Drio pushed my dress up, his breath ghosting over Cuntessa. She voiced her approval with ripples of hot pleasure. With a wicked glint up at me, he nipped the inside of my thigh.
An electric sizzle caught at the base of my spine, arcing up through me. Holy yes, Batman! I fumbled in my clutch for my keycard, yanking him to his feet. "Inside," I breathed. "Now."
His eyes, fiery emeralds, locked onto mine. Using his powers so absolutely for good, he had me inside on the bed with my dress off my shoulders before I could blink.
"More skin." I wrapped my leg around his waist, tearing at his shirt buttons.
Drio dragged his finger up my side. The sharp smell of his arousal pushed me into overdrive.
I moaned, rocking against him.
"I don't kiss," he murmured in my ear.
"What?"
He raised his head. "I don't kiss."
His words were like a douse of freezing water. Ice seeped through my veins, making everything numb when I should have been on fire.
I pushed Drio off of me.
"Does it matter?" he asked.
I rubbed my hands over my arms, thoroughly unnerved by this of all similarities between us. "I'm sorry. I can't do this."
He wasn't angry. In fact, the look he gave me was heavily laced with compassion. He shrugged. "Sometimes you just want to feel something else, you know?"
I nodded. Yeah, I knew. I pulled my dress back onto my shoulders.
Drio made himself presentable once more. "Will you be all right?"
"Yes." I squeezed his hand. "Thank you."
He was already opening my door. "Yeah, yeah."
I figured that I'd toss and turn all night, but sleep claimed me pretty fast. The next morning, I woke up to a moment of horror for what I'd almost done. That turned into a moment of horror that I felt horrified about being horrified when Rohan and I weren't in a relationship. Whatever had not happened with Drio was none of Rohan's business. Just like whether or not Rohan spent the night with Lily was none of mine.
Then I sprinted to the bathroom and vomited.
24
I'd always thought battling demons involved physical fights, but Samson was the second demon I'd faced who'd unleashed emotional wreckage and mind game fuckery on a brutal scale. I almost blinded myself with my mascara wand, lost in the grip of my savage urge to destroy him for loosing that encore on me.
So when Drio and not Rohan called me with the details of the location for the meeting, I needed more than a few steady breaths to calm down. Rohan didn't get to start avoiding me now. Not before I'd had my say and officially ended our penile paradigm.
I armored up in all-black.
The one good thing in my morning was a message waiting at reception for me from Dr. Gelman saying her panel had gone well. Her check-in calmed me down a bit.
Using Rasha connections, Rohan and Drio arranged for us to have use of a cool underground bar. I'd texted Samson the time and address, receiving confirmation that he'd be there.
I paced at the top of the stairs leading down to the bar for a good ten minutes before I felt psyched enough to go meet up with my team, though I was surprised to descend the stone stairs and find other patrons inside. The bartender looked up from drying a glass, studying me with more curiosity than my presence warranted. Then he nodded, raising his hand to show his Rasha ring. Ah. He'd looked a bit too ripped to spend his time slinging booze. Each of the half dozen or so other men here were hunters as well, providing background so Samson didn't get suspicious by walking into a deserted bar.
I took a seat at one of the high tables, taking the chair that put my back to the wall. The bartender brought me over a can of dark beer. "I shouldn't."
"Root beer," he said.
Neither Drio nor Rohan showed themselves. I wished that I had some understanding of what would happen but I guess they couldn't risk Samson walking in and seeing them.
Samson kept me waiting for twenty minutes. Long enough to make me sweat that he wasn't going to show. He skipped hello to go straight for the jugular. "Guess you've been replaced. I hear she's smart, too." A mean sort of smile slid across his face.
I ran the edge of my thumb over the can's tab. "Does that change things?"
Samson shrugged, watching me with a feigned casualness. "You tell me."
"If you were only interested in me for Rohan, then you should have skipped the middle man and fucked him yourself. You'd have enjoyed it. Evelyn sure did."
White spots of rage appeared on his cheeks. "You cunt," he hissed.
A low chanting filled the room. A call to Adramelech.