No one refused her. No one.
Lilin rose, spread her wings and flew, the air flowing over her naked body in a light caress. She enjoyed the sense of freedom that accompanied flight. As an air Succubus, she drank in the growing wind like an elixir.
Soon it would be daylight in the Earth Otherworld.
Soon she would begin her seduction.
Chapter 2
Archer Dane gripped a set of architectural plans as he strode into Dane Construction’s headquarters and headed toward his office. Last night’s dream had been so damned real he hadn’t been able to get it out of his head.
A gorgeous naked woman with wings had come to fuck him. Yeah, right. Maybe his subconscious was trying to tell him he needed to get laid. God only knew how long it had been since the last time he’d been with a woman that way.
When he reached his office door, Archer paused to speak to his assistant.
He almost dropped the plans he was carrying and he was certain his jaw fell to the floor.
The woman from last night’s dream sat in Cammie’s seat. The nameplate now read Lilin Night.
Lilin. From last night.
She looked up and a sensual smile touched her lips. “Good morning, Mr. Dane.” Her voice sounded like a lover’s caress.
A growl rose up in his throat. “What are you—?”
“Your reports are on your desk, as well as the construction loan papers.” She held up his iPad. “You forgot to take this last night. I’ve also had several calls for you this morning, and I’ve logged all of them for you.”
Automatically, he took the iPad but gave her a fierce glare. “Where’s Cammie?”
Lilin looked at him with wide, innocent silvery eyes. “On vacation in the Florida Keys. You must have forgotten.”
No. He remembered everything. Especially last night. He hadn’t been able to go back to sleep, his dream, his hallucination, playing over and over in his mind. He’d been so rock hard that he still ached from it.
But here sat his hallucination. At Cammie’s desk.
He glanced to see if any employees noticed him and Lilin. Thank God everyone looked busy.
“In my office. Now,” he said to Lilin in a low voice.
“Yes, Mr. Dane.” She picked up the compact laptop Cammie always used.
He narrowed his gaze. “Leave it.”
She set it back on the desk. “Yes, Mr. Dane.” The way she said Mr. Dane in a sensual voice, with a slightly unusual accent, made him so hard he had to grit his teeth.
Shit. He had to get into his office before any employees noticed how much the woman affected him. He tucked the iPad under one arm with the rolled plans then opened the door. He closed it behind them. Talking to this woman was not something he needed anyone to walk in on, so he turned the lock.
Archer pivoted from locking the door and froze. His jaw dropped. The architectural plans fell from one hand, the rolls bouncing across the floor. His iPad hit the floor, hard.
He was face-to-face with a very naked woman.
Before he had a chance to react, Lilin had her arms around his neck and her body pressed to his. Her diamond-hard nipples rubbed him through his shirt and his erection pressed against her belly. She stood on her tiptoes and kissed him.
Ah, God. He almost dropped to his knees—they actually went weak. Her kiss was like nothing he’d ever experienced. He couldn’t begin to resist. His mind spun and all he could think about was laying her flat on his desk, jerking down his zipper, sliding in between her thighs, and driving deep inside her. His brain turned to mush and his body into one horny sex machine.
Damn, Lilin knew how to kiss. She tasted of woman and almonds, and her scent drove him crazy—the smell of rain after a thunderstorm.
She thrust her tongue into his mouth and made soft purring sounds. She nibbled his lower lip then teased his tongue with hers. As they kissed, she drew him with her so that they were moving backward. He stepped on something and he realized it was his iPad when he felt the crunch under his foot. Still, he felt powerless to stop moving with her until she bumped into his desk. File folders crashed to the floor and he heard another loud thump from a paperweight striking the carpet as she scooted her ass onto the desk’s surface.
Lilin wrapped her arms around his neck again and brought him down with her as she continued the magic of her kiss. She pulled him closer until he stood between her thighs, his hardness pressed against her heat.
He placed one of his hands on her breast and pinched her nipple, causing her to purr louder. Damn, she was so soft, so incredibly soft.
He moved the fingers of his other hand between their bodies and slipped them inside her wet core, which felt like silk around his fingers. She made small sounds of pleasure against his mouth as he rubbed her with his thumb.
He had to take her. Now. He braced one hand on the desk and reached to unfasten his jeans with his other.
Something knocked at the back of his mind as he continued kissing her, the heat and fervor between them growing and growing.
He couldn’t think clearly. The haze of lust was so strong it made his mind spin.
The knocking in his head wouldn’t stop.
Wait. It wasn’t in his head.
Someone was at his door.
The realization was enough to scatter the haze and bring him back to reality. He pushed away from the desk, away from Lilin, and shook his head to clear his mind.
The knocking grew louder.
“Mr. Dane,” came a muffled voice from the other side of the door. “Mr. Garfield’s here for his ten o’clock appointment. Is everything all right?” It was Molly’s voice and she sounded both concerned and curious. She’d probably seen him walk in with Lilin.
Archer stepped back and nearly stumbled into one of the padded chairs in front of his desk and he stepped on the iPad again with another sickening crunch. Lilin’s beautiful breasts were pink from his caresses, her lips swollen from his kisses, her thighs wide and exposing her soft pink flesh. A wicked smile tilted the corners of her lips.
Another knock. Archer raised his voice. “I’ve been on an important call, Molly. Be right there.”
“Get your clothes on,” he ordered Lilin in low growl. “However you were hired, you’re now fired. Don’t come back here.”
She pouted. “Don’t you want to take me?”
“Yes—no. Get your clothes on.” He glanced around for her skirt and blouse. The only things on the floor were the iPad with its shattered screen along with architectural plans that he had to pick up in a hurry before Garfield came into the room. Archer turned back to his desk.
Lilin was gone.
He couldn’t move. Where the hell did she go?
This woman—or whatever was happening to him—was driving him out of his mind.
He hurried around his desk and crouched to check under it. Nothing. There was no other place possible for her to hide in his office that contained only his desk, chairs, a short file cabinet, and a round conference table. She definitely wasn’t under the table.
His skin felt hot as he rose up and he went still. On top of the desk were the folders that had crashed to the floor, as well as the rolls of plans he had dropped, along with his paperweight and iPad. A very new-looking, unbroken iPad.
This took hallucinating to a whole new level.
What the hell was going on? He hadn’t been drinking, he wasn’t on drugs. Maybe he was coming down with something.
Maybe he was going to have to be committed if he didn’t stop seeing imaginary women. He could just imagine the conversation with the psychiatrist now.
Really, Dr. A woman who wants to fuck me keeps appearing and disappearing. And sometimes she even has wings!
He raised his fingers to his nose—the fingers that had just been inside her—and smelled Lilin’s musk. He shook his head, trying to clear his mind.
Now his hallucinations included her scent?
* * * * *
Lilin grumbled beneath her breath as she wa
lked from the Chamber of Veils that connected them to alternate Otherworlds, such as the Earth Otherworld. She continued down the The Hall of the Lost. Her long hair caressed her naked buttocks, the air felt cool against her breasts, and the marble floor smooth beneath her bare feet. Sparks fluttered and winked out as she opened and closed her wings.
Barely aware of the beauty of the hall, she crossed her arms beneath her breasts and frowned. She’d been summoned to the air goddess’s court. No doubt because of her failure, Rusalka wanted to speak with her. Rusalka had granted Lilin the ability to go to the Earth Otherworld during the day because she wanted Archer’s soul so badly.
But why?
Lilin shook the question from her head. She knew she’d almost had Archer. Almost had him.
By the gods, there would be no resisting her tonight.
Providing, of course, that the goddess would not punish her for her failures to seduce the mortal by not allowing her to return to the Earth Otherworld.
She stopped cold and went entirely still for a moment. What if the goddess sent her to the fiery Realm of the Dead for her failure?
No, dear goddess. Rusalka wouldn’t send her there.
Would she?
Lilin’s throat grew tight at the thought of the endless labor she would be forced to endure with fire and lava constantly licking her skin. It was where those who failed in their duties were often sent. It was also where humans went, those who had traded their souls for pleasure, power, or worldly possessions.
A tremble shivered her wings and she took a deep breath and continued walking. Her shoulders tensed and her skin tingled as she drew near the dark-green skinned guards. Both muscle-bound males had pointed ears, sharp teeth, and fierce expressions. They carried even fiercer weapons.
Without looking at her, the guards drew open the massive gold-leafed doors of Rusalka’s receiving room. Lilin headed along the intricately carved footpath that led through the chamber to the air goddess’s throne. Walking into the chamber was like walking into the forest, complete with trees, their silver and black leaves winking in the dim light. The chamber smelled of fresh earth along with the scent of the wildflowers that bobbed on either side of the path.
Heart pounding, Lilin slowed then came to a stop when she reached the dark stone dais and the goddess.
Rusalka was like all goddesses in that her features were ageless but she had been around for many millennia. The air goddess had a cold beauty and bore a darkness in her bearing and in her appearance.
A crown of white-gold thorns was perched upon her long black ringlets, blood-red rubies glittering amongst the crown’s thorns. Her hair tumbled down around her pale features and her ears peeked out of the locks. Each of the many gowns she wore were different and lovely, but always black. Black gemstones sparkled on the bodice of her gown today, and a diaphanous skirt sheltered her small, perpetually bare, feet. Her black gossamer wings were splayed out behind her.
Her black bird of prey perched close to her.
Today the goddess’s expression was more unreadable than usual and Lilin felt a queer twist in her belly. She knelt before the goddess, the stone hard beneath her knee. She lowered her head.
“You have been unsuccessful.” Rusalka’s sharp tone echoed through the trees in the chamber and a slight shudder traveled through Lilin’s wings. “Twice. I commanded you to retrieve this mortal’s soul and bring it to me. But you failed.”
“Yes, Rusalka.” Lilin wanted to rush to explain what had happened this second time—the interruption that broke her hold on Archer—but she bit her tongue knowing that would gain her an even worse punishment.
A dangerous growl rose within Rusalka’s throat. “Fail again and I shall see that you are sent to Underworld and the Realm of the Dead…or see you suffer a mortal’s life. Do you understand?”
The Realm of the Dead or becoming a human? Dear gods and goddesses.
Her entire body shaking, Lilin lowered her gaze. “Yes, Rusalka. I shall take Archer Dane’s soul. Tonight.”
Chapter 3
Archer stood at his wet bar with a shot of whiskey in one hand, the half-full bottle in the other. What the hell had happened to him last night in his bedroom and then this afternoon at the office? He hadn’t been able to concentrate all day and it could have cost him the deal with his client. Fortunately he’d managed to pull it off.
The more he thought of Lilin and her appearances and disappearances, the more absurd and surreal it all seemed. He’d imagined a woman named Lilin naked in his bedroom during the night and naked again in his office today. Last night he had even imagined she’d had wings. Wings.
He was losing his mind. The whiskey probably wasn’t helping. Maybe he’d be able to drink the imaginary woman out of his mind.
For a moment he closed his eyes and swore he could still taste the sweetness of her mouth on his tongue. He was nearly certain he could smell the rain-washed perfume of her hair and the scent of her musk on his fingers. He opened his eyes and let out his breath.
In one swallow he downed the whiskey, then poured another shot as the drink burned his throat and warmed his chest. If he was going to lose his mind, he might as well do a good job of it.
He downed the second shot and grimaced at the direction of his thoughts. He turned toward his fireplace—and almost dropped the whiskey bottle.
Lilin stood inches from him, her naked skin pale in the firelight, her diaphanous wings slowly opening and closing. With his hands full, he had no chance to react as she reached up, wrapped her arms around his neck, and pulled him to her for another earth-shattering kiss.
Something about her kiss drove all thought straight from his brain. She teased him with her tongue, darting it inside his mouth and drawing it out again. She nibbled his lower lip and he groaned. Then she pulled him down so that he landed hard on his knees on a throw rug on the hardwood floor.
Damned if his knees hadn’t been giving out on him anyway. When he and Lilin were kneeling, never breaking their kiss, Archer set the shot glass and the bottle to one side of them. As soon as his hands were free, he tried pushing her to the floor, but somehow she took control and rolled him onto his back so that she was on top.
Her pelvis rubbed against the front of his jeans in a slow, tantalizing movement. At the same time she purred and nipped at his lower lip again.
Archer groaned and cupped her breasts. Soft with large, hard nipples pressing against his palms. Lilin moaned and rose enough so that he could suckle one breast then the other. Her skin tasted unlike any woman he’d ever known. Just like the exotic perfume of her hair that was different than any other scent he’d ever experienced.
Definitely too many clothes on him. Lilin was perfect. Perfectly naked.
The fact he was kissing a strange woman who’d appeared and disappeared in and out of his life for the past two days—and freaking had wings—barely registered as she moved her mouth to his ear and darted her tongue inside. “I want you, Archer.”
He groaned, moved his hands from her breasts to her back and all he felt was the smooth silky skin of her back. Her wings were gone. He continued on, skimming her flesh to her hips then cupped her firm ass.
Lilin licked a path from his ear, along his stubbled jaw, to the base of his throat, her tongue teasing his flesh. She unbuttoned his shirt and tugged it out of his waistband so that his chest was bare. Her hands never stopped exploring him. Her touch—magic. Every inch of his skin that she caressed sparked as if a small electrical charge ran through him straight to his groin.
Her mouth, her tongue—he wrapped his hands in her silky hair and gripped it in his fists as she worked her way down his chest, kissing, licking, nipping his skin. He hissed as she bit one of his flat nipples and she gave a soft laugh that sounded like wind chimes.
Lilin continued, her tongue tracing a path from his abs to the top button of his jeans. She unbuttoned them and tugged the zipper down. He didn’t wear underwear and she made a sound of pleasure as she released his cock.
A growl rose in his chest and he clenched his hands in her hair as she took him in her mouth, so warm, so wet. He was flying. His body wasn’t his own. It belonged to Lilin, a woman he didn’t even know.
The thought jarred him a fraction of a second before she took even more of him inside her warm mouth, took him all the way to the back of her throat.
She slid her mouth off him, dug her fingers into the sides of his jeans, and dragged them down. He reluctantly let go of her hair while she tugged off each of his boots then stripped off his socks and his jeans. He rose and ditched his shirt, leaving nothing but skin against skin as she crawled up his body.
Lilin’s musk was strong as she rubbed herself against him, bracing her arms to either side of his head. “Do you want me, Archer?” she said, her accent stronger. Irish?
What the hell. He didn’t care who she was or where she came from. He just wanted to be inside her. But they needed protection.
She gave a cry of surprise as he rolled her over so he was on top. God, she was beautiful. Her silver eyes were filled with desire. Her skin was so fair but pink wherever his hands touched her. Silvery-blonde hair surrounded her like a halo against the forest-green rug they were on.
Archer pressed himself against her—he was dying to be inside her. “Condom,” he barely managed to get out as he pushed himself onto his haunches. He felt almost dizzy, lightheaded as he tried to think of where he’d left his condoms.
For a second, Lilin looked panicked, but the expression faded as she gave him a smile. “I am protected.” She held her arms out to him. “I won’t get pregnant.”
Some of the haze in his mind started to wear off and he narrowed his gaze. “I don’t fuck a woman without a condom. Period.”
“Come.” She reached up to draw him to her but he pulled away.
Something wasn’t right. Something about all of this was off.
He blinked and shook his head. “What the fuck am I doing?”
She looked irritated. “You were about to have sex with me.”
Demons and Lovers Page 6
