Dax grit his teeth and nodded, unable to speak. He didn’t want to lose control, not yet, but the heat was so intense that he knew he wouldn’t make it much longer. He wrapped his hands tighter within their restraints and forced himself to leave them where they were. He couldn’t touch her, but he wanted to, to reach down and take that exquisite mouth and pull it to his, then slide her hips up his body and learn if she was as hot there.
She was trembling all over, her body shaking as she placed hot, wet kisses down his penis, massaging him with fiery circles of her tongue, until she reached the base. Then, emitting a low moan of contentment, she took that same technique to his testicles, and Dax’s heartbeat soared, thundering in his chest, roaring in his ears. His pulse hammered through him, his need for release beckoning him to let go.
Celeste licked him solidly again, from base to tip, then she ran her tongue around the end and took him inside, deep inside, and another of her intense moans vibrated against his heated flesh as she worked her way up and down, up and down, moaning and clamping that hot mouth tighter against him, until Dax’s body tensed fiercely, a tingling rush poured through him, and he growled through an orgasm that tore from his very soul.
He sucked in a breath, exhilarated by what she’d done for him, and miserable because he feared what it would cost her. She wanted to experience making love, but now that she’d put so much of her energy into pleasing him…
“Celeste!” he yelled as she looked up at him, her black eyes filled with pleasure at what she’d done, and no regrets, none at all. “Celeste!” he repeated, then he watched in complete agony as the woman he wanted more than any other-disappeared.
7
DAX WAS COVERED in sweat, both from the orgasm that had thoroughly shaken his world and from anger at losing Celeste again without fulfilling her needs, or learning how to get her back. “Dammit!”
He yanked his hands free from the restraints, then climbed from the bed and hurriedly dressed, grabbing the first clothing he could find, worn jeans and a black tank undershirt. The digital clock beside the bed proclaimed it two-thirty in the morning, but Dax didn’t care what time it was; he needed answers, and he wasn’t going to find them while he slept. More than that, he needed help, and he believed he knew where to go to get it.
Obviously, no one on this side was able to provide him with the help he needed. If anyone could have, it’d have been Ryan. But there was one person on the other side who had never let him down, and that person surely had the ability to help him now.
Even though he was only four when she passed on, he remembered one thing he could always count on from the feisty Vicknair matriarch. No matter how hard Adeline Vicknair tried, she simply couldn’t tell him no. Maybe it was because he was her youngest grandson. Maybe it was because he’d been as headstrong and trying back then as he was now. Or maybe it was just that all his older siblings, cousins, parents, aunts and uncles had spoiled him rotten. But for whatever reason, not once could he remember the woman turning him down, for anything.
Dax was counting on her not to break that record.
His bedroom was on the second floor of the plantation, so it was a short walk to the sitting room, its traditional rose-tinted lighting spilling from beneath the doorway across the hardwood in the hall.
One of the plantation’s oddities that the Vicknairs had grown accustomed to over the years, Adeline’s fringed antique lamp never burned out, not when the light was switched off, nor when the power in the entire parish was out due to storms, or even when the bulb was removed. As a matter of fact, even when Katrina took its toll, this room remained lit.
Tonight was no exception.
He pushed through the double doors and entered the undeniably feminine room, where big bold roses covered the wallpaper and shades of pink and burgundy covered nearly everything else, and he stormed toward the coffee table where the silver tea service sat, shining as it reflected the lamplight.
“I want answers, and I can’t get them without your help,” Dax said, dropping onto the settee and then leaning toward the silver platter. He stared at the open space between the ornate pitcher and two gleaming silver cups, the spot where Adeline sent all of their assignments. He’d never asked for anything beyond what she’d provided, or rather, he’d never asked for anything beyond what they’d provided. Never. He’d always taken his assignments as they came, used the information to help spirits cross, and never even considered asking for anything more.
But that was before Celeste. Before tonight.
“If I cross without ever making love to you, I’ll never forgive myself for not taking advantage of this chance.”
If the powers that be had sent her to the other side before she’d known what it felt like to be completely and thoroughly satisfied by a man, to be completely and thoroughly satisfied by him, he’d be damned before he’d ever help them again.
“I am not leaving this room until you give me something to work with here,” he said. “I swear it, and you know damn well I mean it.”
Two heavy heartbeats passed, then two more, before a thick sheet of lavender paper, the size of a postcard, appeared in the center of the silver tray with his name scrawled across the outside in his grandmother’s script, but not nearly as neat as usual.
Good, he had her attention.
He snatched it up and turned it over, eager to see what she’d say. Her message was scribbled even more hastily than his name had been on the other side, and true to her nature, she didn’t waste time getting to the point.
There is no need for cursing, young man. You may be twenty-three, but I’m still your grandmother, and believe it or not, I do have friends in very high places! Good God, and to think I actually believed Celeste was the more stubborn of you two.
Dax’s tension eased a bit. So she thought Celeste was stubborn too. He’d have to agree about that, particularly after he’d attempted to get her to slow down and talk to him, and she’d outright refused to do anything less than what she wanted. Luckily for him, it happened to be pleasing him more than any other woman ever had.
Yes, his grandmother was right. Celeste was stubborn. Wild and sweet and tempting and adorable and sexy…and stubborn. Well, fine. Dax had a feeling it’d take two hardheaded and determined souls to get her back on this side, and obviously, between the two of them, they fit the bill.
He read the rest of his grandmother’s note, written in sharp, slanted penmanship, as though she was in a hurry, or really pissed, or both. Dax wasn’t overly concerned. She was helping him, and that was what he wanted. Plus, she was his grandmother, and she’d love him no matter how much he ticked her off.
Okay, first of all-she hasn’t crossed, not yet anyway. Although if you keep exhausting her, she will, and there won’t be a thing I can do about it. You can’t continue to tempt fate, Dax.
Second, she needs to rest, and I’m making her stay here longer this time. Yes, I’ll let her back through, when I think she can make the trip, but don’t expect to see her for at least a few days. And in the meantime, use the brains God gave you to figure out how to get her back. I am not allowed to tell you, Dax, so you’re going to have to figure this one out on your own. But you are the puzzle solver of the bunch; use your talents to put the pieces together.
Third, and this is important, the only clue I can give you. What you need, and what Nanette needs too for that matter, is in the attic. That’s all I can say.
One more thing, and I thought you knew already, but…the no-touching rule. It only applies to your hands, chère. It ONLY applies to your hands.
Dax gawked at the words on the page, absorbing all of the information before-
The note disappeared, and he struggled to mentally repeat the information she’d provided, so he wouldn’t forget. Celeste hadn’t crossed and she’d return, but he couldn’t let her get exhausted or he’d lose her; they’d have to be more careful next time. He’d have to control the beyond-natural sexual urges they had for each other and force her to slow down, force himself to slow down too. He wanted her, but he was determined that next time he wouldn’t be the only one to have an orgasm.