Demon Retribution (14 page)

Cale had been trying to find a way to start
this conversation, as well as avoid it. His curiosity of her and
the strange intensity she brought out in him were hard to brush
aside. Simply being near her clouded his mind.

He was always quick to jump into bed with a
woman, but he could foresee a slew of complications if he indulged
in Kyra. Even if his need for her was beyond anything he had ever
experienced.

“
I wasn’t lying when I said
I was attracted to you,” Cale started and then trailed off, unsure
how to finish.

“
But,” she
prompted.

“
But I have a job to do,
and some things are more important than short term pleasures.”
Mentally, Cale laughed, thinking he would have knocked Sebastian on
his ass with that one.

“
No, I get it. No need to
explain. That was just girl talk. I’m really not that into you. The
kiss was good, sure, but…I mean, aside from the fact that you’re
not even my species, you’re not really my type.”

For no reason he could understand, he turned
to her, needing the truth of it in her eyes. “Liar,” he said, when
she refused to look at him.

During their kiss, he’d noticed her irises
had changed to amber. The sight of it had driven his lust to new
heights. Later, he recalled that Anya’s eyes would go silver
sometimes when Sebastian was around.

Kyra was just as attracted to him as he was
to her, if only by the fact that her breath picked up every time he
came into the room, and her pupils would dilate whenever he allowed
himself to look.

“
I thought you were the one
who wanted honesty,” he teased.

Her jaw clenched. “Fine, I’m a teensy bit
attracted to you. But you’re right. It’s not a good time to start a
relationship.”

“
That’s the thing. I
don’t
do
relationships. Ever. A few nights with me is all you’d get,
nothing more. Often, I find females have a hard time understanding
that.”

She finally faced him, and he wished she
hadn’t. Her eyes narrowed and traveled over him as if he were
completely transparent to her. “Ah, so you’re a player.”

He shrugged, making a mental note to figure
out what that meant. “I just don’t get attached.”

“
We’ll you’re in luck,
then. I’ve had four hundred years to practice not getting attached,
so if that’s what you’re worried about—”

“
You seem pretty attached
to Zoey.”

“
True. That’s the
difference between friendship and a one-night stand, I guess.
Besides, I would have left her behind eventually. Started a new
life. It’s what I do.”

“
How many times have you
started over?”

“
Too many to
count.”

They stood there, silent for a moment.

“
So you would just discard
your life completely? Never contact Zoey again?” Cale
asked.

“
That’s what I’ve done all
this time. To survive. It’s what I’ll be doing once your ship
comes.” She looked to the sky. “If it comes.”

“
They’ll be here.” Cale had
no doubts on that. The only question was: would the crew be
intact?

“
You’re pretty confident,”
she mused.

“
I know my
brother.”

“
Sebastian, right? He’s
reliable then?” She turned impish. “Does he kiss better than
you?”

“
Don’t know, never kissed
him. Your sister would know better than me.”

“
Really?”

“
Aye, you’d have to ask
her. But, my guess would be no, since there are no words to
describe mine.”

She flushed, and he could see she was trying
not to smile. “That was a gross exaggeration.” She turned to lean
her elbows against the railing, giving him an arch expression.

He moved in closer and placed his hands on
either side of her. “Is that so?”

“
In fact, thinking back,
I’d say it was somewhat mediocre.”

“
Mediocre?” He
scoffed.

“
Almost forgettable,
really.”

He lowered his head menacingly.

Unperturbed, her chin tilted up till their
mouths were just inches apart, her gaze daring.

“
There is no way it was
forgettable,” he insisted, barely brushing her lips with
his.

“
I don’t know? I think I
might need a reminder.”

Cale knew he should walk
away before he gave in to the little vixen. The only
edge
he should be
stepping over was the edge of the balcony, expending his excess
energy on another, much wider, perimeter check.

He was almost ready to do just that, but her
eyes fired bright amber, and that siphoned the last of his reason.
He gripped her hips and perched her on the edge of the railing.
Triumphantly, she scissored her legs around his waist, pulling him
close.

Her lips were as soft as he remembered—warm
and giving and sweet. Her nails crawled over his scalp, and all he
could think was how they would feel raking along his back.

He lifted her with his hands firmly on her
backside and went in search of a way inside the cabin, only to be
stopped by a hard wall.

They weren’t going to make it to a bed.

Kyra couldn’t catch her breath. Her heart
felt like it was trying to burrow out of her chest. Reason told her
to end this now, but she kissed him back with a kind of desperation
that was incomprehensible.

He pressed her harder against the cabin as
their tongues danced, their breaths mingling. A low, rumbling sound
escaped him that drove her further into the frenzy.

Pinned as she was, with her legs tightly
around him, he no longer needed his hands to keep her in place and
found his way under her shirt. One hand trailed up her side and
breached the lining of her bra, finding her pert nipple with his
thumb. The other wrapped around the nape of her neck to hold her
steady as he ravaged her mouth. When she pulled back for a breath,
he moved his lips to the place on her neck that drove her wild.

“
Cale,” she whispered on a
sigh, meaning to regain some lucidity.

His only response was to reclaim her lips
and roll his thumb over the most sensitive part of her breast,
kneading the soft flesh with the precision of an expert. A quiver
of pleasure numbed her mind, and she held him tighter.

There was no stopping this. She found she
didn’t want to if she could. Since their first kiss, she’d been
unable to chase him from her mind, and now she had him. A small
part of her suggested she might not be able to handle her quarry,
but the thought was banished when he ground his hips into her core
and began to shimmy off her shirt.

“
Not here, Cale,” she
managed.

“
Where?” he
rasped.

Her mouth was too occupied to respond for
the moment. Her shirt dropped to the floor and he started working
on her bra strap, freeing her as he kissed his way downward.

“
Bedroom!” she
squeaked.

His hands returned to support her and the
wall fell away. Still connected in a heady kiss, they moved a short
ways, and she heard him fumbling for the sliding door handle. A few
seconds later, they were inside.

“
Whoa!” Zoey’s voice
brought Kyra’s mind out of the fog. She pulled away from Cale and
turned to Zoey, who was propped against a pillow on the bed with a
book in her lap. Her face was understandably shocked.

“
Wrong room,” Cale
muttered, and then stepped back out onto the balcony, taking Kyra
with him.

They soon found Kyra’s room, but the
interruption had succeeded in cooling her blood enough for her to
think straight. Cale’s, however, still seemed red-hot as they
crashed onto the bed.

Cale,” she said in an even tone, pushing on
his shoulders.

He stilled and looked up, meeting her
eyes.

“
I think we should take a
breath for a moment.”

The only disappointment he showed was a
thinning of his lips. Then, with a sly smile, he rolled them both
so that she was straddling him. He placed his hands behind his head
and shamelessly ogled her. “Go ahead,” he muttered roughly.

She laughed, climbing off
of him and crossing to her closet to retrieve a shirt. After
slipping it on, she replied, “I think we should take a breath in
our own rooms,
player
.”

Cale sat up and scrubbed a hand down his
face, as if trying to focus. “I’m going to need more than a
breath.”

Cale entered his room, begrudgingly
admitting that she was right to have put on the brakes. He really
had no self-control at all. How could she make him lose himself
with nothing but a look?

She more than just clouded his judgment; she
invaded every corner of his mind and brought it to heel.

Just as last time, pain had erupted inside
him, transforming into burning spikes that furrowed through every
vein. It seemed to originate in his head and work its way down. A
lengthy, ice cold shower did nothing to ebb either the fiery
sensation or his lust. His shaft was still impossibly stiff. Pain
aside, which really was more of an annoyance, all he wanted to do
was return to her room and take her on the soft bed until pleasured
screams echoed off the walls. She had wanted that as well. So why
had she denied them both?

Didn’t matter. For the best, he reminded
himself.

Through the night, his dreams were plagued
by images of Kyra writhing under him while he touched her freely,
tasted her as he wished. In his dream, her welcoming arms eased him
as no other could. But his desire for her was a betrayal to his
true mate, and the dream became a nightmare. Velicia stood over him
with disgust in her eyes, her tears scalding. Kyra yelled something
at him that he couldn’t hear, and the silence made him panic. As if
born of mist, a Kayadon appeared and cut her down with some
invisible weapon.

He awoke with a start and an urgent need to
do a quick perimeter check. He sat up and took a few long breaths.
At least the nightmare reinforced his determination to avoid all
physical contact with Kyra.

Shortly after leaving his room, however, it
became apparent that wasn’t going to be a problem.

She was gone!

Ethan paced behind the bar, his thoughts in
turmoil.

Jade stood at the other end, mixing
piss-poor drinks and flirting with anything that had two legs and a
dick. The girl was insatiable. He was rather surprised with himself
that he’d never taken her up on any of her offers. He supposed it
was because of that demon witch. Some part of him, an inner
instinct of sorts, sensed that he would never have gotten near
Sonya if he had messed around with Jade. Though he didn’t know why,
exactly, he assumed that.

Perhaps because she’d been a fucking
virgin!

How was that even possible? She wasn’t much
younger than he.

Well, he thought, she sure as hell wasn’t
one now.

He cringed at the memory. He had not been
gentle. How could she let him take her so roughly without warning
him?

Just after she’d cried out, he realized what
he’d done. He wasn’t used to being surprised. With his magic, it
rarely happened, but he’d been so taken aback that he’d run out of
there with only a surly comment, though he can’t remember now what
he might have said. Most likely something unkind.

“
Ethan,” Bertok greeted and
took a seat at one of the empty stools.

Ethan nodded. “Your usual?”

“
Aye, but double it.”
Bertok slanted a glance down the bar where Jade made a show of
pushing up her bosom. “It’s got to be nice working with that, hm?”
he mumbled.

“
Yeah,” Ethan replied, not
hiding the disdain in his tone. “Real nice.”

Bertok just raised a brow. Ethan set to
mixing his drink order and tried to focus on anything but the
female who normally stood in Jade’s spot.

Her attitude in the hall still had him
reeling. How could she dismiss the whole thing as nothing? The
stubborn female must be hurt by what happened. Or at the very
least, disappointed. But, headstrong as she was, she revealed
nothing.

“
Hi, Bertok.” Jade
sauntered over and leaned her elbows on the bar, displaying her
cleavage.

“
Sweetheart,” Bertok
replied with a curl to his lips.

Ethan rolled his eyes.

The morning Jade had strolled in and
declared herself his new coworker, Ethan had been livid. Sonya
hadn’t even bothered to inform him in person. Of course, that was
the point, wasn’t it? She was determined to avoid him—and after the
incident in the hall, it was clear he should be doing the same.
That would be in everyone’s best interest. In fact, if he were
smart, he’d catch the first shuttle out of here. However, he wasn’t
about to run away like a coward just because he was afraid of one
tiny, stubborn demon girl. A sexy, beguiling, demon girl.