by Jessi Gage
“Candles help me relax,” she said, her smile warming just for him.
His heart thumped with appreciation. His girl was so beautiful. And she seemed so happy to see him. “How are you feeling?” he asked her. “Can I get you an aspirin or anything?”
“All I need is you. Come hold me. Please.”
He was on the bed and pulling her into his arms before she’d uttered the please.
Once he had her tucked against him, he realized she was shivering. No wonder. She had the window open. There must be a cold front moving in, since the chilly temperature was a far cry from the usual stuffy summer nights in his bedroom.
“Let’s get you under the blankets.” He should have found her some clothes to put on, but he didn’t want her to be cold for a second longer than necessary. Tucking her under the blankets would be faster. And if he tucked himself in, too, all the better. Body heat and all.
After a minute of rearranging themselves, he had her in his arms under the comforter. She was warm and soft and trusting. The feel of her smooth skin under his hands as he rubbed her arms and shoulders made his body hum with pleasurable tension.
He’d been hard since he spotted her on his bed in her underwear. As she nestled into him, pressing her perfect breasts into his T-shirt-covered chest, he got impossibly harder. His dick ached for her like it had never ached before, and that was saying something, since he’d been denying himself, with the exception of the occasional happy-smacky, for a full decade.
“I’m here, baby,” he said, comforting her with words, touch, whatever she needed. “I’m right here. It’s going to be all right. Nothing can hurt you here. I won’t let anything hurt you.”
The truth of those words stunned him. He would move heaven and Earth to keep her safe.
“I know,” she said, her breath searing over the sensitive skin of his neck. “You make me feel so safe.”
His mouth went dry with desire. He was almost blind with the urge to roll on top of her and end his decade of restraint.
“Are you okay?” she asked. “You’re shaking.”
Jeez Louise, he was trembling with the effort not to screw her into the mattress. What kind of sicko did that make him? She was looking for comfort, and he was hard as a rock, desperate to rut with her like a mindless animal.
Deprivation will do that to a guy, said the insidious little voice in his head. It was the voice he heard whenever he got turned on to the point of considering breaking his vow. And like always when he heard that voice, he shot a silent prayer up to God.
Don’t let me blow it, Lord. I don’t want to let You down.
Not to mention, he needed God’s help now more than ever. Jade had a demon haunting her house. It was the worst possible time for him to consider letting down his guard.
“I’m fine,” he lied. “Just worried about you.”
“I’m okay,” she said, smiling up at him. “I’d be even better if you kissed me.”
Her smooth voice short-circuited his brain, and before he could think better of it, he descended on her.
Her lips moved beneath his with tender hunger. Her arms tightened around his neck while the rest of her melted against him. The kiss was slow and needy and it did things to him no other woman’s kiss ever had. It made him feel like a man. It made his heart swell with love.
He pulled back just enough to meet her eyes. “I think I’m falling in love with you. And I don’t think I’ve ever really been in love before.” He stroked his thumb over her cheek as he waited for her reaction.
Shadows chased through her eyes.
Crap. He shouldn’t have said the L word. It was true, but it was too soon. He’d just freaked her out big time.
She opened her mouth to say something then snapped it shut again. A look of consternation pinched her brows. Her fists clenched in his shirt. Her lips moved around the words, Help me, Emmett, but her voice felt swallowed up, dragged down somewhere dark and empty. He heard her, but he didn’t. It was the strangest sensation.
A chill skittered up his spine like a hundred icy spiders. His fingers twitched with the urge to let go of her, which was ridiculous. He made them grip her tighter.
“What do you need, sweetheart? How can I help?”
Her body relaxed. Her mouth curved into a wicked smile. “You can kiss me like that again.”
He breathed a sigh of relief that she didn’t seem overly freaked by his confession. In fact, there was a triumphant light in her eyes that had him calculating how long they had before Lisa showed up and how many tender ways he might comfort her in that time.
“Yes, ma’am,” he said.
She threaded her fingers into his hair, and he let her tug him into another sweet kiss. She opened to him immediately, and he delved into her mouth. He was starving for her. The kiss was pure passion. It lit him like a wick. He burned for her, and nothing else mattered.
Letting his need take the driver’s seat, he rolled to his back and guided her atop him with a hand cupping the back of her neck.
She straddled him, keeping their mouths locked as if their lives depended on the connection. Trails of decadent tingles followed the skimming of her hands up his stomach. He wouldn’t have noticed losing his shirt except for the fact he’d had to stop kissing her for the half-second it took her to slip it over his head.
When they came together again, her breasts warmed his chest through the thin layer of her top. Without meaning to, he gave a thrust with his hips, lifting her. The heat of her core seared him through his jeans, and her rocking weight on his throbbing dick made him see stars. Amazing, wonderful stars. He wanted more.
Breathing hard, he smoothed his hands down her back until they shaped around the perfect globes of her ass. Their kissing grew hotter and harder. She ground on him, and his body tightened like she’d plucked a string between his stomach and his balls.
Shit. He was going to come in his pants.
No. He shoved the pleasure away with a force of will stronger than any he’d ever summoned before.
His vow was at stake. He wouldn’t break it.
You’re playing with fire, cautioned the voice of reason.
Maybe, but I’m not going to get burned. He’d had a lot of practice holding himself in check. He could do this. He could give Jade pleasure, and he could enjoy making out with her without breaking his no-coming rule.
Encouraged, he toyed with the thin strip of satin between her delectable ass cheeks. He curled two fingers around it and thrilled at the feel of her silky skin heating the backs of his knuckles. He was less than an inch from finding out whether she was as turned on as he was. Just a twist of his wrist and a stretching out of those two lucky fingers, and he’d be there, where he’d never been before with any woman.
Would be a shame to come this far and not at least touch her. Jade was special enough to share this with. He was frigging twenty-seven years old. He ought to know what a woman’s wetness felt like.
Jade broke their kiss.
He tensed. She was going to tell him to knock it off, that they were doing too much. Guilt frayed the edge of his desire. He forced his hand away from paradise and gripped her hips, an apology on the tip of his tongue.
She gazed at him with heavy lidded eyes. “Please,” she said and then she caught her lower lip between her teeth.
His breath hitched at her beauty, and he lost his train of thought. “Please what, baby?” He’d do anything she asked. Anything.
“Touch me. I need you, Emmett.”
How could he refuse her? She was the sexiest thing he’d ever seen. His heart was her hostage. His body was her servant.
Pulse pounding, he strained up to take her mouth again, and as their tongues wrapped around each other, he curled his fingers into the front of her panties and found her soaking wet center. She was slick and hot and completely perfect. Feeling her wet for him was the most sensual thing he’d ever experienced. He had to swallow back the urge to come.
Forcing himself to focus on her
pleasure, he found her swollen little clit—her moan told him he was in the right place. So did the way she started writhing on him.
Her enthusiastic response was every bit as intoxicating as the pleasure pounding through his dick.
“More,” she breathed.
He obeyed, pushing a finger into her drenching heat.
This wasn’t sex. It was comfort He was just comforting her. As long as he kept his pants on, he wasn’t breaking his rule. He wasn’t sacrificing his vow. He could do this for her without coming.
And if she came, it was only because she really needed it, needed him. That was nothing to feel guilty about. It was something to feel proud about.
She sat up and rocked herself on his finger, eyes locked on his, approving, loving. She might not have said the L word back to him, but the proof of it was there in her gaze.
He added a second finger to the first, and she began whimpering in time with her rapid breaths. Being the cause of those sharp little mewling noises sang to everything male in him. His cock pounded behind his zipper in unbearable pleasure-pain.
But he had to bear it. Or throw away his vow. He couldn’t deny he was more tempted than he’d ever been, but he wasn’t ready to break, yet.
She ground herself on his fingers, wordlessly asking for more.
He grit his teeth and gave her what she needed, thumbing her clit while he pumped in and out of her. “I want to give you this. Come for me, baby.”
Chapter 22
Joshua’s stomach turned with nausea at the scene on the bed. Taking the shadow form that still felt so natural to him, he had blended into a dark corner in Emmett’s room to watch over Jade and assist her if necessary. At the moment, necessary was an understatement. Not only had Mercy clearly overpowered his charge, but she had wasted no time seducing Emmett.
Already, the blessing around Emmett’s home was weakening. It remained in place only because Joshua was shunting his own power into it. But if Emmett took the final step and joined intimately with Mercy, no amount of angel interference would sustain the blessing. Draonius would enter the house.
Then, to put it colorfully, all hell would break loose.
It would be best to keep the blessing intact. Joshua had enough to deal with at present, including standing by in case Mercy shoved Jade out of her body. If he wasn’t there to catch her essence, she would disperse and die. Since she was his charge, he must protect her above all other duties, including fighting Draonius and protecting Emmett. There was only so much one angel could do.
Which was why he thanked God for the gift of technology.
In his hands were two modern devices, one of which he’d swiped from the kitchen counter, and the other from Nick’s bag before he’d left. Using his mastery of air and energy, he brought up Nick’s name on the screen of the first gadget and “sent” the call. Then he lowered the volume control and discreetly placed the device on the bedside table without the two on the bed noticing. He switched the other device on and placed it on the stairs.
Jade hadn’t been strong enough to relay her message to Nick. He prayed he wasn’t too late to do it for her.
* * * *
Nick’s phone rattled in the cup holder. He was at the Dunkin’s down the street from Emmett’s for a caffeine infusion and thought about ignoring the call since he was eager to hit the road and get back to his apartment in time to get in an hour or two of studying. But it might be Ali. He handed his money to the window guy, took his iced vanilla and straw, and pulled up to answer.
The display showed it was Emmett. Hoping Lisa hadn’t backed out, he pressed talk and said, “What’s up?”
What he heard instead of Emmett’s voice made his blood run cold. The sharp moans of a female engaged in sex.
“What the hell? Hey, Em? Emmett! What’s going on, there?”
More moaning. Could that be Jade? Were they having sex and his buddy accidentally made a phone call when he took off his pants?
“Emmett!” he yelled.
There was no response other than more moaning, sharper and faster. Then Emmett’s voice, telling Jade to come for him.
His heart dropped into his shoes. He’d been gone less than ten minutes and his buddy was breaking his vow.
“Damn it!” Keeping the line open, he set his phone in the cup holder beside his coffee and floored the accelerator. He raced out of Dunkin’s and drove the mile and a half to Emmett’s in record time, praying it wasn’t what it sounded like, hoping it wasn’t already too late for his buddy.
* * * *
The bedamned blessing was holding. Given Emmett’s obvious lust, it should at least be weakening, but Draonius couldn’t detect even the slightest wavering of power.
His talons gouged the bark of his perch as he glared through the window to the candle-lit lovers’ nest. Mercy was doing her part. He couldn’t fault his seductive little witch. But the bloody believer still had his trousers on. It should be his cock inside her, not his fingers. He should be fornicating his brains out, eradicating the blessing. But for some incomprehensible reason, he resisted.
This wouldn’t do. Draonius was weakening by the minute just holding on to this wretched bird’s carcass. She needed to speed things up. Or they’d both be damned.
He coughed a warning caw, but Mercy didn’t seem to hear it. She had her head thrown back, and she was kneading her own breasts. Her moans cut through the still night. She was about to find sweet completion.
The seduction was necessary, but a sharp cut of jealousy took him off guard. She was enjoying her role to the point of forgetting her master. How dare she? He cawed again, this time louder, a demand for attention.
She still didn’t react.
The little whore. She’d pay for selfishly taking her pleasure while he wasted away in this bloody tree. Anger ripped through him as he thought of all the ways he would punish her once he had the powerful male body at his disposal.
A sudden ear-piercing racket sounded from the road at the front of the house. It was a blaring horn, and it was getting closer.
Bloody hell. The last thing he needed was for some foreign noise to distract Emmett from Mercy’s seduction. He flew around the house to find the coach belonging to the fat man screeching to a halt nearly upon Emmett’s doorstep. The man propelled his massive form out of the coach at surprising speed.
“Emmett!” he yelled, running for the door so hard his ridiculous hat tumbled from his head. “You better not be doing what I think you’re doing!”
This believer would not upset his plans. He tucked his wings and dove, aiming for the target of the man’s great towhead. He would taste blood this night, and it would strengthen him.
* * * *
If Jade had control over her eyes, she would be crying with frustration.
This was her body, damn it! She did not want this. Emmett might still have his clothes on, but he was an idiot if he thought this wasn’t breaking his vow.
This was sex.
He was having sex with her. And she had to stop it before he lost more than his vow. Technically he was still a virgin, but from the way his hips were moving under her he was lost to Mercy’s whims. If that bitch could tempt him to do this, she could tempt him to go further. And she knew from Mercy’s memories what the witch would do to Emmett at the peak of his first-ever orgasm with a woman, the same thing she’d done to Joshua—shove a knife into his heart and hand him over to a demon, body and soul.
No way was Jade going to let that happen. Not to the man that had just told her he loved her. Not to the man she was pretty sure she loved back.
But her strength was no match for Mercy’s. She’d tried the brute force method of taking back her body, and it hadn’t worked. She’d tried wresting control of her mouth and begging Emmett for help, but Mercy had retaliated so strongly, it had been all she could do not to get hurled out of her body into that awful wind.
But she wasn’t giving up. There had to be some way to get the upper hand.
An idea stru
ck her. Mercy was under her skin. It was time to return the favor.
She called up in her memory the dream in which she’d watched Draonius kill Mercy. Concentrating on Mercy’s pain and her sense of betrayal from that dream, she thought, You really trust him not to hurt you again? She visualized Draonius’s huge winged demon form. His teeth. His claws. Do you really think he’ll be any more careful with Emmett’s body than he was with Joshua’s?
Mercy had been on the verge of climax, but Jade’s words pulled her back.
Draonius loves me. He won’t hurt me.
He loves himself more. She was getting to the witch. If she kept it up, Emmett might figure out something bad was going on. He will hurt you again. It’s what he does. He uses women. You’re just another victim to him. The conviction in her voice came from years of observing the selfish a-holes her mother had wasted her time on.
A flash of anger licked her like fire. “Stop it,” Mercy said out loud. “You don’t know him.” She gave a violent mental push.
Jade dug in her tendrils with the last ounce of her strength, willing Emmett to realize what was happening. She hung on, barely.
His fingers stopped moving inside her even though Mercy kept riding them. His voice strained, he said, “Did you say stop, babe?”
She felt Mercy’s confusion and jumped on it. “You don’t want this, Emmett. Remember your vow,” she said in a rush.
“Damn you! Get out!” Mercy shrieked, taking back control of her voice.
She felt Emmett withdraw his fingers from her body. She heard him say, “What’s going on, hon?”
Damn you! Mercy shrieked inside her head. The witch blasted her with rage. Frigid wind ripped her from her body.
Chapter 23
