Making Demons Purr (Flushed and Fevered Book 2) (13 page)

The cat shoved forward and the partial shift came at her again. Pain played along her muscles and limbs, riding along her tendons and flaring her nerve endings. Thorn took her lips again. Their tongues tangled as the men fucked her, increasing the tempo. Carver squeezed and rolled her nipples as Thorn bit the tender spot where her shoulder and neck met. She went wild and bucked between them.

Carver sat up behind her, holding her to him while Thorn withdrew. The ice demon sat on his heels and repositioned himself before entering her again. She clutched at the leather bindings. Her newly sharpened claws dug into the sturdy material, poking holes into it. Ripples of bliss cascaded through her as they took her higher and higher, until she was sure that she would fall and all the delight she was experiencing would stop. Her hold scrabbled on her bonds as she tried to work herself back and forth to match their thrusts and withdrawals.

Now, when Carver withdrew Thorn shoved forward. They worked in tandem to bring her such overwhelming sensation that it rode the line between pain and pleasure. Tears streamed down her face and she struggled with her baser instincts.

The cat wanted her to mark both of them, here and now. Her teeth changed, becoming sharper. Saliva pooled in her mouth. The urge to brand them rode her until it became a constant beat in her head. Unable to resist, she bent down and lapped at the same exact place on Thorn’s shoulder where he had bitten her. His cry only pushed her on as the men fucked her harder.

She felt her teeth sink into his shoulder and she moaned around the flesh in her mouth. Blood rolled over her tongue. The taste was metallic, but there was something cool about it, almost like the sensation of peppermint. There was also fire. She tasted darkness and immortality, anger and passion, desire and greed, good and evil, and something beyond both her feline and human understanding. She groaned and held on as Thorn pounded her pussy. She wouldn’t release him, not until she came. And then the bonding would be complete.

She came with a burst of flame and fire as the pressure erupted and the climax took her and flung her into the air. A muffled inhuman scream pierced the air. Her claws shredded the leather straps and she wrapped her freed arms around Thorn’s neck, even as she released him from her jaws. She took his lips, her own still covered in blood, and continued to ride him and Carver.

Sera’s nails scratched along Thorn’s back and she felt the pinch of Carver’s fingers into her hips. Multiple orgasms hit her, overwhelming her body until she didn’t have the strength to move again. She lay back, allowing the men to use her for their pleasure.

Carver was the first to come. She felt him thicken and twitch in her ass. He was so hot she expected him to burn, but she wasn’t afraid. The heat danced along her flesh, drawing out more pleasure from her sensitized skin. The desire to brand still echoed in her mind, but she was too exhausted to try to claim Carver as well. Thorn reached his climax soon after his friend. As he did so, he took her lips in another bruising, greedy kiss. His scraped her bottom lip and he sucked on the plump flesh as he climbed to his zenith and poured himself into the condom.

When he pulled back and smiled, mouth smeared with his own blood, all she could think of was how lucky she was. Most men would’ve run away screaming, but not Thorn and Carver. Now if only she could mark Carver too. Later. When she could move again. For now, her eyelids began to drift down. Sera fell asleep, and for now the cat was satiated.

Chapter Ten

Ribbons of orange, blue, purple, and pink streaked across the sky as dawn began to break over the horizon. Sera woke up with a groan. Her body protested any movement, but she had to go. There was work to be done and there was no way she could duck out of it.

When she’d left the office, Bridget had taken a job for their vampire liaison, Fritz. Sera had to do up the paperwork and touch base with Bridget to see if she had found their target. Worry fluttered in her heart and her stomach quivered at the thought of her friend being out there alone, confronting a rogue vampire.

She slipped out from between the two men, Carver on her right side and Thorn on her left, both snoring softly, deep in dreamland. She winced at the jagged red strips painted on Thorn’s skin. Once she’d partially shifted, she hadn’t been able to resist. It had been a struggle just to get the black panther to behave, much less pull back once the fun had started. The men hadn’t minded, thank goodness. In fact it had seemed to stir their passion even more.

Her body began to hum with sexual awareness. She ignored it and crawled off the bed. After a quick search, she found all of her clothes and managed to put all but her corset on. Instead of struggling with the eyelet closures, she used her jacket as a top. She found the bathroom and washed up, feeling shame at the blood on her face.

Thorn hadn’t seemed disgusted it the least. If he’d been a shifter he would’ve known what to expect, but she didn’t know how much knowledge these demons had about her kind. She vowed to ask later and answer any questions they had before she pressed ahead. It was only fair to let them know what else to expect. She still had Carver to mark, if he allowed it. She should have asked before sinking her fangs into Thorn, but the cat had taken control and she’d been along for the ride.

Before she left, she scribbled out a quick note to them so they wouldn’t think she’d just ducked out on them. She hoped that they would want to go further. For the first time in her life she felt sexually satisfied. Two men might be too much for other women, but for her it had felt just right.

Usually around the time of the full moon she’d use up all the batteries in the house taking care of her Lunar Lust. The alternative was going out and finding some random guy who wanted a no-strings-attached fuck. Having Carver and Thorn to fuck wasn’t just unbelievably erotic; it was also safer.

But if she claimed them as hers she knew her mother would go apoplectic. Having sex with demons was one thing—she could’ve dismissed that as pure lust—but Francine wouldn’t forgive her only pureblood daughter being bonded to demons as her mates. Would the leap accept Carver and Thorn? In the light of day so many things were problematic—things that, in the heat of the moment, she hadn’t even considered.

She knew she couldn’t break things off with Carver and Thorn just when they were getting exciting. They had honored her desires without showing disgust and they’d treated her with reverence and passion. Now that she had experienced that, there was no way she could let it go.

She slipped out of the house and headed out into the breaking dawn. The streetlights were still lit up, but the sidewalks and roads were deserted. Balls of tissue paper drifted by her like tumbleweeds in a light breeze. Spilled fun-size candy littered the sidewalks, as did their crumpled and discarded wrappers. Her stomach rumbled but she refused to grab a few and treat them as a pre-breakfast treat. There was a sharp acrid tang of gunpowder on the air from the fireworks that had gone off at midnight to herald the arrival of Samhain.

Her ears prickled as she heard a rustling off in the distance. A small, black cat darted out, covered in damp toilet paper, and stopped right in her path. Sera shook her head and bent down to pick off the wet fabric. She soothed the small feline with long, slow strokes from her head to the tip of her tail. There was a diamond-studded collar around the pet’s neck, announcing that she was Miss Zelda. “There you go, Miss Zelda.”

A loud purr drifted up to Sera’s ears and she smiled. Her own feline gave a grumble of approval. Emerald-green eyes blinked up at her before it stepped back, end up in the air, and started walking in the direction that would lead Sera home. She decided to follow the cat. Evenfall’s crime rate was lower than the surrounding areas, but an angry cat seemed good protection all the same.

Exhaustion pulled on her energy reserves. Carver and Thorn had been thorough. Every move she made announced new aches and pains. She was aware of the small welts on her buttocks from the light spanking she’d received from Carver. She could feel the imprint of the belt on her wrists. And then there were the various love bites that both men had left on her flesh. The tender tissues in her vagina and back passage ached sweetly, and her mouth still hadn’t recovered from taking Thorn’s cock so deeply.

She thought back to their first encounter in the sun-room. A small part of her had been excited at being caught by Ariel. She had enjoyed watching her friend pleasure herself as she witnessed Sera’s little
ménage
. Sera didn’t feel the least bit awkward or embarrassed at having been caught, but she didn’t think public sex would become a regular thing. Once in a while was fine, but she didn’t need it to get off. She vowed to speak to Ariel later to clear the air and put the lynx shifter at ease.

“Looks like I’ll have to figure out my limits, huh?” She watched Miss Zelda stop to investigate a bush and dive into the foliage. A squirrel burst out the other side, but rather than chase it Miss Zelda returned to Sera and they continued on their way.

They arrived at Sera’s brownstone, having met no one else. Sera smiled. It had taken fifteen minutes. Good to know for next time she had to take a morning-after walk. She would need to start packing an overnight bag. There were so many things they had to talk about. She wanted to ask Mysta or Bridget what they knew about demons. A little extra knowledge would be helpful.

A yearning to turn back and crawl into bed with her men—and they
were
hers—took her by surprise. She shook it off, reluctantly. There was a job to do, and she needed to shower and change. Things had gotten messy, and she wanted to be clean and presentable when she went into the office.

As she opened her front door, Miss Zelda darted in and started to wander around the living room area.

Sera checked her messages and found one from her mother. “Happy Samhain, darling. Usual brunch tomorrow. Make sure to come early. I’ve arranged for some eligible tiger and panther shifters to be here to meet you. I know, I know, tigers are out of our usual circle, but they are rich, so we’ll make the exception, won’t we? Wear something tasteful yet sexy, but no corsets. Goddess knows why you insist on wearing such a slutty garment.

“Also, what’s this I hear about you and two demons? The owners of The Java Demon. Dear? You must be more careful. The company that you keep affects your reputation. It could be inferred among the feline community that you don’t feel you can find a mate among them. Let’s quash that, shall we? You know what? I’ll swing by before the brunch and pick something out for you, shall I? See you soon. Kisses.”

Her mother hung up. Tension built within Sera until she shook with restrained rage. She gritted her teeth as she tried to master her anger. A brush of soft warmth whispered against her calves. She sighed and crouched down as Miss Zelda made another pass. Sera closed her eyes and allowed herself the luxury of scratching behind the cat’s ears. She wished she could shift into her panther counterpart and wander through the woods, expend the energy that felt bottled up inside of her.

Only her mother could cause such a riot of emotion in her. Spending time with Carver and Thorn made her feel competent, as did Bridget and Mysta and Lana. But just one conversation with her mother sent her back to her awkward teenage years. In those days she had felt out of step with her friends. While they wore the latest fashions, she had had to wear conservative business-casual dress, even to school. It was only befitting feline royalty.

Her mother dictated her friends and her life. Now Sera was an adult, with her own life, her own friends, and now her own lovers, but nothing had really changed. The only good thing Sera had ever done in her mother’s eyes had been dating Arthur. No matter how many times Sera tried to make her mother see who she was, it never truly registered. She didn’t want to fight with her mother, but it looked like the day had come for Sera to give her an ultimatum: butt out or get out. It was harsh but needed if Sera was going to continue on with Carver and Thorn. There was no room for her mother’s insistence on purity, her judgments, her attempt to control her daughter. None.

Sera rose up and puttered around the kitchen. She put together a plate of food for Miss Zelda and headed upstairs for a shower and maybe a nap. As she stood under the warm spray of water she went over what she had to do that day. Go to the office, check in on Bridget, check on payments, call back a few clients, and try to sort out the pile of paperwork that had begun to take over her in-box. There was also the research room, which had begun to look like a pile of books and scrolls. Bridget had let Mysta go crazy buying manuscripts at a black-market book auction and estate sale.

On the brink of becoming a prune, Sera turned off the shower and stepped out of the stall. She’d have to confront her mother sometime during the day.

The doorbell rang once, then again in quick succession. Sera rolled her eyes and grabbed a robe. Her mother had a key—one Sera hadn’t given her—and would probably be investigating her kitchen before making her way up to Sera’s bedroom. No matter how many times she asked, her mother refused to give the key back.

Sera tied the belt on her robe tight and hoped the marks from last night wouldn’t show. Because she was in human form, she would heal and recover much more slowly than she would as feline. She tugged the sleeves down and went to go meet her early visitor.

Just as she thought, her mother was puttering around her kitchen. Francine had put on a pot of coffee and was making some food. Sera didn’t know what exactly.

“Mother, it’s early.” Sera tucked a wet strand of hair behind her ear and watched with gritted teeth as Francine moved around the room. She moved with so much familiarity that it made Sera feel like a guest in her own home.

“I know, dear, but you know how Samhain makes me ill at ease. Those dreadful pranksters were out this morning. Luckily, Howard scared them away.” Francine started to put ingredients into a mixing bowl. “Your sister didn’t come home last night. We had a disagreement on her costume. I came over here hoping to find her. Is she here?”