“You keep saying that.” I lifted my chin and stalked toward him. “But don’t you think it’s my decision to make? Or is this just an excuse to push me away?Again?”
Turned out I was still a little angry that he’d plopped me in Brooklyn and ordered me to stay away from the only people who had ever accepted me for who and what I was, other than Serena. And to stay away from him when he’d known, deep down, that I’d wanted to see where this thing between us led.
Instead of answering me, his wings flared wide on either side of him. The sunlight glimmered against the deep black, filling out the lines of every feather. Power hummed from his body. The scent of ash swirled toward me like a puff of smoke. I was momentarily struck by the beauty of those wings. Mouth dropping, I stared.
Bad idea. I shouldn’t have gotten distracted. Az took the opportunity to haul me into his arms and shoot off into the sky again.
12
Asmodeus took me straight to his penthouse. He strode through the open balcony doors with me tucked against him like some kind of damsel in distress. With a roll of my eyes, I hopped out of his arms before he had a chance to put me down himself. I might be mostly human, but I wasn’t helpless. Thank you very much.
“You seem annoyed again.” Az shot me an irritated glance and tossed his keys onto the dining table. Not that he’d used them to get inside. For the second time in two days, we’d come by air.
“As far as I can tell, the feeling is mutual.” I folded my arms and watched him pace around his apartment. He slammed the balcony doors shut and then threw heavy black curtains over them. After giving me another dark look, he stormed around, pressing his hand to every wall like some kind of angry carpenter.
“What are you doing?”
“Checking to make sure Lucifer hasn’t been here.”
I arched my brows. “By petting the walls?”
He shot me a dark look. “I had a witch come over a couple of weeks ago and put some wards in place. If anyone steps over the boundary, the wards break. It’s an alarm system.”
“There are witches?” I shouldn’t have been surprised. If magic existed—and it did—surely witches did, too. There were fae and vampires and demons. Might as well be magic-wielders to go along with them. Still, every time I learned something new about the supernatural world, it felt as though the world titled sideways just a little bit more. Soon, I’d be all the way upside down.
“A few. Most of the families didn’t survive the 1600s, but they’re growing again.”
I filed that information away for later use. Might come in handy at some point. Witches were a thing, and they knew magic.
“So, has anyone been here?” I asked, while Az spent a long time poking around the door that led to the rest of the building.
“Not that I can tell,” he muttered.
I fought the urge to roll my eyes. He was in a terrible mood, not that this was any different from his usual self. Just a tad more grumbly than usual. It seemed our argument on the rooftop had set him off. Lucky for me that I could make him feel so much irritation.
“Okay.” I stood in the center of his apartment, my hands hanging awkwardly by my thighs. “Why are we here, Az? You’ve been super focused on our scents not mixing, and they definitely will if I’m in your actual home. Besides, I thought you wanted me to stay with Valac.”
“You will stay with Valac.” He pushed away from the door and turned my way. “After today.”
“Okay, so…” I wet my lips as he strode across the floor with a fiery heat in his eyes. Again, I asked him, “Why not today? Why are we here? Can you just stop being so mysterious and tell me what’s going on?”
He stood tall before me and roughly cupped the back of my neck. Hunger roared through his eyes as his fingers tightened their grip on me. Need flared back to life in my core. I tipped back my head, my entire body tensing.
“I brought you here because I can’t be around you any longer without ripping your goddamn clothes off. And if I’m going to fuck you the way I want, we can’t be out in public. We need to be here in private where we can rinse our scents off each other when we’re done.”
Oh.Oh.I swallowed hard. My lips parted. I’d longed for him to say these words, but now that he had, I didn’t know what the hell to do about it. Nerves tumbled through my belly. This time, we didn’t have liquid courage as an excuse. This time, it felt far more real.
“Then, do it,” I whispered to him. “Fuck me, Az.”
His hands palmed my ass, and he lifted me from the floor. My thighs stretched wide on either side of him, just as his lips claimed mine. Need pulsed within my core. Our kiss deepened with hunger, and his low growl rumbled through me.
His shoulders tensed beneath my fingers, his chiseled muscles rippling with strength. I slid my hand up his neck, tangling my fingers in his hair. It was as soft as the shadows that pulsed against his skin.
I revelled in the feel of him. During those long nights spent apart, he’d filled my dreams. But it had never been better than this. His arms, his hands, his mouth. The electric pulse that charged between us. There was nothing else in the world like this, and I hated that I’d spent so many nights without it.
A little voice popped up in the back of my head. There was a reason we’d parted ways, and it had to do with the pesky demon king trying to rip apart both our lives. We probably shouldn’t be doing this. But the delicious thrill of forbidden desire shoved all those thoughts aside.
Az carried me across the room and slammed my back against the wall. His body humming, he unwound my thighs from his hips and flipped me around. A gasp popped from my throat when he yanked my shirt over my head, leaving my breasts exposed to the cool, air-conditioned penthouse.
