Beautiful Oblivion (36 page)

“One evening, and two centuries,” she adds.

“Touche.” I wave my gloves at the burgeoning crowd of heaving bosoms, and they part like a carnal Red Sea. “Take us to your leader.”

“Would you stop?” Skyla swats me over the chest. “Nobody really says that.” She turns to the blonde hussy. “Clara MacHatter, please.”

“She’s with a customer.” Her penciled in brows pull up to her scalp.

“Matter’s not,” I say.

Skyla holds out her hand to silence me, and I’m only mildly amused at her bravado.

“Where the hell is she?” Skyla never takes her eyes off the yellow-haired floozy as the room fills with gasps and titters.

“Who do you think you are speaking to me that way?” She steps in and thrusts her chest at my lovely bride, and suddenly I want nothing more than to see some estrogen fly.

“I think I’m Skyla Messenger—a woman from a very different time and place, and I know for a fact the kangaroo court that runs this town is going to raid this hellhole come morning, and the entire lot of you are going to hang as witches—unless, of course, I intervene.” She digs her finger into the girl’s downy chest, and it disappears an inch into her flesh. “I also know that what goes on in those bedrooms involves a little more than a fleshly exchange, doesn’t it?”

The room stills, not a bosom heaves.

Skyla leans in close. “This silly prostitution ring you have is a ruse to get the Counts to protect you in exchange for your blood, but you’re wrong, in fact, you’re
bloody
wrong because the Counts will never protect you. After they string up your bodies, they’ll be right below—lancing your flesh—with a chalice at the ready. Is that what you want?”

A younger girl runs from the back. Her eyes turned up in horror, her lips trembling with fear. “It’s not true, is it?” She doesn’t take her eyes from the woman squaring off with Skyla.

“Of course, it’s not true. Celestra and Countenance have an understanding. So long as you’re under this roof, you’re forever safe.” She cuts Skyla a look that could easily slit her throat.

“Safe forever?” Skyla huffs a laugh.

“Very well,” I intercede and pull Skyla back until her bustle crushes against my waist. “Consider yourself warned.” I motion for the man at the piano to lift the spirits with his efforts, and the noise fills the cavernous structure to pre-hurricane Skyla levels. I glance back at the harlot in yellow. “May we trouble you for a spare room?”

“Third to the left, up the stairs. Sheets on the floor once you’re through.” She flicks a finger under Skyla’s chin before looking to me. “Eh—I can give you one better than this.”

“Excuse me.” Skyla is quick to swat her away.

“Sometimes you have to take what God gives you,” I say, picking up Skyla’s hand and heading for the stairwell.

Skyla swats me over the chest. “You
so
did not just go there. Remind me to beat some manners into you later.”

“As you wish.” I glide Skyla up the stairs just as a dozen young men in black coats clog up the entryway.

“Looks like the Counts are here.” She settles her eyes over them as if she were readying to take them on right this very minute.

“Let them have their fun. We’ll deal with them in the morning.” I curl a finger under her chin. “I believe I’ve a lesson to teach you.”

She looks up with a coy smile, her teeth grazing over her lip. “You always were my favorite teacher.”

I take Skyla by the hand and lead the way down a darkened hallway.

“Third door on the left.” I speed us inside to a candlelit room that smells of soot and sweat, and the remnants of someone else’s lovemaking. “Now what were we discussing?”

Skyla gives a bubbling laugh as she saunters across the room. She gives the bedding a good slap, only to have a plume of dust rise in her wake.

“Gross.” She fans the air and chokes into her shoulder. “Nothing says
bed bugs for one and all
like the seventeenth century.”

“Come here, I’ll protect you from unwanted pestilence.” I take a careful step toward her, and she retracts with a devilish gleam in her eye. She’s never been one to make things easy. “I’ll bathe you with such affection, all thoughts of parasites and disease will be put to pasture.”

“Love in the age of cholera?” She averts her eyes looking every bit the schoolgirl even if she is old enough to be her own mother at this point. “Sounds scary.”

“Frightening you
is
on the agenda, among other emotions I plan to evoke.”

She pitches her head back and swallows a laugh. Skyla is a thing of beauty, a creature of sublime nature and matter, and I do come close to worshiping her.

“I’m always a little frightened around you.” She bats her lashes and struts forward, her flesh rippling from her corset. “Isn’t that the plan? Scare the
hell
out of me by way of your—”

“Dignity, Skyla”

“I left it on Paragon.” She shoots me a dark look that lets me know we’re pushing it. I’d better reel it in before she evaporates. Skyla is wanting, and here we are, ready to devour one another for the very first time.

“Are you going to make love to me sweetly?” She traces a finger over the end table and inspects it for dust. She’s back to her playful self with that wicked grin licking at her lips.

“I’ll leave that to Jock Strap.”

“Oh?” She wraps a hand around the bedpost and swings wide into the room. “Are you going to take me
roughly
?” She’s teasing, caustic and cutting with her remark.

“I gather that’s The Pretty One’s specialty.”

Her chest pumps with a laugh, but she won’t give it. Her eyes narrow in on mine with a threat because I happen to know both Olivers are a forbidden topic.

“You went there.” She shakes her head, incredulous. “You know they’re off limits to you.”

“You flooded our existence with them for the first half of our time together, I figure I’ll take up the slack and bombard the second half with the same refrain.”

She wrinkles her nose, and I can see the youth return to her eyes. “You never play fair.”

“Neither do you.” I pull a ladder back chair from the desk in the corner and take a seat. “Come.” I reel her in and land her over my lap lengthwise, with her face toward the floor, her perfect bottom under my chin. “Rumor has it I owe you a punishment.” I lift the back of her skirt until it spills out into the room.

Her chest vibrates over my legs as she bites back a smile.

“What is it exactly that you find so humorous?” I trace my hand up her thigh to the garter she’s anchored her stockings to and slip a finger under the lace thong she’s paired it with. “Something old with something new I see.”

“Are you kidding?” She looks up. Her cheeks already pink with pleasure. “I wouldn’t be caught dead in those granny panties they stuffed themselves in. Sometimes the twenty-first century just knows better—heck, all the time.”

She goes on and on, but it all fades to nothing as my mind focuses in on her creamy skin. Her perfect round curves rise over me while her hips inadvertently grind into my thighs. I bring my palm down over her bottom like the cracking of a whip.

“You hit me.” She stiffens for a moment before straightening to get a better look at me. “You bastard.”

My lids hood low with wicked intent, and my muscles shake to have her. “You were begging for it.”

“In your twisted dreams.” She rights herself until she’s straddling me, face to face, her tiny waist tucked against mine.

“Hello, Ms. Messenger.” I hitch her panties to the side with a flick of the wrist, and my fingers glide in slow over that heated slick tucked between her thighs.

Skyla sucks in a breath and closes her eyes a moment. “Are you sure this is legal in our light drives?” A vision of her biological mother pops into her mind. “Technically—”

I seal her lips with mine and swipe my tongue over hers until she moans into me. The last thing I want is for this to turn into a morals evaluation—God forbid her toxic shrew of a mother invade her thoughts once again.

Skyla comes at me hungry and needy, her kisses outweighing any protest that might crop up. I can’t say I’m not pleasantly surprised because I have every intention of being her one and only focal point this evening.

I run my fingers over her hot moist flesh and touch my thumb to her pleasure point until she bucks beneath me.

“
God
.” She grips my head and pushes it into her chest, as I oblige the sweet flesh of her breast with the tongue-lashing she so deserves. “You feel like a freaking tuning fork.”

“Good vibrations?” I pull down her corset and unleash the ladies in waiting until I’ve all but devoured one with my lips. Her soft flesh molds to me, and I fit all she can give me into my mouth at once. There she is—where she belongs, rolling around my tongue, writhing over my hand, wet with her affection for me.

“God, yes,” she pants. “Good, good,
good
vibrations.”

My fingers travel down just shy of entering her, and she lets out a quickened gasp.

“Yes, that. Do
that
.” She coils her fingers through my hair and gives a hard pull until I give a playful bite to her nipple, and she relents.

“What is it you want me to do?” I string kisses up her neck, and she chokes out a breath as I turn up the volume on the feel-good vibes my body is sending hers.

She lets out a fierce groan and grinds her hips over my hand. Her frustration quickly becomes my pleasure.

“Touch me.” She gives a soft bounce with her eyelids trembling, a heated breath raking from her mouth.

“Touch you, where?” I whisper into her ear, and she gives a hard shudder.

“Right there.” She creates a circle over my hips, and my Sector glory rises high to meet her. “Yes, that.” Skyla leans back with a sleepy look in her eye, a smile quivering on her lips. “Put that in me, and we’ll call it a day.” She swallows hard as I try not to laugh.

“Call it a day? I’m less than amused at your abruptness to be rid of me.” I give her breast a gentle bite and rise to meet her gaze once again. Skyla is a seductress of the highest order. Her panting alone is enough to satisfy me. “Sounds like you’ve already had about all you can take.” I try to remove my hand, but she’s quick to restrain my effort.

“Marshall, no,” she moans out the words. “No games.” She gives several blinks struggling to keep her eyes on mine. “I want this.” She places my hand where it was moments before and gently rocks back and forth over it. “
Please
.”

A coy smile teases on my lips, but I’m far from giving in. This has been years in the making, a lifetime—six millenniums to be exact.

Then something in me cinches, and I give. I’ll give Skyla whatever she demands, whenever, however, so long as it meets her insatiable needs. Something tells me the retrograde project was as much as gift to me as it was to the Celestra people. Of course, I’ll be the last to fill Skyla in on that detail.

My fingers move in rhythm to her hips, rubbing up and down in long, easy strokes. She leans into my shoulder and bites down over me as if to savor the agony.

“You like this don’t you?” I touch my finger to the rim of her womanhood and pull back just enough to tantalize her with the prospect.

Skyla gives a guttural cry of disappointment. Our eyes lock immovable. It was all happening now. Here we are ready to cross that bridge and see exactly what lies on the other side of the carnal curtains for us.

“I’m going to penetrate you, Skyla.” I give a ghost of a smile.

Her eyes close briefly as if she were faint. “Marshall,” she pants, clawing at my chest.

“Like this?” I slip a finger slow inside her, and she lets out a heated scream. “Deeper still?” I push in hard until I’m limited by her body. Her chest loosens into me, her heart rages against mine for more.

She looks up, those clear eyes, glazed, unrecognizable. “Is that all you’ve got?”

A laugh thumps through me, but I don’t break a smile.

“You want it all, don’t you?”

“I was promised a proper punishment. Wasn’t I?” She knifes it out like a threat, and I dip another finger into her, quick and forceful.