Demon Branded (Demons of Florida) (8 page)

“You know.” He kissed below her ear. “I never understood the fuss about sex. Now that we’ve been together twice, all I can think about is getting inside you again.”

“You’ve never?” She gasped as his fingers slid into the crease of her ass and teased downward.

“Never thought it worth the risk of bonding just to have some casual sex. Would you bed a stranger and want to wake up bound for a very long life?”

“I did,” she answered sardonically and shoved him hard in the chest.

He stepped away from her and flicked a finger to indicate her hip. “That is a problem. If you’d just worn the dress as it was, we wouldn’t be facing the need to leave before Shreeva saw you.”

“Tell me something. I’ve been dragged about and used as some kind of pawn for two days now. I get the gist of it. The world is in danger of the demons coming together, but just what in hell are we to accomplish, and how are we going to stop it?”

Tiago put his hands on his hips, accenting the breadth of those amazing shoulders. A bulge ruined the line of his suit pants. He frowned those luscious red lips and then beckoned her near with a wave of his hand. “Come closer. We could be heard.”

He drew in a long breath, scenting. She did the same, but the acrid ash scent of the other demons had muted. All she found was the enticing scent of Tiago. Like a crackling fire on a cold winter night, his unique scent didn’t send her into a rage to rend and kill. It made her want to cuddle and settle into his warmth—or maybe that was the she-wolf inside whimpering, trying to get at its mate.

She sighed and dared to come close to temptation. He spoke low. “There is a structure to this demon world. Some are old as time. They left their home world thousands of years ago. They are the elite and they have an inborn need to fill in their caste system just so, in a precise order based on age, breed, and power. Mostly power. The old demons are strong. A raised eyebrow and you’ll fall to your knees, kiss their feet, and beg them to do as they will.”

“Okay. I just kill them if I run across them. This doesn’t explain…”

“Shh.” He put a finger on her lips and she bared her teeth. He snatched his finger back with a chuckle. “Beast.”

“Every day.” She couldn’t resist, she stroked her hand between his suit jacket and that clean white shirt, gripping his side, feeling the play of his muscles as he continued, his voice low and every word, no matter their import, stroking over her flesh.

“Shreeva is the daughter VanDross has waited a millennia for. I don’t know what he sought, specifically. He’s spawned many over the years from enthralled women of the human upper class. He then ruined and decimated all his children in turn. Shreeva had whatever it is that he wants for an offspring who will rule at his side. He’s put a lot of training, time, and personal attention into her. His reputation as one of the elite now rests on her success in finding a position in this caste. In turn, she has staked her claim on me.”

“She can’t have you,” Ona growled. Her fingers dug into his shirt and clamped into his side in a punishing grip he didn’t pull away from.

“You are my beast, aren’t you?” he murmured. For a man who’d never been with a woman before two days ago, he seemed to know how to make her pussy pulse with need just from a raised brow.

“You’re mine. Never forget that. Not the other way around.”

“If you say so.” He grinned.

She rocked onto her toes to kiss away his insolence. Jerking his head to the side, he tutted at her like she were an errant child. She pecked his jaw and nipped him. With his sharp intake of breath, she smiled against his stubbled skin.

“So, she’s put on this show to claim you. She’ll find out she can’t. How does this help the PACk?” She gave him one last nip and pulled back a bit to give him the space to answer.

His hands stroked her arms in a tender caress. “When she is publicly embarrassed, VanDross will have no choice but to punish her, perhaps even remove her from being his heir apparent. To best a demon in such a way, such a slap in the face, tears away their power—both in standing and in truth. There is some balance within them that builds the strength of their ability to influence in a way that feeds off public stature. They internalize that caste system in truth.”

“Ah. I see. So outside influence can build the internal power. That’s why demons strike out at humans, it feeds them.” The thought didn’t sit well, but it explained why the demons had long lived among humans as aristocratic nobles rather than the blood-thirsty breeds that had come to Earth in recent years.

“Yes.” His fingers crept to her neck and toyed with the strands of her hair.

“So publically humiliating Shreeva will put a dent in this cartel because it will weaken her and in turn, weaken her father.”

“Yes.”

“Easy enough then.” She slid her fingers around to the buttons of his shirt and freed one. “I agree. She should smell sex on you. Should we do something about that now?”

He gripped her hand, holding it against his flat stomach. “Showing your brand will giveaway that the Montevedos have this power. The branding to tie mates together is a close secret.”

She tilted her head back and stared at his mouth. “Why is that a problem?”

“We weren’t ready to defend it. It’s a valuable tool to other breeds. They can enthrall armies of humans.”

“Then we’ll protect it.” She tugged until he released her and she freed another button. “Now about showing up this Shreeva bitch.”

Tiago groaned and his hands landed on her shoulders. “Turn around.”

The she-wolf inside whimpered at the command and trembled, ready for her mate. What a pushover she’d turned out to be. Ona took the challenge sent to her in his molten brown eyes. He nudged her forward and heart climbing into her throat, arms shooting forward, she toppled. Tiago caught her around the middle and led her to the floor. With a brush of his hand, he opened the back of her dress to the side. She’d taken the dagger and cut the fabric from her waist all the way down. It parted easily and her ass was fully exposed to the room.

He fondled her again as his heat simmered behind her.

“She’ll scent the sex all the way down to the kind we have. You need to submit to me, Ona.” He slapped her ass and she gasped.

Unprepared, she couldn’t help the reaction to thrust her behind further in the air for more. Dimly, she understood what he wanted, and in her heart, reveled that he could give it to her, dominance—but with her permission.

She groaned, closed her eyes, and rested her flushed face on the plush carpet. “I hope this room is fireproof.”

“It won’t be. VanDross shows his complete belief in the power he wields over his surroundings. So much so, it’s as if he dares fire to burn his house down. It’s a show of audacious power not to update this old place with fireproofing.”

“Let’s show them fire,” she encouraged and wiggled, needing Tiago to take this further.

He slapped her other cheek hard enough to sting. Blood rushed to the top of her skin and she gasped.

“Tiago,” she begged, letting herself fall into the role. “I’ll do anything for you. Just do me.”

Another slap shocked her stinging flesh. He chuckled and set a pace with a soft spanking that didn’t hurt but made her squirm as her pussy went wet with want. She scented her own lust.

“Do you surrender, my she-wolf?”

“Yes, please.” She drew out the last word in her excitement, pitched to a height she’d never experienced before. If nothing else, Tiago had an innate ability to give her incredible sex. Leaving him behind after all this mess would make her pussy very sad indeed. Her beast tumbled inside her, seeking her mate while growling at Ona’s holding a small part of herself away from him. The she-wolf wanted complete surrender. Ona could never do it.

The fingers of one hand cupped her mound from behind as his thumb slid into her slit, spreading her cream before pumping gently. Her thighs trembled. Teasing the sensitive flesh of her opening, his thumb stroked while he continued to spank her, varying the strength and location so she never knew where it’d land.

Crack
.

“You ruined the dress I gave you.”

Crack
.

“You showed all your demon brand, your gorgeous body that is mine.”

She panted and growled, moving into the strikes. Expelling on a whoosh, she breathed, “Damn.”

The slaps stopped and the room quieted. The murmur of voices from surrounding rooms didn’t break the sudden tension as her arms shook and her thighs trembled. Her core was hot and the skin of her tush throbbed.

The soft sound of fabric prickled her senses and the gentle slide of a zipper made her mouth water but Tiago didn’t say a word. The pressure in her chest became unbearable and she felt exposed with her ass in the air.

Two large and steaming hands gripped the sides of her behind and gently positioned and spread her. He just held her there, and she sensed his gaze, probing, memorizing.

“Do it,” she panted. “I need it.”

The head of his cock nudged her entrance, slipping against her, she was so wet. Her skin was so sensitive she moaned and bucked, lodging him further inside. He slapped her again and she yelped.

“Hold still, mate.” The way he said the endearment made her breath catch and she bit her lip to keep the whimper inside.

Slowly, he pushed his cock inside with steady pressure, no relief, no nudging back and forth. The pull on the slick flesh inside her as he widened her channel brought the throbbing of her slapped skin all the way to her core. Her entire body pulsed with her heartbeat and she slammed her eyes against the light in the room—the outside stimulus too much to bear.

His length kept entering her until she felt filled with him, with what he needed from her, what he planned for her. Her entire life had been about the fight, and now he’d turned it upside down in a way that bolstered her, gave her a partner in this struggle that had consumed her.

Her fingers curled in the carpet and she panted.

Tiago’s hands tightened on her as his hips came flush against her tortured ass. She couldn’t help it, she let out a low shout.

“That’s it. Let everyone here know what I’m doing to you, who you belong to. Go ahead, mate, let them hear you.”

Holding her hips in a harsh grip, keeping her steady, he pulled back and slammed back into her. He set a punishing and harsh pace, pounding into her with strength a human couldn’t muster and a human woman wouldn’t be able to handle. She’d never been taken with such roughness.

“Yes, oh yes. Like that, baby. Do it like that,” she yelled.

He growled so low the windows shook and the floor vibrated beneath her knees as he thrust fast and hard. Her pussy gripped him with every push, wet and eager, but he yanked out only to push back in. Over and over with grunts that made her practically howl to the ceiling.

“You gotta come, Ona.” He muttered and fell forward, covering her back. “Come for me.”

The desperate pleading in her ear sent her over in a blinding flash of complete sexual pleasure. She clenched his cock inside and groaned, her nipples rubbing against the gown, the skin of her bottom burning. She collapsed forward as Tiago bucked hard into her.

Liquid warmth filled her core and he pressed his hips into her, grinding as he jerked back and forth.

The buzz of the most fantastic orgasm ever floated around her as he remained inside, his climax continuing for long minutes as he groaned, his mouth covering her exposed neck with small bites.

“Will it always be this good?” he whispered.

Inside she screamed that it’d never been this good.
Dammit
. Her world had been turned upside down. Violence she understood. This mushy stuff was beyond her. She clamped her mouth shut. Her eyes popped open and she pushed away to dislodge him.

“It’s just sex, Tiago.” She kept her back to him as she climbed to her feet and straightened the dress as best she could. The split exposed her hip and her entire leg. Tiago’s brand glowed a hot red, as if the passion they’d just shared had enlivened it. “Is this why you fucked me, so everyone could see the brand glowing?”

“That. And smell my come on you.” He sounded cold, but she’d gotten to know him enough to hear the hurt beneath. But he’d been the one to kidnap her and mate himself without asking. She’d never agreed to anything but sex, and damn him to hell, he was so hot she couldn’t help giving it to him, but soon she’d leave. She could understand crippling the cartel. That’s why she was here. But the rest? She didn’t know anything about the rest.

“Let’s go do this thing.” She didn’t dare look at him. Steam rolled through the room and the heat had brought a sheen of sweat to her skin. Even without special abilities, anyone could see she’d just had sex. She shoved the chair out of the way and opened the door.

“Keep close to me. That brand. Many here will want to know how to replicate it. They’ll do anything. They’ll take you, torture you, bespell you, leverage you over me. Don’t leave my side.” Tiago gripped her arm and stopped her from walking back down the hall. “Got it?”

“Sure. The good news just keeps coming, doesn’t it? Anything else you want to tell me?”

“Yeah. If I need to do something stupid and life-ending, just run.”