Carnal (Her Dark Desires #1)

by Lola Taylor

THE D.P.I. QUESTIONED US for hours at the sup hospital. The fact it was Detective Asshole didn’t help.

  We stood in a hospital room. They wanted to keep me overnight for monitoring, but they believed I could go in the morning.

  After going over what happened again to the last detail, along with my activities since the bunker incident, I felt drained. I could tell Hector had had about enough too. From the way he was glaring at Agent Rhodes, I wouldn’t be surprised if he spontaneously combusted.

  At my wit’s end, I finally decided to turn the tables on Rhodes. “What about you?” I demanded, crossing my arms. “Now that we somewhat know what we’re dealing with, what are you going to do to apprehend him?”

  Rhodes stared at me, caught off guard, then cleared his throat. “I assure you, Ms. Sanders, we’re doing everything we can to-”

  Pulling a Delilah, I morphed into a tiger and pounced on Rhodes, pinning him to the floor. He yelped, startled as I loomed over him, snarling. “Bullshit!” I said, my voice sounding odd since it was coming from an animal. “Don’t toy with me, suit. As you can see, I’m not the same succubus.”

  A gun cocked from beside me. “Release him right now, Sanders, or I’ll be forced to shoot,” his partner, Harris, said.

  I had no problem with her. She wasn’t the one driving me crazy. Not wanting to end up with a bullet in my head, I transformed back into my clothed human body and fixed my glare on Rhodes. Thank God I was a succubus and not a regular shape-shifter, otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to shift back to a fully clothed human form.

  He sputtered, getting to his feet and whirling on me, red-faced. “I should throw your ass in jail for assaulting an officer!”

  “You wouldn’t have the balls!” I shot back.

  “Sally,” Hector ground out.

  Composing myself, I opted to glare at Rhodes, teeth gritted. “So how do you catch and destroy a demon?”

  “You can’t destroy them,” Harris piped up. She lowered her gun but didn’t put it away. “You can only contain them.”

  Well, that was a problem. “How?”

  “You need a White Witch or an angel, preferably both. Oh, and a holy object. Good luck finding those.”

  One person came to mind. “Angela,” I said. “She’s a Nephilim. Would part angel work?”

  Harris shrugged. “Don’t know. A halfling’s never tried. Demons are immensely powerful, which is why a full-blooded Witch and angel are needed. It usually takes two to contain a demon.”

  “But Damien isn’t a full demon,” Hector interjected.

  Harris looked thoughtful. “Actually, he is.”

  “What?” I snapped. “How? His signature keeps shifting!”

  “A demon’s usually does,” Rhodes cut in dryly, as if I was stupid for not realizing this myself. “Since they have to inhabit a vessel to stay on this plane, their signatures shift because they technically have more than one signature. If they inhabit a were, you’ll pick up on both a demon and a were signature. Or if they inhabit a hybrid, they’ll have three signatures.”

  I wanted to stomp my foot, angry at myself for my lack of knowledge about demons. They were somewhat of an urban legend around us lesser paranormals, as were angels. They rarely came to our plane, the mortal realm.

  “How do you know Damien is a full demon?” I insisted, hoping they were wrong.

  “Because his daddy told me as much,” Rhodes said.

  Hector and I exchanged glances. “Daddy?” I asked.

  “Yeah. Prescott.”

  My jaw dropped and Hector swore. “That son of a bitch,” he said under his breath, starting for the door. “I’m going to pound his face-”

  “Actually, he’s on his way to the prison as we speak. Turned himself in.”

  “What?” Hector and I both spat at once.

  “As I said, he’s claiming to be the perpetrator’s father. He also said his son made a threat against his life, and he figured he’d be safer in a jail cell than anywhere else. It’s all the same to me. He would have ended up there eventually, having raised a demon. Plus, there’s the murder charge, considering he sacrificed his wife to do it.”

  I gaped at them in outrage. “That’s sick! Why on earth would he do something like that?”

  “We intend to find that out,” Rhodes said gravely. “But like I said, demons need a vessel to inhabit in order to exist on this plane. Newborn demons are especially susceptible, needing a host immediately upon being summoned.”

  “No wonder it’s against the law,” I muttered.

  “It’s not just that,” Harris said. “Demons are unnatural. They can’t be born the way humans or other sups can; rather, they have to be summoned and inserted into a host. That’s where Prescott’s wife came in. A sacrifice can double as a vessel, remaining alive only as long as the demon is possessing it.” He sighed. “Aside from all that, summoning a demon is a federal offense in the Underworld.”

  I had nothing to say to that. “Shit.”

  “Yeah,” Rhodes said. “Shit.”

  I chewed on my lip and began pacing, feeling restless. “We can’t sit around and do nothing. How does a demon pick its victims? Why did it want me?”

  “We’re still trying to figure that out,” Harris said. “Some demons are drawn to power, others lust. Every demon has its fetish.”

  I frowned. “I want to help.”

  “Sally-” Hector started, but I cut him off.

  “It’s me he wants, right? Why don’t we use me as bait?”

  “Absolutely not,” Hector said.

  “Now, hold up there, teach,” Rhodes drawled. “She might be onto something.”

  Hector spun on him, teeth bared. “You can’t be serious! You’re willing to risk a civilian to catch a criminal! That’s your job!”

  “This is the first demon the department has had to deal with in over one hundred years!” Rhodes shot back. “We need any advantage we can get.”

  “This isn’t open for discussion,” Hector said. “This conversation’s done.”

  “Hector,” I started to protest as the agents gathered their things.

  He held up a hand. “Not now.”

  I fisted my hands at my sides and kept my mouth clamped shut.

  Agent Harris turned to me. “We’ll send some agents to help protect you. If you should need anything, here’s my number.”

  Hector snatched the card from her hand before I could, glaring at her. “Thank you, officer. Good night.”

  She caught my gaze, her expression no doubt as worried as my own, before at last leaving and shutting the door.

  I whirled on Hector. “What the hell was that?”

  “That was me trying to protect the woman I love from getting massacred by a madman,” Hector growled.

  I blinked, taken aback. “Hector-”

  He took my face in his hands and kissed me deeply, taking away every breath I tried to take. When he at last let me breathe, I was gasping and my heart was pounding.

  He rested his forehead against mine. “I could have lost you tonight. Again. I feel like I’m living my days on borrowed time, knowing any minute you could be taken from me. It scares me to death, Sally.”

  I looked in his eyes, caressing his cheeks. “I’m not going anywhere.”

  He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, as if trying to calm himself. “Then why are you volunteering to face your doom?”

  “Because I-I want to help,” I stammered, hating that I worried him. I felt so selfish. I hadn’t stopped to consider how Hector would feel if I died. “I’m tired of waiting around for him to find me, and Hector, he will find me. It’s just a question of when.”

  He started to argue, but I cut him off.

  “People are dying over me,” I said. “I can’t even begin to describe the guilt I feel.”

  Hector searched my eyes. “I understand where you’re coming from. But it’s a risk I’m not willing to take.”

  “Hector! Please, let me try!”

  “No.”
>
  “You can’t keep me in a cage! We can’t live our lives in fear of him finding us.”

  “Then we’ll find another way!”

  “How? By letting more people sacrifice their lives to protect me? I don’t think so!”

  Hector grabbed my hand and pressed it to his chest. His heart was beating hard beneath my fingertips. “I would fall to pieces if I lost you,” he said. “You’re the one I’ve been searching for my whole life. You’re like a part of me now, Sally. I love you too damn much to let you go.”

  I went silent. “You love me?”

  “Of course,” he said, stroking my hair from my face. “I should think that much was obvious.”

  “But you never said so.”

  “Then let me tell you now, again.” He cupped my face in his hands. “I love you, Sally Sanders. I am yours.”

  I rose on my tiptoes, overwhelmed with such incredible joy I could burst. “And I am yours.”

  I kissed him then, with everything I had in me. As if of their own will, my fingers began undoing his buttons as he unzipped my dress.

  Yes. Finally, this was happening. It wasn’t exactly in the location I had in mind, or the circumstances, but to hell if I was waiting a second longer to be closer to the man I loved.

  Within seconds, our clothes were on the floor. When Hector couldn’t tug my dress off, it burst into flames, melting off me. To my surprise, it tickled instead of burned, and once he had me stripped down to my underwear, he hoisted me up into his arms. I wrapped my legs around his torso, kicking my heels off as he carried me to the bed. With a flick of his wrist, the door locked, and we toppled onto the bed, never breaking our kisses.

  Rip!

  He tore my thong clear off, sending the scraps of cloth to the floor. A few seconds later, my bra followed suit. He kissed me deeply, thrusting gently, the crown of his erection brushing my wet folds, teasing them.

  I clawed at his back, his butt, trying to press him into me, but he resisted. His lips wrapped around one of my erect nipples, sucking and licking. “Hector,” I said breathlessly.

  He let up just long enough to say, “Yes?” before continuing with renewed fervor.

  “You have no idea… how long… I’ve wanted to do this,” I said between breaths.

  “Oh, love, I’ve been waiting for the day to make love to you and show you how much I care.” His mouth trailed lower, down my abdomen and over that swollen, sensitive spot begging to be touched.

  His fingers probed me as his tongue flicked out, lapping at my clit.

  I cried out then clamped my hands over my mouth to stifle the sound.

  Hector’s chest rumbled with laughter, and the sound vibrated through me, making me tingle deep within. “Don’t worry. No one can hear us. I cast a soundproofing spell. Feel free to scream my name as loudly as you want.”

  He continued licking me, faster and faster until I was clawing at the sheets and begging him to finish me. When the world exploded in a fantastic mess of stars and warmth, I lay panting against the sweat-soaked bed as he crawled on top of me. His eyes had darkened with lust, and it only made me want him more.

  I reached up and cupped his cheek. “Make love to me?” I whispered.

  He lowered himself, positioning his cock over my folds. His mouth hovered over mine, and his gaze never wavered. “That’s what I plan to do,” he whispered back, then kissed me with surprising tenderness.

  Our eyes stayed locked as we kissed, and he started to thrust. I moaned with pleasure as he first entered me, bit by bit, being careful not to stretch me too far. And oh, how I stretched. He was bigger than I thought at glimpsing him, and I knew I would have to be very loose to contain him.

  “Am I hurting you?” he asked gently, going deeper but still not deep enough.

  I shook my head. “Deeper,” I breathed.

  He pushed a little harder, and I rocked my hips with his, angling myself to take more of him in.

  He kneaded my breasts as he thrust into me, kissing me with growing passion the more urgent his thrusts became. I rocked with him, my hips meeting his as we danced to the same sensual rhythm. The tip of his cock was close to my sweetness, I could feel it. It throbbed with warmth, giving off little sparks of electricity each time he banged me.

  “You’re nice and loose now,” he said with a wicked grin, though his eyes looked troubled.

  It took a moment for me to realize why. I smiled at him. “It’s okay,” I whispered. “You won’t hurt me.”

  “Sally-”

  I put a finger to his lips. Without breaking our rhythm, I jutted upward as he was thrusting, opening myself to him fully.

  It was like a supernova went off in me. For a few breathtaking seconds, I was speechless.

  Hector groaned, both of us arching our backs, moaning and gasping at the pleasure of it. It was like sheathing himself drove Hector as wild as it did me, because he grabbed me and began pumping into me with renewed fervor. His lovemaking was rawer, more urgent.

  Given access to my core, I writhed beneath him, gasping as he made love to me. Never had I had someone hit that spot, a white-hot ball of fire that grew and grew with every push.

  I was coming undone. Everything was Hector, and I became aware of him whispering in my ear. “Sit up.”

  I obeyed, straddling him as we sat up on the bed, Hector still pumping into me. I ground my clitoris against him, masturbating as his length stroked my folds. He gently tilted me back and began sucking on my breasts, tugging and pulling and teasing with his teeth. I moaned and gasped for air, grinding harder.

  He lay me back and grabbed my legs, resting them on his shoulders while he sat up. He held my legs in position as he slowed his rhythm.

  I gasped at the sensation. It was so much sharper, each thrust delivering a jolt of pleasure all the way up my core.

  “Am I hurting you?” he rasped, eyes glued to mine.

  I shook my head. “No. I want more.”

  He increased his speed with each thrust, going deeper until he completely filled me up. I cried out, grasping at the sheets as my back arched. “Yes. Give it to me. More. Faster. Harder.”

  He obliged. Soon our bodies were soaked with sweat.

  “God, you’re so wet,” he said. “I want to taste your honey one more time before driving you home.”

  My whole body tingled with anticipation as he repositioned himself and began licking my clit.

  I screamed. “Yes. Just like that.”

  His tongue stroked my throbbing sex, sucking on it until I was dizzy with pleasure. In slow, tantalizing movements, his tongue probed deeper between my folds, driving me to madness one lick at a time.

  “Hector,” I gasped, “I’m close.”

  He immediately stopped.

  I nearly sat up. “What are you doing?” I started to ask, then gasped as he remounted me, his cock still hard as steel. He began rocking his hips against mine harder, with more urgency.

  “I want to feel you come around me,” he said, stroking my aching breasts.

  I leaned back, arching my hips up to more fully take him in. God, he was so big.

  He leaned forward, taking me in his arms and holding me. “Come for me, Sally,” he rasped, nipping at my ear. “Moan for me.”

  It wasn’t hard. I screamed his name, rocked by the most powerful orgasm I’d ever felt. The same warmth I’d felt with him at our contact was compounded. I could feel him now, like we were somehow connected. His pleasure roared through me a few seconds later as he came, thrusting a few last times and then falling on top of me.

  We lay there panting. A warm glow settled over me, lighting me from the inside out with happiness. I don’t think I’d ever been this happy.

  And it scared the hell out of me.

  Hector sat up, tucking me against him and pulling the sheet up. It was tight in the hospital bed, but the coziness worked fine for me. “Amazing,” he murmured, stroking my hair in loving moves. “I can feel your emotions.”

  So I wasn’t imagining i
t.

  “And you feel nervous and scared,” he went on. “What’s wrong?”

  “I… I’m just so happy.”

  “Isn’t that a good thing?”

  “It is, but… but the last time I was this happy, things went straight to hell the next day.”

  He kissed my forehead. “I’m not going anywhere.”

  “I know.” I snuggled into him. “But what if we get ripped apart? This here - what we’re doing, what we just did - is against the law.”

  “Damn the law. We’ll deal with it if it’s an issue.”

  His assurance was comforting, his passion, my rock. “You don’t seem surprised about us being connected. I thought only werewolves and vampires could do that.”

  “It’s called ‘mating,’” he said with a sexy smile. “And yes, while it’s most common among weres and vamps, other supernatural beings can mate. You and I are connected forever now. Once a bond is forged, it cannot be broken.”

  “Even in death?”

  “Well,” he said with gravity, “except for that.”

  I shivered, thinking about Damien. No, I refused to let that asshole ruin another moment of my probably limited time with Hector. “You never answered my question, about not being surprised we mated.”

  It felt comforting to belong to someone that wholly. Part of me had given up on finding true love, too much a pessimist thanks to a healthy dose of the real world. Showed that girl who’s boss!

  Hector rested his head against mine. “When Erys heard of what my late wife had done, she cast a love spell, wanting to help heal my broken heart. I would find the love of my life, my soul mate, as it were, in time, but as a catch I wouldn’t be able to truly love until I found her.”

  “That sounds lonely.”

  “It’s a small price to pay.” He lifted my chin and kissed me gently. “She told me what to expect, from the touching to the intense attraction to the mating, and how it worked. I was skeptical, having had my heart ripped out once, until the day I saw you in the elevator.”

  I remembered that moment clearly. “Wait, you mean you saw me in a vision or something?”

  He smiled. “Down to the clothes you were wearing that day. I couldn’t believe my eyes and thought maybe I was imagining things until I touched you. At first, I tried dismissing the tingling to my imagination. But when you came to Elysian and I started to spend more time with you, I knew you were the one.”