by Ursula Bauer
Meg returned to her backpack, rummaged in her make-up bag, and removed a pocket mirror. She used the end of a heavy candlestick holder from the gilded dressing table to smash the mirror. Then she picked out a shard and carefully drew the edge across her palm. She bit her lip to keep from crying out. Blood sprang up from the gash. It was superficial, but deep enough for the test. She discarded the shard, and then touched the wound, tracing it with her index finger. As her finger moved, the wound closed, pinked up and vanished as if it were never there.
Her asthma had vanished after touching the artifact. It had cured that, and her poor vision. Gideon acted as if her change was horrible, but it wasn’t, not if she could keep it. Not if she could use it. Excitement rushed into her veins. She’d need to be careful. She’d need to test her skills, gauge them, learn her limits, then she’d need to be careful about how she applied them. She didn’t want to be the center of a media circus.
She grabbed her notebook and pen and moved from the bedroom into the main area of the suite. A covered tray sat on a teak table. Meg’s stomach growled, and she ventured over to see what waited. A perfectly prepared cut of lamb rested atop a bed of mint, with roasted new potatoes beside. A smaller plate held a spinach salad, and another, a cut of chocolate cheesecake. The food was divine, especially the cheesecake, and filled her full of energy. After finishing, she added more notes to her book and considered what might and might not be possible if she was a hands-on healer.
Eventually, she put away her book and ventured beyond the walls of the suite, lured outside by the beauty of the still desert night, and the scent of blooming jasmine. The private courtyard was bordered by walls trellised with fragrant, flowering vines. Pristine, white sand surrounded a pool designed to look like an oasis pond ringed with smooth, flat stones. At the end of the kidney shaped pool was a series of marble columns draped with hot orange and cobalt blue swaths of silk. A low wall of polished stone ringed the columns, creating a private enclosure that allowed one to view the pool, but not be seen.
Inside the circular confines was a large divan covered with rust and gilded raw silk and more jewel-toned pillows. Conical glass candle holders were suspended from gold chain holders linked to the columns, and flames flickered lazily inside. An unlit brazier was set dead center, into the smooth floor, and surrounded by colorful red and gold mosaic tiles. Above was no roof to obscure the majesty of the stars and sky.
The heat of the night, the excitement over Ethan’s healing, the beauty and privacy of her surroundings drew out an adventurous side of her. She untied the robe, let it fall in a whisper to the ground, and climbed down the rock ledge steps into the warm, welcoming waters of the pool.
For a while she swam in the moonlight, her eyes closed so her senses could better appreciate the nuances of the night and the water. She finished laps and floated, drifting in the fantasy, pretending she was on vacation at some fancy Sedona resort instead of the magical fortress of a sorcerer, on the run for her life. The breeze picked up and something changed in the surroundings. Current danced like an electric spark through the air.
Meg opened her eyes. Gideon stood in the shadows beside a column, watching her. His body was tensed, his hands shoved into the pockets of his leather pants, his eyes hooded, and impossible to read. She was taking a risk going to him like this. He could reject her again. But she didn’t care. She stepped from the pool, naked, water cascading down her body, and answered the call.
“Meg.” His voice was husky, needy. “Stay there. We need to talk.”
“We can talk later.” Meg closed the distance between them, joining him in the shadows. She reached up and touched his face with her palm, tracing the strong jaw, and shivered from the contact. “Tonight’s made for other things. Don’t you agree?”
She kissed him, and he opened to her immediately, countering her attack. His tongue swept inside her in a savage onslaught, his strong arms locked around her, and he bent her back as he pressed down a searing kiss. Her toes curled and her heart began to race like lightning.
Just when she thought she’d melt from his heat, he broke the kiss. His face was haunted, his eyes liquid night. “This time I won’t stop, Meg. Are you sure that’s what you want?”
“Never more.” She trailed her hands down his chest, enjoying the feel of him. She wanted so badly to take him into herself, to cross the final line and melt together. But there was time tonight. For now she would content herself with returning some of the punishment he’d dealt her way the night before. The devilish notion satisfied her inner siren. She found her way to his waist, undid the button to his pants, and ran her hand inside.
Gideon sucked in a sharp breath. Emboldened by his response, Meg knelt and began her torture. She took her time with the zipper, blowing warm breath on his cock and briefs as they were revealed, inch by maddening inch. Once free, she followed the rigid line, stroked up beyond the fabric with her tongue, and swirled it around the silky head and through the cleft. She tasted the salt of him, and inhaled the musky, exotic masculine scent that was uniquely Gideon. The night was made for them. He was made for her. She for him. She knew this as she knew herself, they were meant to be. Nothing else could be so right.
He buried his hands in her hair and groaned. She sucked gently and his cock leapt in response.
“Enough,” he ground out through clenched teeth. He pulled her up, crushing her with another kiss. Then he swept her up in his arms, carried her into the enclosure of marble columns and laid her down upon the divan.
In moments he shed his clothes, and stood poised above her: naked and magnificent. She reached up for him and he came to her, his kiss ravenous. His cock brushed teasingly against her bare belly. Her juice ran fast with the contact and her blood grew thick. He lowered his head and sucked hard on her nipples, and rational thought receded as erotic pleasure took its head.
She writhed beneath his expert ministrations, turned boneless as he gripped her hips and moved lower still, exploring her folds with the searing tip of his tongue. She parted for him, and a low purr escaped her throat. His mouth was masterful, orchestrating a barrage of sensations spiraling out from her clit, radiating ecstasy to every single nerve in her body. Her orgasm was torrential, sweeping over her like a hurricane. She cried out, clutching his head as her body quivered in the wake of release. Still, she longed for him, still she craved what she’d been so far denied. “I want you inside of me, Gideon.”
“We have all night.” He lifted his head, moving to her mouth to kiss her in a fluid motion, as he brushed her thighs with his hands.
“Please.” Her body hummed with desire, ached for release. “No more waiting.”
Gideon kissed her, filling her until she thought she would burst. They were skin to skin, slick, hot, and needy. He gave a short thrust, and a second orgasm shot like lightning through her.
Gideon pushed up on his arms and looked down upon her. His smile was dangerous, his body a lethal weapon that he used with consummate skill as he began to move with smooth, measured strokes. Somehow he’d turned the tables on her once again. And she didn’t have it in her to complain.
“Tell me how you like it, Meg.” His husky voice tickled her ears, his breath was hot on her throat. She strained closer, arching her back against him.
“Tell me, Meg,” he ordered. He pulled out to the very end of her, then drove in again and thrust up.
Lights exploded in her brain and waves of pleasure churned inside of her. She closed her eyes and danced with him on the edge. She licked her lips, tasting his sweat and sex on them. “Yes. Like that. Faster.”
He urged her farther along the path of abandon, his body demanding more and more, until she couldn’t hold out. She came hard this time, locking her legs around him and holding him fast. He joined her in the fall, spilling himself into her, body and soul, until she couldn’t tell where her pleasure ended and his began. She was wrapped in a seemingly endless orgasm, living in a world beyond that of mortals, and she never wanted it to
end.
When her tremors ceased, and she could think to breathe again, Gideon stretched out beside her. The musk of sex thickened the perfumed air. A delicious languor took hold of her as he continued to nuzzle her neck and tease her skin with delicate nips and well-placed licks. She curled against the length of him, surprised he still had the energy to move. The hot desert night stirred itself into a breeze that drifted like smoke across her bare body. His heart beat steadily beside her own, and his breathing matched her easy pace. They fit so well, in so many ways. She pushed aside any other thoughts that might jeopardize what they shared right now. To have this one memory, this perfect moment in time, was worth whatever price she’d pay later on.
She must have dozed for a while, and when she woke, it was to his touch. His hand curved around one breast and he teased her nipple with this thumb and forefinger, rolling it with alternating gentle and forceful pressure until it was puckered and tight. A renewed and dangerous vigor coursed through her. His cock stiffened again, a feat she figured must come hand in hand with being an immortal soldier. Surely no mortal man had this kind of stamina or drive.
He was pure fantasy, yet he was real. Living, breathing, a miracle, and all hers. Her satisfaction shifted into the sublime. She turned on him and pushed him down against the pillows. “Now it’s your turn to suffer.”
His eyes widened and he gave her a cocky grin. “I wouldn’t exactly call this suffering, Meg.”
“We’ll see.” Wicked thoughts filled her mind triggering carnal impulses she decided to indulge.
She circled her fingers around his nipples in unison. He sucked in a hard breath and shivered.
“You’re going to be the death of me.”
“You’re immortal, you can’t die.” She licked the six pack abs, following the treasure line to his waiting cock. When she puckered her lips and pillowed them against the swollen head, he grasped the covers of the divan in a death grip. A drop of his fluid rose to the top. She brought both her hands to his shaft, and used her thumb to move the salty tear around, creating sensual friction.
He made a satisfied, inarticulate sound of male pleasure that had her glowing. Feeling her power, pushed on by his reactions, Meg took the head and shaft into her mouth and sucked deep. He was molten silk inside of her, pulsing with hot life and uncontrolled desire. Her womb contracted, longing to take the pleasure he offered, but there was time for that.
She moved one hand low to cup his tight balls, weighing them in her hand, squeezing with a gentle, rhythmic pressure. In response his cock grew harder still. He laced his hands in her hair, and she began to move, driving him to the edge the way he’d driven her, pushing him beyond any rigid limits or rational, sensible thoughts.
———
Meg’s mouth felt like hot honey pouring over him. Gideon had all he could do to hold back the animal inside while they made love. With her suckling his cock, caressing his balls with her clever hand, stroking his shaft with the other, the beast was sure to slip the chains and run free. Her lush breasts and tight nipples teased his thighs as she moved over him. The scent of her desire filled him. Her hair was silk between his fingers.
He groaned as he waged an inner struggle with uncontrolled need, trying to trap it once more, bind it, put it back in the dark. She had no idea what she was doing. He couldn’t handle the strain much longer. He’d want to take her hard, put his mark upon her, make her scream, not just cry out. Tonight, he wanted her to know she belonged to him and no other. He wanted so much he couldn’t even describe, things that pulled at him viscerally, primally, things that terrified him and made him crazy with lust induced insanity. How could a mortal do this to him? Not even the Godesses took a man this far, pushed this hard, played him so expertly.
He stroked her hair and watched, transfixed by the dangerously hypnotic motions and the sensations she aroused. It lured him into a kind of erotic delirium the likes of which he’d never felt.
The beast inside howled, racing along the razor’s edge. Her tongue darted out once more, pink and moist, and she licked away another drop of his juice. Raw, painful need coursed through his blood. The final illusion of control vanished and Gideon became whole with his uncontrolled desire, directing it at the source of its torment.
Gideon pulled her to him and devoured her mouth with a kiss, and the taste of himself on her lips drugged him further into a tortured state of madness. He needed to possess her, he needed for her to belong completely to him.
Turning her around, he caressed the soft, sweet flesh of her heart shaped ass, and drove into her from behind. She welcomed him into the hot, velvet heaven, and he shuddered, almost losing control, almost coming without thought. Their union took him so far away from himself, so far from control and rules, he doubted he’d ever find his way back. He wanted her to dissolve in his arms, he wanted to dissolve with her, into the primal oblivion.
Gideon continued his onslaught, driving into her, stroking her clit even as she convulsed with orgasm. She was slick with sweat and soaked with the flow of her juices. Her muscles were weak from pleasure. Her body never felt more full as he pushed the column of male flesh to the very hilt, touching the deepest part of her, working her pleasure centers into overdrive.
This was the Gideon she expected, the demon lover, the demanding one, who pushed her beyond any sensible limits. His one hand was buried in her hair, holding tight as he worked his cock inside of her. His other hand wrapped around her as his fingers tormented her most sensitive spot. She felt completely surrounded, enveloped by him. She was drowning in desire, reveling in untapped sexual abandon.
Her sex swelled as she crested on a tidal wave of pleasure and pain. Her body was ablaze. She couldn’t think. She moved on instinct. She wanted his release, and she wanted her own. She moaned low in her throat, a keening sound full of need.
Gideon responded instantly to her call. He moved like a force of nature, unleashing the full of the storm upon her. With three powerful thrusts, she crashed into the torrent of release, and as she went under he cried her name into the dark desert night and drowned with her in the maelstrom.
Gideon collapsed against her, cradling her breasts and breathing softly against the back of her neck. She had never felt more possessed, more fulfilled in her life. She had brought him to ruin, as he brought her, and together, they’d found indescribable bliss. She felt him rumble like thunder above her as he released a growl of satisfaction. He moved and rolled her onto her back, staring down at her with a ferocious gaze.
“Tonight, you’re mine, Meg. No matter what comes tomorrow, it doesn’t matter. Tonight, you’re mine.”
She reached for him, unafraid. His jaw was hard against her palm, his skin slick with sweat and blistering hot. “And you’re mine.”
Chapter Ten
Gideon woke just before dawn, when the world was dark grey and the arrival of day uncertain. He’d made love with Meg for hours, until they were both too exhausted to move or speak. At some point they’d made it back to the suite, finished one last quickie in the shower, then collapsed into sleep on the king-sized bed.
He wished his brief hours of sleep could have been filled with dreams of her. Barring that, he’d have wished for no dreams at all. Instead, he saw the dream of his mortal failure. He buried his wife and children, again and again and again. And each time, his wife’s face was Meg’s, her gaze accusatory and mocking.
He dressed quietly while she slept and went to stand by the window, wondering what the day would bring. Would they find the jar and the Buckle of Isis? Would Jack save Meg? Would Gideon screw up somehow and damn them all?
He glanced back at the bed where Meg slept, nestled amongst a tide of pillows and the thick scarlet comforter. He felt a stab of guilt burn through his chest. Last night he meant to tell her the complete truth, as Jack had told him. Then he came upon her as she slipped out of the silk robe, and into the dark waters of the pool. All his plans turned to dust. He couldn’t look away, he couldn’t turn off the desire.
It was too strong, too insistent. It claimed him in madness, and he let it get the best of him.
She was a wildcat, a seductress, an innocent, a complex woman that unraveled him and turned him into a savage. She stripped away his facades, his civility, his airs, reaching the bare core of him and rattling his bones until his soul quaked in fear. He blinked hard, ran a hand through his hair, and swore. What the hell had he gotten himself into? Worse, what had he gotten her into?
Just before they fell into sleep, she’d looked at him and he knew. This wasn’t just sex. It wasn’t just one night. Not for her. She was falling for him, and instead of doing the right thing and stopping her in her tracks, he’d let her fall. She made him feel things he’d not felt in centuries, and he’d indulged his ego at her expense. No wonder he was damned. She had no idea how worthless he was, what a piece of shit. And when she found out, it would be worse than death. He turned back to the tentative dawn, knowing the day to come would bring harsh, cruel reality. He couldn’t let Meg drift down the path of “what if”. There could be nothing between them. She needed to know the truth. All of it. About her. And, about him.
———
Meg woke to find Gideon staring out at the rising sun. Weak fingers of yellow light clawed into the room, but none seemed to touch him. He stood tall and alone in the shadows of the retreating night. His body was rigid, and in profile, his jaw set tight. The room had a decided chill. She drew the comforter closer as she sat up in the bed. “Good morning.”
He glanced back at her and nodded. “We need to talk.”
Her rising spirits took a spill.
“If you’re going to lecture me about how things can’t work between a mortal and an immortal, save it.” She took a deep breath and fixed him with a pointed stare. “We’re good together. You can’t deny that. And you want me just as much as I want you. That’s all that matters.”