Hellfire (18 page)

Each time she came close to
her climax, he slowed the pace, teasing her, making her whimper in need and
overwhelming pleasure. She’d never been played so well—played like a fine
instrument wielded by a master.

Finally, he reared back on his
heels and carried her with him. Ginny wrapped her legs around his waist and he
held her close. His big hands lifted her bottom, holding her against him as he
rolled his hips forward, tilting her perfectly so the thick length of his cock
rode over her clit on every thrust.

He picked up the pace, driving
into Ginny harder.
Faster.
So deep she felt the
pressure inside when he touched the farthest reaches of her channel. So perfect
she wanted to cry, but it felt too good, so good she almost laughed, amazed how
her emotions seemed to fly from one extreme to the other.

Once more he thrust deep. His
groan vibrated through her body. He filled her again and she flew.
Flew high and far in a cascade of sound and light, of hearts
pounding and breath rasping out of billowing lungs.

She’d been so close for so
long, hanging on the precipice of completion, shocked now by the intensity, by
the sheer force of pleasure that had her crying out and arching her back,
driving herself down hard as Alton rammed into her, shouting something totally
incomprehensible.

Or was that hers?
That cry
of unbelievable ecstasy?

He tightened his arms across
her back and tumbled them both to the bed.
Connected.
Caught in the pulsing rhythm of muscles clenching and releasing, of
hearts thudding, of lips parted to catch as much air as possible.

Lying on her side, facing the
most beautiful man she’d ever seen, Ginny slowly blinked herself back to the
here and now.
Amazing.
Absolutely amazing.

She’d never experienced
anything like this in her life.

Alton opened his eyes and
smiled at her. “You okay?”

She nodded.
Took
a moment to catch her breath.
“Adequate lover, eh?”
She chuckled. “That’s all?
Just adequate?”

“I hope so.” He kissed her. “I
do hope you were satisfied.”

She had to bite her lip to
keep from giggling with the sheer bliss of utter satiation. “If you were any
more adequate, I think you might kill me.”

He nodded sagely. “Don’t
worry. I promise we’ll get better with practice.”

She nuzzled the soft hair on
his chest and drew in a deep breath filled with the scent of clean male sweat.
Her body rippled with orgasmic aftershocks. She felt him begin to stir deep
inside. “That’s good to know,” she said, planting a kiss at the base of his
throat. “Especially since I think lesson number two is about to begin.”

It took Ginny a moment before
she realized why she was awake. Struggling out of a deep sleep with Alton’s
long arm draped over her chest and his perfect patrician nose buried in her
hair, she thought seriously about ignoring the irritating noise coming from her
backpack, of just rolling over and going back to sleep.

Then recognition kicked in.

It was the new ring tone on
her cell phone. She’d downloaded it Tuesday morning before she’d left Phoenix
and headed to Sedona. So this was Thursday?
Only the third day
since…crap.
So much had happened in such a short time it made her dizzy
just thinking about it. Shaking her still-muzzy head, she crawled out from
under Alton’s arm and left the big Lemurian sleeping soundly as she reached for
her pack.

The phone quit ringing just as
she pulled it out and checked the number. She had no idea who it was who’d
called. A moment later the phone beeped. Whoever called had left her a message.
Yawning, she sat on the floor beside the bed and checked her voice mail.

There was only one message.
Markus?
Now why would her cousin
be calling at…she rolled her head to one side against the edge of the mattress,
squinted, and looked at the clock beside the bed.
Six
o’clock in the morning?
Sheesh.
Ginny punched
in her code. An icy shiver rolled down her spine as she listened to Markus’s
frantic message. His final anxious words left her mind spinning.

Ginny?
What in the hell’s going
on?

She let out a deep breath and
leaned against the bed. “Alton? Alton, wake up.”

He groaned. Ginny grinned. It
appeared she’d worn her more than adequate lover out last night, though if they
hadn’t run out of condoms, he might have lasted even longer than he had. Of
course, if they’d made love any more than they had, she doubted she’d have been
able to walk this morning.

Not that she was complaining.

Alton snorted, groaned, rolled
over, and started to snore. Ginny stood up, yawned again, and made a quick trip
to the bathroom. While she was in there, she decided to shower. Whatever was
going on with Markus would just have to wait until she was clean and a little
more awake.

She stepped out of the
bathroom a few minutes later and caught Alton sitting up in bed with her cell
phone in his hand. “It keeps beeping,” he grumbled. Then he dropped the phone
and his irritated frown turned to a welcoming grin, which was a really nice
compliment, considering she didn’t have so much as a stitch on.

“Good morning.” He held out
his hand and she sashayed across the room until she was close enough for Alton
to curl his fingers around her bottom and pull her up against the edge of the
mattress.

Amazing how one night of
really good sex with a talented and definitely more-than-adequate lover could
take away a girl’s self-
consciousness.
Ginny leaned
close and kissed him.

He drew her closer until she
was straddling his long body with only a thin sheet between them. His hair was
tangled and mussed, but the disheveled look only added to his sex appeal. She
leaned close and slipped her hands into the thick strands, sliding her fingers
across his skull as she brought him close for a kiss.

They’d barely touched, lips to
lips, her hands tangled in his long hair, his firmly grasping her hips, when
her phone beeped again.

“Not that I’m complaining, but
that’s what woke me,” Alton grumbled. “It won’t stop beeping.”

Another
message?
“Damn. I forgot about Markus!” Ginny scrambled out of Alton’s
embrace
, grabbed the phone off the bed, and checked the
messages. Markus’s deep voice had
risen
a note this
time, and his frantic plea added a layer of guilt.

Ginny!
Where are you? I’m getting worried and all hell’s breaking loose!

She raised her head. Alton
nodded and stroked her hand—the one holding the phone. “He’s right, you know.
All hell is breaking loose. Let’s check on your cousin. We can hike up to the vortex
and check on the portal later.”

Ginny laughed as she hit
redial. “If you want the truth, I wasn’t even thinking of the hike to the
vortex.” She glanced at the tented covers over Alton’s lap. “And don’t try and
tell me you were, either.”

Markus answered the phone as
Alton swatted her on the butt and headed to the shower.

“Markus?” she said, eyeing
Alton’s perfectly shaped rear. “What’s up?”

Ginny brought him a cup of
coffee in the bathroom as Alton carefully plaited his long hair in a single
braid down the middle of his back. He wrapped a towel around his hips and
reached for the welcome cup. He’d certainly developed a taste for the hot brew
during his week at Ed Marks’s house.

He took a swallow and sighed.
It had to be his imagination, but he was sure the stuff got his synapses firing
with the very first sip. “What’s going on with your cousin?”

Ginny perched on the counter
beside him. “Markus said he picked Tom up yesterday morning after the vet
called and said he was okay, and everything was just fine until last night when
Tom let out a shriek and so did Markus’s little sister. Markus was afraid the
cat had gone crazy and attacked her, but he said when he went to check, the cat
was fine and Jamilla was holding him in her lap and petting him.”

“So what’s the problem?”

“That’s the weird part. Markus
said Tom was purring, but then he yawned. The teeth were back. All those extra
rows of sharp teeth, and his eyes were, as my dear, demented cousin said,
‘freakin’ evil.’ But Tom was acting perfectly normal.”

“What do you make of it?”
Alton turned and propped his hip on the bathroom counter. He loved to watch
Ginny when she was thinking through a problem. She’d frown and nibble her lower
lip. Her body would be so still it amazed him, that Ginny, who was generally in
perpetual motion, could remain motionless.

“They can’t be smart enough to
use subterfuge, can they?” She raised her head and frowned. “I’m still getting
used to the whole concept of demons invading Earth, but it’s easier to handle
when I think they’re just stupid clouds of mist. The idea of demons taking over
a creature’s body and then acting as if everything is just fine is pretty
scary. That’s consciously using deception, which means they’re thinking it
through. I hate to think they’re getting that much smarter this fast.”

Alton focused on the strands
of his braid to keep from reaching for her. “They’re generally brainless—evil
but not too bright—when they’re away from Abyss. Not smart enough to be
devious. I agree with you.” He raised his head and looked into her beautiful
eyes. “Deception requires a certain amount of intelligence, so if Markus is
right, we’ve got more of a problem than I thought.”

“He sounded scared. Markus is
almost as big as you. It takes a lot to scare him.”

Alton chuckled. “I look
forward to meeting this large cousin of yours.” He tied off the end of his
braid with a rubber band and caught himself staring at the little red loop. Now
that was something else humans had that was lacking in Lemuria—rubber bands.
So simple yet entirely practical, and a lot less trouble than tying
a piece of twine around the end.
He held the braid up and studied the
way the little band held everything in place.
Such a simple
yet perfect solution.
The more time he spent on Earth, the more he loved
it here.

And it wasn’t just the rubber
bands.

He’d been right all
along—humans didn’t always think things through, but they acted with passion.
They felt more emotion in a single day than some Lemurians experienced in a
lifetime, and he was quickly learning the importance of feeling, the visceral
need to experience emotions with all their pain, if only for the chance to know
the glory.

He’d experienced the glory of
passion just last night. Making love with Ginny had rocked his world. In fact,
it had shaken him to his very roots, to the point where he had to shove those
feelings aside or he’d not be able to function.

And function he must. His role
here had changed. It was no longer imperative that he fight demonkind to
protect Lemuria. No. His focus now was to protect the people of this world.

To protect
Ginny.
A sense of urgency gripped him. “Let’s go.” He shoved away from
the counter, tugged Ginny’s hand, and led her into the bedroom. They’d have to
check out the Boynton vortex later. First order of the day was Tom the cat.

Demons
behaving well was
just wrong.

Markus was waiting on the curb
when they drove up in Ginny’s little rental car. Ginny hadn’t been kidding—he
was one big kid. He was only a couple of inches shorter than Alton, but he
probably outweighed him by close to a hundred pounds. With skin as dark as
Alton’s morning cup of coffee and long black hair hanging in strange coils that
Ginny called “dreads,” he cut a pretty imposing figure for such a young man.

He eyed Alton suspiciously.
When Ginny got out of the car, Markus stalked around the front to meet her on
the driver’s side. “Who’s the blond dude?”

Ginny just laughed. Obviously
she wasn’t the least bit intimidated by her cousin. “The blond dude is Alton.
He’s here to help.
Alton, meet Markus, owner of the devil
cat.”

“Not funny, Ginny. He’s
freaky.
Bad enough that I don’t want Jamilla or Jamal playing
with him.
Mom’s scared to death. She was ready to call the pound last
night to come pick him up, but I couldn’t let her do that. He’s my cat. I’ve
had Tom for ten years, ever since he was a kitten.”

For just a moment, Alton
thought the big guy was going to break down and cry, but Markus just shook his
head and turned away. “He’s not right. He—” Markus abruptly stopped talking and
stalked toward the house.

Ginny grabbed Alton’s hand and
they followed him in. “Can you see DarkFire? I tried to set
a
glamour
on her the way you told me. Is it working?”

He squeezed her fingers. “I
can see her, but she’s very faint. I doubt Markus can see her at all. You’re
learning quickly.”

She flashed him a huge grin
that made his heart soar and reminded him how much he was rethinking so many
rules he’d been taught while growing up. It was almost as if the basis for
everything he’d learned denied the man he truly wanted to be. He’d discovered
very quickly that he was a creature of emotion, just like Ginny. He felt passion,
he understood fear and sadness, yet he’d spent his life trying to believe what
he’d been taught—the dangers of acknowledging emotion, the necessity for
remaining in control at all times.

Following Ginny into the
house, he felt a shiver of excitement, a sense of adventure just waiting up
ahead. There was no doubt in his mind—being out of control was totally new,
more frightening than anything he’d ever experienced in his life, and
definitely entertaining.