Cliff’s Descent by Dianne Duvall

Chapter Eleven

Cliff’s heart hammered in his chest.

She was going to run away with me. Emma was going to leave everything behind to run away and be with me.

The knowledge staggered him. Humbled him. Moved him deeply. As did her touch.

Drawing back a fraction of an inch, he stared down at her, mesmerized by her beauty, her bravery, and the love that shone in her eyes beneath the reflection of the amber glow in his own.

Emma loved him. She hadn’t said it. But he knew it as surely as he knew he loved her.

Groaning, he claimed her lips again, more fervent and aggressive. She tasted so good. Smelled so good. Felt so good. And he’d wanted her for so long. He could barely believe she was finally in his arms. He had thought this moment would never come. That they could never be together like this.

And her touch…

He’d been so starved for affection, for physical contact, that just the feel of her hands on the bare skin of his back could practically make him come.

Almost as soon as the thought flitted through his mind, she slid her hands around and rested them on his bare chest.

Please don’t push me away, he silently pleaded with sudden panic. Please don’t push me away. Not yet.

But she didn’t. Instead, she curled her fingers in the hair there and gave it a tug that sped his pulse. Then she slid her arms up around his neck and, rising onto her toes, realigned their hips so the erection constrained by his towel could press against her center.

She moaned and fisted his dreadlocks when he rocked against her.

He moaned, too. Nothing could compare to this. To the feel of her in his arms.

Her tongue stroked his as he ravaged her lovely mouth.

Cliff slid a hand up to cup her breast. Small and firm, it fit perfectly in his palm. No bra hid the stiff peak, only the thin material of her tank top. She moaned again when he toyed with the sensitive tip, stroked it, pinched it. Her hips arched into his.

He slid his other hand down over the firm ass he’d fantasized about and pressed her harder against his erection. Breaking the kiss, he buried his face in her neck and squeezed her tight, though he was careful not to let his enhanced strength come into play and squeeze her too tightly.

“I need you,” he told her, his voice hoarse.

She slid one leg up his and draped her knee over his hip, bringing them into even more intimate contact. “I need you, too.”

How he wished the towel and her pants didn’t separate them so he could plunge his hard cock into her slick warmth right now.

Abandoning her breast, he slipped a hand up her pajama-clad thigh to press her knee against his side and hold it in place. “I don’t have condoms.” Because he had no money. When Cliff had surrendered to the Immortal Guardians, Reordon had faked his death to explain his absence to the outside world. So his bank accounts had long since been closed.

She drew back just enough to look him in the eye while their quick breaths mingled. “It’s okay. It isn’t my fertile time.”

Hellyes. But his love for her outshone the lust that begged him to instantly ditch the towel and rip off her clothes. “We should talk first.” Before their relationship became physical. Or more physical than it was now. It would be much harder to walk away from her once he’d—

“Later.” She pressed a kiss to his neck.

A shiver rippled through him when she followed it with a lick. “Emma…”

She touched a finger to his lips. “Please, Cliff. I need you. If Bastien finds out you came here, we may only have tonight.”

His hold tightened instinctively in protest at the thought.

She delivered another slow, sensual kiss. “We can talk later.”

We may only have tonight.

He nodded.

Releasing his dreadlocks, she slid her hands down over his shoulders to his chest, slipped her knee from his grasp, and stepped back. “Let me clear off the bed.”

Cliff shot into motion, clearing the lockbox, duffel bag, and gun off the bed in a blink. “Done.”

Her eyes widened. Then she grinned big. “That is so cool.”

Smiling, he took her in his arms. “Now where were we?”

“I believe we were right about here,” she murmured and tilted her face up for another kiss.

Even that—just the pressure of her lips on his, the teasing stroke of her tongue—ratcheted up his need.

Cliff fingered the hem of her tank top, then drew it up over her head.

Her beautiful brown skin looked as soft as silk beneath the overhead light and was, he discovered as he slid one hand up her side to palm a breast and toy with a taut, dark peak.

Her breath shortened as desire flooded her features.

Cliff stroked her other breast as well as his heated gaze roamed her. “You’re so beautiful,” he murmured reverently. Her shoulders were much narrower than his, lending her an air of fragility the light muscle definition in her arms and abs belied. Those muscles twitched and jumped as he teased the tips of her breasts with strokes and flicks and pinches.

“Cliff,” she breathed, swaying toward him.

“Lose the pajama bottoms,” he ordered, voice hoarse.

They were down around her ankles within seconds, exposing nicely rounded hips, shapely legs, and a dark thatch of curls at their juncture.

Cliff’s control began to fray.

Emma dropped her gaze to his waist. “Lose the towel.”

Gladly. As soon as it hit the floor, he lifted Emma into his arms. “Wrap your legs around me,” he murmured.

“Hell yes,” she breathed, locking her ankles behind his back and trapping his hard length between them.

He groaned when she ground against him. He wanted their first time together… perhaps their only time together… to be perfect. He wanted to take his time and worship every inch of her. But he’d been celibate ever since he’d transformed roughly four years ago, and he needed her now with a desperation that made him tremble.

Turning around, he knelt on the bed and leaned down to gently lay her against the pillows.

“Finally,” she moaned, urging him to rest more of his weight on her. “Take me.”

Cliff shook his head. “Not yet.”

When he started to move away, she tightened her legs around him and made a sound of protest.

Amusement sifted through him, just enough to take the edge off. Smiling down at her, he patted one thigh. “Let me go.”

“Never,” she breathed.

And oh, what that declaration did to him. “If you don’t, I can’t taste you.” He cast a heated look down over her breasts and farther, to the point at which their bodies strained together, then met her gaze once more. “All of you.”

Her heartbeat picked up as she unwound her legs and dropped her feet to the mattress on either side of him.

Cliff ducked his head and ravaged her lips one more time, then trailed a path of hot kisses down her neck.

She gasped when he closed his lips around the sensitive peak of one breast while he stroked and squeezed and teased the other. He sucked hard. She moaned. He delivered a light love bite, careful to keep his fangs from descending. She jumped, then writhed against him and drove her fingers through his dreads. “Cliff.”

Then he trailed his lips down her stomach to the mound below.

She was already wet for him and grew wetter still when he touched his tongue to her clit. “Yes,” she moaned. He licked it, flicked it, circled and sucked it. “More.”

His cock jumped when she arched up against him and gave his hair a tug. Her breath shortened. Her heartbeat quickened. The muscles in her thighs tightened as she strained against him. He slipped a finger inside. She was so tight and wet. He added another, curling them up and stroking her at the same time he flatted his tongue against her clit and moved it so swiftly it would feel like a vibrator.

Emma stiffened. Fingers clenching in his hair, she cried out as her inner muscles clamped down around his fingers in rhythmic pulses and she came hard.

She was still panting when Cliff withdrew his fingers and rose above her.

His heart pounded wildly in his chest. But when he settled himself between her thighs, he paused and met her gaze, asking a question with his own.

Reaching down between them, she curled her fingers around his erection and guided him to her entrance.

Yes. Cliff thrust deep inside her… and groaned. With his heightened senses, he could feel everything so much more now. And she was wonderfully tight and wet and ready for him, her inner muscles still twitching with residual ripples from her climax.

Withdrawing nearly to the crown, he drove deep again.

Emma slid her arms around him and splayed her hands on his back. “Yes,” she moaned, nails biting into his flesh and sparking a flash fire.

Again he withdrew, then thrust deep.

“More,” she begged.

And Cliff gave her what she wanted. What they both wanted. Pounding into her. Holding nothing back.

Sliding her hands down, she gripped his ass and urged him on as she arched up to meet him, thrust for thrust, breath shortening.

He groaned, drove deeper, harder, altering the angle so he could grind against her clit with every thrust.

“Yes. Cliff.”Tilting her head back, she cried out as ecstasy claimed her once more.

Her inner muscles clamped down around his hard cock, squeezing and gripping him, increasing the pleasure until an orgasm seized him and he poured his heat inside her.