by Sam Cheever
“Valentine?”
She turned at the sound of his wonderful voice and gave a little squeal, flinging herself at him. “I can’t believe he brought me back.” She hit Don hard in the center of the chest, and he laughed as if her weight were nothing more than a bug’s.
His arms encircled her, pulling her close. “You’re really here?” He kissed her lips, her cheeks, her nose. “I thought I’d lost you.”
“I thought you had too.” Valentine framed his face with her hands, searching his gaze carefully. “And that really bothered me. But I do need to know one thing before we take the next step, whatever that is. Did you try to kill me?”
His gaze darkened, and for a moment she thought he would give her an angry denial. But then he sighed, nodding. “I interfered with your original death in the restaurant. I was just trying to set things right.” He dragged her close, hugging her so tightly she couldn’t breathe. “It was the hardest thing I’ve ever done.”
Valentine closed her eyes as pain shifted in her chest. “I guess fate took care of things without you.”
He nodded and stepped away. “Look, Val. I know this is the last thing you want to hear right now, and I’ll understand if you hate me. But I have to take you before the assembly right away. It’s something we need to do before we can move on.”
She frowned. “What exactly will they do to me?”
“They’ll take my recommendation for where you belong. I’ll recommend you be sent to an outer Hell environ, which is pretty much like Earth, and there are no restrictions on travel. It’s really not a bad place at all.” He grinned. “Lots of perks.”
Valentine nodded. “Okay then. Let’s get it over with. And just for the record, I couldn’t possibly hate you, because I love you. And I understand you were doing what you had to do. But…” She grabbed his hand. “Let’s promise each other from here on out that you won’t try to kill me anymore, and to thank you for that kindness, I promise I won’t try to kill you either.”
He laughed, turning them toward the portal he’d created with his arrival at the motel. “You’re a nut. But it’s a deal. I’d never survive murdering you again anyway. Even if you weren’t already dead.” He stopped and reached into a pocket, pulling out a rolled sheet of paper. “I almost forgot, I need you to sign this.”
He unrolled the paper and Valentine squinted at the tiny words written in red ink. “Why does that look like blood?”
He handed her a pen. “Sorry. But if we don’t complete the paperwork we’ll be covered in Worm as soon as we step through that portal.”
She grimaced, grabbing the pen. “That sounds disgusting.”
“You have no idea.”
When she was finished signing, Don rolled the paper back up and they stepped into the portal. When they stepped out the other side they were standing in a long hallway cut from some kind of red rock. Don started toward two black doors at one end.
Valentine grinned. “So, how soon before we get to these perks?”
He dropped an arm around her shoulders and kissed her forehead. “Not long. I’ll hurry this along because I have one very serious perk I’ve been wanting to give you.”
“Mmm, sounds promising. Have I had this perk before?”
“A few times. But this kind of perk never gets old. At least…” He stopped in front of the closed doors. “I hope it won’t.”
His gaze was liquid fire, burning a trail of awareness through her. Her stomach clenched with sudden need. Her thighs tightened against the wave of lust. “Let’s go get this assembly business over with, then. I have a perk to explore with you, too.”
Chapter Nine
They walked out of the assembly vault an hour later, and Don couldn’t stop grinning.
“So that’s it? That’s the end?”
“No, that’s just the beginning.” He tugged her closer and covered her lips with his own.
When he broke the kiss, she ran her finger across his lips. “What now?”
He turned away, pulling her down the hall. He suddenly couldn’t get her out of there fast enough. “Now we go home. There’s the matter of the perk to deal with.”
Don pulled her through the portal, and they stepped out before his home. He looked around, seeing it for the first time. “This will do for a while, but we’re going to have to get something a little more pleasant. Maybe we’ll move to another outer circle. I heard Paradisio has good schools.”
Valentine was standing before the torn door, looking as if she might cry. Don experienced a moment of panic. Was she already having second thoughts? “What’s wrong, my heart? Why do you look so sad?”
“I was just remembering the angel and the fight. I was so scared when I thought you were gone.”
He wrapped his arms around her and tucked her under his chin. “I’ll teach you how to use the portals in the morning. You’ll be able to go wherever you want to go through them. We can travel the world, even the universe. It will be fun. You’ll see.”
“I guess I just need some time to adjust. Things feel so different now.”
He put an arm around her waist, leading her inside. “I know one thing that hasn’t changed.”
Valentine grinned. “The perk?”
He took one of her hands and placed it over the perk, which was at that very moment earning its name. “It’s feeling very perky at this moment, in fact.”
She laughed, the sound flooding him with warmth. “I’ll race you to the bed.” Valentine took off running. With a growl, Don started after her, tackling her to the bed. She shrieked with laughter as she hit the soft mattress and rolled until she was lying on her back beneath him.
Don stopped her laughter with a kiss that turned instantly to flame. His cock hardened more as she parted her soft lips and made a hungry little sound, her arms coming up to twine around his neck.
The kiss deepened, turning to something much deeper than the simple touch of skin against skin. Her taste made thought shut down, worry slide away, and passion reach up to consume them both. Don’s hands skimmed over her, finding way too much fabric between them.
With a thought, she was suddenly naked beneath him.
Val broke the kiss with a surprised cry. “Hey! How’d you do that?”
“I used my thoughts. Everything is possible in Hell with only a single thought.”
She ran her hands over his arms, staring at his shirt. “Just a thought?”
“Yes.”
She frowned, biting her lip, and his shirt disappeared. She giggled happily. A second later, a piece of cheesecake appeared on her outstretched palm. Valentine gave a delighted cry.
Don lifted an eyebrow. “Really? You’re thinking cheesecake right at this moment?”
The cheesecake disappeared, and she twisted her lips to hide her smile. “Maybe later.” But a second later he was on his back and she was astride him, her moist entrance sliding against his naked cock. “I could get used to this.”
Don felt the first prickle of worry. He probably shouldn’t have told her about the…
The world tilted and they were suddenly outside. Something hard and sharp jabbed his left buttock. He looked around. They were on his roof. Above them, the twin moons of Hell bathed the sky in silvery light. Around the moons, the night sky exploded with silvery stars in a multitude of sizes.
“That’s better.”
Don opened his mouth to scold her, but she shifted her hips and his cock was suddenly buried deep within her tight, molten sheath. He groaned with delight, reaching up to cup her luscious breasts. “Remind me to scold you later about reckless thinking.”
Val leaned forward, catching her weight on her hands, and lifted her hips before slowly sliding back down his length. “You were saying?”
For a beat in time, the number of stars before his eyes doubled. Don’s world narrowed down to the delicious friction of her body bathing his in heat. He captured a perky, pink nipple in each hand and tweaked them, making her suck in a delighted breath. She increased the p
ace and Don’s gut tightened on a building orgasm, each thrust into her delightful pussy a world-changing event.
She moaned as she rode him, her lush, perfect breasts hanging heavy between them. He enclosed the luscious mounds in his hands and inhaled the sweet scent of her desire as she rode his cock faster, allowing him to sink deeper with every stroke.
Don fought the urge to close his eyes and enjoy the banquet of sensation sliding through him. He wanted to watch her fucking him. Just the vision of her rising above him, breasts swinging, eyes closed with bliss, and small, white teeth biting her lush bottom lip, made his orgasm bubble up to meet the thin edge of resistance.
He waited, forcing himself to hold until she met him on that edge. Suddenly she gave a tight little cry, her body halting over his as her pussy clamped down on his cock in the first of several delicious contractions that pulled him, groaning, over the verge with her.
He surged deep as his orgasm slammed into him. Before he even fully formed the thought, he had her beneath him in the softness of their bed, and he was pounding hard and fast into her. Valentine cried out again, her hands sliding through his hair to drag him into an impassioned kiss, and he felt the evidence of her second release in the rhythmic clutch of her flesh around his.
Don finally let himself go, thrusting one last time, and then embraced the pleasure-pain of that first instant when he tipped over into unrivaled pleasure. Release tightened his balls and spilled their contents in pulsing jets.
Valentine collapsed beneath him, her fingers still tangled in his hair, and Don slid sideways to lie beside her. He reached out and grasped her hand, pulling it to his lips for a lingering kiss. “I love you, Valentine Smith.”
She gave a shaky sigh. “I know. But just in case, I’m never eating chocolate hearts around you again.”
He smiled. “Fair enough. But how about cheesecake?”
She laughed. “Cheesecake? I’ll definitely eat that.”
“Good.” He turned his gaze downward and her gaze followed… to where a dense, creamy slice of the delicious confection rested, teetering dangerously, on his cock, a fat strawberry balanced on the head.
She clapped her hands in delight. “Dessert!”
She was already moving toward that strawberry, her mouth opening to take the whole thing in.
Sam Cheever
Sam writes as Sam Cheever for mainstream romantic suspense and fantasy, all heat levels; and Declan Sands for m/m romantic suspense and fantasy. She lives on a hobby farm in Indiana with eleven dogs, two horses, and one husband. She writes books she likes to read and reads books she wishes she’d written. Her books are fast paced and fun loving. Not one of them will solve a single world problem, but you definitely won’t be bored while reading them!
Sam’s published work includes 40+ works of romantic suspense, and fantasy/paranormal. Her books have won the Dream Realm Award for fantasy, been nominated for and/or won several CAPAs, were nominated for Best of 2010 with LRC and The Romance Reviews, and won eCataromance’s Reviewer’s Choice award. Sam is published with Changeling Press; Ellora’s Cave, both Romantica and Blush; Musa Publishing; Electric Prose Publications (her own imprint); and Red Rose Publishing.
Visit her websites to find out more about her work and activities: www.SamCheever.com or www.DeclanSands.com.
Visit changelingpress.com/author.php?uid=164 for more titles by Sam.
