Her Incubus Master (The Children of Lilith) (17 page)

"Oh," she said. "Oh, I
like
that!" And did it again, deliberately lingering this time, making sure she
touched him as often as she touched herself.

Andras began to mutter, reverting to ancient Greek again as
her internal muscles tightened around him while at the same time the vibrators
tormented them both.

It was almost too much, but wonderfully so. The fierce
caress over her own nipples was echoed as she swept her fingertips across his
chest.

She continued this way for some time, feeling her arousal
tightening towards release. In fact, she was so preoccupied with the
interesting sensations she was creating that she almost missed his gasp of
"Yellow!"

Obediently, she stilled, waiting for him to pull back from the
brink. But it was difficult. She was so close now, and the sight of him beneath
her, sweating and shaking in an effort to control himself, just made her
hotter.

She leaned forward to kiss him, and the slide of his cock
against her made him moan.

"You're amazing," she whispered, brushing his lips
with her own as she spoke. She gently traced the line of his brow, his lips,
his jaw, wiping away the beads of sweat that gathered there. "I'm nearly
there. Just a little longer, love, and I'll let you come."

"Please," he said, all trace of smugness drowned
in pure need. "Please hurry, Katie."

"Can I continue now?" she asked.

He hesitated a long moment, and she thrilled in her ability
to shake his control. "Yes."

She kissed him again, then slid back down on him until he
filled her completely. Then she pinched her clit between two of the tiny fingertip
vibrators, and let the sensation push her over the brink.

Katie shook and shuddered in ecstasy, pulsing around him as
the pleasure washed over her in long waves, as if she were floating, anchored
only by the hard length impaling her.

"Katie?" Andras asked hoarsely. "Please, I
need to—"

"Yes," she said, still in the grip of her climax.
"Yes, go ahead now."

He made a fierce sound, and flexed convulsively beneath her.
She heard the leather straps of the harness creak and then saw them snap,
freeing him.

God, he was strong. Just
how
much self-control had he
been exercising until now?

In the next instant his hands, wrists still circled by soft
leather cuffs, grabbed her waist and lifted her. Before she could react, he had
reversed their positions and was on top of her. He pinned her hands above her
head in a bruising grip, and began to move against her hard and fast.

His savage movements felt amazing. He been so careful, so
gentle the previous time he'd fucked her... She arched against him, hooking her
heels behind his knees, and let the fierce rhythm sweep her to a second,
surprising climax.

She had never been able to come just from being fucked, but
then again, she'd never had anyone who could fuck her like
this.

Andras growled and shuddered above her, finding his own
release.

He pulled out, and she whimpered in protest at losing
intimate contact with him.

But he wasn't done. Not by a long shot.

Lifting her as if she were a doll, he turned her over, his
implacable grip raising her to her hands and knees. She felt him pull her legs
apart, felt his fingers penetrate and open her, just before he took her from
behind.

Katie moaned as he slammed into her. Andras was always so
cool and controlled. Even the spanking he had administered had been carefully
calculated. She had never seen him like this before.

But now—she had apparently managed to shatter his control,
and he'd become a creature of raw sexual passion.

She loved being taken like this, his immense strength barely
held in check as he took her with bruising force, his hands cupping her
breasts, squeezing them with brutal strength. The idea that she could make him
to lose his cool made her feel sexy. Irresistible. Wanted. 

He pulled up and back against him, his hips still pistoning
with relentless speed, and his fingers found her clit. He was not gentle, but
she didn't need or want gentle right now.

Katie cried out as pleasure gathered and tightened between
her legs.

"I want you to come again," he growled into the
back of her neck, and she felt a icy thrill run down her spine and melt in the
heat between her legs.

"Yes," she managed. "Oh, please, yes."

And then she was climaxing, writhing beneath the rough
caresses of his fingers and the cock still pounding into her. His arms closed
around her tightly, and she felt his rhythm falter and become spasmodic as he,
too, fell over the edge.

Even then he remained hard. He curled around her, his hands
gentle now, stroking, caressing as he continued to move in and out of her,
languorously now.

"I didn't hurt you, did I?" he asked, softly.

"I'm a little sore, but it's a good kind of sore,"
she assured him.

She was cold with the familiar chill from his feeding, and
her insides felt pleasantly tenderized, but she didn't want him to stop what he
was doing. It felt so good to be intimately connected with him like this, her
head pillowed on his arm, his hand cupping her breast and their legs entwined while
he filled her.

This was perfect. He was perfect. And the sex had been
amazing, as always.

"How about you?" Katie asked, tentatively.
"Was it okay, being tied up like that? Would you mind doing that again
sometime?"

He stilled against her, and she wondered if she'd said the
wrong thing.

"If you want," he said, softly. His tone was
serious, but his hold on her tightened. "It was hard to submit, but very
much worth it."

"I appreciate your trust," she said, humbled.
"And I definitely want to try that again. You make me feel so good,
Andras, and I liked being able to do the same for you."

"You always make me feel good," he said, laying a
line of soft kisses along the nape of her neck. "I was wondering...would
you like a more permanent relationship with me?" He sounded uncharacteristically
tentative.

"Are you asking me to go steady?" she teased, to
hide the fact that her heart was pounding.

"No," he said immediately, and her heart sank.
Then he continued: "Not exactly. More akin to proposing marriage. Though
the Children of Lilith have a special term for it, and we do it differently."

"
Philtata?
" Katie asked. It was suddenly
hard to breathe. "Amanda said it meant 'special friend.'"

"
Beloved
friend," Andras corrected her.
"And yes, I want—I'd be honored, no,
privileged
, if you would bind
yourself to me as my
philtata,
to be
my friend, my primary lover...my
wife."

Yes! Oh, God yes!
Shouted her heart. Her head was
cooler, though. She was dealing with an incubus, after all. One that she was
head-over-heels for, but still not entirely human.

"What do I need to know about becoming a
philtata?
"
she asked, surprised that she could still form actual sentences.

Andras hesitated before replying. "Well, there's a
public ceremony. It's held at Samhain—that's Halloween—when the Children of
Lilith gather to conduct business. It's customary to have all of us witnessing
the oaths of mortals willing to become
philtate
."

"Group wedding...that sounds okay," Katie said,
cautiously. "I guess I could tell my parents I eloped, and then we could
do a reception or something..."

"There are two things you should know about becoming a
philtata
,"
Andras said, his tone so neutral now that alarm bells began to go off in
Katie's head. "The first is that you might become immortal by being
exposed to me...to us."

"Exposed?" Katie asked. That sounded kind of
weird.
But, wait
..."The condom!" she exclaimed. 

He chuckled. "Yes. It's a rule. We have to be careful
with any sexual partner who hasn't agreed to take the oath. And that's the
other thing: if you do agree to become a
philtata
, we
want
you to
become immortal, if you can."

"But there's a catch?" she guessed. Her head was
spinning.

She might live forever? With him? Katie tried to imagine
what she'd be like in a hundred years, two hundred years and couldn't. And yet,
he had told her that he'd been born long before Julius Caesar.

She usually didn't think of Andras as
old
, but what
was it like, to have seen so much of history?

"Well," Andras hedged. He sighed. "It's
customary for a new
philtata
or
philtatos
to have sex with as
many of Children of Lilith at the ceremony as they can. It's called the Sharing
Rite."

"Uh—
what?
" Katie stiffened in shock. Not
only a group wedding, but group sex? With a bunch of strangers? "Look,
Andras, I'm
really
not sure about that part..."

"I know it's a lot to take in," he said, sounding
apologetic. "But there's a reason for it. The more Children of Lilith that
a
philtatos
candidate is exposed to, the greater the chance that they'll
be infected with immortality, if that's what they want. Not all
philtate
can become immortal, nor do all want to. It's their choice."

"And if I don't want to?" Katie felt him stiffen
against her, and added, "Not that I'm saying no, I just want all the
information before I decide."

"Fair enough," Andras said. He drew her closer,
and resumed his slow thrusts in and out of her. "If you can't—or don't
want to—become immortal, you can still be my
philtata
. It will just be a
much shorter relationship."

The grief in his voice shook her. She laced her fingers
through his, and kissed his forearm, the only part of him she could reach.
"Did—did Yoshiko want to become immortal?"

"Yes," he answered, all emotion leached from his
voice. "But she couldn't bring herself to go through the Sharing Rite to
expose herself to the other Children of Lilith. She wanted me, and only me,
but...I
failed
her." She felt his breath against her hair as he
paused, struggling for composure. He continued: "We were together for many
years, but she never managed to become—well,
infected
is a poor way to
describe it, but that's how it works."

"I'm sorry," Katie said. "That must have so
hard for you both."

"It was." Andras' tone was bleak, and he stopped
moving. "But we loved each other as best we could, and I cherished those
years that the gods granted us."

"Do you—do you still miss her?" Here in the dark,
in his arms, it was easy to ask the question, and she dreaded the answer. If
she stayed with Andras, would she be sharing this bed with a ghost, and always
find herself in second place to a dead woman?"

"Yes. Every day. It got a little better once I left our--the
house we had shared, and made a new start here, where the restaurants and cafes
don't hold any memories of her." His arms tightened around Katie.
"But my love for Yoshiko doesn't mean that I don't want to try again, with
you."

"I wasn't sure," Katie said, hating how pathetic
she sounded. "I know she was a really special person. And her paintings
are amazing."

"I'll tell you a secret," Andras continued. "After
Yoshiko died, I was thinking of giving up, of simply fading away. It's what the
Children of Lilith call the Decline, but the doctors of this age would probably
label as depression. Amanda—who, as you well know, can be shamelessly
manipulative—all but blackmailed me into meeting you, but I am so grateful that
she did. Do you want to know the moment I realized that I
had
to see you
again? When I decided to seduce you in earnest?"

She shook her head. "When you kissed me?" she
guessed.

He chuckled softly. "No, I'd already decided by that
point, and I was just trying to close the deal."

Katie smiled at the memory. "You were very convincing.
Okay, when?"

"It's when you told me you thought the Art Museum
addition looked like a building that had just hit an iceberg. It was then that
I knew that you were both beautiful and witty. I adore intelligent women, and I
can't imagine having a long-term relationship with anyone who wasn't smart and
interesting."

"When Amanda introduced us," said Katie. "I
confess my first thought was,
oh no, he's too gorgeous to possibly be
interested in me
. But you were funny, and interesting, and after about ten
minutes, I felt like I'd known you for years."

"Maybe I need to think about using a homely
glamour?" Andras mused. "I wouldn't want to frighten away anyone with
my, ah, what did you call it? Right--
Italian Supermodel
look."

"I guess that depends on how much dating you think
you'll be doing in the near future," Katie said, trying for snarky, but
ruining the effect with a giggle. It was downright weird to be having his
conversation while he was still inside her.

He cupped her breast in his free hand, and caressed the
sensitive tip with his thumb. "And
that
depends on what you say
next, love. You never answered my question: Will you save me from the perils of
further dating by becoming my
philtata?
"

"Yes." Laying in his arms, surrounded by his scent
and his touch inside and out, Katie gathered her courage. "I'm in love
with you, Andras."

He let out a long breath, as if he had been holding it, and
drew her even closer. "Oh, my beloved, beautiful girl," he murmured. "You
honor me. I can't wait to make you mine,
truly
mine."

"I'm already yours," she said. "And I hope
you're mine?"

"Forever," he promised, fervently.

Katie eventually drifted off to sleep in his arms, still
filled by him as he rocked gently in and out of her, all urgency gone now.

When she awoke, sometime later, it was either really early
or really late. The loft was still dark and the city sounds outside were
quieter than usual. Andras slept beside her, sprawled on his stomach, one wing
stretched out to cover her.

He had tossed off the coverlet from his side of the bed, and
in the faint light filtering through his blinds, she saw that he had removed the
tattered remnants of the leather harness and wide leather cuffs, and wore
nothing at all.

This was only the second time she had seen him asleep,
completely relaxed. Completely vulnerable.

Katie studied him for a long time, admiring his gorgeous
physique, the sculpted planes of his face, and those amazing wings.

Can he fly?
She realized she had never asked him
that. He was no lightweight, with all that solid bone and muscle...

She touched the outside of his wing, feeling the glossy
feathers. Then, remembering how he had reacted during their earlier game, she
slid her hand beneath the warm, broad surface, and caressed the underside.

He sighed in his sleep, lips parting. Encouraged, she did it
again—and found herself suddenly pressed into the mattress, his weight on top
of her.

She hadn't even seen him move.

He stared down at her, his renewed erection pressing into
her stomach.

"I didn't mean to wake you," she began, and found the
rest of her apology smothered by a long, warm kiss that took her breath away.

"I'm glad you did. It's a nice way to wake up."

He was naked and she was naked and it felt so damned
nice
to be pressed together like this, skin to skin.

"I want you," she said, when she could speak
again, and slid her legs apart invitingly.

"With?" he reached over to his nightstand, and she
heard the plastic crinkle of a condom packet. "Or without--?"

"Without," she said instantly. She wanted to feel
him, skin to skin, all the way. "I'm on birth control, if that's what
you're worried about."

"If we do this, then you're really committed to
becoming my
philtata
," he warned her. "One exposure might be
enough."

"Huh. Who'd a thunk that eternal youth would come in
the form of a sexually-transmitted disease?" Katie observed wryly.

Andras chuckled softly. "I never thought of it that
way." He kissed her again. "Are you sure?"

She nodded, running her fingers through his hair, letting
them trail down the back of his neck. "I've been thinking, and I just
can't imagine being without you. I love you. I love talking to you, I love
having sex with you, I love just sleeping with you. I want it all. I want
you
.
Forever."

He smiled down at her. "I'll do my best to make the
forever
part come true."

In contrast to the frantic pace of their last encounter,
Andras took his time making love to her. There were no toys, no ropes, just his
skilled hands and his mouth.

Katie stopped worrying about whether that would be enough
when he nibbled his way down her throat with sharp teeth, lingering over her
nipples with a combination of powerful suction and deliberate bites. It felt more
intense than the clamps she had worn, and she found herself squirming
desperately against him.

He shifted, and she whimpered as he gave her what she had
been craving. His rigid cock rubbed against her, teasing her clit and slipping
back and forth over her entrance, arousing her even further.

Her nipples were swollen and incredibly sensitive by the
time he finished with them, making her moan with the lightest of licks.

Andras worked his way down her stomach and belly to her
parted legs. Katie eagerly arched her hips, offering herself to him. She was
sore from the vigorous fucking he had administered earlier, and it felt indescribable
when he penetrated her with his tongue.

She moaned when his fingers replaced his tongue, stretching
and caressing her bruised tissues in a delicious combination of pain and
pleasure.

Then he took her clit between his teeth, and gave it the same
treatment her nipples had received. She cried out at the fierce pressure, and
tried to wriggle away from the delicious torment, but his powerful hands held
her hips with bruising strength. She could only submit to the overwhelming
waves of sensation that carried her to the brink of climax.

He seemed to sense that she was close, so close, and pulled
away with a lingering caress of his tongue.

"No, " she protested.

"You're so beautiful when you're like this." He
pinned her wrists over her head, and slowly lowered himself of top of her. Her
swollen nipples rubbed deliciously against his chest, and she felt the hard
pressure of his cock against her engorged folds. She tried to rub herself
against him, but the pressure of his hips held hers immobile.

"Beg me for it," he whispered against her mouth.

"Please," she said, immediately. "Please fuck
me now, Andras. Please. I need it so badly..."

"Beautiful girl," he said, entering her at last.
"My beloved.
Philtata
."

He took her with long, slow strokes, angling himself to rub
against her sensitized clit, until she convulsed against him, clutching at his
back, her pleasure pulsing powerfully around the hard cock impaling her.

He rode out her climax until it subsided into ripples of
sweetly fading sensation. Then he put his hands under her and lifted her hips,
his pace increasing, his thrusts becoming harder and shorter until he shuddered
and shook and filled her with the hot rush of his own release.

Afterwards, he lay in her arms, still embedded inside her,
while she tenderly stroked his hair, his shoulders, his wings.

Finally, she asked, "How will we know whether it
worked?"

He lifted his head from her breast, where he had been
caressing her nipple with soft puffs of breath. "Your aura will change. It
will acquire an iridescent quality."

"Will...?"

"It didn't work this time. I'm sorry," he said,
softly.

"Oh." Katie swallowed. She had really been hoping.

Now she was haunted by the specter of what she would have to
do with a bunch of strangers.

"You're worried about the ceremony," he said, as
if reading her mind.

She started to protest, then let her breath out in a whoosh.
"Maybe a little?"

He shifted to look up at her. "You don't have to do
anything you don't want to," he said, quietly. "We could keep trying
until the ceremony."

"What if it still isn't working by then?" she
asked, and hated how nervous she sounded.

"Then the decision about the Sharing Rite is up to you.
You could also try taking incubus lovers at intervals, one at a time, over the
next year."

"But—how would
you
feel about it?"

"Hopeful?" He reached up and kissed her. "I
won't be jealous or hurt, if that's what you're asking. Not for something
purely physical, and important, like this. As long as you love me, the physical
exclusivity isn't as important. With any luck, we'll be together a long time,
Katie. Strict, uncompromising monogamy isn't realistic for immortals."

"Oh." She looked down at his face, wondering if
she really knew what she'd gotten herself into. He had never seemed quite this
alien
before.

"There's another thing you should know." Andras
looked worried now, as if he were aware of her sudden reservations.
"Trying for immortality is much more effective when done with the
traditional rite. There's something about being exposed to multiple Children of
Lilith within a very short period of time..." His voice trailed off.
"You'll have your safe word, and I'll be there. I won't leave unless you
want me to."

"If you're there, that might be okay," Katie said.
"I was worried about having to go somewhere with a bunch of
strangers."

"Everyone who'll be at the ceremony—I've known each of
them a long time. They'll work hard make the Sharing Rite good,
really
good for you. Haven't you ever wondered what it would be like, surrounded by
men eager to please you?" His voice dropped, became husky. "To be
taken in every way possible, and made to climax again and again, until you
begged for mercy?"

Katie shivered at the mental image summoned by his words,
and had to admit that it didn't sound completely unpleasant. She
had
occasionally fantasized about having sex with two or three guys at once, and it
had turned her on. But she had never planned to make that fantasy a reality.

And just how many Children of Lilith would she be having sex
with, anyway? Katie decided she was afraid to ask.

Then again, her threesome with Andras and Amanda had been spectacularly
memorable. Would it be so bad to have another experience like that? And Andras
wanted her to do it, wanted her have the best possible shot at immortality.

"Well, if they're anything like
you
—I might die
from sheer overload of my pleasure circuits. But I'll give it serious thought,
okay? I don't have to decide right now, do I?"

Andras skated his fingertip around her nipple, and she
sucked in her breath at the sensation.

"We can keep trying for the next few months," he
said, agreeably.

* * *

"You haven't said a word since you sat down,"
Andras observed over breakfast the next morning. "Are you having second
thoughts?"

"What? Oh!" Katie blinked at him, realized that
she had been so wrapped up in her thoughts that she'd been shuffling through
her morning routine like a zombie.

Thank goodness it was Saturday, and she could sleep late
this morning after their middle-of-the-night sex and conversation. "Yeah,
I've been thinking, but not like,
oh God, what have I done?
"

"If not regrets, then what?" Andras sounded
curious rather than accusatory.

He took a sip of coffee and waited for her answer.

"Mostly what it would mean,
really
mean, if I do
end up living forever. Or at least a really long time, like you," Katie
said, cradling her own half-empty cup in her hands. "I've been wondering
if I should have majored in something else in college, or if I should have gone
on to get my MFA, student debt be damned. And now, if this works, I'll have
time to have
this
career, then go back to university and study something
else, and get a totally different degree. Hell, I can have all the degrees—and
jobs-- I was ever even
remotely
interested in, and maybe even some that
haven't been invented yet!" She grinned at him. "And we could travel!
I could take a whole year off to just travel, maybe go all the way around the
world, and not worry about falling behind with 401ks and stuff like that."

Andras smiled back her warmly. "I'm glad to hear that
you're already making plans, love. And your attitude makes it likely that you'll
rarely be bored as an immortal."

"That would be horrible," said Katie. "But I can't
imagine being bored."

"
Millions
long for immortality who don't know what to do on a rainy Sunday afternoon
," Andras quoted.

"What?" Katie looked at him blankly. "But there
are so many cool things to do. I could totally catch up with my reading! Learn
to knit! Learn to fix cars!"

Katie's mind was in high gear. Even the prospect of having
to do the group-sex rite didn't seem quite so bad anymore, she told herself.
And maybe it wouldn't even be necessary by the time Halloween rolled around. 

Andras chuckled. "That's the spirit! Why not make your
next project deciding what you'd like to keep here? I was serious about wanting
to sleep with you every night from now on."

"I'd like that," Katie said.

"I'm willing to switch off between our two places, if you
want to keep your apartment," he continued. "Or you could move here, into
the loft..."

"Um," she said, suddenly uncertain.

"Or, if you think we'll need more space, we could look
for a bigger place, maybe a house." Andras was clearly on a roll.

Katie felt sudden panic at all of the prospective changes.
She loved him, she wanted to be with him, but for now at least, she liked
having her own place to retreat to, if things got too intense.

And her incubus lover
was
an intense person, there
was no mistake about that.

"Why don't we take this one step at a time?" she
suggested, shyly, not wanting to hurt his feelings. "Let's start with
toothbrushes and shampoo and a change of clothes, and see where it goes from
there."

Andras swept her bow from his seat at the table.
"Whatever my lady desires."