Duncan’s Descent: Ethereal Foes series

by Marie Harte

  She spit her beer out and coughed, choking for a good ten seconds. Her eyes watered and Duncan fought a smile as he cleaned up the already messed table of spilled ale.

  “What?” He gave her an innocent smile. “I love cats.”

  Sapphira wisely remained silent, and Duncan humored her by describing some of the lower realm, more to whet her appetite than to assuage her curiosity.

  “The Abyss, what we call home, is a beautiful place. I know your kind and those here would call it hell, a barren place of fear and torturous hardship, but that’s what makes it fun.” He chuckled. “Honestly, it’s dark. Warm, not as hot as the dragons’ catacombs, but it’s much like the summer months in Philly, though not as humid.

  “We simulate the Ordinary with a large, black sun in a blood red sky. Sometimes as our sun sets, we see streaks of red and purple, much like what the sun looks like when it sets over the ocean in this plane.”

  “You’ve been to the ocean too?”

  “Sheltered, hmm?” He shook his head. “They really have you on a short leash, don’t they?” At her flush, he continued. “Our sky is actually the bottom of the Ordinary’s rock and dirt, and as much as you angels like to claim your place in the heavenly realm, we’re actually much closer to humans than you ever will be. You’re too high to see things as humans do.”

  “I’m not arguing with you there.”

  Interesting. Was he sensing bitterness in her tone? How best to sow the seeds of discontent? Tearing his gaze from her slim throat and the fluttering pulse that beat there, he continued, planting the vision of his home in all its raw glory. James liked to accuse him of possessing the soul of a poet, a literal possession, at that.

  “We have little vegetation, but our grounds are covered in gray and brown rocks strewn with purple and blue veins, minerals deposited long ago. Rivers of warm springs flow through the land, and in some places, where it’s not as congested, you can see for miles. Farmers gather mana for use through the lower realm, and if you’ve never seen it, raw magic is utterly magnificent.” He stared into her fascination with likeminded intensity, drawn to her more at this moment than he had been to anyone else in as long as he could remember. “Dark, powerful, and so incredibly beautiful it hurts to look at it.”

  She blinked and quickly turned away from the passion in his gaze. “Ah, maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to come here first.” Glancing down, she seemed to notice she’d finished her second beer already. To Duncan’s amusement, she looked none the worse for wear. His angel, apparently, could drink a mean game.

  “Another?” Before she could protest, Duncan waved the lone waitress to their table. She stumbled all over herself to help him, and he had her return with four more beers, on the house. After the waitress left, he donned a put-upon expression. “Sapphira, I’m not done drinking yet. I’d like another.” He nodded to Sapphira to finish hers. “Drink while we talk. It’ll make my presence that much easier to bear,” he added caustically.

  “Good point.” Sapphira started on another, and Duncan hid a smirk. If this kept up, she’d be the fastest seduction he’d ever made. And despite the poor challenge she presented, his hunger deepened at thoughts of taking such a ripe, sensual female.

  “Now tell me more about Shepherd. He’s on the fence about his Decision, right? So what’s heaven’s angle?”

  As she told him what Uriel had explained to her when she’d disappeared while Duncan had been changing, he lost the train of conversation as he studied her. Such earnest intentions. She truly appeared to believe in commanding the souls they’d been sent to find. Yet the spark of darkness, the mischief Duncan could feel bubbling just under her skin warmed him.

  And damned if he didn’t find her heinously attractive. Heinous, he thought, was too good a word for it. Duncan had lost count of all the women he’d slept with in his short four hundred years. He’d had all manners of race, size and shape, and had no real preferences for any particular color. Gender, however, mattered. Unlike James, Duncan preferred females. His brother…the book hadn’t yet been written, but it wouldn’t surprise Duncan to find James sharing sex with a man in his future.

  Sapphira, however, was as far from a man as a woman might be. Her darker skin had a richness, a vibrancy that made him think of home. And though he loved females in all shapes and sizes, preferably ones who liked sex without so much love and devotion attached, he’d always been drawn to a full, womanly shape. Though tall and slender in some places, in others Sapphira kicked with curves. She had full breasts that would fill his palms, he was sure. He’d mentally cupped them a dozen times since seeing her. And that ass… He finished his beer and downed half of another one.

  That ass would feel right as he held her down and fucked her again and again. He could too easily imagine riding her, channeling into that sweet pussy before taking her in the ass, where no one ever had before. She had most likely had sex, but he doubted her partners had been very creative. Duncan snorted. Angels were incredibly boring. In his eternity of a stay in the upper realm, he’d received blowjobs and taken a few angels missionary style. But nothing more creative than coming over a pair of tits.

  Sapphira, now, she’d be an inventive lover. She’d swallow him whole with those full lips, taking him deep in the back of her throat. And when he finished coming, he’d pull her around on her hands and knees, spread her wide, and shove his dick into her ass, easing through her tight tissue with steady pressure until she gave him her all.

  “Why are you looking at me like that?” Sapphira asked unsteadily, the glimmer of blurred annoyance in her gaze a sign from the dark powers, surely.

  “We stopped here for you.” Duncan snapped his fingers and dropped the wad of cash that suddenly appeared on the table, a thank you to his hell-bent waitress. “Now I need a stop before we collar Shepherd for your team. Humor me, angel.” He grinned at her irritation. “I’ll try to be quick.” The first time.

  “Oh, all right. As long as you promise not to mention this little side trip.” She stood without wavering and preceded him out the back door. He wondered if he’d made a mistake about her sobriety. Then she turned and gave him a sloppy smile. “I did it for you, to show you I can take whatever you have to dish out. I’m not one of them, not really.” She glared up at the sky. “I’m so much more than that.”

  Thanking Lucifer for his good fortune, Duncan caught Sapphira in his arms and turned her against the only clean part of the wall he could see.

  “How much more, angel? Show me.” He fused his mouth to hers, stealing any protest. But a second after inhaling her breath, he was lost to her touch. And in moments nothing mattered but getting as close to his angel as humanly, or demonly, possible.

  Sapphira’s brain felt as if it would explode. One minute they’d been sitting in the bar listening to grand descriptions of the Abyss, a place she’d always wanted to see, the next she’d been standing and trying valiantly not to trip over her own two feet on the way out of the bar. But with Duncan’s mouth over hers, all thoughts but how to get closer to him faded.

  Good Lord, but the demon could kiss! He used his entire mouth, his lips and tongue enticing, his teeth nipping and pulling on her lip with drugging effectiveness. She didn’t feel herself curl her leg around his, didn’t remember thrusting her hands around his head and through his hair, holding him close. Nor did she recall telling him he could slide his huge, rough hand under her shirt to unclip her bra between her breasts, take one in hand and…

  “Oh my God.” She groaned against his mouth as he rolled one nipple between his fingers. “Duncan.”

  “Mmm.” He deepened the kiss until he heard whistles coming from the back door of the bar. Pulling his head from hers, he snarled at the interference. “Take it inside.”

  Sapphira felt an unholy push from Duncan tingle against her before the door slammed shut. The rest of the alley, from the dead-end to their right to the open street on their left, remained empty and dark. And honestly, when he returned his mouth to hers, sh
e was too far gone to care.

  “Ever come against a wall in public?” Duncan muttered as he kissed his way down her throat. He began toying with her other breast, giving it the same lush attention he’d given the first. “How about had your nipples clamped? Or had a plug shoved up your ass to make room for something bigger?”

  He was breathing hard, and his excitement stirred hers to unimaginable heights. As he stared down at her with blazing blue eyes so bright they lit the alleyway, a spark of reality returned. Sapphira was succumbing to temptation. Something she’d promised herself not to do, not after being so good for so long…

  “Fucking stay with me,” he rasped angrily, kissing her hard enough to make her see stars. His roughness made her panties uncomfortably wet. “Have you?”

  “Have I what?” What had he said? She squirmed when he unsnapped her jeans and shoved his hand down her pants. When he encountered the naughty thong she’d been warned never to wear by her Ethereal guardians, he swore in several languages and closed his eyes.

  He opened them again to reveal pitch black orbs of darkness. Sapphira thought she’d never seen a more enticing sight. “Have you ever been fucked, Sapphira?”

  “Yes,” she hissed as he thrust his tongue in her ear and nipped her earlobe, while his hand teased the thin patch of curls on her mons. Closer, dammit. Move your finger down just a little more. She squirmed again, and he pinched her nipple hard.

  “You’re going to need a firm hand.” He sounded delighted by the fact, but before she could reply, he sealed his mouth to hers. As his tongue sought hers, his finger finally slid past her throbbing clitoris into the slick folds, rubbing with such delicious friction. She moaned as he continued to press his finger deeper, moving through her sex toward her very womb.

  Uncaring in the slightest where they were or who might see, Sapphira gave herself up to the carnal pleasure of his touch. Whimpering and shuddering, she let him fondle her, groaning when he added another finger, stretching her wider.

  The few humans she’d had sex with hadn’t been very large, and overall the experience had left her wanting while giving them ecstasy. A pity she hadn’t felt nearly the same. Yet, as Duncan touched her, she thought the big “O” might very well be in reach. And his touch felt so much better than hers ever did.

  “Give it to me,” he ordered, rubbing her clit with his clever thumb while fucking her with his fingers. With his other hand he continued to plump her breasts, fondling and squeezing to the point of pain before backing off, making the contrasting pleasure from his fingers over her clit impossible to deny. “Come, here, now,” Duncan rasped and glanced down into her eyes.

  She could barely keep them open, so attuned to his touch, to the hard erection pressing against her belly and the magic fingers dancing over her body, that she could only nod. When he twisted his fingers again and rammed particularly hard up into her, she jolted into climax.

  Shutting her eyes as bliss overtook her, she felt his ravaging kiss as he let go of her breast and jerked his hand between them. He had one hand still in her, and she couldn’t think until she heard him unzip his pants. He yanked her hand from his neck and shoved it down his jeans. The minute her hand gripped his thick, naked cock, he groaned and leaned his forehead against hers.

  “Make me come.”

  Sapphira suddenly realized she was in an alley with Duncan, being finger-fucked outside a biker bar…with three men watching from the window in the back! Dammit, that was Jack staring at her!

  “But—”

  “But nothing. Be an angel and give them a show.” His voice was both rough and deep, yet he didn’t make her do more than hold him as he waited. And Sapphira felt that part of her she tried so hard to suppress breaking free. Do it. Give him the pleasure he gave you. An angel should be giving, unselfish. So give the poor demon what he needs, and sacrifice your embarrassment if you have to. But honestly, are you more embarrassed to have others watching, or disgusted with yourself that you’re so incredibly aroused by your audience and the bad seed getting you off?

  Trying in vain to ignore the voice of temptation, she toppled over the edge with Duncan’s unavoidable carnality. He took her mouth again, and as his warm breath and hard lips sparked lust anew in hers, she tightened her grip around his cock and began pumping him.

  “That’s it. Over the slit, push the wetness all over,” he groaned and rocked into her hand. “Let them all wish it was them standing here with their cocks in your hand. With your tits pressed so tightly against them.”

  He leaned into her chest, and she felt her nipples beading against her thin T-shirt and against his heat. When Duncan withdrew his fingers from between her legs, she glanced up to see him suck his fingers clean. And the utter sensuality in the act had her increasing her pace over his shaft. As his breathing sped and his limbs began to tremble, he kept his sultry gaze glued to hers.

  Sapphira was caught by his spellbinding beauty. Such maleness captured in the hungry gaze staring down at her. Pure honesty, untainted by flattery, righteous thoughts and conceit, mesmerized her with need.

  And as she reached in with her other hand to cup his balls while she pumped him, she felt his groan rumble through her body straight to her cynical heart.

  “Yes, harder,” he grunted and flexed his hips, riding her hands with a mastery she wanted to feel between her thighs. “Demon’s kiss, I’m coming, yes.”

  He cursed and shot, and she felt the warmth of his seed over her hands in great jets. His orgasm lasted much longer than the humans she’d lain with, and to her surprise, he remained hard even when he seemed fully spent.

  After a few moments, she tried to release him, only to have Duncan still her hands by keeping them there with his own.

  “Not yet,” he said hoarsely, and in his gaze she saw confusion mired with stark desire. “I’m not done with you yet.”

  A rush of heat filled her cheeks. “But you just, ah…”

  “Came? I know.” He smiled, a strained grin that had sex written all over it. The agony of pleasure still darkened his face, and his eyes blazed with inhuman brightness. A nearby groan distracted both of them, and Duncan muttered under his breath and released her.

  She let go of him, not reluctantly, she told herself, slowly, so as not to unnerve him. The other men she’d been with had been very sensitive after climax. Duncan, apparently, was not. He stepped away from her and refastened his jeans with a grimace. Knowing how he felt, she fixed her bra and jeans as well, wishing she had a chance to clean up. But she refused to step foot back in that bar again after her recent performance.

  Feeling stupid, she had nowhere to look but at him. At the demon she’d been secretly tasked by Uriel to sway back to heaven. By the purity of her soul. Not with sex. And she began to comprehend what she’d just done. “Oh no. Tell me I did not just have sex in public.” With a demon whose spirit I’m supposed to save.

  Duncan sighed. “No. You didn’t.”

  Confused, she stared up at him, unable to keep herself from committing this very picture to memory. He looked like a living, breathing sex god. And that very analogy was one guaranteed to get her thrown off the mountain far below. By Jacob’s ladder, what was happening to her?

  “You didn’t have sex with me, angel.” The yet remained unsaid, but there all the same. “A hand-job does not qualify as intercourse.” The glimmer of heat in Duncan’s eyes should have warned her to be wary.

  “We have to get back. This is wrong. So incredibly wrong.” But so good, I want nothing more than to do it again. Crap. “I’ll confess to Uriel. Maybe he can handle you.” Because I don’t see a star in heaven’s chance of pushing you into Ascension, her conscience finally showed up to add. Not when all I want to do is lie down and spread my legs for a demon too tempting for his own good. Shit. You’re in it deep now, Sapphira.

  “No. Not Uriel, not again. It’s just you and me, Sapphira.” A hard look entered Duncan’s gaze. “I’m still hungry. But you’re right, this isn’t the time. We have
souls to sway. Trust me when I say we don’t want to fail.”

  “You’re afraid of Uriel?” She somehow found the courage to taunt him while seeking her own strength to keep from falling over on knees as steady as jelly.

  “Uriel? Fuck no.” Duncan managed a laugh, nodded at the onlookers in the window, and dragged her several feet into the darker recesses of the alley, toward the dead end. “If I screw this up, I’ll answer to Asael, my father. And so, sweetheart, will you. And let me tell you, if you’re not afraid of my father, you aren’t as smart as you look.”

  He took a finger and closed her slack-jawed mouth. She stared up at him, bewildered at this serious side to him she’d yet to see. There was much more to Duncan Sinclair than met the surface. He’d broken all her hard and fast rules about sex and demons. He’d violated the angels’ number one protocol about keeping a low profile in public, demon sex and glowing eyes notwithstanding. And he’d gone from basking in mind-numbing pleasure to business in less time than it took to zip up. Unnerving wasn’t the half of it.

  “Now let’s go sway Nathan Shepherd so I can fuck you properly. Without an audience.”

  She blinked. “What? Duncan, I just said—”

  He muttered under his breath and grabbed her by the arm. “Now we do it my way.”

  She caught her breath as they disappeared, her last thought as they teleported, I am way over my head on this one...

  And loving it.

  The imp on her shoulder just had to have the last damned word.

  Chapter Three

  The trip to Nathan Shepherd’s took longer than it had to, mostly because Duncan needed to calm himself before convincing some indecisive jackass to go into the light. He glanced over his shoulder at Sapphira, not surprised to see her scowling at him. Good. She didn’t like him taking charge. Well, he didn’t like her grabbing hold of his sense and turning him inside out. And how the hell had she done that, anyway? She’d been the one over-imbibing. She’d been the one seduced…so how was it he’d lost his fucking mind, along with his seed, at the soft touch of her small hands?