The Dark-Hunters (37 page)

He moved his hand, then rocked his hips against hers. But instead of sliding into her body, his move ended up as nothing more than a glorious caress that made them both moan.

Julian dipped his head to her ear where he nuzzled her neck. “I will love you forever,” he whispered.

Grace heard him draw a deep breath in her hair at the same time the clock struck midnight.

In a bright flash of light, he vanished.

For several heartbeats, Grace couldn’t move.

Horrified, she kept waiting to wake up, but as the clock continued to chime, she knew it wasn’t a dream.

Julian was gone.

He was really and truly gone.

“No!” she screamed, sitting straight up. It couldn’t be! “No!”

Her heart pounding, she ran from the bedroom, downstairs to where the book was still lying on the coffee table. She flipped it open to see Julian standing just as he’d been originally. Only now, there was no devilish smile in place, and his hair was short.

No, no, no!
her mind repeated over and over again. Why would he have done such a thing? Why?

“How could you?” she asked, as she cupped the book to her breasts. “I would have given you your freedom, Julian. I wouldn’t have minded. Oh, God, Julian, why would you do this to yourself?” She wept. “Why?”

But in her heart she knew. The tender look on his face had said it all. He had done this to keep from hurting her like Paul had done.

Julian loved her. And since the moment he’d appeared, he had done nothing but protect her. Guard her.

Even at the end. Even when it meant he’d lose his own freedom from eternal imprisonment and torment, he had placed her first.

Grace ached at the truth and at the sacrifice he had made. Now, all she could think of was him being condemned to the darkness. Alone and in agony.

He had told her of the hunger he felt when he was trapped in the book, the thirst. And in her mind, she saw the way he had been tortured on her bed. But most of all, she remembered what he told her afterward.

“The pain on the bed was nothing compared to what it’s like inside the book.”

And now he was in there. Suffering.

“No!” Grace said. “I won’t let you do this to yourself. Do you hear me, Julian?”

Cradling the book to her breasts, she ran to the back of her house. She slung open the sliding glass door and moved to stand in the moonlight.

“Come back to me, Julian of Macedon, Julian of Macedon, Julian of Macedon!” She repeated it over and over again as she begged for his appearance.

Nothing happened. Nothing at all.

“No! Please, no!”

Her heart broken, Grace returned inside her house. “Why? Why?” she sobbed as she sank to her knees and rocked back and forth.

“Oh, Julian!” she whispered brokenly as memories assailed her. Julian laughing with her, holding her, or just sitting quietly in thought. The feel of his heart as it beat in rapid time to hers.

She wanted him back.

She
needed
him back.

“I don’t want to live without you,” she breathed against the book. “Didn’t you understand that, Julian? I can’t live without you.”

Suddenly, there was a flash of light in the room.

Gasping, Grace looked up, expecting it to be Julian returned to her.

But it wasn’t Julian. It was Aphrodite.

“Give me the book,” Aphrodite said, reaching for it.

Grace pulled it back. “Why would you do this to him?” she demanded. “Hasn’t he suffered enough for you? I wouldn’t have kept him. I would rather he be with you than trapped like this.”

Grace brushed away her tears. “He’s alone in there. Alone in the darkness,” she whispered. “Please don’t leave him that way. Send me into the book with him, please. Please!”

Aphrodite dropped her hand. “You would do that for him?”

“I would do anything for him.”

Aphrodite’s gaze narrowed. “Give me the book.”

Blinded by her tears, Grace handed it over, praying Aphrodite would help her join him.

Aphrodite took a deep breath and opened the book. “I’m going to catch serious hell over this.”

Suddenly, another light flashed, making Grace’s eyes sting. Her head spun in a dizzying blur that made her feel sick to her stomach. Everything around her swirled.

Was this what Julian went through every time someone summoned him? She didn’t know, but this alone was sheer torture, and terrifying.

Then suddenly, everything went eerily black.

Grace fell into a deep hole where the darkness pressed in on her, stinging her lungs, making her eyes burn like fire.

She reached out to stop herself from falling and felt a peculiar softness beneath her.

The lights came back and she found herself lying on her bed, with Julian on top of her.

He looked around as if dazed. “How—”

“You two better not screw this one up,” Aphrodite said from the doorway. “If I try this again, there’s no telling what the powers that be might do to me.”

She vanished.

Julian looked from the doorway back to her. “Grace, I—”

“Shut up, Julian,” she said before he wasted any more time, “and show me how the gods meant for a woman to know a man.”

Then, she pulled his head down to hers and gave him a hot, penetrating kiss.

He kissed her fiercely, and with one, strong masterful stroke, he drove himself deep inside her.

Julian threw his head back and growled at the warm, sleek heat of her body welcoming his. The feel of it shook him so profoundly that even his bottom lip quivered. Dear gods, she felt even better than he had imagined.

And he remembered what she had said to him.

“I don’t want to live without you. Didn’t you understand that, Julian? I can’t live without you.”

His breathing ragged, he looked down at her face as he felt her body so warm and tight around his shaft. He ran his hand down her arm to capture her hand in his grip and hold it tight. “Am I hurting you?”

“No,” she said, her eyes warm and sincere as she brought his hand up to her lips and kissed it. “You could never hurt me by being with me.”

“If I do, tell me and I’ll stop.”

She wrapped her arms and legs about him. “You leave me before dawn and I will hunt you down through eternity and beat you.”

Julian laughed, not doubting it for an instant.

Grace ran her tongue along the column of his throat, delighting in the way he shuddered in her arms.

He pulled his hips back ever so slowly, torturing her with his fullness, and then drove himself so deep into her body she felt the stroke all the way to her toes.

She sucked her breath in at the incredible sensation of him filling her. Of the lithe, agile power of his body thrusting against hers.

Closing her eyes, she savored his muscles flexing against the entire length of her body. She wrapped her legs around his, delighting in the way the hair on his legs tickled hers.

Never had she thought to feel anything like this. She could only breathe as she felt her love for him flow through her. He was hers. Even if he left her afterward, she would enjoy this one moment of pure bliss with him.

Reveling in the powerful feel of him, she ran her hands over his back, down to his hips where she urged him on.

Julian bit his lip as she dug her nails into his back. How could such tiny hands have the power to break him?

He’d never understand it, any more than he would ever understand why she loved him.

He was only grateful for it.

“Look at me, Grace,” he said, thrusting himself deep inside her again. “I want to see your eyes.”

Grace stared up at him. His eyes were half shuttered, and she saw how he savored the feel of her in the way he breathed and looked every time he rocked himself against her hips. She felt his stomach muscles contract against hers.

Lifting her hips, she met his frenzied pace stroke for stroke. Never had she imagined anything feeling as good as he felt sliding between her legs as he dipped his head down and kissed her deeply.

Just when she could stand no more, her body burst in a thousand convulsions of pleasure.

“Oh, Julian!” she screamed, arching her body even more against his. “Oh, yes!”

He drove himself to the hilt and froze as she quivered around him.

When Grace opened her eyes, she met his devilish smile. “Liked that, did you?” he asked, dimples flashing as he rotated his hips and gave her one luscious caress deep inside her.

It took all her strength not to moan at the sensation. “It was okay.”

“Okay?” he said with a laugh. “I guess I’ll just have to keep trying.”

He rolled over with her, slowly lest he be forced out of her.

Grace moaned as she found herself on top of him. He reached up and pulled the ribbon in the center of her breasts. The tiny nightie fell open.

The look of pure rapture on his face pleased her even more than the feel of him deep within her. Smiling, she lifted her hips, then impaled herself more deeply upon him.

She felt him quake all around her. “Like that, do you?”

“It was okay.” But his ragged voice betrayed his nonchalant tone.

She laughed.

Julian lifted his hips then, driving himself even deeper into her.

She hissed in pleasure as he filled her. The sleek power, the hard feel of him. And she wanted more. She wanted to see his face when he climaxed. She wanted to know that she had given him what he hadn’t experienced since time immemorial.

“You know, we’re going to be exhausted by the time morning arrives if we don’t slow down,” he said.

“I don’t mind.”

“You’ll be sore.”

She stroked him with her body. “So?”

“In that case…” He ran his hand slowly down her body, to her navel, then lower through her moist curls until he found her nub.

Grace bit her lip as his fingers toyed with her in a perfect rhythm to match the thrust of his hips. Faster and faster he went, harder and deeper.

Julian placed his hands against her waist, helping her to maintain their frantic pace. How he wished he could withdraw from her long enough to show her a few more positions. But this was all they were allowed.

For now.

But come morning …

He smiled at the prospect. Come the morning, he intended to show her a whole new use for the Reddi-wip.

Grace lost track of time as they stroked each other’s bodies, and reveled in each other’s company. She felt the room spin around her as she surrendered herself to his expert touch. To the wonderful feel of her love for him.

They were both drenched with sweat, but still they savored each other, delighting in the passion they could finally share.

This time when she came, she sprawled on top of him.

His laugh echoed around her as he ran his hands over her back, her hips, then down her legs.

Grace shivered.

Julian delighted in the feel of her naked body lying prone against his. Her breasts were flat against his chest. His love for her welled up inside him.

“I could lie like this forever,” he breathed.

“Me, too.”

He wrapped his arms about her and held her close. He could feel her touches slowing down, her breath becoming smooth and steady.

Within a few minutes, she was sound asleep.

Kissing the top of her head, he smiled as he made sure he kept himself inside her. “Sleep, precious Grace,” he whispered. “It’s a long time until morning.”

*   *   *

Grace came awake to the feel of something warm and full inside her. As she started to move, she felt arms as strong as steel hold her still.

“Careful,” Julian said. “Don’t force me out of you.”

“I went to sleep?” she gasped, amazed she could have done such a thing.

“It’s all right. You didn’t miss anything.”

“No?” she asked, wiggling her hips against his to stroke his body with hers.

He laughed. “Well, okay, you did miss a few things.”

Grace leaned up to look down at him. She dragged her finger along the stubble on his cheek.

As she traced his lips, he nipped her finger with his teeth.

Suddenly, he sat up beneath her, holding her in his lap.

“Ooo, nice,” she said as she wrapped her legs about his waist.

“Uh-huh,” he agreed as he rocked his hips against hers.

Lowering his head, he took her breast into his mouth. His tongue toyed with her taut nipple, circling it in a torturous pattern before he blew one long, hot breath across it. She shivered.

He moved to her other breast. Grace cupped his head to her, delighting in his touch. Until she saw that the sky was lightening.

“Julian!” she breathed. “It’s almost dawn.”

“I know,” he said, laying her back on the bed.

She looked up at him as he held himself above her and continued to thrust his hips against hers.

Julian stared at her in wonderment. The feel of her warmth, her love. She had reached him in ways he’d never thought possible. And she had touched him where he had never been touched before.

Deep within his heart.

Suddenly he wanted more. Desperate for her, he rocked his hips against hers.

He had to have more of her.

Grace wrapped her arms around him and buried her face in his shoulder as he quickened his thrusts. Harder and faster he went until she was breathless from the frantic pace.

Again, sweat covered them both. She ran her tongue over his neck, delighting in the hiss he let out.

Still he filled her, over and over, until she couldn’t stand it.

She sank her teeth into his shoulder as her release came fast and furious. He didn’t slow down as she lay back.

Reaching up, she cupped his face in her hands and watched his pleasure.

Julian bit his lower lip and moved faster, driving her pleasure on, even deeper than it had been before.

And just as the first rays of sunlight shone through the window she heard Julian growl low in his throat as he closed his eyes.

With one hard, deep thrust, she felt him shudder all around her as he spilled his release within her.

Julian couldn’t breathe as his head swam in pure, unadulterated bliss. He shook from the force of his orgasm. His entire body ached, and yet he’d never known such pleasure. He was weak from the night, weak from her touch.