Revealing the Monster by Amelia Hutchins
Chapter Twenty-One
To be hurt by those who love us is a lesson. We should learn from it and seek more. Those who love us teach us the hardest lessons. But to never learn from them would be a tragedy. ~Lena
Soft music played inside the bedroom, drifting into the steam-filled bathroom. Lucian washed deliciously smelling soap over my body, ridding it of Lucifer’s scent. I wasn’t stupid or fooled into dropping my guard. I could feel the anger radiating off Lucian in soft waves, slithering over my flesh in a warning. He was pissed off that I’d been with Lucifer, but it wasn’t like I’d gone to him willingly.
I grabbed the rose-scented shampoo, lathering it into my hair while he stewed behind me. He hadn’t spoken, but I didn’t need words to know what he thought. I had no reason to ask him what his problem was, just like he didn’t need me to tell him that I hadn’t asked his permission because it wasn’t warranted.
“Finish up and rinse Lucifer’s touch from your body,” he growled, stepping out of the shower into the steam rolling out of the stall. “You’re being presented to the club tonight as my Queen, Lena. I won’t have my guests catching that asshole’s scent on my woman. Do you understand me?” His angry, sexily rasped voice caused my thighs to clench with need.
“I understand, Lucian,” I replied, rinsing the soap from my hair before adding conditioner. Turning, I peered at where he stood outside the shower.
Steam billowed around him, drifting off of his body to add to the steam already filling the room. It was so thick that I could barely make out his pretty midnight gaze. His head tilted forward and followed the suds slowly dripping over my breasts. Or maybe he was looking lower? I couldn’t be certain with the room holding more steam than a sauna.
I washed every inch of my skin, scrubbing it until it was raw to eradicate Lucifer’s cinnamon and brimstone scent. I pushed my fingers against my clit, and I groaned with need from a single brush against the swollen nub.
How many days had it been without reaching climax? I’d lost count after he’d fucked me so hard and made me shatter to oblivion with the orgasms when he’d reclaimed me.
Once again, he had ordered me not to come in that foreign tongue, which meant I spent days fucking him, never climaxing until permitted to find release. Not that it wasn’t hot, or that those orgasms, when given, weren’t some of the strongest ones of my entire life. In fact, I was beginning to crave them more than the ones that came in between when he’d released me from the compulsion to come freely.
I was a masochist at heart, and we both knew it. I loved when he took control and owned my desire. He played my body like a musician, learning a song for the first time. Every chord he played, every hymn he hummed, and every music note ended in pleasure, and I would sing right along with him.
Wringing out my hair, I stepped from the shower and paused. Lucian was no longer inside the bathroom, and I could still hear the music playing from the other room. I reached for the towel, but my hand came up empty, my fingertips brushing over the cold metal hook where it should have been waiting for me. Fanning the steam away from my face, I turned to switch on the fan, but fingers curled around my throat, and I was forced back against the wall.
Lucian’s mouth crushed against mine, causing a gasp of surprise to escape me. His tongue brushed mine, demanding I kiss him back. Lucian’s long fingers lifted, four splayed against one side of my jaw, while his thumb applied just enough pressure to make pain burn from where he forced my mouth to open wider.
His other hand lowered, and before I could even think over what was happening, his foot made my legs spread wider, causing me to moan as he thrust his fingers deep into my aching pussy. He wasn’t gentle, nor did I want him to be. His kiss was angry, and his fingers mirrored it, punishing me.
My tongue slid against his, and our teeth clashed as he dominated me. His thumb worked small, short circles over my clit, mirroring his tongue’s movements inside my mouth. I could feel my arousal drenching his hand as I gasped and then cried out when he stepped back, leaving me empty and grieving for his touch. I panted, fighting to catch my breath, when he grabbed my hair, jerking my body around by it without warning.
I lifted my hands to stop the pressure he was causing on my scalp, but Lucian growled, slamming my upper half face down on the marble sink. Placing my palms against the cold surface, I tried to turn around, but his hand landed on my naked ass cheek hard, punishingly. I whimpered, crying out as it struck once more, and then again. Fingers rubbed against the sore flesh, but only momentarily before he did the same to the other side.
“You disobeyed me again, Lena.”
“It wasn’t my choice to do so,” I groaned, rocking my backside for more.
His deep laughter filled the room before his hand landed again, the sound echoing as he spanked me. I whimpered from the pain, shivering at the burn of the handprint he’d surely left on my cheek. His fingers slowly trailed up my spine, dancing their way to my hair. Sliding them through the wet strands, he twisted them, yanking my head back. I moaned loudly, sensing the other hand cutting through the air before it slapped my other cheek painfully.
“I don’t believe that any more than you do.” He lowered his mouth and brushed it against my shoulder, trailing a scorching path to my throat. Lucian kissed the side of my neck, creating pleasure, even though his hand continued punishing my ass. “Lucifer can only take you if you’re open to him. That means you’re allowing the Devil to bring you into his realm. You are mine, not his. Only mine, Magdalena,” he growled, nipping the skin on my throat in warning.
His fingers slid through the slickness between my thighs, and two entered me hard and fast. I whimpered, rocking against him while he spread them inside my aching pussy. Lucian was mad, which meant everything he did was to create pain and then pleasure. He didn’t allow me to come, but I knew it would be earth shattering and brutally euphoric when he did.
“This is mine, isn’t it?” he asked through a voice heavy with gravel.
“Yes,” I replied without hesitation.
He released my hair, lifting my hips, forcing me to balance on the counter. His cock pushed against my pussy, brushing along my entrance while I waited for him to fuck me hard and fast. The tip of his dick shoved into my body, and when I started to move back, so did he.
“I didn’t tell you to fuck me, did I?” he snapped, causing my eyes to widen at the tone of his voice. “If I wanted you to slide down my cock, I’d have fucking told you to do so, witch. Now, be a good girl, and put your face down flat on the counter, and leave this needy pussy where it is.”
“Lucian,” I growled, fed up with the attitude and how he was using my body lately. “I need you to fuck me.”
“I know what you need and what you want. You should have thought about that before I returned to find you whispering that bastard’s name from your pretty pink lips. I scented your readiness for him, Lena. That means he smelled your pussy dripping for him, too. Do you want him?”
“No,” I replied honestly. “He’s beautiful and deadly. I’m not blind, Lucian. Nor am I immune to the angel of sin, which he is. That doesn’t mean I want to fuck him, asshole. It means I’m a red-blooded woman with a working libido. The thing is, I choose you. I’ve always chosen you over anyone else. I have no intention of fucking the Devil.”
“He doesn’t know that, though, does he? You are allowing him to think he stands a chance with you. It won’t end like you think it will, woman. He won’t care if you’re willing or not when he comes for you. Lucifer will try to take you, and it isn’t a question of if he will make a play for you; it’s when,” he growled, slamming into my body, causing it to burn painfully from being stretched too far, too fast.
He withdrew just as quickly as he’d entered me. Lucian grabbed my waist, lowering me to the floor before he spun me around, glaring at me. His hand threaded through my hair, jerking my head back before he sucked against the thundering pulse at the hollow curve of my throat. His nose brushed against my collarbone, and then he moved away from my body.
“Do not fucking move,” he warned thickly, his tone raspy and filled with gravel while his dark stare held mine trapped within his endless galaxies of stars.
Lucian left the bathroom, only to return carrying a dress and other items in his hands. He exited once more, returning with his suit still on a hanger. Once he’d placed it on the hook, he extended his hand, offering me nylons.
“Put them on, slowly,” he ordered, stepping back, uttering foreign words that made the room light up with runes that danced on the walls all around us.
I bristled beneath his stare but accepted the thigh-high stockings, gradually rolling them up my legs. His heated glare burned my flesh, and his silence only added to the uneasiness inside the bathroom. He handed me a lacy bra next, but the moment I began to put it on, he gripped my wrists in his hands, jerking them up as he claimed one erect nipple between his teeth, rolling the puckered flesh with his tongue.
A shudder of need rushed through me, and my head rolled back on my shoulders. His husky laughter caused goosebumps to slide over my skin. His teeth sank into the delicate flesh of my nipple, and I mewled with need at the intense combination of pleasure and pain he created. His tongue continually ran in a circular pattern around my nipple, sending slivers of pleasure shooting toward my pussy.
Once again, he stepped back without warning, leaving me to wobble on my feet. Carefully straightening my spine, I realized he was toying with me, and I clasped the front of the bra together between my aching breasts. Lucian’s smile jerked further up on one side of his face, then the other, as he lowered his sultry bedroom gaze to my clenching sex, soaked with need.
“If you are trying to drive me insane, you are doing an amazing job of it, asshole,” I grumbled, uncaring that I sounded like a pouting child who was being denied their favorite sweet.
“I’m claiming you this evening in front of the entire club, Magdalena. After tonight, no one will wonder where you belong within my world. Lucifer is being allowed inside, as well as others who’ve taken an interest in you recently.”
“And where is it I belong, Lucian?” I asked, hating the tremble that entered my voice. His eyes slid over my face, studying the way my lips quivered in question.
“Not on Lucifer’s dick or anyone else’s,” he snapped harshly.
“That much is a given. You don’t need to claim me in front of the entire club to drive that point home. Everyone knows who I belong to.” My hands landed on the edge of the counter while I awaited his argument or explanation.
Lucian didn’t care about other people or what they thought. He’d proven it over and over again, time after time. He was a law unto himself, with his men the driving force behind the blade he wielded. So why was he catering to the masses unless he felt insecure or believed I was plotting against him?
“Rumors have made the rounds about me sharing you with Spyder. There have been offers to fuck you coming in left and right, Lena,” he stated sharply, moving forward to crowd the space surrounding me. His earthy scent slammed into me, and his hands covered mine on the counter, locking me in place as he pushed his weight against my small frame. “They assume I have finished fucking you and that I will pass you around now that I have shared your body with another.”
“Why would they think that?” I questioned, holding his heavily hooded gaze threatening to drown me its turbulent depths.
“I have never allowed a woman back into my bed once I shared her body with other men. You are the only woman I have shared that I still claim as mine, Lena. They assume I’m going to walk you out there tonight and allow them to gang-bang your needy holes for entertainment, announcing that I am done with you for good.”
I swallowed while searching his gaze. My heartbeat stopped and then thundered at a dangerous speed. He leaned closer to my lips, brushing his against mine. He didn’t kiss me, though. Instead, he whispered against my mouth when my eyes closed against the intensity that his nearness caused.
“I’m claiming you as my Queen of Chaos. You are mine now and forevermore. I will murder anyone or anything who thinks to take you from me.” His hand released mine, cupping my cheek and kissing me softly, growling as he swallowed the moan that escaped my lips. “I will be your King, and you will be my Queen, Magdalena Fitzgerald.”
“You are already my King, Lucian. I don’t need you to wear a crown to tell me who you are or that I commit myself to you willingly. If you are a saint, I am the disciple that bows at your altar of worship.” I nipped his bottom lip, trembling at his heat pushing against my half-naked body.
He grabbed my hands once more, spinning me around until I faced the mirror that lined the wall. Then, placing them on the countertop once again, he slid his foot between mine, parting my legs until I was spread far enough for his hand to slide between my thighs, stroking my drenched cunt that made me want to cry out to be used by him.
“I love how wet you get for me, woman. You’re fucking soaked and ready to be fucked, aren’t you?”
“You know you always turn me on, asshole. You need to fuck me, now,” I groaned while lifting my ass, exposing just how wet I was to his greedy stare.
“I know what you need. The thing is, you’ve been naughty and should be taught a lesson. I am done with you waking up covered in Lucifer’s scent. You are on my side, Lena, or you’re not. You should decide where you want to be,” he growled, pushing his fingers into my body slowly.
I moaned as he spread his fingers apart inside my aching need. His mouth skimmed over my shoulder, brushing gently against the exposed skin at the base of my neck. I felt his cock against my sore ass cheek and forced myself further on his fingers. He chuckled huskily and then nipped the flesh between his teeth, causing me to gasp, hurting where he’d bitten me.
“Do you feel what you do to me, Magdalena?” he asked, rubbing his erection against my ass. “You want this?” he continued in a husky tone that dripped sex.
He withdrew his fingers, caressing his silken head against my pussy. I trembled violently with need. Lucian teasingly pushed the thick tip into my clenching channel, but his hand on the base of my spine prevented me from forcing him deeper into me.
Lucian exited my body, sliding his cock through the slick wetness of the arousal that coated my sex. It throbbed with a steady pulse I felt against the silky flesh of my cunt. Lucian muttered huskily as he slapped his cock against my clitoris, causing me to moan unabashedly with how much I craved for him to wreck me.
“I need you, Lucian,” I pleaded, not above begging him for what we both wanted and craved. “Fuck me,” I whimpered thickly, spreading further apart to allow him more access. “I am yours, asshole. Use me.”
“I don’t want to just use you.” Growling angrily, he stepped back, and I remained where he’d left me, hanging onto the counter. “Do not move, Lena.”
He left me standing alone against the counter and deprived of his touch, dressed in nothing more than stockings and a bra that barely covered my nipples.
Cool air drifted over my exposed sex, fanning against the red, sore cheeks that he’d punished. He returned several moments later, and something round, cold, and pulsing was thrust into my pussy.
“If you’re a good girl tonight, I will fuck you. I will even allow you to come on my lips and anywhere else you wish if you manage to behave and do as you’re told.”
“Like a good little bitch?” I snapped while trying to stand, but he pushed his hand between my shoulder blades, shoving me back down on the counter. “Why even bother allowing me out of the room if you only intend to collar me on stage? You could easily just threaten your clientele without all the theatrics.”
“Because I need them to understand what it means for me to claim you. I need you also to realize that you’re mine, only. It seems easy for you to forget that fact and that I won’t share you with the Devil.”
Lucian lowered behind me while still easily holding me down. His tongue slid through the heated flesh of my apex, as pleasure pounded through my core violently.
I squirmed against his lips, causing a tremor to shoot through me as he found my clit, sucking it between his teeth before flicking it with his tongue in short, quick movements that took me straight to the edge of the orgasm he’d forbidden me from reaching.
“Lucian,” I whimpered as I gripped the counter I was pressed against harder.
He made indecent noises while he sucked my clit, cleaning my pussy where he’d made it drip with arousal from a need only he could sate. The denial of allowing me to come was agonizing. Lucian was knowingly edging me, and every few days, he’d let me orgasm for several hours until it became painful to do so.
“Mmm, you’re fucking delicious, Little Monster. I could drink your pussy for hours and never tire of tasting you come for me. You’re my favorite meal and dessert to consume.” His voice was lust dipped in sin that wrapped around me, driving my body to a pile of mush at his feet. “Finish getting dressed. No makeup tonight, Lena. I want to present you in your true form, with nothing to distract from your natural beauty.”
“Makeup enhances beauty,” I muttered, beyond frustrated with him.
I felt like a piece of meat that he and Lucifer were fighting over. Lucian wanted me at his feet, collared and owned. Lucifer wished to punish me and claim me, but there was more he wanted from me. They both craved ownership, but neither man spoke about loving me. I’d escaped death only to be surrounded by corpses.
“So it does, but some women don’t need it. You’re one of those women,” he muttered. “There will be others inside the club tonight that might act on Lucifer’s behalf, Magdalena. I want you to remain with Devlin and Erie tonight when I am dealing with the others. Once I have openly claimed you, you will go to Erie, who will guard you from Lucifer while I am otherwise occupied.”
“Are you ever going to tell me what transpired with my family, or why you allowed them to die without trying to prevent it from happening?” His emotions shut down, and his eyes turned hard while he watched me searching his face. “You can take down monsters, and even the Devil himself, fears you, Lucian. You could have prevented what happened to them, and you chose not to. I need to know why you did nothing to help them. Please.”
“Get dressed and behave tonight,” he stated, turning on his heel to exit the bathroom, leaving me standing deserted and alone.
Lucian hadn’t told me where I fit in his world, other than I was his. He expected me to stop allowing Lucifer to pull me to him. The thing was, I didn’t know how to keep it from happening. I also wasn’t stupid. I knew Luc wanted more from me than just to be his bride. He had ulterior motives, which I understood. He was the Devil, and if Lucian thought I craved him, then he didn’t know me at all.
Lucifer had ruined my life and ended it, literally. He’d impregnated my sister, which resulted in her death. Hell, they both had destroyed the life I had, yet they seemed to choose to forget their part in what had ultimately happened to me and what I’d become.
Lucian wanted to own me and to keep me at his side.
Lucifer wanted to marry me and make me the Queen of Hell.
Lucian meant the world to me, but he continued keeping secrets.
Lucifer said he would give me the world, but he, too, was keeping things from me.
I didn’t know where I belonged anymore. I missed my brother, who hadn’t even tried to contact me since we’d returned to Club Chaos. My grandmother would have had the words to ease my apprehension and anxiety. My mother would have held me, promising that I was strong enough to endure the changes in my life. I had never been more alone in my life than I was right now, and I was surrounded by men all the time.
Staring at my reflection, I frowned. Erie was here, and she was crazy. She’s also a woman, and I felt like I could talk to her. I missed Kendra, telling her everything that was happening and having her listen and throw out encouragement when needed. I’d never noticed how much I craved female companionship until it had been taken from me.
Smiling, I quickly finished dressing and brushed my hair, excited at the idea of Erie being here. She may have been bat shit crazy, but she was a blast to be around. She was also blunt and a breath of fresh air in a world full of stagnant immortals that didn’t understand human emotions.
Stepping into the bedroom, I smiled at finding Spyder leaning against the door, watching me.
“Hello, Kitty,” he murmured, his gaze dropping to the sexy midnight-blue dress Lucian had chosen for me to wear. “Do I need to reinforce how important it is for you to behave tonight? Or do you understand the warning Lucian gave you?”
“I’m aware that the Devil is in the details,” I muttered, smirking at the way his brows shot up his forehead. “I get it. I need to act right and sit at his feet like a good doggie. When he’s finished pissing on my leg, I will find Erie and hand her my leash until His Highness returns for me. Anything I missed there?” I asked, returning his smirk.
“You missed a few pretty important things if you think that this is just him pissing on your sexy thigh, Kitten. You should watch what he does and what he is saying. You’re expecting flowery words, but he isn’t that sort of person. Open your fucking eyes, and use that brain of yours.”
“I don’t expect pretty words, Spyder. I just need to know where I belong and that I’m more than just a woman he craves to own. I need to understand why he approved of my entire bloodline being slaughtered, doing nothing about it. Lucian could have easily stopped that from happening. Tell me I’m wrong. I’ll wait,” I stated, crossing my arms over my chest to glare pointedly at him. “Yeah, that’s what I thought. I deserve to know those answers. He owes me that much, Spyder. I gave up my fucking life for him.” I paused, swallowing the angry tears that threatened to choke off my words.
“Do I think he did it out of malice? No, I don’t. I don’t blame him for their deaths, but I want to know why he allowed it to happen. I was born a witch. To me and my kind, our bloodline is everything. The Awakening was designed to ensure the line continued to breed the next generation while waking the dormant powers within us. For generations, we lived within the shadows, hiding from Lucian. And now they’re all dead, and the game he played has ended, freeing him. Expecting an answer to why all of my line is now deceased isn’t asking too much from him. Is it?”
“No, but you’re being hunted by the Devil, Kitty. That makes it hard to include you in shit that is happening around us. If Lucian tells you why he did it, Lucifer will know that answer, too. As I said, this isn’t an easy situation, and you’re not dealing with someone who is used to trusting women. He loved Katarina. The same day he uttered those words, she betrayed him and opened the box containing the seal. She even went so far as to curse him, weakening him so that her coven could attack and murder him. She was the only woman he’s ever told that he loved, and to her, it meant nothing. You’re anticipating that he should say those words to you, Magdalena. Stop expecting to hear them and start watching his actions. Now come on, we’re going to be late for him to claim you openly, which is something he’s never done for any woman.”
We stepped into the hallway, where the other men waited for us. Devlin smiled, his eyes sparkling with amusement. Bane snorted, dragging his heavy stare down the length of my body to the strappy heels Lucian had chosen for me to wear.
I wasn’t an idiot. Lucian had personally selected every piece of clothing and jewelry I wore tonight with purpose. The dark midnight dress was sexy and delicate. It stopped mid-thigh, allowing a glimpse of skin between it and my nylons.
The necklace I wore, an infinity sign with three black diamonds in a platinum setting, wasn’t extravagant, but it was beautiful in its simplicity. The dress curved around the globes of my breasts, permitting just enough cleavage exposed to be sexy, yet not too much that was visible to prying eyes. I’d left my hair free of bands and had foregone my usual braid, letting it flow down my back in gentle caramel-colored waves.
“You look beautiful tonight, Kitty cat,” Spyder whispered from where he walked beside me. “He dressed you to show you off because, unlike most women, you are gorgeous in your own skin. You’re confident, and that in and of itself is beautiful and empowering. Could you do me a favor this evening and behave? I know shit is crazy, and your emotions are up in arms, but a lot is happening this evening inside the club. Lucian needs to focus on the creatures attending, and you’d be doing me a solid if you gave him a break and behaved for just tonight.”
“I was already planning to behave. Not because you’re asking me, but because Lucifer will be here waiting for us to fuck up. I don’t intend to allow that to happen.” We started up the steps as the music began playing on the upper levels. “I can play my part well without instructions. Lucian wants a pet, so I will sheath my claws for one night.”
Lucian appeared on the staircase, peering down at me while sliding his heated gaze over my dress. His midnight eyes paused on the sheen of gloss that covered my pink lips, and my smile lifted, daring him to argue about the light makeup I’d added to enhance my appearance. It wasn’t for him, anyway. It was for me. It was amazing what a little mascara and lip gloss could do to boost a girl’s confidence.
