Tempting the Dark

by Michele Hauf

  Jett sighed as she imagined him holding her with his wide, strong hands. His mouth sought hers and then explored her skin, gliding, skimming, licking and tasting. Her nipples hardened and she pressed her legs together to capture the giddy shimmy at her mons. It was a delicious fantasy. And before she realized it, the darkness in her moaned with pleasure.

  She did not relent the fantasy. It was too rich and something she’d never had. A man willing to please her and not ask anything in return. Someone she had chosen and not the other way around. A man—not a demon—whose gaze could melt her and make her heartbeat race. A man.

  She so desperately wanted that man.

  Shaking her head out of the dream, she emerged from the reverie and looked about. This sort of fantasizing was well and fine, but she’d best target her energies toward Savin when he was here. She must do everything possible to make him forget where she had come from and what she was. It could prove a monumental task.

  She was always up for a challenge.

  In the meantime, she was bored sitting in this small place. She needed to start her new life. And the best way to do that?

  Her gaze fell on the brown envelope with the family papers inside. Jett pulled out a few, and when she touched the bank statement, she nodded. If she could find this bank, then they might tell her if she had an account and, if so, some money. It was what she required to become independent.

  Chapter 14

  Savin noticed as Jett paused before crossing the threshold into his home. He’d reactivated the demon wards upon returning home from his landlord’s office but had forgotten to lessen them. It must take incredible energy for her to pass through without being torn apart or, at the very least, writhing in pain. Truly, she must be powerful.

  A queen. Just how much of Jett was demon and how little of her humanity remained? It disturbed him, and yet it did not. And that realization worked to even further disturb him. Had he become so jaded to demonic existence?

  “I can take the wards down,” he offered as she closed the door behind her and stood in the cool afternoon quiet of the kitchen.

  “That would be lovely for me, but not for you. You need protection from those who wish to harm you.”

  “Most demons know to keep a good distance between the reckoner and them. And I don’t fear you.”

  “You should not,” she said, meeting his gaze. Her smile was easy and so comfortable.

  It was difficult to compare what she’d told him about being queen of Daemonia with the sweet, beautiful woman who stood before him now. Dressed in a soft red blouse and gray leggings, she exuded a feminine sexuality. He knew Jett was more human than demon. She had to be. He’d grown up knowing her. They had been best friends. And even now he couldn’t push aside the need to protect her. To want to pull her close and know her. He desired her, no matter what species box she checked on a form.

  Was that insane? She was demon. At the very least, part demon.

  But if she spent enough time in the mortal realm, she would become completely human again. With hope.

  “What are you thinking?” she asked. “Do you want me to leave? After all I’ve revealed I wouldn’t be surprised if you wished to put up new wards specifically against me.”

  “I would never do that, Jett. Where were you?”

  “Oh! I walked to the bank and asked about my account. It does exist and there’s money in it.”

  “How much?”

  “That’s the problem. They could tell me I had an account but wouldn’t give me access to it without identification. Driver’s license or something with my current photo on it, like a passport.”

  “Both will take some time to get. I could—” Savin rubbed his jaw “—find a guy who would make a passport for you.”

  Her smile twisted. “That sounds sketchy.”

  Savin shrugged. “I’m a sketchy guy. What can I say?”

  Her sudden laughter reminded him of better times. He’d once thought of her teasing voice as cotton candy, and the laughter that bubbled up was surely a treat. Savin couldn’t resist crossing the room to pull her into his arms. He threaded his fingers through Jett’s hair and kissed her hard and deep. He didn’t want to hear any more of her truths. The reasons why he shouldn’t have her in his home. He wanted only to feel her heat against his mouth and his body. He wanted her in him and all over him. He wanted to get lost in her hair and skin and sighs.

  Jett’s palms slid under his shirt, gliding slowly up his chest and then around his back. Her nails dug in, which sweetened the intense moment. With a lusty groan, he slipped a hand down her thigh and around to cup her ass. That sweet, rounded softness in his hand encouraged him to press his growing erection against her groin. He was rushing toward his wants. The moment demanded he show her how he felt about her.

  And this was what he wanted.

  “Savin, yes,” she whispered at his mouth. “But are you sure?”

  “I’m never sure of anything,” he said. “Just following my heart right now.”

  “I can do that, too.”

  “You want this?” He moved his kisses over her cheek and to her ear. “Tell me this touch is okay. My kisses. And...more?”

  “Yes, a thousand times, yes. I need you, Savin. Let’s have sex.”

  With that permission, he lifted her and she wrapped her legs about his hips. He strolled through the living room but paused by the supporting beam and nudged her against it, holding her there as the kiss demanded all his attention.

  The woman’s legs tightened about his hips, urging him closer. The exquisite rub against his hard-on drew up a pleasurable hiss from him. He kissed her deeply, with an urgency that showed her his need. Hell yes, he craved. Jett knew who and what he was. As he did her. They were going into this with eyes wide-open. And he was good with that.

  He pushed up her silky shirt and she clawed at his shoulders. The sweet pain gave the Other a shudder, but he ignored the bitch. She would not interfere this time. He would not allow it. To do that, he focused on the smell, taste and sounds of Jett. She was summer and flowers tinged with an edge of wicked. Her moans spurred him on. He rocked his hips against her.

  “Take off those jeans,” she said with a gasp and a demanding tone. “I want to feel you against me.” She wriggled from his clutch to stand and shoved down her leggings. “I want you inside me, Savin.”

  It wasn’t a polite request. Savin preferred his women bold and to know exactly what they wanted. And this one did.

  Shuffling down his jeans, he hugged his stiff cock against her soft nest of curls and groaned at the exquisite contact. “Jett, you’re so hot. Are you sure...?”

  “Quit asking me that. I am very sure. Inside me. Now!”

  Resisting the intense inward tug that cajoled him to step away from Jett, Savin leaned into her, putting everything he had into moving toward her and never away. Screw the Other. This was happening.

  With a grip of his cock, he glided inside the lushest, most delicious heat he’d ever known. The world changed. He groaned low and long against Jett’s neck as he nuzzled his face into her hair. Closing his eyes focused all senses to smell and touch. Sweet, hot, wet energy. Lost inside her, he pumped slowly, then faster as her tight hug pushed him over some edge he didn’t mind falling off.

  This was his plunge into the lava falls. It had finally come to him. And he leaped freely and with arms spread wide to accept whatever dangers might come.

  Gripping a hand at the back of his neck, Jett squeezed his hair tightly. “Yes, deeper. All of you, Savin. Don’t stop. That is so... Ah!”

  She shuddered against him. And he realized she had reached orgasm. How wondrous that she had. He normally had to work much harder to get a woman off. And that allowed him to release. With one firm, deep thrust, he came with a gasp—and then he had a sudden and intense need to pull out.

  Savin pushed away from
Jett, who clung to the wooden beam behind her. Had it been the Other? Or merely his better senses rising to the surface?

  “Sorry,” he gasped. “No condom. Forgot. Shit.”

  Jett nodded, huffing as she rode the lingering wave of her pleasure. Her breasts heaved within the dress. Her hair spilled messily across her rosy cheeks. “Right. That is something humans—Er, you have a condom?”

  He nodded. “Bathroom.”

  “Then we’re just getting started,” she said in the most wicked and confident voice Savin had ever heard.

  * * *

  Savin had rushed to the bathroom and returned with a couple crinkly condom packages. It hadn’t been a concern for Jett while in Daemonia. Demons had their own methods of birth control. Now, without missing a beat, they quickly returned to their frenzied lovemaking, this time on the bed. Gasps and moans were accompanied by the incredible freedom of skin upon skin, mouths tasting each other, heartbeats racing heartbeats.

  When at the peak of orgasm, Jett felt the other demon inside Savin. When she sat upon Savin’s hips, his cock fully hilted within her, and her body tremored with the most lush and unexpected bliss, a niggle of darkness shivered and tried to claw at her.

  He called her the Other. She lived within Savin’s body, inhabiting it, but not his soul. It was difficult for a demon to overtake a human’s soul. Nearly impossible. However, if his soul had been occupied, then Savin would not even be Savin anymore. He would be whoever it was that was inside him.

  Yet Jett wasn’t able to delve deep enough to make that determination. And, honestly, she was too lost in the pleasurable moment to stop and attempt to dig deeply into Savin’s being to learn that answer. She could do it. And she would. She wanted to know who and what lived within him. That was one determined—yet complacent—demon to have stuck around inside him for so long.

  Lying down beside her lover, she kissed his shoulder and hugged him across the chest as the last delicious bits of orgasm pulsed in her belly. He smelled salty and fierce, his muscles tensing and relaxing in turns as his own orgasm played out. What an exquisite beast of a man lying beside her.

  “That...was good,” he murmured. The man panted, but his breathing grew more relaxed. How quickly he began drifting to a blissful sleep.

  Would Savin let her step into his being and have a look around? Probably not. All manner of things could occur if Jett did such. She could learn things about him he’d rather no one discover. She could touch his soul, even. No human who knew what was up with such powerful magic would allow that. And Savin was a smart man.

  And what would knowing prove? The demon was incorporeal. It could feasibly inhabit Savin forever. And, apparently, he’d developed a means to accept that, to even get along with the parasite. But the morphine he used so often could not be good for him. Even if most was sucked up by the Other, it was injected into his system. She hated that he had to use drugs to quiet the demon. He would be infinitely better if it were gone.

  Jett would figure out who it was and, from there, could determine how to get her out. Because no other woman was going to dig her claws into her man. Savin was hers now. The sex had rocked her world and had connected them on a new level. They had moved beyond mere friends. She’d orgasmed...so many times. Never had she been brought to such a pinnacle. Treated as if a goddess. As if she was the one her lover had wanted to please, never mind his own pleasures.

  And that was a good thing.

  Savin’s tight biceps pulsed against her arm as he moved a little. His deep, throaty exhale sent a delicious shiver over her breasts and ruched her nipples.

  Eyes closed, he slid a hand over her stomach and his thumb smoothed the underside of her breast. The man’s growl hummed in Jett’s throat and lungs. It felt like a universal signal. One that she answered with an arch of her back and a nudge of her shoulder against his.

  “You feel like everything I’ve ever dreamed about,” he said softly. “This is good, Jett. The two of us.”

  Indeed.

  He nudged his head against her shoulder and kissed her arm. Then he quieted, perhaps drifting into reverie once again. Lying beside him was the only thing she desired. Ever.

  Chapter 15

  Savin whistled while he dried off after a shower. Jett had gone out to collect something to eat for them. He had told her to take the credit card from his wallet. And he felt on top of the world. He wasn’t going to make excuses for feeling this way, either. He hadn’t felt this good in a while. He’d made love with a woman he cared about—who happened to be half demon. Life went on. If anyone wanted to argue against that, he dared them to stand up and show him their teeth.

  Tossing the towel aside, he strolled naked into the bedroom and sorted around in the drawer for some jeans. His uncombed wet hair dripped down his back, so he pulled up his jeans, then sat on the bed and lay back, wriggling to wipe his back dry. He was a guy. So sue him.

  The front door opened and he peeked around to see Jett. He’d left the wards down purposely, knowing she’d be gone only a short while. She blew him a kiss and he caught it.

  And then he lay back again and closed his eyes as he listened to her sort through a bag and set things out on the counter. He’d just caught an imaginary kiss from a demon.

  Half demon, his conscience corrected. And someone who had no intention of remaining that way.

  She had been a queen, though.

  What the hell are you doing, man? Do you know what you’re doing? Or are you love struck, following your cock instead of your brain?

  He honestly hadn’t done that in a while. Hell, had he ever felt this way? Jett felt familiar to him, comfortable. Not like other women he’d met and had dated or with whom he’d had short-term relationships. She accepted him for everything that he was, including the Other within him. He could be open and honest with her. As she had been with him.

  He sat up, wondering what the implications of a queen leaving Daemonia could mean. Did they know she was gone? If she had escaped, that would imply probably not. At least, not right away. Surely, they’d noticed her missing by now. Would they come looking for her? With the rift at a tenuous hold, what would a panic over a missing queen bring to this realm—and to Jett?

  He rushed out to the kitchen and asked, “Are they after you?”

  Jett set down a carton of apple juice beside a plate of fresh pain au chocolat. “They?”

  “Your subjects. The inhabitants in the legion you ruled over. Did you...rule over them?”

  She set a pastry on a separate plate for herself, then walked around him to sit at a stool before the counter. With measured confidence, she poured a glass of juice and took a sip before speaking. “I ruled. In a manner. I was more a figurehead. Someone who represented our legion and whom the subjects could bow to. But I did have authority. And I was meant to...”

  “Yes?”

  She set down the juice and sighed. “I had to get out of there now because plans were being made. I’d been put on the throne for more than the purpose of a figurehead. I was to breed.”

  “Oh, fuck. Jett. I’m...”

  She shrugged. “I didn’t want to tell you that, but I trust you. And after last night...”

  He kissed her temple and bowed his head to her, so thankful that she had escaped. “You’re safe now. I promise.”

  “I hope so. Do you really think...they will come after me?”

  “I’m not sure. It was a thought that suddenly occurred to me. Doesn’t Daemonia need a queen? And if they wanted you to breed? You said the former queen took you as a replacement. Maybe that was her only means to escape. Ensuring that another queen was in her place. Who will take your place?”

  “I don’t know. And I don’t care.”

  “I can understand that, but...maybe you should care, Jett. Was there a scion, someone who would take your place?”

  “No.”

&nbs
p; “Well, I gotta think that the queen who took you did it for a reason. Maybe the same thing? She didn’t want to be made into a breeding machine?”

  “I know otherwise. She’d tried but was barren. She was not treated well after that fact was discovered. Which, I imagine, was her motive for making an escape.” She took a few bites of pastry, giving it some thought. “You think I should fear capture?”

  “You shouldn’t. I will protect you.”

  “I am quite powerful. I can protect myself. But I won’t disregard your offer of protection. Such a handsome man standing beside me as my champion?” She stroked her fingers down his bare chest and tucked two in at his waistband. “Will you be my champion, Savin Thorne?”

  “Yes,” he said without consideration. “I’m here for you, Jett. I...” He looked aside. The realization suddenly rose and it hit him hard.

  “You?”

  He clasped her hand. “I wasn’t able to save you when we were young. I will not stop to save you now. I promise you that. I’m capable. And I’m strong. I know how to protect you. I am your champion, Jett.”

  She stood and kissed him, then pressed her hand over his heart. “I accept the offer, bold one. Now eat. And then? This queen desires more from you.”

  “More?”

  She glided her palm over his quickly hardening erection. “Yes, more.”

  * * *

  After a quickie on the couch that had led to a longer lovemaking session in bed, and then another against the bathroom vanity, Savin was feeling the champion. In a manner, anyway. Jett had asked if they could spend the day together, doing something—anything—that would not remind them of who they were, what darknesses lived within them. For they both harbored a darkness they’d rather not contain. And Savin had heartily agreed.

  Now he and Jett stood at the top of the world, or reasonably close, as they looked down over Paris from within the Plexiglas-shrouded topmost level of the Eiffel Tower.