The same way he’d felt when he’d first met Abby.
* * * *
Almost two weeks following their first night together, Kal worked alone in the office after lunch when she felt the air shift and pop. Assuming it was one of the boys, she didn’t call out from the edit room.
Then she smelled the perfume.
Turning, Kal spotted a woman standing in the doorway. The woman smiled, but it wasn’t a friendly “how ya doin’” hello. It was more like a crocodile’s “oh goodie lunch is served” leer.
“Well, hello there. You must be Kal.”
Stunned, Kal couldn’t think straight. This had to be a demon, because the woman had popped in. “Who are you?”
“My name is Bera.” She stepped inside the door. Kal didn’t want her that close, but there was no escape. The woman reminded her of Meryl Streep in The Devil Wears Prada, only a meaner version.
Much meaner.
“I’m an old friend of Will’s,” the woman said in a way that made Kal squirm and recoil as if something slimy had crawled across her foot. “I heard he wasn’t solo anymore and wanted to come introduce myself, meet the girl who’d stolen his heart.” She said “girl” as if she meant “child,” or maybe “interloping whore.”
Bullpucky. This woman was trouble and she dang sure wasn’t a friend of Will’s.
When the woman took another step toward her, Kal didn’t wait. She immediately called out, “Will, Ryan, appareo.” Let’s see how well it works.
Bera barely had time to frown before both men simultaneously appeared in the edit room, standing between her and Bera. Alarmed, they looked at Kal, then glared at each other. Kal pointed behind them and they swiveled and immediately closed ranks, firmly shoulder to shoulder, a solid wall of man separating her from Bera.
Between the two of them, not a bad-looking wall of man, either. It was the first time she’d ever seen them stand that close for that long. At least something made them drop their differences for thirty seconds.
She allowed herself the briefest feeling of pride that that something was her.
“Bera, what the fuck are you doing here?” Will growled.
“I second that,” Ryan said. “I’ll add an, I told you to stay the fuck away from her.”
For once the men were in obvious agreement about something, unified to protect Kal from this woman. If Ryan had ordered her to stay away, she had to be bad news. But if Ryan couldn’t keep her away when he could keep the paparazzi away from Will, who the heck was she?
Bera took a step back, obviously no longer as certain of herself as she was a moment earlier before Kal called in the cavalry.
“I just wanted to say hi and introduce myself. There’s no need to get all pissy about it.”
“Bera,” Ryan said, “you don’t ever do anything just because.” Ryan’s tone of voice would have scared the crap out of Kal had it been directed at her. Used protectively it actually soothed and calmed her. That he would defend her meant he couldn’t be as big a jerk as everyone thought, right?
Even though he had dragged her into this mess and it was his fault in the first place.
Will’s deep growl did more than calm and soothe Kal. It started fires burning deep inside her belly. As soon as they had the office to themselves again, she was giving that man a well-deserved blow job.
Kal, focus, she thought. Deal with bad woman in office first, sex with hunky love muffin later. Bad woman now, blow job later.
That didn’t stop her pussy from clenching and throbbing in an achingly comfortable way.
“You boys need to calm down,” Bera said, her voice definitely sounding anxious. “Why do you assume I have ulterior motives?”
The men unintentionally spoke as one. “You always have ulterior motives.”
Ryan and Will stepped forward, forcing Bera out of the edit room and into the hallway. Kal stood to follow. Without looking at Kal, Ryan held out his arm.
“Stay there, Kal.”
She gasped. That was Ryan’s voice in her head, right?
“Yes, love, I can talk to you this way. Perk of the rank, you know.”
Bera’s perfume lingered in the air, sickeningly strong. Hope we have some Lysol spray to get rid of that nasty funk, Kal thought.
Ryan’s angry voice brought Kal’s mind back to clear, sharp focus. “Bera, listen to me, and hear me well. If Kal ever tells me you’ve come near her again, if you harass her, if you forward her funny e-mails, if you watch her name roll through the closing credits of the Otherworlds show, I will take actions against you that, believe me, you’d rather not contemplate. It will make your drunken Selkie binge vacation seem like a luxurious Caribbean spa cruise by comparison. You do not talk to her, you do not stop by to say hi, you do not call to offer fashion tips. Nothing. Do you understand me? Have I made my position crystal clear? You no longer have guaranteed safe passage, woman, and this is your only warning on the matter. Next time, I will take action.”
If Kal stood on tiptoe she could see between the men’s heads. Bera had gone sheet white under her pounds of makeup. Whatever Ryan’s implied threat meant—Kal thought a Selkie was a shaggy dog, she’d have to ask Will about that later—it was serious.
Bera gulped and nodded.
Ryan waved his hand and Bera disappeared.
Both men relaxed, deflated was more like it, as their tension released with Bera’s departure. Will walked into the edit room, followed by Ryan.
Will clasped Kal’s hands to his chest. “Are you okay?”
She nodded, now delayed-reaction scared that the threat was gone and her heart had started pumping again. The men had obviously been freaked.
“Did she touch you?” Ryan asked.
She shook her head. “No, she never got closer than the door. I’m sorry I called both of you. She just appeared out of nowhere and I got a really bad feeling about her.”
Ryan gently touched her shoulder. The world calmed, everything suddenly copacetic. “It’s okay, Kal,” he murmured. “You absolutely did the right thing to call both of us. It is far better for you to err on the side of caution should you ever feel the need to reach out.” He gently squeezed before releasing her. It was as if all her tension had drained away.
Ryan and Will exchanged a quick look and perhaps a silent communication Kal wasn’t privy to. “Thanks, Ryan,” Will said. His voice sounded full of genuine gratitude, surprising Kal to hear him speak to Ryan like that.
The other man nodded, then flashed Kal a quick smile before disappearing.
The adrenaline crash hit despite her sudden calm. Kal’s knees unhinged and she dropped into her chair. “What the heck was all that about?” she whispered. “Who was that woman? Why did the two of you freak out when you saw her?”
Will sat in the other chair and took her hands again. “Bera is a troublemaker. I mean, in the literal sense of the word. Her father was an archdemon, her mother was a Tanuki.”
“A…what?” Something with a name as stupid as that couldn’t be dangerous, could it?
“It’s a really, really long story.” A wry smile twisted his face. “I’d actually get perverse satisfaction watching Ryan try to explain the intricacies of the situation to you.” His face turned serious again. “Bera, being half demon, got privileges. Not Ryan’s idea, but his old man approved it. Ryan’s been looking for a way to get rid of her permanently for a long time. I don’t know what her major malfunction is. Maybe she has her sights set on one day clawing her way to the top regardless of how she has to do it. Not that she has the slightest chance of doing it.”
“How? I don’t think Ryan’s going to retire any time soon.”
“For starters, she wants to get pregnant. Because of her Tanuki blood, Bera apparently needs either a Tanuki or an archdemon willing to do the deed. She must not have received the memo that most of us aren’t dumb enough to allow her to dip her nasty French-manicured toe into the archdemon gene pool.”
A wave of irrational and totally righteous jealousy
swept through Kal. “Well, she can’t…fucking have you! You’re mine!” She took a deep breath. “Goddammit!”
Will fought—and failed—to contain his laughter. Even Kal realized how out of place the words sounded coming from her mouth. She let Will envelop her in his arms.
“Sweetheart, she doesn’t have a chance. Ryan would host the Winter Olympics in Atlanta in the middle of July before Bera ever had a chance with me. I’ve been dodging her ever since…” He didn’t finish the thought, but Kal knew what he’d meant to say.
“Ever since Abby died?” she softly asked.
He nodded and kissed the top of her head before releasing her. “Yeah.”
A chilly shiver swept through Kal. “Would she try to kill me?”
Will shook his head. “She’s dumb, but she’s not that dumb. If I didn’t get to her first, Ryan would destroy her and she knows it. She wouldn’t try violence, she’d try trickery.”
“Then why were you afraid she’d touched me?”
“She can shape-shift, but to mimic someone else she has to touch them. She can only imitate people weaker than her in powers, like humans.”
Kal shivered. “Can’t she change into someone I don’t know and touch me like that?”
“No. She has to be in her basic form, which was pretty much what you saw.”
“I still don’t see what…” She closed her eyes. “If she looked like me, she might try to fool you or cause trouble.”
He nodded. “Yeah.”
“Maybe we need a code word so you can verify it’s me.”
He leaned in and kissed her, his tongue gently tracing the seam of her lips, parting them with a featherlight touch. She softly moaned as heat built into white-hot desire between her legs. That’s right, she was going to give him a blow job, wasn’t she?
Then he smiled and sat back in his own chair, leaving Kal panting. “Trust me,” he said. “I’ll always know it’s you.”
“How?” she managed to gasp.
His eyes traveled over every nook and cranny of her face and body. Then he leaned in and closed his eyes as he deeply inhaled. “Because,” he whispered, his voice husky with desire, “you’re my soul mate. I would know you anywhere. I would immediately know if it wasn’t you. There is no other in my heart, there cannot ever be as long as you are alive.”
He opened his eyes and held her gaze, caressing her cheek with his palm. “You are my life. You are my breath. You are part of me, forever. An archdemon can always tell his soul mate, just as you would always be able to tell if it was really me or not.”
Kal forced herself to breathe because the impact of his words had temporarily taken away her ability to automatically force air in and out of her lungs.
“Lock the door,” she raggedly whispered as she ripped her shirt off over her head and dropped it to the floor.
He shook his head and smiled, crooking his finger at her. She flew to him, sitting in his lap with her arms around him—
And they appeared in his bedroom.
“There, that’s better, isn’t it?” Will definitely thought it was better, because he hadn’t been sure he’d be able to take both of them. His powers were returning to full strength.
She smiled as he laid her on the bed and worked down her stomach with his lips, his sights firmly set on divesting her of her shorts.
“Yeah, but my shirt’s on the floor in the office. If Aidan sees that, won’t he worry?”
Will sighed and sat back on his knees, popped out, then popped back with her shirt. He dropped it over her face with a playful smile. “There. Better?”
She pulled it out of the way and grinned. “Yeah.”
He leaned forward and kissed the flat plain of her belly, trailing kisses to the waistband of her shorts. “I distinctly heard someone thinking about giving me a blow job a few minutes ago.”
She blushed. “You heard that, huh?”
He unbuttoned her shorts. “Something like that I couldn’t help but hear, babe.” He climbed up her body and kissed her lips again, hungry, possessive. “Do you still want to?”
Temporarily unable to use her vowels, she nodded, eager. He rolled onto his back, his arms crossed behind his head.
Kal swung over him, straddling him, unbuttoning his shirt. “Too bad that witch scared me. If I’d known her game, I would have given her a piece of my mind and—”
Will grabbed her wrists, shaking his head. “No,” he firmly said. “Don’t ever take her on. Or anyone else like her who might show up. Ryan was right. If you come across someone like that, no matter where you are, public or private, summon us. Me, Ryan, or both of us like you did. Even Aidan. Promise me, Kal.”
She nodded. He wasn’t hurting her, but he frightened her. “Why are you so scared of her?”
“I’m not scared of her.” He relaxed his grip and kissed her wrists before releasing them. “I’m scared of someone hurting you.”
“You’re not going to keep me chained in the house, are you?”
He stroked her thighs, slipped his fingers under the hem of her shorts. “Not unless it’s to the bed and you’ve asked me to do it.”
Kal rolled her eyes and laughed. “Been there, done that, didn’t get a lot out of it.”
“That’s because I wasn’t torturing you with my tongue between your legs while you were tied up.”
She gasped as her heart galloped, out of control, wanting him. Then she realized what he’d done. “Quit changing the subject. You were scared. So was Ryan.”
“Of course I was scared. I heard your tone of voice. You were scared, that scared me.” His brow furrowed. “I’m sure it bothered Ryan, too.”
“What about chaining me up to keep me safe?”
His handsome smile could thaw the coldest heart. “I can sense you, feel you. I can tell basically where you are or if you’re safe. I don’t spy on you, if that’s what you’re wondering. I can’t read your thoughts from a distance unless you actively speak out to me. If you tell me you don’t want me to look in on you like that, I won’t. But if you ask that, and I try to call you on your cell and can’t get in touch with you, or if you’re not with Aidan or one of the guys, don’t be upset with me if I peek.”
Kal stroked his face. “I wouldn’t be upset. I think that makes me feel safer.” She had a thought. “Can the others do that, too? Track me?”
“Aidan should be able to, to a certain extent. Ryan can, obviously. As you saw, you can easily summon him.” He touched her hand again, waiting until she met his gaze. His voice dropped, low, serious. “Kal, please. I mean it. I would rather there be a thousand false alarms than you not summon us. Even if you feel silly doing it, call us. I guarantee Ryan and Aidan would agree with me.”
She opened his shirt and kissed his chest, laying her cheek against his warm flesh. She wanted to take her time and dang it, she would. “I think it was sweet the way the two of you didn’t try to kill each other and stood up for me like that.”
She caught a hint of a thought before Will clamped down on it. She met his gaze. “Are you guys ever going to kiss and make up for whatever it was that happened between you?”
“Should I summon him here right now to talk about it? Because you know—”
“No! No. Just a suggestion.” It was hard to unfasten his slacks when he was…well, hard and filling them out so well. She managed it though, running her lips over his rigid cock after sliding his pants and briefs off.
His sharp intake of breath told her more than any words could.
Cupping his heavy sac in her hand, she flicked her tongue over his shaft. It throbbed in time with his pulse, jumping every time she fluttered her lips around the tip.
“Do it, baby,” he gasped. “Don’t torture me.”
“I like to torture you.”
He groaned as she wrapped one hand around the base of his cock and guided him to her lips, sliding her tongue around the tip and lightly sucking on the head. He lifted his head, and his eyes, smoldering dark and stormy with his hung
er for her, looked nearly black. His fingers tangled in and gently fisted her hair as he tipped his hips toward her.
“Please, baby. Don’t make me beg—ah!”
She took him in as far as she could, waiting an agonizingly long moment before she moved up his shaft again. Her tongue firmly laved him as she worked her fingers around his smooth flesh. She suspected she wasn’t very good at this yet, but she was good enough to make him squirm, and getting better all the time. Every moan she drew from him sent fire deep into her core. She knew when it was her turn he’d find her fully wet and ready for whatever he planned.
Her every intention had been to bring him across and taste him, but he carefully pulled her off and rolled her onto her back, sinking his cock deep inside her slick pussy. Both of them moaned. He held still for only a moment before taking long, slow, deep strokes she felt through her very soul.
“You’re all mine, sweetheart,” he whispered. “And I’m all yours. You have no idea what you do to me.”
He kissed her, holding his hips still to cool down for a moment. Then he slipped his hand between them and stroked her sensitive nub with his thumb.
Moaning, Kal threw her head back and closed her eyes. This was good. This was sooo good. He was good.
And he was all hers.
It didn’t take him long to make her come. When he knew she’d fully made it, he thrust hard, making the bed shudder as his hips pistoned into her. “You’re mine,” he said. “Forever.”
She shivered again as she grabbed his arms and held on. “Forever, Will.”
He cried out and she felt his release. Holding himself still deep inside her, he eventually lowered himself to the bed, kissed her throat, gathered her into his arms.
“I don’t want to go back to work,” he mumbled. “Let’s just stay here for the rest of the day.”
Content, she nuzzled against him. “Okay.”
* * * *
It was good they had friends in high places—how ironic—because their work schedule went to…ugh…hell. Maybe that explained why so many people complained about Atlanta’s airport. It wasn’t just a metaphoric Hell.
Dalton, Tymber - Good Will Ghost Hunting: Demon Seed [Good Will Ghost Hunting 1] (Siren Publishing Classic) Page 20