Daemon’s Revenge

by Marteeka Karland

  “Are you cold?”

  “You saw the goose bumps, huh?” I tried to lighten the mood, but he didn’t smile. Instead, he pulled the covers from the bottom of the bed up my body to cover me from toes to throat.

  “Just relax. Don’t speak. I have some things I want to say, and I don’t want you to interrupt me. When I’m finished, you can have your say.”

  I nodded and closed my eyes. He lifted the comforter from one leg and bared the limb to the knee. To my surprise, he started kneading my foot and toes with gentle, sure motions, working up my leg. His hands were slick with a warm oil. Its light, minty scent wafted gently around me. He didn’t say a word, just continued until he moved the cover again to bare my thigh. More oil and he worked his way up almost to my hip. The motions were anything but sexual, and soon the tension seemed to melt away. I sighed contentedly as he covered me up, moving on to the next leg.

  I expected him to say something, but he didn’t. Instead, he just kept working my muscles with a tender hand. I relaxed so much just concentrating on how wonderful it felt to have those muscles massaged, I almost fell asleep. Once he’d finished with the other leg, however, he covered me up again and moved to my hand and arm.

  “I’m not letting you go, Ariel,” he started. My eyes flew open, and I focused on his piercing green ones. “I’m not letting you go, and I’m not sharing you ever again. Do you understand?”

  His words didn’t fit his actions. His movements on my hand and fingers as he kneaded and worked each finger, my hand, and forearm, didn’t hesitate in the slightest. It was almost as if he didn’t really expect an answer. I got the feeling he didn’t really care what my answer was. He’d made a statement of fact, and that was that. It brought back all that sexual tension he’d so painstakingly gotten rid of. I’m not sure if that was his intended purpose, but there it was.

  “This little adventure did provide me with some much-needed information about you though. You do indeed need it rough sometimes. You need me on the verge of losing control. It excites you beyond anything I could ever do otherwise, and you need that excitement from time to time.” He finished working on my upper arm and laid it gently back on the table. Then he moved around to my other arm and started the process all over again.

  “You can only take so much, though,” he continued, pulling at each finger and digging his thumbs gently into the palm of my hand. “You need the gentle lovemaking as much as you need the rough fucking. Truth is, I need them both, too, and I promise not to hold back on you anymore. You’ve definitely made your point.”

  Again, he laid my arm down. This time he moved behind me, smoothed my hair to lie over the end of the table out of his way. A bit more warm oil, and he worked my shoulders. His thumbs moved along my collarbone while his fingers dug into my back, loosening all those tight muscles.

  He didn’t say anything else for a long time. All the while he kneaded my upper back and shoulders, he didn’t say anything or even make eye contact. If I hadn’t known better, I’d have thought he knew he was making me hot again with all his possessive talk and promises of exactly the kind of sex I craved from him. He was trying to bring me back down. Ground me. It was probably for the best because it sounded like I needed my head clear for the next step.

  Again, gradually, I relaxed. I closed my eyes and let him soothe my aching muscles. Considering how much my arms and shoulders had been stretched when clamped to the floor, his ministrations felt like heaven. The slight fragrance made me want to inhale deeper to catch the scent. I loved the smell of mint.

  “Turn over.” His voce was soft, whisper thin, as if he was trying not to break the spell he knew he’d created. I obeyed and he pulled the cover down to my waist, baring my back.

  His hands glided firmly, soothingly over my back, up and down each side of my spine. I couldn’t stop the groan when he got to the base of my spine. His firm touch was painful against my tight muscles, but it was a soothing pain. Thirty seconds and the pain lessened, and I could feel my muscles relax under his hands.

  “See? Your body is protesting all I put it through.” He sounded both apologetic and angry. It kind of made me wonder if both emotions were aimed at me. “Can you understand why I didn’t want to subject you to all that?”

  “I know you told me to be quiet and listen, Daemon, but I have to tell you this.” Still, he didn’t stop his work on my back. It no longer hurt so badly. In fact, I felt better than I’d felt in weeks. My whole body was relaxed and refreshed. “I completely understand why you wanted to protect me, but can you understand I need a little adventure? Some excitement and even every now and then, a hint of danger? Something just a little exciting.”

  Daemon whipped the cover back and flipped me to my back so fast I barely had time to let out a squeal before he climbed on the narrow table and covered my body with his bigger one.

  “I think I can manage that.” And he kissed me.

  OK, so “kiss” isn’t exactly the word I’m looking for. Yes, he pressed his lips against mine, but it was more than that. He took my mouth with so much emotion, I wanted to laugh, cry, and fuck his brains out all at the same time.

  He was dominant, yet vulnerable. I knew he had more to say, and he was afraid. Of what, I didn’t have a clue, but there was still tension in him. He was so tense, it was almost obscene for him to have helped me relax this much. So I simply enjoyed what he did and kissed him back with all the love I held in my heart for him. I tried to tell him that, no matter what had him so concerned, it would be OK. I’d still love him.

  And I did love him. Everything about him. I hadn’t told him before because I knew that I could never be anything more to him than a lover. Vampires only mated with their own kind. They mated forever, and a human didn’t live that long. He’d said he wasn’t letting me go, but what did he mean by that? I wanted to ask, but I wanted him to keep on kissing me like this forever, too.

  With a subtle move of his hips and a shifting of his legs, he entered me in one swift stroke. I cried out in surprise, but he didn’t let go of my mouth. Daemon surged into me over and over again. His driving need seemed to meet my own, and I wrapped my legs around him, holding him to me. I met his thrusts with my own. My body still ached, but this felt too good to stop.

  His muscles rippled underneath my hands where I touched him, and I marveled that he’d chosen me instead of the countless other, less complicated women he could have had. I had no doubt he cared for me -- otherwise we wouldn’t have been in this position to begin with. But having come this far, I wasn’t about to let it end there.

  I wanted more. I wanted Daemon. Now and forever. I’d always wanted him.

  Chapter Five

  “You’re mine, Ariel. You’ve always been mine.”

  “Then why didn’t you claim me?” I dug my nails into his back, and he grunted, driving into me harder.

  “Because I wouldn’t turn you until I knew you were ready and not until I knew you were mine.”

  Now, I was definitely his. I’d loved him since the first night we’d made love. For all my blustering and all the things I’d done that had led us to this night, it was his gentleness and attentiveness to my needs that had endeared him to me in the first place. But I didn’t like him assuming that.

  “What makes you think either of those things? Remember what I did with Wolfe?”

  He leaned down and bit me sharply on the neck. I yelped. Yeah. Being bit by a vampire hurt like hell when he wanted it to.

  “Because the excitement for you burned out before all the kink could. You were ready to call it a night long before I actually did.”

  “So, what do we do now?”

  “Now, I turn you, if that’s what you want. You’ll be pretty much immortal, but there’s a catch.”

  “And that is?”

  “Once I turn you, make you a vampire, your life will be forever linked with mine. There is no ‘divorce.’ I won’t let you go.” His words were final, but his expression was more vulnerable than I’d ever
seen from him.

  “Are you… nervous, Daemon?” It was almost laughable. My big, strapping, scary vampire was nervous. He growled at me, flashing his teeth slightly. “You are. Daemon, the man scarier than the big bad wolf, is afraid I’ll reject him.”

  He flexed his hips, and suddenly I didn’t feel like laughing anymore. Screaming in pleasure, maybe, but not laughing.

  “I just want you to know what you’re getting yourself into.”

  “Daemon.” I cupped his face in both my hands. “I’ve wanted this since our first night together. I can’t explain why I feel this way, but we were meant to be together. Besides. Who else would put up with me leaving my dirty underwear beside the bed every night instead of putting them in the hamper?”

  He snorted. “Certainly not Wolfe.”

  “Are you kidding? He’s a bigger slob than me.”

  “I could have told you that. You’re not the only one with a taste for kink, my dear.”

  “Ohmigod! So he was telling the truth! You were lovers!”

  “Well, ‘lovers’ is probably too strong a term. I’d say fuck buddies was more accurate.”

  “Like us?” He’d used that term to describe us several times. Funny, but it stung to think that was all I meant to him. Being called his dirty little whore wasn’t half as bad as being a “fuck buddy.” He’d been possessive about the former.

  He sighed. “Yeah. Like us.” When I opened my mouth to call him an ass, he kissed me until I almost forgot why I wanted to call him an ass. “Look, Ariel. Wolfe told me about all this before I got your DVD.” Again, I opened my mouth to call him and Wolfe an ass, but this time he only stilled my protest with a finger against my lips. “Thank him for helping me make it possible for you to live out your fantasy. And for making me see that little stunt was your way of letting me know how unhappy you were. You thought I didn’t want to commit. I didn’t want to get more attached to you. I’ve been a vampire for a long time. I’m used to thinking of forever as, well, forever. You’re human. Finite. Forever is a long time, you know, but until you’ve lived a couple thousand years, you don’t fully appreciate the concept.”

  “Well, when you put it like that, I can understand your concern.”

  He smiled at me and stroked my cheek. “You’re a remarkable woman. I believe you do understand.”

  Again, he dipped his head and kissed me. This time, however, he moved his hips slowly, leisurely. He let the pleasure build gradually until my whole lower body tingled, and I just knew my pussy flooded his balls with the moisture pooling there.

  “Oh, my.” My voice was husky. Daemon definitely knew what I liked, what I needed.

  “Indeed.” He sounded as strained as I did.

  We moved together, as one. I wrapped my legs around him tightly and met him thrust for thrust and it wasn’t long before orgasm began.

  My whole body tingled, centered at the spot where our bodies joined. When the spasms started, I screamed.

  And screamed and screamed.

  Daemon had always satisfied me physically, but this was unlike anything I’d ever experienced. My vision narrowed to only Daemon’s beautiful face. Well, that and the stars dancing around him, blanketing my vision. My whole body tingled with the spasms. My pussy contracted around him, milking him for all he had to give.

  I think Daemon made some noise too, but I couldn’t seem to concentrate beyond my own body. All the sexual tension that had built throughout the day released in one stupendous orgasm.

  We clung to each other, a mutual comfort. I didn’t want this moment to end. Daemon nuzzled my neck. “Better?” he murmured.

  “Much.” I still held him, but he pushed himself back so he could look at me.

  “You will be my mate, Ariel. I’ll convince you to let me turn you, and you’ll be mine forever.” Daemon was out of breath, and he looked so disarmed and vulnerable it was hard to imagine he was one of the most feared vampires in the preternatural world.

  I smiled. Then giggled. Then wrapped my arms around him and laughed in pure delight. “Oh, Daemon.” I had to wipe tears from my eyes. It was the ultimate irony. I’d never even once thought of asking him to change me. I’m not even sure I ever entertained the possibility that he could change me. “Of all the things, Daemon, I didn’t expect that.”

  “I don’t see anything so damned funny.” Daemon rolled himself from the table and scooped me up in his arms. He reached the pool in five long strides and sank back into the warm water.

  “It’s funny because this is what I’ve wanted since that first night. You completed me like nothing and no one else ever has.” I took his face in my hands. “I love you, Daemon. I have for a long time.”

  The tension drained from his face, and his body relaxed. He rarely ever smiled, but when he did, it always warmed me inside and out.

  “That’s all I needed to hear.”

  He bent his head to mine and nuzzled my neck. He licked and sucked and licked some more. I braced for the inevitable bite, but it never came.

  “What are you waiting for?”

  “What do you mean?” He continued to tease me, fueling my desire as expertly as always.

  “Don’t you have to bite me or something to change me?”

  “Oh. That.” He licked a path from the juncture of my neck and shoulder to my ear. “I did that a long time ago. The only thing needed to complete your transformation was a willing admission of love from you.”

  I blinked. “You mean that’s it? I don’t have to drink your blood or anything gross like that?”

  “You’ve been reading too many stories. Vampires aren’t made in violence, Ariel. They’re made in love.”

  “Well, when do I get my fangs?” I felt kind of foolish asking, but it seemed like an important question.

  Daemon chuckled, then grinned. “Next time you’re angry. Or aroused.”

  “Oh, Daemon.” I threw my arms around him and hugged him fiercely. “That’s so beautiful.”

  “Yeah, yeah. We’re all romantic at heart.” He let me hold him for a few moments before looking at me and smiling. “We generally don’t like for that part to get out. Would ruin our reputation.”

  We both laughed lightly. “Yes, I suppose it would.” I kissed him tenderly on the mouth, savoring the moment. I truly loved him with all my heart. “I love you, Daemon. I confess, I thought your revenge for my little game might turn out a bit differently.”

  “Well, I admit I considered letting it go -- letting you go -- but I couldn’t. I love you, Ariel. With everything that I am. You’re special to me, and revenge has never been so sweet.”

  I grinned mischievously. “Wanna do it again?”

  Marteeka Karland

  Marteeka Karland is an ordinary woman with an overactive imagination. Thank God for a computer, or tape recorder, or pen and paper… whatever she can create a story with! Her husband sometimes thinks she’s nuts and asks her every time she gets frustrated with her latest deadline, “Is it really worth all this?” And every time, she answers, “HELL YES!”

  Apart from writing, Marteeka’s alter ego has worked in the Emergency Room for more years than she’ll admit. She has a loving husband, who still chuckles when he tells a buddy exactly what that Goddess of Water T-shirt is all about, and a son who is blissfully ignorant to anything other than he’s not allowed to “push buttons” on Mommy’s computer.

  Marteeka welcomes mail at mkarland@net-power.net, and you can visit her website at http://www.marteekakarland.com.