Wild Hyacinthe (Crimson Romance) (22 page)

Flashing me another grin in the mirror, the incubus flicked off the bathroom light and left the room. Together as one body—me, an unwilling accomplice commanded by the monster who ruined my life over and over again—we paced over to where Aria slept and knelt down beside her.

She squirmed on the couch, her breath rapid and shallow. Was she dreaming? She drew in little gasps and released each as a moan, and the incubus tilted my head with curiosity. We had heard those moans before, when I pressed her hand against herself on my breakfast bar. And again in the hotel, and on the floor of my cabin. The incubus leaned down and touched my lips to hers, and she opened her mouth, stretched back and cried out, her body quivering.

My mind raced with confusion. Was she having an orgasm in her sleep? The incubus kissed her again, and she threaded her fingers along my scalp, pulling me, exhaling into my mouth. And as my lungs filled, I felt the burn of her climax, her aura, leak into my soul. The incubus loved this moment as much as I did and drew in her orgasm as my body climbed over hers. The aura pushed strength into me, and yet my self-control was just an inch out of reach.

Could I regain control with enough power absorbed from her pleasure?

“Oh, Asher,” Aria breathed into my lips as I continued to kiss her—was it me, or the incubus kissing her, now? Her eyelids fluttered open and I froze.

The white lacing in her irises was pitch black. Like fishnet lingerie over cerulean skin, backed by the fires of passion, the whites of her eyes blazed with hot fire.

Fire like mine. Like the incubus. Succubus fire.

She blinked and both the black and fire faded back to white. My heart stalled in my chest.

“I dreamed you were inside me, Asher,” she whispered, still pulling on my short hair, writhing in ecstasy beneath my weight.

The incubus froze inside me with shock.

I took hold of the moment and drew strength from that little gasp of her climax to push him away from my own body. I yanked the burn out of my limbs and shoved the incubus down inside me, wrapping him in chains. He snarled and fought, but it didn’t matter. I had the strength to fight him. Aria gave me strength. And I won, locking him down tight and throwing away the fucking key.

I win, you son of a bitch. You will not take her from me!

Aria exhaled again, and as I brushed her hair back from her temple, a sheen of sweat pricked up along her forehead. “You dreamed we were making love, sweetie?” I whispered. The voice was mine. The control was mine.

And this impending change—the black in her eyes and the reason she could see the fire behind my own—there was more to her than I originally thought. Aria wasn’t a siren, tempting me to my doom. Aria was a succubus luring me to my solution. My cure. My salvation.

She nodded and a tear leaked out of the corner of her eye. She swiped it away and averted her gaze, ashamed. “God, Asher, I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I don’t know why I need you so badly. I’m trying so damn hard to resist you, to let you take things slow . . . ”

“But your body can’t hold out any longer without it,” I finished her sentence. “Without me inside you.”

She nodded again and hid her face behind her hand, cries shaking her body.

She needed me. Sex. I remembered these feelings before the incubus woke up. And while I’d never reached a climax in my sleep to give me a clue as to what would come next, Aria’s soul was out of patience. The succubus wanted to wake up.

I kissed her, driving my tongue into her mouth, her moan of delight sweeping through me with a desire so potent it nearly crushed me. Everything made sense: why I couldn’t resist her, why she pushed and challenged me, why even our first kiss was so powerful—life-altering. She was the female equivalent of me. My match, my perfect match. My heart rocked with joy.

And she would survive my body. Of this, I was absolutely certain. I shifted to my knees, scooped her into my arms and carried her to bed.

Aria stretched out when I set her down, and she shimmied out of her clothing. Curiosity, excitement and a hidden victory glimmered behind her eyes as I changed the pace of the restraint I’d shown all along. She had no hesitation taking her clothes off and presenting herself to me. Was that what love meant? That her desire for me would override all logic and fear?

I stepped out of my pants and tugged my shirt over my head, stripping nude and standing beside the bed, still predatory but able to breathe. The incubus was locked safely away, and this woman I cherished would still be alive when we finished. She shivered in the cool air and my appetite peaked.

I climbed into bed and slid a blanket over the two of us, blocking out my sight of the mirror. I rolled between Aria’s legs and watched her. I let a smile creep across my lips, and she smiled back, bewilderment softening her features.

“This is different,” she said.

“I know. I’m sorry, Aria, I’m so sorry. I’ve been stupid.”

She shook her head. “It’s okay. Are you sure, though? Are we really doing this?” Excitement arched her words up as she searched my eyes.

I caught her lips with mine, kissing her like the rarity she was. “I’m sure. Yes. We’re doing this.”

She kissed me back, moaning, and I stroked her cheek with the backs of my knuckles. Then I let my hand glide down to her breast and squeezed there—worshipping, cherishing this woman, the only woman for me, the succubus I couldn’t wait to awaken and meet. She sighed with pleasure as I squeezed the tip of her nipple, and she tilted her pelvis up higher. I slid my hand down to her stomach and steadied her hips, rising up to the right angle to meet her center. I positioned myself carefully, her soft folds slippery and enticing with desire.

She tightened her grip on my biceps as I let my weight rest down on the length of my erection, and I watched her eyes. She held her breath as I pressed forward, meeting the resistance of her virginity. And then she gave way and I sank inside, liquid heat rushing around me, and she sucked in a sharp gasp. I pressed until I reached her fullest depth, and I leaned down to embrace her, stilling, letting the pain subside.

Aria wrapped her arms around my waist as I shifted to stroke her hair and kiss her lips. Goddamn, she felt good. So tight, so hot around me . . . everything I’d ever imagined her to be. And she’d live when we were done. My awe of her tripled in those moments I held patiently still, waiting. I’d wait forever if she asked me to.

She kissed my neck, granting me permission to move. My heart soared. “Okay,” she breathed. “I’m okay. Oh, God, Asher. You’re so . . .” She shook her head, lost for words.

“I know, sweetie,” I said between worshipful kisses of her neck, her hair. “You are, too.” I pulled back an inch and pushed in again, and couldn’t contain my groan of ecstasy to match hers. She lifted her foot, hooked it around my back and tugged me closer.

I met her mouth and lost myself in her kiss, moving more, inch by inch, in and out. I couldn’t taste enough of her. She squeezed me in all the right places: my waist with her legs, my cock with her heat. I felt the burn of orgasm rising from below, but I exhaled sharply and pushed it away. I wasn’t ready yet—not until I showed her every inch of my sexual skill, every moment of pleasure she deserved. I pulled out to the tip of my cock and slid it back inside her all the way, once slowly, and then once faster . . . and then I fell into the perfect rhythm, thrusting into her all the way each time, meeting the back of her and earning whimpers of pleasure from her lips that increased in pace and volume. Her moans heightened into shrieks as I pounded into her, the slick of her arousal dampening both our thighs, my own arousal leaking into her more with every thrust. I needed to come inside her so badly it ached. I fucked her hard, sweat beading off my pectorals, her fingers losing grip on my skin.

She tightened beneath me, warming before orgasm, and I shifted up to see her. Her eyes were squeezed tightly closed, so I jammed my cock into her deeper, demanding her attention, filling her. She called out and her nipples tightened with the impending climax as she held her breath. I reveled in the expansion of her tightness, slamming my hips against hers, her soft, warm stomach heaving lightly as she gasped.

Aria whimpered with each thrust. I barely gave her time to breathe, delighting in the feel of her breasts as they bounced against my chest. She began to quiver.

“Look at me, Aria,” I said, needing her eyes, needing her pleasure. She cried out as I punished her center harder, unable to slow my rhythm, my release looming over hers.

“Dammit, Aria, look at me!” I growled.

Her eyelids flew open and her lips parted. A soul-deep cry of need escaped her mouth as I drove into her again and again, refusing to slow, pumped muscles burning with exertion. She met my gaze and clenched her jaw, guttural sounds of passion, of pain, coming from both of us and drowning out my fears. She grabbed fistfuls of her own hair as she tightened around me so hard it hurt, and then she came, tossing her head back and screaming my name.

“Look at
me!
” I grabbed her face and tilted her down so I could see her eyes, the blackness I remembered from her earlier awakening shooting out through the white laced across her irises. The succubus woke up, fire blazing out from her eyes like tendrils of flames licking into the air. I drew in a lungful of her air, her life, and the heat exploded within me, too. I drove my hips against hers and buried myself inside her body, my orgasm ricocheting through me with a merciless explosion. She grabbed the sides of my neck as I shook, pulling me back to her mouth, breathing into me again. I stilled as I lost myself inside of her sweet heat, and she swept away my fears with her tongue, kissing me, thanking me as I thanked her right back.

I finally let go of her mouth with swollen lips and dropped my head to the crook of her neck, thankful for the sweat on our skin that masked my emotion. Never before had I enjoyed sex like this . . . never before had I done it without fear and revulsion coloring the experience. I kissed her neck and her shoulder, and then up her cheek until she giggled. I smiled and panted with even breaths of relief, recovering from moments I never knew I could have, moments I didn’t deserve.

What if this was all a trick of the incubus, and Aria would die after all, now that I was finished inside her? I jerked my head up and searched her eyes; yes, the black of her pupils stretched out across the white lacing in her irises. But would it last? The black dimmed after her dream . . . had I jumped the gun and taken her without thinking? I pressed my hips against hers to be sure I didn’t slip out of her before I was ready.

What if I withdrew from her and she took her last breath? Oh, God, I couldn’t live with myself. A new tremor rolled through my body and panic gripped my heart.

Aria didn’t miss it. “Hey!” she said, stroking my chin. “No, Asher, don’t shut down on me now. This was perfect. This was . . . incredible. You’re incredible.”

I didn’t know if I believed her. And if I pulled out and she died . . . I lost my breath and kissed her to hide my terror. She kissed me back, her tongue hypnotic. “You okay?” I whispered.

“I’m good,” she said, running her fingernails over my back. “Just . . . a little sore now.” She half-shrugged.

“Sorry.”

“Quit apologizing for fucking me. My God, Asher, I begged you enough.”

I shook my head, unable to return her humor or tell her how I feared I was wrong. I knew the moment had to end and I needed to pull out of her, but fear rocked my heart.

“I’m sorry . . . ” I barely whispered.

Aria’s aura began to shimmer before me. The edges of her body blurred to blue as she smiled at me and her hair glowed like the brightest star. I felt a tremble run over my body and I flexed my thighs, bracing. I didn’t want to kill this perfect woman below me, making Aria Hyacinthe nothing more than number forty-four.

Rip off the Band-Aid.

Aria’s glow reached a peak, her confused, concerned smile alight with the energy of her life and soul, and I shook with terror, pain lancing through my heart as I pulled back and withdrew from her body.

Sex was amazing. But the orgasm wasn’t enough—I was still on fire, I still needed more.

Asher’s apologies made no sense. Nothing could have been more perfect than this union together, the emotional connection, the physical pleasure. I tilted my head with curiosity as Asher swallowed hard and slid out of my body.

An ache emerged where his hardness left me, but something else changed, and a glowing light sparked between us. Blue illuminated the air like a double of his body over mine, a double of my own beneath his, our souls brought forth in the moment. I sucked in a gasp and his image absorbed into my skin as my own left my body, and I cried out with ecstasy once more. The light was his soul. I could feel it—his masculinity, his power, his perfection. His soul in mine was like a tenfold orgasm, and I gasped over and over again, and as he filled me once more in such a different way, my need was sated. I clapped my hands to my chest and my heart swelled with pleasure and fulfillment.

This was what we were meant to do. Asher bent to draw my breath from my mouth and I surrendered it to him willingly, reaching up to stroke his massive, sweat-dampened shoulders, moaning with release. It all made sense. This was what I needed from him so badly, and even though it was unlike anything I’d read—and, like us, far from normal—it
was
us, and it coursed through me like a high. I closed my eyes and dropped my head back to the mattress, the burning need in my heart soothed, my body aching in all the most perfect ways.

Asher let out a shout and grabbed my shoulders, shaking me hard, shocking me into alertness. “Aria! Fucking talk to me, please!” Panic wrecked his voice.

“Ow!” I protested. What the hell?

“Aria, Jesus fucking Christ, you’re okay!” Asher took my face in his hands and inspected me, his eyes dark, his whole body vibrating.

“Asher, what just happened?”

“You’re alive!” he screamed, his voice climbing half an octave, relief on his face, or pain, or . . .