Devotion Calls

by Caridad Piñeiro

  This thing was darkness. Turbulent, with a unique signature to its force. Even though he couldn’t physically see it, the tendrils of its negative energy reached out for him, trying to reel him in. It wanted something from him. Something big.

  He moved back a bit, but then took another step away more quickly, out of the range of the creature’s power. This thing—whatever it was—had taken the animals and killed the cat. Ricardo had no doubt that was the source of this malevolence.

  “Ricardo?” His name was barely a whisper from Sara’s lips. How he wished to hear her say it with something other than fear.

  “We’re safe.” For now, he thought, and moved farther still from the mouth of the alley.

  Not a heartbeat later there came an odd combination of sounds. A screech and cackle. A sharp hiss and clack, like sharp teeth snapping shut.

  “H-huuman.”

  Ricardo couldn’t understand it. Was almost afraid to.

  Sara stiffened behind him and grabbed hold of his arm. “What was that?”

  A clatter arose, and for a moment, he caught a glimpse of something racing up to the roof of the building. With the lack of light, it was difficult to tell what it was, only that it was large and its color indistinct yet dark.

  “Let’s go,” he said, fearful that the creature might return.

  If it did, he wasn’t sure he could keep them safe.

  Sara huddled on his couch, hunched over slightly, the mug of coffee cradled between her hands. She was safe now. He kept telling himself that, not that the reminder did him much good. He could feel the fear gripping her, painfully aware that some of that fear was about him. About what he was and why the unknown beast seemed to be following him.

  After the encounter in the alley, Ricardo had ferreted her to safety in his apartment. Once there, he’d phoned Samantha to let her know what had happened, and had heard her promise that she and Peter would immediately investigate further. While he awaited word, he had other problems to worry about. He couldn’t very well let Sara huddle there, alone, surrounded by all the negative energies bringing her such distress. But he feared comforting her would rouse his carnal desires.

  In the end he sat next to her and wrapped an arm around her shoulder. A shiver shook her at his touch, as painful as a knife sliding into his gut. A second later, though, she leaned into him and relaxed.

  Bending his head, he laid the side of his face against her hair and breathed in deeply. It was silky against his cheek and had a clean scent, like orange blossoms. The aroma and silkiness called to him, and he couldn’t keep from reaching up, tangling his fingers through the heavy weight of the tresses and up to her neck. He gently massaged it, trying to ease her disquiet.

  “That feels good,” she said, and let out a little mewl of pleasure.

  He kept up the caress, but was careful to curb his power. He didn’t want anything otherworldly to intrude into their time. They’d already had enough of that tonight.

  As the strain fled from her body, she settled against him more fully and tucked her legs up under her on the couch. “Make yourself comfortable,” he teased.

  She sipped her coffee, but then placed the mug down on the coffee table and leaned back more fully against him, pillowing her head against his chest. Motioning to the bookcases along the far wall, she asked, “Are those photos of your family?”

  “Sí. The big one is the entire family—all my brothers and sisters, with their wives and kids.”

  “The one with you in your dress uniform. Is that your mami and papi?”

  “Sí. That was taken right before I finished my second tour.”

  “Hmm,” Sara murmured as she spied one picture of what she assumed was a more youthful Ricardo, and pointed to it. “You in high school?”

  “My youngest brother. We look a lot alike.”

  Without a doubt, she thought. Another handsome devil that would break hearts. She wondered if Ricardo had broken his own share of them, but instead said, “Two tours? That must have been rough. Where did you serve?”

  “At first we did a lot of humanitarian missions. Relieving the suffering caused by earthquakes and mudslides. That kind of thing.”

  “It was similar for me. Mostly stateside, thanks to a rough hurricane season. But for the last year I shipped out to Afghanistan.”

  He tightened his hold on her. “I ended my last tour there. Difficult, but—”

  “Necessary,” she finished. “So why New York?” She had been to San Diego once for a nurse’s convention and loved it. It made her wonder why anyone would trade sandy beaches and perfect year-round weather for sunbathing on tar rooftops and damp, dismal winters.

  He shrugged. “More people, more possibilities. After training and being an EMT for a couple of years, I happened to be going by the building for my shop. The sale price was too good to pass up.”

  She shifted, turning so that she might see him better. “So, that’s it? You’ve settled here?”

  With a cocky grin, he cupped her cheek. “Maybe.”

  There was a lot to be read from that smile. Including possibly an invitation to take whatever was going on between them to the next level. “Just maybe?”

  He moved only an inch, but it was enough to bring her body flush against his. “It all depends…”

  “Really?” She stroked his hair back from his face, wanting to see all those sharp planes and angles. Needing to see his eyes. They were growing darker, a more intense green, and she knew why. The pleasure of being close to him was arousing her, as well.

  Tangling her fingers in his thick dark hair, she cradled the back of his head and nuzzled her nose against his. “So tell me why—”

  “Why don’t I show you instead?” he replied, and before she could utter another word, he took her mouth in a kiss that was almost punishing with its passion. His lips bruised hers at first, then he quickly tempered his kiss.

  She opened her mouth, savored the hard edges of his lips, sucked in his tongue when he explored her mouth with it.

  He moaned, paused to draw a ragged breath and asked, “Can I touch you?”

  “Sí.”

  He immediately cupped her breast, and her nipple beaded against the palm of his hand. He caressed her, gently rubbing his palm back and forth against the tip until she was straining toward him, wanting more. She shifted her body, and beneath the softness of her belly, his hardness nestled against her.

  He wanted her as much as she wanted him, she knew, but she sensed restraint in the slight tension in his arms.

  She pulled away a bit to look at him. “Do you want to stop?”

  Across the high, proud line of his forehead, a deep wrinkle emerged. Tight lines bracketed the lips she had been kissing just moments earlier. “No, but…There are so many things between us.”

  “For one night, can’t we try and forget about all our worries and just…enjoy?”

  Ricardo examined the face that had become so dear to him. Her warm hazel eyes gazed at him, beseeching, and her lips glowed moist and red from his kisses. He felt a tug in his groin. A deep painful tug that wanted fulfillment, release, the ecstasy that could only be achieved buried deep inside her. Sara claimed to want it, too, but she didn’t strike him as the kind of woman to enjoy a man without needing more.

  As he cupped her cheeks and ran his fingers down her smooth skin, he realized she was putting up a front. A defense against all that might arise to separate them. She was much
like him in that way. He kept up barriers, closing himself off for fear of showing her his true self. The one that wasn’t a santero, but just a man with some extraordinary abilities.

  Caressing her jaw, he slipped his thumbs across her full lips. Silently he let his eyes and hands promise all that she needed, not just for this night, but for the future. A future he wanted to believe was possible for them.

  With that in mind, he whispered against her lips, “So let’s enjoy.”

  Chapter 14

  W ith his mouth moving slowly, sensuously, against hers, Sara knew there was nothing she wouldn’t do, nothing she wouldn’t give this man. His lips were warm and pliant, his tongue hard and wet as she took it in, frolicked with it in anticipation of another, more intimate dance.

  He lowered his hands to her waist and, at her murmured invitation, moved them to her breasts. He caressed them, found the hardened tips of her nipples and tugged. Each pinch echoed between her legs, creating intense need.

  She mewled in pleasure, and he broke away from her and tugged off the black knit sweater she wore, exposing the lacy black bra beneath. He reached behind, un-snapped it and eased it off. Her breasts spilled free and she moved, bringing one nipple close to his mouth.

  He cupped her breast, and kissed it, drawing a pleased gasp from her. When he took it into his mouth, she held the back of his head, urging him on. She moved her hips, straddling him.

  The strands of his hair were thick and silky, tangling around her fingers as she exhorted him to continue. She loved the way his mouth worked her nipple, while he pleasured the other with his palm. His erection nestled between her legs and he pressed up into her as she rode him. She cursed the clothes that kept them apart. Too far apart.

  Sara wanted to run her hands over his skin. She imagined it was smooth, like his face, which was clean shaven. Tired of just imagining, she pulled his T-shirt free of his jeans and slipped her hand beneath. Warm, smooth skin greeted her.

  She inched her palm along his body slowly, taking the shirt with it. His muscles were hard, and as she moved upward, she experienced the hills and valleys of them until she reached her destination—the hard little button of his nipple. She mimicked the play of his hands and mouth, tweaking it between her fingers, dragging a groan from him that vibrated against the peak of her breast.

  As if by mutual agreement, she shifted back onto her buttocks, allowing him freedom to tear off his shirt, and at the same time pressing herself more tightly against his erection. Now she moaned, as the contact made her want more.

  At that sound, he sat up a bit, touched her cheek. “This is happening much too fast, isn’t it?”

  Sara wanted to deny it, but couldn’t. It had been a long time since she had been intimate with anyone. But what she felt—that urgent desire to be close to him—had more to do with him than just the need for sex. She bent forward and laid her hands over his chest, dragged her thumbs across his nipples as she answered, “I don’t want to rush.”

  He stroked the side of her face and smiled. “Neither do I. So come with me.”

  Puzzled, she nevertheless agreed, allowing him to slip from beneath her. As he rose, he held his hand out to her and she took it, trailed behind him as he walked to the far side of the room and a staircase she hadn’t noticed before. He walked upward to another level of the apartment.

  A hall split the floor in half. To the right were two doors, to the left only one. It was to that door he headed, and as they crossed the threshold and he turned on a light, she realized it was his bedroom. A very masculine, but totally tasteful bedroom.

  A king-size mahogany sleigh bed, just right for a man of his height and size, dominated the middle of the room beneath a skylight. As on the floor below, shelves lined one wall and held books, more photos, and a collection of items that she assumed came from his many travels as a marine.

  Before the bed there was an entertainment unit, and he flipped on the stereo system. The soft sounds of Sarah McLachlan came from the stereo, dragging a smile to Sara’s lips. “Something to put me in the mood for seduction?”

  She walked toward him, feeling more like the seducer than he. As he turned and saw her approaching, he grinned. “Something that’ll give us an excuse for a slow dance.”

  Standing before him, she placed her hand on the center of his chest, then slid it upward to his shoulder. She raised her other hand in dance position.

  Ricardo didn’t want to refuse her invitation, but he needed something else first. He reached for the snap on her jeans, undid it and then worked the pants down. He paused just long enough for her to toe off her sneakers, before he peeled off her pants and socks. She stood before him in nothing but a black thong that exposed the luscious curves of her hips.

  She was all woman, lush with ripe feminine curves that he longed to explore.

  Instead, he contented himself with running his hands up the length of her body.

  Only now it appeared to be her turn, for as he finally stood upright, she undid his jeans and likewise helped him undress. They both stood there, breathing heavily, their bodies trembling from the anticipation of what they knew was to come.

  She held her arms up in the traditional dance pose once again, and he finally slipped into them. Then they began to move to the music, her marvelous breasts barely grazing the skin of his chest, his erection jutting against the smoothness of her belly.

  It wasn’t enough for either of them, and little by little they drifted closer until their bodies melded together. Skin rubbing skin. Warm, and growing hotter. Damp.

  He bent his head and kissed her. Kept on kissing her, over and over again. Inside him, heat coalesced in his core. The flow of his energy and the natural forces swirling around them shifted into his body. He reined in that power, knowing that he couldn’t release it during their intimacy.

  She would run if she felt it. She would be afraid of him, and that was the last thing he wanted.

  But she was making it so hard to keep control as she inched up on tiptoe and rubbed her body against his.

  He cupped her buttocks, naked from the thong, abundant beneath his hands as he urged her upward.

  Sara explored his body in turn. His skin was as smooth as she had imagined. She reveled in the glorious wealth of tanned flesh, lean with sculpted muscles. With his greater height and those amazingly broad shoulders, there was so much to hold on to. He was big…and not just across the shoulders.

  He held her close, his large hands against her ass, raising and guiding her as she caressed his erection with her body. Between her legs she was damp, vibrating with need.

  Suddenly his hand was there, parting her legs from behind. Easing beneath the scrap of her thong so he could slip his thumb into her vagina. She gasped and threw her head back, the pressure of that possession nearly bringing her to a climax.

  “Shhh,” he whispered against the side of her face. He kissed the crook of her neck and then sucked there, the pull of his mouth keeping time with the way he shifted his thumb in and out of her.

  She held on to his shoulders, her body shaking from the force of the climax that was rapidly approaching.

  But then he moved, hefting her in his arms and carrying her toward his bed. She felt the cool fabric brush the backs of her thighs and then her buttocks as he slowly lowered her to the edge.

  When he stopped his caresses, she nearly protested, but he did so only long enough to strip the thong down her body and then kneel before her, slipping int
o the V formed by her legs.

  Ricardo looked up at her and laid his shaky hands on her thighs, almost as if seeking permission.

  She gave it to him, opening her legs to reveal herself.

  He groaned as he realized she was as bare as a baby, devoid of any hair, exposing her glistening and flushed lips. The sweet entrance to her womb. He had to taste it all. Touch every smooth inch.

  Bending his head, he began by licking her pubis while he parted her lips with his thumb.

  She sucked in a breath and her body trembled beneath him, clearly anticipating the journey of his tongue and mouth. He licked her lips, found the center of her with his tongue and she gasped again, laid her hand against the back of his head.

  He didn’t need to ask her if she liked that, and so he deepened his kiss, sucking and biting at the swollen nub while he eased a finger inside.

  Slick and strong, her muscles moved on his finger, and he eased another one in. She was tight. So tight that he knew her being here with him was not something she did lightly.

  His own body responded at that realization, with a jolt that told him he couldn’t hold on for much longer.

  He didn’t have a condom within easy reach. He cursed beneath his breath. He withdrew, earning her protest until she realized why.

  Sara watched him fumble with his jeans, and after, with his wallet, from which he finally removed the shiny foil packet. She took it from his hands.

  The foil was smooth, the writing worn in spots, which told her it had been in his wallet for some time. The thought pleased her, and she wanted to give some immediate pleasure back.

  With a quick rip, she opened the packet and removed the condom. She reached for him, but didn’t sheath him right away. Instead, she cupped him, stroked the long length of his shaft, their gazes locked as she did so.