Infernal Games by Jenna Wolfhart

12

Asmodeus took me straight to his penthouse. He strode through the open balcony doors with me tucked against him like some kind of damsel in distress. With a roll of my eyes, I hopped out of his arms before he had a chance to put me down himself. I might be mostly human, but I wasn’t helpless. Thank you very much.

“You seem annoyed again.” Az shot me an irritated glance and tossed his keys onto the dining table. Not that he’d used them to get inside. For the second time in two days, we’d come by air.

“As far as I can tell, the feeling is mutual.” I folded my arms and watched him pace around his apartment. He slammed the balcony doors shut and then threw heavy black curtains over them. After giving me another dark look, he stormed around, pressing his hand to every wall like some kind of angry carpenter.

“What are you doing?”

“Checking to make sure Lucifer hasn’t been here.”

I arched my brows. “By petting the walls?”

He shot me a dark look. “I had a witch come over a couple of weeks ago and put some wards in place. If anyone steps over the boundary, the wards break. It’s an alarm system.”

“There are witches?” I shouldn’t have been surprised. If magic existed—and it did—surely witches did, too. There were fae and vampires and demons. Might as well be magic-wielders to go along with them. Still, every time I learned something new about the supernatural world, it felt as though the world titled sideways just a little bit more. Soon, I’d be all the way upside down.

“A few. Most of the families didn’t survive the 1600s, but they’re growing again.”

I filed that information away for later use. Might come in handy at some point. Witches were a thing, and they knew magic.

“So, has anyone been here?” I asked, while Az spent a long time poking around the door that led to the rest of the building.

“Not that I can tell,” he muttered.

I fought the urge to roll my eyes. He was in a terrible mood, not that this was any different from his usual self. Just a tad more grumbly than usual. It seemed our argument on the rooftop had set him off. Lucky for me that I could make him feel so much irritation.

“Okay.” I stood in the center of his apartment, my hands hanging awkwardly by my thighs. “Why are we here, Az? You’ve been super focused on our scents not mixing, and they definitely will if I’m in your actual home. Besides, I thought you wanted me to stay with Valac.”

“You will stay with Valac.” He pushed away from the door and turned my way. “After today.”

“Okay, so…” I wet my lips as he strode across the floor with a fiery heat in his eyes. Again, I asked him, “Why not today? Why are we here? Can you just stop being so mysterious and tell me what’s going on?”

He stood tall before me and roughly cupped the back of my neck. Hunger roared through his eyes as his fingers tightened their grip on me. Need flared back to life in my core. I tipped back my head, my entire body tensing.

“I brought you here because I can’t be around you any longer without ripping your goddamn clothes off. And if I’m going to fuck you the way I want, we can’t be out in public. We need to be here in private where we can rinse our scents off each other when we’re done.”

Oh. Oh. I swallowed hard. My lips parted. I’d longed for him to say these words, but now that he had, I didn’t know what the hell to do about it. Nerves tumbled through my belly. This time, we didn’t have liquid courage as an excuse. This time, it felt far more real.

“Then, do it,” I whispered to him. “Fuck me, Az.”

His hands palmed my ass, and he lifted me from the floor. My thighs stretched wide on either side of him, just as his lips claimed mine. Need pulsed within my core. Our kiss deepened with hunger, and his low growl rumbled through me.

His shoulders tensed beneath my fingers, his chiseled muscles rippling with strength. I slid my hand up his neck, tangling my fingers in his hair. It was as soft as the shadows that pulsed against his skin.

I revelled in the feel of him. During those long nights spent apart, he’d filled my dreams. But it had never been better than this. His arms, his hands, his mouth. The electric pulse that charged between us. There was nothing else in the world like this, and I hated that I’d spent so many nights without it.

A little voice popped up in the back of my head. There was a reason we’d parted ways, and it had to do with the pesky demon king trying to rip apart both our lives. We probably shouldn’t be doing this. But the delicious thrill of forbidden desire shoved all those thoughts aside.

Az carried me across the room and slammed my back against the wall. His body humming, he unwound my thighs from his hips and flipped me around. A gasp popped from my throat when he yanked my shirt over my head, leaving my breasts exposed to the cool, air-conditioned penthouse.

One hand snaked up my belly, teasing my breast, while he pinned my arms over my head with his other hand. A little thrill went through me. I kind of enjoyed being trapped like this. I gasped as he twisted my nipple hard.

He dropped his mouth to my ear and murmured, “You did a very bad thing, Mia. We signed a deal, and you broke it.”

“Oh.” I flushed, biting my bottom lip. “I suppose I ought to be punished for it.”

Nipping at my ear, he continued, “Normally, a demon would steal the soul of an oath-breaker. But we can’t do that, now can we?”

“Sounds like you’ll have to come up with something else.” I glanced over my shoulder at him. “I have a few ideas.”

He slipped his hand between my legs and unzipped my jeans. As his lips caressed my neck, I arched toward him, but his palm grasped my hips and pushed me back.

“We’ll do things at my speed,” he said with a laugh. “For your punishment.”

“Sure. Okay. Punish me as long as you like.” I gasped when he pushed down my jeans and then followed them with my lacy thong. I was now one hundred percent naked before him, and he was fully clothed. When I tried to reach behind me to unbutton his shirt, he tightened his grip on my wrists.

He flipped me around again, so that I faced him. His hungry eyes tore across me, drinking in my body. Heart pounding, I wet my lips, tilting back my head so that he would kiss me.

A wicked smile played across his lips. He dropped his mouth to my breast and dragged his tongue across my nipple. Desire lit up my insides. Arching toward him, I moaned.

His lips stole across my chest to my other peaked nipple. Hand still trapping my wrists, he sucked hard. I shuddered as my core clenched tight. Heat built up between my thighs, making me ache for him.

I was starting to feel like I might scream if he didn’t do something more than just play with my breasts.

And I had a feeling that was the point.

“Okay,” I whispered after another agonizing round of nipple teasing. “This feels amazing, but...”

“But what, Mia?” Laughter danced in his eyes, and his dimples made a rare appearance. He was enjoying this far too much.

“You know.” I flushed. “There are some other parts of my body that might want a little attention.”

“Might?” He arched a brow. “Hmm. Only might?”

“How about definitely?” I whispered.

His gaze dropped to my thighs. With a delicious, panty-melting smile, he slid one finger down the length of me. He stopped just above my folds. Ice-blue eyes boring into me, he asked a silent question.

“Yes. Please.” The ache was almost overwhelming. I could hardly think, let alone speak.

“You’ll never break one of our deals again?” he asked in a growl.

“As long as you never make me sign another contract.”

He chuckled and pulled back. “Mia.”

“Az.”

“You are infuriating.”

I smiled up at him. “So are you.”

He shifted closer to me, pressing his body against mine. I could feel the hardness of his cock through his pants, pressing into my pubic bone. We were playing a little game, one he wasn’t necessarily winning. He wanted me just as much as I wanted him.

And then his eyes darkened. “You seem to have such little regard for your own safety. Can’t you see I’m just trying to keep you safe? If anything happened to you, I...”

My heart pulsed. He what?

As he stared into my eyes, his grip on my arms relaxed. Slowly, I dropped my hands onto his shoulders and slid them down his shirt. My fingers made quick work of his buttons. I pushed the material back, revealing his sculpted chest.

He was perfect. Every single inch of him. It was as if someone had plucked the image of him from my head and made him just for me.

“Promise me you’ll never break a deal with me again, Mia,” he whispered.

“No.” When he winced, I caught his chin between my fingers and kept his gaze on me. “No more deals. No more contracts. That doesn’t mean I won’t listen to you or agree to your plans. But I never want to sign my name along a dotted line again.”

For a moment, I thought he’d keep arguing with me. Az was stubborn and set in his ways. I knew he used the contracts as a way to keep me safe, and he didn’t want to let go of that. But then he dragged his thumb along my bottom lip and sighed.

“I can’t say no to you.” He kissed me, softer than before. Our lips melted together as our bodies collided against the wall. Lifting me from the floor again, he trapped me there. My breasts against his chest. My thighs around his waist.

He slid inside of me, lighting me up with every inch. I clutched his shoulders as he thrusted deep inside. Need consumed me, driving away everything else. Instinctively, my thighs spread wider, eager for more.

“Fuck, Mia.” He growled out my name as his thrusts went deeper. “How is it even possible you feel this good?”

I gasped as he slammed into me. Sweat beaded on my brow at the heat pouring off his body in waves. My climax built inside my core like a hurricane. He gripped my thighs, tugging my body toward his, and that was all it took to undo me completely.

I shattered around him, my orgasm stronger than any I’d ever had. A ringing filled my head as he followed quickly behind.

We clung to each other until our heartbeats slowed. Then, slowly, Az lowered me to the floor. I leaned against him and breathed him in, grateful for the scent of fire and smoke. I’d missed it.

“We need to shower,” he said, rubbing my back. “As much as I want to bask in you for hours, I can’t. If Lucifer caught us like this, it would all be over.”

I sighed and nodded. “And so the bubble is burst.”

“We can put it back together.” He squeezed my shoulder as we padded into his master bathroom. “When Lucifer has returned to Hell, we can spend as much time as we’d like in this bedroom.”

I tried not to read too much into it, but I couldn’t help myself. He’d always been so closed off about his feelings. I hadn’t even been sure he’d ever wanted me until now.

Lifting my eyes to his face, I braced myself for disinterest. But I didn’t find it. Instead, all I found was heat. “And how much time would that be?”

“Hours. Days. Weeks.” He traced his thumb along the skin beneath my ear, causing a fresh wave of shivers. “You are beautiful, Mia. Your little gasps when I touch you are the sexiest thing I’ve ever heard in my life.”

With a little smile, I gasped.

“Yes,” he growled. “Just like that.”

“Do we really have to go now?”

He pulled open the door to his walk-in shower and turned on the tap. Water poured down from the ceiling like rainfall. “Well, we do need to shower before we leave. Might as well make it interesting.”

My core tightened. Sounded good to me.