BLEEDING HEART | ONC 2024

07 - HER

As much as it hurts to tear away from this man—this demon—I have to. The sensations he causes inside me are so intense, I need to slip off and fix myself before anything else happens.

That kiss left me breathless, bewildered. Broken and totally unbalanced.

My heart is on fire. Thudding. Racing.

Heart palpitations aren't normal for me. I cause them in others, usually leading to sex...but I don't experience them.

This creature has provoked such things in me. It's frightening to go through something I normally witness and don't feel.

I don't want to feel it. It's unnatural to me.

I assume the only way to get rid of this problem—my arousal—is to get in bed with him.

So I fix my hair, adjust my bustier, pucker my lips. Be irresistible. I can't let him affect me without leaving him longing for me, too. He's playing a game I'm skilled at; I can't let him win it.

My undergarments are drenched with arousal, but I must hold it in. Draw him in, instead of hanging on his every word. He needs to hang on mine.

I'm intent on seducing him into my room by the time I exit the tavern's powder room. I must have him, but he must be the one to beg for it.

The things we could do, him and I.

A demon, his hunger insatiable; and an angel used to indulging in others' pleasure and desperate to have some for herself.

But as I enter the main room, scouring the chair and table where I'd left him, I see that I'm alone.

Other patrons have departed. The room is empty.

Az is no longer here.

This demon isn't of small build. He's massive, bulky. There's nothing for him to hide behind. And there are no other powder rooms or places for him to be lurking, except for the storage room, but that's where Henderson is. He wouldn't let a stranger in.

"He took off," says Henderson, coming from said storage room.

"What?" I again peer about, wondering if my eyes are playing tricks on me.

Where is he?

Hadn't we just exchanged a steamy kiss that meant more? Hadn't that expressed to him how badly I wanted him?

He wanted me too, I know it. I'm never mistaken on such things; it's my job to know when desire is in the air.

And it was, with us. So pungent it was suffocating. So intense it made me have to get up and go handle myself before I melted into his mouth.

But he left?

Henderson returns behind the bar-counter. "He snuck out seconds after you went beyond the curtain."

"But..." I fall into the nearest chair, arms dangling at my sides.

Something pinches in my heart; something akin to pain.

Pain?

I don't feel pain.

"I don't know what to tell you," Henderson says, shrugging. There's a genuine look of sorrow in his features. "He rushed out without turning back. Suspicious little shit. Well, big shit, seeing how huge he was—"

I jolt to my feet, cutting him off. "That's not possible."

A pang echoes through my heart. My center, which had been pulsating with need for him, is still. Dry. Hurting.