Page 39 of The Devil After Dark

thirty-eight

LIANA

Cassio did not show up to my house for an entire glorious week.

His chauffeur didn’t show up for my commute either.

Maybe he had heard me and would leave me alone.

I wanted nothing to do with him. Or at least that was what I was telling myself.

There was still a small empty pit in my stomach every time I caught myself thinking he was actually gone.

I shoved the feeling away. I wanted nothing to do with him.

I zipped the zipper on my suitcase and grabbed my purse from the table.

I was going to have a nice long weekend without him too.

A nice long weekend at the world’s most boring conference, but I was just excited to get away for a few days.

The weekend away had been bliss. I felt rested and although the conference had been as boring as I expected, I made good use out of the fancy hotel room and the room service.

I was starting to feel like a normal human being again.

My return flight had been delayed and it was after ten by the time the hired car dropped me in front of my building.

Apparently the lift had broken while I was away, which would not normally be a problem, but I had my suitcase.

I trudged up the stairs, lugging my suitcase with me.

I slid my key into the lock and let myself into my condo.

Shutting the door, I dropped my bags in the hallway.

“Where the fuck have you been?” a deep voice greeted me.

I spun around to see Cassio sitting in a chair glaring at me. “Get out!” I snapped.

“Where have you been?” he repeated, his voice even more angry. At least he wasn’t wearing his stupid mask.

“At a conference out of town. Not that it is any of your business.” I grabbed my suitcase and hauled it down the hall to my room. When I turned around, Cassio was blocking the doorway. “No, no. Out.” I pointed towards the front door.

“Liana, you were gone for four days and I had no idea where you were.” Cassio didn’t move from the doorway to my bedroom.

“I’m surprised you don’t have my phone tracked,” I responded sarcastically.

“I am going to turn that back on after this little escapade of yours. I might even just put a tracker in your arm,” Cassio countered.

Back on? Did that mean he was tracking it and turned it off? Gods I couldn’t believe him! I crossed my arms over my chest. “Escapade? I was at a work conference and owe you no explanation. I do not have to tell you where I am or where I am going, Cassio. Now get out. You are here uninvited.”

I just glared at him. He looked unbelievably good in his jeans and dark t-shirt with his muscled tattoo covered arms fully on display.

His hair was tousled like he had run his hands through it repeatedly.

He finally moved from the doorway and towards me.

His steps were slow and deliberate and his eyes scanned my body like he was considering what he was going to do with me.

He stopped in front of me. “You’re not kicking me out.

Liana, you are mine. You are not kicking me out.

” I swallowed, but held my ground, my arms still crossed over my chest. Fuck.

How was I supposed to win this? The magic wielders were known to get everything they wanted.

Those of us without magic could not do a damn thing to stop them.

No one tried to stop them. No one dared stop them.

If he wanted to he could lock me up in order to keep me and no one would be able to stop him.

“Don’t even pretend you don’t want this. ”

“Out.” I enunciated the word with a bite.

His hand was on my throat not a second later and my hands flew up to grab his forearm. He leaned down, pulling me closer, and skimmed his lips along mine. “Try again,” he whispered darkly.

“Get the fuck out,” I said between my teeth.

I just wanted my peace … and if I was not lying to myself I wanted him to fuck me too.

This dark side of him—the side with no control turned me on more than I wanted to admit.

It was completely and utterly unhealthy of me to want him after half of what he put me through.

He let out a measured breath. “No, my Angel. You are mine and I am going to make sure you don’t forget that.

” My body shivered at his words and he walked me backwards to the bed, his hand still firmly around my throat.

The back of my knees hit the bed. I clenched my jaw as I glared up at him.

He looked like he was barely containing the wrath beneath his skin.

Then his eyes closed. “I was worried about you,” he said softly.

My hands loosened from the tight grip I had on his forearm. Worried? I guess I wasn’t expecting him to say he was worried. I wasn’t expecting a gentle and painful admission from him. I ran one of my hands up his arm and then dropped it to his waist. “Why were you worried?” I asked breathily.

His eyes opened and any rage that had been in them was now gone.

His hand slid up from my neck and cupped my cheek as his other hand found its way to the back of my head, tangling in my hair.

“I can’t lose you,” he breathed. Then he slowly leaned down until his lips were barely brushing mine.

“I can’t lose you,” he repeated and his lips gently kissed me.

This man had sent unrelenting pleasure coursing through my body and had blurred the lines of consent so thoroughly I had questioned everything about myself.

Now with his quiet admission and this gentle kiss …

he was burrowing deep into my heart where I would never be able to free myself from him.

I kissed him back, letting his tongue tease into my mouth.

The warmth of him utterly consumed me. His touch ignited all of my desires.

My body melted against his as my fingers dug into his side and pulled him closer to me.

“I’m so sorry,” he whispered against my mouth and that simple apology for …

for I wasn’t even sure what he thought he was apologizing for.

There was a lot he could be apologizing for, but it pulled me further under his control.

I wanted him. I needed him. He pulled back from me and I couldn’t help the pure hunger I gazed at him with.

I knew the rough and demanding and controlling Cassio, but the look of deep desire that met me was a completely different animal.

“Claim me, Cassio,” I breathed.

My entire body tingled as he stared into me with those blue eyes.

He gently kissed me again and slowly lifted my shirt over my head.

Then I watched him kneel before me and with those same gentle hands he undressed me.

Soft warm kisses trailed up my thigh before his lips skimmed across the front of me to kiss my other side.

The warmth of his breath as he crossed my center had my muscles clenching as I bit my lip.

He continued his trailing kisses up my body before standing to his full height.

Cassio took a step back from me and I watched him undress with the same painful slowness.

We were both naked, staring into each other’s eyes.

My breasts rose and fell with my increasingly desired breaths.

I was scared, I realized. Scared of everything I knew this man could do to me.

I was mostly scared that he was going to tear out my heart and stomp on it.

That one day, he would think I was worthless and a waste and it would have been too late for me to realize it before he discarded me.

I blinked my eyes as a deceitful tear slipped from the corner of my eye.

I swallowed as I watched Cassio’s eyes dart to that single tear.

Then his hands were on me, pulling my head back and lifting my face to his as his tongue captured my tear.

Another tear slipped from my other eye and his tongue licked that one away too.

I opened my mouth like I had something to say, but no words came out.

The gentle bite of his teeth on my bottom lip drew a small breathy moan from my core.

Then I was tangled in him. My arms wrapped around him as we kissed.

His arms and hands held my body as he kissed me back and gracefully took me down to the bed.

Strong hands slid up the underside of my forearms as he guided my hands above my head.

Instead of pinning me down with strength and domination, the firm control of his fingers interlacing with mine made my back arch under him as his lips dropped to my chin and then my neck.

I was aching for him as this gentle kind of pleasure he had never blessed me with washed through my body.

He was still his controlling self, but it was with a firm and nearly painful tenderness that made my body begin to beg for him.

He wasn’t teasing, he was worshiping, and I was bathing in it.

His hands rubbed along my skin and teased the peaks of my nipples with delicious knowledge of what would ignite my body further. His mouth trailed along my skin until his breath was between my legs. I completely surrendered as his hands slid up my inner thighs, opening me for his taking.

His tongue slid up my slit in one long and slow lick and my body relaxed into bliss as I moaned for him.

His hands gripped my legs more tightly as his tongue and teeth and lips blew me into a writhing and panting orgasmic mess.

My hands were strangling the sheets as I cried out for him and he merely groaned against me like he was having the best meal of his entire life.

Then gentle teeth sunk into my inner thigh.

I panted as I looked down at him between my legs, his mouth on my leg and his eyes staring up at me with a satisfied yet still starving glaze to them.