” she said before I walked through the doorway. I turned around to see her smiling weakly at me. “Be careful.”

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CHAPTER 40

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Dani

If I was going to visit the Kingdom of Lust, I was going to make an unforgettable first impression.

I shimmied into a long red satin gown that Eros brought over this morning and smoothed it out. It was as bright as Kasey’s lipstick, clung to every one of my curves, and had a plunging neckline that showed way more cleavage that I was used to.

Music was playing softly on the speaker in the living room. Maria peeked her head into the bathroom. “You look amazing!” She walked in—still wearing pajamas—and brushed her fingers against Mom’s pendant. “And your necklace is nearly glowing!”

My cheeks warmed. “You’re not going to the party?” I asked. “Didn’t Zane invite you?”

She sighed. “He did, but I don’t want to see Javier, and demons freak me the fuck out.”

“Are you sure?” I asked. It’d be nice to have some support there tonight.

“Zane said he was leaving the party early to come over, so I’m just going to stay in,” she said. I raised my brows. Maria, staying in? That was a first.

“So, you and Zane… you’re fine?” I asked, smiling.

She grabbed my hand, cheeks flaming, and pulled me toward the front door. “Yes, but I’ll tell you about that later. You can’t be late to a party in Hell,” she said.

After visiting Dr. U’s office last night, I had told Maria that I was going to Hell to visit Eros’s family. Of course, I only told her the essentials—that I’d be amongst a bunch of sex demons, having a lovely dinner with Eros’s disgustingly rude parents, trying not to embarrass myself—and made sure to leave out the part about Eros actually killing his parents and seizing the kingdom.

That part scared me the most. Not only was I going back to Hell, but this time I was going back to Hell with my boyfriend who was going to murder his family to take back his throne.

Maria opened the door and pushed me out. “Have fun and good luc—” She stopped half-way, her gaze traveling from me to the hallway behind me.

I glanced over my shoulder. Lucifer stood at Eros’s door, smirking in our direction. His icy eyes lingered on me. Maria’s mouth fell agape. “Holy fu—” She pulled me back into the house and slammed the door. “Who is that?”

“Lucifer.”

She leaned closer to me, her voice quiet. “Lucifer, as in the guy you had a threesome with?” When I nodded my head, her eyes widened. “You get it, girl. He’s so sexy!”

“Thanks, Maria,” I said, playfully rolling my eyes at her and opening the door again. She wished me good luck, knowing just how much I was fearing this whole night. I pulled her into a hug. If the plan failed, I didn’t know when I would see her next. And—even though she was annoying sometimes—I was terrified that I’d never see her again.

Since yesterday morning, I’d felt that something wasn’t right, that I shouldn’t go tonight. But I was going because Eros was counting on me and Eros deserved to be king.

Lucifer was still waiting by Eros’s door when I finally left the apartment. His white hair rested messily by the sides of his face, and his eyes were icier than last time. “Stunning.”

“You don’t look too bad yourself,” I said.

Eros opened the door. A red tie was hanging loosely around his neck, and his soft hair was parted to one side. So many succubi and incubi would be all over him tonight, trying to pry him away from me.

He pulled me inside and pressed his lips to my ear. “If we didn’t have to deal with my family tonight, I’d already have that dress ripped off of you.” His fingers trailed over my cleavage. “Everyone is going to be all over you tonight.”

I pulled him closer, ignoring Lucifer’s playful groan at our affection, and fixed his tie. When I was finished, he grasped my hand and held it to his chest. “I can’t wait to show everyone how amazing you are,” he said.

I hoped that’s how the night would go—making a damn good impression in the kingdom he was banished from—but nothing ever went to plan. Eros pulled away to fix his hair in the mirror one last time, and I grasped my necklace, suddenly filled with so much doubt.

Something was bound to go wrong. I could feel it.

“Are you ready?” Lucifer asked, standing in front of a portal.

I clenched the pendant in my fist, accidentally ripping it off of the chain. My eyes widened at the v-shaped piece of metal in my palm. “Oh, my God.” I broke it. The one thing that I needed to survive tonight broke. What was I going to do? I needed Mom with me. I couldn’t sit at dinner with a table full of demons without her to keep me calm. I—

“Dani,” Eros said. He placed his hands on my shoulders and gazed down at the pendant. “Calm down. It’s fine. You’re fine.”

“But—but my necklace.” I held my hand toward him.

“We can fix it,” he said.

“No.” I shook my head. “Last time it broke, it took weeks for Trevon to fix it. We can’t fix it now.” I ran my hands through my curls. “What am I going to do?”

Lucifer stepped forward. “There is a jeweler in Pride who can fix it for you while we’re at dinner. He’s exceptionally good at all things jewelry, even handcrafted that ring Eros has on his finger.”

“But I—what about Mom?”

Eros squeezed my shoulder. “You’ll be fine without her, Dani. It’ll take less than a couple hours for him to fix it.”

I gazed between the two men and reluctantly handed the pendant to Lucifer, hoping that I’d see it again. It was one of the few things left of Mom.

“I’ll meet you there,” he said. He stepped into the portal and disappeared.

Eros took my hand. “Close your eyes,” he said. I squeezed my eyes shut. I would not make the same mistake as last time. I didn’t have Mom to protect me.

When Eros told me to open my eyes, we were standing in a portal room in an unfamiliar kingdom. The room was fairly large with soft egg-white walls and two red velvet couches on either side of the portal. The lights were dim, and there were two guards dressed in suits with black horns and reflective eyes. Lucifer stepped out of the portal behind me, nearly bumping into me. He rested a hand on my lower back.

“Lord Eros. Commander Lucifer,” one guard said.

The other eyed me but returned his gaze to Eros after a moment. “You’re the last to arrive. Everyone is waiting for you in the castle.”

The Kingdom of Lust was much different from Pride. The sky was a light pink with white feathery clouds. Beds of roses lined the white stone walkways which lead to a towering castle.

Lucifer placed his hand on Eros’s shoulder. “This is all about to be yours.”

Eros gazed around us, taking in the sight of his kingdom, and nodded. He looked so stoic and strong, and I was glad one of us was.

While we walked to the castle, Eros repeated that I must stay with Lucifer at all times—even when he went to do whatever it was that he was going to do. He didn’t tell me the specifics, and I didn’t want to know. Times like this, when your lover was going to kill his parents and seize the Kingdom of Lust’s throne—in Hell—it was best to remain ignorant.

What I did know was that the three of us were going to pretend that Eros had finally accepted life as a true incubus through a partnership with Lucifer and me, which meant that I had to flirt with both of them all night long. And that wouldn’t be a problem.

I linked arms with Eros and walked up the staircase to the front doors of the palace. Demons were already drunk off of Passion Delights on the front steps—flirting, kissing, touching. They were doing it all, and I only wished that I had Mom’s necklace—my security net.

A few succubi batted their lashes at Eros, but he brushed by them. He didn’t even look at them when they called his name.

When we reached the top, another two guards nodded at Eros. “Lord, Commander.” They looked at me, then at each other. “Who is this?”

“She’s my date,” Eros said.

“Our date,” Lucifer corrected, grabbing my hand. If this was going to work, we couldn’t make any mistakes.

“You share the human girl?” The guards looked at each other and laughed. “The Great Lord Eros who was shamed for only wanting one lover, now is sharing a woman with a comman—”

Eros grabbed his throat, pressing him up against the stone door. “If you have a problem with it, tell me.”

The guard shook his head. “No, no, Lord. I was just in disbelief.”

When Eros released his grip, I squeezed his bicep tighter. Tonight was only going to get worse. He stepped over the man and opened the door himself.

Lucifer placed his hand on my lower back. “Stay by my side,” he said.

I took a deep breath and stepped into the room. We would walk out of here with the Kingdom of Lust or we wouldn’t walk out of this castle ever again. I could feel it.

The lights were dim inside. Demons were dancing, grinding, and flirting with each other. Some were nearly naked, others were clothed. The palace kind of reminded me of The Lounge, if it had hundreds more people and they were all demons.

Horns of ice. Dresses of gold. Red curled tails. Green scarred skin. There were demons from all the kingdoms here. But, despite their differences, one thing was the same amongst all of them: when Eros walked in, everyone stopped.

They shuffled to the side, creating a path for us to walk through. The succubi stared at me and whispered, eyeing my hand on Eros. I rubbed my sweaty palm on my dress, hoping that they didn’t notice how nervous I was.

I had never been surrounded by hundreds of people who were more beautiful than I would ever be. And—by the way they held themselves with so much confidence—there was no doubt in my mind that they could please Eros more than I could ever.

“Dani!” someone said. Kasey pushed through the crowd—red lipped and dressed in black stilettos—and jogged over to us. Her eyes were dark, her horns sharp, she was breathtaking. She pulled me into a hug. “I’m so glad that you made it!”

“Not even going to say hello to your brother?” Eros said from beside me.

She playfully pushed his shoulder, then bowed to Lucifer. “Commander. I didn’t think you’d be here with Eros and Dani.”

“I’m their date,” he said.

There was an uproar of whispers, and I tried to ignore it. My heart was pounding way too hard in my chest. I glanced around to distract myself and locked eyes with the one person I wish I hadn’t. Javier.

He sat at a long table, staring directly at me, and smirked. I gulped nervously, trying to pull my gaze away from him. I hated to admit it, but he was much more attractive in his demon form. Sculpted frame, large horns, dark eyes tinted red.

An older demon sat next to him, tail curling around a succubus’s waist. A pair of scars laid diagonally across his face. They both whispered back and forth.

Eros must’ve seen them too because his grip on me tightened. We continued through the crowd of whispers to the table.

“Eros, I didn’t think you’d actually make it.” A petite woman approached us, her voice a bit distasteful. She had hair like Kasey’s and piercing eyes like Eros. “Look who it is, Dear.”

A tall man walked up beside her. His gaze flickered from Eros to Lucifer. “Son.” The man nodded stiffly. “Commander. I don’t think we invited you.”

Lucifer smirked, tapping his fingers on my lower back like he was amused. “I was invited by Eros as his and Dani’s date.”

If I thought that my heart was racing before, I was definitely about to have a heart attack when Eros’s dad looked me up and down, his mother following suit. She curled a finger around a strand of my brown hair and watched me closely. I stayed still, absolutely terrified. “She’s pretty, Eros.”

“She is,” his father said.

Eros paused and pulled me away from his mother. “But?”

“But?” she said with a strained smile on her face. “Why do you think I want to say more?”

“Because you always have more to say.”

His mother shook her head and curled into his father’s arm. “I’m just surprised. That’s all.”

I tried my hardest to have a neutral expression, but everything she said sounded so fake, rehearsed even. No wonder Eros didn’t like his parents.

Eros stared at her, his face void of any emotion. “Surprised about what?” he asked tensely.

“She’s not a demon,” his father said.

“And you’re seeing her and Commander Lucifer.” She held out her hand for Eros to take, but he didn’t. So, instead, she slapped him playfully on the chest. “I should’ve known. You’ve been spending so much time with him lately and none here with us.”

“You banished me, Mother.”

She waved her hand, dismissively. “Oh, that’s silly talk. Now that you’ve accepted the true incubi way your banishment shall be lifted. You can spend more time here in the palace.”

“I don’t wan—”

I dug my nails into his bicep to get him to shut up. If we were going to do this—no mistakes. That’s what he told me, and I planned to keep it that way. I didn’t want to die, and I didn’t want him to die either.

“Why don’t we have dinner?” Eros’s mother asked, shuffling her husband to the table.

“Yes. Dinner,” Eros said.

Once his parents sat at the head of the table, next to Javier and the other demon, there were two chairs left. Lucifer sat in one and Eros sat in the other. He tugged me into his lap, lips brushing against my ear. “When we rule, I’ll make sure you have a seat at the head of the table.”

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