by Lucy Auburn
“I did.” Elah smiled as he dropped his shadow form; reaching up, he patted Fira’s soft nose. The horse stood just outside the porch, her halter tied to a corner post. “I’ve felt bad, keeping her cooped up inside all day. And the detective wanted to show you his motorcycle. So we both rode our mounts.”
“So you did.”
I took the seat beside him, while Leon pulled the fourth chair out and put it aside, then sat between Elah and me. Looking back and forth between them, I sensed tension—as well as a little bit of hope.
I’d said yes to Leon so recently, but I still had to say something to Elah.
And now that the news was out to the fae Elders, and I had no excuses left, it was time to tell them about her. Persephone. As well as everything that happened to me while I was gone.
Reaching out, I fiddled with the corner of my cloth napkin. “As long as we’re here, I should tell you something.”
Between courses of bread in a basket, steaks and mashed potatoes, glasses of wine and bourbon, and a dessert of cinnamon ice cream and fried beignets, I let the truth pour out of me. Bit by bit, word by word, I said everything.
When I was done with it and they were still sitting there beside me, sympathy and anger alike in their eyes, I hoped that this meant they were with me still. That I had them—now, and maybe even forever.
“So,” I said to Elah, “do you still want to go forward with our engagement?”
“Yes.” His answer was swift; he reached out to thread his fingers through mine, his amber eyes glowing with inner light. “I care about you, Selena. Your birth mother doesn’t matter to me.”
Looking to Leon, I told him, “I understand if this changes things between us.”
“It changes nothing.” There was a hardness to his eyes as he added, “Except that now I have one more enemy to add to my list. What she did to you was unacceptable.”
I nodded, a lump in my throat; my mind skirted away from the memories, raw again since the time in the healing grove brought them to the forefront. “Where do we go from here?”
“Well.” Elah’s eyes seemed to bore into me, his thumb rubbing against the back of my hand. “My hotel isn’t too far from here.”
Suddenly there was an entirely new type of warmth pooling inside me—and spreading down to my thighs. “That sounds... convenient.”
Leon said, “We like to plan ahead.”
Just like that we were all looking for the waitress so she could bring us our bill and free us up so we could sate a different kind of hunger.
36
Selena
The wind whipping through my hair felt like a lover’s caress. Pressing my cheek against Leon’s neck, I did my best to swallow my nervousness as he drove me on his motorcycle towards Elah’s hotel. Not far away from us, taking back street and cutting through empty fields, Elah was on Fira’s back in shadow form. He told me that he used his teleportation powers to get around faster, but only when the traffic permitted.
We reached the hotel far too quickly. I found myself wishing for another drink as I swung my legs over Leon’s motorcycle after him. My nerves were on edge, every exposed inch of my skin on fire. When Leon looked down at me, the street lamps reflected in his blue eyes, a spark of yellow and orange in their depths.
He reached out to stroke the edge of my jaw, his fingers brushing against my neck. “I wish I’d been able to find you,” he said. “If I’d known you were in the Underworld that whole time, I would’ve done everything in my power to walk into Hell and get you out.”
His words warmed my heart. “I know you would.”
“Just making sure.”
The warm fingers on my neck trailed up to softly play with a strand of my hair. I moved in close to him, hands on his chest, blinking up into his eyes. The kiss that followed felt natural, as expected as the sunrise—and just as warm. He tasted like strength, his energy flowing into my mouth as he lightly tongued my lips until I parted to him.
I felt his growing heat against my hips and pressed forward, eager for what was coming next, hungry to have him inside me. Leon seemed to share my eagerness; one of his hands pressed against my hip, then slipped around to gently squeeze my ass. I parted my thighs to him, feeling his fingers through the denim of my jeans as he pressed lower, near the place where my legs met. I moaned into his mouth at the filthy suggestion of it all.
Just then I heard hoofbeats, and broke off the kiss. “Elah is here.”
“I know.” Leon’s voice was a low rumble that I could feel in my chest. His hand moved further north—just a little, just enough for public propriety. “It’s too bad. I wanted to share you tonight.”
I blinked up at him, a feeling stretching beneath my rib cage like a pulled string, taught and ready for release. “Too bad? Why can’t we...”
“If you want your engagement to be legal under fae law, Elah has to have you all to himself at least once.” He looped my hair between my ears with his fingers as the blackfyre knight found a place to tie up Fira. “Not that I wouldn’t happily join, but... it seems selfish to take a man’s first time with his intended away from him.”
“Don’t go anywhere.” My fingers curled in his shirt, my eagerness for him surprising even me. “Just... stay. And maybe after.”
There was a look on Leon’s face, deep and hungry, very much like the beast who shared his body. “Oh, I like the sound of that.”
“The sound of what?” Elah was behind Leon’s shoulder, his amber eyes taking us in, his stance relaxed.
“We’re taking turns tonight, brother,” Leon said, the word for Elah falling off his lips naturally. “I’ll graciously let you have the first course.”
“Let you?” An arrogant smirk curled Elah’s lips. “You’re lucky I consider you a brother-in-arms, detective, because even two of you can’t take a blackfyre knight.”
“Who said it would be two? The beast could take you. But I’m a gentleman, and I won’t fight over a woman I would rather share.” Leon squeezed my ass one last time and stepped back, hungrily looking at me from head to toe. “Consummate your engagement. I’ll be waiting in the lobby.”
He was about to step away when Elah said, “Wait.” Leon turned, his face questioning. Elah looked at me with a banked heat that I could feel, then back at Leon again. “Wait in the room with us. If the lady is amenable?”
I could imagine it already: Elah’s thick girth entering me, my cries of ecstasy, raking his back with my fingernails—and all the while, Leon looking over at me with smoldering heat in his eyes. It shocked me what I felt in response to the thought, and I had to answer Elah’s question around a lump in my throat.
“That sounds like a plan to me.” I glanced over at Leon, and had to stifle a gasp at the way his eyes seemed to penetrate me all on their own. “It’ll make things more... convenient.”
Elah added, “But you can’t interfere while we complete the last part of our engagement. Otherwise the magic that will bind us will be void.”
“Oh, I can think of something to do with myself,” Leon said, every bit of suggestion possible in his voice. “What’s your room number?”
“Four twelve.” Elah handed him a room key card.
“I’ll be waiting.”
He disappeared through the front doors of the hotel, leaving me alone with my soon-to-be fiancé. I stepped towards Elah, his amber eyes on me like the blaze of a flame’s heart.
“Are we really doing this?” I murmured, taking a step towards him. “After tonight, we’ll be engaged.”
“It’s all I’ve thought of for the past three months,” he confessed, reaching out to place a hand on my waist. I let him beckon me closer, a moth to his flame. “I want this so badly that I can taste it on the tip of my tongue.”
“Me too. So let’s get started.”
I moved towards him, his head tilted down to me. Our lips met in a soft caress that turned wild and hungry. Elah’s tongue pressed into my mouth, all heat and smolder, like a forest fire or a volcano’
s eruption. I felt alive at the touch of his hand on my waist, his energy flowing into me and lighting me on fire. The deeper our kiss became the more I felt like I was burning. There was a warmth to him that destroyed the darkness inside me. It was almost a shock when we broke away and I found myself still intact, not a hint of me scorched, the only heat banked and controlled in the depths of his amber eyes.
“I think if we keep going, it becomes public indecency,” Elah said, voice rough with desire. “I’ve heard from the detective that’s an issue here on Earth.”
I bit my lower lip, worrying at it to keep from laughing. “It is. Let’s go inside and join him.”
We pushed through the hotel doors. There was a desk clerk at the front, but he didn’t even look up from his cell phone as we walked down the hallway towards the elevator. Mirrors on either side of us reflected our forms. When I turned to stare at my reflection, I was startled by the color of my eyes; a ring of glowing light surrounded my pupil. So this was what I looked like when the succubus inside me awakened and fed herself. My irises were no longer their normal green and blue, like a tree’s leaves at dusk. They were a bright blue-white that was almost colorless.
The elevator dinged, and I moved away, joining Elah in the empty elevator cab. He grabbed my hand and tugged me towards him as the doors closed behind us. Our hips pressed close, his growing erection rubbing against my abdomen through his pants. He drew my chin up and kissed me roughly, his teeth worrying at my lower lip, his tongue skillfully parting open my mouth. I tilted my head and pressed myself against him further, my breasts brushing against his chest, hands reaching up to tug on his shirt.
The desire to have him inside me was overwhelming—I felt it between my thighs, which parted to rub against him as the elevator rose. When the doors opened I didn’t want to step away, but there was someone waiting for us inside Elah’s room, and I could almost feel his anticipation from afar. We kissed for a while longer, until I heard the elevator doors start to slide closed. I broke off from Elah with a gasp. He reached out to stop the elevator from closing, pushing the door back open again and tugging me out into the hallway.
“We should’ve done this a long time ago,” I said, voice rough.
“Oh, we’re going to make up for lost time,” he promised. “This way.”
I followed Elah through the hallway towards his room. He fumbled with the key card, taking two swipes to get the green light on the lock. We were both nervous, full of anticipation and eagerness.
“Ladies first.” He stepped aside, holding the door open for me.
“Thank you.”
When I stepped in I immediately felt the presence already in the room: Leon, standing in the corner with his jacket off, staring out into the night sky. The moon was almost full, and its silver light glowed at the edges of his cheek and shoulders. He turned around as we walked through the door, the spark of anticipation in his blue eyes like the ice to Elah’s fire.
I walked up to Leon, feeling Elah right behind me, his hand resting lightly on my hip. Standing between the two of them, I could hear their breathing, sense their eyes on me, questions banked in them.
“You know,” I said, “the engagement thing could probably—it could—”
My words were cut short by Elah’s mouth pressing against the side of my neck, where the fading scar was. Breath fluttering, I reached out and grabbed Leon’s hand, his calloused fingers moving across my palm. The detective moved closer and dipped his head down to kiss me, so that I was tasting his primal strength and duality even as Elah’s mouth moved down to my shoulder and pushed my sleeve lower. Leon moved his mouth down from my lips to dip towards my cleavage, a growl low in his throat like an animal. Sparks of overwhelming pleasure ran up and down the inside of my thighs, little panting breaths falling from my lips.
Then Leon abruptly ripped away, his blue eyes alight in the darkness, hands clenching. “As soon as you’re done,” he said, a promise in his voice. “Then next time, we’ll do this together.”
Elah’s voice was warm against my neck. “I look forward to it.”
My eyes followed Leon as he walked towards the bathroom door and disappeared on the other side of it. The sound of the shower followed; I could guess what he was up to. As disappointed as I was that he wouldn’t be staying in the room to watch, I knew it was a temptation too impossible to avoid. If my bond to Elah was wrapped up in us having sex, just the two of us, then we needed to do that—and I wanted to explore his body without rushing.
Turning inside his arms, I met those amber eyes just before our lips crashed together with desperate desire. His hands were warm against my skin as he pushed my shirt up, our kiss briefly interrupted as he tugged it over my head. His shirt soon followed, falling to the ground in a heap. Everything about him was toned and perfect: pecs, abs, broad and muscular shoulders. The light in the room was dim, but I could see everything by the fire in his eyes, the subtle glow to his skin as his desire brought his power to the forefront.
“God, you’re sexy,” I said, licking my lower lip as I drank in the sight of him. “I can’t believe I tried to break things off with you. I’ll never do that again.”
“Then let’s make it official.” Grabbing my hips, he drew me close and kissed my cheek, my lips, my jaw, each kiss punctuated by a trail of words. “I want... to be... inside you. I want... to hear... you scream... my name.”
I gasped, chest rising at the thought, and his mouth moved lower, to my clavicle. Those skillful hands, powerful enough to raise a sword and cleave an enemy in two, reached around to unclasp my bra and drag it off me. Elah half-knelt as he brought his mouth to each of my breasts, sucking my nipples with his lips and brushing against them with his tongue.
Knees weak, I sat down on the edge of the bed and dragged him with me. His eyes were two flames in the dark as he braced himself above me, his amulet—a twin to mine—and his armor gem both dangling from a chain around his neck. I reached up to trace the edges of his jaw, then grabbed the chain and pulled it off his head, discarding it somewhere in the darkness.
“Get naked,” I demanded. “Now.”
A smirk twitched up the corners of his mouth. “Is that how it works? And here I thought my dick would go inside you even with my pants on.”
I squirmed at his words, legs clenching at the thought of him inside me. “Pants on the ground, Havaala.”
“As my lady wishes.”
He kissed my forehead before drawing back, standing at the foot of the bed and grabbing his belt. I watched, riveted, as he drew the leather from its loops and dropped it on the ground. While I’d seen Elah naked before, had anticipated having him in me, it hadn’t felt so real until now. I’d gone for months without knowing if I would ever see him again or be able to touch him. The thought of having him inside me was almost too much to bear.
So as he pushed his jeans down his hips I crawled off the bed and knelt in front of him. Looking up at him from under my eyelashes, I palmed the sizable bulge pressing up against the black silk of his boxers.
“You don’t have to,” he said roughly; like many gentler men, he seemed to think that taking him into my mouth would be a burden or a chore. It was anything but.
“I want to,” I promised him, licking my lips. “Very, very badly.”
That made his eyes close briefly, a pang of arousal crossing his face. Grabbing onto the edge of his boxers, I revealed yet again the magnificent cock I’d first seen months ago, held in my hand. It was girthy and very erect, just waiting for a mouth like mine. So I licked my lips and my palm, opened up, and drew him onto my tongue.
The best thing about sucking a man’s cock was the look on his face. As I drew Elah’s deep into my mouth, then brought the tip onto my tongue and licked it, I stared up into his eyes the whole time. His jaw would clench each time I hit a sensitive spot, and his eyes glowed with fire the tighter I wrapped my lips around him and drew energy from his erect member.
The succubus side of me was alive and loving this
, hungrily lapping at my soon-to-be-fiancé’s cock with an eagerness. Soon enough I was bobbing up and down on his length as fast as I dared, a hand around the base to steady myself. I felt his hands tug gently on my hair and thrilled at the pressure, my thighs clenched tightly around my growing hunger.
When Elah gasped, “Oh, god,” and muttered, “enough, stop—ah, Selena,” I drew back from him, the head of his cock falling out of my mouth with a pop from all the suction. It glistened with spit and precum, and Elah’s abdomen was tense as he reached down to grab it on the base. “You’re so sexy. You almost made me come for a second there. We have to save that for when I’m inside you.”
“I know,” I said with a smirk, pushing up onto my feet and touching his chest with my hands. His ribcage still heaved faster than normal as he breathed deeply from getting so close to orgasm, and it made me feel powerful and alive. “I want you inside me, too. I just got carried away.”
“You’re amazing.”
He kissed me, heedless of the taste of himself on my tongue. I sank into his mouth, shivering with delight as he hands reached down to the waistband of my jeans to tug open the button and zipper. Those fingers of his pushed down to my underwear, which was damp from my desire for him. He briefly rubbed back and forth on the fabric before pulling out to undress me completely, kneeling before me as he whipped off my jeans and panties all at once.
His mouth was right in front of my lowers lips. Hot breath escaped from his mouth. Eyes flicking up at me, Elah reached back to grab my ass in both hands and opened his mouth to engulf my pussy. Putting a hand on the bed for support, I gasped and rocked into him, seeking the friction and suction of his mouth. That tongue of his was clever and probing, finding the sensitive parts of me and flicking against them with delightful pressure. His mouth felt warm, warmer somehow than a human’s, as if he’d just had a too-warm drink. I moaned as I pressed against the fire and heat of him, splashes of volcanic energy drawing into me from our connection, swirling around in my abdomen and filling me up.