David stirred and looked irritatingly at Frank. “All my tables have their food already, Frank. What’s the rush?” David said annoyed.
“Not the new ones I just sat you, moron. Get going!” Frank said, his face growing red. “And tuck in your shirt, for God’s sake. What is this? A striptease?” Frank remarked crudely.
“All right, I’m coming,” David answered, waving the big man away.
Frank stalked off grumbling to himself, “Get a room. And find your name badge.”
David looked back over at me and shrugged his shoulders. “Back to work, I guess,” he said as he tucked his shirt back in. “I have no idea where my name badge popped off to.”
“Yep,” I answered, feeling awkward and looked away from him. There was something so intimate about watching him tuck in his shirt around his tight, narrow waist and into the front of his pants. It made me embarrassed all over again.
“Melanie?” David had come up to me and gently reached out to turn my face back up to him. He lifted my chin with his bent index finger, and I looked up at him, searching his face for anger, disgust, or even hatred at me now for what I had done.
“Don’t trouble yourself about any of it,” he said, almost reading my mind. “I’m not going to ask anything from you that you aren’t ready to give. We’ll take this as slow as you need. As slow as you want. You don’t have to be afraid of me, ever.” He spoke softly, the tenderness in his voice making me feel unworthy.
“I know,” I said honestly. “I know you’re a good man.”
“I’m not such a good man. If I was, I would have run out of here the moment you started…making advances. I have to fight to master my weaknesses like every other man, Melanie. But more than that, I don’t want to grieve my Lord. And I don’t want to hurt you. Like I said before, you are far more important to me than you know.”
And with that, he leaned down and kissed me on my forehead just above my eyes. I could feel his sincerity and the depth of his care for me in that one simple kiss. He wouldn’t lie to me. He wouldn’t hurt me. And he wouldn’t use me, ever.
He released me and smiled down at me. I returned the smile tentatively. I still felt shy now that the overpowering and unsurpassable desire to act like a seducing dominatrix had washed away.
“Come on,” David said and placed his hand softly behind my back to lead me forward and out of the walk-in.
“Are you expecting company tonight?” David asked casually as we made our way to the front of the kitchen and rounded the corner to the lobby.
“Hmm…yes. Elisabeth was going to try and stop in with a friend of hers, but I wasn’t expecting them so early.” I glanced down at my watch. It was only five thirty. She was nearly an hour and a half earlier than she normally was able to make it in on a Monday night.
Resistance Is Not Futile
Chapter Eight
W e had rounded the corner and stepped into the lobby when I felt it. David walked on unaware anything was wrong. An invisible wall of trepidation slammed into me, and my footsteps faltered. I squeezed past the invisible wall like a rat being pushed through a jaggedly cut hole in a tin can, the metal scraping and cutting my flesh. In its wake was a crashing wave of penetrating desire and all-consuming lust.
I stopped, frozen by the sudden switch from the awful, scraping pain and then to the ignited, flaming lust.
Oh, Lord, not again!
My heart stopped in my chest along with my breath as the big, looming mass of the man on the other side of the counter slowly turned and faced me.
He stood as tall and gorgeous as I had remembered him the night I ran into him on that abandoned street in Turin, Italy. The overwhelming lust rolling off him was just as powerful as ever. He stepped forward, placed his thumbs in the loops of his jeans, and pulled just enough to draw my eyes down to his groin. He was as massive and eager as last I’d seen him.
I pulled my eyes away from his pants with a massive heave of effort and focused on his face, godlike in its perfection.
His mouth slid into a seductive smile, showing a hint of his straight pearly white teeth. He puffed out his enormous muscular chest in presentation, a peacock displaying his colors, knowing his beauty was glorious to behold.
I reached out and took hold of the corner of the wall, partly to keep myself from collapsing under the enormous weight of lust being dumped upon me like sand pouring from a dump truck but also partly because I was afraid I would run and climb up his body like a tree and beg him to take me.
I have to gather myself. I have to get it together. I don’t have anything left to fight with!
I clung to the corner, fighting with all I had in me not to run to him. I closed my eyes and prayed fervently in my heart out to God.
Oh, my God, my Lord. Please, please don’t let this lust devour me! Please give me strength to fight against it. Against him. Forgive me for giving place in my heart to lust and for almost causing David to stumble. Forgive me, oh God. Be my strength, for I have none.
I opened my eyes and glanced up again toward the tall, dark, sexy man who was waiting for me. He was watching me through his black sunglasses. I could feel his eyes burning through me like a red-hot coal through a thin sheet of ice. He slowly lifted his hand and removed his glasses. His caramel-colored eyes with their specks of green and gold seemed to swirl hypnotically as I peered up into them; the light dancing in them from the overhead lamps made his eyes glitter like stained glass.
I’d have run away if I could, but I didn’t trust my legs to move me away from him. My body felt like it wanted to betray me and take me to him rather than flee. Now I understood what David had gone through though I doubt I had as strong of an effect on him.
“Oh, here she is now, sir,” Lucy said. “I knew you had to be talking about her even before you said her name. The minute I heard strawberry blond and blue eyes, I knew. She’s the only one around here who fits that description. But if you’re looking for someone a little older with nut-brown hair with a few, tiny, little streaks of gray, I’m your gal,” Lucy added flirtatiously, batting her eyes at the tall, sexy man in front of her. He looked like he just stepped out of a GQ meets Harley Davidson magazine, and she was barely able to hide the fact that she thought he should be her dessert.
A sudden image flashed through my mind of the kind of delectable dessert he could be if I wanted.
“Jesus,” I breathed out, and the image was immediately expelled from my mind.
The sex god nodded and gave Lucy an award-winning smile. I watched as her cheeks flushed a deep shade of red and she giggled, patting at her hair as if the five pounds of hair spray she had used had somehow disappeared. He shook his head and lifted his chin in my direction to indicate he had found what he was looking for. So, he was playing the silent, mysterious type again.
Crap.
Lucy glanced over at me and then shrugged.
“Well, let me know if you change your mind, doll. I’ll be here until ten.” Lucy turned and trotted off toward me. She stopped briefly to whisper quietly in my ear as she passed, “How did you get so lucky? He’s straight out of a Playgirl magazine. Jealous!”
I unclenched the wall and tried to straighten myself up out of my nearly slumped posture. The need to run to him and throw myself to him was growing like a wildfire in my body.
God, no. No! Help me, I thought. I was screaming out my prayer in desperation to God as loud as I could without actually saying the words.
“Melanie,” he spoke my name, the hint of an accent playing across his lips. The bass undertone of it vibrated like a bass drum through my chest, and I felt it beat against things down deep and low in my body. “I’ve missed you.” The effect of his voice was changing to sound like the tangible caress of beautiful music. It felt like velvet as it caressed my entire body in slow, sensual strokes. It was a lie.
Please don’t say anything else!
I had been so curious about his voice the first time I ran into him in Italy but had also been afraid to hear him speak. Now, I kne
w it was for a good reason. His voice alone held power and seduction. Thank God he hadn’t said a word until today when I had a better understanding as to what was really happening supernaturally. Perhaps he was prevented from uttering a sound by the unseen angel warriors that had been near me on my journey Saturday night. Whichever it was, I was glad I had been spared the torment hearing his voice was causing me.
“I’ve been waiting for you, Melanie,” he said with a knowing smile. This time I wasn’t sure if his accent sounded Italian or not. It was as if I couldn’t focus, even on that.
“Did you miss me?” he whispered. “I missed you.”
His voice once again rubbed across my skin and felt oh so good. But I also knew behind the caressing velvet was a lie, like razors and steel wool covered in black velvet. No matter how I tried to imagine away the feeling the sound of his voice invoked, images of his hot velvet skin rubbing on my body kept overflowing my mind. I rubbed my face with my hands, trying to dislodge the images.
How long had he been waiting? The whole time I was fighting myself and losing? I had practically started to strip David naked in the back of the restaurant!
I felt righteous indignation spark a new kind of fire in my gut, and I welcomed it. I clung to it, letting it burn hot and fuel my resistance and anger toward this man’s arrogance and seductive intentions. Somehow, he was to blame for all this. Well, not for my part in allowing it, but for tempting me with the notion of seduction and control. And now, seeing him standing there so arrogant and dripping in sex appeal, I knew he was somehow to blame for intensifying my senses almost to the point of madness.
I was angry, and I walked out boldly toward him, my one and only intention of confronting this man propelling me onward. No, not man-creature. Soul eater and lust provoker. He was something unnatural. I didn’t know how to describe him, but I knew he was part evil.
“Oh, really? And who or what might you be exactly?” I demanded. I walked forward and peered up at him from behind the counter, my arms crossed tight across my chest.
“My name is Jared,” he said, leaning down. His breath was sweet, and I caught the scent of chocolate, roses, and strawberries. It was as if the scents that swirled around him had been extracted right out of the image I’d had in my mind a moment ago.
Jesus help me!
I felt my mind’s fortitude strengthen from the silent prayer and I pushed the passionate scene away easier this time, my anger making me intolerant of his games.
“Jared,” I said, surprised it sounded so normal, and un-Italian.
Isn’t Jared a Hebrew name?
“As far as what I am, I’d be happy to show you,” his voice felt as though it was caressing my skin once more like fingertips delicately tickling and seeking.
“Stop that,” I growled at him.
“Stop what?” he said, his smile turning suggestive.
“What do you want?” I hissed at him.
Lord, don’t let me feel this! Please!
“The book,” he answered simply.
The book? What book?
The confusion and then the shock showed on my face like turning a page or flipping a coin. I was so easy to read. Darn it.
“The book,” he said more forcefully, the cool mask slipping a little to let me hear the danger he had within him.
Oh! That book!
“Why?” I asked, trying to be brave.
“It isn’t yours. It belongs to us. Give it back,” Jared whispered, his voice was losing its sexual power and was starting to sound like wire scraping on glass.
“No, it doesn’t. It chose me. God chose me to find it,” I said firmly. I may not know what kind of book it was or why it was important, but I did know it had been a divine assignment and test for me to find it. I had been driven, pulled, and lead until it was safely in my hands. And I had encountered obstacles and temptations along the way. In fact, he had been one of them.
“I can make you give it to me, you know. I’m only asking to be…nice,” he said slowly, as if to emphasis the threat.
“You’re a liar,” I said, a little louder than I meant to.
One of the tables off to the right looked up at me curiously.
“If you give me the book, I’ll let you do whatever you want to me. And I’ll do to you whatever you want me to,” he said, his voice dropping to be husky and alluring. “I’ll make you feel pleasures you can’t even begin to imagine. I’ve had years to perfect my craft. You won’t be sorry for one gasping wet moment.” He half smiled and leaned down toward my face.
Did I want to let this man be my sex god, literally? Carnally, the answer was—oh, most definitely—yes. But did I want to give this man my soul, and in doing so, the book? Absolutely and affirmatively no.
I would not tell this man anything about that book no matter what he offered me. I knew he was dangerous and not only because of how he made me feel. No, he was something else. Something far more evil than a mere man could ever be.
In fact, I was pretty sure it had been him making me feel so wild and seductive a few minutes ago. It was as if he had thrown out a net made of the fibers of his own being, designed to only catch hold of me, and after finding me, he had been tugging on it, tangling me up in the net as he tried to drag me unwillingly to him then too.
I didn’t want to find out how much more he could make me feel, desire, lust, or pleasure. But I couldn’t walk away until I tried to get some answers out of him. He was here after all. Here looking for me. Asking me about the book.
It had been important enough for him to come find me and reveal himself to me here. The last time I’d seen him had been on some lost deserted street on another continent. He had tried to call me out to him as I had hid behind the window in that back room, and I had fought the urge to run out to him then too.
He had tried again this time, but rather than his seductive force drawing me to him, it drew me to David and nearly made me break him in the process. He didn’t care if it destroyed David and made him compromise his good-natured integrity.
And I had almost helped him do it. I had almost let him hurt David!
I was suddenly so full of rage at this tall, gorgeous, sex god I reacted before I could think. The rage filled me up.
Smack!
I stood looking up at his shocked face, my hand stinging as if I had smacked a metal wall with all my might. I lifted my hand and slapped his face again.
Smack!
“Who do you think you are messing with me like that?” I said angrily.
He hissed at me, his face contorted with rage of his own. His eyes flashed, and his nostrils flared, and I was suddenly seeing the ghost-like image of a snake behind his perfect gorgeous face; then, it vanished as he braced his hands on the counter and leaned down further toward me, almost daring me to try to strike him again.
“Who are you, demon?” I demanded. “Tell me!”
Jared’s face twisted at my demand and once more his second nature began to fade in and out of focus, just beneath the surface. Grey-blue slit eyes glinted at me with hatred and his large fangs slashed at the air as if to strike me down. Right as I started to expect the serpent to erupt from his skin and devour me, Jared’s human face solidified once again. I stiffened, but I didn’t back down.
I must be seeing his demon like I had Jill’s! Lord, I trust you to keep me safe. God protect me.
“Sss. I am lust. I am desire. I am sex and all carnal pleasures. I am heat and fire and all unquenchable cravings and hunger. I am that which draws men into the lusts of the flesh and the lusts of the eyes and makes all who taste of me thirsty for more. I am power, and I am like a god.” Jared’s voice was barely over a whisper as he spoke, his words felt like razors on my skin now rather than the tantalizing pleasure it was before.
“You don’t have any place here. And you’re not welcome here. Get out,” I said, fighting to keep my voice even.
“You welcomed me quite strongly not too long ago. Shall I remind you?” He reached out and ma
de to place a hand on my shoulder, and I stepped quickly back.
Oh, Lord Jesus. Fill me with your power.
“Get out, in Jesus’s name,” I rebuked, spiritual authority welling up inside me out of nowhere to strengthen my voice making it sound confident and bold.
Jared stiffened and I saw his face twist in what could have been pain with a flash of worry in the back of his eyes.
“Hi, Melanie,” David said from beside me.
I glanced over and saw David. I hadn’t seen him come up. He stood up straight and confident, his hands braced on his hips. His chin was thrust high in challenge toward Jared. Jared saw David’s mood and smiled a wide, arrogant grin, his eyes filled with mockery.
Jared straightened up and seemed to grow even taller than he had been before. His huge, barreled chest and massive arms flexed, and his eyes narrowed as he met David’s challenge. He looked down his nose at David like he was studying a bug he wanted to squash.
I realized for the first time Jared looked like a super sexed-up version of David. His nose was a little straighter, his mouth a little more full and pouty, his eyes were caramel with gold and green specks rather than just the warm, honest, honey color of David’s eyes. His hair was even black like David’s but longer making him appear more wild and mysterious. He was taller by at least six inches and had a more dramatic sculptured physique of rippled muscle and bulk. David was well defined and even considered buff, but Jared was simply huge.
Satan knew I was strongly attracted to David and had been denying my emotional and physical feelings for him for a long time. He had sent this tripped-up version of him to tempt me and try to deceive me into being so distracted I couldn’t find the book I had been sent out to fi that night. But when that hadn’t worked and I resisted Jared’s efforts and left to fi the book anyway, he sent Jared again to try to draw me out and hand it over.
Satan had sent him here to try and seduce me into giving it to him willingly, offering me pleasures in exchange. I suddenly saw through the obvious plan and was momentarily lost for words.
Broken Seed Page 11