Page 11 of Demons in My Bed
“Excuse me?” Rhodes leaned down, putting his face right in mine, his hand completely encircling my wrist. Hell, he could probably hold both of them in one hand.
“I thought we were making assumptions about each other.” I lifted my chin as the rest of the guys crowded into the elevator. Ashland’s eyes were glittering with excitement, and the twins were still cackling. “You think because I’m a woman riding in an elevator with five men, ready to play some kind of fucked-up game, that I’m scared or nervous. Right? Since I’m smaller than you, I should be terrified?” If steam could visibly blow out of someone’s ears, Rhodes would’ve been smoking more than a tea kettle. “It’s not a bad assessment. Pretty fuckin’ sexist, though I can see how you arrived there. You simply look like a douche who owns a monocle.”
“Kitty has claws... Meow,” Felix purred, pulling me back against his body like we were best friends and not two strangers who’d just met each other for the first time. Watching his brother feed me tequila like a momma bird obviously meant he thought of me as family now.
I gave a smug little smile to Rhodes and settled in against Felix. Fuck, he smelled good.Sweet lemons and fresh paper.My head swam as I breathed him in, the tension between us all rising as we descended.
The elevator dinged, snapping me out of my haze. “Were you just scenting my brother, Bunny?” Talon purred.
I jumped away from Felix. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“If you want me to scent-mark you, kitty, I will,” Felix growled, his eyes flashing with desire as he advanced toward me again. The doors slid open, and I took the opportunity to turn and take a breath. Unfortunately, my path was blocked by a giant.
“Few rules, Bunny. There aren’t many in Haunt. Live and let live, and all that. Down here though… it’s different. The Hunt is…” Ashland trailed off, his gaze scanning the enormous basement area of the club. “The Hunt is fuckingeverything.”
Taking my hand, he led me out into the basement. It was dark and hard to make out much of anything, though the place looked pretty industrial, with exposed pipes and beams running along the ceiling. The walls didn’t extend all the way up—the ceilings were much too high for that—but they were still tall enough to make you feel trapped.
“We all like different things and yet, quite a bit of the same things,” Ashland continued cryptically, running his fingertips across my shoulder. “At our basest forms, what are we?” I swallowed as the other guys began removing the bits of clothing they had on. “What are we, Palmer?”
“We’re animals.”
He smiled, his white teeth appearing sharper, deadlier. Standing before me, he slowly slid his leather suspenders over his shoulders, letting them fall to his legs. “We are… And me and my boys? We’re carnivores.”
“So you want to, what? Eat me?”
Oh, they definitely did. I could already see some evidence of how turned on they were, and I couldn’t deny the dampness that was growing between my own thighs. But with each passing second, it was as though the muscles on display in front of me grew. Each roll of a shoulder revealed more rippling bulk. They seemed to be growing, shifting, right here.
“I wanted to eat you up the second I laid eyes on you in the opening act… but I want to fucking hunt your ass down first. I want to feel your adrenaline, and get high on your fear. I’m dying to see you crawl around for me. I want your cheeks red with embarrassment and your ass warm from my hands,” Ashland breathed, inches from my face now.
“And I want you to fight me, kitty. Scratch me, maul me, fucking bite me with those little teeth,” Felix whispered in my ear, pressing himself against my back. He nudged my head to the side and ran his nose up my neck, breathing in deeply. “Then it’s my turn to mark you… so make it count.”
Oh my fucking stars.
“I’m going to scare you, Bunny babe. You’re going to scream. It’s gonna get this cock so hard, fuuuuck,” Talon groaned, palming himself over his hot pink jockstrap. “I can hear your squeals echoing already.”
My chest was rising and falling rapidly. The scenes they were painting were too good. I hadn’t expected my body to react to them like this, and I suddenly felt extremely inexperienced. This was some next-level kinky shit that my brain would never have even come up with.
“Mmm, look at those hard little nipples,” Ashland praised. Glancing down, I saw he wasn’t wrong.
Misha bent down, his huge fingers looking ridiculous against the tiny zipper on my boots, but he slowly removed them, showing a surprising amount of tenderness as he helped me step out of them. Fuck it, I was here and I was going with it.
He stood, and I walked my fingers up his barrel chest. “And what do you want, big guy?” He just smirked, tugging on one of the bunny ears, effectively removing the mask completely from my face. His hazel eyes darkened rapidly as his pupils dilated. He scanned my face, and my brow furrowed when I thought I saw a flicker of orange in his eyes.What the hell?
Misha glanced away from me, looking over at the other guys as he took his time, reaching around his back to unhook his dagger belt and letting it drop to the concrete floor. I raised my leg, sliding my dress up to reveal my thigh knives before going to remove them. Misha stopped me, his massive hand covering my much smaller one, halting my movements.
“He’s not a big talker, I’m afraid,” Talon piped up. I couldn’t see him, but his voice was getting closer. “Blades turn his big ass on, though. Oh, and blood.” He paused, and I felt his presence right behind me a second before he stepped around and froze, realizing my mask had been removed. A devastating grin took over his face, and I sucked in a breath as he invaded my space further, his hand brushing a few stray hairs back from my forehead. “Most of all, Big Mishy likes pretty things. And you might just be the prettiest thing we’ve ever had to play with.”
Misha’s hand fell away from mine, and with it, the warmth that his touch provided. A shiver ran through my body, but was it from the cool underground air? Or something more… dangerous?
Get your head back in the game. Come on, Palmer.
If I was going to get through this mission and succeed, I needed to focus on my end goal here. Impress Asrael, continue building my skills and proving myself an asset to Montague Industries, and then I’d be able to use the company’s resources to track down those responsible for my parents’ deaths. Thinking back to the night before I left for Port Black, when I had my final impromptu training session with Laurie, I allowed her words of wisdom to ring through my head.
Whatever it takes.
With my confidence and purpose renewed, I straightened my spine, throwing Rhodes a bored look. Truth be told, I was curious about what he’d be interested in. Moody and broody should’ve been his tagline. “And Monocle, what about you? What do you want?”
Rhodes leaned up against an exposed support beam, returning the bored as fuck look, but I could feel his dark gaze sweeping over my face, studying me. “I want to watch them find you. I’ll watch them scare you and fuck with you.” He shrugged. “Fuck you, even. Then, when I blow my load, maybe it’ll be on your face.”
