by R. C. Murphy
“Is this what you truly want?” Deryck moved a damp piece of hair off her forehead, tucking it behind her ear. His fingers traced a path down the side of her neck to her shoulder.
“No matter how many times you ask, I won’t change my mind. I need this, Deryck. I need to be with someone right now who makes me feel something other than sorry for myself. I’ve spent the last month hating my life, hating everyone I’ve ever met because they all used me and threw me away like a tissue.”
He swallowed past the lump in his throat, all too aware of how good she felt pressed against him. Deryck wished he’d met her under better terms, where he wasn’t forced to be yet another person manipulating her to get what he wanted. “Isn’t that what I did, though?”
Shayla laughed. The sound surprised him. “I went to you, remember? Despite the shit Harry pulled, I still found you and offered to help. Don’t belittle my kindness. It’s all I have in my life that is pure and honest.”
“I’m sorry, Shayla. I didn’t mean to.”
“Then shut up and come to bed.”
She didn’t give Deryck much of a choice. Shayla took his hands and walked backward, drawing him to the foot of the bed. Dropping his hands, she crawled onto the bed. Her eyes held the hope weighing his chest down. How can I say no to her after everything we’ve been through? The answer was easy.
Deryck brushed his thumbs along Shayla’s jaw, over the soft skin under her ear, and back into her wet hair. It captured his fingers, tangling around them. He tugged gently to tilt her head up and dipped his head down. His lips caught her bottom lip. Shayla sucked in a breath. He stole a taste, swiping his tongue across hers. Her arms caught him around the back of his neck. Her tongue caressed his and swept over his bottom lip.
She pulled back, green eyes locked on his. Her hands slid down his spine. Deryck stepped in closer, drawing her against his chest. He laid a kiss on the top of her head and forced himself to calm down, to treat her right.
Shayla seemed to have other things in mind.
Her hands slid below the elastic band at the back of his pants. Fingernails scraped lightly over his ass. A shiver ran up his spine. An electric jolt punched his groin. Deryck’s groan was muffled by Shayla’s hair. He felt her smile where her cheek lay pressed against his chest.
Deryck untangled from her and pushed her gently back onto the bed. “You know, I’m loving the cartoon mouse look. Very sexy.”
“Sorry, it was all I had.”
“You misunderstand me.” He knelt on the foot of the bed. Raising her leg, he kissed her ankle. His fingers slid under the loose fabric of her pants to tease the soft skin of her calf. “I can use my imagination before the pants come off. That is far sexier than flimsy gowns with see-through busts.”
“Good thing I own a lot of pants like this, huh?” Shayla slid her leg around his waist and pulled him on top of her.
Deryck caught himself on his arms, moving so he straddled one of her legs. “Impatient?”
“Very.”
Chuckling, he slid a hand up her thigh. His palm cupped over her heat. He pushed the heel of his hand gently against her. Shayla bit her bottom lip and spread her legs wider. Deryck drew circles over her center, loving the gasps she gave when he hit a particular spot. Impatient to truly feel her, he sat back on his heels and pulled the sleep pants away. She wore nothing underneath. The curls at her center were golden red, neatly trimmed. He had a feeling her time in the shower was used on more than washing away the dirt from the temple.
Sliding down the bed, Deryck nestled between Shayla’s legs. He laid a row of kisses up one thigh, then the other.
She squirmed and sat up on her elbows. “If you keep teasing like that, I’m going to go insane.”
“That’s the point.”
Shayla groaned, dropping her head back. “I don’t have nearly as much patience as you do.”
He kissed the crease between her thigh and where he truly wanted to be. “I promise it’ll be worth it.”
She gave him another look. Deryck slid up her body to capture her lips in a quick kiss before he sunk down between her thighs. His fingertips parted her, baring her most sensitive part. He licked his thumb and drew a circle around the nub at the top of her sex. Her hips bucked at the lowest point in the circle. He wet his thumb again and stroked her, listening to the hitches in her breathing to set the pace of his movements. Shayla slapped a hand against the blankets under her. Her fingers dug in tight. He grinned and dropped his head down to take his first real taste of her.
Shayla knew of the existence of gods, plural. She’d met a couple face-to-face and lived to tell the tale—not that anyone would believe her. Despite what horrors she knew, she still thanked the gods for the man between her thighs, making her world tremble with licks and kisses and just a little bit of suckling.
Deryck knew what he was doing. His golden eyes watched her face, reading every reaction to his attentions. Each time she met his gaze, the intensity ratcheted up a notch or two. She felt special under his gaze and knew everything he did was for her pleasure, not his.
He slid a finger through the wetness at her core, teased it around her entrance, and dipped it inside just deep enough for her to experience the delicious pressure of being entered. Deryck pulled his finger back, repeating the shallow tease. Shayla couldn’t stand it. Her foot caught his right elbow, pushing it closer when he tried to tease her again. He smiled against her, his tongue losing the rapid rhythm he’d set.
“Don’t stop. I’m close.”
She didn’t need to ask twice. Deryck dove in again, his tongue swiping over her in the right spot to make her gasp. He teased around her entrance once more before his finger plunged into her. He crooked it and rubbed the sensitive spot inside with the same rhythm as his tongue. It didn’t take long for the building pressure to become too much. Shayla’s hips bucked off the bed with the force of her orgasm. She muttered a string of curses, riding the pleasure. He slowed, coaxing the most he could out of her before she couldn’t take any more and pushed toward the headboard to get away from his evil, talented mouth.
Deryck sucked his finger into his mouth and watched her retreat. “You can’t be done already, Shayla.”
Her body throbbed. She bit down on her lip to keep from whimpering. When she caught her breath, Shayla moved over and motioned for him to lie down in the middle of the bed. “No, but if you make me a puddle of stupid, I can’t do anything for you.”
Deryck crawled up from the foot of the bed and laid down on his side facing her, his head propped on his hand. God, she could watch him move for the rest of the night and be just hunky dory. The man was made of sex—no, created to have sex, she reminded herself. Suddenly, she felt extremely outclassed in the realm of bedroom know-how. How the hell will I figure out anything to stand out as a lover? He’s seen and done it all. Shayla smoothed out a wrinkle on the comforter, unsure of what to do next.
“Is something wrong?”
She shook her head. “No. Not really.” Her eyes rolled up to meet his. “I’m not too experienced, if you know what I mean. It’s been a while and I’m pretty sure I forgot everything but the basics.”
Deryck chuckled. His hand came down over hers and gave a squeeze. “Do what you want, what your body says is right. There are no new tricks to master when it comes to sex. You just have to get your mind out of your body’s way. Thinking too much is the sole cause of bad sex.”
“You make it sound so easy.”
“It is, Shayla. Let go of whatever is holding you back. This room exists outside of reality. There’s just you and me and what we can do for each other.”
Nodding, she knew he was right. There was no guarantee of what would happen in the morning, or even in an hour. In the here and now, she had this gorgeous man in her bed, capable of rending her mindless with pleasure. She’d never have a chance like this again—the chance to let loose and give over to the will of her body. After this, they’d be plagued with The Question. Would they become a
couple or would he venture off to live life as a free man with no baggage?
Fuck it. I’m going for it.
She pushed Deryck onto his back and straddled his hips. Her bare flesh rested over the hardness of him, still covered by the sweat pants he wore. It felt good, him being pressed against her like that. Her hips rocked gently, teasing him. Shayla leaned down and trailed kissed over his chest, up to his collarbone. Her teeth grazed over the muscle joining his neck and shoulder. Deryck tilted his head. She followed the long line of his neck up to nibble on his earlobe.
“I can do anything I want with you, right?” she whispered in his ear.
“Anything at all.”
“Good.”
Her lips traveled down the side of his neck again, across his pectorals and the top of his abs. Shifting her hips, she slid down to straddle one of his thighs. Shayla’s determination to do what she wanted to without thinking petered out when her trail of kisses met with the top of his sweat pants. She sat back on her heels; trying to remember the last time she’d ever done what she was planning to. It’d happened just once. Cyrus belittled her endlessly after, telling her she sucked at, well, sucking.
Deryck pushed up on an elbow. His large palm cradled her cheek. “It’s just us, Shayla.”
She offered him a smile. “Sorry. I have a hard time letting go of the past.”
“We’ll get past it. Right now, we need this. You don’t have to prove anything to me. If you ask me to, we will lie down and go to sleep, never to mention it again.”
“I’ll be okay.”
To prove her point, she moved off his leg and grabbed the waistband of his sweats. Deryck arched his hips off the bed to help her pull the pants off him. She kept her eyes fixed to his legs and the skin she uncovered. Shayla dropped the pants off the side of the bed before willing herself to look at him. She’d seen him earlier, hard and ready, in the temple. It has done nothing to brace her for how good he looked fully nude.
Shayla lay down on her side, her head level with his hips. Her fingertips explored the firm muscles of his thighs, the smooth edge of his hipbone under his olive skin, the impossibly cut bottom edge of his abs. She licked her lips and kissed his hip. Her next kiss was closer still to his manhood. One last kiss found her a hair’s breadth from her intended target.
She looked up at Deryck. He hadn’t moved. His eyes were fixed on her. Her body remembered the pleasure he’d wrung from her moments before and pulsed. He brushed her hair back over her shoulder, but didn’t move to force her into action. Her respect for the man grew in leaps and bounds. Even in bed, he was a perfect gentleman.
Spurred into action by his seemingly endless patience, Shayla leaned over his hip and flicked her tongue over the tip of his erection, lapping up the pearl of moisture resting there. He tasted clean, like her body wash, under was the salty, musky taste of a man. She went back for a second lick, starting lower. Her tongue made a trip around the head of him. Deryck sucked in a breath. Shayla grinned, pleased she’d done something to make him lose a little control.
Shayla wrapped her fingers around Deryck. Her lips parted and slid over him. She worked her hand and mouth together, listening to the encouraging noises he made to prolong his torment, much the same as he’d done while pleasuring her. She’d wring every ounce of pleasure out of him as possible. Taking a breath through her nose, she slowed her strokes and slid her lips down his shaft. She got as far down as she could without hurting herself. He groaned, a deep sound that tugged on things low in her body.
Deryck’s hand grabbed her shoulder. “Mount me, Shayla.”
She released him from her mouth and made a show of wiping her lips clean. His hands locked on her shoulders and pulled her on top of him. Shayla straddled his hips, sitting just below his arousal. Her lips found his. Deryck held her in place with a hand wrapped around the back of her neck. His tongue teased around hers. He slowly let her up, his hand traveling down her chest to grasp her breast. Shayla sat up and stripped off her shirt, giving him full access. He massaged her breasts, gently rolling her nipples against his palms. Needing more, Shayla leaned over and grabbed a small foil packet out of her nightstand drawer.
He raised a brow. “I’m sterile.”
She opened the packet and rolled the condom over the length of him. “You can never be too careful. A lot has changed in the last few hours with you. Having a surprise pregnancy on top of everything is not something we need.”
“Gods, I love your mind.”
“Love my body, too, Deryck.”
Shayla raised her hips and lowered herself, guiding him to her core with one hand. The first, sweet pressure of him entering her gave way to concern, maybe he was too big. To his credit, Deryck let her take control, going slowly until she sat all the way down on him. His hands cradled her hips, gently lifting and dropping her over him in time with her movements. She sat upright and gasped at the changed angle. He hit just the right spot on each down stroke of her hips. He urged her to move faster, strong hands slipping under her ass and gripping tight. It was too much, too hard. Shayla braced a hand against his stomach. Her back bowed. The orgasm tore a ragged whimper from her, forced her eyes shut. Only then did Deryck allow her to stop moving.
Before she caught her breath, he wrapped his arms around her back and rolled them over. Shayla’s eyes flew open and met with his. He smiled and dropped his head down to brush kisses down the side of her throat. His hips found a nice, slow rhythm, coaxing her arousal to a boiling point again. He was good, oh so very good. Shayla tucked her right leg behind his hip. Deryck caught her left and braced it over his shoulder. He leaned down, driving into her harder. He filled her and then some. It wasn’t until then she realized he wasn’t trying to go all the way in. She said a small prayer of thanks for a man fully aware of his size and the reality that, yes, it does hurt when a guy goes too deep.
Rational thought flew out the window shortly after. Deryck wrapped her left leg behind his hip and knelt between her legs, sitting back on his heels. He pulled her ass onto his knees. His strokes drove right to her sweet spot. He licked his thumb and dipped it between her folds to stroke her in quick circles. She felt his rhythm slip once and caught the determined look in his eyes. Shayla wanted to laugh at how focused he was on her pleasure, except she couldn’t catch her breath long enough to do more than groan at how damn good he felt buried in her.
Shayla reached the edge of bliss again. Her hand locked around his wrist, trying to stop him from stroking and making it too much to handle. He smiled, despite the focus on his face, and twirled his thumb around her sensitive spot again. Shayla came undone. Her fingers gripped Deryck’s thigh. He slowed enough to let her ride out the orgasm before dropping her ass back onto the mattress and covering her body with his. His hips drove hard, relentlessly. Their rhythm grew jerky. Shayla cradled the back of his head and kissed up the side of his neck. His forehead dropped onto her shoulder. Groaning, he thrust one last time.
They lay like that for a while. Shayla forced herself to breathe. She stroked her fingers through Deryck’s hair, down his neck and shoulders—she couldn’t get enough of touching him. The longer she focused on the feel of his skin, the firmness of the muscles at his shoulders, the easier it was to push back the questions looming over their heads.
Deryck rolled off of her. Shayla patted her hand along the top of the nightstand until she found a box of tissues. She pulled a few free and handed them to him. He took care of the condom and dropped it into the trashcan on his side of the bed. They rolled to each other again, nearly bumping their heads together.
Shayla laughed. “Sex and brain damage, my idea of a good date.”
He kissed the top of her head and pulled her closer. She rested her head against his chest. His heart thumped under her ear. “We will have to keep your ideal dates to a minimum, then. I don’t like seeing you hurt.”
She glanced down at the fresh gauze covering the cut on her arm. “Too late for that. I seem to be a magnet, attracting ev
ery ceremonial knife on the planet.”
“There are a lot of them. And you are safe now. The power you possessed to free an incubus was spent when the ritual finished.”
“That’s good. I mean, I always wanted to travel, but the conditions weren’t exactly ideal.”
Shayla shivered and pulled out of Deryck’s arms. In the afterglow, she'd failed to notice she was completely nude with the light on. Oh hell, he can see every dimple of fat on my thighs and stretch marks on my breasts. She shimmied her way under the blankets, despite his weight pinning half of them down.
He arched a brow. “Were you cold?”
“Yeah.” She let out a breath. Being honest with Deryck would be the only way for them to try and have a future. “And the lights are on.”
“Shayla, you have nothing to hide.”
“Says the demi-god without cellulite.” She tucked the blankets under her arms.
Deryck slid under the blankets with her. His hand rested on her stomach. She couldn’t help but flinch.
“I am new to your realm, but I know better than to argue with a woman when she has her mind set on something.” He rested his cheek on the top of her head.
Shayla let out a breath and forced herself to relax. It wasn’t hard with his warmth seeping through her. Unfortunately, her brain started coughing up all of the questions and worries he’d told her to leave outside the bedroom door. She couldn’t. She needed some sort of assurance the hell her life had been wasn’t wasted. Leading to a future destined to be alone, remembering a man who treated her so well, but wanted more out of life than what she could provide. Who in their right mind would trade in the life of a sex god to play house with an office assistant? No one. Not anyone remotely sane, anyway.
“What happens next? The sex was great, but it won’t fix the situation we’re in.”
“No, it won’t. But we can take things one step at a time and see where it leads. I’m in no rush to do anything other than enjoy my freedom. I’d like to do that with you at my side for as long as you’ll tolerate me.”
