Page 4 of Monster's Obsession

I glanced over my shoulder. Tall, dark, and smokin’ hot was smiling down at Mrs. Caldwell. He was smooth talking her. I knew instantly what he was.

Lust demon.

And elf?

What a fucked-up combination, although I bet the process of creating him had been hella enthralling.

I needed to get out of here. Needed to stay out of the guy’s vicinity. Because what I did not need was to fall in lust with some crazy hot guy whose purpose in life extended only as far as the next lay. I didn’t know that for a fact about this guy, of course, but I knew demons—my dad was their ruler—so I knew all about his base instincts.

“Wait. He’s a student? You allow demons in this school?”

“We’re allowing you in, so yes, we do.” Professor Holtsclaw gave me a cheeky grin.

Right. Me. Half demon. I’d spent a lot of time trying to forget that about myself, so I should be forgiven the slipup.

“Can we take a different ferry?” I asked as the demon hottie and Mrs. Caldwell made their way toward us. I could already feel the guy’s pull and he was still a good twenty feet away. This wasn’t good. Lust demons messed up people’s heads. Convinced them that all they wanted was sex, all the time. Lust demons were worse than succubi. Probably because they created succubi.

“Don’t be silly,” Professor Holtsclaw said. “We’re only here to pick up the two of you—I think—and that would be a waste of resources.”

They were getting closer. He hadn’t noticed me yet, which wasn’t surprising. I was still in my hoodie and sweats. My hair was greasy; it’s been more than two days since I’ve showered. The faint scent of incense from my demon side I am always trying to cover was starting to come out in full force. I was getting hot, like combustible hot. I could barely restrain myself from rushing to the edge of the dock and diving into the cool, briny sea.

Damn it, why had I listened to Mom?

Okay, that was a dumb question. She’d never once steered me wrong in my entire life. Of course I was going to listen to her. Hell, I should have done so two years ago, when she first told me about this place.

If I had, I wouldn’t be bracing for a meeting with a lust demon right now.

A lust demon with incredibly muscular legs wrapped in tight leather pants. And that vest did little to hide the plains and valleys of his finely cut chest. There were so many tattoos drawn on his arms, they looked like sleeves. My gaze was drawn to the leather cuffs on his wrists. They had silver buckles.

Were they for sex play?

Gah! This was insane. I wasn’t even that into sex, normally. I’d tried it, found it lacking, and rarely felt revved up enough to want to do it again.

Now, suddenly, all I wanted to do was strip naked and beg him to have his lusty way with me. Repeatedly.

Not cool.

I was here for a purpose. To hide from my father. It wasn’t a permanent solution, though. School wasn’t my thing. That would become painfully obvious pretty quickly no doubt, which meant I needed to work out a plan B. Or was it plan Z at this point?

Whatever. My point was, I needed a permanent solution to my family issues. As soon as I figured out what that was, I was checking out of Blackthorn Academy before they figured out how terrible I was and kicked me out.

That meant there was no time to get freaky with Mr. Hottie Demon Guy. I knew what happened when women fell for overly good-looking men. That’s what happened to my mom.

She hadn’t known who or what my dad was—he was a master at camouflaging himself. Big surprise there—when she fell for him. And he hadn’t been smart enough to wrap himself up when he seduced her. Hence my appearance in the world.

I remembered overhearing them arguing when I was fourteen. Mom said, “But, Lucifer, she isn’t even a full-blooded demon. Why would you want her in the business?”

“That’s exactly why, sweet Marissa. She’smore thana demon.”

At the time, I’d thought beingmore thana demon was a good thing. Until Mom told me, “He’s just sugarcoating his words to make the idea sound alluring. He knew you were listening.”

And then Mom had gone into an entirely too detailed description of Hell—he’d taken her there, once—and, yeah, I’d lost interest in the idea of helping with the family business pretty quickly.

If only dear old dad would tire of trying to force me into joining his team, we’d all be happy.

The sexy demon student didn’t seem to notice my presence until he and Mrs. Caldwell stopped in front of us. If I thought his pull was bad without his gaze catching on me, I was in way more trouble than I thought.

Because the moment those glowing purple orbs caught mine, I felt athingzap between us. A jolt. A surge of energy that sped up my heartbeat and sent my pulse into the stratosphere and increased my already-high body temperature by approximately a thousand degrees. Hellfire and damnation, I wassweating.