Kiss & Hell (24 page)

When it dinged—he’d never see Delaney again.

And that made his gut clench into a tight, unwelcome fist.

Fuck.

twelve

“Oh, Clyde. Is it my perfume? No, wait, I know. It’s my animal magnetism. My va-va-voom. Yeah. ’Cause I have so much of that. It just oozes from my every pore.” Her laughter tinkled, but her body was on fire. Clyde’s arm around her waist, the crisp hairs on it brushing against her arm, made her nipples turn to tight beads—which was totally and utterly
pathetic
. Given how little it seemed to take to turn her on these days, she might as well start humping lampposts.

No disrespect meant to Clyde, who was far and away much more attractive than a lamppost.

Clyde stiffened behind her, stirring to the sound of her voice.

In fact, every part of his body was stiff.

Every. Part.

“I’m in your bed again? How do you suppose this keeps happening?” His voice rumbled, groggy with sleep in the deep velvet of the night.

“Uh-huh, and I’m taking a stab in the dark, but I think it must have to do with the binding.”

“Right. The binding. Am I naked?”

Oh, sweet Jesus. Was he? “Were you nak—uh—nu—ah . . . when you went to bed on the couch earlier?”

“Affirmative.”

Perfect
. “Then I imagine not much’s changed. And you’re sucking up more than your fair share of the bed. Not to mention, you have all the covers. So you know what that means, don’t you?”

“I’m apologizing?”

She giggled despite his sinfully tempting nudity. “No, you’re taking the dogs out—as penance, bed hog.”

His groan tickled her ear before he lifted his head to look at her alarm clock. “They’re still asleep. It’s three in the morning. So I say we go back to sleep, too. We deserve to sleep in, don’t you think? It’s been a rough few days.” He burrowed closer to her; the impulse to lie back into his strength was pushing overwhelming, bordering desperate. Clyde curled his fingers into her waist when she tried to get up.

Delaney fought the hitch of her breath. “You’re right. We have stuff to do, demon. So hit the bricks so we can get some sleep and call Tia in the morning. I’m still not convinced her being here at exactly the same time as you is a coincidence. I find it very strange rather than coincidental. I know you don’t want—” Clyde rolled her over with swift hands, pulling her flush to him, making her forget why they had to call Tia.

But it was important.

Really important.

His blue eyes gazed into hers, glittering despite the late hour, and his hands spanned the width of her back, creating an arch in her spine that made her hips lift toward his. “We definitely have stuff to do.” His nose pressed to hers, his breath caressed the corner of her mouth.

Wow—way to put some distance between you and the demon, Delaney. Get up, tard. Get up from this bed right now and don’t look back
. But . . . this was soooo nice.
And so wrong. Very wrong, Delaney Markham
. “This presents a problem, doesn’t it?”

“I think it might.”

The breath she took shuddered with nervous hitches, but if she was about anything, she was about honesty, and that was required here. “Let’s just lay this on the line. If we do this, Clyde Atwell, you know it can’t go anywhere, and I’m not just saying that like some standard ‘no strings attached’ line. I’m saying that because it really, really can’t.
Ever
. We won’t have to wonder if it’ll end because it
will
end. No ifs, ands, or buts. Which might be completely fine with you. For all I know, you were a real playa in life and all this ‘I was a lab rat always wrapped up in my work’ is just crap.” And even then, she didn’t know if she’d still turn him down because if that really had been the case in Clyde’s life, what diff did it make if in the end he’d be gone anyway?

Well, the difference is, you’d be shimming his shank just to shim.

Yes, indeedy.

Okay, so that was different, but not by a lot. Him and his shank would be on the highway to Heaven either way if all went according to what she hoped would happen to Clyde’s soul. Yet, there was a safety in knowing he couldn’t dump her because her gift interfered in their lives. There was also a safety in knowing he understood her gift and wouldn’t be troubled by it the way anyone who didn’t believe was. Plus, he didn’t think she was a nutjob for talking to dead people. It was hard to deny the overall hotness of that.

“So in closing, this won’t ever be anything but two people fulfilling their baser needs. As a demon, and if you’re anything like Marcella, those needs can be demanding. If you’re the nice guy you say you are, I don’t want you all whiny with regrets after the fact because we just did it to do it.”

The nod of his head against hers was in agreement. “First, even if that were true, and when you dig into my life, you’ll see it’s so far from the truth it borders ridiculous, that I have to leave when my time is up is also true. Second, I can’t remember the last time I whined. So the question then becomes, do you want to take that risk, knowing what you know? Or maybe even what you don’t know?”

“Do you?”

“I’m pretty sure I do.”

Her cheeks warmed and her stomach fluttered. “Then I’m just going to be straight with you because I have absolutely nothing to lose. It’s not like I’ll ever run into you—there’ll be no awkward encounters where I have to hide at the grocery store in the feminine protection aisle behind the pads with wings because you’re there with your new hottie. I can’t make an ass of myself with all that senseless begging and pleading with you not to break up with me, because you have no choice in the matter.”

Clyde’s eyes flashed an emotion she was unsure of before he said, “That much is true. So be straight.”

“Alright, but here’s the deal. Don’t let me embarrass myself.”

His laughter was deep, his hands warm and firm. “Deal.”

It was do or die. “Okay, so straight up. I’m all about owning my needs. I haven’t met a man yet, aside from you, who doesn’t think I’m some fruitcake, making things up. I’m good with this being something temporary, knowing an opportunity like this might never happen again in my lifetime. Which is pathetic, and very, very sad, but whatever—my life is what it is. Not that you’re just an opportunity . . . I mean, well, I’m just going to have to hope you know what I mean. But I want to be clear about me and who I am—this isn’t something I . . . well, I’ve never had a one-night stand or anything even remotely like it. I’m no man-eater.”

“Hall and Oats—”

She sighed.

“Sorry—it just happens.” She could faintly see his grin was sheepish, the lines by his eyes crinkling with laughter.

“Could I just get this off my chest so I know we’re not going to have any ugly misunderstandings?”

“Shoot.”

“Okay, so I’ve had one serious relationship my entire life. And one sort-of relationship when my ghosts were off on sabbatical on some tropical island or something. I had a blissfully quiet period for about a month. They showed back up—he caught me in the bathroom talking to his shower curtain because my ghost was an old navy sea captain and the bathtub was his ship, labeled me batshit, and it was over. I don’t have those hurdles with you, and that’s fine by me. And on that note, I’m also going to be honest about something else, too. I find you okay looking. Seriously, like really okay looking . . . I don’t know what you looked like before, but the human form you chose deserves a standing O.” Delaney paused, shifting her eyes down to his chest, a mere silhouette in her darkened bedroom. “And I’m okay with this just being what it is.” Though the regions of her heart were clearly less okay with it, judging from the size of the compression she’d just had in it.

Clyde tipped her chin up, catching her gaze with his. “Are you done?”

“I think my pop-up timer just popped.” Delaney took a deep breath, the inhalation forcing their chests to once more press together. The rigid line of his body pressing against hers became maddening; the rigid line of his everything else wasn’t helping either.

“I’d like to clear something up.”

“Go on with yer bad self,” she encouraged.

“This
is
what I look like. I didn’t steal my image from anywhere. When I look at myself in the mirror, it’s exactly what I looked like before I died.”

Tight. “Consider that cleared up, then. Anything else you want to add?”

“Is this where I confess my past relationships, too?”

Delaney’s laugh was hoarse and gritty. “You suck at small talk.”

“Guilty again. But I just want to interject one thing.”

“Interject.”

“I find you really okay looking, too.” He pushed the strands of hair clinging to her cheek away with gentle fingers.

Fire shot from her toes to her cheeks. So okay. Golden.

It was on.

Let the sexcapades begin.

Hell to the yeah.

But Clyde didn’t make the first move. She wasn’t sure if he was waiting for her. It’d been so long, she wasn’t clear on what meant all systems go.

So she went for both of them.

Clenching her eyes shut, Delaney threw her arms around his neck and smashed her lips to his with fierce intent, but Clyde set her away from him with a flash of his white teeth and a rumbling chuckle. “Breathe. I need to do that in order to do this properly.”

Delaney reared her head back, mortified. Oh, the shame of inexperience. “Sorry. All of a sudden, I’m just nervous . . . it’s been a long time . . .”

Clyde hauled her closer, spanning his big hands over her lower back. “Understood. You can relax,” he coaxed, nipping at her jaw with his teeth and lips.

A wave of shivers clung to her skin as he worked his way toward her lips, grazing the shell of her ear, tracing a slow methodical pattern over it. Heat built in her chest, a simmer of blood sparking in her veins and nerve endings sizzling to life. Her heart began to thump so loud, she heard it in her ears, crashing erratically. The thickness in her throat created a lump of anxious energy.

Yet Clyde soothed her with confident, strong hands, allowing her time to not just anticipate, but acclimate.

His fingers slipped beneath the straps of her nightgown, dragging them over her shoulders. She let her arms slide free, the thin material falling to her waist, exposing her breasts. The cool air stung them pleasantly, making her nipples harden to tight peaks, rubbing against Clyde’s chest with delightful friction.

Lips, molten hot and silken, trailed along the curve of her neck, teasing the sensitive hollow with flitting strokes. Delaney gasped when he finally took her mouth, gripping her shoulders, kneading her flesh. Clyde devoured her lips, skimming the crease between them, slipping his tongue inside the hot cavern, stroking the inside of her mouth.

Her arms wound around his neck, her fingers drove into the raw silk of his hair, clinging to the strands in pleasure. Clyde shoved the blankets that separated them away, pushing at them with impatience. Dragging her nightgown over her head, he tossed it to the side, then yanked her panties to her ankles. Even her feet trembled when she kicked them off the bed.

His groan was a husky moan when their bare skin collided, filling her with hot lust. Clyde pulled her thigh over his hip, caressing it with confident hands, leaving her quivering when he dipped his fingers between them.

Wet warmth flooded her, dizzying flashes of light behind her closed eyelids came and went as Clyde explored deeper, lower. An almost violent shudder ran the course of her body when he parted the curls of her sex, and stroked her with a light digit. Slipping down her length, he whispered kisses across her collarbone and along the indentation of her shoulders, stopping only when he reached a painfully tight nipple.

The first thrust of his hot tongue against her long neglected breast was lost to savoring when it created such an electric current. Delaney gasped, sharp, clear, leaving a ringing in her ears as she bucked up against his hand still between her legs.

His tongue rasped at her nipple, licking it to a fine point, blowing on it with a soft caress of air. The muscles of her stomach clenched so tight they coiled with pleasure/pain.

Slow, soft sips at her breast became hot, forceful tugs, creating decadent swirls of building excitement. Pressure between her legs mounted when Clyde drew the nub of her clit between two fingers, rolling it, stroking it until it swelled.

Her fingers drove into his hair, clenching fistfuls when he left her breasts and shimmied down along her body. Clyde knelt before her while his strong, urgent hands parted her thighs. His head dipped, his breath whispering over the most intimate part of her before his tongue took the first sensual stroke.

Delaney’s hips bucked upward, reaching for the silken rasp of his tongue. Hot, sharp stings of pleasure taunted her, teased, building, pushing, driving her to find relief. Clyde’s tongue grew more insistent, he drove a finger into her, reaching a place she didn’t know existed, drawing a soft cry from her lips.

Tension mounted between her thighs, hot, wet, spiraling out of control until the last slick thrust Clyde took with his mouth and finger sent her head spinning. She clutched the sheets, driving her flesh against his mouth, gyrating against it, riding the sweet crest of orgasm.