by Michele Hauf
She lay stretched along the bed, her body like the garden out back, arrayed for me to wander over and touch, smell and admire. I tongued that sexy curve at the base of her derriere and she lifted her hips. I took that moment to slide a hand under her stomach and lower. The heat of her at the apex of her thighs was astounding.
I flipped her over, and she wrapped her legs about my neck. Perspiration bejeweled her skin. My body has hot, too, and I didn’t think my erection could get any harder, but prolonging the outcome was more appealing than having been done with it too quickly.
“What are you thinking about?” she asked, coming up to her elbows to meet my gaze.
I hovered above her mons, where more freckles dotted about the thatch of red hair. “I’m thinking how good you taste. And how I want to taste right here.” I licked her folds.
“Oh, lover, you do what you want.”
“CJ said it takes time to learn a woman.”
“As it does a man. But that’s the fun part. All the time spent learning and exploring. You don’t have to master me right now, Reichardt. You’ve already won my heart.”
“Have I?”
She took my hand and dragged it up to place over her heart and breast. “It beats for you.”
That sounded better than any powers I may have gained. A woman’s heart was a delicate and wondrous place. That I’d ventured into Libby’s heart humbled me, and at the same time empowered me.
I dashed my tongue across her slick wetness again. Her hips tilted toward me and her soft moans increased, growing throaty and wanting. Here was her center, the place of mastery that I was determined to learn. But she was right; it didn’t have to happen all at once. The learning would be sweet, and I intended to stretch it over many mortal years.
Was I immortal now? I suspected I’d have to ransom my soul for that. But I was fine with the trade-off, for some power and strength. And an intimate place in Libby’s heart.
I glided my fingers inside her and used her moans and motions as a guide to how fast or slow to stroke her. A few times she reached down to guide me, which I appreciated, and then...
* * *
I let loose my voice like a rock ’n’ roll crooner. My shoulders pushed into the bed, and my fingers clenched the sheets as Reichardt’s ministrations burst me free from the impending coil in my core and set me off in that giddy, goofy kind of wondrous joy called orgasm.
Thank you, Universe! It just had to toy with me a while. I understood that.
My cry of happiness settled into a breast-jiggling giggle. I always laughed after orgasm, and it tended to freak men out, so I tried to cut it off abruptly.
“I love your laughter,” Reichardt said. “It was that good that you couldn’t control your joy?”
He understood me. How cool was that?
Pulling him to lie on top of me, I kissed him deeply and murmured “Yes, yes, and yes” against his mouth. His panting chest heaved against mine. “You make me laugh, and that’s the best feeling ever. But now it’s my turn to let you feel what orgasm is like.”
“I’m ready to learn.”
“I do love an eager student.”
I pushed him to the bed and straddled his hips, fitting myself snugly against his erection. Pleased to be on top where I belonged, I kissed down his throat and chest and to each of his nipples. I tapped his sigil, knowing we’d never learn what being an angel of the Seventh Soul meant, but thinking maybe someday the universe would let us in on the truth.
“Am I expected to laugh?” he asked, his fingers running through my loose hair and stroking down my shoulders.
“You do whatever the mood demands of you, lover boy. Just don’t hold back. Wow. I can’t believe I’m going to take your virginity.”
“Is it that big an event?”
“For some it is. For you it must be monumental. It’s been two thousand years. Are you sure you want to do this? If we’re wrong about you retaining the powers you just gained, losing your virginity may keep you from ever obtaining immortality.”
“In your arms, Libby, every day is forever and filled with joy and laughter. I’m not going to turn back now. Oh.” I gripped his erection. “Why any man would refuse to have sex is beyond me. I want to feel myself inside you. Ohyesthat’sjustrightdon’tstop.”
Dipping my fingers into the wetness between my legs, I then slicked it over Reichardt’s firm shaft and found a rhythm that quickly silenced him, save for gasping breaths and some wanting moans. I knelt, positioning the thick head of him at my entrance so he could feel my heat while my hand did not cease coaxing him to a gasping, panting pinnacle.
His hands caressed my breasts, not purposely, but more like he’d placed them in the best spot in the house and was ready to hold on for the ride.
I loved my big, hunky man. Now it was time to win one for Team Reichardt.
Shimmying my hips, I lowered myself over his shaft to the satisfied baritone groans of one very happy man.
“You like that? Let’s try this rhythm.”
Rocking my hips, easing up and down, I worked him to a shuddering mass of muscles, moans and gasps. A squeeze to the base of his cock would hold him off for a bit, but I didn’t want to torture him his first time up to bat. Besides, he shuddered and his arms had stiffened, bracketing my breasts. His jaw tight, he squeezed his eyes shut.
A few more slides up and down his erection and I rewarded my lover with an orgasm that burst out in a triumphant shout. He shuddered and pumped his hips against mine, driving deep into me, and I took it all, giving what I had wanted to give since that first moment I’d laid eyes on the stoic soul bringer with the glass heart.
He was mine now. His heart was real and his soul had just bonded with mine. Soul mates. I would allow nothing to break us apart.
So why did I suddenly feel as if I’d stolen him from something better? Was the man still part angel? To judge from the powers he’d used against Hester, he was something. By making love to the man—literally stealing his virginity—had I taken that away?
* * *
I felt...everything. I saw it all. My past soared through my thoughts.
The wars that had kept me busy delivering souls to Above and Beneath.
The births that had ended tragically and the human tears that had not caused me to waver in my steadfast reaping of souls.
The foul murders.
The suicides.
The boy standing beside his dead father in the concentration camp who had handed me the Jewish star. I’d had to return for his soul two hours later.
The plant, currently in my apartment, given to me by the old woman downstairs in my building. I’d taken her soul following a peaceful death a year later.
The cat, named Thomas, who was a familiar, and a friend, when he was in human form. I’d have to look him up first thing.
Seeing Libby for the first time and taking the cookie she’d offered me. Made with so much love. She had loved me before I could comprehend the emotion.
I loved her now.
And the orgasm faded, as did the images. I collapsed on the bed beneath the witch, knowing all yet also knowing I was now free of the servitude of a soul bringer. Yet I still retained power and immortality because I had just bonded with my soul mate.
* * *
The shower stream pattered over our shoulders and Libby slicked soap over my rigid abdomen. I turned my face to the stream and let the water beat down upon me. Felt great. But nothing felt better than sex.
Nothing. Not even knowing my past.
I truly had learned the secret to life, and I wanted to do it every day, all day, from now on.
Libby stroked my hard-again cock with soap, and I studied the logistics of the shower. I could lift her and fit her onto my cock, but the floor was slick and I didn’t want to risk a tumble and injuring her. On the other hand, I did have some crazy skills at moving people about with but a gesture....
But before I could suggest we cut the shower short and head for drier ground, she dro
pped to her knees and took me in her mouth.
“Angels above and demons beneath,” I growled. I’d not imagined a woman could do something like this for a man, but oh, that Libby did. She sucked me in and nibbled gently with her teeth and I was going to come very quickly. “Libby, be warned...”
She took in my seed and swallowed it. An amazing woman. I lifted her to hug against my body, still racked with orgasmic shudders, snuggled into her wet flesh.
“Later, I’ll let you do the same for me,” she said and kissed me.
* * *
I wrapped a silk robe about my body and posed before the floor-length mirror, never shy of my reflection. My bright red hair clashed with the purple and it did not. Long ago, I’d stopped worrying what colors went with each other. I felt like a million colors right now as Reichardt snuck up from behind and embraced me, slipping his hands around my stomach and nuzzling his nose into my wet hair.
“Is the mortal realm always this good?” he asked.
“It is when you’re in love. I imagine what you’re feeling is satisfaction from some damn good lovemaking.”
“Yet you claim to love me, when I know you’ve only reason to hate me for the awful things I did to you and your sister.”
I turned and opened my robe, pressing my breasts against his bare chest. Mmm, his heartbeats were sound and strong. And oh, there was that ever-ready erection. “I love the potential I see in you, lover boy. And I love your handsome face and strong muscles. I love the way you wrap me in your arms. And I love that you accept me exactly as I am.”
“That’s a lot of ways to love.”
“I could list many more, but I’ll save them for tomorrow and the next day and ever after.”
“We should tell each other things we love about the other every day. I love your hair—it’s bold and bright—as well as your eyes. I love the way you make me feel when we are naked and close like this. I love that you feed me and take care of me. But is that enough?”
“Does it feel like enough for you?”
“Yes. I feel very rich in your arms, Libby. And yet...”
He’d explained to me in the shower that he’d seen a sort of movie of his life during orgasm, and he was good with not having what he once had now.
But he was still missing something, and I didn’t know what to give him to fill that hole. It was a place in the universe, I suspected. Reichardt needed ground to stand on and know himself, and the only way he could get that was through experience.
I was comfortable in this world. I had family, a good life and a new lover. Nothing could be better.
Nothing, except knowing Reichardt also felt at peace.
“You want to know about your powers,” I guessed. “Me, too. I hope...”
“You hope what?”
“What if I took them away by having sex with you?”
He twisted his finger in the air and pointed at the bed. The pillows flew to the floor and the sheets peeled back to expose the rumpled undersheet. “Still got it.”
“Simple tricks. But do you feel strong? I know you wanted to get back your strength.”
He lifted me about the waist with one arm. “If there was another of you, I could balance you with both arms.”
“So this is good?” I asked with hope. “But you’re still unsure.”
“I’ll have many questions, Libby. And I know you can’t answer them all, nor will it ever be as it once was. I intend to move forward. I just don’t want to stumble.”
“Wherever you are, you’re just...there. You own where you stand. You still do. You need to believe that. Can you believe that?”
“With you to remind me of it, I will. I’d like to have a job. Something to make me feel worthy.”
“We’ll find something for you. You need to figure out what your passion is.”
“That’s easy. My passion is Libertie St. Charles.”
“Yes, but I don’t think you can make a job out of me.”
“Pleasing you—”
“Don’t say it’s work.”
“Oh, no. That’s not what I mean.”
“I know what you mean, lover boy. It’s a labor of love, yes?”
“It is.”
“Then let the labor begin, because you’ve some woman-pleasing to learn. It may have been all fun and games for you earlier, and believe me it was awesome for me. But you’re the only one who came in the shower. My turn now.”
“I’m eager to please.”
“You know all the right answers.”
Nine
“Good thing you didn’t return to the faery,” Vika said to Reichardt.
CJ had gone to make tea in the main office of the Archives, while Reichardt pulled a chair up to the table beside me.
“I found an interesting fact about the sidhe. They have a thing for angel feathers,” Vika said. “Can create great magic with them. I doubt the faery could have given you back your immortality, but she certainly would have kept the feather.”
“You’ll have to keep that in a safe place now,” I said to him, kissing his cheek.
“And this is the other information. The reason I called you two over here today.”
Vika turned the huge ancient book bound in green leather on the table toward Reichardt and me. After I had told my sister everything, I wondered if the book from which Vika had learned about soul bringers might answer the lingering question: How did Reichardt now have his powers if he hadn’t again ransomed his soul?
* * *
“It’s an angelic grimoire,” Vika explained. She leaned forward across the table on her elbows, her thick red braid falling with a plunk onto the wood surface.
My sister always wore long dresses tightened around the waist with a corset. Me and Vika; the retro rocker and the goth chick. Add in Eternitie, the hippie chick, and you had better be prepared for what the St. Charles sisters packed in their magical arsenal.
“You’re looking rather happy today, Reichardt,” she said.
The man splayed out a hand and met gazes with me. The grin hadn’t left his face since we’d had sex. Again. And again. And yet again.
Hey, Queen of Overindulgence, here. And I’d just crowned my king.
“Your sister makes me happy,” he said.
“I can see that.”
I did not miss the teasing tone in Vika’s voice.
“And she makes me cookies.”
“Is that so?” Vika caught my gaze. “Well, cookies are important to a relationship.”
“Most definitely,” Reichardt said, my sister’s snark soaring high over his head.
I wanted to shout to the world that I was in love with the most handsome and kind man to walk this earth, but my eyes landed on an interesting paragraph.
“‘Love is the object that binds the angel soul to the man,’” I read out loud.
“What does that mean?” Reichardt asked.
That was all the text said, but with some thought, I decided it was a monumental fact. “It wasn’t your feather after all. For you to have loved and given love must have bound your angel powers to you. No matter what occurred, not even taking your soul and gaining mortality could take away those powers.”
“But I didn’t know I had the powers until—”
“Until you were forced to fight to protect me from Hester.” I met his violet and emerald gaze. “Love made them emerge.”
“So...I had them all along? But what love bound them to me before that?”
“My love,” I said on a gasp. I stroked a finger along his hairline and traced the soft stubble forming along his jaw. “Reichardt, I loved you before you got your soul.”
“Yes, I know that because I saw it when I, uh—” He glanced to Vika, blushing.
“When you had an orgasm.” I finished what he couldn’t say in front of another woman. “I’ve always known we were soul mates, but this means it’s for real.”
“Wow,” Vika said. “That’s so freakin’ cool. You two really were meant for one another.” She
tapped the nail wrapped around the leather cord at her neck. “Did grandma know?”
I nodded. “I think she did.”
“Soul mates,” he said and pulled me onto his lap to kiss me. “You’ve changed my air, Libby. That’s some powerful magic.”
“It wasn’t witch magic,” I said. “It was soul magic.”
* * * * *
If you haven’t had a chance to read Vika and Certainly’s story, look for THIS WICKED MAGIC by Michele Hauf.
Don’t miss the other sensual, paranormal reads from Harlequin Nocturne Cravings, available at www.ebooks.eharlequin.com and wherever ebooks are sold. Titles include:
The Shifter’s Kiss by Caridad Piñeiro
Seduced by the Darkling by Lauren Hawkeye
Tempting the Jaguar by Katie Reus
A Little Night Muse by Jessa Slade
The Witch’s Seduction by Elle James
Taming the Dragon by Kendra Leigh Castle
Demon’s Embrace by Elle James
Claiming the Wolf by Michele Hauf
The Darkling’s Desire by Lauren Hawkeye
Looking for more paranormal romance? The sizzling and spine-chilling books of Harlequin Nocturne are available at www.Harlequin.com or your local bookstore.
* * *
Connect with us for info on our new releases, access to exclusive offers, free online reads and much more!
Subscribe to our newsletter: Harlequin.com/newsletters
Visit Harlequin.com
We like you—why not like us on Facebook:
Facebook.com/HarlequinBooks
Follow us on Twitter: Twitter.com/HarlequinBooks
Read our blog for all the latest news on our
authors and books: HarlequinBlog.com
ISBN: 9781460307434
Copyright © 2013 by Michele Hauf
All rights reserved. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher, Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario, Canada M3B 3K9.
