Flame's Embrace

by Pillar, Amanda

At this rate, I would come like an inexperienced sixteen-year-old getting a hand job for the first time.

  I reached around and unclasped her bra in one smooth motion. The material went slack, and I pulled back, her nipple making a popping sound as I released it.

  “I want you,” she breathed, her golden eyes glowing.

  “Really? I didn’t realize,” I chuckled.

  She narrowed her eyes, reaching between us. Her palm brushed over my rigid cock and I stiffened.

  “Oh? Do you realize now?” she mocked softly, her deft fingers undoing the button on my jeans with one hand. She dropped the zipper and reached in, feeling me through my boxers.

  “Fucking hell, woman,” I groaned.

  Tamsin leaned in and licked up the column of my throat, purring contently. I pulled on her hair and brought my other hand down to her ass before promptly flipping over. Her back hit the bed hard, and we bounced. These springs were going to have a hell of a time with us tonight. At least it was Nocturna’s money on the deposit.

  I released Tamsin and pulled back, standing up.

  She slipped her loose bra straps down her shoulders and flung it off the side of the bed.

  “You’ve got me here,” she said. “Now what do you plan to do with me?”

  I pulled my shirt over my head and it joined her bra on the ground.

  A grin pulled at my lips. “Taste you.”

  I dropped to my knees and carefully undid her boots, removing each. I massaged her feet, pressing into the points of tension. She writhed on the bed, more than ready when I reached for her jeans. She lifted her hips, making it easier to unbutton and then shimmy them down her long dark legs. Her bright red thong made my blood heat.

  I licked my lips, putting my hands on her knees. I curled them around to the sensitive skin behind them, and spread her legs, lifting them slightly.

  “What are you”—she gasped when I kissed inside her leg—”Oh . . .”

  “Mhmm,” I hummed, kissing and licking my way up, stopping just short of the apex between her thighs. I put one of her knees over my shoulder and took the thin red strap between my teeth. As I moved it down her body, she lifted her hips so I could remove it.

  “You know, most guys are more into the wrapping—”

  “First, I’m not most guys. Second, you’re in bed with me—not them.”

  Tamsin didn’t respond and I narrowed my eyes as the thong came free.

  She opened her legs wide, presenting herself.

  Like a man dying of thirst, I couldn’t help myself.

  I ran one finger through her folds. So wet.

  Good god, I was going to need to sate her before we did anything.

  I parted her with my thumbs and then pressed the flat of my tongue to her clit, licking slowly. Tamsin’s breathing changed, becoming harder. Lustier.

  The scent of jasmine and honey enveloped me. Her skin was so soft. So supple . . .

  I licked again and then took her clit between my lips, the same as I had her breast.

  A few strong sucks and that panting turned to keening, then whimpering.

  “I want to take you out when we get back,” I breathed.

  “Done,” she groaned, twisting on the bed. She reached for my head, but without even a half inch of hair, there wasn’t a lot for her to grab.

  “And no more hookups with Davin,” I continued.

  “Ugh,” she complained as I lazily brushed my thumb around her swollen clit. “Whatever. We haven’t seen each other in months anyways.”

  “No one else either,” I added.

  She paused. Her body was tense as a live wire. She was ready to come, but I was staving it off like an asshole.

  “You . . . want to be exclusive?” she asked.

  I couldn’t tell if she liked or hated the idea. Her face was remarkably blank for someone whose hips were continuing to nudge me along.

  I risked it. “Yes.”

  She blinked twice, seeming to think. “You better show me what you got, then. I need sex to survive—”

  I brought my mouth back to her clit and began nibbling and sucking once more.

  “Oh, oh,” she panted quickly.

  I slid two fingers in her and tapped lightly.

  “Ohhh,” her voice rose an octave.

  The first flutters started, and I pulled hard with my mouth.

  She detonated.

  “Domini—” the rest was lost in a garbled mess as she came hard. I kept stroking her through it until her body sagged. Her wet channel stopped clenching me and I pulled away.

  Her hand grabbed my arm, the points of her nails digging in.

  “We can be exclusive,” she said. That was about as much praise as I could expect from a succubus given that they rarely were.

  “Not just sex. You’re mine,” I said.

  She cocked an eyebrow and sat up. “I’d damn well hope so. Now stand up.”

  As I did so, she shimmied over the side of the bed and onto her knees.

  “You might want to grab something,” she warned. I took three steps back, hitting the dresser, and I felt like I could come right there when she started crawling toward me.

  “Fuck me,” I muttered, running a hand over my eyes.

  “Oh, I plan to,” she said coyly. Tamsin grasped my jeans, tucking her fingers into the band of them and my boxers. She pulled once, freeing my length.

  Then her hands grabbed it and her mouth parted.

  My lips fell open as she licked my head. She pulled me into her warm heat and sucked once. I rocked forward, one of my hands coming down on the edge of the dresser to hold me steady.

  She hadn’t been kidding.

  “I don’t know if you realize it’s been a while for me,” I started.

  She took me deeper. Her eyes sparkled mischievously. One of her hands came around my base and she started pumping. The other massaged my balls in tiny rhythmic circles. My skin broke out in goosebumps, and pleasure so intense that it bordered pain built in the base of my spine.

  “Tamsin,” I growled.

  A sharp crack ran through the room as the edge of the dresser split. I released the chunks of wood and fisted her hair, well and truly losing control of all my senses.

  Everything narrowed down to her and what she was doing to me.

  I thrust into her mouth and she took it, purring like a contented fucking kitten.

  I felt like a man gone mad as I lost myself in her.

  What’s more—she let me. She accepted me. Tamsin took everything I gave her and begged for more without ever uttering a word. Her lips pulled back and the light edge of her teeth pushed me to the brink.

  I yelled her name. Thrusting hard enough my cock hit the tight ring of her throat.

  Yes.

  My vision completely blacked out as she swallowed me down. I wasn’t sure how long I floated there, but when the fog over my mind cleared, I noticed the strangest thing.

  Out of the corner of my eye, a bright orange spark flared.

  Tamsin

  “Tamsin!” Dom cried.

  I hummed happily around his length, wondering if I could milk a second one out of his still hard shaft.

  “Tamsin,” he said again, pushing on my shoulder.

  The note of panic registered, and I opened my eyes.

  Instead of the rapturous glazed look I’d been expecting, Dom was staring beside us in mounting horror.

  Not exactly the standard expression for a guy I’d just blown into next year.

  I sat back on my heels and glanced in the same direction wondering what he was so worried about.

  “Oh shit,” I said, jumping to my feet.

  A candle had been knocked off the dresser when Dom split it, and the tiny flame had turned into a small inferno that had already claimed part of one of the room’s curtains.

  “Where’s the fire extinguisher?” Dom asked, slipping easily into problem-solving mode despite the fact that his
cock was saluting the world in all its naked glory.

  I took a mental picture knowing I’d want to revisit this moment later. When we weren’t in danger of burning the place down.

  “Uh . . . the kitchen, I think?”

  “Grab it,” he ordered, lunging forward, and pulling the curtain off the rod. Fabric ripped as it was torn free. I was already sprinting out of the room when he tugged the comforter off the bed and started slapping at the smoldering curtain as he tried to suppress the flames.

  I beelined for the kitchen, spotting the little red extinguisher beside the counter.

  “Tamsin, come on,” Nocturna sighed, spotting me with my ass in the air as I bent over. “At least put some clothes on when you’re in the public areas. Not everyone wants to see you naked.”

  “Not the time for a lecture, Tinkerbell,” I said, not bothering to look at her as I hefted the cylindrical container up and raced back to the bedroom.

  “Tamsin,” she called after me. “Why are you grabbing that? Is this one of your weird sex games?”

  I couldn’t really be annoyed by the question. Succubi were a bunch of kinky bitches.

  “Nope,” I said, darting back inside. Behind me, I could hear Nocturna take a few hesitant steps down the hall, like she wasn’t convinced I was telling the truth and thought she’d walk in on something wild.

  Dom was where I’d left him, the flames were thankfully still contained to the pile of fabric on the floor, but thick smoke had started to fill the room.

  “Here,” I said, shoving the extinguisher in his direction.

  In one smooth move, Dom pulled the pin, aimed, and started dousing the base of the fire with smooth, sweeping motions. A cloud of white shot out of the extinguisher, and within seconds the last of the flames went out.

  The entire fiasco lasted less than two minutes. My heart was racing like I’d run some kind of marathon. That had been . . . intense.

  “Well, that was a first,” I muttered, eyeing the mess on the floor as I tried to process the last handful of minutes.

  Dom raised an amused brow. “I find that hard to believe.”

  I shrugged. “It wasn’t like we were having real acrobatic sex. That usually leads to things flying across the room and getting knocked over. This was just a regular blowy.” Dom’s brows rose higher at that, but I was still talking. “Which reminds me, we’re going to have to cross ‘making love by candlelight’ off the list of things I want to do to you, okay? Or maybe any kind of candle or wax play, to be honest. Seems like it might be too dangerous, even for us.”

  His lips quirked up. “Good call.”

  Nocturna only just reached the doorway. “What the hell were you guys up to in here?”

  My eyes went from the smoldering mess to the broken furniture and back to her pinched expression. “Isn’t it obvious?”

  As she took in the extent of the damage we’d caused, her expression soured even further. “I expect this bullshit from you, Tamsin, but Dominick? Really? How am I supposed to explain this to the homeowner?”

  Dom shrugged, pulling on a pair of sweats from his bag. “You tell them there was an accident. You apologize. You thank them for having a fire extinguisher. You take care of it.”

  “I’m not going to—” she started when he held up a hand to shush her.

  “Not my problem, Nocturna. You were the one who wanted to bring a group of supernaturals out to the wilderness to play Truth or Dare. You also can’t count and didn’t book enough rooms. You get to be in charge of dealing with the fallout. That’s what it means to be in charge, which as you love to remind us, is what you were born to do.”

  “But—but—” she sputtered indignantly. “You were the ones who made this mess.”

  “Accident,” Dominick corrected her, handing me one of his T-shirts. “Your reservation, your security deposit, your trip. Seems like a you problem.”

  I slid it on, breathing in the lingering scent of him as I did. “At least we didn’t burn the whole place down.”

  Nocturna glared at me.

  A door opened down the hall.

  “Everybody okay? I smell smoke,” Helena called.

  “We’re fine,” I hollered back.

  The door shut again with a soft click.

  “Pack your bag,” Dom told me.

  My lips curled up.

  “Wait, where are you going?” Nocturna demanded. “We still have two days left of our retreat.”

  “Wrong,” Dom said, already grabbing the handful of items he’d unpacked earlier and shoving them back in his bag. “You have two days left. Tamsin and I are getting out of here.”

  My smile stretched as I imagined all the reasons why Dominick wanted to spend the weekend alone with me.

  “Dominick—”

  He shot her a dark look. “We’re leaving. End of story.”

  Nocturna huffed. “Just wait until the others hear about this,” she said, storming out.

  Dom rolled his eyes. “As if I give two shits.”

  “We’re leaving?” I asked, crossing the room to wrap my arms around his waist.

  He nodded, holding my gaze as he leaned down to capture my mouth, sucking my lower lip and grazing his teeth over it as he let go. “Mmhmm,” he murmured. “We need to finish what we started. Ideally somewhere more private.”

  “Without open flames,” I added, tasting his desire on my lips.

  His smile widened. “Exactly.” He slapped my ass. “Now get moving. I want to be buried inside of you in the next hour.”

  If ever there was a way to motivate a succubus . . .

  I rushed through packing the last of my things and slid into a pair of jeans.

  This weekend just got so much better.

  And it was just getting started.

  About Kel

  Kel Carpenter is a master of werdz. When she’s not reading or writing, she’s traveling the world, lovingly pestering her editor, and spending time with her husband and fur-babies. She is always on the search for good tacos and the best pizza. She resides in Bethesda, MD and desperately tries to avoid the traffic.

  To keep up with Kel and her books, join her Facebook Group, Kel’s Krew.

  About Meg

  Meg Anne has always had stories running on a loop in her head. They started off as daydreams about how the evil queen (aka Mom) had her slaving away doing chores; and more recently shifted into creating backgrounds about the people stuck beside her during rush hour. The stories have been there, they were just waiting for her to tell them. Like any true SoCal native, Meg enjoys staying inside curled up with a good book and her furbabies... or maybe that's just her (sunburns hurt!) You can convince Meg to buy just about anything if it's covered in glitter or rhinestones, or make her laugh by sharing your favorite bad joke. She also accepts bribes in the form of baked goods and Mexican food.

  Wings of Fire and Fury

  Bec McMaster

  Romania, 1878

  Home.

  Alina Dragavei’s heart gave a twisting clench in her chest as she rode past the painted icons of the Orthodox church into the village of Tușnad.

  Eight years and nothing had changed.

  Solid houses made of carved logs lined the streets. An old lady wearing a dull red apron peered over a washing line at Alina, and several children played in the streets. A dog darted between their feet, though it looked up and barked when her shadow fell over it.

  The children’s chatter faded, their little eyes widening. The old lady gathered her basket and scurried toward the house, just as raindrops began to patter down.

  I don’t mean you any harm.

  But the words died on Alina’s lips, for she could see the way their eyes tracked the scarred leather coat she wore and hovered on the sword at her hip. A crossbow hung from the pommel of her saddle and Bela stood hands and shoulders above the ragged ponies in the pastures here, and was bred to hunt monsters.

  The young girl Alina had been
was long gone, leaving behind a ragged mercenary in their eyes.

  Eight years and nothing had changed.

  Except everything.

  Alina nodded soberly to an old gentleman who came to his porch with a pipe between his teeth and a shovel in his hand. It would do little to prevent her from taking what she wanted if she truly wished, but she understood the threat.

  “Just passing through,” she called, and then urged Bela into a trot before the rest of the villagers came to see what the fuss was about.

  And there, right at the end of the lane, stood the little stone cottage where her parents had raised her.

  The second she saw the red front door, her knuckles clenched around the reins. The wrongness of the color punched her in the chest.

  Where was the blue her father had chosen because it was her mother’s favorite color?

  And the little brass knob her mother polished so lovingly?

  They’d been gone for nearly a decade, and yet she felt the loss all over again as that bright red door filled her vision.

  “I shall guess you didn’t find what you were looking for,” a voice called, breaking her free of her reverie.

  An enormous hulking man leaned against the wall to her parent’s cottage, his arms crossed over his chest, and his hood drawn to shield him from the drizzle. She hadn’t noticed him arrive, though that was hardly unusual. Mircea Lazarescu moved with the devil’s own grace, and he’d been the one who taught her how to stalk silently through the woods in search of her prey.

  “You rode on ahead of me,” he said.

  She ignored the condemnation in those golden eyes as she slid from the back of her mare. “I wanted to see my village.”

  Without you at my side, she almost said.

  She didn’t want him to see her undone.

  Mircea had found her one night, bravely trying to withstand an assault by a trio of ruffians. It had been barely three weeks after her parents’ deaths, and she’d let her guard down for one precious second before realizing she was surrounded.

  For a moment, she’d thought she’d soon be joining her parents as she leapt toward her father’s old sword and held it warily in front of her.