Underworld Lover (A Guardian Angel Romance #2)

by haron Hamilton

  Josh crossed his long legs and sat back with one arm over the back of the chair. He brought the cappuccino up to his lips, not taking his eyes off her as he did. She saw he was thinking about something.

  He’s trying to decide something.

  Melanie’s emotional temperature was near boiling, yet Josh sat still, watching everything she did. It was nice that he wasn’t in a hurry. She laughed at her use of the word “nice” again. But it was—it was nice. It was comfortable, like they fit well together. Two pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. He was the blue piece and she was the pink, or perhaps the red.

  “I’m not sure I can afford your thoughts,” she said.

  “Oh yes, the price is high. But I’m worth it.”

  Melanie didn’t have a doubt in her mind this was a completely true statement.

  “Ask me,” he said.

  She saw a need there in his eyes. “Ask you what?”

  “Whatever you want to know. That question you’re thinking you can’t ask.”

  “I get the impression that when people—women mostly—get too close to you, they can never get away again.” She watched him regain his composure. “Are you dangerous?”

  “I only play with the consenting. Only those who want to be captured. I don’t stalk.”

  “No. That wouldn’t be…nice.”

  “No it wouldn’t. So much more fun to play with the willing.”

  She noticed his breathing was deep, as if on high alert. “Should I be afraid?”

  Josh broke eye contact to look at his shoe, which bobbed slowly. He uncrossed his legs and leaned across the table as he set down his coffee. He held out his palm. Melanie looked at it, and then looked to his face. There was something dark and sinister there, but she was not afraid. She could not believe he would harm her in any way. She hesitantly put her hand in his as he turned it, massaged it with his thumb, warming it by the light of the glowing candle.

  “I would never, ever hurt you,” he said. For a second, she saw something vacant in his eyes, as if he’d just said something he’d never said before.

  It filled her with unspeakable pleasure.

  Chapter 17

  Outside the restaurant, they meandered casually to Melanie’s car. Crickets chirped nearby, in time with the whoosh of occasional traffic. The street was dotted with people getting into or out of their vehicles in the chilly night air. The two of them took to the sidewalk and stopped just in front of her car.

  This is the part where it gets awkward.

  She wanted him to kiss her as she looked up into the face of a man who was both a stranger and a familiar friend at the same time. But lately she’d felt her radar had been bent, so wondered if this was just chemistry. She wasn’t knocking it, but knew it sprang from not enough social life or her desire to be close to someone in the wake of Felix’s death.

  She wondered what it would feel like to give him her virginity, and decided she wanted to.

  It would be nice to fall in love, too. Can I trust myself?

  She wondered why he watched her, not making a move. His eyes delicately examined all of her face, every feature, as he had done in the restaurant. He held his breath too.

  Why doesn’t he do something?

  All of those thoughts went away as he stepped to press himself against her. She sucked in a breath as he lifted her chin with his long fingers. He held her gaze, then kissed her mouth, opening her lips, opening her soul to him. She felt she was revealing her insides to someone who would be hard to get rid of, someone who would command and own every cell of her body. Her cautionary thoughts were put on mute. The only thing she noticed was the quickening of her pulse and the way her heartbeat slammed against her insides. One of his arms slid without effort around her waist while his other hand braced the back of her head and pressed it to him.

  The long kiss made her dizzy, the parting almost painful. She wanted more. Her palms pressed against his shirt, then slid up to his neck to cherish the sides of his face. Her fingers encased in the delicious long black hair that came loose as she explored it. He kissed her wrist, the undersides exposed to his lips, and down her forearm, almost to her elbow. The look of need in his eyes almost broke her heart. The thought occurred to her that perhaps this very experienced man had not a lot of experience with love.

  “Your thoughts?” he whispered to her lips.

  “Are you asking permission?” she asked.

  He smiled, nodding his head. “Perhaps I am after all.” It seemed to please him.

  “How could anyone deny you?”

  He pulled away just a few inches and looked down. She ached that the cold space between them would be quickly eliminated. “Did I say something wrong?” she asked.

  “I am so used to—” he stopped, as if unable to continue.

  She could see emotion brimming in his eyes, coming from the fires of his soul. She watched his struggle, the way he rolled his shoulders, then closed his eyes and inhaled her. He opened them as he softly exhaled, his breath coming over her like mist at the ocean, filling her head with erotic fantasy. She saw them together naked, on a bed, by candlelight. Did he deliver that vision to me?

  “Tell me.” She could not read the watery look his eyes gave her. She continued, saying, “Tell me, has someone hurt you?”

  Again, the smile curled up the corners of his lips. She touched them with her fingertips, hungry for them again. She stepped up on tiptoes, leaning her sex into his groin. He claimed her mouth deeply, tongue penetrating her depths, hands exploring her back and the cheeks of her bottom through her coat.

  He withdrew his lips and squeezed her body, placed his head next to hers and whispered into her ear, “Melanie, Melanie. I don’t want to hurt you.”

  “Then don’t. Give me what I desire.”

  “You don’t know what you’re asking,” he said.

  “You don’t trust that I can make an informed decision? You think that little of me?”

  “I think that I could hurt you. I don’t want to hurt you,” he said as he grazed her lips with his. “But I’m finding I can’t help myself.”

  “Do I have a say in the matter?” she asked.

  “That’s the point.”

  “Do I have to beg you to be my first time?”

  He paused first, then drew her to him again and pulled tight. His hands were careful and did not wander. “Melanie, I am lost. Truly lost.”

  “No. You are found. I have found you. I don’t know how it is that I have, but I have found you, as if I called to you and you came.” She watched his eyes dart to the side, focusing on someone’s approach.

  “You need to go. I have to do something.” He was urgent as he pushed her toward her side of the car. “Please get in and go straight home.” She looked around him and saw two men coming towards them. One of them looked uncannily like Felix, but that couldn’t be.

  “Go. Now,” Josh demanded.

  “Will you come later?” she asked.

  “Not tonight. I will see you tomorrow, at the shop.”

  On the drive home, Melanie’s breathing couldn’t stop her heart from racing. Her mind filled with images of this man, pictures of their naked bodies slowly feeding off one another. She smelled his scent on her like a rare elixir, something she had craved but didn’t know about until tonight. She loved every part of him: his face, his hair, the way his hands explored her and the delicate touch of his fingertips on her chin. He felt like the source of passion in her soul. The darkness she sensed surrounding him made him all more alluring.

  It took a long shower and an hour of reading one of her romance novels to finally calm her body down enough to sleep.

  An hour later, she woke up with a start, thinking she heard something in the apartment. She quietly tiptoed across the wooden floor of her bedroom to the hallway and checked. Nothing was there. The living room was just as she had left it: couch, two chairs, and big screen TV. Assorted CDs were strewn about the floor and on the media shelf. Her own mess. No one was in the kitchen or
laundry room. No one was in the bathroom.

  She stared through the glass of her front door to the dark stairwell landing, which was void of anything but the night mist that wafted and curled, as if recently disturbed. This bothered her a little. Did someone just leave my door? She double-checked the deadbolt and lock and found them undisturbed.

  Back in her bedroom, she pulled back her padded silk curtains to view the empty street, illuminated with an ornate teardrop streetlamp. And there she saw him.

  Josh leaned against the metal pole, legs crossed, hands in his pockets. He looked up at her. She knew instantly he saw her pressing against the glass to gaze down on him. He uncrossed his legs and stood tall and erect, but perfectly still.

  After a few seconds of hesitation, he turned, started to leave. She immediately opened her window and called out to him.

  “Josh, please. Don’t go.” Her voice, though whispered, sounded louder than she intended. It bounced off the buildings across the street and came back to her in echoes in the night air. “Please,” she said again, with all the softness and tenderness she could muster.

  He stopped, as if considering her request, then turned his head towards her but kept his body angled, ready to walk down the sidewalk away from her.

  “Please, Josh. Can’t you? Don’t you want to?” Melanie felt her heart in her throat. His body seemed to will itself down the sidewalk, but then he turned, and without looking up at her, crossed the street to her building. She heard his steps coming up the wooden stairwell. She searched her room, picking up clothes she’d discarded on the floor. She walked to the hallway and saw his upper torso in the glass of the front door, swirls of night mist curling behind him. She opened it and sighed as he stepped in.

  He reached for her and she melted into his body as he pulled her back one step, closing the door. She heard him click the lock. She began removing his jacket. One of his hands found its way under her nightgown to her bare bottom, then around the front of her to squeeze one of her breasts. His other hand struggled to remove the rest of his jacket, then his shirt.

  Melanie unbuckled his pants as he slid them down his muscled thighs. He had slipped off his shoes and stepped out of his pants and socks, leaving them piled in the hallway. She unbuttoned his shirt, pulling it over his broad smooth shoulders and forward towards her as she walked backward toward her bedroom. She kissed the valley between his pectoral muscles when she removed his T-shirt. His bare chest was exposed to her in the moonlight. Her palms felt the warm skin and delicate hairs that lightly dusted his upper body. She raised herself on tiptoes and kissed the slight hollow at the base of his neck. He lifted her up and brought her to the bedroom, her arms around his thick neck.

  Once inside the bedroom, he set her down, letting her slide the length of his hard body. She began to remove her nightgown and he stopped her.

  “Wait. Let me do it,” he said. He sat her on the bed and then lay her down onto the pillow, climbing on the bed next to her. She could see the sculpted contours of his shoulders in the light as he raised her nightgown above her chest and pulled it over her head. His powerful arms pulled her forward to extricate her from the gown he then deposited on the floor. He slid down next to her, his groin grazing down the side of her hip, his erection pressed into her thigh.

  His large hand squeezed and massaged her breasts as he leaned into her, and her lips felt the pressure as his open mouth claimed hers. She heard a slight moan emanate from deep inside his chest.

  His legs gripped one of her thighs, his erect cock pressing itself hard with a slow rhythm. He kissed her under her ear, one hand locked into her hair, the other pinching a knotted nipple, sending shots of delight throughout her body. He continued tasting her neck with his tongue, then her nipples, as she watched the top of his head with the shiny black curls falling and acquiescing to her touch.

  She sighed. This was simply wonderful. This was supposed to be how every woman would feel her first time. She loved the scent of him, the maleness of him, and his need for her as he climbed to cover her body with his own. She had never before explored the hard muscles of a man’s body, or felt a man’s heat.

  He rose up, gripping both her hands with his, and asked, “Are you okay with this?”

  “I want this,” she said, aching for his lips on her mouth again.

  “Are you very sure, Melanie? It cannot be undone.”

  “I want you, more than I’ve wanted anything else in my life. I want to belong to you.” She was feeling so much more, but did not have the words to say it.

  “I—” He stopped. “I want you to know…”

  She could tell it was difficult for him to find words.“Shhh,” she said as she covered his lips with her fingers. “Love me, Joshua. Just love me. We’ll sort it all out tomorrow. Tonight I want to belong to you.”

  She didn’t know why he wanted to tell her something he was unable to say, like there were two parts to him. She reveled in the fact that her comments seemed to cross the threshold to draw him in as he gently put a finger over her sex and rubbed her back and forth, watching her eyes.

  Instinctively, she raised one knee to give him further access. His forefinger and thumb rubbed and twisted her clitoris and she shuddered with delight at every tiny squeeze. One finger found its way to her opening and she felt herself wet with juices there. He inhaled like he could smell the scent of her sex and blew on her face, sending ripples of sensation all over her body, ending in the place where his hand was preparing her. She felt her muscles pulse on his fingers.

  He scanned her face again, and then bent his head, watching as he edged his penis to her opening, sliding it up and down her wet lips. The sensation was wonderful, her need for him to penetrate her growing by the minute. She arched her back and raised her knee higher.

  She could feel the bulbous head of his cock massaging her lips, slicked by the moisture of their combined juices. And then there was a slight sharp pain as he entered her. She drew up her knees just a little from the sensation, and he stopped. Her hands pushed down the smooth cheeks of his ass, seeking him to plunge in deeper. Very slowly he did so, kissing her ear, grazing over her mouth, and then kissing down her neck.

  Her hands continued to press on his muscled cheeks and his lower back. The notion that his strong body was joining with hers, that it needed her, drove her further into ecstasy. She felt the pain continue and knew that she wanted this evening to last forever. She wanted to be his forever. The vessel of his love. She wanted to bask in the glow of his primal desire for her. She knew it would make her grow strong and true. For the first time she felt she truly belonged somewhere, here, writhing beneath him.

  Her arousal was heightened as he arched up, now fully inside her to his hilt. He blew on her face and she felt spasms in her sex, tingles going all up her spine and resting just below her hairline. He smiled as she shuddered with delight. He blew on her again and she began to realize he had some kind of physical power over her he was not afraid to show. He searched her face. She knew he was looking for doubt. She had none.

  “This is…wonderful,” she said.

  “Yes,” he answered as he thrust deep into her. His brows came up to an arch as she felt his lower back muscles and buttocks tighten and begin to shudder as well.

  “I am yours. I belong to you,” she said.

  “No,” he said with difficulty as she felt the spasms inside her body, “No, sweet Melanie, I belong to you.”

  A new sensation flowed through her as she felt her muscles contract, her hips move without her direction. The subtle fluttering of her orgasm caused her to thrust her pelvis into his. She cried out as he supported her back, raising her up, pressing her breasts into his chest. He forced himself fully into her, pulling her body to him, putting an end to her moans by covering her mouth again and tasting her ecstasy.

  Almost as if pained, he arched and thrust two times more inside her, then fell onto her chest. He covered her neck with kisses, his breathing hard and ragged.

  She
held his massive body, loving the press of his girth against her, even as it made breathing difficult. She stroked up his back and laced her fingers through his hair. She could tell he was thinking about something.

  “Can I afford your thoughts?” she asked.

  “Probably not. Not even I can afford them now,” he whispered as he kissed her again. “We are going to have to talk.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I haven’t been completely honest with you, Melanie. And I need to be. I’ve done something.” Sadness draped his face.

  She answered him through the worry coiling in her belly. “What have you done?” she asked.

  “I think I have killed us both.”

  Chapter 18

  Audray was waiting for Peter first thing in the morning when he arrived at his new office. She dressed in her deep blue power suit that accentuated her shapely hips and thighs and contrasted with her long, smooth blond hair she had curled just slightly. Normally she didn’t spend so much time on her hair and makeup. Today was special.

  “What, no one here to greet you?” Peter asked as he looked around the vacant room.

  “Well, I am here much earlier than I think your staff arrives.”

  “Yes, well, they are worthless.” Peter dismissed the subject. “Come in,” he said as he placed his palm against the keyless entry. The door opened with a sucking sound.

  Audray screwed up her nose. “You have it sanitized or something?”

  This got Peter’s attention. “I like it clean. I like to be sure no one has breached the seal before I do. Just a matter of self preservation.”

  “But sir, you will live forever. You don’t have to worry about germs.” She said this with a smile on her lips. She really did find this odd.

  He came over and stood within an inch of her lithe body. He was a good head taller than she was. Perfect size. “Just because I am immune from the effects of germs doesn’t mean I have to live with them.”

  She could see he thought this ended the conversation. It was also a challenge. Audray knew she would have to make a mark if she was going to get into his head at all. So she took the more dangerous tactic of stepping close, pressing her body against his so that he could feel her breasts and her mound that quivered between her thighs. She knew he would be able to smell the passion and heat she had for him as well and decided to watch its effect on him. She was measuring him up.