Demon Wind (2 page)

In some distant, semi-aware part of her mind, Jayden registered the fact that something was terribly wrong. She did not walk the beach in the middle of the night, certainly not alone, and most defiantly dressed or rather undressed as she was. Jayden stopped in her tracks, preparing to turn around and return to the cottage. And then she felt it ... the barest hint of a gentle cooling breeze. She took a step back and it was gone. She took one step forward and it was there again. One more step and Jayden was lost. The cool wind wrapped around her like a lover’s caress cooling her overheated flesh while at the same time setting her blood on fire.

He walked from the moonlit surf like the god Poseidon. At first she thought he was nude, then she realized that he was wearing brief, flesh-colored, swim trunks.

Her body refused to obey her brain’s command that she turn and run back to the cottage. Instead, she stood there waiting ... for him.

Just as she’d felt when she first woke up, Jayden was overcome with the sensation of being disconnected.

She was there, yet not there.

Standing before her, bathed in the glow from the full moon, Jayden thought no mortal man could possibly be so irresistibly compelling, so beautiful, yet his features were strong, finely etched for the most erotic effect. Once again, she likened him to the god Poseidon. His deeply tanned body actually resembled the bronze sculpture she’d once seen of the mythical god. The well-defined muscles of his nearly nude, powerful physique could easily have been sculpted by the loving hands of a sexually frustrated female artist intent upon creating her fantasy lover.

He opened his arms for her. Jayden walked into them without hesitation. He held her close for a moment as if savoring his closeness to someone long lost and deeply cherished. Her cheek and ear resting against the hard contours of his chest, she could hear his erratic heartbeats echoing the tempo of her own.

With a reluctant sigh he relaxed his hold on her and took a marginal step back, a small distance which gave his intensely blue eyes free reign to explore all the delicate curves of Jayden’s petite body. His hungry gaze felt like the blue flame from a torch, setting her flesh on fire. Barely recognizing her own voice, Jayden was shocked by the impassioned whimper that escaped her parted lips ... a sound which acted as a catalyst to banish all inhibition and uncertainty.

Sliding one hand to her hip and the other to the small of her back, he once again molded her to him,

making her befuddled thoughts forget where he ended and she began. Lowering his head, he touched his lips to hers, not tentative as she expected, but with the purposeful expertise of a man confident of the response he’d receive. Jayden didn’t disappoint him.

Accepting that her body refused to respond to the dictates of her mind, Jayden gave up and relinquished what little control she had left. In truth, she’d been lost the moment he walked from the surf toward her.

She could smell the intoxicating scent of the sea on his flesh, taste the salt on his lips, and feel the heat and hardness of his body. And dear God, was he ever hard. The rigid length of the erection branding itself into her abdomen was unmistakable.

The damnable cool wind continued to inflict a strange, almost electrical sensation against her flesh, like she was holding onto a shorted-out light switch and was unable to let go. Was it the wind or her reaction to the man whose lips continued to demand, then tease, whose teeth nipped her lower lip then soothed with the tip of his tongue? Did it matter? Her body felt as if she were coming apart. Her flesh tingled, every muscle in her body had grown taut, her blood flowed hot and furious through her veins, and every sensation flowed unerringly downward, pooling into a nearly unbearable ache between her legs.

This time when he gently nipped at her lower lip she was ready for him. When his tongue snaked out to soothe the spot, she closed her lips on his tongue and gently sucked.

He went rigid and groaned. Jayden didn’t know whether he was surprised or pleased. She soon found out.

He forced his tongue more deeply into her mouth to mate with hers and when he withdrew, like lovers holding hands, her tongue followed where his led. His lips clamped down and he began to suck gently, just as she’d done with his, creating a corresponding tugging sensation between her legs.

The hand on her hip moved up her side and around until his fingers closed around her breast. He gently massaged the firm mound before he latched onto her hard nipple. He rolled it between his fingers then tugged until pleasure became near unbearable. The hand at the small of her back slid to her waist, his strong forearm supporting her as he leaned forward, an act which made her lean back and forced her to wrap her arms around his neck for balance. Jayden was unable to resist a moan of protest as his lips left hers to kiss along her jaw line, down the side of her neck, and as he’d done with her lips, he kissed, nipped, then soothed with his tongue, continuing down her chest until....

When his hand moved to the other lace-covered breast to make room for his hot wet lips, Jayden’s legs gave out. Instead of holding her up, he followed her down onto the wet sand. The lovers failed to notice the tide as it washed in, reaching almost to their knees. Not missing a beat, he showed no favoritism, devoting equal time to each breast, suckling one, massaging and toying with the nipple on the other. The cool wind blowing against the dampened fabric only served to heighten her arousal. Using his free hand, he smoothed one strap over her shoulder and down her arm, then the other, then he tugged the lace downward to expose her breasts. His cool hand closed on one breast and his hot mouth on the other in the same instant. He caught her nipple between his teeth and teased it with the tip of his tongue.

The gentle orgasm hit Jayden without warning. With a shocked gasp, her body tensed and trembled with a semi-release which was more of a tease, a mere appetizer that left her more in need than before.

Easing his body over hers, he rose to his knees a leaned forward to slide his hands up her legs until his fingers gripped the barely there fabric of her bikini panties at her hips. He paused. His eyes met hers, giving Jayden a chance to protest.

Jayden’s mind warned, "This is insanity. You have to stop it now." Her eyes held his and her lips remained closed as her hips rose to assist him.

He slowly pulled her panties over her hips, down her legs and off before he rose to his feet. Hooking his thumbs into the waist band of his swim trunks, he pushed them down, stepped free and kicked them aside. Standing over her like the powerful, mythical god she’d likened him to, his erection imposing to the point of being frightening, he once again gave her the opportunity to say no.

Instead, her arms reached out for him.

Dropping to his knees, he ran his hands up the inside of her calves to her knees, pushing them further apart to open her more fully to him. His hands continued their upward slide over her trembling thighs until his thumbs came to rest upon her wet, passion swollen folds. Using his thumbs to open her, he eased one finger, then two inside her. Without being conscious of doing so, Jayden’s hips rose to meet him, forcing his probing fingers deeper inside.

Dear Lord, were those desperate moans actually coming from her? She couldn’t breathe.

Her heart was beating so fast she feared it would explode within her chest.

Apparently satisfied that she was sufficiently prepared to receive him, his body covered hers. Supporting his weight on his forearms, the tip of his erection barely touching her, he looked down into her eyes.

Actions speaking louder than words, Jayden ran her hands up his chest and under his arms to grip his muscular shoulders from behind, then wrapped her legs around his hips.

Up to this point, he’d been gentle, seeming to know exactly what she needed to raise her desire to a level of desperation. With her final act of surrender, the rigid control he’d had on his own needs seemed to snap. With one powerful lunge, he buried himself inside her.

Jayden didn’t want slow and easy, she needed more. He didn’t disappoint her. With the tide flowing in to wash over them, their lovemaking became something primal. His thrusts came hard, deep, and fast. Even though her petite body had difficulty adjusting to his size, she met him thrust for thrust, urging him on for more.

His tightly clenched jaw and the quivering muscles in his biceps and shoulders betraying the fact that he was struggling to hold back, to wait for her, he gave her what she needed to push her over the top. With one fierce thrust that went so deep it touched Jayden’s soul, her impending orgasm rolled over her in explosive waves as her body strained and shook refusing to let go ... not until he joined her. And then he was there. She was unaware that her fingernails sunk into the flesh of his back as she held him tight and they rode out the mind shattering tidal wave of sensation together.

* * * *

Wanting to savor the afterglow of the most incredibly erotic dream she’d ever experienced, Jayden struggled to ignore the persistent ringing, breathing a sigh of relief when it stopped. Only to start again almost immediately. Without opening her eyes, her left hand reached out and fumbled on the top of her bedside table for the telephone. Carrying the receiver to her ear, she mumbled, "Hello."

"Jay? Is everything all right?"

"Everything is fine, Grams. Why wouldn’t it be?" she answered, still not fully awake.

"Well, dear, you are always so punctual with your morning calls that I use you as my alarm clock. I overslept. I was getting worried and was about to walk down to check on you but decided to call first."

"What time is it?"

"It’s going on eleven o’clock. What’s going on, Jayden? You sound strange."

Eleven o’clock? Good Lord. Always and early riser, she couldn’t remember ever sleeping this late, not even when she was ill. And, her grandmother never called her Jayden unless she was upset or worried.

Jayden’s sleep-sluggish thoughts squirreled around in her brain for a reasonable explanation. She could hardly tell her elderly grandmother that she’d been dreaming about making wild, passionate love with a total stranger on the beach last night and didn’t want to wake up. So she spouted the first thing that popped into her mind.

"I’m sorry, Grams. I started reading last night...."

"And you read all night long until you finished the book," Theresa Parrish supplied.

"Yeah, I did," Jayden lied, feeling guilty because she felt compelled to do so.

"You rarely take a day just for yourself, honey, and you don’t have any classes scheduled for today. Why don’t you just take it easy today. You can nap, putter around the cottage, or just be lazy," Theresa suggested. "I can have Helen drive me to the doctor, or better yet, reschedule."

"Absolutely not," Jayden insisted, now fully awake. "It won’t take me long to get ready. I’ll pick you up, take you to the doctor, and we’ll have lunch just like we planned."

"My appointment isn’t that important, dear. It can wait. Take the day for yourself."

"No, Grams, it can’t wait. You’re going if I have to pick you up and carry you."

Recognizing her granddaughter’s tone of voice as the one she used when she had no intention of backing down, Theresa accepted that she wasn’t going to get out of the dreaded appointment. "Okay, if you insist," she gave in with a martyred sigh.

"I’ll swing by and pick you up around twelve-thirty."

"I’ll be ready."

"Okay, time to get your butt in gear," she told herself after she replaced the receiver on its cradle. With a yawn and a languid stretch, Jayden prepared to face the day. "What the hell?" she muttered, feeling a gritty substance beneath her arm. When the realization dawned that there was sand in her bed, she bolted upright.

There was sand in her bed! Feeling an itching sensation on her head, she reached up hesitantly, afraid of what she’d find. "This isn’t possible," she groaned. There was sand in her hair. Her hands began to tremble. Her heart began to race, and she was sure she was going to be sick.

"No, dammit. This isn’t real," Jayden insisted. She’d fallen asleep in her bed and she woke up in that same bed. "It was just a dream." An incredibly erotic dream, but it was still just a dream. Even as her psyche rebelled against the evidence to the contrary, some elemental part of Jayden knew that what happened to her last night had been no dream.

Mythology was riddled with stories about gods who took human form and seduced mortal women. Had Gram’s dire warnings about the Demon Wind been based on fact? Had she actually had sex with the god Poseidon?

"No, no, no. This is total insanity," Jayden told herself firmly. She still had on the baby doll pajamas she’d put on before going to bed. At least.... It took a minute before she found the courage to check. And when she did, she bolted from the bed, ran to the bathroom and dropped to her knees in front of the commode. The bikini panties that went with her baby dolls were gone. Several minutes later, her hands

still trembled as she splashed cold water on her face.

"Oh my God, Grams." What ever happened, she’d figure it out later, when she had time to think. For now, she had to pull herself together for her grandmother’s sake. She’d nearly lost her less than a year ago to a heart attack and Jayden couldn’t risk upsetting her because of some insane aberration.

* * * *

"Fasten your seat belt, Grams," Jayden instructed as soon as her grandmother closed the car door, then cringed at the tone of her own voice. One of the things Jayden consciously tried not to do, was talk to her grandmother as if she were a child, like she heard so many people do with their elderly relatives. It was hurtful, demeaning, and damaging to their pride.

Theresa gave a none-too-gentle jerk on the shoulder strap, grumbling under her breath as she fumbled in her attempt to connect the male and female sections. "I hate these damn things. Should be our choice whether or not to wear them. Just one more right the government has taken away from us. Makes me feel like a damn child being strapped into a stroller."

"Boy, aren’t we a pair today," Jayden said then forced a self-deprecating laugh which held no humor past her lips. Reaching over, she gave her grandmother’s slightly arthritic hand a gentle squeeze. "I’m sorry I sounded so cranky, Grams," she apologized, and once again was forced to make up a plausible excuse.