“I see.” There was no describing the pleasure those words sent singing through him.
“Do you mind me sharing your shower?” she asked shyly. “I should have asked first. I’m sorry. I’ve just never done this before and I—”
“Do you remember last night?” he interrupted her.
“Well, yes…” She blushed but, he was pleased to see, did not try to hide it from him.
“We discussed certainties.”
“Yes.” She brightened. “Yes! I’m supposed to assume you want me until you tell me otherwise.”
“Very good. You remember.”
“Yes. And I’m sorry. I just need to get used to all of this. I’ve never done this before, remember?”
“I remember. And if it makes you feel any better, I am not used to doing this either.”
“Sharing your shower?”
“Exactly. But it doesn’t follow that it is unwelcome. None of this is unwelcome. Change, I am discovering, is good for the soul.”
“Have you done a lot of changing lately?” she asked.
“More than you can know.” He reached out and traced a rivulet of water that ran down the slope of her breast. He brushed his thumb over her nipple and he heard her breath catch.
Damn she was so responsive. He was learning that it didn’t take much to stir her passions. He wondered how she would feel if she knew…It would all go away. All of it. Damn him.
Damn him.
One last time. Before he had to face the world and the truth, he wanted her one last time.
Viève gasped when he suddenly reached out and grabbed her by the waist, jerking her into hard contact with his body. Her breasts were crushed to his chest, her hips were connected to his. She was on her toes because of their disparate heights, but she was there all the same.
But then clearly it wasn’t enough for, as he swooped in and took her mouth, he gripped at her thighs and dragged her feet up off the floor. He managed her weight as if it were nothing, bringing her legs to wrap around his waist and hips, her ankles locking in the small of his back. He turned and pressed her to the tiled wall of the shower and she squealed at the cold of the marble against her skin. He kissed the sound away, feasting on her lips. All the while the hot water rained down on them.
He felt her hands alternately gripping his shoulders and caressing his chest. Then her touch followed the water down his body until she had her hands wrapped around his cock, embracing and stroking him with both hands at the same time. Stroking and cupping until he was hard as nails. Not that he hadn’t already been immediately hard for her, but this made him all the more so. All he kept thinking was that this would be the last time she would let him love her so freely, and it spurred him to ever more heated passion. He jerked her hands away from his body, aimed himself at her and with a single thrust found his way inside her. She was so wonderfully hot and tight around him. Such wet flesh. It was astounding.
He was not gentle with her. The time for gentleness had passed. He wanted her with a fervor he couldn’t contain. He thrust hard into her as he pinned her to the wall with his hips. He mauled her breast, brought it to his mouth and sucked hard on her nipple. His teeth came into play and she cried out. But he knew he had not hurt her. Hers was a cry of passion. He could feel it in the answering slickness of her body. He thrust harder…faster…working himself into a frenzy as pleasure gripped him. But this wasn’t just about his selfish needs. There was plenty of that, yes, but there was more than that. There was her pleasure too. He wanted to make her scream his name, wanted her to remember this pleasure well into her years to come.
To that end he pushed his fingers between their bodies, found the nub of her clit, and stroked her in time with his thrusts. She reached orgasm the hard way, with savagery and heat. He kissed her cries away then removed his hand so he could grasp her hips with better traction. He fucked her to within an inch of her life, wrenching a second orgasm from her…and then a third. Still he would not finish. He wanted the sound of her cries emblazoned on his memory for all time…from this lifetime and into the next.
He pulled out of her, placed her wobbly legs on the ground and turned her roughly about, so now her front was to the tile wall. She gasped as he jerked her bottom up to meet his searching thrust through her wet folds. He found her easily and filled her again. Their cries and moans echoed into the shower stall as he found a new, tighter rhythm into her. This was slower, more intense, and he reached around to work her pleasure spot even as he continued to push inside her.
He bit her on her shoulder, then her neck, then the lobe of her ear. He wanted to make her come one more time…just once more to feel her tighten around him. She began to crescendo again, her wet head arching back, and then she burst apart, clenching around him like a fist, milking at him in unbearably sweet tension.
He came with a roar, his hand gripping her hair, his body emptying into hers almost violently. She had her hands pressed to the wall and now collapsed against it. Her legs gave way, but he held her up. He left her body with regret, then lifted her into the hot spray of water. Her head came forward to rest on his chest and she murmured something nonsensical to him. He reached into the little alcove and came away with a bar of soap. Slowly he began to wash her, every inch of her, his hand turning over each curve lovingly. She would not smell of strawberries tonight. Tonight she would smell of his soap and his scent and his shampoo. Whatever else happened, that would be the way of it for this night. She would be marked as his, whether she remained so or not.
Once he was certain every last crevice had been attended to, he put the soap aside and got his shampoo. He manipulated it into her long hair, working up a lather in the silvery gray strands. He massaged her scalp and the back of her neck, rinsed her free of every last bubble. She sighed in contentment as she leaned her weight into his body. He liked the feel of it, their naked bodies slipping against one another.
He had already washed by the time she had entered the shower, leaving only his hair to be done. But when he went to do his own she snatched the bottle away from him and poured the shampoo into her palm. She crooked her finger at him, beckoning him to bend down so she could more easily reach his head. He closed his eyes as her small fingers worked their way through the strands of his hair. He kept it reasonably close cut these days, preferring the wash-and-go style. But there was enough of it to enjoy what she was doing. It was pure decadent pleasure. A luxury. One he wasn’t sure he was going to get to experience ever again. Not from her. And for some reason that hurt. It caused a physical pain in his chest when he thought of her turning against him.
But she would have every right to. Especially since he hadn’t been forthright with her from the beginning, before they had become intimate. If he could change it…he wouldn’t. He wouldn’t deprive himself of the last twenty-four hours. He was just that selfish.
His thoughts dampened his mood as he helped her rinse his hair. When they were done they stepped out of the stall and he retrieved a big, fluffy towel. He had this to say about the body Politic, they lived well and bought the best of everything, from designer clothes to designer sheets. They had housekeepers that kept all three of the houses on the property pristine at all times. Although they tended his rooms as little as possible, so he made his own bed every day. They came to change out sheets and towels once a week, but otherwise…it was clear he was something to be avoided.
He focused on drying her, running the thick towel up and down every pale limb, around each generous breast and the tempting swell of her bottom. Once she was dry he wrapped her up in the towel and then grabbed another to dry himself with. He tucked his around his hips, took her hand and walked into the next room with her.
Chapter 13
“We’re going to have to get you some clothes while you’re here.”
“Oh, I already got some!” she said with a bright smile. “Marissa took me to this huge closet—they have it stocked with all kinds of things in every size you can dream of. She said it was
the ‘just in case’ closet. She said it gets a lot of use. Anyway, I found some jeans and a pretty blouse. I got panties and a bra too.” She sighed. “It was very kind of her.”
“Marissa and Jackson are very kind and considerate people. You will find a lot of people like that here. They should all treat you very well. However, they may not treat you as well if you let it be known we are…intimate with one another.”
“Why not?” she asked as she moved into the sitting room and found the clothes she had folded neatly on the coffee table. She slid on the panties without taking off her towel, but dropped it a second later to put on the bra. It was a matching set, a dark lavender purple with provocative black lace at its edges.
“People here do not trust me.”
“Why not?” she asked as she pulled on her jeans and zipped and buttoned them.
And here it was. The perfect opportunity to tell her the truth. The entire truth. And he had sworn to her that he would not lie to her. But he would not have this conversation naked.
“Finish dressing. I will tell you about it when we are both done.”
“All right,” she said as she reached for her blouse.
He went back into the bedroom and over to his dresser drawers. He opened them and decided to follow her example and wear a pair of jeans. They were pressed and free of any tears, but they were jeans. He was not normally a casual dresser. He was not a casual man. But he wore the jeans anyway because they were durable and comfortable. He went to his closet and fetched a button-down shirt.
When he was finished, he returned to the sitting room and found her putting on lipstick using a compact mirror. She had already applied eye shadow and a light touch of rouge.
“Let me guess, the magic closet had makeup too.”
She smiled at him. “It does. Along with all the other toiletries. Including a toothbrush, which I used before getting in the shower with you.”
“I thought you tasted minty,” he said with a small smile.
“So did you.”
“All right, now that we are agreed we are followers of proper hygiene, we need to have a very serious discussion.”
She pouted a little, her newly pink lips looking plump and delectable. He had to shake himself to keep on point.
“I don’t know if I like the sound of this,” she said as she closed the compact with a snap.
She may very well not hear anything she liked for quite some time, he thought.
“There are things about me you need to know. Things…I’m afraid will more than likely turn your opinion of me upside down. Things that may have you looking for a new place to sleep tonight and I would not blame you in the least if you felt it necessary to do that. As it is I have been very unkind to you by not telling you these things from the outset. However, I’ve been quite swept away by you. I wasn’t expecting you, nor the way you make me lose control of my common senses.”
“I wasn’t expecting you either. But that doesn’t mean it’s a bad thing, right?”
He began to pace, a nervous habit he was not prone to. But this conversation was sitting very ill on him. Still, he must face up to the truth. He must tell her everything.
“It is bad because you went into this uninformed. Had you known better, you probably would not have been swept away.”
She smiled at him, the expression making her pretty features seem all the sweeter to him.
“I highly doubt that. Now, tell me what it is that’s so bad about you. I can see it’s upsetting you.”
It was upsetting him. More than he would have thought possible. He was normally so calm, so matter-of-fact about the good and the bad things that happened in life. But this…this was hard. Hard on him…hard on her.
“What do you know of the Templars?” he asked her.
“Very little. All the Wraiths know is that your people are embroiled in a civil war. The Politic versus the Templars.”
“And it has been thus ever since the first Gargoyles were freed from slavery. And that is one of my crimes. I have created many Gargoyles. One of whom I believe you have met. Ahnvil. I kidnapped him as a mortal man and forged him into a Gargoyle without his permission. I forged him for the express purpose of serving me and my needs.”
“I know this. I was told yesterday,” she said.
That took him by surprise. “And it does not bother you? That I would do such a thing?”
“It would bother me if you were still doing it. But clearly you are not. I doubt the Politic would allow you to live here if you were.”
“There is more…”
“Go on. You won’t upset me. I can see you are worried that you will.”
“I had a man living under this roof tortured by a psychopath.”
This seemed to give her pause, to make her uneasy.
“Why did you do that?”
“Does it matter why? It will not change the doing of it.”
“No. But I would like to know just the same.”
“It was vengeance,” Kamen said. “I felt he had done me a wrong…done someone I loved a wrong. He had hurt her, nearly killed her. Put her in a comatose state.”
“Why did he do that?”
“Because she tried to kill someone close to him.”
“Who was it?”
“His name is Leo,” he said.
“Oh, I met him yesterday. He’s human.”
“Yes, he is. And he was tormented at my command in a way that would have broken most people. I am quite certain it haunts him even now.”
“But he is living under the same roof as you. How did that come to be?”
“Let’s say I used him as a peace offering. I rescued him from the torture I inflicted upon him in order to gain access to this house and the body Politic.”
“And why did you do that?” she asked.
Here it was. The moment of truth. Kamen swallowed, his mouth and throat dry.
“Because when I tried to rouse Odjit from her comatose state, I inadvertently resurrected the god Apep who now resides within her body. This situation we find ourselves in is my fault. It is of my doing. My selfish desires to see my mistress whole again resulted in loosing hell upon this earth.”
She looked stunned, her jaw having dropped open a half an inch.
“You did this?” she asked. “You’re the reason Apep is here?”
“Yes,” he said tightly.
Now she would turn from him. He would never touch her again. The thought left him bereft in a powerful way. A way he had not thought possible in so short a time.
“But it was an accident, right? You didn’t do it on purpose.”
“Does that matter? It was done.”
“It does matter. There is a huge difference between accidentally doing it and doing it on purpose.”
“I resurrected the imp god and when I realized what I had done I took Leo from his torture and brought him to this house as a way of bargaining myself inside. When I realized the magnitude of my fault in this, I knew I had to use every skill I had, every resource available to me, to see this undone. That is how I came to be here today and that is why no one will thank you for being my lover.
“I am sorry,” he said softly. “It was wrong of me not to tell you sooner, but…” He shook his head. “No. I have no excuse. Count it among my many other crimes.”
“How long ago did this happen?” she asked.
“Almost a year ago. Why?”
“And in all that time, you have been here trying to undo what you did?”
“Yes, but—”
She held up a hand to silence him. “I get it. You’ve done terrible things. Made terrible mistakes. But what is important to me is what you have been doing about them. You have been trying to make things right.”
“Nothing can make right what I did to Leo.”
“No. Perhaps not. But you regret it now. That’s what matters.”
“Is it? I don’t think it matters at all.”
“It does. It matters a great deal. As does all
the work you have been doing to try to rid the world of Apep.”
“The mistake I created.”
“Mistake being the key word,” she argued stubbornly.
“Clearly you aren’t understanding me,” he said with frustration. Didn’t she get it? He was unworthy of her. He was unworthy of everything.
“I understand you better than you think I do. I understand that you have dedicated yourself this past year to making things right.”
“I released a god on this earth! That god has tortured, raped, and killed. All because of me!” he railed at her.
“And it’s eating you up inside isn’t it?” she shot back at him.
“Yes!”
“Good!”
At last, he thought. At last she was seeing that he needed to suffer penance for his crimes.
But then she said, “Because if it wasn’t, then you wouldn’t have changed at all. But you have changed, haven’t you? You don’t keep slaves anymore. You don’t torture innocent people anymore. You don’t do whatever reckless things it was that led you to bring Apep into the world. You don’t do it anymore.”
“That doesn’t matter,” he said quietly. “The crimes are done and my current behavior doesn’t erase them.”
“I agree. It doesn’t erase them. But it atones for them.” She stood up and walked until she was standing toe to toe with him, looking up into his eyes. “You think you have done unforgivable things, and I agree, they were very bad things, but forgiveness isn’t about abusing you for making terrible mistakes. It’s forgiveness or it isn’t. I think you deserve forgiveness. Maybe others in this house won’t agree with me, but I don’t care.” She took his hands in hers. The contact was like a soothing balm to him. He had thought she would never touch him again. “I forgive you, Kamen.”
“You don’t know what you’re saying,” he said stubbornly.
“I’m saying that I forgive you. No ifs, ands, or buts about it. And I think you need to be forgiven. You deserve it.”
“I deserve nothing.”
“I disagree.”
“But—”
She touched her fingers to his lips to silence him. “No buts, remember?”
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