by Eva Chase
All at once, I was sure that I didn’t want to be alone right now. I wanted to be with someone who cared about my happiness.
He bobbed his head to press a light kiss to my forehead, his fingers grazing the side of my face with a trace of heat, and then he was swiveling on his heel to go. I caught his hand before he’d taken more than one step. He shot me a questioning look.
“There are a few things I wouldn’t mind doing in that bed before I get to the resting part,” I said.
Ruse offered me a crooked smile. “A generous offer, but there’s no need. After our last interlude, I should be in tip-top shape for at least a few weeks.”
Oh. Had the other night’s encounter really been about nothing more than feeding for him? Embarrassment constricted my chest.
It’d been ridiculous for me to think anything else, hadn’t it? He was an incubus—that was what sex meant to him. Just because he’d had fun setting up the impromptu dance party didn’t mean he was interested in more intimate activities for nothing but the pleasure of it.
I dropped his hand, pulling back into the doorway. “Of course. If you don’t want to—”
Something flickered in Ruse’s eyes as he took in my expression, and then he was reaching for me, his hand teasing along my arm to grasp my elbow. His head bowed close to mine again. My pulse stuttered with desire I couldn’t suppress, but maybe I didn’t have to.
“I can’t think of any way I’d rather spend my time more than sparking a different sort of fire with you, Miss Blaze,” he said, his voice dropping low. “The only thing I don’t want is for you to feel obligated.”
All right then. I found myself grinning at him, maybe a little goofily, but really, can you blame me? It was about time I got a little good news.
I rested my hand on his firm chest. “You promised me the best sex I’ve ever had, and you delivered, and we haven’t even really had sex yet. I promise you my proposition has exactly zilch to do with any sense of obligation.”
“In that case…” He nudged me backward into the room, kicking the door shut behind us.
In the cramped space next to the bed, he cupped my face and dipped his to claim a proper kiss. The press of his mouth, hot and determined yet tender, woke up every inch of my body.
It’d been a long, hazardous night, but I definitely wasn’t too tired to welcome this escape.
And I didn’t want this time to be all about me. I intended to get the full incubus experience—well, emotional meddling aside.
As I kissed him back, my fingers sped down the front of his shirt to unbutton it. When the muscular planes were bared, I couldn’t resist dropping my head to kiss him just below his shoulder, drinking in his bittersweet cocoa scent. Yum.
Ruse trailed his fingers over my hair. As soon as I eased back, he tilted my chin up to recapture my mouth. As his tongue twined with mine, he found the zipper at the back of my dress and slid it downward torturously slowly.
With each inch, his thumb stroked over the naked skin he’d uncovered. By the time he’d reached the bottom, a hair’s breadth from my ass, my body was swaying toward his, wanting more: more closeness, more heat, more of that tantalizing touch.
“This looked exquisite on you,” he murmured as the fabric slid down my thighs to pool at my feet, “but I think I like it even better off.”
“I think I’d like everything you’re wearing off,” I informed him, tugging at his shirt.
He chuckled and shed it in a second. When he tipped me back on the bed, I reached for the fly of his slacks, and tonight he didn’t stop me. He obviously understood that I was in this for the entire act now.
And he was clearly into it too. The length I encountered through the fabric of his underthings—an incubus wearing briefs; who’d have thought?—was rigidly erect. A pleased thrum emanated from Ruse’s throat as I teased my fingers over it. He bent closer to jerk the cup of my bra down with his teeth, and gods above, I’d never seen anything hotter.
He sucked my nipple into his mouth, and for a few minutes, the pleasure he was conjuring in my breasts distracted me from my own mission. My head leaned back onto the pillow, a gasp slipping out of me. As he slicked his tongue around one stiffening peak and then tested his teeth against it, I dug my fingers into his hair, finding his horns.
Ruse rumbled again, low in his chest. He tossed my bra aside and turned his attentions to my other breast.
Every swivel of his tongue sent me soaring higher, but I didn’t lose sight of my goals completely. When he traced his hand down my side to remove my panties, I sat up to make sure the rest of his clothes came off too. He drew back to slide out of his slacks and briefs, and then he knelt before me in all his leanly carved glory. His cock jutted so solidly aloft, I had the urge to down it like a shot at the bar.
One of the benefits of sex with the shadowkind—one I’d never needed to consider before—was that they didn’t produce children. They simply sprang into being rather than being born, and there was no record of any human involvement resulting in pregnancy on either side. Which was a very good thing, because I hadn’t exactly thought to pack condoms.
The mouth-watering visage I was taking in wasn’t his real glory, though. This was only the human appearance he put on to blend in. I hauled my gaze from the parts I hoped to have penetrating me soon to his face.
“Like what you see?” he said with one of those typical smirks.
I ran my fingers down his chest, following the grooves of his muscles, until I reached his cock. I couldn’t resist giving the silky skin that covered the rigid length an eager stroke, but I held his gaze.
“I do,” I said. “But I’d like even more to see you as you really are.”
Ruse tensed—just slightly, but his nudity made it hard to hide. He opened his mouth with an intake of breath that already sounded like a protest.
Before he could speak, I held up my hand to stop him. “I’ve seen a hell of a lot more than I’d bet any woman you’ve been with before had. If they could handle it while high on your seductive vibes, I’m pretty sure I can while sober. And I am totally sober now to make that call.” Any lingering effects of the drug had dissipated during my frantic bike ride.
Ruse peered at me for a long moment. “Why?” he said finally.
I shrugged. “You can see me exactly as I am. It’ll feel more equal if I can say the same about you. Besides, it’ll make a much better story if I can say I got it on with a fully-fledged incubus rather than just a dude with horns.” I knocked his hip with my knee playfully.
Something about my explanation appeared to make up his mind. His smile returned. “All right,” he said. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
He closed his eyes, and a shimmer ran over his body. Ran over it—and stayed, a hazy golden glow emanating from his skin as if he were part firefly. His little horns lengthened, curving in a full loop and pointing toward the ceiling again. His cock curved too, his pubic bone protruding farther out at the same time. When he opened his eyes again, the pupils had dilated, but the irises had expanded as well, nearly filling the whites. They gleamed a gold as bright as if the brilliant summer sun were reflecting off them.
“Well?” he said, with a new smoky quality to his voice that seemed to wind around me in its own embrace.
Sweet shiny sugar-puffs, a story for the ages indeed. Had he really thought I’d run scared from this?
I raised my hand to touch his glowing cheek. “You were handsome before. Now you’re fucking magnificent.”
His smile stretched wider. He bowed his head to kiss me hard, the tingling heat of his lips spreading into mine and all through my body. “Let’s get on with the fucking then,” he murmured against my mouth.
He gave me a gentle shove to lie down, joining me as I did. Everywhere our skin touched, little shocks of bliss quivered into me. He wasn’t even inside me yet, and the rush of my release was already building to a peak.
We kissed again and again, until the scorching pleasure of it blurred my thoughts together. His han
d dipped between my legs, his thumb flicking over my clit, and just like that, I did come, with a shaky moan that had me thanking all that was good in the world for the existence of incubi and their soundproofing magic.
The sound had hardly finished leaving my lips when Ruse delved his fingers right inside me. With a few quick pulses, I was coming again on the heels of my first orgasm, my body trembling with the combined force. “Oh my God,” I gasped out.
Ruse stole another kiss with a chuckle that vibrated into me. “I’d prefer you give me the credit.”
I let out a laugh that turned into another moan as he rubbed the head of his cock over my slit and plunged inside. My fingers dug into his shoulders as if the ecstasy might wash me away if I didn’t hold on tight. The next sound that leaked out of me was embarrassingly close to a whine of need.
“I’ve got you,” Ruse murmured in the smoky tone that set me even more ablaze. He rocked deeper into me, and I discovered exactly what was so special about his official incubus equipment. The curve of his cock veered perfectly to press the hot button of bliss deep inside me. With each thrust, the bulge of his pubic bone stroked my clit. Pulses of a pleasure I’d never even imagined raced through me, faster and more searing by the moment.
I arched up to meet him, wanting to pay him back as well as I could with my more limited human means. Remembering how he’d reacted to the caressing of his horns before, I lifted my hands to his head. My fingers tangled in his hair and then found the enlarged points with their graceful spiral.
When I squeezed them, Ruse groaned and drove into me even harder. Another orgasm crashed through me, sending me flying and then dragging me down into depths like a blissful undertow. And once I started coming, I couldn’t stop. Each thrust of his cock into me tossed me up and under all over again with just enough time to gasp for air. My entire existence became a gale of pleasure.
Through the storm of ecstasy, I had just enough awareness to realize that the incubus hadn’t joined me, not with his own release. I managed to raise my jellified legs to his waist, welcoming him even deeper as I gripped one horn and ran my fingernails down the muscles of his back.
“Come,” I mumbled. “Come with me.”
Ruse’s next groan shuddered as it fell from his lips. His mouth crashed into mine. With a roll of his hips, bliss tossed me up and over once more. A flood of tingling heat filled me as he followed.
As he eased to a stop over me, I couldn’t help thinking that everything considered, this hadn’t been such a bad night after all.
18
Ruse
There was nothing quite as gorgeous as a woman basking in the afterglow of ecstasy—an ecstasy I’d brought her to. Possibly it was even more satisfying seeing that release in Sorsha than any woman before. She was the first I’d taken to those heights while she was fully aware of what I was, and she’d welcomed everything I could offer all the same.
She sprawled out on the bed, her cheeks flushed with a rosy hue that might have been even more lovely than the waves of her red hair spread across the pillow. Her chest rose and fell where my arm lay just below her breasts. I stroked my fingers over her side just for the pleasure of touching that warm, smooth skin once more. Warm and smooth—and layered with toned muscle underneath. I appreciated a woman who could be both soft and strong. Her fiery sweet scent lingered in my nose, equally delicious.
My own skin still hummed with the aftermath of my orgasm. I’d drawn the glow back into it, returning to my more subtle mortal guise, since it wasn’t wise for any of us to get used to walking around in this realm au naturel. I’d worn these trappings of humanity often enough that this false body felt more comfortable than my own in mortal-side air, other than when I was employing my powers.
I had enjoyed my release quite a lot. Watching Sorsha give herself over so completely to the act, hearing her beg me to join her just as completely, knowing she’d wanted this interlude as much as I had—I didn’t think I’d ever come so hard.
But the moment was over, and I really ought to leave her to the rest her mortal body would be craving after the extended, chaotic night. I kissed one of those rosy cheeks and moved to push myself upright.
As I shifted on the bed, Sorsha’s hand came up to touch my arm, as if she were beckoning me to stay. My gaze shot to her face, a quiver of uncertainty prickling through me—and before I had a chance to catch myself, I’d peeked into her mind.
The emotions at the forefront were easy to read once I let myself: a pleasantly drowsy haze and a longing to keep my warmth next to her as she drifted off.
I jerked my awareness back, a twinge fluttering through my chest. She really did get some sort of contentment from my presence even now that the act I was most skilled at was over. That knowledge sparked a little more contentment in me than I was comfortable with. And as I relaxed back down next to her, the twinge sharpened into a pang of guilt.
I’d promised her I wouldn’t violate the privacy of her mind. She’d made it very clear that this one term was non-negotiable, no matter what physical intimacies we shared. If she knew I’d broken my word…
My first instinct—and, really, my second and third as well—was to dismiss that secret into the shadows where she never needed to find out. Why tell her something that would upset her if I didn’t need to? But when she stirred and rolled onto her side, catching my gaze with a dreamy little smile, the pang stabbed too deeply for me to ignore.
She’d been genuine and open with me. She’d cared enough to let me feed despite her reservations—offered me more trust than apparently she should have. Hell, she’d literally rescued me from captivity and the slow starvation I’d faced there.
I was man enough to give her the respect she’d earned, wasn’t I? Even if the consequences wouldn’t work to my favor.
“Sorsha,” I said carefully. “I—just now—I read your emotions. Only for a moment, only a few.”
Before I could go on, she jerked back from me and sat up. Her hair spilled over her shoulders like rivulets of flame—or blood. From the look on her face, I might as well have cut her. “What?”
I sat up too, groping for an acceptable explanation. “I didn’t intend to—it’s second nature at this point, and I slipped, and as soon as I realized I pulled back. It won’t happen again.”
Her arms crossed over her chest, hiding the lovely slopes of her breasts. Her voice came out taut. “If you did it without meaning to, how can you be sure you won’t accidentally trip into my head again?”
A reasonable question. “I’ll be more on guard now. I’ll—”
“No.” She scooted farther away on the bed and motioned to the door. Her expression had tightened, shutting me out as fully as that brooch of hers once had. “I don’t want to hear it. Just get out. I—” Her hand fumbled across the bedcovers for a second before clenching. Realizing she’d left the brooch and its protections behind in her burning apartment like she had so much else? Somehow that small gesture wrenched me more than anything before had.
I was already springing off the bed as I’d been planning to in the beginning, if more hastily than before. With a blink and an ounce of concentration, the clothes I’d shed in our encounter vanished from their disarray around the room and reassembled themselves on my body. I risked glancing at Sorsha one more time. “I’m sorry.”
“Just go,” she said, her voice firm but hollow, as if my confession had drained away all the pleasure I’d given her.
I winced, the guilt expanding like a vise around my lungs, but I went.
When the bedroom door was shut between her and me, I paused in the hall to catch my breath. Nicely done. Very smooth. I’d better hope I never needed her for more sustenance, because she sure as hell wasn’t getting it on with me ever again.
She might not ever share another dance with me or laugh at my banter or, fuck, even smile at me.
None of those things should have mattered. I didn’t require any of them to survive. As I slunk to the kitchen, I reminded myself of that
over and over until I was almost convinced. Almost. Well, a little chatter with Snap might cheer me up.
It wasn’t our naïve devourer I found in the kitchen, though, but Thorn, back from his patrol and looking about as grim as usual, which I assumed meant it was good news.
I dropped into the chair across from him at the stubby Formica island that protruded from the wall. “No sign of this sword-star crew?”
“Not so far,” he said in a tone that suggested he expected they’d appear to wreak more havoc on our existence any minute now. You could hand this man a glass that was full nearly to the brim, and he’d still mutter about the smidge it was empty.
A little china bowl filled with hard candies sat in the middle of the island. I plucked one up and then simply turned it between my fingers, the cellophane crinkling. Physical food didn’t do anything for me except perhaps offer a pleasant flavor, and I wasn’t sure I was in the mood to actually stick anything in my mouth. Not after I’d already stuck my foot in there so badly with the woman down the hall.
Thorn glanced past me as if he knew where my thoughts had headed. His fathomless gaze came back to rest on my face.
Not for the first time, I wished I knew what in the realms he was. He’d never shown his full form where I could see it, and his presence in the shadows didn’t offer any qualities distinctive enough for me to match him to other beings I’d encountered. The powers I knew of—his strength and alertness to aggression—could have belonged to any number of kind.
I’d never met a devourer before Snap, only heard rumors of them. Quite possibly Thorn was some rare creature that few of us ever encountered as well. Which meant I had no clue what other powers he might be hiding behind that scarred exterior.
Omen had wanted the best of the best, at least from the shadowkind willing to take up his cause. He’d trusted Thorn. I trusted Omen… about as much as I trusted anyone. Better to leave it at that than to worry.
“You’ve been getting rather close with the mortal one,” Thorn said, with a tip of his head toward the hall.