The Company of Fiends (Tempting Monsters, #2)

by Kathryn Moon

His only free hand squirmed between us, found my clit, and rubbed with all the gentleness he'd abandoned ...

I was the instrument now, and Nireas played me like he was trying to break my strings and shatter my keys, as if he ha...

I was the one who deserved to be angry. I'd been denied this, rejected, rebuffed. I yanked my hands free of his grip and took his face between my palms, pulled him back to my mouth as I started to cry, sobb...

His rhythm had never been even, all his musicality crumbling under the pressure of my cunt squeezing around his cock, but I could taste his finish on my tongue as he started to moan and shout. His hips bucked and kicked, pausing as if he could resist ...

His release was hot inside of me, soothing the burn of his fucking, and his cry of relief pounded out on my tongue with the final stuttering notes of the organ. I barely felt my own release at first, but it wound through me, softening my muscles and melting me ...

Nireas nuzzled my cheek, withdrawing from the kiss, and his breath hitched as his nose brushed my tears. "Did I hurt you?" he whispered. Eight years ago. "No," I answered, wrapping my arms around his shoulders as he held me on his cock, and...

My inner thighs ached as we sat, my body spread over his lap, the audience hushed in their seats. Two strong arms remained banded around my back, and I hid my laughter against his chest as the rest returned to the keyboard, picki...

The audience roared with cheers and laughter as Nireas rushed the music to a new finish, slightly abbreviated from the original score, a punctuation t...

I nodded and Nireas sighed, trilling the music to a close, taking my chin in his hand and lifting it so he could stare down at me. "Don't look at them. Don't bow to them. This was ours, not theirs," he said. This could've been ours years ago, I thought, but I nodded again.

His kiss was hard, almost biting, and far too brief, drawing away at the same moment that the organ fell into a gentle parting echo and the spotlight faded. Warm fabric wrapped around my shoulders, Nireas's jacket that I'd set aside, massive on me, shrouding me from anyone's gaze even in the dark.

Nireas lifted me off his cock, our foreheads pressing together as we both hissed at the oversensitive drag of separation. He started to stand as he set me on my feet, and I pressed my palm ...

Nireas frowned, barely visible, but he nodded. I pressed my thighs together, wincing at the hollowed-out sensation left in me, and darted for the curtains, slipping in through the...

Mr. Reddy would have words about the performance, although even I knew they might be approving. And Nireas wanted to talk. After one little kiss and eight...

There was no reason to be so affected, no reason the stretch of eight years was suddenly so tangible, as if I'd been dragging my heart around on the ground all that time, the tether growing so long I wasn't sure I would be able to reel it back in again.

I didn't want to speak with Nireas, didn't want the answers to my question or his weak explanation for shutting me out, only to suddenly demolish those walls. Those walls had protected me too, and I'd had no say in their ruin.

"I'm okay," I whispered, my breaths growing deeper. I ignored the burning in my lungs, blinked to clear my eyes. Ronan groaned and shifted me into his arms, my next breath full of that lovely toasty scent of his, never so comforting as now. His face was in my hair, body trembling around me, his embrace just shy of painfully tight.

"You took a cab," I whispered. "Something like that," he answered, hardly softening. Then his anger crumpled, and he leaned in to press a kiss against my forehead, whispering, "Thank the stars."

My eyes widened as I glanced behind him, to the window sill, where the rosemary's roots had stretched down the wall and across the counter. Calling to me. Would Nireas and Ronan notice?

Nireas crouched on the floor in front of me, blocking my view, all six arms busy wiping me clean from my hands to my throat. The panic of the attack had finally receded enough for me to realize he wasn't disguised.

"Her bed is in the next room," Hunter added, and I thought there was just a hint of triumph in the words. He was the only one of the three who'd been there, after all. "I'll return soon, little one."

In spite of their brief snapping at one another when Hunter had arrived, Nireas and Ronan worked easily with one another as they patched me up. It occurred to me that I'd never actually seen the two interact before. Their personalities were so different, Ronan all play and Nireas so quiet and calm, observing everything.

I relaxed at that and nodded. "Thank you, Hunter." I've had sex with all three of these men, my brain very unhelpfully reminded me, not for the first time tonight. In fact, Hunter would probably still be able to smell Nireas on me.

"They can't know. Not while I work at the theater." Jude's frown grew deeper. "You know as well as I do what it's like to not feel as though you belong in the world you walk through, but I…I'd assumed for you, there, it might be different."

My smile was fragile, so brittle I thought it might crack apart as I spoke. "So did I at one point, but..." I remembered Mr. Reddy's words from all those years ago. "It's humans they pay to see. Not me as I am, but the human fantasy."

Jude's lips pursed, his stormy grey eyes holding mine for a long moment before they trailed slowly down my entire body and then back up again, every inch observed making my skin suddenly tingly and awake. His lips quirked, just the slightest bit. "I very much doubt that, Miss Nix." Don'...

"Perks of my mother's blood." Jude nodded. "My father's, it does the same for me." He stood and held out an ungloved hand. His fingers were strong and elegant, and they clasped firmly around mine as I reached for him.

Fae were generally aloof, and I wondered if Jude knew his father at all, knew if he was Unseelie or Seelie. He was certainly beautiful enough to be one of the Seelie race, at least from the little I knew.

I knew exactly who was curled up against my back as I woke slowly, the curtains drawn tight to guard against the bright morning sun teasing around the edges. I rolled over and breathed in the flavor of summer, cuddling closer to the warm chest in front of my nose. The thick staff of Hunter's cock pressed briefly against my belly before inching away.

I kissed the skin in front of my lips, Hunter's collarbone, and rubbed the cool tip of my nose into the hollow there. Tender claws combed gently through my loose hair, untangling the strands from sleep.

"For my safety, or because—" Hunter growled softly, squeezing me in his arms and then rolling us. My back was cradled as I landed on the mattress, and Hunter's hips fell naturally between my own, heavy and surprisingly comforting.

"Because, little one, I have wanted you in my house, my bed, my company, as much as I could have you, for as long as I have known you. And there finally appears to be time...for us." His gaze was as bright as a spotlight on me, his features sharp and fierce.

"My warrior," I murmured, reaching between us to trace my fingertips over his cheekbones and over his jaw. I was drawing my knees up to frame his hips when the inside of my thigh brushed fab...

"But it's over now?" I asked, frowning, ignoring the fact that Hunter was half hard too. The bruises are more significant than his arousal, I reminded myself, although there was nothing about Hunter's cock that was insignificant.

Yes, this was better. I needed to retreat and order my thoughts again. It was too impossible to keep my head straight when surrounded by the three of them. And worse, there was something exciting about the past twelve hours, about the lot of them fussing over me, fighting and cooperating, crowding me. Being alone made more sense.

And Nireas was only studying me, all the passion from last night's moment on the stage hidden away once more. It was what I wanted, but it made breakfast taste bitter on my tongue. Make up your mind, I told myself. But it was my heart's decision I was growing wary of.

"Only Hazel Nix would be nearly murdered one night and then powdered and painted and under the spotlight the next."

"You're not like them," Constantine whispered in my ear. I stiffened, wanting to ask what he meant and also already knowing. I'd known from the first moment he'd called me "sweet creature," although neither of us had even been direct enough to address it before. Constantine knew I wasn't human.

"House?" Jude asked. Oddly, the minotaur appeared to blush. "It's a place for courtesans who serve monsters," I said, and Jude only blinked and nodded.

"Did you write to the sphinx?" Hunter asked, offering to the rest of us, "I only know of one person who injured Birsha directly, physically, and she's in Egypt with several of our kind. I believe they're digging into Birsha's origins."'

BOOK 1!!

"In spite of what Birsha would like to believe of us, there are more who seek out places like Mortimer's, entertainment like yours, than what he offers us.

Why do you think he's so determined to crush you? He acts as though he is one of our kind, when really, he seeks to fashion us in his own image,"

I'd known Mr. Reddy for eight years. We weren't friends, exactly, and everyone was right that he took as much advantage of me as I allowed him. Still, we had a moment of shared amusement at Asterion's offer.

"There would've been hell to pay if we'd lost you, Hazel. And I know I'd have myself to blame," he said. My chest panged at the words, and none of my own came to mind, even after Mr. Reddy had left the room.

My cheeks warmed, and my thoughts hissed, You can't encourage him. There's enough men circling you already.

"I have an idea of them. Perhaps I should see one for myself," he said, staring at me. There'd never been anyone in my life who'd known me from outside of the theater and then walked into a performance. The idea of Jude, who knew the singular secret I possessed, seeing me on stage, made me feel edgy and vulnerable.

"No, it wasn't Constantine. I—He was upset when he saw me. He really is kind, Myra. In a way." "Ah, well," Myra said slowly, clearly unconvinced. You should never have been touched. Those were Constantine's words.

"Go on to your gentleman, lovey," Myra whispered in my ear. "I'll fix it so you don't have to come in tomorrow either." Unlikely, I thought as she winked at me, but perhaps Mr. Reddy's guilt might buy me two nights off.

But my eyes trailed back to Nireas and Ronan as Hunter guided me up from the seat and toward the back of the theater. I wanted to be with Hunter. I was excited to spend the week with him! And yet I couldn't shake the sense that I was leaving something rather important behind me as we walked away.