Sins of the Flesh (Half-Breed Series Book 2) (7 page)

I licked my lips, my mouth suddenly very dry. “Deal.”

“Come here.” I did, letting him pull me onto his lap. “Mmm, you smell good.” He breathed into my hair. “Like caramelized sugar. It’s very demon. Suits you.”

He’d always commented on how I looked and smelled just like an elf. It was surprising to hear him express such attraction to my demon side. Shifting on his lap, I pulled his lips to mine for a kiss.

“I’d rather smell like you.”

Irix had once told me that elves smelled like their surroundings, and that when we were in bed after making love, I smelled like him. I thought it was the sexiest thing — that he’d somehow marked me through my odd, ever-changing aroma. I wanted that back. I was his, and I wanted him to know that with every breath he took.

“Well then, let’s remedy that situation.”

Snaking one arm under my knees and the other around my ribs, he stood and carried me into our room, kicking the sliding door shut with a flick of his foot. His mouth met mine with gentle exploration once we’d cleared the bedroom threshold, and his arm released my legs. Pivoting upright, the back of my legs hit the mattress just as I teased his tongue with mine.

“Wait.” I leaned back the scant few inches between him and the bed, crossing my arms to pull my shirt up over my head. “Kind of hard to smell like you while we’re still clothed.”

We stripped, kissed, hands touching skin and sensitive areas. Irix rolled on top of me, entwining his fingers in mine and pushing my arms above my head before holding them firmly in place. His palms pushed against mine, trapping them with the weight of his body. My back arched, breasts thrust upward. There was a moment of stillness, when the only sound was our breathing. Our eyes connected, his tawny irises thin lines around dilated pupils. I saw beyond his gorgeous eyes and perfect face to something deep inside — something volatile and yet strangely fragile. A muscle twitched in his jaw, and he slid into me, smooth and long. The friction of his girth, the feel as he paused just shy of my cervix rocked me.

“God, you feel good.” My voice was breathless. I lifted my hips as he withdrew, eager to have him back where he belonged.

Satisfaction flitted across his face before he bent his head to mine, trailing kisses from the corner of my mouth to the base of my neck. His rhythm built, faster and deeper as my body accommodated his full length. “And you feel perfect. Every night in Hel, I dreamed of you by my side. I dreamed of burying myself in your warmth, feeling your skin against mine. Damn, Amber, I don’t think I can bear to be apart from you again.”

I caught my breath at the revelation that his nights had been as tortured as mine, that he felt the same. I’d never heard the four-letter word from him, but this was close enough for me. Everything in my heart let go like a flood surge against a fragile dam. My fingers gripped his, my body coiling, tense.

“I want you. Always. Forever.” Everything broke into waves of sensation as I came. I closed my eyes, carried away with the feelings he created in me — physical and emotional.

He groaned, increasing his pace in a frenzy. I felt him swell inside me, shudder as his hands released mine. Freed, I gripped his shoulders, loving the smoothness of his skin, the scent of dark, bitter chocolate and rum that was so Irix, loving the way his soft hair tickled the underside of my jaw, loving him.

“I love you.”

I wasn’t sure at first whether I’d said the words or not. Either way, I wasn’t embarrassed. I did love him, and it was clear that whatever he felt for me was damned close. Irix’s head jerked up. His surprised gaze met mine.

I wanted to tell him it was okay, wanted to tell him he didn’t need to say it. Instead, his mouth descended to mine with a kiss full of desperate passion.

“I love you, too.”

It was mumbled against my lips, but still clear. My heart stopped then beat frantically like I’d been shot with adrenaline. Gripping his hair with my hands, I pulled him back to see his face. There it was again, that odd vulnerability underneath the playboy façade.

“I mean it,” I whispered.

“I know.” His expression softened. “But you’re so young. I’ll love you forever, but there may come a time when you—”

I slammed my lips against his to stop the words. No. I’d never. He might be two-thousand years old to my twenty-one, but I’d been raised as a human. To me, I was an adult and fully capable of recognizing my forever when I saw him. Irix was it. He’d always be it, but the only way I could convince him of that was through time.

Worrying his lip between my teeth, I pulled it as my mouth left his, letting it go at the last moment. “Don’t you dare doubt the strength of my feelings for you, demon,” I teased. “Now, get your ass in some pants so we can go eat pig and stuff that tastes like paste, and wiggle around a fire in cheap grass skirts.”

His smile warmed me down to my toes. “I’ll have you know, I look damned fine in a skirt.”

Chapter 5

I
rix looked damned silly in the grass skirt. I hadn’t laughed so hard in my life as I did when we got up with the hula dancers for brief lessons. Irix devoured the attention, pretending to be uncoordinated as the women grabbed his hips and hands to show him how the dance was done. True to his promise, he kept the pheromones in check, offering nothing more than friendly attention to the others. I couldn’t ask for a more devoted boyfriend, and it was nice, for once, not to have dozens of women and men following him around like he was the pied piper.

This evening he wasn’t an incubus; he was just an extremely good-looking man, on vacation with his girlfriend. I couldn’t help the brief moment of fantasy as I watched him swing his hips, placing feet and hands in the positions for the story of the dance. If he were human, we’d live together, maybe get married. Darci would be my maid of honor, with Nyalla and Sam as my bridesmaids. Well, maybe not Sam. An imp at a wedding would be bad enough, but one at the altar would be disastrous.

Marriage, then kids. We’d cry over their hurts, celebrate their wins, babysit and spoil grandbabies. We’d age together, holding fast to our love though time ravaged our bodies and finally took them from us. If he was human.

If
I
was human. Irix wasn’t the only non-mortal in this relationship. I was even more a freak with my elven half. But for this moment, I could pretend and dream.

Kai held up a bottle of wine at our return — her payment if I managed to get Irix dancing in a skirt. What she didn’t know was there was no need for effort on my part. He’d always had a great sense of humor — so unexpected in a demon — and never was embarrassed to do something silly for a laugh.

“Pour that wine,” he teased without the slightest hint of sexual innuendo. “Dancing makes a guy thirsty.”

She laughed, and I was so happy to see she’d relaxed around Irix, as well as around me. When she first arrived, dragging the snorkeling instructor from this morning as a date, I feared we were in for a long evening filled with agonizingly painful silences. Luckily Aaron, in spite of a confused ‘I don’t know why I’m here’ introduction, was a social guy. And Irix put everyone at ease, even without the use of his incubus skills.

“Pig is ready,” Aaron announced. He’d been watching the food closely. No doubt watersports burned off a lot of calories.

Irix stood, placing a kiss on the top of my head. “Why don’t Aaron and I get us all food while you ladies make inroads on that excellent bottle of Riesling?”

I lifted my head and smiled at him, fantasy intact and going strong.

“I can’t believe you’re sleeping with anyone but him,” Kai said the moment the guys were out of earshot. So much for my fantasy. “
That’s
your boyfriend? Half the resort is having wet dreams over him. And he’s freaking a-mazing. The way he looks at you.... I’d cut off an arm to have a guy look at me that way.”

“It’s different. What we have with each other is not the same as what we do with others. Love is more than sex.”

Actually, with others it was more than sex, too. But love didn’t enter into those equations at all. I couldn’t truly make Kai understand without getting into the whole demon explanation. If she’d been freaked at me being a sleazy ho, at us being kinky swingers, I could imagine what she’d do if she learned we were demons.

She cast another glance toward Irix and shook her head. “I really
don’t
understand. But then, I don’t understand Belinda liking it when her husband takes a paddle to her rear end. If some guy tried that with me, I’d punch him.”

Yeah, I wasn’t really a fan either, although it was always kind of a turn on when Irix threatened it. Luckily, most of my partners didn’t have that as a fantasy. Oddly enough, a surprising number of men seemed to fantasize the paddling on
their
asses. Go figure.

“Seriously, you don’t ever get jealous?”

I opened my mouth to reply ‘no’, but Kai’s gaze was particularly intense. Even with the romantic lighting, I got the feeling she’d spot a lie. “Yes. I’ll be honest that sometimes I wish things were different.”

She sipped her wine. “Are you sure he doesn’t feel the same way? He adores you. Maybe it bothers him when you’re sleeping with other guys.”

“Nope.” That came out a little faster, and probably harsher, than I’d wanted. I took a gulp from my own glass and tried to make my reply less emotion charged. “It doesn’t bother him at all.”

Her hand shot across the table to grasp mine. “Amber, you don’t have to put up with this. If you don’t like the swinger thing, you don’t have to do it. He’s gorgeous, and I think he does love you, but there are other men out there — or women — ones who won’t demand this of you.”

The fantasy shattered. Because if Irix and I were both human, I
wouldn’t
put up with this.

I squeezed her hand. “Please trust me. I can’t explain this to you. I really can’t. But I meant what I said earlier; even if Irix and I weren’t together, he’d still need to sleep with multiple partners, and so would I. I don’t like it, but this is the way things are — for me as well as him. Having him with me, loving him, makes it easier. It means I can do the things I need to do and not worry about what society says, or that someone is going to think less of me because of it.”

There was one of those silences, poignant with the kind of understanding two women seem to have between them when it comes to men and love.

“I don’t think less of you. But if you ever need some space to breathe and think, you let me know.” A smile trembled on her lips. “I’ve slept in the surf shack a few times. Say the word, and it’s yours for the night.”

“I’ll drink to that.” With those words, the tension vanished, and we were just two young women drinking wine, laughing, and making inappropriate comments about the fire jugglers. Irix and Aaron worked their way back to us, plates loaded with food.

“’Bout time. I’m starved.” Kai grinned up at Aaron, and he nearly dropped her plate, his face doing the deer-in-headlights expression. I was guessing Kai probably hadn’t said more than two words socially to him before tonight.

The pork was divine. The poi, not so much. Irix made a face after taking a bite, carefully shoving the purple pile away from his other food as if he were isolating everything else from its contaminating influence.

“It’s kind of bland,” I commented. I’d had high hopes upon seeing the substance, which was the consistency and color of pudding. Well, it was a bit more mauve than pudding, but in the dim luau lighting, I gave it the benefit of the doubt. One bite removed all that doubt. Pudding, this stuff was not.

“Bland? Throw a pound of butter in it and maybe I’ll eat it.” Irix said, wrinkling his nose.

Aaron laughed. “You get used to it. I mean, they sell it in the grocery stores here in big tubs. You eat mashed potatoes? Sweet potatoes? Same thing, only runnier.”

“Hence the need for butter,” Irix added.

Kai waved her fork at the poi. “It’s a first food for babies here and actually is very versatile. The poi that’s been fermented is actually on the sour side. It’s delicious with salmon and other fish. I’m not a fan of this pasty stuff, but I always loved my grandmother’s poi.”

I mixed my grilled vegetables in the runny purple mess and took a bite. “Not bad. I think it’s one of those foods that needs something mixed in — like peas and rice.”

Aaron recoiled. “Peas and rice? You’re not human!”

No, I wasn’t, but we all laughed and took to brainstorming the best food to mix with the poi. Kai and I voted for the grilled veggies, Aaron said it was tolerable if he scooped some on the pork and washed it down immediately with a swig of wine. Irix said the only way he’d have another bite is if he were in a coma and someone stuck it in his feeding tube. Sometimes demons could be so stubborn.

“What’s going on down there?” I pointed to orange lights dotting the beach. “Is there another party?”

Aaron followed my gaze. “Yeah. Beach bonfires. They’re informal parties, although the resort has a big one they sponsor on Friday nights.”

“That one looks pretty big.” As I gestured toward a larger orange glow that looked a bit too close for comfort, sirens sounded in the distance.

“Ugh, that does look awfully close.” Kai tensed. “Some partiers must have hit the booze a bit too hard and let their bonfire get out of control.”

The beach wasn’t exactly narrow. How in the fuck had someone managed to spread a fire fifty feet into the brush line? Either they were having one hell of a party, or someone was playing around with flammables.

“Could have been fireworks,” Aaron noted, echoing my thoughts. “They tip over in the sand sometimes and shoot into the bushes.”

Idiots. I warred with the desire to go check it out, but Kai made the decision for me. Pushing back her chair, she frowned at the now-visible flames.

“I... that’s really near the surf shack. I should go, just to be sure everything is okay.”

“We’ll all go,” Irix chimed in, giving me a stern look. What the hell was that for?

I didn’t have time to question him. Abandoning the luau, we raced down the beach. I could feel Kai’s panic increase with every step. As we hit the end of the brick pathway and stepped onto the beach, she cried out and bolted. What had clearly been a beach bonfire had spread impossibly fast into the treeline. A lone man stood on the beach, beating at the fire with his shirt. I felt momentarily angry that his friends had run off, leaving one responsible partier to battle the blaze alone. Maybe if they’d stayed, this thing wouldn’t have gotten out of hand.