Carnal (Her Dark Desires #1) (11 page)

As
his lips tickled kisses along my jawline, he brought his hand up to knead my
breast. “Foreplay is the best part of sex,” he said. “It’s the anticipation,
the unquenchable thirst to come, that’s the most tantalizing.”

That
was a fucking understatement. The actual sex part was pretty damn good too, but
I couldn’t deny how turned on I was becoming. Having little experience with
foreplay from my past lovers, I had very little to go off of. Most of them
wanted to get right to it, often coming before I’d had a chance.

This
felt amazing, like he wanted me. I was divine. I was desirable.

I
was a goddess.

“Let
me take you,” he whispered into my ear, nipping my earlobe gently.

I
cried out, pressing myself firmer against him. My hand trailed forward, rubbing
over his hardened length. He groaned and rubbed against my palm. My God, he was
so thick. What would that feel like, stretching my soft walls and slipping into
me, one powerful thrust after another?

I
let my other hand play with the softness of his hair, like ebony silk between
my fingers. His lips sucked harder on the gentle slope of my breasts, and I
clenched him more forcefully. He moaned and kissed my neck, my jaw, my cheek -

He
stopped abruptly, his mouth hovering over my own. Time froze as we stared at
each other, panting and hearts beating fast.

As
if coming to his senses, he blinked hard and slowly let go of me. He cleared
his throat and ran a hand through his hair. “So, um, you see, that’s how you
initiate a proper seduction.”

My
shoulders fell. I didn’t know if I wanted to scream or cry or both. “Sure.
Thanks. That helped a lot.”

His
smile was tight. “That’s all for tonight. I don’t want to overwhelm you before
you’ve even really begun. You should get back to your dorm before curfew.”

Disappointment
stung me. “Oh, right.”

I
started to go, still horny as hell, when I paused at the door. “Hector?”

His
gaze shot up. “Yes?”

“I…”
I “what” exactly? Want you? More than I’ve ever wanted anything or anyone in my
life?

That
was ridiculous. I barely even knew him. Yet I couldn’t deny I’d never felt this
much of a pull toward anyone in my life.

My
mom, a hopeless romantic, had been a firm believer in love at first sight. Now,
I’d seen a lot of “lust at first sight,” which I had definitely experienced,
but this felt different. It felt deeper than lust, akin to finding a soul that
spoke to my own.

It
scared the hell out of me, wanting someone this bad.

“Um,
have a good night,” I said instead, smiling like an idiot as I closed the door
and all but ran down the hall.

My
breaths came in hard pants.
Stupid, Sally! Why are you running away?

Well,
honestly, what else could I do? Declare my undying love for a man I had known
all of three days? Granted, Hector was probably used to such declarations, but
he would still surely view me as a nutjob and possibly put a restraining order
on my ass.

Yet
as I walked, I couldn’t stop myself from replaying the way his hands had roved
over my body, and the undeniable spark in his touch. More than that, I’d seen
it, the want in his eyes as he looked me over.

Maybe
I had imagined it, but there was a large part of me that argued I hadn’t.

That
there was more between us than I was brave enough to admit.

Chapter 8

I
COULDN’T GET HECTOR out of my mind after that.

He
was everywhere - my dreams, my thoughts, that cinnamon scent refusing to leave
my mind.

He
was also unusually distant after that initial lesson. To my immense
disappointment, I’d had nothing but heavy reading and video tape assignments of
watching more adept succubi’s techniques and breaking down what makes them good
at the game of sex. Not one touch, kiss, or caress. I nearly had to cuff myself
to his desk to keep from running my hands through his hair or over his chest.
And something about the cold treatment only made me want him more.

By
week three, I could hardly stand to be in the same room with him, I wanted to
jump him so badly.

It
was a Friday night. I was in my room, staring at the TV. Realizing I had spaced
out into another Hector sexual fantasy that involved hot oil, and that I hadn’t
paid attention to the screen, I groaned.
You have got to stop thinking about
your teacher this way! He’s already made it clear he doesn’t want you like that.
Forget about that night. It was only for teaching purposes.

Then
why had it felt so real? Why did his touch awaken something in me, something I
thought had been irrevocably broken?

Bored
out of my mind while watching yet another homemade porno, courtesy a la Vixens,
I paused the DVD with a frustrated sigh and went to the kitchen to get a snack.
Delilah nearly ran over me on her way out the door, clad in spiky silver heels.

I
eyed her skin-tight silver dress. “Where are you off to? There aren’t any red
light districts around here.”

“Ha
ha,” she said dryly. We hadn’t fought since our first meeting, but the
hostility between us was no less hot. “I’m expecting company later. At which point,
you’ll need to be gone.”

I
gritted my teeth. “It’s my apartment too. You can’t keep kicking me out
whenever you feel like getting laid.” She’d locked me out no less than six
times for company’s sake, even going so far as to getting a witch to enchant
the keyhole so that when I tried unlocking the door, my key either snapped off
or melted. Replacing them had finally resulted in a formal slap on the hand for
Delilah, but she’d forgone any serious punishment. It killed me how much
special treatment the sup royalty got.

Delilah
smiled coldly. “Little girl, don’t make me go all jaguar on you.”

With
that, she left, leaving me choking on a cloud of fruity perfume.

“Bitch,”
I mumbled, snatching an apple out of the fruit basket and taking a deep bite.
“Who the hell does she think she is?”

I
sighed and looked at the clock. Another half hour before I was supposed to meet
Hector and turn in yet another report with my observations. Part of me was
looking forward to seeing him, and the other half died a little every time. It
was stupid. It didn’t make sense that I should feel this way. But from the
moment we touched, something carnal stirred awake inside of me, growing every
time I was in his presence. Never had I felt this strong of an urge to be with
someone. It was driving me crazy, and it was depressing as hell, because I knew
no matter what happened, it would never work out between us.

Things
never did for a succubus and an incubus.

Resigning
myself to the inevitable, I finished my apple and padded to my room. After
getting ready and gathering my things, I set off across campus to the main
building.

No
other bodies had been found since the mutilated were a few weeks ago. Since it
was a full moon, Dean Prescott and the D.P.I. were saying it was most likely
pack-related activity gone wrong. Packs behaved much like gangs, having
factions and initiation rites. Sometimes, those ended in the recruit dying,
which is what they thought happened here.

I
also hadn’t had any more demonic dreams. If anything, I was so tired by the end
of the day that I slept like a rock. In addition to my studies, Hector put me
on a rigorous workout routine, which I was fine with, because getting in better
shape was something I had been meaning to do but could never seem to commit to.
The first few days had sucked because I was so sore the next morning I could
hardly move, but things got easier over time. I felt stronger and like I had
more energy during the day, though I knew increased strength or not, I would be
no match for Damien or whatever creature was lurking around the grounds should
it come calling.

I
was wary of my surroundings as I walked through the night, listening for any
sign I was being followed. Call me paranoid, but I’d rather be safe - and alive
- than sorry.

My
breath clouded the air in fine silver mist, and I hugged my leather jacket
tighter. Monique might have good taste in clothes, but while they excelled at
fashion, they failed at being very functional. She’d argued otherwise, when I’d
spoken with her over the phone the other day, along with reminding me how much
she and Raoul missed me. The feeling was mutual. With only Delilah for company,
if you could even call her that, the apartment was pretty lonely at times.

I
inhaled a deep breath of fresh air to clear my mind. The sky was spackled with
stars, and the gentle breeze coming off the plains smelled of earth and
wildflowers. I had to admit it was peaceful out here. And also a bit spooky in
a desolate sort of way. Sups overall didn’t like cold weather, supposedly
because our senses were finer attuned to weather changes than humans’, so not
many people were out tonight.

I’d
managed, over time, not to dread seeing Hector, but tonight was different, and
I couldn’t fully explain why. My stomach turned into knots when I stepped into
the building. On one hand, I wanted more than anything to see Hector. On the
other, I was so not looking forward to another evening spent discussing how
much better my coworkers were than me at just about everything there was to
being a succubus. I was probably reading too much into it, as Raoul would have
told me, and though I tried not to feel slighted, it kept creeping up in the
back of my mind.

Not
in the mood to climb the stairs, I opted to be lazy and take the elevator.
Since it was just after dinner, a few students and staff lingered. I hadn’t
managed to make any more friends since people first learned I was the one
teamed with Hector. While the angry glares and scathing remarks had died away
from his legion of hardcore fangirls, I was far from being a socialite on
campus. Angela and I hadn’t gotten to hang out much either. Our schedules were
so different, with most of her training sessions being during the day and mine
at night, that we rarely saw each other except at meals.

A
pang of loneliness hit me. While talking to Monique and Raoul over the phone
was great and all, it didn’t compare to actually having them here.

Before
I could let my feelings escalate into a full-blown pity party, I rapped on
Hector’s office door.

He
answered quickly again, like he’d been standing by the door, waiting. “Hi,” he
said, sounding breathless.

“Hi,”
I said slowly. I checked my watch. “Did I, uh, get the time wrong?”

“No,
no,” he said, still sounding distracted. “It’s fine. You’re right on time. Come
in.”

Odd
.

I
walked inside, and he shut the door behind me, then closed the blinds on his
window. Huh. He’d never bothered with that before.

“I’ve,
uh, been reviewing the tape you submitted for your project last week,” he said
as he sat down behind his desk.

Heat
rushed to my cheeks, and my voice hitched up. “Oh?”

Last
week, we’d been working on the art of a striptease, and one of my projects was
to tape myself performing one in my room. He said I would learn more if I could
watch myself perform.

“Yeah,
I thought we’d go over it together,” he said.

If
my face got any hotter, it’d melt clean off. “Uh, sure,” I squeaked.

Oh,
crap. Oh, crap. Oh, crap.

He
rewound the DVD and pressed play from the beginning. There I stood, shifting my
weight from side to side. I looked nervous as hell. Or ready to throw up, which
was kind of how I felt now.

Hector
smiled slightly. “You don’t like being the center of attention, do you?”

I
stared at my hands. “It’s not that,” I said quietly.

“Then
what?”

His
voice was so gentle. Maybe unlike Elias, Hector would understand what I’d been
through.

My
heart started pounding harder, and I took a shaky breath, prepared to tell him
what I’d told maybe two people. “I… when I was human-”

A
rock tune filtered out through the speakers, interrupting me. On the tape, I’d
pressed play on a CD and had begun bobbing to the beat.

“Now
this is good,” Hector said, leaning forward and pointing to my knees. “You get
more into it as you go, but music helps, because it feels like it’s taking some
of the attention off you. That’s why I recommend using popular tunes, something
the client is familiar with. That’s just what you’ve done. Nice.”

“Th-thank
you.”

I
watched, amazed, as the nervous, shy girl transformed before my very eyes.
First came the tights, then the skirt and top. My movements became more daring,
more fluid and assured. You’d think it would be the opposite, being the less
clothes I had on, the more nervous I’d become. Which was usually what happened,
but not this time. This time, I was in control. In the privacy of my room,
there was no one there to taunt me, no one to make me feel inadequate.