Free Phoenix Broken by Heather R. Blair

saint centuries ago. Just for kicks. God knew how many lives that creature had destroyed.
    That was whose blood flowed in the woman who’d had her mouth on him. Scott closed his eyes.
    The worst of it was he’d liked her. He'd felt so easy and almost…happy for those couple hours. Scott hadn't felt happy in fucking forever.
    He'd dealt badly with his response to her, but knowing this made it all worse.
    Had his response been his own? Had any of it even been real?
    Had he been mind-fucked by a succubae simply for kicks?
    “I want to talk to her.” Scott's voice was unnerving to his own ears, rough as a match dragging over strike paper. Apt, as his fuse was fucking short and burning down fast.
    “Not a good idea, Scott.”
    “I wasn’t asking your goddamn permission, Rousseau.”
    He turned his back on the vampire, hearing a soft string of curses in French that Scott vaguely registered as insulting both his nationality and the size of his cock before he opened the door to the gym.
    Desdemona was leaning back against a wall. Nolan, who looked as if he'd just emerged from a shower of his own, was talking to her. She was smiling at something the big man was saying. Nolan, being his usual charismatic self, was emphasizing everything with wide gestures that showed off his not unimpressive, heavily tattooed physique.
    Scott’s jaw tightened as he stalked forward.
    Nolan glanced over and caught Scott’s expression. The big para did a double take before looking at the woman in front of him, then back at Scott again. With a bewildered smile and a shrug, he backed away to where Bri, Alcide and Dustin were still chatting.
    Desdemona turned at Nolan’s departure. Those gorgeous spun sugar lips tightened at the sight of Scott, but she gave him a level stare out of calm grey eyes.
    Maybe that look should’ve given him pause, but Scott wasn’t in the mood to check himself.
    “Do you get off on screwing with people like me?”
    “Actually, yes. It’s kind of my nature,” she said, tilting her head. "But I’m curious what you mean by 'like you'? As opposed to people like me , I suppose.”
    “You’re not entirely 'people', are you, Desdemona?" Her lips parted at his use of her name, then those slight shoulders squared.
    “Neither is your boss, genius.” She waved a hand at Miles.
    Scott didn’t feel the need to correct her about Miles being his boss. Jules was his boss, after all, along with Kelsey; and they were both vampires. Moot point. They weren't demons, though.
    They weren't like her.
    “I'm not talking about shades in general. This is different. You used me.”
    She looked at him, her expression startled. Something flitted through her eyes; several emotions, one right after the other, flicking past so fast he couldn't read them all. Was guilt one of them? Possibly. But he'd also seen disappointment. Sadness. Something that might've been fear. Then she blinked it all away into smooth, unassailable grey.
    “Did I? Did you feel used when I made you come?”
    Silence fell over the gym.
    Scott sucked in a breath, before spitting out his next words, “Goddamn it! You manipulated me with what you are! You pushed me into responding to you.”
    Taking a step toward him, her gaze softened.
    “Oh Johnny, is that what you think?" Her eyes searched his face. Slowly, she shook her head. "No. I don't think so. But a part of you really wants to, doesn't it? You're confused and hurting, and that would make things so much easier for you to deal with. You want to think of me as some demon whore who took advantage of your pain, instead of someone who brought you pleasure purely as a gift.”
    Scott ignored the ring of truth in her words. Fuck that shit.
    This was why he'd been so messed up the last twenty four hours. It hadn't been real. It couldn't be.
    He wouldn't let it be.
    Fact. She was a succubus, sex was her power.
    Fact. Demons always abused power, they were incapable of anything else.
    Simple logic said she’d fucked