Ordinary Charm

by Anya Bast

  “God, I thought you were dead,” she said. Tears filled her blue eyes.

  He pushed up into a sitting position and drew her to him. “I’m fine,” he murmured as he stroked her hair. “I have a damned huge headache, but I’m fine.” He held her face in his hands. “Are you okay?” She nodded.

  “What happened? I was walking into Millicent’s and then, bam, there I was in this little white room with the demon, then you showed up.” She looked at him, bewildered. “What the hell happened at Millicent’s, Cole?”

  “Well, first, Ashmodai possessed you. Then he led me all over town on a merry chase. We ended up here.”

  She shuddered. “Oh, my God!” Her eyes widened and she sat up. “Did he age me?”

  He leaned forward and kissed her. Arousal instantly tightened his body in a vise. Cernunnos was still riding him hard. He pushed his lust away.

  Now was not the time for that, goddamn it.

  Still, it battered at him. He stood and walked away from her, though it pained him to do it. He couldn’t even bear to touch her, be anywhere close to her. Cole turned toward her, but didn’t let her see his eyes. He knew they’d betray what he wanted from her. “No. You’re young and beautiful, as always. I suspect your OtherKin blood protected you from that. Are you all right?”

  She nodded and seemed to practically shake with rage. “Bastard!” she cried. “I thought he wasn’t supposed to be able to possess the OtherKin.”

  He glanced at her, instantly noticing her lips, and the way her short glossy black hair swung with her movements. The scent of her skin teased him. The way her full breasts rose and fell with her breathing almost made him insane.

  No. He wasn’t going to do this. Not now.

  He walked away from her. “It’s pure OtherKin he can’t possess, the Sidhe and the shifters. He can possess witches and mages because of the diluted blood.”

  Serena stood and brushed her skirt off. “How’d we end up, um, wherever it was we ended up? That white room?”

  Cole stopped in the middle of the floor and looked at her. “I don’t know. I think Ashmodai created some kind of fold in the fabric of reality.”

  She looked at him and gasped. “Cole…your eyes. They’re solid black and there’s little bolts of green energy crackling through them.”

  He bit the inside of his bottom lip until he tasted blood and closed his eyes for a moment before he answered her. “I expended a huge amount of magic separating Ashmodai from you,” he carefully. “There’s pressure in me now that needs release.”

  “So…what do you need to ease it?” she asked in a soft voice.

  He fixed her with a heavy-lidded gaze. “What do you think, darlin’? I want you. Fuck, I need you. But now is not the time nor place for that. Especially not for the thoughts I’ve got running through my head. You were just stuck in a fold of reality with a demon who had every intention of raping you with a dick that would’ve ripped you in two. The last thing you need from me is lust.” She had his love, too, but he didn’t think she was ready to hear that part yet.

  She took a step toward him and he fought the urge to step back. Serena didn’t know how uncontrolled he felt right now. If she touched him, that might be it. He didn’t trust himself not to lay her out on the floor and take her right here.

  “Yeah,” she said. “But he didn’t rape me, Cole, and I’m a lot stronger than you think.”

  “Hell, baby, I know you’re strong. But if you knew the things I want to do to you right now…” he trailed off and groaned as the images of everything he wanted from her flashed through his mind. He was going to combust if he couldn’t bury himself in her soon.

  She licked her lips. “How bad is it?”

  “How bad? Bad enough for me to imagine me pinning you to this filthy floor right now and stripping every bit of clothing from you. Bad enough for me to want to press you down face-first, spread those pretty rear cheeks of yours and take you in the ass. Bad enough for me to want to tie you up and take you over and over until you lose consciousness. I want you more than I ever have. But I’m not giving in to it. I won’t take you here, right now. I’m not an animal.”

  “Cole—”

  “I am not an animal.” He gritted his teeth. “I can control this. I can control Cernunnos.” He turned on his heel. “Come on, let’s go.”

  * * * * *

  Serena wasn’t so sure he truly could control the ancient god within him. Cole’s eyes sparked and shimmered black and green. Every muscle in his body seemed tense. His gaze was hot and focused clearly and intently on her. He worried she was traumatized by her recent experience and a part of her loved him for it. By all rights, she should’ve been traumatized, but aside from being really pissed that Ashmodai had taken her body for a damn joyride, she felt okay.

  She felt scared, too. She couldn’t deny that. Having an evil entity take over your person wasn’t exactly a reassuring experience. Hell, having a demon try to rape you didn’t exactly make you feel warm and fuzzy, either.

  “We’re closer to my house than yours,” she said. “Let’s go there. We can work from there. It’s far more private than your condo anyway, and I think calling a demon forth requires a bit of that.”

  He nodded, reached out to touch her, but then withdrew his hand. “I can’t touch you right now. Not in any way.” Cole looked like he was on the edge and would snap at any moment.

  “Okay. It’s okay, Cole. Let’s just relax, all right? Do you want me to drive?”

  His nostrils flared. “No. Maybe it will help me focus my attention on something other than you. Anyway, I have Millicent’s car. You should drive that one.”

  She almost opened her mouth to say she really didn’t mind his attention being focused on her, but she knew he was fighting this. He needed to prove to himself that he was not a slave to Cernunnos, and that he was in control of his body and his responses. Personally, she thought he should get used to the fact that Cernunnos was a part of him now. Cernunnos would be a part of him forever, but he needed to come to that understanding on his own.

  And, damn, she could handle anything he threw at her. Not only that, she’d be more than happy to do it.

  They left the factory, and he followed her to her house.

  They pulled up the long driveway and Serena could see flashes of her home through the trees. It was such a welcoming, comforting sight. Feeling relieved, she parked Millicent’s sedan and walked up the porch stairs. Cole was right behind her.

  Her cats were all fine. She did a headcount as soon as they arrived and refreshed their water containers. After she was done filling the last one—with seven cats, you had to have more than just one—she turned to find Cole leaning up against the kitchen doorway, his still solid black gaze on her.

  He looked like he was holding himself back with effort. His eyes were heavy-lidded and his body tense. If she hadn’t known better, she would have said he looked drugged. Every single thing he wanted to do to her seemed to blaze in those eerily lighted black eyes. Her body responded with a shudder of pleasurable anticipation.

  She drew a breath and her courage with it and looked him straight in the eye. “You know, you don’t have to fight this. I’m not fragile. I can take anything you can dish out, Cole.” She canted her hip and tilted her head at him. “Not only that, I want to do it.”

  His whole body tensed. “You don’t even know what I’m thinking about right now, darlin’.”

  She narrowed her eyes and walked toward him. “Why don’t you show me?”

  Green sparks flickered through his eyes at her invitation. “You don’t know what you’re—”

  She grabbed his jeans and undid the button roughly. “Take them off.”

  “Serena.”

  “Do it.”

  “I don’t want to hurt you.”

  “You won’t. What? Do you think I’m freaking made of china or something? I’m not going to break.”

  A crackle of green flickered through his eyes and then seemed to explode ou
tward. She watched as the green consumed the black. In spite of herself, she took a step backward. With a growl-like sound in his throat, he went for her.

  As soon as his hands fisted in her hair and his mouth came down on hers—consuming her gasp of surprise—heat erupted throughout her body. Literal heat. He was so hot he was burning up.

  But the heat he kindled within her was all sexual.

  He pulled away and tipped her head up so he could stare into her eyes. “Baby, you don’t understand what you just invited,” he rasped.

  She didn’t blink. She only put her hand over the pulsing bulge in his jeans. “Yes, I do.”

  “Ah, fuck, Serena.” He pulled her shirt up and off up at the same time he pushed her back against the kitchen table. “You had to do it. You had to go and touch me.”

  “It’s all I want to do, Cole. Haven’t you figured that out yet?” Somehow, she got her glasses off and set them on the table. Then there was just a mess of hands. Serena struggled to pull his jeans down at the same time he struggled to get her panties off. Finally, she managed to free him to her touch.

  She stroked her hungry fingers up and down his length, a low groan of desire bubbling up from the back her throat. Pre-come had beaded on the wide, plum-shaped tip. She spread it over the crown of his shaft, enjoying the slickness of it. At the same time, she nuzzled his throat, enjoying the scent of him and the feel of his stubble against her skin.

  Serena slid down his body and went to her knees. It was time for her to taste him. She licked the head of his cock and his hips thrust forward.

  Cole twined his fingers through her hair and ground out her name in a low, guttural voice. He sounded desperate. On the edge.

  With her tongue, she explored the mushroom-shaped crown of his cock, tasting the bit of come that beaded on the top. He tasted musky, delicious. She wanted more of him. Widening her mouth, she sucked in the head of his shaft and cupped his balls in her hand.

  Cole groaned and fisted his hands in her hair. “Ah, baby, I can’t take much of this.”

  She slid as much of his length into her mouth as she could and twirled her tongue over his silken steel skin. Serena closed her eyes as she started to draw back and push forward. Every time she drew him back into her mouth, the head of his cock hit her tonsils. She wished she knew how to do that porn star trick of deep-throating a man, but she’d didn’t. She had to be content with laving over as much of him as she could stuff into her mouth.

  When she’d been with Brian, she’d never wanted to do this to him. She’d never wanted to feel him climax in her mouth the way she did with Cole. She’d never wanted to feel Brian’s come hit her throat the way she dreamed of feeling Cole’s. All she wanted was to taste Cole, feel him shudder under her hands and lips and know that she’d done it all by giving him this long, deep kiss.

  But she wasn’t going to get it. At least not this time.

  “Get down on the floor, Serena,” he rasped. He pulled her away from his cock and pushed her down to the linoleum. Cole followed, kneeling down beside her. His hands went to the edge of her skirt. It ended up bunched around her waist. They both went for her bra at the same time, bumping hands. He unclasped it and slipped it off her. As if he couldn’t resist, he palmed her breasts, toying with the sensitized nipples. Serena bit her lip. His hands on her made her pussy throb.

  She tugged at his shirt and he pulled it off. When he lowered his mouth to her breast, she felt the hard brush of that lovely expanse of muscle against her stomach. She twined her hands in his hair as he sucked a nipple into his mouth.

  He groaned in the back of his throat as he teased the hardened nipple back and forth. At the same time, he parted her thighs and pressed a finger into her. “I’m going to fuck this sweet pussy so damn hard you’re not going to be able to walk for a week,” he rasped.

  She gasped as he added a second finger and twisted them until he brushed his fingertips against her G-spot. His thumb teased her clit.

  “Tell me how bad you want me to fuck you, Serena. Tell me.”

  “I-I want you to fuck me, Cole. God…I do.” She shuddered as he continued to stroke her. His pinky strayed down to her anus and caressed all the little nerves there, making them jump to life.

  “I’m gonna take you here, too, baby. Right here.” He pushed the tip of his pinky into her nether hole. “You ready for that?”

  “Anything,” she groaned. “Cole, I just want you to take me.” Her pussy was dripping, she was so excited. “I don’t care where. I don’t care how. I just want to feel you inside me.”

  He pulled his hand back and pushed forward, creating friction in both her pussy and anus at the same time. Her eyes nearly rolled back in her head at the delicious sensation of both places being stimulated in tandem. She gasped.

  “Do you like that?” he purred.

  “Uh-huh,” she managed to push out.

  “Has a man ever taken you from behind?” he asked as he thrust in and out of both her orifices.

  She shook her head. “No.”

  “Are you afraid?”

  She tipped her head up so she could stare into his eyes. “Never with you.”

  Cole pulled free of her and came down over her body, one hand on either side her head and took her mouth fast and hard in a near bruising kiss.

  He pulled away and set his forehead to hers. “Serena, Serena,” he repeated. “I wanted this to go slow. I wanted the next time we were together to be filled with what I feel for you. Ah, baby. I wanted us to make love.”

  Pleasure that had nothing to do with the erotic act they were performing suffused her. She put a hand to his cheek. “Anytime we’re together it’s making love, Cole.”

  He kissed her again. His tongue speared in, tangling savagely with hers as they fought each other, dueling for who could get their tongue deepest into the other’s mouth. She felt the press of his cock against the slick folds of her pussy, asking for entrance. Whimpering into his mouth in her need, she parted her thighs as far as she could in welcome.

  Come on, she chanted in her mind. “Fill me up, Cole,” she murmured against his lips. “Make me feel alive and fully in my body again.”

  He surged into her, seating himself inside her to the base of his cock. Her spine arched as she came hard. Being sheathed around that thick, long member had pushed her over the edge. Her body trembled and shook from the force of her sudden climax.

  Cole stayed thrust up deep within her as she convulsed around his length. He buried his face in the crook of her neck and groaned, long and low. Then he reached down, grabbed her ass in his big hands and started to shaft her. Pleasure filled up every tiny bit of her world.

  She bit his shoulder and dug her fingers into his upper arms as the long, hard length of him slid in and out of her. He did it so devastatingly slow. She’d expected it hard and fast, not this mind-blowing, leisurely pace. She could practically feel every damn vein of his iron-hard cock rubbing against the walls of her pussy as he thrust in and out.

  He pulled up, grabbed her wrists and pinned them to the floor on either side of her head. “Oh, baby, fuck, you feel so good,” he groaned. “So damn sweet, so tight around my cock.” His base, erotic words and the rasping, needful tone of voice he said them in made every muscle in her body tense to come again. He lowered his mouth to her nipple and rasped his teeth over it. The tiny bit of pain coupled with all the pleasure made her lose herself to him again. She cried out. This time when pleasure overwhelmed her, it almost brought unconsciousness along with it. Darkness spotted her vision as Cole pulled yet another climax from her body.

  He pulled free of her and sat back, rubbing his hand over his cock that was glistening wet with her juices. He stared at her with hooded eyes. “Turn over, baby. Turn over for me. I want that sweet ass of yours.”

  She didn’t move, mesmerized by the look of possession in his gaze. A touch of apprehension flitted through her. Serena swallowed hard.

  His eyes flashed dangerously. “Don’t fight me, love. T
hat would be a bad move right now. Just give me what I want.”

  She turned over and he grabbed the waistband of her skirt that was bunched up around her waist and yanked it down and off. He urged her to her knees and she put her head down, offering herself to him in the most intimate of ways.

  He groaned and rubbed his hand over one of her rear cheeks. “So beautiful. Part those pretty thighs as far as they’ll go,” he ordered.

  She did it and felt so open, so exposed, so unalterably and completely his. That alone was nearly enough to make her come.

  “God, you’re dripping for me. So wet,” he rasped. She felt his fingers sink into her pussy. “You’re so hot here, Serena. I wish you could feel what I feel. All those silken muscles rippling around my fingers.” He thrust in and out.

  Serena closed her eyes and moaned.

  “All those little noises you make that let me know I’m making you feel good,” he murmured. “It’s so gorgeous, baby. You’re so unbelievably perfect.”

  “Cole, please, I want your cock.”

  She felt his fingers slip free of her and the head of his cock press against the opening of her pussy. “You want this, baby?”

  “Yes,” she breathed. “I can’t get enough of it.”

  He pushed into her and came down over her back. She felt the hard, perspiration-slicked expanse of his chest against her spine. He buried his face in her throat as he pumped his rigid shaft into her. His breathing was harsh in her ear.

  “I’m not going to come this way. Are you going to be ready for what I want next from you, baby?” he asked.

  “Anything you dish out, I can take, Cole,” she said in a shaky voice. “I told you.”

  He rose up and dug his fingers into her hips, driving his cock fast and hard into her wet, suctioning flesh. Every stroke reverberated through her body. She lay her hands flat down on the tile of the kitchen floor and pushed back at him, driving him further into her body with every stroke.

  He dipped his fingers down, coating them in her slippery juices, and then rubbed them over the tight entrance of her ass.