Land of Monsters (Savage Lands #8)

Chapter 5

Fuck.

My hand strangled the back of my neck while I paced the small room, trying not to acknowledge my throbbing erection, need rattling through every fiber. The impulse to go back down the hall, barge through the bathroom door, and take what I wanted had me grinding my teeth until my jaw popped.

I squeezed my cock over my pants like I could calm it down, soothe it or something. Get control of myself. Though it seemed this was a losing battle lately.

It was natural for me to get this horny. It was who I was. What I was. And it had been a while since I took the edge off. That’s all this was—excess magic needing an outlet.

Except you could’ve had it last night! Instead you walked away from it. What the hell is wrong with you?

Not wanting to answer the question, my gaze flew around the simple chamber, landing on the full bed taking up most of the room. I could hear the squeal of the old metal frame without even sitting on it, knowing how it would squeak and cry with every thrust.

A buzzing started under my skin when I had a flash of Raven under me, groaning, her hands tied to the frame. My hands clasped tighter on my dick, and I drew in heavy, deep breaths.

I couldn’t share this bed with her. No doubt my weakness would win out.

You’ll probably lose her tomorrow anyway. Her family will take her back home. This might be your last night together. The fiend whispered in my ear, chipping at my fragile will. Another part of me was terrified, knowing that if we crossed the line, everything would change.

My goals. My life. My revenge. Me .

The door opened and Raven stepped in, wrapped only in a minuscule, ratty towel, her hair wet, her skin glistening with water, with clothes tucked in her arms.

Any foundation under me dropped away, my body flaring to life. I felt like I was scrambling in the air, not ready to admit that gravity was about to pull me down.

“What are you doing?” I sputtered, my words coming out angry.

“Walking into the room.”

“You can’t just walk around like that!” I gestured to her wet, barely covered body. “Anyone could be lurking around out there!” I could hear the crazy in my voice, the ridiculous argument I was starting.

“We’re in a brothel ,” she scoffed. “I’m wearing more than anyone in this building.”

“I don’t care!” I couldn’t seem to stop. Her presence, in only a towel, shrunk the room to a pinpoint.

“What the fuck is your problem?” She tossed the clothes on the bed, fury flashing her eyes a tint of pink. “You know what? I don’t care. I’m sick of you treating me like a child. Haven’t I proved enough to you I can handle myself? That I’m the one people should be afraid of? That you should bow down to me?”

That was the problem. I had been on my knees before her already, and I wanted to drop to them now.

Her eyes flared at me. “You won, okay, Ash? I will call my parents tomorrow and get out of your way. But tonight, I want to live in the moment. Live like I’m not the fucking princess of the Unified Nations. I’m just me!” She grabbed some clothes, turned with a huff, and dropped her towel.

Lightning struck me, the sight of her naked ass and back electrocuting me inside and out as she drew on some lacy panties Maestro had gotten for her, frying my brain.

Right then, loud moans from the room next door crackled through the walls. We could hear the two men pounding into each other, and their energy cut straight into me, making my mind hazy with lust. My willpower evaporated, and I felt myself falling.

Spending time in brothels was practically home to me, with Kitty being one of the top madams in Hungary. The way I grew up, sounds of sex were like white noise.

But right now, if I didn’t get out, I would do something very stupid. Every fiber in me wanted to taste her curves, feast on her. Cross the line and double-dip a few times in it.

She was not someone you could use like that. Especially if I was putting her on a plane tomorrow, never to see her again.

“Fuck this.” I strode for the door, every muscle locked up. “Don’t wait up.”

“Where are you going?”

I slammed the door behind me, practically jogging down the corridor to the last room at the end of the hall. I knew what was inside, and I wanted to get as high and as drunk as possible, my specific needs taken care of.

And most of all, I wanted someone to make me forget what I just left in the room. To bleed her from my veins.

?

Leaning over the table, I sniffed in the line of fairy dust, my system crying with glee at the familiar substance. I had gotten better at ignoring the craving, but it had always been there, waiting under the surface. My shoulders eased just a little, and I took another line right away. I was too keyed up, and my brain wasn’t letting me black out images of Raven naked.

Yes, we had been naked before together, but this felt different. In that older man’s hotel room, we were his puppets, just acting out his fantasies. Here, we were acting out our own.

I tipped my head back, letting the drugs flood my system. The room buzzed with an abundance of energy and people. A mix of fae and human, everyone here ready to orgasm their way into the new year. The need for even more wickedness and twisted kinks had the room moaning in unison, sex covering almost every open space.

“It’s crap, but it gets the job done.” A man’s sensual voice came up next to me at the table spread with drugs and alcohol, doing a line next to me. I looked over, taking in the tall, built, beautiful naked fae. His long flowing black hair and overly carnal aura suggested a zbur?tor, similar to an incubus. I recognized him instantly as the same man who had been touching Raven the last time we were in this room, kicking up a flare of anger.

“Yeah,” I replied curtly, tasting the chemicals that made up the cheap drug at the back of my tongue, knowing I had something that could offer me a better high back in the room. And it wasn’t the mushrooms I was thinking of.

A sensual smile warmed his features, my tone misunderstood—or ignored. Licking his lips, he looked me up and down without recognition. He clearly had no memory of me or that night.

“You are gorgeous.” His hand slid over my ass, though his gaze stayed on my cock. “And fucking massive. Gods, I want to suck you.” His hand dipped lower on my ass, and he stepped into me, his light-purple eyes suggesting he had some high fairy blood in him. “What are you looking for? I’m into it all.”

A sensation crashed over me, a pull I couldn’t describe, but I instantly felt it burn through me, commanding me. Craning my neck to the door, I went still.

Air sucked out of the room while everything in me came alive.

Once again, Raven stood a few feet inside the door, but this time, a confidence radiated within her, a strength I hadn’t seen before. As much as she feared her powers, they made her who she was. Authority billowed from her skin, making us all want to bend the knee to her.

Dressed in just those lacy black knickers and a matching see-through bra. Her damp hair tumbled down to her lower back, her chin high and regal. Gone was the nervousness she displayed the last time she came in here.

As she stared at me, she took my breath away, and at that moment, I knew I was done fighting her.

The man followed my gaze, his mouth dropping open.

“Futu-ti.” Fuck. The man whispered in awe. “Ce dracu este ea?” What the hell is she?

He could feel it too, the unique magic that was only Raven, her signature.

Mine.

My feet moved, logic deserting me as I strode for her. Her chin rose higher, preparing for my confrontation. She held her ground, but I noticed her cheeks turning pink, her eyes straining not to slide down my physique, her throat struggling to swallow.

I loved knowing I affected her too.

“What the hell are you doing?” I stopped about an inch away from her.

“No.” She put up her hand, moving around me.

“Wh-what?” I sputtered, moving back in front of her. “What do you mean, no?”

“I mean, we aren’t doing this again.” She tipped her head, her eyes blazing into mine with determination. “I am a grown adult, whatever you may think, and I make my own decisions. I want to be here, and you can’t do anything to change that.”

“But why?” I motioned around at the debauchery happening around, a woman moaning from the top of her lungs in the swing over our heads with three other people. “This is what you want?”

“What? Am I too proper for you now? Too high on a pedestal?” she shot back. “Guess what, Ash? I am a flesh and blood person who has experienced tragedy, heartbreak, and death… who also wants to feel, be touched, live in the moment.” Her eyes stayed on me. Reaching around, she unhooked her bra, letting it slide down her arms. She was small, but her pert tits would fit perfectly in my hands.

And mouth.

I bit back a moan, my dick so hard tears formed behind my lids.

“I want this night just for me. Tomorrow I can go back to my role as princess, leave you alone on your revenge mission to die.” Her lip lifted. “But in here, I want to be more than the title, more than the fucked-up mess I am. I have been so scared to breathe, so scared to live outside my comfort zone because of who I am and what I can do. The world watches me, either putting me on a shelf like a pretty doll or waiting for me to screw up. I become a sum of what headlines say about me.” She stepped closer, her hands wrapping around my forearms, her nipples brushing my torso. Short, shallow breaths moved in and out of my lungs, only a hair away from breaking. “So either step up or back off.” She walked around me, leaving me reeling over what she had just said.

Step up or back off . An invitation to act. To do something.

I watched her walk away. The zbur?tor was already in front of her, lust written all over his face. He moved in close, his hands trailing over her hips, and whispered something in her ear, his lips grazing down her neck.

It made me feral with possessiveness, the foreign emotion switching off logic, muting the voice that kept her at a distance. There was no backing off. Not when it came to her.

Mine.

A growl flared my nostrils, and I moved to her. The man’s mouth was dragging down her neck to her breasts, her head falling back as his tongue swiped over her nipple.

I came up behind her and wrapped my palm around her neck, pulling her into me. I tilted her head back, my teeth scraping at her ear. “Is this what you want, Raven?”

She gasped, a shudder going through her, her ass arching into my cock. I gripped her hip, squeezing it. “Want me to eat your pussy again?” I rumbled into her neck. The incubus moved to her other breast, flicking and sucking on it. “Or do you want him to?”

She curved her head, her eyes meeting mine. “I want you to watch him eat my pussy.”

Shock and lust poured down on me. Raven took me by surprise, but it was like she knew one of my kinks. I loved watching. I wanted her eyes on me, wishing it was me, while she got off with someone else. I grabbed her chin, turning it more to me. “You want to do this?” I flicked my chin to the other man.

A nervousness flickered over her face, but she nodded. She would go forward with or without me and like hell was I standing to the side.

“If we’re going to do this. We’re going to do this my way.” I jerked her chin harder while the other man licked a trail down her sternum.

The grotesque sounds of sex, of a human puking in a potted plant, of this being too communal, itched at my skin.

I never had a problem with it being too public. I used to fuck Lukas and Kek in the community showers all hours of the day, with people in the next cubicle.

But with her, I didn’t want this public, like so much of her life was; I wanted this just for her. Raven being the only focus.

“And not here.” I grabbed her hand, nodding to the fae man. “Joining?”

He looked at both of us. “Fuck yes.”

I fought back the need to tell him to fuck off, but I didn’t, knowing she needed this. To experience a night where she was the complete focus of our desire.

To have us both on our knees for this woman.