bedeviled & beyond 05 - bedeviled & besmirched (2 page)

“Oh god, Dialle, yes, right there.” He slid the finger deep inside my body. “And there, oh yeah, that’s frunkin’ perfect.” Beneath my writhing buttocks I felt the long, impossibly hard ridge of his shaft. He was wearing his usual outfit of form-fitting, black, leather pants and filmy white shirt, unbuttoned halfway down his chest. I loved those shirts because nothing stood between me and his heated skin. I skimmed my hand over smooth, golden pecs and tweaked a small, brown nipple.

Sliding my hand down his hard torso, I slipped it across his flat belly and past the waistband of his leather pants. The fat head of his thick shaft was just under the band of soft leather. My fingers closed over it and pushed past the barrier of buttery leather to enclose it in my fist.

He groaned and scooted down in the seat to allow me better access. I happily matched the pace of his hand on my body, bringing a growl from deep in his throat as his pleasure built with mine.

Dialle’s finger increased its rhythm inside my channel and my muscles clenched around it, bathing his hand in warm cream. His mouth closed over my nipple, covering the stiff, black lace of my bra. Heat infused my tingling flesh as he bit down around the blush-colored skin that was barely visible through the lace.

Pain, sharp and delicious, shot through me and my heat level surged upward immediately. My back arched under a wave of pleasure. Dialle rubbed my throbbing clit with his thumb as he finger-frunked me with increasing speed and covered the tear-shaped mark on my throat with his hot mouth. Sucking my hickey hard, he sent arrows of delight spearing through me. My toes curled, my mind melted and my limbs stiffened as delicious release rolled over me, bringing a scream of pleasure from my throat. Heat infused my face and stars burst before my eyes as I went over. I murmured his name as his combined ministrations made my body quiver under one wave of pleasure after another.

Before my body stopped throbbing, Dialle was pulling away from me. His power tingled against my skin as he brought it forward. “I have to go.”

My mind was still muzzy with residual lust, my eyes lidded. I tried to grab his hand. “Wait, what? I need your help.”

He kissed me on the end of my nose. “I can’t stay. I have dignitaries from several dimensions meeting in my office in five minutes.”

Desperate, I reached toward his neck, intending to rub a finger over his new daemon hickey. A tiny spark of power pulsed into that hickey would send him into paroxysms of lust. He’d be helpless against it, as I was against the one he gave me.

Dialle grabbed my hand and something cold and dark entered his pretty black eyes. “Don’t!” And then he was gone.

I lay back on the leather seat, which still retained his incredible heat and scent. My body was all melty and soft, but my heart felt as if it had a small fracture in it, and my mind still crackled with problems I needed to solve.

Dialle had been like that since I’d given him the mark. He was really pissed and he was treating me like an obligation he had to fulfill. When my body craved sex, he gave it to me. Sometimes he took his own pleasure. Sometimes he didn’t. But he was always there and gone with minimal interaction.

It was the ultimate dichotomy. In the midst of blazing heat and fire he was freezing me out.

Sighing, I pushed myself upright and straightened my clothes. Looking out of the viewport, toward the building below, I saw a smaller green head peering out the window at me. As I watched, a second small head emerged. Both dragons turned their gazes upward, staring at the Knight with curious, red eyes. The dying sun sparked in the bright gazes and smoke puffed from their tiny snouts.

My heart sank. “Frunk me,” I murmured. “It’s a flippin’ nest. I can’t extinguish a bunch of babies.” I dropped my head into my hands and whimpered. I would have to find a way to move the dragons out without hurting any of them.

And me all alone in the world.

~SC~

“Are you frunkin’ crazy, Astra?”

I sipped my coffee and frowned. My guardian angel Flick wasn’t exactly known for having a wild streak, an unfortunate thing since he was forced to hang out with me a lot.

“Nope. Not crazy. I need to get that nest of greens out of that poor man’s building and back to Hell, or at the very least to Olympus.”

“Then why don’t you ask for Queen Zerphor’s help?”

“Because I’m all tapped out on favors from the black dragons. And the blacks are having some kind of conclave with the other dragon races this week. They’re trying to come to a meeting of the minds or something...so they can coexist better on Olympus.”

I knew this because Glynus, my dragon foster child—long story—was really mad at her parents for ruining the event for her. She was being introduced to her future mate Spencer, prince of the white dragons, at the conclave.

Queen Forvar of the whites had recently stepped in to rescue Queen Zerphor and her mate from Devil King Nerul, creating an expectation of recompense between the two royal clans.

The white queen had proposed a match between Glynus and her son as payment for her help. Queen Zerphor had readily agreed. The match would be a good one for Glynus and would tie the two races inexorably together, forming a powerful alliance in the dragon world.

Unfortunately Glynus didn’t agree. To put it mildly, something I’m not known to do, Glynus wasn’t interested in finding a mate.

In fact, her reaction to the news had just about set my ears on fire.

Flick shook his head, sending longish, stringy strands of mousy brown hair in a swing around his head. He appeared to be growing it out. I squinted, were those strands of hair on his chin?

“Are you growing a goatee?”

Flick blushed and turned away. He took several choppy steps toward my office window and stood there, his hands fluttering from his waist to his hips, and then crossing over his narrow chest. He was very nervous about something.

An impossible thought took root in my beady little brain and I couldn’t stop it from sprouting into full blown realization, despite the horrendously ugly nature of the thought. “Oh good Him, Flick! You have a girlfriend!”

Flick nearly passed out on the spot. He turned nondescript brown eyes on me and they were filled with a plea. He didn’t want me to tease him.

Too bad I was part devil, and with my Settling roaring down on me, possibly the larger part devilish. My lips spread in a grin. “Flick, after five hundred years you’re finally having sex.”

His knees buckled and he landed in my chair. The usually pasty color of his complexion worsened to the point where it was hard to tell where his angelic robes stopped and his skin began.

I laughed outright. “I’m shocked, Flick, appalled actually, now that my traitorous mind is painting a picture of you doing it with some...girl. Let me guess, she’s small and mousy and pale...just like you?”

He frowned. “I’m not going to help you extract the nest of dragons, Astra.”

I frowned right back. “You’re my guardian angel, Flick. It’s your job to keep me safe. If you’re sitting comfortably on your cloud while I tackle those dragons all by myself and I get eaten you’re gonna get fired.”

He shook his head, leaning back in my chair like he owned the place and dropping his size nine narrows onto the top of my desk.

Throwing a significant glance toward the sneaker-clad feet, I cocked an eyebrow at him. It appeared Flick was stiffening a bit of spine under all those flowing robes.

“There’s a special clause in your contract. Since you live such a dangerous life and you’re so bullheaded, your guardian isn’t strictly responsible for keeping you alive. I’m only obligated to give it my best shot.”

“And sitting on your lily-white ass while I tackle an entire nest of dragons by myself is giving it your best shot?”

He looked slightly uncomfortable but stuck his smallish, sparsely haired chin in the air and stood up nonetheless. “Yes. I’ve told you that you shouldn’t do it. If you do, you’re on your own.”

He started to shimmer away.

“I’ll just see if my aunt Myra agrees with you!” I shouted before he was completely gone.

Flick disappeared with a pop and I threw my mug at the spot where he’d been standing. Luckily the coffee I’d been drinking was gone and I missed the window, only breaking the mug.

“Shit.” Now what was I gonna do? Who could I call for help? I dropped into my chair and swiveled it so I could look out the window. It was my thinkin’ position. Several moments later, the only thing I was thinkin’ was that I was screwed.

The televisual on my desk bleeped and my sister Darma’s face blinked into view.

“Astra!” Her voice, as usual, made all the blood in my body run for cover. There was a mass exodus of fluids to the back of my body, where my internal organs and skin could protect it.

Before I could stop myself, I rolled my eyes. Ever since she broke up with Dialle’s brother Torre, my bossy sister had been all up in my grill about everything.

Her usual scowl deepened a couple of degrees. “I saw that.”

I sighed. “Whatever. What do you want, Darma?”

“There’s no need to be rude.”

“Actually, there’s a very good need. I have a problem and I can’t find a solution. You’re interrupting me with most likely a problem of your own. I’m full up on problems and in the market for some solutions.”

“What’s the problem?”

I stood up to pace. “You wouldn’t be interested.”

“Try me. You might be surprised.”

I snorted. Like Darma would want to help me oust a bunch of squatting dragons. “Not a chance.”

“Astra!”

Just to get rid of her I told her what I needed.

She thought about it for a few minutes and then nodded. “Okay. I’ll help.”

I did my best imitation of Flick being discovered with a penis and balls and fell into my chair. “You’ll what?”

“I’ll help you with your dragon problem.”

“But you’ll have to use your powers.”

“I know. I’m okay with that.”

“Good Him,” I murmured. Now what was I gonna do?

~SC~

I scanned a look down my sister’s leather-clad form, feeling the need to roll my eyes completely back into my head. The pants were skin tight and the stretchy shirt under her black leather jacket was low cut, showing significant cleavage. On her size-nine feet, which used to be firmly settled on terra firma, were a truly kickin’ pair of butter-soft, black leather boots.

The boots kept me from scoffing outwardly. I lusted after those boots. If only her feet weren’t bigger than mine...

“Are you sure about this, Darma?”

She cast a clear, blue gaze filled with something that looked a lot like excitement at me. Her pretty, coral-colored lips pursed. “What’s your problem, Astra? I thought you wanted help.”

“I do. But this is going to be dangerous and will require that you use your powers. I didn’t think you ever wanted to use your powers again.”

She shrugged, examining a perfectly manicured and polished middle finger. I chose to believe she wasn’t flipping me a virtual bird in her mind. “Things change.”

Scanning her pretty, blonde hair, which, in the past she’d always curled and coiffed to within an inch of its life, I knew she was right. Darma had pulled it back into a high, tight ponytail. Not a feature-softening curl in sight. Instead, wispy bangs touched her ash-blonde eyebrows, where not a single hair had previously cluttered up her unlined brow.

A roar sounded from the building and I turned to find a massive head with beady, red eyes glaring at us from the largest window. As I met the female’s gaze, the huge maw opened and her nostrils flared. I barely had time to pull my power forward in a shield before she sent a spray of metal-melting fire in our direction.

Darma continued to examine her fingernails. When the stream of fire stopped, Darma lifted a hand and shot a thick beam of stark-white power toward the window.

The dragon retreated back inside with a yip of alarm.

“Did I mention that we need to take them alive, Darma?”

She shrugged. “Just because we aren’t killing her doesn’t mean we should allow her to disrespect us.”

Alrighty then.

“You girls all right?”

I turned and waved. The owner of the building was standing a few dozen yards away, armed with a laser pistol and covered in fireproof fabric. He’d cut a hole in the center of a long piece of the stuff and had stuck his head through it, like a Martian poncho. He wore a black dome with a visor over his head. It looked like an air cycle helmet.

Arch Magnus had made it very clear since the moment he met me that he didn’t think I could handle the job. Standing five foot and not much tall, with shoulder length auburn hair that curled prettily at the ends whether I wanted it to or not, sizeable boobs and an attractive face, I got that a lot from my male clients. If only I could kick his ass to show him I was up for the job. But kicking your clients’ asses, even when they’re complete jerks, is generally bad for business.

“I can go in with y’all if you want. I’m armed to the teeth and very muscular under this here fireproof fabric.”

“If muscle is spelled f-a-t,” I murmured. I took a deep breath, ignoring him. “Are you ready?”

Darma didn’t respond, she just started walking toward the building, looking for all the world like Lara Croft, Tomb Raider from oldies night at the holographic films. I shook my head and followed.

The stench of massive reptile thickened the air as we drew near. From my observations I figured there were at least four of them in the building. The female and three babies.

“Do you remember the plan?”

Darma slanted me a look. “You mean we’re not going with the usual plan of kicking ass, blowing shit up and praying?”

I shrugged. “Unfortunately not. This one calls for a bit more finesse. If we want to take them alive we’re gonna have to knock the female out without killing her. The babies will go along with whatever we do at that point.”

“What are we doing at that point?”

“That part of the plan is fuzzy. I’ll let you know when I figure it out.”

“There’s no way you and I will be able to space shift them to Hell by ourselves.”

I tried to ignore her but, per usual, she wouldn’t go away.