A chill skipped down my spine and my eyes swung wildly around the graveyard, looking for the monster. My muscles relaxed when my gaze settled on the statue of Limbo’s king. Jesus, I was really on edge if I thought he meant the Lord of Bones was here, watching us from somewhere in the bushes.
Then again, after my run-in with him last night under the plum tree, my paranoia couldn’t really be blamed.
“So you want me to do what, exactly?” I cocked a skeptical brow at him. Maybe he’d have me get on my knees and ask me to worship whatever it was creating that bulge in his pants… “Pray, sing a hymn?”
“The only hymn I want to hear is the anthem of your cries as I get to use your body however I want. And right now, I want to punish you.”
“Punish me?” I gasped, taking a step back. “For what?”
“For not calling me sooner. I could have helped you with the blood oak.”
I rolled my eyes. “I didn’t need your help.”
“You could have broken your fucking neck.” There was a sharper edge to his voice. “I only caught you because you accidentally drew your blood with my silver trying to escape.”
“And so what if I had?” My patience with this demon was running thin. If he gave a damn about me actually dying, he wouldn’t leave me in the maze to fend for myself at all. Did the ‘damsel in distress’ thing do it for him? I wondered if he had a hero complex with a compulsion to swoop in at the last second. “Why do you care so much about what happens to me anyway?”
His eyes darkened with a dangerous gleam. “Turn around, bend over the statue’s base, and pull your dress up.”
“And if I don’t?” I was being stubborn and I knew it, but the way he stared at me like a deadly animal about to attack its prey was like gasoline to the fire already burning in me. I wanted to get under his skin. He was sexy as hell when he was annoyed. “Will you take my boots away?”
“No. But you’re going to do it anyway,” he said, closing the space between us. The way he stared down at me, his eyes radiating sheer power, made my core throb. “Not because I’m forcing you to do this. There is a dark part of your soul thatneedsthis. Isn’t there?”
I wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction of an answer, though I could already feel my arousal dripping between my thighs. Yes, I needed this. I needed him to use me the way he did in his bed. I wanted any and every part of him on me, but a flurry of nerves rolled through me at the thought. “Is it going to hurt?”
“Do you want it to hurt?” He moved closer yet, until the fabric of his shirt danced over my exposed chest.
It wasn’t really a question. I wanted whatever this demon would give me, however he would give it to me. “Yes.”
“That’s what I suspected.” He gestured toward the statue with a tilt of his horns. “Now, do as I said. Bend over, and show me that pretty ass.”
I hesitated, my nerves shooting sky-high, then I did as he instructed, pulling my dress up and bending at the waist with my hands on the statue’s base. The stone was rough against my hands, and the cool breeze licked against my bare backside.
I felt horribly exposed, and I didn’t hate it… Even with the Lord of Bones’ stony eye sockets boring into me from above.
“That’s my good girl,” Belial praised, his voice rough with something that had goosebumps exploding over my skin.
Sneaking a peek over my shoulder, my heart lurched into my throat when I found him pulling his gloves off. I shouldn’t have been this excited about the thought of his bare skin on mine, but I was reeling, my skin prickling with anticipation. I whimpered when he tucked the gloves in his back pocket and bent over me, his hand smoothing over my ass.
“You liked the sting of the wax when I played with you in my bed.” His tone turned soft in my ear, which had me relaxing into his palm. “Didn’t you?”
“Yes…”
“Good. Because this is going to sting even more.”
“I want it to hurt,” I said, confirming what I’d already admitted, more to myself than him.
He was right. I didn’t just want the pain, I needed it. This pain numbed the rest of the hurt and suffering the labyrinth had already caused me. That the Lord of Bones had caused me.
Belial’s punishment was the kind of pain I had the choice to receive. And for a moment, it would drown out everything else.
He was more than the masked stranger who’d saved me from the quicksand. More than the hero who’d whisked me away from the blood oak. He was quickly becoming my painkiller, my lifeline, my phone a fucking friend and hope he picks up the goddamn phone.
I’d been so stubborn not to ask for help. I wasn’t used to asking for things from anyone.
Maybe, buried under all that lust and depravity, there was some part of the demon that actually cared about what happened to me.
The first smack to my ass came as a surprise, even though I’d suspected he was going to spank me. It had enough force to knock a whimper from my lips.
