Beauty's Beasts (13 page)

Now she grabbed Nick’s belt for leverage, planted her foot at the top of his thigh and threw her other arm around his neck. She hoisted herself up and right over the top of him, using his neck as the pivot point. She brought her knees into the small of his back, landing hard. She heard the wind drive out of his lungs at the impact and his knees buckled.

His hands were already digging into her forearm as it clung around his neck. She gripped her wrist and hung on, using surprise and her own weight to bring him toppling backward. She was going to hit the floor hard, but she was braced for it. She kept her head lifted up so that her shoulders would take the brunt of the fall. As soon as she had him on the floor, her legs would wrap around his chest and squeeze, cutting off his breathing even more. He would be at her mercy.

Then Nick staggered back…and back…and still farther back.

Alarm flared in her just as her shoulders slammed into the wall. Agony jarred through her left elbow, which had taken most of the impact, and her grip on her wrist loosened. Nick ripped her arm away from his throat. She was lifted via her arm and tossed onto the table. More pain as she landed on the flat surface. His hand pinned her throat and squeezed just enough to ensure she kept still, or lose her ability to breathe. Blue eyes, cold and calculating, stared into hers.

“
Never
lose your temper,” he said calmly.

“They’re
people
!” she cried.

“They’re just people,” he agreed, and let her throat go. He stood up and walked away. Toward the apartment door.

Riley sat up, rubbing her throat. She stared at his back, appalled. “If they’re just animated things to you, then why are you doing this?”

“I gave my word.” He pulled his coat from the hat rack by the door.

“I release you from it. I don’t want your kind of protection.” She almost spat the words.

“It’s not your place to decide how I protect you and you cannot release me from my bond.” He didn’t look at her as he opened the door.

“One day you’ll remember what it is to be human, what it is to have a heart, Nicholas. I hope I’m there to see it.”

“An empty wish I’ve heard all too often. You’d be better off wishing for world peace, child.”

Nick didn’t even slam the door behind him and that bothered Riley more than she wanted it to. She wanted him even a little bit angry. She wanted to know she had got under his skin in some small way.

Damian got to his feet, moved around the table to her side and pulled the robe closed over her legs. With another sick jolt, she remembered she was wearing Nick’s robe. She groaned and put her head in her hands. “You’re not even going to say ‘I told you so’, are you?” she said.

“As you just said it for me, it would be redundant.” Damian pulled her into his arms and pressed her against him. “You’ve just met the ice core of Nicholas Sherwood, Riley. If it helps, I’ve bloodied my forehead and knuckles against it more than once and I don’t consider myself a fool. He goaded you to make a point, which I think he just made in italics.”

She dropped her hands and looked up at him. “I’m too weak to take on the gargoyles yet.”

“Yes, but that wasn’t the point.” Damian smiled. “I wish you could have seen his face when you jumped him, Riley. You genuinely surprised him, something that hasn’t happened to Nick in a very long time. I believe you’re farther along than even Nick thought.”

“Then what was the point?”

“You have to trust that Nick will know when you’re ready to take them on.”

She sighed. “More trust.”

Damian’s smiled broadened. “It’s infectious,” he admitted.

“So…more people must die because I’m not ready,” she said sadly.

“They would have died anyway, if you were still in Pittsburgh and ignorant of your heritage,” Damian said harshly. “The harder you work now, the more quickly you will be ready to take the gargoyles on. Your noble but useless death today will not serve the people you might save in two or three days’ time if you wait until you are strong enough.”

She drew in a deep breath and nodded. “Tell me what I must do, then.”

“For today, train, eat, sleep and learn.”

She tugged at the robe. “And shower,” she added.

Damian smiled. “I skipped a few miscellaneous items on the agenda.”

Riley wrapped her legs around his hips. “I hope one of those items is you?”

“That can certainly be arranged.” His hands came around her hips and drew her closer to the edge of the table. “Now…where were we?”

Riley pulled at the tie on the robe and it slithered undone. “I certainly wasn’t wearing this.” She gasped as Damian’s lips seared their imprint on the nape of her neck as he helped her remove the garment.

His lips moved lower as his hands held her up like an offering for his own mouth as he feasted on her. She felt the soft scrape of his teeth, the slide of his tongue over her flesh and her legs fell helplessly apart. Her pussy was weeping cream, ready for him.

With fingers that trembled, she stripped Damian of the sweater. It was as soft as it looked. She dropped it to the table beside her. “Neither of you wear clothes that I thought would be natural for you to wear.” She licked his chest, where the flat pectoral muscles lifted his flesh, then bit gently into his flesh. His hands captured her head as he drew in a quick breath.

“What would you have us wear, my lover? Black leather and lace ruffles?”

She smiled up him. “I guess that’s a cliché, huh?”

He bent his head and she felt his lips against her throat, licking and kissing their way down to her chest. Her head fell back.

“It’s also the best way I know of advertising who we really are,” he murmured against her flesh. “Too many people live too closely around us and know our habits too well…it would raise a flag in their minds to dress the part, too.”

“Pity. Black would look good on you,” she murmured, then sucked in her breath as his mouth closed over her hard, sharply erect nipple. His teeth caught it and tugged as his tongue rasped over the very tip.

Riley lost track of what she had been thinking. She reached blindly for him, her eyes closing as she moaned. Her hands found his shoulders and she tugged and pressed at them, her hands moving restlessly against him as his tongue and lips and teeth built up a swell of pleasure. Her clit throbbed sharply, swollen and forlorn, as he played with her.

He swapped his attention to her other breast and she groaned again as the delicious feelings surged afresh. She scrabbled at his shoulders, unable to reach any more of him.

Damian’s mouth was moving farther down her torso, leaving a damp trail where his tongue had tasted her. Her abdomen muscles quivered and clenched beneath his mouth and as he moved lower, her hips jerked as he slid his tongue over sensitive places on her flesh she had never been aware of before. His hair was tickling her stomach, but she was barely aware of the sensation. All she could focus on was the slow approach of Damian’s mouth toward her mons. Her heart was thundering, her clit was pulsing at the prospect of his lips and tongue toying with it, and her breath had stilled, waiting…

His lips slid over the crease between her leg and hip and she gasped. Then she felt the soft touch of his mouth briefly against her vulva.

“Look at me,” he commanded. His voice was thick, hoarse.

Riley opened her eyes as Damian lifted her knees and laid them over his shoulders. His eyes looked sleepy and coal black, glittering with an emotion she couldn’t quite name, one a step beyond simple lust.

She licked her lips.

“I wanted to see your expression when I do this,” he told her. His mouth closed over her pussy lips and his tongue drove between them to swipe against the sensitive bud of her clitoris in soft-firm thrusts.

Riley cried out as the hot, swift erotic explosion burst through her at his touch. Her head fell back and her eyes closed. Her hands curled into fists and she clenched them against the tabletop. Her climax swirled closer.

Damian’s fingers slid into her pussy. Three thick irregular invaders, stretching her, impaling her.

Riley bucked hard, her breath shuddering through her, as her excitement leapt higher in a fizzing and buzzing shriek along her nerves. She could feel the touch of his hands at the edges of her pussy, along her cleft, caressing her, sliding through her moisture.

Then a slim probe pushed at her anus, rimming the tiny aperture, nudging the muscle. Riley whimpered, as her hips thrust hard, encouraging him. His finger slid inside her.

Her climax whooshed closer and closer. Frightened by the power of it, she clamped down on it, riding it out, hyperventilating so that she could stay in the moment, and the climax faded.

Damian straightened and his cock slammed into her, almost in one smooth movement, shocking the breath out of her.

For the space of five heartbeats they remained still, locked together. Damian’s gaze drilled into hers. Her legs were still pressed against his shoulders, but his damp fingers curled around her thighs, high up by her hips.

Her climax was still threatening to rip through her. Riley’s chest heaved helplessly, her breasts lifting with the effort to draw enough air into her driven body. Her pussy clenched around his cock, the muscles quivering and spasming, drawing on his shaft.

Damian gave a soft moan and withdrew almost all the way before driving back into her.

“Touch yourself,” he told her, his voice thick with rising lust. “Quickly. Come with me.” He picked up her hand and pushed it between her thighs, pressing her fingers against her clit. Just the slight touch sent sparks flitting through her. She massaged the little mound of flesh, her hips lifting in reaction, as Damian’s cock rocked back and forth in her pussy.

Damian groaned. “Such a beautiful sight,” he murmured. His pace quickened and his fingers tightened on her hips.

Riley could feel her ebbing climax re-gather. It was like a switch was thrown inside her. Her body seemed to light on fire. She caught her breath, her eyes widening as she looked up at Damian. “Oh!” she gasped. Then her breath hitched as the climax grabbed at her chest and her nerves, and squeezed. “Damian!” she tried to warn him, but her voice was almost bodiless.

His cock was slamming into her. She clenched around him as the climax hit her, and heard him groan and thrust in mini-spasms of his own, leaning over her on one hand. But her eyes were closing as the orgasm tried to shut down her thinking and her senses.

She fought it. Fought the loss of control, scared. She whipped her head from side to side, battling for breath, for reason. Instinct made her throw out her hand. Reaching.

A hand gripped hers. Tightened.

Riley relaxed. Her chest loosened. She found she could breath. Slowly, the climax departed from her body and she could function. Think.

Damian’s cock was still buried in her body, but he lowered her legs and withdrew from her as she recovered. He didn’t let go of her hand.

Riley lifted herself up onto the elbow of the hand that Damian wasn’t holding. He was just standing there patiently. She bit her lip. “I’m sorry,” she said inadequately.

He shook his head. “Don’t be.” He held up her hand, curled in his. “This gives me hope, Riley.”

A tear scalded a track down her cheek. “You’re too human to be a vampire, you know. I’m the monster.”

He smiled and wiped her cheek. “You haven’t seen the monster in me yet. There’s a dark side to everyone, human or otherwise. You just have to look beyond the shadows if you want a halfway content life.” He let her hand go and began to dress.

She reached for her borrowed robe. “Is that what you do with Nicholas?”

Damian grinned. “Nick is…a special case.”

“Is there any warmth in him? Anything human left at all?”

Damian kissed her cheekbone, high up by the corner of her eyes. “You know there is. You heard it last night.”

Riley caught her breath. “You knew!”

Damian smiled. “I suspected. You just confirmed it.”

Riley winced. “I am never, ever going to play chess with you.
Ever
.” She tilted her head. “Do you mind that I listened?”

He shook his head. “But you heard Nick give me his trust. I ask you to do the same.”

She drew in a breath. “Oh, Damian…you know how hard that is for me.”

“I know.” He picked up her hand and placed it on his chest, spreading her fingers. “Don’t say anything now,” he told her gently. “Sometimes just saying the words is the hardest part—like telling someone you love them. Loving them is easy, telling them you love them makes you break out in a cold sweat. For now, simply let me protect you and your interests and do what I have to do. Don’t fight me, Riley. Do you think you can do that much?”

She bit her lip. “I suppose.”

He nodded. “That’s all I ask.” His hand smoothed over the back of hers. He smiled at her. “You reached for me. You honored me. I will not forget that. I will always be here for you. Do you believe that?”

“Yes.” She did. Absolutely.

“Good.” His smile grew warmer. He let her hand go. “How does coffee sound?”

“Heavenly!” she confessed. “How did you guess?”

“Your mother was addicted to it.” He glanced at the clock over the fireplace. “Why don’t you shower and dress, and I’ll take you to the bistro on the corner. Then we’ll kick Nicholas out of his sulk. We need to speak to the sculptor.”

“That was what I said we should do,” Riley pointed out, sliding off the table.

“I know,” Damian agreed. He patted her backside. “Hurry up. The longer you take, the longer it takes to get your coffee.”

“And just how do you plan to kick Nicholas out of his sulk?” Riley asked, curious.

Damian pulled a cell phone out of his jeans pocket and hit a speed dial number, and waited for Nick to respond.

Riley heard Nick’s gruff response from where she stood three feet away.

“Riley’s had an idea that seems better than yours, Nick, so I’m following up on it. We’re going to visit the sculptor, Fábio Natan. He’s got a studio in that arts barn on Greenwich Street. If you’ve finished pouting, you can join us.”

He disconnected the call and pushed the phone back into his pocket, without waiting for Nick’s response.