Fourteen
Lothar
* * *
“Anything?” Roxy asked under her breath.
I followed a worn path around a cluster of gray slime-covered trees. “Still nothing.” When we got to this realm, I felt his energy, which was what hounds used to track, but now the trail was cold. Beelzebub knew we were here and had found someone or some place that could block him from me.
“Well, if our informant’s right, we’re close. According to the map they sketched for us, Drake’s place isn’t far from here.”
I grunted, unable to take my eyes off her as she strode ahead. I could still smell her pussy, still taste it on my tongue. I didn’t understand what was going on. I’d never had the driving urge to fuck her, not like I was experiencing now. Her scent had made it impossible for me to spend any length of time with her, even if I had admired her ass from across the room a time or two, and yeah, how good she felt pressed up against me when she hugged me before her scent got too much and I had to retreat. Her scent was still an issue, but for some reason I was handling it a lot better.
My gaze slid down her back, over her ass, and down to her strong thighs capable of choking a male out if the mood struck her. My dick got hard again.
I clenched my teeth. What had changed? Why was making her come all I could think about? Why couldn’t I get the sound of her voice begging me to touch her out of my head? This was Rox, I admired her. She was an exceptional female, a talented warrior, and good and loyal friend—but that’s all she was. It was all I’d wanted from her, all I still wanted—a friend.
The beast, on the other hand, had gone full rogue. He was losing his shit around her more and more often, roaring at me to get closer to her, to touch, to scent, to fuck—to bite.
It was fucking with my head, confusing me. So when I woke to Roxy all over me, rubbing against my thigh, something flipped deep in my chest. There’d been other moments on this trip where the beast and I were in alignment—seeing her with Asmodeus was definitely one of them. And when we were under that tree and the need to kiss her, to taste her pretty lips, had taken over was another.
It was a head-fuck because, yes, her scent still made me want to retreat, but when I wasn’t close enough to her, I didn’t like that either. Maybe it was just a matter of us being stuck together?
Hounds were notoriously horny, and it had been a while since I’d done more with a female than gotten her off. We were big males, our cocks included, fucking wasn’t always an option, especially with humans, but everything in me knew that Roxy wouldn’t have an issue with my size. Like shifters and demons, she was made different.
So why fight it? Neither of us was against casual sex. We were both old as fuck and we’d tried everything. Beings like us didn’t have hang-ups about that shit. There was an obvious attraction there. Pleasure was pleasure. I’d just never seen myself spending that kind of time with Rox.
If I wanted to calm down my beast, I needed to give us what we both wanted. “Rox, what happened earlier, back in the room?”
Her shoulders stiffened. “Mmm-hmm.”
“The way I see it. You want me, and I want you. You wanna stop playing and do this? I want more of you, babe, and I think you do too.”
She was silent for several very long seconds as she sidestepped spitting flowers and dodged fallen branches and brittle bones sticking out of the mud. “What exactly are you asking for, Loth?” she finally said, not looking back.
I shrugged, even though she couldn’t see me. “Let’s fuck, at least while we’re away from home. Get that shit out of our systems. No point going to bed each night wanting more when we could have it.”
She huffed out a laugh and shook her head. “As easy as that, huh?”
I ducked under a moss-covered branch. “Seems logical to me.”
“Things could get complicated,” she said.
She still hadn’t looked back at me. I didn’t like that. “How?” I licked my lips and bit back my groan when I tasted her again. “Already made you come, Rox, why stop now?”
“What about Asher?”
My head jerked back. “Like I told Gus, me and Ash don’t fuck. We hang, we ride our bikes, nothing more.”
Roxy stumbled but caught herself. “The amount of time you spend together…I thought you two were an item.”
I was getting sick of people saying that shit. I was betting Ash was as well. “Ash had a mate, the male died, she’s not looking for anything other than an occasional fuck with someone random, which means she’s got no interest seeing them again after, that counts me out.”
“How disappointing for you,” Roxy said, kind of stomping around another tree.
I frowned. “I’m not disappointed. I’m sure if Ash and I fucked, it’d be good, but not any more than any other female, and if I’m that hard up, I can get laid whenever I want.” No, I hadn’t been with anyone in a while, because it had felt like too much effort. But Asher’s pack mates came to our bar, Hell Fire, all the time, and they liked to fuck as much as we did. Or I could go to Hell. Some demons loved the danger of being with us, following us around like fucking groupies.
Roxy finally glanced back at me. “Is that right?”
