“Tally, when I saw him take you, I knew what you’d have to do and I know you did it for me. We can still be together, if you’ll have me.”
Sweet Heaven, she could end him, consume his life force, and he was asking if she’d still have him. Tally couldn’t ask for a better man, a stronger man, or a more honorable one. He was a hero in every sense of the word and he didn’t deserve to be chained to someone he couldn’t be with in every way.
“Falcon, I want you to know I love you.” Tally closed her eyes, as if that could somehow add strength to her resolve.
“It sounds like you’re about to do something that’s going to kill me,” he said with an uncomfortable laugh. “Don’t you know you changed me? You made me believe in Love. You made me love you and now you’re going to take that away?”
“It’s for your own good, Falcon.”
“Didn’t you once tell me that I didn’t get to make that choice for you about what was good for you?”
“It’s not the same.”
“No? Why not, because it’s you doing the choosing?”
“How is it you can make me feel like hell for doing the right thing?” Tally whispered.
“The right thing for who? You? Is this what’s right for you? If you don’t want me, Tally—”
“Falcon, what if I told you we could be together, but we’d never have sex again?” She waited a moment for it to sink in. “Yeah, that’s what I thought. You’d be too noble to tell me you didn’t want to live that way and then you’d hate me.”
“Hey, I’m not going to lie and say I want to live without sex, but, woman, I love you. I didn’t whisper sweet nothings into your vag. Well, maybe I did when I was drunk, but I was talking to your face when I told you I loved you. I even made eye contact instead of ogling your rack.”
“Stop trying to make me laugh. This is serious.”
“So it’s serious. So what? I love the sound of your laugh. You should do it more often.” He reached out a hand to touch her, but she shied away.
“You don’t understand. The lamia is part of me now. She loves your warmth and I know she’ll try to suck it all out of you.”
“That scares the shit out of me—I won’t lie. But I have regenerative powers, fuck it.” He shrugged. “I don’t care. Why won’t you give me a chance to prove we can do this?”
“Because it’s better to make a clean break so we can both heal rather than dragging out an impossible situation. I’m trying to make this easy for you.”
“I thought we’d already established I don’t like easy?”
“Please, Falcon. Just take me home.”
“I’ll take you home, but this discussion isn’t over.”
“It has to be. Don’t you understand that sex with me could kill you? I absorbed a man’s life force just because he was close enough for us to breathe the same air. If you were actually inside of me?” she said into his chest.
“I’m holding you now and it’s just fine.”
“But you smell so good and I know you’d taste good, too.”
“Like cotton candy.”
“It’s more than that. I’m a predator now,” she cried.
“Let me be the judge of that. And hey, if you do consume me, we’ll be together forever. Maybe not like we planned, but I’ll never leave you, Tally. Never.”
“If I didn’t love you”—she gave a watery laugh—“that would be scary. The rest of that goes something like you’ll never let me leave you and you rock back and forth in the corner saying things about your mom.”
He tightened his arms around her. “It’s good you understand the lengths to which I’m willing to go.” Falcon gestured toward the sea and sand. “Here is where you tried to redeem yourself and here is where I failed you. Let this be where I have my redemption and prove to you that I’m worthy of you.”
“Oh, Merlin, damn it.” Tally sniffed. “You can’t say those things to me. This isn’t going to happen, don’t you understand? Ethelred is up there ending the Powers and we did nothing and now we’re—”
“Maybe they had it coming. You didn’t see Caspian or Hades doing anything to stop them, did you?”
“Where was Merlin?” Tally asked.
“He retired. Anyway, if they’d wanted to stop it, they could have. And I don’t care about them. There’s always something falling off this stupid world or breaking down. It’s like a classic car that’s been taken to a lazy mechanic. Something else will be broken tomorrow. Right now, it’s about us. About Love.” He rubbed his cheek against hers. “And Lust. I saw your crown, even though you tried to hide it. We’ll have forever now, Tally. I swear.”
“Forever is a long time with no sex. No touching.”
“I’m touching you now.”
He eased her down into the warm sand and she was suddenly naked. “I don’t know whose fantasy you’re in, but having sex in the sand is not on my list. It’s not your orifices that will intrigue the sand crabs,” she said, laughing, all the while struggling for control. Searching for another way to make him go. Tally knew she could tell him that she didn’t want him, but that would be a lie. Tally didn’t lie. She had to make him understand, but she was weak, so weak. Her defenses crumbled with every breath, every second she spent with him touching her. Maybe just one last time?
Falcon knew she loved him and he loved her; why was she being so difficult? He was the one who didn’t believe in Love, or he hadn’t until Drusilla. Maybe she didn’t believe he’d really changed? Maybe she thought the bullet Ethelred had shot him with was responsible for this and not his genuine love for her?
Maybe he could show her with touch.
He eased his knee between her thighs and shifted his weight so he didn’t crush her beneath him. Falcon buried his face in her hair and inhaled the scent of her. He pressed his lips to her temple before kissing her mouth. He loved this Crown Prince gig—he could strip them both at will. His uniform dissolved, leaving him naked with his cock thick and ready, poised to enter her. She’d wrapped her legs around his waist and urged him to take her with the bucking of her hips. Tally moved beneath him and shifted to angle his cock for entry.
He held his hips rigid—Falcon was determined to go slow, to show her what she meant to him. But she was so wet, the scent of her taunting him to fill her, to drive into her, and find his release. It was what she wanted, too; he could tell from the small sounds she made, the way she pleaded with him to touch her.
Tally nipped at the lobe of his ear and dug her nails into his shoulders to force his compliance to her pleasure, but Falcon wanted to slide his tongue into her slit before his cock. He wanted to taste her again, she was so sweet. What he loved most about using his tongue was the way she screamed for him as her orgasm shook her, the hedonistic look on her face when she came.
“Give it to me fast and hard,” Tally demanded.
His intentions and softer feelings were no longer in the fore of his awareness; not to say they were gone, but he wasn’t a man to argue with a woman when she demanded to be fucked. He’d seek his own pleasure again with softer seductions after he’d given her what she wanted.
Falcon entered her and felt her hot sheath clench around his cock. He thrust inside her and she bucked to meet him. She dug her fingers into his biceps and pleaded for more. Always harder, faster, deeper.
He loved the way her breasts bounced when he drove into her, the way her slit tightened around him to keep him from withdrawing, and the half breaths she took while she bit on the swollen flesh of her bottom lip.
Her eyes fluttered closed, but Falcon wanted her to look at him. He wanted to see her face, watch her eyes.
“Open your eyes,” he said as he leaned in to her.
Tally’s lashes fluttered open and Falcon cupped her cheek and looked into her eyes while he thrust into her heat with long, sure strokes. She tried to look away again, to avoid this last intimacy, but he wouldn’t allow it. If she’d gotten so deep under his skin that he’d fallen in love with her, there
would be no walls between them. He needed her to know the truth and it was there, in his touch, his kiss, and the fire between them.
“Tally,” he said as he nipped at the soft skin of her neck.
“Hmm?” She tightened her legs around his waist and closed her eyes.
“Ethelred did as you asked. He told me to love myself. But I love you more.” He cupped the round globes of her ass and guided her hips to meet his thrust.
Her eyes flew open and she tilted her head up to look at him.
Falcon took advantage of the shift to pull one leg up to rest on his shoulder and kept the other around his waist. She cried out when he hit the core of her and Tally shuddered when he swept his thumb over her clit.
He was already swelling inside her, his cock surging and straining to come, but Falcon wanted to watch her first, wanted to see the wanton abandon on her face, and know he’d aroused every shudder and every cry that echoed through her.
Her body tightened as she neared her release and he had to use his magick to keep from spilling before she’d peaked. He moved slowly now, every movement eliciting another gasp or shiver from her. If they had more time, he would have muttered that charm for hours to keep her on the brink and push her past the edge, only to do it again and again.
“Come inside me,” she whispered, her breath warm and soft on his ear.
No charm or spell could fight the magick of Tally’s voice. He bore down and buried his face in her hair again as he spilled inside her.
He hadn’t even caught his breath when Tally straddled him.
“Sweet hell, woman.”
She rolled her hips so her wet slit teased his sensitive member.
He groaned as his cock stiffened in immediate response. Falcon could usually go for a couple rounds, but he liked to breathe in between. What Tally was doing now was almost painful, but it was good. He loved how wet she was. He could feel the mingled evidence of their pleasure slicking down to his sac and he found his body shifting up into her in an involuntary motion.
Falcon gritted his teeth and did it again, but she raised herself away from him.
“This is why, Falcon. I am Lust,” she said in a singsong voice.
“I have to confess, I do like your methods.”
She slid down his length and impaled herself fully, her eyes fluttering closed as she sighed, but it only lasted a moment before she withdrew. “I can’t stop.”
“Let the torture continue.”
Tally didn’t move, but shook her head. “No.” She grinned.
“I’ve already told you something. It’s your turn,” he said and flexed his cock so it moved against her.
“What did you tell me?” She brushed her breasts against his chest.
“You want to hear it again?”
“Yes.” Tally sank down and filled herself with his girth.
“I love you,” he said simply.
“Why here? Why now? When it’s too late?”
“I can think of other things we should be doing with that pretty mouth of yours besides asking questions.”
“Please, Falcon.”
He knew she wasn’t talking about the timing of his thrusts. “It’s never too late for Happily Ever After. You may be Lust, but I’m Love. The strongest magick of all.”
“Oh.” It was a sound of revelation and a breathy sigh of pleasure.
“Admit we belong together,” Falcon demanded, ceasing all movement.
She continued to rock her body, seeking the fulfillment only he could give.
“I can’t—oh!” she interrupted herself and rode him harder.
“Not what I wanted to hear.” He grasped her hips and forced her compliance.
Tally ground herself against him and gritted her teeth. “Falcon, this game is dangerous.”
“Very. How good you feel may kill me,” Falcon managed, though coherent thought was almost beyond him.
“It might!” she cried as she bent down to him, her hair brushing his cheek.
He pushed the damp strands of hair away from her brow and cupped the back of her neck to keep her near. Falcon kept eye contact as he found his release.
She slipped a hand between them to bring herself off, but his fingers covered hers. Tally took control again and used his hand to come. She pushed his fingers inside her and if he hadn’t already come twice, he would have been ready to fuck her again from the sensation of her body pulling his fingers deeper inside.
His fingers were covered in her sweetness and he wanted another taste, but she was riding his hand, seeking her own release again. Falcon tugged her down to him and kissed her hard, his tongue pushing past the seam of her moist lips and exploring the cavern of her mouth. She made soft mewling sounds against the onslaught, but he didn’t stop. He crashed into her again and increased the pressure and the pace until she was writhing and screaming his name.
“It would serve you right if I buried my face between your thighs this very moment,” Falcon said in a ragged whisper.
Tally collapsed and nestled herself in the crook of his arm. “I can take it.”
“Not for another thirty minutes.” He cringed, thinking how sore his cock was going to be.
“Why do they always have so much sex in books, but in real life, it seems once is enough?”
“A real man gets it done right the first time.”
“We did it twice.”
“As a real man, I’m not averse to practice.”
Just as Falcon believed everything was going to be okay, he realized Tally’s fears weren’t to be taken lightly. Something wrenched at his insides and the blissful expression on Tally’s face was more than postcoital ecstasy—it was the same one she wore when he made her come.
“So good,” she sighed.
It morphed from a tugging in his gut to outright pain, a hundred knives flaying him. Fear welled in a fountain from the most primal part of him—the thing that every man dreaded deep inside—that this woman would devour him. Yet, his fear was founded in truth.
This was his sacrifice to be with her, he realized. He’d meant every word he’d said. She’d sacrificed so much, been through so much, and he hadn’t been there to slay the dragon. He had the power of regeneration, but he wasn’t sure how that worked with this creature she’d become.
In that moment, Falcon surrendered. He opened himself to whatever she wanted to take from him.
That was the miracle of love: His heart would never run out, never be empty. There was always more. A new kind of bliss washed over him, and eased his pain. It was like cold water on a burn and he was prepared to follow it as deeply as need be.
The connection between them was severed with a snap that jarred him into reality. The horror that twisted Tally’s lovely face told him everything she was thinking.
“It’s okay, Tally. I’m fine.”
“No.” She shook her head slowly, as if that would somehow make it all go away as she scrambled away from him. “ No. ”
“It’s what you are. I accept you. Love is endless. Boundless. You can’t hurt me. Take all you need.” He held out his hand to her.
“No, that’s not true. It’s part of the lamia’s power to make you think that. It’s—”
“Drusilla. You are the lamia, now. It’s part of you.”
“That’s why we can’t be together.” With those words, Tally ran back up to the beach house and all Falcon could do was let her go.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Love in the Time of Lust
Tally felt that a part of Falcon was still inside her.
His essence filled her up, sated her, and made her hungry for more all at once.
She’d felt what he’d felt in those moments she’d been taking from him. His fear was bitter ash, but there was something beneath that. The truth of his words. The bright beacon of his love for her. The breadth and depth of his love was more than she could fathom—seemingly eternal and endless.
He’d struggled when she first started taking from him and she’d
tried to stop, but couldn’t, not until he surrendered. That acceptance of what was happening had jackhammered through her haze of pleasure to make her very aware of what she was doing.
And it was all Tally.
The thing inside her, its voice was quiet and still. She couldn’t blame it for what she’d done. Only herself. She’d known better and she’d slept with him anyway.
Because Falcon fed more than the lamia—more than any supernatural hunger. He fed her heart, her soul, her very self.
Again, she was reminded of the nature of sacrifice and redemption—the kind of witch she wanted to be. But she wasn’t a witch anymore, was she? Drusilla Tallow was a Crown Princess of Hell, the embodiment of Lust. It was in her nature now to want, to desire. Yes, it was better she part from Falcon now. Her heart only wanted Falcon Cherrywood, but what about the rest of her? What about her demon magick? Would Lust be content with only one lover for eternity?
“You’re giving up, Tally,” Ethelred said from Luminista’s bedroom.
“Says he who just obliterated the Powers That Be.” Tally snorted and leaned against the doorway, his familiar presence actually comforting to her.
Ethelred shook his head. “No, Uriel stopped me.” He flexed his fingers in the thin nightgown that had been spread across Luminista’s bed. “I allowed the deities themselves to leave with only a ward on their magick.”
“Why?”
“He’s an angel.” Ethelred shrugged and looked at his hands for a moment, still buried in that soft nightgown. Then he looked back up at Tally, his eyes raging with the fires of Hell. “But I will still have my vengeance.”
“On me?” Tally asked.
“Why would you think I want vengeance on you? What did you do?” he asked, although it was obvious he already knew.
“You know what I did. I broke Emilian’s curse. I killed him.”
“It wouldn’t have mattered if it wasn’t for Cupid and his fucking self-righteous arrow, would it?” he snarled.
“Oh, I see. You’re going to hurt me to punish Cupid for giving you Luminista, only for you to lose her.”
How to Seduce an Angel in 10 Days Page 21