The Forgotten (Demons Book 2)

by Marina Simcoe

  Meanwhile, the conversation turned to a different topic, flowing casually around me. Surprisingly comfortable among the couples that united two worlds. I almost felt like I belonged here.

  Almost.

  “Should we go?” Ivarr stroked my bare shoulder after a while.

  “Um, where?” I snapped from my thoughts.

  “You said you needed to talk. And I really hope it has something to do with that recurring cloud of worries that keeps gathering inside you. I don’t want to see it any longer. Tell me what it is, and I’ll make it go away.”

  Could it really be that simple?

  “Where can we talk?” I turned around. The crowd didn’t seem to get any smaller, since we came. If anything, it only got livelier and more excited as the time passed. People and demons moved around the room, talking and laughing.

  “My place.” Ivarr got up and tugged at my hand, urging me to follow.

  IT TOOK US A FEW MINUTES to say our goodbyes.

  “I would like to ask you a few questions in regard to your abduction from the base, Kitty,” Andras said to me before we left. He seemed to have switched to calling me Kitty, like everyone else, leaving Katherine for Ivarr’s exclusive use. “I’ll stop by Ivarr’s suite after breakfast tomorrow morning if you don’t mind.”

  “Um. I’m not sure I’ll stay until then,” I mumbled, feeling my cheeks flare up at his assumption that I would spend the night.

  Ivarr’s hand squeezed mine tighter.

  “Do you have to be anywhere else tomorrow morning?” he asked.

  My flight back to Seattle didn’t leave until late afternoon, but that was not the point here, was it?

  “No, but—”

  “Then you are staying,” he replied, his voice as firm as his grip on my hand. He turned to Andras. “See you then.”

  Andras moved his gaze from Ivarr to me.

  “See you tomorrow, Kitty. And thank you very much for coming out here tonight. It was wonderful to meet the woman who captured Ivarr’s unruly heart.”

  Chapter 39

  “YOU DON’T STAY IN THE same hotel?” I asked, hurrying next to Ivarr across the road to a hotel nearby.

  “No. I need my space.” He shook his head. “The chances of someone knocking on my door for some stupid reason are lower when they know they’d need to cross the road to do so. This city is pretty crowded as it is. I don’t need the aggravation of living in a hotel full of demons.”

  “Do you miss living on a farm?” I rubbed my arm with the hand not held by him. Nights in Vegas turned out to be rather chilly in January, especially for me in my silk sleeveless dress.

  “I never really lived there when awake.” He let go of my hand and wrapped his arm around my shoulders instead, drawing me into his side for warmth. The cold didn’t seem to bother him much even though he wore only a t-shirt. Grateful, I leaned into him. “I needed to live among people to feed. The farmhouse was isolated enough for me not to be disturbed during Deep Sleep. Well, in theory, anyway.” He smiled, glancing my way.

  I grinned back at him. Waking him up nearly took my life and ended up costing me my heart. Yet, I was certain I’d do it all over again.

  “If you prefer to live in a big city, we should find a house somewhere outside downtown to avoid the crowds,” he announced as we entered the lobby.

  “Ivarr . . .”

  “Okay fine. A penthouse at least? With its own elevator?” He glowered at the small crowd that rushed the open elevator doors.

  With his arm still around my shoulder, he literally carried me inside the elevator, parting the crowd with his broad chest, then out of it in the same manner when we stopped on his floor.

  “Alright, what is it, Katherine?” He spun me by my shoulders to face him as soon as we entered his suite. “The more I talk about us living together, the darker your emotions become. I can see you love me—”

  “What?” I croaked, choking on the word.

  “You may not recognize your own emotions for what they are yet, but I know how love looks. For years I fed on a woman’s love for another man. And this right here—what you have inside you—is all my own. I’m not giving you up.”

  “You—you don’t even know me that well. We hardly had any time together.”

  “I see all of you, remember?”

  He took a step back and searched my eyes.

  “Katherine, to me, it’s obvious, but do you need more time to sort it all out? What bothers you? Tell me, and I’ll get rid of it.”

  The only light in the room came from outside the window and from a small desk lamp in the living area. With my back to the front door, his figure was backlit, and his face remained in the shadow. I couldn’t see his expression clearly, but I sensed the sincere conviction and passion in his words.

  “How important is for an Incubus . . . No. For you, personally, to become one of the Forgiven?” I finally managed to ask.

  “Forgiveness is everything. For me, it would mean freedom from pain and hunger and a chance to live a meaningful life side by side with the woman I care about. You.”

  His grip on my shoulders relaxed, and he stroked my skin with his thumbs.

  “What if you never got the forgiveness?” I swallowed hard, as my throat tightened.

  “That would simply mean I needed to learn to love you more,” he said softly. “Since I know for sure you love me already, failing to earn forgiveness would be my own fault. In which case,” he stepped closer to me and brushed his lips along my temple. “I’ll need to spend more time one on one with you. In real life, not in a dream.” Lowering his head, he placed another kiss, this time right behind my ear. “I’ll have to study all your emotions carefully. Taste them.” He nibbled on the skin of my neck. “Savor every moment, every ounce of you to learn how to love you the best I ever could.” He leaned back, a happy glimmer in his eyes. “I’m looking forward to it.”

  Struggling against the longing his words and kisses evoked in me, I closed my eyes, as if it would make it hurt less.

  “I can’t give you what you need, Ivarr.” My biggest fear was not that he would reject me—the passion with which he spoke left no doubts about his commitment already.

  I feared that in order to do the right thing, I would have to find a way to leave him myself, and I was afraid I didn’t have it in me.

  “Whatever do you mean, Katherine?” His voice sounded hollow.

  “The accident that took my parents . . . I was in the car, too.” I drew in some air, completely running out of oxygen with every word I said. “A steel rod speared my stomach . . .”

  Silent, he slid his hands behind me, enclosing me in a hug.

  “I can’t get pregnant, Ivarr. It’s not a hormonal imbalance or anything like that . . . I simply don’t have the parts needed to carry a baby. There is no chance. Absolutely none.”

  With my last words the gates that held the sorrow in check inside me opened, and the black, icy tide swallowed me whole. I trembled in his arms, my chest swelled with tears, but they couldn't find their way out yet.

  “Katherine.” He swayed with me in his arms, rocking us side to side. His large body enveloped me like a cocoon, shielding me from the rest of the world. But even his embrace was powerless to protect me from the pain this time.

  “The right thing would be for you to let me go now.” I closed my eyes tightly, my forehead pressed to his chest, and forced the words out. “And for me to leave.”

  “No,” he dismissed in a tone disallowing any doubts, then lifted me in his arms.

  “They say there is no bond. There is not one woman destined for each Incubus.” I called on whatever reason and cold logic I still possessed. “Now that you’re allowed to socialize more openly, you’ll have a chance to find someone else . . .”

  “There is no one else, my queen,” he replied firmly. “Only you.”

  He carried me into the bathroom, turned the water on in the tub then sat on the edge, holding me in his lap.

  “I don’t care
what they say, never did. And unless it’s with you, I don’t care about the forgiveness, either.”

  “How would it work then?” The images of pregnant bellies in the party room rose in my mind. “How can we be together?”

  “Tell me how we can be apart, Katherine?” His voice rose. “Now that I finally have you here, how am I supposed to let you go?”

  I inhaled a shaky breath. In my mind I knew he had the right to have it all, even what I couldn’t give him. Instead of watching me age and die for the next few decades, he should be out there searching for the right woman for him.

  But if he expected me to talk him out of being with me now, I couldn’t. My confession took all I had. With no more strength left, I had no willpower to pry my arms from around him on my own. I did what I could to do the right thing. Now someone needed to physically tear me away from him.

  “You’ll never earn your forgiveness with me,” was all I said in a quiet whisper, barely audible behind the sound of the running water.

  “As long as I can be with you, I don’t care about anything else.” He cupped my face, shifting me in his lap to see my eyes. “Katherine, sweetheart. There are some differences from couple to couple, but a pregnancy seems to be a consequence of the forgiveness, not a reason for it. Only a mortal can father a child. So, I believe an Incubus can impregnate his woman only after he has earned his mortality. A woman’s love must be what grants him the forgiveness in the first place. That and his ability to love her back.”

  “Are you sure?” I searched through my memories for everything I’d heard about it and remembered the information about pregnancy came from Delilah. She seemed to have a solid knowledge about Incubi despite her biased opinion about them. Still, could she have been mistaken here, especially if his woman’s pregnancy was the first physical sign of a demon’s forgiveness, the most obvious one, too.

  “So, without a pregnancy, how would one even know he’s been forgiven?” I asked quietly, afraid to believe anything yet.

  He shrugged and shook his head.

  “I’m not sure. When his woman stops aging?”

  “That may take years to become apparent.”

  “Then all I’d have to do is to be careful not to die during those years.” A hint of humour twinkled in his eyes. “Maybe, be a little more cautious in a fight, just in case I’ve become mortal already.”

  “Or stay out of a fight altogether?” I offered, my voice still raw with unshed tears, but a spark of hope already shredded the overwhelming darkness inside me to pieces.

  “Staying entirely out of trouble may not be possible right away. Century-old habits are not easily broken.”

  His tone was lighter now, but his eyes flickered between mine intently. Peering deep inside me, he was watching my emotions closely.

  “Katherine, what you told me tonight is heart-breaking. I’m so sorry you had to go through it.” He smoothed the hair out of my face and brushed his lips against mine in a light, tender kiss, like the flutter of butterfly wings. “But it’s not the end of life, and it’s definitely not the end of us.”

  “You’ll never be a father.”

  “There are many ways to be a parent, without actually giving birth to a child.” He pressed me to his chest again, stroking my back gently. “I’m sure your aunt would agree with me on this one.”

  “She would,” I whispered. “I was the daughter she never had.”

  My lips trembled, and the first tear finally slipped down my cheek.

  “We’ll figure it all out in time, my queen,” he said softly, unzipping my dress. “Together.” He rubbed the bare skin of my back soothingly. “But right now, I’m going to give you a bath. This conversation has wrecked you.” He wiped the stray tear from my cheek then slid the dress down my shoulders.

  I cupped the side of his face, sinking my fingers in his beard.

  “My dear Viking.” I blinked another tear out of my eye, as a sense of deep gratitude for him filled my heart along with another, much stronger emotion. “I love you, Ivarr.”

  “I know. And I’ll never get enough of it.” He leaned in to kiss my face, my neck, my shoulder then brushed his lips along the scar on my right arm. “I’m forever grateful to whatever fate led you to that desolate house of mine that day.”

  HE GAVE ME A BATH. Gently washing my hair and scrubbing every inch of my body, he cleansed every single dark stain from my soul, filling me with light again.

  Afterwards, he wrapped me in a fluffy, white towel and carried me to bed. Then he held me in his arms while I fell asleep. And he was there when I woke up the next morning.

  “I could get used to this,” I murmured, pressing my nose to the t-shirt stretched over his chest.

  “Good,” he chuckled. “Because that’s how I intend to spend every night from now on.”

  “No more disappearing when I wake up?” I smiled.

  “Never.” He found my mouth with his.

  I melted into his kiss, which turned more urgent the longer it lasted. He slipped his tongue between my lips, and I greeted him eagerly sliding mine along it.

  My hardened nipples brushed against his chest, making me aware of my complete nudity. A series of electrifying ripples ran along my skin.

  “I need to get you breakfast,” he rasped, letting go of my mouth for a moment. A rim of red already edged the brilliant blue of his irises.

  “No,” I protested, wrapping my leg around his thigh. “You’re getting your breakfast first.”

  Without saying another word, he kissed me again then cupped my backside, bringing our lower bodies together.

  Needing to feel him against me, I tore at the bottom of his shirt, tugging it up to yank it over his head.

  “Come here.” I wrapped my arms around him.

  With a low rumble deep in his throat, he rolled us over and leaned over me. I felt his bare hand on my breast, his fingers rolling my nipple. A shot of intense heat dashed through me, and I lifted my hips to him.

  “I need you, Ivarr.”

  “I know, sweetheart.”

  Unbuckling his belt with one hand, he trailed short, hot kisses down my neck to my chest. Squeezing my breast gently, he sucked the nipple into his mouth, grazing it with his teeth.

  “Oh . . . God,” I panted as the need pooled between my legs, building up quickly. “Now, please,” I begged, shoving his pants down his hips with the heel of my foot.

  “Just one taste,” he pleaded, sliding down my body. He peppered soft kisses along the sensitive skin of my inner thigh. Then I felt the heat of his tongue glide over my folds.

  With a moan ripped through my chest, I bucked my hips, as his lips moved along my sensitive flesh, sucking, tugging and driving me mad with lust.

  “Now,” he murmured against my skin, then positioned himself over me again.

  I felt his hard length slide inside me, inch by delicious inch, slowly stretching me until I took it all.

  The side of his face pressed to my temple, one arm propped on the pillow next to me, another hand kneading my breast as the speed of his thrusts inside me increased, taking me higher and higher with him.

  “I love you,” he breathed out the moment the rolling waves of pleasure collided inside me in a mind-blowing climax. “I know I do, my queen.” He groaned with his own release as his body shuddered against mine.

  A faint echo of past panic prompted me to tighten my arms around him and flex my thigh muscles, trapping his hips, “Don’t leave.”

  “Never.” He collapsed at my side and buried his face in my hair. “I’m all yours now. In soul and body.”

  Chapter 40

  REALITY FELT MORE LIKE a dream that morning. Except that my demon didn’t disappear.

  This was a dream I would never have to wake up from.

  I was perfectly happy to spend the rest of the morning and the rest of my life with Ivarr in bed, but the ring of the hotel phone eventually put an end to that for now.

  With one last kiss on my lips, Ivarr cursed under his bre
ath and got out of bed.

  “Must be Andras.” He took the phone, stretching to his full impressive height, which gave me the chance to admire him in all his naked glory backlit by the morning sun from the window.

  Finally, tearing my gaze away from him, I used the moment while he talked on the phone to text Pam. At this point, I was fairly certain I would need to postpone my afternoon flight back to Seattle, but I had to get together with her beforehand to explain as much as I could about Ivarr and I.

  “He is on his way up,” Ivarr announced, getting dressed. “He can be rather annoying in his persistence.”

  “Um,” I searched around for my dress. “Where did my clothes go?

  “I left your dress out for dry-cleaning last night. Here . . .” He walked over to his closet and took out a gorgeous mid-length gown in a delicate shade of lavender. “I’ve waited to see you in this.”

  “What is it?” I gasped at the beauty of the colour.

  “A dress.” He shrugged, laying it out on the bed next to me.

  “No, I mean . . .” I fingered the rich silk. “You have expensive tastes.”

  “I like exquisite things.” He kissed the top of my head. “I saw it in the window of a shop and thought how it would bring the purple and lavender in your eyes.”

  “I don’t think I have any lavender in my eyes. They’re grey with some green, mostly.”

  “Sure you do.” He propped himself with a knee on the mattress next to me. “Lavender, magenta, turquoise, sea foam, ginger, auburn and coral . . . I see all the colours of the world in there.”

  He stared into my eyes, and I realized he was describing every happy emotion I felt inside me.

  A wide smile spread on my face as my insides melted into a soft-butter puddle.

  He kissed the tip of my nose. “I see them all and love all of them. But red is still my favourite.” He winked at me with a wicked smile that heated my face.

  “Get dressed,” he ordered, as the knock on the door came. “Let’s not give Andras to see more than he should.”