by Anya Bast
Oh, yeah. Candy. And she still had the entire lower half. This was better than Christmas.
Sarafina took her time exploring, her fingers tracing his muscles and the hills and valleys of that mouthwatering geography. She brushed his nipples with the flat of her fingers and he shuddered, closing his eyes and tipping his head back on a groan that sounded caught somewhere between pleasure and torture.
He slipped off his shoes and socks at her urging, and she held his gaze while she dropped her hands to the button fly of his jeans and slipped it through the loop. She pushed his boxers and jeans to the floor.
For the first time, he was naked and she was clothed. . at least a little.
Savoring the moment, she held his gaze while she drew her hand up and circled his cock. Dark lust flared through his eyes the moment she touched him. He was long and wide, gorgeous — just like the rest of him. Stroking him from base to tip, she allowed her tongue to travel along some of the ridged tattoos on his chest, loving the slow shudder of his body and his heavy, even exhalation.
Unable to resist, she sank down on her knees and took him between her lips. Theo swore out loud and tangled his hands in her hair as she pushed his cock back deep into the recesses of her mouth and let her tongue play along his shaft.
“Sarafina, for the love of all the Gods, you are going to drive me insane,” he gritted out from a half-locked jaw.
She ignored him, nibbling her way up and down his length and allowing her tongue to play with the extra-sensitive place just under the crown.
After a few more moments of oral torture, Theo jerked her upward and pushed her back onto the bed. She fell against the soft comforter and Theo stared down at her like she was a five-course meal and he’d not eaten for weeks. She was more than willing to offer herself up on a platter.
“Take your bra off for me.” His voice was low and a little harsh. “Then take off your panties. Do it slow.” Her breath caught a little, but she did as he asked, the silk sliding along her skin as she removed her final bits of clothing.
His gaze roved her nude body restlessly. “Part your thighs.” She spread her legs, revealing her warm, damp sex to his eyes. Doing this made her feel so vulnerable. She knew how she looked to him. Her nipples were hard little peaks and her clit was excited and pulling from its hood. Sarafina wanted him to touch her so badly.
Theo raised his gaze to her face. “Do you know how beautiful you are?” She moistened her lips with a tongue that had gone mostly dry from the look in his eyes. “I feel beautiful whenever you’re looking at me, Theo.” She paused. “I feel even better when you’re touching me.” “Your clit is excited. It’s swollen and just begging to be petted. Stroke it. Show me how you want me to touch you.” This was a game she’d never played before. She hesitated at the request, but then held his gaze as she allowed her hand to drift downward between her thighs. As she circled her clit with two fingers, Theo stroked his cock from base to tip, his eyes on the motion of her hand. She watched the muscles of his arm flex as he touched himself, making lust flare through her body as if it was he who touched her.
Slow, melting pleasure blossomed from her sex and spread throughout her body as she caressed the aroused bundle of nerves until she balanced on the precipice of an orgasm. She tipped her head back into the pillows, her breathing coming faster.
Then Theo was there beside her, his tongue playing over one erect nipple while he toyed with the other. “Is that good, Sarafina?” he murmured. “Is that how you like to be touched?” He placed his hand over hers as she worked her clit, driving herself closer and closer to climax.
“Yes,” she whispered.
“And this?” he asked, sliding first one finger deep inside her, and then adding another, stretching the muscles of her sex. “Does that feel good, too?” Sarafina moaned and dug her heels into the mattress as he drove in and out of her.
“Are you going to come?”
She nodded and whimpered, unable to reply.
Theo maneuvered downward and moved her hand away. While still stroking his fingers deeply in and out of her, he sucked her clit into his mouth. His tongue skated up and down against it, pushing her straight into a climax.
Ecstasy poured over and through her, making her cry out. Theo held her down, his tongue and mouth sucking her clit until it hurt, then felt good again, and then made her sputtering orgasm fire back into life. Once again, she was moaning under him.
Theo flipped her before she could catch her breath and dragged her beneath him. She spread her thighs and lifted her buttocks as he pulled her hips up, fitting them together, her bottom to his pelvis.
His cock found the hot, slick, already well-pleasured entrance to her sex and pushed inside. Sarafina clawed at the blankets and pillows as he stretched her muscles more and more with every inch he gave her.
Theo’s legs braced her thighs apart and his huge hands held her motionless as he slid in to the root. She gasped at the sensation and the massive way he filled her. Her sex plumped with need once more, eager for his touch.
Theo stroked her aching clit with one hand, bracing the other on the mattress beside her, and began to thrust. His cock slid out to the crown and then back in, over and over, faster and faster. Sarafina’s climax crashed over her body, her sex pulsing around his thrusting length.
“Ah, Sarafina,” he groaned as he came.
They collapsed together onto the mattress, a tangle of sweaty limbs and heaving chests.
Sarafina laughed, just for the joy of it. There’d been a couple times when she’d had multiple orgasms with a man, but it had never been like that. It had never been so deliciously intense.
Theo drew her close and kissed her lips, her eyelids, her cheeks. “I hope that means it was good.” She nuzzled his throat. “Mfph,” she murmured, then fell silent. Apparently, her verbal capabilities were spent for the time being.
After a few moments of cuddling her, he reached down and pulled his jeans up from the floor. While he dug in his pockets, she flopped bonelessly back onto the pillows and stretched like a cat. For the first time since they’d entered the room, she noticed something other than Theo. They were on a king-size four-poster bed. Antique furniture scattered the room and a fireplace lined one wall. Nice place.
Theo rolled over with a groan and handed Eric’s business card to her between two fingers. She took it and turned it over. His cell and home phone numbers were listed there.
“Eric gave that to me to give to you,” said Theo, settling back against the pillows with a deep sigh of pleasure.
“Uh-huh.” She chuckled and shook her head. “You have to give it to the guy, he’s relentless.” “Yeah, well, he’s about to relentlessly smash his face against my fist,” Theo muttered with his eyes closed.
Sarafina chuckled. “Temper, temper, Theo. Anyway, you have no cause for concern.” She ripped the card in half and tossed it to the floor.
Theo popped an eye open, then reached out, snagged her, and pulled her against him. One tug and she was beneath him on the bed with his big body covering hers. “I know. Don’t you think I have more confidence than that?” he asked right before he kissed her.
Sarafina went speechless as his lips traveled down her jawline, her throat, and then latched onto her nipple. He worked it with his tongue and gently nipped at it until her sex warmed and tingled yet again.
She squirmed beneath him. “Ah, Theo, I think you’re going to make me come again.” Her voice was a mere whisper. “I’ve never been so incredibly multiorgasmic in my life.” “Mmmm.” He reached down amid the blankets and found her clit and stroked it, making her gasp. “Maybe you’ve discovered a new talent. I’ll help you practice, okay?” He brought her slowly to climax this time and when she finally came under his fingers and tongue, he latched his mouth to hers and consumed every last gasp of pleasure she made.
While she lay sprawled noodlelike across the bed, he rolled off, pulled on his boxers, and exited the room, leaving the door open. Sarafina lay staring up
at the ceiling trying to will herself into motion and failing miserably.
A few moments later he returned laden with shopping bags. “The concierge delivered the stuff we asked for. I figured you were hungry, so I ordered a couple cheeseburgers for us off room service. The food will be here in about twenty minutes. Just enough time for us to take a shower. That okay with you?” Her stomach growled. “Did you order fries?” He nodded, rummaging through the bags.
She pushed off the bed. “Then it’s great with me.” She walked over to Theo, who was taking all the purchased items from the bags. She distracted him by tilting his face toward hers and kissing him.
Theo dropped everything in his hands and pulled her against him, slanting his mouth across hers and kissing her deeply until she was dizzy. He picked her up and walked her toward the bathroom. She wrapped her legs around his waist and held on for the ride, chuckling against his mouth.
One-handed, he worked the faucet in the shower. The spray of hot water hit them both as he stepped inside, Sarafina still in his arms, laughing and kissing him.
Theo was actually laughing, too. The sound of it warmed Sarafina more than the water ever could.
He set her to her feet and they soaped up their hands and washed each other, stopping occasionally to lick the water droplets off particular locations of each other’s bodies.
Theo pressed her against the wall of the shower, his hands on her hips, his lips brushing hers. “Bai’s not taking you away from me.” He growled. “You’re mine, Sarafina Elizabeth Connell. You’re all mine.” She smiled against his mouth. “Say it again.” “You’re mine.” He crushed his lips to hers.
THEO WATCHED SARAFINA’S FULL LIPS WRAP AROUND a French fry and restrained himself from leaning over and nibbling the opposite end like the pasta scene from Lady and the Tramp. Although his intentions were a lot less innocent.
He’d had a taste of Sarafina in bed and he wanted more. Theo had figured she’d be responsive and uninhibited in bed, though she had been a little shy about touching herself in front of him at first. His mind was awash with the ways he could push her further. She’d go anywhere he wanted her to go; he had no doubt on that score. Sarafina had a body and mind ripe for erotic exploration.
And Theo so wanted to help her with that.
She sat on an armchair in front of the cart that room service had sent up. She wore a short, silky gray bathrobe and had her long, pale legs crossed. The expression she wore on her face was faraway and dreamy. He’d helped chase away the bogeymen for a while, which had been his ultimate goal for the night. The entire ride back to Louisville, she’d been stiff with tension and worry.
The worry was now held at bay for him, too. His mind, his body, even his heart — all of it was filled up with Sarafina right now.
“Tell me about Ingrid,” she asked, nibbling another fry.
Theo leaned back in his chair. “Ingrid? Why?” He pushed a hand through his damp hair. “What do you want to know?” “You said something once that interested me. You said she was the second woman you’d been with who had died.” Oh, that. Maybe he hadn’t helped push current events to the back of her mind as much as he’d presumed.
“Why do you want to know all that, Sarafina? Are you thinking about death tonight?” She smiled and studied her fry. “Kind of hard not to after a day like we had, finding about a bajillion Atrika Earthside. They’re like death on legs.” She paused. “But no, I’m not. I’m thinking about you, wondering a little, I guess about your past. I know that Ingrid was a fire witch, like me, and that the Atrika killed her to perform a blood magick spell to locate Claire. It’s your personal relationship with Ingrid that I’m wondering about right now.” He’d been less than forthcoming about his past with her up until now, just as he was less than forthcoming with everyone. However, Sarafina wasn’t everyone, not anymore. He owed her a little piece of his past, no matter how much it might hurt him to give it up.
Theo took a careful sip of his drink before replying. “Ingrid was hard and strong, unyielding, but there was another side to her, one that only her lovers saw.” “And you were one of her lovers.”
“Yes, though don’t put too much weight on the word lover. Ingrid never wanted to be tied to one man. Instead, she flitted around the Coven, taking men to her bed as she chose. I was one of them. I think, like many of us, there were reasons she found commitment difficult, but she never shared hers with me. There wasn’t much romantic about what we shared, but she was a friend. A very good friend.” “Jack McAllister was one of her men, too, I heard.” “Before Mira, yes.” Theo nodded. “Anyway, we were in a relationship when the Atrika killed her. You remember the roadside killer? The one that dismembered his victims and left them on the side of the road? He made all the papers about a year and a half ago.” She nodded.
“That was really the Atrika who were chasing Claire. Ingrid was one of the victims.” She threw her half-eaten fry back onto her plate. “I remember seeing her face all over the news. There was a man killed, too?” Theo nodded. He remembered the day they’d found out about the murders like it was yesterday. Sitting in that coffee shop in Missouri with Claire and Adam, the waitress coming over. . “The non-magickals thought it was a disturbed individual. They could have no idea it was a demon. The police still think he’s out there somewhere.” “So, what about the other woman you said was killed while you were dating her?” Theo stood and walked to the other end of the room. He didn’t want to think about Colleen, let alone talk about her.
TWENTY-THREE
SARAFINA’S HAND CLOSED OVER HIS SHOULDER. “I’M sorry, Theo. You don’t have to talk about it.” He turned to her. “No, it’s okay. It’s just that while I don’t feel responsible for Ingrid’s death, I do feel responsible for Colleen’s.” “Sometimes talking helps.”
He snorted. “I like pretending it never happened. That helps me.” “Yes, but it never makes it go away.” “Nothing makes it go away, Sarafina. You just have to learn to live with it.” He studied her eyes for a moment. They were such a clear, pretty shade of blue. He reached out and smoothed his thumb against her cheek and she turned her face to his calloused palm and laid a kiss there.
When she did that, look up at him with all that emotion in her eyes, Theo could deny her nothing. He would do anything for her.
“Colleen was my girlfriend when I was a teenager.” Understanding swept over her features. “She was your high school sweetheart and when you—” He shook his head. “Not high school. My life at home was unstable. I never made it through high school.” “Okay, I didn’t know. But she was involved when the Duskoff kidnapped you somehow, wasn’t she?” “Colleen was my first love, my only love.” He didn’t elaborate on the fact that he thought he might be falling in love with Sarafina. It was too soon for that and the circumstances didn’t need to be any heavier than they were. “She kept me sane when my father was beating my mother up.” Anger arced through him as memory flooded his mind. His voice was hard when he spoke next. “Eventually, I beat him up.” “I’m sorry, Theo.”
“It’s over now. My mom took off, and I haven’t heard from her since. My father’s gone, too. Colleen was the one solid person I had to hang on to. Strangely enough, she was also a fire witch. Anyway, she was with me when they kidnapped me, so she was caught up in it.” Theo closed his mouth and went silent, fighting the unwelcome recollection. Images of Colleen under the brutal hands of the Duskoff, tied up and given to Reece, the bastard who’d cut him.
Reece had done much, much worse to Colleen.
Theo shut his eyes as if he could make the memories disappear. “You don’t want to know what they did to her. I’ve spent close to twenty years trying to forget. She didn’t deserve any of it and I was the one who caused it all.” He shook his head. “She tried to fight them.” Sarafina didn’t say anything for a long moment. “She sounds like a hell of a girl.” He pressed the heel of his palm into his eye socket, but that didn’t make the mental pictures go away. “She was.” “But you weren�
��t responsible for her abduction or her death, Theo. Tell me you know that.” He looked down at the floor. “I do know that. Ultimately, she was caught up in the situation because of me, but it was the Duskoff who were responsible. Reece. I’ve been making them pay for it every chance I get, too.” He gritted his teeth. “I made Reece pay long ago. Slowly. Then I threw his ass in Gribben. He’s there right now, suffering every single day.” “And now here I am, a fire witch and involved with you. Does that slate me for death?” He smiled at her, but he knew it had a bitter edge. “Can you see why I resisted? I’m bad luck.” She laughed. “Yeah, but I’m not superstitious, Theo. I believe we make our own luck.” Gods, he needed to change the subject. “So, I told you all about my exes, sad stories all. Tell me about Alex.” She snorted. “I don’t even miss him.” He caught her chin and tilted her face to his. “Good. That’s what I like to hear.” Someone pounded on the door. Theo answered it, using the peephole first.
Thomas stood on the other side along with Micah. “The front desk told me what room you were in.” Thomas had two sword sheaths in hand, which he handed to Theo. “I brought these for you and Sarafina.” Theo backed away, allowing the two men to enter. They said their hellos to Sarafina and then settled onto the couch.
“So did you find anything interesting in the building?” asked Sarafina, settling back into one of the armchairs and crossing her legs.
Thomas and Micah exchanged The Look. Theo knew what the The Look meant and it wasn’t anything good. He set the sword sheaths down next to a chair and crossed his arms over his chest.
“We found evidence of daaeman magick,” said Thomas. “No big surprise there since we could all smell it once we entered the building.” Micah spotted the room service cart and got up to peruse it for leftovers. “Either Stefan is brewing a really big pot of herbal tea, or he’s planning a very strong spell against all of witchdom. I’m going with the second thing.” He turned and wagged a French fry at them. “You guys going to eat this? I’m starving.” “Go ahead,” answered Sarafina. “How do you know it’s targeted at all of witchdom?” Micah picked up the plate of lukewarm fries and replied with his mouth full. “I strongly suspect. The combination of herbs that were found there suggest it. Not all of the herbs were from Earth, by the way.” “Any idea what kind of spell?” Sarafina asked.
