Page 48 of The Devil and His Ghost

Grinning, I hoisted her upright so that she stood up straight on her skates once more. I didn’t release her, though. If anything, I tightened my hold, resting my arms around her lower back to hold her against me. Her hands gripped my shirt over my chest as I smiled down at her and gently skated backward, taking her along with me.

She gasped in alarm. “D-Don’t! If you skate with me, I’ll make you fall.”

“I don’t mind falling.”

She stared at me with pink lips slightly parted. The small balls of fire lining the rink caused shadows to dance along our skin as I slowly glided us around the ice. Yet even through the dim light, Kendyll’s green eyes seemed to glow behind her black frames while the two of us wordlessly skated and held gazes. Some of her braid had fallen loose, and those strands fluttered gently as we moved. My hand itched to reach out and tuck them back for her.

The air, which had been chilled from both the ice beneath us and the cool temperature of the building, swelled with a gradual yet unmistakable heat. Kendyll’s cheeks flushed, and my arms around her tightened. My blood grew hotter. Her gaze landed on my mouth. Seconds stretched into minutes.

“We’ve stopped,” she breathed quietly.

It was only then that I noticed we’d stopped skating at some point and now stood still in the middle of the ice.

“Seems so,” I answered roughly. I couldn’t even recognize my own voice as my hand drifted lower on her back while the other roamed up to cup the side of her head.

She seemed to hold her breath as the space between our faces drew narrower.

“Kendyll.” Her name fell from my lips in a reverent whisper, a quick burst of unexpected longing winding around each syllable.

I breathed her in. I relished in having her against me and the anticipation to feel those lips on mine. Yet at the last second, a new emotion flooded her eyes and shot through my chest with its potency. She turned her head away, her cheek and mouth falling into my palm, which had just been holding her head close. Her lashes fluttered shut while creases formed between her brows. Her rapid breathing against my palm tingled, and there was a brief moment where she leaned into my touch before she pushed away and clutched me at arms length with her head hung, braid dangling over her shoulder by her face.

“Can—Can you help me get back to the table? I think I’m done skating.”

The fog I’d been swept up in cleared. I straightened and nodded slowly. “Sure.”

I helped her to the table, and the minute she had her shoes back on, she leapt away from me. Her eyes stayed everywhere mine weren’t, and the silence that had been charged with something hot before now froze over with the weight of the new emotion pounding through her.

Even as I took Kendyll back to the inn and watched her hide away in the bathroom, I couldn’t rid my veins of that feeling that had consumed her and simultaneously fueled me. Though for once, I didn’t want that hit of power. Fleeing to Hell’s Gate in a daze, the look she’d worn when we’d nearly kissed remained at the forefront of my mind.

Fear.

I felt it energize my veins, even before I’d caught sight of it. That emotion wasn’t one you typically wanted to be greeted with when kissing someone, and I frowned, unable to get that helpless flash of her face out of my head.

“What’s up?”

The sound of Perseus’s voice drew me from my thoughts. I looked up from my glass of Hell Fire to find the Incubus taking the seat next to mine while Zagan and Dante sat across from us. Coldin flopped down into the seat at the head of the table. Lights flashed all around the club situated in Hell. Demons danced, fucked, or fought around the room. I’d been a little out of it, so I’d opted to down some drinks before joining in on the fun with my fellow spawns of Hell.

“I want to kiss Kendyll,” I confessed.

“Who?” Dante and Zagan asked at the same time that Perseus replied, “Okay?”

Perseus waved his clawed hand in Zagan and Dante’s direction and quickly explained, “A human he’s known for a while and recently ran into again.”

Zagan raised his pierced brow while Dante curled his lip in disgust. Zagan didn’t mind humans since they were fuel for his Incubus needs, but Dante hated the beings. He acknowledged them as food and entertainment, nothing more.

Ignoring my bandmates reactions, I elaborated, “I tried to kiss Kendyll.”

“Tried? What happened?” Zagan chuckled sarcastically, that snake-bite pierced lip tipping up at the corner. “Performance anxiety?”

“She was scared.”

Dante gave me a fanged smirk. “That’s one way to be told you’re ugly.”

“You’re real funny,” I smiled sardonically before growing pensive once more. “It was strange. I could feel her fear, but it wasn’t like she was afraid of me. Rather, she was afraid of what we were about to do. She’s missed out on a lot in her life, so I’m pretty sure she’s not experienced in the sex department.”

“Mmm,” Perseus mumbled while staring rather seriously down into his glass. He held it close with his heavily ringed fingers while absently swirling the amber liquid around. “So?”

“So you’re a sex demon. I want your advice. I’ve never had a timid, inexperienced partner like this. How do I get her comfortable? I don’t want her afraid of something good.”