The Sifting (3 page)

She
responded by arching her back and pushing her hips toward his touch. He fluttered the tip of his finger over her bud and she cried out. “Micah, oh God, yes, yes.”

He rapidly flicked his tongue
on the firm tip, drawing a full body shudder and agonized cry from her.

“Please, finger me,” she gasped.

At her sweet plea, his plan to go really slow changed. He knelt between her legs and lifted her hips high off the bed. Her mouth remained open with incessant gasps and moans, her eyes riveted to his face between her legs, watching him. He stared at her and placed soft kisses on every inch of her folds, loving the way she looked tied up and helpless. And yet the sweet torment and desperation in her gaze was what made him senseless. He kept his kisses extra light, just inhaling her sweet scent, waiting for her to beg. It didn’t take long. Her body begged first with erotic tilts of her hips, calling his lips and tongue to aggression.

He teased her with one lick between her folds,
still only the tip of her gem. She gasped and squirmed in his hands, the muscles in her ass clenching, straining for it. Perfect. He kissed softly some more, keeping his gaze locked on hers. She bit her lower lip. “Please, suck me.” She ended with tormented moan.

He loved her desperate. Needed her desperate. He nibbled one plump fold
, then the next, moving his thumbs into the juncture of her thighs. He pressed and opened her then slowly worked his mouth between her lips. Micah closed his eyes, getting lost in the feel of her softness on his mouth. He finally reached out with the tip of his tongue and drew designs on her silky skin. She was dripping with desire.

M
icah gripped her squirming bottom firmly while she flicked her hips against his mouth. “Yes, yes, yes.” She thrashed her head and fought to get more friction. Micah gave a long moan on her before sliding his mouth lower and slipping his tongue inside her. She gasped and Micah’s cock jerked at how her body clamped down on him. His fingers hardened as he began pushing and pulling her onto his mouth. She loved it so much, Micah didn’t want to stop. He did it faster making his nose hit her bud with each pull. She was ready to orgasm. He could feel it in her body, on his tongue, in his hands. And he could hear it, the desperate moans rising louder on that wave. He wanted to be buried in her but he couldn’t bring himself to stop. He decided he needed to lick and suck her to orgasm. Then he’d have her.

He moaned and
moved his thumb along her moisture then slid it onto her exit, softly massaging it. Though it was a shocking new sensation, the tease did it for her and she gave a sharp cry as the orgasm took her. Took her hard. Micah concentrated, wanting it to be the best ever. He pressed his lips onto her and sucked, pulling her clit up and fluttered the tip of his tongue on it while his other thumb dipped into her entrance. Her body cleaved hard to both his fingers and Micah thought his heart would fail him at hearing her fall apart. She was so fucking beautiful in orgasm, it drove him mad. It took every ounce of control to let her shudder her last before lowering her body. Gasping on desire, he watched as he slid her dripping folds down his abs, wanting her imprinted into his pores.

H
e placed her onto his painful erection and she cried out. He looked into her eyes, wanting to see her when he entered, what she looked like. He should go slow. He looked down, and the sight of him poised just inside her, demanded much more. He raked his graze back up her body, his fingers turning hard.

“Sarah,” he gasped, wanting her to look at him.

She met his gaze. “Do it,” she breathed. “Make love to me. Be my first. My only.”

Her sweet words obliterated his frayed resistance and he
jerked her onto him. The way she cried out along with the tight heat sucking him brought an explosion of heat too intense to bear. He threw his head back with a roar then lost himself. Growling with the insane heat, he jerked her on and off of him, watching her body slam against his.

He fell forward, needing to feel her.
His orgasm seemed to last five minutes, as though everything about her kept him suspended in ecstasy, the sound of her cries, the way her breasts felt and moved with his thrusts, the bucking of her hips as she rode him. He buried his mouth in her neck and sucked with a ferocious hunger as that vortex of ecstasy drowned him. The sound of his name among the senseless syllables of oblivion, marked him eternally.
“Micah! Micah! Micah!”
Like a mantra, he was all and everything, just as he craved to be. All his. He needed her to be all his
.

He kissed her at the very last
and she devoured him back
.
When it was over, he laid on her, spent and breathless. The first thing he became aware of was how fucking good he felt inside. Following immediately on its heels came a crushing pressure that gripped his chest. He gasped for air.

“Micah? Are you okay?”

He shook his head on her shoulder a little. He was definitely not fucking okay. He was lost. Confused. And fulfilled.

****

Sarah felt the heaviness in Micah’s spirit as though it were her own. “I love you,” she whispered as he rolled off of her and sat on the edge of the bed, head in his hands.

“There’s something you need to know Sarah.”

Shit. She didn’t like that sound. It was the great confession she’d been looking for and didn’t care to hear it tied up. “Can you…untie me and we can talk?”

“No.”

Dread slowly filled her. This had been his plan. To get her where she was helpless. Dear God. She needed to keep her cool, continue the session. “I’m listening,” Sarah whispered, wanting to trace her fingers lightly over his scars.

He sighed beneath a monumental weight and Sarah
was glad to finally hear what exactly it was that produced his soul-requiring delusion.

“I told you this is like my second home.”

Sarah waited for more
and he glanced over his shoulder. “Yes, I remember.”

“It is my only home. My real home.”
He turned away again.

She narrowed her gaze. “O
kay?”

“I live here with my family. People…you wouldn’t exactly consider to be good given your beliefs.
”

Sarah waited but Micah seemed hesitant to finish what obviously needed finishing. She finally prompted, her voice
coming out frail sounding. “Who are you?”

The
silence that weighed in the air this time, preceded a darkness she didn’t or couldn’t fathom. “The Order of Thirteen Angels.”

Chapter F
ive

Dread slowly tightened her stomach at hearing the title. Not that she knew it, but it screamed official, real, and not at all delusional in the way she’d thought. Needed even. And others were involved, dear God, that meant…possible mass delusion. Not something one therapist could help.

“Do I want to know
…what that is, Micah?”

He shook his head
very slowly. “No, sweetheart. You don’t.” The utter dread in his beautiful voice ate a path straight through her. “What…what’s going on?” She didn’t know what to ask.

“The Sifting,” he said, sounding sad. “
Every year, we perform the ancient ritual.”

All of it was said in complete desolation and s
adness, freaking Sarah out worse. He sounded like a horror movie, and she was in it, trapped. “What is…sifting?”

“We select one person every year to sift. We offer them an opportunity to renounce god or we sift them until they do.
” He turned his head a little, giving barely a profile. “You were chosen Sarah.” The soft whisper tingled like metal spiders along her skin.

Sarah
yanked at her ties. “Untie me, Micah,” she gasped, her fear consuming her.

“That is why you
must
renounce, Sarah.”

“Micah…please…take me home, I don’t want to be here anymore.”

He turned and faced her, his expression a mask of fury. “I
can’t
bring you back. You are entered into the system. You will. Be. Sifted. And there is nothing you, or I can do about it. If I let you go, they will merely find you and make you sorry you didn’t play by their rules.”

“Their rules?”

“Actually, your god gave the go ahead on testing his children. Nice little perk, huh?”

“W-what happens if the person…doesn’t renounce? Even after the sifting?”

He shook his head, his eyes hard. “That has never happened. They always renounce.”

She stared at him, horrified.
“Fuck shit, fuck,” she gasped, “fuck shit, oh my God.” She jerked at her ties more. “I-I-I don’t understand,” a sob threatened her words, “why are you with me, doing all this with me, Micah, I thought, I thought you loved me.”

He
suddenly covered her with his body, wrapping his arms around her, pressing his face into hers. “I do love you. And I can protect you.”

“If I renounce my God?” she said hysterically. “I can’t do that, I can’t, you should never ask that of me!”

“Shh, shhh, okay. Listen to me sweetheart,” he whispered softly, holding her face tenderly. “I do love you, more than my heart can contain.” He stroked her cheek with his thumb. “I shouldn’t love you, it’s not lawful for me to love you, nor is it lawful for me to take your virginity before the renouncement. But I did it to protect you.”

Her jaw hung open as she stared at him. “Protect me from what?”

“If by some horrific chance you don’t renounce. You will be sacrificed as a virgin. Only you are no longer a virgin.”

Her jaw dropped further in horror. “Oh my God.
Oh my God. And you think that will keep them from, from sacrificing me?”

He sighed and hung his head. Then shook it slowly. “I don’t know. Nobody has ever broken that rule. I
’ll be punished, but I don’t care, I just…I need to keep you safe. And alive. And if you renounced, that would make it a whole lot easier, Sarah. Your god should not hold it against you for being chosen for sifting, nor should he expect you to suffer torture and death in his behalf, how does that do a damn thing for him, you said yourself he needs nothing?”

“Stop it, just shut up.” She shook her head, suddenly feeling dirty. And used.
And cold. “Just…shut up.”

“You would have everything Sarah. I would see to it.”

“Shut! Up!” she screamed. “I don’t want everything. I want you! And I cannot! I
will not
renounce my God!” She jerked on the restraints. “Untie me!”

The second he did, she
flew off the bed and stormed to the wardrobe.

“What are you doing
?”

“Leaving.”

“You can
not
leave.”

“Watch me.”

“Sarah, they will hunt you.”

“Let them hunt. If God wants me to suffer for him, then I will, if he wants me to die for him, then I will. But until
he
tells me that is what he wants,
I! Will! Not!
” She jerked the yellow pastel dress from the hanger and fought to get the layers over her head.

Micah hurried to her.
“Dammit Sarah, please. I beg you, don’t go. They will send the Hell Hounds after you, they will not only kill you, but all of your family, unto the seventh generation. Do you understand me!”

She froze and turned. “Seventh?”

“This is not just about you if you run.”

Sarah
jumped at hearing a soft knocking on the door. Micah snapped his head toward it. “Who is it,” he barked.

“It’s Raleigh, Master Seven. Here with your requested bottle of wine for your newest wife.”

“Leave it at the door.”

“As you wish.”

Sarah gasped one laugh, the sound of hysteria. “Newest? Wife?” She numbly made her way to the bed and turned. “How many do you have?”

He lowered his head before muttering the unbelievable words. “Twelve.”

Sickness churned her stomach. “And I’m supposed to be the thirteenth wife. Guess I’m kinda unlucky for you, seeing as I’m not fucking cooperating, right?” She laughed.

“Thirteen is a holy number to us. You were highly anticipated.”

An odd humor hit her, one of shock and hysteria. It hit in a wave of unbidden laughter that continued to get funnier with every second.

“
Sarah.”

Oh, the concern in that voice! She pointed at him
, jabbing her finger, trying to catch her breath. “Holy shit Micah,” she said between loud guffaws. “Things are really about to
change
in your crazy little world!”

“What are you saying.”

She wiped her eyes. “Oh darling. I do sincerely love you. That will never change. But this one thing will change. The highly anticipated thirteenth wife—and I cannot begin to tell you how very broken my heart is over that one—will be crashing this party.”

He appeared
horror stricken. “Please Sarah, don’t. Don’t do this, I beg you.”

“Is this how you begged your other wives? By the way, whatever happened to those poor souls you tortured
their God out of?”

“They are living happy lives.”

“Ohhhh reeeeally? And how do you qualify to know this? Do you send a happy crew with little happy thermometers to stick up their happy asses to ascertain they are…” she waved her hand, “happy?”

“What do you want from me, tell me, I’ll do it, just…please…don’t do this. Don’t fight them, you will not win.”

She barked a
ha!
“Don’t you tell me what I will win or lose, you have no clue
what I
have
to know what I will lose
.
And news flash Micah. They can never take
what I have, do you understand? Never.
They don’t have the
power.
”

He stormed to her and she
met him face to face, spine rigid. “You have no clue what they will do to you. They will break you. Emotionally, mentally, and
physically.”
The last word trembled from his lips. “And if they don’t break you spiritually, then you die. What in the fuck are you not getting here?”

“I get it perfectly fine you piece of shit.”

“No, not me.”

“Yes, you, you’re here, aren’t you?” She looked on the left and right of him. “Where are your handcuffs? Are you a prisoner?”

“Yes.”

She
froze and stared at him. Then she saw it. Oh God. That desperate look in his eyes. The one that pled from within his soul,
help me. I’m trapped.

She
stared at him for endless seconds, realizing. They were both trapped. And he’d been trying to help her get free. He didn’t care about her God, but he did care about her. And was trying to save her.

Sarah
grabbed a hold of his face with both hands and kissed him. It was all clear to her suddenly. Her gift showed her his need, hid the dangers and brought her here. But why?

She tasted him with a longing, a deep hunger
, and Micah answered it with his own. But in that second, she knew. She didn’t have much time left with him.

God. Help me
.
Help me set him free.