Awaken (Divine Hunter Series) (26 page)

She needed more.

Bravely, she pushed herself into his groin, feeling his hard length press into her, rubbing her in exactly the right place. She reached down between their bodies and began to unbutton his jeans. He moaned as her hand brushed his erection and he reached down to place his hand over hers, rubbing himself through his jeans. Then he was back at her mouth, pushing his tongue inside of her again, repeating that sensual kiss from before only now with more intensity. She freed her hand from his and pushed his pants and boxers down his thighs. Michael reached down, pulled them over his knees one by one and kicked them on to the floor.

Oh my
. . . He was beautifully naked.

She didn’t have much time to admire him as he was easing her down onto her back then he was on top of her. He began to feather more of those sensual
kisses down her throat, over one of her breasts and down her stomach and when he reached the top of her sweats he looked up at her through hooded lids as he slowly pulled the material down over her hips, her legs, dropping them to the floor followed by her white lace panties. Finally, there were no more barriers.

* * *

M
ichael’s breath caught as he knelt in front of Lacy, who was now lying naked in front of him. His eyes roamed around her body taking in every inch of her rosy skin. She smiled up at him, her beautiful pale green eyes locking onto his. Her cheeks flushed from her arousal, which made him even harder as he anticipated what was about to happen.

Lacy slowly lifted one of her legs and slid it
outwards, giving him one hell of a view. She stroked her hand over her breast and down her stomach towards her sex, her gaze never leaving him, once again causing his control to snap. He bent down between her legs beating her hand to its destination with his mouth. She cried out as he softly licked at her core, soaking up her wetness, tasting every inch of her. Jesus Christ, she tasted so good. She writhed with pleasure as his tongue flicked over her flesh. He knew exactly when her orgasm hit because she cried out as her whole body began to spasm and she grabbed the sheet in both of her hands. Lacy cried out his name as he felt the muscle of her sex contracting against his tongue.

I
n an instant he was on top of her, needing to be inside of her. He pressed the blunt head of his erection against her warm flesh, but before he went any further he paused to look at her. This woman who was lying beneath him had somehow captivated him. He was completely enthralled by her. He knew that after tonight there was no way he could stay away from her−be without her. He would make sure he survived his little trip into Hell and then he would protect her for however long he could.

“Michael. Are you okay?” Her voice snapped him away from his thoughts, bringing him right back to the beautiful face that was staring up at him.

He smiled at her as best as he could, stroking her damp hair from her face. “Right now, Lacy, in this moment with you, I couldn’t be happier.”

As he kissed her he
eased himself inside of her, joining their bodies for what may be the only time. She cried out as he pushed himself to the hilt feeling her warmth around him as their pelvises met. Heat rushed over him, melting him, his heart. He withdrew slowly, almost all the way, then slid back inside feeling her walls rub him, squeezing him. Even though he was dead, he’d never felt so alive. His greatest fear now was that he’d never feel this with her again.

Lacy gasped as she looked into his eyes and he instantly knew why. The white glow from his irises softly illuminated her
face, making her skin appear luminous. Her beauty overwhelmed him. He kissed her deeply, his tongue stroking hers, her breath caught every time he pushed into her. Her hands pressed into the cheeks of his ass pushing him deeper inside her with every thrust. Her moans grew louder as he increased the pace.

“
Jesus, Lacy!”

He couldn
’t be gentle any longer and a need took over him, but he knew she wanted it that way too, just as much as he did as her nails dug into him. “Oh, my God, Michael.” Her breath on his skin warmed his whole body with a heat he’d never felt before.

He drove into her, retreating and thrusting again, faster, harder until he could feel his own release rising through him with an electrifying intensity.
“Fuck!” He let out a loud groan as he came, filling her with his orgasm as she found her own release, milking him, squeezing him with her thighs as he felt her whole body tense with pleasure beneath him.

“
Oh, God.”

He buried his head in her neck. Inhaling her scent for a moment as his body relaxed on top of her. He was st
ill inside her as they lay panting in each other’s arms. He wanted to stay joined to her for as long as he could, scared that he might never get this chance again.

He brushed her hair from her face, kissing her forehead, her cheek, and when he kissed her mouth he felt her smile
against his lips. He pulled back to look at her as she gave him the loveliest smile he’d ever seen.

He rested his forehead on her
s. “Everything seems to work okay,” he said playfully, still catching his breath.

“Are you kidding me?” she replied, her voice slightly hoarse. “
Okay? More than okay.”

They both laughed and Michael shifted
onto his side, pulling her with him and wrapping her in his arms. The realism of what he was soon to do kept threatening to consume him as he lay silently holding her, but he pushed it from his mind. He needed to be here with her in this moment for as long as he could, and he wasn’t about to let anything ruin it.

They lay silently gazing at each other; faces inches away, their warm breaths merging in the small space that separated them. They didn’t need to speak, the silence said it all. Michael stroked his fingers up and down Lacy’s back and watched as her eyes blinked with dreamy languor and she eventually fell asleep. He kissed the end of her nose.

“L
aaacy!”Her blond hair hung over her face as she bent over Lacy.

Ghostly features stared with such intensity. Her fac
e was mere inches away. Lacy tried to look away, but the ghostly figure somehow held her within its glassy gaze, unable to move. “Laaacy!” she repeated. Lacy wanted to call out, to ask her what she wanted, but when she went to talk, no sound came out. Suddenly the woman backed up out of view. When Lacy lifted her head to see where she’d gone, she was at the foot of her bed. Her torn clothes hung from her and her arms were outstretched towards Lacy. Her head tilted to the side before she shot backwards and through the bedroom wall.

Lacy
saw something written on the wall right where she’d disappeared. She squinted to read it, but when she did, her stomach sank. . .

The two words written in black simply read:

HE’S COMING

Lacy’s eyes sprang open. She could have sworn she heard someone whisper her name. She blinked a couple of times and a vision of a blond woman flashed into her mind. She tried to remember the dream she
must have just had that had made her heart pound in her chest, but couldn’t. After a few seconds, when her brain had kicked into gear, she smiled and cuddled into Michael’s arm that was wrapped around the front of her across her breasts. She must have turned around in her sleep because she now had her back to him and could feel his warm body tucked around her. She sighed, content in the moment until. . .

“No. . . Can’t. . . . . . out!” Michael murmured. She felt his whole body tense around her. “Lacy. . . Need to. . . Help her!”

She slowly maneuvered herself around under his heavy arm so that she was facing him. “Hey,” she whispered, shaking him softly, careful not to startle him. “Michael, wake up.”

“He’ll. . . Kill. . . ” He tensed again. She felt his body tremble.

Oh God.
“Michael. . . Hey.” His eyes snapped open, startling her for a moment. “You were having a−”

Before she could finish he was pulling her into him, his head burrowed into her neck. “Hey. It’s
okay. It was just a dream.”

She felt him tighten around her and she squeezed him back. Whatever it was that he’d just seen in his nightmare had clearly freaked him out. “Are you awake now?” she asked in a tentative voice.

“Yeah,” he murmured into her neck before pulling back to look at her. He blinked a few times, clearing his sleepy vision. “
Shit!
That was weird. It felt so real.”

She brushed his sweaty hair from his forehead. “
Well, it wasn’t. You’re here with me.” He kissed her amorously and then resumed his hug. She closed her eyes, feeling overwhelmed by his tenderness.

After a moment, Michael pulled away just enough to look at her while keeping her in his arms. “You were dying. Varesh had taken you again and he was torturing you to get at me. He was using his fire to burn you just like he did with me only you couldn’t take it. I couldn’t get to you because I was trapped in the
pit, but Lucifer took great pleasure in showing me what Varesh was doing to you.” His voice was shaky. He paused and swallowed hard. “I felt everything you were feeling and there was nothing I could do to get to you.”

Lacy reached up and placed her hand on his cheek.

“It felt so real.” Michael closed his eyes for a moment.

Her vision went blurry as her eyes filled up with tears. This time
she
pulled
him
close. She couldn’t bear to see his anguish. It hurt her so much to think that he may not make it back. To feel so strongly for him in such a short time astonished her. How had this happened? How had she fallen so hard for someone she barely knew?

“I need you to come back to me,” she whispered.

Michael lifted his head, looked into her eyes and then kissed her in such a tender way she nearly lost her mind. She tried to push away the thought of him leaving her in just a few hours and focus on this time with him, here in his arms, loving him.
Oh my
. . . did she love him? Was it possible to love somebody so quickly? All she knew was that she would ache for him when he was gone.

Michael made love to her again, twice.

* * *

L
acy woke up with a smile on her face. That was until she reached around expecting to find Michael beside her, but the bed was empty. She sat up quickly. “Oh, please. No.” She panicked thinking that he’d left without saying goodbye, but then paused when she heard something drop to the floor in the kitchen. Soon after, she realized she could smell bacon. She let out a relieved sigh and lay back down. Last night had been the most perfect night of her life, and even though she knew her afterglow would be short lived, she couldn’t help the big grin that filled her face as she thought about what had happened between the two of them through the night. Never in her life had she had sex even twice in a row let alone three times. When she moved on to her side, she ached. Oh, but it was a good ache. The muscles in her thighs felt tender but she loved it. The pain was lessened due to the cause: mind blowing sex. Sweet lord Michael knew how to please.

Her erotic thoughts were interrupted when the door opened and in he walked, gloriously naked from the waist up, with a tray in his hands. He had the most handsome smile as he walked over to the bed.

“Good morning. I made you breakfast,” he said. Could he be any more perfect? She pulled herself up to a sitting position, bringing the comforter with her and tucking it under her arms. For some reason her modesty had returned and she felt a little shy. Why the hell did she feel shy?

“Morning.” She beamed up at him.

Michael sat down on the edge of the bed and passed her the tray, leaning over to kiss her as he did. Her stomach did a little growl and she felt his lips curl up into a smile. “Someone’s hungry,” he said, and kissed her once more before he pulled away. She looked at the food on the plate: bacon, eggs and two slices of toast accompanied by a glass of coke?

“You didn’t have any fresh juice so. . . ” They both laughed. It was hard to act
normal, though. Reality had returned and her conflicting emotions were hard to ignore. As much as she wanted to revel in her joy at having spent the whole night with Michael−him bringing her breakfast followed by a tender morning kiss−she couldn’t. The whole wonderfully perfect situation was overshadowed by the dread that was looming over her.

If Michael noticed her glum
face, he didn’t say anything. “Enjoy your food,” he said as he stood up. “I need to call Evo for him to come pick me up. I’d prefer to leave my car here if you don’t mind.”

Lacy managed a nod as she pushed a piece of bacon in her
mouth, which suddenly tasted like cardboard. Michael’s words had just instantly killed her appetite. She was no longer in the mood to eat but would do so. Michael had been kind enough to make her breakfast so she wouldn’t disrespect him by leaving it, even if she had to throw up afterwards. His eyes lingered on hers a moment before he turned and left the room.

The clock was ticking. Soon they
’d be saying goodbye to each other, but while he was still here in her house she could pretend he wasn’t going anywhere.

After finishing the breakfast that she surprisingly ended up enjoying, Lacy was now dressed and at the sink in the kitchen filling the jug for the coffee machine. She hadn’t showered; that would have taken up too much time.
Instead, she’d picked out some fresh clothes, tight black jeans and a midnight blue T-shirt, and hurried to the kitchen in her slippers, picking up the car keys from the mat by the front door that Alethia must have posted during the night. Michael had flashed her a tentative smile as she’d passed him in the front room while he was speaking to Evo on his cell.

“He’s on his way,
” Michael said quietly behind her, sounding as dejected as she felt as he joined her in the kitchen.

S
he placed the coffee jug down on the counter. It was too soon. She wasn’t expecting him to leave straight away. Her shoulders dropped. “I was about to make coffee too.”

Suddenly
, strong arms wrapped around her and Michael placed a kiss on her neck before resting his chin on her shoulder.
Oh, God
. She couldn’t do this. She closed her eyes.

“We can have coffee,” he murmured next to her ear. “Evo’ll just have to wait.”

He turned her around to face him, lifted her chin with his finger and then kissed her mouth tenderly. Then she hugged him and rested her head on his chest, discreetly rubbing away the unshed tears from her eyes.

Their embrace was short lived when there was a hard knock on the
front door.

“That’ll be him now.” Michael gave her a half s
mile and left to answer it.

Lacy carried on making the coffee, filling the jug a little more assuming Evo would want one too. She took a few deep breaths in an attempt to compose herself as she heard Michael and Evo’s voices gro
wing louder as they approached.

“Hey,
” Evo said over the noise of the coffee machine, “do I time things right or what? Black, two sugars please.” He winked at her as he sat at the table.

Normally he irritated the hell out of
her, but strangely enough, she welcomed his buoyancy with open arms today even though she didn’t understand it. After all, he was accompanying Michael on his little trip, but didn’t seem to be at all concerned. She would never figure the guy out.

“Do I smell bacon?” Evo asked, leaning back and kicking his ankle up onto his knee. His arm was flung over the back of the chair.

Michael grabbed something from the fridge. “You did. Here,” he said, throwing something at Evo. His friend caught the packet of raw bacon with a look of disgust on his face. “You’re welcome to cook some.”

“Charming. I’m throwing my life on the line for you today and you can’t even cook me some damn bacon.”

Michael leaned against the counter and stroked Lacy’s arm with the back of his hand, making her realize that her whole body had tensed at Evo’s flippant words. “I’d rather go it alone than wait on you like some dumb shit,” he replied.

Lacy couldn’t hold back her chuckle as she stirred the three cups of coffee. She carried one over to Evo, who was reaching into the inside pocket of his black leather duster, and placed the mug down in front of him.

“Thanks,” he said in a low voice and then winked at her. She wasn’t sure how comfortable she was with that, but soon realized it was for a reason.

“Well, see. . . then you wouldn’t have this.” Evo held up a small silver ring which had
multicolored jewels encrusted all around it. His proud smirk made Lacy raise an eyebrow.

“Shit! Evo, that’s Alethia’s ring. How did you get it?” Michael immediately went to Evo and took the ring from him. He was clearly surprised by the small, non-descript looking thing but why? What was so special about it? And yes, how
did
Evo get it?

His cocky face remained the same. “Let’s just say I’m good with my hands,” he winked again, at Michael this time.

“You didn’t. . . Is that where you were going when I spoke to you last night?” Michael’s face was a mix of shock and admiration. Evo didn’t answer, just carried on looking smug.

“What’s going on?” Lacy asked, confused by the whole exchange.

Michael answered. “This ring was given to Alethia by her father. It catches demons somehow. But we don’t even know how to use it.” That last part was directed at Evo who was now gesturing with his fingers for Michael to give it back. “
You
may not know.
I
, on the other hand, do.” He flashed Michael a proud grin while taking back the ring and tucking it back safely inside his pocket.

“And how
the hell did you manage that?”

Evo raised an eyebrow. “You have to ask?” was all he said, and she was pretty sure they both knew what he meant. Lacy was actually a little surprised that Alethia had succumbed to Evo’s charms.
Granted, she hadn’t known her longer than five minutes, but even so, Lacy thought her wiser than that. Evo was obviously better than she thought.

“Uh, Michael, don’t want to rush you
buddy, but we really should get going.”

As soon as the words had left Evo’s mouth, Lacy felt her knees buckle a little. In an attempt to distract herself from her imminent anxiety attack, she busied herself by grabbing the cups from the table and she placed them in the sink. She turned the faucet on and heard Michael mutter something to Evo. “Take care Lacy. Oh, and when we get
back, I want some of that bacon,” Evo said as he left the room.

After filling up the
sink, she turned the faucet off to a dead silence.

“Hey.” Michael said after a few moments as he placed his hand on her shoulder and turned her to face him. As Lacy looked at his beautiful pale blue
eyes, she choked back a sob. His expression was as pained as hers. The feeling that this was goodbye as evident on his face as it was in her heart. He pulled her into him and wrapped his arms around her tightly. She did the same to him and in that moment, his warmth, his scent, his closeness broke her resolve.