Caress of Flame (12 page)

Isis reached out and took a small square piece of cheese. She bit into it then smiled.

It tasted just like Colby cheese, which she happened to like very much.

Flare finished his tea with one final gulp and set the cup down on the tray. He looked at her for a long while, as if he were trying to see into her very soul. He seemed to come to some decision and nodded to himself.

“I have to leave you here for a little while. I won’t be far. I just need to meet with my superior about something,” he told her. “It won’t take long.”

Isis understood. He was a soldier first and foremost. “I’ll just stay here,” she said obviously.

Flare laughed and turned, leaving her standing there watching his retreating back.

Her eyes couldn’t resist taking in all of him—holy hell but he had a sexy ass!

Flare reached the door and stepped through it, closing the entrance to his apartment behind him softly. Curious, Isis went and reached for the door handle. It turned easily in her hand. Flare hadn’t locked her in. She smiled, satisfied, and went back into the sitting room to sit and daydream until her lover’s return.

6
* * * * *

Flare knew he had given no notice, but The Generator, an Elder on the Council and his direct superior, welcomed him into his home as if he’d been expecting Flare’s visit.

The taller man motioned for him to enter and Flare stepped over the threshold, knowing that there would be no turning back from the course he was about to set for himself.

He only hoped he could get the approval of The Generator.

“How goes your mission?” the man asked as they settled into two great throne-like chairs, sitting opposite each other. The light in the room was soft, casting eerie shadows about them. The Elder had long black hair with tiny streaks of silver that looked as if they’d been artfully placed there and it reflected the light like a mirror. His eyes were a golden fire beneath artfully arched brows, just like all Shikars’ eyes save those of the Traveler Caste, and he regarded Flare with those eyes now.

“That is what I have come to discuss with you.”

“Things, I gather, have not gone as planned,” The Generator said sagely.

Flare shook his head. “No they have not, Elder. My mission began easily enough but things have gotten…complicated.” He had to force the word out.

The Generator smiled as if he knew just how complicated Flare’s mission had become and why. “Your charge is safe, I take it? It is still dark in her part of the Territories. I can only assume you have her here with you, for I know you would not shirk your duty.”

“No, Elder.” Flare disguised his shock that The Generator already knew so much of what he’d come to tell him. “She is here. Now. And I come to you because of this.”

“Continue,” The Generator said patiently, steepling his long-fingered hands beneath his strong chin.

“I have come to ask your permission to allow Isis to stay with me. Permanently.”

The Generator sat back in his seat, his golden eyes somber. “She is a human.”

“I know,” Flare nodded.

“You have lain with her?”

Flare squared his shoulders. “Yes.”

The Generator nodded sagely and was silent for long moments. “This woman—”

“Isis,” Flare said firmly.

The Generator’s mouth curved in a shadow of a smile. “Isis, then. How strong is her attachment to you?”

“It is very strong,” Flare said confidently. “Growing more so with each passing day.”

The Generator regarded him for a moment. “You love her,” he said, as if it was a discovery he had not expected. “Don’t you?”

6Flare thought hard.
Did
he love her? He searched his heart. He thought of life without her and the very idea was unacceptable to him. Flare had made his decision. “I do love her,” he admitted. “I would make her my mate, if she would have me.”

“But what if she won’t? You know our rules. You cannot endanger a human woman—our seed is
poison
to them and quick to kill them.”

“Not if they are strong. Not if they love their mate.”

The Generator leaned forward, his hair falling so that it cast his face in a dark shadow. “But does this woman—Isis—love you?”

“She
will
love me,” he said confidently.

“You must be sure before you try what we both know you will inevitably do.”

Flare clenched his jaw. “Four women have become Shikar warriors. Isis is as strong, if not stronger, than they are. She has the power to fight against her death. Our love will carry her the rest of the way through and she will arise from her death as a Shikar. I am certain of it.”

“It is beyond dangerous,” The Generator said patiently.

Flare took a deep breath. “I know. But I am a strong Traveler—I can follow her into death and save her soul. The threat to her will be minimal. I will do all in my power to protect her.”

“
If
she loves you,” The Generator pressed ruthlessly. “It all hinges on love and the power of that great emotion, as well as her strength as a psychic. Remember this as you have never remembered anything else in your life. I forbid you to try changing her until you know for a certainty that her heart belongs to you. I will not have the unfortunate death of so strong a human on my conscience. Or yours.”

“May she stay here in the meanwhile?” Flare asked respectfully.

The Generator sat back in his seat once more and Flare could see the look of concern clearly written on the Elder’s face. “You may keep her here as long as the threat to her life in the Territories demands. But if you cannot convince her to tie her life to yours, you will return her to her world as soon as that threat is neutralized. Or as soon as she decides she must leave. If such a thing occurs you may not force her to stay.” The Generator’s last words were laced with steel that demanded obedience.

“Yes, Elder.” Flare nodded his assent, though he fully intended to keep Isis no matter the circumstances.

“In the interim you will return to your patrol duties in the Territories.”

“Yes, Elder,” Flare repeated with much respect.

“Now, go see to your woman. She must be wondering what you’re up to. Humans are endlessly curious.” The Generator dismissed him.

Glad to have the approval of his Elder, Flare left the room without looking back, eager to return to Isis with utmost haste.

6
Chapter Nine

Isis jerked awake when Flare reentered the room. He’d been gone so long she’d grown bored and had apparently fallen asleep in the strange, alien quiet around her.

She was used to at least the humming of the insects and frogs outside her window, and this silence was simply deafening.

“Is your business finished?” she asked, rising.

Flare smiled at her tenderly. “Yes. Everything has been arranged.”

“What’s been arranged?” Isis pressed.

“I have been given permission to offer you refuge here, with me, until the threat to you has been neutralized,” he said, cautiously gauging her reaction to his softly spoken words.

There was no mistaking the spark of relief he saw in her eyes. She quickly schooled her face into a mask, hiding her reaction, but not before Flare could catch the telltale emotion. “That sounds good to me,” she agreed.

“I have been instructed to resume my post as a patrol for the Territories, so I will be gone for at least six hours every night.”

“Night and day don’t seem to mean much here,” she noted. “I mean, you can Travel anywhere in the world. You could go to France and I could sleep the day away, waiting for you to return when it would be night in my part of the world.”

“This is true,” Flare agreed. “I will arrange my schedule to fit yours so that we can spend your nights together.”

Isis’ gaze heated with sudden passion and Flare felt even surer of his intentions with this human woman. “It’s still night in my part of the globe,” she drawled with a sultry smile.

“You need your rest,” he teased.

Isis huffed, blowing a lock of hair out of her face. “I just rested,” she complained.

“See.” She put her arms out and turned in a circle. “Look at me. I’m totally not tired now.”

“Promise?” he asked with a sly smile.

“I promise.” Isis was already growing breathless with excitement.

“Well, I guess I’ll have to be the judge of that,” he said and stalked toward her. He caught her up in his arms and carried her from the sitting room to his bedroom. He gently placed her on his bed, fanning her hair out on his pillows so that he could admire its striking color against the silken sheets.

6As gently as he knew how, he put his hands on the hem of her dress and began to push it up, stroking the skin that bared in its wake with the rough pads of his fingertips.

“You’re so soft,” he murmured in wonder.

Reaching for him, Isis tugged at his shirt—she hadn’t noticed before but it was made of some strange, almost rubber material, though it seemed to breathe well enough for he wasn’t sweating. The materials used here in this world were surprising and strange. Isis tugged at the shirt until Flare took over and removed it, revealing all that lovely golden skin for her to admire at her leisure.

Flare pulled her dress up over her head and tossed it behind him negligently. She saw his eyes brighten when he caught sight of her lingerie and she devilishly wriggled free from it in the most seductive manner she knew how…and she knew a
lot
about stripping for a man’s pleasure. Nude now, Isis rolled away from him playfully and he pounced on her with a mock growl, pressing her stomach into the thick cushion of the mattress. He kissed the back of her neck, brushing her hair so that it was over her shoulder. Isis gasped when he bit her there, but he quickly laved the tiny pain away with his hot tongue.

“I want to lay claim to your very soul,” he whispered against her skin.

Isis was scared to death that he already had.

Flare inhaled her scent. “You smell fantastic,” he told her, nuzzling her between her shoulder blades, using his lips and tongue to tickle and tease until she was panting excitedly.

Leaving not one inch of her skin unexplored by his mouth, he moved down her back and kissed the crown of her buttocks. Isis tried to turn over, but he held her still with one hand while the other traced the crevice of her bottom. Isis melted and any thought of shyness disappeared instantly. Flare released her and used both his hands to plump and squeeze her ass cheeks.

Wrenching a scream from her, he pressed his lips to the moue of her anus. Again Isis tried reflexively to get away. She rose to her knees, but that only opened her more fully for Flare’s wicked exploration. He tongued her there, burning her tender flesh, and she cried out again in the face of the pleasure his caress demanded.

Her whole body clenched with need. The flicker of his tongue on her anus stole any coherent thought away from her and she was mindless to everything but the sensations flooding through her. The loss of her control should have frightened her, but she felt so safe and secure with Flare that not even a trace of fear marred her exquisite pleasure.

His tongue wandered down until it slipped into the moisture of her pussy. Isis stretched like a cat, raising her rear higher into the air to welcome the feel of his tongue as it thrust in and out of her body. Her head was buried now in the plush pillows on his bed, her hair tangling as she thrashed it back and forth, moaning uncontrollably each time his tongue filled her, reaching to the heart of her.

Flare fumbled with the fastenings of his trousers and his cock sprang free, hot and heavy and ready. He reached over to the table by the bed and opened a drawer. It was 6full of condoms—he’d been wise enough to know he would need a good supply of them. Grabbing one impatiently, all the while letting his other hand stroke Isis’ silken body, he ripped the packet open with his teeth and rolled the condom over his sex.

Entering her from behind with one sure stroke, he leaned over her and held her breasts in his hands. His fingers plucked and squeezed at her diamond-hard nipples until she was panting and matching him thrust for thrust, and his hips cradled hers as he pumped his body into her repeatedly.

“Taste this bit of heaven for me now, baby,” Flare commanded, his fingers stroking down her front, pausing only to tease and tickle her bellybutton before seeking out her clit. He began to rub little circles into the nubbin of flesh and Isis began to buck wildly beneath him, racing toward her climax.

It slammed into her with the force of a runaway freight train. She screamed, long and loud, the sound only barely muffled by the pillow she had instinctively bitten to silence her cry. Her head felt like it would explode into starbursts and her body felt as if it would melt into a puddle right there in the bed.

Flare joined her in passion’s sweet reward, shouting his triumph to the heavens as he shot his cum deep into the heart of her. Despite the condom, Isis felt the scalding heat of his seed and was amazed that she could inspire such passion from so virile a man.

As Isis came down, Flare pulled his body free of hers. He ripped off the used condom and immediately donned another one. Isis rolled over onto her back and she saw his intent and nearly shouted with joy. Still on his knees, Flare pulled her to him.

He guided her legs around him so that she straddled his cock and he entered her slowly, torturously, until they were completely joined.

Where before they had been wild with pleasure, now their desire was sweeter, gentler, and the ecstasy was even more intense than it had been before. Flare gently rocked his hips into hers, holding her tight against him as he filled her over and over.

Isis’ arms clutched at him tightly and she moaned softly with each movement their bodies made together. It was like a graceful dance, his thrust and retreat and the soft undulation of her hips as she accepted him over and over.

An hour later they were both panting and covered with slippery sweat. Still, they slowly rode themselves into oblivion. The pleasure was endless and all consuming. Isis hooked her ankles at the small of his back, changing the angle of their thrusts. They both choked out gasps at the new and amazing sensations awarded to them as a result.