Desert of the Damned (10 page)

“Besides, I sense your body needs to release all the delicious chi you’ve saved for me and my world. I’m ready for you now.”

An incredible body and sexual skills, she had. Charm and tact, she didn’t. Picking up the vial of massage oil, he scooped her up in his arms and hurried into her bedchamber. He climbed up on the massive bed, then dropped her among a pile of pillows. She scooted backward toward the middle of the bed, tossing pillows aside.

He placed the vial of massage oil on the bedside table for later.

In the shadowy light of the room, she stretched out, touching her breasts, tweaking her nipples into hard points. All along, her gaze watched him as if measuring his response. His cock twitched and he saw her smile.

Outside he heard the waves crashing on the cliffs and the spattering of rain on the stone balcony. A jolt of icy fear seeped into his bones. They both had the power of destruction right now.

She could destroy him with a flip of her hand. But if he withheld his chi, could he destroy her world? Did her other minions supply enough or was it a delicate balance?

He had the power to destroy creatures and humans on the Earth plane. Knowing he might have the power to destroy Gwyllain’s world gave him a rush and made his cock grow harder.

Worth living on the edge, if he thought he could destroy her.

“Lick me,” she demanded as she raised her hips.

A smile tugged at the corners of his mouth. “Oh, I intend to.” He moved up her body, sucked her nipples and rocked his hips so his cock skimmed her pussy. He wanted her to ache for it, beg for it. Maybe he was a slave to immortality but here while exchanging the valuable offering of chi, he could be the master, he could take control.

She arched her hips in an attempt to increase the contact on her pussy but he lifted himself away. Groaning, she gripped his shoulders. “Stop teasing me.” Her breathing roughened.

He rolled her nipple between his tongue and teeth and made her body quiver.

Struggling beneath him, she tried to wrap her legs around his hips and draw herself to him but he pulled away again. She groaned and writhed beneath him, tossing her head from side to side. “Dante, what are you doing?” she rasped, clearly frustrated.

This was just where he wanted her. He would get her much more frustrated. The demoness, who could destroy him with a wave of her hand, he would make beg for his attentions.

He chuckled, low and huskily. “Mmmm. Fucking. Isn’t that what you call it?”

She glared at him. “Well, get to it. I want you inside me now.”

“I’ll say when. You must be patient.” He reached down and slid a finger inside her and she cried out.

53

Kathy Kulig

“Enough. Dante. Patience I don’t have. Fuck me, now.”

“Gwyllain, do not speak,” he commanded.

Her breath caught, eyes flashed. Before she had a chance to argue, he tilted his head toward her windows while he fingered her clit and tugged on her ring. “Your world is disintegrating as we argue.” Wind howled across the balcony through the open French doors, whipping the sheer draperies like ripped sails in a storm. “Enjoy the pleasure and let me pass my chi in the means that heightens my pleasure.”

“I forbid you to—” A bright flash of lightning and sharp crack of thunder silenced her.

“Not another word,” he warned. “It ruins my concentration,” he lied. Nothing she could do or say would turn him off. She could recite poetry or threaten to kill him and he’d still be able to climax.

Beneath his hands, her skin warmed and her body leapt when he stroked her most sensitive places—nipples, navel, clit, the crease at the top of her thighs, behind her knees, her feet.

She moaned. He knew she wanted to speak but wouldn’t. When her hands fisted in the sheets, he lowered his mouth onto her pussy.

She cried out and bucked her hips. Spreading her outer lips gave him better access to her clit, which he drew circles around with his tongue.

Then flicking the ring, he made her groan louder. His tongue passed over her clit and she grabbed his head and cried out as her body convulsed violently in orgasmic ecstasy.

Before her moans died down, Dante got up on his knees and rolled Gwyllain onto her stomach, slipping a pillow beneath her hips.

Snatching the vial of massage oil off the nightstand, he removed the cork and drizzled the amber fluid between the crease of her ass.

“Dante, no.” She squirmed beneath him but he held her down with his hand between her shoulder blades and massaging the oil around her asshole made her twitch and gasp. He ignored the demoness’s protests. He would be in command for once.

“Dante,” she breathed but it wasn’t in protest.

He slipped in a finger. She moaned and he felt her muscles relax. He added a little more oil and Gwyllain hissed, “Yes.”

He removed his finger and prodded her hole with the tip of his cock. “Get up on your knees.”

Surprisingly she didn’t object, she rose, exposing her buttocks for his entry.

Gripping her hips, he spread her and slipped gently inside her hole.

She groaned and slowly pumped back and forth to take more of him. And that did him in. Sensations in his body rose in tempo as he reached orgasmic oblivion. The wave of an intense climax exploded in him and he shot his juices into her. Drained and shaking and relieved to give up the chi he had been collected over the last several days, 54

Desert of the Damned

he collapsed at her side. Afterward, she attempted to curl into his arms like a lover, when all he wanted to do was get up and leave. If she had been Amy, then maybe he would’ve drawn her to his chest. Tightening his jaw, he slipped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her to him—bedding a demoness, the price to pay for immortality and revenge.

When his breathing and heartbeat slowed, he opened his eyes and saw that servants had entered and left bowls of soapy water and towels next to the bed. Damn, they were as silent as ghosts. He’d never seen them enter or leave.

“Don’t move,” he said.

“Ordering me again,” she moaned.

He laughed. “I’m going to wash you.” He got up and rinsed a cloth in one bowl of warm water and cleaned between her legs and her buttocks, then dried her with a towel. He freshened himself as well, then climbed into bed, next to her.

The one rare time the demoness was almost human was after she received chi.

Eyes closed, she snuggled against his chest and slept. Now he could slip away without listening to her protests. Outside the wind had died and the rain stopped. The moon shone silvery over a calm sea. And the stars—the stars of Gwyllain’s fragmented dimension—shone brightly and peacefully.

The chi he’d given her was only the equivalent of one half a human life. He needed a total of three lives if he was going to make it through this cycle. Less than two weeks to go and he was running out of time.

55

Kathy Kulig

Chapter Seven

Truly was off to Tucson for the day so Amy didn’t get any winks from her when she brought Jake through the lab for a quick tour of Drake Diagnostic Labs before they headed up to the park to collect specimens. Wearing a gray and green park service uniform, hiking boots and carrying his wide-brimmed ranger hat, Jake received plenty of admiring looks from the female lab techs. Amy heard a few murmur, “Who is that?”

as he walked by.

“I hope this isn’t an inconvenience taking you out of work,” Jake said as he followed her into the storeroom. He crossed his arms over his chest.

“No, it’s fine. I look forward to the chance to do a field project and get outside. I also think my boss wanted to be more involved as a community relations thing.” She felt him watching her while she added supplies into boxes and heat flickered over her skin.

“PR, you mean?”

“Yes, it is good public relations in a way. He’s an avid backpacker and a fisherman, so I’m sure this project carries some personal weight.” She closed up the box, not making eye contact, fearing he would read the other reason. Her boss saw dollar signs and didn’t want the park service to send these tests anywhere else. A little handholding and special treatment might keep the account local.

Amy had her own personal reasons for wanting to do this project. Jake was the kind of man you felt instantly attracted to even before you knew anything about him.

Chemistry? Charisma? Whatever they called it, she felt the tug deep inside. Spending some time with Jake Montag was just what she needed to distract her enough to get Dante out of her mind and out of her system.

When she finally did look up at him, he was smiling. He bent over to pick up the box. “Here, let me.”

Damn, those blue eyes could distract her from a tornado.
She averted her gaze. “Besides, I’ve wanted to do some hiking since I moved here. I haven’t had a chance.” She had donned khakis, a tee shirt and hiking boots instead of business casual.

“If you wanted to do some hiking, why didn’t you say so, Amy?” Dante was standing in the doorway.

Amy stiffened. Thoughts of what had happened last night flooded her mind. Did it actually happen? Or had she been dreaming? She opened her mouth to speak but Dante interrupted.

“I got your message last night. Sorry I didn’t get a chance to call you back,” Dante said to her.

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Desert of the Damned

Had it been a dream or was this more of his games? He was never this attentive.

Dante stepped into the storeroom, offering his hand to Jake. “Jake, how are you?”

“Good, thanks.”

“Well, I won’t hold you up,” Dante said. “I have to get to a meeting. Good luck on your field study today. Give me a call when you get back. We can do dinner.”

Amy cringed. “We’ll probably get back late. It’ll be too late for dinner.” She didn’t want to get into this with him here.

“Of course. Give me a call anyway when you get in to let me know how things went.” Dante turned around and left. Not giving her a chance to argue.

Amy clenched her teeth. She didn’t have time to go to his office to ask him about last night and whether or not he had summoned her out to the desert. If she had dreamed it, would she sound unstable? Not something she wanted on her personnel record while she was job hunting. No doubt about it, for personal and professional reasons, ending their relationship was the best way. She sighed and realized Jake was watching her. “Ready?” she asked, forcing a smile.

“Let’s hit the road,” he said as he left the storeroom with the box of supplies.

It took about forty minutes from the lab to reach the end of the gravel road at the trailhead. Amy hopped out of the Jeep and loaded up her backpack with the specimen containers and bags from the box in the back of the Jeep. Jake carried extra water and food in his pack. The early morning air was still and cool for April, the pale blue sky dotted with tuffs of clouds.

“Shouldn’t we have a map?” she asked.

He smiled. “Map? I know all the trails. I work here.”

“Oh.”

“Something wrong?”

“I just hear stories about hikers getting lost. I don’t know these mountains.”

Jake slipped on his backpack and helped Amy on with hers, then locked up his Jeep.

She hooked her thumbs in the straps of her backpack, trying to look casual as they started up the trail.

“If you’re not familiar with an area, a map is a good idea, or GPS or radio.” He held both instruments up and then hooked them to his belt. “I always have to carry these.

You haven’t gone hiking in the park, have you?” His tone wasn’t condescending.

She didn’t want to mention she’d lived in Florida all her life and hadn’t done much hiking. “Not yet.”

He smiled over his shoulder. “When we get back, I’ll get you a map and give you a private lesson in orienteering.”

“Thanks.”

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He chuckled a little then ran a hand through his short brown hair. “I have to ask this. If it’s not my business, just say so.”

“Ask me what?” Amy walked with arms crossed.

“Is Dante Akando a boyfriend or something?”

She laughed a little.

“I mean, I think he was worried about me taking you into the mountains alone. Or the guy was staking his claim before we left.”

Amy stopped walking. “Dante has no claim on me,” she said sharply.

Jake turned and put up his hand in a motion of surrender. “Sorry, Amy. I stepped over professional bounds here.”

She sighed in frustration. “It’s all right. We should keep moving. We have a lot to do today.”

“Right.” He didn’t take his eyes off her and appeared to look right through her.

There was no sense in explaining her personal problems to this man. She hardly knew him. Predictably, Jake found signs of animals, pointing out droppings and tracks for rabbits, raccoons and deer right away, explaining their habits, and helping her to collect specimens. The man knew his way around the wilderness, and she found that very appealing.

As she followed him down the trail, her gaze skimmed over his body. Good lord, he was built. Unless he did hard-core mountain climbing he had to work out in the gym.

Broad back and shoulders, biceps taut in his uniform and nice butt. The pit of her stomach did a little dance as her imagination went wild, thinking about spending the day in the woods with this gorgeous man.

Then her brain synapses finally began to fire and jolted her back to reality. She was working and she had an important project to do. Had Dante’s sex games gotten her so frustrated she was ready to screw the first hot guy she met?

They walked in silence for several minutes along the foothills of the Rincon Mountains, passing knee-high growth of scrub brush, cactus and dried grasses.

Climbing onto a rocky ridge, Jake reached a hand out to help her up. “Thanks, I got it,”

she said.

Unlike the humid, salty air she was accustomed to in Florida, the wild rawness in Arizona had its own beauty. The muted colors, the earthy scents and lapis-blue skies so eloquently revealed the magical allure of the landscape. Amy was beginning to understand why people loved the desert.