Page 83 of The Music Demon

“I say your name often.”

“No. You don’t. Hearing my name on your lips is a treat. A gift. Something I will treasure.”

“Did no’ know it meant so much to you. So. You’re a sensitive sort of demon.”

He grinned wickedly. “In places. As you’re quickly learning.”

Pressure from his knee caused the cloudlike mattress to indent. As he prowled toward her looking more like panther than demon, she had another surge of anxiety, but it was drowned by the fascination of watching muscles ripple over his body like a seductive dance.

He stopped and lingered at every erogenous zone on the journey upward to deliver kisses, nuzzles, licks, and nudges that made her pant and tiny bites that made her giggle. She realized that he was playing her emotions like a complex piece of music, using her body as the instrument. The demon was a marvel.

Feelings bounced between intense passion and humorous delight then resolved into an unexpected and unwelcome sadness. She heard the lament in her soul as clearly as if it was said out loud.If only he could love.

Lyric liked sex well enough to become accomplished at it, but he’d never been the sort who couldn’t do without. Under the right circumstances, with the right partner, it was frequently good enough to be worthwhile, but it certainly didn’t qualify as a pursuit unto itself. He couldn’t live without music. He could live without sex.

At least that’s how he’d feltbeforelying with Shivaun in the pavilion created from her heart of hearts. He’d set out to copulate with her and ruin her for all other males. What a joke it was that he was the one being ruined.

He’d never experienced the nuances of sensations that he felt with Shivaun’s touch. He’d never felt desperate to be inside a female, as if life depended on it.

He trailed his lips along the ridge of her clavicle while causing her to writhe against his fingers. The sounds she made were so delicious he found himself thinking of it as music. The best kind he’d ever witnessed.

He settled between her legs and raised himself up to look in her face. She saw that his dilated pupils made his eyes appear even darker than usual.

“I know this would have hurt you if you were still human. I’m mostly sure it won’t hurt now, but everything with you is an unknown factor. Did your sister say anything about…?”

“She did no’. And I think she would’ve. She’s right whiney at times.”

Lyric knew it was an odd time to start laughing, but he couldn’t help himself. “No. She’s not. Your sister is the furthest thing from whiney. Who are you fooling?”

“Maybe she just does no’ whine so much around you.”

“Maybe. Do you want to talk about Sheridan?”

She didn’t have to give that much thought. A lass fortunate enough to be in that place and moment with that demon shouldn’t be wasting it talking about her twin.

“Forget I brought it up.”

“Gladly.”

“Proceed.”

Something about that made Lyric start laughing again. “If you keep making me laugh, we’re never going to finish what we started.”

“Well, we can no’ have that. I will insist we finish what we started, but I find myself likin’ the beginnin’ and middle as well as the finish.”

Demons are not subject to the Universal Law of not being able to have cake and eat it too. Although the ability to feel physical pleasure, but not physical pain may add to the excruciating boredom reported by so many older demons.

An inability to feel pain precludes empathy because it’s impossible to relate to something completely outside a person’s experience of reality. But Lyric did have a loose understanding of distress and, for whatever it’s worth, found that he didn’t like the idea of Shivaun feeling unhappy. About anything. Ever.

When she began to sense that he was stalling off the big event, she said, “Problem?”

“I don’t like the idea of hurting you.”

“We do no’ know that ‘twill be painful, but even so. Billions of females have survived. ‘Tis like a rite of passage I suppose. Look, demon, I chose you to be the one to deliver me into carnal knowledge. Do ye want the honor or no’?”

What he said was, “I do.” What he was thinking was that, even more than the privilege of being Shivaun’s first lover, was the certainty that he didn’t want it to be somebody else.

“Just do it.” She encouraged.