Next-Door Incubus, page 11
part #1 of Becoming Lust Series
“And when he’s into it,” Kasey said, mumbling against Aarav’s lips. “Pull away.” When she pulled away from him, he looked like he was high—eyes foggy and distant, lips parted ever so slightly.
I gulped, unsure if I could pull something like that off so well.
“Step three: be direct.” She grabbed Aarav’s hand. “Knowing what you want and how you want it, not only will help Eros pleasure you but it’ll turn him on. He wants to please you.”
I could barely speak coherently in front of him sometimes, and she wanted me to tell him exactly what I wanted. I was bound to screw that one up.
She turned to me, a smile on her face. “So, how are you feeling about it?”
“Okay…” I said. She cocked a brow, and I sighed. “It’s so hard with him. He’s so good at this all. It’s like it comes naturally to him.”
Aarav chuckled. “It does.”
Kasey elbowed him and snatched his wrist. “We’ll be right back.” She pulled him toward the kitchen.
Mycah placed a hand on my shoulder. “I get your struggle. Sometimes Kasey and Aarav flirt and I just feel so lost, you know?” She pursed her plump brown lips. “But from what I’ve heard Kasey say, it seems like he’s really into you. You could definitely break him.”
“You think so?”
She nodded, her tight curls bouncing around her face. “Definitely! You just have to find something that he likes. Kasey and Aarav—they both love it when I run my hands through their hair. It drives them crazy.”
I’d have to keep that in mind. Maybe Eros had a similar thing that drove him wild.
When Kasey and Aarav walked back over, Kasey was grinning ear to ear and Aarav looked a bit less… high. “We’re going to join your date tonight. Mycah, do you want to come?”
“You are?” I asked, relief washing over me. “Why?”
“To help you out,” she said.
“It can be intimidating when you’re dating a—” Aarav started.
“A guy like Eros,” Kasey finished.
And it definitely was.
~~~
Eros knocked on my front door, and I glanced in the mirror one last time to make sure everything was perfect. Kasey told me to wear something that accentuated my features, but not too much. Give him something to stare at but leave something to his imagination.
I wasn’t sure if this black wrap-dress fit that description, but it was too late to turn back now. I hurried to the front door and took a deep breath. Remember the tricks, Dani.
Eye contact. Tease him. Be direct.
When I opened the door, Eros was leaning against the doorframe, dressed in a navy-blue suit jacket. One hand was stuffed into his pocket. The other was playing with the ring on his finger.
He whistled lowly as his eyes roamed down my body and lingered on my hips. They were intense, dark, and confident.
Keep eye contact, Dani.
“You look… amazing,” he said.
I refused to succumb to the urge to look away and stepped toward him, fingers grazing against his abdomen. “Are you ready?”
He smiled, held out his hand, and led me to the car. “Always.”
During the entire ride downtown, I repeated the three steps to myself so I wouldn’t forget. Eye contact, tease, be direct. Eye contact, tease, be direct. Reiterating it like a hymn.
Once we parked, Eros grabbed my hand and wrapped an arm around my waist to shield me from the biting cold. The walk to Crimson’s Nouveau would be short, but I didn’t mind the extra body heat.
His jacket hung, unzipped, off his shoulders. I slipped my hand under it, fingers grazing against his chest—making him tense—while we walked.
This was my chance.
I moved my fingers down his torso, slowly tracing his abs, and dipped it down his hip bone until I reached the waistband of his pants. They lingered for a few moments, then I pulled them away.
“What was that?” he asked.
I gulped, trying to think of something sexy to say. “I just wanted to know what I’ll be enjoying after dinner.”
His gaze flickered to my lips, eyes darkening. “You’ll be enjoying more than just that if you keep that up.”
“Oh, yeah?” I asked. “Like what?”
“There you are!” Kasey shouted. She, Mycah, and Aarav were huddled next to the entrance of the restaurant on the other side of the street. Mycah waved to me, a big smile on her face.
Eros hurried with me across the street, a look of ambush on his face. “What are you doing here?” he said.
Kasey looked at me. “You didn’t tell him?”
My eyes widened. I didn’t have any time to tell him anything. The whole day I was focusing on one thing, and that was preparing to seduce Eros.
Kasey pouted her red lips. “We’re joining you.”
“You can’t just invite yourself to a date,” Eros said.
“Dani invited us.”
“Uh—yeah.” Sure, I did.
Mycah bounced up and down on her toes. “Okay, can we take this arguing inside? It’s freezing!”
Eros clenched his jaw, fingers curling tighter around my waist. We walked into Crimson’s Nouveau, and my night of seducing Eros began.
Chapter 22
“And here are your Fervor Crisps to-go.” The waitress placed two brown bags with a black heart-shaped logo on our table. I gently closed my eyes, breathing in the sweet—almost sinful—aroma.
From across the table, Kasey smiled at me with her freshly painted lips. “Have you ever tried Fervor Crisps?” When I shook my head, she slapped Eros on the shoulder and furrowed her brows at him. “You haven’t made her any?”
Eros clenched his jaw for the hundredth time tonight. “Kase—” he started. My fingers lightly dug into his thigh, hoping that it’d calm him down. It was as far as I had gotten with flirting with him. He and Kasey had been bickering the whole night.
Kasey took my hand. “Eros makes the most delicious ones that you’ll ever taste.”
I raised a brow at him. “You bake?” He gave Kasey one more hard look, then smiled sheepishly at me. My eyes widened. “That’s so cute!”
All I could picture was Eros in a tiny white apron with flour in his hair, rolling dough.
His cheeks tinted pink, and he took my hand from Kasey. I drew my finger over his ring, feeling it’s the warmth from within it. Eros held my hand to his chest, and I gazed at him. The dim light from above accentuated his sharp features, yet they looked inviting somehow. “I’ll make them for you sometime,” he said softly.
Kasey pointed a manicured finger at him. “And take her to The Lounge. They have some good Fervor Crisps too.”
“What’s The Lounge?”
Eros narrowed his eyes at Kasey and pulled me out of the booth. “It’s a bar,” he said slowly. “We’ll be going now.” After snatching one bag, he tugged me through the crowded restaurant, leaving Kasey, Aarav, and Mycah all smirking wickedly at me from the table.
Alone time—finally.
~~~
As soon as we reached the car, Eros gazed at me from the driver’s seat. The moon gleamed through the windshield, lightening his dark eyes. He placed a hand on the back of my black leather seat, leaned forward, and said, “I’ve been waiting all night for this,” with that husky voice of his.
My heart thumped against my chest. Here goes nothing. I crossed one leg over the other, my black dress riding up my leg. I turned toward him and fingered the collar on his shirt. “For what?” I asked, holding eye contact.
He drew his nose against mine and smirked. “For this.” He leaned in, snatched the warm bag of Fervor Crisps from my lap, tore it open, and pulled out two pastries, grinning like a kid.
Heat crawled up my cheeks, and I shifted awkwardly in my seat when he handed me one. Great, Dani, you try to act sexy when all he wanted was some damn Fervor Crisps.
In one bite, Eros stuffed one into his mouth and groaned. “Mmmmm, it’s so good.”
Doughy like an éclair with a thin layer of sugar and powder coating the outside, the Fervor Crisps were only about a finger length long, but they looked delicious.
He relaxed against the back of his seat in pure delight, eyes shutting softly. There was a bit of white powder on his bottom lip. I wanted to wipe it off, but he looked too peaceful. I just wanted to savor the moment.
Once he swallowed, he nudged my Fervor Crisp closer to me. “Go on,” he said. “You’ll like it.”
When I bit into mine, my mouth filled with intense creamy goodness and thick rich dough. Sweet with a pinch of salt. I moaned softly. “How haven’t I eaten one of these before?”
Eros grabbed another one and broke it apart, letting the milky cream ooze from the middle. “They’re not popular around here.”
“Oh. Are they popular where you used to live?”
He tensed and slowly chewed his food. “What do you mean?”
“Like your home?”
“You mean where my family is from?”
I furrowed my brows at him. “Uh… yeah…”
After gazing out of the foggy windshield for a few moments, he clenched and unclenched his jaw. “Yeah, they’re popular in Hell.”
“Eros, I’m being serious,” I said. Was his family that bad that he didn’t even want to tell me about them?
The dashboard lit up with the name Luci, and I clenched my jaw. Why did she keep calling? Nearly every time that I drove with him, I’d see her name. Missed call from Luci. Incoming call from Luci. Voicemail from Luci.
Breathe, Dani.
Eros and I weren’t a thing yet. I couldn’t get jealous over such a stupid girl’s name. So, I gazed over at him and brushed a stray piece of hair from his face. “I won’t judge you. You can tell me.”
He looked so chillingly distant. Nothing like that boyish grin he had a few moments ago. “I told you that you don’t know what you’re getting yourself into with me. I need to be sure that you’re going to be okay when you find out.” He played with his ring, making it spin around his finger.
I wasn’t sure what he was waiting for. I was ready for any family-related problem that he could throw at me. From growing up without parents to my experience listening to Dr. U’s patients talk about all the family problems that they had, I had a decent grasp on how to handle wild family drama.
“Okay,” I said quietly. “I can wait for whenever you’re ready.”
The dashboard lit up again with Luci’s name, and Eros forwarded the call to voicemail and started the car.
After the dreadfully silent ride home, Eros walked me to my door. He placed his hand on the doorframe and grabbed my hand with the other. “Sorry for being so pissed tonight. Kasey sometimes just…” He took a deep breath. “Gets on my nerves.”
“It’s okay.”
“I wanted it to just be the two of us.” His voice was soft, vulnerable almost, and that boyish smile was back. “I hope you had a good time even though it didn’t turn out how I wanted.”
I handed him the bag of pastries and smiled. “I did.”
He opened it and pulled out the last one. “Share it with me.” He pushed it in my direction, but I pushed it back.
“You first.”
His green eyes sparkled, and he bit into it. White cream oozed out of the center, nearly dripping onto the ground, but he caught it on his finger before it ruined the carpet.
I gazed up at him, smirking. Think sexy, Dani.
I grasped his wrist and pulled his hand to me. My lips wrapped around the tip of his finger, and I slowly sucked off all the sweet creamy goodness. He swallowed the rest of his food, eyes widening. With a light pop, I pulled his finger out of my mouth and licked my lips.
“Fuck,” he said under his breath, lips parted just slightly. His eyes were a hazy green.
My fingers trailed down his chest, just like I had seen Kasey do with Aarav, and I wrapped them around his belt loops and pulled him closer to me. I brushed my lips against his ear. “I bet yours tastes better.”
His breath hitched. And, for a moment, I celebrated the slight advantage I had over him.
He regained his composure and pushed me against the door. “I bet you’d love to find out,” he said. When he grinded his hardness into my hip, I let out a small moan, my eyes fluttering closed.
Calm, Dani, calm.
“I love the sounds you make,” he murmured against my ear. Heat rushed to my core.
Stop it, you’re stronger than this.
My fingers relaxed under his belt loops, totally mesmerized by his scent. I moved them to the front side of his pants and grasped his hardness through them. He was so big.
“It’s all yours, Dani. All you have to do is beg.”
My hand moved down his length, and I felt him tense under my touch. He was confident, but I had an effect on him. I continued, knowing it was driving him crazy.
“I’m not going to beg for you,” I said against his ear. “I don’t need you to please me.”
He tensed, harder this time, then pressed his fingers against the front of my dress, wasting no time rubbing them in small circles. He slipped them under my dress and into my underwear, playing with my folds. “Do you think anyone else could please you the way I can?”
I pressed my knees together, smirking, and pushed him away. “No, and I don’t plan on trying to find anyone else.” His eyes were dark, and after weeks of waiting I just wanted him to thrust me against the wall and fuck me senseless.
But I wasn’t going to beg.
“I’m perfectly capable of pleasuring myself.”
His eyes darkened, and he smirked. “You’re going to touch yourself?”
I paused for the briefest moment, trying to gather my thoughts. He was always so blunt. I opened my door, gave him a once over, and smirked. “I’d ask you to come in, but I’m going to be busy for the rest of the night.”
Chapter 23
“Oh, my gosh!” Kasey screamed over the phone. “I bet he was drooling when you shut the door on him. He was probably thinking about you all night.”
I shrugged on my coat, giggling. “I don’t know about that, Kasey,” I said. But I was definitely thinking about him lying in bed with me, hand around my throat, fingers trailing down the center of my chest, touching me in places that I had only ever dreamt.
After I shut the door on Eros last night, I laid on my bed—candle crackling softly in the corner, fingers gliding into my underwear—and thought about the night. Oddly enough, most of my thoughts weren’t occupied with the incident in the hallway, but by the one in the car. When Eros said he didn’t want to tell me about his past until I was ready.
I rested my forehead against the cold living room window and sighed. “I told you that you don’t know what you’re getting into with me.” He had said it like he had told me those exact words before, but he hadn’t. I only remember him saying that in my dream, and that wasn’t even really him.
Maybe I was just remembering wrong, because the more dreams I had of Eros, the more they seemed real. Dream-Eros and Real-Eros were starting to blur.
“Come over later! You need to give Mycah and I all the gossip,” Kasey said.
“I’ll be over after work.” I smiled and hung up the phone.
Outside the window, the city was covered in a thin layer of snow that I would have to trudge through on my way to Dr. U’s office. But, honestly, I’d rather just be curled up next to Eros, watching the snow fall from the warmth of my apartment today.
I wrapped a scarf around my neck and opened the front door. But when I heard Javier and Eros arguing out in the hall, I shut it softly—still inside my apartment. For a moment, I debated whether or not to listen. I could almost hear Mom scolding me for eavesdropping on their conversation, but I was already going to Hell. So, I pressed my ear to the door, anyway.
“Your father says to bring her to our family dinner,” Javier said.
“No,” Eros said, voice stern. I had never heard him so irritated before.
“He says that you don’t have a choice if you want your banishment to be lifted.” Javier’s voice rose with each word.
“I don’t care what he says. I’m not getting her involved in this.”
“They know about her. She’s already involved, Eros.”
There was a loud bang against the hallway wall, and I jumped back. I hoped that Javier wasn’t getting physical with Eros.
“Did you tell them about her?” Eros shouted. My eyes widened. Oh, God, he was angry.
Another loud bang. “She can be your key back to the fucking family!” Javier said. I frowned at the door. What was going on? What kind of family were they from? And how was I the key back to it?
Eros paused. “No.”
Javier growled. “Why are you so stubborn? I fucked her boyfriend, so you could finally take her, but you refuse.”
“I never asked you to do that,” Eros said, distaste so clear in his voice. “You didn’t even do that for me. You did it to hurt her, you wrathful bastard.”
“But you’re glad I did, aren’t you?”
I waited for Eros to answer—my heart hammering against my chest—but was met with silence. After a long pause, he finally said, “Why do you want me back so bad? Mother and father don’t.”
His words sounded so empty, like this had been going on for quite some time now and he was numb to the pain. I grazed my fingers against Mom’s pendant. I couldn’t imagine what Eros was going through. His parents were still alive and well, yet he didn’t want to see them. My mom was dead, but I’d trek through Hell to see her one last time.
~~~
For the next week, I didn’t see Eros once—not even in my dreams. Maria mentioned that he came over a few times, but I was always conveniently not home. I hoped that he wasn’t ignoring me.
Maria had been busy with Zane, and Kasey was distracted by Aarav and Mycah. I tried to stay occupied by volunteering at the food pantry downtown during my lunch break and at the ice-skating rink after work—desperate to take my mind off of the loneliness that came during this time of the year. But, each night, I sat in my room alone wondering how I was going to get through the holidays with no one.
