NINE
The water swirled around Reece and Erin as she caressed him until he was just short of squirming. His gasps bounced off the stone walls as she gently cupped the tight pouch of his balls and stroked the aching length of his cock.
Tempting as it was to let her do as she pleased, Reece reminded himself the idea was to give her pleasure, not to simply take it. He stepped back, tearing himself reluctantly from her clever fingers. “That’s enough.”
She gave him the smile Eve must have given Adam right before she fed him the apple. “Not even close, Champion.”
He shook his head. “No, you don’t get it. This time is for you. Your pleasure, not mine.” Then he gave her his best wolfish smile. “Though I’m sure I’ll get my turn sometime.”
Champion moved around behind her as if taking himself out of the path of temptation.
Then he proceeded to turn the tables. His big, warm hands came to rest on her shoulders, a sensual masculine weight that made her knees buckle before she caught herself. “Not feeling weak, are you?” he asked in her ear, his voice low.
She shivered at his breath on her ear. “Maybe a little.”
He swore softly. “I shouldn’t have drunk from you so soon the last time.”
Oh, he thought her weakness came from feeding his hunger. “It’s not that kind of weak, Champion.”
He stilled behind her, then began stroking his hands over her shoulders, rubbing and caressing just as he had earlier. “You sure about that?”
“Believe me, a girl knows.” Then she had to catch her breath as those skilled hands once again sought out the knots in her muscles and began to rub them away.
“I’m glad,” he said as his soapy hands trailed down her arms to encircle her ribs. Slowly, teasingly, they moved upward to capture and weigh her breasts. “I want you to be able to appreciate this.”
Erin caught her breath as his slick fingers teased her nipples, stroking and tugging until she shuddered in pleasure. “Oh, that’s definitely not a problem.”
“Good,” Reece breathed into her ear. “Because I want your undivided attention.”
He had it as skillful hands tweaked and pulled both hard, rosy peaks for long glittering moments. As he caressed the taut globes of her breasts, Erin let her head fall back on his brawny shoulder. With a whimper of surrender, she gave herself up to the slow, seductive tightening of arousal he won from her with every stroke.
Finally he let one hand drift down her sensitive belly to the soft, fine hair of her sex. He parted her, slipped one finger between her folds to tease her clit and the creaming opening of her cunt. Pleasure unfurled within her in a slow, lazy bloom. “God, that feels so good,” she moaned.
“Yeah,” he agreed in a rough growl. “It does. But it’s about to get better.” He turned her around and caught her under the backside, then lifted her off her feet before striding with her to the edge of the bath. She groaned in pleasure at his easy strength, wildly aroused, and wrapped her legs around his waist. But before she could get down to the serious business of grinding against him, he deposited her on the edge of the pool and tipped her onto her back. Then he draped both her legs over his shoulders and lowered his head between her thighs.
The first time he’d pleasured her with his mouth, it had barely taken him five minutes to drag her to a ruthless climax. Now he took his time, tonguing her clit in slow circles and wicked little flicks, licking and teasing. Simultaneously his fingers were busy in her depths, first one and then two, teasing glowing curls of pleasure from her jangling nerves. With the other hand, he returned to her nipples, pinching and rolling them. Pleasure stormed her body from so many different directions, she could only moan.
And so he gently seduced her into orgasm after orgasm until she writhed helplessly on the marble, half maddened from the pleasure he gave her.
At last, when she was limp and stunned, he lifted his head and surveyed her boneless body with a hot, possessive smile. Then he scooped her off the floor again. Water swirled around her legs as he pulled her back into the pool—and right onto his rock-hard cock.
Erin yelped as she found herself suddenly impaled on him. Blinking, she met his carnal gaze. “How’s that?” he asked with a wicked, lazy smile.
“It’s, uh—” She squirmed, feeling him touching her in places that had never been touched before. “A lot.”
“You have that effect on me. Hold on, sweetheart.”
Wrapping her arms around his broad shoulders, she obeyed as he began, lazily, to thrust. Which was a good thing, because she still felt a little tender from the rough, dominating ride he’d given her last time. Not that she’d objected.
Yet there was something just as arousing in being cradled in those powerful arms, feeling him use his cock like a wizard’s wand to lay a spell of pleasure over her shivering body.
He probably knows I’d be sore from prior experience, she thought muzzily.
Centuries of prior experience.
And he seemed to be making good use of every year of it now as he patiently rolled his hips, stroking the sensitive depths of her body with breathtaking tenderness. As her arousal spiraled with the lazy rise of her latest climax, she found herself wanting to grind against him, take him deeper.
And as if sensing that rising hunger, he began to thrust harder by carefully controlled increments, his green eyes watching her face. She returned his gaze and found herself blinking at its intensity. No man, even David, had ever looked at her like that—as if she was the center of his universe.
The orgasm burst within her in a shower of iridescent bubbles. She threw back her head and moaned at the gently extravagant pleasure.
As Erin went limp in his arms, Reece lowered his dark head toward the arch of her throat. She tensed, remembering the delicious sting of his fangs sinking into her throat.
But at the last moment he closed his mouth and turned his head. Before she could wonder why he’d denied himself, his powerful body bowed with the force of his orgasm, pistoning his cock to the balls. He came, shuddering against her.
For a moment, she was aware only of his width and length pressing so deep inside her.
And then something happened. It seemed a white-hot light rolled across her vision, leaving only Champion in its center. For a single, blazing instant, she felt the universe shift around her, as if it was about to crack open and spill.
Erin caught her breath in a combination of anticipation and terror. Three times. He’d said it would take three times. It’s only been two!
Or had it been three? That time at his house, after the party—no, he’d worn a condom, then. It only counted if he came in her…
And then everything settled again, the normal rules clicking into place like a sliding glass door jarring back into its track.
Sucking in a deep breath, Erin wrapped her arms around Champion and held on to the only stable thing in her world.
As if sensing her fear, he tightened his own hold. The arms that normally felt so powerful abruptly seemed like an insufficient barrier against…whatever it was. So that’s the Mageverse. Suddenly Erin understood a little too well why women went insane when they became Majae.
It was an insight she could have done without.
Champion drew back a little and looked down at her, a concerned frown on his mobile mouth. “What’s wrong?”
Erin licked lips that suddenly felt dry and chapped. “I felt it,” she said, working to keep her voice steady. “The Mageverse. Just for a moment—let me go.” She needed space.
Something in her voice had him lifting her off the cock that still hadn’t softened. The minute her feet touched the floor of the pool, Erin turned to the edge and hoisted herself up. Dripping, she stood and waited for her pounding heart to slow.
“Erin—”
“Stay back a minute, would you?” Propping her hands on her hips, she stared down at the floor battling her fear as water dripped around her. “Just give me a damn minute.”
“You felt it, didn’t you?” He climbed the steps out of the pool, then hesitated when he saw her stiffen. “I’m not going to hurt you.”
“No, of course not.” She lifted her head and made herself meet his eyes. “It was just a little overwhelming.”
Reece looked at her, both dark brows lifting. “Well, that has the distinct ring of understatement.” He turned to stride for the stack of towels, collecting one for himself and pitching her another. She caught it and wrapped it around her shoulders, grateful for his sensitivity in keeping his distance.
“I’m not sure I can hack it, Reece,” she admitted, driven to express the fear that had hit her when she’d felt the universe crack. “It’s a hell of a lot stronger than I thought it would be.”
Champion looked at her, wrapped in her towel. Despite the scent of fear in the air, her back was straight as a soldier’s. And that gave him hope. Surely that kind of strength meant she’d make it. “From what I gather from talking to other Majae, everybody feels that way the first time they touch the ’Verse, Erin.”
With brisk, no-nonsense movements, she began toweling off. “You’re right, of course. This doesn’t change anything. I know what I have to do.”
He hesitated. “You know, there is a chance that someone from the Mageverse will notice I’m missing. They may even have launched a search party.”
She shot him a hard look. “Must be a damn slim chance, or you’d have mentioned it before now.”
Reece shrugged, uncomfortable. “Depends on too many ifs. If somebody noticed that I haven’t been back to Avalon—”
“Avalon?”
“The High Court. It’s kind of our base of operations. Anyway, if they got worried enough to start looking, and if they realize I’m not back on Earth—”
“—and if they send out a search party that somehow manages to stumble across us in this magic-shielded cell.” Erin shook her head. “You’re right, Reece. Too damn many ifs.” Her gaze hardened. “We need to stick with the original plan.”
“Which terrifies you.”
“No, it doesn’t terrify me,” she denied, as if by knee-jerk reaction. Then she added reluctantly, “It may frighten me, but it doesn’t terrify me. This really is the only shot we’ve got to stop him.” She clenched her fists. “I’ve got to make it work.”
Despite her brave words, Erin could almost sense the Mageverse out there, waiting for her, as malevolent in its way as the demon was.
And no matter what she’d told Reece, it scared the hell out of her more than anything ever had.
Except looking into David’s eyes as he’d shoved his gun against his own chin and pulled the trigger. He’d sacrificed himself for her. He’d died to stop the demon. She owed him more than cowardice. Somehow she was going to have to overcome the Mageverse and defeat it.
Swallowing, Erin looked up. Her gaze collided with Champion’s emerald gaze. She saw the sympathy in his.
And the doubt.
He doesn’t believe I can do it, either, Erin realized. He’s afraid he’s going to have to kill me. Which was oddly comforting, in a way. If she did lose it, Champion wouldn’t let her suffer long.
But what will happen to you in the meantime? a chilly voice whispered in her ear. What did it feel like to go insane? To feel your mind peeling away like an onion?
She didn’t mind dying. She’d been on the job long enough that the idea of death no longer held the same sting of the unknown.
But madness was another story. She’d dealt with crazy people, had looked into their eyes and wondered in fear and pity what monsters inhabited their thoughts.
Apparently she was about to find out first hand.
Stop it, Erin told herself savagely. Just stop it. This isn’t helping. Have a little fucking guts, why don’t you?
Something touched her shoulder. She jerked around to look into Champion’s concerned green gaze. “It’s all right to be afraid, Erin. There’s no shame in it.”
“I know that. The only shame is in letting fear stop you.” She remembered walking into the Death’s Sabbat temple for the first time and looking around at the hundreds of people looking back at her.
In retrospect, it was miraculous they hadn’t cut her throat, given that they’d made her. If Geirolf hadn’t had other plans for her, they probably would have. But she’d faced them and her fear anyway, and she’d survived.
She squared her shoulders. “I’ve never let it stop me before.”
He smiled and reached for her. “I know. You’re a hell of a woman, Erin Grayson.”
Her first instinct was to shy away from him, as though even such innocent contact could bring madness.
But Graysons did not run from anything. Not Nazis, not Vietcong, not Iraqis. Not even vampires who could crack the entire universe just by making love to you.
She stepped into his arms.
He felt warm and strong as he cuddled her against him, stroking her chilled flesh comfortingly. A bubble of disbelieving laughter broke free of her throat.
“What’s so funny?” he asked softly, settling her a little more securely against his body.
“It just hit me that I’m cuddling with a vampire. Maybe I’m already nuts.”
He shook his head, the stubble on his cheeks scraping her face. “You’re not crazy.”
“Aren’t I? Vampires, soul-sucking demons that live off human sacrifices, a universe of magic where fairies fly past the windows of cells that have no doors.” She wrapped her own arms tighter around him. “Maybe I’m already in the loony bin and just don’t know it.”
“You’re the least crazy person I’ve ever met, Erin.”
“Coming from a possible delusion, that’s not really all that comforting.” She laughed shortly. “What does it say about a situation when you’d rather be nuts than accept it as real?”
“Well, it’s probably a good indication that it sucks.” His arms tightened around her in a hug that was more comradely than romantic.
She relaxed into him. There was something so comforting in his strength. “Yeah,” Erin agreed, and tried out a faint grin. “Sucks like a porn star.”
For several minutes they simply stood like that, wrapped around each other. Finally she asked, “Was becoming a vampire anything like this?”
“Considering that I didn’t have to worry about becoming a human sacrifice—no.” He rested his chin on top of her head. “And I had a professional seducer, which looking back on it today seems like a blessing. Though I certainly didn’t realize it at the time.”
Erin pulled back enough to eye him. “A professional seducer? What, there’s somebody who does this kind of thing for a living?”
He shrugged and caught her by the hand, towing her toward the bed. As he collapsed on the mattress in an elegant, boneless sprawl, Erin sat down facing him and pulled her legs beneath her, tailor fashion. “I told you the Majae’s Council approves which Latent gets Merlin’s Gift. Well, then somebody has to have sex with the Latent the required number of times. Sometimes the decision is based on the recommendation from a Maja or Magus, who then does the honors him or herself. But the rest of the time the Council sends one of the Court Seducers who specialize in romancing Latents.”
Erin looked at him. “Oh, now that’s perverse. Couldn’t you just take turns or something?”
“Well, no. It’s easier to botch than you might think. First, you’ve got to tell the Latent what he or she has the potential of becoming—”
“And then you’ve got to convince them you’re not a lunatic,” she tossed in.
“Right. Though I’m told turning into a wolf for them usually works.”
“Certainly convinced me.”
“Then you’ve got to tell them the risks, yet get them to take the chance anyway.”
“Now, there’s where I have a problem with this concept.” Erin unfolded her legs and slipped off the bed to go to the table and pour herself a goblet. When she lifted the pitcher toward Reece, he nodded, so she poured him one as well. “I’d have real trouble convincing somebody to do something that could drive them crazy and result in their possible execution.” She carried both goblets back to the bed and handed him one. “That’s just cold.”
Reece shrugged and took a sip as she sat down on the bed beside him. “It’s actually fairly rare that the Majae’s Council makes a mistake about Gifting somebody. They’ve been doing this a hell of a long time, and they’re good at spotting the ones who can make it through the transition.” He grimaced. “Of course, sometimes they make mistakes.”
“Like I said, I wouldn’t want to take the chance.” Remembering the glimpse of the Mageverse she’d gotten, she grimaced. “Especially after getting a free preview.”
“True, but there is the whole immortality thing,” Reece told her. “The idea of living forever is a pretty powerful lure.”
Erin rocked back from him, struck by the implications. “So in the unlikely event I actually manage to survive this—”
“You won’t be dying for a very long time. Assuming we don’t screw up and let humankind destroy itself.”
She thought about it. Witnessing the passage of centuries as Reece had, the technological advances. One day she might step foot on another planet.
And watch her brother die, along with his children, and their children. Losing every mortal friend she had or would ever make, one by one. The thought chilled her.
Glancing up, Erin saw Reece, sprawled in splendid nudity against the headboard. On the other hand, there might be compensations.
Then she remembered the feeling of the universe cracking and sliding slowly sideways under her mind. “Still, it’s a big risk.”
He shrugged. “Only game in town, Erin.”
“True.” She sighed. “I guess we should probably just go ahead and—you know. Get it over with.”
Reece shot her a look. “I’ve had more romantic proposals.”
“Well, excuse the hell out of me,” she snapped back, suddenly irritated. “I’m just not feeling particularly romantic.”
He looked downward pointedly. “Neither am I.”
“Oh.” Erin blinked at his cock. Though still impressive, it lay curled over his muscular belly, obviously not up to the task. “That wasn’t a problem before.”
“Believe me,” he said, “it’s never been a problem.”
Irrationally she felt a little twinge of hurt. “Oh.”
“Don’t look so damn wounded. I don’t like the idea of doing this to you.”
“Especially since if it doesn’t work, you’re going to have to kill me.” Erin met his gaze steadily. “And I’m not just talking about if I go crazy. If we can deprive him of one of his sacrifices…”
He shook his head. “I’ve been thinking about it, and I don’t believe that’s good enough. Even if I kill you, all he has to do is kidnap another Latent, and then we’re in the exact same mess all over again. At least if I die, too, he’s going to have to find and kidnap a Magus.”
She frowned at him, studying his grim face. “Are you talking about a suicide pact?”
Reece sighed. “Yeah, I know. Tough to do if you’re not in the heat of a really ugly depression. You’ll have to enchant a blade for me, though.”
Knowing perfectly well she was stalling, Erin asked, “Wouldn’t I need one, too?”
“No. Majae can use magic, but they aren’t physically magic. Our connection with the Mageverse is much closer, so to kill us, you need a magical weapon.”
“So what’s that like—being magic?”
“Well, it’s not really all that different. Other than the drinking blood and avoiding long exposure to direct sunlight. And no, I don’t burst into flames, but the sunburn is a bitch.”
Silence fell. They stared at each other.
“I have a massive case of performance anxiety,” Erin said.
He snorted. “Tell me about it.”
“There’s so damn much riding on this. What if I go crazy? What if I don’t go crazy, but I can’t break through the cell? How am I supposed to break through the cell? I mean, I don’t know any spells. Are there chants, or what?”
“Not usually. Oh, there’s more preparation with big, elaborate spells, but most of the time Majae just do it, and it happens. I think they picture the outcome they want, and somehow manipulate the energies of the Mageverse to get it.”
She stared at him. “Oh, that’s a big help, Champion.”
“I live to serve.”
“Smartass.”
“Hey, I’m not a Maja. I don’t know how to do this stuff, either.”
“Well, we’re going to have to figure it out before the god of assholes comes back.”
He smiled reluctantly. “God of assholes. I like that.”
She felt her own lips twitch. “We could make it an acronym. G.O.A.”
“We’re stalling.”
“I don’t think I’ve ever felt less like sex in my entire life.”
He regarded his stubbornly limp cock. “Me either.”
Erin looked at the softened shaft. “Oh, I’m going to have to do something about that.”
Reece settled back and arched a brow. “Whatever do you have in mind?” His cock twitched.
“Does it have to be penetration? I mean, would a blow job work?”
At that, he began to harden. “I assume so, since I Turned during oral sex.” Then he gave her a wicked grin. “I certainly wouldn’t mind trying.”
Despite the grim situation, she laughed. “Somehow I didn’t think you would.”
“I also wouldn’t mind returning the favor,” he said. “In fact, I’d prefer it.”
Erin considered the idea. It was extremely tempting. But—“Not this time,” she decided. “I’d like to be in control.” Grimacing, she added, “Of something, anyway.”
She looked up to see warm sympathy in his eyes. “Yeah. I can understand that.”
Rolling onto her hands and knees, Erin crawled over to him as he sat against the headboard. For a moment she paused, looking down at his powerful body, taking in the ridges and curves of muscle under his tanned skin. Curiously she reached out to touch him. “Why do you have a tan if you never go out in the sun?”
Reece shrugged. “I had a tan when I Turned. It never faded.”
She stroked the pad of her thumb over one small male nipple. It came to a tiny brown peak.
Erin considered it. Maybe if she concentrated on him, just stopped worrying about what would happen at the end of this, they could both get through it.
And maybe she should damned well make the best of it anyway. She’d never had a lover like Reece before, and the odds were very good she’d never have one again. At all. Might as well thoroughly enjoy the opportunity while she had it. Anyway, it was much more pleasant concentrating on him than on the grim future they both faced.
She bent her head and flicked her tongue over that small male nipple. He caught his breath.
Oh, yeah. Much better.
Erin sat up and threw one leg over his hips so she could sit astride his thighs. He looked up at her and lifted a dark brow. For a moment she did nothing, just enjoying the sensation of his hard, strong thighs under her bottom.
His cock lengthened and grew even harder.
She grinned down at it. “Can’t keep a good man down.”
He gave her a wolf smile. “You can if he’s underneath a good woman.”
“Or better yet, a bad woman.” Erin lowered her head and kissed him, sampling the soft, damp velvet of his lips. “And you’re making me feel like a very bad woman.”