Her Incubus Master (The Children of Lilith) (14 page)

She was so cold now that she was shaking, her teeth
chattering. Andras' arms around her felt hot, as did the whisper of his breath
as he bent to speak to her. "We're nearly done, love," he assured
her. "Do you think you can manage one more climax?"

Katie looked at Amanda. Her friend's face was now flushed,
and her movements were almost like her usual energetic self.

"Yes, I think so," Katie whispered. "She
looks much better, doesn't she?"

His lips scorched a path down her throat. "You've saved
her life, love," he murmured. "Thank you."

Amanda leaned forward and kissed Katie lightly on her lips.
"Thank you, Katie. I can't begin to tell you how much this means to me. I
feel like a new person." Her mouth was warm now, and so were the hands
that rested briefly on Katie's shoulders, and skimmed down her arms.

"I have one more thing I'd like you to try,"
Amanda continued, getting to her feet. "I think you'll like it."

She left the room, and Andras continued to hold Katie, his
arms and chest wonderfully hot against her chilled skin. His kisses were gentle
and affectionate now, rather than demanding, and Katie stopped thinking and
simply let herself enjoy the feeling of being cared-for.

When Amanda returned, she was lugging a saddle mounted on what
looked like a half-height sawhorse. Katie saw that the seat was fitted with two
dildos, one long and thick and ridged, and the other one shorter and smoother
and relatively slender.

"Have you ever tried double penetration?" Amanda
asked. "No?" She shook her head with teasing disapproval.
"Andras, Andras, Andras, I'm disappointed in you."

His only reply was a mock growl.

Despite her cold and the waves of fatigue that made her arms
and legs feel too heavy to move, Katie laughed.

"Want to try it? You won't have to do anything—just
relax and the device will do all the work for you," Amanda coaxed.

"Sure," Katie said, eyeing the dildos dubiously.
"I'll give it a shot, but it doesn't look very, uh, comfortable."

"No," Amanda agreed, cheerfully, "but it
feels
extraordinary. The ride of your life, I guarantee it!"

So Katie found herself with her hands once more manacled and
pulled above her head, and straddling the saddle.

"Sink down on your knees, now, and take it as slowly as
you need to," ordered Amanda.

Andras played out the rope fastened to Katie's wrist-cuffs
as she lowered herself cautiously. She felt the thick tip of the first dildo
push against her, slick with lubricant, then Amanda was there, guiding and
arranging as Katie lowered herself onto the toys in small increments.

When she was fully seated, she rose up experimentally on her
knees, then sank down again slowly. Amanda had been right—it did feel
extraordinary to have each entrance so completely filled.

"All settled?" asked Andras.

Katie nodded. "It feels kind of nice, actually.
Different."

"Just wait until I turn it on!" warbled Amanda.

"On--?" Katie began to ask, with trepidation.

Then the dildos jerked to life inside of her, and her
question turned into a strangled cry of pleasure. For a few minutes, Amanda and
Andras just observed as Katie moaned and writhed in grip of the movement and
vibration inside of her, her hips spasming uncontrollably as both toys moved
independently, hitting sensitive nerve bundles.

"Status?" Andras ordered, at last.

It took Katie a few seconds to gather the wits to answer.
"Green. Oh, God, I hope you're going to let me come because I won't be
able to—God!"

Words broke down into a full-throated cry when Andras bent
to take one of her swollen nipples in his mouth. That was cue for Amanda to
join in.

As the toys worked tirelessly below, both of Katie's winged
playmates kissed her and expertly tormented her.

Someone reached down and began to stroke her clit.

Despite her exhaustion, Katie came hard, all the while being
kissed and fondled by her merciless lovers. She screamed and shook and tried to
squirm away from the relentless stimulation as waves of blinding pleasure
crashed over her, but held captive and doubly-impaled, there was no escape.

Her orgasm went on and on, the waves retreating temporarily,
only to return longer and harder.

At the last, Katie hung limply in her bonds, sobbing, as the
unyielding toys continued to work away inside her. She was so cold, she felt as
if her blood were freezing in her veins. Her bones hurt, as if she were
submerged in an ice water bath.

"Katie? Katie?" she heard Andras' voice. He
sounded a long way away. "Are you all right? Status?"

It took her a long time to remember what he was asking.
"Red," she whispered brokenly, hardly able to enunciate between her
sobs. "Please stop. Please...red."

Immediately, everything around her went quiet. She felt
completely relaxed, almost floating, as strong hands released her wrists, and
lifted her gently off the now-motionless dildos.

She didn't have the strength to do anything but shiver as
Andras held her.

"I'll fetch hot towels," Amanda said, and very
soon, Katie was enveloped in damp, welcome heat.

She was tenderly cleaned, then Katie found herself back in
Amanda's bed, still in Andras' arms, as Amanda held a mug of something hot and
salty to her lips. Katie sipped obediently, tasting chicken, and felt the soup
begin to warm her frozen innards.

Then she simply lay there while Andras and Amanda cuddled
her, a floating euphoria slowly replacing the cold. Warmed inside and out,
Katie's teeth gradually stopped chattering and began feeling very sleepy.

"Thank you, Katie," she heard Amanda say, just
before she drifted off. "You are the kind of human lover every Child of
Lilith dreams of."

"I'm very lucky," Andras said, and his kiss was
the last thing Katie remembered for a long time.

"Drake Whitelaw," said the delicious,
golden-haired young man, as he took Amanda's hand in a firm grip. "Pleased
to meet you."

She knew exactly who he was--the CEO of
Bellow!
Systems, and her fledgling marketing firm's biggest client.

It was Wednesday evening, three days after Katie had brought
Amanda back from the brink of death. The long-awaited
Bellow!
product
launch reception was in full swing at Carcassonne, the Michelin-starred French
restaurant that had been rented for tonight's event.

The beautiful corporate logo that Katie had helped to design
was everywhere—on the banners and balloons that decorated the elegant dining
room; printed on the menu cards, etched onto souvenir wineglasses.

Too bad that Katie herself wasn't here, but Andras had
reported that she was still too weak to venture out.

Amanda smiled at the young CEO, turning her charm up to high.

She knew she looked good. Her clothes, makeup, and hairstyle
for tonight's event had been painstakingly crafted using the latest fashion
magazines as guides.

She wore a very elegant but very sexy designer cocktail
dress, a glamour concealing the slits that accommodated her wings. Her diamond
earrings and choker were genuine, purchased in 1790's London from a French
aristocrat who had fled the revolution with a chest of jewels. In this time and
place, though, they passed for expensive costume jewelry.

She was intrigued by Whitelaw. Not just because of his
wealth and position, but because his aura was the strongest and brightest she
had seen in a long time, eclipsing even Katie's radiance.

There was something striking about it, a vivid green
radiance that she only seen a few times before, and which signaled that he had
a strong potential as a magic-user. Not a skill he would have been encouraged
to develop in this age of science and reason, she thought, but perhaps it
accounted for some of his extraordinary success at such a young age.

"And it's really nice to meet you in person at last,
after all those conference calls," she said, sincerely, and was pleased to
see the slightest flush on those tanned cheeks.

"I couldn't agree more." His striking pale-blue
eyes crinkled at the corners. He did not let go of her hand. "I'm sorry we
didn't meet sooner—it would have been more fun to hold those meetings over lunch
or dinner."

"Maybe for our next project," Amanda said
smoothly. Her pulse accelerated and she began to allow herself to hope that
maybe...

The signs were hopeful. He was showing every sign of a very
unprofessional interest in her, and she ached to taste him, to see if he was
indeed a candidate for
philtatos
.

"Look," he said abruptly. "I've done the
meet-and-greet with everyone else here, so, would you like to dance with
me?"

"I'd love to," said Amanda, and slipped her bare
arm through his.

* * *

Just after midnight, Amanda found herself pressed up against
the wall just inside Drake Whitelaw's front door, her legs wrapped tight around
his waist, joyfully impaled on his needy phallus.

After several hours of a carefully-managed seduction on her
part, flirting and dancing and very delicately using her powers to ignite his
attraction into a slow burn, Drake had pulled her to one side as the product
launch party was breaking up, and invited her back to his place for drinks.

They had kissed in the taxi, kissed and groped like
adolescents in the elevator leading up to his penthouse apartment on the thirtieth
floor, and continued their antics in the hallway as he tried several times to
unlock his door. They barely made it inside before he unzipped his dress pants,
fumbled on a condom, and took her with frantic haste.

She was ready—more than ready--for him, and gloried in the
fierce desire that gripped them both as he pushed into her slick flesh and
began to move. He kissed her hard as he took her, and she returned his kiss
with equal enthusiasm.

"I'm sorry," he said, when he had shuddered and
gasped his completion. "I mean, I wanted to—but not like this."

She smiled and kissed him. "I loved every minute of it.
And I do hope that this isn't the end of our evening."

It wasn't.

They made it as far as his cavernous living room before
Amanda found herself bent over the back of a low black sofa. Her nose was filled
with rich scent of expensive leather as he pulled up her dress, kicked her legs
apart, and took possession of her once again. His fingers dug into her hips
with pleasing enthusiasm, and he gasped out compliments as he thrust feverishly
into her.

Later, she knelt at the entrance to his bedroom, and took
him into her mouth, teasing him back to hardness. Judging his reactions
carefully, she pulled away before he could finish.

"I was actually looking forward to trying out your
bed," she said coyly, in response to his frustrated expression.

He laughed, and to her pleased surprise, easily lifted her
in his arms before carrying her inside and returning the oral favor with skill
and enthusiasm. When she climaxed, surrounded by the warm mouth and musky scent
of a healthy young man, it was good, so very good.

He asked her to stay the night.

For the first time in a very long time, Amanda found herself
hopeful.

* * *

At first, Katie just slept.

Afterwards, she had vague memories of waking at intervals to
eat, of being guided stumbling to the bathroom, then returning to bed to sleep
some more.

She slept, and dreamed.

They were pleasant dreams, for the most part, filled with
the sense of being loved. Gradually she floated to consciousness more and more
often, and realized that she was at Andras' loft, in his bed.

It was very comfortable and warm there, and it smelled
comfortingly of him.

And best of all, he was there whenever she awoke, lying next
to her, or holding her. Once she drifted up to consciousness and heard his deep
voice rumbling softly as he spoke on the telephone, accompanied by the rapid
clack of laptop keys, before she curled up and let sleep claim her once more.

She was so very tired, and it felt good to rest.

* * *

"Do you feel up to taking a shower?" Andras asked.

Katie wasn't sure how much time had passed since that
strange and wonderful afternoon at Amanda's, but each time she had asked,
Andras had assured her not to worry, that Amanda was making sure that Katie had
all the time off from work that she needed to recover.

This time, when she awakened, she didn't want to go right
back to sleep. Instead, she felt really hungry, rumpled, and sweaty.

She blinked up at him, and experimentally tried sitting up.
Strong arms caught her as the room whirled dizzily around her.

"You've been asleep for a long time, so your body is
unused to sitting or standing," Andras said, quietly.

He had stopped wearing his glamour around her, and one
gray-feathered wing curled protectively around her.

"How—" It felt funny to try to talk after such a
long time, and her voice sounded like a croak.

Andras held a glass of water to her lips, and she swallowed
gratefully before trying again. "How is Amanda? Did it work?"

He smiled at her, teeth white against the dark gray of his
lips. "She's fine. In fact, better than fine. She met someone at the
product launch party, and he appears utterly infatuated with her, and she with
him."

"That's great! Anyone I know?" Katie asked
eagerly.

Andras' smile turned wry. "Drake Whitelaw."

Katie's jaw dropped. "You're kidding, right?" She
studied Andras' expression, and groaned. "She's really dating our
biggest...hell, our
only
client?"

He shrugged. "Normally, I'd advise my sister against
mixing business with pleasure, but in this case, I'm just relieved that she
found someone so quickly."

"Drake Whitelaw. Wow. Just, wow," Katie mused.
"I've never met him, but I've seen his picture. He's
hot
...but not
as hot as you," she teased, just to see Andras smile again.

"And for that," he declared, "I will grant
you your heart's desire."

Katie blinked. She was
pretty
sure he was joking.

"You know, I'd kill for a cheeseburger and fries right
now. And, yeah, I'd love a shower, too, if you don't mind."

He looked surprised. "Why on earth would I mind?"
He began to help her up, steadying her as she swayed.

"Well," she said, a little uncomfortably. "I
know I've been here for a while. Like, days. And you've been taking care of me.
I don't want to impose—"

She stopped speaking as his hand tightened on her arm.
"I love taking care of you, Katie." He sounded utterly sincere.
"And what I owe you for helping Amanda—"

It was her turn to interrupt. "You don't owe me
anything
,"
Katie said, vehemently. "We're friends. Amanda...and you. I'd do anything
for my friends, and I was really worried about her, too."

"Friends," Andras said, looking down at her with
those green, green eyes. "Are we
just
friends?"

She couldn't read his odd expression. What was he
really
asking? Was this a test of some kind? And would she screw things up if she
answered him honestly?

"Um," she said, gathering her courage, deciding
that the time for playing it cool had passed. If she scared him off, better to
know now, before she
really
fell for him.

More than she'd already fallen for him.
Aw, hell, it's
probably already too late.

"When you called me
love
, I liked it," she
confessed. "I just don't want to be clingy, or pushy, or—"

His mouth was suddenly pressed against hers, warm and
gentle. She felt dizzy all over again.

When he had finished kissing her, he said, "Cling to me
all you want. I want it. I
cherish
it. I am honored to be your friend
and lover, Katie, but I have been hoping that I might eventually become more
than that."

"Yes!" Katie said, her heart pounding. This
amazing, gorgeous man wanted the same thing she did? "Me,
too...love."

He chuckled, and swept her up into his arms. "Let's
shower together, and then I'll take you out to Angus Annie's for the best
hamburger in town. They put chopped bacon in the ground beef."

* * *

As Andras had promised, the bacon-laced burgers were superb.
And since it was a warm night, they strolled over a block, and enjoyed scoops
of gourmet gelato at the Italian Passion gelateria.

The food—and sugar—went a long way towards making Katie feel
back-to-normal again. So, she decided to return home after dinner. She hadn’t
been back to her apartment in days, and she dreaded finding new life forms
evolving in her fridge.

Andras did not object to her request, but he was
expressionless and strangely silent as he drove her home in his gunmetal-gray
BMW sedan. Katie glanced at him from time to time, trying to puzzle out his
strange shift in mood, and began worrying.

Had she insulted him by wanting to leave his place so soon
after he confessed his feelings to her? Or was he glad to have his place back
to himself at last, and trying to hide his relief?

She just couldn't tell, and uncertainty made her fall
silent, as well.

Luckily it was a short drive.

Andras walked her up to her apartment. Arriving at her front
door, took her in his arms and gave her a soft, lingering kiss.

Relief overwhelmed her. Maybe he wasn't mad at her, after
all?

"Call me when you're feeling up for a date," he
murmured, pulling back just enough to speak. His lips brushed hers as they
moved. "I have something in mind that I think you'll really like."

Katie leaned forward and stole one more kiss. "I
will," she promised. "And I'm looking forward to it."

Andras seemed reluctant to leave. He kissed her again, and
then again, cradling her face in his hands, his expression intensely tender.
Then they simply stood there, in the hallway, their arms around each other, her
head nestled against her shoulder.

One of Katie's neighbors opened his door, a bulging garbage
bag dangling from his hand.

He grinned at her, gave her the thumbs-up, and tiptoed past,
heading downstairs.

After Andras finally left, Katie found her apartment
strangely empty. She connected her iPod to her speakers and turned it on, but
even her favorite music didn't make her place seem any less lonely.

Too restless to read or watch TV, she puttered around for a
while. She returned phone calls, spoke to Amanda, dusted, and folded laundry,
everything delaying the inevitable moment when would have to go to bed alone.

She told herself that her reluctance was due to the fact
that she'd been spending so much time sleeping over the past few days.

She even cleaned out her fridge, ruthlessly culling the moldy
strawberries and slimy brown lettuce that had fallen victim to her unexpected absence,
then put together a shopping list.

Finally, reminding herself that she needed to be at work
tomorrow, Katie put on her favorite pajamas and went to bed.

And found herself tossing and turning restlessly, despite
the fact that it was way past her usual bedtime. Everything just felt
wrong
without Andras there.

"I am pathetic," Katie said out loud, staring up
at the shadowed ceiling. "
Pathetic
."

It didn't help. She wished she was still in his bed, curled
up against him, hearing his soft breathing...

She almost jumped out of her skin when she heard a gentle
knock on her front door.

12:30 a.m.,
she thought, glancing at the lighted
numbers of her bedside alarm clock.
Who on Earth--?

Katie didn't dare hope as she got up and tip-toed over to
the door. She put her eye to the peep-hole...