He hadn’t even been aware that he’d taken a useless breath of air until it rushed out of him. The force of his own reaction nearly sent him to his knees.
“Duncan,” she said. She sounded and looked dazed.
He lowered his head slowly, and ran his mouth along the leaping pulse at her neck, tonguing the delectable delicate flesh.
She pushed him, startling him out of his preoccupation. With a husky, drunken laugh, she pointed behind him. He looked over his shoulder. The elevator doors stood open. Ah, right.
The length of the hallway to her front door was all but unendurable. He said hoarsely, “After we go to the opera, what are we doing next?”
“I don’t know,” she moaned. She dropped her keys and bent over to retrieve them. “How about a weekend in bed?”
He blurred, snatched the keys out from underneath her hand and unlocked and opened her door before she could fully react. “Get inside.”
He glared as she exploded with laughter. Then he laughed too. This was crazy, ludicrous. He could say he hadn’t felt this way since he was a teenager, except he was certain he hadn’t felt this way then either.
Then finally they were inside, alone in her shadowed apartment. She tossed her purse onto the couch—he realized they had forgotten her case, in the trunk of his car—and then he lost that thought too as she leaped at him. He snatched her up as she wrapped her arms and legs around him, and he strode for the bedroom.
“Say it again,” he said. “What you told me on the plane.”
Her brilliantly colorful eyes were luminous with emotion and desire. “I didn’t think you heard me.”
He laid her on the bed gently and straightened. He tore off his shirt. “I heard you. Say it again.”
She pushed up to kneel on the bed in front of him, and she met his gaze as she reached for the fastening of his jeans. “I love you, Duncan.”
“That was even better than the last time,” he whispered, smiling as he palmed her full, soft breast. She pulled his jeans open and slid her hands inside them as she eased the material down over his lean hips. An odd sensation slid along his torso and up his arms. He glanced down at her snakes as they journeyed across his skin.
Seremela followed the direction of his gaze and drew back a little, her expression turning self-conscious. She offered softly, “I can wrap them, if you’d rather.”
He said firmly, “No.”
She pulled a few snakes away from him. “Are you sure it isn’t too—tentacley for you?”
He grasped her shoulders and looked deeply into her eyes. “Listen to me. I did not say I was falling in love with you, if only you would hide some part of yourself or change some aspect to try to please me. I said I was falling in love with you—all of you. I don’t want you to curb yourself, deny yourself, cover up your face or head or any part of your body. I don’t want you to lose or gain weight, or watch what you say, or deny how you feel, or try to be anything but who you are, because who you are is the most beautiful person in the world to me.”
As she listened, the expression on her lovely features grew vulnerable, wide open. While he certainly hoped that he had not been the first person to ever tell her such things, he selfishly hoped that he had been the first male to do so. He grasped one of her snakes, kissed it on the nose and looked into its face. “You’re never going to bite me, are you?”
“They would never hurt you,” Seremela said. “They would die first.”
“Oh well,” he said, giving her a crooked grin. “There’s goes that fantasy.”
Her eyes went very wide, and she laughed, a joyous, surprised sound. She unbuttoned her top and shrugged out of it then slipped off her bra as Duncan kicked off his jeans and stood nude, his heavy erection jutting from his hips.
Her breasts were stunning, lush and full, the soft, plump nipples several shades darker than the light creamy green of her flesh. He bent, took one nipple in his mouth and sucked at it gently. The muffled noise that came out of her was urgent and incoherent. She cradled his head, ran her fingers through his hair and stroked his shoulders.
As he suckled her, a feather light sensation flickered along the sensitive skin on the head of his penis, creating a sharp, tantalizing pleasure. He looked down, as the sensation spread along the tight, drawn up sac of his testicles, and along the muscles of his lower abdomen.
Seremela’s snakes flickered their slender tongues along his skin.
Seremela cocked her head and looked down as well. “They’re tasting you,” she said, giving him a sidelong smile. “They know that I love you, and they’re curious.” She looked splendid and barbaric, and completely unfettered.
For a moment, the ghost of the human Duncan once was struggled with the image. But Seremela’s snakes were not mundane creatures; they were a part of her, and Duncan had not been human for a very long time.
His fangs descended. Seremela looked at his mouth and her gaze turned heavy lidded. She bared her neck to him in wordless invitation, and he gathered her soft, curvaceous body into his arms and eased his fangs gently into the pulse at her neck.
The moan that came out of her was full of sex and surrender, the sound shivering along his heated senses as hot blood spilled into his mouth, and it was so strange, so strange. He was twisted up inside, his desire for her out of control. He growled as he drank from her, while she arched against him, gasping. Her blood was stronger than human blood. It punched through him and made the world spin.
He lifted his head away from her, breathing raggedly, and only then realized she was struggling in his arms. For a terrible moment he felt sickened and disoriented—until he realized what she was trying to do.
“Help me get out of these damn jeans,” she whimpered.
His fingers shook as he helped her to ease the jeans down to her knees. Then she lay back on bed and raised her legs so he could tug them off the rest of the way.
Wholly naked, she stretched, her eyes glazed with the lingering pleasure from his bite, and she looked beautiful and mysterious at once, all woman and wholly inhuman. He stroked his fingers up her inner thigh and fingered the velvet soft petals of her sex that were already wet with pleasure. She grasped his cock in one hand, stroking it as she parted her legs and told him, “Come inside now.”
“I want to help you climax first,” he whispered. He found her stiff little bud, so delicate and luscious, and he rolled the ball of his thumb over it.
She jerked uncontrollably and gasped. “It feels too good. It’s too intense.”
“That’s partly from the bite,” he crooned. “Everything’s more intense right now.” He slid two fingers into her, and she was softer and wetter than anything he had ever felt before, and so goddamn snug, he knew when he finally entered her, she was going to grip him tighter than a fist. He fucked her gently with his fingers while he continued to massage her clitoris.
“I can’t take it,” she sobbed. She gripped his wrist.
“You can take it,” he told her. While he worked her, he bent over to take her nipple in his mouth again, suckling at her carefully because his fangs were still descended and he did not want to scratch her. He was drowning in his own pleasure, drowning, immersed in her escalating pleasure as she undulated her hips.
Then she put a hand to the back of his head and pulled him down hard against her breast. His fangs broke the tender skin at her breast, and her Powerful blood filled his mouth again. Astonished, he sucked her hard while he drove his fingers into her, and she bucked underneath his hold and screamed as she climaxed.
He was blind with his own euphoria and still throbbing with need. He held himself rigidly, his palm pressed firmly against her clit while her inner muscles pulsed against his fingers. He would not draw out, not leave her until her climax was done, but then she shocked him again as she pulled his hand away. She rose and pushed him onto his back, and as he acquiesced, she came up over him and straddled him. She was the most amazing sight he had ever seen, her beautiful face stamped with intensity as sh
e took his cock, positioned him and lowered herself down on him.
“Jesus,” he said. His own climax shot like a bullet. He gripped her hips and bucked hard underneath her, swearing.
She collapsed on him, and he hugged her with his whole body. After a few minutes, she asked, “We’re going to do this a lot, aren’t we?”
“God, I hope so,” he said.
They slept just like that, with him still inside of her and her sprawled like a rag doll on him.
He woke first. His erection had softened, and he didn’t want to move and slip outside of her or wake her up. She was a soft, warm weight lying on him, and he loved it, loved it.
So he drifted a while and let his mind meander. Maybe she liked jewelry. Maybe she would enjoy a ring.
Maybe she would enjoy it especially if he went down on one knee to give it to her.
He had always thought he would enjoy marriage, and he believed he would make a good husband for the right woman. He had just never found the right woman, until now.
But he was getting way ahead of himself. They hadn’t even gone on their first date yet. Speaking of which, he had opera tickets to buy.
Wait. He yawned and asked, “What day is it?”
“Nnh.” Just when he was sure she had fallen back asleep, she murmured, “Think it’s Friday?”
“Excellent. I think our first date should start right now.”
She scratched her nose. “You don’t have opera tickets yet.”
“That’s going to have to be our second date,” he told her.
She opened her eyes and squinted at him. “What’s our first date?”
He rolled her onto her back, reversing their positions, and grinned down at her. “My vote is for that weekend in bed.”
She snickered. “Ooh, that’s my vote too. At some point we should call Carling and Rune and tell them we’re back.”
“We can do that Monday.” He palmed her breast as his cock stiffened against her thigh. “We should also plan our third date soon.”
“Mm, we should.” Her gaze grew heavy lidded as she fingered his penis. “I’m so glad to be back in my own bed.”
“I’m glad to be in your bed too.” He moved his hips lazily, pushing against her hand.
Her expression softened with equal parts pleasure and affection. “So do you have any ideas about that third date?”
Duncan cocked his head, considering her. He thought about telling her about buying a ring, and him going down on one knee, but he didn’t want to spook her. Instead he said, very casually, “I thought we might go shopping.”
“You like to shop?” she asked in sleepy surprise.
“Yes, I do, sometimes. When I know I’m looking for something special.” He bent to nuzzle her throat.
She made a purring sound and stroked his back. “It sounds like you’ve got something specific in mind for your shopping trip.”
“Our shopping trip,” he corrected.
“Okay, our shopping trip.”
“And I do have something specific in mind, but for now, I think we should focus on our first date.”
Giddy with happiness, he kissed her in a soft lingering caress. They lived in a crowded and dangerous world, but somehow she had become the only person in it. Right here and now, they were the only two people in the world, the only two.
“Duncan, do you by any chance play the piano?” she murmured.
He chuckled. “Why on earth would you ask me that?”
She stroked his face. “You just gave me a certain look.”
Amused, he asked, “A look that said I play the piano?”
She tapped his nose with one finger. “Tell me you have a Bogart suit. Oh forget it, you have lots of suits, and they’re all more beautiful than any of the clothes I own. Do you by any chance believe in precognition?”
He announced, “I am completely at sea in this conversation.”
“Then we should probably stop talking,” she whispered. She rolled her hips at him.
“I’m okay with that,” he said.
He proceeded to make love to her again on their most excellent first date, and neither one said anything coherent for a long time.
Thank you!
Dear Readers,
Thank you for reading Devil’s Gate! I hope you enjoyed reading about Duncan and Seremela.
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Happy reading!
~Thea
Coming Soon:
Hunter’s Season by Thea Harrison
As an assassin for the Dark Fae, Xanthe always wore a mask, hiding her emotions to do her duty. But when her identity is compromised, she trades undercover work for guarding Queen Niniane—a position that often brings her in contact with Chancellor Aubrey Riordan.
A year ago Aubrey’s wife tried to assassinate their new queen in his name, a betrayal of everything he believes in. And now an attack on his life proves the dark conspiracy is not yet over. Although injured and weak, Aubrey can’t help but be drawn to the shy assassin and loyal protector to the queen. Xanthe is everything Naida wasn’t, and the passion she stirs in him is something he thought had long passed him by.
The Wicked by Thea Harrison
For a librarian with a focus on rare magical books, Olivia’s new job is a dream come true. She’s been hired as part of a team to help manage the safe transportation of the collection of books owned by the Vampyre sorceress Carling Severan. The fact that the library is located on a mysterious island in an Other land only heightens the adventure.
Head of security for the expedition, Sebastian Hale is tired of his rootless life of adventure and finds himself attracted to the calm, beautiful librarian. But he’s living a personal nightmare. He’s been hit with a curse that is slowly taking away his sight, and he doesn’t know if he’ll survive the results.
But the powerful feelings growing between them, along with Sebastian’s inner turmoil, take a backseat when they learn there’s a traitor in their expedition team. With Elder Races politics and a priceless library on the line, they’ll have to rely on each other to survive.
Look for these titles from Thea Harrison
THE ELDER RACES SERIES – FULL LENGTH NOVELS
Published by Berkley
Dragon Bound
Storm’s Heart
Serpent’s Kiss
Oracle’s Moon
Lord’s Fall
Kinked
Night’s Honor
Midnight’s Kiss
Shadow’s End
MOONSHADOW TRILOGY
Moonshadow
Spellbinder
Lionheart *Early 2018
ELDER RACES NOVELLAS
True Colors
Natural Evil
Devil’s Gate
Hunter’s Season
The Wicked
Dragos Takes a Holiday
Pia Saves the Day
Peanut Goes to School
Dragos Goes to Washington
Pia Does Hollywood
Liam Takes Manhattan
GAME OF SHADOWS SERIES
Published by Berkley
Rising Darkness
Falling Light
ROMANCES UNDER THE NAME
AMANDA CARPENTER
E-published by Samhain Publishing
(original publication by Harlequin Mills & Boon)
*These stories are currently out of print
A Deeper Dimension
The Wall
A Damaged Trust
The Great Escape
Flashback
Rage
Waking Up
Rose-Coloured Love
Reckless
/> The Gift of Happiness
Caprice
Passage of the Night
Cry Wolf
A Solitary Heart
The Winter King
Devil's Gate_A Novella of the Elder Races Page 9