Josiah watched as Leeha paced the floor within their temporary home. Her white, ethereal gown billowed out behind her like a silken cloud with every stride of her long, shapely legs. Her deep red hair was piled high on her head in careless disarray, exposing the graceful curve of her neck. The skin revealed on the back of her neck flushed and damp from her fretfulness.
He longed to sink his fangs into that sweet skin there while he sank his dick into her tight cunt from behind, but knew he would not be welcomed right now. She had much on her mind, and so he bided his time.
Nonetheless, he couldn't stop his hungry eyes from following her near-nude form as she swept across the room. They darted back and forth from the back of her neck to the perfect curve of her ass, unable to decide which view was his favorite.
When she turned and headed his way again, he had to resist the urge to moan aloud. The white gown did nothing to hide the dusky pink of her areolas, or her nipples, hardened from scraping against the fabric. In contrast to the bodice, the skirt of the dress slithered in and out of her legs as she walked, only teasing him with brief glimpses of the soft red curls between her thighs.
The ache to have her naked and breathless beneath him was so strong that it was nearly painful, but this feeling was nothing new. He wanted her, always. Ever since she'd made him a vampire, and had made him hers. His desire for her body and her blood was a constant longing that never went away.
His eyes crawled back up to her neck and along her striking jaw to worship the flawlessness of her face, then narrowed at what he saw there. Her timeless features lined with worry and fatigue. Seeing his mistress like this infuriated him. Her blood red eyes, so unique and chilling in their wickedness, fluttered around the room without landing on anything in particular. She'd barely fed or slept for weeks.
All over that fucking vampire - Aiden.
He thought they'd be done with that douchebag Brit once he'd been used for a possession, but noooo. She was even more obsessed with him now than she had been before, if that was even possible.
Between her affection for Aiden and her fixation with being Luukas' queen, Josiah was beginning to wonder why she even bothered to keep him around. Other than to have someone to slake her lust on, he was nothing but her whipping boy.
He lifted his chin. He needed to be patient. The roles were going to change, and he just needed to chill until the time came.
She didn't realize what an asset he was to her right now, but someday she would. Someday she would pay more attention to him and understand all the things he did for her, see all the ways in which he protected her. Someday she would realize how much he meant to her.
Someday.
"I have to get him back, Josiah," she said.
His anger flashed instant and hot at her words. Gritting his teeth, he tried to mask his temper from her. He needn't have bothered. She was too preoccupied to notice.
She shot an agitated look his way as she continued to pace, her movements jerky and unstable, like her psyche.
"I have to," she repeated. "I must try to talk to him again."
"Why? He nearly killed you before," he reminded her, but she only smiled.
"Aiden would never harm me."
Losing the tentative grip he had on his emotions, Josiah jumped out of his seat and moved to stand directly in her path, halting her endless pacing. He'd been listening to this shit for weeks. He'd had enough.
"He's not Aiden anymore, dammit! He's that fucking demon! The demon that did NOT want to come here, but that you brought out anyway. The demon that explicitly told you not to bring him here. The demon that could put an end to our world as we know it with nothing more than a wave of his hand. What the HELL were you thinking?"
His blood ran cold the moment the words were out of his mouth.
Ah, fuck.
He really needed to learn to keep his goddamned mouth shut. But then again...
Cocking her head jerkily to the side like a bird, those disturbing eyes of hers swept over him like he was no more than a bug about to be squashed under the stiletto heel of her shoe.
Which was exactly what he was to her, he knew. For now.
"You would do well to remember your place, Josiah," she said, her voice deceptively quiet.
He bowed his head and dropped his eyes. "I didn't mean any disrespect. I just worry about you is all."
His heart pounded while he waited to see what she would do. It was always a gamble with her. You never knew how she was going to react. Which was just one of the things that made her so dangerous, and so exciting.
It turned him on.
Though he was a few inches taller and many pounds heavier than she, he was completely at her mercy, and he liked it.
For his mistress was no normal vampire.
His fangs shot down and his engorged dick strained against his pants, the zipper cutting painfully into his flesh as he waited to see what punishment she would dole out for his insolence.
Something soft touched his cheek, and he raised his head to find her gazing at him with a tender expression. "You always look out for me, my love. How can I be angry at you for that?"
The breath he hadn't realized he was holding rushed out of his lungs as his dick withered in disappointment. But he dared not voice such things. If she knew how much he enjoyed her punishments, she would stop doling them out, just to be spiteful.
Instead, he took her pale hand in both of his darker ones, and kissed the back of it reverently. Falling to his knees in front of her, he bunched her gown in his hands and stuck his face in the folds, breathing deep to draw in her scent. "Forgive me, mistress. I had no right to speak to you like that. I do worry for you though."
Her fingers slid through the tight curls on the top of his head, rubbing against his scalp with affection, at first.
A gasp of surprise escaped his throat when she suddenly tightened her fingers in the strands in an unyielding grip. He smiled at the sudden pain.
Ah, fuck yes.
Yanking his face out of her dress, she sneered down at him, "I forgive you, Josiah...this time...but speak to me like that again and I will have you whipped to within an inch of your immortal life."
"Yes, mistress," he breathed. His blood rushed to his groin at the threat, and he closed his eyes so she wouldn't see how desperately he desired her to do just that.
"Now get up," she snapped.
There was the evil bitch he knew and loved.
She resumed her erratic pacing as he took up his stance by the door again. It was all he could to resist the urge to palm himself to relieve the ache there, but he kept his hands at his sides. If she sensed his discomfort, she gave no sign.
She picked up the conversation where it had left off as if his little outburst had never occurred. "I need to speak to Waano again. He will see my side of things. He will help me, Josiah. You'll see. I just need to make him an offer he can't refuse."
"What would a demon want that he couldn’t just take for himself?"
The red oceans of Leeha's eyes swirled and sparked, a self-satisfied smile curling up the corners of her lips. "Why, souls. Of course."
Josiah felt the hair stand up on the back of his neck.
"Souls?"
She nodded.
He wanted to ask her how the hell she thought she'd be able to harness a soul, and then be able to give it to a demon. But honestly, he was afraid to know. For as much as he scoffed at the idea, he had no doubt that she had discovered a way to do just that.
And it terrified the hell out of him.
"But how will you get him here?" Josiah asked. "If he doesn't want to come?"
She halted her pacing, her lips turning up into a devilish smile. "He'll have no choice. My blood brought Aiden's body back to life. It runs through his veins. He is a part of me now, and I of him." She looked up at him, her eyes bright. "I'll just call him, and tell him to come to me."
Josiah shook his head. "It won't work. It never worked with the others."
Slithering across the floor to him, she placed her palms flat against his chest. "It will work."
He stiffened at her touch, jealousy eating away at his insides. "How do you know?"
"Because unlike the others, I can feel him. The blood I gave him calls to me. Aiden is still in there, and he is still vampire. The demon has not taken over his body, and therefore will not resist the blood call. He will come."
This was not playing out the way Josiah had imagined. Not at all. But he was having a hard time remembering that with her soft, full breasts pushing against his chest.
Her hand wandered down to the bulge in his pants and squeezed, hard.