Tempt Me (21 page)

SHE WAS CERTAIN SHE WOULD WAKE UP AT ANY MOMENT.
Then what she’d just done at the window with Gabriel, and the man who’d appeared in the sitting area of the hotel room, all of it would make sense. Oh, that was why she’d behaved that way, she would think. She’d been dreaming.

Only she was fairly certain she was awake. Awake and sitting naked on the edge of the bed, waiting for Gabriel . . . and his friend.

Emmanuel. It was too much of a coincidence. Those eyes and that name. But Bethany had said he was a child when he’d disappeared with Papa Legba at the crossroads.

She blew out a shaky breath. He didn’t look like a child. He was beautiful. She vowed to herself that she would stop eavesdropping and asking so many questions from now on. The more she knew about this world BD had opened up to them, this world of voodoo and spirits and magic, the stranger it got. She missed her crazy professor and his “theories.” The facts were almost too much for her to handle.

Why was she doing this? The answer came back swiftly. Because Gabriel had told her to, in a voice that instantly renewed her need and heightened her arousal. A voice she felt compelled to obey, because she knew what would happen next. Or, if not what, then how good it would make her feel.

Two men? She thought about the ones she’d seen on the street. They’d been aroused by watching her. They’d touched each other. Somehow she didn’t think that was what Gabriel had in mind.

Did he want Emmanuel to watch
them
again, this time without hiding from sight? The thought was exhilarating. What if he wanted more? Ordered her to touch the other man. Kiss him.

He wouldn’t. He’d been jealous at the bar. Possessive. He wouldn’t want to share her. And even if he did, she wouldn’t say yes. Would she?

God, yes.

She couldn’t lie to herself. Just the idea of it had her hand slipping down her belly, her thighs shifting as her desire increased. If they didn’t come in here soon, she might have to find her own relief, imagining herself between them.

“Someone is looking for another spanking.” Gabriel’s wicked words sent a shiver up her spine.

Yes, please.

She tried to send him an innocent look. “What? You didn’t tell me not to.”

They smiled at each other, both knowing that the promise of punishment was no threat. She’d loved it, a fact she’d been unable to hide.

The tall, raven-haired Emmanuel walked into the room, and she froze. Imagining him was one thing; having a fully clothed man see her naked left her feeling vulnerable and unnerved.

Gabriel knelt in front of her and she was distracted for a moment by his broad, bare shoulders and the open flap of his pants. But then he placed his thumb and finger on her chin, lifting her gaze to his.

“You okay?” His expression was so tender it gave her hope. Did he feel something for her, after all? Was it close to what she now knew she felt for him?

She loved him. Wherever it took her, whatever the toll to be paid. All her talk to the contrary, she didn’t want to leave New Orleans. She wanted to stay with Gabriel, flaws and hauntings and all. But only if he loved her back.

“Angelique? Baby? Am I wrong? We don’t have to do this.” Gabriel’s concern and Emmanuel’s discomfort finally registered.

She shook her head, smiling. “I’m fine.” She looked up at Emmanuel. “Really. I’m fine.”

Gabriel winked at her, relief making him seem almost lighthearted. “That you are. Isn’t she, Manny? It should be a sin to cover up a body this delicious.”

Angelique laughed, shaking her head at his teasing, and caught Emmanuel staring at her breasts with a hungry expression.

Gabriel rubbed her thigh in approval and she cupped each heavy globe in her hand, lifting them as if for inspection. “Is this what you’re looking at? Would you like to touch them?”

She wasn’t sure how she’d gone so quickly from submissive to brazen, but Gabriel didn’t seem to mind.

Emmanuel looked to him for permission, and whatever he’d seen must have let him know it was okay to move closer. He sat down beside her on the bed and she touched his sleeve. “Why don’t you take off your jacket? I’ll feel weird being the only one . . . naked.”

As soon as she’d said it his long jacket and whatever shirt he’d been wearing beneath it disappeared like magic, leaving him in only jeans, boots, and the most unique assortment of tattoos she’d ever seen.

He was unreal. BD-beautiful, but more vulnerable. His tousled hair cried out to be stroked. His blue eyes made her want to cry. His body made her want to cry for another reason. There was nothing vulnerable about him there. He seemed to be molded from muscle, his back and arms slightly larger than Gabriel’s.

The tattoos were unusual. Like black scars with stitching holding him together at his shoulders, his chest, along his spine. It made him appear even more unearthly. The markings were strangely heartbreaking. She wanted to ask him about them but she didn’t want to spoil the moment.

“Thank you, Emmanuel.”

He smiled, almost bashful, though he still had a hard time keeping his eyes away from her cleavage. “You can call me Manny.”

Gabriel snorted and stood up, stepping back, but Emmanuel didn’t look up at his reaction. His hand lifted, then hesitated, above her breast.

Why did he seem so uncertain? Surely he couldn’t be . . . She looked up at Gabriel, silently asking the question. He nodded.

Unbelievable. And, with the way Emmanuel was looking at her, incredibly flattering. She would be his first. His first
everything
. The idea sent a stream of heat through her veins, melting her nervousness away.

She took his hand and placed it on her breast, carefully watching his reaction.

A flush darkened his cheeks. The deep, impossible blue of his eyes glittered with surprised desire. His fingers tensed, his palm scraping across her nipple, and she arched slightly in reaction.

He noticed. He did it again, massaging her flesh, learning her, focusing only on her. She turned her body more fully toward his, licking her lips in anticipation.

“Can I kiss them?” Emmanuel’s question was to Gabriel, she knew, as much as it was to her.

Please say yes,
she thought in his direction, surprised she was finding this innocent exploration of her body so sensual.

It hit her that he had been alive in a time where she would be considered a harlot. A wanton. That somehow made this all the more thrilling.

Gabriel didn’t let her down. “I think she’d be insulted if you didn’t. Be gentle with your teeth, at first, until you discover how much pressure it takes to make her wet.”

The hand on her breast froze and Emmanuel looked at her. She nodded. “Please.”

He bent his head to her free breast and kissed the top curve with his soft, gentle mouth. He trailed a blazing path of achingly light kisses along the side, just beneath her nipple, and the freckle that marked the start of her cleavage.
Homage
. That was the only word for so thorough an exploration of a single breast.

It was setting her on fire. It was a sweetly painful kind of torture she wasn’t sure she could survive. Angelique lifted her hands to his head, impatient.

“He’s a natural, isn’t he, baby? He’s not even trying and you’re already there. Willing. Aching.”

Emmanuel lifted his head at Gabriel’s words, his blue eyes nearly black now as he studied her face.

“Yes,” she told them both. Wanting Emmanuel to know how he was making her feel. Wanting to tell him she needed more. “God, yes.”

Gabriel came to stand beside her, his hips at her eye level, his erection pushing against the fabric of his pants. “He needs you to show him, Angelique. Show him what you want.”

He slipped his hand inside his unbuttoned pants and pulled out his thick cock, pressing the slick head to her lips. “Show him.”

Angelique kissed the tip of his erection chastely, knowing Emmanuel was watching her every move, his hand still massaging her breast.

She opened her lips and took Gabriel into her mouth, her tongue slipping out to swirl along his shaft, making him groan.

“That’s what she wants. She wants you to taste her. Wants you so hungry for her flavor that you take too much.”

She moaned in agreement and sucked him deeper, lowering her head until she’d taken as much as she could.

Gabriel’s voice was gravelly as he continued. “Wants you to suck her nipples against the roof of your mouth. To pinch them between your fingers a little too hard. Oh, fuck, Angelique. Like
that
.”

She cried out against Gabriel’s flesh when she felt Emmanuel’s mouth open over her nipple. He
was
a natural. His teeth gently bit down; then she felt the scrape of his tongue as the fingers of his other hand twisted her nipple with just the right amount of pressure.

Angelique squeezed her thighs together, trying to ease the ache by rocking her hips back and forth. Emmanuel’s mouth left her nipple and she almost shouted in dismay until she felt it on her hip. On her stomach. The tops of her thighs. Oh God.

She got up on her knees on the bed, her legs spread wide as she continued to lift and lower her mouth on Gabriel’s erection.

“Not asking my permission anymore?” Gabriel sounded more aroused than upset. “Lie down on the bed with your head between her legs.”

She sensed movement and then he was there, his hair silky against her thighs. She lowered her hips until she felt the first brush of his lips against her sex.

There was no more room for shyness, no more words of instruction. He didn’t need it. After the first swipe of his tongue, he moaned low in his throat, his fingers tightening around her thighs. And then he was feasting. Sucking the lips of her sex, licking her, filling her with his tongue.

A memory of the other night in the kitchen doorway popped into her mind. Emmanuel watched Gabriel do this to her. He’d seen it. Had he fantasized about it? Touched himself? She thought he could taste her fresh arousal when he pulled her closer as though greedy for more.

She lifted her mouth off of Gabriel’s cock and shouted as she came. He held her steady as she pumped her hips helplessly against Emmanuel’s mouth, unable to control her body.

When she was done quivering, Gabriel lifted her off Emmanuel and into his arms, growling when the younger man tried to reach for her again. “Back off. She’s addictive, I know. But back off.”

Emmanuel stilled, watching him carefully. They were both like wary animals. And she was the bone.

Angelique caressed Gabriel’s shoulder, and he started to relax. She kissed his neck. The line of his jaw. Loving him without words.

“You liked what he did for you?”

She nodded against Gabriel’s temple, kissing him there as well.

“Do you think he deserves a bit of reciprocation?” Gabriel leaned away from her mouth to snare her gaze. “And I’ll be inside you to make sure he doesn’t distract you too much.”

She nodded again, unable to stop her smile.

Gabriel grumbled at her. “Those dimples would let you get away with murder.”

Emmanuel had gotten off the bed, still hesitant to move closer, but clearly tautly strung. Gabriel positioned her so she was kneeling on the bed again, this time with him behind her.

She reached out for the waistband of Emmanuel’s jeans and tugged. When he was close enough, she looked up at him with a warm, impish grin and looked at the denim. “Bet you could make those disappear, too.”

Before she could blink, he’d complied. “Oh, my.” He was breathtaking.

She glanced over her shoulder at Gabriel, who was sliding on his condom impatiently, and laughed.

He spanked one ass cheek without cracking a smile, but his green gaze sparkled with humor and . . . affection? Love? He took her hips in his hands and fit the head of his cock inside her, his size making her breath come out in a pleasure-filled rush with the first shallow thrust.

She turned back to Emmanuel, taking him into her hand with a gentle grip. His thick lashes flickered, but he didn’t look away. And neither did she.

Angelique kissed him gently, tenderly. Light strokes of her tongue took in his taste. His scent was clean and bright. Like green grass and sunlight. Like Emmanuel.

Time seemed to disappear. All she knew was desire. The delight of watching him experience this first, intimate kiss. The pleasure and ecstasy she felt as Gabriel took her to the place only he could. Passion.

Emmanuel never reached for her, his fists digging into his thighs as she brought him to the edge. He went over with a soft cry that was nearly drowned out by her moans and Gabriel’s raw shout of completion.

Gabriel pressed his forehead to her shoulder, her name a shaky murmur on his lips. But her eyes were still on Emmanuel.

She wondered how someone could look so satisfied, yet so lonely at the same time. She wished she could soothe him.

He bent down beside her and kissed her. Humbly. Gently. Then pulled back and smiled. “Thank you, Venus.”

And then he was gone. Again.

Gabriel didn’t say a word; he just tumbled her backward, pulling the covers over them and cuddling her close.

She closed her eyes, suddenly exhausted. As she drifted into sleep, she could have sworn she heard someone calling her name.