10. Chapter 9

His embrace felt like coming home. I still felt aimless, not having any memories, and the few that came back were more disturbing than assuring, but here in his arms, I knew I was safe.

His earlier words came back to me; your heart stopped. You don't need to breathe any longer. And I realized what his words meant: You're dead . Dead! My stomach knotted and suddenly, all I wanted was to feel alive and forget about all of this, everything. As if he read my wish, his lips descended on mine, brushed mine slightly before he applied gentle pressure, and my body responded even though I didn't know what to do or what to expect.

Definitely not his tongue entering. Yet it felt so right. With a moan, I leaned deeper into him and relished in the warmth of his hands as they moved up and down my body, making me yearn for more.

"Make me feel alive," I requested.

"My little flame," he responded, his stormy eyes moist and wide enough for me to see my own pale reflection in them.

His hands moved to my waist to effortlessly lift me off the ground while nibbling on my neck. His warm breath teased me and made me tremble all the way down to my core. Heat built inside my stomach as he placed me almost reverently on the bed. I noticed his fingers tremble slightly as he began to unlace my dress. This is wrong , my mind screamed. No lady behaves like this . Thou shall not know carnal lust until sanctified by God .

The words were accusing, reprimanding. Strangely, they didn't even make me hesitate. They entered my mind, and I pushed them away, only listening to my dead heart that screamed at me to allow this to happen.

My body responded instinctively as if it already knew what to do. I gave myself over to it, decided to trust it, and embraced whatever had led me here.

Just as he had promised, his touch made me feel alive. Brought every inch of flesh he exposed, he kissed to life with his hands as they ran up and down my sides, pulling and tugging my clothing out of the way. Bubbles built underneath my flesh while a strange pulse came to life inside the secret place between my legs.

He bared my breasts, his hand enfolded one, kneading it and making me writhe underneath him in pleasure. Heat spread through me wherever his hands and lips touched, and when he latched on to one nipple, I cried out in bliss. Nothing had ever felt this good. Every inch of my body was screaming with pleasure, awakening by his touch. Nerves began to flutter, and muscles tightened.

I should have been ashamed, mortified even as I lay naked in front of him while his eyes took their fill of my body. Instead, there was only pleasure and anticipation for more and the notion of rightness. This was right. So right.

My legs parted for him, and he moved down lower. A hiss of anticipation escaped me as my body seemed to remember what my mind couldn't recall. With absolute clarity, I knew we had done this before. Many times.

Any other thoughts dissolved the moment his tongue glanced over my clit, searing a fire inside me that nearly made me jump off the bed. He suckled the little bud into his mouth like he had done with my nipple.

"Oh, Devon! Devon!" I cried.

"I'm here, little flame. Let me taste some more of your delicious ambrosia. Oh, how I've missed it."

He lapped at me, grunting between my wide-open legs like a beast feasting. His hands took hold of my hips to keep me still, and my eyes rolled back as all my muscles tightened in sweet anticipation.

I bucked, or at least, tried to. His hands were like vises as his tongue moved over my slit back and forward, only stopping to pay homage to my clit. Without warning a dam broke inside me. A flood of fire rushed through me, but not burning, no, never that.

"Devon!"

"I'm here, little flame, I'm here," he soothed.

So fast, he was a whirl of movement. He ripped off his clothes and knelt between my legs.

"I will make you feel alive," he promised.

I stared at his manhood as he stroked it before he lowered himself, and I felt the head of his shaft by my entrance. Instinctively, I tried to hold my breath against the pain I was sure to follow, but then I remembered I didn't breathe anymore. The shock at remembering this was absorbed by the sensation of his shaft pushing up inside me, deeper and deeper. There was no pain as my walls parted and closed around him, welcoming him… back!

My eyes flew open as I arched into him. For a moment, I saw a different Devon over me, yet he was the same. He had longer hair, and his facial expression wasn't as dark and edged as it was now.

"Devon!"

"Do you remember me?" he demanded.

I did. With every thrust he pumped into me, I remembered him. His kisses, his caresses. And this act. A multitude of times. Different days, nights, and positions, but always him. Always Devon.

"Devon," I cried, flinging my arms around his neck to hold on to him. "My Devon."

"That's right, little flame, your Devon," he rasped in a cracking voice.

Again, I felt a knot building as he took me higher right to the cusp of another orgasm.

Just as the orgasm broke over and through me, I realized how much this man meant to me. God, I had loved him. I still loved him. So much it hurt. He had been my everything.

Father told me he was dead. Said he had cried, begging for mercy, something I had never believed, but now it all came back with absolute certainty. He was MY Devon.

"Devon!" I cried out again. Something in my voice must have caught his attention because he looked down at me, deep into my astounded eyes.

"You remember," he roared in triumph.

"I remember," I said right before another orgasm raged through me, sweeping me away like the largest storm wave. Taking me under and tumbling me around. I was barely aware that Devon had reached his climax as well, but when he shouted, "MINE!" I knew. Resulting in another shuddering orgasm claiming me. My walls clenched around his manhood, holding him tight to milk every last ounce of seed out of him.

Exhausted, he nearly collapsed on top of me, catching himself by his elbows to stare down at me while our foreheads and the tips of our noses touched.

"Blanche." His voice was filled with wonderment. "You remember?"

"Some. It's all still very fuzzy, but I do remember how much I loved you and… how much I wanted to die when Father said you were dead."

"I believed you dead as well, little flame."

"What happened?"

His features darkened. "Treachery."

I put my palms against his cheeks. "Tell me. Tell me everything."

With a groan, he pulled out of me and rolled onto his back, dragging me with him so my head rested on his chest. A rattle moved through him as he took a deep breath. I listened for the familiar sound of his beating heart, but it sounded faint. I creased my brows in concentration and tried hard to remember how it had sounded before.

Stronger, I decided. Yes, we used to say our hearts beat in sync.

"Your heart… it sounds… different," I observed, and the pain in my voice surprised even me.

"Father took it," he explained tonelessly.

"Your heart?" My head shot off his chest, but he gently pressed it back down to rest against his pecs.

"He thought ripping my heart out was a just punishment for betraying him," Devon's voice was a rumble. "One thing demons and vampires have in common is that neither needs a beating heart or to breathe. Since I had given mine to you, father decided to rip it out."

"Oh Devon." I felt like crying, and my eyes burned, but nothing happened.

"But, I can hear it," I stated, listening to the low thumb, thumb, a hitch in my voice made Devon lifted his head and leaned to the side to see my face.

"He did give it back to me, eventually. But it hasn't beaten for a long time, not until I saw you again, today."

I repeated, "Oh, Devon," as my chest warmed, and I swore I felt a slight stirring where my heart used to be. Funny that even though my heart wasn't beating any longer, I loved him more than anybody could with a beating heart. For a moment, we just lay there. Quietly relishing in the nearness of the other until I felt I was ready to hear more of our past. "Tell me," I demanded quietly.

He turned so we lay on our sides, facing each other. Our wrists bent, and our heads resting on them. His free hand moved up and down my arm, while my fingers drew circles on his chest.

A sigh moved through him.

"You were promised to my father, Lucifer, to mate. Why, I don't know, but he was willing to pay a high price for you. My brother Adramalech…" At the mention of this name, a shudder moved through me. A fuzzy memory clung, wanting to break through, but Devon didn't notice, and when he continued, it was gone. "He was supposed to fetch you, but I decided to put a wrinkle in their plans and take you myself."

"The cave," I mumbled as images of the cave entered my mind.

Devon pacing it like a caged predator. Devon talking to me. Devon taking care of my sore wrists. Devon and I making love for the first time. Devon… always Devon.

"I'm not proud that I abducted you, but I'm not sorry either, especially now," he said defiantly. Sighing, I grinned at him, smacking him on his chest. "The thing I'm sorry for is that I was going to take you to the Brocken."

"But you didn't," I pointed out.

"No, I didn't." His hand pulled on a strand of my hair and let it flow through his fingers. "In all my thousands of years of existence, I had many prisoners. So many that I don't even recall most of their names. But I never had one say to me what you did."

"I pray for you," I said quietly.

"I pray for you." His head tilted. "Nobody had ever said that to me. And that was after I told you what I was going to do. You didn't rant; you didn't rave; you didn't bargain or plead. You just looked at me with those huge green eyes of yours and said, I pray for you ."