The Demon's Forbidden Passion (2 page)

Chapter Three

For the first time in his life, a fire had shaken him. But
she
had shaken him more. Lucky for her, Ethan thought, he always hungered after a fire.

It plagued him after every rescue, the demon part of him begging him to satisfy the demands of his birthright, balance all the good he had just done. And so every night he yielded to the plea from deep within him by finding a woman to satisfy and carefully leaving as soon as the deed was done. Tonight wouldn’t be any different. And this one? Her allure was too powerful to deny—he had to have her.

While almost three hours had passed since he’d rescued Danny and his parents from the house and delivered them to the ambulances, he was still trying to shake the feelings and memories that sprang to the forefront of his mind when he first saw the community after all this time. Unbeknownst to the boy, he was a painful reminder of what Ethan was, of the terrible events that had taken away both of his parents, and the fate their attacker reserved exclusively for him. The curse still pulsed through Ethan’s veins—and though no one could tell of his fate by just looking at him, his skin began to feel itchy, as if the curse was apparent on his face, just as noticeable as a birthmark.

And what a distraction she would be. He could tell immediately that this woman wasn’t like any of the others he pursued. She was more than just a pretty face. He had overheard the entire exchange between her and Danny and the kindness she showed toward one of his kind. She was sweet, she was calm and she was
lovely
. It was the only word he could think of to describe her. Standing there in her wrinkled scrubs and messy hair, she was ten times more attractive than any woman in a low-cut dress and stilettos. Something about her exuded power and competency. She was serious about her job and cared about others. It pulled the heartstrings of his lighter side. He watched her from afar until he couldn’t stand being away from her any longer, the force between them when they exchanged glances too magnetic.

But that was dangerous territory he was creeping into.
That’s not why you want her
, he reminded himself.
Personality doesn’t matter.
Just seduce her and be done with it.
And now that he was up close to her, he could tell that wouldn’t be difficult. Her emerald-green eyes were as large and innocent as a doe’s, and the full, cherry-red pout of her lips just begged to be kissed. And not to mention the dangerous curves that he only got a hint of at the seams of her scrubs. He knew exactly what he was capable of doing with them... after all, practice did make perfect.

Tonight she would be his.

“Oh! Sorry!” Tina laughed nervously, breaking him from his trance. “You startled me.”

He put his hand on her forearm to steady her, then slid his hand down her arm and into a firm handshake. Smiling a gleaming white smile, one he knew could make any woman weak in the knees, he felt the muscles in her hand tense. He could tell she was holding in her breath.

“I don’t remember seeing you before. Are you a new EMT?” Ethan asked. “I’m sure I would have remembered you.” He let his tongue moisten his lower lip flirtatiously. “I’m Ethan Phillips.”

“Oh, I’m Tina Driscoll. I’m a nurse, actually. It’s very nice to meet you, Ethan,” she said, her gaze dropping to his mouth.

The sound of her saying his name sent a ripple right through him. The sweet melody of her voice, the way she said it so breathlessly, was incredibly charming. While he usually felt bored at the lack of challenge, there was something about her nervousness that excited him.

“The pleasure’s all mine.”

Tina’s cheeks flushed slightly. “You did an amazing job tonight. I’ve heard a lot of nice things about you.”

“Like your coworker thinking I was a hunk?”

Tina’s eyes widened. “How did you—”

“Ears like an eagle, the guys on the force always say.” He smiled bigger, showing off the dimples. They always loved those.

Tina opened her mouth to say something, possibly to try to backpedal her way out of it, but thought better of it, her cheeks burning brighter. She laughed, and the sound of it was like music.

“But what I was unable to decipher, unfortunately for me, was if you agreed with her.”

Tina clamped her lips, but was still smiling. “Hmm,” she responded.

That’s it
,
Tina.
You’re better at flirting than you think.

“So I’ll never know?” he asked, feigning a frown.

“I guess not,” she said, smirking.

“Wow, that really hurts, Tina,” he teased. “My self-esteem is hemorrhaging points as we speak.”

“You measure your self-esteem in points?” She raised an eyebrow, amused.

“Yes...yes, I do.”

“How many was it at before this conversation?” she asked.

“Seven hundred and forty-two,” he responded, not missing a beat.

“And now?”

“Twelve.”

She laughed again, obviously entertained by his answer. “Ah, don’t be so hard on yourself,” she said, giving him a playful pat on his shoulder.

He winced without meaning to, a small grunt sounding in his throat.

Tina’s eyes widened. “Oh my god, I didn’t mean to... Are you okay? Did something happen during the rescue tonight?” she asked.

He hated feeling weak in front of her, but, on second thought, realized playing the sympathy card would probably work to his advantage. “Oh, yeah, I’m fine,” he replied. “A beam fell on my shoulder when I made it to the top of the stairs.”

She had touched him, which was an encouraging sign, but now he had to go in for the kill. “You can examine it if you like.”

Before she had a chance to answer, he took off his shirt and heard a sharp intake of breath escape Tina’s lips. His abdomen, glistening slightly with sweat, was rock hard. Flashing the abs
always
worked. He let her take a good look at him before turning so that she had a better view of the back of his shoulder. “It’s somewhere around... there.”

He glanced behind him. Tina stood there, dazed. It took a few moments before she slowly lifted her arm and finally spoke.

“Oh, um...” She shook her head as if to clear her thoughts. “You have a, uh...a welt. A particularly nasty one, too.” She lightly placed her fingertips on the back of his shoulder and Ethan felt fire. Not pain radiating from his injury, but a fire that raged deep within his brain. Her touch. It felt amazing, it felt like heaven. He turned his head forward and closed his eyes, grateful he had his back to her as he silently willed her not to stop.

She continued. “The skin is terribly bruised and I have no doubt that the muscle underneath is a little bruised as well. But it should heal in about three weeks or so, I’d say....” Every word she uttered lessened in volume until she finally trailed off altogether. “I, ummm...wait, what was I saying?”

She was so cute when she got flustered. “You were talking about the healing time,” he said innocently.

“What? Oh right, I’d, um, avoid putting any pressure on it in the meantime, so it doesn’t get any worse.” She removed her hand from his bare flesh and he felt a flicker of disappointment at the lack of contact.

Ethan turned to face her, giving her one last look before he put his shirt back on. “Are you sure your cure doesn’t involve a one-on-one care type situation?” Ethan asked.

She laughed. “I can’t say it does.” Right then, Tina’s stomach growled loudly. She clutched her midsection, as if that would lessen the rumbling. She laughed nervously. “I came here straight from my last shift and didn’t have any time to eat dinner,” she explained. Her stomach groaned again, even louder. “Ugh, that is so gross,” she said, still laughing.

Ethan smiled internally. He finally found an in. “Well, it may be—and I’m using your word here—
gross
, but you’re in luck,” he said impishly. “Because I happen to know the cure for that unfortunate condition.”

“Oh, you do?” Good humor sparkled in her eyes, washing away her embarrassment. “What do you prescribe, doctor?”

“Plenty of food. Stat,” Ethan answered solemnly.

“And do you have any? At your place?”

“Unfortunately, no,” he lied. “It’s been such a busy week I haven’t had time to stock up.”

Her face dropped. He’d told millions of lies to millions of women, but for the first time his conscience felt the tiniest twinge of guilt. Though his house, with a fully stocked refrigerator, was not but ten minutes away, he had to follow the first rule: always take her back to
her
home, not yours. You can’t ditch someone the next morning when it’s your own place. He couldn’t make any exceptions, even for Tina.

“But I’d be happy to cook anything you have at your place,” he offered.

She took one agonizing moment to consider, but then her face lightened again. “I have to be back at work in a few hours, but I guess I can stay up. I’m probably too wired to sleep anyway.”

Yes
, Ethan thought.
Feeding time
.

“Perfect. Let’s go,” he told her, before she had a single second to change her mind. “I’m always up for pulling an all-nighter.”

Chapter Four

The twenty-minute car trip passed in a blur, as she tried to focus on the road ahead of her instead of the gorgeous man who sat a mere two feet away in the passenger seat.
My patient’s sinfully hot firefighter rescuer is sitting just beyond that armrest
, she thought in amazement
.
She couldn’t believe her luck. Despite the radio being turned up and the rush of air resulting from all the rolled down windows, she could feel a palpable energy coming from Ethan, and suspected that the wheels in his head were turning just as fast as hers. So many thoughts were rushing through her mind: that uniform, that smile, that
touch
. First he had put his hand just below her shoulder, a genuinely sweet gesture she knew was meant to calm her down, but all it did was put her nerves on full blast. And when he thought better of it and ran his hand down her arm, his fingertips, which she expected to be rough and calloused, were deliciously smooth. His soft touch sent a shiver up her spine and, even now, she could still feel goose pimples where his hand had lingered ever so slightly before turning his gesture into a strong—goodness, how strong—handshake.

And when he’d decided to take off his shirt then and there...well, she nearly fell over when he did that. She knew he was in shape, but she couldn’t have anticipated just how perfect the muscular physique was that lay hidden under his uniform. Just the sight of his naked torso created an ache between her legs. An ache she hadn’t felt in a very long time. An ache she wasn’t sure she was still capable of feeling, it had been so long.

She had been so confident just moments before, but now her nerves were kicking in. Her eyes focused on the road, she didn’t dare to look over at him. What was he thinking about right now? Was he just being friendly when he asked to eat with her? It was completely innocent, right? But something in the way he looked at her made her think that he was hungry for more than just the pathetic leftovers that sat plastic-wrapped in her fridge.

She was so distracted she nearly drove right by her place, but jammed on the brake just in time. Her apartment was actually the lower level of a small house. She felt slightly embarrassed taking him to the fairly rundown Colonial. She undoubtedly could’ve afforded something much better on her current salary, but old habits died hard. Never having money growing up, she wasn’t willing to fork over more for higher rent. She threw the car into Park and led Ethan up the front steps to the porch. Expecting to find a quizzical or disgusted look on his face, she turned around to steal a glance at him. But he wasn’t looking at the house—he was only looking at her.

His focus on her made her stomach give an excited flip. After nervously fumbling with her keys, she finally opened her apartment door and kicked off her sneakers, instantly regretting her second nature action as soon as she heard Ethan give a small chuckle behind her. She turned around and smiled sheepishly. Her body was bone-tired from her jam-packed week and the events of the evening, but she now had a buzz circulating through her body that made her feel as if she had just sipped ten shots of black espresso.

She looked at Ethan, and it suddenly hit her that he was there. Alone. In her apartment. His gaze, which was warm, was also filled with something else—anticipation? she wondered—and Tina got the distinct feeling that Ethan wanted her to kick off more than just her shoes. She couldn’t say she didn’t want the same thing, but now she could only stand there frozen, lost in the beautiful amber eyes of the man standing in her living room. Amber?
I
thought his eyes were blue
.

“Sit down, make yourself at home,” she offered and Ethan walked in a slow circle, getting the full scope of the place, before taking a seat next to her. The heat from his thigh touching hers radiated up the length of Tina’s body. Her scalp tingled and she began to talk faster.

“Well, this is my place,” she said. “It’s not much, but—”

But she could not get out the rest of the sentence. Because when she stretched out her forearm to gesture to the room like she was presenting it as a prize on a game show, Ethan had taken her hand and planted the most feather-light kiss in the middle of her palm.

Tina’s mind reeled.

It had been a
long
time since she had been with a man, and here was Ethan, sitting in her living room, making her legs turn to jelly as he kissed her hand. It wasn’t exactly sexy—it was beyond that: tender, sensual, tantric almost. In that one gesture, he affirmed that he wanted exactly what she did, even though she wasn’t brazen enough to admit it.

But Ethan had picked up on her slight hesitation. “You’re a very beautiful woman and I want you very much, but I’ll stop if you ask me to.”

She didn’t know what to say. No one had ever been that direct with her before. She tried to find the words. “Trust me, it’s not that I don’t... It’s just that I’ve never...uh...” She tried to phrase it in the gentlest way possible.

“You’re a virgin?” he asked.

I
might as well be
, Tina thought as she tried to calculate how many months it had been since she’d last had sex. She couldn’t.

Tina shook her head. “It’s just that...Nikki told me that there’s a rumor that you’re a...”

“Demon,” Ethan answered flatly.

“Yes.” She cringed, not wanting to hurt his feelings.

“And I bet the other part of that rumor is that I’m quite the Casanova?” His tone was light.

“Well, I don’t know about that—”

“Both accounts are true,” he answered.

Tina was a little shocked at his openness, but would be fooling herself if she didn’t find it to be incredibly sexy. If he was as experienced as Nikki said, that would surely make him
very
good at... But Tina stopped herself. Because even though there were demons out there that were nice enough—she had treated enough of them, like Danny, to know—they were still
demons
. And since they tended to never sleep with humans like her, she had no idea if she was making a giant mistake.

“So you’re—you’re a demon?”

“Does it scare you?” he asked.

“No, I’ve just heard a rumor that some demons are more...uh...aggressive than others.”

“That’s true. But it depends on what kind. We have clans for each deadly sin,” he explained.

So the folklore was true, Tina thought. But now she had to know which kind of demon she was about to invite into her bed. She almost didn’t want to ask the words, but she had to. “Which one are you?” she asked, her chest tight.

Ethan leaned in and whispered his answer against her lips. “I’m a Lust.”

She leaned her neck forward and kissed him, hard. His lips were soft, but the force behind them matched hers. He kissed her back expertly, nibbling and sucking on her lower lip, letting his tongue dart into her mouth, deepening the kiss so much that Tina felt dizzy with excitement. Suddenly his hands slid down the length of her body to cup her ass and he drew her over to straddle him right there on the couch. He massaged the back of her thighs, squeezing her, stroking her over the fabric while never breaking the kiss. His fingers explored every inch of her thighs and, before she knew it, he was moving his hands up to the bottom of her snap-front scrubs. He tore open her shirt with one forceful tug and tossed it aside. A surprised laugh escaped Tina’s throat and she could feel his lips smiling against hers in response. Her bra exposed, she felt the slight chill in the air around her, but not for long.

Ethan slipped a thumb under each bra strap and slid them slowly off her shoulders until they hung loosely on the sides of her arms. His kisses traveled down her jaw line to the smooth of her neck. She could smell the spicy, cinnamon scent of his skin, feel his warm breath caressing the crook of her neck. Tina closed her eyes and sighed. Goose pimples began to prickle all over as she reveled at the pleasure of being kissed in her favorite spot. She lightly closed her eyes, a soft groan echoing in her throat.

“Mmmmm,” she cooed.

“You like that?” Ethan whispered against her skin. His deep voice vibrated against her skin and she could feel herself getting wet.

One of his hands slithered underneath the cotton drawstring of her pants and he pressed his palm over her mound, over her panties. He cupped her, no doubt feeling the soaked lace. He continued to kiss her while his other hand pulled down one of the cups of her bra, exposing the creamy-white skin of her breast, its pale pink bud already pebbled and aching. He lowered his head and sucked on it, teasing it to a harder peak. When he bit down on it gently, Tina let out a gasp and tilted her hips into his hand, urging him to touch her inside her most intimate place.

He pushed her bra down farther, and moved to the other breast, kissing it slowly before letting his tongue run all the way down its sloping curve. Ever so lightly, he kissed the underside. Tina nearly jumped, shocked at the amount of pleasure it gave her. As he continued to kiss her there, Tina felt his other hand push aside the lacy material of her underwear and stroke the smooth lips between her thighs. He traced a circle around her entire mound, building her up until he finally touched her between her lips, running his finger up and down her cleft before settling on her clit. He rubbed it with small, fast circular motions, making it swell and pulse with intense pleasure. Tina thrust her hips faster over him, tilting her head back. Ethan lifted his head to kiss her neck before he slipped his middle finger inside her, his thumb, slick with wetness, still rubbing her clit.

She clenched her muscles around his finger. He curved it into a “come hither” gesture, hitting her g-spot with every stroke. She could hardly breathe, the double stimulation almost too much for her. Her climax built up so quickly, so intensely, that when she peaked, she screamed, digging her nails into Ethan’s chest. After she came, she bent her head down into the crook of his shoulder, trying to catch her breath. No one had ever made her come that quickly before. If his foreplay was an indication, the rest of her night with Ethan would be incredible.

She leaned back, her legs still spread on either side of his lap. When she looked up at him, he brought the hand that was inside of her to his lips and, without breaking eye contact, licked his middle finger. “You taste so good.”

Tina felt light-headed. Was this real or was this a dream? The man was a stone cold hottie
and
knew how to push all the right buttons. All while, she noticed right then, fully clothed. They hadn’t even gotten to the good part yet. She kissed him, tasting herself on his tongue before rising off of him and silently leading him to her bedroom.

Tina lay down on her bed, arching her back slightly as she reached behind her to unfasten her bra. She threw it at him playfully before shimmying out of her pants, pulling her underwear down with them. Ethan still stood at the foot of the bed, his chest rising and falling faster as he drank in the sight of her.

“Come here,” she purred.

He climbed onto the bed on all fours, crawling exaggeratingly slow, smirking, until Tina grabbed him and pulled him on top of her. He kissed her, sucking gently on her tongue when it swirled into his mouth. He dragged his mouth down her neck, licking straight down from the hollow of her throat to her stomach before he settled in between her legs. She parted her knees wider, splaying herself open for him.

The instant she felt his tongue on her, she had to stop herself from crying out. He licked the length of her slowly, in long strokes. The muscles on the inside of her legs were shaking, and when his lips pursed around the sensitive nub of flesh at the top, she almost jumped off the bed. His tongue swirled around and around her core, now glistening even more from her wetness and his mouth, before he brought his lips to her clit again and continued sucking, harder this time. Her pussy was now even wetter, aching with an incredible need. His tongue felt amazing, but it was only a taste of what she wanted most.

“I need you inside me,” she said, barely able to find her voice.

Ethan lifted his head from between her legs and looked up at her. He kissed her there one last time then slid down to the end of the bed and stood up. He licked the corner of his mouth before he began to strip. He slid the thick black suspenders of his uniform off his shoulders until they hung limply on either side of his hips before removing his shirt. For a flicker of a second, a grimace flashed across his face as he pulled the white T-shirt up and over his head. Tina knew a zing of pain must have radiated in his shoulder, but it didn’t stop him. He slowly lowered the thick yellow pants of his uniform to the floor and stepped out of them. Though she could barely think straight, she took a minute to admire him. She had to admit he was breathtaking. His body, obviously chiseled from every physical encounter he faced in his daily job, was pure muscle: from his solid, powerfully built legs to washboard abs to his perfectly defined chest. Every inch of his body was rock solid...and, to Tina’s delight, the pronounced outline in his boxer-briefs indicated that also included the one
particular
part of his anatomy that mattered the most.

“Are you ready for me?” he asked softly.

Tina sat up and touched the lines of Ethan’s obliques, letting her finger run down each of them before slipping her index finger into his waistband and pulling his boxers down. She gasped. He was big.

Strike that, Tina thought. He is
enormous
.

“Yes,” she gasped.

Ethan took both of Tina’s hands in his and leaned into her until she was laying flat on the bed, pinning both of her wrists on either side of her head. She loved the feeling of him on top of her, the heaviness of his muscular physique against her delicate frame. He was assertive, but gentle at the same time. Using his knee, he gently pushed her legs farther apart to accommodate his massive body settling between them. She felt the amazing pressure of his erection on her thigh.

“You have to say ‘pretty please,’” he teased, a wicked glint in his eye.

She lifted her shoulders off the bed just enough so that she could kiss him. “Please,” she murmured against his lips.