The Demon's Deception (Demons Unleashed Erotic Novellas) (2 page)

Their arousal scented the room as surely as her anger overwhelmed her. Everyone was having sex except for her. She vowed that was going to change, and the king be damned.

***

Barbas surveyed the clearing where Prince Gaap had been attacked by the famed Fir Bolg Fae assassins. It was also the clearing where Leraye, the Demon of Battle, had been frozen in stasis by a Fae weapon until Zepar and Thalia had figured out how to break him out of his statue prison.

A giant oak tree dominated the now peaceful glade. Barbas crawled into a crook between the mighty roots and settled in. Birds twittered in the early morning air. Squirrels and chipmunks chattered to each other in high pitched clicks. The stream babbled over limestone chunks scattered across the land as if a giant hand had thrown them like dice.

This was also the clearing where the Demons had the most contact with the Fae. Of course, all of the encounters had been violent and not ended well for either Fae or Demon. But Barbas was out of ideas.

While trying to find the traitor, he'd haunted the tavern where the cloaked and glamoured Fae had bespelled Amara's former husband, convincing him to infiltrate the Castle by bargaining with Vetis, the Demon of Corruption. But no one had actually seen the Fae's face. Their memories had been blurred by the Fae's ability to affect glamour. Most were confident the Fae had been male but no one could confirm even that piece of information.

Every lead he'd followed had been a dead end. And Barbas was weary. Weary of the fight to keep his nature hidden. Weary of the constant deception. His eyelids drooped. He'd had minimal sleep lately. He drew his strength from the pull of the moon and the burn of sunlight so most of the time he needed very little in the way of rest. But the last month had been particularly intense. He had to infiltrate the Fae and find the traitor before someone discovered his secret.

***

Aine alighted into the Fae clearing. She'd insisted on training here. Her father insisted on bodyguards while she trained due to the fact that someone in the local village was asking about the Fae. The whole bodyguard issue was silly since she was one of the Fir Bolg, elite Fae assassins, and could kill anyone who attacked her. And the clearing was now warded against Demons. She would be perfectly safe here.

This glade had become her touchstone. The place where she could come and imagine a love as great as the one she'd been privy to observe in those haunting and intimate moments during the Fir Bolg attack on the Demon Prince and his Human woman. They had defended each other. Protected each other. The Human had sacrificed her safety for the prince. Aine had recognized the woman's agony when she realized she'd betrayed her lover. A devotion like those two seemed to share was far outside her reach.

The whole event had been life changing for Aine. She had no one who would stand with her, for her. She was a monarch without a kingdom. A woman without a lover. Without a single person to care for her. And she was lost.

Her bodyguards stood sentinel at opposite ends of the small grassy area.

Aine kept the hood of her plain cloak over her head for the simple reason that she knew if her bodyguards saw her face they would be sure to deny her. But perhaps if she left her cloak on they would forget who she was for a little while.

"Finn," she said breathlessly to bodyguard number one. "I'd like to practice the single attacker drill."

Dressed as a common peasant, in a rough burlap dress and heavy woolen stockings, no one would mistake her for a princess right now. Her nipples drew up into stiff little peaks as she wondered about the hot caress of a lover's mouth.

A groan escaped Finn but all he did was turn around so that his back was to her. "I must maintain my post, ma'am. But I will give you privacy." No one was allowed to address her by rank when they were outside the Fae Realm. If the Demons ever got their hands on the king's daughter, chaos would ensue.

"Seamus?"

His gaze dropped to the pointed buds of her nipples, visible against the rough burlap. But then he straightened and looked away. "I'm sorry. But I must be vigilant in my duty."

Damn loyal guards. It was time for drastic measures.

She undid the coarse laces on the peasant dress and opened the thick material until her breasts hung heavy and ripe in the chilly morning air.

"Seamus, I'm having trouble getting this dress off."

He licked his lips and stared greedily at the full globes of her bared flesh and then cleared his throat. But Seamus made no move towards her.

"Please aid me in undressing," she demanded imperiously.

"Yes, ma'am." Before she could do more than inhale, he'd shoved the material of the dress over her hips and it tumbled to the ground with a swoosh. And without a single brush of skin against skin. The bodyguard then turned, faced away from her, and stared into the woods.

She suppressed a groan of frustration when neither succumbed to her charms. She knew that she couldn't force the issue. Her father was likely to punish them if they did consent to rid her of her virginity.

She heaved a frustrated sigh. Aine strode to the large flat rock beside the tumbling brook and then began a series of warm-up exercises. She stretched her limbs in a sinuous movement and strained toward the rising sun. Heat and energy fell over her like a curtain as she drew in the power of the sun's rays.

She had to come up with a plan. She was a warrior by the Goddess. A Fir Bolg assassin, she could protect herself against enemies of the king. Enemies who wouldn't hesitate to use a princess in order to get to her father.

All that training meant she could bring a man down in five seconds. Get him to a vulnerable position so she could take advantage. But once she got him on the ground, he would flee as soon as he realized that she was the Princess.

It was a conundrum, to be sure.

She executed a series of kicks, her body limbered up by the physical exercise. Each point of her toes and stretch of her hamstrings exposed her pussy to the cool morning sunshine. Goddess, she longed for more than air to touch her.

Her hands wandered over her body, sure and confident as she toyed with her nipples in the chilled air. But she didn't want her own hands. She wanted a man's hand on her body. Rough and thick and different. And she wanted to see a cock strong and proud and erect instead of the flaccid weak members she'd managed to glimpse when she spied on the other Fir Bolg.

She wasn't even sure what made her come to the clearing today. Perhaps to be away from all the trappings of her station. She gave up playing with her body and just relaxed into a series of katanas designed to prepare the body for an epic fight. Her mind settled into an almost drowsy state as she listened to blue jays chirp and small woodland animals forage in the forest. Her gaze wandered idly around clearing until she stopped abruptly.

For under the massive oak tree lay an absolutely gorgeous specimen of a man. His head was shaved. He was not bald for she could see the faint shadow of his hair underneath the skin's surface. Fair-skinned, strong features defined his face in sharp angles. Thick ropy muscle lined his chest, wrapped in a sleeveless tunic of a rough material. His biceps bulged as he rubbed at the front of his pants. A knowing smirk covered his lips as he stared boldly at her.

For a moment, Aine panicked. She was naked.

And then she realized that he wasn't slowly sneaking away. He wasn't cowering in fear of her bodyguards. He hadn't even removed his gaze from her body. Instead, she felt as if he touched her with the hot lick of a lover. He looked his fill, lingering on her breasts and the rounded curve of her hip. Then he returned his focus lazily to her face...and winked.

Suddenly she realized that he rubbed an erection. He had propped up his knees and spread his legs just so until she could see him and what he was doing as he massaged his own cock.

Aine's breath caught.

"Everything okay?" Finn called out.

The man's brow crooked in question. And this was it. Her bodyguards hadn't seen the man and he was clearly interested in her. Could she? A stranger? He wasn't Demon. She would be able to tell. He wasn't Fae. He must be Human but he had an indefinable quality that she was unable to place.

Nor did she particularly want to figure him out. Here was her opportunity.

She held her finger to her mouth and he nodded in understanding. She frantically wracked her brain for any sort of maneuver to get the guards out of the clearing.

Aine saw the deer, a good distance away, the animal held still in the forest and scented the danger of their presence. "I thought I saw Demons, through the copse of those trees," she called softly.

"I will call for backup."

"There is no need," she said arrogantly. "I am a trained assassin. I can protect myself." She realized that the warning would also serve to let the aroused man know that she was no vulnerable maiden.

"But--"

"If you two won't go after them, then I will."

"As you wish." Both guards ran toward the spot she'd indicated. Their movement startled the deer and it crashed through the woods in fear. The bodyguards, unaware that they'd been tricked, gave chase.

Finally, she was naked and alone with a man.

THREE

Barbas held his breath and stroked his cock through the rough linen work pants. He'd been sound asleep when the dulcet tones of an angel's voice had awakened him. Her blatant attempts to seduce the two guards with her actions were almost clumsy in the execution. But her movement as she paced through a series of fighting exercises had been nothing short of magnificent. Each kick exposed the thatch of thick black curls, taunting him with only glimpses of her deep red pussy.

Even her awkward handling of her own body intrigued him. The guards had been affected by her beauty. Kinky curls of wild black hair corkscrewed around her face and framed wide brown eyes the color of a chestnut and skin as bronzed as a naked wood nymph. It was clear that she practiced in the nude often as she drew the power of the sun to her. Wide, full lips a deep ruby had quirked up in a conspiratorial smile and her eyes had sparkled with mischief as she sent the guards on a fruitless errand.

Everything about her aroused him.

His body responded to hers as if he hadn't had a sex marathon in the last month. And the idea that they had limited time before her bodyguards returned spurred him to action.

"Come here, sweetness." His voice came out low and husky with desire as he opened the slit of his pants and let his cock spring free.

Her exotically tilted eyes widened. And she stood stock still her gaze frozen on his erection.

He would have thought that perhaps she was nervous but then she licked her lips and the moisture caused her mouth to glisten.

"You want a taste? You'll have to come closer," he taunted, then glanced meaningfully at the forest. "And I doubt we have much time before dumb and dumber return."

"Good point." She smiled and strolled toward him, as if her nakedness was natural and she were at ease. But her pulse fluttered in the hollow of her neck, and a fine tremor shook her hands.

She walked right up to him until they were both sheltered by the offshoot branches of the giant oak. "You are certainly...large," she said with a little hitch. A deceptive innocence flickered over her face as her gaze stayed glued on his cock. Demons were unusually well-endowed which was a little known fact unless you happened to fuck a Demon.

He smiled darkly. "Problem?" He reached out and traced his fingertips along the delicate curve of her collarbone. She shivered and the hard buttons of her nipples tightened further.

"No." She reached tentatively for his staff and curled her palm around him.

He was sore from all the sex he'd had lately and still her cool, soft palm was like a jolt to his entire body. As if he'd channeled both sun and moon's energy through the top of his head and the soles of his feet and all that power arrowed from all directions through his body and out of his cock. The sensation was heady and nearly unbearable. "Merde," he swore.

She snatched her hand away. "I'm sorry."

"I'm not." He curled his hand around hers and brought it back to his cock. "Touch me again. You're like pure energy."

She flushed, the pretty red spread across her shoulders and down to the tips of her breasts.

"Your pretty pussy is just as deep red and gorgeous as your nipples."

Her arousal scented the air, the aroma an aphrodisiac to his senses and his cock hardened painfully.

"I can't wait for all that luscious sex to swallow me up." As if his words overwhelmed her, her knees dipped. Barbas clasped her shoulders gently to hold her up and turned them both until her back rested against the tree. He pushed her up against the smooth bark of the ancient tree and bent his head to suck her nipple into his mouth.

He was touching her! Really touching her. Aine could read his wishes loud and clear. He wanted her. Needed her.

Aine let sensations wash over her. His dirty talk aroused her. Unused to the touch of another, her body responded with alarming enthusiasm to the gentle stroke of his fingers against her sensitized flesh. He slid his hands down her arms, and clasped her fingers in his.

Other sensations filtered through consciousness. The smooth yet rough rasp of the bark against the tender skin of her back. The hot, wet suction of his mouth on her breast. The silk and hardness of his cock in her hand. Good Goddess, she'd never felt anything like the wonder of this man's member. How would he ever fit inside her?

And then she forgot about the fact that he touched her without fear as he boldly invaded her. She gasped as his fingers penetrated her body. Bigger, harder, rougher he stroked her woman's channel with a sureness that left her legs weak and her head spinning. She dragged her palms against the muscled hardness of his biceps and reveled in the freedom to touch him however she wanted. He was no common laborer. His body was rigid and primed for battle. A warrior.

She lost herself in the freedom of being able to touch him without worry, which was a wonder to her.