In From the Cold

by Taryn Kincaid

  “Hell, yes. If it’s the place with the bed.” She tightened her arms around him. “And could you hurry?”

  Without setting her down, he strode briskly to the master cabin, nudging the door open with his foot. Vaguely, the decadence of the bedroom suite registered somewhere in her brain awash in hormones, the quarters even more plush and luxurious than the other areas they’d toured, the bed huge—large enough to accommodate even Spook comfortably—and piled high with pillows.

  He swept them all away with one arm, and carefully laid her down on the slick satin sheets, in such a fashion that her legs dangled over the edge of the bed, her feet touching the thick carpet. He dropped to his knees and removed her shoes. Taking one bare foot in his large hands, he rubbed the sole and instep until she thought she’d come from the extraordinary, titillating massage alone. His large, strong hands played on her flesh, the blunt fingertips kneading every last bit of tension away. With a sigh, she lay back and closed her eyes, so relaxed she floated, sinking into a soft cloud of pure delight. Raising her foot to his lips, he nibbled her toes, his mouth gentle at first, then so hot and hungry she thought he’d suck the Luminous Lightberry polish off her nails. She cried out from the intense pleasure. The male definitely had mad skills.

  “Like that?” he murmured.

  “Yes.”

  “How about this?” He yanked off her jeans, the cool air in the cabin a momentary shock to her feverish skin, until his warming hands slid up her calves to her knees, his palms firm. The muscles, toned through years of chasing demons around the globe, went slack as he spread her legs wide and bent his head between her thighs. The scent of arousal, hers, his, filled the cabin. She lifted her hips and he did not disappoint her. He dropped soft, angelic, little butterfly kisses on her swollen super-sensitized flesh, each one tingled through her, made her ache, made her want. Desire lit her up, a match to kindling. And then he began sucking and licking her. Her head whirled as if she were intoxicated, each caress of his tongue intensifying the passion. Totally drunk on him, she fisted her hands around his muscular shoulders then slid them, open-palmed, along the column of his neck, over smooth flesh, across his hard jaw, before digging them into his hair again.

  His groans, her moans, the slurping sounds, his caresses, his fingers pressing into the flesh of her thighs, had her crying out, thrashing wildly on the sheets until he took her over the edge. Once. Twice. She lost count of how many times she came. Drifting, drifting. Rapture. Ecstasy. She had no idea where they were. Knew only Spook, whispering, sighing, crying his name.

  He held her until she returned, the boat rocking gently beneath them, and she recalled their date, their one-night stand. One night would never be enough. She needed this male to provide her with such mind-blowing orgasms on a daily, nightly basis.

  He slid her more fully into the center of the bed and stood, gazing down at her. His icy eyes sparkled with heat, a grin tugging the corners of his mouth, still slick with her.

  “Mmm, mmm, good.” He smacked his lips. “Good for you, too, baby?”

  She swatted his arm. “What do you think?”

  “I think now you’re ready to be fucked.”

  Chapter Six

  Spook surveyed with satisfaction the female he’d just pleasured, his cock still hard and throbbing. He could look at her forever, his eyes never, ever drinking their fill. One taste, lick, suck, or nibble would never be enough to satisfy him. If daylight came and he had to leave her…. Screw the whole one-night stand thing. Screw “no strings.” He wanted her in his life after the damn sun came up. He wanted her…always.

  A special radiance suffused her complexion, her natural glow a soft rose tint under the subdued lighting of the master cabin. He’d painted her flesh with that extraordinary blush. The way she’d responded to him had been a near-religious, out-of-body, mind-blowing experience. Definitely no need for a dimmer switch when this woman got aroused.

  She stared at him with a lazy, sleepy smile of her own, her breathtaking blue eyes alight and amused as she reached for his hand. The most natural thing in the world, the touch, electric. His arousal was off the charts, his heartbeat thundered, his breath grew short. She threaded her fingers through his, tugged him down onto the bed with her.

  “You’re waiting for what exactly?” Her other hand went to the button at his fly, flicking it open with her thumb. She slid down his zipper.

  His erection sprang free, his balls tightening, the ache to be inside her painful. He hunted for the condom in the pocket of his jeans and sheathed himself.

  “Good,” she breathed. “I thought you might be waiting for another bout of breedspawn.”

  Without bothering to kick off his jeans, he slid into her with one sure thrust, her sharp intake of breath at his invasion silencing the teasing words. He gave her a moment to accustom herself to his size.

  “Oh, that’s…delicious,” she sighed. Her eyes fluttered closed and then opened again to gaze into his. He balanced on his forearms above her. If—when—he did go into the male demon mating frenzy of breedspawn one day, he’d never make it without the female lying beneath him. She jerked his elbows and he collapsed on top of her.

  “Didn’t want to crush you,” he muttered.

  “Love the feel of you on top of me,” she said. “Love the feel of you inside me.” Rubbing her nose against his shoulder, she sighed again. “Love the smell of you. That delicious mating scent. Whatever it is, it drives me wild. Absolutely wild.”

  “It’s not breedspawn,” he assured her, rocking slowly then withdrawing, pulling all the way back before pushing forward again, to demonstrate his control.

  Her small white teeth grazed her lower lip. “You’re driving me crazy,” she hissed.

  “Good crazy?”

  “Beyond good. Beyond anything.” She shut her eyes and gripped him tighter, moving her head from side to side on the pillows, as if the feel of his cock inside her transported her to another plane.

  He could set a long, deep, rhythmic pace and make the incredible glimpse of heaven last. They had all night. No hurry. Gritting his teeth, he drew on all of his skills and training, every ounce of willpower he possessed.

  But his dick wanted something else. And the lower brain assumed command. Fuck the slow, gentle, sweet crap. Spook wanted to pound into her again and again. Fast. Furious. Like a savage. He felt the sinews in his neck strain to the near-popping point as he continued to rein in the beast, hold it back.

  “Too bad it isn’t,” she said. “Breedspawn, I mean.”

  He froze and stared down into eyes such a heartrending blue, he ached. His pulse skipped a beat. A couple more. “You’d be okay with that?”

  “I think so.” She stroked his shoulders then sifted her fingers through the hair on his nape, a gentle caress that fired him up nonetheless. “I don’t know what it is, Spook. What’s between us. But there’s definitely something. I’ve felt it from the first. I think you have, too. And now…I don’t know. It might be kind of impossible for me to ever let you go.”

  Her words inflamed him, striking like Cupid’s arrows, straight to the heart, precisely echoing his earlier thoughts about leaving her after their one-night stand came to an end. And how big was the lie he’d told himself about taking things slow? He had no control. None whatsoever. Not where this female was concerned. Any semblance of restraint snapped, and he surged into her with a roar of desperate animal hunger. Driving deep, his cock planted to the root, Spook wanted to be deeper still. As he pounded into her slick heat, she scored his back with her nails. Her sighs and moans urged him to move faster, harder. She tightened her legs around his hips, her ass arching off the bed.

  Fisting the tangled sheets, she cried his name, stiffening as she came, her inner muscles gripping his cock, squeezing, milking him. His female. Her glow lit the room. With a harsh roar, he shot off the cliff of his own release, pumping into her over and over. He collapsed, panting, dragging in ragged gulps of air. Her contractions had drained him dry, but h
e remained hard.

  Still trembling, she drew uneven, erratic breaths. Then, recovering first, she returned one hand to his nape, gliding her fingers through his hair. With her other hand, she sketched a lazy pattern of circles across his back.

  “Wow, huh?” he mumbled when he was able to form words. “Oh, hell, yeah, wow.”

  “And yet, you’re still hard.” She raised her ass off the bed, urging him on.

  In an instant, he’d reversed their positions, dragging her over him, clutching her hips, his cock still impaling her, growing longer, hotter, harder. He raised and then lowered her onto him, letting her ride him. Their bodies slammed together until they came again, the orgasm even more explosive than the last.

  She fell on top of him, finally exhausted, depleted, radiant. He pulled her closer, fitting her head into the curve of his neck and shoulder, marveling at how well her petite frame matched his much larger one, how well she complemented every part of him, suited every place his body needed her to be. She snuggled into his warmth.

  They caught a few minutes of sleep in between their many and varied bouts of lovemaking, beyond anything he’d ever imagined, even in his most erotic fantasies. But when the morning sun rose in the sky and flooded the cabin with light, he remained unsure of where they stood. Their date, amazing as it had been, was supposed to be over—virtual strangers with a single, torrid night of no-holds-barred passion between them.

  He caressed her until she woke with a satisfied yawn, grinning up him, her pale skin sheened with a warm, rosy tint, her eyes magical. “You want to go again?” Her voice rippled with amusement. “I ache in places I didn’t even know I had.” She offered him a sultry wink. “But in a good way.”

  “Well.” He paused, reaching for words that never made the journey from his brain to his mouth. But before he said anything incredibly dumb or second-guessed himself, he moved over her, surging into her again with a long, hot thrust, the strokes slow and measured as he tried to make the morning last. The day was well on its way before he finally rolled away again. Totally blissed out, he tucked her to his side, drained, sapped of the last ounce of energy he possessed. Nirvana.

  “So.” She grazed her chin on his shoulder. “What happens now?”

  “Don’t know.” He petted her silky hair then rubbed his hand up and down her arm. “I guess we’re done.”

  “Done?” she echoed. “Are we? Are you sure?”

  Under the tangled sheet that barely covered his groin, she glided a fingertip over the head of his cock, which immediately responded to her touch. Magic. Yeah. So maybe he did have a little more juice.

  “This,” he groaned, his voice hoarse. “This one-night stand.”

  “Oh.” She caressed him again. “Get away from me then.”

  “You get away from me.”

  “Very mature.”

  He raised an eyebrow. “I’m not mature enough for you? I’m guessing that hand of yours, toying with me right now, not to mention the rest of your satisfied body, thinks otherwise.”

  She tossed the rumpled bed linens off him and slid down lower. Then she bent her head until her lips brushed his throbbing cock. “You think I’ll let you go now, demon?” Her words vibrated across his sensitive skin, nearly driving him insane. “Think again.”

  Later, they both lay side by side, heads sharing one pillow, fingers laced, staring up at the ceiling, too exhausted to move.

  “Now we’re done,” she said. “I guess.”

  “Really?”

  “Well, I’m not sure what the rules are, but it’s like, afternoon already.”

  “Screw the rules. Try to move out of my arms, baby. And see how far you get.”

  Chapter Seven

  They did move. Eventually. From the bed to the shower. Then, wrapped in the terry robes they’d found in one of the many cabinets in the enormous, luxurious bathroom, they headed to the galley, fixed omelets, and fed them to each other.

  “Gotta get a boat like this one of these days.”

  “Ya think?” She grinned at him. “The spook biz pretty lucrative, is it?”

  He shrugged, waggling his eyebrows at her. “I do okay.”

  Doing what? “Explain to me what it is that you do do.”

  “Can’t. It’s all classified.” He shook his head, his brow furrowed. Reaching up, she ran a fingertip across his rigid jaw, along his sculpted cheekbone, to smooth the knot between his eyes. He took her hand in his and kissed her knuckles. “But I’m done,” he told her. “Out. I’m going to join Bhyrne in his new security agency here in Sleepy Hollow. Raines Security.”

  The smile wreathing her face grew wide enough to crack her jaw. The omelet suddenly tasted like the most amazing gourmet dish in the world. “You’ll be around then?”

  “Yep.”

  “And we can see each other?”

  “What, like fuck buddies?”

  “Well….” She lowered her gaze, staring into her cup of coffee before taking a sip. “I’d like more than that.”

  “Me, too. There’s something.…” He shrugged. “Dunno what it is, but you know it’s not just the sex, Genny. Awesome as that is.”

  Warmth spread through her at his confession. Playful. This grim, dangerous male…teasing her. Goddess, she fell a little deeper under his spell. As if that were possible. She might already be head-over-heels for the guy, if her racing pulse was anything to go by. Oh, hell. No might about it.

  “Unless…you’re still trying to kill me, Ms. WOW,” he added, his frosty eyes warming and alight with promise.

  “You can more than handle me, Mr. Secret Agent Man. But, no. I kinda think maybe all my demon-chasing, maybe it all just led up to this, you know? Finding you? Something happened to me when I flitted into your Paris hotel room. Something changed me. You. I’m going to have to ditch POLOS, I think. Maybe you and Bhyrne will give me a job.”

  “You’d work for demons?”

  “I am a demon.” The admission clobbered her. She ducked her head and pushed stray bits of mushrooms and cheese around her plate, lining them up against a border of fluffy eggs, a fence of golden toast.

  Spook covered her other hand with his, his thumb skimming over her white knuckles. “Look, it’s okay. You’ll accept it soon. I didn’t know about myself until a couple of days ago. When you told me, I didn’t know what to think. When Max and Bhyrne confirmed it…it explained so much I could never figure out. So much that seemed…a little off about me. And I kinda like having a family I never knew about. Any family at all.”

  She fiddled with her fork. “It’s different. I’ve always known. It’s just that I’ve been…well, it’s way more than denial. I’ve hated all demonkind since I was a child and demons took my parents away. Didn’t give them a chance.” She told him the story, her chest tightening with the pain, her words halting, still hurtful to speak.

  “My parents were will-o’-the-wisps, like me. I was very young when they died, but old enough to know they weren’t coming home anymore.”

  Without a word, he pulled her to him, lifting her with ease out of the chair. He settled her in his lap, his warmth flooding her, the sound of his heartbeat comforting as he enclosed her in his strong, protective arms.

  “I’ll take care of you, sweetheart,” he murmured, nuzzling her hair.

  “I know. I know you will.” Going still for a moment, she breathed him in, basking in the scent and feel of him before she trusted her voice enough to go on. “In the lore, we are like pixies, or fairies. Or, according to some humans, swamp gas. But we sense evil.” She gazed up at him. “I got the demon vibe when I came up your corridor and neared your hotel room in Paris. But you had no evil aura.”

  “’Cause I’m such a nice guy.”

  “You are,” she agreed. “But will-o’-the-wisps seek out those with rotten hearts and blackened souls. Lure them with the elusive, flickering light into a final bad act or terrible deed that destroys them. Or into a place from which they cannot return.”

  “This is all new
to me.”

  “Few people really know about us. Even in demonkind. The light-lure wouldn’t work if it was common knowledge. Everyone would avoid us. No one would follow.”

  “You glow when I touch you,” he said. “I love the way you light up for me.”

  “That’s different.” A bolt of warmth shot up her neck, suffusing her face with heat.

  “Love that blush, too.”

  She wriggled on his lap until his arms clamped down, holding her still. “Stop wiggling or I’ll have you in bed in two seconds flat,” he warned. “And I want to hear this. I want to know everything there is to know about you.”

  “It’s not that pretty. My parents got an assignment from their king to track down a powerful demon warlord and hasten his departure from the world.” She paused, the lump in her throat making it hard for her to continue.

  He toyed with her hair, twisting long strands around his fingers, as if trying to bind her to him. “Go on, sweetheart.”

  “But it was a difficult job and all but drained them, nearly extinguishing their light. They were freezing to death. They needed renewal, an influx of energy to keep going. But when they appeared at the gates of Duyvil Tand, the guards laughed at them and refused them admittance.” She choked back a sob. “Their light went out. They never came home and I never saw them again.”

  He held her without saying anything, his steady, potent presence filling her with strength and courage until the block in her throat dissipated, the daggers stabbing her chest easing. She looked up at him, shocked by the grim cast of his mouth, the cold steel of his eyes.

  “What is Duyvil Tand, baby?” he asked. “Where is it?”

  “It’s Devil’s Tooth, the demon stronghold, below a mountain in the Catskills, where many realms meet. The Queen of the Succubi has her palace there. The laird of the WOW has his sphere. It’s the domain of the King of the Fire-Sex Demons, along with the fortresses and pavilions of other demonic rulers.”