Page 80 of Demon Demands

None of it made sense. Nothing I saw was a part of the Underworld, though I did feel a sense of familiarity with it all.

Landscapes with trees split down the middle, something that looked like fireworks, fat raindrops falling around me.

Every bit of my body, that I could see, was covered in blood. I kept flipping my hands over, back and forth, looking for clues to figure out the cause. Was that my blood or did it belong to someone else?

I couldn’t see anything except the images playing on an endless loop in the background. But I could hear too much.

The bay of my hounds, the roar of a dragon, the gurgle of someone choking on their blood at my feet. Metal clashing and distant voices shouting — at me or for me, I couldn’t tell.

There was only one thing I was certain of; whatever I had seen didn’t happen in Hell.

As I felt myself regain control of my limbs, I stretched my aching muscles. I was too hot. There was a searing iron band of heat caging me in against a wall of solid muscle behind me.

Briggs.

When I wiggled, he mumbled in his sleep, pulling me tighter to his body. I really needed to get up, to move my stiff body around, but my shifter wasn’t letting me go without a fight.

“Briggs,” I whispered, wiggling harder in his arms. “Let me up.”

He shot straight out of the bed, landing damn near in a crouch, ready for battle. His movements left me flat on my stomach, desperately trying not to giggle at him as I dragged myself up to my knees.

I coughed quietly to get his attention, and he shushed me before turning around quickly to really look at me. Sleepy eyes studied my grinning face for a moment, and I watched as his frayed control snapped with the force of a nuclear bomb.

Rough hands landed on my cheeks, delicate but firm. His lips followed seconds after, consuming and wild, more teeth than tongue.

I nipped at his full lower lip, snapping my teeth together when I missed, and he growled at me. More wolf than man gleamed in his eyes, the perfect predator searching for his prey, but he’d find no prey within the walls of this room.

He shoved me backward on the bed, jerking his chin down and to the left as he fought with his wolf’s instincts and desires.

I took my shirt off and threw it at him, waiting him out to see what his response would be. When he growled at me again, I felt a thrill race up my spine, shivers flowing through my body at the guttural sound of danger in his tone.

“Barbie,” his harsh voice warned, teetering on the edge of his shift. “I’m not so much of an animal that I forget how to be a gentleman, but you’re making it really godsdamn hard right now.”

“Maybe you’re being too much of a gentleman,” I purred at him, then challenged him in my next breath. “And you’ve forgotten how to be an animal...”

Briggs narrowed his eyes at me, and for a moment I thought he was going to turn around and walk out.

Propping myself up on my elbows, I eye-fucked him as he wrestled with his decision.

We didn’t have to have sex if he wasn’t ready, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t going to enjoy the half naked sight before me.

The Valley of Temptation was a real place, but I was also positive that it couldn’t hold a fucking candle to Briggs Elliott. Especially while he was standing in front of me in nothing but a tight t-shirt and his boxer briefs.

His thighs were bigger round than my waist and solid as tree trucks, and his calves were coiled so tightly they might as well have had springs in them.

He was masculine perfection underneath all the intricate black and white tattoos that adorned his body. And I was dying for him to take the rest of his clothes off.

“Do you like what you see or—”

I shrugged one shoulder, interrupting him. “Or you could remove the rest and stay right where you are. I’ll take care of myself, leave your room smelling like me, and then go fuck off somewhere else.” I gave him a cocky smirk, crossing my ankles as I continued to lounge on his bed.

“You’re not going anywhere,” he confessed, biting the plump center of his lower lip. The honey in his voice was pure, unadulterated seduction, and I felt myself growing wanton and needy under his gaze.

Sitting up a little further, I raised a brow, questioning him breathlessly and only slightly sarcastically, “Oh, really?”

Briggs shook his head, slowly stalking toward me as he reached between his shoulder blades, pulling his shirt off in one smooth motion.

“I’m fucking hungry, Barbie,” he replied, his voice so husky that I felt the weight of it settle in my core.