Page 15 of Divine Intervention (Black Rose Auction #2)

15

CAHUANI

C ahuani watched in vibrant awe as Tlalli tugged at the invisible bindings that secured her wrists and ankles to the bed. He wet his lips, then moved his gaze to the folds of her glistening pussy as her knees fell open farther. This was certainly a sight worth damning Heaven for.

“You just gonna stare at it, Papa Bear, or you gonna do somethin’?” she growled.

His smirk spread slowly across his lips, his eyes already alight with concentrated mirth. “You know better than that, princess,” he crooned. “You can’t goad me.”

“But I can sure as hell try.”

She tugged at her bindings again as he looked up at her, baring her teeth, but he still took his time undressing. Through the slow unbuttoning of his shirt, the careful unknotting of his tie, and the measured unbuckling of his belt, his eyes never left hers. With each piece of clothing that hit the floor, he could see her hunger growing until it was a monster all its own.

He had been torturing her for quite a while now; he had been intent on savoring this. If their time was running out, he wanted to make it count in whatever way he could, and thus far, this plan had been foolproof. Now, she was at his mercy, and though she struggled against her bindings, he could see it in her eyes: she was just as excited as he was.

He doubted she would ever admit it aloud, but it was obvious to him that she needed this. She needed to be taken care of, but she also needed to be put in her place. She was so used to biting back and defying orders, being unruly and ungovernable. But with him, she would have to learn to admit defeat. At least when she was tied to his bed.

“How are those bindings, eh?” he questioned. “Too loose? Too tight?”

She gave them another tug, her chest rising higher into the air. He could see the snark forming on the edge of her sharp tongue, so he didn’t wait to make his next move.

He climbed atop her, then straddled her chest and took hold of his cock, which was already throbbing with need. Her lips parted in anticipation, but he didn’t guide the shaft to her lips just yet, instead admiring the dilation of her pupils and the curl of her tongue against her gorgeous mouth.

“Mm,” she hummed, her eyes fixed on his erection. “I’d say they’re just right.”

“Yeah, that’s what I thought you would say,” he returned. “Now be a good girl for me and open that pretty mouth more.”

She didn’t hesitate, and neither did he, pushing past her parted lips and forcing her jaw open instantaneously. She tried to glare up at him, but it must have been difficult because tears had already begun to cling to her lashes and her eyes were rolling back as his tip hit the back of her throat.

He reached his hand toward the bedside drawer, opening it and retrieving his phone.

“Can I put this on tape?”

She shivered almost audibly and her cheeks hollowed as she nodded.

Biting down on his lip, he pulled up the video camera and hit record.

And Tlalli didn’t shy away. Instead, she put on a show.

Cahuani quickly found it difficult to hold the camera with the way she was bobbing her head up and down his cock, making up for her lack of hands with what he was certain were more tongues . He couldn’t find the words to question it nor did he want to, and eventually, whatever the camera caught was in the hands of the universe because his head was thrown back and his eyes were screwed shut.

Once he was flying too close to the sun, he tossed the phone on the bed, pressed his hands against the wall, and pulled himself out of the warmth of her mouth. She whined in rebellion, but not for long. Her complaints fell silent as soon as his mouth found hers.

He then dragged his tongue down the length of her body, taking his time to trace the perimeter of each nipple and the area around her navel. He kissed along her thighs until her moans hit the right note, and he lapped at her clit until her fingers twisted so hard in his curls that his scalp ached. And it needed to ache. Otherwise, he was doing something wrong.

He didn’t intend to be soft when he slid his dick inside her this time, but he was anyway. He wasn’t sure if it was because of the look of awe in her eyes or the tender way she cradled his face on that first thrust. Regardless of the reason, he couldn’t bring himself to seek justice or vengeance or atonement right now. He only wanted to feel her come alive beneath him.

And he soon realized she was bringing him to life as well.

“Cahuani...” she breathed, her eyelids starting to flutter.

“ No ,” he said sternly, giving her cheek a light slap. “I want you to look at me.”

She struggled to keep her eyes open, but she obeyed nonetheless. Power poured into him, striking like lightning in the center of his gut. He sped up, fucking her harder, faster, stronger, by the second. The silence was again broken by her boisterous moans, her fingers scrambling to find a perch on his back.

Oh, he wondered what Heaven would do if it were to see what he had done to its angel. Hell, he wondered what Anthony would do if he were to know Cahuani had won.

Ah, there was that pettiness, that callousness he often held at bay. He liked the bite of it against his skin, this need to get even rather than get hurt. What did it matter anyway? Soon, they would be at war, and the only thing they would have was what they chose to do now. And he chose to live again, not to die with his wife or flee like his son. To live. Preferably between Tlalli’s thighs.

“Yes!” she shouted, at last able to form the word as her hand gripped the back of his neck. “Cahuani, please!”

“Please what, princess?” He pressed his forehead against hers. “Tell me. Say it.”

“I—Ah!”

But she showed him instead, careening through her climax, her gaze piercing his until it could no longer hold. By then, he was following suit, incapable of reprimanding her, the two clinging to each other as the bed shook and the world tilted. Her head fell back, and his mouth fell to worship the expanse of her throat, the golden glow of divinity beneath her skin warming his lips. And yet all he wished to do was corrupt it.

“So I assume Acheron was successful.” Tlalli sighed once she at last caught her breath. “If you’re in such a good mood, I mean.”

Cahuani rolled off her onto his back, and she quickly burrowed into his side.

“He was,” he said, running his fingers down her back, “and he’ll be able to keep it safe until we can leave here. Xaphan will make a few bids to keep up appearances, and that will be that.”

“And the mimic? Is it... It was a really good copy.”

“It is an exact replica, and there is just enough of Sloth’s magic in it to make it glow until they get back to their Golden Gates. We’ll be long gone by then.”

“What’s the plan? I mean, how far can you take me?”

He sighed, turning slightly to look at her. “You and I are going underground. Like, all the way underground. Hell, specifically.”

She immediately rose, turned to prop herself on her elbow, and looked at him.

“Excuse me?” she said. “Hell? How?—”

“It’s the only place we can go right now where you will be safe. Where we’ll both be safe.”

“Yeah, I get that, but, Cahuani, you know the angels will use that against the Puri. They won’t ever take their word that I wanted to go there, no matter what I do.”

He pushed himself up to meet her gaze head-on. “We’ll figure it out, but I made a vow, and I know the Puri. They’ll help, and they’ll let us stay there for as long as we need to.”

“We?” She raised a brow.

“Yeah, ‘we.’”

“You’re going to stay?”

“Do you wanna stay down there alone?”

“Well, no, but—I mean . . .”

“Look, don’t get it twisted. You said three days, and I’ll take three days, but I can’t just go home either if Anthony decides he wants to escalate this. He wants a fight. He wants to prove he’s better than me, and I—I am not ready to face him like that. If I can avoid it, I will.”

He hated just how vulnerable he sounded, but he was trying to be honest. More honest than he had ever been. She stared at him for a long while, and in the end, he was the first to look away, lying back down. She moved closer still, cradling his cheek in her palm.

“I’ll go anywhere with you,” she whispered. “As long as you can promise me that we’ll both be safe.”

His gaze sharpened, and he raised his hand to cup her cheek. “I promise we’ll both be safe.”

She nodded slowly. “... But I wanna stay here for as long as we can, at least until more of the mortals leave. If we leave now, we leave everyone else here vulnerable to Anthony’s temper tantrums, and I won’t do that. I’ll fight if I have to.”

He chuckled lightly after a beat. He couldn’t say he was surprised. He knew better than to think she wouldn’t differentiate between escaping and running away. And she was right. He hadn’t said anything to Xaphan earlier, but the truth was that Cahuani also couldn’t just leave Anthony to be anyone else’s problem when it was his to solve.

He nodded. “Then we’ll stay until it’s over. But remember, the truce officially expires at the end of the third day. If we stay beyond that, we have to be very careful.”

“It would be pointless for Anthony to attack once the truce ends though . . . Right?”

As much as he wanted to agree, he couldn’t without any doubt. “One would hope, but we can’t be sure.”

“Well, there’s that party tomorrow night, remember?”

He nodded. There had been information on the play party with his auction invitation, an engagement meant to round out the auction weekend, but he had intended to leave long before that. Now, the party was even more reason to stay. As much as Cahuani wanted to believe Anthony—or Michael for that matter—wouldn’t put the mortals in danger, he could no longer be too cautious. It was best they stay and watch over the party. Discreetly of course.

“Nonetheless,” he sighed, “if Michael does come here, if he’s in on Anthony’s plan like that, we’ll have to go. I’ll have to get to the Puri, and you and I will only be a liability to them and everyone else if we stay.”

She inhaled sharply, but whatever argument she had seemed to die on her tongue. Instead, she nodded, then turned her head slightly to press a kiss to the inside of his palm.

He could see worlds in her eyes, galaxies and solar systems alight with forgotten pasts and neglected futures. Their own world came into stark clarity, brighter than it had ever looked. All at once, everything mattered more than it had yesterday. And then in the next moment, none of it mattered at all. Nothing except Tlalli.

Though he was soon hit with the harsh reminder that this could never be more than what it was right now. He had already been given his happiest possible ending, sad as it was. He was meant to finish out the epilogue alone.

Tlalli had her entire life ahead of her, eternities at her feet. He would only grow older, fading into the dust and clay he had been formed from. Sure, he would be reborn in Hell after, and life would begin again, but he highly doubted she wished to shackle herself to him or Hell for an eternity. She’d nearly done that with the Dominion once already. Now, she wanted to be free, and he wasn’t sure if he could ever truly give her that.

In fact, he wasn’t sure what he could give her beyond this little arrangement. He didn’t know if he had anything left to give.

“I want you to know something,” she said, tearing him from his thoughts. The words came out of her in a breath, like she hadn’t entirely meant to say them.

His eyebrows knitted together. “What’s that?”

“I—I didn’t plan on using my mother’s death against you. I never would’ve done that. I thought I could hold it together by then. I knew Michael wouldn’t have cared whether I could or not. The consequence would’ve been the same if I failed, and honestly, I was fine until...” She looked down at his chest, her teeth wrapped around her lip. “Being in your house brought so many memories back. It was so much like our house. The music, the magic I got to use again, the coffee in the middle of the day, and—Aliyah’s baking too. Especially her baking. It was hard.”

Cahuani’s heart clenched, a million thoughts and words and memories of his own cascading down the back of his neck. But he didn’t let them petrify him. Instead, he let them hurt as much as they needed to then soothe him instead.

He took her chin between his fingers and guided her eyes up to his again.

Maybe he was foolish for being so quick to forgive her. Maybe he was foolish for wanting to forgive her at all. Nonetheless, he had been clinging to this bitter rage for so long that it had scraped his hands raw, and he no longer knew how to hold it. Certainly not when she looked at him like that, like there was still something worth looking at. Maybe he was just tender right now, but he was willing to take a risk for that look.

“I’m sorry for what I said at the bar about your mama,” he said. “I was tryna hurt you, but... Yeah, I did wanna believe you were just that conniving, that you would use her against me, against both of us because it would be easier to hold a grudge, to hate you. But please don’t think I ever regretted caring about you, Tlalli, even back then. I would’ve done it all again if it meant being there for you however I could be.”

“And you were. You were the only person who was there for me most of the time. I had no one to turn to after she died, no one to tell about her. And I was so scared that if I had to carry her on my own, I’d fail eventually.”

“You won’t.” He leaned closer, pressing his forehead to hers. “I promise you that you’ll never have to carry anything on your own again if you don’t want to.”

She immediately shook her head. “You can’t promise me that, Cahuani. Don’t?—”

“Girl, I’m a grown-ass man. Of course I can.”

They both laughed, though hers sounded a bit more watery than his. “Why, after all I did to you? To your family?”

“Because even if the anger is righteous, it’s never too late to put it down. And I’m too tired to carry it anymore.”

She nodded. “Well, you don’t ever have to carry anything on your own again either, if you don’t want to.”

His lips twitched just as she brushed hers against them briefly. Then she was pulling back entirely, and his eyes snapped open wider.

She had a look of concern on her face. “Can I ask you a question?”

“Yeah, of course,” he replied.

“How did . . . What happened to her? To Aliyah? Did I . . .”

“No,” he said quickly, shaking his head. “Um, she got sick. We didn’t really know what it was or how it happened, but it did, and when it got real bad, she made me promise to just let her have her final days in peace. She was tired of fighting, and I figured I owed her that much, so...”

“But did she get sick because Anthony left? Because of what we did?”

“I can assure you that wasn’t it. It was hard, yes, and she wanted him there, but Tlalli, nothing you could have done would have stopped him from betraying us. You realize that, right?”

“I mean, I guess . . .”

“Come on now. You’ve met him. He don’t listen to nobody.”

She smiled only when she saw him smiling, and then she nodded in acceptance, allowing him to press a soft series of kisses to her cheek and jaw.

“Mm,” she groaned. “One more thing though.”

After pulling back again, she cupped his cheek and ran her thumb along its curve.

“I really am genuinely sorry for what I did. I thought it was right, that we were doing the right thing and fighting the good fight. Even so, I could see what Anthony was, and I could see where it would lead. That alone should have been enough.”

“Don’t apologize for none of that. What’s done is done. And besides”—he leaned in, biting his lip—“you’re more than making up for it. You’ve been taking all your licks like such a good girl.”

Her lips curled upward before they met his.

He was gonna milk every moment they had together. He’d made up his mind. Maybe they were two lonely people using each other to make themselves feel less alone. Maybe there had been a connection formed somewhere along the way. Whatever the case, all this was temporary. None of it would last.

But he still felt possessive when she climbed on top of him.

She braced her hands against his chest, grinding her bare pussy down on the length of his cock, pinning it between her folds and his belly. His hands bracketed her hips, a grunt leaving him as he helped her pick up speed.

He pulled her down toward him and nipped at her nipples with his teeth before tenderly sucking them in turn. Tlalli bucked against him, her clit glancing off his shaft, and expelled a heavy moan from her lips. She failed to recover before he lifted her and slammed her straight down onto his erect cock.

He gripped her ass and bounced her up and down with relative ease.

“Take it,” he said between curses in every language he knew, impatient, insatiable .

She threw her head back, then continuously jammed her hips down to meet his at the height of every stroke he delivered. Wave after wave of pleasure rolled through his body with every touch. She cried out into the open air, careless with the way the sound carried, a song he would never grow sick of.

He dragged his eyes open to look at her and lost his breath when he saw the sight before him. Tlalli was still stretched out before him, her human hands still on his shoulders and her neck exposed to his ravenous mouth.

But that was not what ultimately conquered his attention. No, it was the massive powder-white wings that erupted from her shoulders and eclipsed the rest of the world. Dozens or hundreds or thousands of eyes stared down at him, fluttering in time with the feathers they adorned. He had quite literally never seen anything more divine. And he had never wanted to possess anyone more fiercely.

For only a moment, he wanted to be honest, so painfully and brutally honest. He wanted to confess to her his shameful truth. He wanted her to know that these few days were not enough, that he wanted to keep her for longer, as long as humanly possible. And that even then, when he had no time left on this Earth, he would resign himself to yearning for her in Hell.

But then she was dragging him up to sit, her hips gyrating against his and his mouth chasing hers. They clashed at the center as feathers dusted his shoulders and claws sank into his sides. Her pussy clamped down around his shaft, and his body was no longer his. It was an extension of her own, a modification made for her pleasure. And he wasn’t mad about it.

Together, they moved, climbing toward climax with great strides until his head was nothing but a fogged chasm. And for the first time since his wife died, he thought that perhaps this existence wasn’t so bad. Perhaps there was still more to discover, still more to experience.

Perhaps it was all just Tlalli and the endless list of things he wanted to do to her on every surface made by man and god alike. Either way, opening his heart again might be worth consideration. Because either way, they were damned.