by T. F. Walsh
The light spray of the shower kicked in. She propped herself on her elbows and strained to peek over the back of the sofa. The bathroom door was slightly ajar, and bright light spilled across the wooden floorboards. Sinking into the couch, the sound of gushing water stirred memories of his naked body, his fluid muscles, the V-shape tapering in at his hips, and lower. A tingling wormed its way from her toes, up her inner thighs and into her belly. If she spied on him, she could officially call herself the biggest pervert in the world. Inhaling, she got another noseful of the pungent stench clinging to her skin.
She pulled herself upright, waiting for her spinning head to settle, and the pain across her skull eased off. At times like this, she embraced her demon side. Quick healing wasn’t an ability to balk at, especially in her line of work. She’d be right in no time.
Unable to stand the sulfur smell for another second, Cary quickened her pace toward the bathroom, hoping to sneak in to wash her face, at least.
At the door, she peered through the gap, holding her breath. Spotting only the basin and a towel rack, she huffed. Right, the shower was on the other side of the room. She could use the basin without Levi even noticing her enter.
She vetoed her delusional dreams of ever owning a bathtub with golden antique feet. Where did anyone buy such a thing anyway? Maybe he bathed in his riches. She padded quietly toward the basin. Hot steam folded around her, filling her nostrils. Splashing sounds lured her attention toward the shower that could easily fit two or three people. Through the fogged glass walls, Levi’s silhouette was enveloped by the stream, his head low. Forget him. Look away.
She turned on the faucet. The water felt cool against her face. She scrubbed herself with soap, including her arms up to her elbows and washed it off. A quick towel down and she sniffed her arm. Damn. Still there. It would be best if she called a cab and left with some dignity intact and no more suspicion from Levi. Terrific idea.
A few careful steps, and she stood outside the bathroom. On the opposite wall to Levi’s bed, she spotted a vial of what she guessed was holy water on a nightstand. She hurried over and seized it, stuffing it into her back pocket, along with his lighter. Both would come in handy for her test with the mirror. Dread crawled up to the back of her knees at the idea, but better she found out what was going on with her than unknowingly walking into a demon’s trap.
“Cary.” Levi called out, his tone silky, caressing the length of her arms. “Got a moment?”
She flinched, turning toward the bathroom as heat smothered her cheeks.
“Um… yes?”
Chapter 9
Standing outside his bathroom door, Cary contemplated running. At least it meant she wouldn't have to face Levi or any accusations of being a perv.
Curse you, Cary. Why did you respond?
“Can I get your help?” he asked. His muffled words sounded calm, not accusing. Like it was no big deal that she would be around his shower and he’d be naked… Okay, maybe he hadn’t seen her. Oh wait, was he asking her to help him in the shower? Dirty rat. “Is that another of your lame ploys to get me into your bed?” she called out to him.
“Grab the tweezers from the bathroom cabinet for me. Got a couple of splinters in my back.”
Okay, Levi genuinely needed her help. She pushed the door open and walked back into the bathroom. The heat clung to her skin and her nipples tightened under her T-shirt. Steam fogged up everything. She hurried to the cabinet near the basin and seized the tweezers from the second shelf, next to lots of bandages. “You planning on going as a mummy at Halloween?”
“Don’t do Halloween.”
Right. Cary raised her eyebrows and mouthed weirdo before she padded toward the shower with her head turned away. Her gaze settled on the wall where the brown towels were folded perfectly on the rail. Anywhere but on Levi.
She could do this. Why not? It wasn’t as if she hadn’t seen him naked before. A perfect specimen of a man, but still. Nothing new to see. And under no circumstance would she fall prey to his drool-worthy backside. Or his front side for that matter. Nope. She was definitely not going to drool. She quickly wiped the sides of her mouth just to make sure she wasn’t.
Steam poured out from the open shower door like smoke as if it were the fiery gates of Hell. She flapped her shirt with her free hand but it did nothing to cool her down.
She stuck her hand with the tweezers through the open glass door, mist everywhere. “If you got out of the shower, put some pants on, and sat on the couch, I could easily remove those splinters.”
Warm, wet fingers banded around her wrist. Her head jerked toward him, her eyes flying open.
Levi’s long hair was slicked off his face. His eyes were the warm shade of brandy and seemed to strip her bare of her defenses. “The steam will help get them out.”
The softness in his gaze weakened her resolve. Water sluiced down his face, over his lips, dripping from his chin onto a sculptured body that called to her. An inferno swarmed her insides, and her gaze shot upward toward his face.
Her attention dipped to the ink on his chest, just above his heart, reminding her of a shield. The protective rune reduced the chance of demons possessing him. It didn’t eliminate the possibility. Nothing did. But the rune was like the rhythm method—it wouldn’t save him but it might help his chances—even if just a bit.
The rounded Rune was on the outside with the flame in the middle.
“It’s below my right shoulder.” His mouth curled upward with a wicked expression. She shut her mouth tight or she’d be asking him to help her undress. “The splinters,” he prompted.
Words tumbled free without her consent. “Sure… Um… I mean, yes, let’s do this.”
He released her hand and turned away from her, but his wet hair covered the skin below his shoulders.
“You always had long hair?” She pushed the wet strands aside and spotted two large splinters. He was telling the truth.
“My dad rarely got his hair cut, and I guess I picked up his habit.”
“Hmh.” Her gaze fell to his butt. Two dimples sat above his firm ass and while her first reaction would have her reach out, grope him, and lick the beads of water off his skin, she strangled the tweezers in her hand to keep from reaching for them. Why was she torturing herself?
Studying the corded muscles in his back, she zeroed in on the two shards of wood again. She placed a hand flat between his shoulder blades, and scorching heat radiated from him.
Focus. Despite her shaky hand, she plucked them out. Blood bubbled from the wounds.
“You’re done.” She only made it one quick step away from the shower before Levi turned around.
“Thanks.”
Silence floated between them with nothing but the sound of running water. He wrapped an arm around her waist, drawing her against his wet body. The moisture soaked through her clothes. Her mind emptied as his hardness pressed against her, and her libido did somersaults. He withdrew the tweezers from her clutched hand and set them down somewhere behind her.
“I wish you’d returned my calls,” he said.
Her response jammed somewhere between her toes and ears, along with any rational thinking. Unless of course, someone considered ripping their clothes off to jump a naked hunk reasonable behavior. Cary had lost focus on anything but Levi’s body mashed against hers. His warm breath on her face. The tightness of his grip around her hips. She felt tiny in his arms. Nothing mattered right then. Not the demons, not her secret, not even making sense of why Levi hugged her when she’d made it clear a relationship between them couldn’t work.
Beneath his gaze, she melted. He offered her a temporary fairytale escape. With his hand threading through her hair, drawing her closer, every nerve in her body stood on end. She raised herself on tippy toes and tilted her head back to reach his mouth. He leaned forward, his soft lips grazing hers. Fire shot through her body.
“I saw you come in the bathroom before, spying on me.”
“What!?”
Nice trick.
His kisses swept a path down her chin and neck.
Giddiness swarmed in the pit of her belly, diving south, fast. The right thing was to walk away, but she couldn’t, not while he was kissing his way toward Cary’s ear and sucked on an earlobe. Then he faced her, their foreheads touching, breaths merging as one. “Can I have my way with you?”
When he talked in that low, lusty voice, she would agree to anything. “Yes.”
He rewarded her with a sly grin, and her legs became rubber. Leaning closer, his lips found hers again, but this time his passion grew intense, promising her the domineering man she’d craved for months.
Tugging at her top, he lifted it over her head and tossed it away. Cary slipped off her bra, while Levi unbuttoned her jeans. In one movement, he crouched and tugged her jeans and panties down together.
His inhales quickened. “You shaved for me. Perfect.”
“You wish.” Cary stepped out of her clothes, throwing them behind her, and accepted Levi’s arm as he drew her into the shower. The rushing water invited her into its warmth. It pelted against her, softening her muscles. She had an itch to scratch, and Levi’s magic fingers would do the trick. Despite her mind screaming to leave, she banished any logic from the shower room.
She washed the hair off her face, enjoying the tickling sensation gliding down her body. Levi stood there, staring with the expression of a hungry wolf about to lunge on prey.
“You going to just stare?” she asked.
“Touch yourself,” he ordered, his voice soft.
She chewed on her lower lip. Sure, why not? She lifted her shaky hands, skimming the sides of her breasts and cupping them, though they over-spilled in her hands. She glanced up, adoring Levi’s parted lips, his eyes frozen on her fingers as she tugged on her nipples. And hell, his erection was stiff and ready to go. Yep, he was as huge as she remembered.
“I want you to scream my name when you come,” he said, as if he was giving her a choice.
Wiggling her hips and making sure her boobs bounced, she arched her back. “Then you better step up.”
Levi moved past her and toward the door to the shower. Glancing over his shoulder, he said, “Did I say stop?”
Swallowing past her dry throat, her fingers slid down the curve of her body, while her gaze followed Levi across the room to the cabinet near the basin. When he re-emerged in the shower, she spotted black fabric handcuffs attached to suction cups in his hand. And a condom was already strapped on. Oh, he was ready, and so was Cary.
“Before you ask, because you will,” he said. “I’ve never used these cuffs on any other girl. When I saw them in a store, I thought of you. Had to get them.” Water streamed down his chest as he stepped closer.
“Handcuffs remind you of me?” Funny, Levi had bought her a present. Okay, so it was a sexual gift, but it meant she was on his mind.
“It’s what I intended to do to you that reminded me of you. So, you up for this, my little hellcat?” He dangled the cuffs beneath the shower, sprinkling water at her face.
She nodded and offered her wrists, her nipples tightening into buds.
“Good girl. Love how your body reacts to me.” Up close, he gently wrapped her wrists in the Velcro handcuffs and placed a peck in the center of each palm. “I promise to be gentle.”
“Maybe I don’t want gentle.”
He chuckled. “When you tell me to stop, I will.”
Gripping her hips, he guided her backward and against the tiled wall alongside the shower faucets, a foot away from the glass wall on her right.
His thumbs massaged her hipbone, and she couldn’t stop the silky heat burning south.
He lifted her arms above her head, positioned them shoulder width apart, and pressed the suction cups to the wall. “You’re not going anywhere unless I release you.”
Nope. She didn’t plan on going anywhere.
Levi lowered his head to her breasts. He winked as his tongue flicked out to lick her nipple. A groan escaped her throat.
His mouth wrapped around a breast, sucking.
Her world spun with euphoric pleasure. Her panting breaths became harder as his hands slipped across her butt, kneading her cheeks, prying them apart.
Her pelvis rocked back and forth, eager for him to reach lower.
Latching onto her other nipple, he closed his eyes and sucked hard. His touch slid between her butt cheeks, stroking, sliding to her burning hot spot. Rubbing her sleek length, his fingers quickened.
Excitement escalated. Cary cried in pleasure as the build up inside her was ready to pop.
“You’re killing me.” Her words were barely a whisper as she rode the wave of ecstasy squeezing her loins.
Releasing her and leaving red marks around her nipple, he planted pecks along the valley of her breasts as he kissed her with a barrage of passion. With his hands around her hips, he lifted her slightly off her feet.
“Hug me with those sinful legs.”
He had her pinned between him and the wall. Exactly how she liked it.
A quick adjustment of his hips, and his cock teased her entrance. He broke their kiss and edged her away from the wall so his hands could cup her butt. “God, you drive me insane when you’re so hot and wet for me.” Before she could respond, he drove himself into her, filling her fully.
Her scream flooded the bathroom as her insides clenched and quivered. Every inch of her ached to wrap her arms around him but couldn’t. His rhythm rocked into her, slamming into her tightness. She tilted her pelvis to meet each slap, each mounting thrust. Quicker, his hammering continued. Their breaths were in unison, climbing, and her insides quivered. His fingers gripped her flesh as he drove her onto him faster, harder. His guttural moans heightened her pleasure to another level.
“Don’t you dare come,” he groaned.
He pounded into her and an orgasm brought her to the edge of insanity. Levi’s gaze rolled upward, his mouth parted, breathing deeply.
“I can’t hold it back.” She gasped for air, writhing beneath him.
He halted, his cock buried fully inside her. Her walls constricted around him, and a shiver ripped up her spine. Her voice hitched. “Fuck—”
Levi slapped her backside. She groaned for more.
He withdrew.
A whimper slipped past her lips.
Unraveling her legs from around him and lowering them to the floor, he knelt before her. He lifted one leg and placed it over a shoulder, then did the same with the other, taking her weight. His face buried between her thighs, dipping and hungrily licking. His lips closed around her nub and she couldn’t get enough of the way he fervently sucked her.
She trembled as an electric sensation intensified in her groin. With his tongue inside her, she moaned.
Breaking his hold, his voice deep, he said, “Come for me now, babe,” and her orgasm exploded, her body responding to Levi’s command. She shuddered as she screamed and warmth spread through every cell in her body. Levi continued to lap at her mercilessly as her orgasm faded and she grew uncomfortably sensitive. When his tongue tickled her, she wiggled her hips away from him.
He set her legs back down.
“That was… Fuck… Incredible.” Her words were breathy.
He smiled—calmly cool and surprisingly confident for someone on his knees. “Can’t get enough of tasting you,” he said.
Slouched against the wall, Cary’s cheeks burned. She realized that she blushed from that comment, but not when his face was jammed between her thighs. She had to reassess her priorities.
Water from the shower cascaded down Levi’s gorgeous shoulders, his stomach, while he looked up at her with those eyes. She met his glance, then dipped her gaze to his massive… and cleared her throat. “Unhook me an
d I’ll help you out with that,” she offered.
“Not yet, though I do need to turn you around.” He winked and her insides fluttered.
She’d happily take him again and again. Handcuffed to his shower wall, exposed to Levi, she stared at an erection that had her name all over it. She didn’t give a care in the world about her cambion problem, a concern she threw out of her mind. Right now, all she craved was to be fucked by the most delicious guy in the world and forget herself.
She put on a sultry, low tone. “Anything for you.”
Levi stepped closer, his eyes grinning. “You might have just ruined me for any other girl.”
Chapter 10
Unable to sleep for over an hour, Levi rolled out of bed in slow motion. Behind him, Cary slept on her belly with one arm stretched out across the mattress and the sheets scrunched into a mess across her sexy ass. The idea of climbing back in alongside her and taking her warm body into his arms made his palms tingle.
His pulse spiked each time their paths crossed. It suited him fine to be her pleasure machine if that was all she wanted. He just wished his stomach wouldn’t knot up each time Cary came to mind. The way she never backed down from a fight to protect innocents, the passion of wiping the streets clean of demons, and the softness in her voice whenever she said his name. She could ask him to do anything, and he’d probably jump. Cary wasn’t the kind of girl to push, so he’d do this softly and hope she felt safe enough around him to ask for help. He needed another way to prod her without scaring her away. But was more than a fling with Cary possible? He had no idea how to broach the topic, fearing she’d bolt for good.
He shoved his dilemma to the farthest regions of his brain, unprepared to deal with not having his feelings reciprocated. Hell, his thoughts sounded like a fucking teenager, so what would she think of him?
The moonlight streamed through the window and threw a silvery blue hue across Cary’s sharp shoulder blades, trailing down the dip of her lower back. He had no idea what kind of spell she’d cast over him. Her sensual scent still lingered in his nostrils. He stretched his arms into the air. She was incredible, and God, he could have sex with her every day for the rest of his life.