Crave Page 7

  “No, it’s not you.”

  He stopped moving to turn towards her. His eyes looked upon her, curious, with that panty-melting grin that made her take a step back, but he nudged her back into his body. “You are evil,” she whispered. Her voice trembled on her words. “You are the definition of what people fear under their beds. Why kids can’t leave the closet door open at night. You are the reason women can’t walk alone on a darkened street. There is nothing about this that is real. It is a joke, a mirage in the dry, desolate desert that is my fucking life.”

  She wanted to sob. Curl up in a ball and give in and just end this all right now. How the fuck was she going to beat him?

  His hand gripped the back of her neck and yanked her in close. She sucked in a breath, her gaze darting to meet his as she leaned in close. Asmodeus’s lips glazed over her cheek, her eyelids, down her nose.

  “So melodramatic,” he purred.

  Elizabeth tried to get free of his arms, but he held fast.

  “I want to leave,” she whimpered.

  Oh, lovely, sound more weak and off your game.

  His fingers fisted in her hair. He gave a firm yank and it arched her neck and brought her chest flush against his. Asmodeus flicked his tongue out over her lips, his voice low. The deep timber kicked up her heart rate as he punched against her ribcage.

  “You see, I don’t want to leave. I actually want to eat your pussy, while you’re spread out on the dinner table for me and screaming. I want the owners and tourists to watch this. I want people to see me fuck you—hard. I want the world to know I own you, and you’re MINE!” He snarled the last word.

  She let out a squeal and her legs turned to jelly. He held her up against him, and she could feel the hard press of his erection against her belly.

  Asmodeus nuzzled her neck. His laughter vibrated through her insides. Elizabeth’s eyes rolled back, and her body betrayed her quickly. Her pussy grew moist and her clit throbbed between her thighs.

  “I don’t,” she panted.

  “Really?” he dared her. His voice was laced with amusement. “We shall see about that. No more illusions and dreams, sweet one.”

  He moved quickly. Asmodeus picked her up, gripping her ass and tossing her roughly on top of one of the tables. The sounds of glass shattering and heavy silverware clattering to the concrete ground filled her ears. Panic set in as she started to fight back. Elizabeth caught her bearings, slapping at him, her fingers clawing as she tried to keep him away from her. It was one thing to accept the dreams, the fake realities he imprinted in her mind. But to really allow him to do things to her—in public.

  The flat of her hand came up hard and fast.

  Smack!

  She connected clean with his face. Elizabeth hissed as the heated pain coated her palm. Asmodeus paused, glaring down at her. He didn’t stop as he managed to get her jeans unbuttoned and zip down. In one quick fluid motion they were down around her ankles. He shoved his body between her thighs, stretching her open. She shoved at his chest. His nose touched hers and he snarled.

  “Behave.”

  Her arms were yanked roughly over her head and she was pinned. She realized, to her horror, that the act, this whole violent, sexual display had made her nipples achingly hard. Her cunt creamed over her folds, and she was panting, thrusting her hips up against his body. Elizabeth heard his hum of approval as she yanked at the invisible bonds.

  “Shhhh, little one. I promise I’ll make you come for real.” His breath hushed over her panty-covered pussy.

  She fought to close her legs, but he growled and slammed her thighs against the table roughly. Elizabeth felt a finger slide between the cotton of her underwear and the wet folds that pulsed in time with her heart beat. Then the warm breeze lapped at her exposed pussy right before his tongue flicked over her swollen clit. Her head slammed back against the table, her hips thrust up against his mouth.

  “That’s it, little one. Demand, take, enjoy my mouth sucking on your hot little cunt.”

  His voice was muffled against her weeping hole. She thrust up again, her mind trying to yell at her to stop, but her body was already in his hands.

  “Fuck,” she whimpered.

  Elizabeth looked down between her legs. Asmodeus licked the pads of his index and middle fingers before circling her clit, then shoving them deep inside her cunt. She cried out as her walls feathered around the thick digits, sucking him in deeper.

  “Good girl. Fuck my fingers, yes, that’s it. Fuck, you’re tight, I thought this shit was just my fantasy but you are so swollen and wet for me, little one.” He laughed before diving back down, sucking her clit into his mouth and rolling it against the tip of his tongue. He nipped and bit at it. Her mind blanked and she was lost to the ecstasy. At some point the invisible bonds released her. She realized her fingers were planted into his thick, dark hair.

  Her hips thrust, fucking his fingers, his mouth. She rode the edge, trying to hold back her orgasm, trying to keep a piece of her soul from shattering as this man took her pleasure and devoured all her self-control. His fingers suddenly curved inside her, brushing up against something tender and she snapped. Her body responded and he nipped at her clit as an orgasm rolled through her body. Elizabeth screamed his name as she felt the pressure between her legs release and she realized she squirted for him. His fingers kept a lazy pace as he milked out her orgasm.

  She was so tender as the waves crashed down and she tried to shove his hand away. He pinned her wrist down easily and laughed as she fought the lack of control. A mini orgasm shattered and she jerked violently on the table. She was barely able to breathe as he slipped up her body, and grabbed the back of her neck. Their panting breath mingled as he got closer. She could smell her own release on his lips right before he kissed her. His tongue demanded entrance and danced with hers. Her fingers clawed at his chest to get closer, as tears poured down her cheeks.

  Elizabeth realized in this moment that he wasn’t just dangerous because he was evil. He was dangerous because she liked that evil. The dominance, her submission, would kill her slowly if she stayed with him. The spicy taste of her own wetness brought a moan to her lips.

  She knew she had to get the fuck away from him and now.

  She knew this even as she snuggled into his welcoming arms.

  Chapter Nine

  Asmodeus sat in the dark, drinking a gin and tonic. The air had cooled and it breathed on him like an old friend. The bar was a favorite of his, old too, reassuring, the clientele unassuming. The tables around him were full of tourists and locals. It pleased him that they seemed to ignore his presence and treat him so normal.

  Driving Elizabeth home had been a silent affair. The tension nestled in her body, and though he sensed it, she had tried to hide it. He’d dropped her at home, and waited, watching as she stepped inside.

  Asmodeus was troubled. Nothing like this had ever happened to him before.

  Obsession was a strong word, yet he wanted to devour her at every opportunity. She made him weak in his sexual appetite. The predecessors, her kin, had accepted him straight away. They’d delved into his fantasies and allowed him to control them like ants. Elizabeth was nothing like them. She had a heart and soul of steel. She didn’t want to relent to him. Where is the fun in being in control and having nothing to fight for? Did he really want to break her spirit and have just a whore who did his bidding? It was a question which now troubled him.

  Time changed people, these weak human females who wanted strong men to rule them. All it took was money and power and sex. Elizabeth broke those rules. Her need was freedom, to be her own person and not have some devil come and whisk everything she had away.

  He took a sip and looked around the room. Was it happening or did his eyes deceive him? Who could deceive the deceiver?

  All around him the faces of the people changed. Jacob Cromwell nodded at him from across the room. The women became all of the women in the deal made with him, all the women he had plucked from life and
made his prisoner. Ettie stood behind the bar and smiled as she dried the glasses.

  One face looked back at him, a man standing in the doorway. This man pushed himself forward and walked to the table. He was tall and dark, his face handsome, almost as good looking as himself. Pulling out the chair opposite, he sat down.

  “Ettie, my dear, fetch me a beer please,” the man said.

  “Retirement suits you.” Asmodeus sat back, feeling a little guarded at his guest’s presence. Not quite fear but a hint of trepidation filled his chest.

  “Retirement? Is that what you call it, Asmodeus? I seem to remember it more like a coup d état. I’m not impressed with the regime change. Bunch of amateurs.”

  “Still, I am in charge.”

  “Yes, you are. I’m not complaining. Best time I’ve had in years. No complicated meetings, no silly deals to task my pretty head. Here you are, sitting, wracking your head over yet another girl, your diamond.”

  The man’s smile niggled at him. “This illusion is your doing, I take it?” Asmodeus quizzed.

  “My doing? No, it’s all your doing. It is your doubt, your soul seeking a solution by bringing all the reason and all the rhymes to the fore in the form of the deal makers. I have my diamond. My head isn’t cursed by inadequate thoughts. You don’t know what to do, Asmodeus. It is quite refreshing.”

  “I don’t want to break her. I want her to want me as I want her. How do I achieve that?”

  The man grinned at him. “The one who holds the title and power position of Satan doesn’t know how. But you are the dark lord, the master of sin, of lust and passion, yet you don’t know how to be loved in return. Oh, dear.”

  Asmodeus started to feel a rage build within him. The man was right. The lord of everything sexual knew fuck-all about love.

  “I never made deals in order to find my diamond. If I wanted a woman, I took her, yes, but it was a moment in time, a need of contact with a beautiful human creature. The act of sexual pleasure. Love is totally different. It is meant to be, not organized or planned. My diamond was meant for me; she doesn’t sit at my feet or begs me to give her pleasure, she sits by my side. We do things together as one. I ask her, she asks me. I do not take her for granted, ever. Her soul is mine, mine is hers; it is a beautiful, unique state of being. You know nothing, Asmodeus. What does he know, Jacob?”

  Asmodeus looked at the image of Cromwell.

  “He knows nothing.”

  “What does he know?”

  In unison, Ettie’s voice stood out above the rest.

  “HE KNOWS NOTHING!”

  “I rest my case.”

  Asmodeus felt lonely, more lonely than he had ever felt before. His so-called heart beat a cold rhythm.

  “Is Elizabeth Cromwell not meant for me?”

  The man looked at him, lifted his glass and those eyes, those deep blue eyes, grinned at him as he sipped.

  “Only you can answer that. It is inside you, the feeling, the knowing that she is yours. No blood ties or deals will bring her to you. You try to buy women with sex, with control and deception. That is your weakness. If you are meant to be, feel it within, woo her, cherish her, treat her like the diamond you want. She is unique, she is precious. Don’t break her, don’t grab her and throw her on the desk. Caress her, stroke her, whisper sweet things in her ear and treat her with respect, not like some object you buy online. Then, and only then, will she come to love you, if it is you she deserves. Treat her as you wish to be treated.”

  “You haven’t lost your touch. Are you after a job?”

  The man laughed. “No, I’m done with all that. I live happy now. I am not one of the forgiven, I never will be, but I am happy. That is all that matters.”

  “So why are you here?”

  “To gloat.”

  Asmodeus nodded. “Yet in all your gloating you have enlightened me.”

  “Of course. Am I not the original deceiver? My love for my lost kingdom brought me here. I want it to be strong, and to become great again, the lord himself needs tuition.”

  “Should I take that as some form of compliment, that the old master comes to the new, to aid him?”

  “God, no. Never trust me, or my diamond. Tai is, as we say in exile, plotting to kick your ass. And I shall be by her side when she does. So Asmodeus, lord of all that is darkness, grow some balls and man up. Don’t take, don’t possess, swallow your own pride and love her, this Elizabeth. Only then will you truly deserve the title of Satan.”

  A smile, a wink, and the man was gone, like a wisp of the blackest smoke. Asmodeus had been taught a lesson by the devil himself, Lucifer. With a deep sigh and the last swig of his drink, he stood and walked past the people in the bar, who had returned to their normal selves. He had things to do.

  Chapter Ten

  Elizabeth tried to calm her pounding heart. She’d been grinding the fennel plant for the last hour, doubling up her normal intake. All her stones and other baubles would help to get her out of the buildings without any of the concubines finding out her movements. Her hands trembled as she slowly started to tip the crushed leaves into the tea strainer. The trembling turned violent and she spilled a pile of the ground fennel next to the mug of steaming water.

  “FUCK!” She dropped the dishes with a loud clatter onto the desk top.

  Elizabeth took a step back, stabbing her fingers through her hair and closing her eyes tight. Tension ran a path through her body and she took in deep breaths, trying to calm her heightened anxiety.

  Normally, if at home, she would have popped a pill for this issue. She needed the herbal supplements to not have any blocks while she got out. Looking out the window, Elizabeth took in the darkest point of night. It was nearly two in the morning and still she didn’t feel fatigue, just panic and an irrational sense of confusion.

  After Asmodeus got her off on the table top, they’d had a reasonable lunch. Just like any dating couple would. He chatted with her, clearly reading her confusion and ridding her of distraction when he’d started to ask about what she wanted to go to college for. Elizabeth was getting too comfortable. She quickly cheeked at him that it would no longer happen. Asmodeus’s warm, large hand covered hers, assuring her that he would allow her any education in any establishment she wanted.

  “At what price?” she asked him.

  His brows furrowed and he attempted to change the subject again.

  The Asmodeus that was present at the table eating with her was in direct conflict with the Asmodeus she’d grown to hate and loathe, the one that tried to seduce and ply her with indecent scenes of sex and violence. He threatened, killed, and fucked, trying to get her to succumb to him. He didn’t cloy her with food and conversation like a normal man.

  She wondered for a moment.

  Was this the man he was trying to be by claiming her?

  Or was this his simple deceptive seduction methods?

  She paced over to the window and leaned her head against the cool stone frame. Her eyes darted over the landscape as confusion warred with her rational mind. Something about Asmodeus seemed like it fit. When they just talked—when he acted normal—she felt...calm.

  Maybe she should stay, see how this all would play out. The running had become exhausting and perhaps she could make a deal with him. Get him away from this horrible place and on their own so they could learn one another. Fate had deemed her his bitch, so why not see what he had to offer?

  A bubbling feeling filled her chest, her brows creased, and she exploded in fits of laughter at her musings.

  Give the beast a chance to send her to hell?

  The laughter was maniacal. It filled her room and possibly the sleeping convent. Sleeping? Maybe not; she had heard moans filling the halls only a few hours earlier. No doubt Asmodeus fucking one of the nuns because she wouldn’t.

  Why did that tighten her chest and make her ache?

  Shaking off the last of her confusion, she went back to her task, setting the tea to simmer. She was wasting valuable time w
orrying herself over something simple.

  Get away, get to Jared, and find a way out of this horrible debt.

  With her mind set, she finished packing up the rest of her things in one simple bag. She had printed out the directions to the small seaside town, had managed to get to the offices without being noticed. The fucking, and her quiet escape from Asmodeus earlier, no doubt put them in a false sense of ease.

  With all her things packed in one medium-sized duffel, she waited for that break in dawn. The peacefully still moment when earth allowed every creature good and evil to walk without fear or war. The moment was brief. She hoped to God that upping her fennel intake and the stones Jared had told her about would be enough to get her out without Asmodeus seeing. Jared said the car would be in town again, outside the small general store.

  She moved with purpose.

  Elizabeth made her way through the town. The anxiety pitched and she could barely breathe as the sleeping town came into sight. The small Toyota Corolla came into view, black and unnoticeable. She made her way to it on a jog. Dropping to her knees at the front right tire, she reached around until she found the little hide-a-key box. She unlocked the car, jumped in, starting it before she was even settled, and took off. Dust and tires squealed as she hit the gas, fighting to put distance between herself and the evil beast that wanted to steal her from herself. Corrupt her and own her.

  She would have to wind back through past the convent, and as she did she could tell—he knew. Lights were on everywhere, and as she watched the convent start to fade in the distance, an explosion caused her to swerve. The car fishtailed into the side of the road and she jumped from the vehicle. She heard her name blasted from the flaming walls of the once stoic place she had called home. The roar was violent. Elizabeth started to back toward the car, her hand reaching blindly behind her for the door opening when something huge exploded from the inferno.

  Elizabeth cried out and tripped over her stumbling feet. Her ass hit the ground hard, but the pain was nothing next to the shock at seeing the large beast that roared out towards her.