I met him back in the woods, because that’s where he was when I called him. When I entered the doorless cabin where the sick incubus had been sleeping, he straightened, then slipped something into his jacket pocket.

“Clayton,” I murmured. Then cleared my throat and walked to him, unflinching and brave in my desperation.

His face, set in lines of habitual hardness, softened. “Trinity.” His voice was a caress. He’d been unleashed, and he’d been filled with an incubus. Lust came off him in clouds, touching me everywhere. Touching everything.

I closed my eyes for a second and tried to gather myself. Tried to ignore the heaviness between my legs, the quivering of my muscles, the dryness of my mouth. My heart pounded and goosebumps covered every inch of my skin.

“How does it feel?” I reached up to touch his face. “To be free?”

His flinch was as much a habit as his blankness. “It’s…” He shook his head. “It’s indescribable. I’d forgotten.” He swallowed, gathering himself, and there was the emotion, coloring his eyes and changing his face. “It’s everything.”

And I was going to take that away from him.

I tried to draw a deep breath, but my chest was too tight to allow it. “Why did you come back here?”

He patted his pocket. “The Foam of Aphrodite. He had a stash hidden. I'll destroy it.”

But really, I didn’t care. “Clayton,” I whispered.

He studied me, silent, sober, and with a little of the hopelessness I was so familiar with. He sighed, finally, softly.

“He’s dying.” I released a weak sob and clenched my fists, not only because Angus was dying, but because I was about to shatter Clayton.

He lifted his hand, hesitated, then rubbed his thumb through my tears, closing his eyes as he concentrated on that one touch.

I shuddered, because he was Clayton, and because he was the incubus, and they both were full of sex and promise. Clayton had been restrained for so very long, and the incubus…he was an incubus. He was sex.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered. “God, I’m sorry.”

His eyes darkened, but the spark didn’t leave them. Not then.

“The demon can save him,” he realized.

I nodded.

“Can you imagine Angus with a sex demon inside him?” He laughed, sort of, but there was something close to a sob wrapped up in that laugh.

I put my palms on his chest. “He’s dying.” I could only whisper, because I was too full of pain and the words couldn’t push past the lump in my throat.

“Would you do it?” he asked. “If you were me, and you were this.” He slammed his fist against his chest. “Would you?”

I nodded. Then, “I don’t know.” And I dropped my gaze.

He was silent for so long I was afraid he’d deny Angus his life. I was terrified. I was horrified. I was a terrible fucking bitch to even ask but…

“Save him, Clayton. You’re the only one who can.”

“Give me today.” His voice was hoarse, but it was strong. “One day.”

“I would give you anything,” I said, fiercely.

But when Miriam held his reins once again, would I be able to keep my promise?

Would it even matter?

“I’ll find a way,” I swore. “I’ll find a way to release you from her.”

“This was my way.” Then he shrugged off the inevitability of his circumstances, and his stare went from despairing to predatory and very, very hot. And not just hot, but dominating. He’d been forced to submit to Miriam’s power, but right then, he was Clayton. He was the Clayton he’d been before Miriam had fucked him up. Before she’d turned him into a slave. Before she’d forced him into submission.

I took a shaky breath and tried to calm my galloping heart. “How long has it been for you?” I asked. “Did Miriam and you ever—”

His laugh was surprised and completely genuine. It was also low and masculine and pleased, because he saw in my parted lips, my breathlessness, and my nervousness one fact I could not hide from him.

He made me hot.

He always had, but now, I couldn’t hide it. And I didn’t want to.

“No. No one could touch me. She wasn’t lying. I couldn’t even touch myself.”

I shivered at the thought of him touching himself, and quite inadvertently, I dropped my stare to the front of his pants. From the size of the bulge, I was not the only one turned on. Of course, I’d already known that.

His lust was so intense it swirled around him, an almost visible thing.

I cleared my throat and averted my gaze. “The incubus. Can you feel him?”

I knew he could, though, because I could see the incubus. He peered out Clayton’s eyes, interested and quiet. Watchful.

“Yes.” With an unexpected suddenness, Clayton grinned. I’d never seen that grin on him, and it took my breath. He was gorgeous in his freedom.

“It’s a struggle to control him,” he continued, “and I won’t envy Angus his battle with this thing.”

Maybe he was just trying to make me feel better.

“Can he…” I hesitated, afraid I’d give the demon ideas. But I wasn’t going to put anything into his head that wasn’t already there. “Does he still want to suck the life from me, do you think?”

Clayton frowned. “All I feel is his interest in your body.” He ran his stare over my face and down my body, and that stare was like a physical touch. “Or maybe that’s just my interest.”

“I should go,” I murmured, even as desire shot through me. “And let you enjoy your day.” It didn’t occur to me to doubt that he would save Angus, once he’d had his day of freedom.

He lifted one corner of his lips in a sort of smile. “You’re the way I’m going to enjoy my day, Trinity.” He didn’t touch me. He stood with his hands at his sides, his face calmly blank, but his eyes blazing with passion. Need. Desire.

It wasn’t just Clayton with his years of forced submission and bondage but the demon inside him. Of course, in Clayton’s case, the incubus would not be the only demon in there.

I took a tiny step back.

“Despite Miriam’s hold,” he said, smoothly, darkly, “I have lain awake at night, wrapped in my phantom chains, and imagined touching you.”

I released a shaky breath, then I took my need and went to him. I wrapped my arms around his waist and pressed my pelvis against his.

He cried out, and it was more a sound of agony than pleasure. He rested his forehead against mine, shuddering. He didn’t lift his hands to hold me there, and I knew he was torn. He wanted me as much—even more—than I wanted him, but something was holding him back.

Then he told me what that something was.

“Sex with me won’t be gentle and kind. The incubus is…” He swallowed and closed his eyes, but only for a second. “He is depraved. Vicious. And the only thing he wants is sex. He knows he can no longer use you to gain his freedom, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t want to fuck.” Again, he shuddered, then wiped sweat from his forehead and regained control.

Sort of.

“I won’t be the only one inside you, Trinity. And I won’t be any less of a freak than Seth Damon.” He shook with the effort of controlling not only himself but the demon inside him. “I’ve been deprived for too long.”

There wasn’t a spot on my body that wasn’t screaming to be touched. “Clayton…”

Still, he didn’t move. “Say it.”

I slid my hand over his flat abdomen and cupped his thick erection. “I want you.”

“Why?” he whispered, but fiercely.

I realized he thought I either pitied him or was offering him sex in exchange for saving Angus’s life.

“Because you make me hot,” I said, squeezing him through his pants. “Because my body wants your body. Because you are so dangerous and sexy and hard, and because I want to be the first and only person who gives you everything you’ve been denied since she brought you back. I want to be the one who makes you feel good. I want that bond with you. I want you, Clayton.”

Part of me was terrified that Miriam would suddenly appear and announce she’d found a way to reclaim him, even though he’d been possessed, and would rip him out of my arms.

And right then, I wasn’t thinking of Angus lying at death’s door, his hand poised to knock. Shameful as it was, lust battered at my brain and my body, and I cared only about satisfying my need. And Clayton’s.

God, I did want him. So much. I grabbed his hand and dragged it to my body, then guided it between my legs. “I need you,” I said, breathless and weak beneath the onslaught of desire.

Finally, Clayton lost his control.

He and Seth Damon flung me to the floor and followed me down with a growl that heated my blood even as it scared the hell out of me.

I was about to taste two supernaturals so full of lust they were terrifying and dangerous and almost feral in their desperation. And one of them was so extremely vulnerable and wounded and mine.

I’d never been so excited in my life.