Page 9 of Wreaking Havoc (Demon Bound #1)

8

Kai

K ai barely dared to breathe as Sascha settled back down in front of him, this time with a torso that was deliciously bare.

His skin was pale and unbelievably soft-looking, unmarked other than the wound on his arm. Kai shifted closer on his knees, brushing that spot with his fingers again—it was recent enough to still be pink and slightly puckered. Recent enough to be healed.

A visible shiver ran through Sascha’s body, as it seemed to do every time Kai put a hand on him. It pleased Kai immensely, the way this human responded to his touch.

Sascha cleared his throat. “So healing is one of your magic powers?”

“You’re my bargain,” Kai explained. “I can heal any wounds of yours related to battle. I can’t cure illness or the like.” And for the first time in his long existence, Kai found himself regretting that fact. Humans were vulnerable to too many things beyond the weapons of their enemies. He needed to be able to protect Sascha from it all; otherwise, what use was he?

“Still, pretty nifty,” Sascha said. “I could have used you two months ago. Would’ve saved me some time and money.”

Sascha sounded glib enough on the surface, his voice light and airy, but there was tension in his frame. Kai placed both palms firmly on his little human’s shoulders. “Relax, pup. Breathe. I’m not going to hurt you.”

He kept his hands in place as Sascha began to breathe in and out more slowly, his muscles gradually loosening.

“Good boy,” Kai told him. Sascha’s head whipped around to showcase a vicious glare. Kai laughed, gesturing with his chin. “Turn back around now.”

After another moment of scowling, Sascha did, giving Kai a direct look at the back of his neck. The exact spot a mating mark might lie. Kai ran his thumb over it—another shiver ran through Sascha’s frame.

“Does healing really require so much touching?” Sascha asked, his voice snippy.

“No,” Kai answered honestly, rubbing his thumb over Sascha’s neck once more. He was met with silence. Did his mouthy bargain really have nothing to say to that? Were a few soft touches all it took to hush him up?

How enticing.

But there was business to attend to first. It wouldn’t do to continue to let Sascha walk around injured, however minor the effects might be. Just the thought of it filled Kai with rage.

He nudged even closer so the whole of Sascha’s back was brushing against his own bare chest. Sascha was slight, fitting so perfectly against Kai’s broader frame, just as his soul piece fit so perfectly inside. His skin was cool in comparison to Kai’s own body heat. It was oddly soothing.

Kai removed his hand from Sascha’s shoulder and set it over the wound, reaching inward to the piece of Sascha’s essence inside him. He could feel the internal injury, the edges of it that weren’t healed quite right, the bits that still pained Sascha. Kai sent some of his own essence into that wrongness, bathing it in his own strength.

Sascha let out a small gasp, the sound almost lost in the soft roar of the crashing waves.

“You feel me, pup?” Kai asked in a murmur.

“It feels…hot.”

Kai held steady. “Too much to bear?”

Sascha shook his head.

“Good.”

Just as Kai had thought. In the past, he’d had seasoned warriors screaming in pain at a healing, but those warriors hadn’t had an essence like Sascha’s, one that fit so well within Kai’s own. Sascha’s body didn’t fight Kai’s intrusion any more than Kai’s fought Sascha’s.

They were matched well.

He let the healing complete, the small wound requiring mere moments, then brushed his fingers once more over the site. No more scar. Not even a hint of past damage.

“Better?” he asked, his voice rough.

Sascha rolled his shoulder, then flexed and released the fingers on his right hand. “Yes.” He sounded awed.

He made as if to stand, to move himself away from Kai, but Kai held him in place with the hand on his shoulder. He asked the question that had been plaguing him since the day before.

“Why do you shy away from your desire for me? Why do you fear it?”

Maybe it was Kai’s demon nature—or the restless, yearning part that was just him—but he truly didn’t understand wanting something and not reaching for it. He didn’t understand how the lust emanating from Sascha paired with his avoidance.

For a moment, it seemed as if Sascha would deny it all again, claim Kai was “not his type.” But it wasn’t a denial that ultimately left his lips.

“I don’t know,” he answered quietly, still facing out at the ocean. After a long moment, he spoke again. “I’m not very brave.”

Kai wasn’t so sure about that. But if that belief was what was holding Sascha back…

Kai stroked the back of Sascha’s neck with his thumb again. “You don’t need to be. I have bravery enough for the both of us.”

He might not have much else to offer, but he did have that.

Sascha let out a sigh, and then he uncrossed his legs, bringing his knees up with his feet flat on the sand, before leaning back fully, resting his weight against Kai.

Kai ducked his head to hide his grin in Sascha’s soft blond hair, then slid his hands down and around to clasp Sascha’s clothed thighs.

His trousers were of a rough, dark material.

“Your clothes are different today,” Kai pointed out.

The tips of Sascha’s ears turned a fetching pink. “You mean from what I was wearing at home? That’s…not my usual style.”

That was a shame. He’d looked delightfully soft and tempting the day before, wearing thin leggings and a stretched-out sweater that slipped off his shoulder again and again.

“Why not?” Kai asked.

Sascha hesitated, fingers toying with the sand. “Well…those clothes aren’t very…masculine?”

Kai didn’t understand. “Why does your clothing need to be masculine?”

Another deep sigh from Sascha. Kai’s bargain was full of them. “That’s a good question.”

One it didn’t seem he was going to answer. “You look nice in pretty things,” Kai pressed.

The pink color of Sascha’s ears deepened to red, but he didn’t turn back to face Kai. “Do I?”

“Mm,” Kai hummed, his thumbs stroking against the rough material on Sascha’s thighs. “Pretty things for a pretty man.”

“You think I’m pretty?” The words were quiet, directed to the sand.

“I think you’re lovely.”

He was. Lovely and strange and wounded, much deeper and more varied than that simple scar on his arm. Kai could feel it, in that little piece of Sascha’s soul he held. Fear and disappointment and sorrow. He’d been pulsing with it all, speaking with his brother. Not to mention the anger. What would it be like, if Sascha let that anger loose?

What Kai wouldn’t give to see it.

He lifted one hand and traced the shell of Sascha’s ear. Sascha’s breath quickened at the touch. Was he sensitive there? Kai leaned in, giving a quick nip with blunt teeth. Sascha gasped.

Kai grinned. Yes, quite sensitive.

He nuzzled at the back of Sascha’s neck, breathing in deeply, inhaling the scent of his skin. He smelled clean and vaguely floral. Fresh.

Sweet.

Kai lost himself in it for a moment, only brought back by Sascha’s huff. “I thought you said you were brave enough for the both of us?”

“I am,” Kai confirmed, giving another nibble of Sascha’s ear.

“Seems to me like you’re doing a whole lotta nothing,” Sascha griped, clearly aiming for snippy but missing the mark when his breath hitched again at another press of Kai’s teeth.

“Is that so?”

It sounded like an invitation. Kai ran his hands up from Sascha’s thighs to his bare waist. He was slender there, as if Kai could encase it fully with both hands. Perhaps, in his demon form, he could. He ran his nose once again along the short hairs on the back of Sascha’s neck, before brushing his lips over his shoulder. “I thought you wanted me to be nice to you, hm? You crave sweetness, don’t you, Sascha? Sweetness to match your own?”

“I’m not sweet,” Sascha mumbled.

“Oh, but you are.” Kai brushed his hand along Sascha’s stomach, feeling him tremble. “The sweetest morsel I’ve come across in a long, long while.”

“You make it sound like you want to eat me,” Sascha accused shakily.

What could Kai say to that? He did want that, in a way. The small taste of Sascha’s soul he’d had so far was not enough. He wanted all of it. All of him.

For as long as Kai could remember, he’d been a restless soul. He’d been restless in the demon realm, volunteering for the Book as soon as he’d been able. And he’d been restless through all his many summonings, eager to be finished. And then he’d been restless in the Void, waiting to be done with it all.

But he could easily stay on this beach, with Sascha trembling in his arms, for another three centuries without tiring of it.

“Would you like me to touch you, zaychik?” He tugged at the waist of Sascha’s trousers, but they wouldn’t give. He peered over Sascha’s shoulder—there was a button there, as well as a small metal tag.

“Oh, for fuck’s sake.” Sascha straightened, brushing Kai’s hand aside to undo the fastenings himself before grabbing Kai’s hand and shoving it inside, groaning when Kai’s palm settled around the soft skin of his cock.

Kai squeezed with an approving hum. “You’re already hardening, pup? From a wee bit of touching?”

“Shut up.” Sascha leaned back against him. “I’ve had a bit of a dry spell.”

Kai kissed the side of his neck, bared so conveniently for him, before exploring his prize with his fingers as best he could within the tight constraints of Sascha’s trousers. He was a surprising length, for his smaller frame.

Although, his size was nothing compared to Kai’s, of course.

Sascha sighed, his head rolling back onto Kai’s shoulder. “We shouldn’t be doing this.”

Kai froze, biting back a growl of displeasure at the words. “Why not?”

“What if someone comes by?”

That was his hesitation? Kai resumed his exploration, bringing Sascha to full hardness, tucking his head against Sascha’s outstretched neck. “I’d hear them long before they approached us.”

“Oh.” Sascha’s breath caught as Kai thumbed at the fluid building at the tip of his cock. “Then you should definitely make me come.”

Kai grinned against the soft skin of Sascha’s neck. And here Sascha had claimed he wasn’t brave.

Kai brought Sascha’s cock out of his trousers. There wasn’t a lot of give with the damned things, so he pressed the hard length back against Sascha’s stomach, stroking as best he could, the metal teeth at the opening digging into his hand. “As I said before, I prefer your other attire.” Those soft leggings would have been easier to work with.

“I’ll—I’ll keep that in—in mind,” Sascha told him, gasping between the words.

He was so very sensitive. So responsive. It was delectable to witness. Kai’s own cock was hard and aching between his thighs, desire thrumming in his veins.

Sascha moaned when Kai twisted his palm over the head of his cock. “Your hand is so hot. Fuck, that feels good.”

He liked that, did he? Good. This was nothing. When Kai had him truly alone? Undressed and bared for his lips and hands and cock?

Kai was going to ruin him for human men.

He pressed his mouth to Sascha’s ear. “If you think this is nice,” he whispered, “think of how I’ll feel inside you. If we weren’t at this beach, with all this blasted sand, I’d have you writhing on my cock already.”

Sascha let out a high-pitched whine.

Kai hummed his pleasure, squeezing the base of Sascha’s cock. “You like that idea? Of course you do. Look how sensitive you are to the slightest touch. You were made to be fucked, weren’t you, little human?”

“ God .” Sascha’s head lifted and thumped back against Kai’s chest.

It was addictive, the way he was melting into Kai, the way Kai’s touch had those outer defenses crumbling so easily.

He wanted Kai to be nice to him? Kai would worship him, if this was the result.

It wasn’t long before Sascha’s hips were jerking into Kai’s hold, frustrated whines escaping his lips with each movement.

“Hush,” Kai soothed, kissing along his neck. “I have you.”

With his free hand, he brushed up along Sascha’s chest, pinching one of his nipples lightly. Sascha yelped, his cock jerking in Kai’s hold.

“You like that, hm?” Kai brushed his thumb over the stiffened peak. “Would you like my mouth here, perhaps? Would that be nice of me, Sascha? To suck your pretty pink nipples?”

Sascha only whined again, his hand clamping Kai’s wrist. “Faster,” he demanded. “Faster. And your thumb on—on the tip again.”

Kai obeyed his bargain’s orders, picking up the pace, letting the fluid leaking from Sascha’s cockhead ease the glide of his hand. His own fluids would have been better, but he didn’t want to take either hand off his prize, so he made do.

Three strokes more and Sascha arched back against him, crying out, and Kai cupped his hand to catch his release, stroking the skin of Sascha’s chest gently to soothe him through his tremors.

When Sascha had relaxed back once more, Kai held up his hand, admiring what he’d wrought. He brought it to his mouth.

Sascha turned back to look at him for the first time since the healing had begun, tracking Kai’s movement with glassy eyes. He looked absolutely beautiful, all flushed cheeks and heaving breaths. “Oh God,” he whimpered, watching Kai lick him off his fingers.

He shook himself out of Kai’s hold and scrambled onto his knees, facing him. Before Kai could mourn the loss of his touch, be begged, “Can I suck you? I think—I think I need to suck you off now.”

Kai groaned. He would have been satisfied with just this—planting the seeds for future pleasure between them. But if Sascha wanted to put his eager mouth on him?

He made a move to lower his trousers, but Sascha shook his head. “You said you would hear if anyone came by?” he asked, a bright gleam to his pale-blue eyes.

“No one will surprise us.”

“Then change,” Sascha ordered.

“Pardon?” Kai was momentarily too aroused to grasp Sascha’s meaning, the ache in his cock redirecting all his attention.

Sascha arched an imperious blond brow. “If I’m going to fuck a demon, I want to fuck a demon. Change back.”