But despite the desperation, there was no rush. They had a hundred lifetimes ahead of them and there was so much to savor. The rough passion in his kiss, the gentle strength of his hands sweeping her length. His fingers teased her nipples to aching hardness before slipping down to grip her backside and lift her against him.
He carried her across the broken pavers to the bed.
Taylor moaned, anticipation surging with every step. His mouth never left hers as he made his way to the center of the courtyard, and there was nothing in the world like his kiss, the thrust of his tongue, the heat of his mouth, the humming from his throat. Drowning in it, she clung to him as the realm tilted around her—then settled again, with the bed soft against her back and Michael hard above her.
“Andromeda.” Groaning her name, he tore away from the kiss, then tasted her jaw, her throat, his mouth open and his tongue hot.
His heavy weight settled between her legs, her thighs cradling his hips. She vanished her clothes, loving the delicious slide of skin against skin, every inch of hers flooded with pure sensation. Her toes curled against the backs of his knees before dragging up the length of his strong thighs. Her hands smoothed over his shoulders, fingers tracing the soft down at the base of his wings, catching her breath when he rolled the dark mass of feathers forward against her hands. His lips at her breast, Michael trembled again, though their wings weren’t more sensitive than any other part of their skin. It must not matter where she touched him—just that she enjoyed touching him.
No problem there.
Hungrier now, he returned to her mouth. His fingers slid between them, found her slick and wet. Just a light, quick stroke over her clit, teasing her until she moaned her frustration, but his touch didn’t become any harder—just faster.
Then faster.
Oh, God. Her spine bowing, she cried into his mouth. His thumb vibrated over her clit, his long fingers sinking deep. Stretching her, filling her. His hand pumped to the rhythm of the thrust of his tongue past her lips, everything wet and slick and the courtyard echoing with her ragged moans and the rapid beat of her heart. Until even that receded, the sound muffled by the ecstasy enveloping her, like the silence before an explosion.
Then it detonated through her, a shock of heat and clenching flesh. Her every nerve a lit fuse, she cried his name, her body arching beneath his. No longer kissing her, Michael watched her face, drinking her in.
And still watched her as he pushed her hands over her head. Just as before, exactly as he’d promised to take her, but with a bed at her back instead of stone. Fist braced beside her shoulder, he poised above her body, still wracked by the lingering shudders of her orgasm. Aching with renewed need, Taylor wrapped her legs around his hips and drew him closer. The blunt head of his cock slid through her delicate folds, her flesh slick and sensitive.
He looked down at her, his eyes black and flat and hungry. The dragon’s gaze.
“Michael,” she whispered.
“I am here.” And his voice was his own. “I won’t hurt you.”
Though her flesh was so vulnerable like this, it wasn’t the thought of physical pain that frightened her. Michael held so much more than her body in his hands.
“I know.” Her legs tightened around him. “I trust you.”
The glow of warm amber flashed through the black. The muscles of his back flexed as he rocked forward. Taylor rose to meet him, crying out as he entered her slowly, sharp pressure building before suddenly breaching her entrance, her body yielding around his thick shaft.
For an instant, he stopped. Their eyes locked.
Then she moaned with him as he began sliding deeper. Her name rose like a reverent song between their lips, then his mouth covered hers and it was a hum instead, filling her with the melody as insistently as his body did. Oh, God. Fierce emotion wedged in her throat and stung her eyes. This wasn’t anything like she’d imagined; it wasn’t anything like he’d shown her on the beach. There was so much more of him to take. Not just his body or his kiss, but the darkness of the wings surrounding her, his sheer strength, his hunger, and the thousands of years that had brought him here to her bed. But she wanted all of him, would take all of him.
Because he was hers.
And yet there was still more of him, thick and deep, filling her to the edge of discomfort—not pain but a wild, vicious pleasure and acute, sharp need. A fierce cry escaped her as she took him completely, and he wasn’t kissing her now but just watching, watching. Stark need and intensity darkened his face.
Breath ragged, she returned his gaze. Pinned again. Her wrists over her head, her hips to the bed. His cock deep inside her.
Taylor loved it all. “Michael.”
“Andromeda.” His voice was deeper, darker. As if he were at the edge of his control.
She’d gone over the edge of hers. Desperate for more of him, she tried to lift her hips. “I need to move.”
“But I want to watch you come like this.”
A laugh of pure frustration burst from her. “I’m not going to come if you don’t move.”
His teeth flashed in a sharp, wicked grin. His head lowered to her breast. Bracing his weight on the hand pinning her wrists, he pushed his other hand between them. He latched on to her nipple at the same moment his thumb began to vibrate against her clit.
“Oh, fuck!”
She shouted the curse, her back arching. The movement pushed her breast deeper into his mouth but it was the only movement she could make. Agonizing pleasure sheared her nerves, paring away her perception until there was only the throbbing heat of her nipples, the torturous bliss of his thumb, and his thick cock lodged deep inside. Involuntarily her inner muscles clenched around him, her body clinging to his. Sweet suction at the tip of her breast pulled her tighter, and the world narrowed again with every draw of his mouth and stroke of his thumb, until she could only feel Michael inside her, so deep, her body trying to hold him tighter and tighter, so desperate for release that pleasure became pain. Sobbing breaths shook through her chest as she writhed beneath him, her torso rising and falling and twisting, and there, there, her wild undulations shifted her along his cock a fraction of an inch but to her needy flesh it speared through her like a full-length thrust. Violently she came, her nipples like fire and Michael groaning her name.
Then he was moving, surging into her with every beat of her heart, every clench of her sheath. His mouth found hers again, his kiss slow and deep. Releasing her hands, he cupped her jaw in his palm, no longer holding her down. Simply holding her. As if cherishing her every response, cherishing her.
Her heart swelling, Taylor slipped her arms beneath his, her hands sliding up his back to grip his shoulders. Holding him close, so close. Not just inside her, but skin to skin. Need built again with every slow and long and endless thrust. His kiss deepened as she neared the peak, as her fingers tightened helplessly on his shoulders, and he held her as she went over.
But he didn’t go with her.
Determined not to stop until he did, Taylor pushed against his chest. He went easily, rolling onto his back, his black wings spreading across the white sheet. She sank onto his shaft, her head falling back with a moan before she caught herself. Not this time. No coming until he did. Planting her hands on his chest, she began a slow ride. With a deep hum of pleasure, Michael arched up beneath her, muscles rippling with the movement. So beautiful, with his skin flushed a dark bronze and slick with perspiration, his eyes glowing a steady amber. She increased her pace, his heart pounding beneath her palm, his hands urging her faster and faster, his big body rising to meet her with each roll of her hips. Oh, God. And he felt so good. Her fingernails dug into his pecs and he jerked upward and plunged deep, as if that small pain was the greatest ecstasy, and she tried to hold on to her control, but then he groaned her name and she lost it, her body rocking in a wild race to oblivion, then clinging to him as an orgasm destroyed her senses again.
Trying to catch her breath, she collapsed onto his chest, his
cock still hard and thick inside her. As if soothing her trembling form, his hands smoothed a trail from her thighs to her ass, then higher, his fingers lazily tracing her spine.
Several minutes passed before she managed, “You didn’t come.”
“Do you think we’re done? We still have hours left.”
His easy reply left her smiling against his shoulder. He must be taking a rest for her sake. Like his, her Guardian’s body wouldn’t succumb to physical exhaustion. She’d never be sore, never tire, even if they went at this for days. Yet pleasure had wiped her out.
But not him.
Her smile faded. She fought the niggling disappointment that he hadn’t lost it, too—and the niggling fear that even if Michael was hers, she wasn’t enough for him.
As if he sensed the small battle inside her, his hand paused on her back. “Are you all right, Andromeda?”
“Perfect.” Because she shouldn’t be sorry for his control, not from someone so strong. She knew that. It was just her heart, being stupid. “I’m just a little surprised. I thought the dragon would be all rough. You know, the ‘mount me from behind, be merciless no matter how I beg to come’—that kind of thing.”
A quiet laugh rumbled through his chest. “That part of me wants to possess you in every manner. And it is in complete agreement with the rest of me.”
Maybe that was what he needed to go over, then. Hard and rough. “Would you like it?”
Because Taylor knew that she definitely would.
“Yes,” he said.
“Even the merciless part?”
“Any way that brings you pleasure.”
She turned her head, nipped the bronze skin stretched over his heavily muscled shoulder. “You saw my fantasies. I don’t have many boundaries.”
“And I do not have any.”
Abruptly, he vanished. Without his body supporting her, Taylor dropped to the bed on her stomach, briefly stunned. Then the mattress shifted behind her and strong fingers gripped her hips and dragged her up to her knees. A hard hand between her shoulders bore her down to her elbows, her cheek pillowed against the bed.
Callused fingers slicked through her sex. “You wish to be mounted? I will mount you, then.”
His harsh threat brought a rush of wetness and heat between her legs. Shock and need made her breathless. Her fingers curled in the sheet. “Oh, my God.”
“Ask me for it, Andromeda.”
Fisting the base of his shaft, Michael slid the wide tip through her folds, dipping into her with every stroke past her entrance. She tried to push back, to take him in, but his hand at her hip held her fast.
“Michael—”
“Beg.” His voice was dark, an echo from the abyss.
“Oh, my God. Take me. Please.”
He slammed forward. His thick shaft plunged deep, filling her all at once. Her scream of pleasure echoed through the courtyard.
Darkness swamped her vision as black wings folded around her. His heat seared her back as he leaned forward, the movement embedding him deeper inside. Powerful fingers threaded through her hair, pulled her closer to his voice at her ear.
“Do you wish me to be merciless as I take my pleasure?”
Heart pounding, she rasped, “Yes.”
“I already have been, Andromeda. I should make myself smaller for you, make it easier. But you take me as I am. And I can’t give that up.”
Already deep, he pushed harder against her, spreading her knees wider. Crying out, she took him to the hilt, her senses exploding in a dizzy whirl, the roughness of his voice her only anchor.
“And I can’t give up the opportunity to know your response, to feel you around me. Holding me inside you, so tight.” Palm cupping her chin, his fingers splayed across her cheek, his thumb pushing between her lips. “With your wetness all over me—and wetter every time you come. Every time you do, that is for my pleasure. Because I can’t wait to lick it up when you’re done.”
Oh, God. Beyond words, she bit his thumb, her body shuddering.
With a groan, he withdrew—his hand still at her jaw, the other hard at her hip. Sliding out of her, then hauling her back over his steel length. Taylor moaned with helpless ecstasy, and knew he was watching her body yield to his endless penetration. She’d expected a hard fuck but it was slow, slow. Relentless. And she’d expected to beg for every orgasm, but that wasn’t Michael’s idea of merciless. His merciless was to bring her more pleasure than she could bear.
So that he could give it to her. So that he could watch her come, again and again.
His fingers slipped around her hip to her clit. Bucking against his hand, she cried out even before the vibration started. And he was merciless in this, too. Fucking her faster now, her mind a haze of pleasure as she rolled from one orgasm to the next. Michael bent over her, surging into her with sharp, hard thrusts, and she went wild against him, determined to push him over until his teeth in the back of her neck sent her reeling.
Spinning, like teleportation. But it was just Michael, sliding out of her body and gently turning her over. Then sliding down.
Licking her up.
Completely spent, lethargy unlike anything she’d ever known made her limbs feel like golden liquid, as if she were made of nothing but the pleasure that coursed through her body with every stroke of his tongue.
But her heart was heavy, and she wanted to cry. “Michael.”
His reply was a hungry groan.
His hunger, never ending. And she couldn’t satisfy it.
“Michael.” She tugged at his short hair. “Stop.”
He did, kissing his way up her belly as he rose over her, then her breasts, taking a long, slow path.
God. She loved him so much. No wonder this was killing her.
He must have sensed it. His big hands cupped her face. Looking down at her with amber eyes, he swept his thumbs across her cheekbones. “Did I hurt you?”
“No. But you never let yourself go.”
“I told you I would not.”
“But . . . you’ve come before. Maybe not in a long time, but before.”
“Yes.”
That was real pain. Not just an ache, but a slash through her heart. She pushed at his shoulder, tried to roll him off of her.
But he only went over and pulled her atop him. His hands caught her waist, held her in place. “I do not lie when I say that you give me more pleasure.”
“Okay, but obviously it’s not enough pleasure. Because I’m trying to get you there, too. But I lose it on the way. I just go wild for you—and I want you to feel the same way.”
“I do, Andromeda. You affect me as no one else ever has. And I want you more than anyone from my past. Infinitely more.”
“Then why do you hold back?” Frustration sharpened her voice. Because he’d said he was hers. Hers. But he wouldn’t give her that. “I thought you would actually take me before you left. Like, fuck me right there against the stone, and come inside me. But when you returned, it was like a wall had gone up inside you. Like everything changed while you were gone.”
And something was wrong. His body had tensed beneath hers, and the light in his eyes dulled. Not to black, not flat. But as if something within him was burning out.
Pain and fear suddenly gripped her heart in a tight fist. “Michael? Look, I’m not saying this was bad. You blew me away. Sex has never been like this for me. But I’m not here with you just to come. I could get that from a vibrator. But I’ve never felt this way about anyone and I just thought . . . you would want more, too.” She’d been so sure that he did. So what was wrong? “Are you afraid of jumping into the abyss? Of that destruction when you hit bottom?”
Oh, God. She recognized the torment on his face, the frozen wasteland it made of his beautiful features. His silence was terrifying her.
Desperate, she cupped his jaw, tried to warm him with her hands. “It’s okay. We’ll try again. Maybe not this week, because so much is going on. But maybe the next. Heck, maybe we’ll just prac
tice fifty thousand times. I wouldn’t mind.”
His throat worked. When he spoke, his harmonious voice was a painful scrape. “We won’t have fifty thousand times. Or next week.”
“What?” Heart pounding, she slid off him and onto her knees. The finality in his statement had been unmistakable. This was ending. “Because of Lucifer?”
Wordlessly, he shook his head and sat up. For a second, his wings blocked her vision of him, then he was standing beside the bed wearing his tunic and loose pants.
Feeling suddenly naked, utterly vulnerable, she formed a big shirt. “Do you know something we don’t? Did Lucifer already create the portal?”
“No. We still have to stop the sentinels. And if we don’t, we will stop him from breaking through to Chaos.” His body rigid, Michael closed his eyes. “But I won’t be with you again after that.”
I won’t be with you again after that. Each word was a bullet through her chest. She shook her head, too stunned to feel the pain yet.
But she knew the hurt was coming soon. “Even if we win?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
A struggle seemed to move across his expression, as if it were a battle just to speak. “I will be leaving.”
“Where?” Her mind raced, trying to understand. Where would Michael go that he couldn’t easily come back from? “Or do you mean leaving the Guardians?”
“Yes.”
“Forever? Or just taking a break?”
“Forever. As soon as Lucifer is stopped. As soon as you are safe.” His voice had flattened, and now his face was like stone. “You will be fine. You have many good friends so you won’t be alone.”
But she wouldn’t have him. “So why won’t you stay? Are you bound by a bargain? Is this what we talked about the first morning after I woke up, that after a few weeks you would never bother me again? Because I never thought of that as a bargain. I even said I wasn’t agreeing. That I’d just think about it.”
God. She was babbling, on the verge of begging, but she didn’t try to dial it back. She didn’t care what it took to keep him. She couldn’t lose him now.
Guardian Demon (GUARDIAN SERIES) Page 49
