Pure & Sinful (Pure Souls) (24 page)

Chapter 24

Some parts of his body had spontaneously developed a brain of their own. At least, given the way his hips, hands, lips, and tongue were acting independently, each trying to reign supreme in the conquest of Riona’s flesh,
a
coup de corpe
s
eemed the most likely explanation.

Riona pulled Marc’s hand back into hers and away from her waist for the third time. His fingers had once more hooked around the hem of her white-trimmed panties. Some part of him wanted that slip of silk and ribbon off this very minute so it could join its distant relatives — Aunt Blouse, Uncle Jacket, and little cousin undershirt — in the pile on the floor.

“
Maaa-aarc
,”
Riona cooed, her amusement sparkling, when he resisted her tug and tried again. “You take those off, and little stands between us, but one bad decision.”

“One bad decision? Already giving it a nickname?” He joked as he brought his mouth back down over hers before pulling back to examine the way she wore lust in her features. “Like a thin layer of cotton would stop me if I was going to follow through.”

Both were playing the parts of erotic diplomats with every inch of their bodies, the territories being negotiated by treaty. The essential articles that staved off overindulgence remained in place. Riona lay on her back atop her bed in her matching bra and panties. Marc, bare-chested, successfully managed to keep his pants fastened up and his belt on, although at one point, it was unhooked by Riona’s lithe fingers. But even the heavy-set thick cloth of his black slacks couldn’t restrain that piece of him engorged and pressing uncomfortably against its cotton-weave confines, wanting to get out so it could, in turn, get in.

As he tasted the flesh where Riona’s neck was the sweetest, and felt her tremble beneath him, concern filled him. What was the matter? Was she scared? Nervous? Cold?

But when he drew his eyes up to her face, he saw that she was, in fact, laughing.

“Something funny, Keystone?”

At first meekly, then frantically, she shook her head back and forth. “No, Marc. I… I just can’t believe this is actually happening. I’ve wanted this for so long, wanted you for so long.”

They were in the same leaky dinghy on that one.

Marc grinned in Technicolor. “Me, too.”

“What is Heaven like, Marc?”

The question threw him for a loop and made his body go stiff. Now? She wanted to discuss theology now? 

Pulling a deep breath through his teeth, Marc leaned on an elbow and pushed himself back beside Riona. She shimmied and turned to face him. Despite the pause in activities, the fingertips of his free hand still traced patterns over her collarbone and painfully close to the borders where her bra covered two perfectly-sized breasts, speckled pink by the heat of her own body and the working of his mouth.

“That’s the question, isn’t it?” he said, his gaze drifting, as though he was looking off in the distance. “What are you asking exactly? What it looks like? A lot of people make the mistake of getting caught up in the presentation.”

“And you?”

He shrugged as best he could in his position. “I don’t think Heaven is something you see or smell or step on. It’s not billowy clouds and perfumed air and waters that flow eternal. It’s bliss. Pure, ecstatic, all-encompassing bliss. It’s the feeling that you’re content, that you’d never want for anything more, need for anything more. It’s being… whole.”

When he turned back to her, Riona was wearing both amusement and disappointment in the quirk of her eyebrow and the grin of her mouth.

“At least, that’s what I think, anyways. Guess we won’t know until we’re there, huh?” As his finger traced a path from the valley of Riona’s cleavage down to her belly button, he found himself chuckling. “Guess I should say, if we get there.”

“You’re so totally off,” she boldly declared. “It’s nothing like that.”

“I don’t mean to sound all holier-than-thou, but the whole Heaven-Hell shtick is sort of my life’s work. The details might be vague, but I don’t think I’m
totally
off.”

She mirrored his posture by propping herself up on one elbow. The angle and blessed presence of gravity made her breast peek just a bit more around the edges of her bra, giving Marc a flash of deep pink flesh, just made for suckling.

“True or false: you have to die to get to Heaven?”

The ferocity on her face was so attractive. “True, except under truly unique and unusual circumstances.” 

“Okay, true or false: we are not dead.”

Confused, he looked at her askew. “Channeling Carl Sagan? What are you getting at?”

Leaning in, Riona’s free hand lifted to cup his cheek as her body rose to his, her eyes and her lips mere inches away. “You’re here, and I’m in your arms.  Pure, ecstatic, all-encompassing bliss. If that’s what Heaven is, we’re already there. You make me whole, Marc. You make me whole.”

That was it, he was undone.

Marc’s body raged to life with a fire he’d never before experienced. They found a place beyond words, beyond thoughts, beyond language. Verbs were now spoken in kisses, and nouns were his hands upon her hips, pulling the white panties down. Riona’s replies came in her actions: finally conquering that belt and unhinging it, undoing the button and fly of his slacks, using her nimble legs to move the cotton and his boxers down the length of his legs, past his ankles, and after that, who cared?

A moment later, as he sheathed himself inside her, feeling her warmth and wetness as she welcomed him, Marc knew she’d won the debate. Oh, God… Yes. This was bliss, this was Heaven. As his hips began beckoning him to continue what was only natural, as he slid out, feeling her muscles pull on him like a lover trying to recapture her beloved, he knew he’d been completely and utterly wrong.

His mouth covered hers as he pushed into her again, bringing from Riona’s chest the most magical, musical and minute moan that teased his ears. If what he was doing did that to her, he was going to be at this for all time.

“Gah…” He tried to speak. He did know how to speak, didn’t he? He could feel his mouth go lax, as every fiber in his body focused on the rapture of being inside Riona. He wanted this to be perfect, wanted her to hear him say the words, to know the notion he was communicating to her with each swivel and dip of his hips.

“Riona, I… I lah… I love…”

“Marc, NOOO!!”

All.

Movement.

Stopped.

The lovers jolted, still joined below, but heads spinning in the direction of the door. A red-haired, flushed, and breathless woman stared at them with panic and dread.

Marc’s head threatened to explode. A naked and crushed Riona in the doorway, a naked and ensheathed Riona beneath him… 

How was it…?

Turning back to the paramour in his arms, the truth of the deed smacked him in the face like a two-by-four. With hair black as coal, and skin pale as the dead, the transformed woman beneath his fevered body grinned up at him.

“Hi, handsome,” she giggled as her hand gave a little curt wave.

“Wha… Who…”

Mockingly, she presented her hand in front of her chest, as if offering to shake his. “We’ve never been properly introduced. I’m Lucifer. Or as Riona knows me, Lucy.”

Chapter 25

“Lucy?” Riona panted the name like a chubby teenager being forced to run a mile. “You’re Luci… You’re the devil?!”

“In the flesh,” the black-haired and voraciously curved human imposter declared boldly as she sat up.

Marc looked like he just died. White as cream, the priest pulled back, fleeing, falling unceremoniously on his unholy bum off the end of the bed.

“You know, Riona, it’s been awhile since any Pure Soul has entranced everyone the way you have. I knew the moment my soothsayers saw you, you were special. I knew that you were one filly I needed to get into my stables. But you played hard to get, even got Jerry to fall for you. You know, you ruined one of my most valuable agents, don’t you? Ah, but that only proved how right the soothsayers were. You are special. Special enough that I made Jerry take a fall so I could pursue you myself.”

Too much confusion, too much information at once. Could a demon be ruined by love? Or, even more, could he be saved by it?

And that brought Marc to mind. In the shock of discovering Lucy’s secret, she temporarily forgot that Marc was the reason she high-tailed it here to begin with. His naked and shivering frame was huddled face down on the floor at the foot of her bed, his hands lashed behind his head as it shook woefully. She could hear him mumbling. As she focused, she realized he was praying
.

Riona bit her lip as an ache in the pit of her stomach. Realization was written all over Marc’s face. 

“Marc, we’ll find a way to undo it,” she whispered to him as she fell to the floor beside him, putting her arm around him. A small throw blanket she kept at the end of her bed had fallen to the floor. She used it to cover his bare body, giving him back a modicum of dignity.

“Riona,” he sobbed. “I didn’t know. I thought it was… I thought you were… That she was…”

“Toast,” Riona declared, bringing Marc’s confused and bloodshot eyes flashing. “I forgive you, Marc. Don’t worry, I’m so going to toast this bitch.”

“Oh, please!” Lucy scooted off the bed and stood, naked and strikingly beautiful. “There’s no need for violence, Riona. Just because I’ve added Marc to the guest list doesn’t mean you’re not invited to the party.” Her fingers trailed, like a line of acid, down Riona’s cheek. “This doesn’t have to be goodbye for anyone. You can be with Marc. Consummate with me now and be mine. If you want, we can all get into bed together.”

Jerry’s warning returned to her mind, of the devil’s plan to offer an exchange. Riona knew she mustn’t give in, that a Keystone like her would be too dangerous in the devil’s wheelhouse. But there was one thing no one had explained to her yet, and it was about freaking time she got an answer.

“What’s so fucking special about me?” she demanded, shooting to her feet with shoulders back, fulfilling the definition of resilience. “Why damn a good, honest man like Marc just to get to me? You don’t have balls enough to come for me directly?”

“Balls?” Lucy looked to her nether regions with amusement. “See, I thought that was my unique angle with you. Ever notice how there’re so many more beautiful women in the world than drop-dead-gorgeous men? I was worried if I showed up in your life looking like Adonis, you’d be too suspicious something was amiss. But every woman comes preinstalled with a bit of evil, a little gift from me. And evil always looks pretty on the surface. Seductive, even. But if you want me like that…”

Magic filtered through the air like heat against her skin. Lucy’s frame shifted, the contours of her soft, delicate curves expanding, morphing. In the span of a few blinks, her biceps bulged, her pecs petrified, her height shot up, and her … Well, suffice it to say, in a male body, Lucifer’s endowment was ungodly. She only got a momentary glance, however, as the rock-hard male form that Lucy had embodied became surrounded by a cloud of black mist. As it cleared, it became apparent that the devil found a way to slip on some Levis and a leather vest. Bronzed skin, that she was certain tasted of whiskey, peeked out temptingly from a chest and a washboard stomach that should have been patented by Whirlpool.

Staring wide-eyed and mouth agape, Riona indulged a moment of unbridled lust before squashing it down like a fitted sheet in a linen closet. “Answer my question.”

“Answer your question, love?” As a man, Lucifer’s voice was the perfect combination of gravel and velvet, like a man’s face with a bit of sexy stubble. And British. Coyly, seductively British. One corner of his mouth quirked as he took a few steps forward. “Hasn’t anyone told you, baby? When the mantle of the Keystone fell upon you, the cosmos shifted. When the Big Boss gives projections, he doesn’t take out an ad in the paper. He moves the heavens and creates an omen. You’ve got one dark destiny, witch. You’re going to be the bride of Hell.” His eyes traced Riona from tip to toe, lust and desire and need playing in his eyes. “Marc didn’t have a bad start, but I really can’t wait until I get a chance to shag you proper for all time. The things I’m going to do to you, Riona…  Hell hath no fury like a woman porned.”

All air left her when she hit the wall at the back of the room. Blinking wildly, she tried to gauge what Lucifer had done to send her flying eight feet. But as she focused, she saw that the magic which moved her hadn’t come from the devil at all. It came from Marc.

The priest, disregarding his unclad state, leapt to his feet, his chest heaving. The amber glow of angry magic still danced on the tips of his fingers, his hands at his sides like an old cowboy keeping his guns at the ready.

“You’ll never touch her!”

The priest cocked back his right hand as another blast of magic propelled forward, hitting the devil squarely on the breastbone. The impact made Lucifer stumble, but didn’t force one little cut into that sinfully-sculpted chest.

The devil let out a full-bellied chuckle. “Marc… Energy blasts? And you’re not even a Keystone? Damnation has already doubled your strength. You draw your power from me now. See what a little sin can win? Can’t wait until I get you home and reincarnate you into demon flesh. It channels the powers of Hell better, you know? You’re going to be a first-class minion, priest. Almost makes up for losing Jerry.”

“No!” Riona threw her arms back against the wall, propelling herself forward and filling the distance between Lucifer and Marc. “Take me instead.”

“Keystone, baby, I can’t. Only damned human souls can get into Hell, and you haven’t committed a sin worthy of the punishment.”

“Not yet,” Riona concurred. “But if I make a deal with you, I will be, right? Isn’t that one of the roads to Hell, aligning yourself with the devil? I know you can take one soul in the place another, if the offer is made willingly.” She held out her arms and presented her naked form. “Take me.”

Lucifer grinned. “Someone’s been doing her homework.”

Gnashing her teeth, the scowl that covered Riona’s face even made the devil shiver. “Like you didn’t fucking plan this the whole time.”

“Riona, don’t do it!” Marc spun the witch around to face him. “You see what my magic has become just from falling? Think! Think what you’ll be like under his control. Think of what he can do to humanity when he has someone as powerful as you, remade in the fires of Hell.”

Tears pulled at her, but she was trying to keep a brave face for his sake. “I can’t let this happen. I can’t let your love for me condemn you.”

“Come, now, children,” Lucifer offered, putting his arm around them and drawing them near. “Why all the drama? Like I said, I can take you both. Think of it: no need to conform to Big Boss’s edicts on church dogma, a deluxe suite in the most luxurious circle with a terrific view of the rings of fire, being able to fuck each other… Oops, that sounded crass. My apologies. The ability to
make love
morning, noon and night. All you have to do is renounce the light and serve me. Nothing major: just the occasional outings to inspire mayhem, tempt a few goody-goodies, start a few wars.”

Marc pivoted, turning away as he grabbed Riona by the wrist, pulling her with him. “Never!”

But Riona drew herself back and faced Satan again. “No, just me. I won’t be part of a package deal. Take it or leave it.”