Read Online The Devil's Due by Jenna Black - Free Book Online Page B

wood, maybe mahogany. The seat, which didn’t exactly look comfy, was a thinly padded red and gold tapestry, and a swath of red velvet—a rug, apparently—surrounded the throne like a halo.
    The only light in the room came from a series of candle-bearing iron chandeliers, which left most of the arches and corners in impenetrable darkness. The hair on the back of my neck prickled, and I shivered.
    “Lugh?” I called out, my voice echoing against the stone as I turned in a circle, looking for him. When I came around full circle, the throne was no longer empty.
    I had never seen him looking remotely like this before. He was dressed all in wine-dark red with accents of gleaming gold—a matching set of coat, waistcoat, and breeches adorned with buttons even where buttons weren’t needed. White lace frothed from the cuffs of his coat and foamed beneath his chin. White stockings clung to shapely calves and disappeared into red velvet shoes with gold buckles. His hair was unbound, held back from his face only by a simple gold band that I gathered was a crown.
    The face beneath the crown was the same familiar face—Lugh, my demon and, maybe, my friend. But for the first time ever, I truly felt as though I was facing the demon king. My mouth went dry, my throat tightened, and I couldn’t think of a thing to say. How could I stand in a king’s hall and scold said king for speaking out of turn?
    Lugh crossed those elegant legs of his at the knee and leaned back into the throne as if it were a cushy recliner rather than hard, carved wood. I wouldn’t call the expression on his face a smile, but there was definitely a hint of amusement in his eyes.
    “Have I finally found a way to overawe you, then?” he asked.
    I tried a snort, but the sound was feeble and unconvincing. “If I’d known this was a costume party, I’d have dressed up,” I said, determined not to let him make me feel uncomfortable.
    He didn’t say anything, merely raised his eyebrows. With a sigh of resignation, I looked down at myself and found that I was dressed in a voluminous green brocade gown. My breasts were pushed up and in by what I could only assume was a corset, and were covered—barely—by a triangular, lace-covered panel that appeared to be pinned to the gown’s bodice. If I breathed too deeply, my nipples would probably make a surprise appearance. I was pretty sure I hadn’t been wearing this getup when the dream had started, but since I hadn’t thought to look at myself, I couldn’t be sure.
    “It’s so me,” I muttered dryly as another shiver chilled my spine.
    “It would be a sensual delight to strip you out of it,” Lugh said. “A tease in the truest sense of the word. All those little pins holding the stomacher in place, then all the undergarments with their tapes and laces …”
    “You sound like you’ve stripped women out of outfits like this before.”
    Again, he didn’t answer, but his silence was answer enough. He was a long-lived, possibly immortal, being, and I knew he’d walked the Mortal Plain before. Perhaps what I was wearing had been the height of women’s fashion when he’d last been here.
    Since he’d brought up the subject of sex himself—albeit indirectly—I went on the offensive rather than questioning him about this sudden change in milieu.
    “What did you say to Brian when you called him in the middle of the night?”
    He sighed and gave me a disappointed look. “Is that what you consider the most important thing for us to talk about?”
    Not really. It was just my attempt to wrest control of this dream from Lugh, and that was important to me. “What did you say to him?”
    Lugh shook his regal head, making me feel childish even as he answered my question. “I told him you would respond well to a little dominance.” He held up a hand to stave off my protest. “From him . Another lover might not have survived the attempt.”
    I was pretty sure he was laughing at me, even though he wasn’t