Ruby Shadows (Born to Darkness #3)(38)
“I…you…” For once I was at a loss for words. Grams would have called it a miracle—she says I always have something to say for myself whether I should say it or not. But this time I found nothing.
Laish didn’t seem a bit bothered by my silence. He raised an eyebrow at me.
“Enjoy yourself while I am gone, Gwendolyn and remember what I said.”
Then he closed the door behind him, leaving me alone in the huge suite with a ball of apprehension like a block of ice melting in my stomach.
Chapter Thirteen
Gwendolyn
I tried to shake off the worry Laish’s words had caused in me and decided to just go explore the suite. I hadn’t known what to expect for accommodations during my journey through Hell but staying a night in a high-roller suite wasn’t one of them. It was a pleasant surprise—or so I tried to tell myself. But somehow his words kept echoing in my head. “Just because I may not yet make love to you doesn’t mean I don’t anticipate stroking your beautiful body and making you come…”
Seriously, what was he going to do to me? I’d never let any guy I ever dated get beyond second base—or below the belt, however you wanted to say it. Earlier when he’d cupped my * on the banks of the river Styx, I’d trembled against him and shamed myself by begging for more and he was only touching me outside my panties. This time I had a feeling he wasn’t going to stop—the thin barrier of silk and lace would be gone—long gone. And I was going to have those big, warm hands all over my body, whether I wanted to or not.
The problem was that deep down I wanted to—a Hell of a lot, no pun intended.
Stop it, I reminded myself firmly. He’s a demon, remember? And a demon of lust at that. No wonder it’s hard to say no to him but that doesn’t mean you have to make a fool of yourself. He wants to pay the Sin Tax—fine, there’s no getting around that. But you can pay it without gasping and begging like some horny actress in a porno at least. No matter what happens, just keep control of yourself.
Having given myself a stern lecture, I felt a little better about the situation at hand. After all, I had gone into this with my eyes open. There were just some things that would have to be done in order to achieve my goal. That didn’t mean I had to enjoy them—only that I had to endure them. And in the meantime, I was going to stop stressing about the whole mess and just go explore the opulent suite.
The sunken room with its soft black carpet had a living room area with wide, white leather couches grouped around a central fire pit. There was also well as a bar stocked with every imaginable liquor and quite a few I didn’t recognize at all. And that was saying something considering I’d done a little bartending in college before I started capitalizing on my witchy roots to make a living.
The bar area led into another room and the moment I walked in and saw the vast, king-sized bed I knew what it was for. A luxurious white fur spread covered its wide surface and mounds of plump pillows were piled against the headboard.
“Hmmm…” I ran a hand over the spread and wasn’t at all surprised to find it was real fur. Probably baby seal fur or something awful and reprehensible like that. This was Hell, after all. If they didn’t give a damn about starving kids right out on the street, they sure weren’t going to mind clubbing a few dozen seals to make a bedspread.
I pulled my hand away from the luxurious spread quickly, trying not to think about the possible source of the fur or the starving children outside the hotel. Poor things! I wished Laish would let me do something for them—I still didn’t understand why he was being so hard hearted.
Because he’s a demon, I reminded myself firmly. A demon with no soul. So don’t expect him to act like anything else and you won’t be disappointed. Still, he could be so gentle and kind with me. It seemed wrong that he wouldn’t even consider the plight of those poor little children…well, maybe I could find a way to give them something on our way out of the hotel. I sighed and went to explore some more.
The bedroom led into a large master bathroom with a black marble tub so huge it looked like you could do laps in it—a far cry from the cramped shower-tub combo in Grams’ house. I went to it eagerly and found a selection of bubble baths and scented oils in fancy bottles lined up on one side. Perfect!
I practically clapped my hands in delight. I love long, luxurious bubble baths—who doesn’t? And I almost never got to have one since the hot water heater at Grams’ house wasn’t exactly huge.
Back home I’d run half a tub of hot water before the heat ran out. I could either sit in a half-full tub or fill the rest with cold and have a tepid bath which was no fun. Here, it appeared, I could soak to my heart’s content.
“Well, I know what I’m going to be doing tonight,” I murmured to myself happily. Then the thought of Laish popped into my head. “Well…part of the night anyway.”
Then I had a thought—why not take a bath right now? Who knew how long it would take Laish to tend to Kurex? I was bored and the one thing the gorgeous hotel suite didn’t seem to have was a TV or any other kind of entertainment. Laish had told me to stay out of trouble and I couldn’t imagine a better way to do it. Besides, it would be a lot less embarrassing to be lolling around in the tub naked when I was here by myself than when he was there to watch me.