“Ah, but I don’t do it to escape or function. I do it to have fun with my friends – that’s different.”
“I could give up drinking any time.”
She snickered. “For maybe a day, sure. But for longer? Nu-uh.”
Cunning flashed in his eyes. “Yeah? How about we test your little theory?” He folded his arms. “I’ll go one full week without alcohol – I won’t have so much as a sip of it.”
“Sure,” she drawled, openly skeptical.
“I’m serious.”
“You truly think you can do that?”
“Yes. And if I’m right …” His gaze darkened, focusing on her so intensely it made her scalp prickle. “I get to feed from you.”
Khloé’s heartbeat stuttered. “Feed from me?”
“I won’t touch you, but I will use my powers to make you come for me. Hard.”
Well, hell. Sexual energy was like an aphrodisiac to incubi. They built up their prey’s need without even physically touching them, blanketing them with pleasure-inducing pheromones, and then they fed off that energy.
She’d seen it happen once at a club. An incubus had done nothing more than pin a woman close to his body, breathing in every breath that left her lungs as she writhed and moaned in his arms.
“Not willing to take the risk that you’re wrong?” asked Keenan.
Her smile dripped with pity. “Sweetie, did you hit your head? You’d never manage to abstain from drinking for a week.” It was laughable that he’d think differently.
“With the right motivation, a man can do anything.”
She didn’t see how he’d find the idea of feeding from her that motivational. He might be attracted to her, but that would never be enough to fight his craving for a drink. There was no way he’d win this little bet, and she saw no reason why she couldn’t capitalize on that—she was an imp, after all.
“Okay. But if you do cave like a loser—which you will, my friend—you have to be my slave for the day,” she said. “That means cooking, cleaning, doing my laundry, chauffeuring me around, and doing pretty much whatever else I want you to do.” She thought he’d balk at that. He didn’t.
“All right,” he far too easily agreed. Like a dumbass.
If he was anyone else, she would have asked how she could be sure he’d stick to his part of the deal, but Keenan had way too much integrity to go back on his word—something her relatives would never understand.
“So the bet is on?” There was a definite dare in his tone.
Khloé lifted her chin. “It’s on, but only because I know you’ll cave and reach for the bottle—or, in your case, the flask in your jacket.”
His eyes bled to black as his demon rose to the fore, and the air temperature dropped a few degrees. The entity stared at her, its black gaze cold, unblinking, and … assessing.
Her own demon stirred, curious about the entity in front of them. It was much older than Khloé would have guessed, but she couldn’t sense just how old. What she could sense was that it was super fucking dangerous.
“Be sure you can stick to the terms of the wager,” it said, its tone flat and utterly without emotion, “because you will lose.”
The amount of confidence in that statement was a little unnerving. “You can’t even be sure your incubus powers will work on me.” She was resistant to the incubi mojo, so there was a possibility that she was also immune to—
A delicious, spicy, aphrodisiac scent surrounded her. The air turned warm and muggy, like sultry summer heat. She sucked in a breath as that heat swept through her entire body.
Lust twisted her insides. Her nipples pebbled. Her breasts began to ache. Her clit started to throb.
The corner of the demon’s mouth kicked up. “They’ll work.”
“Stop,” she clipped. To her surprise, it did. The spicy scent dissipated, the air cooled, and the heat within her dwindled.
The demon’s black eyes flicked to the hallway clock. “It is 1:05am. The countdown begins now. This time next Monday, I will come for you. And I will take what you owe me. Be ready.” It then subsided, and she found herself staring into familiar blue eyes.
Khloé inhaled deeply. “Your power sure does pack a punch.” He could make her come like a freight train without even laying a finger on her, but he didn’t have a prayer of winning their little wager. His demon might be arrogant enough to think it could hold out, but the entities often were so supremely self-assured.
Keenan skimmed the tip of his finger down the side of her face, leaving a trail of fire in his wake. “That was only a tiny demonstration of what I can do to you.”
He called that tiny? For the first time, unease slithered through her. She swallowed, her eyes flickering.
A smile tugged at one corner of his mouth. “Ah, so you’re finally coming to see what you’ve gotten yourself into. Good. But it’s a little late now.”