Demon's Kiss by Devereaux, J. (best sci fi novels of all time .TXT) 📗

strong muscles of his arm, Gabrielsaid, “I can see why.”

“It is more than that, mishea.” He smiled at herevident appreciation of his physical form. “It is a magical attraction, as mucha part of our essence as our being, a thing of our eyes, of our motion.”

Gabriel studied him. There was something in his voice.

Mishea was clearly an endearment by the way he saidit. Gabriel tried to ignore the part of her that was touched by it, that warmedto it.

Still. A magical attraction?

It hurt.

“And now?”

She didn’t like the idea of being manipulated but she had toknow.

Seeing the look in her eyes, Asmodeus said gently butfirmly, “Your mind is your own, my angel, always. It is an attraction only, theeffect momentary, to help you past the strangeness of us, to see us for ourselves.What you feel is your own. The attraction does not compel. You could haveresisted me from the very beginning had you wished to, if you had been repelledby me, but you did not.”

For Asmodeus it went far beyond attraction, but again, hecould not tell her that. Not yet. It was too soon, too quick on the heels ofwhat he had just said. She would come to it in her own time of her own will…ornot. His heart twisted at the thought.

Gabriel looked into his brilliant, long-lashed, ruby eyesand could almost feel him willing her to believe him.

She believed him.

Remembering her initial reaction to him, she couldn’t denyshe had wanted him intensely from the first moment she saw him but she thoughtshe could have resisted had she chosen to do so. Some part of her, though, hadresponded to him almost instantly. Had responded to more than what was in hiseyes, his body. Had responded instead to his spirit, had wanted him—Asmodeus.She still did, with a craving so intense that it washed through every inch of herand made her body tighten. Just the thought of fucking him again had her hotand wet.

Her desire stirred again, the sweet scent of it ripe in theair and Asmodeus closed his eyes as relief poured through him.

It pleased him greatly to know it, to share it, as hedesired her just as greatly.

While he could feed from any woman, it would never be asfulfilling as it was with her, nor would it ever be as good with another again.

There would never be another for him but her.

“The church did name me the demon of lust,” he said, smilingin response to that desire, and slid his already thickening cock between hersmooth, white thighs. He wanted her again. Her body was a delight to him andpleasuring her even more so.

“Did they?” Gabriel said and her voice sounded strangelystrangled. “And you’re only telling me this now?”

His cock brushed against her slit teasingly and already heached to drive into her depths. “There was no time before,” Asmodeus pointedout.

With a grin, Gabriel said, “True.”

Asmodeus smiled and then pain hit him so suddenly that hisback bowed. He tumbled to the floor, helpless, his every muscle locked, histeeth gritted against the agony that ripped through him. He braced himself onthe floor against the pain.

In an instant, Gabriel was on her knees beside him.“Asmodeus!”

A voice boomed furiously from nowhere and everywhere, thetone demanding.

“Asmodeus, answer me.”

His jaw clenched against the demand. Asmodeus clothedGabriel and banished the smoke.

Chapter Three

Gabriel stiffened. She knew that voice. Knew it well.

The man who stood on the other side of the smoke and theconcentric rings of magic was all too well known to her. S

He was slightly over six feet tall, with a thick head ofgraying hair touched by two deep widow’s peaks and his deep-set black eyes inhis unnaturally youthful face glittered with barely concealed rage. He wore adesigner suit as if he were at home in it, as if it were casual wear. GordonTempleton was a handsome, distinguished-looking man and not one to be trifledwith. CEO of one of the last surviving independent investment firms, he wasworth millions, perhaps billions.

An imposing man, he was also a man accustomed to command andto being obeyed. Instantly.

He was one of the few men who…disturbed her, for want ofanother word.

There were and had always been rumors about him, not leastof which was that he dabbled in the occult.

On Wall Street they called him The Wizard, and not withoutreason. But Wall Street hadn’t coined the term. He had.

It was for Gordon Templeton that Gabriel had studiedesoterica and the occult. There were rumors that he experimented with darkmagic. Once she knew what to look for it was everywhere around him—like lookingat an optical illusion of two faces looking at each other, then realizing that,if you looked at it differently, it became a vase.

Gabriel had always seen both images in those pictures, butuntil she had studied the occult, she hadn’t really studied his corporate seal.

Once she did though, the reversed pentagram had been unmistakable,along with the all-seeing eye and several other esoteric and magical symbols.The watermarks of all his corporate documents were littered with images ofknots to bind those who signed them.

It was said he cast spells against those who opposed him.Whether it was the spells themselves or his belief in them, he carried himselfwith an undeniable arrogance, the kind of confidence only success could bring.

There were some who said the title of wizard wasn’t so faroff, that he practiced magic of the darkest kind, that he was a magus—a darkmagician. That he summoned spirits. And demons.

Though she had researched and studied, she hadn’t reallybelieved it, had chalked the stories up to Templeton’s enormous ego. It hadseemed too unreal, hard to believe. But looking at Asmodeus, there was no doubtnow the stories were real.

There was an awful satisfaction in Gordon Templeton’s darkeyes. Gabriel should have known Templeton was behind this.

A chill went through her just at that look but she didn’tdare let him see it.

This was as bad as it could get. Maybe worse.

She kept her eyes level and her mouth tight.

A beam of light speared through the darkness, off to theright, beyond the rings. One of Templeton’s