Devil Take Me (9 page)

“I’m sure they have sandwiches and soups too, so if you—”

“I will not refuse any meal you choose, but that was not the hunger of which I spoke.” She dropped her dark eyes to the ground and took a deep breath. As she let it out, the worry vanished from her face for a moment and a slow smile spread across her full, tempting lips.

“I know.” She lifted her eyes to his, the promise there enough to send a shock through Namtar’s unprepared body.

He was hard as stone as he watched her cross the parking lot to the lighted doors, all weariness banished in a wave of lust that would have been worrisome if he weren’t beginning to think she would agree to come with him to his world. Her life here on Earth was far from perfect. He had more to offer her than he had first assumed. Besides, he was becoming addicted to her smiles, her sinful mouth, her beautiful heart.

So to reward her for her goodness, you would use her as so many have done before, steal from her the precious gift of her eternal soul and the bliss found when becoming one with the forces of creation?

“She has known few of the pleasures of humanity. Her gods have failed her. She deserves to know pleasure, safety, and—”

And love. She has had none of it, not from the woman who raised her or the man who would have sworn to be hers. She deserves to be loved, a thing you, with your ancient, devil’s heart, will never be able to provide.

“Love is fickle, but my sworn oath would be for eternity. I would never fail her, no matter how many hundreds of seasons she spent at my side.”

The weak voice of his conscience was silent once more.

Good. It was madness to listen to its urgings. That was the voice that had kept his people enslaved, so reluctant to steal a soul Namtar had allowed countless men and women to be tortured and abused. Annie was the answer to so many needs, both for himself and his people. He would not let her go without a fight.

No he would not, not even if he must wage battle with himself every day from now until he took leave of the human world, with Annie by his side, bonded to him as his consort and queen.

The internet was an evil, evil thing. Annie had never been a big fan of the information superhighway. It only helped you learn scary facts about diseases you probably didn’t have—but would be convinced you did by the time you spent a couple hours browsing—and allowed people you didn’t want to know you were alive learn your name, address, phone and social security numbers.

She shouldn’t have made use of the computer downstairs while Namtar was in the shower. She should have stayed in the room and eaten her grilled chicken salad and prepared for a night of losing her worries in the arms of the sex god who was soaping himself clean for her. That was what a sane woman would do, one who was more concerned with hiding out from the people who wanted to throw her in jail than learning more about ancient Sumerian mythology.

Namtar had told her he was from the Sumerian Underworld, a separate dimension located beneath the Earth’s surface. His queen had become abusive to her subjects and Namtar had journeyed to the human world to seek aid in ousting her from power. He hadn’t been specific about what kind of aid or how he planned to get it, but the bare bones explanation had satisfied Annie at the time. She’d honestly been overwhelmed just comprehending such things existed, as well as intrigued by the knowledge she herself had some kind of untapped power that made her immune to his more negative powers.

“Negative, nice way to sugar coat it, Annie,” she said as she entered the elevator and punched the button for the third floor.

Namtar was a monster, there was no other way to look at it. If the websites she’d found were accurate, he’d been slaughtering humans in epic proportions for thousands of years. Every time he came to the surface, humanity was decimated by disease. The ancients considered him the plague-bearing embodiment of fate. When Namtar came for you, your time was up.

Then why was she still alive? And why did he seem so determined to avoid harming anyone else? It didn’t make sense, though being spirited through the floor of her apartment had banished any doubts that he was, in fact, a supernatural being of some sort.

But what about the heat between them? Not one single site had mentioned that Namtar was sex personified. Several, in fact, had portrayed him as a Grim Reaper figure, a skeletal, fearsome looking creature who fed on the souls of man.

Maybe he does look like that. Maybe he’s using his magic to make him look like a hunky human male when in reality you’ve been running around with a hideous—

“That’s ridiculous,” she mumbled to herself. People had glanced at Namtar oddly the few times they’d excited the car, but that was because he was a giant for God’s sake.

No one had run screaming in horror, and she’s seen several curious looks from other women who were not in the least terror-stricken. If anything, they’d seemed more shocked by the fact that Namtar was with a frizzy haired woman with about twenty extra pounds on her frame than anything about the man himself.

The websites must have their history wrong, at least parts of it. After all, if what Namtar said were true, his people had been living beneath the Earth for centuries, only emerging into the human world on rare occasions. He had existed since a time before most of the world had a written form of language. It made sense the people recording the history of this terrifying god-like creature might have exaggerated the hideousness of his appearance.

If he really had caused the kind of death he described, it probably didn’t matter what he truly looked like. The people who felt his touch would have seen him as the embodiment of death, and a painful, gruesome death at that.

Which made her wonder again…why not her? And what was it about Namtar’s explanation of her immunity that didn’t ring true—other than the fact that she would have guessed herself to be the least magically endowed person in the known world? There was something…something he’d said last night that was troubling her, nudging the back of her brain though she couldn’t seem to remember the exact words.

No wonder really. After the past day and a half it was a wonder she could remember her own name.

Annie exited the elevator and headed down the dimly lit hall. Namtar seemed like a kind person, and was genuinely concerned for her well being. She would simply have to put aside other worries for now. She had enough on her plate without looking a gift horse in the mouth, and Namtar had been a source of strength for her since the madness with Roger started.

She was grateful he was with her, no matter who or what he was, and her libido was downright indebted to the man. She’d never known sex could be like it was with Namtar, so all consuming, so wicked and wanton. She’d always been the type to crave the cuddling after sex more than the act itself, but now she was anticipating the act quite a bit. Quite a bit. Hell, she’d been as distracted by sexy fantasies featuring her new lover as she had been dire thoughts of her future in jail.

Her priorities were sadly out of whack, but hopefully a night sharing the king-size bed she’d requested would help her regain her focus.

Annie smiled as she came to a stop outside their room. She inserted her keycard into the lock, but the door flew open before she could grip the handle. Namtar stood on the other side, his long hair dripping wet, a towel wrapped around his waist and a black look darkening his features. He looked dangerous, and she suddenly had no trouble envisioning how the multitudes must have quaked before him as he swept through an ancient village, leaving death in his wake.

“Where have you been?” He took her by the arm and pulled her inside, slamming the door closed behind them. His grip was too tight. It hurt, but what made Annie gasp was the desire the pain caused to pulse through her veins. Like when she’d begged him to bite her the night before, the pain gave her unspeakable pleasure.

“I was down in the lobby,” she said, heat pooling low in her body as he leaned his hands on the door, trapping her in the circle of his arms.

The man was mightily pissed, anger rolling from his large frame in waves she could feel prickling against her skin. Annie knew she should be afraid, or at the very least wary, but she wasn’t. Not the slightest bit. In fact, a part of her wanted to see him angrier, see what Namtar might be capable of if he really lost his temper. Would he punish her? Tie her to the bed and discipline her with the flat of that large, strong hand? Would he—

Annie shook her head, her thoughts alien to a woman who had spent her life trying to please. They were also sufficiently shocking to bring an apology to her lips.

“I’m sorry, I thought I’d be back before you were finished. I didn’t mean to worry you.”

“You will never leave my side again without permission. Do you understand this?” He leaned down until his face was inches from her own, his angry words puffing against her lips.

“I said I was sorry, but no I don’t understand.” Annie’s temper flared hot enough to equal her desire. “I am not a child, and I will leave your side whenever I please.”

“You shall not. If you want my protection, you will obey me in this, Annie.”

He had to be joking. But no, there wasn’t a shred of humor in the hard lines of his face.

“In the modern world, women have equality with men.”

Namtar laughed, an abrupt humorless sound. “Ridiculous.”

“It is not ridiculous. Women are not slaves who must obey their men or—”

“No, they are refuse to be shot and killed or sent to jail when their men are finished with them. After they plow the thighs of other women and—”

Annie’s hand snapped out, landing hard on Namtar’s cheek before she had a chance to think, leaving a red mark on his skin and a fire in his eyes. “How dare you?” She struggled to breathe past the sudden fear surging in her chest.

She’d hit someone. Never in her life, never, not even when the little girls at Dorris Elementary had trapped her in the bathroom and torn at her cheap, hand-me-down clothes, had she ever lashed out at anyone. Not even during those long years with her great-aunt when she’d been disciplined with a belt for the slightest infraction of Aunt Dinah’s endless rules. She was not a violent person.

Then why was she considering hitting Namtar again, and again, until he grew angry enough to hit her back, to bring that big hand down on her ass? Annie shuddered, closing her eyes against her thoughts and the dizzying desire they inspired.

Namtar’s voice was soft and low when he finally spoke. “I dare because you are mine, Annie Theophilus. Surely you have felt that since the first time we touched.” His hands moved to her hips, bunching up her skirt with rough, assured motions. He touched her as if she were his property, as if she had no choice in when or how he would use her.

“I am no one’s,” she whispered, eyes flying open to meet his, hoping he read the truth there, no matter that a ragged cry escaped her lips as he slid his hand down the front of her panties, finding where she was already ridiculously wet.

“Your pussy tells me otherwise.” Namtar moved his hand, fisting it at the front of her underpants and ripping them from her body. Annie cried out again, at the pain as the scrap of clothing was torn from her body and the pleasure as Namtar gripped her thighs in his strong hands, spreading them, hitching her up around his waist.

His towel had fallen to the floor, leaving his thick cock bare, exposed, ready to press into that eager place between her legs. Even though a part of her was horrified Namtar would seek to discipline her by fucking her against the wall, Annie wiggled her slick center against him, helping his erection find its way inside her.

No matter what that small, shocked voice inside her had to say, the rest of Annie wanted this, craved it, was eager to take her punishment…and dish out a little in return.

“God!” In her cry, Namtar heard equal parts pleasure and pain, but was unable to still his thrust until he was buried to the hilt.

Once inside her, however, he struggled to regain control. He claimed her lips, demanded entrance to her mouth, tasting again the ancient fields of his youth, the offerings of fruit and bread and wine the worshippers had left at the shrines to Ereshkigal and her consort, Nergal. They had all partaken of the feast, from the death goddess herself down to the least of the lower gods, reveling in the power of godhood, never dreaming their time would come to an end.

As Namtar slanted his mouth, gaining deeper access to the sweet darkness of the woman in his arms, it was as if he was there once again. He could smell the rich, newly turned Earth, feel the wind blowing across his bare skin, knew the power his kind gained from the tribute of mortals. Only in those ancient days had he felt so real, so strong.

But now, with his hands cupping Annie’s full hips, his cock stretching her to fit his need, a sensation to rival even the bliss of godhood filled him to overflowing. Gone was the age old fear of losing control of his power if he allowed pleasure to overtake him too completely. Annie was immune to his death touch. She was the only woman in the world who had ever allowed him such profound release from care. With his lover, his future queen, in his arms, he knew no fear, no weakness. Only a fierce lust for life, a desire he had lost long before his lust for flesh.

The goddess in his arms restored them both.

“Fuck me.” Annie suckled at his bottom lip, then bit down with her sharp teeth, tearing his skin until he tasted a hint of his own blood in his mouth. The bright, metallic taste unleashed him as surely as her words, bringing him to a place of feral hunger, consuming him with a need that roared for satisfaction.

He pulled out until only the tip of his cock remained in Annie’s body, then surged back in. Again and again, until the only sounds to be heard were the slap of flesh against flesh, the pounding rhythm of Annie’s hips making contact with the door behind her, and his own labored breath. All too soon the need for release reached the critical point, tightening Namtar’s balls, increasing the pleasure of the friction between their bodies until he cried out, screaming Annie’s name into the quiet room.

Thankfully she joined him a moment later, scoring his back with her nails as her pussy clamped down on his cock, milking the last of his seed from his body. And then, before he could pull himself from within her, before he could set Annie’s feet back on the ground, that push of power filled him once more. It surged out of Annie, penetrating his skin, flooding each cell until the rush of life he’d felt a moment ago paled in comparison.

“Ninani!” His lady, his goddess, the feminine half of him that had been missing for too long. Annie was all that and so much more. He gasped the endearment against the delicate skin at her neck, burying his face in her wild curls as the power filled him to the breaking point, hardening his cock though he had just spent his seed, making his skin burn as if he were tinder and Annie the flame.

“Do you feel it, do you feel your magic?” he asked, struggling to stay connected to the woman in his arms though his flesh screamed for a moment of peace, for a break in this pleasure that danced so close to the edge of pain.

“I… Yes, I do.” Her breath was coming faster and faster, her heart racing.

The spill of power picked up in time until Namtar’s vision blurred, and he began to wonder if it were possible for a mortal to blind an immortal with her magic. Still, he forced himself to stay as he was. If they were to use this power to aid in Ereshkigal’s destruction, Annie must learn how to harness it, how to bend it to her will.

“Now, pull it back. Pull it back into yourself.”

“I can’t, God, I can’t. It’s too much.” She squirmed in his arms, trying to separate them. “Let me go, I can feel it hurting you. Namtar, please—”

“You can control it.”

“I can’t.”

“You can and will.”

“This isn’t the time to be a bossy son of a—”

“Imagine it is a fish on a line, one that you are drawing into the shore.” The intensity of the flow began to abate, just in time. Namtar took a deep breath, then whispered against Annie’s lips. “Slowly, continuously, wind the line around and around, coiling it within your very core.”

A few more moments and the waves of magic ceased completely, though the effects it had wrought in Namtar’s body remained. He was filled to the brim with more power than he’d known in a thousand seasons. His skin glowed from within and he knew his eyes would be illuminated as well.

In ancient times, those glowing eyes were all many humans had ever known of him. If they dared to walk in the gods’ forests at night, they risked those glowing yellow orbs being the last thing they would ever see. Ereshkigal did not tolerate trespass and had appointed Namtar her night watchman. As a youngling, not owning more than twenty seasons, he hadn’t thought twice of taking a human life in the name of his queen.

But now… Now life, no matter how brief, seemed immeasurably precious. Whether it was his age, or this new tenderness in his heart for a mortal, he could not say. Or would not say. Namtar suspected it was tenderness for Annie that had made him wild with fear when he had found her gone. The soft place in his heart demanded she realize she belonged to him and no other.

“You’re glowing. And your eyes look…” Annie’s own eyes grew wide and just the slightest bit fearful.

“You have brought me into the fullness of my own power once more. My eyes will not hurt you.” Namtar slowly pulled his erect cock from between Annie’s thighs and set her on the ground, though his body cried out against the loss of contact. He didn’t want to be tempted to take her again until he had gained the control to love her slowly, the way he had imagined as he soaped himself clean in the shower.

“Would they hurt anyone else?” Annie asked, reaching a shaking hand up to cup his cheek.

“They once had the power to still a human where they stood. The moment a mortal’s eyes met mine they no longer controlled their body.”

As if to prove to herself she still had the power of movement, Annie ducked under his arm, wandering toward the bed. Her skirt fell back down around her hips, but the fact that she was covered did nothing to ease Namtar’s desire. He knew she wore nothing beneath the flowered fabric. Just remembering the feel of her undergarment tearing in his hand was enough to make his cock twitch and a pearl of fluid leak from its engorged tip.

He sensed the time had come for “the talk” Annie insisted they have, but the last thing Namtar wished to do was talk. He was half drunk from the small taste he’d had of Annie’s passion. He wanted to finish the job, wanted to pull her to the bed and ravage her until they both were lost in a haze of raw pleasure.

If he was going to be forced to admit his need for her soul, he would prefer it be after he had fully attended to the needs of her body. Long after.

“What was that feeling between us?” Annie turned back to him, her brows drawn together, but her look of concern faded as she watched him stalk toward her. Her dark eyes widened and her lips parted, an unspoken invitation Namtar could not resist.

He wrapped his arms around her, cupping her ass and pulling her close. She rocked forward against him, tightening the muscles beneath his hands. He took advantage of the moment, lifting her, sliding her up his body until her pelvis was even with his own. Annie’s arms twined around his neck with an eagerness that made his spirit feel strangely light.

“You didn’t answer my question,” she whispered, her sweet breath puffing against his lips. His cock stirred in response, just the smell of her enough to make him harder, hungrier. “What was that feeling?”

“What feeling?” he asked against her lips, kissing her with the words.

“Your skin,” she said, tongue flicking out to tease across the seam of his lips. “It was like it was on fire.”

“It was your magic.” He tried to close the distance between them but she pulled away, her luscious mouth curved with the hint of a smile.

“I don’t have any magic.” Annie’s bottom tightened as she wiggled into closer contact with his aching cock.

He groaned, then laughed at the wicked look in her dark eyes. She knew what she did to him, how she drove him mad with need for her. In any other woman that would have made him wary, cautious of lowering his guard. But not with Annie. For some reason, he trusted her, more than any woman he had taken to his bed, maybe more than any man he had called friend in his long life. She was so pure, so good, so perfectly—

“Talk, Namtar.” Her legs parted, wrapping around his hips, grinding her slick center against where he was ready to explode.

So perfectly sinful. Pure temptation contained in full curves and sweet, soft skin.

“I will talk when the time comes for talk.”

“The time has come for—” She squealed as he spun toward the bed holding her tightly to him with one arm, laughing as he guided her down to the soft covers until she lay stretched beneath him.

“The time has come for me to show you I remember how to love you properly.” Namtar braced his arms on either side of her face, his eyes glowing golden as the laughter left her features, replaced by a heat he knew he would never tire of seeing in those deep brown eyes. His breath came faster and his cock grew impossibly thicker, simply imagining all the things he wanted to do to her, today, tomorrow and hopefully for many, many years to come. It had been so long since he’d had a lover for more than a few seasons, and never one he could trust or come to…care for.

Come to care for? Don’t be a fool, man.

His chest tightened as he brushed his lips gently over hers, once, twice, knowing he already cared more for this mortal than he had any of the women who had warmed his bed during his long, cold nights in the Underworld. His hands found the bottom of Annie’s dress and pulled, urging it over her head, baring her softly rounded belly and the full breasts he had been fantasizing about most of the day. “You are the most beautiful thing I have ever seen.”

“Namtar, I—”

“The most perfect thing I have ever felt.” His fingers found the soft flesh of the inside of her thigh, sliding up to where she was so hot, so slick, so ready for him to take her again.

Her breath rushed out in a moan. “Maybe we can postpone that talk a little bit longer.” Annie’s arms wrapped around his neck, pulling him closer, smashing their mouths together. Namtar’s smile was banished by her lips working expertly against his own, her tongue pushing into his mouth, tasting him, tempting him, quickly driving him to the edge once more.

He had to pull away, escape her addictive kiss before he took her as fast and furiously as he had the first time.

“Come back,” she moaned, reaching for him. Her lips were already swollen from his attentions and her eyes glassy with need. Looking down at her, Namtar was more than tempted to do as she commanded, to fall back into her arms, her mouth, and never find his way free.

“I have business elsewhere.” He kissed her one last time, fiercely, thoroughly, making certain she was breathless before he moved his kiss lower.

First he attended the place where her pulse fluttered beneath the delicate skin at her neck, then the hollow at the base of her throat. Her fingers tangled in his still-damp hair, pulling him closer. He angled his head, pressing as tightly to her as their skins would allow, swirling his tongue, nipping at the bone that led to her shoulder.

“Touch me…please.” She shifted beneath him, arching her back, lifting her breasts.

“I am touching you.” Namtar smiled as he moved his lips lower, deliberately avoiding where her berry colored nipples pebbled so tightly.

He was dying to suck them into his mouth, to capture them between his teeth, but instead he feathered soft kisses across the soft underside of first one breast and then the other. There was a time for swift satisfaction and there was a time for torment, for sharpening the edge of desire until it was nearly lethal.

“God, please.” Annie moved her hands from his hair to her own needy flesh, her fingers nearly reaching her swollen tips before he captured her wrists in his hands and pressed them down to the bed.

“I am not a god any longer,” Namtar said, pausing to trace the outline of her nipple with his tongue. “The ones who once worshipped me have long ago turned to dust.”

“God damn you, you know that’s not what I meant.” She laughed, but it was a breathless, strained sound, followed by a moan as he flicked his tongue across her tightened buds, just once, then blew cool air across the damp flesh.

“I can be damned by no god. I give honor to the Goddess of all, the one who will one day decide if my soul is worthy of a life beyond the thousands of years I have already known.” Namtar kneed her thighs apart, then lowered his weight onto her hips, pinning her in place, wishing he had some soft rope or silken scarves. How he would like to bind Annie to this bed, see her spread wide and vulnerable to him, to his eyes, his touch, to all the ways he would give her pleasure.

The thought made his cock leak once more, reminding him torment was a sword that cut both ways.