Alistair’s Bed (7 page)

She stood up, a toothbrush still encased in some sort of clear wrapping in one hand and a clean wash cloth in the other. “What? Wealthy? Not really. Why?” She handed him the items and gave him a puzzled look.

“It’s hard to imagine everyone lives this way now. Things have changed so much. When I was last on this plane only someone of great wealth could have afforded such luxury.” He gestured around them.

“You’ll get used to it.” She murmured and kissed his cheek tenderly. “I’ll help you.”

After she had gone he could still hear her out in the bedroom, clearing away the remains of the meal she had cooked for him. As he washed his face he let his fingers linger where she had kissed his cheek, and he wondered why a woman of Keri’s sweet nature and gentle beauty remained alone in the world.

He examined the shower but opted to postpone using it until he could convince Keri to join him. Grinning at the image of the two of them entangled under a stream of hot water, he stepped back into the bedroom and blinked at the changes she’d wrought in a short time.

Keri gestured for him to join her by the bed. “It’s not exactly top of the line technology, but I’ve brought the television and DVD player in here, and I’m just going to set up my laptop in a moment. Fortunately I convinced my grandmother to join the modern world a few years ago, so we have Internet access and even wifi.”

Alistair felt as though Keri were speaking in a strange new language. “Wifi? DVD? You are speaking in riddles woman. What is all this?”

She beamed at him, “This is how I am going to show you the world. Now you go get comfy on the bed and I’ll be able to show you what I mean in just a minute.”

Alistair sprawled out on the bed, a spike of lust spearing through him as she bent over to plug in the laptop cabling, giving him a view of her sweetly curved ass.

“There are so many things I could be exploring while lying on this bed. Are you sure you want to start with this Internet contraption?”

She ignored his suggestion with a laugh and continued fiddling with cables until a chirp and a flashing light made her crow with success. She carried the laptop back to the bed and set it down between them. “If we don’t stick to the plan now, I suspect it will be hours before we remember what the plan even was.”

“Well that is likely true.” He idly ran a hand down the curve of her hip, but his eyes were already on the laptop screen. “So what is this little wonder?”

Keri took his hand and placed it over the external mouse, showing him how to move the cursor, her fingers lying atop his as she taught him the basic elements of computer navigation. At first he struggled, not with the concept, but with the shifts in language and spelling since last he’d attempted to read on this plane.

Soon though, he had mastered enough to grasp the gist of the information presented to him, a veritable flood of history, politics, war and advancement that spanned his entire absence. Keri stayed at his side for the next two hours, her soft voice coaching him through the more difficult passages, helping him to make sense of what he was seeing, keeping him grounded when he felt overwhelmed by it all.

When his eyes glazed over from his efforts to focus she shut down the laptop and turned on the television. Fascinated, he played with the remote, flipping channels and altering the volume over and over again. “That is why men don’t get control of the remote control.” She finally announced, laughing as she retrieved the device from his hand. “You’re like a little boy in a candy shop! Just one show at a time Alistair or you’ll make us both dizzy.”

She selected a channel that specialized in science and discovery programs and left it playing, the volume quiet enough they could converse.

He pointed to the screen, where a narrator was describing the processing of some sort of frozen meals on a massive scale. “Your people have made great advancements while I was away, and yet you are still much as you were. I would never have imagined it.”

“If you’re tired of my world, you could tell me about yours. I want to know what it’s like.”

He flipped the television off and drew Keri into his arms, laying them both back into the pillows. One arm curled around her, holding her close while the other smoothed through her hair, coaxing her head to come down on his chest.

When her body was fitted to his he felt a wave of contentment wash over him.

“We have many of the same things you do here, trees and lakes, mountains and seas that seem to go on forever. But there are many differences as well. The greatest difference though, is what you would call magic. In Daemos, magic is part of everyday life, we are born to it. It is incorporated into our homes and cities; the land itself resonates with it. Here there are only a few places were the magic seeps through, and only those with daemonic blood can wield it.” He felt her stir against him, her arm slipping over his stomach to hold him.

“Would you take me there someday? When we find a way to free you?”

Alistair sighed, “I wish I could, but no one has found a way to bring your race through the veil that divides the planes. Only my kind and some of the known cambions can manage it. Attempting to shift planes is fatal to humans, it would kill you, beautiful girl.”

“I see. I would have liked to see your world, but I guess that’s just not to be.” She lifted her head to look at him. “Is there a succubus waiting for you back there? Someone special?”

“You mean a mate?” He blinked, surprised at her question. “No, I hadn’t taken a mate. I was still too young to have really considered it. If I hadn’t been trapped here, I may have by now but there was no woman I had found to capture my attention that way. And incubi do not mate with succubi; it’s an almost impossible pairing.”

Keri’s brow furrowed. “Impossible? I would think it would be ideal. Both of you need the same thing to survive. Why doesn’t it work?”

“If I were to bed a succubus, she would be feeding off of my pleasure while I fed off hers, but the longer it went on, the more we would drain from each other. It tends to end in two very exhausted daemons who have expended more energy than they gained.” Alistair grinned at her. “When we are first learning to control our powers such pairings are actually encouraged, mostly because they keep young sex daemons too tired to molest the rest of the population. Such pairings are also always sterile, so if we wish to have children, we need to find mates outside our own daemon type.”

“So one of your parents wasn’t...what you are?”

“My father is an incubus, as I am. My mother is what you would call an angel. She feeds on feelings of love.”

“Your mother is an
angel
? How does that even work?”

He laughed at her puzzled expression, burying his hand in her hair and tugging her head back for a kiss before answering her question. “Remember I told you, demons and angels are not the way you think of them. We are all daemons, a single race with many types. The world doesn’t end if what you call a demon and an angel share a bed, though I will confess there were those in both their Houses who were less than pleased about it.

My parents have been together for many centuries, but there are still those who do not approve of their mating. They have fights that could set the sky afire sometimes, but they have always found a way to cope with their differences.

I have half siblings on both sides from previous pairings, brothers and sisters far older than I am. Near immortality makes a lifelong commitment a far greater challenge than for you mortals, so there are few among my kind who makes the choice to bind their souls to each other in a permanent mating. My parents chose to do so before I was born. They will be bound until death finds them, or time ends.”

“They bound their souls? What does that mean?”

He answered by lifting her small hand and threading their fingers together, closing his hand around hers to lock them together. “It is more than a temporary pairing; it means that their two souls are linked together so tightly that nothing can part them. They can share everything they are with each other. There can be no secrets, no lies. And if one of them should be killed, the other will follow them into death, they cannot exist without each other.”

Her fingers tightened around his and she sighed softly. “It sounds amazing, and terrifying at the same time. Do you think you’d want to be bound that way? Or will you go back to the way it was before you were caught?”

“It is very rare for my daemon type to bind their soul to another. Temporary matings do happen, but they usually last only a century or two. I admire what my parents have, but I’ve never thought about it for myself. If my father is to be believed though, the sex is so amazing it makes up for the lack of variety.”

Keri’s eyes widened and she blushed bright pink. “Your father actually said that?”

“He did. He’s a very outspoken fellow; it comes with his age and power. There are few who would argue with him, save for my mother. She is completely unimpressed by his power or his temper. Watching them together is a joy.”

“I wish I had such memories of my family. I never knew my mother, and my father I don’t really remember at all. He died in a car accident when I was young.

His mother, my Gran raised me here in this house. I was always yearning to get away to the big city, to go live in Vancouver where things seemed so much more interesting.”

Keri laughed softly, her eyes closing as she snuggled closer to him. “It took me a long time to finally come home, but I always was a slow learner.”

She drifted off to sleep then, and Alistair cradled her close, letting her rest as he flipped on the television and let the information flow over him. He could feel the energy she had given him so freely surging through his body, rebuilding and revitalizing him.

He would let her sleep for now, but he could already sense his hunger for her body growing. Just thinking about her soft skin and the way she cried out his name in the thrall of her pleasure made his cock ache and his heart beat faster. She was as addictive as any drug. His gaze drifted over her sleeping form and he brushed a stray lock of hair from her cheek. He had to find a way to break the spells soon. The longer he spent with Keri, the harder it was going to be to leave her.

***

CHAPTER 6

When Keri woke up her thoughts were all in a confused tangle. It was bright and sunny outside and she wasn’t alone in bed. It took her a moment to shake loose the cobwebs of sleep and remember everything that had happened since yesterday. She turned her head and opened her eyes to find herself lost in a pair of golden brown eyes that stared down into hers.

“Hello beautiful,” Alistair greeted her with a smile just before his lips touched hers, sending sparks throughout her body.

“Now that’s the best way to be woken up, ever.” She kissed him back and laughed. “How long was I asleep?”

“Just an hour or so, you needed the rest.” His grin turned wicked as his fingers slid underneath her shirt to cup one breast. “I thought it best I let you sleep, so you could be ready for the rest of my plans for today.”

“And just what were those plans? My memory is a bit fuzzy on the details.” She teased him as she basked in the flames of desire that flared in his eyes.

“I intend to remove these clothes, carry you back outside and have you out there on the deck.” He pinched her nipple, making it harden beneath his fingers.

“And then when we’re all hot and tousled from that, I am going to take you again, up against the wall of that shower you showed me earlier.” Her skin flushed hot and she moaned softly in response to his words.

“Oh yes,
that
plan.” She wet her lips with the tip of her tongue and tried to remember to breathe. “I remember now.” Keri’s hands went to her jean’s zipper and started to undo them, only to feel Alistair’s hand release her breast and cover her hands, stopping her.

“I’ll do it.” He told her in a voice gone low and rough. He rolled off the bed and helped her up, standing her by the bed.

“Hands at your sides, no helping.” He instructed her, his hands smoothing her sleep jumbled waves of hair back from her face. Alistair moved to stand behind her, his lips brushing the nape of her neck as his hands slid down her sides to take hold of the bottom of her t-shirt. He removed it slowly, letting his fingers brush over her breasts as he drew it higher.

“Lift your arms,” he murmured near her ear. Keri complied, her heart racing as her arms reached over her head.

He tugged her shirt off and tossed it aside, drawing her hands back down to her sides before nuzzling his face into her hair. His hands came around to cup her breasts again and she could feel the hard ridge of his cock pressing against her back. He shifted his hips, rubbing along her body. Warm breath feathered against her skin and Keri mewled in pleasure, surprising herself.

“You’re enjoying this?” He asked as his lips brushed her throat.

“Mmhmm,” she almost purred her response as warmth and desire flooded her body.

His thumbs circled her nipples in concert, drawing another small moan from her lips. She arched her back, arching her generous curves into his hands and swaying her hips to rub up against his crotch.

Alistair’s mouth found her earlobe, sucking it into his mouth and nibbling on the edge. His fingers pinched her nipples lightly and then moved between them to undo the clasp of her bra. He brushed the straps down over her shoulders, releasing her breasts. “These are beautiful, if I had my way you would not bind them as you do.”

Keri laughed and glanced down at her chest. “If I didn’t, I’d bounce all over the place.”

“Exactly.” Alistair didn’t hide his amusement at their conversation. “I could watch these bounce for hours.” He ran his hands down her arms and over her stomach, stopping when he reached the tops of her jeans.

She let out a small gasp of breath as one hand slid lower, cupping her mound against his palm. Strong fingers pressed the seam of her jeans against her clit and he pressed his hips tighter against her back, pushing her up against his hand.

Keri shivered, her hands reaching back to grip his thighs and tug him closer. She’d never imagined how erotic being undressed could be. The few lovers she had, had always considered clothes an inconvenience to be dealt with as quickly as possible; preferably with the lights out to avoid any embarrassment on either side.