Shards of Ecstasy

by TJ Michaels

  “God, baby, your pussy is milking my cock. So tight. So, so good.”

  “Ah god, yes! Fuck me. Fuck me, Faze.”

  Her fingers had a mind of their own and gravitated right back to her clit. Another orgasm seemed just out of reach. But she was mistaken—it wasn’t close, it was here blowing her back like the wind in a storm that destroyed and consumed all in its path.

  And her man was right there with her, pushing as deeply as he could go, pulling her to him until the skin of her backside slid up and down the front of his thighs as he reached for completion.

  “Aaah, fuck. Yes, that’s it, baby. Work that ass. Give it to me. Come for me again.” And Faison came in a raunchy string of explicit glee as his cock pulsed and emptied inside her.

  And just the sound of his orgasm had Dee going yet again.

  “I need to come again. One more time.”

  Happy to oblige, Faison remained seated inside her until his cock began to soften. Dee looked back and watched his withdrawal. Wow. Even as it subsided his cock was impressive, fat, thick and just the perfect length. Easing out of her, he slipped his fingers into her eager pussy and began the tortuous rhythm that she was beginning to love so well.

  Oh yes, just one more time. Happy sigh. One more time.

  * * * * *

  When Faison left the bed Dee had wondered briefly what he was up to, but she was more than content to drift in and out of sleep rather than investigate. A short time later he plucked her up from the mattress, wrapped her in a warm blanket then eased her out onto the balcony to enjoy the starlit sky.

  The night was uncharacteristically clear, not a cloud to be seen. She looked out past the balcony wall at the ocean. It was dark but comforting, as was the soft rustle of waves breaking over sand off in the short distance.

  Faison led her to a chaise lounge and maneuvered them into it without losing the blanket. Two glasses of chilled plum wine sat on a coffee table with a small bowl of sliced fruit, a wedge of soft Brie cheese and some grainy highfalutin’ crackers that she must have bought ages ago. It was the kind of stuff she kept in the house in case someone visited. Then a lonely thought occurred—Dee realized that no one ever visited. Until now. Until Faison. The thought brought a smile to her lips just as he raised a glass for her to sip.

  She’d spent more time on this balcony with this man than anyone else since she bought this place. And good lord, the things he’d done to her while looking out over the beach. This balcony would never hold the same meaning for Dee again. Ever.

  “Dee, you’re incredible. In every sense of the word, you’re just amazing.”

  Faison lifted his hand free of the blanket and reached to gently stroke her chin. The peace of the moment fell away as her focus zoomed in on something she couldn’t believe she’d missed before. Embedded in his bracelet was a crystal. It was a pure yellow quartz embedded into the solid silver cuff she’d never quite gotten a good look at before. A crystal that, if the pieces hidden beneath the silver were what she thought, was identical to hers.

  Unable to rein in her reaction she grabbed him by the wrist and yanked him toward the softly glowing patio lamp she’d just clicked on.

  “Where the hell did you get that?” she snapped.

  “What?” He tried to snatch his hand back but she wasn’t having it.

  “That!”

  “That what, damn it?!”

  She hadn’t meant to alarm him but this was important.

  Following her eyes to his wrist he quirked a brow and then met her gaze again, but this time his expression held a bit of suspicion of his own.

  “This? My great uncle gave it to me. It was a birthday gift.”

  “Which birthday are we talking about here?” she demanded.

  “Which birthday? What difference does it make?” The wary and suddenly hard stare he gave her made it clear she needed to tread a bit more lightly here. Damn it, she didn’t feel like being subtle. But if Faison clammed up now she would never learn what she needed to about this man. Or his stone. “Faison, I’m sorry.” She released his hand and tried to take a step back before remembering they were naked under the same blanket. There was nowhere to go to give him space for this conversation so she simply snuggled back into his side. Lowering her voice to a more civil timbre, she said, “That crystal is unique and it caught me off guard. Just tell me if you received it on your eighteenth birthday or not.”

  “Well, yes. But why are you asking?”

  “This is why.” She dropped the blanket from around her shoulders, lifted the jewel that hung from her neck and waited for the swift intake of breath she knew was coming.

  “Holy shit! That means everything I thought was a crock of shit since I was a kid is…”

  “Is what? True? I would say yes to that assumption but I’m not sure which crock of shit you’re referring to.”

  So Faison had a crystal all this time. It had obviously been attached to the bracelet somehow. But even when he’d worn his arms bare she’d seen this bracelet yet hadn’t noticed the stone.

  “Faison, how is it I’ve never seen this crystal until now?”

  “It was set inside the silver of the cuff, just underneath like you would see an inscription or engraving. It was so the stone would remain mostly hidden, even when in plain sight. It can only be seen at just the right angle. The majority of it is hidden inside the silver of the cuff.”

  Dee knew she would have seen it earlier this evening if the lights had been on when he’d stripped her bare just inside the foyer of her cottage. But after he stripped himself, she only had eyes for his delicious, bare skin and thick, ready cock.

  Well, no faulting a girl for good taste.

  “I told you about my sisters, but I didn’t mention my crystal. I received mine on my eighteenth birthday as well. It’s supposed to be a piece of a mystical stone of great power. And that’s all you’re getting out of me until you tell me more of where you got yours.”

  Damn it. She’d always known, but a part of her wanted to disbelieve, wanted it to be a big mistake. After all, who the hell wanted to fight a mean-assed demon? Well, who in their right mind, anyway?

  “My great uncle told me that the stone would reveal its true mate, its twin. And also the woman who I was to share my life and all my…”

  “Yes?”

  “Well, everything about myself. Uncle told me I would be able to trust my mate with my heart.”

  Something about the way he spoke those words made Dee change her mind about getting Faison’s story first. Instead she had the sudden urgency to spill what she knew about old Asmo. The sooner Faison understood what they were up against the better.

  “Did your uncle mention anything about demons?”

  “Demons? You mean as if my true mate is supposed to be a demon? Hell no. But I swear, Dee, if you’re a demon then I’ll have to change my perception of what a demon is supposed to be.”

  She laughed outright. Couldn’t help it. He was just so damn adorable.

  “No I’m not a demon. But I think we’d better go inside. What we need to talk about shouldn’t be overhead, not even by the wind.”

  He cocked his head at her statement but didn’t say anything. Good, she didn’t think she could take any more surprises tonight anyway. So he could just hush and let her get on with her tale and get it over with. Soon enough he’d have his turn and he’d better not leave anything out.

  Chapter Five

  Dee woke up and knew she was alone. There was no alarm or angst. Not even emptiness or loneliness though Faison wasn’t in the bed. It was a strange sort of contentment that she’d only ever found while in the presence of her sisters. Hmm. She’d have to think about that one later. The moment her thoughts landed on Faison her body reacted with unmistakable warmth that sizzled the pinky hairs on her baby toes. Damn the man was potent even when absent. All praise to the old Atlantean dudes who’d wrapped her fate up in one little yellow stone.

  They’d talked well into the early hours of the
morning. Dee shared what she knew of being Chosen and Faison told what his great uncle had shared with him about his crystal. Dee was surprised that Faison knew the crystal would identify its twin, but even more shocked that he’d known nothing about Asmodeus. Faison had grown up thinking the crystal was nothing more than a glorified mood stone. He’d had no idea how powerful it was when paired with Dee’s, its place in the Hearts of Fire nor how much old Asmo wanted it. Lack of that little bit of truth put him in grave danger.

  Hell, she may say she didn’t want to know anything about Asmodeus, but when it came down to it, if she was going to be in peril regardless, then she’d rather know who to be afraid of.

  Then there was the issue of the physical makeup of the crystals themselves. Dee still couldn’t see Faison’s stone like she wanted because, like her, he couldn’t remove the jewel. And since his was ingeniously embedded in a thick silver cuff, there was no way to get more than a glimpse unless he took the thing off.

  And that brought to mind another issue­—the crystals should have fused by now, right? From what she knew of Chosen mates finding one another the stone should have become one larger, more powerful stone when they made love. And they’d done plenty of that all through the night both before and after they’d talked.

  And there were still unanswered questions that even She didn’t have a clue about. Like why he hesitated when answering questions about his great uncle, the one who had given him the stone. And why he seemed so guarded when she asked about “special abilities”. Well, she wasn’t going another day without getting down to the root of the matter. May as well get on with it.

  Closing her eyes, Dee wrapped her fingers around the crystal she no longer bothered to hide and let calm resolve seep into her bones. She had a man to find. Her man. Hmmm. That had a nice ring to it.

  Dee lay still and listened to the quietness of the house, then she let her spirit flow out past the walls of her home knowing She would lend her the ability to reach beyond her own physical boundaries and out into the night.

  There he was, just down the beach a bit, very close to the water. Dee had no image of him in her head but his energy had a specific signature, one that was distinctly his, just as her sisters did when touched through the crystal. Since her discovery of Faison’s crystal, her own stone seemed to hone in on his. She could feel him or feel something. Amazing.

  Dee rose, pulled on a hoodie then jumped into a pair of comfy sweats and a pair of tennis shoes. Once out the door she moved toward Faison’s distinct energy. It seemed to pulse and fluctuate. Weird. As Dee got closer She whispered caution into her head and Dee slowed her swift steps down to a careful stalk.

  *I cannot believe it. Why did I not sense it before? This is a miracle.*

  “What are you talking about, She?”

  *Quiet your energies and watch. It is amazing.*

  With that Dee pushed her elemental energies down deeper into her body. She wasn’t sure why she needed to hide her abilities more than any other day but She had never steered her wrong. Once she was sure she had herself under control, Dee quietly rounded the corner that led into her favorite partially hidden nook of beach. It couldn’t be seen from the street or from the main stretch road. It was a place where she could, under cover of darkness anyway, unleash her true self.

  And tonight she made it to the entrance and slammed to a dead halt. When her head could halfway accept what her eyes saw, Dee edged closer.

  There was Faison, face lifted toward the sky, moving his hands in a pattern that she was intimately familiar with. The air whipped around him…but only him. Other than the swift breeze that sent the sand swirling up and around Faizon there was no breeze at all.

  The man was an elemental.

  Faison knew Dee was there. He didn’t smell her, not with the wind kicking up as if a storm blew in. In fact, now that he thought about it, the sudden wind was his fault. He’d been working on a new skill—directing air at strong speeds with specific angles. He wasn’t sure why, only that he knew it would be important for some reason. His uncle had always encouraged him to follow his intuition, especially after his elemental abilities became evident. No reason to stray now.

  Anyway, Dee was standing there watching him call on his element. Then a bit of male ego jumped into the fray and he lost his concentration—hence the sudden wild and undirected gusts on an otherwise calm night.

  Calling his energies back into himself with some reluctance, Faison turned to the woman who was quickly filling his heart.

  “Faze, aren’t you going to look at me?”

  He didn’t particularly want to since he wasn’t sure what he would see in her eyes. Terror or acceptance? He cocked his head to the side and wondered. She didn’t sound upset. Didn’t even sound fazed.

  With a deep breath and a quick prayer to the gods that he wasn’t misjudging what he thought he heard, Faison cracked an eye open. Then both eyes popped wide as his eyebrows took a trip up his forehead in awe.

  Dee balanced on a disk of water that spun underneath her sneakers. Holy shit.

  In tandem they looked at each other and said, “You’re an elemental!”

  She was obviously a water elemental. Wow. It was more than he expected and certainly more than he could have hoped for. If he’d have been a believer in coincidences, this would have been the end of that road. This was obviously much more than a chance meeting between him and Dee. The matched stones of her necklace to his bracelet were one thing. But her water to his air was much, much more.

  The disk at Dee’s feet splashed onto her sneakers and soaked into the sand as she came to stand before him.

  “Well, I’m trying to decide whether to be pissed that you didn’t tell me you were an air elemental or just surprised and overjoyed considering I didn’t tell you I was an elemental either.”

  Leave it to Dee to get straight to the point.

  “So, is there anything else we should tell each other, Faison?”

  “After the demon stuff you shared with me last night, learning about being Chosen and now this elemental stuff? No, I think I’m done.”

  Dee laughed. He loved that sound. It was like a mixed fruity drink with a potent dark liquor stirred in, light yet robust at the same time.

  “I only have one other thing.”

  Oh lord, help him. Could he possibly take anymore? He wasn’t upset, but quickly approaching overwhelmed. If he got any happier he’d just fall flat-out.

  He crossed his arms over his chest and waited for her to spill it.

  “Do you have a companion too? An entity of nature?”

  “A what?” Faison asked.

  “Well, that answered my question.”

  “So what is a companion and do I have to share your bed with it?”

  “You are so snarky when you think you’ve gotta share me.”

  “So stop laughing already and answer the question.”

  “No you don’t have to share the bed with her. And her name is She, my companion, a kind of spirit guide of sorts. More an essence of nature, in tune with the elements, all of them. Earth, wind, air, water, etcetera, etcetera.”

  “Okaaay? So what does She do?”

  “Other than keep me and my sisters’ asses out of trouble for more than thirty years, She was able to sense your stone the first time we met. She’s also been keeping a lookout for old Asmo.”

  “Yeah, Asmo. Our old friend and pal. God, Dee, that demon could be anyone, anywhere.”

  “But I think we’d both have a clue when we meet him. My sister, Memory, said her stone acted weird when around him and that Charlotte told her there was no mistaking the feeling of having the life sucked out of you when in his presence.”

  “Have you felt that way around anyone lately?”

  “Actually, I have. Devon.”

  “You think he’s Asmodeus?”

  “I don’t know. She reacted to him just as my crystal did, so maybe he is. But a part of me hopes he’s not. He seemed like such a nice guy.”


  “Yeah, so nice he took hold of you and wouldn’t let go? Sounds like he needs his ass kicked to me.”

  “Okay, I’ll give you that one.”

  “So, Miss Water Elemental, what else can you do with that water?”

  “Faison, why are you looking at me like that?”

  Why? Because watching the moon play off her beautiful skin while the wind blew through her hair turned him on like a fucking light switch, that’s why.

  “So are you gonna give me a clue what kind of water skills you have. Or shall I show you mine instead?”

  Oooh, there it was, the gleam in her eye that said she was on to his game. And not only was she on to it, she wanted to play too.

  “Well, if you think you’ve got something worth showing me, big boy, bring it on.”

  “I can do that. Can you give us some cover? Perhaps a bit of fog or something?”

  “Why?”

  “Well, I’m perfectly fine with you just the way you are but if any of your neighbors happen to be up and about at this ungodly hour they might see more than you want them to.”

  And the fog materialized and surrounded a wide-eyed Dee without another word.

  “Stand perfectly still,” Faison whispered.

  Eyes steady on his woman so as not to miss one bit of her beautiful skin, Faison released his energies and began to direct the air. And the new skill he’d been perfecting came in handy just now.

  Dee practically held her breath as Faison carefully sliced off her hoodie followed by her sweats. It was like having a gale force wind squashed down and concentrated to a blade of air that touched nothing but her clothing. In mere moments she found herself stripped down to nothing but her bare skin. Faison was rid of his clothes just as quickly.

  “That all you got, stud?” she purred wickedly.

  Faison raised his hands and moved them in a pattern. Dee found herself lifted and slipping across the surface of the water. Wow, even with years and years of practicing how to harness her own powers she’d never been able to glide above water before. She could make it dense enough to walk on, sure. But to walk suspended above it? Lay stretched out across it without truly touching it? Kneel on it? Fuck on it?! Woohoo!