His fangs had ripped through his gums on impact with the porch, but her eyes were still shut so tightly, and her thrashing so erratic, that he knew she was oblivious. The duality of heat was fracturing his intent, breaking his mind. The scorch of her body was dangerous, molten protoplasm from the realms above; his now owned Hellfire from the realms below. The games he'd played to send her to into a frenzy had become a trap that could leave him seriously injured. The dilemma was kicking his ass, burning him up from the need to get with her.
"Permission to enter you," he groaned into her ear. "Just tell me I can."
She nodded, her voice caught on a strangled gasp.
She had to say it. The Neteru will barrier was impenetrable in a seduction battle. He could feel a force brutally blocking him, even though her nails scored his shoulders to drive him onward. "Just say it, baby... tell me." He was near tears she felt so good; he'd almost forgotten Hellfire was no match for her silver heat.
She arched for him, making his request a command.
Frustration tore up wood splinters as he gripped her hair in his hands, held her face, broke the kiss, and stared at her. "Say it!"
She cried out his name instead. He closed his eyes and almost laughed. The Light was f**king with him real bad right through here. He kissed her hard and rolled her over to straddle him. He needed to look into her eyes, get a mind lock going. Had to break the black box in her skull and shatter it. He could barely retract his fangs to speak. His words came out as a stuttering plea instead of the thundering demand he'd intended. "Baby, tell me I can come into you now."
"Oh, God!"
Ball game. He dumped her on the porch and had to stand and walk in a circle. The electric arc that zapped off her skin almost fried him. Totally sobering, erection killing, pain so intense that he bit his tongue and almost upchucked his nuts. Okay, so not tonight. Fine. He couldn't even look at her as he tried to catch her breath to stop her torrent of passionate words.
"Baby, what's wrong?" she said, panting, reaching toward him, beginning to stand.
Horrified that the zap had only further turned her on, he backed away as her aura radiated pure silver. Reality provided a cold slap in his face as Damali got to her feet. They used to play hard, play rough, but he was always on their side before. Every physical Neteru change she'd just gone through under him would have driven him mad - before. There was no way to do this... even if she said yes. Oh, shit...
"Jesus, Carlos, please, baby, no more teasing, no more playing, you have got to finish this tonight!"
The name of the sacred made him wince and turn away. Tears of agony were streaming down her beautiful face. Near madness had filled her expression, making her look all the more ravishing in the moonlight as she'd frantically searched his eyes for an answer before he gave her his back.
"Stop walking away from me!" she nearly shrieked. "Don't you want this? You trying to bait me into a shape-shift? What? Panther? Is that what you want? Talk to me! You want me to drag you into the bushes by your damned throat?" She shouted, and wrapped her arms around herself. " 'Cause, tonight, if you don't stop playing with me after that floor show, I might. Don't tempt me. Oh, God, what is wrong with you?"
He held up his hand, three calls of the Names and his skull was splitting. "Shut up! I can't take it," he shouted, pacing as his ears began to internally bleed. "No mas, por favor. A minute. To get my head together. All right?"
He had to get away from her. She was turning him on so f**king bad it didn't make sense... drag him by his throat, oh, shit - if she hadn't said the Names, but he knew from all experience, she would again, and again, and again. And she was walking toward him, lit up with silver fire. He'd torch on impact from even a hug.
"Back off me, woman! You know we don't play like that!" he bellowed as he could feel her energy about to dip low and go serious feline when she purred.
She shook her head as though coming to from a punch as she stood on the porch in the buff, and then slowly backed away from him into the house and shut the screen door behind her.
Carlos watched her for a moment, totally defeated and too conflicted to immediately argue. Okay, maybe he'd gone too far, which could be disastrous, if he ever wanted her to chill out and be with him again. The conundrum was profound. He'd wanted to f**k her till she lost her mind, but if he took her there she'd burn him alive. If he did her in a lackluster fashion, she might get pregnant, but damn, what would be the point? The Light had this shit rigged so foul it was obscene. Now he really understood the Chairman and the old boys' problem. Why he was such a necessary pawn in their game. Think, think, think. There had to be some way around the barrier... and she'd been so turned out she was ready to serve panther? Sheeit.
But as he hesitated, a tiny, fearful cry from within echoed through his conscience. What was he doing? Why was he doing this? None of this had anything to do with the mission he'd been assigned, and getting Damali pregnant was the last thing he should have been trying to do, especially if what he'd seen on the Chairman's throne would come out of his body.
He stood on her porch, breathing hard, as he battled the procreation imperative and looked at the woman he loved, and then clung to that very thin silver filament left inside him. No, she was not to be the vessel for something worse than a daywalker. Jealousy and newfound power had had him in its grip. Unbridled rage had made him show off and nearly stop her heart with pleasure shock. He had to get the Jose thing out of his head and be rational.
"C'mon, girl. I was just playing," Carlos said, fighting the eerie sensation of conflict brewing within him. "It's a male Neteru thing, mixed with a little vamp still in my system from old times, that's all. I'm near my real apex. What can I say?" He opened his arms and smiled, loving how her skin was still wet and flushed from releasing till she'd cried.
"Put my clothes back on," she demanded, breathing hard, raking her hair, but her eyes never left his. "No silver, no ass. I musta been out of my mind!"
He smiled as her gaze traveled down his body and lingered. "I want you, too, baby. The old-fashioned way works for me... unless you want to go to the point?"
"Too rough already," she said, standing and slapping remnants of sand off her soaked clothes as he robed her in what she'd previously had on. She scowled at his good faith move and glared at him. "I'm not going to V-point with you - and I thought... Never mind. This shit was ridiculous."
He smiled in an attempt to play off the pleasurable horror she'd just experienced. "I'll be gentle next time, girl... for real." He gave her a sly glance, his smile widening as he spoke. "But it did feel good, didn't it?"
She still couldn't see if he had fangs, not that she needed any further proof that he owned them. "No. It didn't. You seriously violated my mind. Don't do that to me ever again, Carlos. I'm not playing! I feel dirty, like I need a bath."
"All you have to do is say the word - "
"No!" She scanned the floor for her missing blade.
He produced it for her twiddling it outside the screen door.