Ecstasy Unveiled

Ten

The ominous sound of metal clamping around Idess’s wrist reached her ears a split second before Lore flipped her over and slammed her into the mattress.

“Remember when I said I’d get free and make you experience everything I had?” he growled.

“You bastard!” Still dazed from the kiss, she struck out with her free hand, but he caught her fist, tugged it up to his chained hand, and took it prisoner. Effortlessly, he pinned her with his heavy body and drove his fingers into her jeans pocket.

“I’m the bastard? You’re the one who chained me up.”

“You gave me no choice!”

“Yeah, yeah.” He smiled, and she knew he’d found the key to the cuffs. “Killing Kynan is a no-no. Bad Lore, bad.”

Snarling, she rocked her head up to catch him in his lying mouth, desperate to cause any kind of damage she could. If he freed himself… well, she didn’t even want to think about what he could do to her. To Kynan. He reared back, and she caught only a glancing blow to his chin.

“Feisty,” he mused. “I like it. Gimme more.”

“Oh, I’ll give you more.” The Bracken Cuffs prevented her from morphing into her fallen angel father’s form, but that didn’t mean she was helpless. She brought her knee up hard, nailing him on the inner thigh. He sucked air and wrestled her leg back down before trapping both her legs between his.

Cursing, he lunged, and she heard the click of the key in the cuff lock. In an instant, he was free, and both her wrists were secured. He rolled off her and yanked on the chains, tugging them taut and pinning her to the bed with her arms stretched above her. She shouted in frustration, but he must have taken it as a cry of pain, because he loosened the chains before looping them around the bedposts, effectively keeping her from getting to her feet.

For the first time, she wished she could still sense his emotions, could use the knowledge to get her out of this. Instead, she’d wasted hours burning off the blood link at a distance, feeling what he felt while safely away from him. She liked to think she was strong, but every time the lust he felt pulsed through her, she’d fallen to her knees and prayed for the willpower to not go to him.

“You’re going to pay for this!” She threw everything she had into an assault on the chains, screaming and pulling until she was sure her arms would pop out of their sockets.

Lore reached for her, but snatched his hand away at the last second. Foul words fell from his lips as he found one glove and his jacket on the floor. He tugged them on, and the next thing she knew, he was on top of her again, settling down as if her body was the most comfortable place in the world to be. His weight acted like a blanket, wrapping around her and calming her like a swaddled infant.

“There, now,” he said softly. “The tables have been turned. The captor is now the captive, and all those other fun movie lines I never thought I’d say.”

Idess’s heart pounded against her rib cage as helplessness and fresh anxiety set in. “Let me go.”

“Like you let me go when I asked?”

She swallowed. “Please. You can’t kill Kynan. He’s important.”

“Yeah. Important to me.”

“To the world.”

“I think the world will survive without one human asshole.”

Actually, it might not, but she’d found that demons rarely cared about the fate of humankind, so she switched tacks. “This isn’t just about the world. I have a personal stake in his life.”

He snorted. “What, you won’t earn your wings if he dies?”

“That’s exactly what will happen.”

He rolled his eyes, but when she just stared, he stiffened. “You’re serious.”

“You can’t even imagine.” Tremors of panic swept from her toes to her scalp. Only a handful of Memitim had never Ascended, were doomed to either guard Primori forever or spend eternity as a human, being born again and again and never making it into Heaven. Some had even been snuffed out of existence. But as terrible as those punishments sounded, they weren’t her primary motivation for not wanting to fail.

If she didn’t succeed in protecting the most important human in existence, the very fate of all mankind, of billions of souls, would be affected when the ultimate battle between good and evil erupted on Earth.

Her betrayal of Rami had weighed on her for twelve hundred years, and every day she’d prayed for a chance to beg forgiveness. But if she betrayed the human race? There would be no absolution.

Something hot and wet dripped down her cheek. A tear. Geez, she hadn’t cried in centuries. Not since the day Rami had Ascended. Before she knew it, the tear turned into a stream and suddenly she wasn’t just sniffling or even crying. She’d gone into a full-on bawl that included great, shuddering sobs and gasps for air.

“Idess… calm down… Idess?” Lore’s hands framed her face. “Hey. It’s okay. Easy, Angel. Easy…”

She cried harder. She couldn’t stop… it was as if she’d been storing tears for all these hundreds of years, and now, like a dormant volcano that had finally erupted, the flow wouldn’t be stemmed.

Then Lore’s lips were on hers, and he was kissing her. His mouth followed the trail of tears across her cheeks as his thumbs, one bare, one leather-clad, swept back and forth across skin that had grown as sensitive as if it were sunburned.

“Shh…” He tenderly kissed her ear. “It’s all right.”

“No,” she moaned, because it was far from all right.

His hands stroked her cheeks, his bare thumb drifting lazily across her bottom lip. “I’m sorry,” he murmured. “I’m not used to handling anything like this. I don’t know what to do.”

“I—” She cut off when the tip of his thumb slipped into her mouth. She didn’t think. Didn’t want to.

On impulse, she latched on to it and drew it deeper into her mouth. His eyes darkened and his mouth fell open so his piercing flashed and wow, if she’d thought she’d had power over him before, when he’d been at her mercy, chained, and needing release… it was nothing compared to now. The knowledge that she could affect him while she was restrained was a revelation.

Now she just had to figure out how, exactly, to use what she’d just learned.

Drawing on her very rusty seduction skills, she swirled her tongue around his knuckle and then nipped the pad. When he released a ragged breath, a zing of pure excitement shot through her in a powerful, almost sexual rush. Her breasts grew achy, her belly fluttered, and okay, there was no almost about it. Bringing a male pleasure was an aphrodisiac, for sure.

“I hate how much I want you.” His voice was rough, as though he also hated that he’d made such a confession.

She squeezed her eyes closed. “Is it bad that I’m glad you hate it?”

“I’d think it was weird if you didn’t.” He pulled his thumb from her mouth and slid his hand along the curve of her neck. Her skin tingled under his palm, and her nipples tightened into hard little beads.

Why did he have to be so understanding? She wanted to rail at him, to fight him, but he captured her mouth with his in a surprisingly gentle kiss given how tense his body was, how rapid his breathing. His tongue teased the seam of her lips, tiny, wet flicks. She told herself that he wasn’t affecting her, that she wasn’t loosening up, that opening up to him was about seducing him.

But as she parted her lips, all she could think about was how good it felt to be touched like this, no matter what the circumstances.

With a moan, Lore thrust his tongue into her mouth to tangle with hers. The cool, smooth piercing against her tongue was an erotic contrast to the rough heat of the kiss. He shifted to ease his hand between them to her breast, and lower, his arousal came into contact with her core. Against her will, she arched against him, welcoming the pressure and friction and sudden hot wetness that flooded her.

She had enough play in the chains to thread her fingers through his hair, and the moment she did, he jerked as though he’d felt an electric shock.

“What’s wrong?” she murmured against his lips.

Lifting his head, he blinked down at her. “Just…” He shook his head. “Nothing.”

“Tell me.” She had no idea why she wanted to know so badly, given that he’d just imprisoned her and made her cry.

He also made her burn.

But he said nothing, instead he buried his face in the curve of her neck and shoulder and kissed her there. Again, she arched up, and he began to grind against her, sparking a deep ache.

His hand roved down, between their bodies, and with a flick of his nimble fingers, he ripped open her jeans. Panic flared, and she stiffened.

“Lore… no. I can’t.”

His calloused palm slid into her panties to cup her intimately, and she nearly swallowed her tongue. “Can’t what?”

“H-have sex. Intercourse.”

A soft curse whispered across her skin. But then one finger slid between her folds and his lips caressed her ear as he said, “Can you do this? Let me make you feel good?”

Yes. “No,” she moaned, gasping when his fingertip brushed her clit.

“You’re lying. I can feel it.”

Yes, she was. Sort of. This didn’t have anything to do with her vow of chastity. This was about her, and what being intimate in any way with this man would do to her.

“Don’t,” she said, but her body betrayed her, and she rocked into his touch.

“Don’t what?” One finger slipped inside her core, and she nearly wept with pleasure. “Don’t do this?”

She couldn’t speak anymore. Even breathing had become an effort. Intercourse and self-gratification were forbidden, but what about gratification at the hands of others? Oh, no doubt it was prohibited, but even Rami had admitted that there was a murkiness in the vow, probably intentional, to allow for free will to get you into trouble.

And Lore was definitely trouble.

“Do you want to come?” Another finger joined the first, stretching her sensitive tissue and sending streams of almost overwhelming sensation straight to her brain. “Say it.”

Her teeth were clenched too hard for her to speak. She squirmed, trying to get his thumb to the right place, trying to get it away from the right place—both, neither, because she didn’t know what she wanted at this point.

He didn’t let up, kept making little back-and-forth sweeps across the tip of her clit that drove her out of her mind and to a place where her physical needs were beating down her thoughts.

“Say it,” he murmured.

“No,” she gasped.

“I want to watch.” He dipped his head and brushed his lips over hers. “I want to see you come so badly, Idess. Let me.”

He wanted this. Giving him what he wanted was part of the seduction, right? She was chained and helpless and she couldn’t be blamed if she did whatever it took to get free and protect Kynan. Besides, Lore was Primori, and she couldn’t betray the Memitim/Primori relationship by denying something her charge wanted.

The reasonings were pathetically weak, but it was all she had and she was starving for this and she barked out a desperate, “Yes!”

His smile was one of primal male triumph. His fingers began a furious, deep pumping rhythm, and his thumb circled and swept. It had been so long since she’d experienced this that it all felt new and wondrous, and she was absolutely certain that the best full-on sex she’d had hadn’t been this good.

Lore added another finger, increased the pressure with his thumb, and her body went wild, thrashing as she detonated. Colors swirled behind her eyelids like a kaleidoscope, carrying her through the ecstasy as his hand worked its magic. He brought her down with gradually lighter strokes, until finally she could breathe—and see—again.

“Beautiful,” he whispered. His half-lidded gaze was intent, awed, and so full of hunger that her body instantly sparked to life again. “God, you’re—” He broke off with a wince. Tiny pinpoints of crimson peppered his dark eyes as he glanced at the bathroom.

“I… I have to—” He swallowed, and when he spoke again, his voice was so deep and gravelly that she felt it inside, almost as though that tone was meant to prepare a woman for penetration. “Need… privacy.” He shoved to his hands and knees above her.

“No. Please. Stay.” Shockingly, he halted. “I want… I want to watch.” I don’t want to be alone. Alone meant time to think. And regret.

A low growl of approval dredged up from his chest as he unzipped his pants.

Lore couldn’t believe he was about to do this. He’d never had any sexual hangups—well, other than the fact that sex tended to kill his partners, but still. He’d never jerked off in front of anyone before. And though Idess’s request had been a massive turn-on, his hand was shaking as he undid his fly.

So maybe he did have hangups.

“Shit,” he growled. “I can’t.” He started to climb off the bed.

“Please?” Idess lay there, all sprawled out, relaxed, sated, the scent of sex coming off her and wreaking havoc on his libido.

He wanted to be inside her, not touching himself in a dark bathroom like some sort of pervert, while she was just feet away. But he also had no experience being so… sexual… in front of a female. Oh, he had arrogance in spades and overactive male instincts roaring through him, but he also wasn’t sure stroking himself while a bound female watched was something he could do.

“You’re embarrassed?” The surprise in her voice lashed at his already shredded control.

“I’m not a fucking virgin.”

“You haven’t been with many females, though, have you?”

Now that was just insulting. He’d been with some. He just hadn’t been with any more than once. And those he had been with were all about instant gratification—get in and out with no playtime. No real touching.

No connection.

This… this would be a connection. He didn’t know why or how, but it would. He just felt it. And feeling anything for this woman would be bad. That he did know.

“It’s okay,” she said softly. “You don’t have to answer. And you don’t have to stay if you don’t want to.”

The fact that she was being so nice to him, was so concerned about his feelings, pissed him off. He’d just turned the tables on her, chained her up, could do anything he wanted to her… Biting back a nasty curse, he adjusted his erection, even as the pressure built under his skin and in his balls. “Why? Why do you want to watch?”

“Because,” she said in a husky voice, “you’re beautiful, too.”

His heart tripped over her words, and warmth spread through him. No one had ever complimented him like that, with such… reverence.

Ruthlessly shoving his reservations aside, he gripped his shaft with his bare hand. He heard her soft intake of breath, the little hitch that somehow turned him on more than anything ever had. His stomach tightened and he had trouble breathing, and holy shit, having her watch… a total turn-on he hadn’t anticipated. Now that his power was no longer contained by the Bracken Cuffs, all he had to worry about was keeping his right arm away from her when he came.

“See?” Her voice was hoarse. “Not so hard, is it?”

“Oh, it’s hard,” he ground out, and her lips quirked in a smile.

“And big.”

His cock pulsed as though happy with the compliment. Damned thing was too stupid to realize she was doing what he’d done—toss out niceties to get on the captor’s good side. Not that what she’d said wasn’t true.

“You say the nicest things.”

Completely at ease now, he ran his bare hand up and down, loving how altering the speed or the length of the strokes made her eyelids grow heavy, or how, when he changed it up even more and twisted his fist around the head, her mouth would fall all the way open. And Jesus, when he rubbed the cap with the flat of his palm, she actually licked her lips.

Emboldened, he moved closer, teasing her with the sight of his cock. “You like this, don’t you?” Her eyes flew up to his. “Tell me what you want me to do.” When her mouth worked but nothing came out, he smiled and stopped stroking. “What’s the matter? You embarrassed?”

Anger sparked in those amazing rum-colored depths, and along with it, the light of battle. Freaking hot.

“Stroke.” The command might have been more effective if there hadn’t been a slight quaver in her voice, but he did as she’d ordered. Slowly.

“How’s that?”

“Faster.”

Suppressing a groan, he increased the speed, but not by much.

“I said, faster. And… and do that twisty thing you do when your hand is at the top.”

He would have laughed at the cute fierceness in her voice, if he wasn’t too busy holding back his orgasm. Perspiration beaded on his forehead as he clenched his teeth and panted through the growing pressure.

“Stop,” she said, and damn her, he barely had the control to obey. “Slide your hand down. To your… your balls.” Splotches of pink colored her cheeks. She was powerful and sexy, yet the word “balls” made her blush.

Lore loved that.

He let his palm ride slowly down his shaft. By the time he reached his sac, his cock was aching. “Now what?”

“Rub them,” she said breathlessly. “Pretend I—a female was doing it.”

Closing his eyes, he cursed, because it was so easy to pretend it was her warm palm cupping him, rolling his balls gently between her fingers as she’d done before. She made him play for a minute, and just as he was about to beg her to let him do more, she said, “Now. Make yourself come.” Her voice lowered dangerously. Seductively. “On me.”

Surprise shot through him and the climax came on its heels, her words sparking a chain reaction that went nuclear. He barely had time to fall forward to brace himself on his right arm, keeping it well out of the range of her touch as he pumped his seed onto her hard, flat abs. His vision went completely offline as pleasure short-circuited a couple of his senses, including his hearing, because he heard Idess talking but had no idea what she was saying. He just wanted her to keep saying it, because her voice was an aphrodisiac, and his orgasm went on and on…

Finally, as his trembling arm threatened to collapse under his weight, it ended. His head swam and his breath felt like fire in his throat. He opened his eyes and met Idess’s.

“I’m so jealous,” she whispered, and he blinked.

“Of what?”

Her head fell back on the pillow, and she stared up at the ceiling with the saddest eyes he’d ever seen. “You’re so alive, Lore. There’s fire in you. A will to live, when all I want is to be done with this life.”

An unfamiliar emotion clogged Lore’s throat, cutting off his breath. A will to live? He couldn’t care less about his own life. What he did care about was Sin, and making sure she never had to be owned again. Until that happened, he had to hang on. She was one of the reasons he’d hoped his brothers didn’t turn out to be total shits, and that she’d get to know them. She needed someone to take care of her. Someone better than Lore.

“Don’t be jealous of me,” he croaked. “There is nothing about me you should envy. I’m a terrible person.”

A smile trembled on her lips. “Your choices are terrible, but a terrible person wouldn’t love your sister the way you do.”

He didn’t buy that, not by a long shot. But strangely, Idess was right about one thing. He was alive—at least, now he was. For the first time since going through the transition that had turned him into a cold killer, he felt a spark. The banter with Idess energized him. Their battles challenged him. The sex excited him. Sure, none of that had happened under ideal conditions, but he had to wonder what things would be like between them if they weren’t going head to head over Kynan.

And if she wasn’t chained up.

He stifled an insane laugh, because all of that was a dream, and he’d never been a dreamer. Besides, once Kynan was dead, Lore figured his brothers—or Idess—would make sure he never dreamed again.

Who in their right mind built a medical facility for demons? It was a question Rariel had asked since the day he’d heard about Underworld General, and as he searched for the Harrowgate’s UGH symbol, he found he was actually curious about it.

UGH. He had to chuckle at the utter lack of forethought someone had displayed when he’d named the hospital. Moron.

This would be the sixth time he’d been there, though the first five times he hadn’t even stepped out of the Harrowgate. He’d simply opened it up, let Roag out or in, and continued. Apparently, the curse Roag’s brother had saddled him with had left the shriveled demon not only invisible to most, but without the ability to manipulate objects like the Harrowgate or doors, which made travel difficult.

Poor guy. Being betrayed by a sibling was the worst pain one could experience, and Rariel knew that first-hand.

He cast a sympathetic glance at Roag, who appeared to Rariel as a transparent specter, not nearly as solid as spirits were. And, unlike spirits, Roag’s only communication with Rariel came telepathically.

“Are you ready?” Rariel asked.

Yes.

Rariel tapped the hospital glyph with anticipation. This time, he was going to deliver his traveler and hang out. Observe. Plot.

The gate opened, and he stepped out. The emergency room was bustling, but he doubted anyone else could see that.

Most of the people milling around were ghosts, and as Roag entered the hospital, those spirits went mad. Some fled, some cowered, some stood in place and wailed until Rariel wanted to clap his hands over his ears.

Rariel’s invisible friend terrified the ghosts, and even the living beings in the emergency room became suddenly agitated.

A female vamp wearing scrubs approached him. “Do you need help?”

“No,” Rariel said, as Roag literally ripped into one of the screaming ghosts. That was the fun thing about spirits. You could tear them apart, causing unimaginable pain, and yet, they didn’t die. “I’m just here to watch.”

“Suit yourself, creep.” The vampire walked away, and he settled in beneath the Waiting Area sign. Distantly, he heard pitched, angry voices, and in another direction, something screamed. The spirits were still freaking out, wailing and beating the walls.

Nearby, between one plastic-covered couch and a sturdy stone table, two females gathered three infants closer to them. The pretty female with brown hair and striking champagne eyes let out a wolflike growl. The harder-looking female with red hair caressed the hilt of a blade in her hip scabbard, her green warrior’s eyes alert.

The moment Roag spotted them, fury blasted off him in a concussion wave that affected everyone in the emergency department. Staff and patients missed steps, dropped equipment, hugged themselves as though cold.

Roag moved toward the little group, murder in his eyes. Ah, yes… the females were Sem mates, and the triplets were Sem cubs. This was the family of the very brothers Roag wanted destroyed. And interestingly, one of the infants seemed to see him. Roag smiled… at least, the twist of his lips looked like a smile. He shifted form into a big Sem with shoulder-length, dark hair.

The little one reached out his hand toward Roag. Roag circled the family, and the baby watched, squirming in its mother’s arms as it tried to reach for Roag.

“Rade, take it easy,” the female said, hefting the baby tighter against her.

Roag shot Rariel a grin, and Rariel’s stomach twisted. He might be evil, a sick fuck in his own right, but torturing any species’ young was not something he enjoyed.

But as Roag’s thoughts melded with his, he relaxed. He wouldn’t have to torture. Just kill.