I was about to open my mouth and tell him once again that I wasn’t afraid, but the words never left my lips. One of his hands lifted from the back of the couch and dropped toward my lap. His eyes stayed anchored to mine as his fingers dropped to the drawstring waistband of my pajama pants.
If I’d known he was coming, I would have worn something other than the pajama pants that said “on the naughty list.” Felt a bit too on the nose now.
His fingers hooked into my pajamas but he paused, and I realized he was waiting for my permission. I gave him the tiniest of nods, thrills of excitement making me squirm beneath him as his hand dipped inside my pants.
My head fell onto the back of the couch with a breathy moan as he swept his index finger over my labia. He chuckled, his glowing eyes sweeping over my face and drinking in the way it contorted with pleasure. “Scheiße, little beast. All this talk of demons has you dripping.”
My breath hitched as the pad of his finger swirled slow and tantalizing circles around my clit.
Slowly, he dropped to his knees on the floor in front of me, as if in unholy prayer. With the way he was positioned, with the Christmas tree at his back, his face was cast in shadows and his glowing eyes burned into me from the darkness.
“Talking about demons is fun, but I think fucking them sounds like an even better way to pass the time,” I said.
Bastion’s finger changed up the pattern and pacing around my clit, leaving me breathless as he considered my words for a tense moment.
“If I show you my other form, even just a small part of it, there’s no going back. You can’t unsee it. I have the ability to wipe your memories…” His smirk curved into a wild grin thatseemed all too fitting for a man claiming to be the Krampus. “But I won’t. I want my secret to torture you. I want the memory of what I’m about to do to you to keep you up at night. And when you do manage to sleep, I want it to slip into your nightmares so I’m the only monster in your head.”
Fuck me. How was I supposed to respond to that? All my ability to articulate was gone, and all I could manage was a sloppy nod. My legs parted, a silent invitation that I was not only into this, but I wanted more—neededmore.
What we were doing, what we were about to do, felt wrong. Which, given my newfound freedom, felt so fucking right.
In a way, it was almost like Hogan was still alive, running his honied ham stand, wondering if I was off cheating on him with my Christmas tree guy. I could only hope that he was looking up at me from Hell, helpless to do anything but watch.
The fact that Bastion was literally some dark creature made for terrorizing people—which explained the strange aura he’d had since we were kids—only made this whole scenario that much more tantalizing.
Did he have horns? Thatlongtongue? Did he wear chains? Would he use them for my “punishment?” Oh my god, did he havehooves?
If Bastion was really what he said he was, that would have been enough for any sane person to run for the hills. Not me. I’d read one too many monster romance novels and thoughtfuck, I wish that was me.
Now it finally could be. Talk about one fucked Christmas miracle.
“I have an idea.” Bastion’s eyes glinted in the light. “A little game we can play.”
“A game?Oh!”I gulped down a sharp breath as he pushed a finger inside me.
“I start showing pieces of my demon. Slowly. I let you see them—feelthem. If at any point you fail to convince me you’re having a good time, I leave. We keep each other’s secrets, and we go about our lives pretending we fit in with everyone else.”
“And if I prove what an eager little beast I can be for the alleged Krampus?”
His eyes lit up. “Then I make your darkest fantasy come true. The one you told me about on our first date.”
I blinked. “First date?”
“Yes. When we fed your fiancé to the pigs. I count that as our first date.”
“You suck,” I told him, through an ear to ear smile that he matched with one of his own.
“You have no fucking idea.” He sat back on his heels, pulling his finger from my pussy and bringing it to his lips to make a hushing motion. His lips parted and his tongue wound around the digit to lap up my juices. The appendage was thick, oozing strings of saliva. It wrapped around his finger once…twice. It kept going. His muffled cackle scraped over my skin like sandpaper, leaving me pink and raw as I gaped stupidly at was the longest tongue I’d ever seen.
That tongue could only belong to a demon.
Chapter Twelve
Bastion
Iwasn’t used to shifting in portions like this, not that I was used to shifting at all. But this was good. I needed to take it slow and steady and show her what she was in for.
Given her past, I needed to be gentle… At least, up until she proved this was really what she wanted and understood what was about to happen to her.
