Defining Human (Only Human Book 4) Read online

  I nodded. Whatever it took for Nathan to hold onto his humanity, I’d do it.

  “I look forward to it.”

  “Great, beautiful.” Xaephan sounded a little disgusted. “Both of you need to be naked. Nathan, on your back on the bed, and get that cock hard, with the spikes out so she sees what she’s agreed to.”

  Nathan took my robe off, settled it over the chest at the foot of the bed, stepped out of his jeans and put them with my robe, and finally slid onto the tall bed.

  To say the Lion King is well endowed would be an understatement, but then the barbs came out as I climbed on the mattress, and my heart stopped beating a few seconds.

  The head was full of little spikes, and that’s what I’d been expecting. They were big enough to hurt and make me raw, but I could handle them.

  However, there were rows of barbs below the head. Almost like claws, angling towards his body like fishhooks so they’d rip tears in me when he pulled out. Or, when I pulled off him.

  I couldn’t back out now, so I crawled to him and prepared to sit on his downright evil looking cock. The claw-like barbs at the base would dig into my opening and hold me like a pissed-off cat when I sat all the way down on him, but I was determined to follow through. Nathan didn’t need to have to do a favor for the Prince of Hell, and I needed to have a favor from Xaephan in my bag of tricks. My worst fear was that someone would take Lauren to the Hell realm, and if that happened, I’d need a way to get her back.

  So, I climbed on Nathan and sat down on him, knowing the pain of taking him in was only a fraction of what I’d feel when it came out.

  I’d been worried about developing feelings for the Demon Lord, and this little interlude had likely broken me of having to worry about that ever again.

  I hadn’t expected Xaephan to use cinnamon lube on my ass, so it was burning even before he put his hot dick in my bottom. He didn’t warm me up or stretch me with his fingers first, but he went in slow, thankfully.

  I was nearly in tears when he finally bottomed out and spread me all the way open, and he popped my ass with his right hand. “Naughty little human, trying to pass yourself off as a virgin. You think I can’t hear when someone tries to slide an untruthful truth by me without lying? If you’d been honest, you’d have regular lube. The cinnamon is for your deceit.”

  The next twenty minutes is a blur, filled with pain, bliss, more pain, more bliss, and then the agonizing, soul searing pain of the tattoos being moved. True to his word, it didn’t hurt as badly, but the combination of what felt like fishhooks holding Nathan deep inside me, the fire of the cinnamon combined with the heat, width, and length of Xaephan’s cock, and having to deal with a hurt I couldn’t touch, couldn’t physically locate… I was a mess long before they finished with me — and I didn’t orgasm, nor did I want to.

  Nathan held me and tried to soothe me, but nothing helped. The pain was more than anyone could’ve handled, and I eventually just let it hurt without trying to ride it. My pain owned me instead of the other way around. My tears soaked Nathan’s chest, and my sobs made me hurt even worse because they moved me on his cock.

  I was certain Xaephan was close to coming when the Amakhosi ordered, “Look at me.”

  I met Nathan’s gaze through my tears, and he said, “I’m going to thrust. At least a dozen times, possibly as many as two or three dozen. You will look me in the eyes, and you will come when I do. If you don’t, I’ll hold you while Xaephan belts your ass. You will come. Do you understand?”

  I nodded, and fell into his eyes. His voice didn’t reverberate like Abbott’s when he spoke with power, but Nathan still had the ability to give an order that settled in your gut. I screamed and tried to escape as Nathan and Xaephan both fucked me hard and fast. Xaephan went first, deep in my ass. Hot, scalding jizz filled my insides, and my screams grew even more frantic.

  “Come, Kirsten. Now.”

  My body obeyed Nathan, and it’s possible I had the most intense, most explosive orgasm I’ve ever had. His warm, strong arms held me, and he came in my pussy, a roar coming from his chest and out his mouth that surprised me but didn’t slow my orgasm even a little.

  When we finished, I glanced at my wrist and breathed in relief. The huge, ugly tattoos were gone.

  “Two freckles on your right ankle, Chère. Nothing anyone will notice, as promised. I know you can send me back now if you want, but I’d like to ask for five minutes alone with you, please?”

  “No more sex and no more pain.”

  “You’ve had all you can take of both, for now.”

  I nodded, and looked to Nathan. He was soft, so it wasn’t going to hurt to come off him. He lifted me and slid out, and I breathed a huge sigh of relief. I knew I was torn up inside something awful, but not having to slide off him when he was hard was a relief.

  “I’ll get in the shower while the two of you talk.”

  He’d still be able to hear us, but this would give us the illusion of privacy. I nodded, and he went to the bathroom.

  “You didn’t hold up your end of the bargain,” I told the Lord of Lust when the shower turned on. “I wanted it to be like it was before, and you were an asshole today.”

  “I know, Chère, but you knew that wasn’t the real me. The kindest thing I can do for you is to remind you I’m not to be trusted. I’ll find every loophole I can. Remember that. Never forget.”

  I shook my head. “Since you knew I wasn’t a virgin back there anymore, no way was taking my ass worth giving up a favor. Not only that, but I have a feeling you know I’ll masturbate to the memory of this for years — I may have hated much of it while it happened, but hindsight’s gonna make those parts the ones I’m still fapping off to when I’m sixty, remembering the time I fucked a Demon Lord and had an orgasm without permission.”

  “It’s time to brand me with your favor. It’s a little different going this direction. Stroke both my horns at the same time, with the purpose of imprinting the favor I owe you onto them.”

  On the third stroke, they heated enough to burn my hands, but I kept rubbing despite the heat until they cooled. A tiny red ring was on both horns. I sat back, in awe that I’d marked a Demon Lord.

  “Two half favors, or one whole one.” He sighed and touched my hand. “I have a gift for you, if you’ll trust me?”

  “Give me your word it isn’t a trick?”

  “You have my word.”

  “What kind of trust do you need from me?”

  “Lie back and spread your legs.”

  I started to refuse, but my gut told me to do as he asked, so I did.

  And then his mouth was on me, his tongue in me, and so much freaking heat I screamed and came, and felt him drinking me down as I came, and came, and came some more.

  I don’t remember him finishing, but when Nathan woke me with a touch to my foot, I was in Xaephan’s arms, sleeping like a baby.

  “He healed me,” I told him, snuggling into Xaephan’s embrace. “Inside, where I was cut up, torn up. He…” I shrugged, and closed my eyes. “I don’t hurt inside anymore, or at the entrance, anyway.”

  “Then you should thank him and send him home.”

  I opened my eyes again, looked at the clock, and realized it’d been fifteen minutes since Nathan went in the bathroom to take a shower.

  Xaephan let me sit up, but he made sure I was steady before he let me go.

  “I’ve enjoyed my time with you, tiny human. If your ankle starts itching, remember why. Also, Aquila is working hard to negotiate behind my back, so he can bring you to Hell again as his captive. I’ve thwarted him so far and don’t foresee him outbidding me, but you should be aware. It’s possible he’ll go to another realm and try if he determines my world won’t be an option.”

  I nodded, ran through everything I had to do to send him back, and kissed him a final time before I started the process.

  Nathan gave me the four or five minutes afterwards so I could be sure everything was closed and nothing else had come through, and
when I opened my eyes and looked at him, he gave me an awkward smile. “Not how I wanted our first time to be, but knowing I’ll get a second time in the next two weeks — I can live with it. He really healed you inside?”

  I nodded, and he sat on the side of the bed, still naked. “I was going to work something out with Bran, so that makes things a little easier.” My robe was open in the front, and he stroked the top of my breast. His finger followed an ugly bruise into my cleavage. “You’ll be wearing turtlenecks a while. I’ll still see if I can work something out with Bran, if you need me to.”

  I shook my head. “You’ll offer him one of your lionesses, so no. I’m fine. If I need something from Bran, I’ll work it out, but I just need to soak in an Epsom salt bath, and then rub some of my arnica ointment on it. It’ll be okay in a week to ten days.”

  “The lioness I’ll offer him enjoys his attentions, Kirsten. I’m not a monster.”

  I chuckled. “Ryan believes differently, which reminds me, I need to get your input on whether I should accept his job offer to help protect the gazelles.” I wanted Ryan’s promise to keep the things he’d learned about me to himself. He said he would if I did this job for him.

  “If you’re comfortable with the terms and he provides proper training, it should be fine. Let’s get you in the shower and then into some clothes, so I can get you home.”

  “You’ve been through two changes. Go cook us some food while I shower. You need sustenance before you fly us back.”

  Chapter 4

  Waking up the next morning was a bitch. Parts of my body I’d forgotten I had ached, stung, and throbbed. I took Tylenol and ibuprofen, filled two thirty-two ounce thermoses with coffee, and put several ice packs into a small cloth cooler so I’d have them in case I needed them at work.

  Adonis fixed breakfast and seemed worried, but didn’t say anything in front of Lauren.

  Nathan brought me comfort food for lunch, and we ate in my office and went over a loose game plan of how to help my cousin Josh, what Cora and I should put into a contract with Ryan, and how to deal with my next session with Mordecai, which Nathan hadn’t wanted me to agree to.

  “If handling the aftercare is hard for you,” I told him, “we can find another solution.”

  “No, that isn’t it. If you’re going to do it, I’ll take care of you, but with your new skills — is it still important for you to be able to hold so much energy?”

  “You have an unlimited source of energy because you can pull from every one of your lions, and if the rumors are true, every cat in North America — not just the lions. Unless I’m standing by a waterfall, I only have what I can carry.”

  He sighed. “And you think I don’t remember what it’s like to be limited?”

  “Maybe. The point is, I’d have never survived my time in Hell if Aaron hadn’t started increasing what I can handle years ago. It’s true I don’t need much to wield a sword or quarterstaff of light, and the machine-gun approach to my laser uses a third of what I used before… but blowing people’s heads up still takes a lot of power. Also, I use more when Cora and I are joined.”

  He leaned back and crossed his ankles, and I once again saw the lion peering out of his eyes. “So there’s no misunderstanding, you should know I’ve claimed you as one of mine. This doesn’t mean you’re mine exclusively, nor does it have to mean we’re having sex, though it often does. I know you got ticked at Abbott for putting the word out you belonged to him, but my understanding is you were upset because Abbott implied you were exclusive.”

  “I thought you claimed me when you put me under your protection?”

  “In a manner of speaking, yes, but this is a bigger deal.” He crossed his arms. “It means anyone you get romantic with will feel obligated to come to me to be vetted.”

  I shook my head. “I’m not okay with that.”

  “Which is why I’m being up front with you about it. Let me know when all your bruises are gone, and we’ll set a date to get together.”

  I shook my head. Again. “This is getting weird. I’m sure that’s what Xaephan intended, and it pisses me off he managed it, but I’m not sure how to put us back to not-weird. Also, I don’t want my prospective dates to have to go to you to ask permission. That doesn’t work for me. At all.”

  “It isn’t like I’m going to tell them no — it’s just a formality. Meanwhile, I get you for one night without barbs. It’ll be good, and then it’ll be over. Doesn’t mean you aren’t important to me, just means we can’t work as a couple. You’re my friend and if something happened to you I’d have a hard time…” He shook his head. “I know you’ve probably heard the rumors, or maybe even the stories. Aaron helped me find my humanity once, when I’d lost it. I don’t have you at arm’s length anymore, and that means I need to make sure you’re okay.”

  I’d promised Nathan a night of sex, but if I could’ve done something to get out of it, I would’ve. I was suddenly terrified I might not be okay after a perfect night with him.

  Chapter 5

  Ryan invited Cora and me to his hotel suite, where we ordered room service so we’d have privacy to hammer out the details, should we agree to his offer.

  He’d hooked his laptop up to the television in the room, and showed us maps and pictures of the convention center and grounds. “Keeping them safe in human form is one thing. Doing so when they shift into gazelles and run together is quite another.”

  I negotiated a salary equal to about three times what Cora and I would make at home. I also stipulated he’d have to cover all our expenses, and then we hammered out the chain of command. He intended Cora to be the lead person on the outer perimeter for most of her shifts, and for me to be the lead person on the inner perimeter for most of mine. Ryan and I would alternate shifts, so one of us slept while the other worked — though I remembered Ryan doesn’t need to sleep much, so I figured he’d be doing other jobs, too. He’d have everyone working during the time the gazelles were shifted and running, and during those times Cora and I would be second in command.

  Before I signed, I verified, “You’ll remain silent about the things you’ve learned about me and might learn about me later, right? I’m agreeing to this job in exchange for your silence.”

  He sat back and eyed me cautiously. “Did you fuck the demon yesterday?”

  Ryan had seen me in a bathing suit as well as a bra and jeans, so another time shouldn’t matter. I’d taken my suit jacket off before we began, so now I stood and unbuttoned my blouse. I shrugged it off, rotated so he could see my back, and then turned so he’d see the tops of my bruised, discolored breasts.

  “Sex with the Lord of Lust means he can do this to you and make you want more. What you can see isn’t the worst of my damage, though he graciously healed me of some of it before I sent him back. Yes, I had sex with him. I assure you, the deals we struck for him to get me for two hours leaned far in my favor. I got what I wanted. The price was worth it.”

  “And what did you want?”

  I shook my head and put my blouse back on. “A little safety and security. Isn’t that what we all want? I’d be happier if I hadn’t been kidnapped and taken to Hell, but it happened and I’m still dealing with the fallout while trying to keep it from happening again.”

  He nodded. “I won’t share your secret lightly. If someone’s life’s in danger and I can save them with this knowledge, I’ll use it. Otherwise, I’ll come to you before I talk to anyone about you.”

  I looked to Cora to be sure she was okay with everything, and signed my name when she nodded. She took the pen and signed as well, and Ryan distributed copies so everyone had the final version.

  I stood to go, and Ryan made sure he had my contact information. “You’ll receive confirmation of your airline tickets and our hotel suite in the next day or so. The two of you will share a bedroom, and we’ll have a common kitchen and living area. I like the option of meeting and talking without it being public knowledge. Also, it will allow us more personal security.�
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  Cora waited until we were in the car and down the road to say, “I’m not sure what to make of Ryan’s scent when you took your shirt off. I’m pretty sure he’s a sociopath. It was like… he wanted to see more, and liked the idea of hurting you, but there weren’t any sexual overtones.” She shuddered. “He scares me. I know we need to do this, and I’m on board with it, but I don’t trust him and I don’t like him.”

  “I value your input and your perceptions. I trust him to keep his word, but I don’t think I trust him otherwise, either. Bran was right about him having integrity with his jobs, but when not working? Yeah. He scares me, too. I don’t think you’re very far off on the sociopath thing.”

  “His scent is almost always a metallic scent. No emotions. It isn’t right. The fact he let some of his glee for your bruises through…” She shook her head again. “He isn’t right.”

  “He’s an assassin. I don’t know how he could be normal emotionally. Lucky for us, he had a security job we could easily agree to help him with.” I sighed. “To be honest? The thought of hiring him to take out Aquila are in my head, but Xaephan once told me if I take Aquila out, someone else will be given the job, so killing him won’t stop this.”

  I got onto the interstate and changed the subject. “What’s going on with you and Adonis?”

  “I started feeling the beginnings of… something. I respectfully asked him to wait until you no longer need a full-time guard before he swept me off my feet, if that was his intention, and he asked when I thought that might be.”

  “We should talk to Nathan about replacing you with someone else for a few weeks,” I said with a laugh. “No way should you miss this opportunity because of your loyalty to me.”

  “No, he was in agreement. He says he needs to stay a few weeks at your house so everyone thinks the two of you’re getting it on, and then he looks forward to bunking with me for a few weeks.”

  I shook my head, but smiled. “The rumors are going to be all over the place, but I suppose him doing us back-to-back is better than making them think he did us both at the same time.”