Part 18 (2/2)

Carlos tilted his head as he watched her come closer. A thousand thoughts ran through his mind and captured it... Oh, Juanita, ya don't want none of this...

She froze in the path, just like the deer had, and then began backing up the steps one at a time. ”But, uh,” she said, slowly recovering, ”we've got kids in the house. Try to understand.”

”Yeah, man,” J.L. said, placing a possessive arm around Krissy's shoulders. ”That's the only reason people are tense. I mean, with the contagion, and all, who knows how bad any of us is gonna get-and you're stronger than any of us, if you flux out, or something. It ain't personal.”

Dan nodded and body-s.h.i.+elded Bobby. ”Don't take offense. They can't deal with it. That's the only reason, man.”

”Oh, f.u.c.k all that,” Inez said, her eyes narrowing on Carlos. ”I don't like how the man looked at Juanita in front of my girl!”

Inez was practically down the steps, and were it not for Big Mike's hand on her shoulder, she would have been. Up to this point, Inez had been skittish, but was spiking a battle surge within him. He hadn't banked on Inez having the leanings of being a seer, not to mention, he forgot that she was Damali's cut-buddy. Inez was also from the 'hood, and had street sense to hone the other gift she obviously had. Right now she seemed ready to go down for her girl over a respect principle. So be it.

”Let her go,” Carlos said, his tone even and lethal. ”I didn't look at Juanita no kinda way, and if Jose was cool with it-”

”But I wasn't,” Marlene said in a flat tone. ”He stays out of the house until daylight hours.”

Damali gave Marlene a knowing glance. ”In the morning, we pack and move out. Everybody get some rest. We're going back to L.A.”

He couldn't believe his good fortune. Carlos kept his gaze out the window of Damali's Hummer as they made their way down the road. He used an att.i.tude as a s.h.i.+eld to keep her from seeing his overwhelming relief. They'd be off this prayer dirt in no time.

It was making him sick.

She jumped out of the Hummer without looking at him. She'd fled it so quickly that she'd practically forgotten to turn off the engine.

”Strip,” she ordered, using her short blade as a pointer. ”Right here in the front yard. Then I'm gonna douse your clothes, and I want you to see what happens to them when I do. Then you'll be able to understand why everybody is just a little bit nervous around you, brother.”

”All right,” Carlos said, allowing a half smile to tug at his mouth. ”You're the boss,” he added, slowly hopping down from the Hummer and pulling his s.h.i.+rt over his head. He held out the ripped T with two fingers and dropped it, as though providing her with a slow striptease. He bent to unlace his Tims, but steadily kept his eyes on her as he straightened and stepped out of them, then kicked them near his ruined s.h.i.+rt.

It was something she'd seen him do more times than she could count, but for some reason, tonight, his slow undressing was so sensual that he might as well have been doing a male version of the Dance of the Seven Veils in her front yard.

Damali's gaze traveled across his broad shoulders and the sculpted form of his chest, lingering on each bulge of defined abdominal muscle packs. His skin seemed like fired bronze in the moonlight. She couldn't help staring at his hands as they took their time unfastening the top b.u.t.ton of his jeans. Reflex made her lick her lips as his hand slid his zipper down. Her mouth went dry, her face flushed hot. A hard s.h.i.+ver made her belly clench as he rolled the denim fabric away from his body as though peeling back an onionskin. Just looking at him had made her so wet that she feared the emulsion between her thighs would soak through her pants.

She couldn't move as she watched him; didn't want to move. Oh, yeah, he'd blown her mind with s.e.xy vamp drama in the past, but she'd never almost fallen over at his antics from twenty-five feet away. Her skin felt damp and warm, and before she knew it she was breathing out of her mouth in short sips. Maybe Marlene was right, all they needed to do was sync up... and man oh man was she ready to sync and squash whatever had been between them. This was the s.e.xiest s.h.i.+t he'd ever done to her.

Carlos yanked his pants down his thighs slowly, and let them slide the rest of the way to his feet. His intense gaze held her in place as he casually kicked them toward the other clothes that lay in a pile. She was not looking at his face. Her jaw went slack, her heart seemed to stopped for a few seconds, it was beating in arrhythmia for sure... It had been a while, but she didn't remember hombre being hung like that!

He walked nearer, an easy smile of satisfaction rooting her to the top porch step. ”Can I come in the house now?”

She had every intention of saying something flippant, but the words got caught in her throat.

”Well, you just gonna leave me out here in the raw?”

She shook her head no. ”I need to douse you and your clothes,” she quietly gasped.

”Why don't you worry about that, later. Obviously, I've missed you. How about if you douse me in the shower, like old times, instead?”

From some reservoir of common sense, she scrambled together a sentence. ”We can't just jump in the shower... no... uh; we have to use protection. I could get pregnant.” She wasn't sure why those words were first to come to her mind or out of her mouth.

Carlos shook his head and clicked his tongue, making a little tsking sound. ”And here I thought you'd consider making another baby with me tonight.”

Forget warning bells-cymbals went off in her head, breaking what felt like a spell.

”Latex or nothing... Why are we even shouting this conversation in the yard?” Damali looked around, confusion eating at her brain. Then she felt her mind pry open and nearly snap.

”Latex?” He chuckled low and sensually, his eyes roving over her body like a caress. ”You don't trust your Sankofa to do the work for you?”

In all truth, she didn't. Not tonight. There was something very dark, half scary, but way, way too magnetic about him at the moment. But to admit that would fly in the face of everything Neteru within her, not to mention might blaspheme her Queens. She forced a smile to cover up her distress. Y'all got my back, right? she mentally whispered. This brother ain't no joke. I don't know what's wrong with his a.s.s tonight.”Since you're packing heat,” she said as coolly as possible, ”and talking plenty of trash, a double layer of protection is a girl's best friend. A condom or the couch. Your choice.”

”What I've got for you tonight,” he said, his voice a tone lower than she'd ever heard it before, ”will burn right through latex.”

His voice had washed her entire body with a wave of want, and then entered it between her legs to coat her insides with new heat.

”Oh, s.h.i.+t...” she murmured, having meant the comment to come out as a possible battle-readiness shout for him to back off. She weaved, caught the porch banister, and gripped it for support as another penetrating wave hit her.

”How many times have I asked you to stop playing with me, Damali?”

As he walked toward her she could feel the warmth of his hands on her body, touching every place he'd learned by heart. The black box in her head felt light, the lid on it struggling to remain shut. Images began to surround it, taunting it to open, and her gaze slowly found his. Tears blurred her sight, and short pants escaped her mouth.

”Baby, stop,” she whispered.

”Why?” he asked in a subsonic tone.

”Because I'm asking you to,” she said in a near squeak.

”You know you want a soldier, raw, Mamacita,” he said in a voice so low it rumbled through her and produced a pleasure wave that knocked her head back, causing her audible gasp. ”Stop trippin'.”

Mamacita? He'd never called her that before. Something was definitely wrong. She'd felt every sound decibel from his throaty response drop inside her as though he'd let each word fall like a droplet of water... or blood. Circles of ecstasy spread through every cell within her, uniting every essence of liquid in her system to its throb. Concentric ripples connected each spreading ring in a million tingles that felled her to her knees where she once stood.

She could barely lift her head. Carlos's footsteps rang out as they landed on the steps one by one. The vibration along the wood planks from each footfall made her cry out with desire. Every time he spoke, his whisper was a forceful caress that elicited a sound from within her that she'd never heard. She tried to lift her head to look at him, had to see what this new mood of his was all about... even as a councilman, he'd never blown her away like this.

”I don't care about what happened in your kitchen,” he said so quietly that her body began to lift from the porch floor without her aid. ”You like vamp. Jose's got that in him, baby... but not like this”

The moment her head dropped back again, she'd braced for a fang strike, even though Carlos was only a few feet from her.

Instead of receiving the bite, she found herself sprawled against the porch floor, actual beach waves was.h.i.+ng over her, making her scream from the intolerable pleasure.

Water was everywhere, the salty fusion of it reminiscent of blood. What felt like Caribbean sun was p.r.i.c.kling her skin, licking it as erotic waves repeatedly lapped at her body and continued to sweep her closer to her front door. It was so intense a vision, or whatever it was that he'd produced, she was sputtering salt water and trying to stand, when another wave knocked her down.

Sand was under her fingernails as she scrabbled to fend off another tidal sensation.

Gasping, she peered at him, confused, panting out sentences in short bursts while trying to wrap her mind around where this power rush was coming from. This wasn't no freaking relapse! ”Male Neterus can do that? They taught you that on the island with the old men-back in Ethiopia? s.h.i.+t, baby, you apexing on me, or something? You definitely gotta use something extra, for real.”

Carlos tilted his head to the side as he stared down at her. Power was an awesome thing, to be sure. But she'd actually felt desire for some vamp perpetrator over him? His distant line brother? Was she out of her mind? She wanted a change?

Something new? Something forbidden? Done. No, this wasn't a relapse or anything some old men on an island had taught him.

Far from it.

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