Damned and Desperate (Eternally Yours Book 3)

by Tara West

  “I love you, brother.” Callum sounded as choked up as I felt.

  “I love you, too,” I barely managed to say before my vision got even foggier.

  We held each other for a long moment until Ash cleared her throat beside us.

  Ash pointed beyond Callum’s shoulder. “We have company.”

  Callum and I shared awkward looks as we both stepped back.

  “I’m sorry.” Cara shifted from foot to foot. “Is this a bad time?”

  “No.” Callum held out his hand to her. She came to him with a smile, and he wrapped an arm protectively around her shoulder.

  “Cara, this is my brother, Aedan, and his girlfriend, Ash.” He swept a hand at us before smiling down at her. “Aedan and Ash, my girlfriend, Cara.”

  His girlfriend? Wow. My twin wastes no time.

  “Omigod!” Ash squealed, clapping her hands together. “You found a girlfriend!” She yanked Cara away from Callum, squeezing her so hard, I thought the girl was going to snap in two. “I remember you from the tunnel. You two must have fallen in love down there. Oh, how romantic. I can’t wait to hear all about it.” Ash turned to me with a pleading look in her eyes,

  holding Cara’s arm against her. “Aedan, we must find a way to bring her to Purgatory with us. Do you remember her from the tunnel? Remember how concerned she was about Callum? She’s not evil like Katherine. I just know it!” She took a deep breath. “We must find Cam. He’ll help us.”

  Though I was happy my brother had found someone, Cara presented a big problem. I didn’t know her sins, but if she was anywhere near as bad as Katherine, God would never allow her to ascend. Then again, I had to trust my brother knew better than to be fooled by another evil bitch. Whatever sins Cara had committed on Earth, she must have atoned for them by now.

  Cara dipped her head and looked at us from beneath long lashes. “My place is here with the other priestesses.”

  “Hang on. God said Callum could come to Purgatory. Did you know that, Callum? You get to come to Purgatory. Don’t you want to ascend with him?” Ash said this all without taking a breath, as if her mouth was trying to beat the clock.

  Cara motioned to the opulent furnishing and tapestries. “I have more than what I need here.”

  “Sorry, Ash.” Callum pulled his girl back to his side. “I’m staying with Cara.”

  Ash pouted like a child. “But Purgatory won’t be fun without you.”

  I wanted to tell her Purgatory wouldn’t be fun either way, not after The Grim Union confiscated my credits. I groaned, shaking my head. “Then I guess we’ll have to visit him on weekends.”

  Ash looked at me as if I’d gone crazy. “But this is Hell.”

  “Ash, this is paradise.” Callum pointed to the lush garden beyond their room. “Are you telling me Purgatory is better than this?”

  He had a point.

  Cara looked at Ash as if she’d lost her mind when she jabbed Callum hard in the chest.

  “What if other demons attack you?” Ash’s voice became so loud, it echoed across the spacious chamber. “They’re bound to learn the Nephilim are gone.”

  Callum shot me a pleading look before pushing her hand away. “Then I’ll attack back. I am a dragon in my demon form, remember? Besides, Cam and the other angels disguised the pyramid before they left. The demons won’t find it.”

  Ash turned to me with a look, as if I was supposed to intervene. I had nothing. Honestly, if Katherine didn’t live here, I’d probably want to move in, too. The pyramid was almost as perfect as Heaven, maybe even more so since they didn’t need to depend on valets to obey their every whim. They grew their own food and reaped the benefits. It was by far more my kind of utopia.

  Ash huffed. “But Katherine lives here.”

  Ha! She must have been reading my mind. Either that, or we were becoming more attuned to each other’s thoughts.

  A slow grin stretched across Callum’s face, reminding me of his devilish dragon form. “It’s a big pyramid. I’m sure we can avoid her.”

  Ash glared at him and then me before stomping a foot. “Well, shit.”

  As it turned out, Sarge and Shadow wanted to stay in the pyramid, too. It seemed pyramid life agreed with them, especially since Callum and Cara had brought with them twelve single priestesses. Boner refused to leave Mar, and Mar wasn’t about to abandon her daughter. Ash and I promised Mar we’d bring her parents for visits on weekends. Maybe Mr. and Mrs. Murphy could get my parents off cheesecake long enough to bring them down as well.

  I said goodbye to our friends with a heavy heart, dreading my meeting with the union. What would they say when I told them the scythe had been lost, possibly even destroyed? Would they knock me all the way down to level two, and if so, how could I expect Ash to live with me in squalor?

  No, the only option would be for her to reside in Heaven and visit me on weekends. I would work double-shifts, earning my way back up as fast as possible, but our eternity together would have to be put on hold. It was the only solution that made sense, so why did I get the feeling Ash would fight me on it?

  Ash MacLeod

  Aedan didn’t mention going to his summons again, and I didn’t ask. Call it stalling the inevitable, but I wasn’t in the mood for their shit at the moment. As much as I dreaded Aedan’s meeting, I hated the feeling of not knowing what was going to happen. Finally, curiosity got the best of me.

  “When are you going to answer the summons?” I asked as we walked through my penthouse door for possibly the last time in a long while.

  “Tomorrow. They gave me twenty-four hours to respond.” Aedan’s tone was clipped, indicating he didn’t want to discuss it any further.

  He walked over to the huge wet bar at the other end of my sunken living room and poured himself a drink. After what he’d been through, I guessed he needed it. I did, too, as a matter of fact.

  “What are you having?”

  Wow. The boy was reading my mind?

  “Hmmmm.” I sat on a padded stool and grabbed a little umbrella off the marble counter, toying with it before pointing to the strawberry margarita machine behind him. Holy heck! I had a margarita machine! This really was Heaven. Damn, I was going to miss this place.

  Aedan poured me a tall one, adding a cute little pink umbrella. We spent the next several minutes drinking in silence, partly because I was savoring the sweet and tangy taste of the best margarita ever, and partly because I was thinking depressing thoughts about a pair of big brown puppy dog eyes.

  Snap out of it, Ash. This could be your last night in Heaven for a very long time.

  I eyed Aedan over the rim of my glass as he leaned over the bar, sulking into his drink. “I’m going with you.”

  His gaze snapped to mine. “It’s a private meeting.”

  “Not there.” I took a long sip of my drink before fixing him with a determined expression. “To the bottom.”

  His eyes hardened, and he clutched the glass so hard, I feared it would break. “No, you’re staying here. You can pay me conjugal visits on weekends.”

  Ha! If he thought I was going to let him scrape by in the slums without me, he had another think coming. “No, Aedan. Where you go, I go.”

  He walked around the bar, clasping my hands. The emotion in his shimmery blue pools nearly shattered my heart. “Ash, level two is—”

  “Paradise compared to where we’ve been. I’ll survive it, Aedan, as long as I’m with you. Besides,” I added with a sly smile. “If I give you half my credits, we won’t be on two. We’ll be on six or seven.”

  He lifted me from the chair, cupping my face in his hands. “I love you, Ashley MacLeod. You’re my whole world, my eternity.”

  I wrapped my arms around him, snuggling against his solid chest. Mmm. He smelled like warmth and spice and everything naughty and nice. “I love you, Aedan, and I will always love you.” I purred like a kitten while nibbling the skin below his ear. “Make love to me.”

  Aedan swept me into his arms and carried me to the
bedroom. If I’d thought he was a tender lover before, that was nothing compared to now. After all of our frustration in Hell, I expected him to tear off my clothes and fuck my brains out. Personally, I was too physically and emotionally drained to jump his bones. I laid on top of the comforter, letting him undress us before he fell onto the mattress beside me, curling me up in his warm embrace and showering me with kisses. We started with a slow and tender make-out session, my soft parts melding into his hard parts. We kissed as if in a drunken stupor until the need to feel him inside me overpowered my fatigue. What had been in that margarita, anyway, horny water?

  “Please, Aedan,” I begged, scraping my nails down his back. “I need you.”

  Aedan climbed on top of me, seating his hard cock between us. “You have me, sweetheart.” He nibbled my ear before tracing hot kisses down my neck. “For all eternity.”

  I dug my fingers into the globes of his ass, pressing his silken head against my wet desire. “Fill me, baby. Please.”

  “I will. Right after I taste you.”

  I growled like a rabid animal as he pulled back, tracing molten hot kisses across my breasts and down my abdomen before burying his face against my core, lapping up my juices with long, languid strokes of his tongue.

  I bucked into him, practically flying off the bed. And then I did fly off the bed, right up toward the ceiling, and Aedan flew with me. Holy fuck! That margarita had definitely been laced with something. Come to think of it, it had kind of tasted like strawberry cheesecake.

  Aedan kneaded my ass with deft fingers while spearing deep inside me with his generously long tongue. When he rubbed the swollen center of my cleft with his thumb, an orgasm swept through me without warning. I screamed to the rafters, falling limp as he tilted me upside-down, driving his tongue in deeper and faster.

  “Oh, fuck!” I screamed as another orgasm gripped me so hard, I could literally feel my channel walls clenching his tongue. He laughed into me, squeezing the pearl of my essence between his thumb and finger, torturing my swollen clit as I rocked against him.

  He climbed up the length of my body, burying his thick shaft in my slick entrance. He slid in and out with deep thrusts, lavishing kisses across my breasts and neck. He captured my mouth in a passion-fueled kiss at the moment our bodies joined at the pinnacle of pleasure, his enlarged head hitting the swollen center of my desire. Dear God, I was on fire, like a combustible ball of torture and sweet bliss all rolled into one. He deepened the kiss, and I tasted my essence on his tongue as he reached between us, stroking my weeping flesh.

  My orgasm built again, this time more powerful than anything I’d ever known, like an atom bomb of ecstasy ready to explode inside me. He continued to thrust, tease, and stroke, until the height of his torment reached the breaking point. My racing heart shattered, and my building need tipped into oblivion. I felt as if I was falling, and falling fast, as my orgasm stretched and expanded, milking his cock with long, hard quakes. He cried out, shaking in my arms, as he spurted deep inside me again, and again. After several glorious heartbeats, he fell on top of me, and we sank back to the mattress with a mutual sigh, in pure, contented bliss.

  I didn’t need to live in Heaven to be happy. I just needed Aedan. He was Heaven enough.

  Epilogue

  “Come on, you damn piece of shit!” I banged the side of the television so hard, I knew I’d leave a mark on my palm. “Work, already!” I slumped against the console, staring at the fuzzy screen in frustration. Actually, it wasn’t the TV’s fault shitty level ten cable was always going out, but I had to take out my frustration on something.

  And just when I thought all hope was lost, Jack Junior, my mom’s little black Lab puppy, came into focus.

  I tapped the screen. “Hey, buddy.”

  He let out the cutest little howl before spinning in a circle. He rolled onto his back and looked at me with the sweetest big brown eyes, his tail slapping the floor and his tongue lolling to one side.

  I liked to sit on the floor and play this game with Jack every evening. My mom usually put him outside around seven, thinking he was doing his business. What would she have thought if she’d known he was playing with the ghost of her dead daughter?

  I swore when the picture went wonky and blanked out. If it wasn’t for Jack, I wouldn’t have even bothered trying to get reception. Usually, if Aedan and I wanted to watch TV, we rented old Jackie Chan tapes. Yeah, tapes, because, unfortunately, level ten was still stuck in the ’80s, and we were stuck on level ten.

  I supposed our eternity could have turned out worse, much worse, so I should have counted my blessings. Since there was evidence Aedan’s spare scythe had been incinerated and not lost, the Grim committee gave him a break and didn’t take all his credits, just enough to knock him down to level four. How very generous of them. (Insert sarcastic eye roll.)

  After we’d combined our credits, we had enough to move into a crappy apartment I dubbed “The Shag Palace” with a retro green fridge we had to defrost at least once a week and bright orange carpet that resembled dead grass. Again, I counted my blessings we hadn’t gotten stuck in a run-down sardine can like my grandpa, who’d been living in a trailer on the other side of town.

  When the inspector paid my grandpa a visit and condemned his trailer, he was forced to move into our second bedroom. I kept telling myself the living situation was temporary, but that was five months ago. I was starting to think Grandpa liked having hot dinners prepared for him and his own personal valet (aka Ash Murphy MacLeod) to do his laundry and clean his toilet. Well, at least he split the rent and groceries with us, so we could save our credits faster.

  Our goal was to reach level thirteen within fifteen years. Crow already said we could have our old ghosting jobs back once we got there. As far as ascending to Heaven, well, I wasn’t in a rush, anymore. Aedan and I discussed having a weekend place at the Penthouse, but I had to admit, doing nothing but sitting around and eating cheesecake had lost its appeal. Besides, the pyramid had almost everything Heaven had, and we could visit our friends on sub-level one whenever we wanted, provided we had time off.

  Aedan and I tried to get away to the pyramid at least every other weekend. Even though Cara had managed to help Callum curb his drinking, they still threw some wild parties. Sometimes we were joined by our old ghoster buddies, Basil and Crow, Aedan’s parents, and my family. Of course, Katherine wasn’t invited to the parties, but she spent all her free time praying with the priestesses, anyway. Since Aedan usually worked overtime at the shipping warehouse, and my boss liked to call me in on Saturdays, we sometimes had to skip pyramid trips. And I really hated being at the apartment when my grandma came for conjugal visits.

  Let’s just say the walls in our apartment were thin—too damn thin. It got to the point that I had to beg my grandparents to turn up their radio.

  I had to remind myself at least ten times a day my afterlife could have been worse. After Aedan threatened to rearrange my condescending creditor’s face, he found me a secretarial job for a big boss at the Creditor’s Union. My new boss was sort of an asshole, but the pay was decent, and weekday hours were flexible as long as I was willing to work weekends.

  I checked the clock on the VCR as Aedan finally trudged through the door. He was at least two hours late, which I guessed was a good thing since I hadn’t even started dinner. “Where have you been?”

  He slipped out of his jacket, hanging it in the small front closet. “At the pawnshop. I traded my silver sword.”

  “What? You loved that sword.”

  Shit. I hope he traded it for credits.

  He flashed the adorable boyish grin I’d come to love. “But I love you more.” He knelt beside me, pulling a little black box out of his pocket.

  Omigod! Omigod! Omigod!

  “I was going to do this the right way and take you to a fancy dinner, but I spent all my credits on this.”

  He cracked open the box, and my heart went THUD! Inside was the most beautiful solitaire in the
history of the universe!

  Aedan’s soulful gaze sought mine. “Marry me, Ash. Be mine for all eternity.”

  “Yes! Yes! Yes!” I threw my arms around him, lavishing him with kisses before he cupped my face in his hands and captured my lips in one soul-searing, panty-melting kiss.

  Oh, hubba hubba. Take me to the bedroom now!

  “Hey, Ash. I don’t have space in my bedroom to hang this.”

  Aedan and I jerked apart, and I looked up at my grandpa with horror. He’d come out of his bedroom wearing nothing but a faded bathrobe and black, holey socks that rose to just below his knees, but what was even more horrifying was the contraption he held in his hands, a tangle of ropes and leather that looked very much like a sex swing.

  He held it out to me. “I thought maybe you two could use it. It was adjusted to fit your grandma, and you’re about her size.”

  Aedan and I shared stunned looks, and my libido deflated faster than silicone tits in a head-on collision.

  You should be used to weirdness by now, Ash. Just roll with it.

  “Uhhh, no thanks, Grandpa. Can we talk later? This is kind of a bad time.”

  He scratched the back of his head, not showing one ounce of embarrassment for offering his granddaughter a used sex toy. “Oh, I didn’t hear music, so I thought it was safe. Okay, then.” His gaze shifted to the kitchen, piled with yesterday’s dirty dishes. “I think I’ll order a pizza for dinner if you’re not cooking.”

  “Good idea, Grandpa,” I said with a smile as my fiancée slipped that huge solitaire onto my finger. “Aedan and I will take a large gluten-free thin crust with extra mushrooms.”

  Grandpa grabbed the phone off the receiver and mumbled something about anchovies giving him gas as he padded back to his room.

  Aedan didn’t waste any time waiting for Grandpa to come back; he hoisted me in his arms and carried me into the bedroom. I dreamed about a lavish pyramid wedding as I admired my shiny diamond.

  Right before Aedan shut the door, I turned my gaze to the heavens. Thanks God, for faulty blow-dryers, loyal dads, wishing stars, and silver swords. Most of all, thank you for Aedan.