Carousel Read online

  Caroline waited to move from the picnic tables until the audience had dispersed and she heard the more familiar voices of the cast from a distance. Lady Sasha and Lord Mikhail had left a pall of sexual tension over the circus after the performance, as usual. It was as thick as the summer humidity already forming dew under her bare feet. Some nights were more intense than others. This one had her reading from a certain section of her virtual bookshelf. Caroline would be more than ready for Riley tonight. In fact, she’d climb him like Everest.

  After putting her tablet in its case and slinging her purse over her shoulder, she walked back to the carousel with a sensual swing to her hips. Just the abrupt sound of the leather and the friction of her thighs against each other called attention to the hot throb pressed to the seam at the apex.

  Caroline stepped up onto the carousel. She saw movement on the other side, and she was about to call to Riley when she noticed the steaming pink pile at the cage gate.

  She covered her mouth after the initial scream. The first time she’d screamed, it had been understandable. This time, she was annoyed—at herself for screaming and at whoever was responsible for the clump of intestines and what looked like a liver presented to her. It had to be for her, not for any of the carousel staff or Riley. It could be for Colm, now that she thought about it, but it felt like it was meant for her, placed in front of her cage like a sacrifice offering. But she still didn’t have a damn clue why.

  The smell of raw meat, still fresh enough for her to feel warmth above it, made her stumble back. She covered her mouth to convince her body it didn’t need to hurl.

  The next time she screamed, it was more a shriek of frustration.

  “Damn it, what’s the deal?” she yelled into the darkness. “What kind of sick joke is this?”

  “What happened?” Riley asked. He barreled to her side of the carousel. He stopped short when he realized what Caroline was looking at.

  “How nice. Can’t recognize human organs when he smells them,” Colm said, weaving through some of the mounts as though stalking prey.

  “Oh God, these are human?” Caroline asked.

  “Of course they are. What did you think it was?” Colm said.

  “Pig,” she replied. “I thought it was a joke. Or some kind of hazing for the new girl—although why a place like this would need hazing is beyond me. And here I thought you were in pure avoidance mode.”

  “I was drawn by your screams,” Colm said. “I thought I’d see something entertaining.”

  “Nice,” Caroline said. “Now I have to find Geoff to get this cleaned up. I’m not letting it sit out here until morning. It’s already gross without it rotting and getting the smell everywhere. ‘Hey, kids, want to ride on an abattoir?’”

  “Now that sounds appealing,” Colm murmured, holding onto the poles of the squid and a red-eyed black horse on either side of him as he took in the scene.

  “You would think so,” Caroline said.

  “I’ll look for one of the staff,” Riley said.

  Caroline almost stopped him from leaving. He was as affected by the sex demons’ greater magic tonight as she was, and he was having trouble standing completely upright with another part of his anatomy doing most of that instead.

  However, even though she was also affected, the pile of intestines had kind of killed the mood. And she also didn’t want to stick around human remains, in case whoever left it came back.

  “No, I’ll get them,” Caroline said. “And here it was actually a pretty good day until the murders.”

  “Multiple?” Colm asked.

  “I got some lungs and a heart last week. God, I was looking at actual human parts,” Caroline said. She buried her face in her shaking hands.

  “Sounds like you have an admirer,” Colm said. He climbed onto the black horse and sat sidesaddle. “Heart, lungs, liver, intestines.”

  “How do vital organs translate into valentines?” she asked. “I mean, aside from the heart, which is just gruesome when it’s literal.”

  “You’re in their heart, their soul, their gut, every breath they take,” Colm said. “It’s almost sweet.”

  “It’s not you, is it? Tell me you didn’t do this, Colm,” Caroline said.

  “Do I look like I’m begging to kiss your ass, princess?”

  “That wasn’t a ‘no’.”

  “No. I didn’t do it. If I were to leave anato-grams, I’m far more likely to leave limbs or a head. Less of a chance they’d be confused for pig,” Colm replied. “And it sends a far more threatening message.”

  “More threatening than freshly harvested organs? There’s someone out there right now who’s dead and missing pieces of themselves, and I’m supposed to not be threatened?”

  “I told you. This is the artwork of an admirer,” Colm said. “Look how it’s displayed.”

  “I’d rather not. Only a demon would think that this was art.”

  Which brought up a very disturbing thought—these human remains weren’t cast or crew, since people would notice if someone was missing. But the one doing this was most likely a demon. And if it was a demon, it was probably from Arcanium.

  That narrowed her suspect list down, but it did nothing to assuage her fear. Madoc had promised this would be dealt with, the same way he’d promised she’d be safe. That put a bit of a damper on her already limited trust.

  “I’m going to get Madoc,” Caroline decided. “Riley, if you could find someone from the crew and get them to send my people over… We need to get this taken care of now.”

  “I’ll just stay and admire the handiwork, then,” Colm said. “No one appreciates good art anymore.”

  “You are having way too much fun right now,” Caroline said.

  Colm smiled as though he didn’t just have human teeth, the fiercest smile she’d seen from him since their first night.

  “Since I can’t slaughter, I have a marked appreciation for slaughter secondhand,” Colm replied.

  Caroline couldn’t tell if Colm made a grand noise about how much of a demon he was in order to intimidate her and compensate for whatever power Madoc had taken from him or whether he was just being honest.

  “Whatever.” Caroline nodded to Riley, who went in the direction of the food booths. Caroline headed toward the trailers.

  When she reached Madoc’s trailer, neither he nor Maya were in it. She looked around, but she could see no sign of them.

  “Excuse me, but do you know where Madoc is?” Caroline asked, brushing the fire-eater’s arm as he passed by her.

  She couldn’t help her alarmed reaction when he turned to her, exposing up close the shiny, pink burn scars stark on his dark face and arms. Caroline tried not to show it, though.

  She wasn’t sure whether such intense scars were the best advertisement for a successful fire-eater, but it did bring home the fact that he was using real fire, no tricks. He was probably one of the cast who was being punished. If she were jinn and wanted to punish someone, she’d probably ensure his pretty face got a few burns too.

  The man nodded and pointed at the big top. He didn’t open his mouth. Maybe he’d injured himself again. His lips were scarred as well. Poor guy looked like he’d climbed in through the window of a burning building and been caught in a flare.

  Caroline thanked him and jogged toward the backstage entrance.

  A hand reached out from the darkness and grabbed her wrist before she could open the tent flap. The person’s other hand covered her mouth to keep her from crying out. She was dragged to the side then shoved against the canvas of the tent. It was sturdy and well-grounded, almost as strong as actual walls.

  “I wouldn’t go in there if I were you,” Colm said softly. His breath was warm, and his lips brushed against the shell of her ear when he spoke. “Hear that?”

  She hadn’t completely giving up on wriggling out of his grasp, but she stilled long enough to listen through the canvas. On the other side, she heard all the telltale sounds of enthusiastic sex. Once she re
cognized it, she tried not to listen too closely, especially when she thought she heard more than two people. That conjured up images she didn’t want.

  Of course, she didn’t have much choice.

  Caroline bit her lip and pulled away from the tent so she couldn’t hear them as well anymore. But she couldn’t get away from the lean but immovable, hot body pressing against her.

  “Bell, playing with his human pet and showing her off like a prize mare,” Colm whispered. “She seems to be up to just about anything. If he weren’t in love with her, I’d be envious.”

  Let go, she thought, protesting the hand covering her mouth. She struggled in his arms until he removed his hand and whirled her around. He still held her wrist hard enough to grind the bones.

  “I understand their abandon,” Colm said. “The incubus and succubus must be feeding. You can always tell, because it becomes unbearable.”

  “What the hell are you talking about?” Caroline snapped.

  Colm crowded her against the canvas again. Without warning or hesitation, he slipped his hand between her thighs and stroked her almost hard enough to hurt, nearly lifting her off the ground with each stroke. The white noise of her arousal become deafening in her body. Her mouth fell open with a gasp, and she clutched his shoulders, digging her nails in.

  “Don’t act coy, wicked girl. I can smell you,” Colm said. “In fact, your scent permeates the whole circus. I don’t know whether it’s just that way for me because Bell’s a fucking prick or whether every other demon in Arcanium simply has iron-willed self-control that I have no interest in cultivating.”

  “Maybe that’s why you ended up a human horse on a carousel while they get applause. Ever think of that?” Caroline asked breathlessly.

  She tossed her head back as he yanked her to him. His erection pressed into her hip, but he still worked his hand over her.

  “Do you know why I can do this? Because you want it.” He lunged forward and bit the base of her neck hard, but Caroline grabbed his hair to urge him to stay.

  “Then why are you still such an ass?” Caroline asked.

  “Obviously because you like it when I’m an ass.” He licked a lingering line up her neck to her ear. “Prince Dull and Charming can be all nice and sweet and needy for you. Bell took what I was away from me, but he still hasn’t castrated who I am. I’m not going to lick your boots, princess.”

  “Good thing I don’t have a fondness for foot fetishists,” she said. “Hey, I thought you didn’t like me and were trying to avoid me at all costs because I’m too human.”

  Colm brought his hand to her neck. He didn’t squeeze, but he threatened to until he lowered her to her knees. Her eyes were level with the barely contained cock in his torn pants. “I tried to avoid you—and I don’t like you. But you live where I’m bound, and I don’t have to like you to want your cunt around my cock, your breasts in my hands and that sweet mouth beneath me so that I can take every single inch of you and make you mine.”

  “And if I told you to let me go and kneel before me?”

  “Fuck you, bitch,” Colm spat, but he joined her down on the ground as though pulled by invisible ropes. The most intriguing part of his anger was that she couldn’t force him to do anything like this, so he had to want it too.

  “That’s the idea,” Caroline replied.

  She shoved him back, knocking him off-balance. He sprawled on the ground, all ungainly limb, and Caroline crawled over him to hold him down. If he decided that he didn’t want her there, he was bigger and stronger than she was, not to mention with fewer scruples. He could push her off in a heartbeat. Instead, he grabbed the straps of her bodice and pulled her down over his chest. He used his whole body to envelop her, to cage her in his embrace as their mouths met in a furious, exhilarating battle.

  It wasn’t that Riley lacked passion or a willingness to please. But Caroline thought that he lacked…initiative. Creativity. Raw, carnal, even indifferent desire. Colm took pleasure in her body and wasn’t afraid to take what he wanted—and he knew that if he did take it, she more than wanted him to.

  Caroline didn’t blame Riley. He sometimes seemed so out of his element, out of sync, helpless in his own desperation. He was young, not much older than she was, and he still seemed to be riding aimlessly on the current of his arousal, his repertoire not quite developed. Caroline didn’t have as much experience as Colm, and she was a little younger than Riley, but she had imagination—and, it seemed, a lust for variety that she hadn’t realized she had.

  A girl learned something new every day.

  Like how fast another man could get her out of skintight leather pants when it took her a lot more effort. While she was over him, he undid the fastenings and pushed them over her ass. Then he effortlessly flipped them over and, in the same motion, peeled her pants and underwear down the rest of her legs. It was a simple matter of removing her sandals then discarding everything around them.

  Caroline didn’t like the rough grass and gravel against her backside. It made her wonder what was getting in where. She curled her leg around his and rolled them over again.

  Colm laughed with a rasp like claws through cotton when she grasped his erection through his own tight trousers.

  “You’ve been watching me with Riley. I know you have. You’ve watched the way I take him down, the way I suck him like a melting ice cream cone. I know you’ve dreamed about shoving this big cock down my throat,” Caroline said, making her voice husky.

  Colm swallowed thickly.

  “You’ve been jealous as hell he’s getting all the attention and not you, that his cock gets all the love while yours stays painfully untouched.”

  She worked his buttons open one-handed. Colm groaned in relief as she folded back the placket of his trousers, freeing his cock.

  “But guess what? That’s not happening tonight,” Caroline whispered near his lips. She smiled when he growled with frustration.

  “You are not leaving me like this,” Colm said.

  “Who said anything about leaving?” Caroline asked, straddling his hips. Her folds spread to either side of his erection, wet over him. She caressed his cock with her softness and tantalized herself with his heat. When she rolled her hips, her clit brushed against the shaft. She let her head drop, her hair hanging in colorful curtains on either side of her face.

  She used and teased him for her own pleasure until he grabbed the base of his cock, aimed, then pushed up into her before she was ready. But her pussy was, sheathing him as tightly as she could. He clutched her hips, grunting as he braced his feet against the ground to plunge up into her.

  He’d caught her by surprise. Each thrust pushed a cry out of her while she scrabbled for purchase on his chest and shoulders.

  Colm insinuated his hand between them and rubbed firm circles over her clit, making her hips buck. Just when she thought she’d regained her control, he did something else unexpected that made pleasure shoot strong as lightning through her, and all control exploded.

  Then he moved those fingers farther down, stroking her pussy lips where they embraced his grinding cock. She felt him dig his fingers in to join his cock, stretching her to the point of discomfort, even as he pressed the heel of his palm against her clit to keep her under the thumb of her own arousal, the reins in his hands.

  “You love that, don’t you, wicked girl?” he said. He strained up and licked the corner of her mouth. “Love the way I fill you. Even my cock isn’t enough. I bet you’d beg for the one I once had, before the demon was stripped from me. Maybe I can talk Ciarán into showing you what a real demon is capable of. For now, I guess you’re just going to have to content yourself with the worst I can do.”

  He grabbed her shoulder and pushed her down over his cock and fingers. His lips were parted as though to taste her wail in the air.

  “God, I knew you’d be like this, even when it wasn’t a dream. We’re right in front of the caravan, mistress of mine, and you’re just getting louder and louder… I think y
ou want them to come out and look at you, watch you screw the demon they hate. Too bad it’s the other way around.”

  Colm whipped them over again, covering her body with his and withdrawing his slick cock from her. That left her open with nothing but his fingers inside, furiously probing and curling until she whined. She begged him with her hips to fill her again.

  He held her down with his free hand on her chest above the corset fastenings and slowly pulled each finger from her cunt. Her fragrant arousal smelled as strong as the scent of sweat on his skin when he held his fingers before her to see how she’d coated him. Then, just as deliberately, he licked and sucked all the juices from his hand, the same way he had made her taste herself.

  At the same time, he undid the eyelets of her corset until it sprung open, exposing the distended nipples and the places where the tight material had creased patterns onto her breasts and abdomen like light henna.

  “Mmm, that’s a tasty sight indeed, tasty as your dripping little cunt,” he murmured. “You want me back inside you? You want me fucking you into the ground?” He bit her nipple, pulling it up with his teeth until tears sprang up in her eyes. This time, it damn well hurt bad, but the ache in her cunt only intensified.

  Caroline hit him over the side of his head with an open hand. Not as hard as she could—she wanted him startled, not concussed. He stumbled to the side. She rolled him the rest of the way over, held his cock then sank over him.

  Colm was laughing again. Her breasts quivered as she rode him, and he pinched, twisted and abused her nipples until they were swollen and painful. She slid her hands up his chest to his throat. He stared into her eyes as she circled his neck with her small hands and pressed.

  “Yes,” he hissed. “Yes, my wicked girl.”

  She felt him try to swallow, try to breathe. She wasn’t closing him off, but she also wasn’t making it easy for him. He covered her hands with his, squeezing her hands closer and tighter before knocking her arms out and wrapping his around her.

  Colm sat them up so that her kneeling legs were on either side of his hips. “The things I could teach you,” he purred. “And I think you’re willing to learn, aren’t you, pet?”