They survived. Or rather, he did. That had been her one and only requirement this entire time. And maybe Aaliyah had a point. All this sacrificing, all this martyring. Would it truly be so bad if she claimed some happiness for herself? Her terms were still being met, even in that dream she’d just had. And Jaie was willing…
“I want you to love me,” Amie said.
“I already do,” Jaie replied, taking a step closer to her.
“I want to love you,” Amie said, then shook her head and huffed. “I want to show you.”
He nodded once, his expression so neutral it was almost grim. “Very well.”
Jaie walked to the edge of the pool. His eyes didn’t break from hers as he began to strip. The leather vest came off first, falling abandoned in a heap behind him. After that, his boots, yanked off in a move more reminiscent of a bratty teenage boy than a millennia-old Dominion angel. He arched an eyebrow at her smirk, then smirked himself when his hands settled upon the waistband of his trousers.
“Wait.”
Jaie did, looking at her through his eyelashes. Amie maintained eye contact as she first swam, then waded up to the edge of the pool until she stopped directly in front of him. She tangled her fingers with his to unbutton his trousers. Her nipples brushed against his torso and he hissed. She kissed the space on his chest where his heart would beat had he a pulse.
“Aminata,” he murmured as her hands tugged down his trousers. His skin was warm and surprisingly soft. It glimmered slightly, like millions of tiny stars were embedded in his skin. She’d never seen that before and she looked up at him curiously.
“I just came from the angel realm,” he explained.
“I see,” Amie said, wrapping her arms around his waist as he stepped clear of his trousers. “How was the visit?”
“Enlightening.”
“I hope that’s a good thing,” Amie whispered.
She was suddenly airborne and her legs wrapped around his lean waist. “Good or bad, it was a necessary ‘thing.’”
Jaie walked back into the water with her, his hand stroking over the short, soft tight curls of her head. He let her lean back over his arm and his mouth immediately found the new scar that had just bloomed. With a gentle lick and a moan, the lesion disappeared. Amie sighed.
“Yes,” Jaie whispered. “Tell me with your body. Show me how much you love me.”
Amie bucked into him at his words, feeling the heavy weight of his length drag against her nubbin. She gasped, remembering those times in the Pacific when he’d bring her to completion so she could relax and sleep. She felt tighter than a bowstring and quivered with the need for release.
Squeezing her legs around Jaie’s waist, Amie ran her palms along his chest, feeling his muscles clench and relax underneath her touch. Jaie closed his own eyes and dipped his head back as if relishing the contact, then she drew her arms around his neck to leverage her body up against him. She kissed his throat, feeling his neck bob as he swallowed.
“Don’t leave me,” she whispered, closing her eyes and resting her forehead in the crook of his neck. She could withstand the darkness if he remained by her side.
CHAPTER EIGHT
It seemed Micah had had the right of it.
Holding Aminata in his arms this way, with the knowledge they’d consummate everything that had been growing between them, humbled Jaie most profoundly. He could feel her warm breath against his bare skin, the manifestation of the miracle of Creation. She’d been so miserable these past months, even before her purported demise, that he could abide it no longer.
Especially when she’d go to such lengths to stay away from him.
Whatever anger he’d felt about her betrayal had paled against the real fear she’d keep herself from him for as long as she actually lived. And though the life span of a normal wasn’t long in comparison to him, the life span of a djinni, even one with as much normal ancestry as she, probably rivaled his.
Her Sire was older than he was, after all.
“I will not leave you as long as it is within my power to stay,” he vowed against her temple. He had to smile when she pulled back and glowered at him.
“That’s not what I said,” she told him.
“That is all I can promise,” he replied, touching her jaw with a knuckle. “You know this.”
Aminata shook her head before bending her head to kiss said knuckle. “You could wish for so many things.”
“I wish for this night with you,” he said without pause.
“Just this night?” she asked, but he could feel her body start to heat with the beginnings of a wish being granted.
“I want everything with you,” he said. “You would let me wish for that too?”
Aminata hid her face again and squeezed his neck. “I want that too.”
“Just for the night,” Jaie bargained. “I want to pretend Creation is not hanging in the balance for one night, and I want to pretend with you.”
“This is so irresponsible of us,” Aminata whispered. “And your Steward? What would he say?”
“They said even the Creator had a day of rest.”
“After everything was done,” Aminata reminded him.
“We are done for the day,” Jaie told her, palming her big cheeks in his hands. Her black eyes were almost luminous in the face of his light and he couldn’t do anything but kiss them each. Her breath shuddered out of her and she grasped his wrists with careful, yet strong hands.
“Make the wish,” she whispered. “Make it official.”
Their foreheads touched. “I wish for everything with you for however long I am able to have it.”
She glowed like the stars in the angel realm. Jaie didn’t let her go, taking her warmth and her pain as she granted his dearest wish. Her legs tightened around him and she began gliding her cleft against his hardness. She was wet in a way that had nothing to do with the water in which they stood and she pressed a light kiss to his jaw.
“I’m nervous,” she admitted once the glow faded. Her entire body lit with gold, iridescent lesions. “And I hurt.”
“Shh,” he whispered, cupping the water in his hand and pouring it along her back. She hissed and trembled. “I know what to do, remember?”
It was no hardship to kiss every inch of her body. Her sable skin was soft despite the hardness of her scars. They faded beneath his lips, her body writhing in the pleasure-pain of healing. After her skin was blemish-free, Jaie started the kisses all over again, this time to only bring her joy.
“You will tell me what you would like, my dearest one,” Jaie said, his lips on her abundant middle. He tongued her navel. “This is my first time, too, remember? But I have some ideas.” He remembered her reactions during their times in the Pacific Ocean. The sight of Aminata reaching her pleasure would rank among the most beautiful visions he’d ever seen in his long-lived life.
Aminata laughed, her eyes crinkling. They reminded him of sun rays. “Aren’t we a pair?”
“Perfectly matched,” he insisted, kissing one corner of her eyes, then the other. Aminata pulled his head down to press her mouth to his, then grabbed his hips to bring their bodies flush against each other.
“I’d dream of you,” Aminata admitted. “And we’d do…things…I’d feel guilty afterward.”
“Show me,” he said, irritated he had to pull back, but he’d take in the sight of her as they did this. “How would I touch you?”
Her hand started at her chest between her breasts. His hands stroked her sternum, then he became distracted by the pebbled points of her onyx nipples. She was rich in tone like the earth, a garden of goodness and hope for others. Grunting quietly, Jaie bent his head to kiss a breast, preening inside at the whimper that caught in Aminata’s throat. Wanting to hear the sound again, he snuck out his tongue to suckle her.
“Jaie,” she whispered, sinking her fingers into his hair. Her nipples tightened more as his other hand pinched and stroked her free nipple. The scent of frankincense, myrrh, and her
infused his lungs.
“Where else would I touch you,” He asked even as his mouth was already drifting down her belly. There were stretch marks that lingered despite his earlier kisses and he followed the patterns they created with his lips. He found himself at her flank right above the curve of her bottom. He used his teeth to tug the flesh there.
Her moan had him harder than his scepter.
“You like when I use my teeth?”
“I like when you use anything that’s part of you,” Aminata said raggedly. Jaie smiled.
“That is good to hear,” he promised, smoothing away the injury he’d caused with his tongue only to create another one. She was scalding between her thighs and like a beacon her heat drew his hand there. He caressed her, loved touching her, loved the way her body quaked and quivered. Her eyelids fluttered. Her breath was a staccato out her lungs. What he had not yet done before was taste her from the source.
He’d do that now.
Sinking to his knees, the water line hitting him just below his collarbone, Jaie draped Aminata’s legs over his shoulders and inhaled her musky scent. His nose touched the cream that lingered on her plush inner thighs right before his tongue lapped it up. Aminata shuddered and he smiled. She was absolutely delicious.
“You taste better than amreeta,” he said and groaned, moving his mouth to her nether lips. “You are everything to me.”
“Jaie!”
He didn’t speak, too busy learning more of her taste and texture. She was so soft, so wet. No wonder so many people risked it all to experience this. Using his fingers on her was amazing, but being this close and intimate had Jaie going mad. He felt drugged. Aminata was a narcotic from which he’d never want to withdraw.
And, bless her, his Aminata wasn’t shy about directing him. She used tender hands to guide him where she desired attention, pushed him closer when she wanted more pressure, eased her hips back when she wanted less. Sometimes he’d ignore her, especially when she gave those adorable hiccupping breaths and those squeals in the back of her throat. She sang so sweetly for him, the aria of their love.
Jaie flattened his tongue and gave her a broad stroke, the softness of her lips such that he had to suck them. His mouth watered from the taste of her: tart, bitter, but unerringly sweet nonetheless. The flavors of her would never leave his tongue.
Thank the Creator.
“Jaie!” Aminata whined, her hands dancing along the curves of his ears in a way that made him shudder and growl underneath his breath. The vibrations he caused made her quake and squeal.
He smiled.
“My dearest one,” Jaie said placidly, pulling back to lick her juices from his lips. “I need you to come now.” The erection he’d been ignoring refused to be so any longer. He wrapped his hand around his length and began to stroke. His palm was a little rough and hot despite the water, but the sensation wasn’t good enough. He needed her.
Aminata groaned and keened but Jaie nodded his insistence, pressing a light kiss to her nub. “I need to taste you completely. I need to feel you clench around my tongue like you do around my fingers. Like you will around my penis.”
Her inner muscles jumped and he smiled again. Close.
Jaie sucked her clitoris hard in his mouth, pushing it from side to side with his tongue. She squealed again and sobbed, her thighs becoming so tight around his head he went deaf for a moment. When she relaxed her hold, he slipped two fingers inside her. She was sloppy wet.
Close.
He thrust his fingers with measured, powerful glides in and out of her. Aminata thrashed around, splashing water everywhere, but Jaie didn’t mind the drenching.
That was his aim, after all.
Jaie crooked his fingers inside her as if in a summons. He was, in a way; her pleasure was most requested as soon as possible, her first release of numerous for the rest of the night. When it finally arrived, Jaie groaned and lapped her up, his own climax bursting forth from him with a power that took him off balance. He cradled her against him, watching her breaths coming in and out of her roughly, her generous breasts jostling with every inhalation and exhalation. He slid his hands from inside her and licked the taste from his fingers, closing his eyes to savor it all the more. When he opened them, Aminata’s were open too.
She smiled, adjusting herself so her legs were back around his waist. Her eyes never leaving his, she reached underneath the water and grasped his softened penis.
“Aminata,” he whispered, barely stifling a moan. Unlike his hand, hers was smooth and warm. It didn’t take her long to stroke him to hardness, then she guided the head of him against her swollen cleft.
“One last chance,” Aminata said. “Are you sure?”
He lifted her and closed his eyes at the feel of him breaching her soft place. “I am sure, my dearest,” Jaie said, entering her slowly and deeply until he bottomed out. After a quick hitch of discomfort from Aminata, they both sighed in relief.
Aminata wiggled around him and huffed out a laugh, her forehead resting on his. “I can’t believe we’re actually doing this!”
Jaie smiled and kissed her nose, drawing his hips back and sinking inside again. “Believe it. Believe I love you.”
Though their coupling was earnest, it was also disjointed, rhythmless, and borderline erratic. She used him more than anything else, wrapping her arms around his head and neck as she ground herself upon him. Jaie didn’t mind, too busy watching her take every drop of her pleasure from him with her black eyes scrunched shut. He gave it willingly. He gave it completely. And as he settled his hands on her hips and helped her work them against his, Jaie was glad she couldn’t see his wings molt off his back, couldn’t hear the way the bones snapped and broke off amid the echoes of her cries, couldn’t see the light leave his body with each buck and twist she made. When she began to open her eyes, he pulled her down and kissed her hard.
She didn’t need to see the totality of this particular fall.
But she could feel it. His body grew hotter, his everything grew brighter. Horror made her jaw drop and he shook his head, cupping her jaw and bringing their noses together.
“Look at me,” Jaie ordered, now thrusting into her faster, chasing that ecstasy that by duty shouldn’t be his but would if it meant releasing her from that daemon Donas. “You said you would show me how much you love me. I will do the same.”
“Jaie—!”
He didn’t give her a chance to finish, adding a second assault of his fingers teasing and pinching the nub above where they were joined. She began to shudder and so did he, his light growing brighter and brighter until they both shouted, bursting together. And once Jaie was totally spent inside of Aminata, his light began to fade and so did his consciousness.
But not his smile.
CHAPTER NINE
The silver blood on her hands and arms didn’t register right away. Jaie’s shrieks occupied most of her mind. And yet, as he lay there unconscious, Amie could still hear the screaming.
She swallowed. Silence.
That had been she.
Wincing, Amie tugged Jaie to the lip of the pool, knowing she’d not be able to go further than that without the water helping to distribute his weight, and settled him on his stomach. The grisly sight of bone with clumps of bloody feathers jutting from his back almost made Amie retch. The normal burnished-gold hue of his skin looked flat and dull. His body twitched, and the remains of his wings left a gory, feathery trail from where they’d been to where they were. Jaie felt clammy to the touch in a way he never had before and all she could see were the whites of his eyes as they rolled into the back of his head. His light was getting fainter and fainter, a fact that made her heart drop to her feet, but it wasn’t until his smile slipped from his face that she truly began to panic.
“No…”
Amie tapped his cheeks but he gave no indication he felt her touch. Just as she was about to call his name, she heard a bark and her entire body went still.
That couldn’t be…
>
“Bot?” Amie called.
Another bark, then she heard the clink of dog tags and her dog’s heavy breathing before a furry head butted against her shoulder.
“Bot!”
A strong, wet lick up her cheek wiped away some of the tears she’d been shedding and Amie hugged her dog close.
“Amie!”
Twin voices called her name and her head whipped to them. She could see an emerald aura outline and a ruby one. She started crying harder when she heard Aaliyah whistle low under her breath while Melody gasped.
“Help me,” Amie croaked. “I need to get him on the bed.”
Even with assistance, there was no way the women were making it to the bed with Jaie’s shuddering hulk. They dropped him unceremoniously onto the long chaise lounge. Jaie didn’t even grunt. She found her robe, grimacing at how wet it was, but slipped it on anyway. A gust of warm air hit her, almost knocking her off her feet; but when she regained her balance, the robe was dry.
“Thanks,” Amie mumbled.
“Yeah,” Aaliyah acknowledged. “What the entire fuck happened here?”
“Right! We heard the screams and—”
Two beats of silence. Two sharp gasps.
“HOLY SHIT!”
“There’s a term for it.”
Amie glowered, first at Melody’s expletive then at Aaliyah’s dry retort. “Y’all!” she complained and even went as far as to stamp her foot.
“So, you two finally did it,” Aaliyah said. “This isn’t what happened with Micah when he fell…”
Amie shook her head, kneeling next to the chaise to check Jaie as best she could. His stomach rose and fell with his breaths—a very good sign. His muscles sank and sprung back from where she poked him, but he smelled too much like blood.
“Jesus. Look at that!”
“What?” Amie demanded. She could no longer see details, Jaie’s brightness having faded before they’d gotten him settled on the chaise lounge. The only thing she could discern was Jaie’s aura, and it wasn’t as vibrantly silvery-purple as it should be.
The Sight Page 6