"Why not?" I asked softly. "Am I hurting you?"
"You are slaying me," he gritted, his amber eyes mere molten slits. "It is not my wish for you to come to me like this, when I am injured, to heal me. I made a promise to myself that the next occasion you came to me would be because you desired me."
Yes, monsters all of us, I thought. And so horribly fragile.
"Next time," I said tenderly.
"Shall there be a next time?"
"Yes," I whispered, and awareness of what I just promised was reflected in both of our eyes—it was a promise that I would try what they had suggested, being with them both.
My lashes swept down beneath his heated gaze. It was easier to kiss Amber's bunched abdomen, run a string of kisses down the crisp hair that arrowed down the center of his belly. Rub my soft cheek against his rigid staff and relish the texture of the buttery velvet skin that covered hard stone within. I felt him shudder.
One quick jerk to loosen the belt and my borrowed pants pooled around my feet.
Amber stopped me as I moved back toward him. "Your shirt," he demanded.
Hesitating briefly, I unbuttoned my shirt and let it fall away. I felt his gaze touch upon the marks on my left breast, touch upon my wrists and ankles.
"Remove the necktie," Amber commanded softly.
I loosened the cloth, my eyes downcast. His angry hiss of breath made me flinch even though I knew it wasn't directed at me. Having Amber see Kadeen's brutal marks upon me made me feel vulnerable, unclean, a victim's guilt. Stupid though I knew the feeling to be, I could not shake it. I felt Amber struggle to contain his anger and stood there in naked uncertainty.
"Did Halcyon send the demon to his final death?" Amber asked roughly.
"Yes."
Amber absorbed that for a long moment, let it calm him, and gentled his gravelly voice as much as he could. "Do you still want me?"
I nodded.
"Then take me. I am yours."
I knew as he spoke that he remembered how I had healed myself as well as him the last time. Crawling hesitantly onto the bed and between his thighs, I lay a hand upon a muscled leg, and bent down to take him into my mouth.
"Can you take me within you?" he asked, stopping me.
"Yes," I answered in a small voice.
"Do you wish to?"
"Oh, yes," I breathed.
My answer made Amber smile.
"Will it hurt you?" I asked.
"It will hurt me more if you do not."
My answering smile caressed him as I carefully straddled him. His sex was huge and hard. I loved the feel of him in my hand: big, warm, and pulsing. I squeezed him tightly and his eyes fluttered shut. I dipped down onto him, letting him enter me slightly before lifting back up after wetting the tip of him. His thick neck grew taut.
"Next time I shall be on top," Amber muttered through gritted teeth, his eyes narrow gold slits.
I laughed. "I don't know about that. We might have to wrestle for it. I'm beginning to like this position."
Amber's growl turned into a groan as I lowered back down. Leaning back, I rubbed his wonderful thick rod against my wet outer lips, moving up and down gently against him. I spread the moisture around the rest of him and slowly pushed down onto his stiff member. There was just enough lubrication to allow him to enter me, increment by increment. Just enough so that I could feel every single sensation as he stretched me, feel every delicious rub of his ridged tip as it bumped and pushed its way with excruciating, killing slowness into my tight greedy flesh. I swallowed him up, inch by glorious inch, and he filled me so blissfully full so that only then did I realize how empty I had been.
I sighed with the satisfaction of a difficult job well done when he was finally buried full within me.
"Come here," Amber rumbled.
I braced my arms, bent down over him, and felt his hardened staff resist then bend within me as I angled my body over him.
"Closer," he said.
I lowered myself down until my lips were a breath away from his jaw. Amber turned his head and licked Halcyon's neat puncture marks, laving away the Demon Prince's scent and replacing it with his own. My inner muscles clenched around Amber in involuntary response at his tongue's rough caress. He twitched within me, stretching my posterior vaginal wall and I gasped and bit back a moan. I felt his teeth clamp upon my neck. Felt Amber bite down hard enough for it to hurt, but not enough to break skin. Felt him suck hard, laving the spot with the rough texture of his tongue, leaving his own mark there over Halcyon's. My body pulsed and spasmed, screaming within, glowing, even as my scream of pleasure strangled in my throat as I desperately tried to be quiet.
I felt Amber's mouth move in a demonic smile against my neck as he tortured me as thoroughly as I had tortured him, without even lifting his arms.
The power built and our incandescence lit the room. So close. So close to the edge now. Supporting my weight completely on my left hand, I wrapped my other hand around his bulging bicep, needing something to grip on to.
Amber moved to the other side of my neck, licked gently along the swollen, tender flesh and made me whimper as he breathed over the open wound. Made me gasp and quiver as he touched his tongue just there and then push slowly, oh so slowly, down into my raw flesh. Not moving. Just there. Exquisite pain. Exquisite pleasure.
One gentle push deeper with his tongue, filling me, stretching wounded flesh and I convulsed, exploded within, my inner muscles clenching and contracting about him, gripping his huge, thick sex. My body tried its inner best to milk him dry as I held still, frozen above him in immobility, unable to move for fear of hurting him.
Amber groaned as if I were killing him as he climaxed without even a single stroke. His stillness within me allowed me to feel and absorb every spurt and shuddering jet of his pleasure.
I lifted my head. Looking at the astonishing wholeness of Amber's flesh put a whole new meaning to good sex. His ribs had knit back together. His muscles and sinews were untorn. His skin was once again velvety smoothness. A bloody miracle.
"I must apologize," he said suddenly, stiltedly. "I was too forward."
"I don't mind, Amber," I said, pushing back my hair. "I like it that you were a little bossy. It means that you feel comfortable enough with me to be yourself. Is that what you're really like?" I asked teasingly. "Arrogant and domineering?"
"I do not know."
The utter sincerity of his words punched me like a fist, destroying me. My lashes swept down to shield my emotions from him. Dear sweet Jesus. Over a hundred and five years of life and he did not know what he was really like.
"Thank you for healing me," Amber said, gifting me with another of his rare sweet smiles. "Now we can go find your brother."
Chapter Twenty Two
Pelham Manor was a quietly affluent residential neighborhood perched at the edge of Westchester County. Birds chirped cheerfully, welcoming the day as we disembarked from the limo several blocks away. Lawns were neatly manicured and the thick hedges planted long ago.
An odd mix of feelings assailed me at the thought of my brother, Thaddeus, growing up here—hope that he had been happy and loved, along with a twisting pain at the possibility that he may not need me or welcome my intrusion into his life. They might have moved, I had told myself repeatedly. But still I'd had to come and see for myself in case they hadn't.
The house I sought was a stately Tudor with a dark tiled roof and large windows set in a cul-de-sac in front of a large wooded lot. There didn't seem to be any danger in this quiet, peaceful neighborhood. No foreign scent or sign of intrusion.
We moved into the trees and I opened my senses. There were three heartbeats within the dwelling. Two beating human-fast, one slower. My heart gave a painful thump. The sounds from within the house came clearly to my ear.