Nate was enjoying the performance way more than he should. “Yeah?”
“I’ll prove I can use a knife and I’ll prove that I don’t need to use one to protect myself.”
The corners of Nate’s lips quirked up. “You’re enslavement powers don’t work on me, remember?”
“So cocky.” Charisse tilted her head back, pursing her lips together. “Tell you what, to make it fair I won’t even touch you.” She removed her hand from the towel, bringing it back to rest on her hip, idly playing with the tie at the side of her bikini bottoms.
His eyes watched her fingers play with the bow. “Okay, but no nudity. That would give you too much of an advantage.”
Charisse chuffed a soft throaty laugh. “Give me some credit would you, cheap stunts like that are for amateurs.” Abruptly she turned and walked back to her open suitcase.
Nate caught a glimpse of amusement dancing in those clear green eyes and was starting to think this was a bet he very well might lose. Maat, give him strength. “Has the demonstration started yet?” He enquired, admiring her narrow back and straight spine.
“Most definitely.” Charisse assured him, bending over from the waist to rummage through her suitcase. She heard Nate give a soft groan but didn’t straighten up until she found what she was looking for. “Got you.” Grabbing the short summery teal coloured sundress from the pile she turned to find Nate looking a tad dazed. She fluttered wide innocent green eyes his way. “Problem?” Goddess, if he got that wound up just staring at her bikini clad rear, the man stood no chance regarding the rest of her plans.
“I’m good.” Nate swallowed hard, forcing his eyes upwards. Watching as Cyd shook out the sundress and then shimmied into it. “Putting more clothes on… not what I was expecting.”
“No.” Charisse reached up under the short flippy hem of the dress and pulled off her damp bikini bottoms, kicking them away casually.
Nate’s eyes were riveted on the damp ball of raspberry material… Maat.
“You okay there Sheriff?”
With some effort he tore his gaze away from her discarded bikini bottoms. Her clear green eyes, exotic and mysterious, brimmed with mischief. Damn those gorgeous eyes of hers had his cock hardening more than the idea that she was semi-naked under that dress. “I’m fine.” He fought the urge not to clear his throat.
“Oh, will you look at that.” Charisse glanced down at the now damp front of her dress. “Don’t want to ruin my dress.” With deft fingers she undid the bows of her bikini top, pulling it out from under the dress and dropping it to the floor with careless disregard.
Nate’s eyes were riveted on her cleavage as the damp material of her dress clung to her skin, highlighting the condition of her rock hard nipples. This woman was evil and he was pretty darn sure he was in love with her, secrets, weird rock and all.
“I read somewhere that it’s really bad for your health to sit around in a damp bikini.” She walked up to him slowly, a sensual smile teasing the edges of her lips.
“You play dirty Cyd, I can respect that.”
She halted in front of him, taking a deep slow breath, his eyes naturally flickered downwards. Honestly, men could be so predictable, it was like shooting fish in a pedicure tub. “So about that knife of yours?”
He glanced down past her cleavage, laughing out loud, somehow, Cyd had managed to remove the knife from his hand and now held the business end of it an inch away from the skin just below his navel. “Well done Cyd. But can you keep it?”
She gasped, looking down to find he had the knife once again and it was under one of the straps of her sundress, resting flat against her skin. “How did you do that? Hey…” She protested as with a flick he cut the strap.
“I’m just considering your health Cyd. It can’t be good for you to be in a damp dress either.” With lighting fast speed he cut the other strap.
Charisse made no move to prevent the dress from slipping down to puddle around her feet in a teal pool. “I’m still angry at you.” She warned him, green eyes sparking with desire as she reached out to give his towel a rough yank, dropping it to the floor next to her dress.
“Back at you Cyd.” He slammed his lips down on hers hard, cradling the back of her head with one hand, his other wrapping around her waist to pull her against him roughly.
Charisse gave a low throaty moan. He was so demanding, from the way his lips insisted she respond, to the way his hands covered and clutched at her body. As if he thought she might bolt or be torn away from him at any moment. It was heady stuff for her, so different from the eager yet all too gentle lovers in her past, more intent upon pleasuring her than enjoying or getting lost in the moment themselves.
Goddess she wanted him. Reaching up she ran her fingers through his overlong locks, yanking on his damp hair. “I don’t do hate sex.” For some reason it was important she qualify whatever it was that was happening between them.
“Maat, Cyd.” His hand moved from her waist to cup her shapely rear. “I’m angry at you.” He lifted her up, cradling her easily in one muscular arm, crushing her soft breasts against his heated flesh. “But the last thing I feel for you is hate.”
Charisse tried to catch her breath as his lips swooped, nuzzling down the side of her throat. “Good. I don’t hate you either.” She gasped again as her back came up hard against the wall, Nate plastering himself against her.
His lips trailed down over her incredibly soft skin, placing hot kisses across the base of her throat and up the other side. “What do you want Cyd?”
She blinked, dazed, her hands gripping his rugged shoulders, clutching at them in need. “Don’t be gentle.” She was so tired of being worshipped, revered and placed on a pedestal. She wanted to feel.
“Want do you want Cyd?” He asked her again, slipping a hand between them to cup her right breast, squeezing and releasing it, using his thumb to flick back and forth across her hardened nipple.
Charisse dropped her head back against the wall, moaning softly as his sharp teeth bit down on her earlobe. “I want you Nate. You.” She turned her head, craving his drugging kisses, grabbing the back of his head to bring his lips to hers. She refused to be a docile partner in this dance, wrapping one long leg over his hip, tilting her lower body so that her wet, naked core rubbed against the length of his hardness. She was ready for him now, had been from the moment he’d cut the first strap of her dress.
“Maat, Cyd.” He rocked his lower body against hers, reaching down to pull her other leg over his hip so they fit together even better.
“Don’t make me wait Nate.” She dug her nails into his back, clutching him close, near to shedding tears of frustration, the feel of him gliding back and forth over her clit threatening to drive her mad.
“No.” He shook his head in agreement. He was being consumed from the inside out with need for her. Thank Maat she didn’t want gentle. The way she made him feel, if he didn’t possess every inch of her right this minute, he was sure the heat they were generating would engulf and destroy them both.
Charisse cried out as he entered her with one quick thrust that had her slamming back hard against the wall. Oh Goddess yes, her eyes almost rolled back in their sockets as he filled her. This was exactly what she craved, hard, fast and oh so very hot… and yet she still wanted more.
Nate hammered into her like a piston, urged on by her encouraging moans and the blissful heat of her tight hot core gripping his cock. There was something so primal in their joining. Yet still something was missing, a part of Cyd that he couldn’t seem to reach and Maat damn him, he wanted to possess every damn part of her, no secrets, no shadows, no barriers between them.
Withdrawing from her, he lowered her slowly until her feet hit the ground. Panting hard he rested both hands against the wall over her head.
Charisse let out a deep sigh of frustration, why had he stopped? Did he want to drive her insane? Or drop to her knees and beg him to continue? Actually, she smiled as she looked down between them; maybe d
ropping to her knees wasn’t such a bad idea. Mmmm… her plan forgotten as Nate grabbed her chin gently in his hand, one of his long fingers coming to rest over her lips, preventing her from protesting.
“I want you on the bed, now.” Nate’s voice was low and commanding, his whiskey eyes dark with desire and need.
Oh Goddess, she shivered in anticipation. Nodding her head abruptly to show she was willing to follow his orders. Shivering again as one of his large hands caressed down her flank as she moved past him.
She hesitated at the edge of the bed, gasping as she felt him sidle up behind her, not quite touching her. Even so she could feel the heat radiating off his gorgeous body. She was about to turn around when he leant over, his hot breath caressing the back of her neck, causing her nipples to tighten and her sex to weep.
“On your hands and knees Cyd.”
She found herself unable… unwilling, to resist his command. Stepping forward she moved on to the bed as instructed. Arching her back as he leant over behind her, trailing hot wet kisses down the length of her spine and up again, brushing her hair away to nuzzle at the back of her neck. Whilst his other large hand skated upwards along her inner thigh, three fingers easily sliding into her sex.
“You’re so wet Cyd.” He continued to plant kisses over the vulnerable skin at the back of her neck.
“Because of you.” She arched and gasped as his fingers began to twitch and flex inside of her. Good Goddess, the man was killing her. “Please.” Her hands clutched at the sheet beneath her.
“Please what?”
“Finish it Nate… please, Goddess… please.”
Maat, he liked the way she begged and he loved the way she said his name. Removing his fingers he grabbed her hips and once more sunk his hard cock into her willing heat, covering her with his body, his hands moving to cup those luscious breasts of hers as he began to thrust, hard and deep.
Charisse knew she should feel helpless, given her position, instead she’d never felt more empowered and turned on in her life. Squeezing her inner core even tighter, she smiled through breathless gasps at Nate’s audible groan of approval.
Oh Goddess, he bent his knees, sinking in deeper still. Heavens, she felt so full of him but the angle… she whimpered out loud as one of his hands left her breast to trail down over the sensitive skin of her tummy to burrow between her legs. She moaned his name softly when his fingers found her clit. Goddess, arching her back as he began to rub her clit in time to his thrusts, she wanted to scream her approval but could manage no more than a breathless long sigh as her whole body suddenly clenched, the orgasm sweeping through her like lightning.
Nate groaned her name as her core gripped him tight, damn that felt good. He grabbed her by the hips once more, thrusting into her as deep as he could go as his own orgasm hit and he let go, roaring her name. Maat, it had never felt that good before.
They collapsed onto the mattress in a sweaty heap, Nate still covering her with his body. “Can you breathe under there?” He asked, brushing her hair away, turning his head so he could look into those gorgeous green eyes.
He was still inside her, there was something about that knowledge that made her happy. “I’m fine… don’t move.” She instructed as he made to roll off her.
“Okay.” He took two deep breaths, Maat, what a work out. Staring into Cyd’s eyes, he couldn’t help but feel the intimacy of the moment. “I didn’t hurt you did I?” He asked in a low whisper, liking the way a slow satisfied smile spread across her beautiful face in answer.
“I…” She tried to take a deep breath, but couldn’t.
Reluctantly Nate rolled off and away from her, despite how good it felt, he didn’t want to squish the girl. Lying beside her, he liked how she immediately moved to lie on top on him, so intimate, so natural, the feel of her soft breasts against his chest, her long legs tangling with his own.
“I… how did this all start again?” She queried with a soft laugh.
“If I remember correctly, your life was at risk due to the presence of damp clothing.” He absently trailed a finger down her arm, so soft, so perfect. “I believe I’m a hero here.”
“Right.” Charisse laughed breathlessly. “No, I think it had something more to do with you going a little bit bonkers over the need for me to carry a weapon.”
“Nah.” Nate pushed his hair off his sweaty forehead and out of his eyes. “I’m a Maat warrior, we don’t do bonkers… righteous concern, steely determination, macho grit, that’s more my speed.”
“Macho grit?” Charisse dropped her forehead to his chest and laughed.
“Hey, who just fucked you up against a wall for…”
“Shush.” Charisse stopped him with a quick kiss on the lips, the only way she knew to shut him up. “You’re right, forgive me, from now on you and macho grit go hand in hand.”
“That’s more like it.” He caressed her cheek with his thumb. “So back to the knife… you know how to handle one, would you carry it…” He took a deep breath. “Please, for me?”
Charisse smiled. “Oooh, you play dirty. Fine, I’ll carry the knife.”
“And while you in such a compliant mood, would you like to tell me what’s going on between you and that damn rock out there?”
Charisse froze for a second, her eyes fixed on Nate’s chest and the way his gorgeous flesh glimmered with hidden lights in the daylight. Sighing, she kept her eyes downcast. “There’s a lot I can’t tell you.”
“What happens on the rock stays on the rock?” He asked, making a joke.
“Yes.” She answered, unable to smile back or even make light of it, her finger tracing aimless patterns over the muscles of his chest and abs.
He reached down and covered her hand for a moment. “Could you spell it out for me Cyd?”
She froze for a moment, could she? Not stopping to think too hard she traced four letters on his golden flesh.
“Feed?” Nate frowned at what she had spelt out. “Who needs to feed Cyd?” He asked softly.
Charisse opened her mouth, tried to say the words but once more they were blocked. She couldn’t even move her hand to spell the words. She wanted to howl in frustration and at the same time curl up into a ball of humiliation. Turning her head she glared outside at the deep blue afternoon sky.
“The rock?” Nate frowned down at her. Everything came back to the bloody rock. Why hadn’t he put two and two together the day he’d been thrown off of it? Well, because who in their right mind would think a rock was sentient for one thing. “You can’t talk about it can you?”
Charisse shook her head, green eyes full of misery, barely able to meet his.
“Okay, let me see if I can put this together. Beautiful woman on a rock… at sea… men visit, no wait...” He remembered the seaward side of the rock where she’d attached a multitude of fenders and bumpers to cushion any sea vessels brushing up against the rock. If they weren’t there… he clicked his fingers. “Men crash, or run aground on the rock…attracted… lured there by…” He frowned, staring hard at her, trying to work out the puzzle.
Charisse pointed to her mouth and opened it.
“You’re a Siren?”
He looked so completely flabbergasted by the idea that Charisse felt kind of hurt. Still, she released the breath she'd been holding and nodded.
“Seriously?”
“Yes.” She forced the word out. It seemed to be easier now that he had discovered the truth by himself, as if they had passed through some sort of barrier together and emerged out the other side.
He frowned. “You and the rock have some sort of symbiotic relationship?”
“More like parasitic.” She grumbled under her breath.
“It needs you to lure them in and then it what… kills them?”
“No!” As if she’d let that happen. “She siphons off their excess of emotion… through me. I do my best to keep the…” Goddess she hated saying the word. “Feeding, to a minimum and except for the occasional passing drunk whose
inhibitions are too low to block my call, I keep Bettina on a strict dickhead diet.”
“The rock’s name is Bettina?”
“It’s what I call her. It was the bitchiest name I could come up with when I was fifteen.”
“And the dickhead diet?”
“I figure since I’m compelled to provide her with food, then I should get to choose the menu. I try to focus on the obvious dickheads; the speedsters, the showboats, the polluters and the wankers who seem to think they own these waterways as soon as they get behind a wheel. I let Bettina feed from them, the effects generally wear off within three days and the whole encounter takes on a dream like quality.”
“And you’ve been doing this for fifteen years?”
“She yanked me there when my… power kicked into full gear.”
“And you’ve been battling with her ever since? Is there any way to break the connection?”
“Not that I’ve found. And I’ve tried… believe me, I’ve tried.”
“And me? The pulses of power and everything else, is that her attempting to feed off of me?”
“Goddess no, that’s her trying to hurt you. There’s something about you she really doesn’t like.”
“She doesn’t like me because I kissed you, or she doesn’t like me because I’m immune to your magic?”
“I don’t know. So you want to tell me what you did to her?”
Nate grinned. “I left my crowbar behind as a little behavioural incentive.”
Charisse frowned, she didn’t get it.
“Think of it like King Arthur’s sword. Whoever can pull it free will rule Bettina.”
“You didn’t?” Charisse was gobsmacked. No wonder Bettina had been on the down low for the last two hours, she was hurt, sulking and probably plotting an elaborate payback. “She’ll be looking to hurt you back now, you know that right?”
“Well, since you and the rock are tied together, I suggest you find a way to protect me.”
Seriously, he thought she could stand up against barmy Bettina and her tantrums? Had he not been paying attention to the way Bettina jerked her around like a yo-yo on a string and inflicted pain? Maybe Mr macho grit had taken too many hits to the head in his one hundred year career. She glanced up at Nate to find him looking out at the clear blue sky.
To Seduce A Siren Page 15
