Devil Take Me (5 page)

“Yes,” she breathed, her lips parted and eyes glazed as she looked down to where they were prepared to join. Slowly, clenching his jaw for control, Namtar lowered her down over the thick head of his cock. He was large, much larger than men of this modern Earth, but he knew he would bring her only pleasure if he eased into her slowly.

But it seemed his lover had other ideas.

“No, not like that,” she said, bringing her hands to where he gripped her and prying at his fingers. “Like this.” With those words she flung away his hands and dropped her hips. Namtar cried out as he found himself abruptly buried to his tightened sac in her heat. She was so tight, so tight and wet, and he knew this mating was never going to last as long as he had hoped. She was too much woman for a man who had been so long without a true treasure in his bed.

“Annie, you shatter me,” he whispered against her lips, letting his hands play down her back as she became accustomed to his size and girth.

“I’ve never felt like this, never,” she whispered back, her eyes hauntingly vulnerable for a moment before she started to move. With agonizing slowness she rode his cock, sheathing him again and again in the liquid silk of her body. Namtar waited for her to find the rhythm of her pleasure before he lifted to meet her thrusts with his own.

Annie made a hungry, needy sound at the back of her throat as his pelvis shifted, rubbing against her nub and Namtar felt her channel start to tighten. Slowly, he guided her hips into even deeper contact with his body as he captured one of her nipples in his mouth and sucked—hard.

She screamed and arched up over him as she came, her sweet, tight heat becoming even tighter as the waves of ecstasy swept over her. That tightness was the last bit of erotic stimulation Namtar could bear and with a cry of his own he began to shoot himself into her depths. His cock pulsed violently with the ferocity of his release even as the walls that contained his magic crumbled all around him.

“Annie,” he called her name and clung to her as their bodies, their auras, vibrated against each other, a part of him already grieving her loss as he felt his power travel into his lover. Now she would begin to waste, to die, to abandon the Earthly plane forever.

“God, yes, oh God,” she screamed as the power entered her. But it wasn’t in pain as all the others had done before her. Instead, his magic seemed to actually trigger another wave of pleasure. Gasping for breath, unable to believe his own eyes, he watched as her beautiful face was once again consumed by passion.

“Goddess.” The word wrung itself from his throat as her pussy pulsed around him, gripping him, possessing him. She quickly coaxed his cock back to a state of full arousal before something within her, unbelievably, pushed his magic back into his own body.

Namtar groaned and his spine bowed, hips bucking, lifting Annie up into the air. He was filled with that strange mortal energy which had always come to him after the death magic started to work in the human woman he had bedded. But this time, the heat itching beneath his skin also itched between his legs. He was filled with a sudden, savage lust unlike any he had ever known, and knew his control was a thing of the past.

With a growl of pure savage desire, he pulled Annie from where she still arched above him and rolled her beneath him. She moaned as her breasts and stomach pressed against the rough fabric of his robe and the harder stone beneath, but whatever discomfort she might feel didn’t stop her from spreading her legs and tilting her hips into the air. The primitive way she presented her pussy for him made Namtar even wilder. Digging his fingers into the soft flesh of her hips, he shoved his aching cock into her depths with one long thrust.

She cried out as he began to take her with anything but gentleness. He told himself he should be careful not to hurt her, but he couldn’t seem to stop, to slow the fierce pounding rhythm he’d taken up between her legs. He was mad with the need to fuck, to claim her, to make her his in a way that would leave no doubt her pussy belonged to him and no other. The sound of flesh slamming against flesh filled the cave, loud enough that he couldn’t hear Annie the first time she spoke. It was only when she repeated her command that her voice penetrated the wild lust fogging his mind, pounding through his head louder than the blood through his veins.

“Bite me, now, bite me,” she screamed.

And he did. Without thinking twice he leaned over and took the nape of her neck in his teeth, holding her with his mouth in that primitive way while the rhythm of his thrusts grew impossibly faster, harder, deeper. She came then, with a gush of liquid heat between her legs that coated his cock and wrung his own release from him with a scream and a sob and a soul deep shudder.

Several minutes later, Namtar came back into his body, realizing Annie was still pinned beneath him. She laughed softly, a joyful sound that did nothing to quiet the unease in his heart. He was treading strange and unfamiliar waters with this woman. A mortal had bested him in bed, and in magic. Now the only thing left to do was for him to offer her the chance to return to the Underworld with him, because for some strange reason he couldn’t imagine being without her.

You will imagine it! To steal her body would have been bad enough, to steal her soul is a crime against the—

Namtar shoved the voice of reason from his mind. To steal a soul was a sacrilege, no matter which human he chose. He’d already made that choice. He was going to find a willing sacrifice, it might as well be Annie, his Annie. For the first time in centuries, Namtar longed to possess a woman for his own, to have this carnal pleasure at his fingertips any time he chose. It was a small miracle, that, and not one he would abandon lightly.

Annie would be his, one way or another. Now he simply had to find a way to convince her.

“Come upstairs with me, spend the night.” Her words were muffled, her mouth still pressed against his robe, but he understood her perfectly.

“There is nothing could keep me from it.” Namtar smiled and kissed the curve of her neck. Convincing might be easier than he thought, and there was no doubt it would a pleasure. A wonderful, wicked pleasure he would enjoy to the fullest.

Why had she slept so late? Something must have happened, something awful, and wonderful, and—

Annie bolted upright in bed, clutching the covers to her bare breasts. She was naked. When was the last time she’d slept naked? Had she ever slept naked?

Shit! Roger, and the police, and the guy in the garage, and…shit!

A sudden crash from the kitchen confirmed last night hadn’t been a dream. She had in fact invited a total stranger—a total stranger whom she had pounced like a wild animal in her garage—to spend the night with her.

“Hello? Um…” God, she didn’t even know his name! What had she done?

Another crash and a curse in a foreign language she couldn’t place followed her words. What was the guy doing in there?

“Hello? Are you all right?”

“I fear I am not,” he called from the kitchen before yet another crash broke the silence of the suburban afternoon.

Heart beating fast in her throat, Annie scrambled from bed, grabbing her robe from the back of the bathroom door and throwing it around herself as she ran down the hall. She had no idea how he could have hurt himself inside the condo, but he sounded in pain. For some reason that troubled her—greatly. She didn’t want her dark, mystery lover to experience pain…unless it was caused by her fingernails on his back or her teeth digging into his muscled shoulders or—

Her thoughts brought scalding heat to her face. She was blushing crimson by the time she darted into the kitchen.

“What are you…” Annie trailed off, unable to make sense of the pots and pans and various kitchen utensils strewn about the entire floor. “Um, do you want some breakfast?”

“Your cabinets are in quite a state of disarray.” He was clearly frustrated, but his words held no censure. A part of Annie couldn’t help but imagine how Roger would have said those same words. What would have been sneered in a caustic, critical tone by her former fiancé was simply an observation in the mouth of this man. The mess in her cabinets was simply a mess, not a personal condemnation of Annie herself. Not a reason to find her unlovable.

She hadn’t thought about doing anything so normal or homey as having breakfast with her mystery man. But he looked so adorably confused—and gorgeous—standing there with his hands on his hips and one of her white bath towels around his waist, that the offer spilled out of her mouth before she could think better of it.

“Are you hungry?”

“I am. I was searching for sustenance before I was—”

“I haven’t had time to organize the cooking things the way I would like,” Annie said, interrupting what she sensed would be another comment on her disaster area of a kitchen. She leaned down and plucked her cast iron frying pan from the floor. “But there is a strange sort of order in here, to me anyway. Why don’t you go sit on the couch and turn on the T.V. I can fix us up some eggs and—”

“There isn’t time to prepare a meal, not here.” He plucked the pan from her grasp and gripped the handle in his large hand, wielding it like a giant flyswatter as he stalked past her into the combination living room-dining room. “The villain will be back, he or his minions. His aura was quite black. He means you harm, of that I am certain and I will not have it. Unless you have other weapons I have not yet discovered, I would advise we vacate the property until such time as I have—”

“There was someone here?” Annie asked, hands coming to claw at the close of her robe.

“Yes. He summoned a magic bell from the air, then let himself into the dwelling with a key such as the one you used last night.” He stalked to the window by the door and peered out onto the street, grunting in satisfaction before turning away. “I frightened him away, but he will return. His will to do ill is too strong for him to do otherwise.”

Oh God, he couldn’t mean…not Roger. When he hadn’t shown up last night, Annie had assumed he’d gotten the message and was giving her the space she needed. But if he’d been here, if he’d seen…

“What’s your name?”

“I am Namtar. I would give you my family name as well, but it is very difficult for mortals of this time to pronounce.”

“Mortals of this…right.” He was a nutcase. She shouldn’t be surprised really. What did she expect from a guy who was lurking in her garage wearing a robe straight out of Star Wars? He’d probably start talking about using the force to frighten Roger away any second.

“These are not the droids you’re looking for,” Annie muttered as she spun in a nervous circle, half wanting to go grab a pan for herself. It seemed like a good idea to be armed with something if Roger knew she’d had another man in her bed the very night she’d called off their engagement.

“I’m sorry? What are these droids?” Namtar asked from the coat closet where he was rummaging about, presumably looking for other “weapons” to supplement his cast iron frying pan.

“Nothing, never mind. Just thinking out loud.” Annie hurried to the window, relieved to see the street leading to her door deserted and the guest parking spaces near the pool empty. No matter what Roger was driving, he wasn’t here now. That gave her time, time to—God, time to do what?

“The man at the door, what did he look like?” Annie asked, though she knew it was futile to hope it was anyone but Roger. No one else had a key to the condo, not even one of his brothers.

“Dark brown hair, blue eyes and a nose which listed slightly to the right, as if it had been broken and not set properly. He was several inches shorter than myself and thin, though soft of flesh. He is not a warrior and fled when I gave my battle cry.”

Damn, that was Roger all right. No doubt about it. How the hell she’d slept through the doorbell and the “battle cry”, however, was still a mystery.

“We must leave this dwelling, gather your things,” Namtar said, laying a soft hand on her shoulder. An electric shock of awareness coursed through her body in response, despite her certainty that Namtar was nuttier than the proverbial fruitcake.

But why wouldn’t her body respond to his touch? The things they’d done to each other last night, in the garage, and later in her bed, had been indescribable. He’d fucked her until she couldn’t remember her name, until every hurt, every worry was banished in the waves of pleasure he’d conjured from deep within her body and soul. She’d never felt so alive, so free, so…lucky.

She’d been rocked to the core by the best sex of her life just when she’d been feeling she’d never be loved again. What were the chances of that happening? Especially to her? Sure, Namtar didn’t really love her, but he’d made her feel treasured, cared for, and more desirable than any man ever had. He hadn’t tried to murder her in her sleep, and assuming he didn’t turn into a psycho stalker who left dead animals on her porch, Namtar was looking a whole lot like the luckiest thing that had ever happened to her.

A little sad, but that didn’t make her any less appreciative of what they’d shared.

By the time they’d succumbed to sleep early in the morning, Annie had been seeing lights dancing through the air above her bed, golden flashes of fire swirling around her and Namtar as they lay entwined in the tangled sheets. She’d never been so sated, so thoroughly exhausted by making love.

Still, she’d tried to stay awake, to memorize every line of his strikingly handsome face, just in case he was gone in the morning. But no, he was still here, and dammit if he didn’t look even more gorgeous by the light of day. The sunlight streaming in through the small window near the front door highlighted his shoulder length brown hair and piercing dark eyes, not to mention every perfect inch of his dark olive skin.

Every inch…including those between his legs, those four or five inches of flaccid flesh she knew could grow to a thick, pulsing ten inches of pure pleasure-giving male.

“Your towel, it…um.” Her eyes drifted to the floor, where the bath towel had fallen.

“It is too small, and has been slipping from my hips all morning.” His frustrated tone gave way to a small chuckle as he observed her obvious discomfort. “It troubles you to see me naked? You most certainly had little concern with our—”

“Right. I’m sorry, I’m just worried about Roger. The villain.” Annie blushed furiously and averted her eyes as the organ she’d been ogling began to thicken under her gaze. “Maybe you should get some clothes on.”

“It would seem wise if we are to move about in the mortal world,” Namtar said, his eyes alight with humor. Did crazy people find things funny? Hell if she knew, but the look seemed out of place for some reason. That spark of humor and the clear intelligence in his eyes made Annie wonder, just for a moment, if he was as mad as he seemed.

The moment passed as soon as he opened his mouth again.

“Perhaps you have something I could wear,” Namtar continued. “Judging from the villain’s clothing, my robe is not in accordance with current fashion. Regardless, it is filthy from the floor of the cave and reeks of poison fluids.”

“The floor of the cave. You mean the garage, right?” Annie squeezed her eyes shut, forcing away the last bit of her lust. The time for thinking with her eager pussy had passed. It was time to start using her brain and get this guy out of here ASAP. “I think the villain’s clothes will be too small for you, but maybe you could make do with a T-shirt and a pair of his old sweatpants. They’ll stretch at least.”

“You have his clothing here.” Namtar’s expression darkened dramatically and Annie felt a brief flash of fear skitter along her skin. “He is your lover? Your husband?”

“No. Well, not anymore,” Annie said, grateful when his stormy look faded and Namtar grabbed his towel and wrapped it around his waist. “He was my fiancé. We were going to be married, but… I called it off.”

“A wise decision. He never loved you, not with a pure heart.”

Annie winced at the pain his words caused, tears stinging the back of her eyes. A wave of anger followed closely on the tail end of the pain. How dare he! She was done with men like this, men who treated her like something they scraped off their shoe. Annie was getting ready to tell her latest asshole he could get the hell out of her house and she didn’t care if he was wearing nothing but a bath towel, when Namtar spoke again.

“The way he spoke of you to me, a complete stranger, was cruel, contemptuous. I have no doubt he intends to do you harm. If he had ever loved you the way you deserved, his aura would not be so thick with hate.” Namtar reached out and twined one of her curls around his finger, his expression as tender as any she had ever seen on a man’s face.

It took her breath away and intensified the aching in her chest. Roger had never looked at her with one tenth the compassion of this total stranger. She’d been a fool, a pathetic, needy fool to agree to marry him.

You deserved better.

Annie sucked in a deep breath and let it out slowly, not sure which was more shocking—the thought itself or that this was the first time she’d had enough pride in herself to think it. Either way, her inner voice was right. She did deserve better, a hell of a lot better.

“Are you all right?” Namtar asked, moving his hand to cup her cheek.

“Yes. I’m fine.”

“Yes, you are. You are too fine a woman for him, for many men.” Namtar let his thumb trail over her bottom lip, sending a sizzle of awareness down between her legs.

Annie looked up, way up, into his face, tempted to pull him down for a kiss—despite her no-doubt morningish breath—when she saw the sadness in his eyes. It looked as if Namtar might be including himself as one of the many. Strange, considering he had seemingly appointed himself her protector, but a sign she would be stupid to ignore.

“Do you still want some clothes?” she asked, stepping back, distancing herself from the man in front of her. This wasn’t the time to think of kisses, let alone whether or not Namtar considered her “too fine” for him or not. She needed to attend to the business of getting one man out of her life before she even considered taking on another.

“Yes, I will wear the sweating pants.”

“Sweatpants,” Annie corrected, her logical mind sending up an alarm once more. No matter how sexy he was or how sweet he seemed, there was something off about Namtar that couldn’t be explained away by the exotic accent.

“Yes, of course. They will do until we can acquire proper clothing.”

“I’m sorry, Namtar, but we are not going to acquire anything.” Her voice was soft, but firm, and Annie hoped he would get the message.

She wasn’t up for a shopping excursion this morning, definitely not accompanied by a giant of a man in too-tight sweatpants. She could only imagine what would happen if she was spotted by someone she knew in the community. Explaining why it was no longer Roger by her side was not something she was ready for after the past hellish day and a half.

“You’re right, you will have to acquire them. I have none of what passes for money here, but I will repay you fourfold once we reach—”

“You don’t understand. I’m not going anywhere with you. I’m not sure I’m going anywhere at all. I might stay in the house all day,” Annie said, hands on her hips, forcing herself to sound tough.

Namtar might be enormous, but he wasn’t violent—unless you counted his urge to arm himself against Roger. Having been on the receiving end of Roger’s temper, she realized that was quite natural. He wasn’t going to hurt her, even when she made it clear their one night stand, or first date, or whatever it had been, was over.