The Demon's Bargain (A Deal With a Demon #4)(14)

I could snap them like I snapped the others, but I like this. I like how her magic swirls around us, electric pink and sunny yellow. I like feeling held down by her. She runs her hands down my chest and back up again. Her nails prick me, but only that. “You feel good.”

“Ride me, little witch. I want to feel you cum again.”

Lenora arches back and presses her hands to my thighs, squeezing the cuts as she picks up her pace. The pain surges again, and I surge with it. I grab her hips and slam her down onto me. She responds by digging her fingers in harder, though distantly I note she’s not using her nails this time.

Very well. Two can play that game.

“You don’t feel like working, little witch?” I laugh hoarsely and lift her again. “Very well. You can play my little fuck toy, and I’ll use you until I’m satisfied.”

She gasps. “Do it.”

I release her hips long enough to wedge my hands between us and wrap my fingers around her ass. The new position forces her legs out and takes away what little stability she had. I lift her until she’s nearly free of me. “Put your feet on my shoulders. Hold my horns.”

As soon as she obeys, I start to work her back down my length. I’m holding her entire weight, and she makes a delicious little whimpering sound as I bottom out inside her. I don’t give her a chance to adjust to it, though. Instead, I lift her again, using her to fuck me. Slowly. It takes everything I have, but I’m determined to go slow, to enjoy every moment of this.

The sharp heels of her boots dig into my shoulders, pinpricks of pain that urge me to go faster. Harder. I fight to ignore the impulse. “Cum for me, little witch. Let me feel it.”

“Make me.”

I laugh hoarsely. Trust her to turn this into a battle as well. I like that about Lenora. She’s all sharp edges and flaring power. I’ve always liked my partners to have claws, usually literally.

With the little witch, something’s different, though. There’s a soft center there. She doesn’t show it often, but her emotions tell the truth of her. It’s a contrast that draws me despite myself. She draws me.

I keep using her to fuck me. It takes three strokes to find the exact angle that makes her head fall back and her long hair brush my torn thighs. She’s such a saturated pink right now, I can see every line of her clearly. The roundness of her breasts, the soft curve of her stomach, the glistening wet of her pussy.

Her hands tighten around my horns. “Ramanu,” she gasps. “Don’t stop! I’m going to—” She cries out loud enough that I’m half-surprised she doesn’t shake the paintings from the walls.

It’s too much. I slam her down onto me, my body getting the best of my control. I roar my way through my own orgasm, pumping into her until her pussy overflows and my seed coats my bloody thighs.

I wrap my arms around the little witch and arrange her against my chest. She slumps down, her breath a harsh match for mine. The lust swimming about her dims a little, but it’s hardly sated.

Lenora blows out a breath and gives a shaky laugh. “Not too shabby, demon.”

“You either, little witch.” She shifts a little, but I don’t drop my arms, and she finally settles back against me. This is…nice. My thighs are already healing, the cuts from her nails sealing shut and the pain fading to nothing. The pleasure takes longer to dim, and even then, it morphs to a deep contentedness that only seems to come after good sex.

I like that she lets me hold her. It’s a small intimacy I don’t bother engaging in with most of my partners. Intimacy leads to expectations, and I’m too damned ambitious to let a relationship sidetrack me. It took me years to work my way up the ranks high enough to catch Azazel’s attention and then years yet to prove myself a reliable resource.

Because of that, I’m the one he sends to keep track of the human gifts he manipulated the other territory leaders into taking. A calculated risk, that. There’s a reason bargainers don’t let the humans we make deals with wander the demon realm these days. Their safety is of the utmost importance.

By allowing them out of our sight and out of our territory, he can’t guarantee their safety no matter what promises he made to them. The contract will notify him if something goes awry, but in the seconds it would take him to get to their side, it might already be too late.

I am the, ah, stopgap to deal with that while we wait to see what the other territory leaders will do. My check-ins were a reminder of the consequences for mistreating their gifts. Not all of them have settled perfectly into their new lives, but enough have that Azazel approved this bargain for me.

“Ramanu.”

“Mmmm?” I stroke a careful hand through Lenora’s long hair.

She lifts her head. “You said seven years would only be a few hours—a month at most.”

Surely one round of sex isn’t enough to convince her to make the bargain? I force myself not to hold my breath. “Yes.”

“Doesn’t that mean you’re missing out on like…decades over there by staying here for three days? You’ll go back, and everyone you know will be dead and gone.”

Ah. That. I hesitate, but there’s really no harm in her knowing the truth. It’s not exactly something we bargainers broadcast, but it’s not a secret, either. “The realms don’t actually touch. There’s a bit of space between them where beings who can realm hop can exert some control over the flow of time. It’s not a perfect equation, and it’s easier to finesse coming here than it is going back, but I’ll only have missed a few weeks.” It should be fine. Azazel has others capable of handling anything that comes up.