by Larissa Ione
“Yeah?” Dropping forward, she slipped out of his grip to take one of his nipple rings between her teeth. She tugged so hard he hissed. “So do I, Horseman. So do I.”
Thirty-one
Thanatos was on fire.
A sluggish burn worked its way through his muscles, flames licked at his skin, and smoke clouded his mind. Regan was churning on top of him, her core way too close for comfort, and why the hell had he let it get this far? He’d never, ever, gotten fully undressed with a female. But here he was, on a bed with a woman—another first—and rocking his hips upward to get to her wet heat.
Regan squeezed him between her thighs, and he moaned. Those legs would feel good wrapped around his waist.
“I need to be on top. Driving into you.” Somewhere deep in his brain, he knew the words were his, but he couldn’t believe he’d spoken them.
“Sorry.” She reached between their bodies and stroked his erection. “I only do it this way.”
He hissed at the friction of her palm on his hard member. “I can deal with that.” Hell, he’d deal with it any way srhe wanted it. If he was going to lose his virginity…
No.
God, what was he thinking?
“Regan.” He groaned, arching into her touch. “Stop.”
“No chance of that.” Her voice was as soft as her lips as they kissed their way up to his throat, where she nipped the scorpion tattoo before laving it with her tongue.
Thanatos squeezed his eyes shut, enjoying the way she was caressing him, using her entire body like a big cat to rub him all over. Her breasts slid against his chest, her inner thighs brushed softly against his hips, and her hands roved far and wide, stroking, petting. He shouldn’t let himself enjoy this, but he was starved for a female’s touch. This was something he’d dreamed about his entire life, and he wasn’t about to stop it yet.
Maybe he wouldn’t stop it at all.
He frowned, wondering where that notion had come from. His body had never overruled his brain, at least, not when it came to sex. Too much rode on his ability to hold onto his virginity. Maybe the mead…
Regan tongued his nipple, and his thoughts fractured into shards of lust. Virginity be damned.
“Ah, yes,” he hissed, and hissed again when she trailed her tongue down his body. When she reached his navel, she rimmed it, and he swore nothing had ever felt so good. But would she go lower? Please, please, please.
She did. He started panting before her mouth reached his hipbone. Her silky hair cascaded over his skin, and her cheek brushed his erection, and as much as he wanted to look, he couldn’t. He was too close to the edge, and the sight would send him right over.
“What do you want me to do, warrior?” she murmured against his inner thigh.
A lump the size of his fist clogged his throat, and he couldn’t say anything. He wanted… oh, he knew what he wanted. But this was a new experience, and he’d never been this intimate with a female. No, not even in the seedy back room at the Four Horsemen. Every female he took back there got off, but only because he touched their minds as he touched their bodies, and when he was through, they believed they’d either fucked or sucked him, but nothing could be farther from the truth.
“Hmm,” she said, as she teasingly brushed the tips of her fingers over his balls. “I guess you don’t want anything…”
“No,” he croaked. “I do.”
“Tell me.” He finally opened his eyes and looked at her. The sight of her crouched over him like that, her mouth so close to his arousal that her warm breath whispered over it, nearly undid him. Hunger glowed in her gorgeous eyes, and a sinful smile curved her lips. “What do you want?”
He swallowed the lump in his throat, but that did nothing to ease the dryness. “Put your mouth on me.”
Her smile widened, and she put her lips put her to the sensitive skin on his hip. “Like this?” She was killing him.
“On… my cock.”
“Oh, I see.” She dragged her lips down his shaft. “Like this?”
“Yeah, but…”
“But what?” She kept her mouth where it was, and his cock kicked in both protest and pleasure.
“But… suck it.”
She winked. “Now we’re talking.” She dove into her task, taking him into the depths of her wet mouth.
He cried out, a strangled rush of air, and fisted the sheets so hard his hands cramped. Slow, strong pulls met tender, light licks, and all the while, one hand slid up and down his shaft as the other cupped his balls and massaged gently.
He was almost there… his entire body arched, his hips rolled… oh, yeah…
“Touch yourself,” he whispered.
Regan moaned around his shaft, and the vibration made him lick the ceiling. Cracking his eyes open, he watched her slip her fingers between her legs. He’d taste her there in a minute. He’d tongue every inch of that battle-scarred body. And that glow on her skin… something about it made the souls in his armor writhe.
Right now they were agitated, but it only increased the sensation inside him. The light on her skin seemed to blanket him as she swiped her tongue over the head of his cock, and just as he thought she was going to take him in her mouth again, she surged up his body. Straddling him, she took his shaft in her hand. Oh… shit.
“No!”
The light slammed into his chest, melting over him like shrinkwrap and then disappearing. The souls inside him pushed back in a war that raged just under the surface of his skin, one that pinned him to the bed. He couldn’t move, couldn’t summon control over his muscles as Regan poised the head of him at her entrance.
“Don’t do this. Regan!”
Too late, she sank down on him, taking him all the way to the root. Pleasure and terror mixed, and as she started to move, all he could do was try not to hyperventilate. He imagined his Seal breaking, could almost feel the evil tremor begin in his soul.
Regan moaned, grinding on him, the silky slide of her channel around his shaft nothing short of amazing, and he wished he could enjoy it more, but his fucking Seal…
Hadn’t broken.
What the hell? And how was she holding him down? Nothing could hold him.
Regan’s nails scored his chest, and she threw her head back, eyes closed, mouth open, and against his will, his hips came off the bed to take her deeper. He shouldn’t be enjoying this, but she was moving faster now, her breasts lifting and falling with her increasingly rapid breaths. Magnificent. Magnif… she was breathtaking in her passion. His own passion spiraled out of control, his pleasure searing, intense. His balls felt tight, achy, ready to explode. His shaft swelled, and the first pulses of climax vibrated his nerve endings.
Oh, shit… what if it wasn’t the penetration, but the orgasm that broke his Seal? Spilling your seed inside the female will change your life. The voice of the demon who had whispered in his ear when he’d been cursed clanged in his head, and his throat seized.
“Stop,” he rasped, but Regan only moved faster, undulating against him in graceful waves. “Regan, stop now!”
“No way… oh, oh, yes.” Her body convulsed, and her core grabbed onto him, squeezing, milking, and then it was over. He was done for. The orgasm hit him like a whirlwind, lifting him violently off the bed. Regan yelped as he bucked so hard she had to cling to his shoulders or go flying.
He roared in exquisite ecstasy, in futile anger… and in sheer devastation.
Regan could hardly move. Her body was sated, and yet, she was oddly still… wanting. Beneath her, Thanatos’s chest was heaving, the smooth, tattooed skin glistening with a fine sheen of sweat. She wondered if he’d felt her ability raging like an electrical storm. She could have sworn she’d released it at some point, but when she opened her eyes, there’d been no light, no screeching, no telltale sign of the creature that extracted souls like a surgical instrument.
Maybe her fear of losing control during sex had been for nothing.
She listened to Than’s heart beating in her ear as she l
ay plastered against him, one hand petting his silky hair. She loved the braids, and as she wound one around her finger, she sighed in weary resignation.
As much as she’d like to remain like this, maybe go again, she had to leave if The Aegis’s plan was going to work.
Weakly, she pushed herself up. The Horseman’s yellow eyes were staring at her, his brows locked down in what she’d swear was confusion. Maybe he wasn’t used to the woman taking control. Too bad. The twenty-first century was going to suck for him, if that was the case.
She climbed awkwardly off him, her legs stiff, and tugged on her pants. “Well,” she said, as she pulled on her sweater, “that was fun, but I have to go.”
“You’re not leaving.” His voice was oddly hollow.
She shoved her feet into her boots. “Yeah, I am. I’m done with my research.” She zipped her bag, desperate to get out of there before she changed her mind and stayed. “If The Aegis needs anything else, they’ll send someone.”
“You aren’t leaving,” he repeated, this time with a lot more grouchiness. “And you’re going to release me.”
She cocked an eyebrow. “I’d say I already released you.”
He stared at her, his brows cranking down in a puzzled scowl. Then, abruptly, something changed. A smoky shadow passed over his expression, and icy glints glittered like shards in his eyes. Even the very air crackled with danger.
“You… traitor.” His voice was low, warped with a deep-seated, startling rage. “You released nothing.”
Shocked to the core by his sudden mood swing, she stepped back. Clearly, they were not talking about the same kind of release here.
He shot a glare at the mead bottle. “And you drugged me.”
Drugged him? As if she’d sink to that just to have sex with him? “Look, you need to calm down, and I really have to go.”
“Wait.” His voice cracked like a whip, and it struck her as odd that as pissed as he was, he hadn’t gotten off the mattress. “You came here to seduce me, didn’t you?”
She affected her best insulted expression as she pulled on her parka. “I’m sure your ego would like to think so—”
“What did you do to me? How are you holding me like this?” When she blinked, baffled by pretty much every element of this conversation, he bit out a curse. “Your… gift. Your damned light is in my skin. How?”
Oh… oh, shit. It had released. “It… is it hurting you?”
“My souls are fighting it,” he growled. “They’re destroying it, and the second they do, I’m going to wring your neck.”
Well, that would be her cue to leave, then. She started for the door.
“Are you working with Pestilence?”
Jaw dropping, she wheeled back around. “You think I wanted sex with you so bad that I’d enlist your evil brother’s help? Wow, you really are an egomaniac.”
“Sex?” he roared, startling her into taking another step back. “That wasn’t sex. You tricked me. You drugged me and defiled me. Do you even know what you did?”
She thought her eyes might have popped out of her head. “Defiled you? Are you kidding me?”
“I told you no. I refused.” The tendons in his neck strained as he tried to lift his head. “You… violated…” His voice degenerated into a nasty growl. “You took my virginity.”
She laughed. Virginity. Surely he was joking.
His black expression said he wasn’t, but virginity? No way. Ridiculous.
No. Don’t do this. Regan! His pleas came back to her, ringing in her ears with deafening clarity. He’d told her to stop, but… no, he hadn’t meant it.
He couldn’t have meant it.
He lay there, chest still heaving, raw hatred gleaming in his eying in hes. A trickle of sweat rolled down her temple as she replayed every second of the sex. She’d thought his protests were token, but if he really had been drugged with the wine, and her ability had attacked him, holding him down while she… oh, God.
Her stomach rebelled, and she staggered out of the room. She ran blindly for the outside door, Thanatos’s furious shouts chasing her. She made it outside just in time, and she lost her dinner next to the snowmobile. Hot tears stung her eyes and freezing wind stung her cheeks as she fumbled in her pocket for her cell phone and keys. As quickly as she could, she sent an emergency text to Kynan and Val, and then she started up the snow machine with unsteady fingers.
She could still hear Than’s angry roar over the sound of the snowmobile’s motor. She’d probably hear it for the rest of her life.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered. Dear God, she was so sorry.
She revved the engine, hoping to drown out his voice, and took off like a shot, holding on for dear life. The ride went on forever, the snowmobile’s headlight barely penetrating the early morning darkness. Or maybe it was her watery eyes making it difficult to see. She just wished the cold would numb her out, but all it did was add to the bleak horror of what she’d just done.
Finally, in the distance, she spotted two figures outlined in the glow of flashlights. One would be Kynan, and the other should be one of his demon in-laws… Shade, she thought. Kynan said he could make sure her egg and Thanatos’s sperm hooked up and did the baby dance.
That wasn’t going to happen.
She spared a glance over her shoulder and immediately wished she hadn’t. Against the gray wall of the rising dawn were the outlines of a massive dun horse and armored rider pounding across the barren wasteland.
Thanatos.
Terror tripped through her, and she nearly screamed. If they caught her, she was dead.
She skidded to a stop, and before she could even get off the machine, Shade gripped her wrist. “Let go!” She tried to jerk away, but he held her steady.
“I need to knock you out for the trip through the Harrowgate.”
Right. And then, as his arm began to glow and warmth spread from his fingers to her blood, her stomach turned over again. “Just don’t—”
A scream rang out, and then another, and she turned to see Pestilence on his stallion come from out of nowhere and broadside Thanatos and Styx. Horseman and horse went down in a massive crash of blood and snow.
“Oh, shit,” Kynan said. “We have to get out of here. Hurry, Shade.”
“Done.” The demon nodded. “Congratulations. You’re pregnant.”
Pregnant. No. No, no, no! God, what had she done?
Weapons clashed and horses whinnied, and Rinnied, egan cried out when Thanatos was crushed beneath the white stallion’s hooves.
More intense warmth bloomed beneath Shade’s hand. “Say goodnight, Aegi.”
“No, wait—”
Then there was nothing but blackness.
Thirty-two
No amount of pacing and cursing on Limos’s bedroom deck could bring Arik down from what she had done. For the first two hours she’d been gone, he’d alternated between being terrified that Limos had gone and done something stupid, like hunt down Lucifer, and being pissed off at her for lying to him.
And no, he didn’t believe she’d lied about loving him and not messing with his memories again. She’d been trying to get rid of him for his own safety.
He could handle himself. He’d survived his childhood, the military, a month in hell, and Limos’s brothers. He’d survive whatever came after him, and if he didn’t…
Pestilence would own his soul.
Okay, so that was a minor glitch, but he couldn’t spend what time he had worrying about it. He’d put the R-XR and Aegis on the problem and hope they could find a way out of the whole ownership of his soul crap. In the mean time, he’d be with Limos.
She would have the life she wanted, and he’d give it to her.
He allowed himself the luxury of picturing her fat with his baby as he looked through the sliding glass door at the empty bed. They hadn’t even had a chance to make love as a married couple, but he swore that when she came back, he’d have her undressed and he’d be inside her in a matter of minutes. He’
d show her what every night with him would be like, would make her crave his touch and forget her crazy idea to get rid of him for his own good.
Goal firmly in place, he strode inside the bedroom just as the door flew open and Limos, fully armored and her eyes red and puffy, walked in. She halted, and her face went ashen before pinking up with indignation.
“Why are you still here?” she snapped.
He folded his arms over his chest. “Well, gee, maybe because I don’t have the ability to use Harrowgates, and maybe because we’re fucking married.”
“Yeah, about that.” She tossed her hair over her shoulder in that arrogant way of hers. “I went to Gethel. Funny thing about angels… they can dissolve any marriage that takes place in the human realm.” She held up a tiny scroll. “You have an hour to pack. We’re officially divorced.”
Son of a bitch. Son of a fucking bitch!
Pestilence stared down aet the steaming lumps of bone and blood that were Thanatos and Styx. The stallion was dying, but Than would be up in a few minutes, good as new. How the hell was his Seal whole? How?
Pestilence had gotten a message from the vampire doppelganger he’d stuck inside Than’s keep, and the vampire had assured him that the Aegi whore had screwed Thanatos, thanks to a little help from his enhanced mead. So what was going on?
Snarling, he gated himself to Harvester’s place. He slammed his way into her home, blew past her, and went straight to the chamber where she kept Reaver. The angel was sitting propped against the wall, covered in blood and dirt, his golden hair hanging in limp ropes around his face and shoulders. Glazed blue eyes watched Pestilence as he stalked in and kicked the angel in the face.
Reaver, blood streaming from his nose and split lip, just smirked. Smug bastard. Pestilence kicked him again. The fucking angel struck out hard enough to knock Pestilence into a wall and split his head open. Blood streamed in a sticky, warm river down the back of his neck and into his armor, which drank it in gurgling sips. If Pestilence wasn’t so pissed, he’d be impressed by how strong Reaver still was, despite having his wings removed.