"You have powers, but you are not evil."
"Rachael, in her past life, believed I was not a demon, not the type that serves Lucifer, or so she told me," he agreed. "Come." His gaze moved from her face to focus on where the towel rested just above her breasts. He patted the bed beside him.
Phoebe longed to go to him, to put her arms around him, but she didn't want to fool herself. Agrat was in love with her and if she allowed him to make love to her, how would she survive it? She'd had one long-term relationship, ending it when her suitor had not supported her career in art. Still, she wasn't naive; sex for her was about commitment. The way her heart hammered when she was with him was more than simple sexual attraction. Some part of her knew this warrior, but her mind had been infiltrated by dreams and she wasn't sure what was real and what only fantasy. A small kernel of logic insisted that she should keep him at bay; unfortunately, it was hard to keep her head clear when her body was behaving like a teenager's.
He raised his eyebrows. "The Healer gave me hope when I had none. She realized I could love."
Phoebe tilted her head and backed her body against the cool wall to steady herself. "I don't understand. You're a prince. Your father was a king. You must have had everything you could ever have wanted. Wealth. Power. Women."
"My father raised me to conquer and subdue all opposition. Battle was all I knew. Although I never hurt a woman or child, I had a fearsome reputation. No woman wished to mate with a demon and I would never use force. It was Rachael who showed me that there was good in me. That was worth more to me than wealth or power. After that, I met you. Because of Rachael I believed that I could be good to a woman."
He stared at her, his expression smitten and it stirred something deep inside her, a hunger to touch him and to be touched by him. Phoebe shook herself. Rachael had seen past the demon exterior, the huge, hulking warrior whose eyes glow a fearsome red. "She was right. There is good in you."
"I love you." Agrat tried to sit and his arm started to bleed with the movement.
She couldn't say the words back. "Stay there. I saw a first aid box. I'm going to get it," she said, running to the kitchen, glad of the distraction. She grabbed the red kit with the white cross, snapped the lid open to check it contained a bandage. It did. She opened the freezer and on seeing an icepack, pulled it out. Agrat might be used to savage injuries but she wasn't, although, after years of working with tools she could deal with some on a smaller scale. That arm needed bandaging. On returning to the bedroom, she put the kit on the bed, picked up her towel, wet it and sponged dried blood off his torso.
"You care for me," he said, his voice warm.
"Don't. I've had time to think. I'm not here because I want to be. Once you defeat Galaden, if he's the danger you say he is, you set me free." Standing by the side of the bed, she sponged soot from around his eyes and grit from his face, then finished by wiping over his chest. When her fingers touched his skin, heat built between her legs sending messages along to every part of her body as she tended him.
"As you wish, Princess."
She glanced at him, immediately suspicious of his complacency. If she were smart, she'd maintain a hard line and stop whatever it was developing between them.
“You are staring at me. Care to join me on the bed?” He grinned again, a smile wider this time, confident in his attraction. He knew exactly what he was doing to her.
“You lay one hand on me and I’ll slap this ice pack between your legs.” She opened the first aid kit, extracted a bandage and pulled off the plastic wrapping.
“Now that would be a waste,” he said, shifting over.
Phoebe climbed on the bed, sat next to him examining his wrist. "I can't believe it. The bone is already knitting. I can't see it anymore. Flesh and skin have grown over it. It's barely bleeding now." She took the bandage and began wrapping it around his wrist.
"I come from a great line of warriors on my mother's side. The only way to kill my kind is to strike the head from our bodies when we are in human form. All other parts grow back, better and stronger than before, even if frozen." He gave her a grin.
"Very funny." She finished bandaging the arm and snapped the butterfly clip into place so that the bandage held. Picking up the ice pack, she pressed it to his forearm where the discoloration and swelling on the skin remained, conscious of his closeness and just how much she wanted to peel off her underwear and wrap herself around him.
She glanced at him, aware of the look of pleasure on his face from being attended to.
He lifted his eyebrows and his lips raised in a half-smile that made him look kissable. He reached over and tried to pull her to him.
Phoebe slipped out of his grasp and moved away from the bed. "This thing between us. It has to stop."
"As you wish." Agrat stood, peeled off his wristband, followed by his breastplate and the rest of his clothes so that he was bare-skinned and proud before her.
She forced herself to avert her eyes. "What are you doing?"
"Getting naked."
"I can see that." He was thick and semi-hard. A treat for female eyes. Be honest about it, Phoebe, she told herself. A sensation.
"So are you." He raised his eyebrows. "That fine webbing you wear is alluring. I've never seen anything like it in my time."
"It's called a brassiere or bra and these are panties. Some say lingerie. I'm hardly naked."
"Cock tease."
"Pardon?" She put her hand to her mouth. How on earth had he come up with that filthy expression?
"Sorry. I shocked you. The cop calls them that," he said.
"Figures. Couldn't you have sucked a gentleman's brain?" She put her hands on her hips. "For your information, nearly all women wear bras and underwear these days. It's not for a man's benefit. We wear bras to support breast tissue. That cop needs a psychiatrist if he thinks it's for his sexual pleasure."
"I've made you angry."
"Your conciliatory tone is making me suspicious," she said.
“I think I need to get some heat on my shoulders. In my time, a slave poured a jug of hot water over her master." He stretched his huge body and the muscles in his shoulders and arms flexed and bunched.
"Don't even go there."
"Care to join me in the shower? Heat is good for relaxation. You seem to have developed quite a temper in this century.” He gave her that devastating smile and began opening and closing the fingers on the hand of his wounded arm, as if testing its strength.
"I've just had one." Phoebe steeled herself not to look at the superb, naked man standing in front of her, or at his huge cock, but she failed miserably. A surge of lust consumed her, so that her nipples formed tight rosebuds under her bra. She wanted him to touch her. She was so wet she could push him back on the bed, slide right on top of him and take in every inch. Why couldn’t she stop thinking about having sex with him? It was like he had an erotic power over her.
He walked over to her and put his arm around her. “Don't fight what we have. You were torn from me by Galaden. I will not let that happen again while I live. This is our chance to be together for your lifetime.”
“Even if we were lovers in the past, it can’t be for now.”
He frowned as the force of her words hit him. "I've waited three thousand years for you. I couldn’t take my eyes off you when I first saw you. I still can’t."
"I don't want to fall in love with you," she said. "It’s hopeless. It can’t lead anywhere.”
“Why not?” he asked, his light mood vanishing in a flash, his tone a growl. He rolled his shoulder and flexed his wounded arm, shaking the hand up and down. If it gave him pain, he didn't show it.
She straightened her back. “Because it doesn’t matter how attracted I am to you right now. I’ve thought a lot about what I want out of life. I want marriage and babies and you can’t give that to me.”
His eyes narrowed and flared. “I vow to give you everything you want.”
“How can we raise children together? Wh
at kind of a man walks around with body armor and a weapon?”
“The kind that would protect you. You are mine,” Agrat said. He reached around, caught her by the waist and pulled her into him. He leaned over and kissed her hard.
Phoebe twisted away from his seeking lips. “Stop it.” Her hands pushed at his bare chest, a chest that was sheer rock-hard muscle, but her efforts were futile. She stopped and stared up into his eyes trying to ignore the arousal that pulsed between her legs. “I don’t want you.”
“Prove it,” he challenged her. He fisted her hair and brought his mouth down on hers again.
Agrat's look of possession set Phoebe’s heart thudding. He took both of her hands by the wrist, forced her hands behind her and pinioned her wrists. With the other hand, he pulled down the straps of her bra exposing her breasts.
He leaned downwards and licked her bare nipples.
Phoebe squirmed, trying to suppress a moan of desire. Her nipples were over-sensitized, every part of her body ached for him, and yet, she shouldn't let this go further. She struggled, trying to quell her desire, but Agrat’s hot, questing tongue aroused her until she could barely think.
“Stop fighting me, Phoebe,” he said. “I want to make love to you. I won’t be able to think straight until I do. You are everything to me.”
He moved one hand down and slid it under her panties.
“Oh…no…don’t.” Her words emerged as a whimper. Even as she said them, Phoebe knew she didn’t mean it. The wanting him, the not wanting him, was one of the hottest experiences she’d ever had.
Agrat moved his fingers up and down. His eyelids became heavy, his grip on her wrists softened as he kissed a pathway from her breasts to her throat. “Come on, Phoebe,” he said with a coaxing voice. “I want to taste you.”
Little delicate shivers of delight surged through her until she rocked her hips to the rhythm of his fingers, trapped in her helpless arousal.
When he nipped at her throat, titillating her with pain and pleasure, she raised her hips desperate for release, but Agrat’s fingers hovered just over her clitoris, teasing and tormenting her.
“I need…”
“I know what you need. Tell me you want me,” he ordered.
Hot tears formed at the edges of Phoebe’s eyes. She craved him from the depth of her raw soul, and every time she was with him she seemed to want him more. “I want you, damn you.”
He pulled off her panties, took his cock in his hand and rubbed it over the tip of her clitoris.
When the heat of it touched her she thought she was going to die and come back from heaven.”
“You need me.”
Phoebe tilted her hips forward and he rubbed his cock around the base of her sex to lubricate the head and slid it over her clitoris again. He tapped the head of his cock on her clitoris in a pulsing motion.
Phoebe groaned with pleasure. Already, little orgasmic tremors started building inside her.
He swept her into his arms, threw her on the bed, moved himself between her legs and skillfully licked her clitoris.
The change from his cock to his tongue had her writhing. Close to the edge, Phoebe spread her legs and clenched her muscles to give him access. She could feel her orgasm building, and so perhaps could Agrat, because he thrust his tongue inside of her before vibrating it over the tip of her clitoris. Phoebe came with a climax so intense that she screamed. Her body oscillated to the tune of his tongue. He pressed down on her thighs, keeping her exposed to his tongue and sucked on her until wave upon wave took her, finally leaving her spent.
Agrat’s face was wet with her juices.
He grinned roguishly but his eyes had the hungry look of a male full of raw, hot lust.
Wordless, she pulled him to her so that he balanced on his elbows, leaning over her. With expert control the thick knob of his cock pressed at her entrance. Slowly, he eased himself into her.
Phoebe trembled.
Breath still coming hot and hard from her multiple orgasms, she couldn’t speak but she opened her legs wide. She could feel his cock throbbing, stretching to accommodate him before he started to move his hips.
Phoebe gave herself over to the pleasure of him. She didn’t expect the next series of climaxes until they hit her. She wound her legs around his back, hanging on as each orgasm built on the last.
Agrat stared down at her, his gaze hot as he sank his massive length into her. He kissed her though she was fighting to regain her breath. She could smell her juices on his face and the scent served only to enhance her arousal.
He was so big that Phoebe knew she couldn’t have taken this invasion, if she hadn’t been so turned on. Helpless, she writhed and groaned calling out his name as another orgasm crashed through her.
Agrat growled as he climaxed and his eyes glowed, but Phoebe was too sated to be alarmed. Slowly, he eased himself off her, but pulled her close so that they lay connected body to body, skin to skin.
Satisfied, Phoebe didn’t know how long she lay in his arms, savoring the sheer pleasure of being there and the feel of him holding her.
She snuggled in close and studied his face. In repose, with his eyes closed, his face had softened and lost some of its angular hardness. This was not a demon. Reaching out, she stroked his cheek, feeling the texture of his skin change when she touched his bristles. He smelled like musky male sex.
Phoebe realized that she could easily get used to being close to him, but instinct told her she should get the hell out of there at the first opportunity; even so, she closed her eyes.
Agrat shifted and stretched, swung his legs off the bed and walked into the bathroom.
Phoebe pulled the comforter over herself, watching him under hooded eyelids, enjoying the sway of his shoulders and the way his muscles rippled as he moved.
"My first shower," he said.
"Wait!" Phoebe sat. "Take the bandage off."
Agrat unraveled it and flung it on the floor. He raised his arm for her to see.
Phoebe gasped. "It's completely healed."
He twisted the hand, checking the wrist movement as he did so. "I am not at my strongest. Tonight, I will pray to my liege, the Lord of Lightning to bless me with his power."
Phoebe winced at the thought. "Is that dangerous?"
"This is war, my love. I must recharge fast and take off Galaden's head while he's still weak. If Galaden is of the mind to do so, he can suck the life-force from New Yorkers until they drop on the streets like locusts. In my time, I thought the plague had struck my people, but I believe it was Galaden preparing himself to challenge me for the throne."
"People here will think it's a new virus sweeping the city."
"Exactly. Do not be fooled by his boyish appearance. Galaden is ruthless like his mother. He will strike you down to fulfill the curse. He knows the grief of losing you will destroy me," he added, his tone stern, before he stepped in the shower.
Phoebe swallowed. No man had ever loved her like Agrat did. It took her breath away. It just all seemed so crazy. Too intense. And yet, she could get used to this.
Agrat's face appeared around the doorway, his hand holding the bar of soap. "This shower is soothing. The cop was right, but I need a slave-girl to wash my back."
"I can't believe you had slaves. We pay people for their work in this time." She strolled toward him, took the soap from his proffered hand, stepped into the shower and began washing his back. The width of his shoulders, the ridged muscles down his back and the way his hips narrowed was breathtaking.
"Do you wish to be paid? I have wealth beyond measure. I know where my father's treasure lies hidden. I can grant you any fee you wish."
"You don't pay a woman for sex."
"The cop does it regularly."
She slapped his butt playfully and shook her head. "Ugh! He would. Don't you dare offer me payment for sex."
"Is that what this is?"
He turned and loomed over her in the small space of the shower and when she looked up at him,
she realized she no longer feared him. He would never hurt her. Instead of the watchful wariness, his face held a hopeful expression which was totally male. His body filled the shower cubicle sending her blood pressure up to boiling. Looking down, she could see she wasn't the only one affected by their closeness. She soaped over his chest grazing her thumbs over his flat nipples, before moving down his defined stomach.
She took his penis in her hand, enjoying the way it jerked upwards and thickened the moment she touched it. Rubbing her hands on the soap, she put it aside and savored the sensation of sliding her hands up and around his cock.
A sharp hiss left the prince's lips.
Encouraged, she cupped his ball sack, enjoying the weight of it in her hands. He was the most perfectly formed man she had ever seen and he was hers. With that thought she bent and took the head of his rod in her mouth.
Agrat gasped and grabbed her hair. "I don't expect that."
"Has no woman done this to you before?" It seemed ludicrous to ask him, but there was something about the expression on his face that told her to stop. Even so, she let her tongue snake out, the tip of it licking the underside of his penis.
"Even the experienced courtesans feared me."
"Well I don't."
"I did not prolong the experience. It gave me no happiness to use a woman even if I paid her well."
"They aren't me. I loved everything you did to me and I want to take you this way."
He leaned forward and cupped her cheeks in his big hands. Water from the shower splashed her face. "In passion, I'm told my eyes glow. It has never been my intention to terrorize women, but I saw the fear in the eyes of the females who attended me." He shook his head and averted his gaze.
Her Demon Prince (Forbidden Fantasy) Page 12