by C. J. Parker
Derek tossed his shirt to the floor, sat on the toilet and lifted his legs so she could pull the pants way. As she wrapped the thin sheet of plastic she’d found in the linen closet around his thigh, the warmth of her hands spread to his groin. His penis grew hard and his heart raced. He tried to think of something else. Pain. That usually worked. Not this time. “Shit.”
Tabatha lowered herself onto her knees. She looked into his eyes and leaned in to brush her lips across his. “Before or after?”
He swallowed hard. What the hell was he doing? “Before or after what?”
“You want me now or later?” She kissed him again, but this time her mouth was demanding, her tongue teasing his into action.
“My leg.” He gasped for breath.
She jerked away. “Did I hurt you?”
The fear in her eyes broke his heart. This woman loved him, even after the way he’d acted earlier. He had to make a decision. He couldn’t string her along. Did he love her enough to release the obsession with Elizabeth? “No. I meant I don’t think I could... you know.” A flood of heat rushed into his face. It was bad enough he’d lost any hint of self-respect having to let a woman undress him. Hell, now he’d suggested he couldn’t make love to her.
Her eyes strayed to the bulge in his underwear. “Oh, I think you can. I’ll get on top,” she whispered and slowly maneuvered between his legs again.
He loved a take-charge woman.
Her mouth slid down his neck, kissing a trail to his collarbone. With each touch of her warm lips on his throat, tremors traveled over his entire body. She worked her hand under the waistband of his briefs, finding her target. Her hot hand surrounding him, her lips playing their game of seduction, combined to drive him mad. His balls tightened. He gritted his teeth against the need to come.
“Jesus, Tabatha, stop.”
She trailed her lips across his taut nipple. “You only have two options—before or after the shower. Stopping isn’t a choice.”
He glanced around him in a panic. “Here? On the toilet?” This just was too surreal. This was something out of a teenage dream. A wet dream if he wasn’t careful.
Tabatha smiled seductively, removed her hand from his briefs and stood. “My bedroom?”
His mind racked up reasons why this wasn’t a good idea. “What about Bertha? Rhonda? Bobbie? Shane?” He sounded more frantic with each name. What was wrong with him? He had a beautiful woman all over him and he was looking for excuses to push her away.
“Bertha went home. Rhonda took Shane to her mother’s house. Her mother is taking him to Disney World for a week. Rhonda won’t be back until later tonight. Bobbie went out. Said she had business to take care of and that she’d be home before midnight. She called Travis to take her, so she’s safe.” Tabatha smiled down at him. “We’re alone.”
Derek groaned, a desperate sound even to his own ears. He’d run out of excuses. “Tabatha...”
She placed her finger over his lips and shook her head. “Shhh. It’s what I want. No strings. I don’t expect forever. Just here. Just now.”
He didn’t want just this one time. He wanted forever with Tabatha. He found the strength needed to push himself up, using his one good leg to stand before her.
Still on her knees, her lips pressed against his hardness, only the thin material of his underwear separating him from her mouth. His whole body shivered at the thought of those lips wrapped around his erection. He grasped her arms and pulled her to her feet. Her body pressed against him, her hungry eyes staring into his were all that he could think about. His groin cramped with his need.
Tabatha stepped away and placed his arm over her shoulders, leading him out of the bathroom and to her bed. “Lie down.” Her voice washed over Derek like a caress.
He lowered himself onto the bed and drew her close. With shaking
fingers he released the button of her jeans and pulled down the zipper. He slipped his fingers under the denim and panties to cup her bare bottom. Her warm skin sent a rush of desire right to his cock. He snuggled his face into her firm belly and inhaled her scent of roses, soft and warm, calling out to him to eat her alive. Slowly, Derek forced the jeans and panties down to her knees. The skin of her stomach, firm but soft, was white from lack of sun. He lowered his gaze to the triangle of silver-white hair between her legs. Why did everything about her invite eating? He darted his tongue into her belly button then down the center of her lower stomach to the edge of her pleasure. She gasped with a sudden inhale of air.
Tabatha braced herself on his shoulder with one hand while working her clothing off with the other, first the jeans and panties, then T-shirt and bra. Finally, she stood before him naked, breasts heaving with each breath, her eyes boring into his. Her nipples were hard. Her slender waist invited his hands to possess her. His erection threatened to explode with its need to be inside her warmth.
“Touch me, Derek.”
Though his body shook with need, he forced himself to slow down, be gentle, when all he wanted to do was throw her down on the bed and devour her—bury himself so deep inside the hot, wet core of her passion, he’d make her scream with pleasure. Instead he gently brushed his fingertips over her breasts. Smooth as silk and just as precious. He drew her face closer.
She released a shivering sigh. His tongue slid over her lips, leaving behind a shimmering moistness he longed to feel against his own lips.
“Lie down, baby.” There was so much passion, need and trust in her eyes. Derek thought of stopping, but things had gone too far. He maneuvered himself onto the bed, positioning himself at her hipbone. Derek kissed her gently on the lips. Her arms wrapped around his neck drawing him closer. Her breathing quickened.
“Open up for me, Tabatha. Let me taste you.”
She did as he asked, and Derek lowered himself between her legs, thrusting his tongue against the swollen nub of her womanhood. Her alluring, musky scent mingled with her slightly salty taste. She whimpered, clawed at the sheet with white-knuckled desperation and screamed his name. He slid his finger into her and her hot, wet grip, tried to draw him deeper. He wanted to crawl into her body and soul. Back and forth, he worked in and out of her. Tabatha’s lower body rose from the bed. Her inner muscles grasped his finger. She screamed, and her orgasm flooded her with wetness. It was nearly his undoing. Derek held his breath and struggled against the need for his own release.
He kissed a sensual trail up Tabatha’s body before she rolled to her side to face him. When he drew away, he gazed at her. The blue of her eyes had darkened to the color of the Caribbean Sea and held an intensity that almost frightened him. Could he love her in all the ways she deserved to be loved?
“Tabatha?”
“Shut up.” She kissed him, leaving him breathless and his body screaming for release. With slow deliberate movements she worked her lips down his throat. The pulse in his jugular increased in pressure. Her wet tongue lashed out to each nipple, before sucking one tiny nub into her mouth and biting gently, sending shocks of pleasure coursing through his bloodstream.
Tabatha slid lower, down to his bellybutton, darting her tongue in and out in a seductive mock of what was to come. His erection jerked as if reaching out to her mouth’s allure.
She rolled from the bed, looking down on Derek.
He reached for her. “Come back here.”
She shook her head and whispered, “No,” before walking to the foot of the bed. He couldn’t believe it. She was going to leave him like this? He tried to push himself to a sitting position. She lowered her mouth to his ankle, kissing first up one leg then the other until she stopped just short of reaching his throbbing erection. He was past reason or sense. If he could get his hands on her he’d throw her on the bed and make love to her until she was senseless. She wrapped him in her hand gently caressing and massaging. Smiling, she touched her mouth to his erection and allowed him to glide slowly past her lips.
The moist heat of her mouth was nearly his undoing. His dick was to the point of
painful need. He gasped for air, as a tingling numbness gripped his whole body, sure that he would faint like a silly girl if he didn’t fight the eruption about to explode from the head of his dick.
Tabatha released her hand from him and drew him deep into her mouth, then deeper. His whole body shook. His nerve endings sent little shocks to the tip of his penis. Sucking with her lips, licking and probing with her tongue, she sent him to the edge. His dick thickened and throbbed. His endurance was coming to an end.
His intake of air was like the gasp of a dying man. “Tabatha, please.” He didn’t want to come in her mouth. He wanted to drive his dick deep into her warm, wet core.
In a lightning quick move he slid his erection from Tabatha’s mouth, pulled her on top of him and guided himself inside her. Her warmth surrounded him like a wet cocoon—tight, smooth and caressing.
She moved with urgency, bringing him out nearly to the tip of her entry then taking him deep inside her once again. He waited for her downward movement to plunge upward, meeting her every move.
She threw her head back and gasped before the walls of her body tightened around him. Her body shivered. The tips of her nipples jutted out. Goose flesh covered her breasts. “I love you, Derek.” She made a kitten like squeak. “I’m going to...”
“I love you, baby. Let it go. I’m ready for you. Oh, baby, you feel so good.”
His balls tightened, his dick expanded in width and length. The heat of his release coated the head of his erection. His groin relaxed then tightened again for the next eruption, over and over again. His body tingled before going numb. The world darkened, and stars burst inside his brain.
Tabatha collapsed atop him, breathing hard, her heartbeat thundering against his chest. “Are you trying to kill me?” She giggled.
He pulled in several breaths before trying to answer. The thought of losing her hurt down to the core of his soul. “Me? I was going to ask you the same thing. I can’t catch my breath and my heart is threatening to give out.”
As Tabatha lay against him, their bodies still joined, he began to harden inside her again and groaned. “It’s been too long. Derek Jr. wants more.” She pushed herself to sit astride him. With a slow gyrating movement of her hips, the heat of passion began to build again. His leg protested but soon the pain was forgotten. Only Tabatha’s body accepting his filled his thoughts.
A beam of sunlight broke through the clouds and past the windows, bathing them in a golden glow, adding to the warmth of their lovemaking. At that moment, his world was perfect.
Chapter Forty-One
Tabatha closed her eyes and desperately tried to hold onto the glow of peaceful happiness surrounding her. The memory of making love and Derek’s soft declaration of love was still fresh in her mind.
“Are you listening to me, baby girl?” Bertha’s voice cut through Tabatha’s reminiscences like iced coffee on a winter’s day. “A chicken won’t be a powerful enough sacrifice. It’s got to be something more...”
Tabatha jerked herself back to the here and now. “Elizabeth’s only been dead twenty years, not a century.”
The old woman’s expression hardened with disapproval, and her mouth turned down hard. “I don’t see why this can’t wait until tomorrow night. Derek shouldn’t be out wandering in no graveyard. Just look outside. The rain may be over, but it’s left behind a terrible fog, and it’s thick as my gumbo roux out there. He’s going to catch his death.”
Looking out the kitchen window, Tabatha agreed with Bertha. It wasn’t a fit night for the dead or the living.
“What can you be thinking?” Bertha scattered onions, peppers and celery into the darkening roux.
What was she thinking? That she wanted this over with. She wanted Derek to herself. That she wanted Elizabeth gone for good. “It’s the eve of the full moon. My powers are at their peak for the next three days and the dead are drawn to Luna’s power on nights like this.”
Derek entered the kitchen and Tabatha glanced in his direction. He held a black leather backpack out to her. “This will work better than that canvas satchel you’ve been carrying.”
When had he bought that for her? He’d been with her nearly all the time since they’d met at Frank’s barbecue. Her heart skipped a beat. This simple backpack meant more than a dozen roses. It meant he accepted what she was, what she could do. It had been years since a man had given her a gift, and then it had been her grandfather. “Thank you. It’s beautiful.” She swallowed hard past the lump of emotion in her throat. “Your choice. If you want to wait until the weather is better, it’s okay with me.”
Derek shook his head. “No. Now. Tonight. I’m ready.”
Tabatha eyed his reaction. Determined. Firm. Was it because he couldn’t wait to see Elizabeth? Or was he ready for this to be over too?
Bertha huffed before flinging open a nearby cabinet door and taking out two gallon jugs filled with a dark red substance. “Take this. If it don’t work, you can kill another chicken.”
Derek took the containers from her and hoisted one to eye level. “It’s warm. What is this?”
“Goat’s blood,” Bertha whispered as if afraid someone would overhear. Derek quickly sat the jugs down and wiped his hands down the legs of his jeans.
Tabatha laughed. “Don’t worry. She washed the outside of the jugs.
“Don’t get squeamish, boy.” Bertha clicked her tongue at him. “You want Miss Elizabeth raised, somethin’ gotta give blood. To raise a body gone twenty years, it’s got to be something big.”
It was enough that Derek knew what she’d done, but Tabatha didn’t think he was ready for the gory details. “He doesn’t need to know, Bertha,” Tabatha interrupted her. “Derek is ready. I want to get this over with. We need to be concentrating on the child killer, finding Missy. I want to break up the Guardians. I want to find Phelps.” Pausing, Tabatha stared hard at Bertha and hoped she was getting her point across. Bertha had pushed her to accept her grandfather’s so-called gift. This should make her happy. “This is what you’ve wanted, too, isn’t it?”
Bertha’s eyes widened. “Why would I want Elizabeth...?”
“No. But you want me to use the magic.” She glanced at Derek. His eyes lowered to his hands in his lap. What was he thinking? “You want me to build on my powers, to become strong like Paw-Paw and Daddy were. I understand that now.” Thinking hard, she began figuring things out as questions came to her. “Can I pick and choose how I use it? Yes. Can I turn down Derek? Yes. Should I? I don’t know. I love Derek. If this will make his life easier and give him the chance to move on, then I have to do this. Not only for him, but for me.”
Derek glanced up at her, then back down again. “It’s time to end this. It’s gone on long enough. I deserve to have a life.”
Tabatha swallowed the lump of emotion threatening to choke her. “Yes. You do.”
Bertha’s eyes filled with tears before she turned away. “I wish I had the power to help you, child. But I don’t.”
She had helped. Didn’t she know that? She had been there for her, loved her. “What power do you have, Bertha? I know... I feel some kind of energy flowing from you sometimes.”
Taking a deep breath, Bertha faced her. “Another night, baby girl. Now go. And, Derek, you take care. You hear me?”
“Yes, ma’am. I have a jacket in the car.” He hugged her tight. “Nothing’s going to happen to me. I promise.”
She pushed out of his arms, grabbed a dishtowel from the fridge door and wiped angrily at the counter. “Don’t tempt the fates, baby boy. And don’t make promises out of your control. Now, run on. I’ll be waiting for you when you get home.”
Tabatha saw through her angry actions. Bertha was scared for her and Derek. Tabatha hugged and kissed her on the cheek and then opened the door and made her way down the stoop. Derek followed closely behind.
“It’s going to be tough driving in this mess.” Derek’s voice sounded muted in the thick mist. “We’ll have to take it slow and easy. Don�
�t want to end up at the cemetery in a hearse.”
The sense of another person in the fog surrounded her with cold fear. Tabatha stopped so suddenly that Derek nearly knocked her to the ground.
Derek grasped her arm, steadying her. “What’s wrong? Did you forget something?”
“We’re not alone.” Dread closed around her throat like a fist trying to choke the life from her. She drew a deep breath and searched the wet blanket of air around them.
“Sorry, Detective, but that’s my girl. I’d appreciate it if you’d get your hands off her.”
For the first time in her life, Tabatha understood the old saying “my blood ran cold.” A shiver ran down her spine then back up to her brain. She searched the fog-shrouded yard for the owner of the voice, though she recognized the voice instantly.
Phelps.
“Where is he? Can you see him?” Derek whispered frantically.
She shook her head. “What do you want, Phelps? I don’t have time for your games.”
“Not a game, darlin’.” Phelps’ endearment, spoken with a low hum of anger, rushed over her with sandpaper roughness. “You’ve played hard to get long enough. I’ve got a plane waiting, and you’re coming with me.” He stepped out of the fog dressed in combat camouflage and strange-looking goggles shoved up onto his forehead, a gun in his hand. “Don’t make me force you, Tabatha. I’ve grown tired of waiting for you.”
Breathing became hard with Tabatha’s heart in her throat. She grew numb with fear. She glanced back at the house to make sure Bertha hadn’t heard and come to the door. No one was there.
Derek stepped from behind Tabatha, shielding her with his body. “You’ll have to go through me, Phelps. Tabatha is mine.” He shifted his weight from his good leg to his injured one and back again, rubbing his back against Tabatha.
She started to move away but realized, with the scrape of the butt of Derek’s gun against her stomach, that he was trying to tell her to arm herself. She didn’t relish the idea of having to kill someone else, even Phelps. Tabatha had no idea what kind of gun it was, only that it was big. She lifted it out of his holster and took a step away, aiming the gun at Phelps. “Drop it, Phelps. I don’t want to shoot you, but I will.”
