Page 52 of Demon’s Temptation

Chapter 14

Chaya moved through the club, mind racing as fast as the beat of her pounding heart.

She had to get this right. Couldn’t fuck this up.

The look on Brent’s face when he found her at Victor’s gallery. Her first instincts were to tell him to back the hell off, but then she’d looked at him. Really looked at him. And she knew she had to get him out of there.

Because she would never let anyone or anything hurt him, and what she saw deep in his eyes told her he was in pain.

The playroom. I want to go to the playroom.

I want it. I need it.

He needed it.

She’d convinced herself that his reluctance to come here with her was because she meant more to him than one of his casual one-nighters, that this place and what went on in these rooms represented something less than what they had, and that in his eyes, if she brought him here, it would send her the wrong message, would somehow diminish what was growing between them.

Now she wasn’t so sure.

What he did in these rooms he needed. But this was a place where he’d gone against his own nature, against everything that he was, that he cried out for.

He’d hurt himself here. He’d mentally tortured himself every time he brought a sub to one of these rooms, every time he denied what he truly wanted, and he’d hurt himself.

The last door in the lineup of shiny red doors was in front of her. How many times had she seen the torment on his face when he opened these doors and walked out onto the floor after a session? Every damn time.

This room he came to with strangers, he fed his demon without the risk of forming any kind of lasting connection.

What he got was release without attachment.

This was not a safe place for him. A place of peace. Of affection and respect.

But it would be when she was done.

God, the way he’d reacted when he’d walked in and found her at that gallery. She’d never seen him like that. Something had changed, something in him. She didn’t understand it, but she wanted to. Desperately.

Straightening her shoulders, she gripped the door handle and walked in.

Her heart squeezed when she saw him. Kneeling on the floor. Stripped bare. Desperate for her to give him what he needed, but too afraid to tell her what that was.

Toys were lined up on shelves. Restraints. Whips, paddles, floggers. This was what he needed, and up until now she hadn’t been able to give it to him, not fully. He hadn’t let her.

Her boots clicked on the polished hardwood floor as she moved into the room. Placing her purse and jacket on one of the benches, she turned to study him. Silent and still. So still.

Maybe she was overthinking it. Maybe the real reason he hadn’t brought her here was that he didn’t think she couldn’t handle the full force of his desires. That she wasn’t capable of taking him where he needed to go to find that peace she knew he longed for.

Fuck that.

Straightening her spine, she moved to the center of the room. Worrying wasn’t helping either of them.

No way was she letting him give up on them.

She let several more minutes tick by before she spoke. “Spread your legs wider.”

Her voice was gritty, shit—demonic. Something she had never experienced before. It was like she had finally, truly tapped into that part of herself that had always been there just waiting for her to set it free.

Brent didn’t miss it. His head jerked slightly, and goose bumps lifted all over his naked body. The sight tugged low in her belly deliciously. She didn’t lift his face to her like she had the night before. No, she crouched down and, grabbing his knees, pushed them wider so he was completely exposed and vulnerable.

“When I ask you to spread your legs, you spread them as far as you can.” She made a tsking sound. “We’re not getting off to a very good start tonight, are we? First you charged into that gallery without a proper explanation, risking my assignment, and now I’m forced to correct a basic position, one I’ve already gone over with you.”