Chapter 7

Casimir

“Ruby!” My head is dramatically draped back over the edge of the bathtub as I stretch out her name.

“What?” she shouts, voice far away. There’s a tinge of irritation in her tone, although I find it hard to believe. I’m delightful.

“Can we please go do something? I’m so… bored!”

Several days have passed since our escapade in the bedroom, and she’s committed to pretending it never took place, while I pretend something inside me didn’t irrevocably shift. It’s been business as usual as I taunt and tease, keeping up the aloof air she expects from me. Flirting and offering my services whenever an opportunity arises to no avail. Twice now she has banished me to the bathing room to do my business instead of offering a helping hand.

Rude, honestly.

“You can’t be trusted to leave the house,” she says, her voice growing nearer.

“Can’t be trusted to leave the house,” I mimic under my breath, rolling my eyes. “Of course I can,” I say louder, my tone taking on a touch of indignation.

A shadow falls under the gap at the bottom of the door, and I grin as I sense her hesitation. She finally walks in and lets out a very loud, very dramatic gasp. “Cas!” She sounds so panicked, it startles me.

“What is wrong?” I ask, jumping to my feet as water sloshes over the edges of the bathtub.

Her eyes are enormous as she scans the bathroom, then turns her gaze at me. The intensity of her glare makes me feel like I’m in the crosshairs of a sniper rifle, my defenses rising. “What… what did you do?”

I frown, glancing at the tub, wondering if maybe her eyesight isn’t great. “I ran a bubble bath.”

“Why…” Her hand hits her forehead and drags all the way down her face. Slowly. Like, really, really slowly. “Why are there bubbles all over the floor, Cas?”

I shrug, scanning the frothy bathroom. “It said to add a cap full, but I couldn’t find a hat, so I guessed.”

She mutters a string of angry words that might be curses, causing me to furrow my brow and step out of the bath. An angry witch is a dangerous one, no matter how adorable. The soapy tile makes me frantically windmill my arms as I try to regain stability, my feet sliding on the slippery bubbles until I catch myself.

Somehow, she looks even more annoyed. I heave a sigh, my shoulders slouching. “What have I done now?”

It seems I’m not very good at being a human.

“A cap means… the lid, Cas. The tiny, itty-bitty little white lid that screws onto the bottle. Not a hat. ” My lips purse, and I pull one side between my teeth, staying silent. I have my suspicions about which one of us is right, but I don’t want to argue with her in her own home.

I scoop a handful of bubbles from the countertop and hold them in my cupped hands. “Would a bubble bath make it better?” When I raise my arms, her eyes narrow into tiny slits, mean little shards of glass.

“If you put that on my head, I will end you ,” she growls, sounding more like a demon than any actual demon I’ve ever met.

The bubbles float to the ground as I nod innocently. “Right, I wasn’t going to… do that…”

That’s a lie.

I was.

“You seem upset and kind of stressed,” I point out, and her eyes somehow narrow even further as they meet mine. “Do you need another orgasm?”

“No!” she snaps, and I take a protective step back from her wrath. “No, Cas, I don’t need an orgasm. What I need is for the troublesome demon that showed up at my house…”

“You summoned me,” I interrupt, but she ignores me.

“… to leave so I can get back to having a real life!” Now, I like Ruby. Care about her a great deal, even, and definitely want to have sex with her. Her stress and anger are not something I enjoy witnessing.

But—and this is a big, italicized but—I’m not ready to return to Hell when I haven’t had a chance to experience the world beyond these four walls yet.

“Why don’t you get out of the house?”

“And take you with me, right?” she asks, dryly.

“Well, that’s one option, yes. You can trust me to behave.”

Her eyes move up to mine so slowly I think she’s frozen in time for a moment. “No, Cas. No, I absolutely cannot.” She sighs again, putting her hands on her hips. “What I need to do is figure out how to reverse the spell I cast and send you back home.”

Ouch. I try to ignore that strange pinch in my chest.

“Maybe I could help,” I suggest, and she casts a doubtful glance my way. I scoff, unable to hide my irritation as I say, “Oh, come on. I know far more about magic than you.”

One skeptical eyebrow climbs her face as she glances around the bubble-filled room. “Cas, no offense, but…”

“Ah, ha!” I exclaim, and she jumps and jerks her eyes back to mine. “I have heard of this. It is a phrase humans use right before they are rude.”

“That’s not true.” Her hesitation tells me she doesn’t believe her own argument.

“It is,” I insist. “My friend told me all about it. If a human says, ‘No offense,’ or ‘Bless Your Heart,’ or ‘Respectfully,’ it always means they are about to say something mean to you. It’s an indisputable fact.” She falls silent, her lips pressed together and twitching as if she wants to challenge me but realizes that I am right.

“You don’t have to be rude, because it’s the truth. I’m well versed in magic.” I gesture around the room with a flourish before I snap my fingers. A look of surprised awe crosses her face as the bubbles and water vanish, leaving the bathroom clean and dry. “Demons are born with their own magic and study that of the witches for most of our lives.”

Her mouth hangs open a hair before she shakes her head. “You can do magic and you’re just now telling me this?”

“You didn’t ask,” I shrug, and she glares again, so I hurry to distract her. “Allow me to examine that spellbook and the spell you used. I may be able to unravel it. It can’t hurt to let me try.” That’s… a big lie, because it actually could hurt—a lot—but we’ll keep that to ourselves for now.

“Wait… wait, wait, wait…” She stares at me for long, drawn-out moments, pulling her lips between her teeth, and then her head tilts the tiniest bit to the side. It’s absolutely terrifying. “Just a gosh-darned second… you can do magic?”

“… yes?” I stretch the word out, confused, because I’ve already answered this question.

She appears thoughtful as she grips her chin and nods, a dangerous glint in her eyes. “You could’ve been wearing clothes this whole time?” My eyes widen momentarily before I whip around and bend over to release the stopper.

If I don’t look at it, it can’t see me.

“Like, right now, for example?” she continues, and I hum a little tune to get the point across that I can’t hear her. “You could… I dunno… not be showing me your butthole because you’d have pants on.”

“Why would I wear pants in the tub, Ruby?” I ask, standing straight because I actually was flashing her my asshole, and not in a sexy way. The moment I realize I’ve responded, I wince, my shoulders tensing.

So much for that ruse.

She practically screeches as she asks, “So, that’s a yes?!”

My loud humming starts again, nonchalantly drying myself with the towel before walking past her and pretending I can’t see her either. What’s the phrase humans use? See no evil, hear no evil, only do enough evil to have fun? She thwarts my attempt to escape through the door by darting in front of me, and I crash into her. I grab her arms to steady both of us, my dick immediately taking notice of the friction.

When her eyes widen, I grin, realizing she feels what she’s doing to me. “Put some clothes on,” she hisses, gaze locked on mine, and I sigh. It’s a direct command, so I have little choice.

“Fine.” A quick thought is all it takes to summon a pair of pants, and she wilts in relief.

“Thank you…” She steps back and then sucks in a breath as her eyes slide down my body. “ Cas, ” she moans, and I bite my smile between my lips. “That is… not what I meant!”

I glance at the gray sweatpants that hug my legs, my dickprint perfectly visible through the thin material. “You said clothes, and I put on clothes.”

“Cover yourself!”

“I am covered!” I argue, gripping my cock through the fabric and sliding my hand along my length. “You can’t even see any skin.”

“Every vein is on display, Cas. Every vein!”

“Want to feel them?” I ask, grinning at her as I stroke myself again. As I step closer, she counters it, retreating until she’s against the wall. “You’re allowed to touch, sweet Ruby,” I purr, inching my mouth to her ear. “Touch me, taste me… fuck me. You can do anything you want to me.”

She whimpers, an unwanted, helpless sound, as I grab her wrist and inch her hand towards my cock. When her palm lands on my shaft, both of us let out a groan as her fingers wrap around me.

“That’s it… just like that,” I murmur, giving a slight rock of my hips and closing my eyes at the sensation of my covered cock sliding through the cage of her grip.

“This means nothing,” she whispers, her fingers warm against my stomach as she pulls my waistband back and slips her hand inside.

A groan tears from my throat as she pumps me slowly, squeezing in a rhythm as she strokes my cock. Up and down, she explores every ridge, reaching further to roll my balls between her fingers and giving them a slight tug. My lips find her ear, tongue slipping around the shell before drawing her lobe between my teeth and gently scraping.

My hands land on her ass, tugging her closer and wedging her hand and my erection between our bodies. Another of those delicious whimpers reaches my ears as I slip under her pants. A single finger slides between her cheeks, circling her rim, and her grip on my cock tightens.

“Oh, you are full of surprises, aren’t you? Sweet Ruby enjoys ass play, doesn’t she?”

Her moan is quiet in the back of her throat, and she only whispers one word. “Yes,” she murmurs, and I snarl as I push her against the wall, my hips thrusting forward with more power.

My voice emerges as a deep, guttural whisper beside her ear as I say, “I want to bend you over and fuck you until every hole squeezes around me. My cock in that needy pussy… my finger in that tight ass.” I nip her earlobe as she yelps. “Fill you until I drip out of you.”

“I’m… not on birth control,” she breathes as I grin, pulsing my fingertip against her hole as my lips travel along her jaw. “Condom…”

“No,” I insist, and she gasps as the tip of my finger slides through, gently pushing into her. “No condom. Nothing between us… I’ll come inside you until I’m finished with you.” She realizes her hand has stilled and returns to stroking me as I hum an approving rumble into her ear. “Demons aren’t like humans, Ruby. I’ll fill you until it’s gushing out of you, and then do it again. Over and over, I’ll soak you until it runs down your legs, marking every inch of your skin with my scent. Is that what you want? To be my little cum slut?”

When she only whines and rocks against me, I weave my fingers through her curls and force her to look at me. The mossy green glitters in the sunlight, sparkling like emeralds with the fire behind her eyes, and I realize how easily I could get lost in their depths. “Answer me.”

She either refuses to form words or has lost the ability to do so. I remove my hands from her body and put a few inches of space between us, my lips still near her ear. “You’ll ask for what you want, or you won’t get it.”

Her head thunks on the wall, gaze moving to the ceiling as she releases a series of quiet, frustrated grunts. “Cas,” she whispers, and her eyes finally drop to mine.

Drawn to her, pulled into her gravity, I can’t stay away.

I take a half step forward, leaning my forearm against the wall and hovering over her body. “What do you want, Ruby?”

“I… I want…” Her pupils are blown out and her breathing is rapid as I stare down at her, wanting her more than I’m willing to admit even to myself.

“Go on,” I purr, sliding my knuckles along the bottom of her chin.

A rough swallow works her throat, and she squeezes her eyes closed. “I want to find the spell to send you home and put my life back to normal.”

Damn.

I mean… damn.

Unexpected hurt rips through me as I recoil, her rejection hitting me like a physical force. Something in my chest cracks, and I take a step backward as she opens her eyes and looks at me again, pleading. “Cas, it’s not that I don’t care about…”

“Yeah, okay,” I say, turning away, thankful for once for my new pants as I shove my hands into my pockets.

She takes a tentative step closer. “I’m not a fling type of girl, Cas, and we both know this is temporary…”

“I said okay!” I bellow, whirling to face her and watching her eyes widen at the storm of power that swirls around me. For the first time since she summoned me, Ruby looks truly afraid.

Of me.

Even if I wanted to hurt her, I couldn’t. The unbreakable bonds between a demon and their summoning witch forbid it. But does she really think so little of me?

Hurting her is the last thing I want to do, but she’s right.

This is temporary, and I’d do well to remember that.

“I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings,” she whispers, and even though it’s painful, even though my chest splinters apart with the mockery of it, I force a smug smirk onto my lips.

“As you’ve repeatedly pointed out, Ruby, I’m a demon. Evil, remember? According to you, that means I don’t have feelings.”

“I never—”

“Give me the book.”

“What?” She blinks a few times, confused.

“Give me the spellbook so I can find a way home. Let me be around people who actually want me there.” It’s petty, and as she flinches, there’s no satisfaction. Only guilt.

“Cas…” The waver in her voice makes my eyes soften. “I’m sorry, alright? I am. It’s… having you here… having you want me, is messing with my head. You’re… gorgeous and sweet, and I’m just…”

“Just what?” Beautiful? Amazing? Everything I’ve ever wanted but never knew I was missing? Unable to bear her insecurity, I give in, hugging her against me.

She fits in my arms like she was always meant to be there, and it hurts more than it should to realize that.

“Just me,” she breathes, and I heave a loud sigh as I squeeze her tighter.

“You’re perfect, Ruby—absolutely perfect. Never doubt that. Never let anyone take away your light.” We stand for a minute like this, wrapped up in each other, before I find my resolve. “Let me look over the spellbook, okay? I’ll see what I can do.”