Touch of the Demon (2 page)

“And do you
know who I am?” Why was he talking with her? He could reach out one
hand and break her where she stood. He knew, despite her
matrilineal heritage, she was nothing more than a frail mortal. A
mere human female.

So what was
stopping him? The way she looked at him so intently? Or the way his
body hungered for hers?

Could he
fuck her before stealing her soul?
Surely even he hadn’t sunk
so low.

Not yet.

“Yes.” Her
voice was as steady as her gaze. “I know what you are.”

What, not who.
Despite everything, a wry smile twisted his lips. “Then why aren’t
you running from me, human, or begging me for your sorry life?”

Celeste gripped
the stiletto, grateful the deadly blade was still hidden in the
folds of her cloak. She no longer had the element of surprise,
since this creature had somehow sensed her presence.

She could still
eliminate him. He thought her human, and therefore slow and
cumbersome.

Her hand
remained fixed in place, as surely as her eyes remained fixed on
his.

“I’ll beg you
for nothing.” It was a lie. If she thought begging could get her
anywhere, then she would already be on her knees before him. She
kept that knowledge locked deep in her heart.

He took a step
toward her and her heart hammered in her breast. He was taller than
any human she had known over the years. But then, he wasn’t human.
Beneath the long leather coat he wore against the night’s chill
air, his broad shoulders all but blotted out the rest of the
world.

She hitched in
a suddenly panicked breath, and his evocative scent of other
worldly essences, meshed with hot, raw male enveloped her. Against
every principle she stood for, her nipples strained against the
fabric of her bodice, peaking with desire and disgust and pure,
animal heat.

A mocking smile
twisted his full sensual lips. “I could make you beg, human.” His
finger traced the outline of her face and she shuddered, hating the
way she reacted and yet unable to help herself. “I might even
listen to your pleas.” His smoky whisper shimmered along her
senses, searing with words unsaid.

“You don’t know
how to listen.” But she turned her head slightly, so his palm
grazed against her jaw. He drew in a sharp breath and satisfaction
whipped through her. He wasn’t immune to her, any more than she was
to him.

It meant
nothing. Could lead nowhere but hell. And yet she still couldn’t
draw back.

“Why don’t you
try me?” His thigh pressed against hers, hot and unyielding. She
refused to retreat, instead returning the pressure and hot darts of
lust pierced deep within her womb.

“I wouldn’t
lower myself.” She flattened her hand against his chest to push him
away. His heart beat beneath her fingers and, instead of repelling
him, she pressed against the cool linen of his shirt as the heat of
his body warmed the fabric.

His fingers
caressed her face then speared through her hair. She gasped in
shock as her head jerked back.

“You don’t have
to beg.” His voice was hoarse, his dark eyes glowing with lust.
Instead of terrifying her, the vision inflamed. “You only need to
ask.”

Rafe stared
down into the woman’s wide eyes. Between his fingers her hair felt
like the finest of silk, cool and sensuous. Her warm breath against
his face reminded him of summer days and celestial orchards. And
her body, so tantalizingly close to his, gave him fantasies of
unbridled pleasure.

Tangled
thoughts twisted through his brain. How could a human female tempt
him this way? He’d never before found any of her species to his
taste.
But she was only half human.

Not the genetic
monstrosity he’d expected. But instead a creature who could rival
the call of the Sirens themselves.

Without
warning, her fingers ripped open his shirt and shock speared
through him. Before he had the chance to react her nails dug deep
into his flesh, clawing across his chest and slicing across his
nipple.

Instinctively,
his hand tightened around her head as his body reared against her.
Desire lanced through him, from his throbbing nipple to his
engorged shaft.

“You play a
dangerous game.” He was vaguely unnerved that his voice shook.
Since when had a woman possessed the ability to touch the core of
his being?

“Who says I’m
playing a game?” Her whisper grazed across his wounded flesh. With
a sense of detachment he realized she’d drawn blood. “This is as
real as it gets.”

Game or not,
two could participate. He spared a fleeting nanosecond to check
that they were still concealed from mortal eyes, before he tugged
the ties at her bodice.

“Unlike you,
I’m not a barbarian,” he said as his hand slid beneath her opened
bodice and cupped her full, warm breast.

She fumbled
beneath her cloak, and for a moment he thought she was removing her
dress for him. But then she raised her left hand, slid her fingers
around his neck, and held him firm.

“Of course you
are.” Her voice was uneven, and her eyes glittered from the glow of
the gas street lamps. “You always have been.”

He forced her
roughly against the wall, his thumb teasing the hard nub of her
nipple.

“You claim to
know a lot about me.” His eyes focused on her parted lips. He
imagined those lips around him. Taking him. His balls ached with
frustrated need.

She wound his
hair around her fingers and pinpricks of pain penetrated his skull,
stabbed into his brain. He bared his teeth in a parody of a smile
and squeezed her erect nipple between forefinger and thumb. She
gasped and thrust herself against him, as if she too welcomed pain
for her sins.

Had she sinned?
Rafe doubted it. Her aura was clear, not tainted with the blood of
countless vanquished enemies.

“I know
enough.” Her fingernails scraped over his abdomen, igniting a blaze
across his hard flesh, and halted at the belt of his pants. “And I
plan on knowing more.”

Celeste heard
the words leave her lips, felt the sharp intake of the stranger’s
breath, and scarcely believed she was seconds from seducing her
sworn enemy. Yet fire raged in her blood, pounded against her
temples and vibrated along every nerve. And the fire was no longer
fuelled by hate, but by primeval lust.

She tugged
sharply on his hair, despising herself for her weakness, yet
thrilling to the way his own fingers correspondingly tightened
around her aching breast. His blood, smeared against his naked
chest, aroused her and she leaned in, heedless of the way her hair
tangled between his fingers.

Her tongue
flicked across his nipple, and the salty taste of hard male and
liquid iron inflamed her. She took his nipple between her teeth and
heard his shocked groan as he pressed her head more securely
against his chest. Ah, great Goddess, she would make him more than
groan. She would make him regret accepting this mission, for
setting foot on Earth, and thinking he could erase her destiny.

But first, she
would take her pleasure from him, because he was the finest
specimen she’d encountered in eons.

And after she’d
allowed him to come inside her welcoming body, she would destroy
him.

Rafe dragged
his hand from her succulent breast and wrapped his arm around her
shoulders, anchoring her more securely to his body. Her teeth
nipped, and his pleasure hovered perilously on the edge of agony,
yet the erotic flick of her tongue between each savage bite
outweighed the pain and sent him closer to the precipice.

Still holding
her head and grasping her shoulders, he rammed the proof of his
desire against her, forcing her to acknowledge what she was doing
to him. What he was doing to himself. He felt her lips curve into a
smile, before her teeth sank into his flesh and he let out another
anguished groan.

Through the
fogged layers of lust, he dimly recalled this woman was his target.
The one whose soul he was required to steal—whose spirit he was
supposed to extinguish—leaving her little more than a living
zombie, incapable of copulation never mind reproduction. Somehow,
the urgency to fulfill his obligations had diminished, just as the
urgency to possess this bewitching creature had escalated.

And in the end,
it didn’t matter. By holding her here, he was already altering her
destiny. The longer he held her captive, the less chance she had to
fulfill that destiny.

For a split
second of infinity the incredible thought whispered through his
mind that far from him being the one in control, it was her. This
silver haired female with the face of an angel and the heat of a
succubus. That she knew exactly what she was doing by lingering in
this alley.

Madness
.
She knew nothing. Only how to drive a man insane with her teeth and
her lips and full, sensual body. And that was enough, because
unwittingly she had managed to save her soul by offering him mortal
pleasure.

He growled deep
in his throat, gripped her hair, and tore her head from his chest.
Her lips bore traces of his own blood and his mouth crashed down on
hers, forcing entry, tongue colliding with hers, tasting his blood,
tasting her wild, fresh scent, as heat scorched his flesh
everywhere she touched.

The flimsy
civilized veneer vaporized and he ripped her bodice to her waist,
exposing her. His hands dropped to her waist, pinning her against
the wall, as his hungry gaze roamed over her full, rounded breasts
as they rose and fell with each erratic breath.

He flicked his
tongue over one erect nipple, and she gasped as she dug her nails
further into his scalp.

“You like
that?” He shot her a glance. She was staring down at him, eyes
glazed, kiss-swollen lips parted.

“Don’t talk to
me.” The words were barely audible and she accompanied her command
by forcing his head back to her breast. “Use your mouth in other
ways.”

He took her
nipple between his teeth, savoring the power he wielded over her
vulnerable flesh, and sucked her into his hot mouth.

“Harder,” she
gasped, one hand clasping his head, the other feverishly snaking
beneath his leather coat.

Fire burned
behind his eyes, scorched through his brain and incinerated his
reason. This wasn’t enough. He wanted her now, needed her now.
Rising to his full height, he dragged her silken skirts up to her
waist as he once again claimed her lips.

Celeste sucked
his tongue deep into her mouth and rubbed her aching breasts
against his chest, but the friction didn’t ease the insanity raging
through her blood. Frustrated, she dragged her hand from his
shoulders and cupped his massive erection with gut wrenching
anticipation.

He growled deep
in his throat as his fingers slid between her thighs. Slick heat
bloomed as he caressed her outer folds, and the jerk of his cock
against her hand showed his approval for her lack of
undergarments.

She squeezed
his length, blindly searching for the fastenings that held him
captive. It didn’t matter that they were in a seedy back alley. She
didn’t care that she didn’t know his name. It hardly even
registered that the longer she held him in her arms the less chance
he had of succeeding in his murderous mission.

All she knew
was how much she needed him inside her.
Now
.

At last she
freed him from his constraints and the heat of his throbbing
erection burned the palm of her hand. She pulled her lips from
his.

“Fuck me,” she
gasped, as her fingers tightened around his engorged head, her
thumb skimming across his wet slit.

“With
pleasure.” His husky response hitched her desperation even further.
In the deepest recesses of her mind she knew that never before had
she wanted a man with such unbridled madness. Not even her last
lover, the one to whom she had given her most precious gift of
all.

It made no
sense, but she was beyond caring. As he rammed her against the wall
and thrust deep into her wet channel, her thought processes
splintered. All she could feel, all she could see,
all she could
think of
was this man as he filled her with his unyielding
heat.

Rafe buried his
hands in her glorious silver hair, forcing her to look at him as
she wound her legs around his hips and jerked him even closer. Her
tight sheath welcomed his invasion, hot and slick, sucking him ever
further into her mysterious depths.

He withdrew all
but the tip of his shaft, then rammed into her again, up to the
hilt, up to the neck of her womb, taking her as if he had never
fucked another woman before in his life. Heart pounding, he glared
into her eyes and saw only his own lust reflected back.

“Again,” she
whispered, and one arm tightened around his waist as her other slid
down his body and gripped his butt through the leather of his
pants. “Hard and fast, barbarian.”

He pulled out
of her and teased the lips of her wet slit with his engorged
head.

“Can’t you find
something better to do with that mouth of yours than talk?” He
meant to mock her. But the words were ragged, mimicking his breath.
Every nerve in his body screamed for release, and yet he held back.
He didn’t even know why.

For a fleeting
instant, her teeth flashed in the gloom and, with a stab of shock,
he realized it was the first time he’d seen her smile.

“A thousand
things.” Her husky voice promised untold delights.

“I look forward
to them.” And he had every intention of taking what she so rashly
offered. Even if it meant taking this woman with him when he left
this dirty little planet.

Celeste tried
to make him enter her again, but with her legs around him her
balance was precarious and she could only wriggle in frustration.
“You’ll have nothing but unfulfilled fantasies if you keep me
waiting any longer.”