by Tes Hilaire
“Mike!” She yelped as he spun her, flipping her onto the bed that took up a third of the room. And wasn’t it handy for once to have a small apartment? Though even now there was too much distance. Too much air between them. He followed her down, his cock straining against his jeans as he ground into the warm center between her thighs.
“This still isn’t right…” she mumbled, even as she arched into him, her hands pulling at the hem of his shirt.
“You seem to be under a misconception that I care,” he told her as he assisted with getting the shirt over his head. And though it killed him, he stood. Just long enough to strip his boots and jeans off. Thankfully he was fast and before she had a chance to make another stupid argument or, worse, try and leave, he was back, his mouth crushing down on hers as he rubbed his weeping cock against her slick core.
Her hands came up against his shoulders, as if she might try and push him away, but he ground himself against her once more, purposefully sliding the head of his cock against the small bud that he knew would have her screaming. She didn’t scream, not yet, but she did gasp, her head thrown back as she arched beneath him, her legs inadvertently wrapping around his thighs.
“Damn it, Mike.” She shuddered, her hands slipping from his shoulders to slide down his back, fingers digging in. “Heaven save you, because I can’t seem to.”
He growled. Didn’t she realize that she’d already saved him? That this? Them? Was his heaven? That with her, for the first time ever, both he and his beast existed in true accord. No fighting. No play for power, simply need. He needed her, with all that he was. And she needed him, too. Though damn he was going to get pissed if she kept on denying that need.
Thankfully her objections seemed to finally be over, because the next second she was wiggling her hips, trying to angle her body so that she was fully open to him.
And, yeah, he really wanted to make this last. He wanted to show her that he was more than a wham, bam, thank you mam, kinda guy, but his beast was having none of that. And when the tip of his cock slid up against the entrance of her hot core, he couldn’t stop himself, and thrust deep.
She screamed, not a bad scream, but more of an Oh, yes, more, kind of scream. So he obliged and did it again. And goddamn if he hadn’t been right: she felt like heaven.
Only something was wrong. She might have felt hot and tight around him. And yeah, he was sure that scream had been one of pleasure—at least all the other signs, the wiggle of her hips, the nails digging into his ass, the slightly dazed look in her eyes, pointed that way—but he couldn’t ignore the displeased growling of the beast.
He stopped, propping himself on his elbow. She shook her head, her eyes opening as she wiggled her hips and gave him an encouraging smile.
Only the smile wasn’t real. But rather a defensive mechanism. And all those lovely emotions he’d been feeling, the steady feed of need? Gone. It was like he was making love to a fucking zombie.
Shut down, the beast growled.
He grit his teeth, trying to resist the urge to pound into her until all the barriers between them had to fall. “Don’t. Don’t do that.”
She gnawed her lip, her brow drawing together. “Do what?”
“You’re closing yourself off. I can feel the barriers rising.”
Tears slipped down her cheeks, her body vibrating beneath his. The beast snarled at the sight, wanting to rip something apart.
And he still couldn’t feel her.
When had he become so attuned to her?
“I can’t… I’m trying not to…”
“Trying to not what?”
“Feed.” She shook beneath him, her face pale, her breaths jagged and edged in agony. “I will not feed off of your emotions.”
He shook his head, fingers trembling as he touched her tear stained cheek. “Ah, beauty. You think my beast wants you to be anything less than what you are?”
He bent his head, nipping her lip just hard enough that he knew it stung.
Her eyes narrowed, her brow furrowed. “What was that?”
That was the beast telling his woman she was being stubborn. “Let go, Kat. You didn’t hurt me before, and you won’t now.”
He could sense she didn’t believe him, but she took a deep breath, her tension ebbing and the barrier between them easing. He was hit first with uncertainty, but quick on its heels was hot desire and a need so powerful it made him quake. His beast purred. Much better. Her need was overpowering. It matched his own.
“That’s it. Feel me, beauty. All of me.” He pumped into her in one long slow motion, pulled back, did it again.
She trembled, the good kind of tremble this time. Her hips lifted from the bed, meeting him thrust for thrust, her inner muscles milking his cock as she pleaded with him to go faster, to give her more. And damn, he was going to be lucky to last.
He sat up on his heels, pulling her with him so that she rode his lap. The position didn’t allow for quite as deep penetration, but was no less intense. Not with the spiraling build of pleasure that made her breath catch and her muscles quake around him. Still he could sense she needed more. He slid a hand between them, his thumb finding and messaging the swollen nub that marked the entrance to her heated core.
She squirmed in his grip, legs shaking, her hips thrusting as she tried to find relief from the pressure that was both too much and too little at the same time. “Mike! I can’t…”
“Yes you can, beauty,” he insisted, his free hand sliding to her ass and showing her the rhythm she needed to turn the pressure into sensations so intense that she would have no choice but to explode in his arms.
She moaned, easily falling into the rhythm, her hips playing him like a fucking harp.
Need him. I can’t lose him. Can’t lose this.
The beast inside him roared in victory. He… he practically wept. The thought had been hers. He didn’t know how he’d managed to pick the thought up, but it didn’t matter. What mattered was that she meant it. At this moment, at least, she meant every word.
His hand slipped up from her ass, cupping the back of her neck as he pulled her close. He shuddered at the feel of her pebbled breasts rubbing against his chest, rejoiced at the fluttering heartbeat under the tips of his fingers that spread to the base of her throat, grit his teeth against the small little moans and pants she made as she rocked them both to oblivion.
“That’s it. Take me, Kat. Heart, body, soul. I’m yours.”
She pulled back, her eyes dilating. Her head shook back and forth as she stared at him, her emotions tumbling between disbelief, dismay, and… there… hope.
“Mike…”
“Take me, beauty. Make me yours.”
Her mouth descended upon his, her taste, like a fucking rainbow as she clutched his face between her hands and took what she needed. And as she exploded around his cock, pulling him and the beast along with her, he knew something without a doubt: He didn’t care who or what she was, what she’d done, or how impossibly wrong some might consider their being together to be, this woman was his. And he’d be damned if he ever let her go.
***
Kat lay beside Mike, the need to move and do after the influx of energy was intense, yet she didn’t dare shift a muscle. Her body was taut with tension.
What had just happened? She’d been scared at first, cold clammy sweat slicking her skin as she’d looked into the eyes of the beast, but when he’d claimed her mouth there had been no pain met out with the punishment. And then… then it had turned into something else. Something that went beyond anything she could hope to explain. He’d made love to her. Accepting her with all the faults, imperfections, and sins that stained her soul. And she’d allowed herself to feel. She’d allowed herself to need. She’d allowed herself to take. Despite her better judgment, she’d let the succubus side out to play, because he’d said it was okay. Only it wasn’t. Because what she’d felt and needed and wanted had led to this.
He had claimed her as a mate.
Onl
y, it couldn’t have actually worked, could it? She wasn’t a Paladin. Hell, she wasn’t even all human. She was half-demon. Surely the Heavenly Father wouldn’t allow such an abomination to occur.
The only question that remained was how much time would she have? How much time could she hold him? How much time would a creature like her be allowed to have with a man that made her feel like she could actually touch heaven?
What would he do once he realized that her succubus had played him yet again? Kill her? Not her Mike. Maybe he’d simply walk away.
The thought of him leaving was like a blow to the sternum. Better to be dead than to watch him leave. Only, she couldn’t afford to think like that. She had other responsibilities that far outweighed her wishes or desires. She needed to remember that.
“What’s wrong? Did I hurt you?”
She shook her head adamantly. “No. You’ve never hurt me.”
Excepting in her heart. Though he’d made that organ live more than it ever had before so she supposed that was fair.
“Ah, beauty. The beautiful webs we weave.”
She tipped her head, blinking up at him. “What is that supposed to mean?”
He lay back down, the back of his hand draped over his forehead. “It means we’re all in a bit of denial, aren’t we?”
Perhaps so. Lucifer knew her denial was a continual battle. In her heart she refused to believe herself evil, yet she so obviously was. Otherwise she wouldn’t be laying here now, safe in this man’s arms, while he gave up everything that he deserved and her daughter slept in hell.
He twisted his head, his brow furrowed as he measured her. “What are you thinking, beauty?”
“Nothing.”
“It’s not nothing. I can feel your turmoil.”
She frowned up at him. He’d said he could sense her raising her barriers as she tried to resist the succubus’s need to feed. There had been other times, too, when he’d seemed remarkably in tune with her emotions. She’d thought it just a cop’s ability to sniff out hidden truths and lies. But was this another talent of the beast?
He sighed, pulling her tighter. “We’re both fucked up, aren’t we?”
She shook her head adamantly. “Not true. You don’t have a demon for a dad.”
“Maybe. But I killed my parents.”
And okay… She sat up, her hand pressed tight to his chest. “What?”
He gave her a rueful smile, there then gone. “Okay, maybe not intentionally. They were my first set of adoptive parents. My biological father is unknown, my mother too young when she had me and with no support...” he shrugged. “She gave me up, so my adoptive parents were the only parents I knew.”
“I’m sorry,” she said, and she truly was. She knew what it was like to have been given up by ones parents. Though, at least, it sounded like Mike had found someone who actually wanted him.
“They died when I was five. It was written off as a burglary gone wrong, but I’ve looked at the case reports. There was something decidedly odd about the break in. Too much destruction, not enough stuff missing. And the room with the most destruction was mine. Yet I was lucky enough to not be home that night. My adopted mother’s sister had taken me for a weekend. She and her fiancé took me afterward. They took care of me. Raised me well. I knew my place. Knew the expectations and exceeded at meeting them. And for a reward they’d tote me out for display on regular occasions because I was such a good son and worthy of their pride. Until I was sixteen, that is.”
“What happened?”
“Sixteen was the first time I knew there was something else that rode my soul. Or at least the first time it manifested.”
She waited, letting him get his thoughts together.
“It was a girl. You know, because isn’t it always?”
“I wouldn’t know. Despite my genetics, I’ve never swung that way.”
That had his lips thinning, but he cleared his throat, going on. “Rachel was the girl next door, literally. We had nothing in common, yet we had this kind of kindred spirit thing going on.”
And Kat so didn’t want to hear about that. But yet she did. Despite the sting of jealousy she found she truly wanted to understand what made Mike who he was. “So why didn’t it work out?”
“Because girls aren’t so excited by the boy next door, are they?”
Kat bit her lip. She figured her opinion, that the boy next door would be a nice change, wasn’t relevant to this tale. “And?”
“And she started dating the star quarterback. Only he was an ass. And when she wouldn’t put out, he and a group of his football buddies got drunk and decided it would be a good idea to make her.”
“You saved her,” she said. It wasn’t a guess, but knowledge. Her Mike could do no less.
“I did. Only in the process I guess I, or should I say my beast, scared the shit out of the other boys. They filed charges. It might have blown over except I was pretty messed up in the head. I admitted I’d beaten the crap out of them, and since it was a they-said, she-said, kind of thing, they got off with some community service.”
“And you?”
“No prior. I got shipped out to a school for delinquents and told to not bother coming home for breaks.”
“I’m sorry.”
“I’m not. The school sucked. The other kids, most of them, were true psychopaths, but that school is actually what helped me learn discipline and control. I don’t think the beast and I would have coexisted so long without those years.”
Kat kept her mouth shut. Maybe. But she also didn’t think his beast was a glutton for violence. Impulsive, yes, but it seemed to have a fair amount of control unless directly threatened.
She settled back down on the bed beside him, her fingers playing with the trail of dark curls that traced a path down his abdomen to the organ that, although relaxed now, was still damn impressive.
And wasn’t she going to hell for even thinking about trying to rouse him?
He deserved better than to be played by her succubus again. And she needed to keep her focus on rescuing Mia before he wised up and realized just what had occurred in this bed tonight.
I can’t lose him. She needed both him and Mia. Was that really so much to ask?
“You’re tensing again.”
She closed her eyes, taking a deep breath. “I know I don’t have the right to ask for anything.”
“I don’t know about that. And it never hurts to ask.”
“Will you help me get Mia?”
He propped himself up on his elbow, looking down at her. His jaw worked, the muscle ticking in the corner. Definitely pissed. Did he think she was trying to use what happened between them right now as payment?
“My offer from before still stands. If you help me I’ll—”
“Stop it, Katrina. I’m not heartless.”
She sucked in a breath. Not sure what that meant.
He sighed, rolling onto his back. “Yes, I will help you get Mia. But we’re going to do this my way.”
“And what way is that?”
He looked at her, both the beast and lover gone, the man who stared at her was all cop. “We’re going to scout this place out. Get some Intel so we can come up with a real plan beyond barging in the back door.”
Chapter Thirteen
Mike tightened his grip on the faded vinyl steering wheel of his beat up Buick, coaxing the old beast onto the Bronx River Parkway. Beside him Katrina sat stiffly, only speaking when she had to offer up directions, and so obviously not at ease.
That was okay. It made two out of three of them. His beast was the only content one here, obviously viewing what occurred during the last few hours as a sort of claiming. Mike was a bit more logical. Kat had seemed genuinely concerned about feeding off his emotions during sex. And yeah, in the light of day, the thought kind of wigged him out, too. But the thing was, to hold that against her would be hypocritical, because damn if it hadn’t felt like the beast was doing the same thing.
It had thrived on her
need, gotten high on her pleasure, and used sex to bind them closer. Perhaps the only real difference was she could actually manipulate his emotions. And maybe he was being naïve, but barring the very first night they had met, under admittedly highly stressful circumstances, he did not think she’d done so.
How did he know? The itch at the back of his neck. Back in her apartment when she’d first tried to ply him with sexual attraction, his neck had itched, just as it had later at the mansion. It seemed to be his radar for any exertion of “paranormal” energy.
Which meant the Kat he’d seen since those first few terrifying hours was the real deal.
He tried to dissect his feelings from the beasts.
There was no escaping his beast’s attraction to her. No, attraction was too weak a word. His beast had been attracted to women before, but only in a sexual connotation. With Katrina it was different. It wanted more than just her body. It wanted to know where she was, what she was doing, what she was thinking, and what she thought of him. It was like, in his beast’s point of view at least, the entire world revolved around her and her wellbeing. More detrimental was the fact that he actually liked her.
And wasn’t that fucked? Him, a supposed Paladin, falling for a woman who had the blood of their enemies running through her veins? Yet that was what was happening.
She was smart, loyal, and brave. She also came alive in his arms. He would like to think it was because she felt for him just a smidgen of what he did for her, but that would be kind of stupid, wouldn’t it? Her kind was made for seduction. She’d admitted aloud that his attraction was all some sort of addiction caused by what she was verses who she was.
Not matter. Ours.
Mike sighed, running a hand through his hair as he tried to tamp back down the beast. Only time would tell if there could be the kind of reciprocal meeting of feelings that he desired from her. Right now he was going to see to hers and get Mia back. He would have helped her anyway, but their little pillow talk this morning had proven that she hadn’t believed that. Which meant that she didn’t have any fucking idea how gone he already was.
