"What else can I do to you with this bond?" she teased. "You're sure I can't read you?"
"We'll test it another time. Maybe after strike three?" He kissed her deeply, trying to distract her.
Zoey almost fell for it. She pulled away from him and laughed.
"I'll be more powerful than you after strike three!"
"You sent me one message and now you think the universe is yours?"
Here's the second, she replied mentally.
Declan laughed. "Okay, two!"
"So when you chose to take me for strike one, did you do it so you could read me the next morning?" she asked.
"I could've read you either way. Your bond to the Professor has been weak for awhile, mainly because of his age. Being bonded to you was easier, but I'm quite a bit stronger than the normal Incubus." The words were factual, not arrogant.
"Hurricane?"
"Do you really want to know?"
She shook her head, already uneasy with the idea.
"You knew I was lying the whole time," she said with a sigh.
"Yes."
"All of you were messing with me."
"Absolutely. They're all my brothers. They found it funny someone as wild as you were mine."
"Son of a bitch!" She didn't know why she was embarrassed by that fact.
"If it helps, we only mess with people we like. You made a memorable impression, especially after you almost took out Wes," he said, amused. "I warned them."
"I was really hoping he'd kill me fast."
"Not a chance, and Vikki's staying here. I didn't take her from you."
"I know," she replied. "We're..." she stopped and willed herself not to think it.
"Rule two." The edge was in his voice.
"Who invented these rules anyway?" she retorted. "And why..." she trailed off.
He pushed her onto her back, the dangerous light that had been present when he told her about rule number one in the alley returning. Her heart flew into a frantic flight, her breathing uneven.
"Don't do that," she begged.
"Talk."
"We're forming our own Cambion hunting vigilante group."
The lethal spark faded. "It's against the rules."
"Yours or the Sucubatti's or Incubatti's?" she asked.
"Does it matter?"
"I won't break yours."
A trace of a smile crossed his face. He kissed her, easing her tension, then pulled her against him as he rolled back to his side. She assumed his lack of response was tepid acceptance.
"Do your rules apply to you, too?" she asked.
"Yes," he said then added, "Oh, and Zoey..."
She lifted her head to look at him.
"Strike two."
"Goddamn it!" She flushed. "There will be no third date!"
"At the rate you're going, you'll be back tonight," he teased. "You lost your last bet anyway. Double or nothing wasn't it? Which means I get to fuck you for four more nights?"
"I do not recall," she snapped.
"Then it was seven."
"It was four, jerk!"
She was starting to like the way he teased her, almost as much as how he fucked her. Zoey buried her face in the nape of his neck, breathing in his rich vanilla scent, surprised to realize she really did like him. And hated him. And was bound to his soul. No part of her wanted to leave his body or to wake up without him.
"What happens after strike three?" she asked suddenly. "Assuming it happens. Not saying it will, but is there still a price tag on healing me?"
"It depends."
"No noble dedication to your poor little soul-mate?"
"Do you plan on coming to my bed every night willingly? Or do I have to hunt you down?"
She grunted noncommittally in response.
"If you agree to be in my bed every night, I'll be the noblest of all," he said, smiling. "If you form a vigilante group that breaks off from Incubatti and Sucubatti, and you make me hunt you down to fuck you, you'll pay a price every time. I have a feeling that's what you'll do, at least for awhile."
She rolled her eyes at him, silently agreeing. "Double or nothing would be eight nights?"
"Yes."
"Double or nothing it is," she decided. "What's the bet? Three days for strike three?"
"Three is generous, don't you think?"
Zoey rolled out of his grip in protest. He rested his hand on her hip to stop her in place. Laughing, she grabbed the edge of the bed and tugged free. He growled in response, a sound that barely sounded human. His body settled on top of hers. Gasping, she yielded to the shot of magic. He slid between her thighs.
"One day," he whispered. "You'll be back tonight."
"Fuck you," she replied, already awash in their shared arousal.
Declan kissed her then worked his way down her body, using his hands and mouth to overwhelm her senses. Zoey relished the sensations. She reached for him more than once, needing to feel him inside her rather than the sensual teasing. Declan pushed her hands away every time, until she sat up restlessly to stretch for him. Declan sat as well from his position at her feet. He pulled her into his body, kissing her hard. One hand twisted a nipple while the other slid into the core of her womanhood. Zoey clawed at him, unable to stand his teasing any longer when she was so wet and ready.
"Fuck me, Declan," she demanded breathlessly.
He moved behind her, wrapping his arms around her and pulling her against him. She groaned and wriggled.
"I was patient last night. Now it's your turn," he said again with a husky chuckle.
Kneeling with her legs apart, Zoey rested her head against his shoulder, in heaven with his hands roaming her body and his hard dick at her back.
She captured his thumb as it crossed her lips and sucked hard on it. His other hand reached around to trace down her belly to her core. He pushed two fingers inside, rubbing her G-spot hard in rhythm with her tongue's work on his thumb. His thumb slid along the sensitive nerve between her petals and flicked her clit. Near orgasm again, she bit his thumb.
He responded by pressing his penis between the cheeks of her buttocks.
"Please," she begged.
"Tell me what you want," he whispered.
"I want you to fuck me."
"How?" His fingers continued to torture her. He pulled his thumb from her mouth and wrapped his arm beneath her breasts. "C'mon. Tell me how you want me to fuck you."
"I don't know," she groaned.
He removed his hand from her core. Zoey let him position her, push her knees apart and hold her upper body suspended. His hips shifted away as he prepared to enter her once more. Almost panting with need, she gasped as his penis slid into her sheathe while two fingers slid into the tight ring of her anus.
"You're so fucking juicy," Declan's voice held a note of strain, as if his self-control was no longer effortless. He moved in and out of her a few times then withdrew, his penis replacing his fingers at her anus.
Lost to her senses, Zoey felt the softness of the meat of his palm against her lips. Her mouth opened, and she kissed then gripped him with her teeth.
He penetrated her anus, slow and gentle, letting her body adjust to his size.
"Bite," he whispered in a rough voice.
Zoey obeyed. Pain and pleasure roared through her as he plunged into her. She moaned and bit him hard as he moved in and out of her faster and faster. When the pain passed, she released him, and his hand went to her clit again, stroking and fondling her, matching the rhythm of his pumping.
They plummeted into the world of shared passion. Rather than resist, she clambered for access to his mind, needing to feel the mental connection as well as the physical one. He suspended his pleasure the first night, but this time, he was barely holding on. His desire was hot, his pleasure raging as it consumed both of them.
He lowered her onto all fours then gripped her hips, plunging into her faster and faster. He drove her near the breaking point then held her there longer, his fire consuming her even in the world of their souls, until she heard herself begging him for release.
Zoey's orgasm broke a second before his. She dropped onto her stomach, body rendered weak by the pleasure that wracked her. Declan collapsed onto her back, shaking under the force of his release and breathing hard. He kissed the side of her face, and the two of them lay still, aside from the convulsions of their orgasms.
Declan remained inside her, where he belonged, while they recovered.
The soul connection made every sensation twice as intense as the emotions ebbed and flowed between them. Declan withdrew from her anus and rested atop her for a moment before he was hard again.
He slid into her core. She groaned softly, aching for him with inhuman need. He moved in and out slow at first then faster, building momentum that stretched taut between their bodies. She was soon drowning again in the sensations of his body. He gave her no rest, driving them both into orgasm after orgasm, rending cries from her with his intensity and passion.
Hours later, Declan sat beside the bed, watching Zoey sleep. It wasn't quite dawn yet, but he'd been unwilling to sleep, knowing that his Zoey was a weapon waiting to be activated. Fucking a soul-mate was every bit as incredible as his brother told him. No matter how pleased his body was, his mind was a mess.
Zoey killed an Incubus. He still didn't know what to do. She was unstable at best with the recent changes in her life. If what his father's spies said were true, things were about to get worse. Zoey was at the edge of a cliff and didn't yet know it. Declan felt the same way, only he knew he stood on the ledge. He just didn't know how far down the drop was.
"Are you okay?" her soft voice was gravelly from sleep.
"Yeah," he said. "Got a lot on my mind."
"Like what?"
Declan smiled curiously. He wasn't used to talking to his bedmates as he did Zoey. Women in general were usually a tool of physical fulfillment. Despite his misgivings, he found himself liking Zoey for reasons more than physical pleasure. She was brave, strong, loyal, sweet in her own way, and candid.
"You're worried," she assessed, pushing herself up on one arm to scrutinize him in the dim light of his room.
"A little."
"About ..."
Declan was quiet, debating for a moment. He didn't know how far he could trust her anymore than she did him.
"There are a lot of people in the Incubatti who feel the same way you do about Cambions," he said carefully.
"I hate them." She sat up, the sheet wrapped around her. "I don't know how you can justify protecting them."
"Some evils are not so easy to fix."
"This one is," she insisted. "Just kick them out of your society."
"It would mean a civil war."
"It's a small price to pay for saving lives."
"Perhaps," he said noncommittally. "We are trying a more diplomatic approach."
"Politics?" She made a face at him. "You can't reason with those things. Just kill them."
Silently, Declan agreed. However, he understood his father's position of creating a much broader strategy to deal with a crack down and the ugly aftermath.
"You are serious about your plan to kill them?" he asked.
She sighed. "You're going to turn me in, aren't you?"