Tales of the Djinn: The Double (36 page)

Cade laughed but of course he followed. Arcadius didn’t expect him to abandon Elyse to him. Having her in his arms was enough for now, knowing he was going to take her the way he’d wanted for what seemed like forever.

He set her gently on her bed and immediately started unbuttoning his dress shirt. He sensed Cade’s arrival in the doorway behind him. He didn’t turn. He liked the way Elyse was watching him disrobe. She had an up close view. He was only a foot away from her.

“Do you want help with that?” she asked.

“No,” he said, already finished unbuttoning. Elyse laughed softly at his refusal. “I take it I amuse you.”

“Only in a good way. It’s kind of sexy that you know what you want.”

He hoped it was. He couldn’t be any other way. He removed his jacket and worked his arms free of the shirtsleeves. He threw both onto a chair and toed off his slippers. His chest was bare. He guessed Elyse liked the look of it. She rolled onto her knees, sitting on her heels as her gaze took him in. He breathed faster. Her admiration was an aphrodisiac. When she wet her lips, the sight of her little tongue set his blood on fire. Suddenly, he didn’t have the patience to strip completely. Unzipping and shoving down would have to be good enough.

Possibly because he was so eager, the belt buckle thwarted him.

“Would you allow me?” she asked politely.

He was glaring, but she didn’t seem to mind. He dropped his arms, and she scooted to the end of the bed to sit. Her calves and feet dangled to either side of his, both bare beneath her thick white robe. Her motions were assured as she undid the buckle and pulled the leather free of his trouser loops. The same part of him that had enjoyed being whipped got a secret charge from that. This wasn’t his only thrill. His erection throbbed crazily at the proximity of her hands, at the idea that she might touch him there. Before he could attack the trousers’ other fastenings, she pressed her lips to his navel.

He’d wondered if she’d want to be sweet to him like she was with Cade. Here was his answer. Coils unwound in his shoulders. He cupped the back of her head and exhaled.

Her hands were on his thighs, kneading the lust-tensed muscles beneath his pants. She kissed his belly again, brushing her mouth across hair and skin. Arcadius’s spine just about melted.

“Could I suck your cock?” she asked. “Or would you rather just take me?”

Her voice was husky with arousal. He hadn’t realized his eyes had drifted shut until he opened them and looked down at her. Her cheeks were pink, her every feature exquisite. Her lips were perfect, her nose the best nose in the world. Her eyes were the sort poets wrote dreamy words about. He didn’t understand how he could have thought her plain.

Her hands moved again, sliding together over the hump of his aching prick—exactly where he wanted them. Without releasing his erection, her thumbs stretched over his balls and rubbed.

The combined sensations were so delicious chills rolled up his tailbone.

“Let me unzip,” he said harshly.

She backed her hands off him. He undid the tabs and dragged the zipper down. The state of his cock caused the stretchy underwear he wore to swell into the opening. Elyse let out a little gasp. Liking that, Arcadius shoved both hands down into the garment and pulled his heavy erection out. Elyse’s eyes followed every motion. Her attention put him in less of a hurry. He trailed his fingers over the places he most wanted her attention on. His raphe. The spot underneath the head. The silky circle of the crown where his pre-cum welled. She watched the map his fingers drew, then gratified him by licking her lips again.

“In a minute,” he rumbled, “you’re going to be grateful I’m not as big as him.”

She laughed, breathless and delighted. “I always do the best I can with whatever challenge is set in front of me.”

Cade laughed too, having come closer without Arcadius noticing.

“Don’t let me interrupt,” he said as Arcadius glanced at him. “I’m agreeable to observing this next bit.”

Arcadius was too aroused—and too fixated on Elyse—to be offended by Cade’s confidence. In any case, Cade feeling threatened wouldn’t have benefited anything except Arcadius’s ego. Throwing off that unproductive thought, Arcadius stroked a baby soft dark ringlet behind Elyse’s ear. Her curls were damp but drying.

She waited for instructions.

“Do as you wish in this,” he said.

She pushed her hands slowly upward so that his were displaced from his erection. Her thumbs rubbed his underside, her fingers crooked between his upright length and his abdomen. Very gently she kissed the neck of his cock. The soft press of her lips was as much an expression of affection as a sexual act.

“You don’t have to be so nice,” he said, wondering if she thought his feelings needed it.

She smiled and kissed him the same way again.

He couldn’t deny he enjoyed it. Probably his little shiver was as good as admitting it.

The sight of her tongue coming out made him suck in a breath.

She dragged its flat up his underridge, moving her thumbs to the side so that nothing obstructed the slow, long lick. His hands tangled in her hair without him consciously deciding to. When her mouth and tongue approached his tip, he urged her head gently over it.

She didn’t resist. She took his crown in her mouth, her lips and tongue sliding wetly down as her hands began massaging his lower shaft. His hips rolled toward her, the bliss of what she was doing pouring through him in sugared waves. She sucked and his fingers tightened in her hair.

“Careful,” Cade said, but Arcadius knew he was neither hurting nor forcing her.

Her bobbing motions were too relaxed, the pull of her tongue and cheeks too passionate. She liked doing this. Her tongue was fluttering and rubbing, teasing him, slicking him, while her hands braced his shaft for her work. Her mouth was magic, but her fingers weren’t far behind. They drove delight into the inches her tongue couldn’t reach. They increased the pressure of everything she did.

“God,” he moaned, unable to hold the outcry in.

He didn’t startle her. She drew the ring of her lips upward, then pushed them down snugly. Suddenly everything felt too good. He swelled even more, his scrotum drawing higher, tighter, his nails pricking her scalp involuntarily.

She released him and looked up his body. “Enough?”

“Enough of
that
,” he answered. His voice was gruff, more or less the opposite of his emotions. Rather than tell her this, he took her hands and tugged her weight upward.

“On your feet,” he ordered.

She obeyed with a tiny shiver. He undid the tie of her figure-swallowing robe and flung the halves open. The shadows her body cast on itself were pretty: her little breasts with their budded nipples, her navel, the puff of dark curls between her legs. She was delicate and delectable, every inch of her calling out for kisses. Cade must have thought so too. Arcadius heard him breathing faster behind him.

Arcadius’s own feelings were so strong he couldn’t tell if Cade’s were affecting him.

“Take that off,” he said, gesturing to Elyse’s robe.

She shrugged it off slowly. He liked her body just as well unveiled as hidden. An appropriate human phrase slipped into his mind. Elyse’s hesitation revved his motor. She wasn’t afraid. She simply seemed aware that he was a male of power.

She woke his desire to conquer
and
coddle.

“On the bed,” was his next thick command.

She crawled back onto it, slightly awkward, her eyes big and bright as she locked her gaze to his. Her breathing had sped up like Cade’s, her breasts trembling from the force of her heart racing behind them.

“You’re very beautiful,” Arcadius said, wanting her to know that. “Please lie back on your elbows and spread your legs. I want to look at you.”

Self-consciousness tinged her compliance. She propped herself on her elbows but didn’t sprawl her thighs. He remembered her story about Cara forcing her to be the ugly doll. Considering Arcadius hadn’t been showered with praise as a child, this angered him more than he would have guessed.

He realized those early insults were still affecting her.

That was wrong. Perhaps some men would find another style of beauty more attractive, but Elyse was completely lovely in her own right. Even more important, she was lovely on the inside. Her strength, her courage, even her stubbornness had become a delight to him.

“Tell her,” he said to Cade, suspecting he’d be better at making the point than him. “Tell her what you see when you look at her.”

Cade understood. “I see a woman with so much beauty it makes me ache. I see a woman I’ll never stop loving.”

“Well,” Elyse said, her cheeks gone pink. “Thank you.”

“He speaks the truth,” Arcadius said firmly. “No reasonable man could dislike any part of you.”

This made her laugh softly. “No
reasonable
man.”

He saw he’d misstepped. “
I’m
reasonable,” he pointed out.

Her eyes were warm, her laughter dancing silently in them. “I’m grateful for that. As it happens, I believe no reasonable woman could dislike any part of you.”

She was still amused. How did she mollify him and put his back up in the same breath? He fought his urge to cross his arms.

“Please,” she said soothingly. “Give me your next command.”

“I don’t have any more right now. I just want to make love to you.”

His answer was surly. Her brows twitched up and wagged suggestively. When she also let one knee fall to the side, he got the message she was sending. The sheen of moisture between her folds constricted his vocal cords.

“I see,” he said. “You mean no one is stopping me.”

“Please,” she repeated, holding out her arms this time. “I want you to do as you wish.”

His inconsequential irritation let go of him. Abruptly lighter—not to mention energized—he swung onto the mattress and over her. He planted his palms outside her shoulders, holding himself above her. That felt good, like he really was in charge now. One of his knees ended up within the angle of her bent leg. She shifted that leg to touch him and met his eyes, not teasing or laughing anymore.

His cock was heavy enough to dangle and stiff enough to hurt.

The discomfort reached him from a distance. Holding her gaze seemed strange, like he was about to fall or jump or be yanked into danger. People said the eyes were the windows to the soul.

Would his betray him as less than a whole man?

She touched his cheek, petting it before he could look away. He reminded himself he’d been inside her before. He knew he could pleasure her, with or without Cade’s help.

Despite this knowledge, his next question burst from him.

“Do you want to make love to me?” he asked.

Her expression changed, her expanding pupils making her eyes darker. Her hands slid down his chest to lightly rub the groove inside his hipbones. Her touch was enchanted. His erection stretched another millimeter, actually stinging with fullness.

“Yes,” she said. “Very much.”

“Should I finish removing my trousers?”

She laughed. “What a beautiful idiot you are! Can’t you tell when a woman wants you this second?”

He was no idiot. Given this clear green light, he began to move. As he did, Cade sat on the side of the bed, halting him where he was. Arcadius was startled but—to his surprise—not annoyed. Cade had removed his jacket and tie but was otherwise fully dressed. The crotch of his trousers humped as dramatically as Arcadius’s had. Seeming prepared to ignore this for the time being, Cade held out a small packet with “Trojan” printed on its surface.

Arcadius’s mind sorted out that it was a condom.

“Put this on first,” Cade said. “It’s a human prophylactic. It’s easier than trying to use magic for prevention when you’re . . . in the thick of things.”

Arcadius assumed he knew this from experience.

“Give it here,” Elyse said. “Arcadius won’t know what to do with it.”

Arcadius could have pulled the information from the ethers but chose not to. Letting her perform the task offered its own rewards, though he had to clench his jaw as she rolled it on. Unfamiliarity with the aid aside, he knew he wasn’t supposed to explode at this stage of the proceedings.

“There,” she said, smoothing the translucent covering down him with an air of accomplishment.

She’d certainly accomplished winding him to a fever pitch. Though she’d stopped sucking him, moisture continued to well from his slit, causing the condom to cling there. The jerking of his cock was somewhat alarming.

“This will hold?” he asked. “This sheath seems very thin. I felt your fingers perfectly through it.”

“It will hold.” She grinned. “And good. Imagine what else you’ll feel perfectly.”

He couldn’t help imagining that. He jerked his chin, directing her to lie back again. As he descended over her, she slid her hands down his sides—probably intending to help him enter her. However enjoyable that would be, he realized he wanted something else.

Two commanders were in this room. Not taking advantage of Cade’s presence would be wasteful. Arcadius caught his double’s eye.

“Please control her arm,” he instructed. “Just the left will be enough.”

Elyse’s lips parted in surprise. Cade didn’t let that stop him from clasping her left hand against his chest. He trailed the fingertips of his other hand along the inside of her forearm. Elyse squirmed and broke into goosebumps at the same time. Maybe Arcadius should have been jealous, but he liked watching her respond to the other him.

“Good?” Cade asked Arcadius.

“Perfect. I want her to feel a bit constrained.”

“You’re ganging up on me,” Elyse said.

Her accusation was breathless. Arcadius smiled. “That is one benefit of this arrangement.”

He stroked her breast, then bent to kiss its contracted tip. Her skin was so buttery smooth he had to stay there and suck.

Elyse definitely responded to stimulation there. She twitched within Cade’s control. “Arcadius,” she gasped.

“Arcadius is my name,” he agreed pleasantly. He sucked her second nipple harder than he had the first.