by Michele Hauf
I patted the envelope of money. “Already forgotten. Nice working with you. Hope you have better luck with the next cat.”
“No, please.” He grabbed my arm, and his touch scurried sensation to my belly. Never had a man’s touch so captured me. Made me want to surrender. Just like that.
“I need to try this again,” he said. “Next time I’ll have clothes for you, and I’ll be in the right mental state. Promise.”
It would never work. Not without the proper training. But a second session of almost real sex with Mr. Tall, Dark and Determined? How could I resist?
“This is important to you,” I decided.
“It’s the only way I’ll be able to conjure Navicrux.”
I knew that demon’s name. He was a bad-ass. I shouldn’t ask. I wouldn’t ask. I didn’t care why witches brought demons to this realm, because the day I started to care, I could no longer do my job effectively. And I didn’t want to answer to karma for my participation in evil.
“You’ve set a precedent for my wages,” I said, patting the pocket with the envelope. “I couldn’t do it again for anything less.”
“You won’t have to because I’ll double your pay if you return tomorrow night. Do we have a deal?”
I wanted the word deal actually to sound more like date. But I would never touch that dream. It wasn’t meant to be. But neither was this witch’s concentration when we got together under the pretext of ‘summoning.’
It was a middle ground I could tread.
“Sure,” I said, and forced a smile. “Deal.”
Four
I didn’t live far from T.J.’s place. Thoroughly Jones. I liked his full name. He’d been as thorough as a man with a raging cockstand could be.
I smiled at the doorman of my building and patted the jeans pocket. “I’m here to stay.”
“That is good to hear, Mademoiselle Star,” he said in his delicious Jamaican accent. “Perhaps you can now afford some new attire?”
“You don’t like the baggy look?”
“It does not accentuate your beauty, no.”
I let that one go, because he was polite and always truthful. If ever I came home in the middle of the night looking like I’d partied hard, he let me know how pitiful I looked. Thing was, it wasn’t usually partying, but rather demon-conducting, that left me less than pretty and slightly out of sorts.
This kitty didn’t party. Much as I’d like to, the job did take its toll.
The apartment was old but cozy, packed ceiling-high in some places with objects I admired. Some, I didn’t recognize, like the odd art nouveau faery in the corner holding the green glass ivy. I assumed it had been obtained during one of my previous lives. I didn’t remember my past lives, which is why I had my address, name and bank account tattooed on my ankle. I’d learned that precaution from fellow familiar Aby, who currently lived in the States with a sexy demon hunter. She’d given up the profession after marrying him, and couldn’t be happier.
Love was possible for my breed. Just not easy.
I plopped onto the violet plush beanbag in the middle of the living room, sinking in and curling my legs to my body.
He wanted me to return tonight to try again.
I wanted to return. But not for business.
Don’t be stupid, Star, he’s not looking for a girlfriend.
I wished he was.
Something about Thoroughly Jones had gotten under my skin, and recalling his hands touching me, exploring, intent on my pleasure, made me purr.
It had been different from working with my assistant, Chris, and not because the situation itself had been unprecedented. I’d wanted to look into the witch’s eyes as I’d come, to see deep into him. To be touched only by him and not by his dark magic.
I wanted to believe he’d been having the same thoughts about me—that he’d wanted to delve deeper, to really know me.
How to find out if he had the slightest interest in me? Dare I dream this man could become more than business, possibly my first real lover?
Perhaps a little seduction would loosen his staunch determination to stick to business?
I shifted on the beanbag to stare out the window. The sun glittered on the tin roof across the street. With a sigh, I realized I had no idea how seduction worked. I’d never been the one in control, the one to take the initiative, the one who asked for what she wanted.
How to do that?
I might have to break my number-one rule to make the witch change his mind about conjuring demons and want instead to make love to a familiar.
“Contineo!”
I paced the polished maple floor from bed to sofa, repeating the spell I’d memorized from the grimoire. I didn’t need to do this. I knew the spell forwards, backwards and inside-out. I could sing the French national anthem while also reciting the invocation for the nefari demon.
I had never been more prepared.
And I had never been more at odds with how tonight’s second try would go.
Leaving the grimoire on the sofa, I pushed my fingers through my hair and paced to the window to scan the city. I could see Star’s building from here, but her apartment was on the opposite side, facing the rising sun. I wondered if she’d gone home and slept. Did familiars need a lot of sleep? I presumed they enjoyed frequent catnaps.
Glancing at the cage I’d used to bring Star here, I shook my head. That had been cruel but necessary. Yet getting her to agree to an unprecedented pairing had been easier than I’d expected.
Of course, the attempt at conjuring the demon had been a joke. And she’d known I wouldn’t be able to do it, too. Last night’s debacle had been easy money for her. But I would stand true on my promise to pay her double if she returned. I’d been a prudent investor over my one hundred and sixty years. And I liked knowing the cash was going to someone who truly needed it.
Tonight I had to keep my eyes on the prize: the demon Navicrux. No sexy skin glowing under the moonlight was going to distract me. Not a whimpered moan of pleasure or the soft purr preceding her cry as she came beneath me.
Her skin had been like warm silk moistened with rain. She’d smelled that way, too. Natural and sweet, an ineffable scent I couldn’t seem to chase from my senses.
When was the last time I’d been so caught up in a woman? I’d never had a true love. That was my brother’s calling. He was gentle and unassuming, keeping his nose in the books as the days passed. I had always been the dark one, the one who must be watched with caution. The one who could lure the women to him, yet never keep them long enough because I’d never taken the time to care if they stuck around.
I did care. I just didn’t care for disappointment, either.
The doorbell rang, and I startled. Really? I’d expected a paw scratching at the door. Hmm….
Peeking through the peephole, I was startled again, and quickly opened the door to a stunning vision.
“Hey, witch.”
Red silk swept about Star’s lithe form, dipping low to reveal the swells of her breasts and cut high to expose her legs, which weren’t long, yet appeared longer thanks to the violet shoes she wore.
High heels? On a kitty cat?
“Something wrong,” she asked and stepped forward to stroke a finger over my parted lips. “Cat got your tongue?”
Yes, please.
Mercy.
“Why the fancy dress?”
“Girl’s gotta make herself look pretty once in a while.” She strolled inside at a wobbly pace that made me wonder if she had ever before worn such shoes. “You don’t like it?”
“It’s incredible,” I said, and followed with a sigh that again surprised me—and my rising hard-on. She was up to something. My senses tingled with warning. The air prickled with unseen glamour.
I rushed after the sashaying feline and met her at the sofa. In a remarkable sneak attack, she pushed me onto the cushions and bent over me. The red silk fell loose and I could see all of her breasts, even the tight little nipples I knew she loved to have suckled.
“It’s what I want.” She straddled my legs and sat on my lap, tilting back her shoulders to lift those provocative breasts high.
Much as the witch in me screamed for focus, the wanting, needy man I am eased back a bit and put his hands on Star’s hips. My cock had already swollen in anticipation.
“I thought we’d get more comfortable with each other tonight,” she said on a purry tone that stroked my hard-on to steel. “Maybe that’ll help you relax more.”
“I don’t need to relax, I need to maintain sharp focus. Star—” Her fingers glided through my hair, tickling my scalp and stealing further protest.
“It might help me,” she said, and leaned in to toggle my earlobe with the tip of her tongue. A thrilling shiver tickled down my neck and shot directly to my groin. “To get to know you better. To trust you.”
“You don’t trust me?” I suppose not. Not after my masterful failure last night.
Green eyes twinkled but inches from my face.
“Maybe you know what you’re doing. You think we need to do this?” I slid a hand up her waist, my thumb stroking under her breast.
“Mm, yes. I think so.”
She guided my hand over her breast and the nipple was so hard I leaned in to suckle it through the silk fabric. Showing her satisfaction, she pressed against the back of my head. I slid down the silk strap and cupped both breasts. Touching her was like a gift I’d been granted and should use well to show my appreciation.
“This is so right,” she murmured. “Don’t you think?”
I nodded, murmuring a noise of approval.
“Look at me, T.J.”
Our eyes fixed and I wished I could look into her soul, as only another witch was able to do. Her soul shone brightly. And yet it was needy, like mine. We needed different things, or so I thought.
She bent to kiss me and her lips barely touched mine. Testing, tentative, feeling her way into my desire. I wanted to pull her close and dive deep into her mouth, but respected her careful slowness. And then she did what I’d just imagined, tracing her tongue along mine and slicking in deep, giving me her taste, her breath, her moans.
“Yes,” I muttered against her mouth and pulled her onto me, wanting to plunge my cock into her just as her tongue had plunged into me. “Your kiss. So good. So—no!”
Breaking the wanton connection, I searched her jewel eyes, half-lidded and pleading. “Star, you kissed me. You said no kissing. You said it was the ultimate deal-breaker. What’s happening?”
Her hand slid over my hard cock. “I want you, T.J. I want all of you.”
I shook my head in protest, but my mouth wasn’t on the same page, because I pulled her in for another deep kiss and shifted my hips to allow her to push down my jeans.
This wasn’t right. It wouldn’t lead to what I most desired. It was a distraction. It was…
…the only thing I wanted right now.
Five
While T.J. protested—more a courtesy protest than anything—I worked his hardened shaft up and down with my hand, wanting to feel every bit of its length, measuring its steely hardness, and cupping the swollen plum-like head.
His kisses bruised my mouth and my staunch rules. I’d broken the number-one rule.
And I liked it.
I wanted this man. I didn’t want to be his slave. I wanted him to give me everything I deserved, and, in turn, I wanted to do the same to him—without a demonic party crasher.
“Is this right?” I said, squeezing him to ensure the control was mine. “Tell me if it’s wrong.”
“That’s…” He moved my hips above his cock, positioning me, I guessed. “Perfect. I need to be inside you. Please.”
“I want that, too. We can summon demons later. Yes?”
He nodded, unable to form words.
“Make me yours, witch.”
He pushed his cock against my slick folds, and I felt him enter me, solid and thick. I couldn’t believe a part of a man could be so hard, yet it pinched a little and I cried out. And then I was biting my lip and digging my fingers into his shoulder as the slide of him in and out replaced the tiny pain with incredible sensation.
“Hell, you’re a virgin,” he gasped. “Star?”
I’d found a sensual rhythm and moved upon his shaft to find my pleasure, despite him having stopped. The slide of his thickness and my position on top of him tugged at my clitoris. The delirious hum of climax neared.
“Don’t stop,” I whispered. “Take the pleasure you need. I can feel it. You inside me. So good. Never like this before.”
He clasped my hips and increased the rhythm. Jaw tight and eyes focused on mine, he winced in pleasure and I could feel his body begin to tremor.
“Yes, let me see you come,” I said, leaning in and clutching his hair to keep his eyes on mine. “Take it, take it all.”
He thrust deeply inside me, then held me still upon him as his body pumped and his muscles contracted, and the moan spilled from his throat. The air shimmered. The scents of his skin, the leather sofa and the herbs in the kitchen grew bolder.
I’d never witnessed a man experiencing sexual climax. At once, every muscle on his face was tight, strapped across his skull, and then his skin relaxed and his jaw fell open. Eyes closing, he growled deeply with pleasure.
Marveling over him, I was suddenly taken by my own climax and cried out. Surrounded by his innate magic I felt embraced, open and blissful.
T.J.’s eyes widened. He shoved me onto my back on the sofa, and began to recite a spell.
I wanted to plead with him to stop. This was not a business transaction. Apparently he hadn’t heard my request to do that later. I couldn’t stop him. I was still riding the high. Words failed me. Sensations swept me from this realm. I had fallen into love, and I couldn’t navigate the surface.
Why had I allowed myself to fall?
“Advenient nefari.”
Congratulating myself on maintaining clarity of mind, I huffed from the blissful exhaustion of orgasm while chanting the invocation.
Star lay writhing on the sofa before me, her body glistening with perspiration and her lips red and open. She was so beautiful. A streetlight beamed through the window and showered her skin with a thousand jewels of light.
“Ingredi en mundus!”
We’d done it. She had done it. We’d both done it. We’d…shared something just now. Something beyond business sex. It had been a unique contact between us, filled with unexpected trust.
She trusted me. And she had specifically asked me to do the summoning later.
But she was a familiar. That’s what familiars did—conduct demons. They didn’t have sex for pleasure.
I spoke another line of the spell. Only a few more left. Star’s body relaxed, preparing to open and conduct a demon to this realm.
In my heart, I knew she’d come here tonight for something else, dressed to seduce as she’d been. We’d shared something I shouldn’t label business, for the connection we’d achieved still battered through my veins. And that claiming pulse commanded me to silence.
Her twinkling skin shivered. Her mouth parted and she gasped. Her nipples had softened and her entire body was lax beneath me. So gorgeous. So…mine.
Mine. I’d taken her virginity. I’d perhaps given Star her first taste of pleasure sans business. I’d…
I think I’d fallen in love with Star.
“Do it!” she cried. “Finish the spell. It’s what you want.”
“No.” I knelt on the sofa and drew her into my embrace, her hair spilling over my shoulder as if a silk veil. Our heartbeats collided against one another as skin kissed skin and fingers clasped desperately. “I can’t use you like that, Star. It’s not right.”
“It’s what I am,” she said, sniffling against me. “We had a deal.”
Feeling the energy leave the air a
nd the remnants of my spell dissipate, I did not regret not finishing the spell and summoning the demon.
“We had an unspoken deal,” I said. “When you kissed me, it was made.”
She pulled away and met my gaze with teary green eyes. “You understood that?”
I nodded. “I heard you ask for us to try the summons later. I shouldn’t have even tried it now.”
“But your spell. You wanted to summon the demon for some desperate reason, otherwise you wouldn’t have gone to all the trouble of getting me here in the first place. T.J., you need the demon here in this realm. Will you tell me why?”
I sat back, drawing her onto my lap and against my chest, both of us still panting from the delicious exertion. I didn’t want to talk, I wanted to be inside her again because it felt like the only place I belonged. It felt like a place where I could do only good, no evil.
“Thoroughly?”
Her eyes glittered with questions and a startling innocence. She’d been a virgin. Hell. And I’d robbed her of that without knowing. I guess it made sense, in the weirdest way possible. Had she never before had a lover, a boyfriend?
She wanted to know my truths. I wanted to give them to her. I owed her my truth.
“The nefari demon holds the key to Daemonia,” I said, “a place where my brother was lost months ago. Or it’s rumored Navicrux knows where the key is kept.”
“Your brother? Daemonia is a terrible place. Oh, why didn’t you finish the spell?”
I shook my head and hugged her slender, bliss-warmed frame against me. Our pulses thundered for one another. “Couldn’t do that to someone I care about.”
“You wouldn’t have hurt me. It’s what I do.”
“I know, but I don’t think I want our relationship to be that now. Not witch and familiar. Something has happened between us. Did you feel it?”
She nodded. “Your magic changed the air. Did we make that?”
I wasn’t sure. “Possibly. Can we be something else?”
She twirled a fingertip in my hair and wrapped her legs about my hips, snuggling her warm, naked body to mine. “Like lovers?”
