Carnal (Her Dark Desires #1)

by Lola Taylor

  He growled a sigh. “That man… he had his hands all over you. I couldn’t stand it.”

  My brows knitted together. “I’m a succubus, so it’s bound to happen at some point in the future.”

  “It doesn’t have to be now.”

  Pause. “Where is this coming from?”

  “Do you want to go somewhere?” he said suddenly.

  I blinked. “Yeah, sure. Whatever you need.”

  He exited the highway. We drove out into the countryside by a lake, surrounded by trees. Fireflies twinkled in the night, their dim yellow glow reflecting off the water and making it sparkle.

  Hector pulled off in a secluded spot surrounded by trees, out on a little bluff overlooking the water. “This is beautiful,” I said, eyeing the scenery.

  “It’s not much during the day,” Hector said, “but it transforms at night.”

  Parking, we got out, and he grabbed a blanket from the backseat.

  I eyed it with a smile. “Came prepared, huh?”

  “I always carry it with me when I do observations, because I always stop here to think and be alone. Fame can get old after a while.”

  That surprised me. “It’s beautiful. This must be where you bring all your hot dates,” I joked.

  “Actually, you’re the only woman I’ve ever brought here with me.”

  Oh. I flushed as he spread out the blanket, and we laid down, staring at the stars. Between the symphony of crickets, the fireflies, the murmur of the lake, and the gentle breeze, it was the calmest I’d felt in ages.

  “This is nice,” I whispered.

  He didn’t say anything, running his fingers along my arm.

  I rolled onto my side, turning toward him. “What are you thinking about?”

  Several long seconds passed before he spoke. “I can’t get the image of him pinning you to the wall and feeling you up out of my mind.”

  I bit my lip, my heart suddenly pounding with nerves and desire. “But you’re not mine. And I’m not yours.” My heart broke saying it. I hadn’t realized how deeply I’d grown to care for him until I said those words out loud. The last time I’d fallen for a man this quickly, it had ended in heartbreak. I’d warded off relationships since, not just because they were forbidden, but because I couldn’t go through that again.

  Hector pressed his lips together, as if debating something, then took my hand and brought it to his lips. I shivered at the tender kiss he placed there. “Would you like to be mine?” he said softly.

  I held my breath, my eyes meeting his.

  They were serious.

  “I can’t,” I breathed.

  He stroked my cheek with his other hand. “Why not?”

  “Because,” I said, swallowing hard and trying to keep my wits about me, “this is forbidden.”

  “That just makes it more fun,” he said with a wicked grin.

  I laughed, but there wasn’t much emotion behind it. “What happened to keeping things professional?”

  “I will, when we’re around other people.” His fingertips grazed my collarbone, then dipped to the slope of my breasts, and I sighed as that tingling warmth increased. “But there’s something about you, Sally, that’s irresistible. I told you I wanted you, not just your body, but your heart and mind. I want you.”

  I sat there, unable to move. What if he was playing me, as my ex had? He had seemed so kind at first too. “Do you really mean that?”

  Hector stared at me without blinking, then drew a pocketknife from his pants pocket. “I’ll swear a blood oath to you.”

  My jaw dropped. “You can’t make a blood oath to me! You don’t know me.”

  “Some part of me does,” he said, taking my hand and pulling me to him. “And don’t say you don’t feel it too, because I know you do. You recognized me on the elevator, as I did you.”

  I stared up at him. His mouth was so close, his breath caressed my lips. I looked away, unable to say anything.

  He nuzzled my neck with his mouth, sending shivers across my skin and stoking the desire growing within me. “Please, Sally,” he breathed huskily. “Let me bind myself to you.”

  The word was out of my mouth before I’d fully thought it through. “Okay.” Truth is, some part of me wanted to belong to someone like that, to have a connection with them that was deeper than blood.

  Hector didn’t hesitate. Flipping the blade open, he sliced his palm and grabbed my hand. Looking me in the eyes, he said, “I, Hector Aurelius, swear to be true to you always, on pain of death.” As he spoke, our hands began to glow, binding his promise to me.

  The magic in our hands faded, leaving behind faint red lines where the spell had bound us together. Blood oaths were the strongest type of binds. Once made, they could not be revoked.

  Hector traced the outline of my jaw. “Now do you believe my intentions to be true?”

  “I...” I didn’t know what to say. Emotions I hadn’t allowed myself to feel in ages flowed through me, rendering me speechless.

  So when words failed, I did the only other thing I could do to respond.

  I kissed him.

  He sucked in a breath, savoring the kiss, then slowly kissed me back with increasing fervor. Our kisses grew deeper as our tongues flicked out to touch.

  My nipples hardened, but it wasn’t from the chill in the air. I pressed myself against him, feeling the bulge around his crotch grow thicker.

  “God, I want you,” he growled, reaching down and stroking my damp clit. “Please let me show you how much I desire you, Sally.”

  I moaned, rubbing against his hand. “Yes,” I breathed.

  He pulled back to stare into my eyes. “You truly want me to?”

  Without removing my eyes from his, I sat up and pulled off my dress. It cleared my head, leaving me naked from the torso up, save for my heels and panty hose.

  His hungry gaze took me in. “You’re amazing,” he said, reaching up to play with my nipples. I threw my head back, breathing harder as he squeezed my breasts, then kissed me there, finishing what his hands had started. His hands slid round my back and then tenderly, as if I might break, he lowered me to the blanket, so I was lying on my back.

  He leaned next to my ear. “Close your eyes,” he whispered.

  I did as he said, my breath coming faster now in anticipation of what was to come.

  His breath tickled my ear, then my jaw. Then his mouth met mine in a slow, sensual kiss, right about the same time he began peeling my panty hose off.

  Chapter 10

  I COULDN’T REMEMBER THE last time I hadn’t felt self-conscious about my body. No asshole clients were calling my boobs small or my ass too big. Hector didn’t seem to mind, anyway.

  His hands reached up and cupped my breasts, squeezing them. “You’re so beautiful,” he whispered. “Do you even realize how incredibly enticing you are?”

  My heart fluttered, making me feel more breathless than I already did.

  He stopped for a moment, studying my face. “You don’t get told that that often, do you?” His hand reached up to brush a strand of hair from my cheek.

  I pressed my lips together. “Not in so many words.”

  Determination, along with a lust so strong it made my knees shake, came over him. “I’m going to show you how gorgeous you are, one slow lick at a time.”

  My breath caught as he tenderly kissed my jaw. “This tightens when you’re riled up,” he said, and I could tell he was smiling. “You’re so adorable when you’re angry.”

  He lowered to my breasts, rolling his tongue around each nipple until they were hard as rocks. “And these are greedy for attention. Every time you came into my office without a bra, I wanted to strip you naked and make love to you on the rug.”

  I arched my back as his hands and mouth trailed lower. He reached around and cupped my butt, lifting my hips. “Your thighs are so smooth. Like silk.” He kissed the inside of my leg, his stubble brushing my clit, and I gasped.

  His breath blew out over my sex, tingling.
“Would you like me to kiss you here..?”

  Oh, I wanted him, too, but something nagged me. I pressed my lips together, trying to think of how to say this. “You’re… not just going through the motions, right? Like what I heard on the tapes?”

  His face grew dead-serious. Sitting up, he grabbed my hand and firmly planted it on his crotch. It was rock-hard. “I’m not playing, Sally.”

  “Oh,” I whispered, squeezing him slightly. God, he was big. I wondered what he would feel like, if I could hold all of him…

  I wetted my lips, my flittering heartbeat making me breathless. “Well, in that case, yes, I want you to kiss me.”

  Hector got a wicked glint to his eyes. His mouth quirked up slightly at the corner. “Beg for it.”

  It wasn’t said sharply, though I wasn’t sure I’d have minded if it was. His demand was hot as hell.

  “Yes,” I begged. “Please, kiss me.”

  Hector lowered himself. It began with a lick, a slow, long movement that set my nerve endings on fire. I moaned his name, my back arching as his tongue dove deeper into my folds, searching out that sweet spot aching to be released.

  “Your cream is as sweet as I thought it would be,” he said. “Would you like to have a taste?”

  I nodded, my mind too fried to form a coherent sentence.

  Hector raised himself up and crawled over me, slowly lowering his mouth over mine. He ran his tongue along my own, tangling with it as he kissed me deeply, slowly. I could taste myself on him, and it only made me ache all the more for him.

  When Hector at last came up, he nibbled my bottom lip between his teeth. “How did you think you tasted?”

  I stared at him, then licked my still moist lips. “Like candy.”

  “My thoughts exactly. I need more.”

  He trailed a line of kisses from the hollow of my throat down to my stomach, at last landing back at my throbbing clit. He gently pinched the swollen nub, and I cried out as he massaged it with his thumb and forefinger.

  “This little girl is begging for attention,” he said, before he began to lick me.

  I yelled, digging my nails into the blanket as sharp bolts of pleasure coursed through me. “Yes,” I breathed. “Harder.”

  He chuckled, a deep, throaty sound that was purely masculine. “You really are a greedy girl, aren’t you, Sally?”

  He sucked me harder and began dipping his fingers in and out of my wetness, going deeper and deeper, striking my core harder with every stroke.

  At last his tongue took his fingers’ place as he buried himself between my legs.

  I was losing my mind. Never had I felt anything like this before. I was coming apart at the seams, the world around me blurring into a vortex of emotions and my most carnal, primitive feelings.

  “More,” I moaned.

  He obliged, kneading my clit with his fingers as his tongued stroked me over and over and over again.

  I could feel it coming on, a rush of feelings bubbling up from my core.

  “Yes!”

  I grasped his head as he brought me to climax, screaming as a surge of energy poured from him into me. I lay in a pile of mush after that, panting hard and dizzy. “Wow,” I breathed.

  Hector chuckled and lay beside me, still teasing one of my erect nipples. “Thank you,” he said, kissing my forehead and resting his head there. “Do you feel better?”

  “Oh, hell yes.”

  He smiled. “Good. I couldn’t stand seeing you so scared.”

  My heart melted. Had he really brought me out here more for my benefit than his?

  This moment couldn’t be more perfect. Monique would be green with envy if she knew where I was and what I’d been doing.

  I frowned. There was no way this could last. Hector was right. Eventually, we’d both have to go our separate ways once I left, and then there were our, er, “occupations” to consider. A relationship couldn’t handle that kind of emotional strain.

  “What’s wrong?” he murmured. “You’re tense.”

  I frowned. “It’s just, well…” I sighed hard, exasperated. “Do you ever regret becoming an incubus?”

  He shrugged. “Sometimes. I’ve adjusted to this way of life.”

  Well, at least one of us has.

  “When were you changed?” I asked.

  His expression grew wistful, as if he were glimpsing the past. “In 1800, I had just turned twenty-one when my mother proclaimed I should seriously consider taking a wife, which was the last thing I wanted at the time. Mostly, I wanted to go study and travel and see the world, but she insisted I take over the family banking business so I could continue making us more money. My family was very wealthy, and many girls attended the marriage prospect ball my mother arranged, hoping to catch my eye. But there was only one girl I wanted - Sylvia.”

  “What was she like?” I asked, fascinated. It all sounded very “Jane Austen.”

  “Attractive, with fair skin and strawberry blonde hair. We hit it off, and I fell madly in love. Unfortunately, it wasn’t until after we were married I discovered she didn’t love me at all. She’d only married me for my money.”

  I gritted my teeth, already hating her.

  “It took a year of denying our marriage was a sham before I came to my senses. One day I came home early and discovered my wife in bed with another man. It broke my heart. When I came to my mother and father, hoping for advice, they said I should just ignore it. That it was never about love. It was that day I learned they saw me only as a pawn, another piece on the board they could move to make more money.”

  Well, that sucked. His parents made my hoity-toity ones sound like saints.

  “What happened to your wife?”

  He sighed. “Oh, she eventually left me for the man she was seeing. Drunk with the grief of a broken heart, I stumbled into a pub, and that’s when Erys found me.”

  “Erys?”

  He smirked. “A very charming and seductive Red Witch. She offered to change me into something powerful, a being that wouldn’t think twice about what Sylvia had done to me. Feeling lost and desperate, I accepted her offer. So she made me into an incubus.” He smiled wistfully. “I was… clumsy those first few years.”

  Now that amused me. I had a hard time picturing someone as inherently sexy as Hector being clumsy in the bedroom.

  “I took Erys as a lover. As my Master, my siphoning ability could not harm her. She taught me everything I know, including how to take the perfect revenge.

  “I waited three long years before tracking down my old wife. She couldn’t believe her eyes. Her lover had apparently taken a younger woman as his mistress and was rarely home to comfort Sylvia. She was very lonely, and it was all too easy to seduce her.” His gaze darkened. “I took so much life from her that she died in her sleep.”

  My jaw dropped. That little evil voice in me cheered, “Hooray, hooray, the bitch is dead!” while the side with a conscience said, “He murdered his wife! Run for the hills!”

  Hector had drawn very still. “It’s not what it seems. I didn’t intend to murder her. I hadn’t realized I’d drained so much energy from her. Later on, I found out she’d stumbled across another incubus about two weeks before me, and he’d also seduced her. Her energy levels were already low before I found her.” He winced. “I truly regret killing her. I mean, I wanted to for what she did to me, but I never intended to go through with it.” His eyes met mine. He looked… scared. “Do you think I’m evil?”

  I blinked. “No. I think you’re human.” I took his hand and squeezed. “It wasn’t your fault she died. She sowed her seeds and brought it on herself. You definitely didn’t deserve to be treated that way.”

  He swallowed and nodded. I hated seeing him so sad.

  Reaching up and cupping his cheek, I made him look at me. “Thank you for telling me.” I smiled. “I don’t think any less of you.”

  He let out a breath, sounding relieved. And very scared. “I was so afraid to tell you the truth, for fear it would drive you
away. I haven’t felt this way toward a woman in centuries.”

  That warm, fuzzy feeling enveloped me. “But you barely know me.”

  “Some souls recognize each other,” he said, tracing my bottom lip with his thumb. “Like kindred spirits, they seek each other out, searching and feeling empty until they find one another.”

  I smiled, loving the sound of that. “Where did you learn that from?”

  “Erys. She believed in soul mates with all her heart, though she never found hers. She was… killed.”

  “Oh,” I said softly. “I’m sorry.”

  “It happened a long time ago,” he murmured.

  I could see Erys’s loss still ached inside him. Hector was all alone in the world, like me.

  I hugged him. “Maybe her soul mate had already passed on, and she’s reunited with him or her now.”

  He smiled, hugging me back. “Yeah. Maybe.”

  His eyes dropped to my mouth, and I kissed him without hesitation. Not many things in my life had felt right, but this sure as hell did.

  Falling for Hector Aurelius was one of the best things I’d ever done.

  A chill ran over me, like we weren’t alone. Dismissing it to my imagination, I kissed him harder, gasping in excitement when he started sinking lower down my still naked body. “I’m going to make you come again,” he growled. “I want to taste you. I want to lick up every last, sweet drop.”

  No complaints here.

  I had started to close my eyes, breath held, when I sensed Hector tense. My eyes snapped open. “What is it?”

  An icy draft glided past, seeming to caress my skin in a way that almost felt violating. Shivering, I sat up and rubbed my arms.

  Hector didn’t look at me. His gaze was pinned to the treeline, a frown set to his mouth. “We’re not alone.”

  “What?” Grabbing my dress, I pulled it on and stood when a familiar voice said, “Hello, doll.”

  Hector had shoved me behind him and was on his feet in one smooth move.

  Heartbeat spiking with terror, I chanced a peek around Hector.

  My eyes widened.

  Damien, clad in the same black leather trench coat I’d seen him in the first time we met, stood there grinning back at me.