Page 9

“Daddy.” The meaning behind the title fills my chest with warmth that doesn’t come from the water. So much lies behind those five simple letters, and I feel it down to my marrow.

As if I read his thoughts, he roars at the ceiling, and it seems to crack the stone walls around us.

I slap my hands over my ears, water flinging upward as I draw one up from below, breaking the surface, kicking my feet under the hot water, but it does little to muffle the inhuman noise raging inside the demon.

I keep my eyes on his face, even as he howls. Then, when he finally finishes, I see it.

Blood-red, translucent tears cling to the fur under his eyes. There are five, ten…I try to count them, but before I can, my blouse tears with a satisfying rip.

My soaked crop top and lacy bra float on top of the water for a moment, puffy sleeves and all, revealing my Dolly-sized breasts.

Only my skirt, garter belt, and black thong remain underneath. He kneels on the side of the pool, his cock lying out on the stone between his legs as he drags one giant hand through the water, displacing a small wave that laps against the sides, his other hand moving under the water, sliding up my thigh.

His hand covers it all, from knee to hip.

“So soft.” His voice shakes the air around us, a resonant baritone that vibrates into my bones.

“Yeah, I know I’m soft. I’ve been hearing it all my life. Humans suck. Especially when you’re a plus-sized orphan.”

“These hips. This belly. These.” His hand hovers over my chest for a second, then lands on my breast, and I bite into my bottom lip. “They mocked you for this?”

I shrug, trying to appear nonchalant. “People in town said I had enough curves for two women but only had one pair of jeans.” I run my palms over the pooch of my belly under the water. “And in tenth grade, Tanner Pruitt started calling me Double-D Dolly. He said it would be carved on my tombstone.” I look down at my breasts, the demon staring at them like he’s struck gold. “Joke’s on him because they grew into triple E’s.”

His snarl sets the water into a spiraling vortex. “No tombstones. Not for me, and not for you, little Dolly. I will tear their tongues from their heads so they can never speak of you again. Like a cat would do.”

I giggle, the heat of the water easing the last of my nerves, and as he looks at me, I feel like a centerfold model. “You really don’t do middle ground, huh?” I comment as I try to make sense of the bit about tombstones.

He leans down, and his muzzle brushes my neck. “You are the ground I kneel to. The altar I will bleed for.”

His claws pinch my nipple, and I squeal in pain and pleasure.

I suck in a sharp breath as his hand moves to my waist. There’s no asking, he’s just doing demon shit, and I plan to let him.

My skirt goes next with a flick of a talon. Then the garter belt and both items are flung from under the water across the cavern, landing with a splat next to the ledge holding my glasses. Then it’s my underwear that goes, but he sets those on the edge of the pool like he has plans for them later.

He displaces a wave of water over the rim of the pool as he lowers his massive frame down, down. Water flows over the edge, rising to his waist, and I realize that if I tried to stand on the bottom of the pool, it would be over my head.

My throat tightens as he moves around to the front of me, his massive biceps and forearms coming forward as he settles his hands on my knees, pushing them wide, working his waist between them as I sit on my seat in the water.

I don’t miss the way his cock juts upward, punching through the surface of the water, the bulbous tip not quite human. It’s flatter and seems to be expanding, dripping with pool water, and a droplet of something iridescent and red seeps from the slit at the center.

I swallow the saliva gathered under my tongue, lifting my eyes to take in how he’s pulled his lips back from his sharp teeth. They are animalistic and primal, and I shrink under the magnitude of him like this. In front of me, there’s no pretending how inhuman he is.

And he licks his lips.

And when I tell you that tongue is long and thick, and apparently very, very dexterous…

His claws poke into my flesh as he widens my knees, bending at the waist as he leans forward, his face moving under the water, his mouth latching onto the inside of my thigh, no bubbles of air coming up to the surface.

Apparently, demons don’t need to breathe.

I straighten my spine, my hands jutting out to grab the hard muscle of his shoulders as I fill my lungs with humid air, and hold it, waiting for the brush of teeth, but it never comes.

Instead, his tongue slides along my flesh, slowly, from the knee upward along my inner thigh, the hard bone of his muzzle dragging as he goes.

“Oh, God… Oh my god, please…” I shiver, moaning quietly as I feel warmth spreading between my legs. He surfaces, water sluicing over his skull to splash into the space between us as he lifts me with no effort at all and puts me on the side of the pool with only my feet dangling in the water.

“Yes.” He inhales deeply, stretching out the syllable, savoring my scent, and I’m shockingly comfortable with this madness. “Yes, I am your god, little offering. I am the very source of your life from this moment forward.”