Incubus Among Us #1 (Shifter Romance) Read online

  Chapter 6

  "Liz! Liz!" Tiffany yelled from our table, but I ignored her. She couldn't follow me without first paying our bill, and that meant she'd only slow me down.

  I burst from the front doors and out into the dark night. The streets were crowded for the shopping season, and a light snow fell on my head. I glanced down the street. I could just make out his back in the distance, but I didn't have much time. The crowds were swallowing him and he'd be lost again to me. I hurried down the sidewalk, pushing and knocking into people like a pinball directed by an inexperienced player.

  "Excuse me! Pardon me!" I shouted like a mantra as I tried to catch up to the shadow in front of me.

  My target led me on a merry chase down the block and around the corner onto a less busy street. This street had large furniture stores with long window displays. Many were lit and their doors were open to invite customers, but at the end of the block, separated from the others by an alley, was a dark store. There were no lights, and the furniture in the front windows was covered by dust and cobwebs. I pushed through the last group and the sidewalk opened to me in time to glimpse the man step into that dark store.

  I hurried after him, but stopped in front of the closed doors. There were no signs to indicate the store was closed, but none to show it was open, either. I stepped up to the door and pressed my face against the glass to peer into the dark interior. Ghosts made of cloth-covered furniture stared back at me and the building was quiet. Too quiet. I stepped back and glanced up and down the block. No one was around. Tiffany must have lost my trail.

  I was on the verge of finding my friend and leading her back to that street when something caught my eye. It was the soft glow of a light, and it came from inside the store. I peeked into the interior and saw the light stood at the far back of the store. Somebody must have flicked on a light, and I didn't need three guesses to know who that was.

  I gripped the door handle and wasn't surprised to find it unlocked. With a deep breath and a lot of prayer I swung open the door and stepped inside. The dry air of years of abandonment greeted me, and the door ominously clicked shut behind me. In front of me was a vast showroom filled with the sheeted furniture covered in dust and standing as though time had stopped.

  "Hello?" I called out. My own voice replied with my echo. "Anyone there?"

  The lights at the rear brightened, and I swear I saw something flit around them. I took that as a yes to my question and reluctantly walked down the aisle through the ghostly furniture. The aisle led me to the far corner where I was presented with an eerily normal scene.

  Before me stood a bedroom display complete with sleigh bed and nightstands on either side. The sleigh bed was covered in red silk sheets and enough pillows to swallow me. To my immediate left was the dresser, and opposite me lay the vanity with a mirror that showed my pale, confused face. The eerie part of the scene was the tall, black candle holders of varying heights that surrounded the display. Atop each pole was a single red, burning candle. That was the light that had attracted me to this place. The lights reflected off the red sheets on the bed and cast a red glow over the floor.

  "Hello? Sir?" I called again. I couldn't anybody and heard nothing.

  I stepped into the bedroom display and it was as though I'd stepped into a trap. The world beyond the flickering candles darkened into blackness. From that blackness stepped a familiar figure, the man who was now an obsession for me. My instincts forced me to step away from him, but my longing to see him again kept me from turning away and running into the abyss of darkness behind me.

  He smiled at me, and those beautiful eyes captured me in their vibrant, heated gaze. "Good evening," he greeted me.

  I swallowed hard and gave him a shaky smile. "Um, good evening. I-I didn't mean to just walk in here. The door was unlocked and-"

  "I know. I left it unlocked, and I also meant for you to follow me," he told me.

  I frowned. "You did? Why?" I asked him.

  He moved over to the bed and stood near the foot at the corner that was nearest to me. "Don't be afraid. I mean you no harm," he promised. There was a sincerity in his voice that told me to believe him, and so I cautiously stepped closer to the bed.

  I gestured to the display. "What is all this for?" I wondered.

  "For us," he told me. His red eyes swept over my body and seared me with their heat. I felt as though he'd undressed me, and covered myself with my arms. He chuckled and walked over to stand in front of me. "Don't hide yourself from me. You're too beautiful." He grasped my arms in his gentle but firm hands and pulled them down. My heart beat quickened and my cheeks blushed as he took in my body with hunger in his eyes.

  This was getting too intense. My mind screamed at me to run, to flee from this strange man. My words came out in a voice more breathy than I intended. "I-I think I need to leave," I told him.

  He leaned down so his lips brushed against my ear. "Your mind orders you to leave, but what does your soul tell you?"

  "I-I don't know," I whispered. I couldn't think straight. My body was flushed with sweat. I felt an ache pulse between my legs. My body wanted him.

  "Let me show you," he cooed.

  I didn't struggle when he swept me into his arms and carried me to the bed. He set me atop the soft, slick sheets and covered me with his body. His lips teased the flesh of my neck as one of his hands slipped inside my shirt. His fingers caught my heaving breast in their grasp and brushed aside my tight bra. All of my clothes felt tight as he slowly rubbed his hips against mine. I felt his swollen manhood against my hip and whimpered. I wanted him inside me, to feel our union as he made sweet, sensual love to me.

  Through my hazy mind I had one question that begged to be answered. "Why. . .why are you doing this to me?" I whispered.

  I almost regretted the question when he pulled his hot lips away from my neck. "You have done me a kindness, and I find that the impossible has happened. I have fallen in love with a mortal," he replied.

  "A mortal?" I asked him.

  He sat up and smiled down at me. My cheeks were warmed with a blush and my eyelids felt heavy. "Yes, my love. You are mortal, and I am not. I am an incubus, a creature of dreams and fantasies." He reached up and brushed his hand against my cheek. "You showed me kindness when no other human has shown me kindness without expecting rewarding," he told me.

  I should have wondered at this man's sanity. I should have screamed and kicked him off. I should never have even come after him. But I was here and he was atop me, and I didn't care. I didn't care what he was so long as he would satisfy the lust inside of me. He chuckled and the sound echoed through me like a teasing ripple of warm water.

  "My kind can sense a human's lust. We feed on it, but do not know it. You have taught me to know it, and for that I will make you mine and give you pleasure wherever and whenever I will it," he whispered.

  His words excited my body. He bent down and captured my lips in a kiss that swept my breath away. Tingles of warmth swept through me and swept away any doubts, any hesitations, and all inhibitions. My breasts strained against my blouse, and somehow the buttons on my shirt unbuttoned themselves. My blouse burst open and my heated skin was bared to the world.

  His hands took turns at my breasts, massaging me into an unfulfilled ecstasy of delight and demand. I squirmed and groaned. The heat inside me was unbearable and incomplete. I wanted him-no, needed him inside me. Every part of me strained to feel him take me again and again atop the silken sheets.

  My lover's breaths came out in sharp, hoarse gasps. He rose above me and looked down at me with red eyes that swallowed me in their sensual depths. "You will be mine and mine alone," he growled.

  He dove at me and our clothes fell away as though magic had torn them off our bodies. He pressed his hot skin against mine and thrust himself into me, taking me as his own as our bodies became one. I gasped and moaned as he penetrated me again and agai
n, each thrust building up the delicious tension contained inside my body. I longed for fulfillment, for the bliss or completion. He grunted and thrust deeper when I wrapped my legs around him, allowing him more of me.

  My moans filled the quiet air as my muscles tensed and strained, pleading to finish and yet dreading the fall back to cold reality, to normalcy. My body felt thrust into a pool of heat that drenched me in lustful waves of desire. Every movement, every touch was delicious torture. I clutched onto him wishing I could always feel this way. I wanted to drown in this heat and never be separated from him.

  "Beautiful lust," he growled into my ear.

  "More," I moaned in reply. "Oh god, please more."

  My wish was his command and he wrapped his arms around me to press me closer to his strong chest. Our bodies were as one, connected at the hips and a part of this lustful union that demanded satisfaction, and yet dreaded it. The tension couldn't last. The strain was too great, and soon the waves crashed over me, filling me with a warmth that threatened to sweep me into its arms forever. I cried out my pleasure to the darkness around us as he thrust again and again into me, pushing me further into the abyss of lust.

  Nothing lasts forever, and this was no exception. The warmth faded, my muscles relaxed, and I felt the lust recede. I cried out in disappointment and fear as the afterglow left me and my eyes saw only darkness, but a quiet voice hushed me.

  "Not yet, my beautiful one, but soon," I heard his voice whisper. "For now just sleep."

  And I knew no more.