Revealing the Monster (Playing with Monsters #4) by Amelia Hutchins

“Before I died, I ensured that my son’s soul would be reborn, so it isn’t surprising to me that you could not call it to you.” I smoothed the fabric of my dress, trying to hide my grief while talking about my son. “You’re so certain that we end up together?”

“Let’s just say that I’m certain once you figure out what Lucian has done to you and your family, you’ll choose me, Magdalena. I know what happened and how you were returned to him. I know Hades made it so that only I, Lucian, and himself could bring you pleasure. I don’t see you settling for Hades to get a quick fuck when you’re in the mood. You’re not that type of woman, which is part of your allure. You need to feel love, and that’s something I have craved for a very long time. You and I want the same thing. We want to know love and for it to last the ages.” He lowered his lips and brushed them against mine.

“You could find someone else to love you,” I breathed against his kiss, closing my heavy eyelids against the temptation his mouth created.

“Why would I do that? I felt your love when you kissed me before. Sure, you believed me to be Lucian, and it was a cheap trick, but I tasted you, and you enjoyed being with me. You thought I was a monster that couldn’t be loved, but you kissed me with unguarded emotions, baring the purity of your soul to me. You knew Lucian was a monster, and yet you fell in love with him. I felt genuine love for the first time against your heated lips, and I desire that from you. You don’t put up with my shit, either. You face the Devil, yet you don’t tremble or tell me what you think I want to hear. It’s refreshing to have a woman say she wants to murder me. None before you have ever dared to do something so insane to my face.” He lifted his hand, brushing his knuckles against my cheek as I stared at him. Makenna let out a soft cry, and he turned, glancing into the room where she rested. “Think my proposition over and remember that Makenna needs you now, too. If I have to come get you, you will not like the punishment I choose for you. I’ve offered to be gentle, but that offer has a time limit, Magdalena.”

“Do I look like I would need you to be gentle with me or that I would ask you to be?” I countered, as his eyes burned with need. He smiled, revealing white, even teeth that clasped his bottom lip as a deep, sultry growl escaped past them.

“I make Lucian’s kinks look like child play, Lena. How’s Spyder handling his desire to thrash that tight pussy of yours? I hear he’s going insane from the magic they used to protect you from me. Luckily for you and me, it won’t be long before that happens. Blood magic and the strength it took for them to do that binding, well, the cost is high.” Smiling, he ran a finger along the side of my face and tipped my chin up, locking eyes with me. “See you soon, beautiful.”

Lucifer ejected me from the room, and I appeared back at Club Chaos. A quick look told me he could alter what I wore, yet he couldn’t hurt me. Lord knew he had tried several times during the month he’d spent yanking me into different places within the veil. Still, I hadn’t been able to get a location on him or sense where he was. Standing from the booth, I peered around until my eyes slid over Lucian, who stood at the bar staring at me.

His hair was disheveled, and midnight eyes with dark blue flecks glared at me as I approached him. Of course, he wore his signature suit and tie. Not even an apocalypse had messed with the sexy enigma of this man. He was the epitome of perfection, and knowing what remained hidden beneath that suit didn’t help my over-eager sex drive that came from being reborn.

“This has to stop, Lena.”

“I saw Makenna this time,” I whispered. “She’s beautiful, Lucian. She’s tiny with these huge, gorgeous eyes, just like Kendra’s. He hasn’t threatened me with harming her.” That was an actual fear, since I’d already witnessed Lucifer’s wrath. “He let me see her, and she was so close I could smell her,” I murmured as his mouth tightened.

“He’s using her to get to you. You know that,” he grumbled, pulling me close to kiss the top of my forehead.

“He asked how Spyder was. Lucifer said he’d heard Spyder was going insane. Is that true?” I questioned, and he closed down his emotions. “Lucian, is he okay? He’s Spyder, and I can’t stand that he won’t even get near here anymore; this is his home, too.”

“Spyder is working on finding a solution to our issue. It takes time. He can’t be near us without craving you, and vice versa. We agreed that it’s for the best, at least for now.”

Spyder wasn’t released from the bond after our semi-threesome. Instead of it freeing him, it had tightened, pulling us all together. It had become hard for Spyder to be in the same room with me, which bothered me. I didn’t want him in the way the bond told us we needed each other, but that didn’t matter. Magic was yanking us together, and the rope that tethered the spell was forcing a primal need. Even I felt it when he was close to me.

“Luc said Spyder would go insane if we didn’t fix it soon.”

“Luc? Now you’re on a nickname basis with the Devil?” he growled, holding me away from his body, peering down with a brow raised in question.

I smiled, looking into the angry blue eyes of my monster. “Are you jealous?”

“I don’t get jealous, woman.”