devil 04 - the devil you know Read online

  “Promise me you won’t look when we…you know.”

  Torre glanced at me, his handsome face completely earnest, so earnest in fact that I knew he had to be lying. “I give you my word.”

  “Uh-huh.”

  The crowd at the back of the room moved forward with us until they stood in a semicircle around the raised couch.

  Dialle stood straight and tall on the raised throne platform. His dark eyes swirled with silver lights and sparked with red. He stood with legs apart and hands held down at his sides, fisted with restrained power. I looked into his swirling gaze and felt myself falling away. He was so pretty. So hot. So…

  I jerked. “Hey!” I’d felt the edges of his power sliding over my free will.

  His perfectly sculpted lips tipped up on the ends. “Welcome to power, my queen.”

  I scowled at him and opened my mouth to dispute the title. His voice slammed into me. Don’t say the words, Astra. The court must believe you accept your position at my side or this will fail.

  But I’m not sure I do accept the position.

  Pain touched his features. It ran so briefly across his face I nearly missed it. But its existence made me regret my words. If I am not ensconced in this throne, the court will settle into pandemonium, Astra. My ability to rule will be severely compromised and violence will break out as usurpers vie for the throne. It will most likely spill out into the human population and in the end, if I do not prevail, you will have someone sitting in this throne who may not share my…sensitivities…as pertains to our role in this world.

  I frowned. I knew he was right. But I still didn’t understand why I always had to be the one to give up my freedom and any chance at choosing my own future to save the world…yet again. I sighed. Okay, you win.

  It is my hope that we’ll both win, my queen.

  Yada yada… Outwardly, I forced a smile onto my face and inclined my head. “I serve at your will and pleasure, my king.” The words were like bile in my mouth. And on top of my resistance to subjugating myself to Dialle, even if it was only for the benefit of his court, I was worried that, as I rumbled inexorably toward my Settling, I was immersing myself in the devil court. Surrounding myself with dark worlders at a time when my dark side was fighting for dominance over my light side. It was very likely the most idiotic thing I’d ever done.

  My mind was aware of this, but my heart and body couldn’t help noticing the way Dialle’s breeches hugged the nicely rounded package at the juncture of his muscular thighs.

  As the music began and Torre stepped forward to begin the ceremony, I licked my lips and tried to focus on the great sex I was about to have.

  Funny how your priorities changed when the size of your problems kept growing. Now…after that brief, mental discussion with Dialle, I realized having sex before an audience of hundreds was the least of my problems.

  Sometimes it was damn difficult being me.

  Torre handed me to Dialle and stepped back. “Let us begin.”

  The thunderous sound of hundreds of creatures dropping to their knees made me turn. They were all prostrate on the floor, their foreheads touching the plush carpets beneath them.

  I could only hope they stayed that way. If they were sucking carpet lint, they couldn’t cast their eyes on my thigh dimples.

  From the cavernous reaches of the ceiling above our heads, the magical sound of angels singing drifted down to fill the room. I resisted looking up. The chained angels were my biggest problem with the Devil Court. It was a practice that had served for millennia and, though I’d worked on Dialle for months to get him to release the angels, the politics of the move were so far entrenched into their system that I’d yet to make any headway gaining their release.

  But I had the satisfaction of knowing the angels were at least treated well. Unlike they’d been under Dialle’s father, Dialle the First, or the hopefully extinguished King Nerul of the other devil court.

  Baby steps.

  The music swelled, creating magic on the air that began to work upon my mind. The music generated tingly feelings low in my belly and made Dialle look even sexier than usual.

  A seemingly impossible trick.

  I licked my lips and clenched my thighs, fearing that my Settling would bring the magics to their culmination much more quickly than anticipated, embarrassing me and maybe even Dialle with their intensity.

  Premature magication.

  Torre stepped up next to Dialle, lifting his hands. The crowd behind me got to its feet again. Torre began to speak in Hades, a tongue I’d learned at a young and tender age, while bouncing on my devilish mother’s knee.

  I mentally translated as he spoke.

  “The court of Dialle the First is done. It is the time for a new regime, a fresh course, for the chosen race…”

  I snorted softly and both Dialle and Torre glared at me. I just shrugged. When they said outrageous things they couldn’t expect me not to react.

  Had they met me?

  Torre continued. “King Dialle the Second brings a new vision to the Royal Devil Court. This vision binds us to the new century, to the current time, making us a vital part of this world.”

  The creatures behind us stirred and murmurs slid through the crowd.

  “We no longer cling to the past, to old ways. Instead we look to the future and embrace the changes which are needed to bring us into the light.”

  “Heresy!”

  I turned to see who had shouted out as Dialle lifted a hand, palm out, and shot a volt of power into the rug at someone’s feet.

  The extremely tall, exceedingly narrow royal had a pinched mouth and angry black eyes. I recognized him as one of the Royal Court. He didn’t flinch as Dialle’s power arrow singed his toes, but after a moment during which the entire room fell into stark, unnatural silence, he inclined his head and lifted his hands as indication that the ceremony should resume.

  Apparently he wasn’t devil enough to follow up his verbal challenge with a physical one.

  You just made me very hot. I informed Dialle.

  He smiled and his black gaze sparked with promise. He inclined his head to Torre and his brother went back to droning on.

  I stopped listening and kept a gimlet eye on the crowd. I’ve never been known for having a trusting nature and the outburst had reminded me I’d been standing with my vulnerable backside to a large group of big, bad nasties.

  Distracted as I was, it took me a moment to realize the room had fallen into a chant. Spoken in thick, guttural Hades, I didn’t recognize the words at first, but when I did I jerked around to meet Dialle’s black, swirling gaze.

  It is time, my queen.

  Shit!

  His chuckle was a deep rumble in my mind. My panties dampened at the sound.

  Like a trapped but strangely fascinated animal, I watched him descend the platform and reach for my hand. Placing my palm on his, I grimaced. Are we sure there’s no way around this?

  We are very sure, Astra. Relax, I promise you’ll enjoy it.

  That’s what I’m afraid of.

  Dialle walked me over to the raised platform and turned to the crowd. Lifting our joined hands between us, he opened his mouth and spoke in a voice that reverberated off the walls of the cavernous room and made my special place clench and run with moisture.

  “I give you the Court of Dialle the Second.” He turned to look me in the eye. “I offer you my choice of Queens and promise you her pleasure. For according to the traditions of this Royal Court, my queen’s pleasure bears us up and ensures our invincibility against our foes.”

  “What? Huh?” Well that at least was good news. He had very good motivation to make me happy.

  Dialle’s lips lowered to mine. I placed my hand on his chest, fully intending to question this latest revelation. But as we touched, the very air around us sparked and flared, bathing us in vibrant oranges and scorching reds.

  Instead of burning at their touch, the flames fired the nerve endings of my skin, so that the whisper
-soft touch of Dialle’s fingers against my skin sent me into paroxysms of lust.

  Chapter Two

  Frunk Me to the Moon

  The royal court doth gather and watch, to see the royals frunk,

  The heat of lust doth fire their lust, and daze them as if drunk.

  I dropped my head back as Dialle’s lips forged a hot trail down my throat. He stopped at the juncture of my neck and shoulder, hovering over the daemon hickey he’d given me at our first joining.

  The pale red, tear-shaped devil’s mark thrummed in expectation of his touch, sending fissures of delight through my body, which centered in the weeping spot between my thighs.

  His lips moved and warm breath bathed the tender, expectant flesh below them as he murmured a series of words in the language of Hades.

  The air around us changed, becoming even more infused with magic and electricity, until I felt as if firm spectral hands pulled my body up tightly against his, binding us together like one, sensually charged entity.

  Still he murmured over my hickey. The heat level in our little sphere increased. Multihued sparks flew from every spot where our bodies touched and a musky, sexual scent rose from our skin.

  My brain grew muzzy from sensual overload and I moaned, grinding my aching pussy into Dialle’s hard thighs. On some level I knew he was enhancing my reactions with magic. My body, never a reluctant participant in matters of lust and love with Dialle, had been fired to a fever pitch, until I was nearly mindless with longing for him.

  “My Queen.” Dialle murmured over my tender flesh and his mouth lowered to capture the throbbing flesh of my devil’s mark between his lips.

  A razor-sharp arrow of pleasure burst through me and I cried out as it zigzagged through my body, tearing a trail of sexual delight through my flesh and exploding against the throbbing bud of my clit. I fell over the edge and into pure, unadulterated bliss. Just like that I was vibrating with an orgasm like I’d never experienced before. The flames that danced around us speared into me, infusing my body with light and heat and making me brittle with sensation. So that the barest whisper of a touch against my skin sent me into new spasms of sensation and delight.

  Dialle found my gasping lips and covered them, his heated tongue snaking out to taste my breath and claim my cries. My hands convulsed at my sides, fingers clenching helplessly against the onslaught. I forced my fingers to unclench and reached for him, sliding my hands over the smooth heat of his chest.

  My back arched so that I could grind myself against the long, thick length of his stiff cock. My skin was so sensitized from the magics in the air I imagined I could feel the gentle pearl of moisture on the thick head of his shaft against my belly.

  Suddenly, my feet left the ground and I found myself naked, on my back, with Dialle pressing against me.

  A deep rumble filled the chamber and other sparks, other flames rent the magic-drenched air. I sensed rather than saw the hundreds of creatures in that room joining in our sexual dance, contributing to the magical sensuality with intricate steps of their own.

  Through my magic-clouded vision I saw their forms wavering on the air around us, clothing shed and limbs entwined in ecstasy. I shivered under the powers building in that enormous chamber.

  The heated air around us sizzled and popped. The rumble deepened, like thunder over a heat-drenched landscape in summer. No rain, only noise.

  Wrapping my legs around Dialle’s narrow hips, I opened myself to him and arched my back, moaning in anticipation of him spearing my weeping pussy with the column of hard, heated flesh that pressed against my belly.

  Dialle bit down on my hickey and I screamed. Other screams echoed mine in the room. The walls vibrated and dust dropped from the ceiling high above our heads. Our lust was like a minor earthquake rolling through the room.

  This time the pleasure didn’t shoot through me in a narrow beam. It exploded like a laser bomb into my body, saturating every square inch, every hungry, grasping cell to the point of pain.

  My muscles clenched around the intensity of the feelings, my toes curled hard against the soles of my feet and my fingers curved into my palms, digging perfects arcs into my skin with my nails.

  I was beyond control, beyond sensation, beyond thought. I was pleasure itself. A single vibrating cell infused with almost too much sensation. Pain became pleasure and pleasure became ecstasy.

  The couch where we lay moved, rolling beneath us like a ship on an agitated sea.

  Dialle’s mouth lifted from my hickey and I cried out.

  He slid down my body and captured a rigid, elongated nipple, sucking hard. I tangled my fingers in the dark wave of his hair and held him to my breast. Each pull of his talented tongue and lips on my nipple sent desire spiraling through my hypersensitive flesh. My pussy dampened my thighs in response.

  Someone whimpered nearby. I think it might have been me.

  Dialle captured the other nipple and, after sucking it, bit down gently on the tender flesh and tugged it upward.

  I arched my back, pushing my pussy into his hard flesh with mindless passion. “Now, Dialle! Please!”

  Instead he continued down my body, nipping and licking my quivering belly, bringing gooseflesh to the surface with his every touch. The fever grew under my skin. I was so hypersensitized that I could feel every hair on his silken skin as he slid down my body. His ministrations were whisper soft, skittering gently across my tender flesh as if he knew the devastation he was causing under my skin. As he neared my pussy I cried out, spreading my legs shamelessly and reaching to tangle my fingers in the warm silk of his hair.

  His hot mouth closed over the pulsing mound and I gasped, plunging quickly into another earth-shattering orgasm. My head rolled back and my mouth opened and I embraced the knifelike release with a full-throated scream that sent visible waves through the magic-infused air around the platform.

  Muted in the dense, moist air, other screams joined mine, building and throbbing to an invisible beat which matched the rhythm of my pounding heart.

  Beneath Dialle’s talented lips and tongue, my clitoris throbbed its pleasure, giving up soft cream to his pulling lips like happy sighs.

  I tugged on his hair and pulled gently. “Now, Dialle. Oh my god! Please…now!”

  He rose up, sliding his body along mine as he covered me in heat. Kissing my throat tenderly, he licked his way to my mouth and bit my bottom lip. “Your wish is my command, my queen.”

  He drove into me, burying himself deep, and my body clasped him gratefully.

  I threw back my head and groaned my delight as he twisted his hips and rocked my world from the inside out. He was so hard that I could feel every inch of his long, thick shaft, every ridge, every vein scraping delightfully across my tender flesh as he moved inside me.

  The heat around us built until we were giving off fireworks. Bright, multicolored shafts of flame danced on the supercharged air and fired the nerve endings in my skin until I felt as if I were cocooned in the thick, caressing atmosphere.

  The thunder built beyond our heated wall of flame.

  As Dialle’s body enthralled mine, his lips feathered over my temple, down my cheek and over to my lips, hungrily capturing them in a breath-stealing kiss.

  Desire coiled in my belly, throbbing there as it grew into something I could no longer hold back. When it burst, sending me screaming into unfathomable spasms of delight, the heated air around us sucked inward, coating me in its light, and my screams took on the flavor of pain. My release triggered Dialle’s.

  His muscles tightened and he drove into me hard, slamming deep as his cock jerked and spewed inside my grasping pussy. I drank him up, savoring his every touch, every drop he sent deep inside my womb.

  Beyond our heated sphere the thunder burst and rolled through the room and then settled into a low rumble, which eventually died completely away.

  Dialle collapsed over me, catching his weight on his elbows and rolling his hips gently as my body throbbed in gentle aftershocks arou
nd his cock. His kiss was tender and tasted of love. “Thank you, my queen.”

  I returned his gentle kiss and reached up to touch his cheek, still lost in our own little sphere. Tingling and sated, I reveled in the warm bristles of his golden cheek against my palm and ran a fingertip across his full, soft lips. Dialle bit down gently on the tip of my wandering finger. I smiled.

  The air around us cooled and turned soft again. As it did, the mask that we’d covered ourselves in seemed to drop away and I realized, with an embarrassed jolt, that the room was still filled with Royals and their subjects.

  They stood in complete silence, their faces flushed and glistening with moisture. Thankfully they were all dressed.

  My cheeks flooded with heat and I pinched my eyes tightly closed. “Get rid of them, Dialle.”

  He barked out an order and the air changed, as a soft blanket settled over us. I breathed a little easier with the covering but refused to open my eyes until the rumblings of hundreds of feet leaving the room settled into silence.

  Then I felt the whisper soft touch of Dialle’s lips. “They’re gone, Astra.” He moved his hips, sending spirals of pleasure streaming through me as his quickly hardening shaft scraped across the sensitized flesh of my vagina.

  Then he arched his back and drove deep.

  I gasped and lifted my legs to wrap them around his firm, round buttocks. “Mm. That’s nice.”

  “No watchers, no ceremony. We’re alone. This one’s just for you, my queen.”

  Small flames licked the air above us. My body warmed and flushed in response to his delicious touch. Dialle’s body picked up the tempo, and my body matched it. The coil of desire he’d managed to disperse only moments earlier started building again.

  I sighed as wave after wave of pleasure flowed over me and murmured, “It’s a dirty job…but somebody’s gotta do it.”

  * * * * *

  “You’re all deserting me?”

  Flick lifted a shaggy brown eyebrow and quirked his lips in a wry smile. “Are you going to miss me?”