Page 8 of Demon Queen
He gave me a suddenly sharp smile. “If you say that King of Demons suits me, who am I to argue?” He held up his phone and I got to see myself in my Duchess outfit. “Candy Queen is a perfect metamorphosis from Cherry. Apparently we’ve both been evolving. You didn’t mention my tail.”
He’d found me online while I thought he was looking at papers. I was really and truly caught. I glanced at the door. “I really should go before they…”
He ripped off his jacket and shirt in two pieces down the back so he was left bare-chested, sleeves dripping off his muscular arms. His chest was so ridiculously brawny.
“Steroids are bad,” I said, staring at that chest, absolutely unable to look away. The skin was red-tinted, with some black veining around his arm pits. The paint job was unbelievable. So detailed with variation that made it look really real. I wasstarting to really get why the monster theme was so successful. He was absolutely mesmerizing.
He leaned across the desk, put one claw under my chin and raised my face so I was looking into his eyes. “Up here, Miss Simons.”
“I beg your pardon,” I stammered, fighting the blush. But he’s the one who ripped off his clothes. I scowled at him and pulled away. “I thought this wasn’t a strip club. You can’t be angry about objectification when you’re the one who…”
His tail whipped over the desk and the end wrapped around my arm, tugging me forward so I fell on the desk and into him. My palms were on his bare skin, my face against his neck. For a second I was perfectly safe, surrounded by heat and strength that nothing could possibly destroy.
He smelled so perfectly edible. Cinnamon bears had always been my favorite flavor, and he was right there, under my lips, skin that needed some bites taken out of it.
I parted my lips and then realized what I was doing.
I shoved away from him, but didn’t go far, not with that tail thing wrapped on my arm. I looked down at it, at the way the spikes curved away from me so I wasn’t skewered. The way the spines quivered. So realistic. “Let me go,” I spat, glaring up at him. “I didn’t come here for this.”
“No?” His eyes burned as he looked me over. “What did you really come here for? The other demon is too young for you.”
“You think I’d take advantage of someone so young?” I sputtered, struggling against his grasp. That tail felt too real, grasping me like a live thing. Strong. Implacable.
His eyes flickered and he leaned closer so I could feel the heat coming off him. Lines like glowing fire spread beneath his skin like he was coming apart and showing the magma underneath. It looked so real. Felt so real. And those eyes. They didn’t look like contacts. They looked like death come to devour me.
“Young means he doesn’t have control. He would kill you unintentionally. I can’t have you dying before you’ve paid your debt.” His voice was gruff, and his skin kept getting hotter.
“Psh,” I said, struggling to push off his tail and not notice how good he felt at every point of contact. “And you said this would be business. You’re all the melodrama and none of the brass tacks.”
He narrowed his eyes at me and then released me. As he threw himself back into his massive chair, his body changed color and sizes, until he was the old Dorian I remembered from the strip club. Still muscled, but leaner, more archer than battle-hardened warrior. He still didn’t have a shirt, but the way he’d just changed, getting rid of everything demonic in less than a blink left me reeling and stunned more than anything else I’d seen.
I stared at him, searching for a spike or a flicker of tail. “How did you…”
“It’s a glamour used to hide the demon from the world.” He looked at his hand as he flexed it, but they were the tapered fingers I remembered, the ones without claws.
“It’s a glamour used to…” I stumbled around the desk and ducked down, looking for the tail. There was nothing but his feet and legs.
I looked up at him, sitting at his feet while the world started going blurry. “It’s a glamour used to…”
“Hide the demon from the world,” he repeated with a flicker of compassion in his eyes. “If you’re going to be working here with me, you’ll have to accept my reality. This is not a human establishment. I am not human, and I never was.”
I nodded as I slowly stood up between his knees. My own knees were so wobbly, I wasn’t really surprised that I collapsed on his lap. His eyes widened, but he shifted me so my head was on his arm and I could stare up at him.
“Sorry,” I said, staring into those brown eyes. They weren’t glowing. Neither was his skin. “I think I’m having a mental break.” That was the only logical explanation for all of this.
“It’s good to take a break now and then,” he said with a slight frown as he ran a hand down my arm. It was better than a tail. Was that real? Was anything?
“Is it? I’d like a break from being mental. That’s my normal. That’s why I live in the Candy Kingdom. But my special effects aren’t as special as yours.” Wilkie had wings. Real growths fused to his shoulder blades. That wasn’t pretend. My baby hadn’t come out of me in costume.
I struggled to sit up and he let me go, not using his tail to stop me. I tried to see his butt, but he was sitting on it. Where did the tail go? I knew where his jacket and shirt were, ripped in two pieces and left on the floor to either side of him.
I picked up one piece of white fabric and stared at it for a long time. It was ripped, but the fabric was really good breathable cotton with a hint of silk.
“These are great fibers,” I said, staring at the rip line. He’d actually ripped his shirt off like that? That wasn’t possible. You couldn’t just flex and tear something down the back that evenly. And the jacket was even thicker. I peered at his hair, but there wasn’t a hint of spikes. I cautiously touched the silky strands and he grabbed my wrist, pulling it down while shaking his head.
“You shouldn’t pet a demon. He might come home with you.”
I frowned at him. “You think you’re a real demon?”
