Midnight Sins (Midnight #2)(22)
Author: Cynthia Eden

The late-afternoon sunlight trickled through the blinds as Cara lay on the soft leather couch. She stared up at the ceiling and tried to figure out just what she should say.

Ah, hell, just get it over with. “I’ve met someone.”

Dr. Emily Drake, known to her clients as the Monster Doctor, and currently the only psychologist in the South to knowingly treat the Other, slowly lifted her head. “Tell me about him.”

Cara licked her lips. “He’s a cop.” Damn. Hadn’t she heard somewhere that the Monster Doctor was dating a cop? What if the guys knew each other?

“I see.” A delicate pause. “And does he know what you are?” The doctor’s pen was poised an inch above her notepad.

Turning her head slightly, Cara let her gaze fall on the doctor. As usual, Dr. Drake’s black hair was pulled back into a severe bun.

Her thin, wire-framed glasses were perched on the edge of her nose. And her green gaze was trained on Cara. “Does he know?”

Cara repeated the question softly, then shook her head. “No, even though I’ve…dreamwalked with him.”

The pen skittered across the paper as Dr. Drake jotted down a quick note.

“I didn’t mean to,” Cara said at once, then winced. Even though the doctor’s expression hadn’t changed, she still felt the need to explain herself. To justify stealing into a man’s thoughts. “I swear, Dr. Drake, I never meant to join him in dreams.”

“Then why did you?”

If she couldn’t be honest here, in the safety of Dr. Drake’s quiet office, she couldn’t be honest anywhere. “I want him.” The want was a gnawing ache inside of her. An ache that grew worse every moment.

“It’s all right to desire a man, Cara. We’ve been over this before.”

No, this was far different from the men before. “I-I gave up sex.” Said in a rush.

Dr. Drake’s eyes widened and her pen stilled. “Cara, you know you can’t do that. It’ll kill you.”

“No, I don’t think”— okay, she hoped—“that it will. I’ve got an arrangement with a friend. He has this place for the Other. I’ve been singing there for a while. When I’m on stage and have the focus of the crowd, I can the pull their sensual energy to me.”

“But will that be enough for you?”

“I don’t know, it seems to be working so far. I mean, it’s not like there are a lot of succubi around here that I can ask if I’ll be able to survive—”

“No,” Dr. Drake’s quiet voice cut straight through her words. “That’s not what I meant.” She put the notepad facedown. Leaned forward. “Your kind exist for sex. It renews you. Powers you. I don’t know if the situation you have will keep working for you, though it’s certainly a novel approach for a succubus,” she murmured. “But is it enough for you? Are you happy stealing wisps of pleasure, or do you want your own release?”

Her own. Her lips pressed together to keep the words back, but she knew when Dr. Drake lifted one brow that the psychologist understood.

“And you want it with him, don’t you?”

Hell, yes. She wanted sex with her cop so badly that she was losing control of the demon inside and slipping into Todd’s mind. “I can’t control him.” Or herself. “I can dreamwalk with him, but I can’t compel him, not when he’s awake. No hypnosis, no—”

“Control is important to you, isn’t it?” She eased back in her chair, casually reached for her pad once more.

“Yes.”

“Because of what happened before? When you weren’t able to stop your sister’s murder?”

Ah, damn, but she hadn’t even seen that one coming. Leave it to good old Dr. Drake to knock her right between the eyes. “Yes.”

A jealous lover. A human lover had killed her sister. A man who had managed to learn far too much about her kind, and the weaknesses that demons possessed.

Nina. It hurt too much to think of her now, even years later. Her twin. The only other being who’d ever truly loved her. Who’d understood her. Inside and out.

Killed by that bastard.

She’d made certain he got exactly what he deserved. Sometimes, she could still hear his screams.

She squeezed her eyes shut. No. She wasn’t going back there, not now.

All humans weren’t evil. She knew that. Had long ago come to terms with the fact that monsters resided in men, just as good spirits, good souls, could reside in the bodies of monsters.

Such was the way of her world.

“Do you think that because you can’t control him that this man might one day betray you?”

“I don’t know. Maybe.” The guy had suspected her of murder and he’d sure been quick to haul her off to jail.

“You came to me in the beginning because you were tired of puppets. Tired of men who turned away from you the moment you stopped using glamour and magic.”

Her nails dug into the cushions of the couch. “Yes.”

“But now, you have a man you can’t control, one who certainly won’t be a puppet. You want him. Tell me, does he want you?”

She could still taste his hunger. “Yes.”

“Then you’re going to have a choice to make, Cara. You can keep living this new life you’ve made for yourself…”

The life without sex. Stolen pleasures. Empty nights.

“Or you can take a risk with a man beyond your control.”

She pictured Todd in her mind. Dark hair. Sculpted jaw. The chest she’d yet to kiss. The c**k she wanted to taste.

Beyond her control.

She’d be vulnerable with him. And if he learned her secret, he could destroy her.

But demons didn’t exactly have a reputation for playing it safe. She’d been trying, but it had been hell.

Though she liked to pretend that the demon and the woman were really two separate parts of her, the truth was, deep down, she was all demon.

The demon, well, she wasn’t afraid of a risk, and she was very, very hungry for her pleasure.

A pleasure only to be had with one man.

A man beyond her control, but easily within her reach.

If she just dared to reach for him.

The demon decided she’d dare. Oh, yes. She would.

“Is the city in the clutches of another killer, one who preys on the sexual fantasies of men? The cops aren’t talking, but rumors of the Bondage Killer are rampant on the streets…”

The reporter’s words stopped the killer cold. He turned around slowly, his gaze jumping to the television screen. He listened to her, stunned…and enraged.