I jumped at the suddenness of his voice. Well, the cat was out of the bag, and he knew I was there. I stepped into the room and sat in the leather seat across from him, swallowed by its massive size. Dimitri stared at the laptop screen as whatever he was looking at held his full attention. I should’ve been turned off because he wouldn’t look at me, but I could only admire his beauty.
I took a deep breath to settle my nerves and asked, “Are you a demon, too? Or are you human and have a demon inside you?”
Dimitri pulled his attention away from the screen and looked at me, his piercing eyes pinning me in place. He closed his laptop and folded his hands together. “Why are you asking this now?”
I played with my fingers and twiddled my thumbs. “What do you mean?”
“Why are you asking thisnowout of all the times you could have asked me? It’s been nearly a week since you learned about me being a demon. Why now?”
I nibbled on my bottom lip and shrugged a shoulder. Glancing past him, I whispered, “I’ve been curious this whole time.”
He stared at me, not blinking. Silence stretched between us, and I squirmed in my seat, wishing he would say something. I glanced at him and swallowed, finding that his eyes had softened.
“I’m a demon. I share a body with a second demon who entered me while I was in my mother’s womb. All the human blood in my fetal body had been burned away and replaced with my father’s demonic blood.”
“Then why do you look so human?”
He clenched his jaw. “Having demon blood in my veins doesn’t mean I can’t have a human disguise. Have you never heard of predators blending in to make their prey think they’re safe?”
I let that sink in. So he wasn’t human in this form, either. My stomach twisted, and I looked past his shoulder, scraping my teeth against my bottom lip.
When I was scared of the dark because of all the hallucinations as a teenager, a therapist told me to face my fears by staying in a dark room during the day. He said it would give me that needed comfort since it was daylight. I would have control and could flip the light switch to chase off the monsters. It didn’t work for me back then, but now it sometimes did. I wanted to face him because of my fear of Dimitri’s inner demon. I wanted toseehim, though I hoped he wouldn’t hurt me.
“What are you thinking about, sunshine?”
I shuddered and crossed my arms over my chest to hide the evidence of my desire. I loved it when he called me that. It held tenderness and made me feel as though I was the only woman he cared about. “I’d like to see him,” I whispered.
Dimitri tensed. Shadows blanketed his eyes, and his pupils constricted. “You don’t know what you’re asking.”
“I do, though. I want to see the demon.”
“Emma,” he warned.
“He won’t hurt me, will he?”
He closed his mouth and leaned back in his seat. “No. He won’t hurt you. But he will do other things to you.”
“Like what?” I had a feeling I already knew what Dimitri’s inner demon would do to me.
Dimitri narrowed his eyes. “You want to know, Emma?” I nodded. “He will fuck your brains out and leave his mark on you.”
My breath caught in my chest, and I squeezed my legs together as a familiar ache built inside me. “Why? What’s so special about me?”
“What’s so special about you?” He kept his tone soft, but I didn’t miss the disgust in his voice. Dimitri pushed back his chair and stood. I kept my gaze on him as he prowled around his desk and stood before me. He leaned forward, resting his hands on either side of me on the armrests. Tendrils of white hair fell over his shoulders and hung like a curtain beside our heads. “What’s so special about you?You’re the air we need to breathe. You’re the blood pumping through our veins. You’re the sun on our darkest days, chasing away the shadows that haunt us. We crave your every smile, the brush of your fingers on our skin, and every whimper you make while we fuck your pussy and ass. We’ve been through hell and back. When we laid our eyes on you, you became our heaven. Everything about you brings out the best in us.”
Tears stung my eyes, and I couldn’t stop the tiny smile that crept to my face. I was sure he could hear my pounding heart and see the pulse in my neck fluttering like a hummingbird’s wings.
Dimitri leaned closer until his lips brushed against mine, and our noses bumped. “Emma, you are the center of our universe. Everything we do is foryou. We don’t give a fuck about anyone else. If we were given an ultimatum to save the world or save you, we’d burn the fucking world down.”
Leather groaned, and I glanced at his hand. His nails had lengthened and were ripping through the material on the armrest. When I turned my gaze back to him, it looked as if two souls peered at me through his eyes. I swallowed around the lump in my throat. “Then why...” I sucked in a breath. “Then why are you sometimes so cold toward me?”
“Because that’s who I am, sunshine. Did it ever stop you?” I opened my mouth to answer, but he interrupted. “No, it hasn’t. You’ve been beneath me, begging for my cock. And now my inner demon wants to have a taste. He’s watching you through my eyes right now, frothing at the mouth,needingto touch you. Are yousureyou can handle him?”
I cupped his cheeks, and he tensed for a moment before he relaxed. I closed the small space between us and kissed him. He didn’t hesitate as he returned the kiss, his tongue plunging into my mouth. Goosebumps rose on my arms as a growl vibrated through him and into me. Ending the kiss, I leaned back and looked at him.
“Emma,” he warned, his voice husky.
“Come out,” I whispered to his demon. “I want to see you.”
