Rapunzel laughs right in Dax’s face. “You’re sour because she’s teaching me the advantages of being a woman.”
Quinn rolls his eyes. “Fuck me, Rapunzel, but that’s a load of horseshit.”
She must take Quinn’s words as a challenge because her demeanor changes. With an enticing sway of her shapely hips, she closes the short distance between them. Her slightly sun kissed hand, itself a paradox of fragility and strength, is a feather-light touch on Quinn’s chest. When she slides her palm farther up his muscular pecs, then curves her fingers around his neck, it’s me who can barely draw a breath. Standing on tiptoes, she leans forward until her lips brush his ear and purrs, “Odd, how you don’t think it’s horseshit when you have me on my knees.”
Poor Quinn.
Rapunzel might as well put her face between his legs right here, right now. He slams his eyes shut. Squeezes them tight. Her words slither up the shaft of my cock, hardening it until it fills the crotch of my breeches to where I have to shift my stance.
“That wasn’t nice,” he grits out between clenched teeth. He opens his eyes, but keeps his hands fisted at his sides and his shoulders bunched. His sleeves are hitched to reveal the tattoos on his arms. They seem to stretch and constrict across his flesh in response to his arousal.
Slowly—so fucking slowly—Rapunzel removes her hand from his neck before she extends a finger to trace the jagged scar that slices down the left side of his face. “Another lesson you taught me.” Her expression is positively licentious as she touches that same finger to her lips. The devious woman licks the pad with her talented tongue. “Never play nice.”
“Keep it up, Princess.” Quinn grabs her around the throat, pulling her closer. “I’ll teach you another lesson. This one, with my cock in your mouth.”
Dax and I exchange a meaningful glance at this erotic game of push and pull. And then Rapunzel gazes up at Quinn through the thick, sooty fringe of her lashes and discreetly cups him between the legs. “Promise?”
Quinn’s low growl rumbles up from deep within his chest. “Be glad we’re in a hall full of people.”
“Why would I be glad when I enjoy being at your command? We,” she motions to Wren, Dax, and herself, “know your pleasure is heightened not only by pain, but also by being watched. Same as Wren.” She slides me a devious smile that sends a fresh wave of need rushing through me. “And Dax enjoys a bit of playfulness.” Then she scans the room and seems satisfied that we’re being ignored as the music continues and Emma and Gavin are dancing while everyone else chats amongst themselves. “Seems I’ll have to make this an early night.”
“Bold of you to think I’ll make it easy for you,” he counters.
She shuffles backward a step, their extraordinary tug of war still going strong. “I wouldn’t dare presume such a thing.”
A malicious gleam lights Quinn’s eyes. “You’re going to have work for my cock tonight.”
“Challenge accepted, Quinn.” Rapunzel drags in a trembling breath. “I’ll work for your cock.” She flicks her gaze to his crotch before drifting back to his face. “But not before one last dance. Come, Wren. Let him watch us and imagine all the wicked things he wants to do to me.”
Rapunzel’s little hand slides against mine, and as she drags me away from Quinn and Dax, I issue her a warning. “You’re playing with fire, Zee.”
“But what a lovely way to burn.” When she comes to a stop, she wraps her arms around my neck. Her smirk is downright devious. She steps up on her tiptoes and puts her lips to my ear. “I’ll tell you a secret, Wren. I do enjoy the rush of baiting him.”
I laugh at her confession. “Fuck me, but we’ve created a monster.”
“Oh, no, Wren.” Rapunzel stumbles a bit while struggling to execute the steps to the Basse Dance. “Make no mistake about it. You may have freed me, but you didn’t create the monster. All you did was let her out of her tower.”
So I did.
Three months ago, when I dragged her out. What Rapunzel doesn’t realize is that she wasn’t the only one liberated that day.
I set myself free as well.
ChapterSix
“Two truths to redeem his soul.”
The demon’s angry voice slices my mind from one ear to the other. A hot dagger that stabs its way across my skull. It’s a painful, guttural murmur only I hear. Words I can’t escape fill my ears. My eyelids fly open, freeing me from the nightmare that held me in its grip. The whisper follows me into consciousness. Once awake, I’m still kept locked in the demon’s clutches. Its evil eyes hold me captive. Suffocating and paralyzing. I try to scream for Wren, but my voice is stuck somewhere in the back of my throat. When I attempt to lift my arms, they’re weighted against the mattress, too heavy to lift. My limbs are banded to the bed by invisible restraints that render me helpless.
Vulnerable.
“Cease your struggles, Rapunzel of Rygard.”As if I have a choice but to comply. The creature robbed me of movement. Of my voice. My hand itches for my sword, but I’m powerless to do anything other than lie here and wait.
Wait for him to… What? Take my soul like he did Quinn’s?
The demon steps from the shadows. Its massive body blocks the moonlight that filters in from the recessed lead-glass windows. How could I have forgotten how horrifying this creature is? How massive? Its ebony horns nearly scrape the ceiling. Gray skin is stretched taut over thick cords of muscle. Its flesh bears the same vine-like markings as Quinn’s. When it purses thin lips and spits on the floor, strings of thick saliva hang from its fangs.
“Fuck your soul. I have no need of it.”
