Chapter 22

Raphael

“Stay with me tonight?”I purr, trailing kisses along the elegant curve of her neck. My touch drifts to her bare shoulder, fingers tracing delicate patterns on her silken skin.

Helena bites her lip as faint color rises on her cheeks. But the way she gazes at me from beneath her thick lashes reveals her true desires.

Still, propriety makes her murmur, “It’s getting rather late...”

I lean closer, our noses almost touching, and whisper, “You don’t have to go just yet.” My fingers slide teasingly down her arm to lace our hands together. “I promise you won’t regret a single moment.”

Helena’s eyes flutter closed, lips parting subtly. When they open again, dark maroon pools have deepened with hunger. She gives the barest nod.

Triumph floods my veins. With practiced care, I sweep her into my arms, striding for the bedroom on feet gone unsteady. Intoxicating vanilla and lavender envelops my senses from her silken hair tumbling loose. We pause at the wide mattress’ edge, the outside world receding as we give in to longing.

With exquisite tenderness, I tilt Helena’s chin up, reading the heady invitation plain in her expression before I close the scant distance between us. Her mouth yields sweetly beneath my seeking lips, soft sounds escaping when I pull her lush curves flush against me.

We kiss slowly and deeply as my hands trace her topography through the thin barrier of her dress. A whimper catches in her throat when my fingers trace the scalloped lace hem bordering her supple thighs. Her legs part almost shyly, granting access I seize with fervor, teasing the sensitive inner skin just below the hemline. Helena gasps into my devouring mouth, nails biting deliciously down my arms. I swallow her mewls of pleasure, fingers drifting higher with a deliberate pace.

“Rafa...” She drags her mouth free, chest heaving. Her darkened eyes snap open, glowing with feverish desire scorching through to my core. “Please...”

Grinning wickedly, I catch her protected center, stroking once firmly. Helena arches sharply, biting back a shattered moan. “Please what, my darling?” I purr, repeating the motion until she trembles.

A feral noise vibrates in her throat, beyond coherent speech. Her fingers fly down, grasping mine to still their movements despite chasing a climax so near. With ragged breath, Helena pushes me insistently back a pace, holding my gaze. I almost miss her quick hands working the hidden side clasps until the dress straps slip free of her alabaster shoulders, bared completely.

Lust seizes me hard as I witness the crimson fabric slithering down to catch briefly at the sweet flare of her hips before whispering to the floor. Bare now, save for demure lace underthings shielding her sex, Helena steps delicately free of the pooled dress. I managed steady removal of her clothes before, but this voluntary baring steals the air from my chest. I drink in acres of flawless skin begging exploration, all thought arrested, save how perfectly her lush figure was made to complement my leanly muscular one.

A hint of uncertainty ghosts her expression at my stunned silence. So, I surge forward without hesitation, mouth seeking the wildly fluttering pulse in her elegant neck. “My beautiful goddess...” The words rumble raw between my fervent kisses, trailing a slow descent over her heaving chest. “I will worship every sublime inch of you properly...”

Helena clutches me desperately, encouraging my ravenous attentions with gasps and sighs that ready my own neglected desire to near-pain. But first, I determinedly nudge her back on the pristine sheets. Once she reclines amidst the pillows, I stand to appreciate the temptation presented—goddess unbound, caressed in gold lamplight.

Our gazes lock with blistering longing while I shed my own clothing piece by piece. The air charges electric, feeling her stare sweep hungrily over the muscles shifting under my bronzed skin. I palm my thick erection straining for her and grin wolfishly at her throaty whimper. “See something you want, gorgeous?”

“You. Now.” Her command brooks no denial. Chuckling, I join her on the silken sheets, kissing her generous breasts peeking alluringly from the scalloped lace. My hot tongue caresses her tight buds until she arches under my working lips. I lavish her mercilessly, even as my fingers drift lower over the taut plane of her stomach.

My mouth trails worshipfully down her writhing body until I hook her slim panties, inch by inch, baring slick folds to my ravenous gaze at last. Her unique musk wreaths my senses, driving out all coherent thought. As the lace hits the floor, forgotten, Helena props up, watching me.

I meet her burning eyes, keeping contact even as I lift one smooth thigh over my shoulder. “Yes?” I rasp, poised to taste her dripping center.

The waiting stretches endless moments, until finally, Helena touches her tentative fingers to my lips in permission.

Permission granted, I grin wickedly, pressing a kiss to the damp place of her pleasure. My first languid lick wrings a shocked cry as her flavor bursts perfect on my tongue. I quickly lose myself, learning all the wonderful ways she responds to my indulgent attentions. Her ragged breaths and pleading cries conduct a lewd symphony rising towards her peak. My own pulse races wild, imagining the rapture awaiting us joining fully.

I lap slowly until her thighs quake about my ears. As her climax crests, I fasten my lips around that delicate bud and suck until screams tear raw from her throat. Helena shudders endless moments in bliss before I release her oversensitive flesh. Aftershocks still race across her skin, flushed and glowing beautifully. But already I see banked embers rekindling in her glazed eyes.

My painfully engorged length protests any further delay, so I move over her, mouth finding her gasping one again. Our combined taste brings feral growls from us both. Bracing some weight carefully on my forearms, I notch against her slick folds, aching to sheathe myself to the hilt in this scorching heaven.

Helena’s hands squeeze urgently down my flexing back, nails raking fire. “Now, Rafa...” she commands, stealing my very breath. “Make me yours. Make me forget everything and everyone, save for this moment...”

Her plea undoes any restraint still clinging to me by bare threads. With a guttural groan, I sink my considerable length slowly through her clenching walls, too long denied to me. I grit my teeth against the overwhelming stimulation, pausing half-seated to let her adjust.

But after a moment, Helena grinds her hips closer, taking me deeper herself with a low moan. Beneath me, her eyes flash triumphantly, adjusting the angle until I brush some hidden spot that punches breathless cries from her throat.

Gaze locked with mine, her nails bite painfully down my ribs. “I need all of you, Rafa. And I want it rough.”

I obey instantly, withdrawing to the tip only to drive back forcefully. We establish a demanding pace, racing towards the edge in tandem. Each plunge wrings louder exultations now from Helena, writhing in abandon. I stroke her ruthlessly there until intelligible words scatter, my name a fervent chant between her ragged breaths.

The symphony climbs erratically out of rhythm, signalling her climax, imminent again. So, I slip one hand between us, finding the straining bud of nerves. A few firm circles and Helena detonates with a wail, pulsing unrelentingly around my pistoning length. I manage one, two more disjointed thrusts before roaring my release deep inside her quaking core.

We cling together in overwhelmed bliss, until our limp muscles give out, collapsing tangled atop the ravaged sheets. Our hearts gradually calm as one, until only replete comfort remains.

“Fucking hell, that was amazing...” Helena sighs then, nuzzling closer atop my chest, clearly unwilling to separate further, either.

We lay peacefully, simply basking for a while after such a glorious union. Until an impish impulse seizes Helena and she props herself up, grinning slyly. One hand drifts naughtily down my stomach and I gasp realizing her intent, rekindling simmering desire so soon.

Laughing delighted, she presses a biting kiss below my jaw. “Ready for round two already, my ardent angel? Such stamina...”

Before I can form a witty retort, Helena’s clever hand wraps firmly around my swiftly responding length. The exquisite friction steals any coherent thought under her confident strokes. I manage fragmented curses, my own fingers digging bruises into her generous hips, urging a more vigorous pace.

Helena reads my desperation perfectly, expert twist on the upstroke fraying my tenuous control. Fiery tension coils taut in my core, so close to erupting down her working fist...

Abruptly, Helena releases me, ignoring my frustrated protests to brace herself up on all fours instead. Tossing her loose raven hair back, she peers at me through the dark waterfall with eyes gone liquid midnight. Raw want burns through every breathed word. “I want you like this now...”

The vision presented shatters my composure utterly—her sleek back dipped enticingly, slick sex poised and glistening. With a primal snarl, I grasp her hips, dragging Helena back forcibly onto my renewed erection, spearing deep. Her answering cry seems approval, so I begin stroking firmly, undone by liquid heat enveloping my rigid flesh.

We move together recklessly now, carnal compulsion washing away tender previous explorations. I twist one hand into her inky waves, yanking Helena’s neck sideways. She whimpers raggedly until I seal my mouth over hers, kissing wildly as our tempo builds. Closer, so close now to blissful madness...

“Mine...” The broken claim erupts, torn from my chest in the same instant climax erupts between us. “You’re mine.” Helena wails wordless agreement, our bodies locked tight together against reality threatening beyond these walls.

Gradually, we drift down from euphoria back into our bodies, loose-limbed and sated. I gather Helena close, overcome still by the intensity binding us now soul-deep. Heart full nearly to bursting, I brush the damp hair off her forehead, pressing a kiss there.

“Helena, I love you...” Speaking the terrifying words aloud should shatter this glowing peace, perhaps. But instead, they feel truer than my own breath, the solid shape of destiny revealed.

Joy chases away my fleeting fear then, as Helena smiles softly up at me. “And I love you, my rakish guardian archangel.” Her palm lays over my pounding heart, eyes misting with shared wonder at discovering such sheltering affection blooming wholly returned.

Nothing else seems to exist or matter beyond this tender cocoon we created. Reality fades away as we hold each other, blissfully drifting towards sleep still entwined...

A sudden violent flurry erupts the delicate dreamscape. Helena bolts upright, frantic eyes raking across the tangled sheets and discarded clothes. “No, no, no—where is it??” Her panicked movements increase, until I risk grabbing her slim shoulders, concern rising sharply.

“Darling, what’s wrong?” I keep my tone gentle, despite her manic energy disturbing our afterglow.

Her wild eyes fix on mine, hands tugging my grip free to resume tearing through the linens. “My necklace, the pendant—it’s gone!” Desperation shreds the cry. “I never take it off, but now...”

Understanding hits me like a blow and I join her, searching through the rumpled bedding urgently. That talisman remains constantly around her neck, even during intimate moments between us. To misplace something commanding such obsessive devotion seems inconceivable.

My vain efforts reveal no glint of silver, no plant unoverturned in these throes. Helena scrubs harshly at her defeated tears gathering. Her despair twists my heart, threatening my narrowly kept composure.

“Think now love, perhaps it slipped free in your clothes earlier?” I keep my tone gentle despite the sinking dread if that treasured pendant escaped our haven without notice... “Don’t worry, babe. I’ll get you another one.”

“There is no other one,” she stammers anxiously. “That pendant is Lucifer’s safe key. It’s the only key. If I’ve lost it, he’ll skin me alive.”

Pain spears my chest as Helena leaps up, grabbing her clothes with trembling hands. I knew any happiness seemed too perfect.

Soon, she’s dressed, raking fingers through tousled hair. “Rafa darling, I’m so sorry, but I have to run... Please, forgive me.”

Her pleading look shreds me. I lace my fingers into hers, trying to memorize their shape, her touch. “At least let me drive you back?”

“If Lucifer sees us—no. Too risky, it would only make things worse.” Helena’s delicate hands frames my worried face, regret churning those lush depths. “I’ll make it up to you, I promise. A whole weekend that’ll put Sodoma and Gomorrah to shame, just you and me.”

A bittersweet kiss sears between us. Then she’s out the door.

I stare after her shadow, clenching useless fists. Our stolen hours shattered so easily once more. But I cannot change her reality. Or the iron chains binding Helena’s choices still. I should take comfort having tasted perfection for a moment, cherish each moment given while possible…

So why does joy feel now like a ghost limb, leaving only throbs of deeper pain with every fading step?