by Angel Payne
“Stop it,” I seethed. “You’re not going to die down here.”
But you had to go and voice the possibility, anyway?
Which led to the imagining of my phone pooping out. Then my terror in the dark, solitary and shivering, praying for rescue…
“That does it. No more Lost re-runs.” I wasn’t wandering in a damn jungle. If worse came to worse, everyone would return to set tomorrow morning and realize I was nowhere to be found. These tunnels hadn’t maintained themselves; someone in Arcadia had to know they existed…
I slammed to a sudden stop.
Pressed my hand against the wall, steadying my body, holding my breath—and hoping my ears weren’t playing tricks on me.
Please, please, please; don’t be a fantasy.
Wait.
Yes.
There it was again.
Music.
Guitars and soft percussion, blended into a lush melody. It became my beacon, guiding my careful steps. Every so often, I stopped. Had to keep my aim true in tracking the sound—and pray that the underground acoustics weren’t playing horrific tricks on my ears.
My pulse throbbed harder as the tune grew louder.
Finally, I turned into an offshoot tunnel that led to a flight of stone stairs, descending deeper into the earth. At the bottom of the steps was a heavy wood door inset with iron detailing. I saw every detail about the portal because it was outlined by light—emanating from the other side.
“Thank you!”
My sob echoed back through the caverns. While switching off my phone, I scurried down the steps. Another prayer filled my heart as I tugged on the door. “Please don’t be locked. Please don’t be locked.” Though if it were, I prepared myself to pound on the wood with all the strength in my body.
Not locked.
Guardian saint was back. I thanked him again, rushing it out on joyous breath—that instantly became an astonished gasp.
It was another fantasy. That had to be it. I’d actually passed out back at the amphitheater and now dreamed all of this in a toes-up blackout.
Luxurious white drapes flowed over all the walls, backlit in rich red and purple hues. The draping continued all the way up to the ceiling. There, it billowed into fabric clouds, given multi-colored “stars” that shone from exotic hanging lanterns. The middle of the room was consumed by a massive platform bed, also draped in white, piled high with gigantic pillows.
Holy shit.
That wasn’t the end of the goodies at the tea party.
To either side of the bed were rows of shelves reminding me of the naughty girl store Faye liked dragging me to—only stocked better. There were creams and lotions and lubes. Toys with switches and without. Feathers and leathers and even a few blindfolds.
Oh, my God.
Where the hell was I?
The answer wasn’t important. I knew the two most relevant aspects of it, anyway. I shouldn’t be here. And I needed to find the way out of here—the other way out—right away.
I’d only taken two steps before jerking to a full stop again.
As the hugest jolt of my night riveted me in place.
The far side of the room contained two small compartments appearing to be glorified alcoves. I wasn’t certain about that, because the depths of both were plunged into shadow by half drapes. As I crossed the room, a figure became clearer in one of the enclosures. He leaned against the wall, long legs spread and braced to the floor. His black pants were unzipped enough for his sex to spring free—a long, incredible sight, enhanced by each hard stroke he gave to the swollen flesh. His veins, thick and strong, were a relief map of arousal beneath the skin, now gleaming and red from his attention.
Shit.
Wow.
Shit!
I’d never seen an erection like that before. And thanks to Faye and her filthy mind—and huge array of Internet hunk sites—I’d seen a healthy number of them in the last year. This man’s cock would earn him top five status on most of those sites. Size was only part of it—and just the beginning of where the perfection started. The angels had taken a little extra time to carve this part of him. From the firm, round balls to the proud hood at the top, the man was a work of art.
I was so wrapped up in that stunned assessment, I purposely didn’t look up. Couldn’t look up. Knowing who that beautiful flesh belonged to would not be a good thing, especially when I saw the guy with all his clothes in place. It was a smart tactic—
Or so I was allowed to think.
Before he spoke.
Satin. Sandpaper. Sex. It all rolled up his throat, over lips that had haunted every other thought in my head since arriving on Arcadia. He formed the words, as only he could say them, into a command that paralyzed me where I stood.
“Camellia. Stop!”
Chapter Seven
‡
Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God.
I stared around, half expecting Tess to pop out from behind the curtain, though I was damn certain what I’d walked in on was—well—what I’d walked in on.
Evrest. By himself. Pleasuring himself.
By accident—I swear—my gaze skimmed across the huge hand that’d just been wrapped around his erection. A waterfall of heat tumbled over me, pooling in places it shouldn’t be. It couldn’t be.
But he was so damn beautiful.
The power of his flesh against his flesh. The tension in his sleek, sensual body. The concentration on his face, behind his closed eyes.
Was that what he looked like when he was inside a woman, too?
“Shit!” With any luck, it would turn into the delete key on my thoughts. No joy. Not a speck. To make matters worse, Evrest just stood there, not making a move to zip back up—or whatever the hell his designer pants did. I looked away, a torture of effort. He was magnificent, and all I wanted to do was stare. Then dream about doing a lot more. “Oh, God,” I moaned. “This is bad. Really bad.”
“Camellia.”
“I wasn’t here, okay? I simply wasn’t here. Can we agree on that, please?” I whirled toward a curtain without lights behind it, assuming it led to a way out of here that wouldn’t land me back in the black maze from hell. “This is me. Leaving. Now. I prom—”
“Camellia.” His hand closed around one of my wrists. Liquid fire shot into my arm. Traveled up, up, up until trailing across my chest and igniting through both my breasts. My camisole’s built-in bra was no match for the effect of his touch. As my nipples jabbed at the fabric, Evrest tugged harder at my wrist. Understanding was instant. I lifted my gaze to his face. He cupped my cheek with his other hand, stopping my heart all over again with the amazement on his burnished features. “Where did you come from?”
I needed to push away. Massive fail. I didn’t want to be anywhere else right now. All I could think about was the proximity of his lips, their curves and crevices, so mesmerizing, so perfect. “I—got lost. Then I had to pee, so I—well, I was in the bathroom, and the maid came back in, so I hid behind the drape. Then the wall swallowed me…” Damn. His lips were really entrancing. The top one dipped low in the middle, a carved valley that outright begged for an exploring trace.
Both those lips gained gorgeous tilts at the corners. “You found the tunnels.”
How could he be so conversational, with—parts of himself—still exposed between us? “More like they found me.”
“Are you all right?”
“Yeah.” Dammit, where was I supposed to look? “I’ve been in darker and scarier before.” It was part of the job description when one’s dad thought a great “California Spring Break” was exploring abandoned Gold Rush mines.
“The tunnels,” he echoed, almost seeming happy about the fact—as his cock stayed its stunning course. “That makes much more sense than what I thought.”
Unconsciously, I wet my lips. Safer alternative than what I wanted to do with my tongue. “Which was what?”
“That the heavens brought you.” He meant it. Every word. The jagged rasp in his
voice rubbed the knowledge into me with ruthless surety. “It was the only logic that made sense.”
“Huh?”
My breaths, short and shallow, echoed in my ears as he stepped even closer. “It all snapped together when you walked in—and turned all the fantasies of my soul into reality.” He stared hard, raking my face and neck as he had back in the theater. But there was no angry fire in his eyes this time. It was something darker. Scarier. “Yes. A great deal of sense.”
Blink. Breathe. Blink again. My mind fought to process what he’d just said. “Wait. Your…fantasies?”
Why wouldn’t the words connect?
Because you’re unsure you want them to?
Of course. It was easier to keep clinging to the heartbreak from the amphitheater, envisioning Tess and him in their flirty little idyll, planning their perfect royal future. This way, I was already out of the game. The arrows to my spirit still yielded only flesh wounds.
“Look—Evrest—none of this is my business. This is clearly your space and your time, so—”
He stopped me with a ruthless hand in my hair.
Used the grip to yank my face higher, preparing me for his hypnotic kiss.
And ohhhh, how he delivered.
Fully.
Deeply.
Mercilessly.
Oh my God.
I tumbled. Floated. Burned. Needed.
More. More.
No. No.
I moaned, torn by the torment. Evrest wasn’t so conflicted. Inside a second, he swept in, tongue and teeth plunging, relentless until he tore a hard groan from me. He didn’t waste that opportunity, either. He assaulted deeper, grunting like he wanted to devour me, intent on toppling my resistance.
For one incredible second, I let him.
Gave up. Gave in. Gave over.
Everything I’d dreamed of granting him since his crystal green gaze had first swept over me, four nights ago…it was here, so good, so real. All I wanted to do was drink of him in return. Ohhh, yes…dizzy bliss, heady heat…dying in all the best ways from how delicious he was, nectar and spice and desire all twisting from his tongue to mine. I breathed him in, too, sandalwood swirled with desire, a violent, perfect force in my senses.
I sighed as my fingertips tangled in the coarse hairs on his forearm, before slipping under his shirt to explore his carved biceps. There was nothing soft about the man. Finally learning it firsthand started flipping every important switch in my body.
Especially the circuit of my deepest core.
When we broke apart, my lungs heaved in time to that carnal throb. Layers of nerves crashed with each other, squeezing at my most sensitive pearl, battling for control of my actions. I panted hard, so damn tempted to let them.
“Ohhh, God,” I groaned. “Evrest…I have to go. I can’t stay. We shouldn’t have taken one step down this road, let alone gone this far.”
He pulled up, his mien returning to that of a lazing panther. Sensual watchfulness on the outside, dark passion ruling his gaze. “‘Have to’. ‘Can’t’. ‘Shouldn’t be’. So many rules, Camellia.” He tucked his face against my neck and whispered against the bottom of my jaw, “Lightning does not need rules. You do not need rules.”
“Hell.” It was half gasp, half moan. His muscles tightened under my fingers as he pulled me closer. His penis swelled between our bodies, scorching my stomach through my clothes. If he bent his knees at all, he’d be lined up with the wet lips all but screaming for him. “We both need such things, okay? Those rules exist for reasons—”
“Nothing exists but this.” He all but seethed it. His lips parted to show gritted teeth. His hands curled into my hips, powerful with demand. “Give me this, Camellia. Please. This is the moment I prayed the Creator would grant since the moment I walked into the ballroom and beheld you there. All the ways I have dreamed of holding you, kissing you, touching you,”—he leaned forward, pushing his forehead against mine—“they are here and I can barely believe it is real. Maybe I really am just dreaming.”
“Then that’s a damn impressive dream, Your Majesty.”
I said it in reaction to the tighter press of our bodies. I didn’t think I’d piled on the snark too thick but when he grimaced, the message was clear. He voiced it in a low growl, anyway. “No. ‘Your Majesty’ doesn’t exist in here, either. It is only us. You and me, sevette. Locked away. No time. Only now. Only here.”
I didn’t ask him for a translation on the Arcadian word. Did it matter? He might’ve just called me a mud hen and I didn’t care. The hunger in his voice wove his spell thicker around my senses, until I began to believe him. Almost.
“Evrest.” I barely recognized myself, either. My whisper belonged to another creature, hot and wanton, longing to follow him deeper down this tunnel of heat, magic…sin. “Oh, God…”
“Tell me what you want.” He dragged his mouth down my neck, marking me just enough with his teeth. “What it will take to make you say yes.”
My head fell back. “Weave the spell some more,” I pleaded. “I love…to listen to you. Your voice…”
I hoped my shiver communicated the rest of it. The rumble in his chest was encouraging, mixed with the deep, sexy laugh he curled into my ear. “So I am your wizard now, hmmm? Shall I invoke an incantation over you? Or simply tell you about all the ways I’ve dreamed about having you near me like this? Of kissing you like this? Of having the chance to touch you like this…”
He drifted a hand up, under my sweater and camisole, until he cupped my breast. I gasped. It was so damn good. His stare never left my face as he caressed me. With every inch he covered, he gazed more intently, as if imprinting each of my reactions on his memory.
Without warning, he pinched one of my nipples.
“Oh!”
“Mmmm. Beautiful.”
It was the tiniest pressure, just enough to stiffen my nipple a little, but right now, the man could read Red Fish, Blue Fish and make me wetter. I wanted him. Badly.
So not good.
So damn wonderful.
He did it again. On the other breast. Harder this time. I moaned and pushed into his fingers. Even the pain he gave me was—wow.
But then he stopped.
One fish.
Waited with intense stillness.
Two fish.
What happened at three? Four? Five?
They weren’t in the book. He needed me to help write those pages. Needed the words from me. But saying them? I didn’t think I could. I wasn’t drunk enough to forget how many boundaries we were crossing…how many lies we’d have to tell to cover it up. And how I’d desperately hope they stuck.
There was still time. If I pushed back now and ran out of here, no transgression—loosely speaking—had occurred. Only Evrest and I would have the ramifications of the what-ifs to deal with. He wouldn’t be happy with me for it, meaning he’d find ways to avoid me from now on. Probably a damn good thing.
Yes. Walking out was the best choice. The right choice.
But now it was just a thought in my head—as Evrest swept my footing from under me, pulling me up into his arms. Before I could muster any protest, he’d swung around and lowered me into the white cloud layers of the bed. The canopy billowed over my head. His big, perfect body stretched beside me. Damn. I wondered if I was the one in a dream, intensified by the renewed brush of his mouth over mine. Instinct curled my hand around his neck, urging him to deepen the contact, but he only smiled and kept up his feather-light taunts, tracing exquisite electricity into my whole body with every soft sweep.
I sighed. Aching. Needing. Head spinning as if the clock backed up by an hour, to the height of my nectar buzz. “Shit,” I rasped. “Evrest…please…”
He trailed his light kisses into the hollow of my throat. “More incantations, sevette?”
“I—” And now, choking—in all the best ways. A gurgled sound rose in my throat as he pushed back the edge of my sweater to lick along my collar bone. Oh my God, it felt good. “Yes!” I g
rabbed his head and fisted his hair. “Yesssss.”
Damn. I’d done it. Jumped off the bridge of barely acceptable and into the river Styx itself, swimming with all the other sinners, even crying out in delight as I splashed down. I couldn’t help it. When Evrest added a soft bite to my shoulder, every nerve ending in my body detonated—proving he was right here in the water with me.
He lifted his head to once more meet my gaze—while his fingers did other things. Magical things. With his hand beneath my clothes, he tugged at both nipples again, spurring another high cry from the depths of my lust. I pushed my flesh deeper into his touch, writhing as I heated for him…softened for him.
I needed more.
I stripped off the sweater and the cami in just a couple of tugs. Hurled them away while smiling up at him. “Surely those incantations will work better now?”
He gazed at me for a long moment. Yes, another one I wanted to halt forever. His gaze was silken moss, his mouth parted as if poised for dessert. I stared back, yearning to be that delicacy. How would it feel to be nude beneath him, my flesh offered for his voracious licks and kisses…?
The Force is strong in this one. Well, I sure as hell was when the fantasy of him and me filled my mind. As it consumed me more, I pushed up a little, wordlessly offering myself to him.
With a snarl that curled my toes, Evrest dropped his head again. Drenched one of my breasts then the other in the sultry heat of his mouth while zigzagging fingertips into the valley between them…
Before he began swirling his touch lower.
Damn. The magic of his mouth was so heavenly, I didn’t think anything would surpass it. But now he skimmed my flesh as if it were formed of rare rose petals, blowing my theories to dust again. His fingers spanned the center of my ribcage, fanning fire into every nerve ending, making my stomach rise and fall, faster and faster…as he continued lower…
New fantasies filled my mind. I wanted my jeans off now, torn by his passionate force, baring every inch of my body to him. I wanted his gaze raking my bare skin…everywhere. I wanted to spread myself, ready for him…
