Chapter Six

N ic ate what they fed him. He wasn’t stupid. He’d need to keep his strength up if a possibility for escape came about. And he was going to get out of here. If they were, in fact, near the mines, he had a place to go when he got free.

He watched Shay as he ate the sandwich one of them hand-fed him, trying to reconcile the woman he saw now with the one he’d met yesterday. She looked different, and there was a cocky confidence about her when she moved that he hadn’t noticed before. He had found her kind of sweet and vulnerable when he first met her.

Now he just thought her lethal. Sex and sin wrapped up in a fully armed combat package, ready to kill.

He didn’t know her at all.

The others were loading up their odd-looking weapons and heading toward the door.

“We’ll be back before sunrise,” Lou said to Shay. “Though I’ll comm you if something comes up.”

“Okay.”

“Whatever you do, no matter what reason,” Derek said, directing a dead-serious look at Shay, “do not untie him. You can feed him and hold the water bottle for him to drink out of. But he doesn’t get those ties anchoring him to the chair even loosened. Got it?”

“Got it,” she replied.

Did he look that dangerous? He hoped so. He wanted her to be afraid of him, but she was the one holding all the weapons.

The door closed with a decisive click, the sound making him feel more imprisoned than he already was.

Shay turned to him, sucked in her bottom lip, then moved to the sofa next to his chair and sat. She clasped her hands together and rested them on her knees. Her fingers were slender, her nails short, yet well manicured. She even wore pink nail polish. A demon-killer had time to paint her fingernails?

She smelled like the beach, like sunshine and fresh air, like an ocean breeze at sunset.

Like freedom.

He didn’t want to inhale her fragrance. She was the enemy and he wanted no part of her. She wasn’t fresh, she wasn’t beautiful, and he didn’t want to feel this weird sizzle whenever she was nearby. He wanted her to go away. He wanted to go home.

“When are you people going to let me go?”

She shrugged. “I’m not privy to the details on that, Nic. I’m just supposed to watch you.”

“Watch me what?” Sit there like a trained monkey? He was trussed up against the chair. Tied to it, to be exact. The chair was heavy. No way could he stand and hoist it up with him.

“Just watch you. And talk.”

“Talk about what?”

“Whatever you want to talk about. I’ll answer your questions about all this—your brother, the demons, anything you want to know. We’ll talk until you’re comfortable.”

Her voice was soft and melodic. Mesmerizing, almost. So she was the brainwashing expert? Maybe that was her area, the reason she’d been the one to make contact with him first. She was beautiful, engaging, easy to talk to. He could see how she could draw someone out, lull them into conversing, cajole them into believing her.

He’d believed her when she spent the day with him. He believed her when she offered up her body in the pool. He believed they had a connection.

He was a first-class, A-number-one sucker. He’d fallen for every line she’d thrown.

That wasn’t going to happen again.

Nic didn’t even shift in the chair, though it was goddamned uncomfortable. His ass was numb and he was tired of sitting there like a prisoner. What a bunch of utter bullshit. Was this what he had to look forward to from now on?

As a baby-sitter, Shay wasn’t doing a great job. She seemed nervous and unsettled.

She stood and walked around. Looked out the window a few times. Cleaned those funky-looking weapons. Unloaded and reloaded the ammo. He was dying to know what the hell kind of ammo it was, too, but he wasn’t about to ask her. The last thing he’d do is show interest or talk to her.

When she reached for the dagger at her hip while she gazed out the window again and began to stroke it absently, he damn near lost it. Did she even realize what she was doing? She palmed the handle and slid her hand slowly down the scrolled hilt, then back up again. Back and forth, swirling her thumb over the tip of the dagger every time she got to the top.

Goddamn.

She might not know what she was doing, but his dick sure as hell did. And it liked what it saw. A lot.

Especially the way she drew lazy circles over the intricately carved pattern across the top.

He might hate her, but his body remembered what it felt like being slammed up against her in the pool. Soft curves, the fullness of her breast in his hand, the way her nipple came to life under his questing fingers. If he hadn’t pulled away he’d have been inside her, feeling her grip him until he got the release he hadn’t felt in far too long.

Goddammit. He broke out in a sweat. Fully hard now, he turned away and stared at the sofa, but damn his male interest. His gaze kept gravitating back to the slow, sensuous movements of her hand over that dagger.

She was way too good at that. He’d bet her hand was warm and soft. He could imagine it gliding over his straining, aching flesh, coaxing the ultimate pleasure right out of him.

Shit.

In his currently bound position, an erection wasn’t going to be easy to hide. They’d tied his ankles to each foot of the chair. Which meant his legs were spread. And his shorts were tenting nicely due to his aroused flesh trying to tear its way out of his pants and make its way into Shay’s hand.

Why the hell should he be the only one to suffer?

“Stop that.”

She whirled and turned to him. “What?”

Her hand stilled, but remained on the hilt of the dagger.

“Stop jacking off that dagger.”

“Excuse me?”

Then the lightbulb went on, because she looked down at her hand, then at him. Between his legs, actually. Her eyes widened, her face flamed a really attractive shade of pink. She jerked her hand away and whipped it behind her back.

“If you’re bored and restless and want something to do with your hands,” he said, letting his sentence trail off but leaving no mystery as to what he was referring to. He looked down at his obvious dilemma, then back at her, enjoying her discomfort. He might be the one tied up, but if he could make her at all miserable, he was going to.

“Um, no.”

“You started this.”

“I did no such thing.” She wrapped her arms around herself and turned back to the window.

He smirked at the telltale blush he’d glimpsed on her face. But maybe he’d have a few minutes now to get his unruly dick under control. Bad idea to get turned on by the enemy. Even if she was beautiful. And he wasn’t falling for her innocent, guileless act. She might have looked wide-eyed and naďve a minute ago, but nobody who did what she did was that clueless.

And it was time to stop sitting there like a fucking victim and start figuring out how to escape. Because chances were that if these people were on the up-and-up, there wasn’t going to be a call or a note to his family for ransom. Which meant it was going to be more difficult for them to locate him.

He was responsible for getting himself out of this mess.

Nic was on his own. He needed a plan. And the best chance he had of escaping was right now when he was alone with Shay. Her, he could take. When the muscle-bound minions returned, it’d be highly unlikely he could whip all of them at once.

After thinking about it for a few minutes, he grinned. Yeah, he had an idea.

“Hey,” he said

“What,” she mumbled.

“I need some help here.”

She turned to him. “What is it?”

He looked up at her and grimaced, putting on the best act of his life.

“I gotta pee.”

 

Shay stared at Nic, dumbfounded and feeling utterly stupid.

He had to pee. Of course he did. He would have to do…that, eventually, wouldn’t he?

Well, Lou, where were the instructions for handling this one?

Shit.

She couldn’t very well untie him and lead him to the bathroom, could she? He’d make a run for the door. She wasn’t strong enough to restrain him. Of course she could always shoot him, but the weaponry was a bit advanced for humans. He’d die.

She was fairly certain Derek wouldn’t want his brother dead. Not right now, anyway.

“You’re doing this on purpose.”

He cocked a brow.

Yeah, yeah. Stupid comment, she knew, but this was frustrating.

“Are you going to refuse my request?”

She paced back and forth in front of his chair. “I’m thinking. Give me a minute.”

“I really need to go.”

She shot him a glare. “Hold it.”

“I would hold it, but my hands are tied.”

He was smirking at her. Asshole. He thought this was funny.

“I could just leave you there to wet yourself.”

“You could, but I don’t think you will.”

He was right. That would be cruel. Not to mention it would render one piece of furniture completely useless to them. This whole situation would be comical if she wasn’t the one responsible for figuring out how to make this work.

Why the hell hadn’t Lou given this assignment to one of the guys? Then it would have been easy. She didn’t have the muscle for it.

Okay, start thinking. There was a way to deal with this. She stared down at him for a few seconds, tilting her head back and forth, then realized she’d been focusing her eyes between his legs again.

Where he’d been hard not that long ago. Quite impressively hard, too.

Her body flared with a sudden wave of heat and a daunting awareness of him as a damned desirable man. One she had no business thinking about.

She inhaled and blew out a frustrated breath. He had to pee. He didn’t want to have sex with her.

And even if he did…

“Still need to go here.”

She blinked at his words. “Oh. Sorry.” Nothing like a little sexual mind-wandering while he was squirming in his chair with a full bladder. Good going, Shay.

Then it hit her.

“I think I have an idea. I’ll be right back.” She hustled into the kitchen, rummaged through the cabinets, nearly squealing with delight when she found something she knew would work perfectly. She hurried out into the living room and thrust it into one of his hands.

“Here. This should work.”

Nic looked at the container and back at her. “Huh?”

“You can…uhh, go in that.”

“You’re joking, right?”

“No, I’m not joking. Go ahead.”

“I can’t move my hands to get things situated.”

“Excuse me?”

“You’ll have to position it if you want me to go in this bottle, babe. I can’t do it.”

She studied him. His arms were bound to his sides. He was right. He couldn’t…maneuver things on his own. If he was going to relieve himself in that bottle, she was going to have to assist him.

“Unless you want to untie me. Then I can do it myself.”

Not a chance in hell. “I can’t untie you.”

His lips curled upward in an arrogantly sexy smile. “Then I guess you’d better get over here and start handling my dick, because we’re about to reach crisis level.”

Shay knelt down between Nic’s spread legs, certain she wasn’t going to be able to do this. She weighed his growing discomfort against her abject embarrassment.

“You gonna hold that bottle in your hands all night and wave it in front of me? Is this part of the torture games you people play?”

She didn’t even know what he meant by “you people.” Right now she was trying to figure out how to relieve him without making this whole act too…intimate.

“Just untie me,” he said, his gaze boring into hers. “Then you don’t have to worry about touching me.”

She looked down at his lap, unable to meet the pleading look in his eyes. “I can’t.”

“Then undo my shorts and let me do what I need to do.”

Oh, God, even the way he said it was…harsh, commanding…exciting.

Dammit, she wasn’t supposed to be the one in charge of him! Clearly she was way out of her league here. Some demon hunter.

“Shay.”

“Yeah.”

“Help me.”

She knew it cost him to say that, and she was being a big baby about this. After all, she’d been the one to come up with this solution. So now she just had to buck up and deal with it. Lifting her head, she nodded and kept her eyes on his face. She reached for his shorts, pulled apart the Velcro and jammed her hand inside.

“Wanna be careful while you’re rummaging around in there?” he asked, his lips curving into a half smile.

Heat sizzled up her neck and along her cheeks. “Sorry.”

His skin was smooth, hot, and she found the intended target with no problem, considering it was so…sizeable.

And hard. And growing. Rapidly.

“Hey. Stop that.”

He shrugged. “Can’t help it.”

“Yes, you can.” She let go.

He rolled his eyes. “A gorgeous woman has her hand wrapped around my dick. You expect me to be unaffected?”

“Yes, I do, as a matter of fact. You want to pee or have sex?”

He arched a brow. “Is that an offer?”

She was going to implode any second now. The sides of her breasts brushed his bare legs. She could hear her own panting breaths. Heat fused her insides together.

“You going to hold that thing?” he asked.

“What thing?”

“The bottle. My cock. You remember what we’re doing here?”

This was ridiculous. She wasn’t a virgin. It wasn’t like she’d never seen or held a penis in her hand before. She’d even passed some time as a nursing assistant while in college. She had to think medically, not sexually.

But somehow it wasn’t working with Nic. Maybe she could do it with her eyes closed.

Finally she sucked in a breath of courage, reached in his shorts for the offending member, and hard or not, yanked it out and forced it into the bottle.

And waited.

Nothing happened.

She held as still as possible, trying not to breathe. Or look. Instead, she stared into the kitchen and pretended she wasn’t holding his hot, hard shaft in her hand. One that wasn’t pulsing against her palm.

Still, nothing happened.

Maybe he was shy.

She looked at his face, careful not to look down. “Something wrong?”

“It’s hard.”

Like she wasn’t completely aware of that fact. “And?”

“It…prevents things from happening.”

She sighed. “What now?”

“Let go of it, for starters. You touching it isn’t helping.”

She dropped it like a log infected with spiders. Then waited for a few minutes, turning her head to the side.

After waiting what seemed like an eternity, she turned back to him.

He shrugged. “Guess I don’t have to go anymore.”

She dropped back on her haunches. “You’re kidding me, right?”

“No.”

“You sonofabitch.”

She stood and grabbed the bottle, none too gently shoving his body parts back in his shorts. Part of her hoped she’d jam his penis in the Velcro as she jerked it closed.

No such luck.

She stormed into the kitchen, opened the back door, and tossed the bottle in the trash, then flopped in the kitchen chair and laid her head in her hands, cursing her miserable luck.

No way in hell was she going back there to face him.

She was so stupid. God, how he’d played her. It had been a trick to see if she’d untie him. And she’d fallen for it.

How he must be laughing at her. She felt so immature, blushing and stammering her way through what should have been something simple.

Other than his massive erection, he hadn’t seemed bothered by the ordeal. She’d been the one flaming with embarrassment.

What was it about Nic Diavolo that got to her?

 

Nic’s cock throbbed so hard he wondered if he’d explode right there.

Thank God Shay made no attempt to return from the kitchen. His erection tented his shorts and didn’t seem to be in any hurry to make a retreat.

What the hell was wrong with him? This hadn’t gone at all like he’d expected. First off, he hadn’t expected Shay to take him in hand like she did.

Gutsy move. He thought she’d untie him, that she’d be too embarrassed to touch him.

He’d been wrong.

And he hadn’t expected his body’s reaction to her touch. Hot, pounding, instantaneous hard-on when she’d tentatively wrapped her soft, warm hand around his shaft.

Even now he pulsed remembering how it felt, how smooth her hand was, how her thumb accidentally brushed across the crest and he had to fight back a groan and a shudder to appear impervious.

Her eyes had gone glassy, her lips parted. She’d been affected. Deeply affected, from the sound of her breathing and the pink coloring on her cheeks. He could even scent the arousal on her, something he’d never been able to do with a woman before. Hell, he could still smell her. She was tantalizingly sweet, like cotton candy. God, he wanted to be free, to dive down between her legs and take a long slow taste of her.

But that was a fantasy. She was his captor, his bodyguard. She controlled every aspect of his life at the moment.

He’d never wanted control over a woman more than he wanted it right now with Shay. Primal, hot, animalistic, and hungry. Maybe it was because he was tied to this mother-loving chair and she was in charge. He didn’t like it. Or maybe it was because with one simple, tentative touch she had fired his blood and brought him into sharp awareness like no woman before her ever had.

He wanted to fuck her. To sweep her underneath him, bury himself inside her and feel her slick, wet heat surrounding him. He wanted his hands around her wrists, lifting them over her head and making her powerless. He wanted his knees between her legs, nudging her thighs apart so he could drive in deep and hard.

He wanted her as aware of him as he’d been of her.

He wanted her writhing underneath him, begging him to make her come.

And none of these thoughts was going to make his erection go away anytime soon.

 

“What do you mean, you’ve lost him?”

Bart bowed his head as he faced his brothers. Ten other Lords of the Sons of Darkness plus him, their evil wrapped around him, their anger palpable. Nic’s presence at this time was paramount. Bart had assured them he had everything under control. Failure wasn’t an option.

“I will find him.”

“You shouldn’t have lost him in the first place.”

Bart nodded at Badon. “I realize this. It wasn’t my intention. He is close. I sense he is still in Australia. I will get him back soon.”

Badon raised a dark brow, an icy chill emanating from him. “The ceremony is soon. Timing is everything.”

“As I’m well aware.” His brother wasn’t telling him anything he didn’t already know. He was wasting precious time having to endure this “meeting.” Yet he knew his brothers needed to be reassured that all would happen according to plan.

“Some of us wish to be present during the ceremony.”

Bart nodded at Tase. “As you wish. However, do you not think it dangerous to amass so many Lords in one location? What about the Realm of Light? Chances are they will be either present or close by.”

“We do not fear the Realm. They are of no matter to us. Once we harness the power of the gem and Dominic joins us, we will become so powerful they will never stop us.”

They hoped. Bart had much to do. He had to find Dominic and locate the gem, then conduct the ceremony.

“It will be done, as my brothers wish.”

“We have lost one of our own recently,” Badon reminded him. “Find Dominic.”

Maybe Bart should have developed a closer link to his nephew when the boy was younger. It would have come in handy right about now. But his gift was the strength and power of magic, to be used at the time the gem was found. It wasn’t the gift of sight. He didn’t know Ben would be destroyed, that Dominic would be taken. He didn’t know the Realm of Light would become such a powerful force.

Changes would have to be made. The gem, the ceremony, would take care of their problem with the Realm of Light. Soon, the Sons of Darkness would have nothing to fear. Soon, they would have no enemies.

Very soon.

---