Acheron (Dark-Hunter #15)(81)
Author: Sherrilyn Kenyon

Tory cried out as she felt her body exploding with pleasure. She’d never had an orgasm before. It was raw and it was unbelievable and even a little frightening. Words couldn’t describe what she felt. She clung to Ash as he continued to heighten the ecstasy. He sank to his knees in front of her.

Still shaking and weak, she looked down to meet that hungry silver gaze. He reached up to pull her jeans down her legs with a feral intent that made her even more breathless. She lifted one leg and then the other so that she was completely bare from the waist down. Her shirt was open.

Ash couldn’t breathe as he took in the sight of her like that. She was so beautiful and all he wanted to do was please her-to have her hands on his body, not hurting him or demanding he submit to her to make her feel more powerful. Just simply pleasing him. Soothing him. He brought her delicate hand to his lips so that he could taste her fingertips. The scent and sweet taste made his c**k so hard it was all he could do not to attack her where she stood. But he wanted to savor her slowly.

The one thing in the universe that he excelled at was this and he wanted her to know the height of his skills.

She reached down to brush his hair back from his forehead. Ash buried his face against her thigh and nipped the tender flesh there as her hand touched his cheek.

"Please don’t pull my hair," he breathed in a ragged whisper, not wanting anything to spoil this moment.

"I would never hurt you, Ash."

And that was why he was willing to risk the wrath of a goddess to be with her. For once in his life, he wanted to make love to someone who didn’t make him feel like shit for it. Covering her hand with his, he turned his face so that he could kiss her soft palm.

Tory was stunned by his tenderness. He reminded her of a skittish fawn as he suckled her fingers. And when he looked up at her, she saw the unadulterated pain and torment inside him. His soul was as nak*d to her as her body was to him.

He licked her palm in one sensual swipe before he rose up to bury his lips against the center of her body.

Tory cried out as pleasure blinded her. She reached for his hair, only to catch herself. Instead, she clasped the door knob with one hand and bit her knuckle on the other one.

Her body took on a life of its own as he licked and teased her with his tongue. He lifted his hands to spread her wider so that his tongue could flick and delve deep inside her.

Ash reveled in the taste of the most private part of her body. The remnants of her last orgasm made him hungry for his own, but more than that, it made him want to hear her scream out his name.

Dying to be inside her, he slid his finger in, then froze as he found the last thing he expected.

He went cold inside.

"You’re a virgin?"

Tory scowled at the venom in his voice as he spat the word out as if it were disgusting to him. "Is that a problem?"

He jerked away from her as if he’d discovered leprosy. "Why didn’t you tell me?"

"I didn’t think it would matter."

He cast her a feral look that made her pull her blouse closed. "It matters. Damn it, woman!"

She was completely baffled by his unexpected response. Why would he be so angry over the fact that she’d never been with another man? "I thought men liked having virgins."

Ash raked his hand through his hair as he struggled to keep his temper in check. But it wasn’t just anger he felt. There was shock, guilt and a hunger for her so profound he wasn’t sure how he kept himself from her.

"I’m not most men." He picked her jeans up from the floor and handed them to her.

She gaped at him. "So that’s it? You’re just going to leave because I’ve never been with anyone else?"

"That’s exactly what I’m going to do." He tried to reach the door, but she put herself in front of it as she raked him with her own furious glower.

"Oh the horror of this situation," she said, her tone so thick with sarcasm he’d need a chainsaw to cut through it. "So what you’re telling me is if I go downstairs and get laid by some other man first, I’ll then be good enough for you?"

Jealousy ripped through him at the mere thought.

She narrowed her gaze suspiciously. "You don’t like that idea either, do you?"

Ash struggled to breathe as images of her with someone else tore through him. No, he didn’t want her with anyone else, but at the same time he didn’t want to be her first. He didn’t want to hurt her and honestly, he didn’t want her to remember him or have any regrets. She deserved better than that. Someone better than him to sleep with her. "How can you be a virgin at your age?"

"I’m not ninety, Acheron. Good grief. I told you, I have a bad history with men. Every time I ever tried to sleep with one, something happened. Either someone came in on us or . . . in one case the guy fell off the bed as he climbed in and broke his collar bone."

She took his head in her hands and forced him to look at her. "I want to be with you, Ash. No strings. No commitments. I’m a big girl and I’m not going to turn into a stalker. I just want to love you for a little while."

Those words seared him and at the same time he wanted to curse because they made it impossible for him to walk away from her. "You don’t deserve to be laid in a room in a bar for your first time."

"And that right there is why I want to be with you. You’re the only man I’ve ever met who would even think about that."

Because he knew what it was like to be ruthlessly violated and to be haunted by it. For some reason, the first encounter lingered in everyone’s memory. It was why he’d always made sure to take special care with virgins and why he’d been so good at what he did. No one deserved to be humiliated the way he had been. To cry from the pain of it and be laughed at while he begged for mercy.

Stop your damn blubbering, whore. It’ll be over when I’m finished with you. He’d then been backhanded so hard, it’d broken his nose. There now. That pain’ll get the other off your mind.

Why with all the powers that he had could he not purge his own memories? Why was eleven thousand years not enough to make the pain turn dull?

All he wanted was one moment free of those memories. One safe place where no one reminded him of what they’d made him. Of what he’d done to himself.

Tory frowned at the shadows she saw in Ash’s eyes as if some painful memory tortured him. She wanted to soothe that ache more than anything. Why wouldn’t he let her? "Ash?"

He reached down to put his hand on the scar where they’d operated on her. "You shouldn’t be out of bed."

"I’m not in pain. I don’t understand it, but I’m not. And I don’t want to go to bed alone. Are you going to make me beg?"

Anger curled his lips. "You don’t ever beg for anything."

She pulled his head down so that she could kiss him.

Ash growled as she stirred inside him an animal part that scared him. But he refused to give in to it. "I won’t tup you like a whore in a backroom, Soteria. Let me finish playing with the Howlers."

She eyed him suspiciously. "Then you’ll be back?"

The hesitation in his eyes made her hurt for him. He drew a deep breath before he spoke. "I’ll be back."

"Promise?"

"I promise."

She kissed the tip of his nose, hoping he was being honest with her. "I’m going to hold you to that."

Ash swallowed. She didn’t have to. Once he made a promise, he was bound by the laws of the universe to see it through or die. "Rest until I get back." He gave her a deep kiss.

Tory melted at the feeling of his arm around her while he cupped her cheek with his other hand and ravaged her mouth.

He pulled back and drew another deep breath as if fighting for the strength to leave her.

She smiled at him. "Don’t make me wait too long."

He nodded as he left her to dress.

Tory pulled her clothes on before she went outside again to find Justina and Katherine back at their chairs. Heat rushed over her cheeks until she remembered that the room was completely insulated from noise. "Can I borrow your cell phone?"

Justina pulled it out and handed it to her.

She called Pam. "Hey sweetie . . . no I’m fine. I’m at the Sanctuary Bar over on Ursulines. Any chance I can get you two over here?"

"Sure. We’ll be right there."

Tory hung up the phone and returned it to Justina. "Just FYI, I’m going to head out for a few minutes, but I’ll be right back."

Katherine’s expression turned stern and immovable. "You’re not going anywhere without us. We’re under strictest orders to keep you safe at all costs."

Ash . . . she could almost beat him for it, but then again that protectiveness was part of what she adored about him the most. At least sometimes.

Unwilling to fight, Tory held her hands up. "Fine. Just don’t tell Ash. We’ll slip out and be back before he finishes the next set."

Katherine didn’t look convinced. "I’m not so sure about this."

"Oh, come on. It’s just around the block a bit. We’ll be fine. Besides forewarned is forearmed. We know to watch for them."

Katherine was still resisting.

"I trust her," Justina said. "She’s stubborn, but not stupid. Tory wouldn’t do this if she really thought there was a problem."

Katherine finally relented. "All right. So where are we going?"

Tory grinned. "It’s a surprise."

Tory hesitated in the doorway of the overly bright store. Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea after all . . . She looked over her shoulder at Pam who was proudly sporting her most prized possession, her vintage 1984 Duran Duran tour T-shirt.

"I don’t know about this place. Isn’t there another, less . . . um, extreme place to shop?"

Pam pushed her forward, into the store. "Oh shush, get inside. This is one of my favorite places and it’s perfect for what you want."

Which didn’t really endear it to Tory since Pam’s fashion sense was the polar opposite of her own. While she was sedate, Pam was outrageous.

Kim pushed her from behind while Justina and Katherine opted to stay outside on Bourbon Street. "Come on, people, we’re blocking the exit. Fire hazard here."

Tory’s eyes widened as she went deeper into Pandora’s Box, which was covered with spiked black leather corsets and teddys. All kinds of sex toys and pasties. Oh my word! She might be adventurous, but really, some of this stuff was just too much for her . . . like the men’s bikini briefs that held an elephant’s trunk where a certain piece of male anatomy would be. "I thought we were going to the little lingerie store on the corner."

"This is so much better." Pam pulled her to a display of edible panties.

Tory cringed at the thought of putting something like that on-would Ash even like it? "I’m not ready for all of this. Can’t we ease me in slowly?"

Pam scoffed. "You’re such a prude! How can a woman who lives to base jump cringe over edible panties?"

"Cause no one sees my panties when I base jump and they certainly don’t eat them off me."

Pam gave an evil laugh. "Believe me, the panties are a lot more fun than base jumping. And given Ash’s height, think of it more like pole vaulting." She wagged her eyebrows playfully.

Tory rolled her eyes.

"How about this?" Kim held up a pair of pink fuzzy handcuffs. "These could be fun . . . ooo and look at the sex dice. You get to roll for positions and acts."

"Hi, can I help you guys?"

Tory turned around to find a woman not much shorter than her with long auburn hair and a very round, pregnant body. Dressed all in black, she had a spiked purple collar that was decorated with chains and amethysts. She smiled as Pam turned to greet her. "Hey girl, how did those whips work out for you?"

Pam beamed with pride. "Like a charm, until we broke up. Men suck."

The woman winked evilly. "Yes, but that’s when we love them best."

Pam laughed. "Tabitha Magnus, meet my best friend Tory Kafieri."

Tabitha sucked her breath in sharply as she wrinkled her face up and waved her hand in a kill gesture at her throat. "Ex-nay on the Greek ame-nay. Hubby’s in the backroom doing taxes and he has a mental problem with all things Greek."

Kim looked shocked. "Really? I thought he was Italian."

"He is. It’s that whole Rome versus Greece thing that he never really got over. He’s a nutcase, but I love him."

Pam gestured to Tabitha’s belly. "Obviously, and considering your condition and the store you own, I’d say you love him often."

Tabitha laughed insidiously as she placed a protective hand over her distended belly. "Honey, if you ever saw that man nak*d, you would, too." She grinned. "So what can I do for you guys?"

"Tory is planning on hav**g s*x."

"Pam!" Tory would have crawled under the nearest rack except for the fact it contained sex swings and other items she didn’t want to think about.

Pam gave her an innocent blink. "Well you are, aren’t you? It’s not like Tabby can’t tell from the mere fact that we’re here. Not to mention you can see that she’s had some herself." She pointed to Tabitha’s stomach again.

Tory growled at her as she shook her head, then spoke to Tabitha. "I apologize for Pam. I accidentally hit her in the head with a baseball when we were in fifth grade and knocked her out cold. She’s never been right since."