What a Demon Wants (19 page)

“Oh God,” she cried as she felt that rising feeling again. The thrust upward toward something…something…

She screamed, pushing his face harder against her. Her orgasm shook her whole body, surging through her like shock wave after shock wave.

“Jude,” she murmured, but he didn’t give her time to recover or even fully understand what had happened, because he rose and turned her back around. Then using his own body like a mold, he bent her forward, bracing her hand against the wall under his.

“Spread your legs,” he said, his mouth back next to her ear. She did as he asked, loving how exposed she felt to him. He straightened and stroked a hand over her bottom, then down the crevice between her cheeks, down farther still to her vagina.

“God, you are sexy,” he said, his finger dipping inside her. He thrust in and out, stretching her, teasing her. Then he repositioned himself over her.

She gasped as she felt his penis, the shaft much, much thicker than his finger. He nudged her and she arched against him.

“Do I want you?” he asked, his voice rough with desire.

She nodded.

“Do I want you?” he repeated, his hands locking on her hips.

“Yes,” she said, her voice breathy, desperate.

“And do you want me?” He leaned over her and bit her shoulder blade, the nip causing her whole body to vibrate.

“Yes,” she cried. “Oh God, yes.”

Jude tightened his hold on her hips and thrust into her. She cried out, her orgasm hitting before he even began to move.

Chapter 20

Jude gritted his teeth, trying to remain in control as Ellina’s vagina pulsed around his erection, squeezing him, stroking him with every swell of her still-occurring release.

God, she felt good. She felt perfect.

Then just as her orgasm seemed to calm to small ripples, he began to move, stroking in and out of her tightness, deep and smooth. He curled over her; his hand over hers pinned them to the wet tiles.

“Ellina,” he muttered roughly, his pace becoming more and more frantic. He drove into her, feeling that electricity they shared snapping around them. Snapping in his blood, building and building, urging him harder and deeper, until he cried out, curling over her, his chest to her back, his penis still deep inside her.

They remained that way, breathing heavy, the water pounding on them for seconds, minutes. Jude didn’t know.

Finally he straightened, carefully pulling himself from her. She made a small noise, then stood too.

He turned her in his arms and kissed her. The pressure of his mouth was possessive, and she moaned, leaning into his possession.

He broke the kiss to turn off the water, then he kissed her again in the steam, letting the air cool their still burning bodies. After several seconds of tasting each other, claiming each other, he stepped out of the tub and grabbed two towels from the cabinet. He unfolded one and wrapped it around Ellina’s flushed body.

Then he looped his around his hips. Holding hands, they left the bathroom. Once in her room, he moved behind her and positioned her in front of him, his arms wrapped around her middle. He rested his chin on her shoulder.

“Do you have any idea of how beautiful you are?”

She nodded.

“Both sides of you?”

Ellina tried to turn in his arms, but he held her fast and directed her toward the mirror over her bureau. They both stared at her reflection.

She didn’t say anything for a moment, then she reached up to touch her face. “It’s normal me.”

He nodded.

“I change back after I—orgasm?”

“You changed back about halfway through.”

She shook her head. “How?”

He shrugged. “Maybe because you weren’t so worried about it.”

Ellina thought about his theory. Maybe he was right. She knew she shouldn’t ask, but she couldn’t stop herself.

“Which do you like better?”

Jude caught her chin gently between his finger and thumb. His green eyes peered deep into hers. “You will believe what I say, right?”

She nodded.

“I like both sides of you. My angel and my demon.”

She stared at him, seeing nothing but sincerity in his expression. Then she squeaked as he scooped her up and carried her to the bed. He placed her on the center, then followed her down.

They curled in the middle, their arms and legs intertwined. Both of them quiet and peaceful.

“I was your first, wasn’t I?” he asked almost hesitantly.

“Well, with my little sexual quirk, what do you think?”

He lifted his head to look at her, then he stroked her cheek, regret in his eyes. “I should have been—gentler. But I was angry. Hurt.”

She winced. “I know. I’m sorry.”

“But it’s still no excuse for being so rough,” he added.

“You were making love to a demon,” she said giving him a saucy smile. “I think I can handle it.”

Then she leaned in and kissed him, lingering for a moment. “It was perfect.”

They were quiet again.

“I think you are right,” he said suddenly, and Ellina lifted her head to look at him.

“Probably,” she agreed, “but about what?”

“I think your father doesn’t like the books because of the relationship between Jenny and Dante.”

Ellina laughed. “What made you think about that?”

“I was just reading the fifth book last night, and Dante is pretty harsh. Pretty unlikable. He’s based on your dad, isn’t he?”

She nodded. “Yes.”

“I bet that’s hard for him to read.”

Ellina laughed humorlessly. “He doesn’t read them.”

“He must have to react to them so strongly.”

She’d never considered that. She’d just assumed he’d heard about them from others and formulated his own opinion based on that.

“And why did you use real spells in the stories? It wasn’t really necessary.”

“I don’t know,” she said honestly. “Maybe—maybe because I felt a need to understand that side of myself. Since I didn’t get any of the demon abilities, I think I felt even more need to really know them.”

She rolled over, so she was resting her chin on his chest. “Why all the questions?”

He smiled at her, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. “I happen to find you intriguing.”

She smiled back. “How intriguing?”

She ran a hand over the smooth skin of his chest, feeling his muscles tense as moved lower…lower…lower still.

“Very, very intriguing.”

She laughed, loving the sudden freedom she had with this man. It was all new, but it felt so right, so natural, it was easy to just go with her desires. He’d seen all of her—quite literally—and if the reaction that she was seeing under the covers was any indication, he’d truly had liked what he’d seen.

“So do you think we could have a replay of what happened in the shower?”

“Oh, I think we can do that,” he said, breathing in sharply as her fingers curled round his already erect penis. “After all, you’ve waited a long time for this.”

She nodded, and it was on the tip of her tongue to say she’d waited a long time for him. But she didn’t, afraid that might be too much.

This was all way too new.

It was almost evening when she and Jude actually managed to crawl out of bed, and only because Maksim called.

“I feel like such a selfish jerk,” she announced as soon as she hung up the phone.

“Why?” Jude asked, coming out of the guest room, pulling on a shirt.

“I spend the day having sex, when I should have been with my brother. Jo is doing much, much better. They are even saying she can go home in the next day or so.”

“Do you want to go see them?”

Ellina wanted to stay here, alone with Jude. But she did want to see her family too.

“Maybe we could just go for a little while,” she said, even as her hand stroked down over his chest, fiddling with the waistband of his jeans.

He smiled at her, catching her hand and bringing it up to kiss her fingers.

“You told me you’d be a demon in bed, but you didn’t say you’d be an insatiable one.”

She smiled. “I thought that was implied.”

But she did force herself to leave Jude and go freshen up.

As soon as they got to the hospital, Jude wished he’d not been the decent, selfless guy and he’d taken Ellina back to bed. When they walked through the door of Jo’s room, he and Ellina were greeted by the evil twins.

Pasha stood by the window, looking bored. Andrey talked to Maksim and Jo was sitting up at an angle in her hospital bed, the baby nestled beside her.

“Oh, look it’s sis. And her boy-to—friend. Boyfriend.”

Maksim glanced at the doorway, clearly bewildered. “Ellina’s boyfriend?”

“Yes, I brought Jude,” she said quickly, smiling in what she hoped was a natural way.

Maksim frowned, but simply nodded. “So Jude has met the twins.”

“Yes, I have. They made quite an impact too.”

Both Pasha and Andrey smirked at Jude’s comment.

Ellina decided it was best to speak with Jo for a moment, then leave.

“Jo,” she said, going to sit in a chair beside the bed, and on the other side from the twins. “You look good.”

Her sister-in-law smiled; only hints of exhaustion were on her face. Then she smiled at her baby. “I’m much better. And this little one was worth every minute.”

Maksim spoke up then, distracted away from his talk with the twins. “She’s insisting we have more.”

“Just one,” Jo assured him, patting his hand.

Maksim shook his head, obviously still not on board with the idea. But Ellina had no doubt Jo would sway him.

“But you,” Jo said with a curious smile, “you look wonderful.” Her sister-in-law gave a pointed look at Jude, who was trying to be sociable with her brothers.

Ellina blushed. “Yeah. I’m feeling pretty wonderful.”

Jo gave her an approving look.

“And I like the red hair,” Maksim said—apparently eavesdropping.

“Very Little Orphan Annie,” Pasha said, and Ellina didn’t miss his implication.

Another stab at her not being a real member of the family.

But the jab didn’t hurt. Not like it would have once. Because, as she looked around the small room, she realized she had four people here who cared about her. Three more than the twins.

Well, little Barrett had no opinion yet, but he would. And he’d think she was the greatest auntie in the world.

“I have a favor to ask you,” Jo said, changing the subject. “I’ve been trying to reach Maggie and Erika, but neither of them ever seem to have a cell phone that works, so I was hoping you could go to the bar and tell them what’s going on.”

Ellina’s first reaction was to think of an excuse why she couldn’t do that. But she felt herself nod.

“Sure. I can do that.”

“Are you sure?” Jo double-checked.

Ellina nodded. “It won’t be a problem.”

She looked around the room to see Maksim looking worried. The twins looked intrigued—in that way a person was when they expected failure. And Jude looked puzzled.

She smiled at them all. She could do it.

“So what was that back there?” Jude asked once they were outside. “What’s so odd about going to this bar for Jo?”

“Well,” Ellina started slowly. “You know how the demon comes out when I’m aroused.”

“Indeed I do,” he said with a lascivious grin.

She laughed. “Well, the other time the demon comes out is in crowds.”

Jude paused in the middle of the parking lot to look at her.

“Is that why you don’t make public appearances?”

She shook her head. “It’s starting to weird me out that you know so much about me.

But yes, that’s why. At one of my first book signings, I had a huge crowd and, well, you know what happened.”

“What did you do?”

“Hid in the bathroom for forty-five minutes, then told the organizer that I was sick. It was mortifying.”

“Then do you think we should go do this?”

Ellina considered it, not for the first time since Jo asked, and nodded. “It’s a Monday night, so Bourbon probably won’t be wall-to-wall people, and I think I’m able to control it now.”

Jude pulled his keys from his pocket and unlocked the van with the remote. He opened the door for her.

“You are doing great controlling it with me,” he said. In fact that had become a game. Have sex with the angel. Have sex with the demon—a game he quite liked, by the way. “But this is different.”

“I know,” she said, but then said resolutely, “but I want not to have to hide in my house forever. I want to be in control for real.”

Jude nodded. He understood that. Isn’t that what he wanted too?

“Okay,” he said, closing her door and getting in on his side. “Here we come, Bourbon Street.”

“This isn’t too bad,” Ellina said as she walked down the center of Bourbon, heading toward the bar. Jude had to admit it wasn’t too crowded, but it was early too.

“This is the bar.”

Before they stepped inside, the sounds of classic rock reached them. Jude listened.

“Sweet Home Alabama.”

Jude took Ellina’s hand as they stepped into the murky neon light of the bar. The dance floor was right in front of them, and there were quite a few people gyrating around in tipsy abandon.

Ellina squeezed his fingers, but continued to walk through to the bar. He directed them to two empty bar stools and they took a seat, watching the band.

Ellina had already informed him on the drive who the band members were—Maggie, Jo’s dear friend, and her husband Ren. Vittorio was Ren’s brother and married to Jo’s other best friend, Erika. They were all vampires—lampirs actually.

And Jude could actually tell that. He could feel the band siphoning off energy from the room. He didn’t like that much.

“Oh, I think that’s Erika,” Ellina said, pointing to a tall female with pale skin and long black hair, sitting at the other bar.

Ellina immediately got up and started toward her. Jude stood to follow, but not before a drunken man in a business suit caught Ellina’s arm and hauled her onto the dance floor.

Jude hurried to follow, getting ready to push the guy away and pull her back to where the bar was less crowded. But then he paused.

He’d expected Ellina to look panicked. But instead she was laughing. And dancing.

She waved for Jude to join her.

He did, and she pulled him close. They both swayed to a Journey song.

When they were done, Ellina kissed him.

“Thank you.”

He frowned. “For what?”

“For thinking I’m okay,” she said simply.

He kissed her. “Oh, sweetheart, I think you are way more than okay.”