by Brenda Huber
And she was right there with him, moving, holding him tight, demanding more. Somewhere in the dark recesses of his mind, he felt the connection—the bond between them—strengthen and intensify. What once had been important to him, if for no other reason than the binding ceremony they’d shared, suddenly became unreservedly vital to his existence.
Absolute.
He would possess her. He would keep her, no matter the cost. She was meant to belong to him and him alone. Unequivocally. Eternally.
He slipped a hand beneath her hips, squeezing her bottom, pulling her even higher to meet his thrusts. Her fingers tangled almost painfully in his hair, drawing his head down. Her lips sought his. Time stood still as their bodies melded, moving as one.
He grappled desperately for some semblance of control. Scrabbled tooth and nail for it. But restraint, control eluded him. Her orgasm was, even now, coiling inside her. He could feel it. Tightening her sheath upon him with every thrust. He could feel it. At the first violent spasm of her release, he threw his head back and roared. His own release was shattering, exploding from him in wave after wave of mind-numbing pleasure. More powerful than any he’d ever experienced. He arched and jerked as he poured himself into her. Deep inside her. Thrusting to go deeper still.
The world ceased to spin. Time stood still.
And then the gentle fall.
Bracing his weight on trembling arms, he stared down at her in awe, relishing the lingering shockwaves of passion. Every muscle in his body had turned to jelly. And yet, he was invincible. Carly’s expression was dreamy. Her eyes were heavy with sated desire, her lips swollen from his kisses.
Still hard inside her, he shifted his weight, moving his arms until he captured her hands. Lacing his fingers through hers on either side of her head, he feathered gentle kisses over her brow, across her cheeks, along her lips.
And he started to move once more. Slowly, as if he had the rest of eternity to love her and intended to use every moment of that time doing exactly that. Lengthy, deep thrusts that left her blinking up at him in dazed confusion.
“I-I thought you already—”
“I did,” he confirmed, smiling at her. His hips continued the gentle, deep roll.
“But you’re still—”
“I am,” he gloated, surging his hips a little deeper. Measured and easy.
Her breath caught in her throat. Her eyes widened. “Are we going to—”
“Oh yes, tá’hiri.” He dropped teasing, nibbling kisses to her lips as his hips continued their determined, languid rhythm. “We are. Again.” He nipped her lower lip. “And again.” He nibbled her chin. “And again.” Her hips began to pick up his rhythm. Her eyes began to darken with passion once more. He sprinkled kisses along her jaw as he rocked inside her. He thrust deeper, his lips tugged at her earlobe.
And then he whispered against her ear, “All. Night. Long.”
Chapter Fifteen
Carly woke to the soft strokes of Niklas’s fingers over her breasts and stomach. His warm lips and wicked tongue toyed with the pulse beating at the base of her throat. Yawning, she stretched, feeling decadently sensual. She was boneless. A mass of sated, languid pleasure.
“Good morning,” he purred against her skin.
And then, before any niggling kernel of awkwardness could germinate, his lips found hers, teasing away her shyness, and his hand slipped between her thighs, stirring her passions. Again.
“Good, oh, morning.” She sighed when he let her up for air. He nibbled at her earlobe. How could he set her body aflame so quickly? Somewhere in the wee hours of the morning, she’d lost track of the number of times they’d come together. She now knew his body better, perhaps, than she knew her own.
She was positive he’d mapped out and staked claim to every inch of hers.
“Sweet Christ, I can’t get enough of you,” he murmured as he moved over her, positioning himself at her core. His kisses deepened, drugging her mindless, as he slowly filled her. “I could happily spend the rest of eternity inside you,” he growled against her lips, thrusting into her.
Niklas captured her cries of pleasure and ruthlessly pushed her up one peak after the next, until she clung to him in helpless surrender and sobbed his name. Only then did he let go and hurtle them both over the jagged cliffs of release.
Luxuriously sated, she wrapped her arms around him, cuddling him close when he dropped his head to the curve of her shoulder. His big chest heaved against hers. A sheen of sweat slicked them both.
“You know, you might have warned me,” she murmured against his hair.
“About what?” he asked, his voice heavy. She wasn’t the only one who hadn’t managed much sleep last night.
“That demons are insatiable in bed.” She gasped as he dragged a calloused palm over her sensitized nipple.
At last, he lifted his head and grinned at her, unrepentant. “Oh, but I did. Don’t you remember? I believe I said, ‘Again. And again. And again.’”
Giggling, she batted his shoulder.
The kiss he gave her then was incredibly tender. When he released her lips, she smiled up at him and traced the line of his jaw with the tip of her finger.
“So what’s on the agenda for today?”
“Today, hmm. Gideon is following up with the coroner’s office in the next county over. A warehouse was discovered with over a dozen—” He broke off, seeing the expression of horror that must surely have been etched upon her face. Clearing his throat, he hurried on. “Xander’s going to be shadowing the nest, trying to find out whatever he can about what’s going on there.”
“And Sebastian?”
“He’s going to work on the location of the scrolls and, hopefully, pick up a lead on the Chosen One as well.”
Already, she could feel the warm comfort of this morning slipping through her fingers. “And what are we going to do? Work on a trap for Ronové? You know, I was thinking about that yesterday. I think, if we could lure him out into the open—maybe use me as bait—”
“That’s not even an option, so get it out of your head right now,” he admonished, his body gone suddenly stiff.
“But—”
“No! I will not allow you to place yourself in danger.” Softening his expression, he dropped a peck to her lips, adding, “Besides, I already have plans for the day.”
Before she could ask what his plans were, she found herself standing in the tiled shower under a hot spray of water. Niklas reached over her head and snagged the shampoo bottle. Within minutes, they were both covered in rich, fragrant lather, writhing against the shower wall, their bodies locked in a sinuous embrace.
A long while later, after a cozy breakfast in the kitchen, one that Carly had insisted on making herself, Niklas took her by the hand and led her from the house.
“What about those other demons?” she asked, eyeing the far edges of the tree line where they’d been attacked.
“It is safe. Trust me, I would never allow you to be put in danger,” he said, his words warming away the sudden chill of worry. “We’ve reinforced the property boundaries with special stones and wards from Kyanna, Xander’s woman.”
“She sounds very powerful.”
“She is. Far more than she ever realized, I think.” He gave her a wolfish smile. “Xander is very protective of her. He doesn’t like to let her out of his sight for long, and is a real bear when it comes to her safety. Once we have eliminated the nest near here, I’m sure you’ll have the chance to meet her.”
She wondered that he didn’t see the parallels between himself and his friend.
They wandered over the farm, poking into this and that, hand in hand. They explored the hayloft in the old barn, and the machine shed, and the overrun area fenced off for a garden. And they talked. Well, mostly she talked, and he listened.
“My mother used to have a huge garden much l
ike this one,” she told him as she bent to pluck a wild strawberry. “She worked out there for hours and hours on end, but she loved every minute of it. We’d can most of the produce. And she’d make jellies and jams with the fruit.”
“You miss it.”
“Yes,” she replied simply. And, for once, when she spoke of her mother, there was no pain. Only a fond smile.
As if sensing she’d turned an important corner, Niklas became the insatiable inquisitor. By the time the sun peaked, he’d managed to pry all manner of information from her. Every highlight of her life had been laid bare for him like an open book. From her first lost tooth and the first time she’d ridden a bike, to her first kiss.
They meandered across the meadow, where Carly stopped in her tracks and blinked. There in the middle of an ocean of wildflowers lay a plaid blanket and a basket. She glanced to Niklas. He smiled, slow and easy. He’d been doing a lot of that today, she realized. Smiling. Effortless. Unburdened.
“A picnic?”
“If you’d rather, we can go back to the house.” He gave a small shrug.
“No, this is wonderful. Perfect.” She turned into him, cupped his cheeks and pulled his head down to offer him a tender kiss. Her fingertips caressed his face as she gazed into his eyes and whispered, “Thank you.”
He tugged her down beside him, settled on the blanket, and laid a feast before her, smiling as she delighted over each dish. He fed her grapes and chocolate-dipped strawberries. They spoke of places she’d like to see. And places he’d already been. They drank champagne.
Carly caught him watching her. Again. His stare was so intense, so full of awe that heat filled her cheeks, and she dipped her head. “What?”
Without a word, his expression unchanged, he took the glass from her hand and set it aside. He lifted her hand and pressed light kisses over her knuckles. By the time he nibbled at the inside of her wrist, she was breathless…and naked.
Beneath the cotton-candy clouds and the baby-blue skies, with the rustle of grass and the scent of wildflowers surrounding them, he gently pushed her back and leaned over her, blocking out the sun. Niklas took her on a sensuous journey, savoring every curve, mound, and valley of her body, leaving no inch of her untouched, unkissed, unloved. Her heart trembled at the lavish tenderness he poured into each kiss, every caress.
He didn’t speak. No words were necessary between them.
But the way he looked at her…
With such heat in his gaze. Such longing and hunger. As if she was something precious. Something he couldn’t live without.
His wonderfully skillful lips wrung sighs from her as he sampled her flesh. The tender skin on the inside of her elbow. The ticklish spot at the base of her spine. The sensitive place at the nape of her neck that sent shivers quivering through her entire body. The curve of her knee. The inside of her thigh. He nuzzled against her belly. He paid homage to her breasts until they were heavy and so sensitive that the mere brush of his breath across their turgid nipples made her arch her back and whimper.
Niklas trailed kisses—alternating between playful and sensual—over her entire body. And when his mouth took her, possessing her deeply and thoroughly, she cried his name and trembled.
Only once she was sated and dreamy did he turn her over on her stomach and pull her up on her knees. He played the head of his erection along her still pulsing, slick cleft. Carly moaned aloud, instinctively arching her back, tilting her hips in invitation. In plea. Groaning—the first sound he’d made since beginning this erotic foray—he took his thick erection in hand and slowly fed it inside her from behind, filling her, pushing deeper and deeper, sinking all the way to the hilt deep inside her womanhood until she gasped aloud, fisting her hands in the soft blanket. The pressure was enormous. Hot. Pulsing.
He flexed, making his shaft jerk inside her sheath. Moaning, she tried to swivel her hips, but he grasped them firmly, holding her still. Holding her completely at his mercy. She couldn’t see his face like this, but she could feel the conflict in him, feel him fiercely grappling for control, and it heightened her arousal.
His fingers tightened on her hips. And then he moved.
A slow rotation of his pelvis. Grinding himself inside her, as if seeking to gain every last bit of contact he could get. Reaching below her, he splayed his hand on her chest and drew her up until her back pressed against him.
Now she was truly helpless, knees spread, fingers gripping the sides of his thighs, relying solely on Niklas for balance. He wrapped one arm around her waist, low across her hips. The other rode high across her rib cage, just beneath her breasts. He tucked his chin into the curve of her shoulder, nuzzled her and purred.
Gilded sunshine poured over her naked flesh, warming her front as Niklas seared her backside. Drawing a deep, appreciative breath, she smiled. Happy as she’d never been before. All around her, colors exploded. More vibrant, more real than she’d ever seen them. The verdant grasses. The lush trees. The cheerful hues of the wildflowers. She’d never walk through another meadow without thinking of Niklas and this exact moment in time.
His chin nudged the side of her face until she turned her head. And still he didn’t speak. His lips captured hers, and he ravished her mouth as his hips began to flex and rotate. His shaft withdrew, almost to the tip, only to return, caressing her tight sheath, made all the tighter by the position he held her in.
She sank her fingers deep in his hair. The arm at her waist shifted. His big, calloused hand slid across her belly and down between her legs. She expected him to touch her, to caress the nub of her womanhood to send her careening into the beyond. But he didn’t do that. Instead, his fingers spread at her entrance, parting her, feeling where his shaft drove in and out of her over and over—feeling where they were joined, as his palm cupped her, massaging her at last.
He didn’t simply make love to her with his hands and his mouth, with his entire body. Niklas worshipped her. She knew she’d never be the same again, and it was all because of this incredible, sensual, multilayered demon.
Her body took over, driving thought from her brain. Her senses revolved around Niklas as he continued to hold her mouth captive, and the touch of his hands, the caress of his body around and inside hers.
And when he finally allowed her release—when he finally granted her a shattering, soul-branding orgasm—Carly cried softly, and he drank her whimpers in. Only then did his body go rigid behind her. His arms tightened around her, almost—but not quite—to the point of pain. And he groaned into her mouth as his shaft jerked and pulsed, pouring searing heat deep inside her.
Niklas drew her down on the blanket with him. Still buried inside her, he cradled her in his trembling arms and wrapped his body around her. Weak, gasping, she closed her eyes and savored the moment.
For a time, she forgot about Ronové and the threat hanging over her head. She forgot about the relics Niklas and his friends needed to find so that some rebellious demon couldn’t overthrow Lucifer and overrun the world. She even put aside her worries over the troubling way Niklas seemed to have lost his focus on returning to Heaven.
She only thought of this wonderfully romantic, whimsical side to an otherwise serious and purpose-driven Niklas. He’d tucked a daisy in her hair. And though he’d refused to read poetry to her or debase himself in any other equally sappy form of courtship, he’d made love to her with an aching tenderness and then tucked her against him, holding her as if he’d never let her go. They lay on the soft blanket in the middle of the meadow and watched the clouds drift by. Niklas rubbed his cheek against her hair, trailed his fingertips over her belly and pressed kisses along her brow.
The afternoon was better than any fantasy.
“Have you ever met this Asher guy?”
“Demon,” Gideon corrected with a benevolent smile. “Asher is a demon mercenary, darlin’, not just your average snitch off the streets.”
Wringing her hands together, Carly paced the length of the living room. Niklas had left her in Gideon’s care once more—although this time with a smug smile on his lips and nary an ounce of jealousy in his kiss.
She glanced at her watch. Almost six hours. What was taking him so long?
Had he walked into a trap? Oh, dear God.
“You don’t think this Asher might have lured him into a trap—”
“Darlin’, Niklas knows what he’s doing.” He stretched his long legs out in front of him, propped his booted feet on the coffee table and crossed his arms behind his head on the back of the sofa. “Now, why don’t you come over and sit down. Watch some TV, try to take your mind off Niklas and just relax for a spell.”
Why bother? She was too restless and worried. Relaxing wasn’t even on her radar. For the hundredth time, she glanced out the window, peering unappreciatively at the magnificent streaks of magenta and orange snaking across the evening sky. Where was he?
Gideon belted out a hoot of rich laughter, his sparkling amber eyes glued to the TV hanging above the mantel. “Lord, I love this show.” He chuckled once he got his breath back.
She glanced absently at the screen. Another sitcom. Gideon had been watching them all evening. He seemed to be trying to meet a lifetime quota of comedy all in one evening.
He laughed again uproariously. Though she’d missed the joke—the voices from the TV having been reduced to nothing more than background noise for her—she caught a glint of moisture in his eyes. He held his side as his laughter died to chuckles once more.
Adorable dimples. Dancing, amber eyes. A grin that could tempt the habit off a nun. The man was the very definition of sex. But to her, Gideon was nothing more than a sympathetic friend. Brilliant, utterly ruthless when it came to chess. Granted, he’d had a few more centuries to practice than she’d had, but still. He was a strategist to the bone. She’d never seen him in his other state, and—perhaps because of that exact reason—she often had trouble reconciling the fact that he wasn’t human.
