by A. C. James
“That’s why you have so many books about legends and myths. How much of it is real, Arie?”
Arie’s mouth curved into a grim smile. “More than you could ever imagine. It was a way that people could explain the supernatural and make sense of it. It makes the unexplainable a little less scary if they’re just stories made up to entertain children.”
I bit my lower lip. “Things that go bump in the night.”
“Precisely.”
“They’re really real.”
I shivered. What a bleak existence those creatures must live. All they ever knew was violence, killing, and blood. They would never know joy or laughter. They would never know the intensity of love or anything other than death. To leave only a path of pain and destruction was a darkness that only someone without a soul could endure. I never wanted to encounter such a creature, yet I felt sorry for their empty existence. It seemed like every time I learned something unexpected I felt a little more like Alice, lost in a blood-filled Wonderland.
I sighed. “It’s probably for the best that they don’t have souls.” I paused. “Was it me or did Victoria seem off tonight? Those burned bodies really seemed to get to her. I’ve never seen her like that.”
Arie’s face dropped. “Victoria has been through a lot.”
“I kind of gathered that, but I’ve always known her to keep her cool. Even when we were fighting…” Katarina. “I’ve never seen her get angry.”
“I have. But only once. When she killed a man she once loved. She was pretty damned angry back then, but she had a right to be.” Arie sighed. “Holly…I turned Victoria to save her life. The man she loved raped her and tried to have her burned at the stake as witch.”
I gasped. “Because she’s clairvoyant like me. She’s a seer. What a perfect excuse to have someone burned at the stake.”
“He never knew she had the Sight, but being albino and beautiful didn’t help matters. He got caught cheating on his wife, and rather than be cast as an adulterer, he claimed Victoria bewitched him. Figured he’d fuck her one last time and raped her before setting her on fire.”
My mouth dropped open as my heart broke for Victoria.
“That’s why she feeds on psi. That’s why she doesn’t have sex. She told me that abstinence heightens her abilities, but it’s all just an excuse so she doesn’t have to get close to anyone.”
I shook my head.
Arie met my eyes through the darkness. “Yes.”
Everything made sense now. I’d always liked Victoria, but now I loved her like a sister. I’d never been through what she’d been through, but I knew what it was like to feel alone in the world. I couldn’t think about the attack, the Slayers, or the sorrow I felt for Victoria. Sleep. I needed a good eight hours to wipe the slate. Maybe twelve.
“Please, let’s not talk about it anymore. I just want to go home and take a shower.”
“Want some company?”
He always knew exactly what I needed. It made me smile despite everything. Slayers. Victoria being burned at the stake. It made my head spin. I needed Arie’s arms around me.
“Okay.”
It was all I could say. If not for the exhaustion setting in, I’d probably be asking more questions, but at the moment my muddled brain just didn’t have the energy to wrap my head around things.
“You’ll feel better after we get you cleaned up and you get some rest.” Arie put his hand back on the steering wheel, but glanced at me with a worried look.
“Relax. I’m okay. I’m too tired to be shocked. And I suppose I am, but right now I don’t have the energy to freak out about it.” I sighed.
Arie smiled. “You always surprise me.”
“Nope, I think you’ve got that backwards. You shock the living hell out of me—almost on a daily basis.”
Arie laughed.
Then he pulled into the parking garage adjacent to his apartment building and slid the Venom into an empty space. Harry stifled a yawn as he saw us enter the lobby. “Good evening, Mr. Cush. Ms. Ellis,” Harry said with a warm smile.
“Almost morning, Harry, and the end of your shift,” Arie said.
“Indeed, Mr. Cush.”
“Good night, Harry,” Arie said. “Go home to that pretty wife of yours.”
“Of course. Good night, Mr. Cush. Ma’am.”
I smiled at Harry as we hurried past and headed toward the elevators that led to Arie’s loft. I couldn’t wait to get out of these clothes and get in the shower. I needed to feel the safety of Arie’s arms wrapped around me. Everything else seemed to slip away when he held me, and I needed to feel that now more than ever. It seemed like he needed to feel that, too; he held on to my hand in the elevator as if to prove that I was solid.
He didn’t say a word or let go of my hand as he unlocked the door to the loft and led me upstairs through the bedroom to the white marble bathroom. He didn’t say a word as he turned on the shower and gently peeled off my filthy clothes. The way Arie touched me was gentle and reverent, as if the events of the night had drawn us together in the way that facing death often does. All we had was now, and all we ever had was each other. He palmed my cheek, and when I looked up, I knew that he felt it too.
His lips met mine with an urgency and tenderness that I’d never felt. I wrapped both my hands around his neck and pulled him in as I crushed my mouth to his. I needed him, needed to feel his strength that made me believe that no matter what happened we would get through it. When he broke the kiss, I felt alive. Vibrant. Nothing mattered in that moment and the world became his arms that enveloped me and blocked out everything else. My hands dropped to my sides.
“Let’s get cleaned up,” I said, my voice quaking a little.
Arie smiled. “Yes, let’s.” He stepped into the steamy shower and pulled me in along with him.
I wrapped my arms around him. We both just stood under the water and held one another. We needed that physical contact, that connection, to get rid of the fear of being at war. Would it mean that someone else would die? And would it be one of us? Would it be me? I didn’t even want to think about dying. Cripes, it was hard enough coming to terms with living together when I was an insecure bundle of nerves. I surrendered to his embrace and nuzzled my head into his chest. The warm spray washed over us. I needed to wash the images of burnt bodies and Victoria’s abuse away along with the blood.
I didn’t usually get weepy, but suddenly an empty pit formed in my stomach. My chest became heavy. I tried to remind myself it was probably just from being turned that in one moment I felt so alive and the next I felt so damned scared. My body started to shake as I held back the tears.
“Arie, I—”
“Shhh, I got you. It’s okay. Everything will be okay. I promise.” Arie tilted my head up and he kissed me. “Let me wash you,” he said.
“I love you. I’m sorry. What I did was stupid. So stupid—”
“Stupidity…” Arie shrugged. “Bravery. It’s all the same.”
“I’m not brave. I just couldn’t stand to watch her die and not do something.”
“Holly, you’re one of the bravest women I’ve ever known. And it’s just one of the many reasons why I love you.”
I smiled. I’m sure it came out all wobbly and reflected how I really felt.
Arie grabbed the bar of soap on the ledge and lathered the washcloth. He started at my neck and ran the cloth over each shoulder, under my arms and down their lengths, to my hands. He took his time, lovingly washing each arm before he wrapped his arms around me like he was hugging me and pulled my hair to the side as he soaped my back. When he washed my breasts, he took his time and plucked at my nipples. He bent his head to taste them, tease them. When he took one in his mouth, nipping at me, my pussy clenched. I needed him to make love to me. Needed to feel him touch my sex. It throbbed and demanded his attention.
I moan
ed.
He released my nipple and flicked it with his tongue. Then he raised his head and kissed the side of my neck before he pulled away and knelt at my feet to wash my legs. He looked up, and I ran my fingers through the mop of dark curls. I wanted to pull his head forward until his mouth found my cunt, eager for his tongue.
“You’re so beautiful.” Arie grinned. “I want to spend the rest of my life looking at these legs.”
“You’re a leg man, hmmm? I never knew that about you.” My voice was all breathy.
“There’s a lot you don’t know about me, but we have forever for you to find out.”
At the moment I wasn’t sure about anything, but I didn’t want to spoil it on him. I wouldn’t let tonight ruin our time together. I just wanted to get lost in his body and forget about everything. I wanted to feel his cock inside of me. I needed to feel connected to him both physically and emotionally.
“Yes,” I murmured, with my hands in his hair. “Yes…”
He soaped my legs, leisurely massaging them, and then took more time washing my pussy than was necessary.
“You’re enjoying that,” I said, panting.
“Mmmm, it appears you are too.” He rinsed out the washcloth and used it to rinse the soap away. “But there’s only one thing I want to find out right now.”
“What’s that?”
“How you taste. I’m going to make you come and then I’m going to carry you to the bed and make you come again.” His fingers found my clit, pinching and squeezing it in circles. “And again…” He plunged his index finger into my pussy, and then another. “Until you can’t speak—can’t do anything other than focus on how my dick feels inside of you.”
My legs were shaking and his words made me hot. “Oh god. I don’t think I can stand if you make me come.”
“I’ve got you.”
He slid his fingers in and out while continuing to rub circles over my clit. I yanked his head forward, and he flicked his tongue over my clit. Still his fingers were plunging in and out of me; then he added a third, all while his tongue lapped at my clitoris. It was driving me wild, and I thrust my pelvis toward his mouth. His fingers were deep inside of me and found my G-spot. Arie kept flicking his tongue over my clit.
-Faster, faster.-
He obliged my telepathic entreaty by flicking his tongue even faster than before. Then he took my clit into his mouth, gently grazing me with his teeth. His fingers continued to thrust in and out. He slid his other hand around me and grabbed my ass, pulling me forward as he ate me out. But his hand on my ass moved to spread my cheeks and I felt him rubbing my entrance with his thumb. Water from the shower ran down my back, and then his thumb was inside of me meeting his fingers that were plunging in and out of my pussy. The feeling of my pussy and ass being penetrated while he sucked on my clit sent me spiraling toward orgasm.
“Oh, fuck. I’m going to come.” I ground my hips into his mouth, gripping his hair.
He flicked his tongue faster and faster, as he drove me to an orgasm that made my knees buckle and I screamed my release.
“Oh, fuck. Yes!”
Arie didn’t stop flicking his tongue until my pussy stopped pulsating around his fingers. He pulled them out of my pussy and kissed my sex. Then he gently pulled out of my ass. I didn’t realize when it had occurred, but he was holding me up with his other arm against the back of my upper thighs.
I relaxed my grip on his hair, running my fingers through it. He stood and kissed me, exploring my mouth as deeply as he had explored my cunt. There were no boundaries between us. I couldn’t deny that that the sex was hot, but we shared so much more than that. He needed me like I needed him. The man who had once been hot and then cold had knelt at my feet, kissing my pussy. It was all heat and he was all mine—just as much as I was his.
His.
The evidence of that encircled my finger in the form of the promise ring he’d given me. But we’d never talked about what that meant, and I felt a little silly asking given what I knew about his life. And if the club were evidence of the way he lived before he met me, then I figured monogamy might not be guaranteed. I didn’t want to ask because then I might not be able to live with the answer.
“Can I wash you?” I asked.
Arie smiled and kissed my chin. “Yes, and then I’m going to make you come again. Scream my name a few times.”
I grabbed the soap from where it had been discarded in the midst of our shower when it had turned steamy. With the same thorough attention he exhibited while washing me from head to toe, I soaped his chest and that friggin’ eight-pack stomach of his.
“Please do,” I said, meeting his smile with one of my own.
He grabbed my chin where he had kissed it and pulled my face toward his. He answered me with a kiss that got me going all over again.
Chapter 8
If he kept kissing me like that there’s no way I would be able to get through washing him, but I wanted to return the favor. Damn, I loved how he kissed me. Arie could kiss me like nothing else in the world mattered, and when he kissed me like that, nothing did. Not the poisoned Puncture or our dispatched brethren back at the club, and not the note from the mysterious stranger that I hesitated telling Arie about. I’d be damned if I brought up anything that reminded him of Katarina. So I ignored the pang of guilt because I’d kept it from him. And I couldn’t think about Victoria. I cared too much to dwell on something I figured she’d been trying to forget since the day it happened. If I kept kissing him back, I could forget it all.
Arie’s tongue swept the inside of my mouth and I put aside everything, melting into his arms as I rested the bar of soap on his chest. I met his kiss with all the adrenaline and fear from the past few hours. We both needed the release—I didn’t know who needed it more—but I slid the soap up his chest to his shoulders as I broke the kiss.
“You keep kissing me like that and we’re going to…” I coughed. “Not end up showering.”
Arie’s laugh rumbled in his chest. “I’m all right with that.”
“Yeah. Go figure,” I said with a smirk. “I want to wash you. Let me wash you.”
He brushed his thumb across my bottom lip. “Just be quick about it. I want to be inside you. I want to feel you wrapped around me.”
I lowered my lashes as I soaped his shoulders and continued down his muscled arms. Arie wasn’t lanky by any means, but he didn’t remind me of the bouncer at the club either. They’d both probably be able to bench me, but Arie’s muscles were lean except for that rock-hard stomach of his.
I stooped to wash his legs when a sudden thought made me smile. Arie leaned forward, bracing one arm on the shower wall. His eyes were closed as he let the warm spray stream down his back. I wanted to reciprocate and make him feel as good as he made me feel. So I took the soap in one hand and began working up his leg, while I cupped the back of his calf with the other.
His calves were strong, firm, and I took my time lathering them. The Sight had always been inconvenient when it came to relationships; Arie had been the only one who could make me come. His physique was rugged yet classical, and reminded me of those ancient marble statues you see in museums. Good thing I had forever to look at him, because I’d never been so attracted to anyone in my life.
Arie’s eyes were still closed as I finished washing him. Water ran down his legs, washing away the suds. I ran my hand up the inside of his thigh, cupping his balls, before I wrapped my hand around his penis. He glanced down at me, desire warming his wintery eyes. Within seconds I had his full attention—his erection elongated as I moved my hand up and down his shaft.
“Holly…”
I took him in my mouth, taking in his length to the root. I hollowed my cheeks to make the suction around his cock even tighter as I bobbed up and down on his shaft.
“Ah, fuck.” He put his other hand on the shower wall, bracing both hands o
n its surface. “Do you know what you do to me?”
I released his cock. “Only the same thing you do to me.”
Then I ran my tongue around the head of his cock, licking up his pre-come. I opened my mouth wide and closed it around his shaft. His cock was straining and pulsing, and I knew that he would come if I quickened my pace. As I sealed my lips around his cock, he grabbed my head—just like I had wrenched his hair in my fist while he had tongued my clit. Arie started pumping his cock into me, fucking my face. It turned me on that he wanted me, needed me that bad. I drove him on and kept sucking his cock, tonguing his shaft as he pumped. I grabbed his ass with both hands, digging into it with my nails.
He groaned. “Don’t stop, don’t stop. Fuck, fuck…oh, fuck.”
His cock expanded in my mouth as he quickened his stroke. Jets of hot come filled my mouth. I sealed my lips around his cock as tight as I could, swallowing everything he gave. I kept going, but slowed my pace until I’d taken every last drop and felt him start to soften. I looked up at him while he was still in my mouth, and his eyes met mine. He brushed away a wet strand of hair that clung to my cheek. Without a word I released him and rose to meet his gaze, which seemed taken aback, but at what I couldn’t be sure.
“You amaze me, Holly.” He looked at me like he’d just realized something, but I needed to know it wasn’t because I just blew his mind.
“Why? Tell me why. I need to hear it.”
I needed to hear something that wasn’t based on our undeniable chemistry, and even though I could hardly trust it at the moment, I needed to hear it anyway.
He paused, but not as if he was trying to find the words or make up something pretty, something that he thought that I wanted to hear. His pause seemed to measure whether he was ready to admit something that made him feel vulnerable.
“Because I’ve never had anyone make me feel the way you do. And I haven’t been afraid of losing someone in a very long time.”
Standing on tiptoe, I wrapped my arms around his neck and kissed his mouth. Sometimes it was just easier not to talk. He’d said it all, and this was a moment that didn’t need more words. He’d left me shocked and ridiculously happy at the same time. I didn’t want the moment to end with me screwing it up by saying something stupid. Arie pivoted and turned off the shower before opening the glass door, grabbing two white towels from a shelf around the corner. He handed one to me and started toweling off with the other.
