Genesis Queen (The Road to Hell Series) (23 page)

Madison called his bluff and repositioned the blade by an inch, nicking his skin with the drag. Black blood oozed from the wound.

“Fuck!” Her brother-in-law bellowed as smoke wisped from the cut.

“Release. Alessa.”

His jaw locked, mutiny narrowed his eyes, and flames erupted in the center of his golden-glowy orbs. He would’ve gladly inflicted harm on Madison if he could’ve.

“It hurts so much because it’s the dragon blade. I won’t repeat myself.” She’d give him a gaping smile on his neck if she moved her weapon again.

Elias released Alessa like a child letting go of a snake he’d picked up accidentally, thinking it was a limb. Her brother-in-law’s regard barreled into Micah.

“Bravo,
zkihtak
, she’s more than ready for her position.”

As he had sauntered out of the kitchen, everyone heaved sighs of relief, except for Alessa who’d rubbed her neck and muttered, “I repeat: scary-jelly.”

***

That’d been dinner. This, their post-meal activity, was something entirely different. Too normal for starters. Worse, this normalcy chipped away at the stone wall she’d erected around her heart.

Madison glanced at Micah, currently lounging beside Amos on the sofa in the theater room. His long legs stretched out beneath the coffee table in front of him. He’d removed his vest and tie and released the top three buttons of his pale blue silk dress-shirt. She couldn’t stop staring and that irked her.

Sexy
. Damn, he was sexier than any man had a right to be. More than she remembered during their marriage.

Feeling guilty thinking erotic thoughts of Micah while Nix sat beside her, Madison laced her fingers with his. Touching him gave her comfort, grounded her like always.

On the screen was one of the
Friday the 13th
movies. Her husband and son hadn’t stopped poking fun of the film since the first few screen shots. A girl shrieked on the television and Madison flinched at the sudden unexpectedness of the sound.

“Oh, my God, Momma, you’d never run like that!” Amos grabbed his belly and giggled, stomping his feet and falling into Micah.

Her husband chuckled along with him. “It’s a tad ridiculous.”

Madison glanced at the display. The girl stumbled more than ran, and she kept looking over her shoulders. Half-dressed-TV-girl tripped and tumbled to the ground.

“You’re brave, Momma. They’re dumb.”

“All girls are dumb in horror movies, Amos,” Micah commented. “Madison is intelligent and not a victim as they are.”

Oh, she’d been a victim more than once. Her daddy had used her as a verbal punching bag and shredded her self-esteem. Then Micah had wronged her…yeah, well, she didn’t care to rehash the elements of that disastrous relationship. Woman enough to admit his transgression had damaged her worse than her daddy’s, she prayed she’d come out of the finality of their association unscathed. Either way, thanks to them, she’d grown tougher. No longer would she tolerate being mistreated again.

As if Nix could gauge her thoughts, he squeezed her hand, and then released it to drape his arm over her shoulder and pull her tight against his body. Madison curled against him, got comfy, and settled her palm on his belly. His muscles flexed beneath her touch. She loved the way she affected him and how he never attempted to hide his response from her.

The chick in the movie got slashed by Jason, which had Madison recalling their comments about dumb women running from Jason in the movie. “Sometimes running is smarter than facing your foe head-on, Amos. Gives one time to prepare.”

Micah’s head wrenched around. Oh, yeah, he’d caught her understated inference to him.

Coolly, she looked away and pretended interest in the movie. She could feel her husband’s perusal and his exasperation.

The screenshot panned back inside the house, where a terrified looking couple raced up the stairs to hide in a closet together. Any watcher could assess the small space to be a poor hiding spot. Somehow Jason always knew where to locate his prey. Horror movies were idiotic, if anyone asked her.

“Oh, come on!” The boy flailed all over the sofa dramatically, knocking Micah in the chest. Her husband grinned at their son’s antics as he continued his rant. “There’s a car outside. Get the blasted keys and
speed away, you numbskulls
!”

The last time she could remember him carrying on like this, enjoying himself without limitations, was with Nix. Madison swallowed past the sudden lump in her throat. Micah had been a good father during their marriage; nothing seemed to have altered since.

She would
not
look at Micah and her son again. But even with the conviction to keep focused on Nix at her side and the stupid movie, she found herself peeking at her husband and son more than she preferred. Micah caught her often. The last time, she felt compelled to hold his stare. Big mistake. His scrutiny had swept her body, and like one of Nix’s touches, she’d begun to smolder from his suggestive look. The details of what he wanted to do to her, none of them family-oriented, were all over his face. When she’d squirmed against Nix, Micah had grinned knowingly.

A while later, another furtive peek featured her son slumped against his daddy, asleep. Her husband’s arm curled around their child’s smaller frame, offering support.

Way too reminiscent of times in their marriage. Amos had snoozed on Micah often, either through the reading of a book or one of his favorite Disney shows.

“He’s tuckered out.” Madison’s lips twitched at her husband’s use of Southern slang. He winked at her.

“It’s past his bedtime.”

“It’s been a big day for him.” Nix squeezed her shoulder. “He was excited to see you.”

Micah’s love showed on his face as he peered at their son. She might’ve once doubted his love for her, but she’d never second-guessed his devotion to Amos. And damned if her men weren’t sexier when dealing with her child.

Her men
? Whoa! Hold up there. Micah was
not
hers.

“I’ve missed him. You’ve done well raising him, Madison.” His arctic-blue eyes met hers, but there was nothing cool about his stare.

Madison wanted to say something snide but held her tongue and executed an awkward nod. A much safer response than a verbal one. Because her emotions were so conflicted, she didn’t trust what might come out of her mouth.

“I’ll tuck him in.” Her husband lifted their son and cradled the child safely against his chest as he rose from the sofa.

Madison’s heart went pitter-patter at the too normal sight of her son snuggled in his arms. He took care of their child like any ordinary father would. Dear God, that damaged the weak fetters she’d erected around her heart.

She waited until they exited the room and then wasted no time in straddling Nix’s lap. Placing her hands on either side of his head on the sofa, she rocked her pelvis against his.

“Seeing Amos in Micah’s arms affect you the same way it does when I’m goofing off with him?” Madison stilled, remembering she’d confessed how aroused she became when he entertained her son. He clamped his hands on her hips and ground up against her. “Don’t stop the motions, Mads.” A hand went between her thighs, his nails scraping over her intimately through the fabric of her jeans. “You achy, baby?”

“I need you, Nix.”
To fuck me into oblivion
. It’d been an adventurous day, even without stepping foot out of the house…Micah’s arrival, her reaction to him, discovering she was immortal, and topping it off with reminders of their normalcy as a couple. Gawd, she needed to forget for just a little while.

“Yeah, it’s been a long day, huh?”

“Very.”

He pulled her down to his mouth for a lingering kiss. The slide of his tongue against hers had moisture pooling between her legs.

“Give me fifteen minutes to prepare for you,” she whispered against his mouth. “I promise it’ll be worth the wait.”

Grip tightening in her hair, Nix held her in his personal space. His green eyes locked on hers as his knuckle scrubbed back and forth across her clitoris. Madison’s breath stuttered out of her lungs.

“Make it ten and I promise it’ll be worth the rush.” He nipped her bottom lip and released her.

Chapter Twenty-Two

Immortal
.

Standing in front of her full-length mirror, Madison inspected her reflection, unable to wrap her brain around the hideous reality of her future. She’d dismissed the horrid word from her mind throughout dinner and the
Friday the 13th
viewing, but the concept lingered on the fringes of her subconscious, taunting her with two words:
never die
. Forced to watch not just her friends grow old and pass away, but Nix, too.

Too much to ask of me
. Not that Micah ever factored her wants into any equation.

Angling her head from side to side, she saw no wrinkles marred her skin. No fine lines spoiled the delicate skin around her eyes or mouth. Was that even normal for thirty?

Before today, life held an expiration date. Madison had no idea how to face a forever kind of future. Nix had called her ‘reckless’ with the chances she took by endangering her survival. Even Zen, on occasion, suggested she went too far in her war against demons. How much more careless would she become with a can’t-kill-me complex?

The bedroom door creaked open and closed, snatching her from her turbulent contemplations. Thank goodness. Finally, a distraction in the form of something she’d enjoy with someone she loved.

A trill of excitement buzzed along her spine as she watched Nix’s reflection approach. As he came to stand behind her, his gaze met hers in the mirror. A cagey expression tweaked the corners of his eyes, but she wouldn’t ask what put the reticence there.

“I wanted to grow old with you.” Why couldn’t she let that massive problem go for just tonight?

“You still can.”

Aging together wouldn’t be the same, when she would remain unaffected by the passage of time. He couldn’t pretend that nothing would change between them, either.

“You’ll age, wrinkle, become frail, and this”—she indicated herself—“is how I’ll remain. Growing old isn’t the same if I don’t mature with you.”

An arm circled her waist, drawing her near. The other came over her shoulder, and he dragged his thumb across her bottom lip. “Will you love me less when I have a comb-over and I’m all wrinkled?”

Madison bit back a smile. A comb-over was not his style.

“Of course not.”
I just want one thing in my screwed-up world to be normal and even that has been taken from me
. “Will you accept a deal from me to make you immortal?”

“No.” He didn’t have to sound so positive of that decision.

“I’ll offer again in a few years.”

“No, Madison.” She shivered in his arms. He rarely called her by her given name. “I’d do anything for you, but not that.”

I can’t blame him
. How could she, when even she wanted none of forever?

He nipped her earlobe and dragged his hand down the center of her body. Those actions dispelled her melancholy and refocused her thoughts elsewhere.

His voice had deepened when he spoke, “I freakin’ love this negligee.”

She’d known he would. Sheer black, with off-white lace in strategic locations to hide her nipples, the lingerie left very little to the imagination. Parted in the middle, straight up the front to her breasts, the negligee exposed her tummy. The black thong she wore exposed all but the intimate flesh the sliver of lace hugged.

The way Nix ogled her…she’d never felt so desirable in her life.

A kiss to her shoulder, as his hand cupped a breast. “I can’t wait to get my mouth on you.”

Neither could she. After her day, she needed the escapism sex would provide.

His palm tightened, then shifted up to her neck. He notched her head back against his shoulder and angled her face so they could look at one another. “Guide me tonight. Tell me what you want.”

His lips were so close. Just an inch forward and they’d be pressed to hers. Madison wanted a great many things…for starters, to forget the world existed, high among them. “I want you inside me everywhere.”

“Here?” His hand thrust between her thighs.

Gawd, yes
. Usha executed a mock southern drawl. “Yes.”

“And here?” The fingers on her throat moved upward and pressed between her lips.

She nodded as she sucked on his digits. His breathing accelerated.

“What about here?” He rocked against her bottom.

Her eyes widened and she inhaled deeply. When she’d made the statement, she—

“That ass will be mine first.”

At the sound of Micah’s voice, she and Nix came apart like fornicating teenagers caught by uptight Christian parents. How dare he enter without knocking!

“When Hell freezes,” she snapped.

“I’ll notify the inhabitants to expect a deep freeze.”

“Get out!” Her voice sounded shrill. High-strung from his entrance into her life, downtime was required and his presence ruined any chance of receiving what she required.

“No.” The fire in his gaze negated his icy tone.

Heart fluttering from the intensity of his stare, Madison took several moments to regulate her breathing.

The pale blue silk shirt stretched tight over his shoulders, it showcased his amazing physique. Not an ounce of fat and his six-pack was more like an eight…if her memory was accurate.

Noticing him annulled all her chances at finding inner serenity.

“I’ve had it with you, Micah.” Hopefully he didn’t detect her breathiness. That’d ruin the impact of her statement.

“Ditto back at you, kitten. I’m here to protect you, not be your best fucking friend.” He slammed the door shut with his power. The lock clicked without a physical touch. “Where you sleep is where I sleep.”

It frustrated her that his dominating ways excited her on a physical level. Better yet, why did his highhandedness arouse her? “You’re not sleeping in here.”

He should be in our bed, feeding us along with Nix
. Sometimes she
hated
her succubus.
Together they’d sate our hunger so much better
.