Heat rises to my cheeks. “You know…”
“Actually, I don’t,” he says. “And you never explained this object. Is it an implement for food preparation?”
I splutter. “What do lady monsters use when they’re lonely and in need of pleasure?”
“We are creatures of shadow, and our females have mates,” he replies. “Why is your face so hot?”
My throat tightens. It’s not like I’m a prude, but I’ve never exactly had to explain to anyone why I need to resort to sex toys. It’s hard enough admitting to myself that I can’t find a man I like enough to invite to my bed.
The monster wraps a damp tentacle around my waist and pulls me into his side. “You are uneasy. Have I caused you offense?”
“It’s about the toy,” I blurt.
“This?” he dangles the sucking rose in front of my face.
Moonlight streams in from the window, making it glisten with his saliva. I squeeze my thighs together and bite back a moan.
“Yes,” I reply, my voice tight. “That’s something I use for sex.”
“Why?”
“Because I don’t have a mate.”
“You have me,” he says in a deep voice that goes straight to my nipples.
“That’s what I’m trying to explain,” I squeak. “That thing you just licked clean…”
I gulp.
“Yes?”
“I use it for sex,” I whisper.
The monster makes a disgruntled rumble and tosses the toy to the other end of the room. “You will cease the use of these items.”
Annoyance tightens my skin. Monster from another dimension or not, he has no right to dictate my actions. “And why would I do that?”
“Because….”
Tentacles slither beneath my back, one of them wrapping around my wrist and raising my left arm above my head. Another does the same with the right, and two more snake around my ankles and hold them apart.
“From this moment, you will obtain sexual gratification from nobody but me. Is that understood?”
I jerk my head to the side, wanting to say yes, just so I can see how he could pleasure me with the tentacles, but I’m not ready to make any kind of commitment. Especially to a monster who dwells in a dimension that might as well be hell.
“That depends,” I say.
“Explain.”
“Let’s see if you can do a better job than my toy.”
His responding chuckle is so deep and wicked and sinister that the fine hairs on my back stand on end. I thought he would be a nice monster. The kind of simp I read about in romance books that the heroine would tame. But the creature pinning me to my bed seems to take my words as a personal challenge.
“I studied the anatomy of human women,” he says, the tentacle around my waist splitting into four smaller tendrils. “Unlike the females of my species, you have many erogenous zones.”
One of the tentacles wraps around my left breast, its tip flicking my nipple.
“Mmmmm.” I arch my back.