“Thank you, mon ami.” Kissing her swollen lips, Damien untied her robe and spread it open, revealing her lush, naked body. “You are as beautiful as the day I met you,” he complimented her as his hand cupped her full breast and lifted it to his descending mouth, suckling strongly on her tight nipple.
Most women would be offended by being referred to as ‘my friend’ after having a man’s cock in her mouth until his come slid down her throat, but Marie had had years to come to terms with the fact that she’d never be more to Damien than a much cherished friend. And, she thought as she lifted her hips into his searching hand, she was content with that. She had more in the way of friendship accompanied with casual sex with him than most women she knew had with their spouses.
“Touch me, Damien,” she moaned when he did nothing but lightly caress her plump folds just enough to ratchet her arousal without igniting it into the fiery pleasure she craved. “Please.”
Releasing her nipple with a plop, he grinned wickedly down into her frustrated face. “It’s different when you’re on the receiving end of being toyed with, isn’t it?”
“You always have to get the last word, don’t you?” she grumbled as she spread her legs wider and leaned back further over his arm, thrusting her breasts up even more.
“Always.” Damien answered her silent invitation by once more lowering his head and nibbling on her other nipple before clamping his lips around it. With a deftness that spoke of experience, he parted her damp folds and slid two fingers into her tight sheath, unerringly rooting out her clit as her damp, silky walls instantly closed around them in an effort to keep him there. Chuckling around her nipple, he slowly pulled back, gliding his middle finger over the swollen, protruding bud, the light contact eliciting a gush of moisture.
Marie had a full figured body, all soft curves and lush fullness, a body that never failed to harden his cock despite the now twenty year gap in their ages. Even though Damien had been on this earth for two hundred and thirty five years, he had never reached his thirty-sixth birthday. Watching people he cared about grow old and die was one of the hardest things about his never-ending existence.
Refusing to dwell on what couldn’t be changed, he thrust his fingers back into her pussy, stroking her warm, slick walls as his thumb teased and tormented her clit until she was writhing on his lap with uncontrollable lust. “Come for me, Marie,” he demanded, his gaze hot as they both looked down where he was finger fucking her with now hard, deep plunges, the dampness coating his fingers evidence of her arousal.
Marie threw her head back and cried out as she splintered apart, grinding her hips up against his palm, her hands clasping his midnight head as he once again bent to her breasts. Yes, she swore over and over as pleasure rippled up from her pussy to encompass her whole body.
Chapter Two
Damien stood on Marie’s small, upper balcony off the sitting room, his hands wrapped around the ornate iron railing. Her townhouse was located several blocks from the French Quarter, but he could easily hear the party revelry still going on even though it was almost dawn. Longevity has given him the ability to tolerate the early morning hours and to go out at dusk, so he didn’t need to return to the plantation any time soon, but he knew the longer he dallied the more tempted he would be to look in on Abrielle, a temptation that was getting harder and harder to ignore.
When he had come across a big brute of a man hauling a small, malnourished, terrified eight-year old girl toward an alley that Damien knew had a back door entrance to a seedy bar, he had immediately stepped in. After pinning the man against the wall, he had no trouble getting him to talk, to tell him how he planned to sell his now orphaned niece to a white slaver he was well acquainted with. Damien had left him breathing, temporarily, while he took the bedraggled child to his home and left her in a deep sleep while he returned to that alley and made sure her uncle and the man who liked to buy and sell little girls never had a chance to harm another child. He did not take killing lightly, nor did he kill indiscriminately, but when it was justified he didn’t hesitate or lose any sleep over his actions.
Luckily, Gideon and Ava had just held their mating ceremony and were still living at the plantation and Ava was more than happy to care for her during the day when the rest of the household was dead asleep. Being a social worker, she also offered to start searching for a permanent home for the neglected child. But upon awakening each evening, Damien found himself anxious to check on his new charge, needing to reassure himself that she was safe and happy. For two months he spent his evenings with Abrielle, naming her after his French grandmother when he discovered she either didn’t know her name or no one ever bothered to give her one. He played games with her, took her for nighttime swims in his pool and lavished her with toys, clothes and food. It surprised the entire household how easily she adapted to them and her new surroundings and Damien wasn’t the only one who would melt and give her whatever she wanted when she turned those baby blue eyes on him.
Sending her to the childless couple Ava had found had been the hardest thing he had ever done, so hard in fact, he had refused to relinquish her completely. Making visitation rights a stipulation for the adoption, he was able to still see her and watch her grow into a beautiful, talented young woman. But it wasn't until he picked her up to take
her out for her twenty-fifth birthday and the telltale birthmark on his palm began to throb, his cock hardening in response to her nearness for the first time, that he realized she was his mate.
“You are thinking of her, yes?” Marie stood next to him at the balcony and laid her small, soft hand over his larger one. “Why do you do this to yourself? Go to her,” she urged even though she knew once he did he would no longer come to her for anything except friendship. But that was enough if it meant he was finally happy.
“I lost control and did a terrible thing once, Marie. I was newly turned and Isabelle tricked me, but that doesn’t excuse my actions, or lessen the consequences. I have watched my brethren with their mates, seen firsthand how sex with your chosen one makes you insane with lust, and they say, love. They’ve remarked on pleasure so intense, it would make a mortal lose all control. I won’t risk being as weak as a mortal, as I once was, and especially not with Abby.”
“I do not believe whatever happened was your fault. I know you, Damien. New Orleans has been labeled Sin City for good reason, yet you are out every night protecting those who are either too stupid or too foolish to stay out of bad situations. Mortals, as you sneeringly like to call us, who often give you no thanks for helping them. The man who fought so righteously for the freedom of others, and died for his efforts, could not have deliberately hurt an innocent.”
Damien smiled down into her earnest face. Tiny lines bracketed her eyes, but they were the only signs of her age. At fifty-five, she was still a beautiful, desirable woman, one who could still stir his lust with just a look. “You have always looked at me with rose-colored glasses, Marie. And I have let you. But, make no mistake; I am capable of great wrong doing.”
“As we all are. I love you, Damien, and your melancholy saddens me. Go to your chosen one and take the happiness you know awaits you with her.”
“If you love me, why are you pushing me towards another woman?” he asked dryly.
“It is because I love you that I want your happiness, and we both know it’s not in my bed.”
Taking her hand, Damien walked back inside and downstairs to the front door. “I have found much happiness in your bed, and, I hope, so have you.”
“You know I have, but it has been three years since you have fucked me, coincidentally three years since you discovered Abrielle was your mate. Do you really intend to go through eternity getting by with blow jobs?”
Damien opened the door, raised her hand to his lips and bit her knuckles before soothing the bite with his tongue then kissing her lips. “I love you, too, Marie. Never doubt that,” he told her without answering her question. Since he had no intentions of walking this earth for eternity, the question was moot anyway.
Marie watched him walk down the dark street, so alone it made her heart break. She knew he loved her, just as she knew he was not in love with her. Her tarot cards had shown her long ago that his destiny was not with her.
Damien headed back towards downtown, this time on foot, intending to meet up with Jacob and the twins, but thirty minutes later somehow found himself veering off course and making his way down one of the quieter side streets that catered to small specialty shops and cafes instead of the full cuisine, larger restaurants, clubs and bars along Bourbon Street. Damn Marie and her meddling, he thought in resignation as he came to the old warehouse Abrielle had converted into a book store and tea shop. She had worked hard at the renovation, enlisting not only his help, but that of Beau, Jacob, Luc, Jon and Mason, the other brethren who were still living at the plantation. The Book Nook, as she named it, had been open and thriving for five years. The customers who patronized it had their choice of new releases or bargaining for used titles as well as being able to enjoy an eclectic choice of exotic teas served with a decadent dessert while they perused different titles.
Damien had had his doubts about her endeavor being successful in this day and age of electronic reading preferences, but she had surprised him by being right. The majority of avid booklovers and readers still preferred their hard or paperback books, still would rather hold a book in their hands despite the space saving convenience of an electronic reader. Of course, there was also the side benefit of having a clientele that came into her shop just for the variety of tea choices she carried, again proving him wrong when he had expressed his doubts about combining the sale of books with teas.
But neither her ideas for her own business nor the success she has had with her shop had surprised him as much as discovering she was his mate. Ever since he had fled with the Book of the Crescent Creed from Isabelle’s mountain fortress where he had wallowed in hedonistic depravity for over a year, he had known there would be a woman who would eventually bear a similar crescent shaped birthmark who was destined for him and him alone. He just never had any intentions of seeking her out or bonding with her if he did meet her.
Yet here he was, looking up at the darkened windows of her loft apartment above her bookstore, aching to be near her. Even with brick walls separating them, his palm throbbed in response to being this close to her, his cock stirring, hardening with lust that only she could sate no matter how many times he went to Marie. He was infinitely stronger now than he had been after the altercation in the alley earlier, his energy level as well as his strength higher than any mortal could conceivably fathom, but nowhere near the full potential he knew he could achieve by fucking his mate and ultimately claiming her.