Spirit's Release (2 page)

Chapter Two

Something tickled Jacob to awareness. He found himself at the bedchamber door. Confusion swirled his thoughts. Why was it dark? He’d arrived home only moments before, heard the news of Sophie’s illness and—

Fear and worry filled him so that he couldn’t catch his breath. He moved toward the door.

* * * * *

Dera
had waited so long for this…too long. Alec lifted his arms, allowing her to strip his sweater upward. Although she wanted him undressed as quickly as possible, she moved slowly, enjoying the revelation of each inch of warm masculinity. His skin was golden, muscular and dusted with dark hair, and the scent of his heated flesh caused a tightening deep inside her. She bent her head so that she could press her lips to the center of his breastbone. Kissing, nuzzling through the curls that crossed his chest, inhaling his scent, she was only barely aware of him taking over the final removal of his sweater. Then his arms slid around her and his lips descended to touch the side of her neck.

We haven’t even kissed
, she thought and, as if reading her mind, he pushed one hand into her hair, twisting his fingers through the dark locks and tugging her head up and back. She caught a glint in his eyes just before his mouth crashed down on hers. His lips pressed hers apart and his tongue swept inside to taste, devour,
plunder
. She groaned at the invasion…or was it he who groaned? It didn’t matter.

Rising on her toes to bring
herself
up the two or three inches that separated them in height, she pressed her bra-clad breasts to his bare chest. His body was so warm, his embrace powerful. She felt the wonderful length of steel behind the zipper of his jeans as it pressed against her pubic bone. Lifting one of her legs to stroke her knee along the outside of his thigh, she felt herself open beneath her panties, and the heat from him eased inside her, making her passage weep. As her need for him intensified, she was only vaguely aware of him releasing the hooks on her bra.

Another groan filled the night and this time she knew that it came from him. Breaking the kiss, he whipped her around. His hands swept up the front of her body to grip her breasts and haul her back against his chest. Pleasure speared her and she arched into his hands so that her breasts spilled through his widespread fingers. Doing so also brought her ass in closer contact with his jeans and the rigid length of his cock pressed into the cleft between her cheeks. The thought that only thin nylon and rough denim separated them sent another spear of pleasure into her. But this one was sharper and more focused inside her lower body.

“I’ve wanted this—wanted you—for so long,” he whispered as he buried his face once more in the side of her neck.

“Me, too,” was all she could manage to say as his hands stroked and squeezed her breasts. His fingers plucked at her nipples while his mouth captured one of her earlobes and began to suck it, swirling his tongue against the flesh. Vibrations of need hummed through her body as he began to kiss and nip a path down her neck to her shoulder.

He must have felt that vibration for he slid his hands downward, hooked his thumbs into the sides of her panties and stripped them away. The motion had him bending at the knees, running his tongue down her spine. His teeth nipped at her flesh where her lower back began to curve down to her ass, sending goose bumps crawling over her skin. As he straightened, one of his hands came around in front of her, stroking toward her throbbing pussy.
With each advance of his hand, the need inside her coiled tighter.
At last his fingers pushed through the tangle of curls covering her mound, finding her labia swollen and throbbing.
But instead of breaching those heavy lips, his fingers pinched them together. Exquisite need accompanied a rush of moisture, and she reached one of her own hands down to grip his fingers and press them more tightly together and upward so that the sensation flowed up her vagina and into her womb.

Yes
,
she thought—or maybe she said it—as her pleasure intensified.

His free hand came around to join the other at her labia and his body aligned with hers. He was naked at last. His bare cock—so hard and hot—ground against her ass. His chest hair tickled her shoulder blades, his thighs bumped hers and then one of his feet hooked around her ankle. He drew his leg outward, forcing her legs apart so that her pussy opened to him.

Dera
gasped as wetness surged anew within the folds of her labia. A cry of completion escaped her as he pushed two fingers into her weeping passage, sending sparks across her saturated nerves. Teetering on the brink of climax, she longed for release. At the same time, she wanted to hold fast to this moment, this sensation. She tried to hold off but when one of his hands rose to grip her breast again, to pinch her swollen nipple, she lost control. Need spiraled tighter for one more exquisite instant and then sprang free. Pleasure coursed through her body, pulsing in waves of release that had her groaning aloud.

Suddenly, she was turning, falling, landing on the bed. His mouth was covering hers, his cock sliding inside her body. The touch of his hard flesh to her convulsing passage intensified her climax and she cried out again as her body shattered.

Alec groaned as her tight passage convulsed around his cock. She’d come so fast, her inner muscles clenching around him, drawing him deep inside. Pleasure rippled through him, tightening his leg and abdominal muscles. Even his ass cheeks clenched as he was overcome by a primitive urge to pound inside her. But he didn’t want this encounter to end too quickly. He’d waited too long and he wanted the pleasure to last. And yet his body didn’t seem to care what his mind wanted. Her passage was tight and wet, and the ripples of her climax undulated along his staff. His balls tightened and his cock swelled and throbbed, urging him to press deeper. His thigh muscles took control of the situation, putting power behind his thrusts into her.

So good.
It feels…so…damn good.

He looked down at her, tried to focus on the way her black hair spread over the pale gray bedspread, tried to hold on to this wonderful wanting that coiled inside his gut. But her eyes distracted him. Passion and moonlight glazed those dark blue orbs as she cried out in climax yet again. Energy surged through his body and he exploded into a million pieces.

* * * * *

Jacob stared at the couple on the bed. Energy shot from their joined bodies, surrounding him, filling him with vitality. The surge cleared his mind and resurrected myriad memories—his beloved lying dead where these two strangers now coupled, the madness that had seized him, driving him to draw his dagger. He remembered pain, the flow of blood, the pitch forward to die across Sophie’s still warm body.

A passionate cry drew his attention back to the woman on the bed. She stared at him over her lover’s shoulder just before her eyes glazed over with fulfillment. More memories returned—of other lovers who had gazed upon him in fear. All had sprung apart, their energies abruptly ending and sending him back into darkness.

But this couple continued to drive together, filling the very air with the force of their love for each other. That force flowed into Jacob, empowering him to think beyond the madness with which grief had infected him that terrible night.

“God, forgive me for taking the cowardly way,” he whispered, giving voice to feelings he had barely grasped in the past. “But I can’t be sorry. I did what I needed to do. I didn’t—don’t—deserve to be with Sophie.”

Warmth coursed along his back and he turned. Golden light pulsed through the windows. A silhouette formed there, a dear form
who
had his heart swelling with joy.

Sophie.

“Come, love,” she said, her voice like a spring breeze. “You have but to reach out and we can be together.”

Her arms opened to him but he hesitated. “I left you to die alone. That is unforgiveable.”

She shook her head and stars seemed to spark from her golden hair. “Your love is your forgiveness. Come…before the energy disperses and the darkness takes you down once more.”

He felt it already—a dimming of awareness. Looking back at the bed, he saw that the lovers had separated. They lay side by side, their gazes focused on him. They had given him the energy to appear, to stay long enough to reach for the salvation that Sophie offered.

Can it be so simple?

Gathering what energy remained, he turned back toward the golden light. He reached for Sophie’s hand, felt the warmth of her fingertips, and then she was drawing him forward. The light folded around him and he moved with Sophie into the heaven he had been longing to reach.

* * * * *

Dera
looked at Alec as they both leaned up on their elbows. “Did you see them?” she whispered. “Did you hear them?”

He nodded slowly, still staring at the window through which the beautiful golden light had briefly appeared. “I did.”

A sense of wonder coursed through her, heightened by the pleasure that she and Alec had shared. “I think your spirit problem has been solved.”

“I think you’re right.” He turned to face her, a smile lighting his eyes. “Why don’t we celebrate their reunion?”

Rolling to her side, she lifted her fingers to stroke down the center of his bare chest. Her touch caused his skin to prickle and his nipples to tighten. “I think we have our own reunion to celebrate,” she said, aroused by his reaction.

“I agree,” he said and then moved in close, his lips capturing hers in a soul-searing kiss.