Free devil 05 - the devil you want by sam cheever Page A

from my lungs. My body softened and melted away from his.
    I immediately flipped over, looking up at Dialle.
    He knelt where he’d been on the bed, his cock still half-hard and hanging heavily between his legs, glistening with moisture from my body.
    His broad chest was covered with a sheen of sweat. It heaved from exertion. His eyes were closed, his perfect lips slightly parted in panting breaths.
    Climbing to my knees, I grabbed his shoulders and shook him hard, panic rising in my chest. “Dialle!”
    Slowly his eyes opened, fixing me with a black gaze that spun with angry red and orange whorls. He stared at me for a long moment and then shook off my grip on his shoulders. “My god, Astra. What have you done to me?”
    And then he was just…gone.
    * * * * *
     
    I paced the confines of my new office restlessly. My werewolf friends Bob and Ralph had gone underground with their business after the explosion in my office that burned down our office building. It turned out that they’d been building the new offices for a while and although they weren’t completely finished, they’d moved to them after our building was trashed.
    Fortunately for me, they’d offered me an office in their new digs, which was located far below the city in an abandoned leg of the sewer system.
    The ceiling of my office was made up of arched, formed concrete, the floor was covered in lush, gray carpet. The foyer, where we greeted customers, was built around a circular pool that was fed with water running from an open rainwater drain in the wall above it. Rather than bearing paintings and traditional art, the concrete walls were carved with whorls and painted in bright, powerful street art. Greenery overflowed large flower boxes and spilled from enormous clay pots. The plants were fed by light from a large skylight located at the convergence of several concrete arches fifty feet above our heads. The skylight was made of multicolored, bulletproof and steel-reinforced glass, impervious to almost everything. I knew from having been given the security tour before joining Bob and Ralph that the ground around that skylight was in an abandoned part of Angel City, in an empty lot owned by the werewolves, and was surrounded by thick concrete walls. The walls were embedded with electrical currents and warded with magic to keep unwary intruders at bay.
    The whole atmosphere of the office was very twenty-second-century paranormal. I felt right at home.
    It was also much safer than my former digs, which was important since someone was obviously trying to kill me.
    I’d been calling Dialle for three days and he’d been ignoring me. Aside from my need to somehow rectify things between us, I was riding the jagged edge of my Settling and my skin jumped with unfulfilled lust. My nerves fizzed and my nostrils flared in search of his scent.
    I couldn’t eat, couldn’t sleep and couldn’t work.
    I’d been avoiding everybody who cared about me since I’d inadvertently taken over Dialle’s body during unprotected sex.
    Something banged against my mental drawers. I slammed the barrier firmly into place to avoid whoever was calling me.
    My televisual bleeped and I barked out “end call” before the caller had a chance to speak a single word.
    “Shut down,” I added, and the machine whirred for a moment and then went silent.
    The air beside me shimmered and I turned hopefully, praying it was Dialle.
    Slayer’s sexy, unwelcome form shimmered into view.
    I glared at him. “You shouldn’t have been able to do that.”
    He reached for my hand and lifted it, showing me the small red mark that glowed whenever he touched my skin. The daemon hickey he’d given me so I could communicate with him.
    “This gives me entrance whenever I want it.”
    I yanked my hand away. “Frunkin’ jerk! I never asked for this mark!”
    Shrugging nonchalantly, he remained totally calm. His face showed no emotion whatsoever. “You’ve made use of it often enough.”
    I swung away