CHAPTER 6
“Baby?”
Cherie’s soft call pulled Samuel from the vortex in his mind. He realized he was standing at the sink with the water running.
“You keep doing that,” she said softly, coming around the small island. He turned and wrapped his arms around her.
“Something’s different,” he forced out, needing it out of his head.
“I know,” she nodded against his chest. “I can tell. Talk to me.”
She pulled back and he struggled to put it all into words. “When I touched…my father,” he began, going back to the moment. “There was like…an explosion inside me. A violent…energy of light that knocked me completely on my ass, unconscious.”
“I’d heard stories and wondered how much was accurate.”
He looked at her. “Why didn’t you ask me?”
“I was giving you time to process, that’s all,” she said, stroking his cheek.
“That’s all I’ve been doing ever since. Each time I revisit the event, it’s like…I can’t…sense things like I usually can.”
“How do you normally sense it?”
He considered that, slipping out of her hold to pace slowly next to the counter. “I just…do, I don’t know how to explain it.”
“Okay. We don’t need to understand.”
He paused, looking at her. “But I do,” he said. “Something’s off and not understanding means I can’t get to the source and fix it.”
“Is that how…you normally handle that kind of thing?”
“I usually deal with it in my fucked-up sleep but this refuses to come where I can see it. It’s like…hiding from me. In me. I can feel it but can’t tell where it is. A phantom itch that moves when I reach to scratch, then returns in another location.”
“You think your father is having similar issues?”
He regarded her, not thinking of it. “I’ll ask,” he said.
“You’ll get to soon.”
He took her in his arms again, pressing his mouth into her soft curls. “Why would I…not want that?”
She pulled away looking up at him. “Not want what?”
“To…touch him. Or see him.”
“Then don’t, just…be his son and let him be your father.”
He shook his head. “Not that kind of touching and seeing. The literal kind.”
“It’s…just all new. Give it time.”
“I can’t shake the feeling that…maybe he was right.”
“About what?”
“The warning about his darkness. But…he’s not actually hiding his darkness. He’s masking it as something else,” he finally realized. “He’s a masquerader.” He regarded her, realizing more. “His gift is masquerading and that’s what I’m sensing, that’s why things feel off about what I’m seeing.”
She leaned against the island, curious. “So…it’s not darkness?”
“Why would it masquerade as darkness?” he muttered, back to carefully navigating the maze in his spirit. “Are these gifts separate? One to hide, the other to masquerade? It’s hiding and masquerading. Is it hiding what it’s masquerading? Or is it masquerading what it’s hiding?” He shook his head as a breath escaped him. “It sounds like both are the same when I speak it out loud.” He looked at her as an unseen dread snaked through him. “But inside, it’s something else.”
The puzzle pieces slowly came together, bringing him to a dead stop. This was the work of Lazarus. But how?
The moment he wondered it, he knew.
Cherie.
****
“Ma Petite, I just want to read one page with you.”
“Sahvrin!”
“Sahvrin?”
She tried to get the book from him that he easily kept out of her reach. “We have to go!”
“No, we do not.”
“They’re expecting us in the kitchen in an hour.”
“Which is plenty of time to read a page. We keep talking about needing to read and we never do. Do you want our marriage in shambles so soon?”
She busted out laughing at the outrageous impossibility. “And then what?” she demanded, digging her fingers into his abs, making him jerk and chuckle. “You know what,” she answered herself. “You’ll do things that make me do things that will be embarrassing!”
He laughed all sexy at that. “There is nothing embarrassing about the outrageous screams the Belle Eveque’s ruthless Bishop requires of her when he has his way?” he stated with a question.
“Tonight,” she conceded firmly. “I’ll read a whole chapter with you.”
“What else?” he schemed.
“Whatever you want,” she gave in with wide eyes, smiling.
“From the Karma Sutra book?”
Her heart galloped across her chest with her nod. “Yes,” she barely said, earning his hard mouth on hers and his hand pressing her ass against his steel cock.
“That’s my good girl,” he said, the rough words cutting a shiver through every part of her.
Good lord, why did he do this after they were completely dressed and ready to walk out? “Now I need to change my panties!” she half gasped when he was halfway to the door.
Her womb jerked as he stormed back and worked his hand into the gaping part of her overalls going right to her pussy as if to verify. A flutter of half gasped moans came as he manhandled her then plunged a finger in deep, hitting the g-spot.
“Oh God,” she gasped, immediately delirious as he repeated the assault with two fingers, then with three, drawing her cries as he growled in her mouth around his brutal kiss.
“Not wet enough.” His other arm kept her from falling while he gave twisting jabs with his three fingers, the uneven pressure stretching her in ways that had her begging for mercy.
She panted his name repeatedly as he worked that spot deep in her, going for the big orgasm she loved as much as her clit orgasm, maybe more. This one always made her more delirious and vocal, which was his obvious favorite.
“You like my fingers hammering in your tight cunt, yes?”
Oh she was there and he knew it so well, giving a lusty growl and picking up his pace and thrust power. She broke apart while dangling in his arm, sure she’d lose her grip on his shoulder and crash to the floor as she entered that pleasure dimension where bodies didn’t exist, only incredible glory.
He pulled her upright with a groan, kissing her astonished mouth, his own hunger unchecked now. “Fuck me,” she gasped. “Come in me.”
“Tonight, Ma-Petite. Somebody is about to knock on our door.” He gave a wicked grin on her panicked mouth as she quickly fought to straighten herself right as the knock came.
She smacked him on the arm several times, getting his sexy laugh for all her fluster and anger. “No Karma Sutra for you,” she hissed, running to the other side of the room away from the door.
He eyed her before opening it. “That’s not negotiable,” he said, letting her know he would force the issue. He also knew she liked when he forced the issue. God, she loved him. Why did she even speak words? He’d get what he wanted, and she’d love every second of it.