Chapter Eight

CHAPTER EIGHT

Larkin jumped off his lap like he’d burned her. She shuffled backwards, vigorously shaking her head. Her demon had not branded him. It hadn’t. She was dreaming. Or hallucinating. Maybe she’d been slipped a drug at the bar.

Her entity snorted, practically sitting back and buffing its nails, all smug and shit. It telepathed her images of how it had kissed him—which did not ridiculously cause jealousy to knife through Larkin—and marked him while he remained still, reacting only with a hiss of pain.

Larkin swiped a hand down her face. God, the entity really had marked him. Like a complete idiot. And now Larkin would have to deal with the consequences, would have to . . . She frowned at Teague. “What are you doing?”

Adjusting the angle of the swivel mirror on her vanity desk, he said, “I want to see what the mark looks like.”

She could tell him what it looked like. Bold, in a word. A beautifully detailed harpy wing spanned the side of his neck. Pure black, it shimmered slightly, as if wet. It looked edgy and cool and not one little bit subtle.

As he checked it out, his mouth curved in appreciation. “I like it. Your demon is creative.”

Larkin could only stare at him. He should be mad. Why wasn’t he mad?

No one would ever be blasé about being branded by an entity that had zero right to put a mark on them. But here he was, smiling and even complimenting her demon. Complimenting it.

People who’d come face-to-face with her demon didn’t pay it compliments, they made their excuses to leave. Even her brothers were wary of her entity. She understood why, couldn’t blame them for it. But, well, it still stung sometimes.

Teague, though? He wasn’t the slightest bit unnerved, despite the fact her demon had apparently easily shared with him all its sadistic likes and dislikes. No, he’d had no issue with it chatting to him, straddling him, kissing him . . . or branding him.

Seriously, what the hell?

He mentally approached things from abnormal angles a lot of the time, sure, but even he should be somewhat peeved about the brand.

Shewas peeved about it.

She thrust her hand into her hair—and when had her braid fallen out, please?—seriously annoyed at herself. Why? Because even though she didn’t want to like the sight of him marked, she did. That thought made her entity smirk.

Christ, what had it been thinking? It had done weirder things when bored, but still. “I would seriously slap my demon if I could.”

He turned to look at her. “Why? Your demon is fucking awesome.”

It grinned in delight. But Larkin again found herself staring at him in complete wonder. “What?”

A slow smile curved his lips. “I fell for it the moment it asked how strong my pain threshold is. It really would torture me for the entertainment value, wouldn’t it?”

“And you . . . like that?”

“What’s not to like?”

Okay, she didn’t understand him. Never would. Ever. But that he so easily accepted her entity made her chest feel all warm.

“Has it always been a little bit nuts?”

She usually didn’t tell others much about her demon. But then, they asked questions because they feared and wanted to ‘fix’ it. Teague, however, seemed simply intrigued. He gave not one tiny fuck that her entity clearly had issues.

“Not from the very outset,” she replied. “But it was . . . different, even when I was an infant. Colder and more entitled than most entities. Also much more distant, so it formed attachments to very few people.”

It couldn’t love—the emotion simply wasn’t on its emotional spectrum. The same went for all demonic entities. But just because they couldn’t love others didn’t mean they wouldn’t grow attached to them. In such cases, they never let that person go. Typically, anyway. Her demon was an exception to that rule, but Larkin suspected it was because the entity had never fully connected with anyone.

“The darker aspects of its personality didn’t creep in until I was six, though.” But Larkin didn’t want to go into the whys of that, so she swiftly changed the subject. “I don’t get it, why aren’t you mad about the brand? It’s one thing for an entity to mark someone they’re sleeping with. This is something altogether different. The brand might not be permanent, but that doesn’t change that my entity had absolutely no right to mark you.”

His brows dipped. “It had good reason for doing so,” he insisted in a somewhat defensive tone, seeming a little offended on her demon’s behalf. Apparently they’d bonded or some shit.

“I’m not seeing how that could truly be the case.”

“It’s of the opinion that Holt has a thing for you. It wants to make him jealous.” He returned to where he’d been sitting on the end of her bed. “It feels that this’ll do the trick.”

A thing for her? No. Nu-uh. “Why attempt to make him jealous?”

“So he’ll do something stupid that will allow your demon to kill him without it resulting in repercussions for your lair.”

A heavy breath slipped out of her. Larkin rubbed a hand down her face. “Maybe I should have expected my demon to try to provoke him in some way, but I never thought it would involve you.” Pausing, she bit her lip. “I’m sorry.”

Teague frowned. “Why?” He seemed genuinely confused.

“As we’ve already established, my demon is using you to provoke Holt. That isn’t fair to you. You’re not a pawn in a game.”

He gave a careless shrug. “I don’t mind.”

Larkin cocked her head. “You really don’t, do you?”

“No.”

“Your demon must mind, surely.”

“Nah. It’s just now more determined than ever to convince me to bite you.”

She narrowed her eyes. “We’ve covered that that won’t be happening.”

He only smiled. As did her demon. God, they were so weird.

Larkin palmed the back of her head. “No wonder it was urging me to get blitzed tonight. It wanted me to pass out so it could have some time unmonitored to do what it pleased. It no doubt suspected that you’d collect me from the bar as part of our act, since the guys always pick up their mates. I really can’t believe it went this far to anger Holt.”

“Your demon positively loathes him.” Teague braced his hands on the mattress behind him. “Tell me about the guy. You were vague when you first mentioned him. I didn’t intend to push you for more info, because I respect that this isn’t my business and I have no right to your secrets. But your entity has pulled me into this matter. And if Holt truly has a thing for you, he will come at me—even if only to verbally warn me off. Tell me what I’m dealing with.”

Larkin sighed. He was right. Her demon had unjustly dragged him into this, and it would be unfair of her to not arm him with more information.

Puffing out a breath so hard she was surprised her lips didn’t rattle, she took slow, hesitant steps toward the bed and then sat on the edge beside Teague. “He’s a cambion. One as powerful and dangerous as he is calculating and selfish. He’s also a complete stranger to the concept of loyalty. More, he’s the Prime of a Canadian lair.” She stretched out her legs and dug her heels into the carpet. “He was a sentinel when I first met him.”

“When was that?” asked Teague, a soft note she rarely heard in his voice.

“Over thirty years ago. He came to Vegas for a weekend trip with some demons from his lair.”

“How did you meet him and come to realize he was your anchor?”

“I was at a club in the Underground with some members of my lair’s Force—it was a sort of work night out. He kept trying to catch my eye. I kept ignoring him, not in the mood to be hit on. He touched my mind and telepathically offered to buy me a drink. And then our psyches just lunged for each other. I knew at that moment we were psi-mates.”

“But you didn’t let the bond form there and then?” There was no reproach in the question, only curiosity.

“No. I wasn’t comfortable with psychically binding myself to a complete stranger. I’m not criticizing those who do it,” she hurried to add. “It just isn’t for me.” She slanted her head. “Did you and Khloë fight the pull of the bond initially, or did you just go for it?”

“We didn’t fight it. But we weren’t strangers to each other. Some members of my clan are . . . work associates of a few of her imp relatives, so we’d met quite a few times before we realized we were anchors. If I hadn’t known her in advance, it might have played out differently.”

Larkin swallowed. “It must have been nice to realize that your psi-mate is someone you know and like.”

“It was. Were you initially happy to find your anchor?”

“Yes. Holt claimed to be just as thrilled. He wasn’t pleased that I wanted to get to know him before we formed the bond, but he agreed to prolong his stay in Vegas so we could spend time together.” Feeling a heaviness settle over her chest, Larkin rubbed at it. “In the beginning, he was a regular white knight. He focused on me to the exclusion of all else. Love-bombed the fuck out of me, too.”

Teague’s brow creased. “Love-bombed you?”

“Oh yeah. But I never thought of him that way. He accepted that—or claimed to. But it didn’t stop him from repeatedly tossing declarations of love my way. And it made me uneasy. Suspicious.”

“Suspicious?”

“Holt wasn’t only pushing me to hurry and form the bond. He wanted me to join his lair and move to Canada.”

“He asked a whole lot of you,” Teague noted, not liking it. Of course it was natural for demons to wish to be close to their anchor. But it was also natural for them to ensure their psi-mate’s wellbeing, not demand too much of them. Holt had literally asked her uproot and leave pretty much everything behind—her home, her career, her family.

“He got pushier and pushier, which achieved nothing. So I wondered if maybe he was trying to haul me into a relationship so I’d do what he wanted; that the love-bombing was pure manipulation. I’m still not convinced he ever truly felt that way about me, no matter what my demon believes.”

She could well be right. The cambion sounded devious and self-centered enough to employ such a trick to get what he wanted. “Did you ever consider moving to Canada?”

“I thought about it. Knox told me I could remain part of our lair if I did, I just wouldn’t be able to keep my sentinel position because it wasn’t feasible, but that the position would always be open to me if I decided to come back. I didn’t want to leave the US, though. I’d have been too far away from the only family I have.”

“Understandable.”

“Not to Holt,” she said, her voice tight. “He didn’t see why it would be such a problem, even though he wasn’t prepared to make that same sacrifice.”

Teague felt his jaw harden. “So, in addition to everything else, he’s a two-faced fucker?”

“Yup. I didn’t ask him to join my lair or move to the US. I would never have asked him to give up so much. He brought up the subject, saying there was no sense in him making the transfer. And he was right.”

“In what sense?”

“He would have lost his position of sentinel, and then he would no longer have been in the run-in to become a Prime. Knox might have one day made him a sentinel if he’d switched to my lair, but that was all Holt would ever have been—there’s no way he could have usurped Knox. Holt ain’t that powerful. So it was best for him to remain in his lair.”

“That doesn’t mean he should have expected you to make all the sacrifices, especially if you weren’t demanding things from him.” His ambitions weren’t more important than her welfare—it was that simple.

“That’s not how he saw it. In his view, there was no reason at all why I shouldn’t make the transfer—I didn’t want to become Prime, so it shouldn’t matter to me if I lost my position of sentinel. And, you know, it wasn’t like the guys are my ‘real family’, they’re just ‘friends and colleagues’.”

Fuck, this guy was something else. “It was really all about him.”

“Very much so. I suggested that we both remain as we were. It wasn’t like we needed to be part of the same lair or live near each other. We could still have had regular contact.”

Teague nodded. “Not all anchored pairs answer to the same Prime or reside in the same country.”

“I pointed that out multiple times. But Holt doesn’t like to compromise, he likes to get his way—full stop. So he kept pushing. And I kept saying ‘no, let’s stay as we are’.”

“I’m surprised that Knox or one of the sentinels didn’t interfere.” This didn’t seem like something that they would overlook, given how protective they were of her.

“I made them promise not to step in, just as I’m sure you wouldn’t have wanted anyone to interfere in your business with Khloë.”

Touché.

“But I could see that they were close to breaking their promise. Then I overheard a damning phone call.” She absently rubbed at her thighs, her expression pinched. “Holt was talking to his Prime, telling him that he needed a little more time; that he would lure me to their lair and turn my loyalties. They wanted to ferret out all Knox’s secrets.”

Teague felt his jaw drop. “Son of a bitch. He planned to use you like that?” It was goddamn reflexive for a demon to prioritize their psi-mate. The mere idea of exploiting or fucking Larkin over should have gone against everything in Holt. “What did you do?”

“I confronted him. He swore he’d only said that stuff to his Prime to shut the guy up. As if that would have made it any better, considering it would have indicated that he didn’t care enough about me to speak up.” She gave a slow, disbelieving shake of the head. “I didn’t believe his excuse. We argued. Big time. He then said I shouldn’t have a problem revealing Knox’s secrets anyway, because my loyalty should be to Holt and only Holt.”

Teague felt his brows fly up. “This is coming from a guy who didn’t display one ounce of loyalty toward you? Jesus, he’s one hypocritical motherfucker.” Teague could honestly snap his neck and think nothing of it.

“I threw that very fact in his face. The argument got so heated that I walked away, saying we could talk the following day when we’d both calmed down. But when I went to his hotel room the next morning, I discovered that he’d checked out and gone home.” A sour, humorless smile plucked at her mouth. “No warning, no note, no goodbye text, nothing.”

“You are fucking kidding me,” Teague breathed.

“Nope. I think he thought I’d chase after him.”

Teague felt his face scrunch up. “Why would he think you’d even want to pursue him? He’d essentially turned his back on you.” Demons didn’t do that to their anchors. Ever. They were there for each other through thick and thin, no matter the situation. If there was a problem, they hashed it out and resolved it. They didn’t desert each other.

“But in his mind, he wasn’t the one being unreasonable. No, by insisting on a compromise, I was being selfish and unfair.”

The male was ungoddamnbelievable. “No wonder your demon despises him.”

“I used to loathe him just as much. I let the emotion go, refusing to cling to it, but I don’t want anything to do with him. Neither does my demon. We never will.”

“No one in their right mind would. It’s bad enough that he behaved the way he did. But for him to have just waltzed out of your life without a word as if you mean nothing, and then for him to later stroll back into it like he has every right . . . You deserve better in an anchor, Lark.”

“I do. I’m hoping he heads home without pushing this.”

“Do you think he will?”

“It’s possible. He walked away easily enough the first time.”

Well, consider Teague fully invested in making the Prime so jealous he couldn’t breathe with it. And if Holt reacted by trying to harm Larkin, Teague would help both her and her demon make him suffer.

Teague curled his arm around her shoulders and tugged her close.

She tensed. “I don’t—”

“Shut up. I’m comforting my girlfriend.”

“I’m not really your girlfriend.”

“Semantics.”

Larkin thought about pushing away from him. But . . . she didn’t want to. She instead found herself resting her head on his shoulder. Odd though it was, given his habit of testing her sanity, he was easy to be around.

Maybe it was because there were no mind games with him, no need to read between the lines, no façade to have to see past. That stuff could be tiring, not to mention irritating.

Teague had his secrets, but he didn’t present a false face to the world. What you saw was what you got.

He was so much the opposite of Holt. Direct. Frank. Trustworthy. Respected people’s loyalty to others. Didn’t have unfair expectations of people.

In that sense, Teague made a person feel that they didn’t need to have their guard up all the time. That they could relax. That, though he might push their buttons for fun, they were emotionally safe with him because he’d never deliberately hurt them.

Maybe that was why it had been so easy for her to tell him everything. Larkin was self-contained a lot of the time. Private things didn’t merely spill out of her—she tended to hold back with others. Revealing too much made her feel exposed.

Tonight, she hadn’t held back. She’d offloaded her worries and pain onto Teague. And she felt better for it.

“You’re unusually quiet,” she said without lifting her head. “What are you thinking?”

“I’m wondering if you’re as good a kisser as your demon.”

That matter-of-fact statement took her totally off-guard. It also made her stomach do an excited little flip.

“I feel like I should know,” he added, all innocence. “I mean, as your boyfriend—”

“Fake boyfriend.”

“—I should know something like that, shouldn’t I?”

Uh, no. But she didn’t say that, because the idea of tossing aside all her hesitancies and finally giving into the need she’d harbored for him for so long made her blood heat.

Her demon urged her to give in, reminding her that he could help them ‘forget’. But that wasn’t what tempted Larkin to follow the entity’s urgings. She didn’t want to use him. She wanted to be used. Wanted to not be in control for just a little while. And if there was any guy who’d give no fucks about her difficulty with relinquishing control, it would be Teague.

He wouldn’t hold his hands up in surrender. He wouldn’t let her call the shots. He wouldn’t crap in his pants if her demon rose and gave him attitude.

No, he’d insist on having his way. Insist that both Larkin and her inner entity gave up control. Which, in all honesty, was what they both wanted. They simply didn’t do it easily.

However, Larkin didn’t have the luxury of being able to explore that because . . . “You made oaths to Khloë, remember?”

“But even she’d agree that it makes sense for you and me to kiss at least once in private. Otherwise, it would be awkward for us to do it in front of others as part of our act. And it’s probably going to come to that, if we’re to really make this believable. Right?”

Okay, even she knew that was a bullshit excuse. But she heard herself reply, “Right.”

“Then it makes sense for us to have a practice run, doesn’t it?”

“I suppose.” Righting her head, Larkin inwardly cursed. God, she was freaking weak when it came to this male. It made her feel a little vulnerable, which should have unnerved her; should have made her want to push him away. It didn’t. Because she trusted him.

He grazed her ear with his lips, making the tiny hairs there prick up. “Then let me taste you.” It wasn’t really a request, so she wasn’t surprised when he gripped her jaw and turned her mouth to his.

She swallowed. “Make it good.”

His lips slowly canted up into that sexy smile she loved, and then he swooped down and took her mouth. Teague did not fuck around. He dived right in, boldly sweeping his tongue inside, devouring her with a ravenous kiss that scorched her. Like a brand. A claim.

Pure carnal need violently tore through her like claws. Her thoughts and reservations scattered. Her body sprung to life like it had been zapped by electricity.

She wanted more. A lot more. With a moan of demand, she drove her fingers into his hair and scratched at his scalp. Bumps rose on her flesh as a growl poured down her throat—she could almost taste the wildness of it.

He roughly snagged her nape as he angled his head and sank his tongue deeper. She moaned again. The kiss kicked up a notch, becoming so wild and unrestrained their teeth clicked.

Teague broke the kiss with a soft curse but didn’t release her. She didn’t release him either. She kept her fingers in his hair as they sat there, striving to catch their breath.

His eyes—dark and thrillingly hot with naked want—fixed on hers with laser-focus. His grip on her nape tightened almost to the point of pain. He bit out a harsh curse, and then his mouth latched on to hers again.

Larkin eagerly met his kiss, her breath catching as he dragged her onto his lap. He shoved his hands into her hair, holding her head in place so he could feast all he wanted. That was when all her higher functions seemed to shut down.

Larkin scooted forward to straddle him good and proper, settling herself against the growing bulge in his jeans. Urgency humming in her blood, she whipped off her top. He unclipped her bra, and they tossed both garments on the floor. Then he closed his hands over her breasts, blatantly possessive, and a little snarl tore out of her.

She needed him in her. Now. Right now.

Larkin yanked open the top button of his fly, but she didn’t get the chance to complete the job, because he lifted her onto her knees and sucked a nipple into his mouth. Holy hell, every hard tug on the taut bud went straight to her clit.

She gripped his shoulders tight, arching into him. Even as he licked and suckled, he quickly and deftly unbuttoned the fly of her slacks. She tried pulling back, meaning to stand and shove down her pants and underwear.

His hand clamped around her hip and hauled her against him. “Where are you fucking going?”

“To get these damn slacks off.”

Banding an arm tight around her, Teague stood, pivoted, and then unceremoniously dumped her on the bed. He dragged off both her pants and underwear in one smooth move. His eyes raked over her as he fisted the back of his tee.

She knifed up, ready to help him undress, but then the shirt was gone—revealing a whole lot of hard muscle and gorgeously tanned, inked skin—and she sort of just stared at him dumbly. Her gaze dropped when he shoved down his jeans and holy shit he truly did have a beast of a cock.

Teague knelt on the bed and then lowered his body over hers, pressing her down to the mattress, lighting up her nerve-endings with the amount of skin-to-skin contact. “I want to take you ungloved. You got an issue with that?”

“No.” She tried flipping him over, but he rested more of his weight on her. She frowned. “I want to ride you.”

“I don’t care.” He clamped his hand around her pussy. “You don’t want me to care what you want. You want me to do whatever the fuck I please. Which is good, because that’s exactly what I’m gonna do.” He jammed two fingers inside her.

The shock of it made Larkin go still. For all of a damn second. Because then he starting suckling on her nipple while pumping his fingers hard and fast.

God, that felt good. Nonetheless, her need to fight for control rose up hard. It wasn’t in her nature to give in so easily.

She tried rolling him over once more. That had zero effect.

She shoved at his head to dislodge his mouth from her breast. That also had zero effect.

She pushed at his chest hard so she could slide her hand down to fist his cock and turn the tables. Again, zero effect.

Teague paid her struggles no attention whatsoever. He didn’t try to keep her still or warn her to stop. No, he just went ahead and did what he wanted—much as he’d said he would.

It didn’t irritate her anywhere near as much as it incited her. All that strength and tenacity and dominance switched her best levers. Her inner entity totally got off on it.

Add in the mouth toying with her breasts and the fingers plunging into her pussy and, yeah, Larkin was very soon desperate to find her release. “Teague—” She jolted as a third finger sank inside her. “Fuck.”

“I can smell how wet you are. It’s driving my demon insane.”

“Then do something about it. Fuck me. Or at least put your fingers to work a little more; I need to come.”

“You need what I say you need.” Teague felt a cold breeze sweep up his front and gather around him. He looked up from the breast he’d been licking, unsurprised to see her demon’s cold black eyes honed in on him.

“Be very, very careful,” it warned.

“No.” He wasn’t whatsoever willing to give ground—the entity would perceive it as a weakness anyway.

“You do not hold the power here.”

“Sure I do. You’ll have to deal with it. So will she.”

The demon dug its nails hard into his shoulders.

He flicked up a brow. “You make me bleed, I’ll return the favor with my teeth.”

It squinted. “You wouldn’t.”

“You’re welcome to test me on it.”

Black eyes gave way to gray-green as Larkin retook control. “No biting, Sullivan.”

Teague flipped her onto her stomach. “I’ll do whatever I want to you. Thought I’d made myself clear on that.” He roughly pulled her up onto her hands and knees and then swept his hand down her sleek back.

“You are seriously trying my patience.”

“Don’t care.” Curling his body over hers, he pressed the head of his cock against her entrance and groaned. “Drenched.”

The sweet and spicy scent of her need made his demon feel drunk on her. Teague wanted to taste her, but he couldn’t wait to be inside her any longer. He needed to take her so bad it was an ache in his teeth, his bones, his cock, his fucking soul.

He pushed his hips forward, lodging a mere inch of his dick inside her. “This might hurt.” He fisted her hair tight, snatched her head back, and slammed home.

Slick, rippling, blazing hot muscles clamped down on his cock. A groan slid through his gritted teeth. “Fuck, Lark.”

He didn’t give her time to adjust. He just took her. Fucked her like he’d needed to fuck her for years—hard, deep, unrestrained.

He’d known before he kissed her earlier that he’d be flirting with his self-control if he let himself taste her. He’d thought he could pull back. Which he had.

Though not for long.

Maybe if she hadn’t kissed him back with so much hunger, he could have resisted another taste. And then maybe he wouldn’t now be ramming his cock balls-deep inside her over and over. Or maybe he’d never stood a chance of fighting his need for her in the long-run; that this would have happened eventually at some point.

Realizing she was braced on one hand, he batted the other away before it could get near her pussy. “I didn’t say you could touch yourself, did I?”

“Fuck you, you prick. It’s my clit—”

“Not right now it’s not. It’s mine. I say who gets to touch it.”

Larkin cursed as he planted a hand between her shoulder blades and pressed down, pinning her upper body to the bed. Her pride dictated she should call him fit to burn, but she’d be lying if she claimed she didn’t like how he maneuvered her exactly how and where he wanted her.

Larkin never liked when guys tried exerting control by teasing her or denying her orgasms. It only annoyed her. Teague didn’t do that. No, he asserted himself by quite simply taking, rough and bold and unapologetic. She dug it. And it was something else about him that her demon got off on.

Her breath caught as he angled his hips, pounding his cock even deeper than before, hitting until-now-unexplored nerve-endings. God, she really did love his dick. Truly. It overstretched her walls, spicing each powerful thrust with an exquisite burn that was dangerously addictive.

And she was going to come any second now. Any second. It—

She came.

Whips of hot pleasure streaked through her, intense and blinding. She screamed, fisting the sheets, slamming back onto the cock that pounded deep again and again and again. Then he exploded with a half-growl half-groan, emptying every bit of his come inside her.

She slumped to the mattress, spent, weak, panting. He fell on top of her, catching his weight on his elbows, each warm pant fanning the crook of her neck.

Finally, he withdrew his softening cock from her pussy and rolled onto his back with a sated sigh.

Deliciously sore, Larkin moved to lay on her back as well. Staring up at the ceiling, she cleared her throat. “I’m pretty sure you just broke your oath to not sex-up any of Khloë’s friends.” And if he started fretting or expressing regrets, Larkin would not be pleased. It would be understandable, but it would sting all the same.

“Nah. We were just practicing in case we ever have to have sex in public.”

Her lips quirked. Why she thought he’d react normally, she had no clue, since she knew better. “Yeah. It’s best to be prepared. Just in case.”

“Exactly. And now if we ever have to fuck in public, it won’t be awkward.”

A silent laugh shook her shoulders. “Yeah, not awkward at all.”