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“She’s asleep,” Kara said as she walked back into the living room. “Her wound’s already looking better. There’s a good chance she’ll be healed by morning.”

“Fantastic.” Carrying Iyoni up from the car had been tough; not because she was heavy—my improved strength made that laughable—but because of the state of her.

She’d been so pale I’d been worried sick, and it was a massive relief to hear she was already on the mend.

“Was she all right when you settled her?”

“Yes, already stronger.” Kara walked up to where I sat on the sofa, giving me a good look at her kimono. It really was a wonderful garment for a girl like her to wear.

I held out a hand, and when she took it, I pulled her into my lap. She fell onto me with a laugh, and snuggled in.

“What about you?” I asked. “Are you doing okay after all that’s happened?”

She laid a hand over my heart, warm against my bare chest. “Better for having had a shower and some food. I should be tired, but I’m not. Too much adrenaline still.”

“Me too,” I agreed. “It’s over … can’t believe it’s over. No bombs, no deaths—at least, not among those we care for. Peace and quiet from now on?”

“We can hope.” She was silent for a moment. “There’s still the prisoners Moreau released, and the chaos in the city. But maybe things will calm down now.” She pulled away to better see my face. “Will you go back to being a philosophy lecturer and a bar manager?”

I hesitated. I couldn’t see myself returning to my old life. “No,” I said. “But I need to find something. Maybe Marlow’s job offer is the best option.”

“Well, there’s no rush to make any decisions.” She gave a contented sigh. “It’s nice to just be along together, isn’t it?”

“It is.” There was something peaceful about the calm after the storm, and it helped knowing that Iyoni was on the mend. I could set aside that worry.

Kara smiled at me playfully, her mood shifting.

I eyed her warily. “What?”

“I know something you don’t know,” she teased.

“Oh?”

“I’m not telling you. It’ll spoil the surprise.”

I dug my fingers into her sides, tickling her, and she giggled. It was a sound I hadn’t heard in a while, and I spent a moment or two exploring where else she was sensitive.

“Not telling! Not telling!” she cried between breathless laughs.

“I could order you to.”

“Oh no, please don’t do that, Master,” she said, sobering quickly, genuinely concerned. “I don’t want to tell you, but I do want you to know. I might let it slip.”

“Uh-huh.”

She wriggled on my lap, ostensibly trying to get comfortable. Her kimono had risen while we’d played around, and the bare skin of her ass now rested on my thighs. “Maybe I should distract you,” she said, sliding a hand down between us to my boxers, “then you won’t ask awkward questions.”

“You started it—”

She cut me off with a kiss, her eyes fluttering closed as she slipped her tongue into my mouth, seeking mine. I cupped her face with both hands and kissed her back, taking my time, letting the moment grow for both of us.

“God, I’ve missed you, Master,” she murmured between kisses, and reached down to her sash, tugging the knot loose.

“Missed me?” I asked, the question tinged with my amusement. “I’ve been here all along.”

“I’ve missed you … like this,” she breathed, taking my hand in hers and slipping it inside the silk, holding it to her breast. “Touch me. I’m yours.”

“All mine, huh?” I said with a smile, running the ball of my thumb across her nipple.

She arched her back, pressing her breast into my hand. “Of course I’m yours, my Master,” she murmured. She let her glamour fade, her honey golden skin shifting a shade darker, and her horns and tail appearing—but her eyes remained their usual emerald green. “I’m your little succubus.”

“I thought you were a Lilim Demon.”

“Not tonight, Master,” she purred. “Tonight, I’m your naughty, wicked little succubus.” Her tail rose, the soft end flicking against my ear. I batted it away, but she scraped her nails lightly down my chest, using the distraction to bring it around for another attack.

“You’re asking for trouble aren’t you?” I said, trying to defend myself with one hand as her tail moved sinuously, displaying the control she had. I made to grab it, but she was fast, evading my grip and smacking me lightly in the face with the tip. I growled.

“Trouble?” she echoed, chewing her lip as she blinked at me innocently. “How can I be trouble when I’m so cute and good?”

I tried gripping her tail at its base, but that proved ineffective. She maintained most of her control and flicked it twice in quick succession against the side of my head.

“Keep going like this,” I said warningly, giving her nipple a firm tweak, “and there’s a spanking in your immediate future.”

She squirmed in my lap, one hand sliding over the back of mine and holding it tighter to her breast. “Don’t spank me, Master,” she said, then undermined her defense by smacking her tail quite hard on the back of my head.

“Right, that’s it,” I said, pushing myself up to stand.

She tried to resist being moved, but either I’d grown stronger than her, or she was only playacting.

Either way, she ended up on the floor at my feet.

I grabbed her by the scruff of her neck, dragging her to the end of the sofa.

“Do you know what happens to badly behaved succubuses?”

“‘Succubi’, I think you’ll find,” she said. “It’s a second declension Latin noun and you used it in the general or in the abstract.”

My lips twitched, making it harder to keep my mock-serious mood, but I forced her head down over the arm of the sofa, and it raised her ass most alluringly. “You don’t need this anymore,” I said, gripping the collar of her kimono and giving it a tug, letting her know I wanted it off.

But the little minx fought me even on that, not moving her arms behind her so I could easily slide it off, but gripping the sides of her kimono in both hands. “I’ll be cold,” she pouted.

“You’re a demon,” I reminded her. “You don’t do cold.”

I took a firmer hold on the collar and pulled sharply, but she clung on, the game turning into a wrestling match. The kimono quickly lost, conceding with a ripping sound, no match for our combined supernatural strength.

“Damn it!” I said in dismay as half of it came away in my hand. “I really liked that thing! Now you’re definitely getting a spanking.”

“Not sorry, Master,” she said, wiggling her ass at me, her tail raised and curled along her flank, conveniently out of the way.

I pinned her with one hand in the small of her back, and the first blow of my other hand landed with a crack on her butt cheek.

She gasped, half in surprise, half in delight. “You’re … you’re a lot stronger.”

“Yes, I am,” I said, and brought my palm down hard on the other cheek.

Her gasp was higher this time, her ass lifting as her legs straightened.

It seemed she wanted more.

I entertained myself by switching the blows at random across her bottom, not letting her anticipate which side would get the next smack.

With each spank, she rewarded me with a sharp, high-pitched intake of breath and a little wiggle of her hips.

The view she presented was delicious, and she was bent far enough over that her arousal was clearly evident.

Her pussy peeked out between her thighs, her labia gleaming with her wetness.

I spanked her until her gasps became moans, and my palm began to sting. Her skin had taken on a slight red glow, proof that I could finally hurt her enough for her to feel it. It was pretty on her perfect skin, but I wanted to check I hadn’t gone too far.

“Are you sorry yet?” I asked.

“Sorry, Master?” she replied, as if she didn’t know what I was referring to. “Are you punishing me?” Her hips wiggled temptingly.

The next blow was the hardest I could manage, and her cry this time was sharp and sudden.

“Did you feel that?” I asked, rubbing my palm gently over her cheek.

“Feel what, Master?”

I gave a short laugh. “This,” I said, slipping my fingers down between her legs.

Her hips rose even higher as she came up on her toes. “Yes,” she whimpered, pressing her ass back against my touch, “that I can feel.”

I slid a finger inside her, stroked her once, twice, then pulled my hand away and brought it down hard on her ass. “Bad girls don’t get touched.”

“No fair,” she whined, trying to entice me to touch her again by arching her back, making her butt stick out more. “I’m a good girl.”

“Are you?” I asked, running a fingertip lightly over her slick labia. “And what do good girls get?”

She shivered in pleasure at my touch. “Good girls get spanked and fucked hard, Master.”

I steadied myself with my hand on her back, needing a moment after hearing her say that. My voice was husky. “Do they, now?”

“Yes please,” she whimpered. “It’s been too long since I’ve felt you inside me.”

I used my free hand to push my boxers down, letting them fall to the floor and kicking them away. “Do you think you deserve such a reward?”

“Um … yes?”

I gave her another hard slap on her gorgeous, pink-tinged bottom. “Didn’t you smack my head with your tail?”

“… Maybe?” she said in a small voice. “By accident?”

The tip of the tail in question flicked guiltily back and forth.

“Accident, huh?” I said, as I stepped up behind her, rubbing the head of my cock against her entrance. She moaned in anticipation. “Is that what it was?” I paused, my lips quirking in amusement as I let the suspense build. Then I added an edge to my next words. “Tell the truth.”

“No, Master,” she said at once. “It wasn’t an accident. I was deliberately goading you into spanking me and fucking me and making me pay for being a provocative little—”

I thrust into her, and the rest of her words died in a cry of pleasure. “Oh, God, yes! Thank you, thank you!”