His Final Seduction Page 10

  “All my siblings are married, have children. I wanted that too.”

  “Then how’d you end up here?”

  “There’s no one reason.” He shrugged broad shoulders. “Eventually, I let go of my dream, sold my hotel in Paris, then all but bribed dozens of loan officers to get this place up and running. Things were shaky for the first two years, and there were many nights I stayed awake with an ulcer and a bottle of rum for company, wondering if I’d made the biggest mistake of my life, but slowly, word started to spread, and now, we’re already booked through June of next year.”

  His smile faded and he stood before she could translate the emotion on his face. He walked to the edge of the patio and, bending forward at the waist, rested his frame on the railing. The hem of his light blue shirt fluttered in the breeze as if calling to her, so, leaving behind her pride, she went to him and slipped her arms around his waist. Her palms slid along his chest and she pressed her cheek against his back.

  “Will you tell me about whatever’s bothering you, Damien?”

  “It’s nothing I want to trouble you with,” he said flatly.

  Determined to crash the defense grid around his heart, she kissed the valley between his shoulder blades. “And if I said I wanted you to bother me?”

  For a long time he didn’t answer, just stared at some unknown point on the horizon, and Sydney held him. How long had it been since he’d talked to anyone about the things that were obviously bothering him? The weight bearing down on his shoulders had to be enormous.

  “I signed a bad agreement last year,” he said after a while.

  “What kind?” She tightened her arms around his waist, letting him know she was here for him.

  “The kind, I’m afraid, that might end my life.”

  The fortuneteller’s words rang in her ears like a thousand strikes of a gong. Death…looms near, but I can’t see if its cold embrace comes for you or someone very near you…

  So it was Damien the man had spoken of, the man who wasn’t supposed to exist.

  She liked it better when she thought she’d been imaging the entire event, but given what Damien had said, more than coincidence had to be at work here. There was an explanation—everything had an explanation—and she would find it.

  “What kind of deal?”

  “It’s complicated, but suffice it to say, I’ve acquired a debt I don’t think I’ll be able to repay.”

  “What do you mean?” Her heart thudded a wild rhythm inside her chest, and she had trouble keeping her rising terror from showing.

  “Because of the fine print.”

  “Care to elaborate?” She pulled on his arm until he turned to face her. Looking deep into his eyes, she examined their shades and hues. The answers were always in the eyes. “I’m a defense lawyer. Maybe I can take a look at that contract for you. I’ve found loopholes in tons of them.”

  “Not in one like this, I’m sure.”

  She cupped his cheeks. “You can at least let me try.”

  He wrapped her in his strength and rested his chin on her head. So much for examining his eyes. “Last year, I had an accident at Carnal Cravings and consumed some poorly prepared blowfish.”

  “Is that why you didn’t want me to eat the blowfish for dinner last night?”

  “It is. I used to be a big risk taker, and what bigger rush is there than eating blowfish—the deadliest fish known to man? An ill-prepared blowfish can mean certain death to anyone who eats it, but it’s an excruciating way to go too, I can assure you.” He squeezed her even tighter. “I’d been suffering about twenty-three hours when a woman showed up offering a cure. I was conscious at the time but nearly paralyzed from the toxin.”

  “That’s terrible, Damien.” She didn’t stop the tears that moistened her cheeks and his chest. Something occurred to her. “If you were paralyzed, how did you sign the contract?”

  “Let’s not talk of depressing things anymore.” He kissed her forehead. “I simply want to hold you…”

  hhh

  Hours passed. They made love on the beach then again on his couch, and eventually, Sydney drifted off to sleep in his arms, in the comfort of his bed. He didn’t bring women back to his house, let alone his bed. If he’d taken a woman, it was usually in one of the rooms in the club, her room or, occasionally, in his office.

  Having a woman in his bed was simply too personal and, despite his club’s activities, he was a relatively private person. With his sexuality, no, but with the details of himself.

  Sydney jerked in her sleep and he smiled into her waves and waves of auburn hair. She still had some recovering to do, but he was doing his best to help. Sexual healing was real, and it was powerful. It was the energy created during sex that Giselle fed on…

  Closing his eyes, he cradled Sydney even tighter against his chest. How was he supposed to hurt this angel? Was one woman’s life worth sacrificing so he wouldn’t have to spend eternity as Giselle St. Clair’s stooge?

  And if he did kill Sydney, would he be able to live with the guilt of taking the life of this innocent, wonderful woman?

  Sydney stirred in his arms, as if she knew he was thinking about her. A gentle moving of limbs. A soft sighing of his name.

  “Damien…”

  Damn. She might as well stab him in the heart.

  Slowly, sleepily, she lifted her head and looked down at him. “How long was I out this time?” she asked with a yawn.

  “Not even two hours.”

  He buried his fingers in her messy hair; the strands felt like spun silk and smelled of the sea. Without a doubt—no matter what he’d thought when he’d first seen her—she was the most alluring woman he’d ever laid eyes on.

  His hand fell and he traced the soft contours of her lips with the pad of his thumb. He wanted to taste her lips, her sweetness. She was the first woman he’d wanted—really wanted—to kiss since he’d been plagued with incubus powers. If he kissed her now, while she wasn’t climaxing, would he hurt her? There was only one way to find out.

  His heart pounding so loudly he feared she could hear it, he tugged her toward him until her mouth connected with his.

  His tongue eased along the outer edges of her lips, asking permission to enter, and she willingly opened up to him. Cautiously, his tongue snaked inside her muggy heat. She collapsed against him, skin to naked skin, and he greedily took her weight, not that it felt like more than a feather.

  Her hands slid along his chest, his side, then wedged between the mattress and his shoulder blades. She hooked a leg over his, tugged herself on top of him. Her knees landed on either side of his thighs, her pussy wet, ready, and seeking his cock.

  Before things kicked into high gear, he pulled back and studied her. Red spots tinged her cheeks, and her eyes were slits. She didn’t appear to be on the verge of passing out.

  “How do you feel?” he asked, his hands never stopping their jaunt over her skin.

  “Confused.”

  “What do you mean?”

  A slow, sexy smile slid across her face. “I’m wondering why in the world you’re stopping to ask me insane questions.”

  Chuckling, he reversed their positions with a quick flip then bent his head to press his lips to the sensitive spot where her neck met her shoulder. He wanted to kiss her again but decided not to press his luck. Besides, his lips didn’t mind the detour.

  Leaving a trail of hot, moist kisses in his wake, his mouth traveled down her body. His tongue swirled inside her bellybutton, and his hands dipped down and pressed her legs wide. Enthusiastic fingers slid between the folds of her labia, and her pussy flooded in automatic response.

  Her honeyed heat saturated his fingers. He loved the way her body reacted to him, trusting, willing, and his body reacted in kind. His dick burned with a fiery need to fill her slick channel, but his mouth watered for her taste. His seeking tongue moved lower, slicing through her curls and rubbing against her clit in slow circles.

  “No teasing this time, Damien.” Sh
e jutted her hips up to accent her words. “Eat me like you mean it.”

  “Your wish is my command.”

  Sucking the engorged bud into his mouth, he worried her flesh between his tongue and teeth. Sydney screamed, and her entire body jerked. She squirmed against the mattress, but he didn’t release his near-violent suction.

  He slid two fingers into her slick vault, stopping only when his fist pressed firmly against her wetness. Her muscles tightened around the invasion, but her cunt was already so wet, so ready, he didn’t need to prepare her for his assault. He pumped in and out of her, abusing her pussy with every thrust, way past the point of being gentle.

  “Oh fuck…”

  Unable to maintain the suction against her clit, he lifted his head and watched as he desecrated her. The sight was beyond beautiful. His cock begged to join the fun, but this was Sydney’s personal party. He wasn’t about to stop until she screamed his name.

  Her arms thrashed above her head, trying to find something to grip as his pounding pushed her farther and farther up the mattress. Her body pulsed with each thrust, her breasts bouncing with the harsh movement.

  “Damien!” Her ass bounced off the mattress. “I’m going to—”

  “Now.”

  With one last thrust, her pussy exploded around his invading fingers and she screamed his name. Her creamy release moistened her already slick channel, and he was unable to resist the urge to sink his cock into all that glistening wetness.

  Her cunt still hummed with her pleasure when he withdrew his fingers, rose over her, and impaled her.

  “Shit, Sydney. You drive me crazy.”

  He hooked his elbows underneath her knees, pressed her pelvis high, and thrust his cock in tight and deep, doing his manly best to reach her throat. When he pulled his hips back, her vagina muscles gripped him, and he groaned.

  Slowly, her arms slid around his neck, pulled him close, and he slammed into her warmth, bracing his hand against the mattress for better leverage. Her slick cunt milked his erection with each aggressive stroke, her thighs a vice around his middle. No way would he last much longer.

  Sydney nipped at his earlobe and her words came out in disjointed spurts. “I’m glad you’re the man who ended my celibacy.”

  Shit, was she trying to kill him?

  Close enough to kiss her, he turned his head and crushed his mouth to hers. His tongue explored the wet contours of her mouth.

  “Harder,” she moaned into his mouth, her inner muscles still spasming around his erection.

  Ramming into her as hard and fast as he could, he covered her mouth with his. This was as close to heaven as he’d ever been. He wanted to stay right here, make love to her until the world ended, but with a subtle shift of her hips, she triggered his release.

  Hot come spewed from his cock. His thrusting lost its rhythm, and he pounded her mercilessly. Sydney locked her arms around him, held his mouth to hers as his release poured into her.

  He could taste her pleasure on her open lips. He tasted it with each breath. Felt the power hidden beneath…

  …her very essence was right there for him to take, and if he breathed in right now, he would kill her.

  Chapter Eight

  Damien stood alone on his deck and enjoyed the sunrise for the last time as a free man. The view from here was really breathtaking. It’s why he’d built his house on this secluded spot. To his left and right, two outcroppings of rock partitioned off the area from the public beaches the staff and clients shared. And straight ahead, the ocean stretched on forever.

  Forever…

  That word had a vast new meaning now. He would live forever. Literally. Not seventy years. Not seventy-five. Or if he was lucky, eighty. Nope. He would be around to watch everyone he knew, everyone he ever cared about, grow old and die. Talk about the ultimate torture.

  He wondered how it would happen, how Giselle would suck him into her ranks. Or did she even have “ranks”? Whatever it was, it didn’t matter. At least Sydney would be safe. He’d take whatever consequences his decision warranted because somewhere during those precious hours between sunset and sunrise, he’d finally admitted a bittersweet truth.

  He loved Sydney.

  When he thought about it, signing that contract had actually changed him for the better. It had forced him to take a good, hard look in the mirror and stare his shortcomings in the face, examine the man he’d become. How ironic was it to think of those things now, when he was almost out of time?

  He walked back into his bedroom, back to where Sydney lay sleeping. The draw to go to her was too strong to fight, so he didn’t.

  God, she was beautiful. The mere sight of her made the splendor from his balcony seem insignificant. She looked utterly and thoroughly fucked. Her body lay limp against the mattress, her hair a tangled, matted mess from his needy hands. He wished he had more time with her, to get to know her on a much deeper level, but he’d left a part of him with her.

  Instead of taking her life while they’d made love, he’d given her some of his.

  A soft, mumbled moan eased from between her parted lips, and she rolled to her back, her right arm coming to rest above her head. The blanket shifted and her naked breasts peeked from the edges. Love and lust coiled in his gut, followed by a strong dose of self-hatred.

  In a moment of weakness, he’d prolonged his life, but he hadn’t saved it. Now, he’d never be able to have a future with the only woman he’d ever fallen in love with. But if he hadn’t signed the contract, he’d never have met Sydney. More irony.

  He needed to tell her the truth. She at least deserved that much, but before he spilled his guts, he wanted to be with her one last time, to have a memory to carry with him into eternity.

  Drawing the covers away from her body, he exposed her form to his gaze, to his touch. He traced his thumb over her bottom lip. Craving more of those beautiful lips, he took possession of them. He drew her bottom lip into his mouth, grazing the soft flesh with the edges of his teeth.

  Her legs drifted apart, sensing him even in sleep. Two fingers sought her opening and pushed inside. Her body’s response was immediate, and the inner walls of her vagina tightened around his invading fingers, gloving him in moist heat. He hooked his middle finger toward her bellybutton and rubbed against the tight grouping of tissue along the top wall of her pussy. His thumb joined the manipulation and stroked over her clit until it was fully engorged.

  “Mmmm…”

  Her moan sent shocks of arousal to his cock, and he was instantly hard. He lay down beside her and kissed her again. Slowly, her unresponsive lips began to react. She pumped her hips automatically to match the movement of his fingers inside her rapidly flooding cunt. And she started to come.

  He pulled back far enough to enjoy the changing expressions of her face, to cherish the moment reality set in, when she realized she wasn’t dreaming. The soft skin around her eyes and forehead wrinkled and her mouth fell open, intangible sounds escaping. Her body stiffened, and her legs drew slightly toward her body. She arched away from the mattress, driving the back of her head into the pillow. Her inner muscles spasmed around his fingers. Desperate hands clutched at the mattress. Legs quivered. Toes curled.

  Her eyes fluttered open and before she could speak, he captured her lips. This time, they responded without hesitation. Trembling arms wrapped around him, pulled him toward the mattress. He held back only long enough to untie the belt of his robe.

  He wanted to spend time tasting her body, taking pleasure in the curves he’d gotten to know and enjoy, but time was running out. The sun was cresting over the water—he was almost out of time.

  Linking their hands together, he pinned her arms above her head and pressed his cock between her legs. She opened completely for him, and he eased his length inside her in a series of slow, steady pushes.

  He rested his forehead against hers and closed his eyes, savoring each sensation their fusing bodies created. Her tight, slick heat. The caressing walls of her channel
as her muscles embraced his erection from base to tip. The desperate grip from their twined hands. Her fingers digging into his skin as though she couldn’t let him go, as though this time was different.

  Special.

  She opened her eyes and their gazes locked. And Damien used his body to show her what he could never put into words.

  Sydney held tight to Damien, her second orgasm in ten minutes tapering into post-coital euphoria.

  Wow. That was different. The urgency in their lovemaking this morning was fierce, but it wasn’t a physical urgency, at least not to her anyway. Powerful emotions recycled through her in exhausted, draining waves, filling her with warmth and hope. This must be what it’s like to love someone, really love someone.

  But that was crazy. People didn’t fall in love in less than forty-eight hours. Still, the emotions seemed real to her, and she wanted to explore them, nurture them.

  “Mmm.” She nuzzled her nose against the warmth of Damien’s neck. “I wouldn’t mind waking up like this more often,” she admitted.

  “Me either.”

  Her lips found his again. Kissing Damien was another thing she certainly wanted to continue investigating. The man knew what he was doing. Then again, there probably wasn’t anything he couldn’t do when it involved driving a woman mad.

  “When I first got here,” she murmured, breaking their kiss, “I was so happy my friends had sent me, but once I found out this beautiful island was a sex club, I literally wanted to kill them for tricking me into coming.”

  “You were certainly resistant in the beginning.” He pushed onto his elbows and looked down at her. “A challenge I enjoyed conquering.”

  She sliced her fingers through his soft hair. The wording he used should have upset her, but the haze in his eyes whispered a brave truth. He cared for her. A lot. She decided to be brave too.

  “You’re unlike any man I’ve ever met, Damien Blake, and I find myself wishing my trip didn’t end so soon.”

  His eyes drifted closed and he rested his forehead against hers. “You have no clue how much I want that too.”