Page 14 of Caught in the Devil’s Hand

“You are the lesser of many evils, nothing more. I’m grateful to be alive, but you have no claim over me. None,” she insisted.

“Oh, but I do have a claim on you. And I shall demonstrate.” He narrowed his eyes, and she swore they glowed. The arousal humming through her grew tenfold.

“Ah!” she moaned, slipping her hand between her legs and hoping that holding herself would somehow lessen the sensation. “W-What is this magic?”

“My kind call it sympathetic binding. We now feel what the other feels—physically, at least. And by simply thinking it, I can arouse you nearly to bursting.” His smile wilted slightly. “However, the price we pay is to obey all contracts made between us, past, present, and future.”

“You placed this curse upon me? And you still think you’re not cruel?” But despite her anger, she began teasing the same spot he’d so expertly pleasured the night before.

His gaze slid down. “Can’t help yourself, hmm?” She froze, horrified. “Don’t stop, Shumei,” he said with a sigh, sitting back on his heels. “Why deny something that feels so good? For both of us?” He tugged on the ties to his clothing. His jacket sagged open. She fearfully watched as he delved into his loosened pants, and gasped when he gripped himself. As he’d said, she felt the mirror sensation in her body.

He held eye contact, willing her not to look away from his pure blue stare as he rubbed himself. She groaned, feeling every stroke just as surely as if his hand were between her thighs instead of her own. Her fingers twitched involuntarily, nudging her most sensitive spot, and she heard a catch in his throat.

“W-Why do you haunt me?” she asked, panting as the pleasure climbed higher.

“I promised not to abduct you, but I didn’t promise to leave you alone,” he reminded her. She made a small noise of reluctant defeat, knowing she could not argue—not in that distracting moment. “You think I left a mark on you, and though that’s true, you do not realize the mark you left on me. I want you, Shumei,” he declared, pumping his hand faster. She gave a broken cry, vision blurring.

She had refused even to think it, but the thought now blared inside her mind: she still wanted him too. He, a demon, had made her feel more alive than she had at any other point in her twenty years of life. He hadn’t done it selflessly, but then neither had she.

“I can take care of you—I want to. Tell me to whisk you away from this life,” he said, reminding her of her fantasy. “Say yes and save yourself.”

She didn’t answer him. She was on that final climb and eyeing the way his hand moved inside his clothes. Somehow, watching the fabric shift and bulge only intensified the sensations echoing in her body. She moaned and sighed and bit her lip in anticipation. Her eyes watered, so she closed them, ready to catch the brunt of the pleasure about to rack her body.

Then it all stopped. She glared at him with a grunt of disappointment. “D…” she began, but the sound froze in her throat when she realized she was about to say, “Don’t stop.” He gave her a knowing smirk, and she tightened her lips in anger. She wasn’t sure what enraged her more—his arrogance or that he had denied her. “Damn you. Damn you!” She huddled even deeper into the water.

His smile faded. “I am already damned,” he said, voice flat. She felt the change in his mood as if it were a change in temperature and shivered.

How overbearing would he be with several strapping field workers running to the sound of screams, she wondered. She gathered a deep breath.

He darted forward faster than her eyes could follow him. His clothes were instantly soaked, water splashing everywhere. She flinched away from him. A tiny shriek was all she could get out as she scampered back, brushing up against the prickly riverside bushes. Then he clamped her against his chest, trapping her arms between them.

“Scream, and anyone who comes will die,” he snarled. Unable to move, she couldn’t cower from him, so she chose anger instead.

“Then how do I make you leave?” she bit out. He released her.

“I’ve already given my offer. You’re the ideal source of energy for a demon like me, and though I cannot steal you away, thanks to some stupidly uttered words on my part, I can offer you a better life in exchange for agreeing to come with me.”

“I refuse. What you ask risks my soul, and I will not abandon my mother and brother.”

“Think of your fellow villagers, Shumei. If you agree to be mine, I won’t have to seek out other females to ravish.” His eyebrows took a teasing slant as he smiled at her. She suppressed the urge to splash him, but only barely. Then he grew serious. “Nor would I reveal myself or our relationship.”

She paled at that, realizing her worst fears could easily come true. Despite his white hair and his outsider status, he could announce to the whole village what she’d done, and he’d be believed. She and her entire family would be run out, if not worse. Of course, the villagers could attack him as well, but she wasn’t worried about his safety, and she doubted that a demon who carried a sword worried over it, either.

“As for your soul,” he continued, “do you think any of your ‘pious’ neighbors have not risked theirs? I’ve spent some time observing your village. I’m sure you’re aware your pockmarked neighbor beats his son, but did you know the married man next door to you sneaks off to the widow at the center of the village and make the obscenest noises I’ve ever heard out of a man’s throat? Did you know the woman at the west end of the village practices dangerous magic?”

“S-She does? They’ve done those things?” she asked, taken aback.

He let her go and nodded. “I’m willing to accommodate your brother at my dwelling if his welfare is the only barrier to making you mine. I’ll even teach him how to fight if you submit to me whenever I please, but mark my words, Shumei…” His expression turned grave. “You can either make a deal with me, or I’ll ensure the village learns of what we’ve done together,” he said with finality.

“You’d be forcing me, then,” she pointed out. “It would be no different from—”

“Despite what you may think, forced pleasure produces poison for my kind. It would not kill me but it would not nourish me, either.”

“Then what are you saying?”

“You seem to forget what I can do, Shumei. Whether you like hearing it or not, I fulfilled your fantasy last night, and I can continue doing so. Isn’t it true you’ve dreamed of a secret lover?” he asked. She swallowed, wide-eyed. “Of trysts in the forest, and gifts you can’t explain to others? Of passionate pursuit?”

She wanted to scream a denial, but she didn’t have it in her to outright lie. Perhaps she could by omission, but never outright. To say she hadn’t entertained a long, complex fantasy of forbidden courtship—based wholly on a tale she’d heard as a young girl of a disgraced brownie warrior who secretly romanced a blondie princess… That would be a big lie. The demon before her was no human warrior, but then, neither was she a blondie princess.