Read SKIN (Demon Chaser 4) Online
Authors: Charlene Hartnady
“I’m really sorry. Are you okay? Shit,
are you bleeding?”
“I’m fine. Why are you sorry? That was
the best damned sex I’ve ever had.” She put her hand to her neck and pulled it
away. “I don’t see any blood. It’s a bit tender. It’s fine, a little bite never
hurt anyone.”
“Let me take a look.” Phoenix kicked his
jeans off, which were bunched up at his ankles, and moved over to her. “A
little scratch, but I never broke the skin.” He exhaled, looking relieved. “I’m
so sorry. I didn’t even think of wearing a condom. I wanted you so damned
badly.”
“Calm down. Skins only go into heat once
or twice in their whole lifetime and they need to be mated for it to happen.”
“I hate to point this out, but you’re
human at the moment and wolves and humans are able to reproduce easily.”
“I’ll get the morning after pill just to
be on the safe side. The last thing I want is a baby.”
Phoenix visibly relaxed. “I don’t want
any children.”
“As in ever?”
“Ever,” he turned dark eyes on her. “I
don’t plan on mating with a demon wolf and all the half bloods I know have had
tough lives.”
“There are a couple of demon species
that allow interbreeding, so you never know.”
“My pack is lenient to most species, but
I want a human mate. There is something about human women that...interests me.”
His remark hurt which took her
completely off guard. “Are you with someone?”
He smiled. “No. Wolves are generally
monogamous. I wouldn’t be here if I already had someone warming my bed.”
“So you’re not with a human but know
that you will end up mating one?” Damn, it still stung. The fact that if she
wasn’t human right now he probably wouldn’t be here and that ultimately it
didn’t matter because this was clearly a onetime deal, she shouldn’t care
either way because she had been the one that had made the no-strings-attached
offer in the first place.
Phoenix stood making his way to the
kitchen counter. He opened the bottled water and downed the contents.
“Something like that.” He reached down and snagged his jeans. “I think I’d
better get going.”
“I thought that wolves had high sex
drives.” She stood and went over to the fridge taking out a bottle of water for
herself. Normally she didn’t care too much about the skin she was in. Although
she was all woman, she didn’t mind putting on a male skin if the job called for
it. Right now she was incredibly happy that Macy Night had been a sexy woman.
The thought of Phoenix walking out the door just now had her tied up in knots.
She wanted him again. One more time to purge him from her system.
****
His gut told him it would be best to
leave. Although Gaby smelled like a human, he believed her when she said that
she was a demon skin. She looked the spitting image of Macy Night, and yet she
was not the same woman that he had seen countless times. Every demon sense he
possessed told him she was telling the truth. Which made things even stranger
when he couldn’t seem to bring himself to put his jeans on. Demon skins were
not the type that you usually wanted to hang out with, much less fuck.
Sex with this female, regardless of her
species, was exactly what he wanted though. Make that needed with a
determination he couldn’t quite understand.
“Do you have any condoms?” he asked.
“No. I told you that it’s been a long
time for me.”
Again, he believed her. Her pussy had
been tighter than that of a virgin. Just the thought of her snug, wet sheath
had his cock twitching back to life. Her time in the refrigerator had caused
her nipples to tighten into hard jutting points.
“You’ve already come inside me. I told
you I would take the pill and I will. I’m going for a shower you can either
leave or join me, the choice is yours.” She turned and walked away disappearing
into one of the bedrooms.
He could hear the water. As the minutes
ticked by, a picture formed in his mind of how she would look wet, lathered in
soap. He could hear her breathing, make that panting, she moaned. If it weren’t
for his demon wolf senses, the sounds would be too soft to make out. Christ,
she was touching herself. The longer he listened the more sure he was. His cock
jutted from his body. So hard he physically ached to be inside her.
Phoenix almost ran through her bedroom
and into the bathroom. Although the glass was fogged he could make out her
form. Her head flung back, her back arched, her legs wide, her hand...he
growled yanking open the shower door nearly tearing it from its hinges. “Were
you so sure I’d leave?”
“I washed and waited, when you didn’t
come I thought you’d left.” Her hand was still firmly between her legs. Her
cheeks flushed. Her wet blond strands dripping. Her entire body glistened with
the water that was still spraying from the shower head. She shrugged, her
breasts shifting with the movement. “I wasn’t done.”
“Well neither am I, not by a long shot.”
Phoenix pulled her from the shower. He
lifted the hand that had been on her pussy and sucked on the fingers that had
been inside her. Hounds she tasted good. Another growl was torn from him and
his canines extended reminding him that he needed to tread carefully. It wasn’t
that she was a skin or even that they were risking pregnancy that worried him
the most, it was that he had almost mated her. If his teeth had broken her skin
while they were having sex, they would have been bound together. He couldn’t
risk kissing her either. Aside from the risk of accidentally mating her, it
would be better if they didn’t kiss because there was something about this
woman that drew him in. He would fuck her again. Take her many times and in
many ways, but come morning he would leave and make sure that their paths never
crossed again.
Christ, he needed her again so fucking
badly. Aside from the delicious aromas of cherries, chocolates and sex, she reeked
of full blown arousal.
So addictive
. He knew that he should towel her
dry and take her to the bed. Knew that he should take his time this time around
and explore her body, but he couldn’t wait that long to be inside her. “Gaby, I
need to fuck you again.”
Her hooded eyes turned to him and she
nodded, “Sounds good.”
“I’ll try to be gentle.” He was already
moving her to the vanity, placing her on the slab of marble.
She wrapped her legs around him and
smiled. “I won’t break.”
He had to bend his knees slightly to
position the head of his cock at her opening. “I’ll take my time when we do
this again. I need you too badly right now.” She nodded. Her eyes dipped as he
pushed into her. Her head rolled back and her lips parted. This time, even
though she was impossibly tight, he sank home in one easy thrust. “Lean back
onto your arms behind you.” He slid his hands around her thighs trying to keep
his hold gentle. She’d said that he couldn’t break her which while true as a
skin was not true right now. Humans could break. He needed to keep a handle on
his demon. Phoenix repositioned her so that her ass was almost off the vanity.
Using firm easy strokes he fucked her while gritting his teeth to keep them
from extending any further. Already his balls were pulling up in anticipation
of his pending orgasm.
The pulse at the base of her slender,
porcelain neck drew his attention. What the fuck was wrong with him? He longed
to sink his teeth into her to taste her blood, to bond with her. If he had been
able, he would have pulled out and ran from the apartment. As it stood, he was
helpless but to continue. He pumped more furiously, his balls pulling tighter.
Holding back his orgasm almost hurt and sweat beaded on his brow.
Gaby made the most amazing noises. Her
eyes so hooded they almost looked closed, but he knew she watched him just as
he watched her. Then her legs were locking tighter around him and her hands flew
up, they clutched at his biceps. The first flutter of her pussy walls against
his cock almost took him over the edge. He growled clenching his jaw. She was
moaning and with every thrust the flutter became a light squeeze and then she
was screaming his name as her pussy walls clamped down hard on his cock. He
roared as his semen jetted into her.
Sex had never been this good.
Gaby crept into the Demon Control Agency
operational headquarters using the back entrance. She really didn’t feel like
running into anyone. She hoped that she wasn’t walking like a cowboy. It sure
felt like it. She’d woken up to an empty bed after an hour or two of sleep, at
most, after a night of marathon sex. They’d made love...make that fucked so
many times she’d lost count. He’d made sure that she had orgasmed every time.
She was swollen and sensitive and needed to get to medical before going to file
a report.
Aside from a pair of glasses, Doctor Devlin
Taylor was nothing like your cliché mad scientist, he was pretty darned
hunkalishous with a body that filled his lab coat. There were even rumors of
multiple tattoos.
His nostrils flared as she walked into
his office. Damn, even though she had showered, he could probably smell what
she’d been up to last night. Sex without a condom left a scent on the woman for
days after.
Devlin was a demon dragon. Most humans
were oblivious to the fact that there were different demon species among them
living inside of fellow humans. All fairy tales, folk lores and myths had
grounding and truth to them. Creatures like werewolves, vampires and trolls all
existed although many of the details were just old wives tales such as that holy
water killed vampires, which were actually known as demon bloods.
Gaby was still concerned that she
couldn’t feel her demon inside her. The one that gave her, her powers.
“What can I do for you this morning?”
His nostrils flared again as she took another step into his office. He leaned
back onto his desk and folded his legs. If it weren’t for the bulging tendons
in his neck, she’d say he looked the picture of calm.
“Don’t I smell a little different?”
He openly sniffed in her direction. His
eyes narrowed before darting down the length of her body and back. Devlin did
something she’d never seen before, he fidgeted, starting by folding and
unfolding his legs. He stood and took a step towards her, then turned and
walked behind his desk and sat down there. His eyebrows were drawn together in thought.
“I’m concerned.” He left the sentence hanging. Devlin closed his eyes for a
while, and then pinched the bridge of his nose for a few seconds. His eyes
flew open. “I’m sorry, I’m being rude please”—he gestured to the seat across
the desk from him—“sit.”
“I know, it’s a little strange isn’t it?”
“Have you come to me for an explanation
or do you know what’s going on?” He adjusted his glasses, leaned forward,
grimaced and dropped back again.
“I was hoping you could shed some light,
Doc.”
“I’m sorry. I need to open a window. I’m
not going to be able to carry on with this conversation otherwise.”
What the hell?
“I smell like a human not some form of rotten cabbage smelling alien even
though that’s how you’re looking at me.”
His eyes widened in shock. “You’re
right, I hadn’t even noticed.”
“Wait just a minute. Explain what it is
we’ve been talking about for the last minute.”
“You
smell really good. How do I explain this without sounding like a complete
jerk?”
Phoenix’s
words came back to her, he’d said that she smelled like food. “Edible.”
“Yeah,” he nodded. “It could be that
you’re ovulating at the moment. In heat and excreting some sort of pheromone.”
He swivelled in his chair and opened the window behind him as wide as it would
go. “I wish we knew a bit more about demon skins.”
She wished she knew more too. Her people
mostly kept to themselves. Elusive and highly dangerous. Skins were one of the
demon species that often stepped out of line. She’d been raised by humans and
had only found out who she was as a young adult. That was when she had decided
she wanted to work for the agency and had started her training as a Demon
Control Agent more commonly known as Demon Chasers. Once she’d graduated, she’d
used the agency’s DNA data base to track down her parents and had found out why
they had abandoned her, why her whole race shunned her.
“You had sex last night and didn’t use
protection.”
Shit.
Her hearts stopped beating for a second or two before the first one started up
again, the second following close behind. Pregnancy was the first thing that
came to mind after a comment like that. The last thing she wanted was a baby to
complicate her life. Phoenix had made it clear that he wasn’t interested in any
kind of relationship. He was into humans. He didn’t want to be a father,
especially to a half breed baby. Gaby took a deep breath. Her plan had been to
take something to stop a pregnancy from happening before it could happen. Damn,
she was babbling inside her own mind. “I don’t want a baby. You need to give me
something please.”
“The best course of action would be to do
an ultrasound to check if you are ovulating and then take action accordingly.
Let’s not jump to any premature conclusions. We’ll also do a blood analysis, as
certain hormones will be spiking if you are. We’ll get to the bottom of this.”
Devlin took a jar of Vicks out of his desk drawer and dabbed some of the camphor
under each nostril. He then took out a surgeon’s mask. “Please take off your
shoes and lie on the bed,” his voice was muffled behind the mask.
She did as he asked.
“Great, undo the top button of your
jeans and pull them down slightly. Lift up your shirt to just under your
breasts.” He cleared his throat, donned a pair of surgical gloves and made his
way to her.
The gel was warm, he used a gloved hand
to spread it over her tummy before placing the head of the ultrasound wand
thingy firmly onto her belly. Devlin moved the device over her skin up and down
and from side to side before zoning in on a spot he seemed to be interested in.
His brow was furrowed.
“Oh my, this is interesting.”
“What is it?”
When he didn’t answer, Gaby looked at
the screen, trying hard to decipher what it was exactly he was looking at but
all she could see were what looked like globs on the screen. Patches of dark
with lighter areas.
“Alright, this uterus looks clear. No
thickening of the uterus lining or swelling of the ovum.”
“What do you mean this uterus?”
“You have two uteri, Gaby. Please tell
me that you knew.”
She shook her head. She was a demon for
Christ sake, they never got sick and healed quickly. This was probably the
second time she’d ever been to the doctor.
“I’m sorry. It’s news to me too. I knew
that demon skins always have twin pregnancies and at least now we know why.”
Devlin moved the device across her belly. “You have a single birth canal that
splits into two uteri, each uterus only has one follicle and fallopian tube.”
He paused zoning in on another spot on her tummy. “This one is also clear. No
signs of a pending or recent ovulation.”
At first she couldn’t respond, was too
dumb founded about the news of having two wombs. Then the lack of any sign of
ovulation didn’t ease her concern any. “I think I’d rather be safe than sorry
and take something just to be sure.”
He raised his eyebrows. “I can give you
a shot but I have to warn you, it’ll put you out of commission for a day or
two.” Then he took on a worried look and removed the mask, grimaced and put it
back on. He’d said that she smelled good, yet he was acting like ripe cheese
had nothing on her.
“On second thought, I keep forgetting
about your current human condition. The shot I was referring to was developed
for demons and may be too powerful.”
“I may not smell like a demon, but I am
one. I’ll take the shot.”
“I recommend that we take some blood and
then monitor the situation over the next few days, if you show any signs of
ovulating we’ll give you the shot and admit you. I’d prefer not to take any
risks.”
“Well, Dev, I also don’t want to take
any risks. What are the chances of my falling pregnant if I take the shot?”
This whole situation was bad enough when there was a small chance of her
falling pregnant with one child, let alone twins. Even if that chance was as
low as one percent, she wasn’t risking it. Not after having worked damn hard to
prove herself as an agent. Not with a man who didn’t want anything to do with
her.
“You’ll be sick, Gaby. Twenty-four...forty-eight
hours of vomiting, diarrhea, headaches, severe cramping. Some species have
reported bleeding.” His eyes were stern.
“Give me the shot.”
He shook his head, running his hand
through his hair. “Fine.” He walked over to a small refrigerator in the corner
and took out a small sealed vile. From a drawer to his right he pulled out a
sealed syringe. Gaby raised herself to a sitting position and grabbed some of
the paper towels to remove the gel from her tummy as she watched him skilfully
assemble the syringe and needle and then draw the contents of the vile into it.
She was just standing to button up her jeans when he waved his hand at her.
“Turn and pull your pants down a
little.” She did as he asked pulling the jeans down off of her left ass cheek.
“I said a little not all the way down,” he
sounded angry. She pulled her pants back up a tad. “I’ll do this on the condition
that you keep your phone with you. I’m calling you every two hours to check on
you. If you don’t answer I’m sending an ambulance. Are we clear?” He swabbed
the area on her backside.
“Yeah.” The needle stung as it pierced
her skin and then some more as the liquid entered her system. Pain, not
something she was used to.
Where the hell was her demon?
For just a
second she closed her eyes feeling guilty about the less than one percent
chance that there could have been a life inside her...make that two lives. At
least this way she would stop this
before
anything could happen. Before
genetic material had enough time to become a life. The last thing the world
needed was more unwanted children. Half breeds at that, but she knew deep down
that she was lying to herself. She did want children one day. If only things
had been a bit different, she felt a lump rise in her throat and swallowed it
down. Silly because the chances were just so small. Maybe she didn’t know about
having two uteri but she did know that skins only came in heat after they were mated,
and even then it happened only once or twice in a lifetime.
“You have exactly thirty minutes to get
home and in bed. Keep a bed pan handy. And Gaby...” She had just finished doing
up her jeans and turned to face him. “Keep your phone handy.”
“I will thanks.” She set her watch. It
wouldn’t do to become gravely ill before making it home. That report would have
to wait. She was calling in sick for a few days.
*
* * *
Gaby had just pushed the button to open
her car doors when a voice behind her startled her. “Hi.”
She turned and almost knocked into a
massive chest.
“Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you. I’m
Tim.” The man was dressed all in black, as was required for sting operations.
He was tall, built like a brick shit house and was young.
Must be one of the
newbies.
She reluctantly took his hand. His
nostrils flared and an uneasy feeling settled into the pit of her stomach. “I’m
Gabriella. I need to go.”
“Please, no.” He had yet to let go of
her hand. “Have coffee with me please.”
“Thanks, but no I need to go home now.”
“I could come with you.” He looked
shocked at the admission. “What I meant to say was dinner. Would you like to
have dinner some time?” His nostrils flared again and his hungry gaze dropped
to her breasts. She wore a sports bra and a black tank top but boobs this big
were kind of out there no matter what the outfit, which was beginning to irritate
her.
Gaby tried to pry her hand away, “Let
go.” He did but it was with reluctance.
“Look I’m sorry, but I have to say that
you are the most beautiful women I have ever met. I...” he sniffed at her. “God
you smell so good.”
Something was seriously wrong with her.
First those bloods, then Phoenix, Doc Devlin and now this newbie. All of them
had told her how good she smelled. The bloods had almost raped her, Phoenix had
fucked her for hours. He had acted like he couldn’t get enough of her. Kept
promising that the next time he’d take it slow, but every time was with that
same urgency. It had turned her on to know that she’d had that effect on him,
especially considering he’d known Macy but they had never been together. He had
wanted her, Gaby, not just what she looked like on the outside. Maybe she had been
wrong. There was something about the way she smelled ever since she lost her
demon that was turning men just a little bit coo coo. Even Devlin had treated
her like the plague although she now suspected it was because he was turned on
by her.
“Turn around and walk away.”
“I can’t do that.” He licked his lips,
his nostrils flaring every time he inhaled. He slid his hands around her waist.
“I’m sorry. Oh God, please,” he sounded agonised. “I need you.”
“Take your hands the fuck off me. Turn
around and walk away.”