“I don’t think you’re weak. You’re one of the strongest females I know.” He exhaled and combed his fingers through his hair. “I agree. You deserve the truth.”
“Then tell me.”
He pursed his lips as he decided what to say. Fuck it. Donovan blurted it all out, no sugar-coating. True wanted the truth, then she was going to get it, in all its terror inducing, shit your pants detail. “Famine has found a way to devour either the life-force or energy of an immortal, depending on their type. Four so far, two daemons, an incubus, and just this morning, a saint.”
A choked sound came from True and her hand flew to her mouth. “Oh no.”
Moisture glistened in her eyes and Fates, he wanted to kiss them away, pull her into his lap, and hold her until this plane and all its evil bullshit disappeared. But he couldn’t. Getting close to True was a line he wouldn’t cross, not whilst her life was in danger. He wasn’t selfless. Not by any means, but Donovan wasn’t so big a douchebag he wanted to complicate True’s life by coming on to her after dropping that particular bomb. Instead of comforting her, he shoved down all thoughts of her luscious body and incredible scent and waited for the shock to wear off and reality to sink in.
“How?” She asked, her voice rough with unshed tears. “How is Famine killing immortals? It’s…” True shook her head, strawberry blonde hair going every which way, as if mayhap she could shake the truth from her mind. “It’s not possible to kill immortals without one of the weapons.”
“We don’t know how. I’ve been working the case with Tony since Michael assigned Joan to look for Famine. I don’t want you to worry. We shall get Famine and the Unknown from the compound and they shall pay for what they did to you.”
“I don’t care about me, Donovan.”
“Wait. What?”
True slid a trembling hand toward him and he met her halfway, intertwining their fingers.
“I made it out. You got me out. I’ll be fine. Just… stop them. I don’t want you worrying about me. I’m fine. Prithee, do your job and stop them. I don’t want anyone else to die.”
How could he tell her he couldn’t stop worrying about her? That it was all he thought about? She was all he thought about.
Donovan nodded because what the fuck else was he to do? True could command him to leap into an open portal to the Underworld and he was so hung up on her, he’d probably do it, no questions asked. He didn’t know how or when it happened, but Donovan was completely and totally at the mercy of a petite, redheaded sorceress with brilliant blue eyes and a compassionate soul. He stared into those very eyes and once more, his pulse stuttered and skipped a few beats.
Fuck me. I love her.
Things just got really complicated.
HOPE UNLOCKED her door and they tumbled inside, giggling, their hands and mouths everywhere. The cab ride over was unbearable. Hope’s fingers dug into Thomas’s sides and he skimmed his lips up and down the smooth skin of her neck. By the Fates, he was so fucking hard he couldn’t believe his erection hadn’t burst through his pants.
Lifting one leg, Thomas kicked the door shut and began to unknot his tie, his eyes never straying from Hope’s heavy-lidded stare. She was so fucking sexy, standing inside the apartment, anticipating his next move. When her wet, velvety tongue poked out from between those sinful, kiss-swollen lips to swipe across her ruby red mouth, leaving them slick and shiny, their roles flipped. Just like that. Now he was the one frozen in place, unable to think. His hands stopped and hovered over the top button of his shirt.
Hope took a step back, beckoning him forth with a seductive flutter of her long lashes. Thomas’s body obeyed immediately, not waiting for his brain to give instructions. The stalking and teasing continued, he advanced, she retreated. Repeat. Until Hope stepped through the doorway to her room. Her pupils were huge and her lips slightly parted. Thomas watched the rise and fall of her chest, the movement in jerky gasps. Her modest, but amazing, breasts heaved as she panted with lust. His fingers curled impatiently, itching to touch everything, her hair, her mouth, her skin… her sex.
“You’re stunning,” he said. It felt like he gargled gravel, his voice was so raspy.
Slowly, so damn slowly it felt like the sweetest and cruelest form of torture, Hope reached behind her back. Thomas heard every single tine of the zipper separate as she slid it down. One at a time, she pushed the thin straps of the dress over her shoulders. When the second strap slid down her arm, gravity took over and the shiny black fabric slithered to the floor.
“Hope…” His mouth went dry and his brain short-circuited, rendering him speechless. Before him stood a vision unlike any other. Wearing the tiniest, sexiest black lingerie he’d seen in all of his existence, Hope lifted her arm and lightly danced her fingers along one of the straps of the lacy bra. She closed her eyes and moved the hand down over her breasts and skimmed the flat of her other palm across her abdomen.
Fates, she was touching herself!
Thomas’s cock throbbed at the sight. When Hope hooked her thumb in the waistband of the microscopic scrap of fabric that dipped between her thighs he forgot to breathe. Her erotic show was hotter than anything he’d called up in his fantasies, and boy did he ever fantasize about Hope Hartley.
Thomas groaned. “You’re killing me here.” She bit her lip and he nearly came. “Shit.” He hissed and reached down to squeeze the base of his dick through his pants.
“Your turn,” she whispered.
Thomas couldn’t get naked fast enough. Shoes, socks, slacks, and the impossibly tiny fucking buttons on his shirt. He was so turned on he almost tripped and landed on his face getting out of his trousers. When he finally shed everything except his boxer briefs, he paused to get another look at the vision of beauty before him, not quite believing this was happening. Hope licked those sexy lips again and game over. He was gone, unable wait any longer. In two strides, Thomas was on her. With both hands, he grabbed hold of her head and crushed their mouths together.
Hope came alive under his touch. No longer trembling, she firmly gripped Thomas’s waist, her fingers pressing deep into his skin. Under the unrelenting assault of his lips and tongue, Hope opened to accept the intrusion, then proceeded to blow his mind. With a quick jerk, his hips were tugged against hers. Mayhap she was smaller than Thomas, but with a sense of desperate hunger, Hope slid her hands up to Thomas’s shoulders and took over the kiss. Dizzy from her taste and scent, he gladly embraced anything and everything Hope doled out. Tiny moans were breathed into his mouth as she tasted and explored whilst he committed every single second of this blissful moment to memory. They had yet to discuss their “relationship” or lack thereof, so Thomas had no idea what sorts of thoughts filled Hope’s mind. If this were his only chance to experience the scorching fire that blazed through him, razing everything in its path to ash, and leaving his cock as hard as a bar of steel, Thomas had every intention of making the most of it.
Just then, Hope inhaled, then groaned into Thomas’s mouth. At the same time, her lower half shifted and that spectacular body rubbed against his painful erection. That groan, that tiny, faint, almost noiseless sound, served as the match, and Hope unwittingly tossed it into a barrel of gasoline. Any control Thomas managed to hold on to thus far blew to smithereens. The flames flickering throughout his body ignited into a roaring inferno.
“Bed,” he rasped against her kiss-swollen lips.
Blinking as if coming out of a trance, Hope stepped out of his arms and dropped to sit on the edge of the bed. Peeking up from hooded eyes, she slowly—Fates, so slowly—slid her thumbs under the sides of her lacy underwear and shimmied them down her legs. His breath caught and damn if his cock didn’t grow impossibly harder as the last bit of Hope was finally revealed unto him. The scrap of black lace fell to the carpet and, whilst maintaining blisteringly hot eye contact, Hope swung her delicate feet onto the bed. Thomas was regaining his ability to rationally form any thought beyond “she’s naked”, and Hope shuffled to the center of
the mattress and lay back, head resting on a pillow. Sucking in a breath and holding it, he stood and feasted upon Hope’s otherworldly beauty, his ravenous gaze roving up and down her body like a man starved.
He exhaled and whispered, “You’re stunning.”
“Thomas…”
She extended an arm, inviting him to join her. Thomas flicked his attention to her hand and caught the slightest tremor of her fingers. Had he not seen the minute tremble, going on behavior alone he would never guess her to be nervous. His heart leapt into his throat and he accepted the offering, wrapping his much larger hand around hers.
“Are you certain of this?” Fates, it would kill him to stop and his balls would ache for a week, but Thomas would walk away. “All you have to do is say the word, and we’ll stop.”
She blinked, and for a brief moment, her face reflected pure innocence. Then her gaze dropped to Thomas’s groin, his stiff erection straining at the tight fabric of his briefs. Hope swallowed and her pupils dilated whilst that wicked tongue made an appearance and swept across her lips. He was done. Mayhap he was many things, but in truth, he was a male and when a beautiful, naked female whom he cared about stared at him so carnally, his control snapped. Instinct took over and without thinking, his used his free hand to squeeze his painful cock.
“Fuuuuck.” Thomas closed his eyes and hissed. There was no way he could take much more of this torture. Sweet, sweet torture, but torture all the same.
“Thomas… I want you.”
His eyes flew open and locked onto Hope’s pale blues. He’d heard the phrase “smoldering gaze” before, but until he witnessed it first hand, he thought it a ridiculous saying. Not anymore. The fire in Hope’s eyes whilst she looked at him blazed so hot, so intense, he would swear an oath he felt the heat on his skin. It was as if Hope could see everything, right through him to dig out his every secret and desire, ninety-nine percent of which revolved around the seductive female currently sprawled out within arm’s length.
With a shaky breath, Thomas released Hope’s hand, hooked his thumbs in the waistband of his briefs, and pushed them down. Hope’s smoldering gaze never wavered as he removed the remainder of his clothing. If he weren’t so desperately aroused, mayhap he would have been flattered by the expression that passed across her face. Hope’s eyes popped wide and her jaw dropped in what could only be described as shock. The first time she laid eyes upon his cock she was rendered speechless.
A jolt of desire overrode the cocky urge to ask Hope if what he packed was sufficient. It was clear the timid female was intimidated by what she saw, but at this point, he was too tightly wound to makes jokes about his dick. The rational side of his brain hit capacity, overflowing with thoughts of climbing atop Hope and burying his cock deep inside her tight, wet heat.
Oh, Fates.
A growl broke free and Thomas grabbed his cock and gave it a few hard tugs before he lifted a knee up on the bed. Hope’s attention never wavered from his groin, even as he settled between her legs, surrounded by her flawless skin. From that position, the view was breathtaking. His breath hitched and his balls grew tight.
“Fates, Hope…” He clenched his jaw so hard the muscles in his cheek twitched and again he must needs squeeze the base of his dick to keep from shooting his load. “Fuck, you’re… I can’t…” There were no words to describe how he felt whilst looking upon the sheer perfection of Hope’s nude form. Overloaded, his brain gave up and disconnected, officially scrambled and rendered useless. Mind detached, Thomas’s body now functioned on male lust and pure instinct.
“Am I that bad looking?”
What?
The shame in Hope’s voice snapped Thomas out of his testosterone-induced stupor. With great effort, he tore his eyes from the pink, inviting folds of her sex to focus on Hope’s face. Where he expected to find desire that matched his own, instead her expression was… mortified? Thomas squinted.
“What in the name of the Fates are you talking about?” Lust addled by the sight of such perfect, naked female flesh, he found himself caught off guard. “You… you’re gorgeous. I mean… Fates. The sight of you, lying in bed naked, your skin flushed a rosy hue… and your sex.” Hope blushed and ducked her head. “It’s killing me to not attack you like an animal.”
Voice like gravel, Thomas cleared his throat shoved a hand through his hair. He must needs calm down.
Get a grip, More.
“I don’t know what I expected,” Thomas began. “But you…” He choked and struggled to continue whilst every cell in his body urging him on, shouting take, take, take. This time his voice sounded high-pitched and half-strangled. “Your sex…” His gaze dropped to Hope’s most intimate place. “It’s… Fates, you shave it bare,” he practically whispered.
Panting from the strain of checking the need to dive upon the sweet, pink, exposed flesh between her thighs, he put his hands on each of her calves and gently ran his palms up and down the silky smooth skin. On the next pass, he slid his hands further up and reached the crease at her groin, Thomas brushed his thumbs along the edge of Hope’s sex and she shuddered.
“It’s so fucking hot that you shave.”
A small smile pulled at her lips. “Really?”
“Fuck, yes,” he said as he exhaled loudly, releasing the breath he held.
How could she not know? He couldn’t tear his gaze away from her bare sex, beyond desperate to find out what lay hidden in the delicate folds of skin.
“I must needs taste you,” he growled. Before Hope could stop him, Thomas wrapped a hand around one of her legs and lifted it over his shoulder. By the Fates. Not willing to wait a second longer, he ducked his head whilst Hope tried to speak.
“Wha—”
Thomas didn’t listen. There was no fucking way anything on the entire Earthly plane or beyond would keep him from finding out exactly what Hope Hartley tasted like. Just as he did in dozens, mayhap hundreds, of late-night fantasies, he latched his mouth over her sex and any protest she had at the ready cut off with a gasp that turned into a moan.
“Thomas! Oh my God.”
The noises that fell from her lips after that, combined with the taste and scent of her arousal, drove Thomas insane with desire. As she began to relax, she slid her hands to his head and tangled her fingers in his hair, gripping the strands tighter and tighter as he sucked, licked, and savored every single inch of her. When her breaths grew shallow, Thomas knew she was close. He flicked his tongue across the small bud from which her pleasure came, over and over. Hope arched off the bed whilst crying out.
“Thomas, oh God, don’t stop… oh.” He shifted her legs off his shoulders and her toes curled into the mattress whilst she thrashed and writhed from his relentless attentions. “Stop, please. No more,” she begged once he managed to wring every last drop of ecstasy out of her.
With the back of his hand, he wiped his mouth and chin and crawled up the bed until he lay atop her, his aching length nestled perfectly between her thighs. Thomas braced his hands on either side of Hope’s head so he wouldn’t crush her with his weight. Fates, she was so small, so delicately human, in truth he feared hurting her. Once settled, he grinned. She certainly didn’t look hurt. Eyes shut, Hope’s sweat slicked chest heaved as she came down from—based on her intense reaction—to be a mind-blowing climax.
“Good?” he asked with a lopsided smile.
Hope opened her eyes and huffed a breathless laugh. “Um, yeah. You could say that.” Despite the intimacy they just shared, her already flushed cheeks deepened a shade and she averted her gaze.
She’s embarrassed? But why?
Unable to be naked and so close to Hope, yet without feeling her soft curves against him, Thomas shifted to his elbows and allowed some of his weight to press down on her. Whatever embarrassment she felt must needs have vanished, because when their heated flesh touched, Hope moaned and automatically shifted to rub his cock along her sex. She was torturing him and didn’t even know it.
“Hello, gorge
ous,” he whispered. Finally, Hope glanced up to make eye contact, stealing his very breath. She was stunning, all sexed out and sweaty it nearly made him weep.
“Hi.”
Thomas tilted his head and made sure to keep his movements slow, allowing Hope the opportunity to protest before he kissed her, as his lips were still glossy with her arousal. But she didn’t disappoint. No. Hope ran her hands up Thomas’s back and down his arms to give his biceps a squeeze, then in an unexpected move, grabbed him by the back of the neck and yanked him down. The kiss was aggressive and needy, their mouths moving in tandem, tongues tangling and swirling and breath co-mingling. It wasn’t sweet or respectful. It was raw and filthy and filled with hunger, and made Thomas’s entire being burn. Unable to stop, he rutted against her, loving the way his hard length slipped so easily over her slick sex. They fit perfectly, like puzzle pieces made specifically for one another by a higher power. By the very Fates above.
“I want you so bad,” he said against her lips. “Do you have condoms?” Hope tensed and Thomas stilled so he could see her face. Teeth bit into that full lower lip and he felt her body tense. She’s uncomfortable. That dark blush was back, which mayhap could have been from the orgasm, but he was fairly certain that wasn’t the case. “Hope?”
“Um…” Back to no eye contact. “So, um, I didn’t tell you before, but…” Her voice trailed off and she squirmed beneath him, and not the good kind of squirming. More of a nervous squirming. Thomas pushed up to lift his torso off of her. He cocked his head, trying to figure out what Hope was trying to say that had her so tied in knots.
Hope For More (Trinity Book 3) Page 20