by Shelly Bell
When she reached the top, she disappeared into the darkness of the room. By the time he hauled himself onto the landing, he found her with candles in hand and a box of matches.
“You sure you haven’t been up here before?” Mitch asked as he swiped away the dust he’d collected on his pants on the trek up.
“I told you,” she said in a singsong voice, “it’s just a sense I have.”
Mitch smiled at her playfulness and walked hunched over so he wouldn’t bump his head on the low ceilings. He found a blanket in the corner and walked to the center of the room to spread it on the floor in the clearing.
After he sat down, Aurora came over with the lit candle and knelt on the floor in front of him. Her white dress had splotches of dust on it, and there were a couple of smudges on her face. She looked damned good dirty. The thoughts that ran through his mind were all of him sullying her more.
When she was settled, he stared at her. She’d taken the cups and was pouring their drinks. She passed him one and then drank hers down in one stiff gulp.
“Aurora, huh? Where’d you get that name?” he asked and downed his own shot. The burn down his throat made him fight back a wince.
“My mom. It was from a television show in the seventies. I don’t remember which one. I thought about changing it, but now that I’m older, I like that it’s kind of unique,” she said. Her hands were already moving toward his cup to pour him another drink. “Wanna play a game?” She bit her lip shyly after asking.
“I don’t know if I can stand it,” Mitch responded. He wanted to crawl all over her and was barely controlling his inner beast as it was. Every second was agony. Especially after the kiss that was more intoxicating than any of the liquor he’d drank that evening.
“You can. Call it an exercise in control.” She giggled.
“Okay. What do you wanna play?”
“Truth.”
“Truth or dare?”
“Nope, just truth. If you don’t answer, you have to take a shot. Deal?”
“Deal.”
“I go first. What are your parents like?”
“Um, my father’s dead. A Seeker killed him. My mother lives with the pack and is very overprotective since his death.” The pain of that fact threatened to bubble to the surface. Mitch caught it before it could overcome him and pressed it neatly down into his internal backpack of bad shit that had happened to him and his family because of who they were.
“Seekers hunt your kind too?” Her eyes softened in the warm glow of the candle.
“Nuh uh. My turn. Are you close to your father since . . . he’s a demon?”
She rolled her eyes, the pain in them so evident, Mitch could hardly stand it.
“I’ll drink,” she said. Instead of picking up her cup, she drank straight from the bottle.
“Okay. Your turn then,” he said. Mitch leaned onto his side, watching her. With her every action, his attraction grew more and more.
“So again, Seekers hunt your kind, too?” she pressed on.
“Yes. The pack moves every now and then, but as we’ve learned to hunt down their kind, the attacks are growing fewer,” he responded. “Are you evil?”
“I think we’re all evil to a certain degree. I just have a little harder time controlling mine,” she said.
“Let’s go a little lighter. What’s your major,” he asked.
“Theology. Ironic, right?”
“A little. Mind if I ask you why? It doesn’t seem like you’d want to study religion.”
“Call it curious. It helps me understand all this. It’s hard to be a demon estranged from other demons and not be curious, you know? Are you tired of playing this game?” she asked, her eyes somehow flashing him in the darkness beneath lowered lids.
Aurora stood before him, slipping her dress from her body. She stood before him in a black lace bra with her firm tits spilling from them and a pair of matching lace panties. He could see the print of her vulva protruding, the split of her making him hard.
“Yeah, you could say that,” he said, his voice barely recognizable to his own ears.
“Take off your clothes,” she whispered.
Had he not been able to hear so well, he would’ve sworn he misheard. As she opened the clasp on the front of her bra, he couldn’t move, even though he knew he should have been naked by then. Instead, he watched as she bent to slide her panties from her legs. In the candlelight, he couldn’t see her essence spilling from her, but he could smell the faint scent of longing wafting on the air.
When she was completely disrobed, she lay beside him. Leaning in to kiss her, he sank his fingers into the warm, lush moisture of her slit. Her body was hot and drenched. Removing his hand, he fished out a condom and slipped the package between his teeth as he hurriedly took off his pants and shirt.
“Want me to help you with that?” she asked. The shy girl look in her eyes betrayed the skillful hand resting on his cock, stroking and massaging as she purred to him.
He felt like a virgin in front of her as he nodded his head, anxious to see how she would assist him. Leaning back, he watched her rip the package open with her teeth and placed the condom between the ‘o’ shape she’d formed with her lips.
By the time her head reached him, Mitch was already struggling to control his orgasm. It was going to be a long, rough night if she could make him come with a single look. And Mitch welcomed it with open arms.
Chapter 4
Aurora took Mitch’s cock to the very back of her mouth as she rolled the condom down his shaft. The primal waves of lust rolled over her as he groaned in appreciation. His hands smoothed her hair into a ponytail and craned her neck, she assumed to see the diligence of her mouth.
It encouraged her to show him her skill level. In the days of Catholic school—back when her mother still hoped to pray the demon from her—she’d learned that the mouth was for much more than eating. She’d corrupted several altar boys in the back of the church after smoking half a pack of cigarettes.
Mitch was so good. She identified his kindness, the morality in him that radiated from inside out. Her senses cut through the bravado, misogynistic attitude to the core of his heart. If she ever were to collect souls, as her demon father hoped, Mitch would make a piss poor candidate. She’d seen his kind before. The guard to block out pain so thick no human could see through the snark and quips. No, his heart loved people, but he couldn’t allow them to get too close for fear they’d weaken him, shattered his oh-so-necessary barriers.
They would have their one night and then it would be time to move on. There was nothing good that could come from the situation, especially with her many troubles that Mitch didn’t deserve.
With one last deep stroke on his penis in the back of her mouth, she rose and pressed him backwards. Mitch sprawled out on his back and allowed her to have her way.
She crawled up his body and straddled him. The flickering candlelight danced across his face and she raised her hips to allow his cock entry. It had been several months since she’d been with anyone, and the moment the tip of his cock reached her vulva, heavy with need for him, she flinched as she stretched to accommodate his girth.
Stabilizing herself, she leaned in to kiss him once more, missing the taste of him. Aurora didn’t move her lower body for a moment, needing to get used to the full feeling of his shaft deep inside her.
He was sweet to the taste, her greedy mouth exploring him. He moaned again, mimicking her. It was one of the most erotic moments of her life, and time stilled around them as she lost herself.
She lifted her body from his chest, but before she could sit straight up on his cock, he grabbed her breasts, one in each hand, and sucked one deeply while he fondled her other aching nipple. Her core tightened around his shaft and she began to slide up and down, rocking on the arch in his penis, allowing it to massage her most erogenous zone.
Mitch removed one of his hands and ran his fingertips down her back until he reached her ass. With a gentle pop on t
he flesh first, he slid his fingertips towards the orifice and stroked. Aurora tingled, her body breaking out into a cool sweat that was hot on her skin.
“I like you, wolf-boy,” she whispered in his ear after she leaned in and nibbled on his lobe.
“And I like you back,” he said, a guttural groan following the statement.
The sound of sex interfered with their conversation. Aurora rode him, her knees grinding into the hard wooden floorboards of the dank attic. Twisting her hips, she pressed to allow him deeper, and deeper still. Mitch filled her and just when it was too much, too far, she rose and fell again, hard on his engorged, stretched cock.
His tremors shook against her thighs, triggering an eruption deep inside her and a cool sensation washed over her once more.
The quickening of her pace wasn’t something she could control. She needed his shaft inside her, the smooth gliding in and out of her body like she needed air to breathe.
The white heat between them was near blinding in its intensity. Her knees trembled along with her thighs as she tried to continue. Mitch’s hands flew to her hips and pulled her onto him, offering some type of unconscious aid to her fevered motion.
Aurora needed to orgasm before she combusted. Her heart beat in her chest as if she were running at top speed. If her brain had been working, she would have realized she was panting and writhing, abandoning the humanity she’d been struggling to hang onto.
“Aurora . . .” Mitch called out her name in a croak. His lips formed an ‘o’ with unspoken words.
“Yes, Mitch . . . I’m yours, baby . . . I’m coming . . .” The statements came out scattered, just like her thoughts. They bounced here and there, over the moon and into the dark cool night, arriving at the bright, shining sun. She was vapid and damaged, yet fulfilled and sustained.
Their heated dance ended with her in a heap on top of him and his arms wrapped tightly around her body. Her head pounded suddenly, on the right side, then the left behind her eyes.
Oh no, her subconscious cut into her moment of bliss and euphoria. All of Mitch’s sadness, loneliness and distrust of anyone outside of his pack poured into her. It was happening.
As much as she wanted to stay there forever, she knew she had no business with Mitch. She tried to move away from him, but he held her fast. She was immobile—not only was she spent, but she was trapped. It was the warmest and safest she’d ever felt. “Mitch, I can’t. I have to leave,” she gasped.
Aurora allowed herself to stay a moment longer, fighting against the urge to flee. She spread across him and listened to his breath as she rode the rise and fall of his chest.
“I don’t normally do this, Aurora,” he said.
“What? Sleep with random girls?”
“No. Care when they’re ready to leave. I don’t want you to go. We need another hour.”
“I can’t give you another second. I’m no good. You are. As much as you want to be bad, it’s not in your DNA. I can feel the good radiating off you. And I’m part demon. The two don’t mix,” she responded. Hot tears streamed from her eyes, across her cheeks, and dripped onto him.
“Just give it a minute. I promise I hear you, and I’ll let you go. I just want to stay here for a little while longer. Can you do that? We can pretend you aren’t who you are, and I’m not who I am, if it makes it easier.”
“It won’t matter.”
“Try. It will. Just another few minutes.”
Aurora knew it was a bad idea. He’d imprinted on her, and there was no practical magic that would be able to change that fact. But she gave in, anyway. Wrapping her arms around him, she sank into him. His heartbeat sounded in her ear and she accepted him, his warm body, the tickling hairs on his chest, and the tangled mess they made together in the middle of the floor, on top of a party where a million people swayed. It didn’t seem possible that none of them had felt the violent eruption of their union.
Chapter 5
Billy’s Blues and BBQ was only moderately busy in the early evening hours, but Zee was still on level ten, amped to hell about. The heat burned into Mitch’s knuckles from the grill as he flipped the quarter pound beef over and lightly poked with the tip of the spatula. There was no excuse for an overdone burger, in his mind. He avoided looking at Zee. The glare in her eyes was bound to be intense and accusatory.
“I don’t know why you want to go down that road again. She’s not for you, wolf-boy.”
Mitch choked down the disdain at his best friend’s comments with a smirk. “Who says?”
“Aurora is not what you need. Leave her alone, Mitch. I mean it,” Hazel said with a huff. Picking up her tray, she turned and flipped her midnight black and white-streaked ponytail over her shoulder, then sped off to yet another table of hungry, possibly drunken college students.
On her way across the room, she dropped off the fries he’d just prepared to the curly-haired beauty at a table in the middle of the room.
Mitch may have been prepared to ignore Aurora and heed Zee’s warning, but then it happened. She smiled . . . then bit her bottom lip. His mind ran back over the night they’d shared a week prior. She captivated him.
Her smooth, brown skin radiated with a warm blush as she spoke some quick statement to Zee. It could have been ‘thank you’ or ‘bring me another trough of fries’ or whatever. Regardless, she looked like an angel.
Mitch returned his attention to the grill, the scent of the burgers reaching the overcooked point that demanded he stop daydreaming about the beautiful girl who’d managed to do what an entire campus full of women had tried and failed at. Miserably.
“Where’re my chicken tenders and fries, Mitch? C’mon, keep up with me. We’re down a server tonight, so no poking around.” Zee’s voice echoed into the kitchen from the small serving window, which also served as Mitch’s vantage point for the whole dining area. Billy’s was an endless source of entertainment.
“Intense, much? Here. Take your order,” Mitch barked in his playful way and picked up the heated plate from the steel countertop. “And you should try to keep up with me. There are three more behind this one.”
“Remember what I said, Mitch. Besides, she already has a man in her life making things difficult. Not only that—you’re just too different. So take your break outside before the next rush. And don’t even think about bringing those bedroom eyes into the dining room. Leave my orders up.”
Another flip of her ponytail, and she was off again. Mitch didn’t need to be intuitive to pick up that Aurora had been having a bad time, what with all of Zee’s hints and their conversation the night they’d met. And she was right. The last thing he needed was a demon bringing unwanted attention. They could be messy. Mitch was mostly invisible to everyone on campus. Except for the women who went for the tall, dark and arrogant type. The façade he depended on made his life more difficult, but he needed it. His survival depended on it.
He wasn’t rich like Grayson or Blake, the guy whose parents owned their condo. Hell, Hutch was even a vet. To everyone, he was just a dude working his way through college with a single mother who scrimped by, sending him whatever money she could.
Zee was right about another thing. With all the orders waiting in the window and no new ones spitting out of the docked printer synced to the wait stations, it was a good time for a break.
Mitch hung his black apron on one of the tall silver kitchen racks and headed toward the back of the restaurant. Stepping into the evening air, he took a deep breath and stared up into the dark night. “Too much trouble,” he whispered in the cold, silent cloak of the Hayvenwood night. A plume of smoke billowed into the air, the scent of cigarettes strong and spicy.
“What’s too much trouble? Me?”
The voice seemed to come from nowhere and all around him at the same time. He looked to his right to find Aurora leaning against the dividing fence between the parking lot and the back of the restaurant. Her fitted North Face fleece hoodie and dark gray jeans framed her curvy body, making Mitch’s cock
twitch.
“Hi. Uh, you know. Tests and stuff.” Mitch could have kicked himself for not hearing someone walk up on him. He did have heightened hearing, after all.
“Oh, okay. You didn’t tell me you worked here. With Hazel. I didn’t even know you knew her.”
The moon and yellow floodlights mixed to make everything manila beige. “Yeah, I’m a cook. That wasn’t one of your questions.”
“Small world. I should have started eating here before. Maybe I wouldn’t have so many bruises on my knees from that dusty ass attic.”
Mitch regarded her warily, fighting to keep his eyes off the subtle cleavage between the half zipped panels of her jacket. “A joke. Good.”
“It’s not funny,” she laughed, “but I still love cracking jokes.”
“You’re right. You’re not funny at all,” he quipped. He could have kicked himself again for his dry ass humor.
“Sure, says the guy who has no smile unless he’s about to get lucky,” she giggled. She dipped her head briefly; the mane of soft locks flowing forward and back again with the sexy neck movement before she turned to him once more. A quick blast of something fruity teased Mitch and radiated around him. He sensed her heating up, which was odd, considering the bitter cold of the winter night. It was even odder that he sensed anything about her at all.
“Right,” Mitch said, the cold, damp leaves on top of his boots forcing him to move his feet to generate a little heat. “Have you always smoked?”
“No. I mean, I would have kept it up when I was seven, but my mother kept finding packs of smokes in my lunch box and taking them. Kind of made things difficult.”
“Okay.” Mitch was being bested and prayed silently it would stop. He kicked his foot at the mound of snow on the ground. Shit, she smells good. Mango? She smelled like mangoes.
