Page 18 of Demon with Benefits (Hell Bent #3)

SCREWED, BLUED, AND TATTOOED

T HE SHOWER ENDED UP LASTING HALF AN HOUR . Apparently, Meph was insatiable. Not that Iris was complaining.

When the hot water ran out, they went into her bedroom, cranked up the heat, and sprawled naked on the bed. Faust slept between them, his paws twitching from little puppy dreams. Laying on his side, Meph stroked between his fuzzy ears with a single tattooed finger.

“You’re petting him like he’s made of glass,” Iris said with a chuckle.

“He’s so tiny.” His red eyes were fixed intently on the sleeping puppy. “Look at his little feet.”

“I’m keeping him,” she decided then and there. Yeah, she’d known there was no way she was throwing him through a hellgate like Belial wanted, but she hadn’t come to terms with the commitment of training him until right now. “I found him and named him, and I’m going to keep him.”

Meph looked up. “What’s his name?”

She held his stare for several moments before she finally found the courage to tell him. “Faust.”

His stare was blank.

And then he flopped onto his back and burst out laughing. “You’re shitting me.”

“Nope.”

“You named your puppy Faust .”

“Yep.”

“That’s the funniest shit I ever heard.”

“His eyes kinda reminded me of yours, and everyone knows about Mephistopheles and Faust, so...”

“The idiot who made a deal with the devil.” Meph chuckled.

A question about the legend was on the tip of her tongue. Here she was with Mephistopheles in the flesh, and she was more than a little curious to hear the infamous tale told from the devil’s perspective.

But she stopped herself. Something told her she wouldn’t like what he said. The demons had made it clear that they’d only evolved into something less evil over time, which meant they’d done things in their pasts that would probably horrify her.

What she was doing with Meph was all about escapism. She’d been guilting herself for her attraction to him for months, and she was tired of it. She didn’t want a reality check by bringing up stories that would remind her what he was.

Right now they were just Iris and Meph, and there was no past or even future—only the present.

So, Iris turned onto her side and unashamedly stared at the sheer perfection of his body. She was way past disguising her awe at his ungodly hotness, even if it boosted his already inflated ego.

He had made her come so hard she saw stars, multiple times. Her vagina had died and gone to heaven. He’d shagged her into oblivion and back, twice. If her blatant admiration made him more full of himself, it was only because he deserved it.

He grinned at her from the pillow beside hers, his naked body sprawled like a lazy cat in the sun. Like he was reading her mind, he chose that moment to reach his arms overhead and arch his spine in a luxurious stretch.

His skin pulled taut over his ripped abdomen, and those sexy veins above his groin stood out against the hard muscle. The V lines leading like an arrow to his cock were accentuated too, and so were the millions of tiny muscles along his rib cage.

And the tattoos . There were so damn many of them, she couldn’t really tell what his natural skin tone was. Every inch of him was covered, even half his dick. The geometric designs on his groin continued down the top of his shaft like a map to the promised land.

She sat up suddenly so she could see better, and he continued to lay there all stretched out with that dopey grin on his face while she studied him.

The sheer quantity of tattoos was so shocking, it was hard to notice what the individual designs were or anything beyond just the general appearance of a shitload of ink.

But when she looked a little closer, she started discerning the different images.

There were a lot of Sheolic symbols and script that she didn’t understand and, honestly, was a little afraid to. A witch who wanted to live was not a witch who messed with Sheolic arts.

There were also a lot of dark images—skulls, haunted faces, freaky monsters. A singular eye with a snakelike pupil stared out at her from his sternum, and a crow with spread wings covered both his pecs. Below that, clutched in the crow’s talons, was...

“Is that some kind of binding sigil?”

“Yep.”

“What does it do?”

“It binds me to my human form. Keeps me from shifting.”

Her gaze shot to his, eyes wide. “Why would you want to tattoo that on your skin? It’s permanent. You can never shift.”

She was used to Mist, who disliked holding his human form for too long, and she didn’t blame the guy. Mist was huge in demon form and armed with deadly claws, talons on his wings, and sharp teeth. If Iris had the ability to fly, she wouldn’t have liked putting away her wings either.

But Meph had purposefully bound himself to his human form. What would make him do such a thing?

“That’s the point,” he said. “Trust me, it’s a good thing.”

“Why?”

He shifted, linking his arms behind his head in a way that made his biceps bulge and look totally biteable. “’Cause I look cooler in human form? I dunno.”

Her eyes narrowed. “You don’t just tattoo a binding seal on yourself without a real reason. What is it?” So much for ignoring the past and living in the present. She was suddenly dying of curiosity.

He made a face. “I was bored of being a demon and wanted to switch it up?”

“Shut up and tell me the truth.”

“But I can’t tell you the truth if I have to shut up.”

“Meph, damn it. Why?”

He groaned as if she had just asked him to do hours of hard physical labor. “Because.”

“Just tell me.”

“Because...” He blew out a breath. “Not all demons are like the ones you’ve seen. Some don’t look human, and they don’t act like it either. Some really are monsters, and it’s better for everyone if they’re kept on a leash.”

“So you’re saying...” Iris swallowed. “You’re like that? But...”

It didn’t make sense. Mist was still Mist whether he was in human, demon, or even mist form. His personality didn’t change. So if Meph had some monstrous demon form, wouldn’t he still share the same thoughts and emotions? Wouldn’t he still be himself?

He was staring pointedly at the wall. “Can we stop talking about this now?”

“Just answer one more question.”

“Maybe.”

“Are you still yourself in your demon form? Or does it change you somehow?”

He unlinked his hands from behind his head and sat up. “I gotta go.”

Whoa. She’d obviously touched a nerve. “No, you don’t.”

“Yeah, I do.”

“No, you don’t. Just answer the question.”

Meph’s eyes narrowed, the red flashing dangerously. “I’m not answering shit.” He shifted across the bed, legs swinging over the edge, but she caught his arm before he could stand. Faust continued to slumber peacefully next to her pillow, oblivious to the tension.

“Look, I’m not gonna judge you or use the information against you. I just want to understand.”

He glared at her over his shoulder. It was like she was looking at a different person. Even in the brief moments he wasn’t smiling, there was usually still a trace of humor in his eyes.

But right now... there was something else.

“Why do you even care?” His voice was low, ominously deep.

“I don’t know. I guess I—”

“Because if you’re going to start demanding shit from me now that we fucked, then I’m out of here. FYI, I’m not like Ash or Mist. I’m not looking for a human woman to solve my problems and heal my wounded soul.”

“Well, good,” Iris snapped, getting pissed now. “Because I am not in the market for another damaged man-child with daddy issues who expects me to fix his shit rather than dealing with it by his own damn self.”

“Don’t compare me to your pathetic human boyfriends,” Meph snapped, pinning her with that burning red gaze.

Had she been a lesser woman, she would have cowered beneath that stare. As it was, she only flinched. But her heart had started pounding.

Whatever demon lurked behind those red eyes was... frightening.

It went beyond the way Mist or Ash’s demon forms were scary—freaky monsters with weird-colored skin. Whatever Meph’s was, it was something dark.

It was the monster that lived under the bed or hid in the closet. The sound that scratched in the cellar. The creaking in the old house. It was the kind of fear that made the heart pound and the skin go clammy.

And suddenly, Iris understood.

Meph didn’t want that demon out of its cage any more than she did. He was just as scared of it as her.

In a second, her temper vanished, and she forgot what they’d been bickering about. Her voice dropped to a whisper as she said, “What is your demon form?”

The fire vanished from his gaze, and the eyes that stared back at her were suddenly haunted.

“What does it look like?” she heard herself ask.

The look in his eyes cut her. She hadn’t even known his face was capable of that expression.

It was bone-deep. Soul deep. It went beyond the flesh to something vulnerable inside that should never be exposed. It was fear and suffering, isolation and longing, pain and hatred.

And then he squeezed his eyes shut and shook his head, and when he opened them again, it was gone. Buried so deep, it was like it had never been there at all.

But it had. And she could never forget it.

“Oh, you know,” he drawled. “Big, scary, horns and a tail. Pitchfork in hand. The usual demon shit.”

He was lying. He was so full of it she wanted to scream at him.

But it wasn’t her place to pry, no matter how curious she was. And hadn’t she just told him she wasn’t looking for a new Mr. Damaged? Because whatever damage he had was astronomical.

She decided to let it go. Plus, there was something she really needed to make clear, and now that she’d successfully killed the mood, it seemed a good time to bring it up.

“You don’t want a relationship or anything, right?” she asked.

His lip curled. “Fuck no.”

“Okay, good. Because I just have to make it clear that this”—she gestured between their naked bodies—“is just, you know—”

“About sex?” The eyebrow with the tattoos lifted.

“Yeah.” She winced, half expecting him to be offended.