Lifebound Read online

  “Josh! Oh don’t stop!” She’d had no idea she could orgasm from breast play alone. She trembled uncontrollably.

  When he moved to give his attention to the other breast, his fingers slipped below to caress her belly and the tops of her thighs, tantalizing her with almost touches to the curls that veiled her clitoris.

  “Please, please, Josh! Don’t make me wait.” She wriggled under his hands to bring him closer to the spot she most wanted him to caress.

  “You said you wanted it to last forever. Did you change your mind?”

  She grabbed at his hair and pulled his mouth to hers to plunder it. She pulled at his lips with hers, sucked at his tongue, and tasted him deeply. When she pushed him away, he continued to lean in toward her, his mouth seeking hers.

  “I can do more things with my lips than kiss. Do you want to wait for that?”

  “No, ma’am.”

  “Then quit playing around and get to business, skaterboy.” Over the past several days, she’d experienced numerous incredible moments of pleasure as Josh’s inventiveness and use of creative props had taken her body to places it had never been. But nothing he’d done before compared to the wildfire that erupted inside her when his fingers lightly stroked her outer folds.

  “Is that better?”

  “More, Josh. More. Now.”

  “How’s this?”

  He pressed his fingertips onto her bud more firmly, stroking and toying with her clitoris as his mouth explored and circled a nipple. Swirls of twin pleasure rolled through her body, surging back and forth within her so she couldn’t focus on either location of exquisite torment. First she’d feel his tongue suckling at her areola, pulling the entire circle into the warmth of his mouth. Then his fingers would stroke deep inside her core, taunting her clitoris, stretching and thumbing it so it vibrated with waves of deep delight.

  “So good. You are so good, so sweet.” She moaned and whimpered, helpless in the power of his deep, wonderful, giving touch. “You have to do this to me all the time.”

  “Absolutely,” he murmured against her breast, then tugged at her nipple hard with his lips as he reached deep inside her, his thumb firm against the epicenter of her sex. He pulled her to the brink over and over before casting her into the waves at last. The next orgasm burst through her with its twin epicenters of pleasure, and her back arched to bring him even closer.

  “Josh! Oh Josh, yes!” She felt certain her cry could be heard on the beach.

  Josh smiled as Adriana fell back onto the bed, her breath coming in heaves and soft groans.

  He propped on his elbow and stroked her stomach, her skin trembling beneath his fingertips. She was so beautiful. So creamy smooth and round in all the right places. “I’m going to kiss every inch of you. Starting here.” He lowered his head and pressed his mouth against her stomach. She smelled like vanilla and tasted like sweet cream.

  Adriana moved beneath him. She sat up and pushed him back onto the mattress with such force that Josh wondered if perhaps he had hurt her somehow. But when she pulled the condom free of his hardened shaft, the smolder in her eyes told him otherwise.

  “Lie very still,” she whispered. “You’re mine now.”

  He thought he would explode in her hand that very moment. But he did as she asked and fought the urge to tumble her beneath him, instead allowing her to wind her legs over his as she sat up beside him.

  One hand encircled his hardness and the other traced lazy patterns across his chest, pausing ever so often to pinch and tug lightly at his nipples. She must have liked that, he thought to himself with a grin of pride. But thought shortly became impossible as the throbbing of his penis took over his mind completely.

  “You like this?”

  “Oh, baby, you know I do.”

  “I wonder how long I can make it last then.”

  Her fingers circled and pulled, alternately squeezing and brushing so he could never guess which touch she would feature next. He groaned softly and his eyes drifted shut, as he lay hypnotized by her actions. The next sensation he felt was so unexpectedly pleasurable that his eyes snapped open again.

  The warmth of her mouth slipped over the head of his penis, surrounding him with its softness, and the center of his entire consciousness focused with laser intensity on that small area of skin and nerve endings. Every stroke of her lips and tongue threatened to send him out of his skin. He gripped the sheets tightly in an effort to hold back the explosion that built within him. Time stopped as she lavished herself on him.

  She doesn’t have to do this. He hadn’t gone there for her yet, and in his experience, women only went down on a guy as payback. He had never been offered the act as a gift in its own right. As she kissed and stroked him with her mouth and tongue, he slid closer and closer to the brink, and out of nowhere he understood what it meant to have a lover, not just a sex partner. For the first time in his life, he truly felt loved.

  “Adriana, what are you doing to me?”

  “This,” she said cryptically. “Close your eyes. Just feel.”

  She shifted against him as she straddled his body with hers, first slipping on a fresh condom, then herself over him to envelop him in a warmth even deeper and more encompassing than her mouth had been. She was tight around him, so tight she had to be a virgin. He couldn’t believe he was lucky enough to be her first—and more than anything he wanted to be her one and only.

  “You feel so good, baby.”

  “Just be still and let me love you.”

  She rocked against him in rhythm, running her hands over his chest and shoulders, leaning forward to press her breasts, those soft sweet breasts, against his chest. Each movement of her hips back and forth stirred the pool of sensation centered at the root of his dick, shaking him to the core of his body.

  She wriggled against him so the soft skin of her ass pressed into his hips, then reached behind herself to fondle his testicles. No woman had ever thought to give his boys some play. He’d had no idea her tickling touch would send him nearly through the roof. How had he found someone this precious? This loving?

  Unable to resist her, he opened his eyes to watch her sway against him. Her hair brushed her shoulders and he ran his fingers through its silk, then stroked the skin of her belly and thighs, marveling at its creaminess. He wanted her, all of her. He wanted her forever beside him, no matter the cost, no matter the consequences.

  She rolled forward once more to kiss him, her body pulling at his shaft so the pool inside him tumbled and boiled. The instant her lips met his, he lost what had so far passed for self-control.

  “I got to have you now, baby.”

  In a single fluid move, he rolled her beneath him and thrust into her. When she grabbed at his back, the depth charge within him grew more powerful, eclipsing everything but the feel of her around him. Her legs wrapped around his waist, dragging him even deeper into her body, a place he desperately wanted to be. She gasped and a tear escaped the corner of her eye.

  He was hurting her. The thought sobered him, and he forced himself to stop moving. He would not hurt her for the world.

  But she pulled him into her again, thrusting her hips upward against his. “Don’t stop, Josh. Take me right now.”

  She clenched at his back with her fingernails, and the bright half-moons of pain on his skin only shortened the fuse of the explosion to come in him. She rocked against him once more and control became something he’d only heard of—it had no place in his being any longer.

  She moaned and sighed, the sounds of her pleasure pushing him even deeper into her warm tightness. Then she began to constrict around him with a cry, and the surging pool in his groin went off like a geyser. His breath left him with a groan of his own as his body shook with the overwhelming release.

  He looked down at her as she lay there against the pillow
s, her silky hair cast in wanton tangles around her head. She was so beautiful. So soft and precious to him. All he wanted was to gather her into his arms and hold her forever.

  So he did.

  They lay there tangled in the sheets and in each other’s arms for a long while. Josh had to stop himself over and over from asking her to marry him right then and there. But he didn’t. He wanted to do it right. She deserved a real proposal with dinner and a ring and him down on one knee. He wanted her to know in her heart he was sincere and that she meant everything to him.

  He kissed her again and again, so glad to be able to do so.

  “I love you,” he murmured, unwilling to keep it to himself any longer.

  “That’s just the sex talking,” she teased.

  “Well, it was pretty incredible.” He laughed. “But I do love you, sex or no sex.”

  She lay there with her head on his shoulder, her fingers making little patterns on his arms and chest. He wondered if she would return the words, then decided she didn’t have to.

  After a while, she glanced up at the clock and sighed. “Only about twenty minutes to go.”

  “What do you want to do?” he asked. “We can just lie here together or we can have more incredible sex.”

  “I vote for incredible sex.”

  But when she rolled over against him, he caught a wince of pain on her face. He would not hurt her. But he did have an idea that might dull the pain just a little.

  “You just lie still.” He winked.

  Adriana had no idea that it was possible to experience a more intense orgasm than Josh had already given her. But when he began to work his way down her body with his mouth, she knew she was in for something very different this time.

  Every spot he caressed felt beautiful and every tender place he kissed felt loved. She relaxed into his hands knowing that whatever else happened that night or for the rest of their lives, Josh loved her. As he pressed hot kisses onto the sensitive skin of her thighs, she began to feel very guilty that she hadn’t returned the words.

  She wanted to, oh she wanted to. But wanting and doing were two different things. Josh had no idea of the mess they were getting into. Everyone at Wiccan Haus had warned them to stay away from each other for very good reasons.

  But as the tip of his tongue met the bud of her clitoris, she forgot all those very good reasons. He nuzzled her and stroked her, sending lightning shivers of sensation throughout her entire body. Her head thrashed helplessly against the pillow as she moaned against the waves of pleasure. Any residual soreness from their earlier lovemaking faded rapidly in the onslaught of ecstasy that ran over her body, leaving chill bumps behind.

  Over and over he took her past the boundaries of her body into a wonderland of pure delight. She shivered as the little flicks and tickles of his lips and mouth cascaded over her in orgasm after orgasm.

  At last she practically dragged him up onto her because she needed him inside her again. He was too far away from her, and in the many days to come, he would be too far away from her again.

  “Are you sure?” He moved up to lie beside her.

  “Yes, please, Josh.” She pulled him into her.

  He slipped inside her again, moving as gently as possible. She tried to keep her face open and welcoming, but she couldn’t help but wrinkle her brow at the discomfort.

  Her previous relationships with other lamia had been very short lived and very long ago. They had left her feeling used and desperate, and her body had closed itself off from intimacy. Now, despite the discomfort of opening herself up again, she knew she’d been right to wait for Josh. She’d been right to wait for the one who loved her, who cherished her.

  She pushed aside any twinges, knowing that tomorrow she would be sore, that she would still feel the effects of their lovemaking even after the spell had worn off and they were back to the briefest of contacts. The tenderness he left behind would remind her of the way she felt right that moment with their bodies intertwined.

  A sadness enveloped her and threatened to ruin the moment even as it occurred. All that matters is right now. She rocked against him, stroking the tight muscles of his back and buttocks with her fingers, memorizing every inch of the wonderful man who shared her bed.

  “You feel so good,” he gasped. “So sweet.”

  She smiled at him and watched him enjoy her, glad she could give him the same kind of incredible pleasure he had given her.

  Then a tickle began in her skin that had nothing to do with the press of Josh’s warm skin against hers. A surge began to grow that was not caused by the way his hardness caressed her softness.

  It was over. Tears sprang to her eyes as she began to fight the return of the field of energy around them.

  “Hurry, Josh,” she whispered. “We’re almost out of time.”

  The sudden look of sadness that crossed his face almost broke her heart. He stopped and began to pull free of her, but she reached out for him instead.

  “No, please finish,” she said. “I want to feel you let go inside me again. Please give me that.”

  He nodded and began to push into her once more, but still held back to keep from hurting her further.

  He couldn’t hold back. He needed to take her hard and fast, or it would be too late.

  She wanted it like that. She wanted him to leave his mark on her. When they went back to their regular non-touching lives, she wanted to feel him with her in every ache and pain for as long as she could.

  So she thrust herself against him, grabbing at his ass and urging him deeper inside her. “Harder! Faster!” She hoped a take-control attitude would be a turn-on.

  Fortunately, the rough stuff appeared to work as he reached a climax so strong she could feel his pulse beating against her.

  As he sank against her in release, he also rolled away, and not a moment too soon.

  Within seconds, the energy fields that had been her constant companion and source of vitality her entire life surged back around her, enveloping her once more with the push and pull of the life force that nourished her.

  But as she turned to look at Josh, his eyes closed in exhaustion, his breath still coming in heaves, she knew the real push and pull of life lay beside her. The real nourishment she needed was him.

  And he was lost to her.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Adriana reluctantly peeled herself free of the warmth of Josh’s bed very early the next morning, pushing aside the pillows that surrounded her and easing his pillow-protected arm off her stomach while making sure not to make physical contact with his skin. He murmured a little and pulled the pillows into his chest, resting his cheek against the soft linen.

  “O, that I were a glove upon that hand, that I might touch that cheek,” she quoted, then shook herself. They were not Romeo and Juliet. Somehow they would make it work. She believed in Josh. He meant what he said to her, love meant more than sex. Somehow they would love and thrive until they could come back to Wiccan Haus. “In a year and a half,” she sighed aloud.

  He slept so peacefully she couldn’t find it in herself to wake him. So she brushed his lips ever so briefly with hers, the contact enough to balance her for the entire day, and headed downstairs for a cup of Sage’s tea.

  In the lobby, Cemil and Myron stood at the huge desk, deep in discussion.

  “I’m telling you, Cemil,” Myron said, “the portal will open in thirty minutes whether all the paranormals are ready to go or not. If there are any humans that still don’t have a clue, you’d best get Sage to knock them out or start working on your cover story.”

  Cemil ran one hand through his blond hair and groaned. “I hate that damned portal. Why can’t it be consistent? Every arrival and every departure it’s the same old story.”

  “I’ll call all the paras and tell them to get their asse
s downstairs pronto.” Myron caught sight of Adriana. “Portal in thirty if you are taking it instead of the ferry.”

  “You mean you don’t know?” Adriana half-teased, half-asked the precog.

  “I call ’em like I see ‘em. Sometimes I don’t see ’em.” Myron held out a long, thick white envelope bearing the Velen crest. “You have a letter.”

  Adriana started to refuse it. Her family could have nothing to say to her. Nothing remained to be said.

  But curiosity got the better of her, and she opened it to see her mother’s distinctively artistic handwriting covering the page. Her hands shaking, she forced herself to read.

  Adriana,

  I hope you have had a good holiday and your rest has improved your outlook on selecting your new host. The Council has made a few preliminary recommendations and I have enclosed their particulars. When you return home today, your father and I will be happy to give our opinions on the applicants.

  Adriana shivered and decoded the message. The Council had decided to place her with a new host immediately and her parents had already picked out their favorite from the pack. Applicants. She snorted in disgust at the choice of words. These men never applied to be the host of an energy parasite. The Council had selected them as her potential victims, nothing more, nothing less.

  She kept reading.

  Odd rumors have reached us that perhaps you have selected your own host—a popular athlete, I believe. I sincerely hope this is not true. The reasons a lamia never selects his or her own host should be second nature to you, and I would be highly disappointed should I find that you have chosen to ignore your education and good sense in this regard.

  In case you might have forgotten in your temporary infatuation, chief among these reasons is the danger of his death or even your own should you become lifebound. If you care at all about this young man, you must end this relationship before it is too late.