Seizing her lips with his own, he tried to block it out. He steered her against the wall of a restaurant on the busy street. Passersby strolled past, chattering and laughing, oblivious to the two immortal beings lost in their own little world with each other.
“This won’t do,” he murmured, trailing his lips down her throat. “I want to take you someplace else.”
She sighed, stroking his hair. “Where should we go?”
“Anywhere you want. Anywhere in the world, as long as it’s dark and secluded. I want you all to myself.”
He felt her shiver, saw her smile. “Well, if it’s my choice…”
There was a flash, and a wild pitching sensation in his gut, and suddenly he was lying with her on a glistening bed of sand as the glowing orange disc of the sun sank into the endless expanse of sparkling ocean beyond their feet. “I never would have taken you for a beach enthusiast,” he said.
Celeste’s voice was barely a whisper above the gentle lull of the waves, her blue eyes teasing. “Where would you have chosen? Death Valley?” She gave him a crooked smile.
“So they do joke where you come from.” He stroked her cheek. “And this is just what I would have chosen. Where are we?”
“Someplace I found long ago. It’s deserted. You wanted secluded. This is probably as secluded as it gets.”
He lowered his head until he was so close to her, the tips of their noses nearly brushed. “What do you want?”
“This. You.”
“No second thoughts?”
She lifted her hand to his face, brushing his cheek lightly. “No.”
He closed his eyes and savored that word, loving how full of wonder it had been. As if her trust was something she could not explain, it just…was.
Since when had he wanted trust from anyone? Since when had he cared?
Since her. Incredibly, she had somehow reached into him, to his “charred, black stump of a heart”, as she’d once called it long ago, and caused that useless organ to thump. And thump again. Until finally it had beat until it shook off the accumulation of centuries of hate like an old, black crust. He hadn’t thought it possible.
When he made no move to kiss her, she took action, lifting her head the minute distance it took to press her lips to his. A shudder worked its way through him, accentuated by another jolt that signaled his masters were calling him home. This one hurt, but he managed not to grunt as her tender kiss turned searing. The summonses would get worse and worse until he obeyed. Thankfully, he was accustomed to pain, and there wasn’t enough of it in the universe to tear him away from her at this moment.
His hand tugged until her robes fell away from her shoulders, leaving her br**sts bare.
It pained him to abandon the fire they generated with their lips, but he had to see her like this. Lovely, quivering… He traced her delicate collarbone with his fingertips and slid his hand down until the soft, rosy-crested flesh filled his palm, her nipple a tight little peak as he brushed it.
She whimpered, drawing his gaze to her face. He’d been lying through his teeth. If he saw the merest flicker of fear there, or second thoughts, he would end this. He wouldn’t do this to her. She somehow gave him the strength to fight all those base instincts that screamed at him to possess her utterly, savagely, mercilessly.
All he saw in her expression was acceptance.
Chapter Five
Celeste marveled something that felt as right as this could be wrong. No matter how sweet the apple Eve had bitten, she was sure it had been far sweeter for its forbidden lure. That was his kiss. Illicit. And irresistible.
It wasn’t fair. He’d mentioned repercussions, but she didn’t know what sort she would face, and right then, God help her, she didn’t care.
His mouth trailed down her throat and she arched sinuously against him, loving the slide of his lips, like damp silk brushing her skin. Stretching her arms over her head, she gave every inch of herself up for his perusal, feeling no shame as he tugged her robes away from her body and tossed them aside on the sand.
Damael’s breath shuddered out. He trailed one finger between her br**sts, over her heart, and her eyes fell closed. He could hurt her now, and it would be her own fault, her own stupidity. The ache pooling between her thighs and in her br**sts seemed to have chased all rational thought from her mind, and she knew it. Still, the sensations couldn’t be denied.
His touch left her, and she heard rustling, as if he was shedding his jacket. She looked to see him doing just that, his gaze never leaving her. She immediately reached up to work the buttons on his shirt, unable to move her fingers fast enough. Once she had them undone, she shoved the fabric down his shoulders, and he stripped it off the rest of the way.
God, he was beautifully sculpted, lean and pale in the moonlight. Black markings snaked around from his back to his shoulders and biceps, like sharp fingers from the darkening sky trying to claim him and pull him back into itself. For some reason, it made her all the more desperate to keep him here in her arms, just like this. She didn’t want to think about the beastly form his flesh kept contained.
She reached for him, pulling him down so he covered her body with his. Her fingers traced one of the intricate patterns around to the base of his throat. “What do they mean?” she whispered, hearing the tremor in her voice even over the rushing waves. Something about those marks filled her with dread, and touching them exacerbated the sense that perhaps she didn’t want to know what they meant.
Damael meant to spare her, shaking his head and lowering his lips to nudge under her chin. “Never you mind.”
He had done wicked things. She knew that, because she had seen them. Had those actions given him joy? Or had he been ambivalent, only carrying out his masters’ bidding? Would she ever truly know?
His lips closing around her nipple shut down her mind’s feverish pondering, and she moaned as he drew the crest deep into his mouth and laved it with the warmth of his tongue. Her nipple tightened past the point of pain. She clutched his hair in both hands, holding him to her, tilting her h*ps up against his only to find the hard column of his erection still encased in his pants. A mewl of frustration escaped her, and he chuckled, releasing his torturous suction on her nipple.
“You are exquisite,” he murmured. She felt the back of his hand brush her belly as he grappled with his belt, tugging and yanking. He lifted himself away long enough to shed his pants, and she had to refrain from licking her lips as the rest of his delectable body was revealed to her. The markings continued down the backs of his thighs, stopping at the knee. She knew he was watching her as she shyly let her gaze settle between those thighs, where his c*ck stood hard and impossibly thick.
“Touch me,” he said, guiding her hand toward him even as he gave the instruction. She closed her eyes as he wrapped her fingers around him, apprehensive when they didn’t meet around his girth. He groaned and skimmed her ear with his lips, sending more shivers skittering through her. “Explore me. Do as you wish. I’m yours for the taking.”
She blinked at him in surprise, thinking she wasn’t the only one taking a leap of faith at this moment. He lay back on the sand, nak*d and magnificent, and she couldn’t let go, couldn’t keep her hands off him. Instincts older than any mortal civilization were taking over, but they weren’t instincts to destroy her enemy. They were instincts to pleasure this creature lying before her like he’d never been pleasured before.
She straddled his legs, using both her hands to stroke up and down the length of his cock, enjoying the sounds he made. His eyes were closed, so he didn’t see her lean over, but every nerve in his body jumped when her lips closed around the thick head. His hand clenched in her hair, his h*ps lifted off the ground. All at once, she felt more empowered than she ever had dealing with him. Felt as if, for once, she held his very being in the palm of her hand. It would kill him if she stopped now.
She swallowed him down inch by inch, reveling in his reactions, so raw and unlike anything she had ever seen. She’d grown wet just watching him, wet and flushed and eager to feel him penetrate her where she felt so empty, so needy. She moved her h*ps against him in a rhythm that seemed older than time as she took him over and over with her mouth.
Suddenly, he reached down and lifted her over him until her legs were open over his mouth. The cry that escaped her as his lips closed over her mound sounded almost pagan, and she offered it to the sky with little concern for who was listening. His tongue slid between her folds, warm and wet and seeking, before fluttering against her clitoris in a way that dragged repeated moans from her throat. Her body arched as he tormented her, building the scalding ache to a peak that had her thighs shuddering. Her wings, usually folded tight against her back so as not to be a nuisance, were twitching like an agitated bird’s.
“When you come, spread them for me,” he murmured against her. The vibrations of his words against her inflamed flesh nearly did the job. Looking down, she saw his gaze was on her wayward wings, and she might have smiled if passion hadn’t been holding her captive. Helpless, sobbing, she ground her h*ps while he held her in place. He was relentless in his pursuit to shatter her. Nothing had ever felt so good, so good…another moment, another flick of his tongue in just the right place and…
Pleasure swept her away, sent her tumbling as if one of the waves sweeping the beach had toppled her. She didn’t consciously have to do as he’d asked. As every muscle in her body tightened, her wings unfolded and spread wide, stretching to their limits.
She scarcely had time to recover her senses before he flipped her down to the sand, wedging himself between her thighs as his eyes flashed crimson. Instead of frightening her, they drew forth a surge of lust that spurred her to spread wider and wriggle her h*ps to get him where she needed him. “Oh, please,” she whispered, guiding him to the hot core of this inexplicable need for him.
It was all too much. She was insane to beg for more. But in that moment she’d have let him drag her to Hell before she’d give up the masterful wickedness of his body. The ache he’d aroused in her reached another crescendo, and her muscles tightened, the delicious tension almost more than she could bear. Surely it would break her into pieces. He would watch her come apart right here beneath him.
Her breath caught as two of his fingertips skimmed down her belly and between her legs, not stopping their quest until he found her entrance and slid deep inside her slick passage. A shuddering groan tore itself from her throat, and he lowered his head to kiss a trail from one breast to the other. She arched into his mouth as his fingers worked her inner walls, stoking her pleasure, and at the moment she felt certain the building pressure would incinerate her, he withdrew.
Frustration churned within her, and she glared at him reproachfully, silently demanding why he’d stopped. All the words building in her throat died when he shifted and she felt the nudge of his erection into the tender cleft between her legs. She gasped as he pushed, and reflexively she dug her heels into sand that offered little resistance. His burning intrusion was inescapable, but she wanted it.