Hell Kat Read online

  Kat shook her head as Damian’s shirt came flying across the room, landing on their table. Pushing it aside, she picked up her glass and tossed back the contents. The alcohol went down smooth like water, her throat long ago numbed.

  As she rubbed a hand over her sharp face and through her sooty black hair, her finger caught in a tangle. Tugging at it, she pulled out a few long strands. Time for a haircut, she thought. It was almost impossible to keep long, healthy hair in this heat and filth. While hunting for treasure, she spent most of her time out on the rims, places where dirt and sand managed to get into all sorts of crevices.

  Smoothing back her hair as best she could, she readjusted the string of her eye patch. In the way more times than not, she was almost tempted to go without her patch. But she was vain enough to keep it on. She’d lost her sight in a bar fight. The eye was now blind with a milky white film layering it; a long scar dissected her eyebrow, trailing down her eye and peeking out of her patch just at the tip of her cheekbone. She figured she got away lucky; the man that took her sight was collecting maggots six feet under.

  “I see your playmate has left you for the night.”

  Kat turned to glare at the figure looming over the table. He was six feet and weighed close to three hundred pounds, most of it muscle. He had no neck, and his shoulders were so large they just connected to his head. Kat liked beefy men, but he was too much. She imagined his muscles bulged to compensate for a lack of something else. Thankfully, Kat hadn’t experienced the anguish of finding out. It was definitely not for lack of trying on his part. Every time he saw her, he came on to her.

  Usually Kat was liberal when it came to sex partners. But Melvin the Muscle was not a pretty man on the outside or on the inside. He was just plain ugly and mean. For excitement between the sheets, Kat didn’t mind a little mean in her men, but drew the line at vindictive and cruel. And Melvin was all of the above and worse. She’d seen him break a dog’s leg for pissing on the wrong bush.

  Kat let her stare go from angry to bored. Hopefully he would get the message. “I allow him his playtime now and then.”

  “Oh, I like that, Hell Kat.” Melvin chuckled as he sat down in the Damian’s vacated chair.

  “I don’t think I asked you to join me.”

  “Sure you did, baby. I seen the way you look at me.”

  Sighing, she put her elbows on the table and leaned forward, giving him a direct stare.

  “You are a big man, Melvin. It’s kind of hard not to look at you.”

  Melvin grinned, exposing his rotting front teeth. “I’m big where it counts, baby.” His hand disappeared under the table. Kat could just imagine what he was doing with it.

  Sitting back, Kat rolled her good eye. “Please don’t make me vomit a perfectly good steak.”

  “If steak’s what you need, honey, I’ve got six inches of tube steak just waiting for you.”

  Kat shook her head in disbelief. Melvin had quite the vocabulary. He gained most of it from his stacks of thin, glossy picture books called magazines, inherited from his dead father. The books contained explicit pictures of naked women, not just unclothed, but legs spread completely open, ass in the air. Kat had had the privilege of being flashed several of these pictures during another one of Melvin’s seduction scenarios. He thought the pictures would turn her on. They had, but she hadn’t let him know that.

  The magazines also had stories in them about the sexual escapades of these women. Kat wasn’t sure Melvin could read, so someone, probably his father, had read the stories to him. That was where he got his imaginative vocabulary—pornographic bedtime stories.

  “Listen, Melvin, I will never, ever fuck you. So quit wasting my perfectly good night and piss off.”

  The grin slowly slid off Melvin’s face like grease down a frying pan. “Not even a blow job?”

  “A what?”

  “You know, sucking my dick.”

  “I will never suck, lick, or touch your dick. I don’t even want to see it.”

  Melvin sat back in his chair. “Oh. Okay, I guess I’ll go then.”

  She’d gotten away unscathed this time. Some nights he wasn’t so docile. She’d walked away with a bruise or two during their scuffles. Usually, after one hard knock to the head, Melvin left her alone.

  “Hey, Kat, this meathead bothering you?”

  Closing her eye, Kat sighed. She opened it and glanced up into Damian’s appealing face. Still shirtless, with jeans partially undone, he grinned at her. His thick, dark hair was an unruly mess. Sweaty tendrils curled around his ears. He looked really sexy. It was just too damn bad that that pretty face was going to get wrecked.

  Kat swore under her breath. “Everything was fine until you opened your stupid mouth.”

  Melvin stood, rising to his full six feet. He towered over Damian’s lanky frame. Damian blinked up at him, bravado leaking out of his clear blue eyes.

  “What did you say, boy?” Melvin clenched his hands into mallet-sized fists.

  The crowd in the tavern silenced. All eyes were trained on them.

  “Nothing,” Damian squeaked.

  “He called you a meathead. Which is exactly what you are.”

  Turning, Damian met Kat’s eyes and mouthed, What the fuck are you doing?

  “Finishing what you started. You know I never walk away from a fight.” She picked up the bottle of vodka and took a long pull. “In fact, I think I will even make it worse by saying that Melvin is the biggest piece of shit I have ever met. He’s a lying, cheating, conniving asshole that fucks the livestock when no one is looking.”

  Melvin blushed crimson, but Kat didn’t think it was from embarrassment. It was from the rage that boiled beneath his skin. She just hoped that rage was uncontrollable enough for her plan to work.

  Damian stared at her, mouth agape. “Well, I think that just about did it.”

  “Are you sure? How ’bout a drink?”

  Damian glanced at the bottle in her hand and then back to her face. She smiled, knowing he understood.

  “Good idea.” Damian took the bottle she offered. “How ’bout a drink, Mel? No hard feelings?”

  “I’m gonna rip off your head and shit down your neck.”

  “I’ll take that as a no.”

  Damian swiped the bottle across Melvin’s head. It shattered into hundreds of pieces. Glass sliced Melvin’s face.

  Diving under the table, Kat unsheathed a sharp dagger strapped to her thigh and crawled across the floor toward Melvin. She swiftly grabbed his foot and sliced the knife across the back of his leather boot. The leather split like a piece of tender meat and blood erupted from the opening. Kat had cut the tendon above his heel.

  Melvin squealed in pain as he dropped to the floor. He grabbed his foot, trying to cradle it in his hands. It was too painful to touch, and he screamed in anguish.

  Kat stood up and loomed over him. She almost felt sorry for the pain he was experiencing.

  Almost.

  Damian stood next to her, the broken bottle still clamped in his hand. His eyes were wide with wonder and excitement.

  “Don’t mess with me again, Melvin. It won’t be your tendon I slice next time, but your balls.”

  Squeezing his eyes shut as tears streamed down his cheeks, he nodded.

  Kat grabbed Damian’s arm. “Let’s go.” She pulled him out of the tavern.

  Kat and Damian stumbled back to their place: a large room, in an old gutted warehouse, divided by thin cotton sheets hanging from the ceiling. Because no one wanted to own any long-forgotten dirty buildings inhabited by cockroaches and rats, they lived there free. Sometimes others tried to move in, but the booby-traps Kat had set at the doors and windows kept out most intruders. Occasionally, Kat and Damian came home to the dead or dying, stuck on a spike in the door frame or windowsill.

  Both Kat and Damian tumbled onto the old mattress, out of breath from running through the backstreets; they didn’t want company following them. Melvin didn’t have many friends, but the on
es he had were merciless thugs. It wouldn’t do to have someone slit their throats in the middle of the night.

  “Holy shit!” Damian rolled onto his back, his breath coming in short pants.

  Looking down at him, Kat noticed his chest was slick with sweat, and she could almost see his heart pounding in his chest. His cheeks were also flush.

  “What’s with you?” Kat asked.

  “What do you mean?”

  Kat glanced at him up and down, noticing the large bulge in his pants. “Your dick’s hard.”

  Damian rubbed a hand over the swelling. “I know.” He grinned and wiggled his eyebrows.

  “You’re a sick puppy.” Kat raised herself off the bed.

  Damian reached out and seized her arm. “The way you moved, Kat, the way you took him down. I thought I was going to cream my pants just watching. You are one tough bitch.”

  “And that turns you on?”

  “You know it does.” He squeezed her arm.

  She shook her head. “Save it, Damian. I need a bath.”

  “I’ll wash you.”

  “How’s that?”

  Damian sat up and leaned into her, his voice a soft whisper against her ear. “I’ll clean you head to toe…with my tongue.”

  Kat reclined and searched his face. His eyes had darkened with lust.

  “I’m really dirty.”

  “I know.”

  Her body quickened, her insides growing tight at his words. Smiling, Kat leaned back on her elbows.

  “Stay just like that.” Damian bounced off the bed. “I’ll be right back.”

  He returned with a cloth and a basin of tepid water from their supply. Kneeling at her feet, he took one booted foot in his hands and untied the laces. He slid off the boot and then tossed it over his shoulder.

  Kat chuckled. Damian was always playful, but this was new. As he rolled off her sock, she closed her eyes and sighed. He soaked the cloth in the water and brought it up to her foot. He washed her slowly, dragging the sheet between her toes.

  She bit down on her lip to stop the giggle that threatened to escape. She was a little ticklish on her feet. But it would be a cold day in hell if she ever giggled. It would ruin her hard-ass reputation.

  When she could not feel the wet cloth on her skin, she opened her eyes. Damian had set the rag down in the basin and raised her foot to his mouth. With his eyes trained on her, he inserted her big toe into his mouth. He sucked on it and lolled his tongue around. His wet tongue felt glorious on her neglected flesh.

  Damian released her and continued the same ritual with her other foot. By the time he was done licking her instep, Kat was soaking wet from desire. Her insides throbbed exquisitely. Sometimes Damian pissed her off, especially when he acted like a fool. But the man was a master when it came to seduction.

  Here was his talent, his art.

  Damian set down her foot and reached for the zipper of her leather pants. He undid it and hooked his fingers into the waistband. Kat raised her ass off the bed as he slowly peeled her pants down her legs. He tossed them in the same corner as her socks and boots.

  Taking the cloth, he gently wiped the skin on her calves, caressing them as he went. He moved up to her knees and inched his way up her thighs. He circled the rag over her skin, pressing with firm, deft movements.

  As he neared her throbbing pussy, she took in a ragged breath. She desperately wanted him to touch her there. To push her over the painful edge on which she was teetering. But he stopped mere inches from the ultimate spot. He looked up at her and smiled, setting the cloth into the basin.

  “You’re not doing a very good job of cleaning me,” she growled.

  “No?” Damian raised his eyebrow. He leaned forward and pressed his hot mouth to her shin. “How’s this?”

  He licked her skin, trailing his tongue in lazy circles. He lapped at her knee and behind it. Kat sighed as he lathed her sensitive skin. Most men knew of only a handful of erogenous zones. Damian knew them all.

  Continuing his path to her thighs, he slowly circled the skin, nearing the vee of her body with every breath. He stopped a whisper away.

  His hot breath rippled over her sex. Her clit swelled in response. It grew achy and desperate for his touch. Kat closed her eyes and spread her legs in anticipation.

  Damian drew back. “Turn over,” he growled, his voice low and gruff.

  His eyes were dark with passion, and she could clearly see the erection still straining at the fabric of his pants. She turned over and lay on the bed facedown.

  Damian nestled between her spread legs. Bending down, he licked at the backs of her thighs, sucking on her muscled flesh and nipping at her playfully.

  She inhaled another ragged breath as his teeth sunk into her tender flesh just below her left buttock. His wet tongue moved over her cheeks, trailing seductively on one, then on the other. As he made his way to the valley of her cheeks, she shivered in delight. He stopped at the indentation of her tailbone, moving his tongue up and down.

  Kat moaned low in her throat. “Lower, damn you.”

  “Patience, Kitty Kat.”

  “I haven’t got any.”

  He chuckled. “I know.”

  Damian brought up his hands and slowly kneaded her cheeks, spreading them apart. He trailed his tongue down, then up. He lapped at the crevice like a cat would drink cream.

  Kat’s breathing quickened. The ache in her cunt throbbed painfully. His slow, lazy torture on her intimate flesh was nearly driving her mad. She pushed her ass toward his mouth like a cat stretching toward her owner’s hand. Damian dipped his tongue into her, flicking in and out quickly.

  With a satisfied smile, she closed her eyes. That was more like it. She moved into him as he pushed at her anus with the tip of his moist tongue. He circled and then licked up to her tailbone.

  Pushing her back onto the bed, Damian made a wet trail up her back along her spine. He tugged at her shirt.

  “Whoa, boy. You’re not done down there.” She glanced at him over her shoulder.

  Grinning, he continued to pull up her shirt until it was over her head. Damian moved down to her ass and continued his ascent up to her neck to nibble the skin under her hair. While shivers zigzagged down her back, Kat squirmed under him.

  “Relax. I’m a trained professional,” he whispered into her ear, licking her lobe lavishly. “Turn over.”

  Kat flipped onto her back, but scowled up at him, wondering what he was up to. He bent down and kissed her frowning mouth, brushing her lips apart. Softening under his mouth, she returned his kiss. She couldn’t stay angry with him. He was a giving and inventive lover, always eager to please. She knew he would eventually make his way to where she needed his attention.

  Damian always brought her to orgasm. Usually more than once.

  He moved from her mouth and pressed kisses on her chin and down her neck. Hands busy squeezing her breasts, Damian circled her nipples with his thumbs, flicking them every so often. Kat groaned and arched her back to push her breasts into his talented hands.

  He lapped at her nipples one at a time, teasing them with his lips and teeth. Sucking one into his eager mouth, he lolled it around and gently bit down. As violent sensations surged over her, Kat gasped, but pain quickly turned into pleasure.

  Damian continued to nip at her nipples. He moved his hand down her belly, stopping an inch from her sex. Kat moaned and writhed under his touch. Her body tingled and throbbed for release. Her sex was burning up. Desire dripped lustily into the slit of her ass.

  He licked down to her flat belly and circled her navel, dipping into it playfully. He scraped his teeth along the sensitive flesh below.

  Gasping, she grabbed his hair. “If you don’t hurry, I’m going to rip off your tongue and use it myself.”

  With a chuckle, Damian continued his wet path down to her sex. He hesitated above the soft sprinkling of black hair. She could feel his hot breath over her inner folds. Her clit swelled, reaching out for his touch.

&nbs
p; He raised his head and looked up at her face, which she could feel was flushed with excitement. “Oh, yeah, I forgot to tell you—”

  “I don’t care. Just hurry up and eat me.”

  He grinned and bent down to part her swollen sex with his tongue. Sliding into her cleft, he flicked at her clit. He nestled down between her spread legs and sucked at her juices as if it were honey.

  Her body quickened. She was near orgasm. Bending her legs and spreading them farther apart, she gave Damian full exposure to her sex. He dived in and lapped at her like a dog. With the tip of his tongue, he nuzzled against her clit.

  She reached out on the bed to take hold of something. Stretching behind, she gripped the spindles of the brass headboard. She closed her eyes and panted. Her release was near.

  Damian mumbled something into her sex.

  Her eyes sprang open and she glared down at him. “What?”

  He raised his head, his mouth glistening with her lust. “I said Hades is going after the Monolith.”

  Nearly crushing Damian between her legs, Kat pushed up on her elbows. “How do you know?”

  “I heard it from a reliable source at the pub.”

  “Who?”

  “A guy that knows a guy who knows a guy saw Hades in a tavern the village over and said he was asking around for a guide into Van. No one goes into the Vanquished City unless they mean business.”

  “Doesn’t mean it’s the Monolith.”

  Damian cocked a brow. “Do you believe that?”

  Kat ran a hand over her sweaty face and let out a ragged breath. She looked down at Damian still kneeling by her legs. Her sex still ached painfully.

  “Why in hell are you telling me this now?”

  “I don’t know. I just thought of it.”

  “While you were licking my…?”

  Damian shrugged.

  Reaching over, she grabbed him by the hair. Tugging him forward, she flipped him over and straddled him in two swift movements.