Page 29 of An Illicit Seduction

“Damon…”

He shook his head. “Did you know, Seraph? Did you know how badly I wanted you? How I called you my angel, like your name, and used to pray for my angel to want me as I wanted her? But it never happened, no matter what I did. Then I woke up from what I thought was a hangover, only to learn that I’d lost three months of my life. And then I see this picture.” His eyes narrowed in on her, and her breath caught in her throat. “Do you know that I was so desperate to call you mine that I let some crazy conjure woman in New Orleans convince me that she could help me?”

Eyes wide, Seraph shook her head. “What?!”

Damon leaned forward, planting his elbows on his knees and pinning Seraph to her seat with his stare. “You heard me. I went to New Orleans with Silas and Eric for their cousin’s bachelor party, and while we were on Bourbon Street, an old woman approached me. She said I needed to come see her. I laughed her off, and me and the fellas kept moving, but then she said she could help me get the woman I loved to love me back, and that…well, those were the magic words. So, I followed her into some dingy shop off a back street and watched as she mixed up some weird concoction and poured it into a shot glass.

She told me that if I drank it, you would be mine, and I couldn’t resist because I wanted you so bad—had been wanting you since I knew what it meant to crave something other than food—but you never looked at me twice, never acknowledged me. You called me your ‘baby cousin’ despite us not being related and even tried to hook me up with your coworker. With all of that shit on my mind, I didn’t second-guess it before taking that shot glass of the unknown to the head. It didn’t taste any different than a shot of Jägermeister, so I paid her and went back to Bourbon Street where Eric and Silas clowned me for the rest of the night. The thing is…that’s the last thing I remember because I went to sleep that night after hanging out with my friends, but when I woke up, I was in a hospital room with you hovering over me, your eyes closed, and your lips on mine.”

Seraph clapped her hands over her mouth, and her eyes filled with tears at the anguished look on his face. At the beginning of this whole ordeal, it never occurred to her that Damon hadn’t known what was happening with his own body. When she was performing the ritual and chanting for his mind to be clear, at no point did she think about what it might be like for him once he was restored. But…as heavy as her heart felt on his behalf for what he was now experiencing, she reminded herself that he opened himself up to this. It was his obsession with having her that allowed the events of the last nearly four months to take place. He had no one to blame but the man in his mirror.

“You can’t imagine how I feel, waking up, thinking it was just some accident, then learning that I’d lost three months of my life. Then to look in my phone, hoping for some clue about what happened, and see pictures of us—of you!—like that and not have any memory of it! That shit gutted me, Seraph. I’m tore the fuck up! So for you to look me in my face and pretend that it didn’t happen is killing me right now.”

His voice cracked on the last word, and the tears she’d held at bay fell unchecked down her face.

“Why would you lie to me about this?”

Shaking her head, she set his phone on the arm of her chair and wiped her face with both hands. Now was not the time to point fingers. “Damon…the…the thing between us—it wasn’t good. You weren’t yourself and it—” she cleared her throat, “it felt wrong. It was wrong. Everything about it terrified me.”

Brows furrowed, he tilted his head. “What do you mean it felt wrong? That it terrified you? What does that mean?”

She didn’t know how to explain to Damon that the sheer intensity of his focus on her over the past few months was terrifying. He’d had little regard for anything other than pulling as many orgasms out of her as was humanly possible and she hadn’t been able to rest without fear that he would show up in the middle of the night and attempt to suck her soul out through her clit. Even more, there was no way for her to say that what terrified her the most was that she had become addicted to the way he that he always took her—despite her weak protests—without sounding crazy.

“It’s just… you were doing a lot and I—I don’t know how to explain it.”

Silently, he stared at her, dark eyes seemingly peering past her flimsy excuse, before he pursed his lips. “Try me. Start at the beginning.”

Sighing audibly, she rolled her eyes to the ceiling to avoid his gaze. She knew she needed to tell him; he deserved to know the things he’d done—even if it wasn’t necessarily him doing them—but the thought of detailing his actions out loud embarrassed her.

“Well,” she began, shifting in the chair and fixing her robe to better cover her thighs, “it started at Jaime’s pajama party. You were flirting with me the entire night and didn’t care that I kept shutting you down. I mean flirting heavy. You cock-blocked any guy I tried to talk to and even put your hard dick on my back. Then, that night, I woke up in the middle of the night with you on top of me.” She hazarded a glance at him, his shocked expression calming her enough for her to continue. “You… did things to me.”

“Did I… hurt you?”

Seraph heard the fear in his voice, heard the unspoken question, and rushed to reassure him.

“Not unless you count making me come until I pass out hurting me.”

For the first time since arriving at her apartment, he sat back against the couch, running both of his hands down his face.

“Fuck!” he shouted. When he faced her again, his eyes were red-rimmed and face pinched tight. “What happened after that?”

Seeing how upset the information was making him, Seraph hesitated, but when he growled, “Tell me!”, she continued. She told him what happened in her mother’s kitchen and how he came to her home the same night. Avoiding his gaze, she ran through the list of every encounter they’d had from that first time up until the night two days before his accident. The only thing she withheld were her suspicions of him being possessed and the subsequent binding spell that she was one hundred percent sure had led to his memory loss.

When she finished, the effects of reliving the past few months were evident. Her heart was pounding, her pussy was throbbing and leaking wetness between her thighs, and her nipples were so tight that every brush of her robe against the turgid points was agonizing. And although Damon might not remember how intimately he knew her body, he still managed to take notice of her current state of arousal. He tilted his head to the side and eyed her through narrowed lids.

“So, that’s what it takes, huh?”

Confused, she blinked rapidly and shifted once more, the action bringing his gaze to the hidden crevice between her thighs. Her body heated further under the intensity of his focus, and she fought not to shift again. Damn near six weeks without what had been daily for months had made her sensitive. A few choice rubs of her thighs together, and she was sure to come where she sat.

Eyes on her, Damon scooted to the edge of the couch.

“All this time I’ve been giving you hints that I was interested; trying to show you that I was ready and willing whenever you were—” he broke off on a mirthless chuckle, slowly rising to his feet. “Apparently, I was playing the wrong sport. I spent so much time pump faking, waiting for an opportunity to shoot my shot, when all along I just needed to steal my way to home plate.”

He walked toward her, and Seraph’s eyes widened with each determined step that he took, her knuckles pale from the death grip she had on her robe.

“I—” she swallowed thickly. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

Dropping down into a crouch in front of her, he smirked. “That’s okay. I can show you better than I can tell you.” Gripping the backs of her knees, he lifted her legs and pushed them up into the air. “Hands.” Eyes glued to her glistening slit, he uttered the demand in a firm tone, and lightning quick, Seraph reached down and replaced his hands with her own, holding her legs in the air, keeping herself wide open for him as her breathing turned shallow. His eyes glittered with wonder and satisfaction and she felt herself clench involuntarily.