“Lift it,” Enten said coldly, defeated.
This was really bad news. Dagon had found a way to trap even the immortals without bodies. The only good news? They were in possession of his net. Hopefully he didn’t have another.
Before they misted back into the house, Marduk called a late-night meeting, yet again. It seemed that there were a lot of them these days. Lenore was not invited. As a matter of fact, when the time came, they sequestered her in the entertainment room, listening to a movie they knew had the most explosions per minute, complements of Bruce Willis, to keep her ears busy. Marduk got down to logistics.
“Enlil and Huxley were slated to head to Chicago tomorrow to look for Tess’s sister, Holly, since Enlil could sense her blood, and Huxley would have known her on sight. But now, with those two down, we’ll be going in blind.”
Tess looked ready to spit at Marduk’s words and was about to say something, but he cut her off.
“I’m not comfortable letting Tess out of the compound.” He glared at her and she glared right back. “With Dagon and his men getting more proficient, that leaves Anshar and me to do the legwork, embodied, and I’d like two volunteers in the air, so to speak.”
Emesh and Enten, the summer and winter twins, stepped forward.
Marduk nodded.
“Good. We’ll leave in the morning. Tess has printed these pictures of Holly.” He handed one to Anshar. Emesh acquired another. “Although they are several years old, these, along with her resemblance to Tess should be good enough to go on.” He looked around. “The rest of you…work with Shamash and try to uncover more leads with regards to the other women we need to find.”
Marduk thought he heard “stubborn ass” as Tess flounced out of the room. Smirks were hidden behind hands. The big thunder god sighed. It was going to suck to be him tonight.
While Marduk was bemoaning his sex-free evening with an angry Tess, he saw Anshar approached Shamash.
“I need a favor.” That was all Marduk heard because the pair misted off immediately.
****
Lenore’s bang-bang, shoot-’em-up movie had long since finished and she’d switched to the food channel. Somewhere between how to make licorice and the best place to go for barbecue, she curled up on the big leather sofa, pulled an afghan over her legs, and drifted off. Now, she was being pulled from dream land, which was something that never put her in a good mood.
“Go away,” she groaned, pulling the blanket up even higher.
“Come to bed, Lenore,” Anshar’s soft voice tickled her ear.
“Good here,” she responded curtly and sleepily, shooing him away.
“I have a surprise for you,” he cajoled, knowing her so well.
Lenore moaned. Choosing between sleep and a surprise, he might just have a chance.
“What?” She opened one eye and looked up at him suspiciously.
“You have to come with me to find out.”
Lenore was still not buying it. She snuggled down deeper. “Tell me first.” If he wanted her to move badly enough, she reasoned, he’d capitulate. “I’m comfortable.”
“No.” He backed away and stood up. “If you want it, you’ll have to come to our room.” He whistled as he walked toward the door. Lenore blinked. Had he said, “our room?”
“Okay. Fine. I’m coming.” She rose from the couch, keeping the blanket draped around her shoulders. “But I’m not happy.” She squinted up at him while regally walking by, flipping the tail of the throw over one shoulder.
Why did he spin a shiny disc in his fingers, then tuck it into his waistband before following her upstairs? He’d better have more than that up his sleeve to keep her happy, or he’d hear about it.
“Where is it?” Lenore walked into the bedroom and looked around. She didn’t see anything that looked like a surprise. When Anshar walked to a cabinet on the wall and flipped it open, Lenore saw nothing unusual there, either—the TV, a CD player, a DVD reader, an amplifier. So?
Anshar brought out a big pair of wireless headphones. Not the little bitty earbud things so popular these days, but the monster-serious kind that were like strapping speakers to your head. Lenore became a tad interested.
Anshar juiced up the amp and slowly extracted the disk from his pants. Mmm. That was a bit sexy, storing things next to his skin.
He popped the CD into the machine and approached Lenore with the headphones, tucking errant strands of hair behind her ears and securing the implement tightly on her head. He stood back and watched.
Comprehension quickly dawned, as Exile’s I Want to Kiss You All Over floated through her head, and Anshar’s hands slowly reached for the row of buttons on her shirt. Lenore shivered.
With the headphones secure, Dagon wouldn’t be able to hear anything going on in the room and, by the look on Anshar’s face, and the enormous tent forming behind his zipper, he had plenty of things in mind.
Lenore reached for his shirt, but he knocked her hands away and shook his head. This was going to be his game, the gesture stated, and he would be the one taking control. Wetness pooled between Lenore’s legs as she listened to the lyrics and his fingers worked slowly on her clothing.
By the time George Michael was singing I Want Your Sex, Lenore was naked and so keyed up she could no longer stand upright. Anshar’s hands were everywhere, sweeping across her swollen breasts, and up her thighs to within inches of her aching pussy, where she desperately wanted him to touch. She backed up to the bed and fell to the plush surface, barely registering that she was now supine until Anshar stepped between her legs.
He towered over her, looking tall and powerful, then reached down and spread her knees wide, staring at her bared sex for the longest time. Lenore gasped as his muted voice took on a distinct hiss, and his eyes narrowed to dark slits. She squirmed under his gaze, trying to bring her legs together, but he held her open, giving no quarter.
When he’d looked his fill, he scooped up under her ass and moved her backward, then kneeled on the bed, holding her open with his body, while bending forward to lick up her belly. His warm breath sent tingles to her breasts, to her pussy, and when she felt him moan his pleasure against her skin, Lenore reached for his head, pulling him down to run her nails across his scalp. This incited him even further, if the growl she felt wrenched from him was any indication. Still, he pulled back from her grip, rising on his haunches, his nostrils flaring.
He pulled one earphone away from her head. “Don’t touch me, Lenore. Remember what Dagon said.” His breathing was labored. “He’s right, you know. Touching is a bad idea.” The enormous bulge in the front of his jeans belied his words.
Don’t touch him? Hah. Good luck with that, Lenore thought. What was Anshar afraid of? She’d already seen the beast that Enlil had become, and she wasn’t scared. If he thought she would stop because of a horned wonder, he was sorely mistaken. But he’d better move things along because Lenore was only going to play by his rules for a very short while.
Anshar’s big hands reached down and covered her breasts, then released, only to flick one nipple, then squeeze as she failed to suppress a moan. The pressure on her tender buds increased as his eyes glittered, and Lenore thought she might die from the pleasure/pain when he sucked first one, then the other into the warm cavern of his mouth. A scream left her lips.
If Dagon were within a ten-mile radius, Lenore hoped he was busy listening to Prince crooning in her ears a particularly hot lyric from the song Erotic City, or he’d be getting a graphic introduction to her vocal chords.
Gods! Anshar was lighting her on fire. How had she missed this mind-blowing connection between her nipples and her pussy? Lenore was dripping wet, and dammit, she was now done with playing around. She wanted to be fucked. She had to have the whole deal, had to feel what it was like for Anshar to plunge the glorious length that she’d held in her hands deep inside of her where the ache was building to epic proportions. She raised her hands to his shoulders, attempting to pull him to her, but he resist
ed.
Argh! Why was he thwarting her? Anshar was going to drive her mad with his deliberate touch and his torturous tongue! She wanted…no, needed so badly to feel his total invasion, but he hadn’t removed one stitch of his own clothing, and he hadn’t laid a single finger on her weeping and swollen cunt. Her senses were suddenly on hyper-overload, and the roughness of his jeans where they rubbed her inner thighs was damned near enough to bring her to orgasm, but that’s not the way she wanted it. Enough! When he continued to tease and pull at her nipples, she wrenched his hands away and guided them to her pussy
“Please!” she begged him. “Please!”
He knocked her grasp easily from his and moved back, resting on his thighs and gazing at her behind hooded lids. His smile was nothing short of ferocious. When he finally lowered his head and brought his face level with her sex, Lenore groaned. She knew what he was going to do next, and it inflamed her. He gently smoothed through her platinum curls, searching for her tender and needy clit; that one spot that would send her over the edge. When his callused finger found it, she arched up into his touch. Kings of Leon were now crooning Sex on Fire…and it was!
She waited while he scribed small circles on her pleasure nub. By this time, she was shaking and holding her breath. She knew the lyric was coming, knew Anshar was listening too. It was all she could do to wait for the line that would have him tasting her.
His eager tongue dipped down at that very moment and licked her from one end of her creamy slit to the other. She felt him shiver between her legs, while he teased her clit with his thumb and lapped her escaping juices as if she was the best thing he’d ever tasted.
Just as she thought it couldn’t get any better, he plunged his tongue into her needy channel, deeply. How far could he go? Once, twice, and again he probed her sweetness while she arched against him, wanting more. He pulled his mouth away, and she cried at the loss, but then whimpered again as he drove the tip of his finger into her wet depths, using his other hand to raise her chin to look at his impassioned visage. And impassioned he was. As he worked her, moving slowly deeper and deeper, his eyes darkened and sweat formed on his brow, his upper lip. Gods, he was beautiful, and what he was doing felt good! So damned good!
Her moans came faster now in time with Donna Summer as she sang Love to Love You Baby, and when his first finger was joined by another, Lenore was so drenched and stretched so wide that she barely noticed when he broke the barrier that proclaimed her innocence. Her pain was fleeting; her body only tensing for mere seconds, but Anshar noticed and stilled to let her acclimatize to the intrusion.
She smiled up at him with unspoken assurance. He hadn’t scared her. On the contrary. He’d taken his time and prepared her well, but he must have felt he’d pushed her far enough as he began to withdraw. Hell, no! He couldn’t stop now! Lenore grabbed his digits and put them back in place, making sure they went right to the spot that he had breached.
His fingers soothed and stroked, moving as if in apology, but Lenore wanted none of that. Now that the deed was done, she wanted more. Harder! Faster! Lenore rotated her hips to urge Anshar deeper until, after what seemed like an eternity, he moved with purpose again, filling her up with his big digits and plunging strongly into her core.
His head dropped, and his lips moved over her engorged nipples in sync with the fingers that now worked her pussy with a frantic rhythm. Oh gods! This was it. She could feel it coming. Lenore spiraled upward, panting. Anshar and Marvin Gaye were going to finish her off!
She orgasmed violently, clenching around him, reaching down, and holding his hand in place, never wanting him to move. She met his eyes and the joy at her exquisite finish reflected on his face. If she didn’t know better, she would have said that he raised his head and howled…or perhaps he had.
Sexual Healing. Lenore laughed. A gritty little chuckle at first and, when she glanced up at Anshar’s delighted face, she laughed again. He joined her, until she was laughing so hard that tears streamed down her face. Nothing had ever made her feel this complete, this close to another person in her entire existence. She’d thought it before, and now she was certain. Her attachment to Anshar was something greater than she had ever dreamed possible. She might even love him.
Lenore stopped that train of dangerous thought. She wouldn’t even go there until she’d severed all ties with Dagon, giving official notice to her boss. Yup. Screw Dagon. He could find himself a new minion.
Lenore calmed, emitting little hiccups of pleasure as she lay with Anshar’s head cradled on her belly. She ran her fingers absently through his hair. He had given her the orgasm of her life and despite that, or maybe because of it, she once again admitted to herself that she was falling in love. Anshar’s head moved up and down with the rhythm of her abdomen. And damned if the orgasm hadn’t lit her up in other ways. Anshar couldn’t see it from his position, but her shoulder was glowing like a fucking beacon. Great orgasm…fireworks. That had to be the connection. She smirked.
She hadn’t received any irate head invasions from her erstwhile boss, so she figured if he’d been outside, he hadn’t heard anything except the sexy music, and didn’t suspect the physical rockets that she and Anshar had just launched. Good.
Chapter Fifteen
Lenore’s phone was ringing. She reached blindly for the bedside table to retrieve it. “Hello,” she mumbled. Opening her eyes, she noted that Anshar was nowhere to be seen. Shower noises? Nope. He must have gotten up pretty early.
“Lenore, this is your illustrious boss. I request your presence immediately in Plymouth.”
“Still in bed, asshole,” she grumbled. “I’m going to brush my teeth, take a shower and…oh…give myself a morning quickie. Then I’ll head to Plymouth.” Click. Lenore loved to tease the prick.
Lenore showered and went down to breakfast, catching Marduk and his wife necking by the stove. Both their shoulders were throwing high wattage, and Lenore stuck her head in the refrigerator to hide a smirk. She withdrew it when she sensed they had composed themselves.
Lenore jutted her chin in the direction of Tess’s light.
“I know what’s been going on this morning,” she sing-songed.
Why did Tess and Marduk look momentarily horrified? They weren’t normally shy individuals.
“You do?” Tess squeaked, slapping her right hand over the glow and swallowing hard.
“Yup! Had me a glow-on last night too.” She waggled her eyebrows and turned to leave the room, missing the stunned and confused expressions on Marduk and Tess’s faces. “Best ever!”
She angled back. “Oh, and when you see Anshar, will you tell him I’ve been summoned to Plymouth and I’ll catch him when I get back?”
Now the two looked guilty.
“He’s not here.” Marduk dropped another quick kiss on Tess’s brow. “And I’m late. Bye!” He misted out. Chicken shit, thought Lenore. He was leaving Tess to face whatever the hell was hanging, ripe, in the room.
“Okay. Where is Anshar?” Lenore asked the goddess pointedly, knowing she could attempt using her amulet tracker—which she was getting better at—but putting Tess on the spot was more fun.
“He’s in Chicago.” Tess looked sheepish. Lenore pursed her lips. Obviously, there was no good way for the goddess to say it, since Anshar hadn’t told Lenore he was leaving. “He and several of the guys have gone to look for my sister, Holly.” It was common knowledge now, and not news to Dagon that Tess’s twin was in Chicago—and a person of interest—so there was no need to keep it quiet. Her soon to be ex-boss would have been expecting this development.
“Oh.” Lenore had nothing to reply. Anshar, the bastard, had left without so much as a bye-bye. It’s a good thing she hadn’t blurted out anything embarrassing last night like “I love you” after her incredible orgasm. Apparently for Anshar, sex was sex, and it didn’t in any way require him to feel connected or to divulge his travel plans to her. He’d bailed on her while she slept. Asshole! She tuned in on him and heard his gr
eeting to Marduk, then tuned out. Fuck him. She was headed to Plymouth. Maybe she wouldn’t quit her day job, and Anshar could just suck on it.
Lenore knew she was being unreasonable. Anshar was probably just being careful. If he’d said something earlier and Dagon had been listening, he might have had time to anticipate the Blue Hills gods’ arrival and found a way to ambush them. But dammit, she didn’t feel like being rational! The least he could have done was say goodbye. Lenore dissipated to Plymouth in a snit.
****
“Okay, you prick. This better be good because I am NOT in a stellar mood!” Lenore planted herself a foot away from Dagon and poked him in the chest with one manicured nail.
“I was in Chicago earlier and saw Anshar arrive.” Dagon looked smug. “He checked in to the same hotel where I’ve taken a suite of rooms as headquarters. I could feel his energy as soon as he stepped through the front door.”
So much for secrets and stealth on Anshar’s part, snorted Lenore.
“So what do you want me to do about it?” She glared at Dagon, her green eyes shooting daggers.
“You will go and join him, thereby making me aware of every move he and his cohorts make.” Dagon moved back a few steps as Lenore stared at him in angry silence.
Her brain was moving fast. What if she refused to go? Would he use the collar and make her? Would he hurt her mother and grandmother? Lenore was betting on the former, because as evil as Dagon purported to be, she had yet to see him harm any female. There was some old-fashioned, old-school thing about him that seemed to place women on a different playing field, beyond physical retribution.
To test her theory, Lenore hauled back and smashed a fist right in the middle of Dagon’s chest, sending him crashing back into the wall. Goddess power rocked! It took Dagon a few seconds to clear his head.
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