Vacation Hell: Princess of Hell #4 (4 page)

I knew that pulse, that sign he was very much enjoying himself. I also knew that I was tired of playing his slow, teasing game. My legs wrapped around his flanks, and my ankles locked and drew him deep. But that wasn’t enough for me. I roped my arms around his neck and yanked him to me, plastering my mouth to his in a hot kiss, one that let me taste myself on him.

I didn’t mind, especially since that finally stripped the last of his control.

“Muriel. My woman. My life.” His growled words were swallowed by me as he began to thrust with his hips, sliding his shaft in and out, the slickness of my sex aiding his passage.

Faster. Faster. His rhythmic pace moved in time to my cries. Slamming. Pounding. Stretching.

“Harder,” I panted.

He obliged, the force behind his rapid-fire strokes building my pleasure. But he didn’t work alone. I met him thrust for thrust, squeezed even as he stretched.

I met his gaze, too distracted to kiss him, but loving that connection. His green eyes fairly sizzled as he pumped me.

Without any breath to say anything, I dug my fingers into his shoulders, loving how the sweet friction of our bodies made us sweat, making everything slippery.

We both rocked and panted, on the brink. So close. Almost there. I knew the magical words to take us over. “I love you!” Did I speak them or think them? Did it matter? It was enough to push us off that edge of bliss. An intense orgasm slammed us both, reaffirming our link to one another. Filling my magical reservoir to the brim. Making my heart fairly burst with happiness and love.

Coming down from such a high was never easy or desirable. I was lucky in that Auric believed in cuddling. He held me spooned into his body, one of my favorite places to be, his face buried in my hair.

In this moment, I could relax, forget about what the world wanted from me. I pretended we were normal. A couple in love.

My happy place lasted about three minutes.

The interruption came in the form of a little voice asking, “What are you and Daddy doing?”

L
ocked
doors couldn’t stand in my daughter’s determined way, and since I wasn’t about to explain why Auric and I were hugging naked, I yelled at her to knock before entering in the future. My admonition sent Lucinda stomping, yelling she hated me, and then I had to deal with a call from my father demanding to know why I was being a horrible mother expecting manners from his granddaughter.

I needed a vacation from life.

Go to the beach.

I kept saying no, yet it seemed dragging my feet at the butt crack of dawn the next morning wouldn’t stop my determined lovers.

But I did my best. “I’m not going.”

“You’ve nothing to worry about,” David said soothingly. “We’ll be around you twenty-four-seven, keeping you safe.”

“I don’t want to be babysat.” The last thing I needed was my guys shadowing my every move, especially since I’d yet to let them see me pee. Call me old-fashioned, but I somehow worried the fact that I was a noisy splasher might affect their perception of me. As for the other type of bathroom visit, I kept a case of Poo Pourri under the sink. Every woman should have it. Now if I could only convince the guys to use it. Four bathrooms in the house and there were times none of them were safe.

And yet, despite the fact they couldn’t digest food in a way that smelled like flowers, I still loved them. A miracle for sure.

“We have to go to the beach, Mommy. I wanna collect seashells,” my lovely daughter announced, her smile adorably impish—and still not enough to convince me.

“Shell picking involves touching sand.” Which, as everyone knew, had a devious ability to worm its way into clothes and shoes and hair. Not interested, and I told them that in no uncertain terms. “I don’t want to go on a seaside vacation. You can’t make me.” With that final pronouncement, I flung my arms sideways and gripped the edge of the doorframe.

It always worked in cartoons, but those animated comedies never saw Auric in action. He just grabbed me around the waist and tossed me over his shoulder. Stupid, big, strong man. Super sexy, hot, big, strong man.

Once outside, standing in our roundabout driveway—which I’d insisted on because I’d bought a pair of scooters and enjoyed winging around it with Lucinda, pretending we were racecar drivers—we had to wait while Teivel sketched a portal.

The sky remained mostly dark, but hints of orange and pink touched the horizon. We had to move, and quickly, too, before my lover became a smoking-hot mess. Teivel wasted no time. The dark slit he opened, big enough for us all, provided a quick path to Hell, in this case, the ninth ring, right by the Darkling Sea.

“Let me check it out.” David popped through first, the advance guard looking for danger. He popped back long enough to say, “The coast is clear.” An obvious jab at word play.

“Me next!” My daughter clasped David’s outstretched hand and skipped through, leaving me alone with Auric and Teivel.

“Don’t make me do this.” A plea that might have worked better if I’d not screamed it, along with a few physical threats to Auric’s manparts.

Smack
. The hard crack to my ass made me squeal, not so much in pain because I kind of enjoyed it, but I really didn’t like the way he was ignoring my wishes.

“Why won’t you listen to me? I don’t want to go.”

“Cluck.” Such a sly taunt from my lover.

“Maybe we should have her Ass-Kicking Princess membership taken away for protesting so mightily,” Teivel added.

“I’m not a coward. I just don’t like the beach.”

“You don’t like the beach, but you want to know who’s doing this to you. I know you, Muriel.” Auric’s voice lowered. “You want to get your hands on the culprit and wring his neck.”

“More like chop it off,” was my retort. But he was right. How well Auric knew me. No matter what I said, or my dislike of all things beachy, the truth was I kind of wanted to go through that portal so I could stand on the sandy shore and yell, “Come and get me, asshat.” Curiosity and need wanted me to find out why the sea called my name. Why its cold, wet waves caressed me in my sleep.

And once I discovered the person or thing behind it, then I could bitch slap it and tell them to keep their briny overtures to themselves.

Like seriously. Leave me the fuck alone.

I didn’t care if Auric and the others thought it was my magic looking to find a new guy to make a quartet. I had enough men. More than enough. Hell wasn’t in danger, so screw getting another one. I didn’t have enough hours in the day to handle yet another personality.

All this juggling of lovers, and a kid, was taking away from selfish me-time.

With one last smack on my ass, not because I was protesting but because Auric did so love to heat my cheeks, we went through the portal, a chilly void, bereft of life.

Except, in that split millisecond between worlds, I could have sworn I felt something. A presence. A dark and cold—

The sensation vanished as we stepped out onto the other side, the heat of Hell chasing away the shivers. Heat wasn’t the only noticeable difference. My nose wrinkled as the odiferous seaside invaded it.

Earth side or Hell, the smell of the ocean was the same. The heavy-with-salt water injected the air with a moisture that left the skin salty and dried the heck out of it. Moisturizer was a must! Good thing I’d packed a few bottles.

The sand, black here along this stretch of the Darkling seashore, flowed for miles in each direction, the expanse broken only by jutting gray rocks, and a few hundred yards to our left, I grimaced at the rancid carcass of something dead—and larger than my couch back home—that washed ashore.

Decaying fish never smelled good unless you were a hellgull with charcoal feathers, bright red eyes, and a razor-sharp beak made for tearing flesh. Raucous, nasty creatures.

Auric set me on my feet on the sand, and it was almost comical the way all my men were braced and attentive to our surroundings, as if expecting something to burst from the sand and attack us. It probably didn’t help that I’d thrown the movie
Tremors
on the big screen last night. I did so love me some young Bacon.

Since my tingly sense of preservation wasn’t going off, I could have told my lovers they had nothing to fear. There was no danger here. Yet…

On impulse, I kicked off my thong sandals and let my toes dig into the gritty sand. It sifted warmly through my little piggies, and was it me, or did I feel an itch in my bikini bottom as a few small pieces magically wormed their way in? The invasion had already begun.

But I’d bear it because this was the place. This was where I needed to be. A sense of rightness hit me as soon as I let myself dip my feet into the water lapping the beach.

Whatever has been calling me is around here someplace.

I barely noticed when I walked farther into the rolling waves, but I did take note of the hands that kept me from wading farther.

“Let me go.” I strained against those holding me back, the briny liquid lapping at my thighs, urging me to go deeper. Sink into the water. Let the waves take me…

Fuck. The insidious compulsion proved terribly strong.

“Don’t let me go in there.” This time I said the right words, yet my body was determined to ignore me. All of me leaned forward, craving the cold comfort of the sea.

Thankfully, I had some help fighting the crazy urge. With David on one side and Teivel on the other, I found myself lifted and marched back to the sandy shoreline.

Head canted to the side, pigtails swinging, Lucinda giggled. “Mommy looks just like the puppy when I hold him over the pool.”

Indeed, much like the poor hovering hellhound that my progeny decided needed a dunking, my legs continued to churn.

“Well, at least we know we’re in the right place,” I announced in a voice much too cheerful. But inside, my thoughts were whirring. Why did I not feel any danger? I obviously wasn’t acting of my own volition, yet no warning bells rang.

Was my body in cahoots with someone else?

Mutiny!

But how could I fight it?

Given my feet seemed determined to march to their own tune, once again, I found myself tossed over a shoulder, David’s this time. An overprotective daddy called Auric held Lucinda on his hip with one arm while his other hand held his sword. As for my dark vampire knight, Teivel brought up the rear, carrying the baggage, and he didn’t hide his displeasure about it.

“The shame of being reduced to a mere bellhop is almost enough to make me expire.”

“Can you hold off dying until later? I’ve got plans.”

Big plans, and no, I wasn’t just referring to the size of their equipment—which, I might add, was rather large.

The steps, chiseled into the cliff face, rose at a steep angle, their surface worn smooth by time and yet, at the same time, pitted by the elements. Gray lichen clung to some of the rock, and my guys had to tread carefully around the hellgull bombs splattered on the steps. The stuff could eat through leather and rubber so quickly that you didn’t realize it until your feet started burning.

About halfway up, my feet finally started behaving, to the point that David set me down, but only for a moment to see if I’d run back to the sea. I didn’t, but that didn’t mean I didn’t lift my arms and smile at him.

He scooped me princess-style and carried me the rest of the way. Only the truly athletic would want to torture themselves with stairs on a vacation.

And this was a vacation dammit. A much-needed one from my day-to-day life. It only occurred to me as we climbed the steps that I might not have escaped much given all the people I lived with accompanied me. We’d only changed locations.

But perhaps the change in scenery would make me a better mother and consort. If not, then at least I wouldn’t have to dig a hole to bury the bodies. I’d donate them to the sea.

I had to hope, though, that this seaside break wouldn’t result in murder or turn me into a veritable sea hag, although if I hit the right note when yelling, I did sound like a fishwife, according to Auric.

With comments like those, it was a wonder he lived.

When I reached the top of the bluff, a stiff breeze stroked my skin and lifted my hair. In it I could feel the sea’s musical call, but I pretended to be tone deaf as I took in the surroundings.

Not much had changed since my last visit as a child. The top of the bluff was windswept rock with a few sparse attempts at sea grass growing, the yellow fronds pushing forth from between cracks in the rocks. A smoothed path led from the stairs to a weathered, wooden deck. The gray planks only creaked a little as we stepped upon them. A few lounge chairs decorated the space, not that you could really tan in Hell. The ambient light we got in daytime illuminated Hell, but didn’t have the UV rays needed to change the pigment color of our skin. That simple fact was why Teivel could strut about with confidence, not fearing he’d suddenly turn into a sizzling side of beef.

Contrary to what some claimed, human flesh, even the vampire kind, did not taste like chicken.

The villa itself was constructed of shaped lava, stronger than concrete and able to withstand even the most vicious of storms that rolled in from the Darkling Sea. It rose two stories and had windows, big ones, encased within the solid black rock.

The patio doors, which ran over half the width of the house, opened at my touch, a keyless entry that recognized who I was. In Hell, mechanical devices didn’t always work as they should, especially in the inner rings. Ash constantly sifted down, the fine particles jamming mechanisms. But magic, which flowed abundantly in Hell, always worked, if you knew how to shape it and wield it.

We stepped from the deck into a wicker furniture nightmare. Whoever had originally decorated this place had a sick obsession with the stuff and then, to make matters worse, cushioned the woven shit with brightly flowered, garish cushions. It was enough to make a person’s eyes bleed.

“Welcome to vacation hell,” I announced as I flopped onto the settee. I should have probably warned my guys the stuff wasn’t too sturdy, but they realized that quickly when David dropped onto the cushion beside me and our combined weight sent it crashing to the floor.

“Shit, sorry,” my embarrassed kitty said while my sadistic daughter—who truly took after me—clapped her hands and laughed.

“Do it again!”

A good idea if it meant getting rid of the wicker, except the wicker wasn’t that easily gotten rid of.

David yanked me to my feet, and I didn’t have to look when he said, “What the fuck?”

I knew exactly which fuck he spoke of. Apparently, he’d just noted the indestructible nature of wicker. The couch we’d just broken sat whole once again, looking innocuous, daring us to sit on it.

Creepy stuff. My dad claimed it wasn’t him who put the spell on the furniture. My personal theory was the damned furniture was cursed. Even setting it on fire couldn’t destroy it.

I did have to admit, though, that my attempts to pulverize the wicker had provided hours of fun on previous visits. Don’t tell my father, though. He’d be devastated if he thought I enjoyed any part of our torturous family vacations.

“So what’s the plan?” I asked as I flopped again on the couch. “What kind of traps are we setting for the person pissing me off? Are we setting up mines on the beach? Conjuring a sand golem? Pulling the harpoon out of the storage shed?”

“You have a harpoon?” This from my still so delightfully innocent David.

I couldn’t help a roll of my eyes. “Duh. Everyone living by the sea does on account of the monsters.”

“Monsters?” Lucinda’s eyes brightened. “Can I have one?”

For once I wasn’t the one yelling, “no!” But I did roll my eyes when my precious darling burst into tears, forcing David and Auric to hasten to reassure her that she could get a new pet fish when we got home.

Suckers, yet I could understand their dilemma. I still remembered the tears my daughter shed when I wouldn’t let her keep the cute pink dragon my daddy gave her. I did compromise, though, by allowing it to stay in my dad’s stable by his palace. It was pink! Of course my baby girl had to have it. As to the fact that it was growing at a ridiculous rate and ate a few of my dad’s prized hellsteeds? Maybe daddy dear would think twice next time before giving his granddaughter an enormous carnivore as a pet.