The Holiday From Hell (15 page)

"I don't think I've ever eaten so much in one meal in my life, Luce!" Mel exclaimed as soon as they were out of earshot of the restaurant. "I don't think I'll walk it all off even if we do visit my friends at the old homestead tomorrow."

Luce chuckled. "Good thing we're walking back to our little loft, then. A nice little warm up before some real exercise." He glanced at her. "If you're up for that, of course."

Mel tucked her arm through his. "Given how many times you topped up my wineglass, I'm sure you were trying to get me drunk so I'd sleep with you, Luce."

"I'm counting on sleeping with you. It's the bit before sleep I'm crossing my fingers for," Luce replied. "I even had oysters as an entrée. I'm prepared for you, Mel. Anything you want, all night."

Mel's laughter rang out across the dark vineyard. "You don't need oysters or any other aphrodisiac, Luce. Your sex drive alone was legendary before I came along. But I do recall a promise that tonight was for realising one of your fantasies. Perhaps that's why I agreed to drink all that wine with my dinner instead of pouring it out. You still haven't told me what you'd like, my love."

Luce fingered the handcuffs in his coat pocket. "When we get home. I'll tell you when we're in bed together. Then…then you can tell me if we'll do things my way or yours."

"I promised. I keep my promises, Luce." Mel let out a little shriek as she stumbled and almost fell, but Luce righted her in time. He held her to his side as they walked the last few hundred metres along the gravel drive to their temporary home by the lake.

Together, they stumbled up the stairs and into the warmth of the heated apartment, a welcome contrast to the near-freezing air outside. As Luce hung up their coats, Mel said, "Do you mind if I freshen up a little?"

Luce nodded, wondering at her flush, then figured it was probably a combination of wine and exercise in the cold. That gave him a few minutes to freshen up, too.

Off came his shirt and out came the handcuffs. No, not really cuffs – leather restraints, he decided. He slipped the chain between the vertical rungs on the bedhead, so the wrist cuffs lay on the pillow. He didn't know how long Mel would be, so he'd have to hurry if he wanted to be in position when she came out of the tiny bathroom. If he asked her, she'd never agree, but if he surprised her the way he'd planned, she might just give in…

The door started to open and Luce tensed.

"Bloody Hell."

Mel blushed. "I haven't worn anything like this in over a century. It's certainly improved – I didn't know they could be even remotely comfortable." She pressed her hand to the lace on her white corseted breast and glanced down. "I thought the stockings were overkill, but it just didn't feel right to wear a corset without stockings. I drew the line at those g-string things, though. There's nothing comfortable about a stringy thing up your bottom. But these are brand-new, too." Mel touched the cotton knickers at her hip. "They're all to replace the ones that were torn on your judgement day, outside the gates of Heaven. I thought…I thought you should enjoy them, too."

Luce was speechless. From his initial explosion of swearing, now he couldn't do anything but stare at his Melody Angel in the sexiest white lace lingerie he'd ever seen. And here he was, handcuffed to the bloody bed, and he couldn't touch her unless she came closer. Couldn't even take his pants off, though he'd pitched a pop-up tent in them already. Never in his wildest dreams had he thought she'd wear something like this.

Smiling nervously, Mel perched on the edge of the bed. Still out of reach. He could stroke her with his foot, when he wanted to grab her with both hands. This was the best and worst kind of torture imaginable. And yet…

"So, you said you'd explain your fantasy to me when we were home. It's just us here, so confess, my love. Tell me what you'd like." She crept up the bed so she could look into his eyes, just beyond his grasp. "Or I'll kiss you and you can show me, if it's one of those graphic images Sptlk must have gotten from inside your head."

The imp had a dirty imagination all his own, Luce fumed, swallowing as he tried to form words. He blinked furiously, remembering what the imp had said about illusions being dispelled or returned. He was the lowly angel who didn't deserve her. Blink. He was the Lord of Hell, seducer of thousands, who were all practice for his perfect angel…who he didn't deserve. No, the imp's illusion switch was broken. Ah, to Hell with it.

He jingled the chain linking his wrist restraints. "I'm chained to the bed. Yours. Yours to do…whatever you want with. Without me interfering, or being able to do anything to stop you. You can do anything you want to me."

Mel seemed to be waiting for more. "That's your complete fantasy? I have free reign over your body for…anything? Was there something you wanted me to do? Surely if you've fantasised about this, you have some idea."

Luce shook his head firmly. "No. That part's up to you. The surprise of not knowing what you'll do and being powerless to stop you…I made this body perfect for you, Mel. Surely you can think of things you'd like to try with it. With me. Hey, you have the Lord of Hell at your mercy. The sleazy devil who made your work life Hell in the office. What's your pleasure, Melody Angel?"

This was a horrible idea, Luce decided as his heart sank. She'd never agree and he may as well throw the cuffs into the lake, for all the use they'd get.

Mel darted in and kissed him, then pulled back before he could reach her. "All right," she began, inspecting his body. "I think the pants should go." She unbuttoned and unzipped, then Luce lifted his hips to help her undress him.

Clad only in his black silk boxers, Luce tensed as he waited to see what she'd do next. She wouldn't hurt him, would she?

Mel tilted her head. "I think…I want you to turn over, so you're lying on your tummy, Luce. Can you do that with those things on your wrists? I can help."

Luce crossed his wrists and struggled to flip his body over without using his arms. It wasn't until Mel's firm hands slid under his back, lifting and turning, that he managed to flop down on the bed, face first.

"These need to go, too, I think." Mel slid her hands into the waistband of his boxers and her warm fingers were softer than any silk, caressing his legs as she stripped him naked. Then she wasn't touching him at all. "I…I need to go get something. I'll be right back." Luce heard her footsteps pad across the tiles away from the bed. Distantly, he heard the squeak of a zip before her bare feet padded back. "There." Something landed on the timber bedside table, but he couldn't see what it was.

What if she was going to hurt him? Hit him with something and then heal him later? What if…

Mel's hand touched his bare arse as the bed shifted to take her weight. Maybe she'd brought sex toys in the hope that he'd be willing to try something kinky. Like he'd refuse. Mel, into kinky sex? This could be fun.

Warm, silky stockings brushed against his hips as Mel perched herself over this thighs. "Okay, this is supposed to help." Something cold and hard touched his back between his shoulder blades. Mel ran it over his back like she was greasing a baking dish. Was she going to set fire to him? This was a mistake. He should never have…

"You're terribly tense, my love." Her lips gently kissed the back of his neck. "Are you sure I'm doing this right?"

"Yes." The word was out before he'd thought it through. She could do whatever she wanted to him. No matter what.

"Relax, my love," she whispered as her hands stroked his back, trailing down to his legs as her weight lifted off him. The bed squeaked as she moved off the mattress entirely, but her warm fingers on his foot reassured him that she wasn't going anywhere. Her thumbs circled against the soles of his feet, her fingers pressing hard enough to probe muscle without tickling him. She finished up by pulling each of his toes between her fingers, stretching each one and releasing the tension in each digit as she did so.

She began tracing elongated figure eights up and down his calf muscles, the firm pressure bordering on painful until he remembered she'd said to relax. And he did, with a blissful groan. Oh God, there was magic in her hands as all the residual stiffness from yesterday's stair climbing vanished as if it had never been. She moved her sensual massage up to his thigh muscles and he was embarrassed to hear himself moan, but Mel didn't seem to notice.

Oh, no, wait, she had noticed and she was trying to hide her amusement. Luce was mortified.

"I said relax, my love. There's no one to hear us and if I'm doing something right, best if you tell me so I can…do a bit more." She sounded breathless and more than a little nervous.

Luce grinned into the pillow and closed his eyes, not caring about anything but her hands on his body. To Hell with being in control any more. He was at Mel's mercy and her ministrations deserved a response. "You're doing everything right. Don't stop, Mel."

She moved to his other leg, soothing away years' worth of tension as he sighed with pleasure. "All right, time to pay some attention somewhere else," she murmured, laying a line of kisses up the back of one leg, then the other. She laughed softly before he felt her soft touch on his right bum-cheek, then the left, leaving a slight coolness behind.

"Did you just…?" He couldn't finish it. She hadn't. She wouldn't…not Mel!

He could hear her smiling. "I just kissed your very sexy arse, Luce. Twice. But now I need to…" The mattress shifted beneath him as she settled her weight on his tingling arse, silk sliding against his hips again as she mounted him.

"Anything," he breathed. "Do anything you wish. Do you want me to turn over?" Please, please let me turn over, he prayed, ready to burst at the thought of being between her silk-clad thighs.

A gentle kiss landed between his shoulder blades, followed by her warm hands. "No, I have you right where I want you for now, my love. A little later, maybe…"

Her hands lightly stroked his shoulders and back, then dug deeper into his shoulder muscles, freeing up what had to be a century of stress.

"Oh my God, Mel," he groaned into the pillow, almost losing all control of his body when she did it again. "Don't stop. Please don't stop. Please…ohhhh, yess…"

She peppered his back with kisses between deep, powerful strokes that left him moaning incoherently. Bliss. This was bliss. Better than sex. And they hadn't even had sex tonight. Oh God, if the sex she had planned was better than the foreplay, he was going to set the sheets on fire the moment she…

"Now turn over, please, my love." She sounded as breathless with desire as he felt.

Eagerly, he grabbed the headboard and flipped from his belly to his back so he could get another eyeful of his beautifully corseted angel. She crept closer, meeting his gaze with a seductive smile as she straddled him. The heat of her thighs on his was going to make him combust. Explode. Burn up like a meteor in the atmosphere.

"Luce, I can't bear it any more. I want…"

"So do I." He pinched a link of chain between his superheated fingertips and it crumbled to ash. Finally free, he sat up swiftly and seized her. His kiss couldn't convey just how much he needed her, but he gave it a damn good try anyway.

She yielded to his fierce kisses for a moment before she burst into laughter. "You mean you could break out of those handcuffs any time you wanted to?"

Luce shrugged. "Of course. Lord of Hell, the hottest devil around…but I'm at your mercy. Whatever you want."

"I missed a spot. I can't bear to see you in pain, Luce."

Yes! Those cotton knickers would come off and she'd finally…

Mel's gentle fingers unbuckled one of the restraints. Her thumb circled his palm, relaxing his hand like nothing else. She stroked his fingers, pulling gently and releasing tension he didn't even know he had. She turned her ministrations to his other hand, then kissed his wrists. "You don't need to go through that for me. Ever. Just seeing you restrained made me ache in sympathy, Luce. I hope they weren't too tight."

Luce laughed and picked up one of the discarded restraints. "Soft, white leather...padded and lined. The only kind of cuffs an angel would use on someone she cared for. You did miss a spot, my sweet angel, where there's far more tension straining to be released than I've ever had in my hands." He glanced down and Mel's gaze followed.

Her hands gently stroked, increasing the tension to heights he hadn't believed possible. He groaned, unable to stop himself.

"It's all right, my love. I'll take care of you. I was keeping the best for last." She kissed him lightly.

Luce closed his eyes in bliss as Melody flew him to Heaven.