Free Golden Stair by Jennifer Blackstream Page B

his arms around her waist, dragging her against his body. A whimper escaped her throat as her brain ceased its analysis, giving her over to a world of sensation with no rational thought. His tongue slid past her lips, delving into her mouth to dance over her teeth and duel with her tongue. Her head swam and she melted against him, letting him take what he would.
     
    After all too short a time, Adonis pulled back just enough to speak.
     
    “The gods help me, Ivy,” he muttered, breathing as if he’d just run a marathon. “You kiss like Aphrodite herself.”
     
    Pleasure soaked Ivy’s senses, combining with Adonis’ praise to make her giddy. She didn’t even care if he was lying, it felt too absolutely amazing.
     
    Adonis ran his hands up and down her back, squeezing here and there to send shivers of pleasure down her body.
     
    “Ivy, you try my control. If I don’t leave now, I’m afraid I’ll take more than the tender kiss you’ve allowed me.”
     
    Ivy blinked, trying to make her brain work. Her eyes widened as she realized the golden haze was gone and she could see again. The distraction helped clear the erotic cloud from her mind and she ran her hands down her robes as she stepped away from Adonis. The incubus let her go, only hesitating for a second, so brief it may have only been her imagination.
     
    “Goodbye,” she managed, offering what she hoped was a pleasant smile. She realized she’d taken a step toward him again and cleared her throat, forcing herself to back away. It unnerved her how much she wanted to throw herself into his arms, to chase that sinfully delightful mouth. Her body still buzzed with arousal and the need to take more of what he had to offer. The look he was giving her wasn’t helping either.
     
    “You are unlike any elemental I’ve ever met,” Adonis said softly.
     
    “I’m not an elemental,” she answered automatically.
     
    Adonis grinned. With a small wave, he turned and leapt over the balcony, sailing off into the sky.
     
    Ivy stood at the balcony until he disappeared, her fingers pressed to her lips where the ghost of his kiss remained.
     

     

Chapter Four
     

     
    “You again!”
     
    Adonis lunged for the floating ball of light, grunting as his knee collided with the smooth bark of the tree branch he’d been straddling. The will o’ wisp swirled about in merry circles as the incubus careened out of the tree and landed with an unceremonious thud on the forest floor. Pain sizzled like fireworks over his body in a shower of bruises, cuts, and scrapes, all of which healed nearly as fast as they’d appeared, sealed by the post-coital energy flaring inside him
     
    Musical laughter drifted down from the tree as Adonis growled and righted himself, rolling the shoulder he’d landed on to relieve the dull ache left in the wake of the healing rush. The dryad he had to thank for his current overabundance of energy propped her chin on one delicate, mint-green hand as she stared down at him. Outlined as she was against the rustling canopy of vibrant green leaves in a patchwork against a brilliant sunny blue sky, he was half tempted to ignore the amusement dancing in her eyes.
     
    “I suppose I should be grateful that you fell out of the tree after instead of during,” she teased him, her voice echoing with the sound of leaves in the wind.
     
    Adonis snorted, squinting up in the air for the most recent bane of his existence. “I suppose I should be grateful to have sampled your sense of humor only after availing myself of your delightful charms.”
     
    Lustrous apple green hair fell around him as the dryad leaned down from her branch. Brown eyes sparkled at him from beneath the canopy of her hair.
     
    “Is there any particular reason you lunged for a will o’ wisp? Do I need to refresh your memory as to what happens to naughty men who follow the lights into the darkness?”
     
    “Spare me the wary-traveler tales, my little sapling.” Adonis tweaked the