by Marks, Rena
“Is that the last time you had contact with him?”
“No. About a month later we had a phone conversation. It was…pretty nasty. He told me to get over my bitterness.”
“As if he wasn’t the one that made you bitter? Being bitter is totally normal.”
“No. Being bitter is what thrust me into the testing phase. I have to leave it behind.”
“No, baby. Emotions make you human. Being bitter is what made you human. You’ll have an emotionally stable life while Dean will always remain unhappy and unsatisfied no matter which direction he takes.”
“Then why am I being tested?”
Caleb’s expression was unreadable. “I can’t answer that. But I’m sure there’s an answer somewhere.”
Keara rubbed tiredly at her eyes. When she opened them, Caleb was staring at her. God, he was beautiful. Smooth, chocolaty eyes contrasted with dark blond hair. So ruggedly masculine, it curled her insides.
He could be hers for eternity. Worship the ground she walked on forever. Only have eyes for her.
She’d never, ever have to worry about him returning to his wife. Or meeting another woman in spite of claiming how beautiful she was. For he’d only have eyes for her.
When she had a bad day and her hair was a mess. When her horns protruded and her eyes glowed blue. He’d only have eyes for her.
If she made him.
She was going crazy. Lack of sleep was definitely getting to her. She was planning to seduce Caleb and make him fall in love with her.
It was insane. What the hell was happening to her? Was she turning evil? Was she going full demon?
“Come here, baby,” he whispered. He wrapped her in the comforting strength of his arms and tucked her head under his chin. She could feel the sweet kisses he pressed to the top of her head.
She could smell the faint cologne that marked his warm skin. Feel his loud, steady heartbeat beneath her ear. Barely feel as he quietly and easily lifted her to head into her bedroom. Pulled the covers open and gently eased her in.
Finally, there was semblance of rest when he curled next to her. Where she could breathe easily, safe in his arms. Nothing could get to her when she was wrapped up tightly.
He was gone when she awoke, but it was okay. She was a new person with a little rest in her. A rejuvenated woman who knew what she had to do.
Shower and a killer hairstyle. Perfectly seductive makeup. A quick study in the full length mirror.
She looked good tonight. The tiniest dab of perfume at her pulse points and one more sweep of the long, glossy locks that she would run over Caleb’s sensitive body later.
Red dress, high heels. Dressed to kill.
She took a deep breath to calm her nerves. It was Caleb. It’d be fine. She didn’t need to feel guilt at his forced love. She was doing it to save him, after all.
Not because she wanted him. Forever.
She thought about her conversation with the demon Natalya. She didn’t trust a word of what Natalya said about Dean. Oh, she didn’t doubt that Enishka sent Natalya after her, but Dean trading his soul for wealth and power? If that was the case, he certainly wouldn’t have returned to Annie when he had those.
No, Natalya had made it up and she’d have to tread carefully there to find out what the traitorous demon was up to. She’d have to watch to keep her from backstabbing her no matter what arrangement they’d agreed to.
She knew it was necessary to manipulate Caleb’s love, but why did she feel so damn guilty?
Because she wanted it?
She morphed into Caleb’s loft apartment and left him a note. Come find me tonight. I feel like dancing.
It didn’t take him long to find her downstairs in his own bar. The seductive red dress was a dead giveaway, as was the crowd of men dancing around her, vying for her attention.
The sway of slow, smooth hip circles caught his eye and he had no other care as he pushed easily through the crowd to her. She immediately pressed herself to him, wrapping slender arms around his neck.
“Hi,” she whispered.
“Are you being naughty?” he asked, the barest hint of jealousy in his voice.
“I’d like to be naughty,” she said with a laugh. “I was waiting for you.”
“Waiting for me, huh?” As if he couldn’t believe she was serious.
She twined her tongue with his, right there on the dance floor.
“What’s gotten into you?” he whispered.
“You, Caleb. I want you. Now,” she whispered back. “Let’s go upstairs or let’s put on a show for the bar.” She made her point by sensuously pressing her hips into his and circling slowly. “Imagine you, deep inside my warmth as I clench and unclench around you.”
There was a bulge in his pants that he couldn’t fight. That desperately wanted to be set free.
He grabbed the tiny, feminine hand in his larger one. “Let’s go.”
They could barely race upstairs fast enough. He kept stopping her on the stairs to slide his hand underneath her skirt.
To groan when he found no panties. Just warm, wet femaleness, waiting and swollen and eager.
She slowly unbuttoned the top half of his shirt and parted it wide. Right there on the deserted stairwell, halfway up.
She let her gaze linger over the magnificent chest bared before her. He was beautiful, hard muscle and tight skin. Nipples, the color of dusky cocoa.
She drew a finger over the taut abdominal lines and felt his stomach tighten. She then pressed kisses to those very lines.
That was it. She grabbed both halves of his shirt and pulled. Remaining buttons popped everywhere. They rattled down the stairs, like tiny echoes, all the way down. She yanked the offending garment off broad shoulders. Leaning forward, she captured a nipple between her lips and nibbled lightly.
Her fingers trailed the spiral of hair down to his waistband. Further down, to feel the enormous bulge through his jeans. He groaned when she pressed lightly against the rough fabric to feel how ready he was.
He was just as ready as she.
He pulled her up the rest of the stairs, leaving his buttons scattered on the steps.
By the time he locked his front door behind him, she was gone. However, a trail of clothing led to his bedroom. Like a man half crazed, he burst into his own room to see her lying naked on his bed.
On his bed.
Warm, sweet woman. With thighs spread and fingers touching her own sensitive flesh. Giving him a show.
He stood at the edge of the bed, just watching. But when she glanced at his cock, he was the one to roughly yank the snap on his jeans so she could push them down his hips. Then she was on her knees, kissing his hipbones and letting the softness of her hair bathe his erection.
With her hands on his thighs, she began to kiss his testicles. Small, gentle kisses and then sweet jabbing licks with her tongue. Soon she licked every spot of his ball sac but ignored his hot penis.
“God, that feels good,” he whispered.
He grasped the back of her hair and turned her head directly to his throbbing cock.
Her laughter was musical. She gave one small lick to capture the sweet pre-cum that glistened on the tip of its smooth head. “Is this what you want?”
He groaned.
“I think so.”
She took his whole throbbing head into her mouth and sucked the delicate sweetness of it. It was swollen and pulsed as she held it in the warm recesses of her mouth.
“Keara, baby,” he muttered. She slid her lips down the side of his cock, wetting it thoroughly, up and down.
“My turn again,” he commanded, and pulled her up alongside him. He bent his head to hers to kiss her deeply, then twisted away. “Up on all fours.”
Keara turned over and rose, shaking her ass in the air. She spread her legs slightly just to give him a teaser.
He slid fingers over her swollen slit, then parted the slick flesh to look at the pinkness inside.
“Sweet,” he told her. “Like th
is?”
His finger curled into her.
“Ooh,” she moaned softly. “I do like it.”
His finger slowed to the slightest movement deep within her. She thrust her hips harder at him, trying to force his fingers to move deeper, go faster, do something.
He chuckled under his breath.
“More,” she insisted.
“You want my cock instead?” While he spoke, he grabbed a condom and slid it on.
His words and movements sent a rush of heat to gather in her pussy, to fill her up with liquid slickness. And then the thick head of his cock rubbed up against her. Parted her sensitive nether lips intimately. And slid in the barest half inch.
She thrust her hips backward and forced him another inch. He buried his cock head into her warm wetness, but then pulled back again.
“Are you going to give it to me or what?”
He chuckled. “I am. Patience, love. If you hold still, I’ll give you what you want.”
“I promise,” she moaned. Ready to do anything he asked.
He gripped her hips in his hands to hold her steady. And slid in slowly, all the way to the hilt.
She felt like a velvet glove, gripping his cock. Hot and wet and sucking at his tender flesh. Pulling him in and holding him tight while he fought to slowly inch out.
It was a struggle between her body and his. She was grasping and gripping, he was trying to withdraw. They worked against each other and it was so deliciously wonderful.
Her breathing was slow and ragged. Just like his.
And when her cunt began to quiver, she started to struggle against the hands that held her hips still.
“Harder,” she moaned. “I’m starting to come.”
He reached around and pulled on her clit. He slammed into her, hard, over and over, a quick beating rhythm. She exploded, clenching his cock with her inner muscles.
“Keara,” he groaned.
Geez, it wasn’t supposed to happen like this. She was supposed to be driving him wild, not the other way around. Selfish woman, concentrate. He’s supposed to love you. You have to make him love you.
She was supposed to think about how much she wanted him to desire her. Not how much she desired him.
She turned over and slid down to where he was still on his knees. She bent her head and gave a delicate flick of her tongue on the purple head of his cock. And tasted their combined fluids.
His and hers.
Concentrated on the feelings he made her feel. The emotions she alone could give him. Felt her eyes glow.
The joy, the happiness.
His and hers.
Let him know as she sank his stiffened flesh deep into her mouth that this was what she wanted most in the world. The combination of them.
The lust. The passion. The want. The need.
His and hers.
He began to rock his hips. Slowly, like he just couldn’t help himself. He slid wetly from her mouth with a groan as she tempted and teased. Groaned louder when she sucked him back in and made him hers with the passion that she would only admit to at this moment.
“I’m too close, Keara.”
She sucked harder, gripped his cock deeper into the wetness of her mouth.
“Baby, I mean it.” Desperation tinged his voice.
Still, she refused to let him pull away as she gripped his muscular butt with her hands and held him against her.
She felt it when his climax exploded. Felt it roll upward from his balls and out into her mouth. So unlike the power sucking she often did.
His cock spurted his release into her throat and she swallowed the essence of Caleb. The pure, human sweetness of him.
“Baby,” he gasped as he pulled out and collapsed on the bed.
So this was a blow job. A real one. Her first one.
He was still hard and she crawled up alongside his muscular body. The most perfect body in the whole world, all dimensions included. She straddled him and slid his wet and still hard penis slowly into her sheath.
He looked up questioningly.
“Shh,” she whispered and began to leisurely rotate her hips on him. Then she leaned over and sucked at the tender skin of his neck, marking him as hers. Fought the inner rage as she tried to control both halves of her personality.
She had to concentrate. Force his love.
Harder and harder she rocked as his cock refused to soften. Their heartbeats raced and their breaths came in quick, heated pants.
She felt the demon coming to life inside her, trying to take over.
He pumped his hips into her, pressing so deep she gasped at each thrust.
This time when the explosion hit, it was simultaneous with his.
She was powerless against it. She had no strength left.
“Oh my God,” Caleb groaned, his eyes looking into hers before they rolled back in his head as he lost consciousness.
Missing the heavy wet tears that cut trails down her cheeks. Dripping slowly with heavy wet plops onto his still chest.
When all was said and done, she had been unable to control the demon.
For she’d stolen his soul.
Chapter Eight
The Challenge of Liberation
No one was more aware than Caleb that Keara would need some personal space. In the meantime, he had his own work to do. He entered the most popular of his rival bars and sat up at the counter.
“Bored with your own place?” asked Alan, the owner, as he slid him a drink.
“Just scoping out the competition,” Caleb responded with a grin. “What are you doing working the bar?”
Alan shrugged. “Good help’s hard to find. I’m covering for my bartender’s maternity leave.”
It was convenient that Alan had been in the thick of things for a while. He’d be just the one to answer a pertinent question. “So you got any interesting new faces? Particularly female?”
“A blonde that’s been hanging out a bit. Attractive. Something strange about her, though I can’t put a finger on it. She should be coming in soon.”
“Thanks.”
He’d wait. Because it should be worth it. It wasn’t long before that same blonde found him, moved in next to him and sat down. Moved in with a purpose. Exactly like Keara had been months ago.
The blonde never bothered to wait for him to notice her. Yet she halted at his next words. “Missing your horns.”
Natalya angled her head. “Keara warn you already?”
“She didn’t need to. I can spot you a mile away.”
“Then you sought me, human. Big mistake. I’m your worst nightmare.”
* * * * *
She had just sat down with her salad when the chair opposite her table was pulled out and someone sat down.
“Keara.”
“Dean! What the hell are you doing here?”
He looked exactly the same as he always did. Soft blue eyes, angelic blond hair. The tiniest dimple near his sensuous lips.
And yet there was something missing.
“Baby doll, I miss you. Bad. I-I had to see you. Talk to you. Tell you I’ve never stopped loving you.”
“You left me, Dean. Remember? Six months ago. You chose another woman over me.”
“No, my love. I chose not to damage my kids, but you know what it’s like with Annie and me. I finally realized, it’s pointless to try to stay together for the sake of the children, even the one we just adopted. She’ll never change. Especially when I’m so in love with you. That kind of love only comes along once in a lifetime. Who am I to throw such a precious gift away?”
“It’s too late. Go back to Annie and your family.”
“No, don’t do this. Don’t make the same mistake I did and toss our perfect love aside.”
“Perfect love, Dean? You tossed that aside, remember?”
“I’m rectifying it, Keara. You and I, we were meant to be together. Always. Soul mates.” He tried to reach for her hand but she yanked it from his grasp.