Along Came a Demon (Shadow Demons 1): A Bones MC Romance

Had sex with a woman ever been like this? No fucking way. Alex lost himself every time he touched her. No. It was more. He could simply look at her from across the room and he wanted her. He would have backed off if she’d resisted or expressed more than a passing concern he was making her a whore, but she hadn’t. And the sweet way she responded to him told Alex she wanted him nearly as much as he wanted her.

He lapped at her tender flesh, the musky, honeyed liquid spilling from her like ambrosia. The more he took the more he wanted. Her cries filled the room, spurred him on, encouraging him to take more from her before he got down the business of fucking her.

And, God, he needed to fuck her! Even though he knew where to find her, he’d felt the loss all the way to his heart when he’d come back to his suite to find her gone. He barely knew her, but he knew she was what he needed. There was just something about the woman that called to him when no one else ever had. Losing himself in her body was like a dream come true for Alex.

When her cries became nearly constant, her fingers bunching in his hair almost painfully, Alex stood, pulling her from the ledge to spin her around. Reflexively, her hands went to the glass of the shower, her ass thrusting back at him in anticipation.

Alex wasted no time. He gripped her hip with one hand and guided his cock with the other until he sank into her sweet little pussy with a ragged groan. It took several precious seconds to get his raging body under control when all he wanted to do was pound into her. Though he’d taken her several times the night before, she still wasn’t ready. Physically, she could take it, but emotionally, she’d never look at him the same way and would probably retreat. He never wanted to scare her. Alex knew she was too young and innocent for a man like him, but damn him, he wasn’t letting her go.

Merrily arched her back, raising her ass and wiggling, moving on his cock as if she needed him as much as he needed her. “Alex,” she whimpered, her body trembling around him. Alex slid his arm around her middle, his hand sliding up to her breast as he tugged her back against him. He pressed her against the glass and moved inside her slowly. Carefully.

“Oh!” Her cries were sweet music. She turned her head and met his gaze as he licked out his tongue to run it over her lips. “I — I need…”

“I know, baby. Just let me have you. I’ll give you everything you need. I swear.”

Blood pounded in Alex’s head. Deep inside Merrily, his cock felt full to bursting. His balls were so tight he had no idea how he’d last another second. He willed himself to slow down. He wanted this to last as long as possible, to take Merrily to ever-rising heights until they both plummeted.

“Alex, please!” Merrily pulled him to her for a searing kiss. Her other hand gripped his arm as he tightened it around her. “Please.” Her little whimper was so sweet. “Please…”

He dipped his hand between her legs, his fingers brushing where they joined until he found her clit. With one flick of his finger, Merrily exploded. Her tight little pussy gripped his cock, milking him as if she wanted his very essence inside her. She cried out, her knees giving out. Alex held her up, still pounding inside her until he finally let himself go. With one last powerful thrust, he came, letting loose his own bellow to the ceiling.

For several moments, they simply stood there. Merrily was limp, leaning against him. He turned her around, his arms holding her tightly. She nuzzled his chest, brushing kisses over his skin. Her eyes were closed, and she had a soft look on her face. It was obvious he’d exhausted her the night before and now, but it was well earned for both of them.

Alex turned off the shower, then scooped her up, carrying her out into the bathroom. Fluffy, heated towels awaited them on a warmer in the corner. He wrapped one around her before giving himself a once-over, then took her into the bedroom. Putting in a call to Ruth, he had clothes brought to him. By the time he’d dressed, Merrily was curled on her side on top of the bed, her naked body limp in sleep. He smiled. Was there ever a more beautiful woman than his Merrily?

Carefully, trying not to wake her, Alex pulled her into his arms, urging her into one of his undershirts before carrying her up to his room. The woman simply sighed and laid her head on his shoulder, her breaths even as they feathered along his neck. Alex smiled. As soon as she’d rested, he’d take her back to the project room where Giovanni waited to test her. He had the feeling the next few days would be enlightening and very entertaining indeed.

* * *

“Son of a bitch, she’s good,” Giovanni muttered in awe, sweat pouring from his face. Alex tried not to react, but wasn’t quite sure he suppressed his smirk. For the last week, Giovanni had put Merrily through a battery of tests to determine her proficiency with software, hardware, and programming. Giovanni had been more than a little condescending when they’d first started. The man truly had no idea how to behave in the company of people he didn’t know. Merrily hadn’t once pushed back, doing anything he asked of her without complaint or comment.

Currently, she was supposed to be trying to hack him. Gio had set up a controlled environment in a computer she was supposed to break into. He’d positioned her across the room so neither could see what the other was doing and put her to work. Two hours into it, Gio had stopped smirking and throwing little digs her way and started actively trying to keep her out. Five hours later, he’d started swearing under his breath. Both of them had fingers flying over the keys, but in contrast to Giovanni, Merrily had a serene visage, actually humming to herself as if thoroughly enjoying the experience.

“Ha,” Gio exclaimed softly. “Thought you had me, didn’t you…” He trailed off a second before the alarm on his real system started blaring an angry, urgent claxon.

“What the fuck?” Azriel pulled his gun, tracking around the room, looking for an intruder.

“Oh, come on!” Giovanni jumped up, knocking his chair over. He hastily hopped behind what he lovingly referred to as his “command center,” which consisted of a wall of monitors and his workstation. All the monitors were flashing an angry red with the words “SECURITY BREACH” blazoned in big white, flashing letters. Giovanni looked around, confused. “Why is it doing that? It’s not supposed to flash on the monitors or make such a racket. What the fuck?”

The monitor in the very center switched to a black screen with code in white lettering flying up it in a blur. “No, no, no! That’s impossible!” Giovanni pressed a few buttons, his gaze focused squarely on the monitor until he finally dove under the desk and unplugged the whole thing. The silence was deafening, the monitors dark.

“Uh, what just happened?” Alex asked. He’d also pulled his gun, unsure of what to do but making damned sure he was ready if there was a need. It wasn’t until that very moment he realized he’d sprinted across the room to cover Merrily. He’d done it without thought or telling Azriel what he was doing.

Giovanni crawled out from under the desk to collapse in his chair. Sweat streamed down his face, his red/orange hair a disheveled mess. His stunned expression met Alex when they locked gazes. “I got… hacked.” The voice that had been filled with sarcasm and cutting comments was now shaken and more than a little awed. “I got hacked,” he repeated. “I… got hacked.”

“All right there, buddy,” Azriel said, helping Giovanni to stand. “I think this calls for a double malt. Right this way.” He urged Gio to the bar in the corner of the room and poured him a shot before swigging from the bottle himself. Gio downed his with a gasp and held his glass out for more. Once filled, he downed the second one with less drama before wiping his mouth with his sleeve.

Once more, he looked at Azriel as if he were in a daze. “I got hacked.”

“Yeah, I got that,” Alex said. “But who…” He glanced at Merrily, who was leaning back in her chair, fingers laced together over her belly, that serene, innocent expression firmly in place. Too innocent. “Oh ho ho!” Laughter bubbled up out of nowhere as the full impact of what had just happened hit him. Amusement and pride. “Giovanni seems to have a small problem, Azriel,” he announced, spinning Merrily around in the chair and scooping her up to toss over his shoulder. When she shrieked at him, he swatted her ass and stalked over to Giovanni and Azriel.

He set her on her feet and turned her to face Gio. “Something you want to say to the lady, Giovanni?”

The man looked about as shell-shocked as he’d ever seen a human look. Gio didn’t even try to deny it had been Merrily who’d hacked him — he just looked at her with a strange mixture of awe and fear. “I think she’s the real Demon,” he said quietly. Azriel and Alex guffawed. Never had Giovanni met his match in the tech department, but Merrily had obviously had it with his condescending attitude toward her.

“Don’t worry, gentlemen,” she said airily. “I only use my powers for good.” She raised an eyebrow at Giovanni. “Even if someone truly deserves it. Well, on occasion, at least.” How could the woman manage to look haughty and just the tiniest bit guilty at the same time?

“Okay,” Gio said, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Maybe we need to start over.” He lifted his head and met her gaze directly. “Exactly what can you do?” It wasn’t so much a question as a demand.

She met his gaze with a steady one of her own. Alex might intimidate her — even though he didn’t want to — but Giovanni… not so much. “Anything I want to.”

Fuck. Alex’s cock shot hard so fast he nearly doubled over. This was the woman he’d hoped was inside her. Confident. Cocky even. Sexy. As. Fuck!

Azriel gripped his shoulder, giving it a firm squeeze. “I’d say to take your woman upstairs before you lose your mind, but I’m not sure it would help.”

“Hush,” he hissed, wanting to see how this played out.

“No one can break into my system,” Gio said. “No one.”

“All evidence to the contrary,” Merrily muttered. Then she wrapped her arms around her middle, all that confidence evaporating.

“Oh, hell no,” Alex said, pulling her into his arms and glaring at Giovanni. “Don’t you dare withdraw. You did something I thought was impossible, and you’re not going to be ashamed of it.” He pinched her chin and forced her head up. “I’m so proud of you I can’t even describe… You just bested the best in the biz. Not only that, you did it right under his fucking nose.”

“Oh, it’s worse than that,” Giovanni groused. “She did it while misdirecting me. She hacked two systems at the same time, and I never even suspected.”

“There’s nothing with a computer I can’t do, given enough time,” Merrily said, meeting Gio’s eyes. She still had a wary look on her face, as if waiting for the other shoe to drop, but she fought to hold on to her confidence. Just like Alex told her to. Which, again, was like a punch to the gut. Lust, hot and swift, was going to overtake him if he wasn’t careful. No telling what he’d do to the poor girl then, because no way he could go easy on her if she continued to be all bad-ass and stuff.

“Why didn’t you use that skill to get yourself and Rose money and disappear off the grid? You could have been halfway to the moon by now and no one would have been the wiser.” It was a valid question Giovanni asked. Alex wondered that himself. More than one company had tried to get an industrial spy on the inside of Argent Tech. No one had ever made it past Giovanni. “I don’t know you, but I trust Alex. He would never bring a woman here who was batting for another team, but you can’t deny the timing is a bit coincidental.” When Merrily tried to push away from Alex, her body moving away from all of them, he tightened his grip to prevent her escape. “I’m not saying you’d do something with malicious intent,” Giovanni hastily qualified. “I’m just saying that if they’ve threatened Rose or you to coerce your cooperation, now’s the time to tell me so I can mitigate the damage.”

“Unless the computer you have me using is significantly less secure than your command and control, there is no way what I did cause any harm.” Her voice was strong but shaky, her body stiff. “I hacked you. But it’s contained to that computer.” She pointed to the one Gio set up for her. “So, unless there is someone out there with your level of skill working behind me, at the exact moment I did this, you’re safe.” She ducked her head. “As to me and Rose, I meant it when I said I only use my powers for good. I don’t know any criminals, so taking someone else’s hard-earned money to help myself just feels wrong. I did my best to keep us off the grid, but I’m not into breaking into the city’s cameras either, so I just tried to stay away from them.” She shrugged. “I’m not opposed to putting a hurt on someone operating outside the law if necessary, but I won’t use my talent for personal gain. I was protecting Rose as best as I could, and I can’t say I’d be so selfless if she were truly in danger and I could prevent it by siphoning from someone who wouldn’t miss it, but I wasn’t there yet.”

Gio nodded slowly. “And why would they send in a second person if they already had the ability? They’d simply be at a party we hosted and do their damage from there.”

“And if they had someone that good, they wouldn’t need to break into your system to get secrets. They’d simply make their own stuff.”

All three men exchanged a look. It was now or never. “That’s not entirely accurate,” Alex said with a sigh. “Remember when I told you you’d have some hard choices to make? Now’s the time.”

“I don’t understand.” She glanced from one to the other, stopping on Alex. He was glad Merrily looked to him. He wanted her to always follow his lead when she was unsure.

“Before we explain, I have to know you can keep this to yourself,” Alex said. “Consider this like Fight Club.”

“And no one talks about Fight Club,” she muttered. “Do I want to know this?”

Alex shrugged. “You’ll have the opportunity to work with the most advanced technology on the planet. I can’t promise you won’t have to get your proverbial hands dirty, but I will swear on my life that we’ll protect you from everything. Absolutely everything.”

She held his gaze, not flinching away for several seconds. Then she asked, “Will I have to do anything to innocent people?”

“Never,” Alex said without hesitation. “We operate outside the law most of the time, but we’ve never harmed innocents, nor do we intend to.”

“Then count me in.” She gave them all a small smile. “If you’re very good, Giovanni, I might tell you what I did to get into your system.”

A couple of hours later, Merrily looked like her head was spinning. Not only had Giovanni detailed some of their older escapades — he wasn’t letting her in until she was fully committed — but she seemed to be stuck on the whole Shadow Demon thing.

“So, you guys are actually Rose’s Shadow Angels?”

Giovanni looked aghast. “Demons! Shadow Demons! Who the fuck said we were angels? What the hell?”

“I know,” Azriel said with a roll of his eyes. “Kick in the balls, ain’t it? Kid shouldn’t spread rumors like that. Messes with our rep.”

“Well, she heard it from somewhere,” Merrily said, leaning back and crossing her arms over her chest. “She didn’t make it up. You’ve got more of a fan club than you thought, I’d say.”

“Me and that girl gotta have a talk,” Gio grumbled with no real rancor. Alex couldn’t help but smile. Without trying, his little Merrily and her daughter were winning the loyalty of his brothers. “Angels.” Giovanni continued to mutter. “There oughtta be a fuckin’ law!”

“You’ll have my back?” Merrily met Gio’s gaze with a serious expression.

“We all will, Merrily. None of us are related by blood, but in this house, we’re family. Every last man, woman, and child. No one knows the full extent of what we do, but they all know to protect the family, no matter what. That includes you now.” He gave her a soft smile. “If you want us.”

She sighed, shrugging as she said, “Doesn’t appear as if I have much to lose and quite a bit to gain. If nothing else, playing with really cool toys will be an asset in future job ventures.”

“Then we’ll start with our plan to take down Daniel J. Maddison and his son.”

There was no missing the shiver that went through Merrily at the mention of his name. What was on her mind? Did she regret what she’d signed up for with her ex-lover?

“You going to be okay with this?” Alex had to ask. Had to know. A spike of jealousy jolted through him and he nearly growled his displeasure. “Because, if you’re not, we need to know now.”

“I’m good with it. I just get a creepy feeling when I think about him.”

“Define ‘creepy.’”

“There’s something not right with him. And I mean Danny. Not his father. There was an oily glee about him that night at the gala I can’t define. I was so upset I barely noticed it, but he thinks he’s made it. And I don’t mean that he’s rich. His family always had money. That’s why they didn’t want me in his life, especially with a child. Yet, he gave me that superior look straight out of a Toby Keith music video. Like he was somebody.”

“We’d been running the angle that Danny has been skimming his father and, therefore, whomever his father worked for.” Alex looked to Azriel. “Any luck with your contact in the Brotherhood?”

“No. But I don’t expect to hear back from them for three days.”

“Three days. Exactly?”

“Yes. Part of their protocol. The party who messages first has to do the waiting.” He lifted his cell phone and gave it a little wave. “I’ll be glued to this thing until they contact me. I have three minutes to respond when they contact me.”

“Then why be glued to it if you have to wait three days?”

“Because they might send it early. They know I know their protocols.” He waved a hand dismissively. “It’s all about mind games. They send it early, I have to know the second it comes in. That determines when my reply goes out to them.”

“Too much for me, bro,” Alex said, snagging Merrily’s hand, needing to touch her. “What did our boys find in Maddison’s ledgers?”

“Definitely laundering going on there. Also skimming, and from more than one party. I’ve told Maddison all is a go with the merger. We’ll have a meeting in a couple of days with him, his wife and his son.”

Merrily stiffened beside him. “What?”

Azriel shifted, drawing their attention. “We’re putting this to rest one way or another, Merrily. When this is done, there will be no danger to you or Bellarose. That includes any claims to custody or visitation. If there is any visitation for anyone, it will be by your choice alone.”

Merrily blinked rapidly, a stunned look on her face. “Why would you do that? My custody of Rose isn’t your concern. You don’t have to –”

Alex quieted her protest the only way he knew how. He kissed her, threading his fingers through her hair and taking her mouth until she melted against him. When he finally pulled away, he held her gaze.

“That family has no claim on your child. Rose might be Danny’s biological child, but she’s not his daughter. We’re going to make sure that specter isn’t hanging over your head. That son of a bitch is never going to see Rose unless you wish it.”

Her eyes were bright with unshed tears. “You can really do that?”

“Absolutely,” Azriel said. “You’ll have a part to play with Alex.”

“What do you need me to do?”

“Think of this as a production,” Alex said. “Giovanni is the director. He calls the shots. He’ll bring in each player on cue and keep an eye on the grounds for when our outside guests arrive.” He pulled her closer, kissing her temple. “You’ll be safe long before that, however.”

“Outside guests?”

Alex exchanged looks with Gio and Azriel. “I told you about Dan’s business dealings. You know he’s in with some really bad people. We’re not sure exactly sure who he’s laundering for, but the people they hired to put the hurt on him are known to us. Azriel has put out a call to them. Feeling out the situation. We expect they will attempt to enter the grounds soon after Dan and his family arrive.”

“What?” Alex held her tightly when she tried to pull away. “But, Rose –”

“Will be perfectly fine, honey. Everyone here will, including you. We’ve done this a time or two.” He grinned down at her anxious face. “Granted, we usually take it away from our home, but this is the safest way. Until the threat to you and Rose is completely eliminated, I want us all close. We’ve even called in backup for this one. Everyone will arrive in the next few hours. They’ve already been briefed, so once they get here, we can move everyone else underground and send out the invite to Dan and his family.”

“I’m scared,” she said in a small voice, looking down at the floor. That was all Alex could take. He scooped her up and left, not saying another word to his brothers. There was nothing to say. Alex hadn’t expressly told them how he felt about Merrily, but they knew. Just the fact he’d turned over lead to Giovanni told them volumes. They knew she was important to him. They would protect her — and Rose — with their lives.

God help anyone who threatened either of them.