The Darkening (33 page)

Darius immediately wrapped his arm around her waist and held her. His touch was surprisingly gentle, and when the worst of the pain had passed, she tried to straighten, but couldn't. A ringing had started in her ears, and she knew that the end was near for her. She ran her hands up and down her arms, finding some relief in the tactile sensations, but still, fear and panic welled up inside her. She had to get out of here before it was too late.

She started for the door, but Darius stopped her. "Where are you going?"

She'd held herself together for this long but couldn't do it anymore. "I ... I have to ..." She waved a hand in the air. "You know."

He smiled and pulled her to him. "Yes, I do know." He dipped his mouth and kissed her with a thoroughness that set her blood to racing. As her skin heated in reaction, a small amount of magic was released into the air like a pearlescent cloud, rising until it hovered at the base of the domed ceiling.

After a long moment, Darius let the kiss end and pulled back his head to look at her. When she looked into his face, he smiled and dipped his head again. Before he could kiss her, she placed her hand across his mouth.

"No. I can't do this-not halfway." Her system couldn't handle getting to that level of excitement only to find no release.

He held her hand over his mouth and gently sucked her palm, sending a rush of heat to pool between her legs. "This time there's no stopping," he promised her.

"Really?" She could hardly believe it. "But what about the jinx? If you make love to me, won't you lose your memory? You'll forget everything."

The words hung in the air between them, and she knew he was thinking the same thing she was: that he wouldn't remember making love to her. He wouldn't even remember
her.

That realization hurt more than the pain of the magic burning inside her.

She started to pull away, but he held her close. "There is nothing in this world that will
ever
make me forget you. This spell is temporary; it won't last."

She stared up at him, hardly daring to hope.

He caressed her face with his gaze. "I've never felt this way about anyone, Lexi. I love you."

Emotions overwhelmed her. He loved her. She was afraid to examine her own feelings too carefully for fear of what she might find.
Not love,
she declared hastily as memories of her sister's blind devotion to her husband came rushing back. She'd sworn on Bev's death that she'd never fall in love. Yet ...

As if sensing her insecurity, Darius pulled her to him and kissed her with an urgency that mirrored her own. He kissed her until she finally lost the control she'd been holding on to so tenuously and kissed him back with a flood of emotions she couldn't have put into words.

They came together in a frenzied tangle of arms and legs as each tried to hold the other closer.

"Lexi," he breathed her name. "You taste so good. I want to make love to you all night long."

She gave a small moan. "Yes. Oh, yes."

His chuckle sounded deep in his chest as he swept her up in his arms and started to carry her to the bed behind the dais.

"No, please," she protested. "I don't want our first time to be in
their
bed."

"Love, I don't care where our first time is, as long as there is a first time

He lowered his arm supporting her legs and let her slide down the length of his body, still holding her close.

She started trembling, suddenly afraid that the relief she needed was coming too late. "I don't think I have time to go elsewhere," she gasped.

"Here works fine for me," he said, unbuttoning her blouse with deft fingers. Soon he'd removed all their clothing, and when he pulled her to him, she felt the hard, lean length of him pressed against her, and it drove her wild. She ran her hands up his muscled arms and across his broad shoulders. She buried her fingers in his long dark hair and pulled his head down to her so she could kiss him with fevered abandon.

Her breasts, heavy and swollen, were crushed against his chest. His erection pressed into her stomach, throbbing in tempo to her own heartbeat.

They both moved with a desperation born of long denial, and inside, she felt the magic building higher and higher.

He lifted her so she could wrap her legs around his hips, and then he drove himself into her. Her body stretched to accommodate him, and she was already in such a state of heightened need that her orgasm hit with such force, it ripped a scream from her very soul.

At that instant, a huge plume of magic rose up from her and floated to the ceiling where it merged with the rest of the magic floating there.

Before she could ride the wave of emotion, the need in her started building once more. Dismayed, she wondered how Darius would react, but she needn't have worried. It seemed he was just getting started.

Darius had waited a lifetime to find someone he cared about as much as he cared for Lexi-so he wasn't about to rush the experience of being with her.

He felt himself filling her; felt her feminine warmth wrapped around his length, hugging him close. With half a mind, he scanned the room, looking for a place to lie down, and decided that the floor would have to do.

Still buried deep inside her, he lowered them both until he lay flat and she was on top, straddling his hips. Once she started moving, he didn't even notice the cool hardness of the floor-only the heat that existed between them.

She leaned forward, her hands braced against his chest, her breasts hanging heavy in his face, enticing him. He laved first one dusky pink nipple and then the other with his tongue until both formed tight buds. Unable to resist the temptation, he pulled a nipple into his mouth and suckled.

He heard her quick intake of breath and felt her feminine muscles squeeze around his shaft. It was almost more than he could take, and he thrust his hips up, needing to be as deep inside her as he could get.

She was breathing rapidly now, and he knew she was close to another orgasm. He gave a gentle tug on her nipple with his mouth. She gasped, and came again. The quickening of her muscles around him almost sent him over the edge with an orgasm of his own.

He fought to control it, wanting to make this time to gether last as long as he possibly could. First, to make sure she released enough magic that her life was no longer in danger, and second, because he was afraid that, despite what he'd told her, Sekhmet's will would prove stronger than his and he would forget her.

Twice more she came, and each time only served to feed his own frenzy. Looking past her shoulder to the ceiling, he saw that a lot of the magic had been released and now circled above them like a pearlescent cloud.

His gaze shifted to her eyes, which were glazed over with passion. Her expression was one of complete satisfaction, and knowing that he'd put it there was one of his greatest triumphs.

As if she could read his thoughts, she smiled. It was all the encouragement he needed, and he rolled them over so he could be on top.

With one hand supporting his weight and the other under her hips to keep from grinding her into the floor, he drove himself into her repeatedly, his heart racing, the pressure inside him building.

As he neared the brink of his orgasm, he was filled with a sense of desperation unlike anything he'd ever felt before. It was pure, unadulterated fear-fear that in the next moment he was going to forget her. If he never saw her again, he wanted her to know that in this moment he'd loved her more deeply and more significantly than he would love anyone in the entire term of his existence-and he prayed that she would not hate him when she learned what he had done.

Please, Mother, he prayed to Sekhmet. If you ever loved your son, you will not let me forget her. It became a litany that he repeated with each stroke. Please. Please. Please.

The moment came, and he surged forward one last time. "I love you," he choked out just as his entire mind and body exploded. He rode the tidal wave, knowing that nothing he'd ever felt before could ever compare.

And then everything went blank.

"No," Lexi cried, seeing Darius shut his eyes. He winced like he was in pain, and she knew that the spell was at work. She was losing him.

She'd never felt so helpless in her life. He was slipping away, and there was nothing she could do. "I love you," she told him, her voice barely a whisper. "I love you." But her epiphany came too late. He wouldn't remember the words, would never know how she felt. Between one breath and the next, he'd forgotten her.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

Lexi watched Darius blinking his eyes like he was trying to clear his head. He looked around the room, but his gaze quickly returned to her. She could tell from his expression that he was both confused and startled to find himself lying on top of a woman as naked as he was.

"I sure as hell hope we know one another," he said with a smile. "Or this is going to be awkward." He paused, perhaps finally noticing that he was still buried deep inside her. "Too late."

"I can explain," she offered lamely. "But first, maybe you could ... uh, you know ... get off me."

"Is that wise?" he countered, sounding serious. "In cases involving head traumas, it's usually better not to make any sudden moves."

At first she thought he was serious and stared at him, dumbfounded. "You don't have a head trauma..." Then she noticed his suggestive smile and rolled her eyes. Shoving at his chest, she twisted her body to the side. "Get off."

He complied with a groan of protest, and she scrambled to her feet. She grabbed her clothes off the floor and dressed quickly.

When she was done, she turned back to see that he'd pulled on his black pants. "I imagine you have some questions," she began.

"I do."

She waited, not realizing how much she'd hoped that some small part of him would remember her. But his next three words shredded her heart to pieces. "Who are you?"

She swallowed the lump in her throat.
I'm the woman who loves you, the one you said you loved. "My
name is Lexi. We're ... friends."

He raised an eyebrow. She had to admit the description was a little lame, but there wasn't time to explain the complexities of their relationship. Especially when she knew they had no future. He was, after all, an Immortal.

"You lost your memory because of a spell-when you have an orgasm, you forget everything."

He looked around. "Where are we?"

She sighed. "Beneath the Chrysler Building. I was being held prisoner down here by Amadja. Does his name sound familiar?" He shook his head, so she went on. "Your brother was a prisoner also."

"I have a brother?"

She glanced at the portal's opening, dangling above the collection pool. "Yes. He and the demon trying to kill us are trapped in a portal. There's no way to get your brother out without letting the demon loose. We'll have to get help."

Darius followed her gaze to the portal. "That portal?"

"Yes. It's more complicated than I'm presenting it," she explained.

Darius ran a hand through his hair. "This is all very confusing. I wish I could remember." He started pacing, and as she watched, she couldn't help feeling sympathetic. "You lost your memory once before and it came back," she told him. "Granted, it took some time, but it will happen. Patience is the key."

As he walked away from her, she studied his back. In her mind, she remembered the way his muscles felt beneath her fingertips when she'd traced the various tattoos ...

"Wait a minute," she said suddenly, walking up to him. "That's not right."

He started to turn toward her, but she grabbed his arm and spun him around so she could get a better look at his back. One by one, she ran her fingers over the tattoos she remembered. The one she was looking for wasn't there.

North of my ass.
Wasn't that what he'd said?

She put her arms around him and undid his pants. "Excuse me, but this is important."

"Go for it, baby," he growled enthusiastically. "I like a woman who knows that she wants. No wonder we're friends."

She rolled her eyes, but didn't stop what she was doing.

Fortunately, he stood patiently as she pulled the back of his pants down enough to see his entire lower back. It wasn't there.

"Well?" he asked.

"It's not there. Your key tattoo. It's missing."

A look of alarm crossed his face as they both turned toward the portal opening. Darius quickly pulled up his pants and came to stand beside her as a crack appeared and a hand slipped out holding Darius's golden key.

Before either of them could do a thing, the magic that had been floating at the ceiling suddenly stretched toward the key.

Above them, in the domed ceiling, the circle of light representing the full moon began to glow, and slowly a beam of light stretched downward until it merged with the magic streaming toward the key.