by Scott, J. S.
He reared up, his expression fierce and savage as he looked at her. “Need to fuck you, Talia. No control left,” he rasped, his amber eyes shooting sparks around them.
“Yes,” she panted, needing to feel him inside her more than she needed her next breath. Her desire was that all-consuming, her need to be joined with him as elemental as his.
He brought his cock to the opening of her hungry, clenching channel, watching as it slid inside her, hissing as he viewed their joining. Drew looked mesmerized, and he released a grunt of male satisfaction as he buried himself balls deep inside her.
Talia couldn’t say that she didn’t feel stretched to her limit, and there was a moment of pain because it had been so long and Drew was built so big. But the feel of him inside her eclipsed everything else, the pleasure almost unbearable. Drew filled her, made her feel like the most desirable woman on the planet.
Lowering his body over hers, he said hoarsely, “You are the most desirable woman on the planet. You’re it for me.” He took her mouth as his hips flexed, pulling back until he was almost out of her and driving back in with a forceful thrust. “I’ve never known this kind of hunger until I met you. I crave you, Talia. And fucking you is the most satisfying thing I’ve ever done.”
Talia moaned into his embrace, wrapping her arms around his back and putting her legs around his waist, urging him on. She could feel his desperation, and she wanted his unrestrained possession, this rough claiming. Nothing else would do for either of them. His tongue moved inside her mouth, owning her with the same relentless rhythm as his cock. Slick with perspiration, they strained together, their bodies entwining until it was hard to know where one ended and the other began.
He released her mouth with a low groan, his cock still pummeling into her, each thrust more demanding and primal. “Come apart for me, Talia. I want to watch you take your pleasure this time. Take it from me. Only from me,” Drew demanded, his tone dominant and graveled, his eyes covetous and wild as he watched her face.
Talia moaned, his words inflaming her, and trembled as he changed positions, grinding against her mound with every stroke of his cock. She met every pump of his hips with an uncontrolled desperation of her own, needing to make him orgasm as badly as she needed it herself. Their desires were intertwined, and it was difficult to separate one from the other, but it didn’t really matter. Some of their needs were mirror images of the other’s, all of them soul deep and primal.
With a cry of sweet release, she climaxed violently, helplessly, as Drew stared down at her, groaning in male satisfaction as he continued to fill her over and over with unrelenting strokes. Then, he threw his head back and groaned, the muscles in his neck straining as he let go and flooded her with his hot release.
Talia panted as she gazed at him, knowing that watching him right here, right now, was the most amazingly beautiful, hottest thing she’d ever seen. Muscles clenched, his powerful body shuddered as his animalistic groan reverberated through the room. Sweat trickled down his chest and abdomen, and it made his golden skin shimmer. Talia knew the image was branded into her memory, and she was glad. She never wanted to forget this moment in time.
Drew rolled to his side and pulled her over him with a growl. “You nearly killed me, mo chridhe. And you’re going to see me come a lot more in the future. No need to keep the memory when it’ll just keep getting better and better. And I’m not all that attractive,” he told her in a low and slightly melancholy tone, his hands stroking her ass and back lovingly as she rested, completely sated, on top of him.
Her heart still pounding furiously, she told him breathlessly, “Are you kidding? You’re every woman’s most lusty wet dream.”
“Am I, now?” he answered in an amused voice, his brogue heavy during this unguarded, intimate moment. “Now that would be a waste, really. The only woman I want to attract is you.”
Talia’s heart squeezed, making it even harder to recover her breath. Drew was so incredibly hot, and heartrendingly sweet. “There isn’t a woman in the world who wouldn’t drool over you. How can you say you aren’t the hottest male in the universe?”
Drew shrugged. “What’s so attractive about an Irish peasant? Believe me, at one time I wasn’t a pretty sight.”
“Does becoming a Sentinel alter your physical appearance?” she asked curiously.
“Not really. But it made me a hell of a lot more healthy,” he answered in a falsely nonchalant voice.
Talia hit him playfully on the shoulder. “Then you were always a hottie. You were just malnourished.” Again, the thought of Drew starving nearly broke her heart.
“I did manual labor. I was old before my time,” Drew commented. “And I wasn’t much to look at to begin with.”
Talia pulled back and gaped at him. “You’re gorgeous, Drew. The most handsome man I’ve ever seen.”
“I don’t think so. Maybe it’s the mating instinct that makes you think so,” he remarked casually.
“It is not. I might not be wearing my glasses, but I can still see you.” There wasn’t a single thing that she didn’t find appealing in Drew, mating instinct or not. Well…except maybe his occasional stubbornness wasn’t particularly pleasant at times, but she even liked that because it was probably what had gotten him through the Great Famine alive.
“Ditto,” Drew drawled low and husky. He put his hands on both sides of her face, making her meet his compelling gaze. “Why is it so hard to believe that I see you the same way? I love the fact that you’re tall, and have the most amazingly sexy legs that seem to go on forever. Your eyes are so beautiful I want to drown in them. And you have the body of a goddess. You’re so intelligent that I want to worship your mind, and I don’t feel worthy of you.” Drew let out an exasperated sigh. “Still, you’re the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen in my human life and in my years as a Sentinel, and I’ll do everything in my power to make you mine and keep you safe. I need you. And I think you need me, too. If anything, I think you got the raw end of the deal, and if I were a better man, I’d somehow let you go, but I can’t.”
A lone tear flowed down Talia’s cheek. It was humbling how much this glorious man wanted her. “I’ve never had anybody, Drew. Not since my mom died.”
He kissed the tear away and told her huskily, “Neither have I, mo grha. But now that I know what it’s like to have you as mine, I can’t give you up. Please don’t ever ask me to. I’m not sure I’d survive it. I want to be yours, Talia. I want to be there when you’re sad, when you’re happy, when you need me—which I fucking hope is all the time. I want your face to be the last thing I see every night and the first thing I’m lucky enough to see in the morning. I want to make up for every moment you’ve been alone by filling your life with so much happiness that you’ll forget anything that happened before we met.” He paused, his voice going from sensually persuasive to agitated. “But I still want to kill the bastards who hurt you.”
Talia let out a startled laugh. A few more tears were dotting her cheeks at Drew’s heartfelt declaration. Trust Drew to mix up what was a very sweet speech with a murderous intent at the end of it. But her heart was still singing because everything he said was all for her. Even the homicidal comment was revenge for slights toward her.
She reached up and touched his cheek, her hand trembling slightly. God, but this stubborn, dominant Irishman moved her, especially now, when he was vulnerable, because she was certain no one else ever saw that part of him. “I love the way you make me feel.” Talia stroked his jawline, loving the feel of his whiskered, abrasive skin underneath her fingertips. “I’ve never felt like anything except a freak. Suddenly, I feel like a desirable woman, some kind of seductress.”
“You don’t need to be a seductress. My cock gets hard just from thinking about you,” Drew mumbled.
Talia rubbed sensually against him, feeling his member already hard and hot against her thigh. Kat was right. Didn’t a Sen
tinel ever get tired?
“You’re pushing your luck, woman. You’re already going to be sore tomorrow,” Drew warned.
“I thought I’d try out my newfound sexuality.” She wriggled on top of him, loving the feel of his rock-hard body beneath her. “Maybe I can arouse you this time.”
Talia found herself pinned to the bed before she could blink, Drew’s marvelously massive bulk on top of her.
“No need. I’m already there,” he growled, aggressively taking her mouth with his.
Okay, maybe Sentinels required very little seduction, and as he continued to ravish her, she didn’t think that was necessarily a bad thing.
The next morning, Talia actually was sore in muscles that she hadn’t even known she had. But she didn’t care.
“Why didn’t you tell me you were an empath?” Drew asked curiously as he devoured the largest breakfast Talia had ever seen.
He’d taken her out to a cozy little place that was apparently well-known for its breakfast menu and they were currently tucked away in a quiet booth. Drew was consuming almost everything on the table with obvious abandon, everything except for her food. Lowering her eyes to occupy herself with buttering her toast, she answered, “I learned to block it. I don’t really notice it anymore.”
“Then how did you feel my pain?”
Talia had been asking herself the same question. “I don’t know. It’s strange. That’s never happened unless the entity is actually in my presence. Can it be the mate connection?”
He crammed another piece of bacon in his mouth, chewing thoughtfully before answering, “Very likely. Mates like you and Kat are unknown to us, completely different from anything we’ve ever seen before. There are so many unanswered questions. I don’t like it.”
Tilting her head to look at him, she asked, “Why?”
“I want you for my mate, Talia. I intend to talk you into accepting me. But I don’t like not knowing what will happen. What if the dormant power actually hurts you? It would kill me if mating with me harmed you in any way,” he answered unhappily.
“It didn’t kill Kat. Drew, I think there’s a reason for the change in the Sentinel mates, at least for you and Zach, something bigger than just a fluke. You told me the Evils are getting more powerful, doing things they’ve never done before. I think some of the radiants are meant to be, that they’re part of a bigger picture. If the balance is tipping toward the Evils, then it has to be righted somehow.”
Drew shot her a surprised look. “I don’t think any of us have ever thought about it that way, except possibly Kristoff, and he’s not talking. How do you think it’s all connected?”
Talia warmed at the fact that Drew really listened to her, valued her opinions. She’d never really had anyone to talk to before who really listened without going cross-eyed from boredom when she got on one of her theories. Well…except for Pumpkin, but Talia was pretty sure her cat just tolerated her babbling. “I’m not sure, but I think it has to do with the balance of power. The gods created both the Evils and the Sentinels so there would be stasis, equal good and evil. If that harmony is lost and the power is tilting toward the Evils, there has to be something—or some people—to return everything to the former state of equilibrium.” She paused before asking excitedly , “Are there any demon prophecies?”
Drew gave her a curious look. “You believe in prophecies?”
Talia took a sip of her coffee before answering. “Obviously I believe in facts and science, but everything I’ve studied never included gods and demons, ghosts and spirits—or they were only considered to be myth. If I know that all of those things really exist, I see no reason not to believe in prophecies. I’m a scholar, Drew. I’ve seen the evidence. I can’t deny this all exists just because I’ve been taught differently. The spirits and ghosts I’ve known about since I was a child, but the demon and gods thing really shook up my world. My specialty is ancient Greek history. I looked at mythology as folklore and legends. How was I to know that they really existed?”
“And now?” Drew urged.
“Now I know they do, and I guess I’m going to have to learn to live in a bigger world.” Talia sighed. “Everything I know isn’t all black and white. I don’t know why I have the compulsions to learn about demons, but they’re very real.”
Drew studied her, his expression alarmed. “You’re still having them?”
“No,” she answered hurriedly. “I’m living with a walking, talking demon history encyclopedia,” she teased him softly. “The compulsions are gone. But I know they happened, and I know I had no control over them.”
Talia abruptly stopped talking, her body first stilling and then shuddering as she felt the presence of evil…big, bad Evils. “Incoming powerful Evils,” she warned Drew urgently, dropping her fork so fast that it landed with a loud clank on her plate.
Drew had already gotten his wallet out, ready to pay the bill. He dropped a handful of bills on the table, grabbed her hand a second later, and flashed them out of the restaurant.
Moments later, two large elder Evils with glowing red eyes arrived, eyes darting around the restaurant, their expressions frustrated that Drew and Talia had eluded them again.
Summoned by Drew, a group of warrior Sentinels appeared. Bound by a different set of rules, they were able to engage in battle, but there were casualties, and plenty of them on the Sentinel side. Although the Evils were outnumbered, they were more powerful than several warriors put together.
The elder Evils made no attempt to hide who and what they were, or the fact that they were very unhappy about losing their prey. The few customers and employees who saw the demons tried to run past the gory battle to get to the door and escape. One or two of the customers never made it.
The warrior Sentinels finally drove the two Evils back to the demon realm, but their hearts were heavy as they took their wounded and dead, and set about cleaning up the mess the Evils had made.
Kristoff paced the goddess Athena’s enormous solarium, totally oblivious that he was destroying several of the delicate green leaves, his big body colliding with the plants as he moved back and forth across the dirt floor, frustrated. “Goran’s out of control. My warrior Sentinels all over the world are battling Evils that are slaughtering humans, and that aren’t turning to dust from breaking the rules here in the human realm. It’s not possible for them to have become powerful enough to do that,” Kristoff muttered angrily, worried about the future of his Sentinels for the first time in thousands of years.
Athena frowned thoughtfully as she saw small sections of her plants breaking apart as Kristoff plowed past them. “The balance of power is shifting in their favor, but the Sentinels will equal it again,” she answered, crossing her legs delicately beneath a crimson silk gown, sipping her tea at a small patio table as she watched the Sentinel king move restlessly through the indoor garden. “We knew this day would come, Kristoff.”
Yes. He knew. He’d always known. But damned if he knew exactly how everything was going to go down, and it irked the shit out of him. He’d been aware, since the Great War and the dawn of the Sentinels, that there would come a time when evil would tip the scales in its favor, but he didn’t have to like it. “It hasn’t been this uneven since we fought the Great War and fought back the Evils after they overran the Earth. The covenants have held.”
“The gods’ powers have slowly waned, and the Evils have the advantage now. The elders are sucking power from the radiant females they’ve been holding over the years, in particular one female more powerful than all the others,” Athena told Kristoff, watching him over the rim of her cup.
“I know that. Those women don’t lose their soul and die in the demon realm. They regenerate because they’re intended mates for Sentinels. And the Evils’ energy is more powerful than sucking souls from millions of humans, simply by feeding constantly from those women.” Kristoff’s big body shuddered in anger at
the thought of human Sentinel radiants being held captive by the Evils. “Are they all like Kat and Talia?” Kristoff asked Athena, his voice cracking with emotion.
“Only one. The others are normal radiants,” Athena answered vaguely. “The only mates who can regenerate in the demon realm are the ones who were never mated with their Sentinel, and they’re capable of it because they still retain their power. It’s never been released.”
Kristoff cursed and stopped pacing, throwing himself into a too-small-for-his-body chair across from Athena. Dammit! Every one of those women had unknowingly made a bargain with the Evils, and he had no way to rescue them without causing a major disaster of epic proportions. If he were to try to take the women from the demon realm while they were under an Evil bargain, it would not only tip the scales of balance, but possibly destroy mankind because he’d broken a critical covenant. While the Evils’ creators were gone, the Sentinels were elementally connected to Athena, and she was still very much alive, and needed to stay that way. For a Sentinel, breaking rules in the demon realm came with a much larger penalty than death. It would stretch out to the humans, allowing the Evils to do more heinous things in the Sentinels’ realm, the human realm. “Shit. We’re so screwed,” Kristoff muttered furiously.
“No we’re not,” Athena snapped hotly. “Read the prophecies, Kristoff. Maybe we don’t know exactly how it ends, but there’s a solution, a way out.” A scroll appeared in her hand, and she handed it to Kristoff. “We just need to dust the little bastards,” she decided vehemently.
Kristoff accepted the scroll from Athena while stifling a laugh. “More television?” he asked, noticing that Athena was using contemporary American expressions more and more.
“It’s boring here.” She shrugged her delicate shoulders. “A woman does what she can to keep from going crazy from the isolation.”
