Subtle Touch Beth Kery

An Ellora’s Cave Romantica Publication

www.ellorascave.com

Subtle Touch

ISBN # 9781419910067
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Subtle Touch Copyright© 2007 Beth Kery
Edited by Lesia Ward & Ann Leveille.
Cover art by Willo.

Electronic book Publication: April 2007

This book may not be reproduced or used in whole or in part by any means existing without written
permission from the publisher, Ellora’s Cave Publishing, Inc.® 1056 Home Avenue, Akron OH 44310-
3502.

This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locales
is purely coincidental. The characters are productions of the authors’ imagination and used fictitiously.

Content Advisory:

S – ENSUOUS

E – ROTIC

–

TREME

Ellora’s Cave Publishing offers three levels of Romantica™ reading entertainment: S (S-ensuous), E (E-
rotic), and X (X-treme).

The following material contains graphic sexual content meant for mature readers. This story has been
rated E–rotic.

S-ensuous love scenes are explicit and leave nothing to the imagination.

E-rotic love scenes are explicit, leave nothing to the imagination, and are high in volume per the overall
word count. E-rated titles might contain material that some readers find objectionable—in other words,
almost anything goes, sexually. E-rated titles are the most graphic titles we carry in terms of both sexual
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X-treme titles differ from E-rated titles only in plot premise and storyline execution. Stories designated
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UBTLE

OUCH

Beth Kery

This is dedicated to M.L.H.

Trademarks Acknowledgement

The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of the

following wordmarks mentioned in this work of fiction:

Taser: TASER International, Inc.

Subtle Touch

Note

So there may well be in existence a creature endowed with a rational spirit and a

corporeity less gross, more subtle than man’s.

For the incubus, by reason of his rational mind and immortal spirit, is equal to man;

and by reason of his body, more noble, because more subtle, so he is more perfect and
more dignified than man. Consequently, when having intercourse with an incubus,
man does not degrade, but rather dignifies, his nature.

They (incubi) practice perfect coition, and sometimes beget.
Incubi, from their nature, may be well be styled Sons of God.
It is clear that (incubi) are neither evil Demons nor Good Angels.
“…the children thus begotten by incubi are tall, very hardy and bloodily bold…It is

generally a fact that men thus begotten (by incubi) excel other men, yet such superiority
is not always shown by their vices, but sometimes by their bravery, and even their
virtues.”

—Lodovico Maria Sinistrari, Demoniality

The Watchers were…known in Hebrew as nun resh…‘those who watch’…
—Andrew Collins, From the Ashes of Angels—The Forbidden Legacy of a Fallen Race

“…The sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair…”
—Genesis 6:2a

Beth Kery

Glossary

Dionytion Ceremony: The Watcher celebration that occurs when a mate in her new

incarnation reaches her Second Change, and thus can be reunited with her Watcher
lover.

Dionytion Stone: An ancient, columnar stone that is a tool for raising the vibratory

rate of subtle energies. Watchers use it to amplify the power of a mate’s Rush in the
Dionytion Ceremony.

Druaga: The ancient line of priestesses who were identified at birth as being able to

wield power in the subtle realms and then trained for that specific purpose. It was only
women such as the Druaga that were able to successfully mate with the mysterious
Watcher Fathers.

First Change: This is the change in a female human’s subtle and physical bodies that

equates with what humans would call puberty.

Grigori Council: The Watcher ruling body consisting of the king and five other

Watchers who have been chosen and tested for their degree of wisdom and strength.

Leman: A human female not powerful enough to be a true mate but still having the

sexual power to feed and empower a Watcher to a greater degree than typical women.

Rush: The burst of rarified, subtle energy provided by a human female’s orgasm. A

Rush is essentially Watcher food, their sustenance for existence in the physical world.

Scisen: The Watcher chosen for the Dionytion Ceremony. He is usually the most

powerful unmated Watcher.

Second Change: The refinement of a woman’s subtle bodies that occurs when she is

in her thirties or forties. The Second Change is too subtle for humans to acknowledge it
physically but it is this change that signals that a female human is sexually viable to a
Watcher and thus able to perpetuate their species.

Sigil: Every Watcher possesses a generally known sigil, or symbol, that connotes

him and him alone, in addition to a private one, which he reveals only to those he trusts
and loves. This symbol is placed above the right breast of Watcher mates.

Subtle Bodies: Generally speaking, any of several energy bodies, all of which are

more rare or subtle than the physical body but which permeate it and act as the
template for the flesh.

Truest Image: This is the Watcher’s most genuine form, the one he takes when he is

on the Astral Plane, but also at various times in the physical world, such as during his
own sexual climax, when he takes the Path of Sorrow or during special ceremonies. To
see a Watcher in his Truest form can be potentially fatal because of the power and
purity of the energy. Only a true mate can witness her lover’s Truest Image.

Subtle Touch

Chapter One

He had experienced almost everything from her but fulfillment, but soon he would

have that from her as well.

Yes. Our wait is almost over. Sophia Galanis will be yours very soon, the voice in his

head, which was not his own, reassured him.

He smiled crookedly. Limitless power surged through him, exponentially more

potent than a cocaine high. Yes, she had tortured him long enough with the mere image
of her smooth, honey-colored skin, her depthless eyes that were both innocent and
breathtakingly sensual at once. He had seen tears overflow those velvety eyes and spill
like liquid diamonds down her delicate cheeks. He had witnessed those same enigmatic
orbs become luminous with warmth and laughter.

Of course, millions of men had seen the same thing. She was such a teasing whore,

to show so much of her soul and her beautiful body to so many, and yet to actually give
away so little.

A woman like her wasn’t meant to be worshipped from afar. Ancient man had the right idea.

He subjected his goddesses to his will, planting himself deep within her, just as the earth was
forced to part beneath his plow and receive his seed. Worship her? Perhaps, but her power doesn’t
belong to her.

It’s ours.
Asmoday assured the human that had willingly allowed himself to be possessed by

him. They shared mutual goals, after all. The man’s grin widened. Once, perhaps weeks
ago, he would have been shocked by his own image in the vanity mirror as he passed it
to recline on his bed, but no longer. It was never his looks that drew women to him,
anyway. The lithe blonde who would share his bed tonight, for instance, hadn’t
bothered to look twice at him initially. But then the host of the party had told her who
he was and her light had switched on for him.

Let me see what we have in store for her.
The voice sounded less friendly now, more sly and demanding. But he was beyond

caring, since he was in agreement with the order. He already throbbed with arousal as
he unzipped his khaki pants and lowered them and his boxers down over his thighs.
His eyes glowed with manic excitement as they inspected what twitched between his
legs. A low laugh resounded in his head.

You’re surprised at your size? That pleases you, does it?
He merely nodded, because it wasn’t as if he were completely and utterly mad and

actually talking back to the voice in his head. A thrill went through him when he
wrapped his hand around the base of his penis and felt how thick and engorged he was.

Beth Kery

Talk about power…and yet, what was happening to it, there at the head? The memory
of seeing a stinkhorn fungus when he was a child flashed across his brain and he
grimaced. Those phallic-shaped anomalies of nature also had a lacy, lattice-like head.
The sight of the cylindrical fungus had disgusted and thrilled him as a child, just as the
image of his large, meaty, mutating cock did now. The stark ridges and valleys that
were forming on the first few inches of the tip both fascinated and repelled him. The
head throbbed and ached even more acutely than did the stalk. He reached up to stroke
the roughening skin.

Ah, ah. Don’t be foolish. You’re so powerful now that even your lovemaking carries a

necessarily potent cutting edge.

But his lust hadn’t been entirely dulled by the warning. For a few seconds, he

groaned in sublime pleasure before his hand snapped back and blood spattered on the
sheets. His mouth twisted with frustration and rage. Damn, it had happened again! It
was the second time today that he’d drawn blood while trying to stroke that exquisitely
sensitive portion of his penis. The stiff ridges that alternated with deep invaginations
felt like sharp glass beneath his fingers. He cursed bitterly and the laughter in his head
increased in volume. But despite the taunting quality of the laughter, his cock jerked in
an unbearable frenzy of lust. He desperately folded the sheet several times and used it
to protect his bleeding hand. His head fell back on the pillows in mindless ecstasy as he
stroked himself.

Yes. It feels so good, doesn’t it? And just think how much better it will feel when it’s

Sophia’s little pussy that’s squeezing you. Yes. Imagine that.

* * * * *

One second Che Ammadon had been sitting in the office of his Space, Inc.

headquarters in San Francisco and, in the next, he was on the Astral Plane. He blinked
to clear the unfamiliar emotion of surprise. As a Watcher, such shifts in his vibrational
level of existence weren’t unusual for him. What was shocking was that he’d made the
shift from material existence to the astral world without conscious intent. The Astral
Plane could be dangerous at any time, but for an unprepared visitor, it could be a
deadly place.

He ignored the stabbing pain in his side, a remnant of the injury that Asmoday had

inflicted when he had tried to kill him just twelve months ago. Without having to think
about it, Che assumed the form of a warrior, balanced and relaxed, ready to flow into
smooth action at a moments notice.

“So nice of you to visit me, Che.”
Che knew that his face gave away nothing. A warrior expected anything. Even the

impossible.

“Asmoday.”
He raised his quarterstaff almost casually before him, but the blade that graced one

end of the deadly weapon glittered ominously. Never mind that Asmoday didn’t

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appear to be armed. He hadn’t been armed on that day a year ago when he attacked
Che with a blast of coarse energy fire that would have utterly destroyed his ability to
physically manifest himself.

“How did you bring me here?” Che asked woodenly.
Asmoday shrugged nonchalantly. “You know how things work on the Astral Plane,

Che. One has to be in total control of one’s thoughts or emotions in order to navigate it.
If there’s no control, then alas! Whatever one thinks or feels becomes a reality.”

“By the Fathers, you’re an accomplished liar, Day. You know as well as I do that

I’ve had control at this vibrational rate for millennia.” His stance became subtly more
aggressive. “How is it that you’re even alive?”

“You cocky Ammadons didn’t think that you were rid of me for good, did you?”

Day asked with a lurid grin.

Che forced himself not to wince. Something that looked like a thick, white worm

oozed beneath an open sore on Asmoday’s gums. He shook his head to clear his
revulsion at the sight of his one-time peer’s obvious spiritual decay. This could not be.
All of the Watchers had been sure that Asmoday had been obliterated beyond
recognition on all known realities. Of course, few Watchers ever physically died. And
no Watcher had ever taken another Watcher’s life in their known history. Until Duse
Ammadon killed Asmoday in Che’s defense.

Or, at least, they’d believed Asmoday had been killed.
“I’ll ask the question once more, Day. How did you bring me here?”
“You know the laws on the Astral Existence, Che. Like calls like.”
Che’s aquamarine eyes flamed with molten, liquid fire. Asmoday cringed in fear at

the sight before he recovered, laughing madly.

“What’s wrong? Does the truth hurt so much? You’ve been tainted with First

Changer’s energy. I, myself, have begun to crave their sexual response. What is it that
the humans say? You are what you eat?” Day laughed again, the sound scraping across
Che’s spirit like a gauntlet grinding against armor. “Let me guess, Che, you’ve been
tempted to sample the charms of a First Change human woman, too?”

Che gave a low, furious growl at the flagrant insult. It was the equivalent of a

human male taunting another by saying that he sexually craved a child. He tensed in
preparation to complete what his cousin, Duse, had started one year ago. Rage
motivated him, but so did common sense. Day no longer even vaguely resembled a
Watcher. His spirit was rotted through, depraved and corrupt.

“Don’t!”
The slight fracture in Che’s concentrated attention at the sound of a woman’s voice

acted like a splinter in a laser beam. Asmoday wriggled through the manacle-like hold
of Che’s focus and disappeared.

Che instinctively knew that to pursue would be fruitless.

Beth Kery

He immediately had his quarterstaff pressed tightly to the front of the woman’s

slender throat while his hand pinioned her securely from the back. It was a symbolic
hold. What really held the woman utterly his prisoner was Che’s powerful attention
and inhuman consciousness.

“You’re in league with Asmoday.”
The grim proclamation sounded like a death sentence to Sophia Galanis, even

though she had never heard the name Asmoday in her life, nor seen the bedraggled,
elegant, sly-seeming man whom it seemed that the man who held her prisoner referred
to and who had just winked out of existence. She sensed the immense, alien power of
the being who held her captive. Fear expanded in her breast, almost causing her to lose
her own focus in this reality.

Then she forced herself to look up—way up—into the face of the creature that held

her. He shone so brightly that she shuddered in awe.

It was like looking into the face of an archangel. She sensed intelligence so vast and

precise and cold that it almost drove her mad to be forced to consider it. Her voice
grated in her throat.

“I don’t know that name or that man to whom you were just speaking. I only

warned you because you were about to strike out in anger. And the universe would
recompense you in like terms.”

Che watched her calmly while she struggled for air. “You’re human. There are very

few human women who could hold their focus for this long on the Astral Plane.
Usually humans have no power of focus here, and thus no power of purpose.”

His voice resonated with a sovereign potency. Sophia bristled against his tight hold.

But he would not waver. Instead of letting her garner distance from him, he pulled her
closer. His eyes were like fiery nails, pinning her irrevocably into this place, into this
time, into this experience. His body emanated heat and power.

“I’ve practiced,” she finally managed. She longed to beg for her breath, for her very

life, but pride stilled her voice.

“You also espouse the laws of the universe like a Druagish priestess. Didn’t you

consider that it may have been Asmoday who struck at me first, and that I was to be the
arm of Lamad, and not the other way around?”

Sophia paused at that. Somehow, she intuitively knew that by Lamad, he meant

what she understood as karma, or Judgment. Her chin rose in a feeble display of
defiance.

“You may be more powerful than I can comprehend. But you’re not so powerful

that you consciously choose for Judgment. Surely you must know the consequences of
such pride,” she spat out defiantly. Her eyes fixed warily on his impassive face. Would
he strike her down for it? Smote her like a temperamental Old Testament deity?

“How can you be so sure that it wasn’t Asmoday’s fate to be extinguished once and

for all a moment ago?”

Subtle Touch

“Because he wasn’t.”
Che’s eyes flared eerily at her response. Who was this human that she defied him—

even here, on the Astral Plane, while he inhabited his Truest Form? It was unheard of in
Watcher experience. She must be extremely powerful…

Sophia’s hand rose to her throat in an automatic defensive gesture when he

abruptly lowered his weapon. She felt the opening in the steel-like grip of his attention.
She could have fled at that moment. He was allowing her to do so.

Yet she hesitated.
He regarded her silently with an alarmingly cold, impassive visage. Sophia thought

she must be crazy for sensing a powerful curiosity emanating from him as well. The
golden light surrounding him seemed alive, radiating and pulsing around him, as
though it were just as much a part of his body as an arm or a leg. Through the light that
seemed both gentle and fiery at once, Sophia made out that he was dressed like an
ancient warrior. He wore a short tunic, a red cape that shimmered and flowed and was
beautiful to behold, and sandals with leather thongs that fastened around muscular
calves. His skin was golden brown and flawless to her enraptured eyes. His shoulder
breadth and height suggested more than just a strength of Will and intelligence. He
epitomized raw command as well as subtle power.

But it was his eyes that continued to hold her prisoner even when he had loosed his

hold on her.

They were like fire and water fused, fluid flame, liquid passion.
“Who are you?” Sophia asked.
Just then, she felt something brush against her bare arm. The shiver that raced up

her spine was purely instinctual. Rationally she experienced only confusion at what she
saw. A mottled, inchoate blob of green, purple and brown filmy vapor slid over her
upper arm and shoulder. Or was it flesh? Moist, clinging, sucking flesh? She cried out in
a dawning horror that went beyond the sensation of the touch of the inchoate substance
on her skin. A twisted feeling rose in her breast, a heavy, constricted sensation of
sickness and anger and the need for revenge on all that she had always cherished and
loved about life.

And all the while, the substance encroached further and further upon her body, like

a cancer come to life.

Yet something in Sophia stood strong. Something in her identified the feeling as

other, not her. She resisted a powerful urge to flay her arms and run in blind panic.

Che stood very still while he meticulously examined the entity with his

consciousness. It must be some kind of decomposed sylph, those lethal, infinitely subtle
elementals that occasionally terrorized Watchers on the Astral Plane and even rarely on
the physical plane. But no, his first instinct had been correct. No matter how unlikely
that possibility was.

“That’s right. Don’t move, Sophia. Have courage. It’s searching out your spirit,

looking for a commonality, something it can bond with so that it can take root. Stay

Beth Kery

very still,” Che said quietly as his focus narrowed to a piercing, deadly arrow of
precision directed at the force that allowed the malignant thought form to do the
impossible.

Sophia was acutely aware of the tall, shining being standing next to her. He

radiated a sense of power and impenetrable calm. She unconsciously reached out to
him, borrowing a modicum of his infinite strength to stave off the loathsome entity that
currently oozed across her chest.

It felt like the suffocating physical manifestation of dread.
The man made an abrupt movement with his hand. The brownish blob seemed to

explode, but in slow motion, as if the particles of which it consisted suddenly expanded
to the point of dissipation. Just before it became entirely invisible, Sophia heard a
popping noise and felt a burst of energy on her skin.

Sophia breathed in raggedly as the constriction on her chest faded. “What the hell

was that thing?”

Che heard her desperate question, but he didn’t answer. Instead, he gently nudged

her sleeping brain back to the material world. He was filled with a mixture of awe and
anxiety. His concern stemmed from the fact that the dangerous thought form had
showed an unheard of power of focus, as if it had been directed specifically to seek out
the human woman who stood before him. He feared he knew the unusual strength
behind its focus…Asmoday. He was bent on wreaking whatever havoc he could, now
through the dangerous medium of the Astral Plane.

But in the last minute, Che had realized something else, something very elemental.

The woman was beautiful and desirable beyond belief. The entire time that he had
contact with her, she had maintained the same form. Even when she’d become almost
wild with fear as the foul thought form tried to insinuate its way into her spirit, her
being had remained cohesive. She had been entirely present and aware. Humans
blinked in and out of the Astral Plane while they slept frequently. Humans were energy
beings, after all, even though they usually denied all but the material body. When they
accidentally encountered a being such as Che, they usually turned away, blind to him,
or projected all manner of fantasies upon him. Humans were typically incapable of
controlling their emotions and thoughts on the Astral Plane, where a desire or a fear
would immediately manifest itself. It was impossible for them to actually see his Truest
Form.

But this woman had. Che found that fact to be remarkably exciting.
He had also become poignantly aware that she stimulated him in the same way that

an attractive human female would a male. He was part human, after all. Watchers
covered the gamut in their taste as far as how much physical aesthetic beauty actually
mattered to them. It was a woman’s subtle bodies that attracted him; how rarified her
essences were and the level of conscious awareness that she was able to transform into
physical reality. His cousin Duse often teased Che that his taste and lovemaking habits
were suspiciously humanlike. He was voracious in his sexual appetites. Little did Duse

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know that his disproportionate amount of power and his ability to maintain a corporeal
body for far longer than most unmated Watchers related to Che’s deeply innate love
and proclivity for the voluptuous vibrancy of physical flesh.

That, and a powerful secret that he’d never been able to reveal to anyone, even to

Duse.

Although he’d never been blessed with a mate, his mother, a Druagish priestess,

had created a spell of powerful magic, gifting him with the rare and exquisite presence
of Rochen dui—two powerful lemans, Andrea and Avala, who were consistently reborn
every other generation. Their unselfish love for him and generous responsiveness had
made him more powerful in the physical world than most unmated Watchers could
ever dream of becoming. They were incarnate currently and well into their Second
Change. Che had always been faithful to them under those circumstances.

For what reason had he ever possessed to be anything else?
But the woman who currently stood before him wiped all thought of Andrea and

Avala from his mind. He found himself thirsting for her in a way that he couldn’t recall
ever doing in his many millennia of conscious existence. Her skin was like pale honey,
smooth and golden. Her dark blonde hair was gathered onto her head. Che found the
loose curls that spilled around her neck and ears haphazardly to be intoxicating. She
wore a formal gown that reminded him of dresses that women used to wear in ancient
Greece, although this one was fit to highlight the woman’s slender, but delightfully
curving figure. Her breasts were an exciting fullness above her narrow waist. Che
guessed that if he spread his hands while they encircled her at the middle that his
fingers would easily span her narrow waist. If he pressed upwards, his large hands
would plump her shapely breasts for his hungry mouth.

He saw the expression shift slightly in her dark, velvety soft eyes, and he wondered

how much of his thoughts he was giving away.

This was the Astral Plane, after all.
She began to fade. No matter. He would follow her to her bed. Something more

powerful than his previous unspoken tendency for exclusivity with Andrea and Avala
pulled at him. He could no more have resisted it than he could have denied his own
existence. He smiled with genuine anticipation. Seducing a woman was always a
delight. But for the first time in his long existence, Che felt a curiosity about this woman
beyond mere survival or sexual gratification. He realized that he would have followed
her even if he didn’t so greatly desire the power and pleasure that her sexual response
would grant him. For a Watcher craved the acknowledgment of a human’s conscious
awareness, and what greater acknowledgment of precise focus could there be besides
that which occurred in lovemaking—and more specifically, the intense moment of
pleasure and heightened awareness that occurred during the pinnacle of climax?

Yes, admittedly Che craved that from this woman. Sophia. It was that, but it was

something else that pulled at him like iron to a lodestone, something unnamed,
something utterly compelling.

Beth Kery

* * * * *

Sophia opened her eyes and groaned deep in her throat with sexual arousal. The

scrubbed pine walls of the bedroom in the guesthouse at the Sierra Lodge seemed to
glow with golden, cozy sunlight. She felt both unbearably excited and secure and
content at once, as though she was being exquisitely made love to within an
encapsulating globe of protective warmth.

In the way of dreams, she didn’t question the fact that she didn’t know the man

whose face was currently buried between her thighs. Or at least she didn’t think she
did. She vaguely took in the fact that whoever it was had longish light brown hair that
was interspersed with incandescent strands of gold, and beautiful, sun-kissed skin that
tightly gloved the rounded muscles of his shoulders and the smooth expanse of his
back. Most of her awareness swam in a delightful sexual haze. Whoever this guy was,
he knew how to use his mouth. He was drawing an orgasm out of her with the ease of a
long-time lover, as if he was inside her head and knew exactly what she wanted and
needed. Somehow, Sophia realized that the wave of incipient climax that reared over
her wasn’t the first. This man had been pleasuring her for hours and hours…

But how could that be?
Her brief confusion was forgotten when the man flicked his tongue over her clit

rapidly then applied suction with a degree of precision that sent her tumbling over the
edge, quaking and screaming. She gripped at his thick, soft hair desperately as she
succumbed. After the shocks of pleasure had jolted almost violently through her for
impossibly prolonged moments, making her jerk and shudder, she opened her eyes
with dazed wariness and curiosity. Who was this man that he could make her come so
powerfully, without a shred of inhibition, and with more honesty than she’d ever
admitted, even to herself?

She inhaled sharply when she saw that his eyes were open and that he was

watching her. Those enigmatic orbs were the color of Lake Tahoe itself—so many hues
of blues and greens swirling together in the golden sunlight. Surely those incredible
eyes were familiar to her. Weren’t they? His gaze pinned her, holding her captive.

And all the while that he watched her steadily, his mouth and tongue teased her up

yet another slope of orgasm.

“No, not again,” she whispered. But her heart wasn’t in her request. There wasn’t a

straight woman alive who would really want this man to stop what he was doing. She
had never known that her senses could be such fine-tuned instruments for experiencing
pleasure. Her body sang notes of pure desire, and this man was the musician who
coaxed them out of her with such skill. Despite her meager protest, her hips shifted up
against the divine pressure of his wet, raspy tongue.

Yes. Again. And after that…again.
Sophia sighed and relented when she heard the quiet, yet forceful voice. How could

he have spoken so clearly when his mouth was so busy? Sophia moaned shakily as her
fingers threaded once again through his untamed hair. She couldn’t tear her eyes from

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him. The vision of him pleasuring her was incredibly erotic. He pressed against her
sinuously, damp bare flesh to damp bare flesh. Sophia blinked in amazement, but the
vision didn’t waver. Her flesh truly was bare and smooth. She had no memory of
shaving, but nothing, not even the meager covering of pubic hair stood as an obstacle
between them. Her clitoris, shockingly swollen and exposed, throbbed with renewed
arousal at the realization and his continued stimulation.

“Who are you?” she whispered. She felt desperate at least to know that before

pleasure flooded her entire awareness once again. She groaned when he raised his
head, but she couldn’t have said if it was in protest for his abruptly absent mouth on
her wanting cunt or if it was in desire for the achingly appealing, vaguely familiar sight
of his face. He was so wild and beautiful that it hurt a little to look at him. And his
lower face was slick with her cum. Sophia unconsciously tried to clamp her legs
together to give herself relief for the powerful pinch of lust that bit between her thighs.
She gave a stifled cry when he stopped her movement with his hands, keeping her fully
spread and open to him.

“Alloces Ammadon. It’s a name I reveal only to a few. Will you keep it safe?”
The question made Sophia pause in dawning wonder. Some combination of the raw

power and authority of his deep voice and the vulnerability inherent to his question left
her stunned.

“Of course,” she managed weakly when she realized he was waiting tensely for her

answer.

“Che. Just call me Che.”
Without another pause, he went back to eating her. His eyes stayed on her face,

though, steady and lambent with an emotion that Sophia couldn’t name. He removed
one hand from her thigh and slowly, deliberately inserted a thick finger into her
drenched slit. Sophia began to squirm and keen with pleasure when he thrust in and
out of her as he continued to stimulate her hyper-sensitized clit. His finger abruptly left
her and he stilled her thigh when she began to close it over the growing pleasurable
ache at her center. This time, Sophia cried out in bitter protest at her interrupted
gratification.

“Keep your thighs spread wide and stay as still as possible,” he admonished her

with a desire-roughened voice. The slight quirk of his beautiful lips suggested
amusement. “Make yourself completely open to me, Sophia.”

She nodded quickly. She would have jumped naked into Lake Tahoe in the dead of

winter if he’d asked her to when he gave her that small, poignant, immensely sexy
smile. She couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed when he didn’t immediately begin
to finger fuck her again. But his tongue resumed the stimulation on her blood-swollen
cunt, lashing at the tumescent, erect flesh with restrained movements that varied in
pace and pressure. Sophia groaned with desire. But it wasn’t enough. And he knew it.

“More,” she begged softly as her hips left the mussed bed and danced toward his

pleasuring, but increasingly elusive mouth.

Beth Kery

“More what?”
“More everything!” she said with rising desperation. “More of you. I want you

inside me.”

She saw his handsome face tense and his eyes flame at her words. He wanted her.

No matter how controlled his lovemaking seemed.

“And you’ll have me, Sophia, many, many times,” he promised with rough

emphasis. One large hand caressed her hip as it moved up her body. It spread wide
over her belly, tenderly feathered her waist and settled deliberately on her breast. He
filled his palm with her flesh. Sophia’s breath came raggedly as she watched him pluck
at a tight, rosy nipple between his forefinger and thumb.

“Your skin and hair reminds me of honey…sweet, golden honey. Your taste is like

honey, too. Come one more time in my mouth, Sophia. I need your taste running thick
and sweet down my throat…just once more.”

Sophia almost came just at the impact of the lust in his hoarse voice and the leaping

fire in his magnificent eyes. When he lowered his mouth to her again and rolled her
nipple between his fingertips, she lost all sense of control. She pressed against him,
struggling, needing the powerful climax that hovered teasingly over her consciousness
seemingly more than she needed her next breath. She sweated. She saw nothing but the
red haze of desire, she begged him for relief.

She gasped at the acute pain of depravation when he abruptly rolled her back and

held her steady with a forearm at the back of her knees. She yelped in disbelief when he
cracked her flesh against his palm, first one buttock, then another.

He waited until her eyes were opened wide and he fully had her attention.
“Stay still, honey,” he warned gently. “Don’t strain for your release. Let me bring it

to you.”

Sophia had to close her eyes in the face of the immense lust that she felt at that

moment. Had he actually just spanked her? The heated glow on her butt cheeks told her
that it hadn’t just been her overactive imagination. It hadn’t hurt, but it had certainly
fed the inferno of her desire. The tingling sensation seemed to inch along her flesh until
it melded with the burning ache in her pussy.

She’d never allowed a man to be so overtly dominant in bed. Although part of her

had admittedly craved it. Because of her celebrity status as an actress and what she
represented to some men, there were always those who would try to use her in order to
gain power or prominence. If she gave them an inch, they’d take a mile. She knew that
from bitter experience. Sophia couldn’t afford to lose control in bed. She couldn’t afford
to lose herself, period.

But her thoughts were melted by lust as he released her legs and his mouth was

back on her and first one finger, then another, plunged into her throbbing pussy with a
steady, relentless pressure. God, it was good. And yes, she was going to come again.
She didn’t know how it was possible, but this time was going to be even more powerful
than all of the prior climaxes he had given her.

Subtle Touch

“Yes…yes! Oh God, Che!”
Sophia sent up a quick, desperate prayer that she would survive the tumultuous

rush of pleasure before she plunged over the crest of the orgasmic wave, giving herself
wholly to the indescribable sensation.

When she next came to awareness, she saw that he was on his hands and knees,

leaning over her. Their positioning should have made her feel vulnerable. He was an
extremely large man. In relation to him, she felt small, delicate…very feminine. But she
didn’t feel powerless. Utterly weak and spent from her recent mind-shattering orgasm,
yes. But not powerless. The power she held over him shown clearly from his singular
eyes as he studied her. She didn’t understand how it was possible. But the truth was
right in front of her, clear for her to see.

She—Sophia Alexandra Galanis—was the most precious thing in existence to this

man…this stranger.

She inhaled sharply. God, what a magnificent dream this was!
And what a magnificent creature he was. Her body quickened back to life despite

her recent shattering climax. The mold of his long, lean frame seemed to have been
designed and apportioned by a divine artist. She longed to touch the expanse of
smooth, bronzed skin that ran tautly over the rounded, dense flesh of his shoulder
muscles. Her tongue flicked rapidly over her lower lip, hungry to taste and caress all of
him, even that scar that ran from his right lower rib and over his hard, ridged abdomen.

Her gaze lowered. She was vaguely aware that his eyes followed her own as she

inspected him breathlessly.

His cock was like the rest of him—mouthwateringly beautiful, extremely hard and

uncommonly large. Sophia inhaled in rising lust. She’d never seen anything so erotic,
inches and inches of straight, proud, male tumescence capped by a thick head that
sloped gradually to a point, like a rounded, fleshy arrow tip. In truth, his size and sheer
power looked a little ominous in such close proximity to her paler skin and slender
body. A sound of protest rose in her throat.

Twin lasers of aquamarine light suddenly leapt to her face. For a second, their stares

melded as they watched each other soberly. Sophia cringed. He’d somehow divined her
thoughts. Damn. She hadn’t meant to insult him. In truth, the sight of his smooth,
turgid cock was singularly beautiful to her. She wanted to feel him inside her. A lot. She
just didn’t think such a thing was possible…

Suddenly, he gave her that slow, sexy smile and the heaviness of the moment

melted in an instant. Sophia stared, round-eyed. That smile ought to be outlawed for its
mind-altering effects, forget what it was doing to her pussy. His greenish-blue eyes
sparkled with a mischievous light. His deep, low laughter flowed over her like lapping,
warm water.

“Oh, it’s possible all right, honey.”
Sophia’s eyebrows rose in amazement at his apparent ability to read her mind. Her

lips quirked, sharing in his amusement. Her gaze slid down over him again.

Beth Kery

“You’re so beautiful. I want you inside me so much,” she whispered. Palpable

desire rose in her again, a pressure that wouldn’t be denied. She touched his solid chest
with gentle fingertips, enraptured by the sensation of smooth, taut skin gloving such
dense muscle, aroused by his quick intake of breath, even at her small, tentative caress.
“Even if it’s not a possibility, I want to try.”

He abruptly swept down and captured her mouth with his own. It was a quick,

lancing kiss, but it left Sophia speechless with wanting. His taste…God, she needed
more of him. No, she required it. Once again, he seemed intimate with her thoughts,
because he leaned down again and speared the damp hollow of her mouth repeatedly
before shaping her lips languorously to his own. Sophia craned upwards toward his
pleasuring mouth, ravenous for him. He slid their flesh together and nibbled at her
until Sophia moaned with increasing desperation as he spoke to her through his
nipping, teasing kisses.

“It’s more…than a…possibility. Neither nature…nor fate would be so…careless as

to make you…anything…but…a tight…perfect fit for me, Sophia.”

Subtle Touch

Chapter Two

Sophia groaned into his mouth, aroused beyond measure by his taste and his

words. She moved her hands down his ridged stomach, felt his hard, warm flesh leap
with excitement beneath her fingers, like a marble sculpture that had turned to flesh
solely for her pleasure. Her sex flooded with fresh surge of wetness. She wondered if it
was her imagination or if she could actually feel the heat emanating off the straining
pillar of his sex as she reached for his considerable length. He groaned, as if in
anticipation.

Before her eager hand could encircle his girth, however, he said something sharply

in a language she couldn’t identify. Surely it had been a curse. Sophia’s eyes leapt up to
his.

“I have to release you now, honey. I have to go.”
“No! Why?” she cried out in confusion and the beginnings of thwarted longing.
The last thing she recalled from the dream was the expression in his singular eyes.

The longing was surely a reflection of what shown in her gaze, but there was something
else there, too, like a calm, determined promise. She had a vague, unformed thought
that a promise from this man, even an unspoken one, was no small thing.

Sophia slept deeply after that, peacefully, in a way that she hadn’t slept since she

was a small, trusting child.

* * * * *

Che sat next to her on the bed for almost an hour until dawn outlined her finely

drawn features with pale golden light. She looked like a miracle to him. She was a
miracle to him. The desire to reach out and touch her—flesh to flesh—overwhelmed
him with its intensity. But a quick inspection of the intricate, delicate workings of her
nervous system told him that she would awaken soon. And if she did, she would see
him just as she would any other flesh and blood man.

Sophia had given him that.
She had just gifted Che with nothing less than the miracle of a permanent, fully

corporeal body. His strength in the physical world had literally just magnified
hundreds of thousands times what it had been, perhaps more.

The energy she had released during her sexual response had been enormous,

bowling him over physically and shocking him to the core of his spirit at its seemingly
infinite depth and potency. He had made the mistake of thinking he knew how strong a
human woman who had the potential to be a Watcher mate’s response could be.

He had never been so flagrantly wrong in his long, long life.

Beth Kery

He had participated in innumerable Dionytion Ceremonies, the traditional Watcher

celebration of a Watcher mate’s Second Change. But although the Dionytion Stone
amplified and transformed the energy released during a Watcher mate’s orgasm, the
amount of energy that had infused him during the Ceremonies was always divided
among all of the Watchers present. And as all Watchers knew, the power of a woman’s
Rush was always exponentially greater for the one who had specifically conferred her
pleasure as opposed to merely being a bystander to the event.

Yes, he thought with awe as he gently brushed aside a lock of honey gold hair. She

was a miracle. A human woman who was powerful enough to be a Watcher mate. His
mate. Their spirits, though not completely bonded as of yet, were a perfect match, each
to the other’s. He had psychokinetically made love to her repeatedly while she slept.
Their mating was well on its way to completion. But he had held her in the dream for
too long, and her body had warned him that it required release from her prolonged
state of REM sleep. He would never take the risk of harming her, so he had released her
before their mating—the fitting together like a template of their subtle bodies—could be
completed.

Che knew he had no other choice in the matter. Still, a sense of foreboding

overcame him. Even though the mating process could technically be completed
psychokinetically, Bale’s protective spell required fully corporeal intercourse. It left him
wary. The fact that they were meant to be mated would be obvious to most Watchers.
Sophia was his. Che knew this in the most basic sense, like he knew that he was most
magically powerful in the elements of fire and water or that his true name was Alloces.
Sophia had called out to something essential in his spirit. But as the Watchers had
recently discovered, the rare human woman who was powerful enough to be a Watcher
mate could potentially, although rarely, form a bond with more than one Watcher.

It had been one of the most shocking discoveries in Watcher history; one that had

the potential to revolutionize their race’s consciousness and governance. They’d learned
about it from Duse’s mate and wife, Skylar. Duse’s younger brother, Jax, had also been
made to match Skylar’s spirit, although he could never do so because of her previous
bond to Duse.

Che’s jaws tensed with anxiety. Worst of all, Asmoday was still alive and bent on

making trouble for the Watchers, most especially his long-time enemies, the
Ammadons. And Che hadn’t forgotten how that foul thought form had aimed itself at
Sophia, directed there by a force of Will stronger than a mere human could ever muster.

What kind of an idiot was he, sitting here and gawking at Sophia when there were

so many potential threats against her? He needed to inform King Ammadon, the leader
of the Watchers that he had discovered his life mate.

At last.
Che’s race, known as the Watchers, had been conscious of their mates’ existence for

thousands of years. Humans throughout the ages had called them incubi, demons,
shining ones, fallen angels, the Gentry, fauns, jinni and lutins, among other things. Since
a Watcher could take any form that he pleased, at least for a short period of time, they

Subtle Touch

were bound to be the source of myth and speculation over the ages. The title of incubi—
the spirits that sexually tempt and seduce women in their sleep—at least captured the
Watchers long and complicated evolutional and genetic history with human women.
Every Watcher had a human mother and every Watcher craved human women,
especially the extremely rare type that could possibly conceive his child. Human
women provided them with the sustenance they required to exist and operate in the
physical world.

The subtle energy that was released during the intense, focused explosion of sexual

orgasm was the primary source of their sustenance. For a Watcher, it was the ultimate
form of acknowledgment of their existence on the physical plane. Women everywhere,
in every time in history, owed the Watchers gratitude for some of their most
pleasurable wet dreams, realistic night visitations and in the case of the more powerful
Watchers, corporeal lovemaking. But it was only with those very rare and exceptional
women, women who possessed extremely powerful and rarified essences, that the
Watcher could achieve full corporeality and the rare ability to perpetuate their dying
race.

The train of Che’s thoughts made him shake his head in amazement. Sophia was

one of those rare, nearly nonexistent women. It was a surreal experience, sacred in its
intensity. He was soon to be mated. And his woman lay just inches away from him. It
was the most profound and elusive dream of a Watcher. Not even the human woman’s
death could break the powerful mating bond. The Watcher was destined to wait, half in
mourning, half in hope, for his mate to be reborn. Even when she was incarnated again,
he must endure his solitude even longer. Not until his mate had reached her Second
Change, the period in a woman’s early thirties to early forties when her subtle bodies
and physical chemistry shifted and altered, was it possible for her Watcher mate to
divine her location.

In Watcher terms, the Second Change signaled that a woman was sexually mature.

Human men were only capable of recognizing a woman’s First Change, the period
when she became able to reproduce their species, but the Second Change was a much
more subtle shift in a woman’s spirit, and yes, in her physical body as well.

It always amazed Che that human men couldn’t sense it, but it flabbergasted him

that they didn’t find it as exciting as a Watcher did.

Despite Che’s almost overwhelming desire to be with Sophia, he forced himself to

stand. It was imperative that he warn Bale and the rest of the Grigori Council—the
Watcher governing body, of which Che himself was a member—that Asmoday still
existed, at the very least, within the realms of the astral world.

He also needed the assistance of Watchers that he truly trusted, like Bale, Duse and

Eli to help him guard Sophia. Che didn’t want to take any chances after what had
happened on the Astral Plane. Duse probably shouldn’t be incommoded currently,
however, considering the fact that he and Skylar had just had their son, Pheynix. Che
might have to rely on one or two of his trusted knights, Watchers who had pledged to
his service for a period of time due to Che’s ranking status. He scowled, realizing that

Beth Kery

his cousin Jax Ammadon would have at one time been at the top of his list of trusted
confidantes.

But Jax had betrayed his own brother when he went into league with Asmoday so

that he could take Skylar for his own. Che’s anger still bubbled threateningly near the
surface when he thought about Jax’s betrayal of not only Duse, but everything that the
Watchers represented.

No, Jax Ammadon was the last person that he wanted near Sophia.
Even a century ago, the small race of Watchers would have found the concept of

one of their own kind conspiring to harm a Watcher mate incomprehensible, even
ridiculous. By tradition, Watcher mates were cherished and revered greatly among
them. But the consciousness of the Watchers was changing.

Evil had entered the garden of their once peaceful existence. And the snake’s name

was Asmoday.

Che used his subtle touch to gently stimulate the portion of Sophia’s brain that

would wake her. He needed to leave her and she would be safer fully alert and in the
material world. At the last second, he magnified an especially stimulating memory of
their lovemaking and hit the equivalent of a neural replay button. He grinned wryly.
He needed all the help with her that he could get. Not that anything, even Sophia’s
opinion on the matter, was going to stop him from completing the mating process. Even
Bale Ammadon, who was the leader of the Watchers and who was meticulous on such
matters, could only name three times in the past seven thousand years when a Watcher
had been punished by the Grigori council for being too aggressive in his seduction of a
human female.

When a Watcher was bent on lovemaking, a human woman usually didn’t have the

capability, let alone a vague interest, in saying no.

If things went the way Che planned, the final stages of the mating process would be

completed in the material world. He wanted Sophia awake and conscious when she
finally accepted his fully corporeal body into her own.

He’d finally found her. No one and nothing was going to stop him from making her

utterly and completely his.

* * * * *

The sound of the phone ringing broke into the critical moment of Sophia’s wet

dream. She glanced around the bedroom of the Lake Tahoe vacation home in
disorientation. An orgasm so acutely pleasurable that it verged on pain broke over her
while she came to full consciousness.

“Che,” she cried out as she trembled.
Thirty seconds later, she didn’t recall having said the name while she gasped in

climax. The only memory that remained as she stared up dazedly at the ceiling was a
pair of incredible greenish-blue eyes and a nameless, nagging feeling of longing. Her

Subtle Touch

fingers ran experimentally across her damp pubic hair. She had a strange, impulsive
urge to shave herself clean, to feel sensual and smooth as she exposed herself fully, even
if her exposure was only it was only to the cool, tickling breeze and brilliant Tahoe
sunlight while she sunbathed nude.

Whoever was trying to reach her, however, seemed to have no consideration for her

fey, pensive, hyper-erotic mood, or for the fact that she was on vacation, fully deserving
of all the wet dreams and strange moods that came her way.

She finally sighed and sat up when the phone started to ring again for the third

time. She shoved aside several of the heavy books she’d been reading to help her in her
diplomatic efforts in Africa as she searched for the buried phone. Her whereabouts
were typically kept under the usual secretive wraps but recently, a particularly rabid
anonymous fan had mysteriously gotten hold of her cell phone number and started
leaving some obscene threats via voice message. Only her mother, brother and her
agent had the number at the vacation home at Tahoe.

Unfortunately, it was the latter who greeted her when she picked up the phone.
“Sophia? Is that you? I was worried when you didn’t answer.”
“Can’t a girl even sleep in on her vacation?” Or enjoy an extremely rare orgasm in

private? Sophia added to herself with a wry grin.

Tony Mendelero had been her agent for the past six years. For the first four, he’d

enthusiastically shared her limelight while she was at the apex of her acting career. But
for the last few years, he’d become more and more frustrated as she increasingly turned
down prime roles and devoted herself to several charitable organizations and
diplomatic peace efforts in Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

“Very funny, Sophia. You know as well as I do that you consider six a.m. as

midday. The weather has been wonderful here in Sacramento. How is it at Tahoe?”

Sophia paused before she answered in order to tamp down her disappointment.

Tony had told her weeks ago that he might visit friends in Sacramento over the
weekend. Sophia had invited him to spend a night with her at Tahoe at the time,
thinking the relaxing, incandescent early Tahoe summer days might be as good a
setting as any for breaking the news to him that she no longer required his services as
an agent. But now that the opportunity was here, she regretted her invitation. She had
an overwhelming urge to laze away the next week in mindless solitude on her private
Tahoe beach, absorbing the golden, voluptuous sunshine, staring into the alpine lake’s
aquamarine waters…the color of which reminded her so much of his eyes.

Sophia paused. Whose eyes, exactly, had she just been referring to in her rambling

thoughts?

“The days are crystalline and the nights crisp. Tahoe sparkles in early June, and

there are blessedly few tourists,” she finally answered with a sigh.

“Good. I’m looking forward to it. I’ve been worried about you staying in the

enormous mansion all by yourself. Especially with that creep that’s been stalking you.”

Beth Kery

“Tony, no one knows that I’m in Tahoe but my family and you, and my mother

reserved the property for me. The good news is that I’m not even up in the mansion. I
convinced the agent to give me the guesthouse. It’s directly next to the lake and
absolutely darling. Much smaller and cheaper than renting the Sierra Lodge. Perfect for
me.”

Sophia glanced around the scrubbed pine walls and the overstuffed, ivory

upholstered chairs. She felt strangely safe here…encapsulated, like she was in a globe of
warmth and security. She realized with a flash of insight that the emotion stemmed
from a memory, an elusive one, perhaps something from a dream? Tony interrupted the
ephemeral thought.

“Sophia, it hurts me to hear you worrying about finances. Listen, I’ve got great

news. Guess who I found out is vacationing just a few miles away from you? Andy
Moore. When he found out you were in the area, he extended an invitation for dinner.
Isn’t that great? He just got named as the director for that new Henry James adaptation.
A role in that movie could very well gain you your third Oscar, Sophia.”

Sophia sighed. Thirty seconds of conversation and it had started already. She knew

that Tony wanted what he believed was best for her, but Sophia was able to set the
goals and priorities for her own life, thank you very much.

“Tony, I’ve made it clear that I’m only doing one movie every two years until I can

get the peace initiative off the ground. I don’t have time for it with all the traveling I’ve
been doing in Africa. I’m almost dead with exhaustion as it is.”

“But this is Andy Moore, Sophia! Every actress in Hollywood, including Julia

Roberts and Gwyneth Paltrow, would give their right tit for this part! But Moore wants
you. He called me a few days ago, and specifically requested a meeting. Joel Harvey,
that writer friend of mine, says that Moore would give anything to work with you!”

Sophia responded with silence. She’d learned long ago that it was often the most

effective and puissant response at a difficult moment.

“All right, look. We have plenty of time to talk about it when I get there. Do you

think you can work me in between four and five this afternoon?”

Sophia’s sudden laugh was warm and genuine. After knowing her for so many

years, did Tony really believe that she was the type of person to pencil people into her
vacation schedule? She shook her head. God, Hollywood was such a world of illusions.
She was one of the most recognized faces on the planet, but no one ever saw her. Few
people, save her mother, brother and a few special friends, really knew her. They
projected all manner of desires and hopes and anxieties upon her image, but the real
Sophia was left alone.

That fact had always felt like a blessing to Sophia. She couldn’t say why on this

promising, sun-kissed morning that the exact same truth made her long for something
more.

“Sure, Tony. I’ve got an extra suite set up for you. I should be able to work you in

between my sunbathing and my afternoon nap.”

Subtle Touch

* * * * *

After seven years of knowing her, Tony Mendelero still experienced admiration and

not a little lust when he looked at Sophia Galanis. She wasn’t as young as she used to
be, of course. Tony knew that she’d be thirty-six on her next birthday. Hollywood was
always the first to take note of middle age. He’d started to gloss it over, fudge the
numbers just a tad with his public relations and media contacts.

But if he were meeting her for the first time tonight, Tony would have guessed that

she was only in her late twenties. She was a remarkably beautiful woman. She had
single-handedly been responsible for promoting the fashion trend for dressing “down”
and allowing one’s natural beauty to take center stage versus distracting from it with
rich fabrics, expensive jewelry or heavy makeup. The denim industry owed her a huge
debt for tripling jeans sales and making that tried-and-true garment once again the
mainstay of a woman’s wardrobe. Of course, few women could boast features with the
pure, delicate lines of natural beauty that Sophia did, the vibrant, exceptional color and
flawless quality of her skin, or the lean, yet womanly soft curves of her body.

Yes, Tony thought as he sipped his wine and covertly studied her, Sophia had held

up exceptionally well for her age. A stranger might take her for a slender, quiet twenty-
something-year-old until they actually spoke with her for a minute. Then they might
guess her age as being even older than it was. And it wasn’t just because of her calm,
confident demeanor or the fascinating paradox of her innate warmth and kindness
juxtaposed with a sense of detachment, a cool aloofness. No, her sense of wisdom came
from more than that. She was an old soul, Tony decided suddenly, vaguely amused by
his unusual poetic turn of thought. It was that aura of unavailability and mystery that
still had Tony’s libido boiling after all this time, despite the fact that he preferred his
women young, built and biddable.

He repressed an irritated frown. How he wished Sophia Galanis was biddable!

She’d made a habit of refusing almost all of the professional advice that he’d given her
over the years. And yet, damn it all, her low profile and understated image succeeded
in making her even more of a darling with the press and the public than if she’d shown
up glittering in diamonds and designer gowns for every high-profile event in
Hollywood.

He bristled when a swarthy, bodybuilder type approached her and asked her for

her autograph, but he could tell by Sophia’s warm smile and gracious acceptance of the
man’s pen that she didn’t want Tony’s interference.

“I told you it wasn’t a good idea to go out in public without any type of cover,”

Tony scolded, referring to the fact that Sophia had refused to wear any type of glasses
or a hat this evening, making her more noticeable to bothersome fans.

Sophia shrugged. “I’m not worried about it. It’ll be the exception. Let’s face it, Tony,

my popularity is waning. Besides, Tahoe is very laid-back and so is this place.” She
glanced around the nearly empty outdoor deck of the restaurant that boasted a prime
lakeside view. Sophia had wanted to sit outside and relax on the many Adirondack

Beth Kery

chairs arranged around a crackling fire. Lake Tahoe evenings, even in June, were chilly.
She sighed with contentment as she gazed out over the alpine lake that glittered like a
deep blue sapphire beneath the darkening sky.

“Besides, it will be dark soon,” she added.
“Are you sure you’ll be warm enough out here?”
She nodded. “If you’re okay with it, I am. This old sweater will keep me warm and

the fire is heavenly.”

Tony’s eyes glittered with masculine appreciation as she sighed with sensual

satisfaction and gave the fire a distracted, mysterious, very sexy smile.

“Right. How about another glass of wine, then? I have an important phone call that

I need to make,” Tony said as he stood. He brushed Sophia’s shoulder in a casual, but
pointedly intimate gesture as he passed. He’d actually just recalled that he had a date
scheduled for tonight with an aerobics instructor in Los Angeles. He’d been worried
that Sophia would cancel her invitation to Tahoe and he wanted to keep all of his
options open. Ms. Aerobics USA would have to keep hot on the back burner until
another time. He sighed as he flipped open his cell phone. He’d not yet had the
opportunity to actually fuck the little firecracker and that was the sole reason that he
was even bothering to call her to cancel at all.

This was the first real opportunity that he’d ever had to bed Sophia. A feeling of

euphoria rushed through him. Why not tonight? She may need a little convincing, but
Tony felt more than up to the challenge.

The possibilities were tantalizing.
After he’d left a message and put in his order at the bar, he took a moment to

consider some of those promising possibilities in earnest. Sophia seemed especially
relaxed currently after her whirlwind United Nations tour of several African war-torn
countries. He hadn’t seen her this content in ages. Tony and Sophia had historically
done little more than flirt in a friendly fashion, although he had made it clear on an
occasion or two that he would interested in more than that. Sophia had made it just as
clear that gentle flirting was all she was interested in. Tony had never pushed the angle.

But he needed something more to tie her to him besides their professional

relationship. His importance in that area of her life was diminishing all too quickly.
Sophia Galanis was a hot ticket to almost any venue, and Tony couldn’t afford to lose
her.

Besides, there was something about Sophia tonight that he’d never sensed before,

something soft, approachable, very sensual and potently attractive. He fantasized that if
he caressed her, she just might rub up against him and purr. The idea of Sophia finally
succumbing to him made him throb with excitement.

His thoughts seemed to find a voice outside his head.
“She’s a remarkably beautiful woman. You’re a very lucky man.”

Subtle Touch

Che Ammadon studied the thin, handsome man who stood next to where he sat at

the bar, taking in the arrogant, cold tilt of his chin as he examined him in return. He also
noted the subtle look of satisfaction as his last sentence fully soaked into the man’s
awareness. Cocky bastard. You can pretend like Sophia is yours until the Fathers come home,
but wishing ain’t gonna make it happen, jerk.

Sophia’s companion looked him up and down with a quick, disparaging glance.

Che made sure that he didn’t see much more than a harmless, long-haired southern
Californian who wouldn’t have looked out of place either with a surfboard or an electric
guitar if he didn’t look like he was too old to hold either one and still maintain an ounce
of respect.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Che gave a whatever you say, pal shrug of indifference. “Hey, I just thought I’d try to

get in good with her boyfriend, seeing as how the agent who leased me Sierra Lodge
seemed to think that Ms. Galanis wouldn’t care for me too much.”

“You’ve leased the Sierra Lodge?”
Che stuck out his hand and grinned, carefully dimming the power of its impact.

“Che Ammadon. I bring a couple of my employees from Space, Inc. up here every year
in appreciation for all their hard work. It’s the first time that the lodge was available,
though.”

Tony studied Che’s hand like he suspected that he’d just sneezed in it. Eventually,

social convention took over and he shook it briefly as he introduced himself. “Space,
Inc.?” he queried as he checked the progress of the bartender, eager to be gone.

“Yeah, I see that you’ve already guessed at the potential problem with Ms. Galanis

and me sharing the same property.”

Tony’s mouth hung open slack for a few seconds. He obviously had guessed at no

such thing, but Che ignored that fact.

“I’ve read plenty about how she publicly denounced those two senators and the

lobbyist for Lochtech. Heard she’s got a brother in the military. Probably doesn’t
appreciate the idea of Lochtech giving the army those defective guns or the government
sending them over to our boys with what suspiciously seemed like full knowledge of it.
It’s going to take awhile before those senators can clean all the shit off their faces. She’s
not only a beautiful woman, but a spirited one, too, huh?”

Tony hid a grin as understanding dawned. If this guy’s company was a weapons

contractor for the Department of Defense, there wasn’t a safer bet in the history of
gambling that Sophia would turn his balls to ice cubes before he said “hello”.

“How did you find out that the Sierra Lodge’s guesthouse tenant is Sophia

Galanis?” Tony asked with studied indifference.

“I got a look at you two when you walked off the property earlier. She doesn’t have

a face that’s easily mistaken for someone else,” Che said just as casually as he took a
swallow of beer. “I can understand you’re asking about it, though. You must have to
keep her whereabouts pretty top secret.”

Beth Kery

“Only her closest family members know her current location.”
“And you, of course,” Che said softly. “I guess that means her secret is locked up

safe with us.” He studied Tony’s brown eyes searchingly but the bartender chose that
moment to set down the two glasses of wine, diverting Tony’s attention.

“I suppose I should introduce you to her at least briefly, so that she’s not surprised

to see you on the property.” Tony blinked as he threw some money down on the bar.
Why in the world had he suggested that? In truth, he couldn’t wait to be away from the
guy. Something about him really bugged Tony.

“Hey, that’d be great.” Che stood and reached for one of the glasses of wine. “Let

me help with you with that.”

Tony’s jaw came unhinged. What the fuck…? How could he not have noticed how

tall Che Ammadon was? He must be at least six and a half feet! Granted, he had been
sitting on the barstool until a second ago, but Ammadon wasn’t just tall. Surely Tony
should have noticed his hard, rangy build, the obvious power inherent in his long, jean-
clad thighs or the dense upper arm muscles just evident beneath a loose-fitting T-shirt.
And why in the world had he thought that he looked like an aging surfer? The only
thing that contributed to that entirely inaccurate assessment, besides the well worn T-
shirt and faded jeans, was the unruly, sun-streaked brown hair and his vibrant-looking
bronzed skin.

Tony found himself trailing after the most physically prepossessing man that he’d

ever encountered in his life, utterly dumbfounded as to how he could have been so
stupid as to offer to introduce him to the elusive woman that he finally had the perfect
opportunity to fuck after seven years.

“Thanks,” Sophia murmured when a glass of cabernet magically floated before her

eyes. She reached up for the stem, but the glass didn’t waver at her touch. She glanced
up in vague puzzlement only to find herself locked in a steady, aquamarine gaze.

Just for a split second, his name was fully in her consciousness. Not just any

name—his true name. Alloces. Che was so deeply touched by the unexpected fact that
she carried a memory of his dream visitation that he almost didn’t deflect her quickly
enough from saying it out loud.

His newly birthed flesh quivered with life and arousal. Sophia knew him. Her

acknowledgment or his True Self, vague and unformed as it was, still expanded his
being. In purely physical terms, it felt like a whispery, evocative caress along his cock.
Che tensed. He thought he’d been more than prepared to play his role as stranger to her
tonight, but he hadn’t expected the raw, primitive need to mate that seemed to vibrate
and enflame every new cell of his being.

Perhaps the mating process had advanced further than he’d thought.
“Che,” he said as he released the glass of wine to her stiff fingers, watching to make

sure that she didn’t drop it in her temporary disorientation. “I’m Che Ammadon.”

Subtle Touch

“Che?” Sophia asked, surprised. She blinked. Why had she just been convinced that

his name had been…something else? It had faded. She laughed uncomfortably. “I’m
sorry. I’m a little confused. We’ve met before, haven’t we?”

“I’m sure both of us would recall if we had.”
Sophia just stared for a moment as the ambiguity of his response sunk into her

consciousness.

“He asked to be introduced to you, since he’s sharing the Sierra Lodge property

with you,” Tony muttered perfunctorily as he resumed his seat. He didn’t ask for Che
to join them. Nevertheless, the tall man looked entirely at ease standing next to Sophia’s
chair with his arms loosely crossed over his whipcord lean torso and a bottle of beer
suspended between his fingers. Tony stiffened at the uncharacteristic tactlessness and
intensity of Sophia’s next question.

“Are you staying there alone?”
“A few of my employees are with me.”
Tony grunted. “Yes. Mr. Ammadon owns a company called Space, Inc. What was it

that you said that you manufacture?”

Che gave a small smile at Tony’s pointed question, but he never broke eye contact

with Sophia. She was still twisted around anxiously in her chair, staring up at him with
a dazed look in her wide eyes. By the Gods, she was lovely. Her dark blonde hair was
brushed smooth and fell casually around her shoulders. She wore an oversized, warm-
looking sweater of Irish wool. Her long, slender legs were encased in faded jeans. Well-
worn, scuffed leather boots completed her ensemble. Not many women could have
made the outfit look like the height of chic, but Sophia did in spades.

I’m not going to have a second of peace until I make you mine, Sophia.
Che knew that they weren’t at the point yet where they could telepathically

communicate as naturally as breathing. Still, a connection had been made. Even if
Sophia didn’t actually understand the specific words in his message, he knew that she
had gotten the gist of what he’d communicated when she gave him a shy smile that
slowly segued to one of unintentional invitation. His hand almost rose to his chest in
panic when he felt his newly formed heart squeeze tightly as a consequence of
witnessing her luminous spirit manifesting itself so purely, so truly into flesh.

“What do we manufacture?” Che repeated after a moment with a small shrug of his

shoulders. “Dreams, I suppose.”

Sophia’s eyes widened. “Dreams?”
Tony scoffed at the same moment. “Dreams? Whose dreams? The Defense

Department’s?” He turned to Sophia and laughed with disbelief. “Surely it’s more like
nightmares for the enemy.”

Che saw confusion and then caution flicker across Sophia’s features.

Beth Kery

“Mr. Ammadon owns a company that produces weapons for the United States

military,” Tony said in a bored voice as his gaze shifted to the lake. Indecent good looks
or no, it was less than ten seconds before Che Ammadon was politely dismissed.

“Oh?” Sophia asked stiffly.
Che shook his head slowly.
“Mr. Mendelero misunderstood me. I started Space, Inc. in order to encourage the

creation and production of the technology for low-cost, safe space travel. People who
submit ideas to my company are just individuals with big dreams, and usually a lot of
brains. But because they don’t work for one of the large government-backed
corporations or government agencies, few will actually give credence to their ideas.”

He watched as Sophia’s arched, tawny eyebrow rose in interest tinged with doubt.
“So far space travel has only been accomplished by governments because the cost

has been too enormous for individuals, with the exception of one or two very rich men
who had bank accounts that equaled the treasuries of most countries. I started Space,
Inc. because I think that the best creative efforts of mankind usually happen outside of
governments and bureaucracies. The people who submit ideas to me are doing it solely
for the mental challenge and the love of what their doing.”

“That’s fascinating,” Sophia expressed sincerely. But wariness still lingered in her

eyes. “So, you’re not a weapons manufacturer?”

Che shook his head steadfastly. Because of Watcher laws, he would never be

permitted to get involved in any type of human weapons manufacture. Of course, Che
was considered the ultimate expert among Watchers on issues of weapons and warfare,
but now wasn’t the time to tell Sophia about that.

“You’re not the first person who has made that assumption mistakenly. It’s pretty

unprecedented for someone to start a company like Space, Inc. and not get involved on
some level with the Department of Defense.” Che’s grin unintentionally widened. Duse
always ribbed him that Che’s fascination with space travel throughout the centuries
was something passed on by the Fathers. But since none of them recalled a thing about
the Fathers, Che would never know for sure about that.

“Unfortunately, whether it’s through spy satellites or Star Wars-type technology,

space is being seen as the newest, most promising territory for waging warfare.” His
eyes on her remained steady. “Since I started Space, Inc., I’ve always personally make
sure of that none of the ideas that we cultivate will be used as a weapon, Sophia.”

The relief that flooded Sophia’s awareness was surely out of proportion to what the

situation deserved. Still, Che Ammadon was the most attractive, charismatic man that
she’d met in a long time. Okay, he was the most handsome, exciting man that she’d ever
met. Of course, he could be lying through his teeth in order to appease her. People had
done much worse just to associate with her. But for the moment, Sophia suspended her
typical distrust. It was those mesmerizing greenish-blue eyes that sparkled at her with
simmering heat and humor that made her do it. Why were those eyes so familiar?

Subtle Touch

“I’m sorry. Please, won’t you sit down?” Sophia asked abruptly when she realized

her rudeness at leaving him standing.

Che finally broke their locked gaze and glanced over at Tony, who gave him a

withering frown. Che responded by ignoring him good-naturedly. “Sure, I’d like that.”
He lowered his large frame into the Adirondack chair next to Sophia. Tony’s frown
deepened.

Che wasn’t even one hundred percent sure of what he said as they made small talk

over the next half-hour. Because she’d asked, he told Sophia about some of Space Inc.’s
most innovative new inventions, including a small, portable chamber that could
chemically alter the environment of small areas, cleansing the air and changing
unbreathable gases into oxygen. Mostly, he was hyperaware of Sophia sitting less than
two feet away from him, the warmth and beguiling softness of her body, the sheer
physicality of her. He found himself almost losing control, both of his emotions and his
newly formed body.

And losing control just wasn’t something that Che Ammadon did.
He felt vaguely ashamed of himself, but as he focused in on the slight tremble of

Sophia’s full, pink lower lip, saw the dazed heat in her large, liquid eyes, he subtly
began to sexually stimulate her with his mind. He knew that it was inappropriate.
Public lovemaking wasn’t uncommon for Watchers, but only when all parties were
agreeable. At the Issian Festival, it was the norm. Now that Duse, Eli and Bale were
mated and loyal to their mates even when they were incarnate, Che didn’t engage in
communal lovemaking as frequently as he once did, although in recent history he and
Jax had harvested a bunker crop of Rush energy with three lithe, adventuresome new-
age witches in London. That had been just before Avala and Andrea reached their
current Second Change, and Che’s sexual sustenance needs were met with even greater
abundance.

Once a Watcher became mated, public lovemaking occurred, but only in the

technical sense. A Watcher was fastidious about setting shields of privacy for their
mates, lemans or any lovers to which he was loyal. He always ensured that no
bystanders caught a hint of knowledge of what was happening between them, carefully
blocking his lover’s Rush from all energy beings besides himself. It was a matter of
solemn trust between the Watcher and his lover. There were, of course, exceptions, like
the Dionytion Ceremony, when the Dionytion Stone was used ritualistically. But even
with the Ceremony, the Watcher and his mate were completely alone, at least in the
human, physical sense of the word. The only difference was that a Watcher was
forbidden by law to place shields on his mate’s Rush—the energy released during her
orgasm—making it accessible to all Watchers in the near vicinity.

But no matter how he split hairs on the definition, Sophia definitely wasn’t going to

be as enthusiastic about the idea of him making love to her under these circumstances.

But he was so aware of her, so aroused. Apparently, she was far from being

unaffected by him, either. The realization was heady. He’d never experienced a need so
strongly in his life.

Beth Kery

He found that he couldn’t deny himself. He wouldn’t.
The heat from the fire almost felt tangible to Sophia as she studied Che Ammadon’s

starkly handsome profile while he conversed with Tony. She gave a deep sigh, not sure
if she was bereft or relieved that she wasn’t presently the object of his intense,
intoxicating attention. She sipped her wine and swallowed languorously. All the while,
her eyes detailed the outline of Che’s magnetic features and the breadth of his shoulders
and back as he leaned forward in his chair. She felt an overwhelming urge to run her
hand through his glossy, burnished hair, knowing it would feel thick and sensual
between her fingers, warmed as it was by the fire. His vibrant, sun-kissed skin would
also feel wonderful against her appreciative fingertips, so smooth and dense. A heavy,
pleasant torpor seemed to slide over her consciousness.

That’s right, honey. Relax. Let go.
Without thinking about what she was doing, Sophia uncrossed her legs. Her thighs

opened. She almost groaned out loud. It was if the fire-warmed air around her had
thickened and congealed into form. She felt an arousing sensation, like tingling
electricity, on her cheeks, breasts and belly, but most acutely against the suddenly
needy piece of sensitive flesh at her sex. Her hips wiggled experimentally. She bit her
lip as the forbidden sensation slowly unfurled, and warmth escalated to a simmering,
erotic burn that required pressure. Immediately. Her eyes widened.

Good Lord, what the hell was wrong with her? She glanced over at Che, then

guiltily over at Tony. But they both seemed involved in their conversation about how
the air-cleansing invention, something that had been originally designed on a small
scale with reference to the terraforming of other planets, was currently being practically
adapted as a precautionary safety device for coal miners who constantly worked with
the threat of collapsed mines and subsequent suffocation.

Sophia’s breath drew in sharply. She didn’t fully trust her own brain at that

moment, but she’d just felt fingers caress the side of her neck, fire-kissed, calloused,
thoroughly hypnotizing fingertips. Every sensory nerve in her body leapt into a state of
alert pleasure. Her head unconsciously tilted into the touch. Her eyelids flickered
closed. She couldn’t have repeated the actual content of what Che said as he conversed
with Tony, but she was utterly focused on his deep, authoritative voice. Her being
seemed to ride and flow with the mesmerizing sound, even as his words seemed to
glide over her, pitching her senses into acute excitement.

Of course, it was impossible for a voice to make love. But Sophia vaguely

acknowledged that was exactly what was happening.

The disembodied fingertips soothingly, sensually stroked her neck, then lowered

with agonizing slowness until they caressed the upper slope of her left breast. Sophia
held her breath in tense expectation. Her nipples pulled tight in anticipation. Her clit
seemed to alternate between a friction-mandating tickle and a hot throb, stimulating her
beyond belief. She felt it with amazing clarity, the slide of fingertips across her
appreciative skin, the erotic rasp of masculine, slightly rough flesh against her feminine
softness. She stifled her gasp when they feathered one erect nipple, then closed around

Subtle Touch

it and pinched with gentle, exquisite precision. An arrow of desire shot down to her sex,
causing an even greater pinch of pleasure at her clit. Her eyes sprang open wide,
because the pressure there thickened even further, until it felt like the long, hard ridge
of a finger pressing against her.

Bizarrely, everything looked exactly as it should be. Night had eclipsed her view of

the lake, but Sophia could still hear the regular rhythm of waves breaking on the beach
as she gasped desperately for air. She dazedly noticed Tony’s expression of resentment
mixed with grudging respect as Che answered one of his questions in a manner that
was at once comprehensible, intelligent and concise. Sophia’s eyes narrowed as she
studied Che. He seemed utterly focused on the conversation.

It’s an illusion, Sophia. I’m utterly focused on you.
Sophia almost choked out loud in disbelief. She had heard his voice perfectly,

although Tony was currently speaking and Che’s entire attention seemed to be on the
other man.

She felt a stubble-roughened chin erotically abrade the tender skin of her neck, as

though he were pressing his face to her and inhaling her scent deeply. The air seemed
to shift and thicken around her mouth, and then she clearly sensed firm lips tasting her
own. Her heart fluttered erratically in her chest, because all the while, her breasts and
her clit was being stroked and played by masterful fingers. The fire in her was building
and building. Sophia knew that the only way to extinguish such an inferno was to allow
it to reach its natural peak of eruption. She became aware of a droplet of sweat running
between the valley of her breasts. A small, muffled sound of aroused desperation came
from her throat.

Shhhh.
Fragrant, warm air rushed across her sensitized lips. Damp, slightly rough flesh

tenderly licked the drop of sweat off between her breasts. Several seconds passed in
painful anticipation as she sensed him savoring her taste. Then she felt his tongue
slowly, deliberately follow the path of the moisture.

Sophia glanced downward sharply. But all she saw was her own familiar body in

the chair. Nobody and nothing was touching her. Anxiety hammered at her heart, but
Sophia couldn’t say what was causing her the most unrest, panic or impending orgasm.

Oh God, I’m losing my mind.
It’s all right, honey. You’re not crazy. You know that’s true.
But I can’t just…
I’ll distract his attention. Just let go. I’ll keep you safe. No one will ever know, now or in the

future, when I’m loving you.

But…
No. Trust me in this.
Sophia blinked. His words had been uttered into her mind with startling authority.

Then her head fell back against the hard wood of the chair. She hadn’t consciously

Beth Kery

submitted, but the pleasure of what was happening to her was too enormous to be
denied. She clearly felt the length of a thick, long, stony cock pressing and rubbing
between the desire-swollen, slick lips of her outer sex. The amount of pressure applied
was perfect…exquisite. She clearly saw it in her mind. She heard the wet, slight sucking
sound of hard, unyielding flesh sliding against her giving, wet, delicate tissues, man
against woman—hot, pressing, stony flesh, gliding and rocking and throbbing against
her.

The knowledge of how to breathe escaped her.
Then he dipped lower, and the clearly defined ridge of the head of the invisible

penis slid along her clit, once…then twice. A roaring sounded in her ears, but it was
only unmoving air that made the overwhelming noise.

And she was coming.
“…at the very top of that mountain to the right of the harbor. See, where those

lights are up there among the trees?”

Sophia stared in utter confusion a moment later as Tony pointed to the right of

them and exquisite aftershocks of pleasure quivered through her body. God, what had
just happened? What had she just done? Her eyes flashed in dawning disbelief to Che.
He was leaning back casually in his chair, the image of confident male insouciance. He
nodded with his gaze fixed on where Tony indicated in the distance.

“Your friend must have a beautiful view from up there,” he murmured in a mellow

voice.

“He does. It’s a shame he only uses the house a few weeks out of the year…”
Tony’s voice faded into incomprehensibility. Thank God. Neither of them seemed to

realize that she’d just had a thunderous orgasm while they chatted and sipped cocktails.
Why in the world would she think that Che had been privy to her experience anyway?
Was she becoming delusional in addition to having hallucinations? She set down her
wineglass with a dull thud on the arm of the chair.

A thick wave of fear broke over her awareness when she glanced at Che again and

he was still engaged with Tony in casual banter. What was wrong with her? Did
someone slip a drug in her wine? Disjointed thoughts of brain tumors and madness
flickered across her numb awareness. God, was this the first stages of early Alzheimer’s,
or maybe some rare middle-aged psychosis?

Che abruptly reached out and encircled her hand in his.
Sophia’s eyes darted downward in shock, checking to see if her sensations would

match what she saw this time. And yes, her hand was definitely in Che’s. The caress felt
warm, like it was meant to be comforting, but Sophia’s mind was in too much of a
tumult to take it that way. By the time Tony turned back to face them, he’d let go of her.

Che gritted his teeth in frustration when Sophia suddenly lunged upward. He saw

the whites of her large eyes as her gaze skittered over him.

Subtle Touch

“I, um…need to…excuse me, but I’m not feeling well. I’ll see you at home, Tony,”

she said with abrupt finality before she turned and walked into the restaurant.

Tony couldn’t help but feel modicum of grim satisfaction when he saw Che

Ammadon noticeably blanch beneath his tan. “Don’t feel too bad about it, man. Sophia
Galanis isn’t exactly the type of woman who warms up to a guy easily.”

Beth Kery

Chapter Three

“It’s kind of hard—no pun intended—once you get one on a permanent basis not to

want to put it to immediate and frequent use.”

Che glowered over his shoulder at Eli Aurelious, who had just taken his physical

form several feet behind him. The blond-haired, green-eyed Watcher would look like
the spitting image of a Greek god come to life if it weren’t for the fact that he was
wearing a casual sport jacket and a pair of jeans.

“From the way you’re staring at that house out there all moony-eyed, I’m guessing

that’s where the newest addition to our family is located.”

Che turned his back on his good friend and returned his gaze to the guesthouse

where, even now, Sophia was likely cursing the moment that she’d told him to sit down
and join them that evening. He had been watching the small house from the large deck
at the back of the Sierra Lodge for almost half an hour, wondering how in Hades he was
going to salvage the mess he’d made earlier this evening.

What had he been thinking, making love to Sophia like that when they weren’t even

fully mated yet, when she didn’t have a clue about what was going on between them?
He kept recalling the look in her beautiful eyes when she’d abruptly left him and Tony
earlier. She’d been panicked. Worse, she’d been afraid. Of him.

The thought clawed like an angry sylph at his insides.
“I’m not so sure you should make that assumption yet.” He sensed Eli pause at that,

considering.

“You mean she isn’t your mate? I don’t understand. You’re tens of thousands of

times more present and powerful in this world than you’ve ever been. And Bale said—”

“I said the truth, obviously.”
Both Watchers heads turned to the source of the voice. Bale Ammadon, their king

and leader, stood just feet away from them on the deck. He was an impressive figure.
Che lowered his head without conscious thought. He was family to Bale, a prince in his
own right, and such formalities weren’t usually exchanged between them. But the fact
that Bale didn’t expect an obeisance from him didn’t mean that Che didn’t
automatically respond out of genuine respect.

The slight tilting of Bale’s stern mouth, however, was more fitting to that of a

teasing cousin than a king.

“His power and corporeality are incredibly strong,” Bale said in an offhand fashion

to Eli, as though Che weren’t even present. “You can’t imagine for a second, can you,
that he would encounter the rarest type of human woman—a woman strong enough to

Subtle Touch

be mated to a Watcher—and not plan to have her bedded, mated and sigiled before the
night is through? He is Che Ammadon, after all.”

Che’s scowl deepened and he turned away from his two friends in sheer frustration.

Bale had just said Che Ammadon like someone might say Don Juan in a parallel human
situation. Uncertainty and anxiety boiled in his stomach, giving Che his first sample of
the agonies of stress on the flesh. The sound of Bale’s and Eli’s low laughter only made
the burning in his belly amplify.

Abruptly, both Watchers quieted, sensing Che’s genuine unrest.
“What is it?” Bale asked sharply.
Che couldn’t turn around. His shame felt like a thick, stifling cloak.
“I doubt Sophia will ever want to see me again.”
A long pause ensued. Eli and Bale exchanged a quick, knowing glance before they

considered Che with fond amusement and not a little sympathy for his situation.

“Did you…offend Sophia in some way?” Bale began cautiously.
Che’s mouth twisted with dissatisfaction. “You might say that.”
“The mating bond is still incomplete?”
“Yes.”
“Ahh.”
“Is that all you have to say? You, the wise leader of our people? I admit a major

crisis to you, and your only word of advice is ahh?”

Bale hid his smile as Che spun around to face him, his eyes blazing with formidable

power. He held up his hands defensively. “A crisis, maybe, but not a major one. It’s a
shocking experience when you’re first exposed to your mate. Our ways are so different
from theirs. Your ideas about self-control tend to evaporate in the presence of all that
energy and…heat. Watchers love to make patronizing jokes about the lack of control of
human men when it comes to sex, but—”

“That’s before they get the permanent equipment,” Eli finished with a bark of

laughter.

Bale noticed that Che was watching both men with a combination of amazement

and disgust. His meaning was broadcast clearly for Bale to read without telepathic
communication. How in Hades can you two idiots laugh at the idea of losing control when it
comes to sex?

It was a given that Watchers were in consummate control during lovemaking.
Their survival in the material world depended on evoking the most powerful

climax possible from a female, after all. Selfishness rarely contributed to that. Bale
cleared his throat in order to redirect his onerous amusement.

Che had a lot to learn when it came to being blessed with a mate.
“Completing the mating bond can be a tricky procedure, especially if time is of the

essence. Won’t you consider completing it while she sleeps?”

Beth Kery

“No. I won’t do it! Did you ever even once consider doing such a thing with

Helen?” He waited tensely until Bale shook his head. His head swung around to Eli.
“And you? Would you have wanted to be anything but physical when you completed
the mating bond with Jean?” Again, he waited for the sign of negation. He’d known the
answer to his questions before he’d asked. Not that Eli or Bale had ever told him about
the private, intimate details of the original bonding with their long-time mates. He just
knew Eli and Bale, and they would never have accepted anything less for such a
powerful, sacred moment than to have their future mates accepting them physically
and consciously.

Che’s fiery, defiant eyes swung back to Bale. He stilled. What he read in his

expression felt like a slap in the face, a blow to the spirit. Bale’s eyes were
compassionate, but it was the sadness that Che saw that was almost his undoing. He
turned toward the lake again. It shimmered like opaque black glass.

“Maybe you’re right. I am being selfish. The Gods know that the smart thing to do

would be to finish it now, to make sure that she’s protected. Things aren’t the same
among the Watchers as they were when you two first mated,” Che said hollowly after a
heavy moment.

“Che, I never said that. I never meant that…” Bale began.
Che heard the sincerity and concern in his cousin’s voice, but he heard the regret,

too.

“Nevertheless, it’s…”
Eli’s and Bale’s heads swung around in unison when they sensed Che’s sudden

tense wariness.

“What is it?”
“There are two men on the property.”
“Humans?” Eli asked tautly.
Che nodded. Both Watchers could feel the acute power of Che’s consciousness as he

directed it, like a powerful search beam, with his strength of Will. Neither of them was
anywhere near as attuned to Sophia’s being as Che was, and thus, neither could
automatically sense when she was in danger or threatened.

His face was impassive, but his eyes glowed with banked energy when he turned to

Bale. He was already shifting his consciousness to his mental body. He faded even as he
spoke.

“One is crossing those rocks to the right of the guesthouse as we speak. The other

one is nearer to the house. Eli, attend to the human male that’s staying in the bedroom
down the hall from Sophia. Bale, see to the other intruder.”

Sophia is their target.
Che was gone before the last sentence was physically spoken.
He came into physical existence on the twelve-foot by twelve-foot balcony outside

Sophia’s bedroom. The elevated patio stood on supports grounded into the shallows of

Subtle Touch

Lake Tahoe. Last night, Che had learned that Sophia liked to sleep with the patio doors
wide open, letting the chilly, invigorating alpine air into her room while she slept nude,
but toasty beneath several thick blankets. Che found her tendency to sleep this way to
be as fascinating and sensual as everything else about her. The first time he’d entered
her mind and stimulated her into orgasm, he had willed himself into partial
corporeality while he stood on the balcony, relishing in the sensations of the earth, the
brisk, cool mountain air, the ancient consciousness of the gigantic pine trees, the deep
impenetrable lake that, like him, combined the paradoxical essences of fire and water,
passion and calm. Then he had twined his spirit with Sophia’s, and his already acute
awareness of the earth had exponentially sharpened.

When Sophia had climaxed that first time, he’d dropped heavily to his knees on the

wood deck, shaking like a newborn colt as it takes its first steps. The energy of Sophia’s
Rush had been so enormous that he had no way to describe it given the limitations of
language and his former experience.

He marveled at how much could change in a twenty-four-hour period as he stalked

into the room and positioned himself between Sophia and the door. She hadn’t reached
the most profound level of sleep yet, but she still was under deep enough that there was
no threat of her waking and crying out at the sight of him standing there. She was going
to be startled soon enough.

Nothing he could do about that, now.
His senses were pitched so exquisitely on the activity of organic life in the small

house that he knew that the intruder took a ragged, anticipatory breath before he
turned the handle on Sophia’s bedroom door and entered the room as silently as a
shadow. Che was shocked at the enormity of his rage at that moment at the prospect of
another being wanting—no, relishing—the idea of hurting Sophia. The humanlike
emotions that came with a physical body were a little frightening, as well as
overwhelming.

His subsequent ability to put aside all of those feelings and focus with eerily sharp

clarity on his task was just as utterly inhuman.

He approached the intruder soundlessly from behind, immediately immobilizing

him by violently forcing his right arm up along his back, making his fingers nearly
touch his own skull until he heard a precise snap, all the while holding his left arm
relatively immobile next to his body. A sharp shout of pain ripped through the still
room. Something fell heavily to the floor next to Che’s foot—a weapon, no doubt. The
man hissed a curse and began to struggle. He wasn’t a weak man, Che realized with a
measure of satisfaction. Watchers loved to do battle and they frequently sparred with
each other using practice weapons, shifting their bodies in and out of corporeality,
increasing the rapidity and complexity of the fight beyond human perception.

But presently, Che fully relished his fully physical body and the punishment it was

efficiently inflicting on the intruder.

Beth Kery

He felt the man successfully use his strong leg muscles to resist him as he struggled

to escape his tight hold and the pain that accompanied it. Che allowed him to stagger a
foot forward, before he muttered harshly, “Get down on the floor.” The stark order was
accompanied by a lancing blow to a kidney and an abrupt movement of his right leg
that neatly sliced the man’s feet out from behind him, causing him to sprawl to the floor
facedown. The man’s breath punched out of him with a loud grunt of bitter surprise.
Che was aware of a moan of muffled distress from Sophia’s direction, but he didn’t turn
around. He felt the man tense for action just as Sophia twisted the switch on her bedside
lamp.

She gasped in disbelief.
“Not a good idea,” Che said softly to the man who was lying on the floor. He was

fully in tune with the intruder’s body and primitive, aggressive thought processes. He
knew he was about to spring away from him. The blood that pumped through his veins
at the moment felt hot and vibrant and intoxicating. He wanted nothing more than to
finish the fight physically, to take out some of his rage and frustration on the giving
flesh of the man who had dared to try to harm Sophia. But she was awake now. He
sensed her far more acutely than the man.

Che sighed as the stocky, muscular man abruptly brought up his legs and hurled

his body forward. He stiffened and fell to the carpet again just as rapidly. Gagging
sounds filled the room.

“I told you it wasn’t a good idea,” Che remonstrated softly. He’d formed a bond

around the man’s throat utilizing material from his own subtle essences. He focused
intently and attenuated the hold until he was satisfied that the man was incapacitated
while still getting enough air into his lungs to keep him alive. Barely so.

For a few tense seconds, he kept his back to Sophia. By the Blessed Mothers, if she’d

fled from him in terror earlier this evening, how much worse was her fear of him going
to be now? Che closed his eyes and uttered a quick prayer for luck in his mother’s
name. The blessing of a Druagish priestess was always welcome in a desperate moment.

He turned around to face her.
She just stared at him, her eyes as wide as a startled doe’s. Her hand fluttered

slightly at her neck as she clutched the blankets up around her protectively. Che’s heart
pounded even louder in his ears than it had as he subdued the intruder.

“I was standing on the back deck earlier and I saw him slinking around the

guesthouse. I tailed him in here,” he said. Sophia’s face looked stunned and very pale.
For a split second, Che wondered if she was going to scream at the bizarre sight of two
strange men in her bedroom, one of which who was currently apparently choking to
death on her floor.

Then he heard her low, mellifluous voice, and he was acutely reminded of his

experience with her on the Astral Plane that Sophia was a gifted, courageous woman
one who was certainly not prone to panic or hysterics.

“Is he choking?”

Subtle Touch

“I think he may be having a seizure or something,” Che evaded.
“Did you call the police?”
Che shook his head.
“Don’t you think I should now?”
Sophia felt the shock of surprise that her question caused in him, although his face

remained impassive and his body didn’t flinch from his balanced stance. He must have
been in the military, Sophia thought vaguely through her sense of shock. She
recognized the animal-like, thoroughly misleading, almost lazy poise of a man that had
been trained to fight until the lessons were drilled down into his bones…into his very
spirit. The tension and full readiness would leap into his muscles within a hairsbreadth
of a second when danger was imminent. But a man like Che Ammadon didn’t waste
needless energy until it was fully warranted. That would only dull the killing edge of
his fighting ability when he most needed it. Oh, yeah, he was light-years away from just
being the easygoing, charming young entrepreneur that he’d represented himself as
earlier this evening. Whenever Sophia tried to wrap her mind and intuition around
what Che Ammadon actually was though, she ran up against nothing but tantalizing
mysteries and definite impossibilities.

And why had he been caught off guard when she asked if she should call the police?
Che nodded his head once. A sense of disbelief crowded into his awareness when

he fully took in Sophia’s emotional state as he watched her dial the phone. She was
confused by what she’d awakened to, and frightened as well. She was containing both
emotions with admirable control. But the thing that shocked him the most was that she
wasn’t afraid of him. In point of fact, the sense that he got from her was that she felt just
the opposite.

She was managing her fear so well because she trusted him.
The realization stunned him. Any Watcher could have seduced Sophia, made her

respond wholly to his subtle touch. Their existence in the physical world depended on
their ability make human women respond sexually, after all. But Sophia’s trust in him,
as unconscious of it as she likely was, given the stress of the moment, empowered and
magnified Che’s being in a way that he’d never before imagined. For the first time in his
many millennia of existence, he felt humbled.

After Sophia had hung up the phone, she inched over in the bed in order to glance

warily at the man who was gutturally gasping for air on the floor.

“Don’t move, Sophia.”
She froze at the sound of his quiet, firm voice. It sounded eerily familiar. Don’t

move, Sophia. Have courage. It’s searching out your spirit. She blinked in confusion at the
turn of her thoughts.

“Why?” she asked Che breathlessly.
His aquamarine eyes stayed fixed on her unblinkingly, but he didn’t speak. Still,

Sophia read his thoughts. It wasn’t an uncommon ability for her. She’d been able to do

Beth Kery

it, randomly and with varying degrees of accuracy, since she was a child. But her
mental telepathy had never been so strong or clear in the past.

Because even the sight of you is fuel to that sick slime.
Che’s voiceless response spontaneously brought up an elusive memory in Sophia’s

mind—a stifling, slick substance pressing down on her chest, a complex, twisted feeling
of hatred and the need to punish and hurt…

For the first time, Sophia saw Che’s expression shift. His brow furrowed and his

sensual mouth pressed into a grim line. He turned and studied the man on the floor, as
though he was actually seeing him for the first time.

“Maybe you should take a look at him, Sophia. Get out of bed on the opposite side.

And put on some clothes.”

Sophia felt her pulse throb in her neck as she followed Che’s calm instructions. She

tried to reassure herself that her response was a normal reaction, given the frightening
situation she found herself in, but she couldn’t entirely convince herself. The truth was,
her heart was beating so hard because Che had known that she was naked beneath the
covers the entire time. His words told the truth of it, but the altered inflection in his
voice when he’d uttered that last sentence seemed to speak volumes about the depth of
his awareness of her. The thought of him knowing that she was in bed nude made her
feel shivery and strange—vulnerable, but acutely sexual, too. It was ridiculous. But so
was almost everything associated with her experiences of Che Ammadon so far.

If he hadn’t actually known she was naked before, he certainly would now, Sophia

thought wryly as she flung back the covers and stood in the chilly room. If he bothered
to turn around, anyway. Which he wouldn’t, of course. That kind of thinking was just
an extension of the hormone-rampant, delusional fantasies she’d been experiencing
with alarming regularity for the past twenty-four hours.

She grabbed the pair of jeans that she’d been wearing earlier and dragged them up

over her legs and hips. Her fingers stilled as she clumsily tried to fasten her button fly
over her freshly shaved sex. Her hair flung back from her face as she sharply raised her
head.

His eyes were like liquid flame as they pinned her from across the bed. She froze,

no longer capable of commanding her muscles. His expression was immobile, cold
even, but his gaze on her felt hot and consuming. Sophia was acutely aware of her body
as he slowly lowered his gaze. Her nipples already pebbled from contact with the cold
night air. But when Che Ammadon’s eyes raked over them like a palpable caress, they
tugged painfully tauter. A puff of warm air left her lips in a sharp gasp.

He was doing it again, touching her without touching her. His eyes flashed up to

meet hers.

“Do you mind?” Her voice sounded ragged and brittle to her own ears. She would

have expected to see an expression of embarrassment on his face, even if it was
cosmetically applied. The deep sense of unrest and vulnerability that she saw instead
made her mentally falter even further, though.

Subtle Touch

Sophia thought that she’d imagined the brief, but potently erotic moment and his

subsequent expression of intense shame a few seconds later. She still fastened the
buttons on a hastily donned thick, flannel shirt as she came around the foot of the bed.

“Stop there,” Che said.
Sophia halted ten feet away from the top of the intruder’s head. He was dressed in

black jeans and a black windbreaker. Her eyes skittered over to the gun that had been
kicked to the side of the room. It looked like a plastic gun. The man struggled
desperately for air. What was wrong with him? Was it a seizure, or maybe some kind of
allergic reaction?

“Have you seen him before, Sophia?”
Sophia nodded tensely.
“Where?” Che asked with a measuring gaze.
“Tonight. At the Lone Wolf,” she murmured, referring to the restaurant where

they’d met. “He asked me for my autograph.” Her eyes flicked up to Che’s face. “It was
before you got there.”

She looked away in embarrassment, knowing that she couldn’t hide the burst of

color in her cheeks from him. God, she’d been hoping that she’d wake up in the
morning and the whole crazy, impossible, incredibly arousing memory would have
faded, like a dream did. Because, as she’d prepared for bed tonight, that’s repeatedly
what she’d told herself the whole thing had been.

But as she currently stood not fifteen feet away from Che, Sophia had to admit that

dream or no, the evocative memory still felt more real to her than any of her memories
of being awake ever did.

“Never before that?”
She shook her head slowly. “No. I…don’t think so, anyway. Is that…is that a real

gun?”

Che’s glanced over to where Sophia was staring, wide-eyed. “It’s a Taser. It will

temporarily short-circuit the nervous system, immobilizing a person,” he said grimly as
he bent over the helpless man and extracted the contents of his pockets roughly. The
man’s grimace amplified and his head rose weakly in a vain effort to resist. Che looked
pointedly into his furious eyes. “Not a pleasant feeling for anyone, I can imagine, to be
completely helpless in the hands of their enemy.” A metallic clicking noise made the
intruder’s eyes flick downward rapidly to the gleaming blade in Che’s hand. The whites
of his eyes became more evident as he stilled with fear. “Especially when their enemy is
packing such nasty weapons.”

Sophia’s gaze flashed warily between Che and the man who had broken into her

vacation residence. As usual, Che’s face was an expressionless mask, but a frightening
emotion glowed in his magnificent eyes at the discovered evidence of the man’s lethal-
looking knife. She didn’t know what looked more ominous at that moment, the ugly
killing blade or Che’s wrathful eyes. The terrifying realization of what the man had
planned to do to her, had Che not stopped him, made her shiver in fear.

Beth Kery

She startled at the sound of police sirens. Without her being aware that he’d even

moved, Che was suddenly standing beside her. The touch of his hand on her shoulder
was meant to be comforting, Sophia knew, but reassurance was only one of the myriad
emotions that the mutual contact of their flesh evoked in her.

“Why don’t you go with my friend Eli and meet the police. I’ll be right down after

I’ve made sure your visitor here is safely secured.”

“Friend?” Sophia asked blankly as she looked up—way up—into Che’s greenish-

blue eyes. She stood transfixed for seconds…or minutes. She couldn’t be sure. The
sound of a deep, droll voice in the doorway broke the mesmerizing spell of Che’s eyes.

“That would be me, Sophia.”
Sophia glanced around Che’s broad shoulders in partial shock only to see another

impossibly handsome, tall man leaning casually in the frame of her bedroom door, an
amused expression on his hard, yet artistically hewn features. She was vaguely aware of
Tony’s pale face behind the man’s shoulder. Her mouth fell open in amazement when
this god-in-man-form suddenly smiled and gave a slight bow of his head.

“Che’s told us all about you, but he failed to fully convey the extent of your beauty.

Although I can see now that mere words would fail to do it justice. Eli Aurelious, at
your eternal service, Sophia.”

Che scowled accusingly at his friend’s display of depthless charm, and Sophia’s

subsequent stunned expression.

By the Fathers, it serves you right, Ammadon. How many times have we had to stand by in

panic while you flirted shamelessly with our bonded mates at a Dionytion Ceremony, not to
mention every chance you got afterwards? Eli teased with a devilish glint in his green eyes.
Maybe this will make you think twice, lover boy.

* * * * *

Sophia returned to the kitchen after seeing the last police officer out the front door.

Tony Mendelero’s nervous restlessness and pale features stood in sharp contrast to the
other three men who sat at the kitchen table. Sophia studied the calm face of Che’s
cousin, Bale Ammadon, with a prickle of anxiety before she cleared several coffee cups
off the table. Since he’d shown up earlier, controlling another struggling, cursing
would-be-intruder with an ease that was both reassuring and vaguely alarming at once,
Sophia had found Bale to be nothing but a kind and considerate man. Bale’s and Eli’s
eyes were as different from Che’s and each other’s as three snowflake designs might be
under a magnifying glass. But their eyes had things in common besides being
compelling. Their gazes all communicated a vast, precise intelligence and infinite
coldness.

She reconsidered that estimation when she heard Che’s voice behind her. Like his

friends, Che definitely had an almost eerie impenetrable calm about him. But unlike
them, his eyes could suddenly leap with a flame when he looked at her that left Sophia
feeling breathless, confused…and wanting.

Subtle Touch

“Let me help you with those.” The sound of his low, rumbling voice caused a shiver

to tingle down Sophia’s neck. She glanced up nervously between lowered eyelashes. He
was standing close. Sophia imagined that she could feel his body heat. She didn’t have
to imagine his smell. The unique scent of fresh air, barely discernable cologne or soap
and pure male filled her awareness. She inhaled deeply and sighed with relief. Yes, it
definitely was there; something comforting…something human.

She blinked when she realized the train of her thoughts.
“Che…”
“Yes, Sophia?” He leaned over and brushed her right hand softly with his own as

he took two of the cups from her. She was vaguely aware of Bale Ammadon answering
Tony’s anxious question about follow-up police protection over at the table, but the
majority of her senses were acutely pinpointed on the man who stood just inches away
from her. Unlike Bale Ammadon, who had a subtle Scottish accent, Che’s accent was
typically Californian. But every time he said her name, his voice had a lilting quality
that sounded both exotic and natural at once, like he was saying her name, but more
than her name. It never failed to make a shiver of excitement ripple down her spine.

“Uh…you, and…” She became painfully aware that she was stammering as she

looked up into Che’s aquamarine eyes. She forced herself to break his mesmerizing
gaze. Her hand shook slightly as she indelicately set the two coffee cups in the sink,
making a loud clanking noise. When she spoke again, she addressed the drain, but her
voice was a heck of a lot steadier than it was when she’d been staring into Che’s eyes.

“I was wondering if you and your friends have had military training.” When he

didn’t immediately respond, Sophia forced herself to look up at him. She swallowed
heavily as she studied his stark, yet perfectly harmonious profile. Yes, better to face it,
to admit to herself what she’d just been thinking. She’d actually been reassured at the
subtle scent of Che’s skin, and the reason for that made her fear for her own sanity as
much as anything else.

She had just been wondering with only partial conscious clarity if Che Ammadon

and his friends were even human.

“My brother Teddy serves in the Air Force, Special Operations. The way you and

Bale subdued those men, your…manner… I heard the police officer ask you the same
thing, but I didn’t hear your reply.”

“I told him no,” Che said quietly as he turned on the faucet and rinsed out the

coffee cups, being as careful in his movements as he was in answering. He didn’t want
to start out his relationship with Sophia by lying to her. The fact was that Che did have
extensive military experience. He’d fought in thousands of battles in his lifetime, always
on the side that pulled most strongly for his sense of justice, when the nameless,
inscrutable power of Judgment told that it was not only right, but that it was good to
intervene and serve as her fist in the material world. He had fought with his own short-
lived flesh and he had battled through the bodies of human soldiers that Fate had
marked as heroes.

Beth Kery

In many ways, Che Ammadon was the living embodiment of the human archetype

of the warrior.

He hadn’t been entirely lying earlier when he alluded to the fact to Tony Mendelero

that there may be complications between what he was and Sophia’s well-documented
antiwar attitudes. Che was considered to be the foremost expert among his people in
matters of warfare and combat. It wasn’t as if Che was pro-war. Most conflicts were
based on ignorance and could undoubtedly be avoided if something was done
proactively to ensure that negative energy was not built up to the point of explosion.
But Che saw things from the more objective, wide-angle stance of the universe.
Sometimes war was wrong, and sometimes war was needed for change. Karma and
energy required their outlet and they wouldn’t be denied. Che didn’t see that as “good”
or “bad” any more than he saw cataclysmic events such as the violent volcanic activity
that had made Lake Tahoe eons ago as being “good” or “bad”. It just was.

He certainly hoped that their differing views weren’t a point of contention between

him and Sophia.

Sophia noticed that he treated the chipped coffee cups like they were the finest of

china as he rinsed them. She couldn’t take her eyes off his large, blunt fingers as they
moved with such finesse. Another shiver coursed through her, this time feathering the
skin of her chest, like a delicate, subtle touch.

“But…?” She waited tensely as Che glanced down at her with mild surprise. Her

tension gave way when he smiled. Humor danced in his aquamarine eyes. His grin had
the same effect as golden sunlight reflecting in warm, rippling water.

“I was being honest, Sophia. Or at least, honest in the spirit that they asked the

question. I’ve never served in any official capacity in the military, and neither has Eli or
Bale.” Che sensed that she was about to demand a more specific answer, so he
forestalled her with an offensive maneuver.

“Sophia, I think it would be a good idea for you to stay at the lodge with me for the

rest of your vacation.”

Subtle Touch

Chapter Four

“What?” Sophia asked, clearly knocked off-center by his sober statement.
Che shrugged with forced casualness as he set a cup in the plastic drainer. “It

makes sense, after the break-in tonight and after what you told the police about that
guy stalking leaving you those obscene messages on your cell phone. Not to mention
that little piece of information that cop let slip about finding that woman’s body
dumped in a ravine not ten miles from here that looked like she’d been raped by a…”
He stopped abruptly, knowing that Sophia had heard what the cop had said and not
caring to repeat it—like she’d been raped by a meat tenderizer.

He finished his thought in his head. And after the creator of that vile thought form that

attacked you on the Astral Plane the night before last just happened to show up in your bedroom
with a knife that could have gutted an elephant. He needed to have a long discussion with
Bale and the rest of the Grigori Council about that as soon as possible. Che only had the
opportunity to utter a few terse telepathic sentences about how Asmoday had found a
way to control emotionally unstable, violent thought forms and their human producers
through the medium of the Astral Plane. He could tell that Bale was eager to be away to
discuss it right this second.

The Borderlands of the Astral Plane were peppered with dangerous thought forms.

Usually, those violent manifestations of desire only had an effect on dreamers of
individuals with similar thought and emotional vibrational patterns. The thought forms
of a serial killer like John Wayne Gacy, for instance, definitely had an impact on other
human beings thoughts and emotions, usually via states like a trance, dreams or even in
psychosis. But the thoughts of John Wayne Gacy as they manifested themselves on the
Astral Plane were only attracted to like-minded thought forms. The thoughts and
desires of someone like John Wayne Gacy could influence and even magnify the
thoughts and desires of a Jeffrey Dalmer, for instance, because of their possibly similar
vibrational rates and quality.

These dark, cancerous manifestations usually conglomerated in the denser areas of

the astral world, the region that the Watchers called the Borderlands. Typically, Che
never gave a second thought to crossing the Borderlands. Thought forms and the
elementals they used to take form there were just as repellent to him as his spirit was
unattractive to them.

But Sophia’s luminous and refined spirit was just as different from the heavy, rabid

thought forms that populated the Borderlands as Che’s. Yet somehow, Asmoday had
used his own focus of Will to train the elemental, violent essence onto her.

And what was more frightening, Asmoday had moved the power of influence in

the opposite direction. If Che didn’t miss his guess, Asmoday had somehow managed

Beth Kery

to implant secret information—Sophia Galanis’ whereabouts—to the actual human in
the material world that had created the violent thought form. It may have been done
clumsily, and without reference to Che’s protection, but the plan had the alarming
ability to work, given the sheer numbers of violent fantasies that too many people could
produce with shocking focus and intensity. And more specifically, given Sophia’s
celebrity status, she was likely the target of a frighteningly large amount of them.

The realization terrified him. Asmoday’s manipulations in the astral world might be

providing powerful surges of manic motivation and the grandiose illusion of infinite
power to already violently insane individuals, along with all the necessary
demographics and instructions in how to make their sick fantasies a reality.

But something even worse was gnawing away at Che’s usual unflappability.
It would appear that Asmoday possessed prior knowledge of what Sophia was—a

woman powerful enough to be a Watcher mate. How else was it possible that he’d
planned to attack her with the diseased thought form, even before Che had full
awareness of what Sophia was?

Sophia folded her arms at her waist in what he recognized as a defensive gesture.

Great. He’d come on too strong once again.

“That’s very generous of you to offer, Che, especially after everything you and your

friends did here tonight.” She shook her head as if to clear it. “I still can’t believe it
happened.”

“You’re in shock.”
The chilling image of the hatred in the second man’s eyes earlier when he’d looked

at her, the snarl of rage that bared his teeth effectively vanished when she glanced up
and her gaze locked with Che’s. The seconds seemed to lengthen along a dimension
that Sophia had never before divined. He looked so appealingly real to her, so
amazingly present. His body, so big and vibrant and male, seemed to pull at her like a
powerful magnet that she was having great difficulty in resisting. She sighed. Who was
she kidding anyway? There couldn’t be more than a handful of straight women alive
who could resist Che Ammadon. She would do well to keep reminding herself that his
boundless sex appeal and potent charm were impersonal forces of nature, like the tide
or the brilliant sunlight of a summer’s day, not agents that were meant specifically for
Sophia Galanis.

“Maybe a little,” she finally admitted. “I’ve had my share of strange incidents over

the years, but this was the most…frightening.” She stilled when he cupped her shoulder
in his palm. His deep, low voice soothed her. His touch felt good…so right.

“You know as well as I do how big the Sierra Lodge is. There’s room for everyone

there, with room to spare. Wouldn’t you feel a little safer knowing there was someone
within shouting distance?”

It was on the tip of her tongue to remind him of Tony, but she abruptly stopped

herself when she saw the mildly incredulous expression in Che’s eyes. Damn. He was a
magician, the way he could read her mind. The unbidden, flagrantly arousing image of

Subtle Touch

what it would be like to look into those eyes while he thrust his cock in and out of her
caused Sophia to blush. Would he be as exquisitely keyed in to her pleasure as he was
her thoughts? Che certainly seemed aware of them currently. Tony had been a pale,
nervous wreck ever since Eli had abruptly awoken him earlier and he’d seen the man
struggling on Sophia’s floor. He hardly inspired a sense of instinctual trust in Sophia
the way that Che did. And then there was the fact that—

“He’s leaving tomorrow evening. Weren’t you planning on staying for the week?”
“Yes, but plans were made to be changed,” she said briskly as she straightened and

broke eye contact with Che. If she kept staring into those depthless aquamarine eyes,
she would be his willing slave in a matter of seconds. And Sophia Galanis was a slave
to no man.

She realized that Tony was speaking to her from across the room.
“I couldn’t agree more, Sophia. We’ll both fly out of Reno tomorrow. We can

always reschedule with Andy Moore back in Los Angeles,” Tony said anxiously. He
was relieved to hear that Sophia was going to change her plans. He would feel
obligated to volunteer to stay at the guesthouse with her if she insisted on staying. And
he’d be damned if he wanted to be in the vicinity of any more knife-wielding lunatics.
The guy that Bale Ammadon had dragged into the yard earlier foamed…actually foamed
at the mouth in crazed rage when he caught a glimpse of Sophia and he realized that his
sick plans were being thwarted. The sight had made Tony’s bowels spasm alarmingly.
If Bale Ammadon didn’t have the build of a linebacker and the unruffled calm of Lake
Tahoe on a windless day, Tony had not a doubt that the crazy son of a bitch would have
been tearing at Sophia like a rabid animal. And Tony didn’t want to be next on that sick
fucker’s list.

“Sophia?” Tony’s lips had flattened into an irritated line.
“I’m not going to let those two jerks ruin my vacation, Tony. I’m not leaving Tahoe

until next Sunday.”

“But Sophia, that’s not—”
“I’m staying here, Tony. At the guesthouse.” Her eyes flashed defiantly to Che’s.

“End of story. Besides, thanks to my neighbor’s heroics, I’m safer now than I was before
those two nuts were put behind bars.” She gave Bale and Eli a warm, genuine smile.
Her eyes as they flicked over to Che became notably more determined. They widened
in surprise when she took in the wintry cast that had entered his usually summertime
eyes.

Che took her firmly by her elbow and pushed her toward the door. “If I could just

have a minute of your time, Sophia, there’s something I need to discuss with you.”

Sophia bit her lip to still her protest when she sensed his implacable determination.

She got the uneasy feeling that if she’d resisted Che at that moment, he would have
tossed her over his shoulder and continued with his plans completely undeterred. The
grim warrior had returned, making it impossible to believe that the warm, charming
man had ever existed. Sophia was all too aware of Bale’s and Eli’s stony expressions

Beth Kery

and Tony’s disbelieving one as they watched Che herd her out the door. Once they
were outside, he led her down the front steps toward the small, private beach that
Sophia had been sunbathing on with so much delight the past few days. The night was
relatively still, but chilly. The breaking waves made a soothing noise that stood in direct
contrast to Sophia’s chaotic emotions.

“What’s so important, Che?” she asked when he finally paused and spun her

around to face him. He’d led her beneath the shadow of a massive pine, and all Sophia
could make out of his features was his tall outline against the starry night sky.

“This,” he muttered before he pulled her to him roughly. Sophia’s mouth had just

begun to open in surprise when she realized what he was planning. She never got out a
syllable of protest. All the sensory nerves in her body leapt to abrupt, shimmering life,
and she was drowning in the sensations of Che Ammadon.

He moved his lips hungrily over hers until she began to unthinkingly reciprocate

his kiss. Sophia both heard and felt his low growl of seeming approval as it vibrated
from his hard flesh to her own. He slid one large hand up the back of her skull, tangling
his fingers in her loose hair, holding her steady as his tongue speared her lips. Sophia
supposed that what followed was technically called kissing, but she felt more like she
was being sexually branded. He felt so hot and hard against her. His tongue thoroughly
dominated her awareness as he alternated between slowly savoring and boldly fucking
the depths of her mouth.

He demanded a complete response from her, all or nothing. Sophia found herself

giving all, both excited and sobered by the extent of all that she suddenly felt that she
had to give. Her body strained against his hard flesh. She gripped his wide shoulders
helplessly as powerful waves of sexual heat flooded her.

By the Gods, he needed to have her now. The chilly night air didn’t matter, Bale’s

tense warning that they needed to talk didn’t matter, the fact that they were outside,
where he couldn’t possibly hope to officially complete the mating process with any
degree of comfort didn’t matter. The only thing that mattered was this lovely, generous,
electrifyingly exciting woman in his arms, her intoxicating taste, the sexy, catchy moans
of pleasure that exuded from her throat, the feeling of her soft hair between his fingers,
the sensation of her full breasts pressing into his ribs, the tips pointed and hard,
thrilling and maddening him. The skin stretched painfully across his swollen,
thrumming cock, seemingly incapable of handling the volume of blood and desire that
hammered through his flesh. He was fit to bursting for her—he, Che Ammadon, who
had never lost control over a woman in his many, many millennia of conscious
existence.

Sophia made a confused sound of protest when he raised his head and she was

deprived of his hot, talented mouth. Then she felt his hands moving with rough
precision at the buttons of her flannel shirt. Although she couldn’t make out his features
in the darkness, she could easily imagine the stark determination on his handsome face.

“Che?” Her voice sounded shaky in the darkness. She knew that she should say

something to put a stop to their crazy behavior, but her sex ached and seeped with

Subtle Touch

intense arousal. She’d never responded to a kiss like that. She felt winded, stunned,
half-wild with pure lust.

“Ohh…” Her head fell back and she moaned softly at the sensation of Che’s hands

slipping into her partially unbuttoned shirt and cupping both of her breasts at once. He
wasn’t exactly rough, but he wasn’t gentle, either. What those large, warm hands were,
Sophia admitted to herself with a ragged exhalation of pleasure, were confident and
knowing and…capable…oh, yes, very capable. He massaged and plumped her flesh in
his palms. His thumbs sought out her sensitive centers and whispered over them at
first, before returning to flick and tease the turgid flesh until Sophia cried in
uncontrollable desire.

Che thought her breasts were perfect, very firm—larger than medium-sized, but

still delicate and infinitely feminine. He loved their pointed, thrusting quality. Her
responsive nipples excited him almost unbearably. He’d nearly lost control at the sight
of them bared earlier. The vision tempted his mind as he filled his palms with her flesh.
In immediate physical manifestation of his thoughts, Che’s cock leapt upwards in
aroused agony. He shook his head slightly. Full corporeality was mind-bogglingly
powerful. He couldn’t bring himself to let go of Sophia’s breasts, so he used his hold on
them to bring her nearer, keeping her steady while he pressed his engorged cock into
the soft juncture of her thighs. He gritted his teeth when she thrust her hips against him
in a mutual caress.

“Ah, you feel that? Gods, I never even knew what wanting meant until I saw you,

woman.”

A broken sound of longing exuded from Sophia’s throat. She spread her hands and

moved them up over his neck, hungrily seeking out the sensation of warm, smooth skin
beneath his T-shirt. His voice had sounded so stark, so disbelieving…so desperate.
Surely it was the out-of-control sex hormones that were currently bathing her neurons,
keeping her from rational thought. A small part of her consciousness told her that it was
ridiculous to think that a man like Che went around spilling his heart out to strange
women without some ulterior motive, the most obvious one currently being to get a
piece of ass. But let’s face it, Sophia had pretty out-of-control desire for Che’s muscular
ass herself. Not to mention the excitingly full, dense package between his thighs that
she couldn’t stop rubbing against like a cat in heat.

“I want you too, Che.” She bit her lip over another groan as he used his thumb and

forefinger to lightly pinch her right nipple into impossibly further pronouncement. His
mouth came down to worship the side of her neck, feeling hot and insistent on her
prickly, sensitized skin. “But we should talk about this…oh God…or…at least, wait
until later, when we have some…ah, that feels so good…but…privacy…yes,
privacy…and…”

He raised his head. “No.”
“N…no?”

Beth Kery

“No. I’ve waited for longer than you’ll ever even be able to imagine, honey. I’m

tired of second-guessing myself on this. We’ll wait to have intercourse later, if that’s
what you want, but I am going to touch you, Sophia, my flesh to yours, right here, right
now,” he said in a harsh, desire-bitten voice. “Shh,” he forestalled her when he sensed
that she was about to protest and why. “I told you earlier tonight that I’d always protect
you when I’m making love to you. The others won’t hear or sense or see anything. Now
hush. Hold still while I suck on your pretty nipples.”

Sophia’s gasp of shock that he’d just admitted that he knew about her erotic,

seemingly hallucinatory experience from earlier segued to one of stunned pleasure. He
had deliberately moved her thick, warm flannel shirt off her right nipple, exposing the
sensitive flesh to the cool night air before he bent over and encapsulated the tip in his
hot mouth. The abrupt contrast in temperatures, the sensation of him tugging on her
nipple erotically, alternating with the sensation of his wet, rough tongue lashing at her
flesh created a churning meltdown in Sophia’s core. She practically choked at the
enormity of pleasure that rocked her body.

The sounds of Sophia’s surprised, honest arousal gratified him like nothing ever

had. He leaned back slightly after a moment, as if to inspect her breast in the pitch
darkness. She sighed unevenly as he used his encircling hand to move her wet, stiff
nipple across his closed lips in an erotic glide. Che was intoxicated by the sensation,
letting just the tip of his hungry tongue join in on the experience. He kept himself
immobile and gently manipulated her nipple against him. He felt her shiver and
instinctively knew that the cool night air mixing with his own heat was amplifying the
sensation for her.

“Do you like this, Sophia?” he asked distractedly as he brought her turgid flesh

against his slightly opened teeth and rubbed her ever so gently across the rough upper
and lower ridge. She trembled like a leaf in a brisk wind.

“Yes,” she panted. “Oh, yes.”
“Let’s see how much.” He carefully pulled her insulated shirt over her taut, damp

nipple, protecting her from the bite of the cool air.

Sophia felt an electric thrill run through her when he straightened and reached for

her pants. She wanted him to kiss her again, to stroke and suck her nipples until she
was mindless and thrashing with need.

But he didn’t.
He didn’t speak or caress her as he deliberately unfastened her jeans and peeled

back the opening, granting him access to her. And his single-minded intensity made her
even more hot and anticipatory than if he’d been encouraging her submission with his
mouth and hands. The crisp, cool hair seemed to tingle on the moist, exposed lips of her
outer sex. She felt his tension, too, like a tangible pressure, a power coiling incredibly
tight but a force equally as strong, urging it to spring free. He slowly pushed her jeans
down a few inches over her hips, letting his hands linger to caress the upper globes of

Subtle Touch

her partially bared ass. He raised one hand and held her at the waist while the other
worked its way under her shirt and spread across her belly.

For a moment, he didn’t move.
Their awareness of each other in the darkness was so exquisite that Sophia

imagined their life forces throbbing and pulsing in tandem. The heat from his palms
vibrated into her. She had the strange sensation of being sandwiched between his big
hands, held immobilized, helpless…indescribably cherished.

“You shaved,” he said quietly, his volume pitched just above the sound of the

waves crashing on the beach. When he sensed her surprise, because he hadn’t yet
touched her, he gave a small smile. “I saw earlier, when you were dressing. I’m sorry
for staring like that. I couldn’t help myself.”

Sophia couldn’t help laugh softly, given the present circumstances. “It’s okay.”
“Why did you?”
Sophia sighed unevenly. He was making tiny, erotic circles over the tender skin of

her pelvis, just agonizing inches away from her hungry sex.

“Why what?” she panted.
“Why did you shave? Is that how you like to be? Naked and smooth, totally

exposed to your lover?”

“I…yes, I suppose. I mean, no.” She grunted in vague dissatisfaction with her

answer and the fact that he wasn’t touching her where she most needed it. “I don’t
really know, Che. I just did it this morning, on a whim.” She bit her lip and wiggled her
hips slightly. She felt so horny that she even craved the misty caress of the cool night air
on her damp cunt.

“Are you being honest, Sophia?” he asked tenderly as he increased the pressure of

his hold on her and lowered his mouth to make nibbling, teasing movements with his
lips and teeth on her ear. Sophia felt liquid spurt warmly between her thighs when he
sealed the opening with his mouth and kissed her repeatedly before sliding his tongue
in to taste her.

“What…what do you mean?” she wondered distractedly. Her clit burned and

ached so acutely as the crisp night air coolly licked at it that she began to wonder if she
was going to combust without him ever touching her.

“I think you did it for me.”
Her mouth fell open in disbelief. Was he teasing her again by dropping references

to the fact that he somehow knew about her dreams, fantasies and hallucinations? “Che,
what’s that supposed—”

“Hush,” he whispered next to her mouth as his hand slid down and cradled her sex

warmly for several full, breathless seconds. He inhaled sharply and buried his head in
the crevice between her shoulder and neck. His breath burned thickly in his lungs, the
pain momentarily throbbing in sympathy with the ache of his cock. He pulsed the hard
ridge of his upper palm gently against the damp, smooth flesh of her sex lips.

Beth Kery

“Sophia,” he gritted out harshly. Before he could stop himself he reached down and

pressed his middle finger to her entry. She was molten and warm, flowing over his
hand. Despite her abundant lubrication, however, he had to twist his finger to gain
entry to her, and even then, he was only granted access up to the first joint of his finger.

“By the Gods, you’re tight,” he muttered next to her neck, his voice thick with lust.

“But you’re all honeyed up, aren’t you? You’re running down my hand. You did like
having your nipples sucked on, didn’t you? Spread your legs, Sophia,” he ordered
abruptly. “Let me in.”

His tense, hard voice combined with the erotic content of his words had Sophia so

hot that she wasn’t even sure if her legs would hold her anymore, let alone if she could
move them. He seemed to understand. His arm encircled her waist, holding her steady
as she did what he’d asked, even encouraging her to give a little of her weight to him,
so that she could slightly lean back and give his finger a better angle for entry.

“That’s right, just relax,” he soothed as he worked his finger high up into her snug,

slippery sheath.

Sophia’s head fell back and she made a muffled keening sound as he began to not

only move his finger in and out of her, but also to shift it subtly back and forth and
around when he was buried in her. For a few seconds, Sophia moaned and wiggled her
hips with mixed arousal and vague discomfort at his bold movements. She yelped
when he smacked her bottom, not hard, but causing enough of a cracking noise to
garner her complete attention.

“Hold still,” he said tensely. Then he reached high and rubbed. His mouth covered

hers abruptly, stifling her sharp scream of pleasure.

He moved his other hand downward as he steadily stimulated her sweet spot. Her

jeans were only pushed down to the middle of her ass, which was making this whole
process tight and constraining, but strangely piquing Sophia’s increasingly mindless
excitement. She wondered if he was going to shove her pants down farther. But instead,
he merely palmed an entire ass cheek, spreading his big hand wide across both her
jeans and the flesh of her bottom that he’d bared. He gripped her ass firmly, his biceps
flexing, and began moving her in a counter-rhythm against his fucking, rubbing finger.

“Oh God, Che! I’m going to—”
“Come,” he both finished for her and ordered. He shoved another finger into her

silky channel.

By the Fathers, he didn’t know how he was going to be able to wait two seconds, let

alone hours or—the Gods forbid—days before he buried himself in the heaven of that.
His anticipation for her first Rush while he loved her corporeally was so sharp that he
wouldn’t have wagered that he wouldn’t just spontaneously explode in his jeans when
it hit him. The muscular walls of her pussy convulsed around his fingers. He heard her
surprised cry as pleasure broke over her. Then the outer edges of her Rush smacked
into him, suffusing his being with wave after wave of energy. His rarified bodies and,
eventually, his physical body vibrated and shimmered at the impact, creating profound

Subtle Touch

changes in his subtle essences as well as his flesh. His eyes opened wide in shocked
pleasure, unknowingly matching Sophia’s expression as she climaxed.

When Sophia came to awareness, she realized that she was clumsily pulling down

heavily on Che’s T-shirt as she grasped blindly at his waist. Her sense of unsteadiness
must have all been from her earth-shattering orgasm, though, she realized dazedly after
a moment because Che’s hold below her waist was firm and steady.

“I’m sorry,” she mumbled incoherently as she let go of the material that she’d been

stretching out with her gripping fingers. He pushed her reassuringly into him and she
sagged forward with an uneven sigh, her cheek pressed to his lower chest.

“An apology hardly seems appropriate.”
Sophia craned back her head slightly, wishing she could see his face in the

darkness. She had the feeling that there would be a small, sinful grin on his face. For
some reason, that realization brought her to the far more startling one that his fingers
were still embedded in her body. Unconsciously, she gripped him. He growled softly.

“Are you trying to tell me we’re not finished yet, Sophia?”
“No, I wasn’t trying to tell you that!” she hissed, suddenly acutely aware of where

she was and what she was doing with a man who was practically a stranger. She
realized how she must have sounded like a stepped-on cat, and she prevaricated. “I’m
sorry. I know how selfish that must have sounded. But I’m not really all that
comfortable—”

“You were plenty comfortable just a second ago.”
“Fooling around outside in the cold.”
“You really don’t feel all that cold, Sophia. In fact—”
“I…I can’t think of why I would be acting this way. It must be the aftereffects of the

adrenaline, or maybe the shock. The fact is, Che, I’m…really uncomfortable at the idea
of doing this when you’re a stranger to me.”

She was surprised when he didn’t respond to that with tender amusement like he

had her other statements. Tension palpably increased in his lean body. She suddenly
tingled with growing anticipation at every point of contact of their flesh. His low
chuckle felt like a sensual rake down her neck.

“We’re not strangers, Sophia. And don’t kid yourself. We’re definitely not finished,

either.”

“But…oh! That’s so not fair, Che.” He’d just slid his fingers slowly, sensually out of

her, only to slice mercilessly back in when she began to speak. Sophia felt like every
sensory nerve in her body just blinked eagerly back into the “go” position. “Don’t you
think we should…?”

She forgot how to speak suddenly when he slid one of his soaking fingers between

the tender slit of her outer lips. Sophia just stared blankly for a moment, panting. It was
the first time that she’d ever been touched there with her sex thoroughly bared and
clean. And she was so wet, so slippery. God, she would be embarrassed if she weren’t

Beth Kery

becoming so mindlessly aroused all over again. His fingers glided between her swollen
lips without the slightest hindrance or obstruction, completely friction free. Oh Lord,
the pleasure was unknown to her, so hot…so forbidden in its sheer intensity…so…

“Beautiful. Thank you for shaving, honey. It’s going to feel so good to slide my

tongue into your smooth, soft folds. Do you feel that?” he asked hoarsely before he
flicked his finger over her with a precision that made her cry out sharply. “You’re so
aroused that your clit is swelling down between your lips.” He rubbed the hard ridge of
his finger along the hyper-sensitized, slick kernel of flesh to demonstrate to her with an
accuracy that had her eyes rolling back in her head. The friction he created had a hot,
sizzling quality.

Because he could no longer resist, Che bent and ate the sexy little moans that began

to erupt erratically between her lips. Her taste entranced him. He began to love her
instinctively, sensually, without thought, like a spirit that had been caught and snared
by mesmerizing music and voluptuous sensual delights.

But he was a fully corporeal spirit now, and his painfully aroused flesh wouldn’t let

him forget it.

As if in confirmation of this, Sophia began moving her hands restlessly over his

body. She was losing herself again, falling utterly under the spell of his magical fingers
as they applied exquisite pressure on her clit, taking her inexorably up the slope of
orgasm once again. His other hand smoothed across the upper curve of her bottom in a
gentle, erotic caress that represented a genius counterstroke to its partner’s violently
arousing movements.

Her own fingers mindlessly sought out his skin beneath his T-shirt. The relentless

tide of pleasure that he evoked in her with such ease with his hands and sensual kisses
was only amplified as her awareness sharpened on the sensations of his dense,
muscular flesh. Her hand moved upward in fascination along the gorgeous slant that
led from his trim waist, over his rib cage, until it rested several inches below his
armpits, encircling the wide expanse of his chest. She tingled with excitement as she felt
him go utterly still beneath her. She was hyperaware of his lungs expanding for air and
of the strong beat of his heart between her cradling hands.

“You’re so beautiful,” she whispered in dawning awe. Her hands began to seek out

all the sensations of him—the warm smoothness of his dense skin so tightly gloving
muscle, bone and sinew, the erotic feeling of the crinkly hair at his chest beneath her
rubbing palms, the hard discs of his small, erect nipples under her sensitive fingertips.

“Sophia,” he gritted out between clenched teeth. He was one hundred percent

physical man, fully aware of his wanting flesh, as he firmly grasped her wrist and
placed her hand over his erect cock. He pressed himself to her, forcing her to
acknowledge the depth and the intensity of his need for her. “I feel like I’m burning
alive for you,” he admitted in a strangled voice.

Sophia needed no further encouragement. She pulled at his button fly roughly,

desperate to release what she felt beneath the material into her wanting hand. His tense,

Subtle Touch

erotic words of desire muttered harshly into her ear between hot kisses only made her
more anxious to touch him. She had to stretch his briefs tautly in order to spring his
entire length free. And then he was in her hand, the feeling of him like nothing she had
ever before experienced, like vibrant, striking life itself manifested into hot, hard flesh.
She fisted his throbbing, arrow-straight stalk greedily, stunned and aroused by the fact
that his thickness prevented her from completely encircling him. Her cry of pleasure as
she swept across the defined ridge and onto the even thicker, fleshy head of his penis
blended with Che’s groan of immense satisfaction at her touch.

Suddenly, Sophia froze as a voice penetrated her focused attention.
“Sophia? Are you out there?”
Sophia’s hand jerked reflexively in shock.
“Don’t you dare move away, Sophia Galanis,” Che breathed out with eerie calm.
“Sophia?” Another shout penetrated the pitch blackness.
“It’s Tony,” Sophia whispered desperately.
“I’m aware of who it is,” Che said. He resumed moving his fingers over the smooth,

delicate folds of her cunt, aroused all over again at her gratifying amount of glossy
lubrication. He heard her sharp intake of breath.

“Keep stroking my cock.”
“But Che, he’s—”
“Not going to bother us, honey. Never going to. I told you before. I want you to

trust me on this.”

His words seemed to hover between them like a palpable force.
Che gritted his teeth in frustration, feeling the edge of her indecision like a knife’s

blade. They both heard the guesthouse door open and the sound of Bale’s deep,
authoritative voice as he appreciatively intervened. Che shifted his fingers on Sophia’s
ass, burying his forefinger down into the warm, soft furrow between her buttocks. He
used the intimacy of the hold to pulse her steadily against his manipulations on her clit.

“Oh God, Che!” Sophia cried out in sharp arousal, her concern about being caught

while on the verge of orgasm with Che’s huge, hard dick in her hands utterly
incinerated by desire.

“By the fucking Fathers, Sophia, will you move your hand?” Che muttered in a half

crazed, tense voice. Just the feeling of her small, warm hand gripping his sensitive head
so tightly was about to bring him off, and thousands of years of being incorporeal had
drilled into Che’s being that a Watcher never, never climaxed before he’d received his
lover’s Rush.

His crudity and desperation cut through her fog of pleasure as her orgasm built.

She made tiny, sharp cries of arousal deep in her throat as she fisted him down to his
balls and stroked him back up to his puffy, arrow-like head, then repeated the process
with a speed and wildness that matched the out-of-control crescendo he built in her in
return. God, it felt so good. He felt so good. She had to move her entire arm, not just her

Beth Kery

hand and wrist, in order to do full justice to every inch of his cock. It excited her beyond
belief, as did the sound of his low, guttural grunts of arousal. She found herself jacking
him off with an energetic enthusiasm previously unknown to her as she tipped over the
wave of her own shattering orgasm.

“Oh, no…oh God…Oh yes!” she sputtered in mindless release.
Che could barely keep his legs steady as her Rush sheared into him relentlessly.

She’d momentarily faltered in her highly appreciated, almost athletic pounding of his
cock while she whimpered in orgasm. With a single-minded focus that would have
shocked him just a day before, Che put his hand on top of hers and firmly signaled that
he wanted—no, needed—for her to finish him off. By the Gods, no wonder human
males were considered to be so selfish when it came to sex. How could you be anything
else with this flaming, throbbing flesh always demanding its due between your legs?

He was vaguely surprised that he had enough common sense remaining to

remember to mentally manipulate Sophia to keep her eyes closed as he crested. He had
none of the misgivings that Sophia did about their privacy, roaring out his gratification
uninhibitedly as the tightly wound coils of his powerful control snapped free. The
pleasure that racked through him would have brought a weaker man to his knees.

“Oh…oh my God…that was so…” she muttered wildly between pants for air.
The sound of her shocked, disoriented voice brought Che back from the outer

realms. “Shh,” he soothed instinctively, raising his hand to her scalp in a reassuring
gesture. “It was incredible, Sophia.” He became vaguely aware that she was resisting
bringing her body directly against his. He glanced down in vague irritation, wanting
her softness and warmth more than anything at that moment. His irritation faded
instantly when he sensed how she was standing awkwardly with her right hand out
from her body.

“I’m…it’s…I don’t want to get you…”
“Never mind,” Che said with a low chuckle as he shrugged out of his T-shirt. They

didn’t speak for a several seconds as he carefully wiped his cooling cum from her hand,
shirt and sleeve. Although he’d ejaculated while in a physical form innumerable times
before, he’d never come anywhere near this volume. And the quality of his semen was
different too, now that he’d become so much more powerful in the material world. He
wondered sadly why even the seed that his new body could produce wasn’t viable yet
for reproduction. He almost immediately forced down the feelings of shame that
accompanied the thought. Watchers were highly vulnerable about the fact that they
were, for the most part, sterile. It had been the reason their powerful Fathers had
rejected and abandoned them on Earth.

Besides, one day—even if that day was a millennium in the future—he would likely

become corporeal enough to father a child with Sophia. Even the thought made him a
little dizzy.

A sense of incredulity and unease began to filter into Sophia’s awareness as Che

silently wiped off what seemed to her like a gallon of cum. The erotic memory of him

Subtle Touch

throbbing in her hand and climaxing so powerfully for such an extended period of time
while she determinedly worked every last drop of semen out of him would likely be
indelibly imprinted in her brain until the day she died. Embarrassment caused her
cheeks to flush.

“Now your T-shirt is soaked,” she murmured uncomfortably when he finally

finished.”

“I don’t care,” he said truthfully as he wrapped her in his arms again, bent his

knees and lowered his head so that he could inhale the singular smell of her where it
was concentrated at her neck. It was true, of course. He didn’t give it a second thought.
His clothing was created from the elements of his own subtle bodies. He’d wait until he
wasn’t holding her and didn’t require corporeality. When he willed himself back into
his physical body, his T-shirt would be officially cum-free.

He was so lost in the sensation of her that it took him a moment to sense her rising

tension.

“Sophia…”
“No, Che, you’re not going to talk me out of it this time,” she whispered with rising

panic as she forced herself to move away from the intoxicating sensation and scent of
his warm, bare skin. “I can’t believe we did that! I can’t believe I did that. God, do you
think Tony heard?” Who did she think she was kidding, anyway? They must have all
heard there at the end, she realized with rising embarrassment.

“Nobody heard us, Sophia. How many times do I have to tell you?” he asked stiffly.
“And how could that be, exactly, Che?” she asked in a voice gone brittle from the

dawning realization of what she’d just done on top of the already bizarre circumstances
of the evening. “What? Do you have superhuman powers or something?”

“I can do a lot of things that the physical body of a human can’t, Sophia. That’s

because I’m only partially human. But you already suspected that. Part of you already
knows it.”

He almost cursed out loud when he felt the wave of disorientation and shock that

overwhelmed her as a result of his calm words. Their mating bond had just
strengthened immeasurably for him to feel her emotions so acutely.

“You’re out of your mind.”
“That would be a convenient explanation for you, wouldn’t it? Too bad it’s not the

truth. There are so many things I have to tell you, Sophia, if—”

“No.”
“No?” Che repeated with tense incredulity.
“No.” Sophia struggled to free herself of his arms. “This was incredible, like you

said, Che. But I need to go inside. I…really don’t have anything to say to you right
now.”

He sighed dispiritedly. By the Fathers, had he really just managed to chase away his

life mate not once, but two times in one evening? Gods, he was never going to hear the

Beth Kery

end of it from Duse when he eventually learned of it. He forced himself to stay utterly
still as she fumbled with her jeans in the darkness.

“Sophia?”
“Yes?” Sophia stopped abruptly in her flustered flight from him at the compelling

sound of her name on his lips. Not all that anxious to run away, are you? she told herself
bitterly.

“Your shirt is still unbuttoned.”
“Oh.” How had he known that in this pitch blackness? Sophia wondered, not really sure

that she wanted to know the answer.

He waited in silence while she fastened her shirt.
“Okay, well…thank you again, Che. I’ll um…see you…that is…”
“That’s right, honey. You’ll see me tomorrow.”
Sophia’s mouth sagged open at the soft reply that held just a hint of steel, as though

he were daring her to defy him. She didn’t have the energy or the composure to do so at
the moment.

She shivered uncontrollably as she climbed the steps. The temperature must only be

in the high forties. Yet she knew that one of the foremost sensations that would remain
in her memory from that crazy, erotic interlude with Che Ammadon was heat—
palpable, sizzling heat.

Subtle Touch

Chapter Five

A stunned silence clung heavily in the air around King Bale Ammadon and the five

members of the Grigori Council. Bale’s abrupt, shocking news had managed to do the
unthinkable. It had stopped Che from ruminating and fretting about Sophia, something
that had been impossible for him to do since she’d left him standing on that beach alone
last night. Of course, since she was insisting on staying in the guesthouse, Che had
watched over her in incorporeal form all night. He’d flip-flopped repeatedly on his
decision to complete the mating process while she slept, but by the time dawn arrived
and Sophia showed signs of waking, their spirits were still not yet fully locked, one to
the other.

His experience with her last night only made him desire her trust more than he ever

wanted anything. Of course, he could continue to strive for her trust once the mating
bond was complete, but somehow it didn’t seem the same to him. Surely he could keep
her safe, like he had last night, for just a little longer? After all, he reasoned, the threat to
Sophia last night might have originated from a Watcher, but it was humans who were
sent to put it into action. Placing his sigil on his bonded mate would only protect her
from being harmed by a Watcher, not a human being.

But by the time Bale had informed him that morning of a crucial meeting for the

Grigori Council, Che was convinced that he was an absolute moron for not completing
the mating bond. None of his trusted friends—Bale, Eli or Duse—would be able to
guard Sophia while they were all at the meeting. Che had no choice but to put the trust
into the hands of one of his knights. He’d cultivated a profound trust for the four men
who had pledged service to him. They were all fine Watchers, eager to learn from him
about the complex arts of warfare and self-defense. They were loyal to the last. He
would have trusted them with his own conscious existence.

But this was Sophia. It was different. Everything was different among them since

Day had raped and murdered Helen Ammadon. Now any Watcher—yes, even one of
his faithful knights—might follow in Day’s twisted path, hungry for the incredible
power that a woman like Sophia could bring them, even if he killed her in the process.

He’d sat through the meeting in anguish over his decision, although he’d calmly

described his experiences with Day on the Astral Plane, the attacking thought form and
the subsequent attempts to harm Sophia. He’d answered the Grigori Council’s many
questions to the best of his abilities and given his honest hypothesis about what Day’s
plans might entail.

But his worries and ruminations about Sophia’s safety, not to mention whether or

not she would ever speak to him again, dropped out of existence when Bale impassively
informed the Council that the Dionytion Stone had been stolen.

Beth Kery

“How can you be sure it was stolen?” Dante asked after a long moment of stunned

silence.

They were meeting in the great hall of the lodge, a huge, airy room decorated in the

old Tahoe style, with enormous lodgepole pine columns for supports, deep, decadently
soft sofas and chairs arranged in multiple comfortable sitting arrangements around the
room, and floor-to-ceiling west-facing windows that directly overlooked Lake Tahoe.
The late morning, incandescent sunlight shining through the windows caused all of the
Watchers’ shocked faces to look unusually washed of color. The Dionytion Stone was
sacred to them, a relic that had existed since their earliest memories of the physical
world. Its use was undoubtedly connected to their origins as energy beings that could
become visible and manifest into physical matter with varying degrees of strength.

“The fact that the stained glass panes on one of the library windows at Dunleavy

was shattered and that the locked cabinet where the Stone was stored was hacked to
pieces as though someone was planning on using it for kindling gave me my first clue,”
Bale answered Dante blandly, referring to the ancient, deeply occult Ammadon
stronghold where Bale lived on the Isle of Skye.

“But Dunleavy has protective wards—”
Duse cut off Eli as he watched his brother Bale with an unusual expression on his

dark, handsome features. “Was anything else taken, Bale?”

Bale gave Duse a long, unreadable stare. Because he knew Bale and Duse so well,

Che could tell that a tense exchange had just passed between them, although their
communication had been private. It made him uneasy. This whole development left
him uneasy.

“No,” Bale eventually answered. “Only the Stone. And no…” Bale said as he

glanced over at Zep, answering his telepathic question aloud. “I don’t know who did it
or what their intentions are.”

Another tense silence followed their leader’s statement. The Dionytion Stone was

traditionally been used during the Dionytion Ceremony, the celebration of a Watcher
mate’s Second Change and her subsequent reunion with her mate and the rest of the
Watcher race. It was used ritualistically at the Issian Festival, as well. The Stone was
both an amplifier, but also a transformer used for turning subtle energy into material
substance—a compact, exponentially more precise Stonehenge, in a matter of speaking.
Its history was sacred to them, especially considering their unclear memories of their
origins. But even more crucially, the Stone was a powerful generator of energy. In the
wrong hands, it would be a formidable weapon.

Especially if the person who stole the Stone also controlled a Watcher mate…or a

woman powerful enough to be one.

Che stood abruptly. It took all of his considerable strength of Will not to just fade

out of the room and assure himself personally of Sophia’s safety. He stilled his urge and
momentarily calmed himself by engaging in a quick telepathic communication with
Shem, the knight who currently guarded Sophia. The reply assured him only partially,

Subtle Touch

and he wasn’t soothed until he sensed impressions from Sophia herself—sun-dappled
water, sensual heat and an uneasy feeling that had nothing to do with being in danger.

“This is connected to Asmoday, to his manipulations with humans on the Astral

Plane,” Che said tensely.

Dante and Zep both gave him incredulous looks. “How do you reach that

conclusion?” Zep challenged.

“How can you not?” Che asked just as aggressively. “We discover that Asmoday is

conscious, at least on the Astral Plane, and that he’s managed to learn how to control
emotionally unstable, violent thought forms and…yes!” Che countered before Duse
could interrupt with his previously expressed misgivings about Che’s next hypothesis.
“Manipulating those thought forms into the opposite direction and moving them like
chess pieces in the physical world.”

“Che, there’s no proof that those two men last night were related to the thought

form that attacked Sophia or any of Asmoday’s plans,” Duse repeated with only a trace
of exasperation in his voice.

“Yes, there is.”
One raven dark brow rose in curious challenge at Che’s steady assertion.
“Sophia is the proof. You haven’t met her yet, Duse. She’s amazingly sensitive

about subtle realities, although she admittedly doesn’t appear to have much conscious
knowledge of it. When she examined that asshole that broke into her room last night,
she recognized him all right, and more than just as being the guy who asked for her
autograph at the Lone Wolf. It just wasn’t in a way that she knew how to communicate
with words. But I was able to catch her meaning, unformed though it was. Part of
Sophia’s spirit recognized that she’d been in contact with something elemental about
that man. Part of her remembered being on the Astral Plane and being attacked by his
thought form.”

Duse studied Che for a long moment. He had to admit it was a possibility. His wife

was incredibly adroit at reading subtle energies and seeing patterns that he couldn’t.
Skylar also barely caught a glimpse of just how powerful she was. He had been trying,
with varying degrees of success, to communicate that to her. Only a portion of
Watchers’ powers stemmed from their inhuman fathers. Their exceptional mothers had
given them rare gifts, as well. And of course, women like Skylar and Sophia shared, not
only the slight traces of Watchers in their genes, but also a strong influence from their
unusual Watcher mothers. In the case of the four Ammadons, their mothers were more
than unusual, they were Druagish priestesses, women whose potential had been
identified from birth and who were subsequently taught to leash their power. Duse
continued to evolve in his understanding of the subtle essences of not only Watchers
and Watcher mates, but also the subtle bodies of human beings, invisible as they were
to most humans themselves.

“All right” was Duse’s only response after a considerable pause.

Beth Kery

“If you accept my assertion that Sophia recognized that human who attacked her

last night, then you must be able to accept that whoever willfully formed the channel
that allowed that violent thought form to attack her must be operating on the Astral
Plane as well. And who did I just happen to run into the second before I encountered
Sophia?”

“Asmoday,” Eli said with an unreadable expression.
“Exactly. But not only that, what has Day continually been obsessed with for the

past few millennia?”

Duse responded thoughtfully even though he knew Che meant it as a rhetorical

question. “The Rush Initiative. His efforts to change Watcher law based on the idea that
the power that Watcher mates can confer rightfully belongs to the entire race and not
just her Watcher lover. He was a convincing political force among us, cleverly posing
the whole conflict into the black-and-white issue of the powerful versus the powerless.
He was always making a big deal about how convenient it is that a large percentage of
Watcher leaders, both on the Grigori council and in the world community, are mated.
He conveniently forgot that what he suggested as an alternative would be the
equivalent of taking away the rights of an entire minority of our society—mated Watcher
women.”

Duse laughed humorously. “Skylar once put it this way, ‘I wasn’t put here on earth to

be some kind of power generator for your race.’”

Che waited while that puissant statement soaked into all their awareness, including

his own. “But after the Rush Initiative was voted down by Bale and the Grigori
Council,” he continued, “a countermovement was begun by a conservative faction. And
Day fought against that initiative fiercely and won. And that piece of legislation
involved—”

“The Dionytion Ceremony,” said Bale menacingly.
Che blinked once in surprise at the passion in Bale’s voice, as did several of the

other Grigori Council members. Everyone knew that Bale had grieved terribly after
Asmoday’s rape and the resulting death of his mate, Helen. He had shown remarkable
poise and strength in regards to Asmoday’s trial, however, and never overtly broke
Watcher law. The profound edge of anger in his voice just now reminded all of those
present, however, that it was highly unwise to cross Bale Ammadon.

“Exactly,” he said quietly. “And obviously, for something similar to the Dionytion

Ceremony to occur, something involving the harnessing of immense power, Day would
need not only a mate—like Skylar Ammadon, for instance, who he already tried to
abduct earlier—but the Stone.”

Another tense silence ensued.
“Despite all of your criticism against a man who isn’t here to defend himself, I can’t

help but recall,” Zep said quietly from where he sat at the edge of the group, “that the
two individuals who voted against the passage of the Mate Law, and thus continued the
ritual whereby Watchers allow a mate’s Rush to be conferred to the race—a token,

Subtle Touch

ceremonial version of what Day argued for on a global level with the Rush Initiative—
were you and King Bale, Che.”

Che paused for a tense five seconds before he responded. “You know as well as I do

that Bale’s and my decision on that related to our belief that these exceptional woman
give our dying race hope, that they’re nothing less than the divine feminine
transformed into flesh. Bale’s mother and my own were such earthly representatives for
the Goddess. Our motivations for voting down the Mate Law were hardly similar to
Asmoday’s.” His aquamarine eyes narrowed as he studied Zep. “But you already know
all of that, so I have to assume that you have a relevant point that I’m missing, Zep.”

Zep chose to ignore the subtle threat in Che’s voice and shrugged negligibly. His

light skin, classical features and waving, chestnut brown hair gave him a patrician
quality to which his keen intelligence and frequently cool observations only added to. “I
would think it’s obvious. King Bale has the very understandable excuse of grief to
motivate his current passion, and you have the new, obviously…exciting involvement
of a woman who has the potential to be a Watcher mate.”

Che seethed. Sophia was his mate, not just a woman who had the potential to be

any Watcher’s mate. Had Zep just given Duse a pointed glance? Yes, Che thought he
must have, given the way Duse’s expression stiffened. By the Fathers, this situation
with Duse, Jax and Skylar Ammadon sometimes seemed like it signaled the end of
everything for the Watchers.

“Surely I’m mistaken in thinking that you’re casting doubts upon the fact that

Sophia was meant to be my mate,” Che said in a chilling tone that made every Watcher
in the room still in tense wariness.

“Of course not,” Zep said in a manner that seemed both placating and patronizing

at once.

Che forced himself to make conscious contact with each of his subtle bodies, one by

one, calming himself in each before he uttered another word. By the fucking Fathers,
why hadn’t he completed the damned mating process once and for all? It wasn’t as if
Sophia didn’t want him. She clearly did, even if she did have the typical human
insecurities and doubts.

So why in Hades had he hesitated?
But of course, part of him knew exactly why he couldn’t bring himself to do it. He

desperately wanted Sophia to accept him willingly, even knowing what he was.

“I can’t help but make the observation—”
“You could if you really tried,” Che muttered irritably, unmoved by Bale’s quelling

glance. Zep continued as though he’d never been interrupted.

“That we’ve just been informed that an artifact that is of prime importance to our

race has been stolen, and yet we’re focusing on Asmoday, who is no longer even among
us.”

“Are you unconscious, Zep?” Che asked forcefully. “I’m telling you that he is still

among us, or at least, able to exert his influence among us.”

Beth Kery

Zep studied Che impassively. “I’m in full understanding that’s your story, Che.”
“My story? Leave be, Duse! What the fuck is wrong with you, Zep?” Che asked

through a snarl as he started aggressively toward Zep and Duse stepped between them
to intervene. Zep remained seated, watching the proceedings calmly.

“I’m just saying that as important as your experiences with Sophia have been,

maybe we should be concentrating all of our energies on this crucial matter of the Stone
being stolen,” Zep said as he caught Che’s furious eyes over Duse’s broad shoulder.

“That’s what I am doing. What are you hoping to gain by calling me a liar, Zep?

What’s your agenda, you pompous, aerial—”

“Enough, Che,” Bale said abruptly. “He has the right to voice his opinion!”
“And I have the right to demand satisfaction for being called a liar,” Che replied

darkly, never removing his eyes from Zep.

“I never said you were a liar, Che,” Zep prevaricated.
“It certainly sounded like you were,” Duse bit out over his shoulder as Che

resumed his efforts to get around him. Che flickered rapidly between subtle and
physical bodies, but he was distracted, and Duse matched his consciousness with
relative ease, continuing to block him. Duse and Che had a lot of experience in covering
each other when one of them was in a temper. But Che suddenly broke free.

“I said enough, Che!” Bale thundered. Che stopped himself, but only just. Zep

glanced away nervously when he looked into the liquid fire of his furious eyes.

A bitter, tense silence ensued.
“As always, I appreciate all of the Council members’ opinion. But as the Watcher

leader, the Dionytion Stone was specifically put under my care. This isn’t a matter for
the Council’s vote. It’s my decision on how we’ll proceed in this,” Bale said in a voice
that brooked no argument. “In this instance, I tend to suspect that Che is right and that
Asmoday is somehow connected with the theft of the Dionytion Stone, although I can
only hope that he’s wrong.”

Everyone, including Che, stared at Bale with surprise.
“The situation being what it is,” Bale continued evenly. “I’ve asked Jax to

investigate the matter.”

“No!” Che and Duse both shouted.
Bale suddenly straightened and his eyes flashed with a white fire. “I’ve spoken.”
There wasn’t a Watcher alive besides the other three Ammadons who would have

gainsaid Bale when he looked like he did at that moment…and then only hesitantly.

The eerie flames were banked until only Bale’s royal blue eyes remained, but the ice

was still there when he spoke directly to Che and Duse.

“It was the ruling of the remaining Council members and the other Watcher leaders

who stood in place of us that Jax would serve his punishment by taking a binding oath
to become our first law enforcement official, giving him the opportunity to redeem
himself. You are bound by their judgment as much as you are by any Watcher law,”

Subtle Touch

Bale warned them quietly. He had been the one that insisted the Ammadons remove
themselves from the process of prosecuting Jax.

Duse looked mutinous, but he didn’t trust himself to speak. Che spoke concisely for

both of them, however.

“I wouldn’t trust that traitorous, sneaky mate poacher to mail a letter for my

secretary, let alone allow him to even hear Sophia’s name.”

Bale glared ominously at Che.
“Well, then you better get used to the idea of joining him as a Watcher outlaw, Che.

You know as well as any of us does about Jax’s gift for divining secrets. I would think
you would be glad of his assistance.” When he saw that Che was about to refute him
again, he added coldly, “Jax is going to be here this evening to investigate this matter,
and if you’re not completely cooperative with his efforts, I’ll have you placed under
arrest and confined to an energy prison immediately. And wouldn’t that be a helpful
place for you to be when Sophia is in clear danger, cousin?”

* * * * *

“Let me help you with that.”
Sophia jumped like she’d been goosed. The tube of sunscreen she’d been holding

popped out of her greasy fingers and fell to the beach.

“Che! What…what are you doing?”
He looked at her with contrived surprise as he maneuvered a reclining chair

directly next to hers with a deft flick of his wrist. “I was told by the agent that the use of
this beach was part of the rental agreement. Where’s Tony?”

Sophia forced herself to close her mouth when Che casually whipped off his T-shirt

and was left wearing nothing but a pair of bright blue swimming trunks that covered
much of his long, muscular thighs but made up for it by riding erotically low on his
lean hips and flat belly. It was just as well that his trunks were longer, Sophia thought
with stunned awe, because from what she poignantly recalled about the size of his cock,
Che would never be able to wear a shorter pair of trunks, let alone spandex briefs—not
if he wanted to be remain even remotely decent, anyway.

Not that the sight of his hewn, muscled torso and bronzed calves covered with a

sprinkling of golden brown hair weren’t practically pornographic in and of themselves.
Sophia was staring at the thin trail of sun-kissed hair that descended from his taut
bellybutton before it disappeared beneath the low waistband of his trunks when she
abruptly realized that he was standing very still…as though he were patiently allowing
her to look her fill.

Sophia shoved her face beneath the reclining chair in search of the tube of lotion,

hoping to hide her pink cheeks. “Tony left earlier,” she muttered.

“Why?” Che asked with vague curiosity. He was already fully aware that Tony

Mendelero had left this morning with his suitcase in tow. Most of Che’s attention was

Beth Kery

presently captured by the enticingly feminine swell of Sophia’s hip, the elegant sweep
of her bare back and a lovely, plump buttock that had been partially exposed by an up-
riding bikini brief as she evaded him by rooting around under the deck chair.

“It’s a long, boring story, actually. Suffice it to say that it was necessary for me

to…well, fire him, to be quite honest. He didn’t take it very well.”

Che grunted. “Good riddance to him, as far as I’m concerned.”
Sophia sat up so abruptly that the clip that had held her hair onto her head shifted,

allowing dark gold strands to fall free haphazardly. Her face was flushed and damp
from the sun and her discomposure. “He’s not a bad person. Anybody would be upset
after being let go from a job that they’ve held for six years.”

“Maybe, but it seems pretty crass just to leave you alone after what happened last

night,” Che murmured from where he reclined insouciantly next to her. He waved the
bottle of sunscreen casually in the air.

Sophia scowled darkly and held at her hand. “I’m a grown woman, Che. I don’t

require a man to keep watch over me. May I have it please?” she asked as she pointedly
glared at the sunscreen, refusing to reach for it.

“You’re not in a very good mood today.” Che felt a little guilty for teasing her, since

he was just recovering from a foul mood himself. He’d sent Shem away and watched
her for a full half-hour, invisible and ethereal, while he tried to calm his temper about
what had occurred at the Council meeting.

Damn Zep, and damn Bale, and damn Jax Ammadon for being such a bloody,

blatant traitor when Che loved him like a brother.

“What do you expect after last night?” Sophia demanded hotly.
Che admired the volatility in her large, velvety brown eyes. He definitely could

identify her fiery Greek heritage when she got angry.

“Do you mean after the break-in?” he asked quietly.
Sophia blinked. “Yes…”
“Or do you mean after we brought each other off out here on the beach and I told

you that I was only part human.”

Sophia’s irritated expression collapsed. Silence stretched between them for several

long seconds.

“May I have that please?” she finally asked desperately, referring to the sunscreen.

She knew that she sounded like an idiot, but she couldn’t think of anything else to say
that would subsequently result in her own sanity. Because the thought that had
haunted her restless night and heckled her consciousness all morning felt like it truly
was threatening her sanity. Che wasn’t mad and he hadn’t been lying last night. As
impossible as it seemed, she knew that to be a fact. And that was the realization that had
her half convinced she was going stark raving mad.

Che’s gaze at her softened. “You’re not mad, honey. Lay down and I’ll put the

lotion on your back. It’ll be alright,” he told her with quiet reassurance when she

Subtle Touch

opened her mouth to protest. “I can sense how upset you are, Sophia. If you let me
touch you, my essences will be able to calm yours. And then I can try to explain.”

Sophia’s perception of the incandescent, warm Tahoe day blurred hazily as she

turned around in the chair and lay on her belly. Several tears scattered down her cheek
as she listened to Che open the cap on the sunscreen. After a suspended moment, she
felt his big hand gliding deliberately over her lower back. Despite her best efforts to do
otherwise, she sobbed in fear and longing.

“Shhh, it’ll be okay, Sophia. I promise,” he whispered feelingly near her ear. She

stared sightlessly past him and shuddered with emotion. He forced his being into calm
so that his subtle essences would soothe hers, but his heart squeezed painfully at seeing
her in so much distress. His hand continued to massage her warm, soft flesh, as though
he were physically loosening her emotional knots of confusion and anxiety.

“It really was you touching me…making love to me last night at the Lone Wolf,

wasn’t it?” she asked shakily between sobs.

His hand paused on the swell of her right hip. “Yes,” he admitted as he resumed his

ministrations. “I’m sorry, Sophia. I couldn’t help myself. You’re the most beautiful
thing in existence to me.”

The honest vulnerability in his deep voice made her crane her head up in awe to

meet his gaze. “Why would you say that?” she asked starkly. But what she really meant
was “why is that true?” And he knew it.

Che swallowed heavily as his hand repeatedly palmed and caressed the side of her

fragile rib cage, all the while achingly aware of her luminous, fierce life force. Her
beauty struck him with a sharp, poignant pain of desire.

“It’s true because you and I were meant to be together, Sophia,” he said calmly.

“I’ve waited for you for my whole existence. I’ve waited for you for thousands and
thousands of years.”

Her mouth sagged open as she continued to stare at him. She abruptly reached out

and gripped his hard biceps as though she were falling. “Oh God. I am going crazy,
because I believe you! Why do I believe you?” she asked him incredulously.

“Our subtle bodies were already highly compatible in composition and fit. But since

we’ve come together, since I’ve begun to make love to you, they’ve begun to shape
together, like a template, like two pieces of a puzzle. You know that I’m being truthful
because we’re already fusing. We were meant to mate, to bond spirits. Soon, you’ll be
able to read my thoughts and sensations with ease, just as I will yours.”

“You’re some kind of ghost or something, aren’t you? But you feel so real.”
Che gave a small smile and glanced down to where she squeezed his upper arm

reflexively. “I’m no ghost. I’m very real. I have you to thank for that, honey. And stop
worrying about going crazy. Some people see realities that aren’t really there because
they can’t handle reality as they see it. Some people truly see other realms and go mad
because they aren’t strong enough to handle what they see. But you’re different, Sophia.
You’ve been this way for as long as you can remember, haven’t you? You’re an

Beth Kery

exceptional human, because you have the ability to see and hold your focus in other
realities, and you’re emotionally strong enough to process and accept what you see.”

“I don’t know what you mean,” Sophia muttered uneasily.
Che gently removed her deathlike grip on his arm and placed her elbow back on

the chair. He continued to rub the lotion into her back, using both his subtle touch and
his physical one to reassure her and ground her in the solidity of the moment, knowing
instinctively it was what she needed.

“Yes, you do, honey. You can read other people’s thoughts sometimes, I’ll bet. And

glean subtle emotional energies and their exchanges during interactions, things of
which other people aren’t even aware? That’s why you’ve been so skilled in your
diplomatic work and with your acting career, Sophia. Most people just exist in the
physical world, but not you. Sometimes, you can see what’s invisible to others, can’t
you?” Che asked softly.

Sophia watched him with wide eyes. “You mean…like…when I’m sleeping?”
Che was gratified to hear the return of the low, smooth quality of her voice that he

loved, even if it was still edged with caution. He nodded slowly. “What happens to you,
honey?”

Sophia couldn’t bring herself to speak at first, having no real language for

conversing about those experiences. It felt surreal to have someone broach the subject
that she had kept safely secret since she was a child. “I go to a dream world. It became a
game for me since I was very young, to learn how to…control myself there. I can’t
describe it with words now, but I recognize it when I’m there.”

“You’ve learned to focus your consciousness in a place that we call the Astral Plane.

It’s an enormous accomplishment. It took me a hundred years to do it with as much
skill as you, and I had teachers. You use your mental body to do that, Sophia, which is a
subtler body than your physical one, made of finer, rarer essences. You have subtler
bodies still, bodies that interpenetrate your physical body. Each one has a potentially
separate reality. Perhaps you have some knowledge of those existences, as well,
although it likely isn’t fully in your waking consciousness.”

Sophia’s mind immediately leapt to another childhood secret, but she quelled it

when she saw Che’s expression sharpen.

“Whom do you mean when you say we?”
He met her eyes soberly. After a full moment, his hand slowly stroked the

indentation of her waist. It gratified him immensely to know how acutely she
experienced his touch.

“My kind are called Watchers, Sophia. Our mothers were human, but our

Fathers…weren’t, to put it simply. The fact is that our origins are as unclear to us as our
earliest memories. Consciousness on the physical world came to us slowly over time.
You might say that our beginnings were dreamlike to us, even though that’s a term I
use only for you, honey, seeing as how we really don’t sleep.”

Subtle Touch

“But if your fathers weren’t human, then what were they?” Sophia asked. She’d

twisted around as she watched him with a rapt focus.

Che’s newly formed heart beat more rapidly at her question. Did she actually

believe him? Yes, at least part of her did. The other part of her, the part that questioned
her own sanity, would take longer to convince. Although completing the mating bond
would go a long way to helping her assimilate their vastly different existences. He
studied his hand as he deliberately opened it over her narrow waist. His cock twitched
in longing. He could literally span her width with the width of his outstretched hand.

“We’re not exactly sure. The Fathers were beings of subtler essences, to be sure. Our

myths tell us that they weren’t of the earth, but we don’t know if that means that they
were from different parts of the physical world, like other planets, for example, or if
they weren’t of the material world, meaning a different realm that interpenetrates this
one. Legends say that they begat us with several rare, exceptional human women
whose essences were also subtler than most. We were all born males. But when our
Fathers saw us, they were disappointed in the fact that we were sterile, both with
human women and their own kind. As a consequence, they left us behind.”

Sophia’s eyes burned. Che’s face looked emotionless, but Sophia something else

entirely. “That’s so sad. What about your mothers?”

Che began rubbing her soft, smooth flesh again, moving his hand lower, dipping

his forefinger into the enticing little dimples in her back just above her black bikini
bottoms. Would the miracles of the physical world ever cease to amaze him? He gave a
small shrug.

“Most of us know next to nothing about them, for they were mortal. The

Ammadons know more than most, and I know even more of my mother than Bale,
Duse and Jax know of theirs. If we were to consider our life spans relative to humans, it
would be the equivalent of saying that our mothers died when we were only a few
weeks old. But our records tell us more about them than any other of the Mothers. My
mother and Bale, Duse and Jax’s mother were sisters, powerful Druagish priestesses.
Paim and Batos, two of our wisest Watchers, hypothesize that our mothers were the
reason for Bale’s attribution as king and leader of our kind, while Duse, Jax and I were
always known as princes.”

“Bale is the king of the Watchers?” Skylar asked, wide-eyed.
“Yes.”
“And Eli? He’s one of you as well?”
Che just nodded. To his surprise, she sighed with relief.
“What, honey?”
“I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I’m glad to hear it. I knew there was something

odd about you three last night—something beyond that whole thing at the Lone Wolf,
that is,” Sophia added under her breath. “It was eating away at me, but I couldn’t put it
into words exactly.”

Beth Kery

Che smiled and reached up and brushed the pad of his thumb lightly across her full

lower lip. He felt her go entirely still beneath him. “You did put it into words, but then
you decided that your words were ridiculous.”

She stared into his beautiful aquamarine eyes. How could he seem so distant and

emotionless at times, when at others—like now—his gaze sparkled with infinite
warmth and amusement? His mesmerizing touch on her back and on her lower lip was
hardly cool or impassive, either. A slow, insistent ache began to throb at her core.

“You actually knew I was thinking that?” she asked in a hushed voice that reflected

their growing awareness of each other.

“Yes,” he said softly. “I also know what you’re thinking right now.”
Her eyes widened slightly in alarm. “Che? What the…what are you…oh!” Sophia

sputtered when he calmly slid his hand beneath her bikini panties as he continued to
spear her with his gaze. He gently massaged one round buttock, then another, firmly
cupping her from beneath and shaping her to his big palm.

“You have a phenomenal ass, Sophia.”
“What’s that got to do with anything? Che! You still have a lot more explaining to

do, you know.”

“I know. But there’s no hurry for that, like there is for…”
Sophia gasped as he nudged apart her thighs and found her molten channel with

his long middle finger. “This,” he finished huskily. “Umm. From the feel of things, you
agree with me.”

“Oh God,” she muttered thickly as he slowly slid his finger into her body. The

sensation of being penetrated by him while the hot sunshine beat down on her bare skin
was indescribably sensual and arousing. Despite herself, she curved her spine and lifted
her bottom slightly to grant him more access to her. “How can you think about sex at a
time like this?”

He laughed softly. The sound tickled her spine like gentle knuckles had just run

down it. “How can I not? Watchers have very strong sexual appetites, Sophia.”

“They…they do?” she whimpered softly as he began to stroke her in a lazy,

languorous motion that caused her clit to throb hotly.

“Umm-hmm,” he growled low like a well-satisfied cat as he watched his hand

move into her flesh. “A woman’s sexual response feeds us, providing us with the
sustenance we need to exist in the physical world. For most of us, having a human
woman respond to us sexually is our first solid memory. The acknowledgment of a
woman’s body and mind, her focused response to us, is what brought us into our
awareness of the material world, what made us long for a physical form.”

Her head swung around to study him at that. Although she hadn’t denied him

access to her body, Che definitely felt her subtler substances resist him. He slowly,
regretfully removed his finger from her, but kept his hand warmly cupping her seeping
sex and lower buttocks.

Subtle Touch

“What do you mean by that, exactly?”
“You’ve probably heard references throughout human history to women

experiencing…visitations while they slept or dreamt?”

“You mean like an incubus? Are you trying to tell me that’s what you are?” Sophia

asked, eyes wide with panic. She felt her heartbeat begin to beat wildly at her throat. Oh
no…this was too much. He was just way too much. She closed her eyes briefly in self-
contempt. What had she expected? What had she been hoping? That this sublimely
beautiful, sensual, utterly masculine creature was hers, and hers alone? No, that was
never the way of it, was it? Just like all the men she’d known and lusted after or loved
in the past—all the human men, that is—Che just wanted her for something, but in his
case, it was just a little bit more of an elemental motive than for human men.

“You’re wrong, Sophia. I am yours and yours alone, just as you’re mine.”
Sophia felt his sudden fierceness like a tangible force. His large hand on her flesh

began to emanate waves of gently pulsing, erotic heat. Was that anger she felt flowing
off him like a physical force? If it was, it must be mixed with a good dose of palpable
lust, too.

“I’m not asleep, Che. I’m awake. And no matter how I behaved last night, no matter

how much I…”

Sophia paused uncertainly. Am attracted seemed like such a lame words for what

she felt for Che Ammadon. Burn might be more appropriate, if it could anywhere
closely imply the enormous sensual hunger that she felt, or want, if the word implied
the degree of mandatory necessity that a person felt for their next breath when they
were being deprived of air. The language that she’d used her entire life just didn’t
suffice when it came to her feelings for Che. Still, she had her pride, cold solace that it
was.

“Desire you,” she finally sufficed. “I don’t want to give you the impression that I

want to fool around with you for a few times, even if the only result is immense
pleasure for me, and you know…” She flushed hotly, feeling ridiculous saying it
because her rational mind knew how it sounded. “Well…continued existence for you.”

She saw Che’s hard jaw tense at that. His emotions rolled off him like a great storm.
“What?” she asked in rising concern. She’d never experienced anything like what

she felt from him at that moment. “I’m sorry, Che. I know most women would take you
up on your offer in a second. I’m sure they do on a regular basis. I mean you’re so,” she
waved her hands around in the air hopelessly, “and you seem like you really know
what you’re doing around a woman’s body. All you probably have to do is look at a
woman, and she’s most likely spreading her—”

“Hush, Sophia. You’re rambling.” He waited until the dazed expression went out of

her liquid brown eyes and they sharpened on him in acute irritation.

“You’re right about some things and dead wrong about others,” he said. “I wish I

could make this whole process easier for you, honey. The only comfort I might be able
to offer is to say that you’re turning me inside out, as well. Do you think I don’t know

Beth Kery

that you’re afraid of being used, Sophia? I’d like to rip the heart out of the chest of that
gray-haired asshole who told you that you were the most gifted woman that he’d ever
met and that you smelled like a meadow after a spring rain and then took that phone
call from his wife while you were lying in bed next to him one morning. I’d rather just
sink my corporeal fist into the face of that slick, black-haired kid who seemed to
worship the ground that you walked on, and then let that director that you respected so
much fuck him the second you agreed to introduce the two or them, or that—”

“Shut up, Che! How dare you, you son of a—”
“I’m sorry,” he breathed out with eyes blazing as he cradled her tense jaw in his

palm. “But how else can I tell you that I know? That I know that you want me, but that
you’re afraid? You never let me finish. Sophia, you’re not just another nighttime
seduction for me. You’re my life mate. Watchers share a lifelong dream of finding a
woman like you, a woman powerful enough to comprehend and sustain what we truly
are, a woman who gives us everything…including our permanent physical body from
her response to us. No, Sophia, listen!” Che insisted when he saw her open her mouth
in protest. He tried to calm his riled emotions as they stared at each other in the tense
silence that followed.

“You are the only woman in existence who has the essences, the unique spiritual

template and subtle chemistry to have gifted me with my physical body. Because that’s
what you did, Sophia, you brought me into full existence here on the physical plane.
We’re not just meant to be mates because I found you before my brethren did and
recognized what you are. You’re my mate because like draws like. You’re my mate
because our spirits fit together so perfectly.” His eyes flamed hotly down at her. “You’re
my mate, Sophia Galanis, because you’re my mate.”

Sophia’s lips fell open slightly at his tautological, yet strangely adroit argument.
Che breathed deeply, trying to calm his erratically vibrating essences. By the

Fathers, what did he hope to attain by shouting at her like this? There was a much
better way to both gain her understanding and soothe her considerable emotional
unrest.

“Che, don’t,” Sophia moaned softly in protest when he began to slide her bikini

briefs down her thighs. His eyes flamed in something other than turmoil when she
wiggled her hips and ass and pressed up against his hand at her lower back.

“Stay still, honey.” He glanced down to meet her troubled eyes. “I know you think

I’m just being selfish, and I am, but only partially. By touching and pleasuring each
other, our subtle essences will come into closer contact, blending and fusing. It will
soothe your mind and put you in a better place to view what must seem very bizarre
and alien to you.” He leaned over her, still holding her firmly at her lower back, and
slid her bikini panties down over her legs and feet.

Sophia groaned in pleasure when he caressed her sun-warmed heels and calves

before he reached up and calmly pulled the tie of her bikini top.

Subtle Touch

“Are Bale and Eli still up at the lodge?” she asked uncertainly as Che swept aside

her last meager stitch of clothing. She lay before him, utterly vulnerable and nude with
the bright Tahoe sunlight and Che’s fiery gaze bathing her in sensual heat.

“What did I tell you last night, Sophia?” he asked distractedly as he swept his large

hand down her side, lightly caressing the globe of a full breast, before sweeping into the
indentation of her waist, caressing the curve of her hip and then plumping an ass cheek
with obvious relish.

Sophia’s chin rested on her shoulder as she watched with a heavy-lidded gaze as he

palmed and squeezed her flesh. Wetness trickled down her left thigh. “You told me that
no one would see us. But how? I don’t understand.”

“Look up at the lodge,” Che muttered. He had a tense expression on his face as he

stood and straddled Sophia’s chair.

“Oh my…Che, what did you do?” she asked in panic. She whipped her head

around, dislodging her hair even further from on top of her head, only to find Che
spreading her legs and kneeling between them, his gaze focused between her thighs.
The mind-boggling fact that the lodge had completely disappeared temporarily melted
from her consciousness under the influence of Che’s hot stare.

“Che?” she demanded finally in a strangled voice.
“It’s still there, honey, don’t worry. It’s just an illusion; not a particularly

complicated bit of magic either, just a matter of bending the light. I’ll teach you how to
do it sometime,” he said distractedly. “Bring your knees up, Sophia. Here…” He
assisted her by lifting her pelvis gently. When he released her, Sophia realized she’d
never felt so vulnerable and disoriented in her life, but never so horny, either. He had
moved her so that her rear end was sticking straight up into the air and her knees were
tucked beneath her.

“Put the house back!” she insisted raggedly. She didn’t know why, but it became of

paramount importance to her to see the disappeared Sierra Lodge again.

“It’s there, honey,” Che said gently as he parted her bottom cheeks.
Sophia shifted her gaze abruptly and sighed with relief when she saw the Sierra

Lodge, perfectly intact.

“It was all along. I was just trying to show you one of the ways that I’ll always

protect you. There are other things—a ward that acts as a powerful shield for keeping
others out and our energies in, for instance. But you wouldn’t be able to see that,
although you could sense it if you tried.” He paused, his eyes glued to the awesome
sight just inches from his face. He’d fully spread her honey-hued, round ass cheeks in
order to expose her treasures to his hungry eyes. The two plump pillows of flesh
parenthesized her bare, glossy sex. The smooth, delicate folds of her cunt were already
flushed and pink. Che smiled, enormously pleased by her innate sensuality. The sight
of the blood-swollen, tiny, erect bundle of flesh that slightly protruded from her lips
and the puckered, closed bud of her asshole made his cock bob heavily forward as
though it had a mind of its own.

Beth Kery

Where was a Watcher to begin with so much glory spread before him? He lowered

his nose to within an inch of her pussy and inhaled with sublime appreciation. He
heard her soft cry of anticipation, echoing his own feelings, as he used his thumb and
forefinger to slightly widen the moist opening. And with no further ado, he lowered his
head and slid his tongue in deeply to taste her.

Sophia’s eyes opened wide in an expression of sheer incredulity at the intense

pleasure. Her fingers closed tightly on the metal frame of the chair, making her
knuckles turn white, as though she hung on for dear life. Her eyelids scrunched shut as
every cell in her body tingled in awakened awareness of what occurred at her sex. She
bit her lower lip desperately to keep from screaming out her pleasure, but it didn’t stop
a series of broken, muffled cries from exuding from her throat. The warm sunshine beat
down on her nude body with gentle, resonant waves of energy as Che continued to
tongue-fuck her pussy with a slow, languorous, sensual appreciation that Sophia knew
she’d never experienced with another man in her history. Although there was that
dream…

Her eyes abruptly flashed open. The memory of an electric, aquamarine gaze

staring up at her from between her thighs made her gasp. “Che, you’ve done this to me
before, haven’t you?” she asked huskily. “You’ve made love to me…like you said
Watchers usually make love to women…while they sleep?”

Che didn’t answer for several long, tense seconds. He couldn’t bring himself to

withdraw from her honeyed depths. Every time he speared her narrow channel, he
hoped he was going just a little farther, a little higher. He wished he could drench
himself in her cum. He considered refusing to answer her until after he’d felt her spasm
in climax around him, but he knew how selfish that would be.

Sophia quivered in protest when he slowly withdrew his long, talented tongue.
“Yes. The night before last,” he said gruffly.
She felt him grasp both of her ass cheeks more firmly in his palms, folding her back

even farther. She panted as he placed several light, quicksilver kisses and elusive
flicking licks with his tongue on various portions of the damp, quivering tissues that
he’d exposed between her legs. Damn him. It felt so good and it was making it
extremely hard for her to speak. “Ch…Che?” was all she managed to get out, allowing
her tone of tense exasperation to speak for itself.

Che sighed as he removed his mouth from Sophia’s sex, telling himself that it

would only be a temporary deprivation, whether Sophia insisted on more talk or not. “I
first saw you on the Astral Plane, Sophia. You had just defended one of my greatest
enemies, Asmoday, because you were concerned about me striking out in anger.
Afterwards, I followed you to the physical world, to your bed. I wanted to make love to
you more than anything, despite the fact that I haven’t engaged in random lovemaking
for years now, because of… Better get to that part later. Suffice it to say that there was
something about you that piqued more than my hunger for sustenance. I knew that you
were uncannily strong for a human already, because of your ability to hold focus on the
Astral Plane.”

Subtle Touch

He paused when he noticed that the whites of her eyes were notably pronounced as

she twisted her head to watch him. Without thinking, Che cupped one round ass cheek
from below and sent his forefinger deep inside her pussy.

Sophia gasped at the impact of the sudden erotic invasion combined with the

steady, indirect pressure he applied to her clit as he gently pressed up on her. “Che,
don’t…”

“Hush, honey,” he murmured in a roughened voice. He stroked along her sun-

warmed spine soothingly. “I’ll keep explaining, but this will help you to absorb what I
say. Trust me. Hearing these things, having your sense of reality challenged is like a
blow to your spirit. Pleasure and the blending of our essences will act like a layer of
insulation for you, letting you mentally accept what you can and keep in abeyance that
which you’re not yet ready to hear until a time when you are. I know what I’m doing,
Sophia.”

Sophia let her head fall and scrunched her eyes shut tightly. He knew what he was

doing all right. She was going to be exploding within seconds if he kept up that indirect,
yet pulsing, hot friction on her clit, not to mention the pleasure that his finger-fucking
evoked. Immediately, as if he’d read her mind—which Lord help her, he probably
had—the relentless pressure eased slightly, just enough for Sophia’s double vision to
ease back into focus once again. She felt him lean over her and press his lips warmly to
her waist.

“Okay?”
“Yes,” Sophia whispered into the canvas cloth of the deck chair. His tender gesture

and the concern in his deep voice gave her a different, but no less powerful pleasure
than his talented manipulations on her sex evoked.

“I began to make love to you psychokinetically while you slept in the normal way

of Watchers. When you came, I fell over on the balcony and banged my knees on the
wood. It hurt. A lot. Do you know why?” he asked gruffly as he squeezed his second
finger in with his first and began to fuck her with a quicker, harder rhythm.

“No…why?” Sophia managed between pants of pleasure.
“Because your Rush—the energy that you release during orgasm—was hundreds of

thousands of times more powerful than a typical woman’s. In that one miraculous
moment, when your energy sheared into my being, you gifted me with my physical
body, Sophia. Afterwards, I made love to you repeatedly while you slept, shaping our
subtle bodies even more precisely…mating with you.”

“So, it’s done?” Sophia asked breathlessly. Sweat dampened her face and chest. She

moved her pelvis in a natural counter-rhythm to Che’s fucking fingers. Erotic slurping
and slapping sounds entered Sophia’s dazed awareness as he became more forceful in
his movements. A glorious release from all of the friction and pleasure that Che built in
her hovered tantalizingly nearer and nearer.

“Not quite yet, although every time you come for me, we’re a little…bit…closer,”

Che muttered tensely as he powered his fingers into her in rhythm with his words to

Beth Kery

highlight his point. “It’s different for every couple, but I believe that when I finally put
my cock in you, and your physical body finally shapes to mine, when my balls finally
kiss you right here, then we’ll be fully mated at last.” He knelt and quickly flicked his
tongue over her swollen sex lips before transferring to her protruding clit, treating it to
a brisk lateral lashing.

Sophia pitched forward and shouted out as the first wave of orgasm slammed

through her. Che held her hip firmly and pulsed her back against his rigid, pleasuring
tongue, ensuring himself that she received the full impact that her orgasm could confer.
It was a skill for which all Watchers strived, but that few had mastered to the degree
that Che had. To bring a woman off with ease was one thing, but to know just how to
stroke her in order to maximize her orgasmic pleasure, to guide her across the subtle,
powerful Rush of her energies like a butterfly mastering flight through a brisk wind, to
play her flesh in order to evoke the most powerful blend of friction and release, like a
master musician would his instrument—that was something that Che excelled at doing.
As her Rush pounded into his subtle essences, he was able to stretch and amplify and
prolong it, until every last drop of quivering pleasure had been tasted and savored by
both of them.

Sophia opened her eyes dazedly to the reality of the sunny day. She’d only been

vaguely aware of Che flipping back the armrests of their chairs so that he could stretch
out next to her, or the fact that he’d lifted and readjusted her until her upper body
weight rested on his chest with his arms encircling her. For the most part, she existed in
a bubble of warm sunshine, complete security and utter repletion.

She’d never felt this good in her life.
Her hand moved with sensual appreciation across sun-kissed skin and dense

muscle. “You’re the most beautiful thing I’ve ever laid eyes on,” she murmured as she
circled her finger around the coppery disc of his nipple. “And that’s saying something,
because I’ve seen some pretty awesome samples of the male of the species in my day.”

Che’s lips twitched with amusement, but his cock did the same with pure lust. “Are

you trying to make me jealous, Sophia? Be careful, it might work.”

But Sophia only half heard him as she leant down to delicately taste what she

touched. She was vaguely aware of Che’s hiss of tense pleasure. He tasted divine. She
became hungrier for him as she sampled each of his nipples in turn, then dipped her
tongue into the furrow of his rib cage, tasting salt and fire and man. When she came to
the white scar on his ridged, tight abdomen, she glanced up at him uncertainly. He was
watching her with blazing eyes.

“That Watcher that you spoke of, your enemy…he did this to you?”
Che nodded.
Wordless meaning passed between them faster than the speed of light. Without

hesitation now, Sophia lowered her head and traced the long scar with her tongue.
Emotion swelled in Che’s chest, feeling strange and overwhelming. Without being
entirely aware of what he was doing—he’d planned on convincing Sophia to come

Subtle Touch

inside with him into the bedroom so that he could finish making love to her—he
lowered his swim trunks. His cock felt iron-hard in his hand.

Sophia paused. Her tongue ran over her lower lip in anxious anticipation. Just the

sight of Che’s cock bathed in golden sunlight was enough to cause powerful changes in
her body. Her skin seemed to pull tight in prickly pleasure. Her breasts felt huge and
achy, as if they were desperate to be touched. And best not to even consider the
chemical and physical reaction of her pussy that the sight of Che’s cock evoked. The sun
gilded his erect flesh as he caressed himself slowly at the root, then lightly shifted his
full, round testicles. Sophia couldn’t have imagined a more erotic sight if she tried. It
was downright pagan in its intensity. She reached out and placed her hand higher up
on him, gripping his fleshy, pronounced head, then sliding down over the first several
inches of his shaft. They didn’t speak for a minute as she stroked the upper half of him
and he slowly moved his large hand over his lower portion and all the while the
brilliant sun beat down on both of them with sensual heat. Nevertheless, the silence
between them, broken only occasionally by Che’s tense grunts of pleasure, was full and
taut with meaning.

Che went completely still as he watched her lower her mouth to within an inch of

the head of his cock. He knew what she was thinking, but he could only hope that she
would express her concern so that he could reassure her. He pulled gently at the clip
that haphazardly still confined a portion of her hair and tossed it to the sand beneath
them. His fingers ran with sensual appreciation through the sun-warmed silk.

Sophia sighed with pleasure as she touched the tip of her tongue to velvety skin

that stretched with impossible tautness over his blood-engorged member. She heard
him gasp at the same time that she saw the round globule of pre-cum seep from his slit.
She sunk her tongue into it greedily, savoring his masculine, salty essence. Her hand
fisted him tighter, moving up on him, milking another bead of moisture from him.

“Che,” she whispered hoarsely as she dazedly watched the tiny globe of cum swell

in his slit. “I want to…but you’re so large. I don’t think it’s physically possible to bring
you into my mouth very far.”

“It’s okay, honey,” he reassured her huskily as he raked his fingers through her hair

and watched her through desire-leaden eyelids. “Just take what you can and it will
bring me more pleasure than you know.” She moved forward eagerly, as though
relieved by his statement. He gripped her shoulder, stopping her. He waited until she
looked up at him, her big, liquid brown eyes turning him on at that moment in a way
that a woman’s gaze never had before in his long history.

“Lean this way,” he said thickly as he adjusted her upper body. “I want to watch

you.”

Beth Kery

Chapter Six

Sophia was too eager for the feeling of taking him into her mouth to do anything

but quickly comply. Once she hovered over him, though, the practical complications of
the maneuver struck her again even more powerfully. She opened wide, stretching her
jaw and encircling his wide girth. For the next few inches of him, she had to push him
between her straining lips. But soon, she held every succulent bit of the fleshy, thick cap
of his penis in her mouth. Sophia loved the sensation, but soon realized that she was
having difficulty controlling her salivation while her mouth was stretched so tightly.

“Don’t worry about it, honey,” Che told her in a low growl, easily reading her mind

in her vulnerable state. “I like the sound of all that wetness when you suck…ahh.” His
words were cut off abruptly as she began to do so with more gusto. The slurping,
sucking sounds she made drove him wild. Her hand continued to pump him below her
mouth, pushing him ever so slightly, but steadily, farther into her warm cavern, until
she enveloped him two inches past the rim of his head. The feeling of her running her
quick tongue over his exquisitely sensitive head and applying a mind-numbing suction
was erotic enough, but the sight of his cock stuffed into her stretched lips got him so
excited that he had to force himself to glance out to the greenish-blue lake on several
occasions to keep from losing control. She seemed to enjoy what she was doing so
much, and her head was bobbing with such an enthusiastic rhythm over him that Che
was surprised when she rose and he sprung out of her mouth with an erotic popping
noise.

“Sophia, honey…”
“Shhh,” she soothed him distractedly as she quickly repositioned herself so that she

was kneeling between his spread knees. He found the focus on her face and the
moistness around her mouth to be incredibly exciting, but when she shooed away his
hand, fisted him in her palm and ran her wet, red tongue up the entire length of his
shaft, he almost lost it completely.

“By the Fathers, honey, that feels so fucking good,” he groaned out as he continued

to watch the limber antics of her tongue. Her tight fist followed the tease of her tongue
with a hard, relentless caress. His eyes widened in arousal when she took one of his
balls between her fingers and squeezed gently while she put the other into her mouth.
She sucked gently, but steadily.

Che’s vision temporarily went completely white for a few moments. Gods, was he

unintentionally communicating to her exactly what he liked?

He panted heavily as he watched her stroke his cock long and hard, and then hover

over the head again. Che thought surely that the sight of her stretching her lips over his
girth and hearing her sweet, avid sucking would make him come immediately. He was

Subtle Touch

already right on the edge. But instead, she gripped him firmly at his base, opened her
lips slightly over him and waggled his long cock across her lips. It was an incredibly
erotic sight for both of them. Che had the stark vision of how it would look when he
erupted on her open lips any second now. Then she slid her hand to just beneath his
thick base, attenuating her movements, forcing his sensitive flesh to beat rhythmically
against the solid wall of her closed teeth with a shocking degree of precise friction.

Che grabbed her head and came with a howl of stunned gratification. Pleasure

rocketed and splintered through his flesh. He managed to keep his eyes opened long
enough to see his seed jetting onto Sophia’s full, open lips and chin. Then she’d
stretched her mouth wide and brought him into her warmth. He became vaguely aware
after several suspended seconds that someone had been yelling their fool head off, only
sheepishly realizing awhile later that it had been him. But he couldn’t help himself. The
pleasure she’d given him had been unthinkably immense. He couldn’t recall ever
coming so thunderously, so mindlessly.

His eyes snapped open in dawning panic.
She was kneeling still beneath his spread legs. But she’d moved down farther on the

deck chair. And the whites of her eyes were in clear evidence again.

“I’m sorry. I should have made it so that you didn’t see until I prepared you,” he

said slowly. By the Fathers, was she about to run, screaming in fear and panic? He
honestly couldn’t read her at that moment.

“I have seen you before last night. I remember now,” she whispered. Her eyes

flicked over him anxiously. He was back to his human form, but the sight of the
creature that had leapt into brief existence as Che roared out his orgasm a few moments
ago would be forever branded on her memory, unearthly bright eyes so fierce that they
might have blinded her with their focused consciousness if he had remained in that
form for long—a being that was also a weapon, honed and precise and battle ready.

Che forced himself into calm before he spoke. “It’s our way, Sophia. What you saw

just now—and the other night, on the Astral Plane—was my Truest Form. We take it in
the physical realm, but rarely enough. When we climax, during immense emotional
chaos, and when we choose to take the Path of Sorrow and death.”

“You can die?” Sophia asked tensely.
“Death is a relative term, honey, and that’s true for humans, too. Very few Watchers

have ever died because one would have to be fully, entirely corporeal in order to do so,
and that rarely ever happens among us. Bale is the most powerful Watcher in existence.
Duse has done some tests on his subtle and physical bodies. He says that Bale is aging,
albeit extremely slowly. We believe that as members of our race become more and more
corporeal, we’ll eventually die, just as humans do, but over a much longer lifespan.
Sophia,” he changed topic and tone abruptly. “Stop looking at me like that. At least tell
me what you’re thinking.”

Her eyes softened, but he still sensed her wariness.

Beth Kery

“It’s a shock, that’s all. I mean, I thought I believed you before, but seeing you like

that…I’m not sure what I’m experiencing right now, Che.”

He nodded stiffly. What she said made perfect sense. How could he have been so

insensitive as to lose himself in his pleasure like that, with no regard for her fragile
state?

“I wanted you to lose yourself in the pleasure!” Sophia said with sudden passion,

reading his mind instinctively. “That was the best part about it.”

She realized she was blushing like a shy virgin, not an almost thirty-six-year-old

woman who may not have the sexual of experience of many, but still had made love to
men in many different ways, including giving head more times that she cared to recall
at this point. So why was she blushing so hotly now? Even as she asked herself, though,
she knew. What she’d just done with Che had been shockingly intimate. She wondered
why she’d never realized before that intimacy implied a heightened awareness of
oneself and one’s lover. Intimacy was just another word for focused consciousness,
which was exactly what Che most represented to her.

She stood on the beach and reached for the towel that had fallen below the chair.

She wrapped herself in it, even though her skin was delightfully warm and she still
tingled with erotic awareness. It was a meager barrier, but she needed it at that
moment. The vibrant reality merging with the stark unreality of Che left her feeling
exposed and raw, both in spirit and flesh. He just watched her unblinkingly for a
tension-filled moment. When he stood abruptly and pulled up his trunks around his
trim hips, Sophia regarded him uncertainly.

“Are you leaving?” she asked in her characteristic, smooth, low voice.
His aquamarine eyes speared her. “Is that what you want?”
“No.”
He stared across the shining, brilliant blue expanse of Lake Tahoe. His fingers raked

through his tousled brownish-blond hair restlessly. “Nevertheless, it’s what I’m going
to do.”

Sophia’s lips fell open in surprised hurt. She hadn’t expected him to say that. “Oh,

well…”

“Stop, honey. You misunderstand me.” Che hated the span of six feet that separated

them, but he didn’t attempt to go to her. She needed to decide what she wanted now.
Giving her the power to decide their fate was the most difficult decision he’d ever
made.

What if she refused him? He’d be the only Watcher in history that had ever been

turned down by the woman meant to be his mate. Of course, he could encourage
her…bowl her over with the sheer power of pleasure. But he couldn’t do that. Not to
the lovely, velvety-eyed woman who currently watched him with a trepidation that cut
deeper than a sharp spear into his newly formed flesh.

“I thought that nothing would matter more than completing the bond,” he said

gruffly. “I told myself that it was all that mattered because once the bond is complete, I

Subtle Touch

could work the spell that would keep you safe from power-hungry Watchers like
Asmoday.” He shook his head with a grim expression when he saw the question in her
eyes. “Don’t worry, I’ll keep you safe, honey.”

“I know, Che. That’s not what I meant.”
“But since I’ve been with you,” he continued, “since I’ve been changed by your

spirit, once I understood how you’ve been hurt by others, I’ve realized there was
something even more important than seeing the bond complete, crucial though that is. I
want your trust, Sophia.”

Neither of them spoke for several seconds as the waves lapped gently on the beach

behind them. He gave her a small, reassuring smile before he turned to go.

“Che, wait.”
He kept his face blank of all expression as he turned to her.
“I don’t really think I can wrap my mind about what you mean by all this mating

business. I just know that I don’t want you to go.”

“Sophia, if I stay, I don’t think I can…” His eyes ran over her hotly, leaving her in

little doubt of what he meant.

“I know,” she said with a nod. “I don’t want you control yourself. I want to go to

bed with you.”

Che felt his heartbeat pulse with uncomfortable clarity in his ears.
“It won’t just be about a few hours of sex, Sophia,” he said gently. “Do you really

understand that?”

“I told you that I’m not sure about anything. But I do know that I want you, Che. If

it’s true that other Watchers have taken mates before, then those human women
couldn’t have understood everything completely in the beginning either, could they?”

Che hesitated. He’d never really thought of it that way in the past. But of course,

Sophia must be right. Complete understanding of such a new world view took time.

“Let’s go up to my bedroom,” Sophia whispered, vaguely shocked at her boldness.

Che Ammadon had effortlessly created an inferno of need in her that desperately
required a quenching. It was all she could consider at that tense moment.

Che took one look at the luminous, desire-darkened eyes of the woman who was

destined to be his life mate and reached for her hand. How in Hades could he turn
down the temptation of that?

He was only a Watcher, after all.

* * * * *

Sophia laughed with delight when she finally stood and inspected their handiwork.

Che had muscled her mattress out onto the cool, breezy balcony outside her bedroom,
but they had refastened the sheets and put the pillows on their makeshift love nest
together.

Beth Kery

Sophia had just tossed a thick blanket at the foot of the bed, imagining that they

might get chilly later, after their sweat-dampened skin had cooled and the bright
sunshine had begun to fade. She glanced over her shoulder, both excited and self-
conscious by the direction of her thoughts. Her brows creased in confusion because her
bedroom appeared to be completely empty.

“Che?” she asked with a smile as she walked into the room. But no, although he’d

been right here earlier, helping her arrange the bed, caressing her warmly whenever he
got the chance, stealing kisses that ended up leaving them both breathless and teasing
her while that sexy, mischievous sparkle lit up his aquamarine eyes, he was currently
nowhere in sight.

Seeing isn’t everything, honey.
“Che?” Sophia felt warm breath mist her and then firm, warm lips whispering over

her cheek and jaw. Her heart began to hammer heavily in her breast, but she forced
herself to stay very still and examine the experience with as much objectivity as she
could. It was difficult, though, when she felt Che slide his hand beneath the short robe
she’d thrown on while they were making the bed and settle over her thumping heart.

Don’t be afraid, honey.
“I’m not afraid,” she whispered. “Is this some kind of Watcher law or custom? Are

you supposed to make love to me like you did at the Lone Wolf?” Sophia hoped that
she’d kept the disappointment from her voice. Having him pleasure her incorporeally
had been incredible, but she’d rather see every inch of his beautiful body and look into
his singular eyes while he was inside her. It was something she’d fantasized about since
she first recalled looking into his hyperconscious, summertime eyes. She sensed his
chuckle more than heard it.

Don’t worry, Sophia. Watchers don’t believe in impinging on an individual’s rights with

thousands of ridiculous laws. I wouldn’t dream of loving you any other way than with the body
with which you honored me.

Sophia felt him turn her slightly. Her hair parted and he placed a hot kiss on her

nape. The kiss electrified her as if Che somehow knew that specific, tiny portion of skin
would be supersensitive for her. Shivers coursed down her spine pulling her nipples
instantly erect. No sooner did she have the realization when gentle fingers were there,
soothing the taut buds, then creating more friction. Sophia groaned. She thrust her
hands out to the side and swept in back of her. Her moan of arousal turned to one of
dismay.

“Why can’t I feel you?”
Because I’m not in physical form, honey. I’m holding my consciousness in my desire body,

or emotional body. I have a stronger one than many Watchers because I’m strongest in the
elements of fire and water.

“But why can I feel your hand on me?”
I’m stimulating you psychokinetically. It’s sort of hard to explain, but to me it feels like I’m

touching you, too. But I’m only manifesting change in the physical world right now through the

Subtle Touch

medium of your nervous system. If I were to make a change in the physical world, like this…
Sophia’s eyes rounded when the opening of her robe widened until her breasts were
fully exposed. I would have to identify with my etheric body, but keeping it solid in the physical
world for an extended period of time requires an enormous amount of energy. Making love in the
desire body is very pleasurable and requires less energy, but it’s easy to become swept up into the
sensations, and things can become dreamlike too easily. Maybe you can begin to see why
Watchers have always craved the physical form.

Sophia’s focused on his words with sharp interest until he began to stimulate her.

Her eyes fluttered closed and her mouth sagged open when she felt exquisite, tiny
ephemeral kisses and licks on both of her nipples at once, as if a tiny mouth had been
assigned to pleasure each individual nerve ending in those sensitive areas. She felt her
knees weaken and her pussy became instantly molten. She realized with a vague sense
of shock that she was seconds from coming. Suddenly, the sensation lessened and she
found that she could breathe again.

You see one of the many advantages of making love with the desire body.
Sophia nodded dumbly, suddenly thinking that maybe it wouldn’t be such a bad

idea to make love with Che in that way…

Not a chance, honey.
“Well, then why did you…” She stopped herself from saying become invisible,

already sensing how crude such an expression would sound to Che. “Identify with your
desire body?” Much to her amazement, she actually sensed Che hesitate. That wasn’t
embarrassment she felt coming from him, was it?

I always imagined what it would be like to make love to my mate—how erotic, how

wonderful it would be to take physical form in front of her while she watched, even if she hadn’t
yet climaxed and provided me with the energy for a temporary corporeal body.

Sophia swallowed. Her body felt heavy and hot. She recognized that Che had just

revealed a sexual fantasy to her. Although it wasn’t something that should have made a
human aroused, considering the fact that it seemed to be a fantasy strictly associated
with Watcher ways, it did. She’d divined Che’s emotional meaning with startling
accuracy, bringing her a giant step closer in being able to comprehend his world. The
powerful, sharp edge of lust and longing that he currently felt cut deeply into her,
making her feel restless and very aroused.

What do you want me to do? She felt so connected to Che at that moment that she

didn’t realize she’d just spoken to him telepathically until she sensed his smile.

Take off your robe and lie down on our bed.
Sophia smiled at that, too. It was their bed because they’d made it together…and for

the purpose it would serve now.

The sheets were cool beneath her naked skin, already chilled by the shadows and

breeze. Not twenty feet away from the balcony, the sun filled the air with golden light
and reflected brightly off the gemlike waters of Lake Tahoe. At this time of year, the
temperature difference between the sun and shade might be a full fifteen degrees. But

Beth Kery

Sophia didn’t mind. She was too aroused to feel the chill. The sheets felt sensual and
comforting against her prickly, sensitized skin.

She powerfully sensed Che’s presence, but she still couldn’t see him. When a breeze

caressed her belly and breasts, she wondered if it was his subtle touch but couldn’t be
sure. When he spoke, his voice was in her head, but it strangely felt like it also was
coming from somewhere near her right ear.

Spread your thighs, lovely. Open yourself to me.
Sophia complied, feeling the cool air lick at her inner thighs and exposed sex as she

did so. She felt vulnerable in that moment, but so cherished that it made her eyes burn.

Cherished, yes, but so much more. Someday you’ll understand. You’re the most beautiful

thing in existence to me, Sophia. Your skin is so flawless and soft. Sophia stopped breathing
when she felt a touch as light as butterfly wings caress her cheek. And you taste like you
look—sweet and smooth. Sophia inhaled sharply and her hips shifted restlessly when Che
tasted her, making a quick, flicking movement with his tongue at her inner thigh.

Your eyes are as soft as velvet, innocent sometimes, wise and depthless at others. But when

you looked up at me while my cock was in your mouth earlier your eyes told quite another story.

Sophia felt her cheeks heating, but knew it was only partially from embarrassment.

The memory of sucking on the thick, fleshy, arrow-shaped head of his cock gave her a
pinch of pleasurable pain at her clit. It didn’t help things when she felt her nipples
being caressed with airy fingers. She closed her thighs to grant herself relief at the
pressure that built at her core.

Stay spread, honey. I like you like that. Wider, Sophia.
Sophia responded to the thick tension in his voice, forcing her thighs as wide as she

could. It felt incredibly exciting to her, both her position and the fact that Che had
ordered her to do it and that she had complied.

Your breasts are perfect. I like the size, large enough to excite me and so firm. Everything

about you is so delicate and feminine. Your nipples are so sensitive. It seems like all I have to do
is think about them and you grow stiff for me.

Sophia closed her eyes and her head began to thrash mindlessly on the pillow

because he was stimulating her crests again. Every nerve ending that she possessed in
her nipples had just been set afire. There was some kind of connection that led directly
from her nipples to her clit that Sophia had never known existed until she met Che.

There are other pathways. They just need to be activated. What do you think of this one,

lovely?

Sophia gasped for air and her eyes sprung open in shock. Pleasure zipped like a

bolt of lightning from her nipples directly to her anus, causing that nerve-packed
opening to pulse and resonate with sex energy. Sophia pressed her bottom down into
the bed, suddenly desperate to alleviate the awakened friction there.

“Che,” she mumbled helplessly as she writhed in pleasure against the mattress.

Subtle Touch

I’m sorry, honey. I couldn’t resist. Your ass gives me a flash of insight into the Fathers. How

great the temptation must have been to make them crave human flesh.

Sophia sighed in both relief and regret when the electric stimulation at her sacrum

ceased, although pleasure still vibrated subtly there.

I love the way you curve. I’d like to devote a whole day to worshipping the bend of flesh that

begins at your tiny waist and leads to your hips and ass.

Sophia whimpered breathlessly as she turned slightly on one hip in order to grant

his ethereal hand access to all the places which he had just referred. “Che, come to me
now. I want to touch you in return.”

A moment, honey. You have no idea of what a turn-on this is for me, possessing the

knowledge that I really can come to you physically and make love to you not once, but thousands
of times, even without your climax. And all because of your beautiful, rarified spirit. Besides,
don’t you want me to tell you what I think of your soft, firm thighs, Sophia? Or your divine little
pussy? Close your eyes, honey.

Sophia responded immediately to the quiet authority in his voice. She already

panted as a result of the soft kisses she was receiving on her inner thighs. She wiggled
her hips and made a strangled sound in her throat when she felt several drops of
wetness trickle from her pussy down into the crevice of her ass. A warm, wet tongue
sought them out, savoring their taste as much as the softness inside the shadowy cleft.

“Oh, no!” she muttered desperately. “Che, I can’t take this anymore.”
Shhh. Tell me what you want, he soothed as he returned to worshipping the damp

flesh on her thighs less than an inch away from her soaking channel.

“I want you to…slide your tongue everywhere. I want you to lick my clit and suck

it, and…ahh, Che. Please!” She cried out in mindless arousal because he wasn’t doing
exactly what she asked. Instead, he ran his wet, slightly rough tongue over a smooth,
desire-swollen outer lip, just millimeters from her erect, sizzling flesh. She could clearly
sense how much he savored the juices he found collected there. The realization of how
much he enjoyed it left her gasping in sheer disbelief.

Yes, Sophia. You just caught a glimpse. My feelings for you are hard to convey, but so

powerful. Now, tell me what you want without using words.

“I…I can’t,” she murmured thickly as he continued to lick her sensitive folds,

driving her nearly wild by carefully avoiding her needy flesh. She moved restlessly on
the sheets until she felt both of his hands holding her hips steady for his mouth,
allowing her no mercy.

You can. You did earlier. Merge your consciousness with mine for a moment.
Sophia didn’t fully comprehend his request, but she gave herself, nevertheless. For

a brief, yet paradoxically eternal moment, she experienced Che’s consciousness,
suspended with shocking precision at the tip of his tongue as he caressed her soft flesh.
And her entire awareness existed in the electrified, excited sensations of her sex. Then
they merged and there was no need to tell him with words what she needed, because he
was her and she him. She felt his tongue run over her swollen clit and press hard, just as

Beth Kery

she required, because who knew what she needed most but herself? The experience was
a glorious, shared whole. She tilted her head along with him, aligning his mouth over
her clit and applying a firm, relentless suction. Her being exploded into a million pieces
of subtle light, vibrating and expanding, mingling with Che’s luminous essence, parts
of her fusing with him joyfully…

…so generous in your response, so sweet. Sophia made a startled sound deep in her

throat because she had the distinct impression that Che had been speaking to her for a
while now, but their temporary merger had made it impossible for her to objectively
evaluate his words. Open your eyes now, lovely.

Sophia opened her eyes, squinting even in the dim light of the shadowed balcony.

At first, the gently crashing waves directly below them sounded distant, but then they
grew nearer and louder until she felt fully aware of the moment. At the same time, she
felt Che slowly leave her consciousness. She mentally cried out in longing for him.

The air at the end of the mattress flickered and congealed. He took form before her

eyes. Sophia knew with a painful clarity that she’d never even begun to glimpse the
manifold, complex meanings of desire until that moment. He was a part of her and now
he was miraculously separate. And this was an earth-shattering, deeply occult secret—
that their wordless, inchoate desire had created the other, brought it to form and gave it
a name.

“Alloces,” she whispered in awe. His eyes were like glowing embers as they ran

over her naked body. He stood over her, nude and magnificent, proud and fully
aroused, desire transformed into solid, teeming flesh. Then he smiled, slow and sexy,
and the fey moment faded. He was just a man now, impossibly beautiful, but a man of
blood and sinew and bone, nonetheless. For a moment, they just stared at each other
across the space between them, erotically aware of their separateness. Then Sophia
smiled, too.

“Didn’t they once burn women at the stake for allowing creatures like you into their

bed?” She didn’t expect the somber frown on his handsome face as he kneeled and
crawled over her supine body.

“Don’t joke about it, honey. We were horrified by the way humans behaved during

that time in history. There was a particularly terrible incident at a convent where I—”
he stopped abruptly, seeming to catch himself. His eyes leapt guiltily up to meet hers.
“Suffice it to say that ignorance can kill a thousand times more readily than a weapon
can. Thank the Fathers I was able to rectify that situation without any bloodshed.”

Sophia’s smile deepened. His cock acknowledged that brightening of her spirit with

a lurch. Her eyebrows rose in aroused amusement when she noticed. She reached up
and caressed the delineated sinews of his upper arms as they bulged from holding
himself off her. “You don’t need to pretend like you’ve never had a lover before, Che. I
know you must have had…what, millions?”

“I don’t know. I forgot the second I looked into your eyes.”
Sophia laughed at his suspiciously human-sounding male platitude.

Subtle Touch

Che grinned. He loved the sound of her laughter. He vowed then and there to make

sure that she laughed greatly and often. His stomach muscles jerked in excitement and
pleasure when she ran her sensitive fingertips over his abdomen.

“We’ve been like this before,” Sophia whispered.
“Yes,” he acknowledged as he watched her fingers caress his appreciative flesh. “It

was while you slept two nights ago. I had to release you because I’d held you in the
dream too long and your body was protesting.”

Sophia glanced up at him in wide-eyed, innocent wonder. That was why Che

gasped out in surprise when she closed her fist on his cock and stroked him warmly. “I
actually remember. I was mad, because I never got to do this.”

Che grunted and shifted his hips slightly, adding his own friction to Sophia’s caress

along the length of his penis. “Nothing to stop you now, honey.”

Sophia glanced down between their bodies. She felt the increasingly familiar pussy

meltdown when she saw his cock in her stroking hand. His shaft was so long and
straight, his balls were full and tight with his seed, and the puffy, fat head of his penis…

“Oh…”
Che laughed softly. He bent his elbows out wide, leaving room for Sophia’s arm

and pumping hand, and idly tongued a flushed, dark pink nipple. “So, you remember
that part of the dream, as well.”

“You’re enormous, Che. I’ve never taken a man like you. I’m not sure it’ll…”
“It’ll work,” he said with amused gentleness as he nipped ever so gently at a

distended nipple and Sophia whimpered in pleasure.

“It has to, doesn’t it?” Sophia asked distractedly as he fully took the tip of her breast

into his warm mouth and applied an eye-crossing suction. As he slowly came back into
focus, she watched him lash erotically at her nipple, soothing and exciting her all at
once. “We won’t be mated if you can’t get it into me?”

“No. We could have been mated even through the dream, with me being

incorporeal.”

“Oh,” Sophia muttered with relief.
“But I have to have intercourse with you to set the spell of protection that Bale

created for mated Watchers.”

“Oh,” Sophia repeated, confused and more than a little anxious.
Che’s eyes seemed to spear right down into her soul. “And besides, I wanted the

mating to be completed this way. I want you to accept my flesh into yours, Sophia. I
want your body to learn my shape, to form around me so that we’ll fit together
physically like a lock and a key, just like our spirits do.”

Her lower lip fell open at the erotic tension that exuded off his hard body in near

palpable waves. His cock throbbed in her hand, resonating heat.

“I can fuck either your pussy or ass. Bale’s spell requires intercourse but he

wouldn’t have specified vaginal intercourse. He loves ass-fucking too much to do that.”

Beth Kery

“What?”
Che’s brow crinkled in confusion and concern when he sensed her emotions.

“What’s wrong?”

Sophia was still sputtering over his calm, matter-of-fact statements. Lord, they

really were totally different. She said the first thing that came to mind. “How in the
world would you know what Bale likes sexually?”

Che shrugged, still not comprehending the reason for her unrest. “I should know.

Bale, Duse, Jax and I made love to thousands of women together—before Bale and Duse
mated, of course,” he added quickly when he saw the frozen expression on Sophia’s
face. “Watchers are more faithful than humans, Sophia. A Watcher will completely
abstain from sex, even psychokinetic sex, when his mate is incarnate, even for hundreds
of years, if necessary, for as long as he can last without taking any type of sustenance to
maintain his physical existence. He might find sexual release on an alternate plane of
existence, but that doesn’t compare with sexual communion with a human woman. But
after his mate, other women’s essences seem unpalatable to him, highly coarse and
difficult to metabolize.” He looked down at her in rising concern when he saw the
strange, disoriented look in her large eyes. “Gods, what is it, Sophia?”

“We’re…so different,” she mumbled in rising panic. “I don’t know how I can ever

please you, Che.” Her heart squeezed in pain when she saw the stricken expression on
his handsome face.

“Why in Hades would you say that?”
She felt like she was gasping in air, and yet her lungs burned as though she needed

more oxygen. “Because! I’ve never done those things!” she burst out anxiously. “Anal
sex or group sex or God knows whatever else you expect of me.”

His mouth fell open in surprise, only to be followed by a leaping fire in his

greenish-blue eyes. “I would never share you with anyone, Sophia! By the Gods, what
do you take me for?” he thundered. When he saw the relieved expression on her face,
undoubtedly created by his temperamental, inadvertent assurance, guilt swept over
him like a summer storm. “Gods, I’m sorry, honey. Forgive me.”

Sophia reached around his back and caressed him while he leaned down and softly

kissed a few scattered tears off her cheeks. One of her hands buried into his thick,
unruly hair and held him at the nape while she pressed her lips to his. “I don’t want
you to be disappointed in me,” she whispered, emotion clogging her throat.

“It’s not even a remote possibility, Sophia.”
She looked deeply into his eyes, seeing his earnestness, sensing his love…yes, love,

impossible as it seemed. Her hand lowered again between their bodies. She gripped his
throbbing pillar in her hand and spread her legs wider.

“In my pussy, Che,” she murmured with pointed glance of warning that was

followed by a grin when she saw the disgruntled look on his face. She just shook her
head and laughed.

“Are you sure? You’re ready?”

Subtle Touch

Sophia nodded, never taking her gaze from his beautiful eyes. He didn’t remove his

from hers, either, as he took his cock into his own hand and settled the pointed, thick
head at her juicy entry.

“Say it,” he said hoarsely. “Ask for it.”
Sophia bit her lip to stifle her arousal at the sensation of him pressing to her

sensitive entrance. “Come into me,” she whispered.

He pressed gently, but firmly, and Sophia felt her tissues give way under protest.

“The head is the thickest,” Che muttered apologetically. He watched her expressive face
intently as he pushed the first inch of his flesh into her tight sheath and she winced. He
paused. “I could alter your body with my mind, Sophia, and make this easier for you,”
he said quietly.

“Is that…is that what you want?” she asked with difficulty, overwhelmed by the

incredible sensation of him pressing into her bit by bit.

“No,” he admitted after a long moment. “I want to stretch you, form you to my

cock, honey. It sounds primitive, even to my own ears. But it’s what I want,
nevertheless.”

Sophia felt sweat gather on her upper lip as she watched him slowly pierce her

body with his fleshy spear. He flexed his lean, powerful hips, and she whimpered in
acute pain and pleasure.

“Yes. That’s what I want, too, Che.”
Che smiled, but his eyes blazed with lust at her words. “The head will be the

hardest, Sophia. It will carve the way for the shaft.”

Sophia nodded desperately, unable to speak. He was stretching her so wide, she

should have been uncomfortable. But instead, she only felt hot and in need of…friction.

“Oh God, yes!” she muttered incoherently. Che knelt between her legs. He held the

thick stalk of his cock with one hand, arrowing it down into her pussy, hard and true,
while he held her waist with his other hand and pulsed her flesh over his sex, flexing
his hips at the same time.

Che’s jaws clenched tight at the magnitude of pleasure being inside her snug sheath

conferred. “That’s right, honey. Hold still a moment.” He used all of his considerable
willpower to stay still while Sophia’s body shaped around him, adjusting to his girth.
But he could only take so much. “Ah, honey, I’m at your mercy. Please tell me I can
move.”

“Yes. Fuck me. I need it, too.”
His heart practically burst with joy in his chest at her words. He pushed even

farther into her, marveling at the way she gloved him so hotly, so perfectly. Then he
began to pulse in and out of her, bringing her body back and forth on the first third of
his cock. He scrunched his eyes in ecstatic agony when he heard Sophia keen in
pleasure. His thrusts deepened until he fucked her with half of his shaft in quick,
stabbing, staccato movements. Without breaking tempo, he set her hips down on the

Beth Kery

mattress and leaned down over her, bending her legs back to give him more access to
her sacred depths.

Sophia’s eyes opened in shock at the sensation. He was prying her body wide open,

forcing her to accept him into her. The feeling was like nothing she’d ever known. His
circumference was so large that she felt like her clit and anus were being stimulated
with his movements as much as her pussy was. She looked up and met his stare, an
expression of disbelief on her face. His aquamarine eyes glittered with fire, his gaze
piercing her as he continued to fuck her steadily.

Sophia’s head jerked back violently as orgasm abruptly shattered her flesh. When

she eventually came back to herself, he was still fucking her with a determined, stark
look on his face, prizing his cock even farther into her resisting, yet paradoxically
wanting, pussy. She noticed that his cheeks were flushed with blood and that his
muscled, bronzed torso glistened with sweat. There was a wild expression in his eyes
that would have alarmed Sophia if she wasn’t experiencing the same emotion that
created it in him.

“Your pussy ought to be declared one of the Seven Wonders of the World,” he

muttered with disbelieving amusement. “You just squeezed my cock tighter than a
python in a romantic mood when you came.”

Sophia stared at him wide-eyed and then burst out in surprised laughter. Che

grimaced in stark arousal at the feeling of her laughing while he was buried in her flesh.
“I can only hope you don’t speak from actual experience, Che.”

He guffawed at that. “Don’t worry, honey. I was never one to be too fond of that

cult. Its priestesses could be downright bloodthirsty.”

Sophia just shook her head slightly. She’d been joking, of course, but…oh well. At

least he hadn’t liked it overly much. Impulsively, she reached out and brought both of
knees back farther into her chest. She felt the delicate tissues of her pussy strain to the
point of acute, burning pain, but it was worth it to see the look of stunned, cross-eyed
pleasure on Che’s face as he sunk into her to the hilt.

Take that, you snaky priestesses, Sophia thought with grim satisfaction. But her

ridiculous thoughts of revenge toward women long dead were forgotten when the
burning protest in her own flesh segued into simmering, nerve-tingling pleasure with
breathtaking rapidity.

“Oh Christ, I’m going to come again,” she muttered in disbelief as she caught Che’s

fiery gaze and a huge, black wave of orgasm reared over her awareness. Before she
could lose herself in it, she became aware of Che’s sharp, commanding voice.

“Keep looking at me. Look at me, Sophia!” His voice lashed at her as he began to

pound into her flesh without mercy. Sophia’s eyes opened wide as he jolted her body,
again and again with his hard, demanding thrusts. Orgasm blossomed like fracturing
fire in her sex, gathering momentum and then shooting like a rocket blast up her spine.
For a second, she was gone, her consciousness ripped clean away by the magnitude of
the pleasure. Then Che was calling her back to him.

Subtle Touch

“Open your eyes, Sophia,” he commanded thickly between tense jaws. She felt him

slice down deeply into her, from tip to balls, in one long, brutally pleasurable stroke. He
held her tightly to him and began to convulse. A shout gathered steam in his chest, only
to burst out with harsh pressure when he opened his lips.

Sophia’s eyes went wide in awe because, suddenly, she was being impaled and

utterly possessed by a creature that was even taller and larger than Che, a being with
the form of a man but made of luminous essences and light. It was like having a
conscious flame fuck her. For a moment, she was afraid, but then she looked into his
eyes. And even though she stared into orbs of concentrated power, scoring, bluish fire,
she recognized something basic and elemental.

“Che,” she whispered.
He leaned over her, his lean torso heaving as he gasped desperately for air. Sophia

saw the impossibly rapid pulse at his neck and she reached for him, bringing his tense,
struggling body down over her, loving the way their sweat-dampened bodies glided
together. She ran her hands over his muscular back and whispered soothingly to him.
His penis still throbbed. Much to her already boundless amazement, she realized he
was still coming inside her.

Che blinked several times as he came fully into his physical body. It was like having

an elusive, realistic dream, only to wake up and find you were still there…still
gloriously, blessedly there.

“Sophia,” he whispered gruffly. The poignant, recollection of her acknowledging

him, even when he was in form that was utterly alien to her species, struck the strings
of his spirit like a poignant, resonant chord. His arms encircled her tightly. He pressed
his face to the side of her neck and inhaled the reality of her.

“Sweet woman. You’re my living, breathing dream.”

Beth Kery

Chapter Seven

After a while, Che became conscious of how cool the breeze felt on his sweat-

dampened skin. He rose over Sophia and watched her face carefully as he regretfully
withdrew. But if she was in any pain, she wasn’t revealing it to him. “Are you alright,
honey?”

“Yes.” Her eyes on him were velvet soft. “It was incredible, Che. I feel different.”
He paused in the process of pulling the blanket up over her nude body. His gaze

lingered on her breast. “How?”

“I don’t know. Calm. More at peace than I would have ever imagined, given

these…bizarre circumstances.” She felt a sharp twinge of emotion in her chest as she
watched him lower his head and kiss her left breast, directly over her heart. Her fingers
came up to twine in his unruly hair.

“I told you that completing the bond would help.” His eyes were banked embers

when they met her gaze. “Speaking of which, you…uh…haven’t noticed yet, have
you?”

“Noticed what?”
“I set Bale’s spell.” He glanced down at her breast where he’d just kissed her.
“What is that, Che?” Sophia asked in dawning alarm when she saw the elaborate,

strangely beautiful, dark red markings above her left breast.

“It’s not going to go away, Sophia,” Che said gruffly as he watched her rub at her

skin in puzzlement. In truth, he felt a little overwhelmed by the emotions that welled
up inside him as he stared at Sophia’s beautiful breast emblazoned with his personal
symbol. “It’s my sigil. Those markings mean Che Ammadon. Any Watcher would
know it.”

Her eyes looked huge in her pale face. “You mean it’s like a brand?”
“A brand?” It was Che’s turn to look confused. “You mean like what they put on

cattle?”

“Yes,” Sophia said. Passion flared in her liquid eyes.
“No, of course not. It’s just the outer manifestation of the magic, that’s all. No other

Watcher will be able to touch you now, unless it is to give you aid when you’re in
need.”

“Isn’t that a little primitive? What, you don’t trust me not to fool around with

another Watcher?” she asked incredulously. Despite herself, she was recalling those
alarmingly casual references he’d made to unconventional sex earlier. Anger blossomed
in her as she thought of his history of engaging in wild orgies while, at the same time,
he found it necessary to brand her as his exclusive mate!

Subtle Touch

Che looked completely stunned by her impassioned outburst and by the fact that

she wrapped the blanket securely around her and scooted away from him. What had
happened to the soft, doe-eyed woman who had just given herself to him with
heartbreaking generosity?

“Sophia, Bale’s spell wasn’t designed to keep you sexually faithful to me. He

created it because about a hundred years ago, Asmoday committed a crime that we’d
never before considered as being a temptation to a Watcher. He raped Bale’s wife and
mate, Helen Ammadon. He…” Che paused. Speaking of this was never easy. Every
Watcher who had ever met Helen loved her; not in the way that Bale did, of course, but
as a friend and a fierce protector. Helen was wisdom and laughter and light—the
flickering flame of the divine on the physical plane. He unintentionally grimaced in
disgust and anger as he continued. “He psychokinetically forced her brain into orgasm
so that he could be the recipient of her Rush. He killed her as a result.”

Sophia’s expression shifted as she sensed Che’s immense grief. She swallowed with

difficulty. “Do you mean that once the mating bond is complete, a woman can’t have
sexual relations with another Watcher besides her mate?”

“No.” He considered her for a long moment with an unreadable expression. “She

would suffer from a massive temporal lobe stroke in the pleasure centers of her brain.
Our subtle bodies have been fitted together now with infinite precision, Sophia. I
thought you understood. Before Helen’s murder, we were operating under the
mistaken assumption that a Watcher other than a woman’s mate would be unable to
bring her to orgasm because of her prior spiritual bond. You see, the power that a
woman like you can confer to a Watcher is enormous, beyond anything I could even
envision until you gifted me with it two nights ago. But since we didn’t believe that a
mate could reach her pinnacle and confer her Rush with another, we never considered
that rape of a mate would be a temptation. You’re unfamiliar with our ways, but a
Watcher mate is highly revered among us. We don’t worship you as goddesses
necessarily, but we come pretty damn close to it. Some of us more so than others,” he
said as he studied her with eyes lambent with emotion. “The thought never even
entered our awareness that someone would consider violence and…sacrilege against a
mated female.”

Sophia didn’t speak for a moment. She could almost taste the bitterness of Che’s

regret. “Bale must have been out of his mind with grief,” she finally said.

“He hides it, and he’s strong, so he does it well. Maybe too well,” Che said grimly,

thinking of Bale’s sudden outburst of emotion at the meeting today and how it had
surprised them all. As if Bale didn’t have reason to show a thousand times worse
outbursts of emotion. “My point is, Sophia, that Bale designed the spell to protect
Watcher mates, not enslave them somehow.”

“I see. This is all very difficult to absorb.” When he didn’t speak but merely

continued to watch her with an expression gone impassive, Sophia bristled slightly.
Had she offended him? Surely he could grant her a little sympathy for the degree of
emotional chaos she was experiencing.

Beth Kery

“You were thinking that I’d placed my sigil on you to control you,” Che said stiffly.
Sophia thought of denying it, but what good would it do? He read her mind with

alarming accuracy. “I’ll thank you to stay out of my private thoughts, Che. It’s
intrusive.”

Che’s expression hardened. He was a tactician through and through. He recognized

when he was being thrown off the trail. “You’ll learn to block what you don’t want me
to know soon enough,” he said evenly. “Now, do you want to talk about what’s really
the issue here, the fact that you’re convinced that all your lovers will eventually screw
you over?”

Sophia stood up abruptly. “How dare you say that’s what the issue is? You’re the

one who put this…this…thing on my breast without asking me! After you told me
about all of your perverted sex history so casually, did you expect that I wouldn’t get a
little upset at the idea that you expected me to be your personal property when I’ve
known you now for all of two days?”

Che’s eyes blazed. He stood up to face her. “I’ve told you that we’re not strangers,

honey. It’s not the same as if we were a human man and a human woman who just met.
Now that we’ve bonded, our spirits are closer than any two human beings in existence.
Any two human beings ever in existence!”

“That sounds suspiciously like prejudice against my species,” Sophia told him with

a chilly air.

Che scoffed at that but refused to rise to the bait. “I could accuse you of prejudice

just as easily for judging my sexuality based on your puritanical human world view.”

“So, what? You just expect me to be totally secure with the fact that your ideas of

sex involve things like pythons or watching Bale having anal sex during an orgy? The
next thing you’re going to tell me is that Watchers believe in multiple mates and that I
should feel honored to meet your other two lovers later tonight!” Sophia stormed,
spilling all of her emotional tumult into an aggressive attack. But when she saw Che’s
expression, she went utterly still.

“No. You have got to be kidding me.”
“Sophia, stop it. Of course not. I told you that mated Watchers don’t have a desire

for anything beside their mate. The idea of another woman compared to you is
laughable. You just don’t get that part of all of this, do you? It’s just that—”

“Get out!”
“Sophia, if you would just listen, you would realize that you’re being ridiculous.”
“I’m being ridiculous, am I?” Sophia asked with an eerie calm that set alarms

rattling in the primitive part of Che’s new brain. “You were about to tell me that you
already have a lover, weren’t you?”

Che’s mouth opened and shut like a fish choking on the poison of air. By the Gods,

had he put that wretched, furious expression into Sophia’s eyes? He needed to rectify

Subtle Touch

this and quickly. He just needed to say their names, and his mother’s spell would be
broken. He took a deep breath and plowed ahead.

“Actually, I was going to tell you that I have two lovers. Their names are Avala and

Andrea. They’re twins and—”

“Twins?” Sophia bellowed so loudly that some gulls, feeding on the beach,

screeched in alarm and fled. “Get out of here, you cheating, lying son of a bitch! I don’t
care if you are practically immortal or not, I’ll find a way to kill you if you stay.” She
whipped around in fury, looking for something—anything. She picked up one of the
heavy books at her bedside that she’d been studying for her diplomatic work in Africa.
This one was entitled Recognizing and Acknowledging Your Own Prejudices: The Key to
Being More Effective in Working with Diverse Populations. For a second, she actually
thought that Che was going to let it hit him in the face when she chucked it at him. He
looked gratifyingly stunned. At the last microsecond before contact, he reached up,
caught it and tossed it onto their makeshift bed with alarming speed.

“I haven’t cheated on anyone!”
“Oh, no? Well, what about your girlfriends, lover boy? That wasn’t a coffee klatch

you and I were having there in bed just now.”

“But that’s…but you’re my…”
Sophia picked up the phone and glared at him ominously. “Are you going to leave,

or do I call the police?”

Che gritted his teeth in blinding frustration. He’d once saved one hundred and

forty-six mortals from a cliffside castle with a wall of fire encircling it in addition to an
army bent on their destruction. He’d once won a bet with Duse and Jax and not only
convinced a wily, sadistic eighth-century bishop, bent on seeing his limbs and head
traveling in five opposite directions, that he was not the demon incubus that he’d been
falsely accused of being, but was actually the bishop’s younger brother who had been
cruelly forsaken by their father. He could have spent the better part of a century
penning down other examples of his intrepidness.

But for the life of him, he couldn’t come up with a way, at that very moment, of

getting out of the latest fiasco he’d created with Sophia.

* * * * *

“Twins?” Duse guffawed. “I can’t believe you told her that. And why haven’t you

ever told me, for that matter?”

“I’m willing to bet Che’s mother’s spell was an eilonoin,” Bale said dryly. He noticed

Duse’s bewildered expression. “A blood secret, set into the subtle pattern that acts as
the template for Andrea and Avala’s genetic material. If Che ever spoke of the secret of
the Rochen Dui, the spell would be immediately broken.”

Che examined his cousin sourly. “You knew about it all along, didn’t you?”

Beth Kery

Bale shrugged. “I suspected it, that’s all. I had to come up with some kind of viable

hypotheses as to why you and Jax were so powerful when you’re unmated and why
you refused the honor of acting as the scisen at the Issian Festival in a predictable cycle
throughout the years. Why didn’t you just tell Sophia that as soon as you had revealed
the secret to her, whatever bond that had existed between you and your lemans
dissipated completely?”

“I tried! But she was too busy throwing books at me and threatening to call the

police and calling me a perverted cheater to listen,” Che said hotly as he glanced out to
the guesthouse from where he sat on the lodge’s terrace. Sophia hadn’t bothered to turn
on the lights as dusk settled. She wasn’t sleeping, though. He could easily sense her
unrest and stewing anger.

Duse shook his head and mumbled. “I still can’t believe you told her you already

had lovers and that they’re twins.”

Che looked ready to strangle his closest friend. “Thanks. You might have already

mentioned that once or a thousand times.”

Bale suddenly burst out in unrestrained laughter. Che and Duse stared at him like

he’d just revealed that he was going to eschew all worldly sin and become a Buddhist
monk. Bale didn’t laugh near enough these days.

“It’s just that it’s a bizarre bit of irony, Che,” he explained between fits of laugher.

“Your mother used the eilonoin to make it a more potent spell for her son but surely she
never foresaw that it would be your life mate that you told in order to break it.”

“Or maybe she knew precisely that,” Che said quietly.
Bale kept laughing but he looked vaguely suspicious. “Meaning what?”
“Never mind,” Che breathed out heavily, tired of having to justify himself all of the

time. Besides, who was he to deprive Bale of a good laugh, even if it was at his own
expense? The fact of the matter was, he’d realized in a flash of insight that his mother’s
spell was powerful indeed, and he needed to do something definitive—even drastic—to
utterly break it. Telling Sophia had been painful and he wouldn’t have bet jack at this
point that she would ever forgive him. But somehow, Che still thought it had probably
been the right thing to do.

Probably. Maybe. Even though it had been bloody stupid…
Duse looked like he was about to impart unfortunate but crucial information to a

good friend who needed to know the truth at all costs, no matter how painful that truth
may be. “And you told her that she was being ridiculous. There’s never been a single
time in history when that was the right thing to say to a mate, Che.”

Leave it to Duse to get him riled all over again. “But she was being ridiculous!

Thinking that I would be remotely interested in being with another woman when I’m
bonded to her. Doesn’t she realize—”

“No, Che. She doesn’t. That’s the whole point. It’s nowhere near as obvious to her

as it is you. Watchers and humans are very alike at times, but we’re also drastically
different,” Bale said as he eventually quieted his laugher.

Subtle Touch

Che’s face lightened. “Hey, maybe you could talk to her…”
“Forget it. I tried to do that for Duse recently to get him out of a jam with Skylar

and the first thing that came out of Skylar’s mouth was an accusation that Duse had
sent me to do his dirty work.”

“Women are much smarter than we are, Che,” Bale continued. “That’s the first

thing you need to learn about having a mate. The second thing you need to learn is how
to grovel.”

“Grovel? Che asked in disgust. Warriors didn’t know how to grovel.
“You better learn, then, if you know what’s good for you,” Bale said with a fresh

grin after he read Che’s thought. Che had a strong suspicion that Bale was enjoying this
way too much.

“What have I got to apologize for?” he asked sullenly.
“You’ve got to look at things from Sophia’s point of view,” said Duse.
“Duse is right. It’s lesson number three. For instance, why didn’t you tell Avala and

Andrea about Sophia right away?”

Che looked flabbergasted. “I haven’t had the chance, what with worrying about

Asmoday and the Stone…and I needed to complete the bond with Sophia, despite the
fact that she acted like she was repulsed by me half the time. Whose side are you on,
anyway, Bale?”

“I’m just preparing you. Helen would ask that question and so will Sophia, I’ll bet.

If I were you, I’d sit down with Avala and Andrea in the interim and iron things out
before you even try to speak to Sophia again. Women identify with each other when it
comes to cheating men.”

“I didn’t cheat on anybody, Bale,” Che said ominously. “Avala and Andrea know

as well as anybody that our bond didn’t include my mate. They’ll be thrilled for me
now that the spell has dissipated.”

Duse gave him a look that clearly communicated even without telepathy, if you’re

going with that defense, good luck to you, pal. The warm glint that sparkled in his cerulean
eyes froze to ice in an instant when he glanced up at the patio doors.

“Jax,” Bale said evenly as he stood. “Thank you for coming.”

* * * * *

Jax gave a small smile as he dipped his head in obeisance to his eldest brother.

“Such politeness, Bale. I didn’t realize I had a choice in the matter.”

Jax Ammadon looked strangely formidable. Without realizing what he was doing,

Che found himself comparing Jax to Bale and finding similarities he’d never noticed in
the past. The youngest Ammadon wore faded, holey jeans and an un-tucked T-shirt.
His black, glossy hair was as riotous as ever. Che and Jax both had always seemed to
take form insouciantly dressed and groomed. It had always been one of their many
commonalities. Bale, Duse and Jax were remarkably alike in appearance, but out of his

Beth Kery

three cousins, Che most resembled Jax. Not in coloring, but in feature, expression and
manner. Uncle Paim had fondly said once that Che and Jax shared what was finest
about their mothers.

The thought made Che’s expression stiffen in anger and hurt.
Something elemental had changed in Jax. As Che studied him from his sitting

position, he realized that Bale was right to question the magnitude of his strength. If he
didn’t miss his bet, Jax was currently more powerful than Che had been before he’d
encountered Sophia. Uncle Paim and Batos would have been clamoring for him to be
tested for the Grigori Council if he wasn’t an outlaw.

What in Hades could possibly be making him so strong? Was he the recipient of a

secret spell like Che had been? Or worse, was he just the recipient of a secret in
general…possibly something that involved further plotting with Asmoday?

Che came out of his reverie when Duse stood up abruptly, obviously intent on

leaving.

“Duse, Che,” Jax muttered perfunctorily, but his eyes were anything but casual as

they flicked over his brother and cousin. “I understand congratulations are in order for
both of you.”

A tense moment passed in silence as Che and Duse seemingly faced off against Jax,

with Bale frowning darkly in the background.

“Yeah, well…” Duse finally said gruffly. “Not that this reunion isn’t a laugh-fest,

but I need to be anywhere else.”

“Bale told me that you call your son Nix. He’s healthy? All went well with his

delivery?”

Duse’s mouth fell open as if he couldn’t believe that Jax had the balls to address

him directly, let alone ask him about his son. Perhaps Jax hadn’t meant to directly put
Skylar in danger while she was pregnant with Pheynix, but he’d inadvertently done
exactly that when he plotted with Asmoday. Che thought Duse was considering
violence for a few seconds. Then he caught a glimpse of Bale and he seemed to switch
direction midstream.

“Nix is very healthy,” Duse muttered darkly. His inner struggle showed clearly on

his face. “And so is Skylar.” Duse’s eyes flashed furiously at Bale, although Che was
sure that no message had passed between them. But just as it had with Che last evening,
the poignant expression of sadness in Bale’s eyes communicated volumes. Che knew
that was what had instigated Duse assuring Jax of Skylar’s well-being. Che wasn’t so
sure if he could have been half so generous in a parallel situation.

What had become of the Watchers? And how was it possible that such a fracture

could have wedged its way between the Ammadons? He knew that his own sense of
betrayal was enormous, but what must it be for Duse? Che considered that as Duse
faded and Jax lowered himself into the deck chair opposite him.

100

Subtle Touch

“I’ll leave you two to it, then,” Bale said quietly. Che remained silent with his eyes

steady on Jax’s face, but he sensed Bale’s nonverbal warning for cooperation. After Bale
left, Jax was the first to speak.

“So. Bale is forcing you to work with me on this and you’re royally pissed off about

it?”

“Nah. I leave all the royal acting out to you, Jax,” Che muttered darkly. “What do

you want to know?”

Jax leaned back in his chair. In the dim light, his cerulean eyes seemed to glow with

banked power in his dark face. “Bale told me that you ran into Asmoday on the Astral
Plane. Why don’t you start from there? It would help if I could have your memories
firsthand.”

Che stiffened in automatic resistance at that. Could he allow himself to host Jax?

That would mean opening himself up to Jax’s spirit so that his cousin could experience
his memories just as Che had. He’d done it innumerable times for Jax in their past, but
now? It would be a risk, but there was also the chance…

“Agreed. I’m ready whenever you are.” He struggled not to tense when he felt Jax’s

presence in his consciousness. They sat in silence as Jax sifted through the memories to
which Che gave him access.

“Why do you think your wound festered when you first encountered Asmoday?”

Jax asked abruptly, even while they were both still immersed in the memory.

Che felt his irritation rise. He didn’t like to be reminded of the foul taunts, in regard

to First Change women that Asmoday had leveled at him. “I have no idea. You’re
supposed to be the great detective, cousin.”

“Has the wound bothered you at any other time?”
“It’s bothered me plenty, but not for months now. I guess you haven’t heard from

Bale but Duse had a hard time healing it. He’s not familiar with the energies of First
Changers.”

Duse was the foremost expert among them in matters of the biochemistry of subtle

and physical matter. But Asmoday had been the first ever to break the Watcher taboo
against seducing women who had never reached their Second Change. He’d done it out
of desperation. The Grigori Council had placed him in an energy prison, allotting him
only a weak form of artificial sustenance, making it impossible for him to gain more
energy by seducing human women. But the spell hadn’t prevented him from doing
what had previously been an act never considered by the Watchers—evoking a sexual
response from women before they ever reached Watcher sexual maturity. It had been
this coarse, unrefined, dangerous sex energy that Asmoday had used as a weapon
against Che when the Ammadons confronted him about his crimes against Skylar
Ammadon.

“Day didn’t summon you to the Astral Plane,” Jax said abruptly. His eyes were

eerily focused, but not on anything in the physical world. “You were the unexpected
party. He was there because he sensed Sophia.”

101

Beth Kery

A shiver ran up Che’s spine. “How can you know that? Because of your previous

dealings with that rotting scum?”

“I know it because I know it,” Jax said evenly.
Che gritted his teeth at that, but he didn’t argue. He knew as well as any Watcher

that Jax’s gift was the ability to see what others tried to keep secret. It was why he’d
been forced to take the binding, magical pledge to fight Watcher crime as his sentence.

They progressed to the part of Che’s memory where he had first encountered

Sophia. His muscles tightened with anxiety at the idea of Jax seeing his mate’s face and
feeling the powerful emotions that Che had experienced. His aquamarine eyes
narrowed and his muscles tensed, as though he were preparing to do battle as he
watched his cousin in the physical world while he waited for him to make a move in his
mind. Any emotional revelation in the wrong direction and—

“You should have Duse check Sophia,” Jax said abruptly. “I believe that she

underwent her Second Change just prior to your meeting on the Astral Plane.”

“What do you mean?”
“That was Asmoday’s secret. He’s been tracking her. It should be impossible. But

no…he was able to divine Skylar’s existence too, before her Change. He never
specifically revealed to me how, but I think it has to do with the fact that he’s been
psychokinetically raping First Change women and hoarding their energy. It’s
corrupting him, of course. We can’t metabolize those energies. But he must also be
learning how to magically utilize those resources. Perhaps certain truths are revealed to
him as he feeds himself with those unrefined energies.”

You are what you eat. Che scowled at the memory of Asmoday’s words. “Then why

did I show up on the Astral Plane all of a sudden?”

Jax just shook his head. “Day was as surprised about it as you were when he made

those accusations about you desiring First Change women. Still…I’m guessing he
wasn’t far off from the truth.”

Che’s eyes flamed furiously. “You better explain that…and quickly, Jax.”
Jax grimaced. “I’m not accusing you of desiring First Changers, Che. I’m just

making a guess on this, mind you. Since your and Sophia’s spirits were already so
closely matched, and your affinity for one another was so great, maybe it was Sophia
herself who drew you to the Astral Plane.”

Che gawked in disbelief. “It doesn’t happen that way for us. Watchers and their

mates meet spontaneously the first time that they’re together. It’s only later, when their
bonded, that the woman’s spirit calls out to him on her Second Change.”

“I’m aware of that, Che,” Jax said sardonically. “But what Asmoday said is true.

You came into brief contact with First Change energy, although Duse’s shield protected
your spirit from the more dire effects. Maybe that exposure gave you some as-of-yet
unknown ability to divine Sophia’s presence just as her subtle bodies altered from her
First to her Second Change. It’s been documented that Watcher mates are often
somehow tapping into the existence of their subtle bodies when they actually undergo

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their Change.” He easily sensed Che’s incredulity and shrugged. “I told you it was just
a guess. I might be wrong.”

Che’s jaw hardened. “That would mean that Asmoday was waiting there,

preparing to attack her! By the Blessed Mothers, it is Sophia he wants to use the
Dionytion Stone with, isn’t it?” His eyes blazed at Jax. “You’re convinced that you’re
right about this?”

“I’m willing to bet that I am.”
Che struggled with his emotions. He wanted to believe Jax, but how could he? He

still hosted him. Their spirits were still partially in contact. Before Jax had a chance to
realize his intention, Che asked aggressively, “How could you have betrayed Duse, Jax?
How could you have betrayed us all?”

Che knew that his sudden attack was successful, so he was surprised when he was

nearly immobilized with pain. It was pain like he’d never experienced and never
wanted to feel again. He felt disoriented, blindsided. How had Jax managed to turn the
attack on him with such ease and strength? Che struggled under the weight of leaden
feelings of grief and loss and the sure knowledge of a barren, hopeless existence. It was
as if…by the Gods, it was as though he lived day in and day out with the knowledge
that Sophia’s spirit would be forever lost to him, their subtle essences ripped apart for
eternity.

“Enough!” Jax bellowed furiously.
They were both standing now, muscles tensed, eyes wild, ready to do battle. They’d

fought against each other innumerable times in the past. But this promised to be no
sparring match. At the millisecond before they came to both subtle and physical blows,
a trickle of reason got through Che’s chaotic emotions. Jax had just severed the hosting
bond in his fury and that was what must have allowed Che a measure of rationality. He
flinched backward.

“By the Fathers!” Che muttered almost incoherently. Despite a vague knowledge of

his vulnerable state with such a formidable enemy only feet away from him, he
slumped down into the chair. He stared up at Jax in dread and disbelief.

“How can you live like that?”
Che’s question seemed to take form between them, its shape sharp and ominous.
Deep blue fires leapt in Jax’s eyes. “I could have you imprisoned for that,” he said

stiffly, referring to the Che’s aggressive, unexpected attack on his consciousness.

Che breathed in slowly, trying to regain his composure. It took him longer than he

would have expected. Coming into direct contact with Jax’s emotional state had been
overwhelming. Why had it happened? He’d asked him how he could have plotted
against Duse, wanting to know the secrets that Jax still withheld…needing to
understand how someone that he loved so dearly could have betrayed him, as well.
Instead of gleaning any answers, though, he’d been wholly submerged in an ocean of
emotional anguish.

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And then it slowly dawned on him that Jax’s enormous pain had been the answer

to his question. He shook his head, stunned.

“How can you live like that, Jax?” he repeated. Jax was so powerfully corporeal at

the moment that a muscle in his cheek leapt with suppressed tension. For a long
moment, Che thought he was going to refuse to answer him.

“I promised Skylar,” he said eventually, in a voice rough with emotion. “She sensed

that I was going to take the Path of Sorrow after I was sure that she was safe again with
Duse. She made me vow to accept the Watcher punishment for my crime instead.”

Che’s mouth hung open in dumbfounded amazement. Jax and Skylar had never

bonded. There was only the possibility that they could have bonded, had Duse not
bonded with her first. But what he’d just experienced from Jax’s consciousness argued
otherwise. What Jax was currently experiencing equated with nothing less than being
completely severed eternally from a bonded mate. Che felt anxious when he just
considered what Bale had to endure after Helen’s rape and murder. But Helen would
eventually come back to him…she wasn’t irrevocably lost…not like Skylar was to Jax.
Jax’s pain had been cruel. No wonder he’d wanted to take the Path of Sorrow, the
choice that a Watcher could always make to will himself out of existence.

“Skylar couldn’t have known that she’d subjected you to so much torment when

she asked that of you.”

Jax gave a small, sad smile and collapsed back into his chair. He suddenly looked

spent. “Of course she didn’t. She thought she was protecting her little brother,” he said
with a desperate bark of laughter.

Che had never felt so helpless in his long existence. “If only…if only Duse could

understand, maybe you two could…” He stopped abruptly when Jax met his eyes and
Che fully sensed the impassable breach that had been cleaved between the two
brothers.

“I still can’t comprehend how you can exist that way,” Che mumbled distractedly.
“Because I have no other choice.”
Neither of them spoke for several minutes.
“Now you know my secret.” Jax smiled tiredly when Che glanced up at him in

confusion. “A Watcher’s spirit and strength can crystallize and grow strong in the
physical world from more than just the force of a woman’s sexual acknowledgment of
him. Acute suffering will make him grow strong, as well.”

“Gods,” Che muttered through clenched teeth. He wanted to say something, but

was acutely aware that there was nothing of substance that he could say in this
situation. If it was true that suffering could make a Watcher stronger, then Jax would
undoubtedly be the most powerful Watcher in existence one day. What Jax had done
was undoubtedly wrong, but who was Che to judge him, especially when he was
almost certain that he would do the same thing if a similar situation faced him and
Sophia had been mated to another?

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“I need to see Sophia,” he said he as he stood. “I didn’t have a chance to shield her

from…” Che waved his hand with an air of vague apology.

Jax nodded. “Of course.”
“I’d introduce you to her, but…well…we’ve sort of had a fight.” One of Jax’s raven

dark eyebrows rose in a familiar, strangely comforting expression of wry amusement.
“I, uh…I’d feel a lot better if I knew that you were guarding the guesthouse while I was
with her.”

Jax’s expression didn’t alter, but Che didn’t miss the brief spark of stunned

gratitude in his cousin’s eyes.

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Chapter Eight

Tears coursed down Sophia’s cheeks as she wrestled the mattress off the balcony

and back onto her bed. Damn Che Ammadon for his stupid ideas.

“Not human, my ass,” she muttered under her breath as she unfurled a clean sheet

on the bed and arranged it with manic energy. “You couldn’t have been acting more
like a human male if you tried, you thick, dog-brained idiot! What kind of moron tells a
woman that he has twins for lovers after he’s just bedded her…mated with her? Ha!”

Sophia had to admit to herself, however, that despite her bitter words, her current

feelings were more chaotic and uncertain than angry. Her cursing and tears continued
for the next few minutes as she made the bed. She crawled under the covers still
wearing the short nightgown she’d donned after her recent shower. The warm water
hadn’t served the purpose of soothing her unstable mood like she’d hoped it would.
She shifted beneath the cool sheets restlessly, trying to ignore how sensual the densely
woven cotton felt against her sensitized skin. She didn’t have a clue, in fact, of what
could relax her tumultuous emotional state. Her eyes shut tightly against the potent
image of Che slowly piercing her body with his cock while his eyes did the same to her
soul.

Okay, maybe she did have an inkling of something that would temporarily quiet

her churning emotions, but that wasn’t going to happen in a million years!

So why did she keep envisioning the look in his hot, soulful eyes as he pounded his

flesh into hers? Why did she keep hearing the deep emotion in his voice as he held her
almost desperately after they’d made love?

You’re my living, breathing dream.
Sophia clenched her eyelids tighter, but it was no use. As mad as she was at Che,

she couldn’t rid herself of the potency of his being. No matter how hard she tried, he
was there, like a shadow just out of her field of vision. Despite the fact that her rational
mind still held multiple doubts about everything he’d told her about being
nonhuman—at least partially—and about their fate together, her body and her
unconscious mind seemed to be operating on an entirely different realities. The fact of
the matter was, a part of her not only craved Che’s presence, but seemed to require it.
She couldn’t deny that she seemed preternaturally aware of his being, despite the fact
that he was nowhere to be seen.

While she’d been in the shower, for instance, she’d acutely sensed anger and hurt

and betrayal. It took her awhile to separate those feelings from her own. But then she’d
slowly begun to recognize the quality of the emotions. Ever since then, she’d been
experimenting with those qualities in her mind, exploring the emotions’ shapes and
textures with her subtle touch, quickly learning to identify the unique templates and

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tones of feeling that signified Che and Che alone. As she had done so, her anger had
begun to fade and longing had taken its place. And that was something by which her
thinking, rational mind just couldn’t abide.

She sighed with self-disgust and flipped on her bedside lamp. She opened a

weighty book concerning the social mores and customs of Uganda. After five minutes,
the words began to look like some unreadable hieroglyphics.

Twins! What a jerk!
But Che had certainly turned her body into a finely tuned instrument of pleasure.

Sophia had never imagined such heights of ecstasy, let alone experienced it. Despite her
desire to repress the memories of their lovemaking, they spilled into her awareness in
shockingly graphic detail.

Then it hit her, a wave of intense pain accompanied by the sure knowledge that

there was no hope for remission from the torture.

“Che!” Sophia cried out anxiously. She felt as though she’d been dealt an

unexpected blow. She sat up in bed while she tried to regain her composure. Almost
immediately, the intense pain passed, only to leave stunned disbelief and sadness in its
wake. After several moments, even this faded, but Sophia suspected that the
diminished pain was due to Che’s purposeful intent to protect her. Hardly a thought
entered her brain as she tossed aside the book and the covers and searched in the
bureau for a pair of jeans. She was reaching for her bedroom door, heedless of the
inappropriateness of wearing her baby doll nightgown along with her jeans, when she
heard a calm voice.

“Going somewhere?”
Sophia yelped in surprise. Che was sitting at the foot of the mussed bed, his long,

jean-clad legs spread casually and his hands resting on his thighs. He’d changed
clothing. He was currently wearing a black short-sleeved sport shirt that acted as a stark
contrast to his healthy tan and glowing aquamarine eyes. Sophia swallowed thickly.
Just the sight of Che Ammadon was enough to make the heart race and the hormones
thicken in the blood of any sane, straight female with a slight pulse.

What the sight of him did to her body would have made medical history.
“What are you doing here?”
“You called out to me.”
“Are you alright?” Unconsciously she stepped toward him. Her eyes dropped to

scan his body, as though she were searching for cuts and bruises. Surely such immense
pain would have left him marked?

“I’m fine,” Che growled warmly, touched by her concern for him despite her anger.

“If you’re convinced otherwise, though, I’d be happy to get naked for you so that you
can search for wounds.”

Sophia made a scoffing noise, but her gaze continued to examine him anxiously.

“There isn’t the remotest necessity for you to get naked.”

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“No?” He sighed and leaned back on his palms, making Sophia’s eyes lower over

him in something other than anxiety. “Then you’re still mad at me, I guess.”

Sophia crossed her arms beneath her breasts. “I wasn’t aware that anything had

happened in the interim that should have changed my mind.”

“I thought reality might have set in.”
She pursed her lips and narrowed her eyelids as she examined him. “And just what

reality might that be?”

“The one where you’re stuck with me, Sophia. You did agree to it, you know,” he

murmured gruffly. “Surely you’ve been noticing that it’s not that easy to discount me
from your awareness.”

Her mouth twisted. “No matter how much I desire it, you mean?”
His insouciant attitude caved slightly at that. “By the Gods, Sophia, do you really

regret it?”

Sophia’s mouth fell open to console him, but then one word interfered—twins.

“Why were you in so much pain earlier, Che?”

He exhaled in frustration when she didn’t answer him. “I was hosting my cousin,

Jax. What you felt was me experiencing his pain. I’m sorry, honey, for not shielding you
from it. It came as a shock to me as well.”

“Hosting?”
Che watched her narrow the distance between them with a feeling of cautious

hopefulness. She looked so pretty with her dark blonde hair slightly mussed around her
flushed cheeks and pink, parted lips. His sigil nestled amongst the lush, soft mounds of
her breasts where they curved above the neckline of her pale yellow nightgown. He
could easily imagine how silky her skin would feel beneath his fingers, how sweet the
honeyed depths of her mouth would taste on his tongue.

“Che?” Sophia asked shakily. She stopped in her progress toward him, not out of

revulsion or fear, but because of a sudden, acute rush of lust.

He blinked and cleared his throat. “It’s what we call it when we open up our spirits

to another in order to allow them to share in a memory firsthand.”

“Is Jax Bale’s brother?”
Che nodded. “Jax is the youngest, Duse is next and Bale is the oldest.”
“You told me that you can’t recall your origins,” Sophia said in her characteristic

low, smooth voice as she sat a few feet away from him on the bed. “How do you know
that Bale is the oldest or that Jax is the youngest?”

“We’ve known it since we came to consciousness. There are a few things like that,

things that aren’t memories, per se, but just sure knowledge. It’s always been accepted
among us—like the knowledge that humans have that it’s bad to be in pain and good to
avoid it. I know it probably sounds strange to you, but that’s my best analogy.”

Sophia watched him closely. “And why was your cousin in such terrible pain?”

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Che told her about how Jax had fallen in love with Skylar Ammadon, how his spirit

had been made to join with hers just as Duse’s had been, and how Skylar could have
been Jax’s mate if Duse hadn’t already completed the mating bond. He explained about
how Asmoday had used Jax’s torment to get him to betray Duse by promising him that
Skylar could still be his. Finally, he relayed to her what had happened to the Dionytion
Stone and his suspicions about how Asmoday was threatening them in the present just
as he had in the past.

As they talked, Che studied the subtle shifts in her expression and lightly touched

her spirit in order to monitor her emotional state and to glean when she understood and
when she required assistance to comprehend. As usual, she amazed him with her
ability to understand realities drastically different than her own. It was enough of a
rarity among human beings to make her seem slightly inhuman. It was a quality that
he’d experienced before from Helen and Skylar Ammadon. After he’d finished, Sophia
continued to watch him soberly. He tried to read her but couldn’t. By the Fathers, had
she learned to block him already?

“What are you thinking, honey?” he finally asked out of desperation.
“Do you really think that Asmoday wanted to use the Dionytion Stone with me?”
Che’s expression turned grim. “Yes. But don’t worry, honey. There’s not a chance in

any reality that I’m going to let that happen.”

“But if he did succeed, if he raped me, would I die, like Helen Ammadon did?”

Sophia asked evenly.

Che’s hands shook slightly as they rose to her shoulders. Was this part of what was

behind her anger? Was she regretting completing their bond because the association
with him was leading to a dire threat to her person, her very life? “Sophia, I’m sorry if
you feel like I should have told you more about this before you made your decision.

“My sigil protects you. No harm can come to you by a Watcher’s hands. And I’ll

protect you from all else.” His hold tightened on her. He waited until her dark eyes met
his own. “You believe me, don’t you?”

“But that would mean that you plan on following me back to California, on all of

my trips to Africa and the Middle East…”

He shrugged before she could finish. “Of course. Part of me will always be with

you, even when I’m not with you.”

Sophia bit her lip distractedly. “What you’re talking about…it’s like…like

marriage?”

“No,” Che said levelly. She looked surprised by his resoluteness. “Honey, the bond

between a Watcher and his mate goes much deeper than marriage vows. It’s even
stronger, more inevitable than a biological imperative. It’s shaped our very spirits, our
subtlest bodies, and those act as the structure to which our physical bodies conform.”
He dragged his fingers through his hair in frustration at his inability to explain to her in
words. But to his surprise, she just nodded her head. She didn’t seem upset. If he had to
gauge her current emotional barometer, he would say she seemed…thoughtful.

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“That’s why Helen died when Asmoday raped her,” she whispered. “It shattered

the intricate spiritual structure that she’d formed with Bale.”

Che’s mouth fell open in surprise at her acuity. “Exactly,” he murmured softly.

“Honey, please tell me what you’re thinking.”

“I know how you felt, what you thought of when you experienced Jax’s pain.”
“What?” he asked slowly.
“You thought, ‘This is what it would feel like if Sophia and I were separated

forever.’”

Che was so lost in her velvety, dark brown eyes as she spoke that it took him a

moment to realize that she was lightly massaging the back of his head with her fingers,
as if to reassure him. He nuzzled her nose softly, drawn by her scent and the depths of
her eyes. “Honey, you’re not trying to comfort me, are you?” he whispered. “I know
that what happened to Bale and Helen is never going to happen to us.”

She bristled slightly but he was encouraged to see that she didn’t move away from

him. “Is there some Watcher law saying that a woman can’t offer comfort?”

Che lightly kissed her nose, her cheek and then reverently, her slightly parted lips.

At first she didn’t move or reciprocate, so he plucked at her lush lower lip again with
lazy deliberation. “No law. It’s just not necessary, honey.”

Her hands moved, stroking his scalp. How could he feel so solid, so gratifyingly

real and present when he could evaporate that reality at will? Then she thought of her
own secret, and she wondered…

“I’ll decide if it’s necessary or not,” she muttered as she tilted her head back to give

him better access to her lips, blissfully forgetting about her vow to not let him make
love to her for a million years. Before he could sweep down to claim what she offered,
however, Sophia pulled on a lock of his hair, garnering his attention.

“You should have told your lovers about me before we had sex, Che.”
Her gentle, yet pointed reprimand penetrated Che’s rising lust. Gods, couldn’t Bale

be dead wrong, just for once?

“I realize that, Sophia.” When he saw her eyebrows rise in surprise, he added,

“What I mean to say is that I should have realized that it would be important to you.
Nothing I’ve done is contraindicated by Watcher custom. But my situation with Avala
and Andrea is admittedly…unprecedented.”

“Keep talking,” Sophia said cautiously.
He told her about his mother’s rare spell and its considerable power. “I wanted to

make sure that I did something decisive to break it. I could have told anyone and the
magic would have been dispelled, but I wanted to make sure the break was
irrevocable.”

“So you told me?”
He shrugged helplessly. “It seemed like a good idea at the time.”

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Sophia smirked. One hand slid down his neck and beneath his shirt, eager to caress

uncharted territory. “Any other deep dark secrets you need to unburden, Che?”

He leaned forward. His eyelids were heavy with growing arousal. “Nothing. Unless

you consider my enormous desire for you to be a secret?”

Sophia’s dark eyes swept down his body and settled warmly on his thickening

crotch. “I think that secret is out, Che.”

“All in due time,” he mumbled before he tilted her chin up and fell on her lips

hungrily.

Sophia whimpered into his hot mouth as they slaked their immense thirst for one

another. His body resonated waves of heat and desire. She drew closer, as hungry for
the sensation of lean, hard muscle pressed against her softness as she was his taste. He
groaned in tense appreciation when she crushed her thinly clad breasts into his chest.
Che’s hands detailed the intoxicating curve of her hip and encircled the indentation of
her waist. He outlined the delicate bones of her spine and pressed her soft body nearer,
wanting more of her, always more. Her hands were just as busy exploring him as their
mouths and tongues continued to mate to electrifying effect.

Che tried to scoot her slightly away from him so that he could fondle her breasts,

but she held him with desperate fastness. He decisively pushed back on her shoulders
and scooped her breasts from the filmy fabric of her nightgown. But Sophia was so
intoxicated by his kiss that she swayed even closer, denying him the opportunity to
look and touch and pleasure her at his leisure. He broke their kiss, but his eyes
continued to spear into her as he firmly pushed her back. When she pulled him forward
again dazedly, he gave a slow smile as he drew up her forearms.

“Put your hands behind your head and stand here in front of me.”
“What?” Sophia asked, still stupefied by his kiss. Her legs shook slightly as she rose

and faced him. “Why?”

Che’s gaze focused hungrily to her puffy, well-kissed lips. “Because I want

unrestricted access to play with you, that’s why.” He examined her reaction with eyes
that glittered with equal parts arousal and amusement. “Are you going to stay that
way?”

Sophia’s chewed her bottom lip uncertainly. She felt terribly exposed like this, with

her breasts bared, her hands behind her neck and her elbows spread wide. But all she
had to do was look into the liquid fire of Che’s eyes and she was nodding her head.

“Promise? Until I tell you that you can move?”
Sophia gasped as he reached up and whisked the back of his knuckles gently over a

partially aroused nipple. It pulled tight immediately, activating the increasingly
familiar pathway of pleasure that led straight to her sex. She nodded again briskly.

Che’s smile widened before he dropped his gaze. “Ah, honey, you look delicious,”

he said hoarsely.

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And she did. Her pale, pink-tipped breasts spilled voluptuously out of the filmy

gown. He palmed her glory from below, shaping her firm flesh, forcing her nipples into
stark pronouncement. Sophia moaned, electrified as much by his hot gaze on her as she
was his fondling hands. His fingers teased her crests until they became hard, sensitized
buttons of pleasure. His voice taunted her as much as his fingers did.

“Your nipples are so big, honey. Look at how hard they are, and the color…by the

Gods, you make my mouth water,” he whispered thickly as he leaned his mouth to
within inches of her aching flesh and blew on her softly. “Ah, ah, you promised,
Sophia,” he murmured when she moaned with arousal and tried to lower her hands to
the back of his head in order to bring his mouth to her needy nipples. He glanced up at
her in feigned disbelief when she replaced her hands at the back of her neck and
muttered a curse under her breath.

“Do you want something?”
Sophia watched him with a drugged gaze as he shaped her pale breasts in his dark

hands. He wasn’t rough with her, but Sophia could tell that he enjoyed squeezing her
flesh lustily. His touch and his manner with her created a hot meltdown in her pussy.
Still, Che Ammadon was just a tad too cocky for his own good.

“No,” she answered, hoping that he didn’t notice that the syllable spilled out on a

pant. “I’m perfectly content.”

Che’s eyes glistened up at her. He pinched lightly at her right nipple, all the while

watching the flushed button’s reaction to his tortures. “Good, that’s what I wanted to
hear.” His slow, exhaling breath feathered her nipple. He pretended to ignore Sophia’s
stifled cry. He pushed the globes of her breasts together with his massaging hands.

“It turns me on to see my sigil on your beautiful breast. Your breasts are perfect,

honey. Perfect for squeezing and sucking and fucking.”

He glanced up in surprise at her choking sound. “What? Is breast-fucking like anal

sex or something? I’m not supposed to mention it?”

Sophia stared down at him with an unhinged jaw. His explicit words had painted a

graphic image for her mind’s eye. “Uh…no. You can mention it,” she said cautiously.

Che pushed her rosy nipples close together and caressed her with his thumbs until

her eyes closed and her head fell back sharply. “You’ll let me do it, then?” He studied
her with tense arousal. There was a slight sheen of perspiration forming on her upper
lip. She was grasping her fingers tightly now, as though forcing herself to keep an
increasingly difficult hold. Her cheeks and lips were nearly as flushed with blood as her
nipples. He longed to suck on the pert tips, to feel them stiffen under his tongue and
distend farther into his mouth. Knowing he wasn’t going to be able to hold out much
longer, he kissed her left nipple softly, taking the time to memorize each delicious
bump beneath his sensitive lips.

“Yes…do whatever you want to me, Che. But please, just…”
“Just what?”
“Lick me. Suck. Please.”

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He smiled before his tongue snaked out to lazily lash at one nipple, then the other,

then the first again. Sophia cried out with stark arousal as his slightly abrasive, warm
tongue flicked and licked and teased her turgid flesh. All the while, he squeezed her
breasts greedily. Liquid heat flooded her pussy. Her hips gyrated in an unconscious
plea for relief.

“Che, let me put down my hands,” she whispered tensely, imagining that if she just

pressed her fingers to her sex, she would detonate immediately.

“If you want to come, Sophia,” he whispered hotly against her straining flesh. “All

you had to do was ask.”

He took her nipple into his mouth and sucked hard enough to make his cheeks

hollow out. Sophia’s eyes went wide in aroused shock as she felt the erotic tug all the
way to the deepest part of her womb. As she began to tumble breathlessly into orgasm,
an acutely pleasurable friction made her clitoris sizzle. He was stimulating her nervous
system psychokinetically. The sensation kicked up her climax into the deep space of
mindless delight. The experience went beyond words, forcing her brain and body into
previously uncharted regions of pure bliss.

“I’m going to get you back for that, Che Ammadon.”
It was the first sound she’d uttered in over a minute that she actually recognized as

spoken language. She breathed heavily as she watched him slide his lips down over the
crest of her other breast, tease her softly with an erotic glide, then draw on her hungrily.
Much to her amazement, the waning pressure on her clit notched up again, making her
throb at the same tempo that he created with his mouth. She moaned helplessly. Dear
God, is this how all Watchers made love? Che seemed ruthless—relentless in his
focused quest to pleasure her.

I look forward to it, honey. But first, you’ll do as you promised and stand still until I have

my fill of you.

“Let me put my hands down.”
“No,” he said gruffly as he let her shapely breasts fall free from his hands. He

groaned with appreciation at the sight of them bouncing pertly into place. By the Gods,
she was lovely. She’d be lucky if he ever let her cover her breasts when they were in
private.

“You never showed these to your adoring public, did you?” he asked as he

plumped her left breast and flicked at the nipple playfully with the tip of his tongue.

Sophia’s eyes fluttered open. “No. I always used a body double during love scenes.

Why do you ask?” she asked, curiosity flickering into her sex-drugged eyes.

He cradled both of her breasts in his palms and glanced up at her with a piercing

gaze. “You’re wondering if I’m jealous.”

Her lower lip trembled. “I guess. A little.”
Che smiled slowly. Sophia actually had to pinch her thighs together to still the stab

of lust that pricked her sex at the sight.

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“Watchers don’t tend to get jealous of human men,” he said as he dropped his

hands and matter-of-factly began to unbutton her jeans.

Sophia blinked. He’d said it so evenly, so earnestly. It was difficult to get irritated at

him for being conceited. Besides, she knew enough about his lovemaking at this point
to understand him. Why would a sublime being like Che have reason to be jealous of
any of her past lovers, let alone one of her fans?

“I only asked,” he said thickly as he leaned forward and kissed a damp, distended

nipple. “Because breasts like yours could cause some dangerous human riots if they
were seen bouncing around on the big screen.”

Sophia opened her mouth to protest, but snapped it shut when he firmly peeled

back her jeans over her hips. “Uh…thanks. I think.” She watched, enraptured, as he
carefully lowered her panties just enough to expose the naked folds of her outer lips.
Her tongue unconsciously flicked at her lower lip, but he only placed his big hands
around her hips and stared up at her with his startling aquamarine eyes. She swallowed
heavily when he kept his gaze steady on her at the same time that he leaned forward
and languorously tongued her navel.

“I get the feeling that there’s something you want to ask me,” he said gruffly

between taking sips.

“How…how do you know that?” she asked as he nimbly kissed her belly.
You know how, he admonished her nonverbally.
“I…I was sort of wondering,” she began shakily as her eyes trailed his movements

across her stomach, waist and hips. “If you might not find it disappointing to make love
with only one woman for—well, forever—after you were used to two, at the very least.”

His heated eyes zoomed up to her face. “You alone gratify me more than all the

women on this planet combined, Sophia.”

“Yes…well, thank you. I believe you, Che,” she said quickly when she saw concern

pull at his handsome features. “I…sort of believe you, anyway. I’m still trying to get
used to the idea. But on a more practical level…”

“Practical?” he asked with rising suspicion.
She nodded her head with feigned ease, as though she had conversations like this

every morning along with her coffee. “You must have had
certain…positions…uh…techniques that you especially enjoyed with two women.”

His brow furrowed. “Sophia, you and I will discover our own preferences. Surely

you know that.” He waited until she nodded, but he still saw the doubt in her beautiful
eyes. He exhaled heavily as he pressed his nose to the softness of her lower belly. Her
unique, musky perfume wafted up to him, making him temporarily blind with pure
lust. Gods, she was luscious. How could she even consider that he would be thinking
about other women or other situations when she’d become twined with his spirit and
his blood and his sinews?

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“One day you’ll come to understand. You’re already light-years from where you

were in the beginning. Sweet, sweet woman,” he murmured distractedly as his head
lowered. He tilted his face and slid his tongue deep into her smooth slit.

Sophia gasped.
Her hands came down to desperately clutch at Che’s head, her promise burned

from her awareness by his pleasuring tongue. She choked in protest when he lifted his
head.

“I didn’t tell you that you can lower your hands yet.”
Her hips shifted forward without conscious thought. “Che, just…”
His eyes were a barely blanked flame. “Put your hands back where they belong,

and I will.” Sophia gritted her teeth in frustration as she placed her hands back on her
neck.

“I’m not doing it to torture you. Or maybe I am,” he said with a devilish grin when

he saw her flashing eyes. “It just turns me on, honey.”

Nothing else could have made her irritation disappear quicker. “Oh. Well…it does

me, too…a little,” she admitted hesitantly.

“I know it does. A lot. Stop worrying, Sophia. I’m not going to use the knowledge

to take advantage of you.”

Sophia didn’t have time to acknowledge his awareness of her vulnerability before

he deliberately parted her outer lips with his fingers and slid his tongue between them.

He was done with teasing her. He went straight for the kill, pressing and pulsing

against her swollen clit relentlessly. When he suckled her gently, sexual fire incinerated
her. She keened in disbelieving delight.

That’s right. Give yourself to me. His stark order, uttered tensely in her mind, sent her

over the edge yet again. This time, he drew her climax out even longer than before,
applying the precise amount of pressure and suction required to keep her riding on the
crest of her pounding, powerful wave of orgasm. Che’s flesh quivered and shook in
unison with hers, but his mouth never relented until she sagged against his torso,
whimpering and limp in the aftermath of the wild storm.

“Okay, lovely?” Sophia heard Che ask quietly into her ear after what might have

been several minutes or several hours. She couldn’t say which. She nodded her head,
feeling vaguely sheepish at her wild, uninhibited response to him as well as the abrupt
realization that she’d done nothing to bring him pleasure in return.

He kissed her nose lightly. “Your pleasure brings me more fulfillment than I can

convey.”

Sophia pushed back on his shoulders with a look of determination on her face. She

pulled up on his shirt. “I want you out of these clothes,” she muttered impatiently.

“Done,” he said in a voice muffled by the shirt she’d pulled up over his head.
Sophia jumped and cried out sharply. Her eyes rounded with disbelief. Che’s

clothes had just melted off him.

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“My clothes are made from my subtle bodies, Sophia.” Her lips closed and opened

repeatedly. Che reached for her, knowing that her incredulity would fade easier if their
denser bodies were touching while their subtler ones mingled. But Sophia’s forearms on
his shoulders remained stiff.

“How…what…?” Sophia eventually just shook her head, grimly accepting her

speechless state. She’d seen him do supernatural things before—stroke her with unseen
hands, make the entire Sierra Lodge disappear, fade his physical body from visibility
and reappear at will—but something about the abrupt disappearance of his clothing left
her especially stunned. Her eyes flicked over his lean, muscled torso with growing heat.
Or maybe she just hadn’t been adequately prepared for the sudden appearance of all
that beautiful, bronzed male flesh. “Can you do that with my clothes, as well?” she
asked. Her head dipped down. Her eyes widened at the sight of her nude body.

“It’s more of an effort for your clothes. Conjuring physical things from my own

essence and dissolving them back into it is a mindless effort, but stripping you bare
takes a little more finesse.”

“Humph. Just another example of you not being all that different from a human

male. What did you do with my clothes?” she asked suspiciously.

He nodded his head slightly toward the bureau. Her jeans and nightgown were

folded neatly on the top. Sophia shook her head in fresh amazement.

“Not that I’m unsympathetic to your fascination with Watcher ways of undressing,

honey, but weren’t you in the middle of doing something?”

Firm resolve hardened her eyes. “I was about to return the torture,” she said as she

took his hands in her own and encouraged him to stand with her beside the bed.

Che gave a sharp bark of laughter at her grim determination. “By the Three, I was

under the impression that I’d been giving you pleasure. Should I be afraid? What have
you got in store for me?”

Sophia looked at him calmly for a moment before she leaned forward and tongued

the hard, coppery disc of his nipple. Their fit was so perfect that she barely had to tilt
her head to reach him. She twirled her tongue over him lazily until she felt every tiny
bump on the sensitive flesh grow rigid and defined beneath her tongue.

Che forced himself to inhale evenly as he watched her lick his nipple with the

languorous appreciation of someone savoring an ice-cream cone on a scorching day.
His penis twitched and throbbed greedily. His gaze zeroed in lustfully on her moist, red
tongue. Just for one ecstatic moment, he focused his entire being on the tiny square inch
of nerve-packed flesh where she licked. He groaned. Her velvety dark eyes flicked up to
him innocently. His cock bounced enthusiastically at the sight.

“I have a little experiment in mind.”
“Experiment?” he muttered, befuddled by the soft kisses that she was brushing

across the furrow between his ribs and the featherlight, evocative touch of her soft
hands skimming along his sides. Sophia nodded without ceasing her delicate tortures.
Her kisses and fingertips caressed so lightly, but so surely. Che felt his skin roughen

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with unfamiliar goose bumps. No woman had ever before created that sensation in him
and he hadn’t been corporeal for long enough periods to frequently catch a chill. It felt
exquisite. She glanced up at him again.

“Are you cold?”
“What do you think?” he asked sarcastically. She only smiled calmly and leaned

over to slip her tongue between two ridges of muscle on his belly. His eyelids grew
heavy as he watched her tempting, teasing red flesh torture his suddenly electrifyingly
sensitive skin. He had to resist a primitive urge to push her mouth down to his cock.
His testicles felt impossibly heavy. He must be brewing up an explosive orgasm down
there. “Are you going to tell me about the experiment, or not?”

“Not. You’ll be the first to know if it works. Suffice it to say for now, you’ll be the

first on which I’ve ever attempted it.”

Che’s eyebrows rose with prurient speculation at that.
Sophia nuzzled his abdomen with her cheek, letting her hair whisk over his cock.

He gave a grunt of arousal at the sensation. She shifted her head and glanced down at
him. He looked magnificent. Desire and blood pulsed hotly in the veins of his member,
making them pop up from the otherwise smooth surface. She unconsciously licked the
corner of her mouth at the up-close sight of all that tumescent male flesh capped by the
sharply delineated, fat, arrow-shaped head. The size and terrific density of Che’s cock
were heady enough, but the sheer perfection of his shape sent Sophia into sexual orbit
every time she saw it.

“I can’t believe I took you inside me.”
“Every happy inch,” he muttered tensely between clenched jaws. He laced one

hand through her soft hair and pushed down gently on her shoulder. “Suck on me.”

Sophia glanced up at him in aroused amusement. His summertime eyes glittered

down at her like fire reflecting in water. The sight of him from this angle was just as
dazzling as the downward shot. She resisted his pressure on her shoulder and wrapped
her lips around his hipbone instead. Her hands slid around to his muscular ass. Her
fingers slid into the tight crevice between his cheeks and squeezed. Sophia groaned into
his hip at the intensely erotic sensation. His cock leapt up, brushing through the silky
fall of her hair.

“Patience,” she whispered in a low husky voice.
Her hair felt like thousands of shivering, tiny caresses on his penis as she shifted to

kiss and lick the side of a butt cheek. She was still bending over and the sight of her
pale, plump bottom sticking up in the air wasn’t doing him a bit of good in the control
arena. Che gritted his teeth in mounting sexual tension.

“Sophia, get down on your knees and suck!”
“Alright. But I just want to point out that I was much more polite when I asked.”
“More polite, my…arghhh…”

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Sophia took his heavy cock in her hand and tilted it up toward her mouth. Still

staring up at him, she stuffed his fat head between her lips and fluttered her tongue
over the sensitive skin before she sucked. She watched his handsome face tighten with
pleasure as she began to pulse over him, pushing her mouth past the sharply delineated
rim, treating the sensitive portion on the underside of the thick ridge to a rapid tongue
thrashing. His muscular abdomen rippled, like he’d just received a series of electrical
shocks.

His hand twined tightly in her hair. With any other lover, she would have taken

offense at the way he pushed her head down over him. With Che, though, she felt
acutely aware of his need; and for those full moments, she only existed to gratify it. She
concentrated wholly on the experience of his cock throbbing in her mouth. No matter
how much they managed together to slowly cram more of his flesh into her suctioning,
sultry heat, Sophia still wanted more. She longed to experience the sensation of sucking
all of him at once—the sinfully beautiful, puffy head, the long, straight, thick stalk, the
round, potent testicles. She continued to vacuum his turgid flesh into her mouth while
she focused on her desire.

Che couldn’t stop staring at the stark contrast of the whites of Sophia’s eyes and the

velvety dark centers as she looked up at him while she took his cock on a slippery, hot
ride. They never wavered off him as she crammed her mouth full of him and only
showed signs of straining for more. Her gaze on him was both innocent and sublime,
creating a shocking contrast to the carnal image of his cock pumping between her
widely stretched lips. The image was so potent he could have climaxed from it alone.

“It feels tremendous, Sophia,” he whispered gruffly.
It’s going to feel better.
Che blinked in slight surprise at the confidence inherent in her reply and the fact

that she’d spoken to him telepathically. He gasped at a new sensation. His eyes sprung
wide.

There was two of her!
She would be smiling if her cheeks weren’t full of his demanding male flesh.
He briefly considered backing away in his shock, but by the Gods, he wasn’t nuts!

He’d never been so inundated with pleasure in his life. And no, he wasn’t seeing things.
Sophia was still bending over and sucking enthusiastically on the head and shaft of his
cock with an expression of amused curiosity in her eyes as she watched him. But Sophia
was also kneeling beneath his thighs, eyes closed, craning up and gliding over his lower
shaft with a sinuous, limber tongue.

“By the fucking Fathers, Sophia, why didn’t you tell me you knew how to throw a

solid vital double? I can’t even do that,” he managed to get out in a strangled voice. He
forced his eyes to uncross so that he could focus on the incredibly arousing sight of two
lovely Sophias intent on milking every last drop of cum from his balls.

Is that what you call it? I’ve been able to do it since I was a child. I couldn’t make it solid

and move for years, though. She still has no speech. It came in pretty handy when I was a

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teenager, though, and wanted to stay out past my curfew. I certainly never thought of it in terms
of making love, though, for obvious reasons.

She pressed her tongue over the sensitive portion of his cock on the underside of

the ridged head, rubbing hard at the same time that she took a round, firm testicle into
her mouth and suckled gently. Che groaned in disbelief and his eyes clenched shut. His
muscles pulled tight with strain as his control teetered.

Sophia smiled to herself. Ah, yes, this was wonderful.
Of course, it came to mind with you. Somehow, I didn’t think you’d be as shocked as a

human man, although your surprise was quite gratifying, she told him in an amused, sultry
tone.

And of course, I wouldn’t want you to be disappointed with just one woman.
His eyes shot open. Sophia could clearly feel the magnitude of his desire at that

moment, the way that he was quickly rising up a steep slope that would inevitably crest
with nothing less than an electrifying, consciousness-collapsing climax. So she was
shocked when he stepped away from her and his cock and balls slid out of her hungry
mouths. He was so filled with blood and arousal at this point that his heavy erection
stayed slanting slightly upward from the horizontal position, bouncing in the air at his
abrupt movement.

Sophia rose slowly when she saw the hard edge of his jaw and then read the

message in his blazing eyes. Her vital double sat back on her knees, and then slowly
began to fade as Sophia lost her focus.

“What’s wrong?” she asked, wide-eyed.
Che didn’t answer, but instead reached for her with a grim expression on his face.

One second, he was grabbing her hand and the next, he was pushing her firmly down
over the bed. Sophia tried to raise herself from her bent over position, but Che held her
down with one hand at her waist and the other spread across a hip and bottom cheek.

“What are you doing? Didn’t you like it?” she asked with rising dismay as she

twisted her head to look over her shoulder.

Che’s tight jaw leapt with tension as he met her wide-eyed stare. He released her

waist and took his throbbing erection in his hand. He flinched in desire when he
brushed the sensitive head against her soft bottom. “I fucking loved it, and you know it.
Spread your legs.”

“But…”
“Do it,” he gritted out through clenched teeth.
Sophia went utterly still for a moment as she stared into his wild eyes. She saw

something leap into the aquamarine depths and she quickly complied. She groaned in
tense ecstasy when she felt him bring his cock to her soaking entry.

“Stretch your arms out in front of you and put your breasts on the bed. Now arch

your back, that’s right. Send your tailbone higher,” he muttered thickly as he watched
her. He aggressively sent himself into her subtle essences, letting her know without

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words precisely the position in which he wanted to take her. She read his desires like
they were in large, neon print. Che’s facial muscles were drawn tight with desire and
determination as he stared down at her flagrant sexual beauty spread before him, both
submissive to and united with his Will at once.

He sunk his fingers greedily into a round buttock and thrust.
Sophia jolted forward on the bed at the sudden explosive impact. She would have

screamed but the sensation of several inches of thick, steely cock ramming into her with
one stroke took away her ability to breathe. She felt him pull her back firmly into her
original position and proceed to pull out and plunge into her again, this time harder
and even farther into her resisting depths. The nerve endings of her delicate, blood-
soaked tissues were overwhelmed. The circuits were flooded with messages of
pressure, fullness, pain and pleasure. Sensations mixed until the low-level, burning
discomfort to become a tingling pleasure that spread up her spine and down the other
direction, to the soles of her feet. It mounted in volume with each pass of Che’s
conquering cock. Sophia pressed her cheek to the cool bedding while a desperate cry of
mixed bliss and distress finally burst past her opened lips.

“Why are you doing this?” she asked weakly, nearly overcome by sensation.
“You’re stronger in your knowledge of subtle realities than I’d ever imagined if

you’re able to throw a vital double. I’ve been protecting you, thinking you were too
vulnerable to understand the full knowledge. But you’re no weakling, Sophia. Right
here, right now, you’re going to finally accept what you mean to me.” Che moved his
hand beneath the curved bottom of an ass cheek and thrust up, parting her still resisting
tissues even more for his conquering flesh. “And if I ever hear any more ridiculous
insinuations about how I’m craving something or someone or someones other than you,
I’m going to turn you over my knee.” He pushed back her other ass cheek and sunk into
her clasping, quivering flesh to the hilt.

Sophia gasped for air desperately. She’d never felt so filled, so consumed. He’d

pried her apart, impaled her without mercy. After a moment, she realized that he’d
stopped thrusting, as though he were allowing her body to adjust to the profound effect
of having his demanding flesh carve clean into her core.

Sweat glistened on Che’s chest and abdomen as he stared down at the erotic picture

of himself buried in Sophia to the balls. “Okay?” he asked in a grim, tense voice.

A broken sound came out of her throat, but she nodded. The nerve endings in her

pussy that had been screaming out in hot pleasure and fiery protest began to tingle and
sizzle, demanding friction. When she tried to get it, Che stilled her with a sharp crack of
his palm on her rump. Still, Sophia heard his inhaling hiss of pleasure at her thwarted
attempt.

“You’re ready?” he asked in a measured, tight tone.
She squeezed her eyes shut. The feeling of him throbbing and pulsating in her body

was driving her mad with lust. A pre-orgasmic shiver rippled through her tissues. She
was so close…so on the edge.

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“Yes. Please, fuck me.”
“It’s not going to be a mere fuck. I’m going to possess you. After tonight, you’re not

going to doubt my feelings for you ever again.”

Sophia’s eyes sprang wide at that. But he was already holding her hips steady and

drawing his cock out of her slowly before driving it back into her with force. Their flesh
smacked together repeatedly. She sent her tailbone up even higher, flabbergasted by the
sensation of Che’s heavy balls slapping at her clit with each crashing blow. Her eyes
rolled back in her head at the relentless, mind-shattering pleasure. She felt like he
wasn’t just thrusting his cock into her melting depths, but pushing his presence into
every cell of her being. Even though Che was behind her and she couldn’t see his face,
she saw perfectly his penetrating gaze in her mind’s eye.

Open, Sophia.
Sophia gave a small cry of wild desperation. The orgasm that hovered over her

seemed so powerful, it seemed to threaten to snuff out existence as she knew it. “Che,
you’ve pried me wide,” she said helplessly as he continued to ram his cock into her
without a shred of mercy.

You’ve opened your body to me. Now open your soul. I demand it, Sophia. You’re strong

enough. Open. Now!

Sophia whimpered in fear and desire as she made a subtle adjustment with her

mind, responding to Che’s command instinctively.

Emotion pounded through her being as relentlessly as a crashing tsunami. Sophia

thought it was emotion, anyway. It had a similar tone and quality, but it was thousands
of times more potent than anything she’d ever experienced in her life. She gripped the
bedding as Che jolted into her body and spirit. She stared blindly in utter disbelief.

No, no, she’d had it wrong all along. What she’d thought was emotion before was just

an insubstantial, fuzzy shadow of this. What she’d thought was love was nothing to this
feeling—a pale, lifeless, blurry outline compared to this vibrant color, an intensity of
focus that blinded her, brutally delineated, sharp edges and angles and voluptuous
curves. And that shape and that color and that brilliant light, all of it was caused by the
incomprehensible, shearing light of universal love reflected through the complex,
impossibly beautiful structure of Che’s soul as he regarded…

…her.
Sophia pressed her face into the bed and wept as orgasm shook and vibrated her

entire body violently. “Che…Che…Che,” she muttered incoherently, only half
conscious of this world.

Her wild, pitiful cries brought Che back to his physical body. He blinked in

disorientation and glanced down. He was holding his still jerking cock in his hands,
pressing it to Sophia’s ass. Her plump bottom cheeks were glistening with his cum.
Desire still pulsed through him as he stared down at the arousing sight. Without
thinking, he pushed the thick head of his still erect penis between the crack of her ass
and moved it up and down with his hand, almost instinctively spreading his seed.

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Sophia came back to herself to the erotic sensation of Che’s fat cock gliding wetly

between in the crevice of her ass. She peered over her shoulder, huge teardrops still
rolling down her face. The glance that they shared communicated a universe of
meaning. Fresh tears spilled down her cheeks when Che gave her a sublime smile.

And then he said her name and she suddenly knew the secret of why it always

made her shiver whenever he did. She inhaled sharply when he spread her bottom and
pressed the head of his penis to her rectum, arrowing it into her body. His eyes glowed
at her like a fire that had been banked, but was about to leap again into an inferno.

“I’m going to fuck your ass now,” he said with stark tenderness.
Sophia didn’t speak. There was no need. The woman that she had been, even ten

minutes ago, would have protested. But now, only love and trust poured fourth from
her dark, shimmering eyes.

“Push back on me,” Che ordered gently.
Sophia did what he asked at the same time that she became acutely conscious of the

fact that he was stimulating her nerve endings in her ass, like he had earlier. She
groaned in awakened lust, raw and primitive, her consciousness once again plunged
into the fulsome reality of the material world. All the air felt like it was forced out of her
lungs when the fleshy head of his penis slipped into her tiny, most private entrance.

The sublime smile widened on Che’s lips as he watched the tight, closed bud open

like a dark, hungry flower to accept the first few inches of his cock. He was glad that
he’d just had a thunderous climax a minute ago. Otherwise, he might have given in to a
primal, purely human instinct to thrust mightily into the heaven of her hot untried
channel. Even as things stood, the graphic image of burying himself to the balls in
Sophia’s ass flickered teasingly across his mind’s eye. Gods, she was hot. Pulsating in
and out—even ever so slightly—of her tight, muscular channel felt beyond divine. It
was on the edge of his tongue to order her to take more of his needy flesh, when Sophia
pushed back on him, forcing more of his cock into her ass.

Sophia’s head fell forward on the bed. She groaned guttural and low. How could

something be so carnal and sublime at once? Her clit felt like it weighed a ton where it
hung, tender and achy, between her sex lips. The sacral stimulation from having Che’s
cock throb in her ass seemed to fuel the erotic tingling in the sensitive flesh until it
became a burn that required only a whispering breath to erupt. She choked in a
pleasurable pain when she felt him hold her hips and spear her deeper.

“Che, help me, please,” she whispered hoarsely into the sheets. Her body stretched

taut, pulled tight as a bow as he arrowed his cock farther into her, demanding that she
accept yet more tension. He continued to fuck her for a moment, letting her pressure
mount. When he knew she could take no more, he reached down and rubbed her slick,
delicate tissues, lightly pinching her clit. While she shuddered and cried out in climax,
he rocked his hips gently, prizing his cock farther into her.

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By the time Sophia came back fully to herself, she realized she was holding onto the

bedding as if for dear life as Che drilled his cock in and out of her virgin ass without
mercy.

Their bodies crashed together again and again violently. Sophia wailed in wild

arousal, thrusting her body enthusiastically back to meet Che’s pumping hips. He
grunted in tense excitement at every powerful downstroke. When he heard her high,
surprised screams and felt her subtle energies shear through him yet again, Che’s lips
formed into a snarl. He reached blindly for Sophia’s hair and pulled back her head until
her neck became a graceful arch. He stilled her pumping hips and roared as his
enormous control unfurled, spurting his seed for what felt like a glorious eternity into
Sophia’s dark, sacred depths.

After several moments, he pushed Sophia farther onto the bed and fell over her, his

heart beating alarmingly fast and his breath coming in short gasps. Che opened his eyes
awhile later at the feeling of Sophia twisting her waist and pressing her soft lips to his
cheek. He looked deeply into her velvety soft eyes and palmed her delicate cheekbone
in a cherishing gesture.

“Now you understand,” he said in a low, vibrating voice. Her answering smile was

as mysterious as it was beautiful. The emotion that filled him seemed to chafe slightly at
his spirit with its poignancy. His eyes burned as he continued to consider the miracle
before him.

“Yes,” she whispered. “Now I understand.”

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Chapter Nine

“Oh my God, Che, stop it or I’m going to…ahhh…noooo!” The sounds of choppy,

breathless laughter blended with violently sloshing water. Sophia put her hands on the
sides of the wide whirlpool tub in order to escape Che’s tickling, but he pulled her back
on top of him with ease and resumed his tortures.

“Stop! Stop it! I…hate…to…be…tickled!” she wailed desperately. Her heart

pounded with excitement. In the tangling of wet, flailing limbs that followed, Sophia
inadvertently elbowed Che in the stomach. Hard. Her gaze widened in mixed
amusement and regret when she saw the expression of stunned pain on his handsome
face. She snorted with anxious laughter and flew out of the enormous tub while he was
temporarily destabilized.

Che let her get away, although he was tempted to grab her elegantly arched foot as

she whipped it over the side of the tub. Instead, he leaned back in the warm, agitated
water and watched her with lazy anticipation. She was so full of surprises, this lovely
woman. He smiled slowly when he considered just how profoundly surprised she was
going to be at this newly discovered treasure. She was reaching for a thick white towel
and casting a nervous, wide-eyed glance over her shoulder, obviously ready to sprint at
the slightest indication from him that he was coming after her.

“I really do hate to be tickled, Che,” Sophia said almost apologetically as she dried

off and continued to eye him warily. She froze when he spoke in a deep, sultry voice.

“No, you don’t.”
Sophia just stared at him for a few seconds. He looked downright sinful lying back

in the tub like a sybaritic sultan that didn’t have a care in the world except having to
decide which of his concubines should wash his backside. His eyes glowed at her with
amusement and desire. She immediately wished she was back there with him, feeling
his smooth, warm skin sliding against her own and his muscular arms encircling her.
The rational part of her brain was amazed by the fact that she could still feel so much
lust for him after he’d evoked a countless number or orgasms from her body over the
long, long night, but…there it was. He’d barely let her rest, nuzzling her out of sleep
again and again so that their desire could be quenched. Although he’d been considerate
enough not to fuck her again—her untried body had inevitably been sore from his
powerful lovemaking—he still demanded a total response from her, even if it was just
from a kiss.

Sophia flushed anew when she thought of the many slow-burning, languorous

sessions of making out and heavy petting that they’d engaged in throughout the
night—interludes that always culminated for her in an explosive climax. She’d never
consider kissing as just kissing again. Yes, whether it was crazy or not, Sophia wanted

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him at that moment as much as she had when she’d given herself to him for the first
time.

More.
Still, she scoffed at his audacity as she bent to dry off her calves.
“Sophia?” Che queried softly from where he reclined in the tub.
She paused. “Yes?” Her big eyes leapt to his. Something in his voice was making

her heart beat even faster.

“You better run.”
“Wha…?” Her eyes rounded in panic when he moved with alarming speed,

splashing a gallon of water out of the tub as he sprung out of it. Sophia shrieked in
panic and ran out of the bathroom at top speed. She hardly knew where she was going
as she left the bedroom and plunged down the stairs. Her only thought was to escape
the exquisite torture of being held down while Che tickled her relentlessly. Her
heartbeat pounded in her ears and she was gasping with laughter when she took the
chance of peering over her shoulder as she reached the downstairs hallway. She yelled
out in shock when she plunged head-on into Che’s hard, naked body.

“That’s not fair!” she wailed desperately as he pinned down her flailing arms and

calmly picked her up, her back pressed to his chest. “I can’t just appear wherever I want
to like you can!”

“Who said anything about it being fair?” Che asked warmly a few seconds later as

he sat down on the living room couch and swung Sophia around so that she lay over
him, belly down. He watched with growing male appreciation as her damp, soft body
squirmed in his lap as he held her steadily across her back and hips.

“Gods, honey, calm down,” he insisted with a bark of laughter. “You act like I’m

going to hurt you or something.”

“Tickling is worse than pain! I’m not kidding, Che. I hate it!”
“You don’t hate it.”
“Why do you keep saying that? You don’t know everything about me Che

Ammadon!” Sophia sputtered furiously. She really did not want to be force-tickled. For
some reason, just the thought sent her into a flurry of uncomfortable nervous
excitement. She redoubled her efforts to escape him, knowing all along that it was
hopeless. Che was about a thousand times stronger than her.

He allowed her to struggle for a few seconds longer, rather liking the sensation of

her wiggling around on his increasingly appreciative cock. Eventually, however, he
drew back his hand and smacked one flushed ass cheek and then the other.

Sophia howled. Not in pain, per se, but in sheer disbelief that Che had just spanked

her so casually. Her body went temporarily rigid. Che saw his opportunity, held her
securely and began to tickle the fascinatingly sensitive area on her ribs beneath her arm.
Sophia choked through her laughter and began to thrash in earnest.

“Noooo!”

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Che brought his head down near to hers and chuckled. “Yes.”
“Che…why do you…want to punish me?” Sophia asked desperately as she gasped

in laughter and tears began to leak out of her eyes. She felt a frightening pressure rising
in her chest. Yet he just continued to tickle her without mercy. Oh God…she couldn’t
breathe. And why had Che begun to nuzzle and kiss her neck so hotly, like he was
making love to her, for Christ’s sake, when he was clearly bent on seeing her have a
heart attack from pure panic, instead?

“You’ll survive. And I am making love to you. Tickling is one of the sensations that

humans least understand,” he murmured before he tongued her sweat-dampened neck,
causing goose bumps to prickle up along Sophia’s arms and torso. Che increased the
torture by tickling her increasingly sensitized skin. She screamed, but he just continued
to lick her hotly while he unbearably excited her nerve endings with his fingertips.

Sophia panted madly for air. Her stomach muscles grew sore from her continual

resistance. She felt like she was fighting, fighting, fighting…but what, she couldn’t say
exactly. It just felt imperative that she do so!

“That’s right,” Che murmured as he watched her through heavy-lidded eyes.

“Fight it, honey. It’ll make it better for you in the end.” He wrapped one arm firmly
around her twisting hips and tickled her even more aggressively. Her muscles grew
rigid and goose bumps covered her typically satiny skin from head to toe. She was
screaming like he was killing her, but Che wouldn’t relent.

Just when Sophia thought she was going to black out from the unbearable friction,

Che drew back a hand and swatted her ass again, right over her root charka, not once,
but several times in quick succession, like he was trying to push some clogging, unseen
force unerringly up her spine. The brisk, accurate strikes on her tightened flesh ignited
her. The immense pressure that the tickling had wrought in her being exploded
abruptly, as if a lid on a geyser suddenly could no longer survive the surge of the
shooting water and popped powerfully free. Her body undulated with spasms of
pleasure and euphoric relief. She fell forward, utterly insensate and overwhelmed by
the heretofore unknown, exquisite sensation.

Che watched Sophia with molten eyes as she sprawled over him, her muscles

rippling and quivering beneath her skin. He spread his hands over her back, buttocks
and thighs, massaging her jerking flesh in soothing, upward motions until her skin was
smooth again and her muscles were utterly replete and relaxed.

“What the hell was that?” Sophia muttered almost incoherently into the sofa

cushion a minute later.

Che moved her hair away from her damp neck to help cool her. She was still

breathing irregularly. “We call it a titlarre—a sort of body orgasm that comes from
carefully building and controlling the pressure built from the sensation of tickling.”

His eyes sparkled down at her when she turned her head to look at him

incredulously. “I’m a very lucky Watcher. Very few humans can actually have one. I

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knew that you could when I saw how panicked you got when I tickled your sensitive
spots.”

Sophia sat up on her elbows. “Can you have one?”
Che chuckled when he saw the gleam in her eye. “I don’t know. I’ve never been

corporeal enough before you came into my life to have anyone try it.”

“Well, there’s a first time for everything, isn’t there?” Sophia said through a

growing grin as she rose over him. His low, utterly masculine laughter broke over her
like warm rushing water. “It’s payback time, mister,” she threatened as she reached for
his ridged torso. He reached up and clasped her hand in midair. His laughter stilled
abruptly.

“What is it? What’s wrong?” she asked in growing alarm when she saw his rigid

expression. He didn’t answer her immediately as he stared distractedly into space.

“Sophia, go get dressed. I want you to come up to the lodge. Something bad has

happened.”

* * * * *

“Any of you relatives?” The beefy New York cop named Sergeant William

McNamara asked, giving Bale, Jax, Dante and Che a slow, rather insulting once-over as
he did so.

“All of us are related,” Bale said evenly. None of the Watchers blinked an eye at

that. There were only about two hundred Watchers still in existence on the face of the
earth. They were both a race and a family, by loose definition.

The cop chewed his gum noisily and glanced up at the four men. “Yeah, I can see

the family resemblance. Your relative…” He glanced down at his clipboard. “Zep
Arawhan looks like he was just as tall as the rest of you. What are you guys, brothers?”

“Cousins,” Che murmured.
“Guess the five of you were unstoppable out on the neighborhood courts, huh?”

McNamara chortled. When he realized he hadn’t gotten a response, he glanced up from
his clipboard. A shiver ran through him when he looked into first the black-haired
giant’s striking blue eyes and then over to the one with the fiery greenish-blue gaze
who stood to the left of him. Their stony expressions effectively leached all the humor
out of him.

“Right,” he muttered uncomfortably. “Well, I’ve got your numbers if we should

need to contact you. We’ve got the girl here at the station. She’s a mess right now, if you
know what I mean, crying and hollering. But she’s spilled everything, including the fact
that she’s the one who stabbed Mr. Arawhan. Any of you four know her?”

Dante nodded. “I know her a little. Her name is Christine. She’s been Zep’s

girlfriend for a couple years now.”

127

Beth Kery

“Relationship must have been pretty rocky, huh?” the cop asked casually as he

popped the eraser of his pencil up and down on the battered conference table in the
interview room of the police station.

“I wouldn’t know,” Dante said coolly.
McNamara grimaced as he prepared to go. Pleasure schmoozing with you, big guys, he

felt like saying as he left the room. These guys would really be the life of the party. Talk
about the strong, silent types, he thought with a roll of his eyes, his thoughts already
segueing to what he should have for lunch.

“Bale, we have to get that woman, Christine, out of here. She’s going to need our

protection,” Jax murmured intently once McNamara was gone.

“You think she might be harmed?” Bale asked.
“Why in Hades should you care?” Dante asked Jax, surprised. The woman had just

killed Zep in cold blood, after all.

All of them were uncomfortably on edge. Watchers rarely died and only three had

ever before been murdered during their long existence. Che felt vaguely guilty for
almost starting a fight with Zep yesterday. Zep had never been his closest friend but
he’d worked with him on the Council almost the entire length of their conscious lives.
He had a genuine respect for the brainy, aerial Watcher.

“Isn’t it obvious? Jax thinks Zep’s leman was somehow coerced into murdering Zep

and now she’s at risk for being silenced while she’s in the human prison. Gods, Dante,
you don’t think Christine just decided one day to take a pair of shears and stab him
through the heart for no good reason, do you?” Che asked with bitter disbelief.

“Coerced? Let me guess—coerced by Asmoday?” Dante asked sarcastically.
“It’s not beyond the realm of possibility,” Che answered darkly. “Tell me this. How

many lemans did you have before Arriasta—for two short years, mind you—who you
felt comfortable telling that the only time you were vulnerable enough to actually die
was right after making love? We give that information away about as easily as we do
our true names. Yet somehow, this Christine woman knew that Zep was weak at that
very moment.”

“There’s more,” Jax said quietly. “Bale—the energy prison that the Council put

Asmoday in when he was still physically corporeal—did you terminate that spell?”

“No. It didn’t seem necessary. For all intents and purposes, we believed Asmoday

to be dead.”

“You think that’s what this is about, Jax?” Che asked. “Do you think that Asmoday

is trying to kill off enough members of the Council to be able to release the bonds of his
prison? If he were planning for that, he must believe he has the ability to exist again
physically.”

“And perhaps he could,” Bale said evenly. “If he was capable of harnessing an

enormous amount of energy.”

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“Like he could from using the Dionytion Stone with a Watcher mate,” Che finished

tensely.

“How many Council members, in addition to yourself, Bale, need to remain in

order to keep Asmoday’s prison intact?” Jax asked.

“It will hold until there are only three of us left alive. When there are only two, the

spell will dissolve.”

“With Zep dead, he’d still have to murder three of us,” Che murmured distractedly.

“The chances of that are pretty slim.” Bale opened his mouth to respond when Che
froze on the spot.

Everyone transferred their gaze to where he was staring fixedly at the far end of the

room.

“Sophia?” Bale prompted in polite confusion. They’d left Che’s mate in Tahoe a

little over an hour ago.

“No!” Che said harshly. The room fell silent as he walked quickly across the room.

His hand shook slightly as he reached up to reverently touch a smooth cheek. The dark,
soft eyes that stared back at him ripped at his soul, communicating confusion and
growing anxiety. Only Jax saw the way Che’s mate’s delicate features suddenly flinched
with fear. No one made a sound when Sophia’s image slowly faded.

Che spun around and spoke to Bale. His eyes had taken on a deadly gleam.
“I’m going back to Tahoe. Someone has taken Sophia.”

* * * * *

After a few seconds of sitting alone on the back terrace, Sophia noticed the black

limo that pulled into the Sierra Lodge’s long drive. It was another pristine, luminous
Tahoe day. She was having difficulty enjoying it for worrying about Che. He’d looked
entirely calm when he’d left earlier this morning, saying that something had happened
to a fellow council member on the Watcher governing body on which he served. He’d
smiled at her reassuringly and even teased her about her profound talent for titlarre
before he left with Bale and Jax Ammadon. But their spirits had become so entwined
that Sophia knew for a fact that despite his charming front, Che was deeply disturbed
and tense.

Sophia had spent the last half-hour on the sunlit terrace questioning Shem, a drop-

dead beautiful café au lait skinned Watcher that Che had introduced her to before he
left. She found that Shem could be notably close-mouthed about some of the aspects of
Che’s character when she dug for them, but enthusiastic about discussing others. Just as
he was describing a quarterstaff and demonstrating some of Che’s signature moves to a
fascinated Sophia, a distant expression had overcome his face. He’d excused himself,
assuring her eagerly that he would resume where he’d left off shortly.

“Sophia!”

129

Beth Kery

“Tony?” Sophia said in amazement as she stood up from the deck chair. She only

had a brief moment of unease as she trotted down the terrace steps and walked out to
the driveway to meet Tony Mendelero. Che had warned her not to leave the Sierra
Lodge until he’d returned, but surely visiting with a friend out in the yard didn’t count.
Perhaps Tony wasn’t a friend, exactly, but he certainly had become a permanent,
familiar fixture in Sophia’s life. Despite the fact that Tony had historically been known
to drive her crazy with his annoyingly gung ho attitude about her career, he’d only
been doing his job, after all. Now that she saw him standing there next to the limo and
smiling warmly while he waved, she realized how guilty she’d been feeling about how
they’d ended things yesterday.

Jeez, had it really just been yesterday that she’d fired him and he’d stormed off in

an offended huff?

Her smile was genuine when she approached him. “Hey, I’m so glad you decided

to come back. You don’t know how rotten I’ve been feeling about yesterday. Did you fly
back into Reno, or never leave at all?”

“I started to go to the airport, but then I decided to visit a friend. He’s here, in the

limo,” Tony said pleasantly as he tilted his head toward the car.

“So you’re not mad at me anymore, Tony? I hope you can understand. My acting

career is moving lower and lower on my list of priorities.”

“Of course I understand. I’m the one who should be apologizing for the way I acted

yesterday before I left,” Tony assured her. His eyes flicked back toward the terrace.
“Listen, Sophia, I know that I’ve spent the better part of the last six years keeping your
fans at bay, but I was wondering if you would allow me to make an exception now that
I’m not officially working for you anymore. My friend loves your work. I sort of
promised him that I’d ask you for an autograph.”

Sophia smiled to hide her surprise at his request when she saw his obvious

embarrassment. “Sure. Why don’t you two come up to the deck and we’ll all have a
drink?”

Tony gestured uncomfortably at the limo. “Won’t you sign it for him inside? It’ll

only take a second, Sophia. He has a skin condition that’s been bothering him. He’s
trying to keep out of the sun.”

“Sure, Tony. I’d be happy to do it.”
“Hello!” she called into the back of the limo a few seconds later when Tony held the

door open for her. The interior of the posh vehicle seemed pitch black to her sun-dazed
eyes. She slid into a leather seat and Tony came in behind her, slamming the door after
him.

“Ms. Galanis. I can’t tell you what a pleasure it is to meet you.”
Sophia blinked several times to bring into focus the shadowed outline in the seat

across from her. All she could make out was dark clothing and a pale, round face that
was mostly obscured by a baseball cap and a pair of dark glasses.

“Andy Moore, I’d like you to meet the elusive Sophia Galanis.”

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Sophia glanced at Tony with uncertainty and vague irritation. What kind of a game

was Tony playing by introducing her to the director? But her politeness won out in the
end. “Mr. Moore, the pleasure is mine. I’m a great admirer of your work.”

His laughter was high-pitched. “Not such a great admirer that you’ll consent to be

in my latest movie, however.”

Sophia smiled despite the fact that she was becoming increasingly uncomfortable

with this situation. How dare Tony? He was literally forcing her into a meeting of
which she’d made crystal clear that she wanted no part. “It has nothing to do with your
movie, per se, Mr. Moore. I’m not taking on any acting jobs for the time being. Surely
Mr. Mendelero made that clear to you,” she said as she pointedly directed her gaze at
Tony.

She started in surprise when Andy Moore tapped on the window and the limousine

driver began backing out of the driveway at an alarming speed.

“Tony? What the hell is going on?” Sophia asked accusingly. “Mr. Moore, I didn’t

plan on going anywhere. Stop this car.”

“Calm down, Sophia,” Tony said with a forced grin. “Andy just wants the chance to

get to know you a little better. It’s not going to kill you to do that, is it?”

Sophia’s gaze flashed over to the man across the seat. His smile caused fear to

ripple across her skin like she’d been touched by icy fingertips.

* * * * *

“Che, I won’t allow it. It’s an obvious trap.” Bale had to force himself to stand

steady when Che came barreling across the great room at him with all the force of a
shooting cannonball.

“You won’t allow it? You’re not my fucking father, Bale!”
“Che,” Duse hissed in warning. “He has a point. Why else would Asmoday have

set a shield on the house for all but your physical body while making it impossible for
any of our essences to enter? He plans to murder you, Che, just like he did Zep.”

Che’s eyes glowed eerily in his face when they met Duse’s. When they’d returned

to Tahoe, leaving Jax behind to deal with the situation with Zep’s leman, they had
immediately questioned Shem.

The shell-shocked, regretful Watcher could only say that he’d sensed a human

presence on the front part of the property and went to investigate. When he hadn’t been
able to find anything, he’d returned to the terrace, only to see a man getting into a
limousine that proceeded to back rapidly out of the drive a few seconds later. He’d
immediately tried to transfer in his consciousness to the escaping vehicle, but a
powerful shield had been erected, preventing him. Luckily, he’d actually recognized the
man getting into the limousine behind Sophia as being Tony Mendelero since he’d been
watching over her yesterday when Tony bolted off the property in such a huff.

131

Beth Kery

Duse, Bale, Shem and Dante had been busily discussing tactics for how to proceed

in the matter of Sophia’s abduction, but Che had just paced restlessly behind them.

“I think I know where he’s taken her,” he had said abruptly.
His statement had had the effect of a bullet going off in close proximity on the four

other Watchers.

“Where?” Duse had demanded.
“The other night, Mendelero mentioned having a friend who had a house up here

in the mountains, although he rarely ever visits it. He revealed that piece of information
when I was in the process of…forcing him deep into his unconscious so that wouldn’t
notice what was going on around him,” Che had said quickly, skimming over the actual
reason that he’d tried to preoccupy Tony. “I don’t think he would have told me about
that house if he hadn’t had his guard down.”

They’d made an excursion to the ultra-modern, chic dwelling that looked down

over Lake Tahoe from a breathtaking mountain view. Although Che felt utterly blocked
from Sophia, Shem was able to confirm Che’s suspicions through more conventional
means—the limousine was sitting in the house’s driveway. They’d also determined that
all of them were utterly shielded from the dwelling, with the exception of Che, who was
strangely shielded in all but his physical manifestation. Bale had insisted they return to
the lodge to discuss their options, which is what they were doing currently when Bale
told Che that he wouldn’t allow him to try to rescue Sophia.

“Duse, how do you think that Asmoday was able to erect that shield to specifically

exclude everything but my physical body? It’s not as if he knows any of my secret
symbols or my name.”

Duse just stared at his cousin. Che had a point. Watchers utilized what was

traditionally called magic by humans, but for them was just the understanding and
conscious ability to enforce one’s Will in various realities. Watchers ensured their
personal essences remained sacrosanct by keeping certain vital, potent symbols of their
selves secret—symbols such as their truest sigil, their weapon and their secret name.
Any of those secrets in the hands of an enemy allowed another, who could wield magic,
great power over the Watcher. But as far as they knew, Asmoday had none of that vital
information of Che’s. The sigil that Sophia wore was Che’s common symbol, not his
secret one, a sigil that would be easily recognized by any Watcher.

And yet, he’d been able to perform a powerful bit of magic with the shield around

Sophia in order to keep her mate blocked from her, especially in his current weakened
state in the physical world. He had to have some secret knowledge of Che’s essences…

“The wound,” Duse said suddenly.
Che nodded grimly. “Exactly. Somehow, he’s gleaned something of my subtle

matters by that attack. That coarse fire energy went deep into my being. When you
saved my life, it backfired on Asmoday. But that blast that we thought had killed him
must have had some of my essences mixed in with it. Jax told me earlier that he
suspected that I’d been affected by some of that First Changer energy and that’s how I

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unconsciously knew the moment when Sophia reached her Second Change. Why
wouldn’t Asmoday have been affected by my energies on the reverse path?”

“If that’s true, it’s only all the more reason for you not to walk into his trap. It

would be pure foolishness,” Bale said.

Che just shook his head in frustration but Duse was already speaking for him, albeit

cautiously. “Perhaps. But maybe there’s also a chance that Asmoday has overlooked the
reverse effect.” Duse glanced at Bale sharply. “We all know that Asmoday stood in awe
of Che’s fighting ability. I can’t believe that he’d have enacted such a blatant offense
against Che and left himself wide open for an attack. You’re right, Bale, he likely
believes he has some advantage over Che, but I don’t believe he recognizes the fact that
the advantage could work in the opposite direction. Che might be able to glean some of
his secrets, as well.”

All eyes turned to Bale. His face looked still and cold, like it had been carved from

marble.

“I promised her I would keep her safe, Bale,” Che said quietly. “You know me well

enough to realize that nothing is going to stop me from keeping my promise. I’m going
to walk in that house and I’m going to walk out with Sophia.”

“All right,” Bale said with a tense exhalation after a moment.
Even before he’d said the last word, Che was fading. Duse saw the glittering,

deadly edge of the blade on the end of his quarterstaff appear in his cousin’s hand
before he completely disappeared.

133

Beth Kery

Chapter Ten

“You’re a cowardly, weak, dickless little man, Tony Mendelero.”
Tony’s eyes sparked with fury but the hand that held a piece of rope shook

nervously at Sophia’s tensely muttered words.

Andy grimaced as he avoided one of Sophia’s jabbing shoulders as she twisted and

struggled. “Ignore the bitch and hurry up. She’s going to end up giving me a black eye
if we don’t get her tied to the bed.”

Asmoday retreated protectively into Andy Moore’s being. Bale’s spell was hindered

by placing the boundary of a human’s flesh between him and the mate, but eventually,
the potent spell burned into his outer consciousness with increasingly unbearable pain
until Asmoday sheltered himself or broke contact with Sophia. He watched Sophia
Galanis through the coarse, spotty vision of Andy Moore’s eyes. His possession of him
combined with Bale’s spell was slowly destroying the human, causing small strokes in
the cretin’s brain. But while his hearing and eyesight were weakening, the moron’s dick
felt more than up to the job at hand. In point of fact, Asmoday’s full possession of him
at this moment likely related to that. Just the sight of Che Ammadon’s beautiful mate
stripped bare and under his complete dominion was making Asmoday’s own desire
surge beyond known boundaries. The human’s mutating penis felt like a sinuous, rabid
animal as it tried to claw and bite its way out of the prison of his clothing.

Yet he needed to wait for fulfillment until his trap was sprung.
Asmoday came to himself when he realized that Tony Mendelero was still

hesitating. He’d thought his psychokinetic coercion of the human’s brain had been
thoroughly successful. The fool had already been creating some vile, lustful thought
forms against Sophia before Asmoday acquired him for his own purposes. He’d been
doing it slowly, over time. It hadn’t been that hard to corrupt Tony until he eventually
acquiesced to his every demand. He doubted that the idiot even knew that he had been
the one who had begun to leave her threatening messages on her cell phone even while
Sophia was back in California.

But Sophia Galanis’ bewitching eyes seemed to be having an exceptional power to

dampen Asmoday’s magic.

He grabbed both of Sophia’s wrists in one hand and used the other to reach down

and squeeze a firm, swaying breast. As he’d expected, Tony’s eyes flicked away from
Sophia’s magnetic gaze.

“Look at her tits. They’re more beautiful than I expected—and I expected plenty.

Wouldn’t you just love to drop a load between them?”

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Tony swallowed heavily as he watched Andy pluck at a ripe nipple while Sophia

cursed furiously and her struggles redoubled.

“Yes,” Tony admitted as lust stormed through his body. Nevertheless, nausea

surged in his stomach at the sound of Andy’s laughter. Christ, he’d always known
Moore struggled with a drug habit but he’d never realized he was mad until now. His
own motivations toward Sophia, on the other hand, were utterly expected considering
the way she’d teased him mercilessly with the promise of her beautiful body for all
these years while he’d slaved for her, only to throw him out like yesterday’s garbage on
a whim. The traitorous prima donna.

“I’ll let you fuck her tits once we get her tied up. It’ll get me primed to mount her

little pussy, although I don’t think much foreplay is going to be necessary. My dick is
already about to kiss the ceiling. You can have her after I’m finished with her, but the
chances are, things are going to be in a pretty messy state down there by the time I’m
done,” Andy cackled insanely, recalling all the blood that had resulted after he’d
frenziedly fucked the blonde-haired woman the other night and her vacant stare as he’d
finally had an explosive climax of his life deep inside her. The voice inside his head
assured him that the woman had died very happily.

He couldn’t wait to repeat it with the beautiful, defiant woman who currently

struggled so furiously against him.

“Get your filthy hands off me, you fucking sociopath! I’m going to kill you for this,

you foul, disgusting, stinking—”

“Gag her,” Asmoday ordered through Andy Moore’s mouth. It was his own rage

that shimmered in the human’s eyes. Sophia Galanis was just like her cocky mate. Che
Ammadon was always making snide references to his unfortunate state of
decomposition, as well. His fury pulled Andy’s lips into a feral snarl.

He couldn’t wait to force the true scent of power right up their nostrils as Sophia

and Che both took their last breath. He touched his hand to the inner pocket of the
windbreaker he wore, taking vast assurance from the hard, columnar shape of the
Dionytion Stone. Yes, Sophia Galanis was about to become the return entry door to his
physical body. Just thinking about the magnitude of rarified, sublime essences in which
he was about to be submersed made him feel dizzy with the anticipation of sheer power
and pleasure.

Sophia wondered if it was fear that created her potent, adrenaline-inspired strength

as she struggled. But even at the moment when they’d tied both of her ankles and her
left wrist to the bed, she was only conscious of pure, undiluted fury. When she caught
Tony’s eyes in her own, she willed him to drop the piece of rope he held in his hand.
His hands loosened as he bent to retrieve it. Sophia wrenched her hand free from him
with a surge of adrenaline and clocked him with her fist as he rose from his squatting
position. A flower of pure satisfaction bloomed in her breast when she saw his head
snap back and blood spurt out of his nose.

135

Beth Kery

“Blindfold her,” Tony raged as he swiped at the blood pouring out of his nostrils

before he secured Sophia’s offending fist.

“Brilliant idea,” Andy offered in a warm, friendly manner that made Tony shudder.

Still, he had to admit that it helped his dick’s most sublime purpose along exponentially
when Sophia’s huge, haunting eyes were hidden from his view. He jerked his jeans and
underwear off his legs and feet with a wild intensity and mounted Sophia’s squirming,
lovely body on the bed.

God, he’d wanted her for so long and now she was stretched out before him—his

for the taking. This was going to be so fucking good.

“Just the tits for now,” Andy warned from where he stood next to the bed.
“Hold them for me to fuck,” Tony demanded tensely. He grimaced when he heard

the wild, furious sounds exuding from Sophia’s throat, but his cock only surged on her
pale, honey-hued belly.

“What’s wrong?” he demanded when Andy didn’t move to assist him immediately.
“Alright, alright,” Andy answered while he glanced tensely toward the door.
Tony panted raggedly as he thrust once, then twice through the forbidden valley of

Sophia’s tightly squeezed breasts. His eyes glazed. His lust was so thick that he didn’t
even notice when Andy moved away from the bed. His focus was solely on rutting
between lush, bobbing flesh.

He was stone dead before he had the conscious realization that her breasts were

being squeezed together by invisible fingers.

* * * * *

Several times in the future, Che tried to name the feeling that overcame him when

he burst through the closed door, surged rapidly into the bedroom and saw Tony
Mendelero’s skinny buttocks flexing rhythmically over Sophia’s bound body. It had the
quality of fury, but felt far too focused, immense and flaming hot to be only that.

Whatever that particular passion was, it tempted him, however briefly, to neglect

the powerful feeling of intuition that arose in him.

But in the end, he followed his gut. He waited tensely, holding back his almost

overwhelming urge to strike out at Tony Mendelero first. For the briefest second, he left
himself open, inviting attack. It wasn’t as if he didn’t have ages of experience doing this
anyway. Watchers could flicker in and out of corporeality, but true damage could only
be inflicted while an opponent was corporeal. As a result, part of their strategy in a fight
involved drawing an opponent in by making themselves vulnerable. Offensive attack
often only came at the same time that they accepted, avoided or minimized offensive
blows against them.

It was a huge risk since he only had his physical body available to him. But if there

was one Watcher alive who had the steely nerves and skill to do it, it was Che.

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Subtle Touch

Che waited until he felt the first lethal, anticipated whisper of cold metal on the

back of his neck. Then he flicked the back end of his bladed quarterstaff with
frightening efficiency, first to the side, and then in a jabbing, upward strike. A swift
movement at the fore caused Tony Mendelero’s head to whip so abruptly that his neck
snapped and his body followed the powerfully enforced trajectory several feet. Che’s
eyes never flicked from Sophia’s suddenly stiff form as Tony’s body slithered from the
edge of the bed and heavily to the floor.

“It’s me, honey,” he whispered. Emotion temporarily stole his voice. Che placed his

knee on the bed and pushed back Sophia’s blindfold immediately. The cruelly tight gag
in her mouth was loosened next.

“Che, there’s another. Andy Moore…”
“It’s alright, Sophia,” he managed hoarsely. His eyes were chaotic flames as he

began to untie her wrists.

Sophia raised herself up on the bed as far as she could to inspect the room. Her

anxious gaze quickly ascertained that she and Che were the only two people there.

“I knew you would come.”
Che paused in his actions of unfastening the brutally tight knot that bound Sophia’s

slender ankle. Their eyes briefly met. In that brief instant, Sophia read his enormous
regret.

“I’m okay, Che. I never doubted you would come. Oh, my…” Sophia stared, slack-

mouthed at the floor.

Andy Moore sprawled belly-up, limbs splayed. Sophia immediately began to rise

from the bed in slow fascination at what she saw. To say that he appeared to be dead
was obviously the understatement of the century. A surprisingly small amount of blood
leaked out around a deep, meaty hole where his right eye should have been.

“Don’t, Sophia,” he said gruffly. He came around the bed and tilted her chin away

gently. “Don’t look, honey.”

But Sophia twisted her jaw around, resisting him. Che gazed woodenly down at her

as she surveyed the dead body on the floor. He waited, every muscle in his body tensed
to the point of pain. Gods, was she going to look up at him with sheer terror, with
revulsion staining her beautiful eyes? Was his life-affirming, peace-loving mate about to
call him a coldhearted killer?

“That dagger,” she said slowly. “There’s blood on it, Che.”
Her mellifluous, low voice made him blink in surprise. Would she never cease to

surprise him?

“It’s Asmoday’s true weapon, Sophia. Just like mine is my quarterstaff.”
Sophia’s dark eyes widened. “Asmoday?”
“Yes. He was possessing that man—Andy Moore, you said?” He saw her

expression stiffen. “Sophia, before you go and feel sorry for Mr. Moore, you should
know that Asmoday couldn’t have taken possession of him if he hadn’t already been

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creating some violent, twisted thought forms and intentions in regard to you. That man
was no innocent victim.”

“Pity? I was having fantasies about eviscerating that son of a bitch! You should

have heard the things that he wanted to do to me! I got the distinct impression that he
planned to do to me what was done to that poor woman the other night—the one that
the police officer said looked like she’d been raped by a meat tenderizer,” Sophia said
as she stared at the still form on the floor and disgust curled her lips.

Che just gaped at her open-mouthed, thoroughly floored by seeing a fierceness

exude from her that was just as potent as some of the most formidable warriors that
he’d associated with throughout history. Gods, is this how it was for Bale and Duse,
too? Would he just continue to regularly discover fascinating mysteries about his life
mate?

He came out of his stunned reverie when he realized that Sophia was pushing

insistently on his hips, trying to turn him. His mouth fell open when she saw how wild
she looked. “Where’s that damned blood coming from, Che?” When he resisted her
urging hand, Sophia just stood up and moved behind him.

“That bastard cut you!”
Che grimaced and turned around. He grabbed her reaching hand.
“It’s okay, Sophia. It’s just a little blood. I’ve already healed myself. Asmoday’s

shields evaporated with that man’s death. Let’s hope Asmoday suffered the same fate.
That slime was waiting for me, knowing I only had the resources of my physical form.
He was planning to stab me from the back while I was preoccupied by Mendelero over
there. The jackal—he really doesn’t have a trace of honor left in him.”

Sophia’s eyes were shimmering wells of emotions when she looked up at him. “He

could easily have killed you. How did you know that it wasn’t just Tony behind all of
this?”

“I’ll explain it to you when we get back to the lodge,” Che said as he pulled her next

to him and enfolded her in his arms. His face scrunched tightly with suppressed
emotion as he inhaled the familiar, precious scent at her neck. Gods, what if he had lost
her? What if he had to live day in and day out with the knowledge that she was dead
because of her association with him? The image of Tony Mendelero rutting over her
bound, nude body rose to haunt him. He would have to struggle with worse than that
memory.

He would have to survive knowing that Sophia had to live with it.
Brutal, thoroughly untenable thought that Sophia suffered in the smallest way.
“Let’s get you into some clothes, honey. Duse and Bale are right outside the door,”

Che finally muttered as he forced himself to gain control. He knew that Bale wouldn’t
want Che or Sophia to be found at the scene of the crime. The King of the Watchers
worked very hard to ensure that Watchers kept a very low profile. The police would
probably end up contacting Sophia because of Tony Mendelero’s prior association with
her. There was nothing he could do to prevent that.

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But Che was going to make sure that nothing at the scene implicated Sophia or his

presence. A human being might have called it obstruction of justice but Che didn’t care
about that. Watches had their own laws and their own form of justice. What Che had
done here today had upheld both.

He just hated the face that he hadn’t been able to save Sophia from being harmed in

the process.

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Beth Kery

Chapter Eleven

Three days later, Sophia just stared open-mouthed for a few silent seconds when

she opened the front door to the Sierra Lodge.

Avala Kingston broke into a wide grin. She was only a mildly adept mind reader,

but one didn’t have to be a psychic like Edgar Cayce to read the expression on Sophia
Galanis’ lovely, expressive face.

“You’re right, honey, we’re no spring chickens! And we’re not getting any younger,

either, standing here on your front doorstep!”

“You know it, sister. I need to get into a nice hot bath so I can soak my bunions and

rheumy joints after that long car ride,” Andrea agreed with a sparkle in her green eyes.
“We do hope that the local casino offers a senior citizen discount for slot machine
tokens!”

Sophia could hardly inhale a whole breath. Embarrassment and horror crowded her

chest cavity as she gawked at the two blonde, beautiful, extremely well-put-together
women in front of her. They looked more like siblings than twins at first glance. Andrea
had her blonde hair styled in a short, sassy haircut while Avala’s hung lushly below her
shoulders. Sophia couldn’t believe she was being so rude, it was just…

“I’m so sorry. It’s not what you’re thinking. You two are obviously no blue-haired

grandmothers. You’re beautiful…but I had just imagined…”

Andrea Kingston finally took pity on Che’s mate and gave her a heartfelt hug. “It’s

okay, Sophia. We know we’re gorgeous! And it’s true, we’re definitely no blue-haired
grandmas. But we are your mother’s age. That’s nothing to apologize for, though. Fifty-
eight is a very sexy time in a woman’s life. ‘Course, I thought that at every age,” she said
matter-of-factly as she marched past Sophia, only to pause and lean back gracefully in
the doorframe.

“Sam, don’t bother with the big suitcase right now! Vala and I aren’t going to be

needing any clothes for a while, are we?” She gave Sophia a mischievous wink and
whispered conspiratorially in her ear as she passed. “Bless Che. He transferred enough
energy to Sam and Ash to make them corporeal enough to drive us down to Tahoe. We
plan to guilt him later into doing the same for that beautiful man Shem. Sister and I
have big plans for this afternoon, and they don’t include slot machines.

“Che Ammadon, where the hell are you?” Andrea called imperiously as she stalked

past Sophia, fists on her trim hips.

Sophia’s eyes rounded as she directed her gaze to where Andrea had been shouting

earlier and saw what appeared to be two more Watchers standing by the car in the
driveway. Their sheer height and the sexuality that seemingly oozed out of every pore

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of their body was Sophia’s first clue. The one who presently slammed the trunk closed
didn’t take his eyes off her.

“Sam and Ash are two of Che’s knights. That’s Ash, staring at you. Divine

specimen, eh?” Avala said as she walked past.

“Er…yeah,” Sophia stated the obvious with vague embarrassment. She ducked her

head, blushing, as the one named Sam joined the stare-fest. She’d been ogled a lot in her
life but, as she was quickly learning, there was something about the gaze of a Watcher
that equated to multiplying a human male’s sexual once-over times a thousand and
adding in a healthy dose of respect and awe. The effect could catch you off guard, if you
weren’t prepared for it.

“Before Che was mated to you, Andrea and I only slobbered at the local scenery, if

you know what I mean. But ever since Che called and told us all things are off, my
sister and I have decided to indulge all of our senses in what has historically only been
visual stimulation.”

Avala paused when she noticed Sophia’s pink cheeks. “They’re only staring

because women like you are so sacred to Watchers. Well, that and the fact that both of
them are probably wishing this was your second time around with Che and that they
were attending your Dionytion Ceremony. Luckily, Andrea and I are here to soothe the
sting for them,” Avala said cheekily.

Avala’s striking green eyes softened as she read Sophia’s bewildered expression.

“Wow, you really are thrown by Andrea’s and my age, aren’t you? Honey, you should
be considering it as a good thing. Didn’t you ever think about the idea of growing older
while Che Ammadon, the sexiest Watcher alive, just gets more and more gorgeous and
potent with each and every passing year?”

“I…I never thought about that before,” Sophia wailed as the realization struck.
Avala patted her reassuringly as she passed. “Don’t worry, he did say something

once about Bale creating an elixir, but I suppose that’s between you and Che. Still, you
can see why I say that you seeing Andrea’s and my age was a good thing. How many
eighty-year-olds do you see that have a drop-dead beautiful, virile man in his prime
worshipping them?”

“Che worshipped you?” Sophia asked stiffly as she followed Avala into the foyer.
Avala scoffed and waved her hand. “Hell, no. I was talking about you growing old

with him, not us! Words like respect, caring and cherish come to mind when I think about
how Che felt about Andrea and I. Oh, and lust, of course, that was a given on all sides.”

Avala laughed merrily as she tossed her jacket on an entryway bench. “But honey,

you obviously haven’t met that many Watchers and their mates yet or you’d know
what I mean. Seeing one of these gorgeous men staring at an eighty-two-year-old
woman like she’s Aphrodite and Hera combined is enough to bring tears to your eyes.”
She glanced over at Sophia and smiled wistfully. “You’re a very lucky woman, Sophia
Galanis. Ahh, here’s the heartbreaker now!”

Avala fake pouted as Che walked into the foyer followed by Andrea.

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“Go ahead, Vala, hug him!” Andrea encouraged enthusiastically. “He’s more solid

right now than he was after that contest we had to see who could pop the most times in
a one-hour period! Just for the record,” Andrea added with a sultry gaze at Ash who
had just entered the house with Sam behind him, “I won.”

Sophia swallowed with difficulty when she saw the fire that leapt into Ash’s gray

eyes. Whew, did somebody just turn up the heat? Sophia suddenly felt like she’d just
been plopped into a cauldron of steaming, potent sex brew that was about to reach the
boiling point.

Her gaze automatically leapt to Che’s face. His eyes were twin lasers focused

directly at her above Avala’s blonde head, which was currently crushed to his
midsection. The temperature escalated even higher in Sophia’s body at the mere sight of
her mate’s sheer masculine beauty.

Please let tonight be the night that Che stopped treating her like she was made from

porcelain, she prayed silently. Ever since her kidnapping, Che seemed to be
immobilized by a thick combination of worry, guilt and regret. No matter what she did,
Sophia hadn’t been able to tempt him out of it.

A flicker of a smile twitched Sophia’s lips when she recognized the concern in Che’s

aquamarine eyes that was undoubtedly incurred by Andrea’s comment.

Contest?
I…it was just a…Gods, Sophia; you were the one who insisted that it was the right thing to

do to talk with them in person! Che muttered telepathically.

By the Blessed Mothers, was he actually blushing? The physical sensation was

utterly unknown to him until now. He grimaced when he saw the way Sophia raised
her eyebrows, giving him a droll expression. Hades, she knew perfectly well he’d just
changed the subject on her.

It is the right thing, Che. I wouldn’t feel right about it if you didn’t. You don’t have a

relationship with someone for thousands of years, only to break it off via the phone. Now, why
don’t you and Andrea and Avala go have your talk? I have a feeling that they have other plans
for this afternoon—and it doesn’t involve conversation, Sophia told him with a wry glance at
Ash and Sam.

Che grinned. It didn’t do any good to explain to Sophia that he didn’t require a

private moment with Avala and Andrea to make a clean break with them. That had
occurred the second he’d first looked into Sophia’s eyes. Saying their names to break
the spell had just utterly shattered and evaporated the whole connection. He sighed as
he walked out of the foyer with Andrea and Avala on either side of him. If it made
Sophia happy, he was all for the unnecessary ceremony. He paused when he heard
Sophia call to him in his mind. The twins had just looped their arms around his waist in
a companionable gesture. Sophia’s depthless, soft eyes held a trace of irritation at the
sight of him being surrounded by his former lovers.

Couldn’t we talk to Bale to see if it’s possible for him to create a sigil for mated Watchers to

wear?

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Che started to reassure her forcefully, but then he saw the glimmer of amusement

in her eyes. Honey, I’ll be the first to suggest it on the day that it’s necessary—which is to say
on the day when the Fathers come home.

Sophia smiled widely and turned to welcome Ash and Sam. She knew enough

about Watcher ways by now to know that the phrase when the Fathers come home was the
equivalent to a human saying when hell freezes over.

* * * * *

Sophia forced herself to hold Che’s eyes, despite the fact that she knew her cheeks

were bright red from embarrassment.

“Well, do you want to?”
Che shook his head calmly. “Sophia, I told you I would turn you over my knee the

next time you suggested that I was sexually interested in anything other than you.”

“For God’s sake, I wasn’t asking if you wanted to join them, Che! But Andrea just

practically gave us a written invitation to watch. I thought maybe you might like to,
that’s all!”

Che just studied her for a full half minute. They were sitting on the back terrace of

the Sierra Lodge. Andrea and Avala had just left in order to scare up Shem, Ash and
Sam. They’d just finished off the pitcher of margaritas that Sophia had brought out in
record time. Che suspected that Sophia had made the cocktails to smooth over a
potentially difficult meeting when she joined the three of them after Che had
supposedly broken his shattering news about the breakup. In reality, the twins had
spent most of their grief-stricken meeting trying to talk Che into infusing Shem with
enough energy to make him fully corporeal enough for an orgy.

No, Andrea and Avala never required alcohol in order to relax them or lower their

inhibitions, Che thought wryly. If anything, Sophia would have been the one to benefit,
although she’d barely touched her drink. No matter, Andrea and Avala soon had her
bantering and laughing with them as naturally as if Sophia had known them for years.
Che had allowed himself to relax a bit when he’d seen it. He would have done anything
in order to make Sophia more comfortable with the whole Andrea/Avala situation.

Of course, the tension had flown right back into his muscles when Andrea had

casually indicated that the little orgy she and Avala had planned for his knights was
open to public viewing. His anxiety had doubled when Sophia had asked him if he was
inclined to follow through on his former lover’s saucy invitation.

“Do you want to watch them?” Che asked Sophia abruptly.
Sophia shrugged uncertainly. “I want to if there’s a chance in hell it will make you

horny enough to make love to me again.”

The silence that followed was broken only by the sound of feminine laughter and, a

second later, a low masculine groan of arousal. Sophia’s gave an avid, nervous glance
toward the screened doors that led to the great room. Obviously, the twins had

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commenced in their games. She swallowed nervously when she noticed Che’s hard
expression. Oh no, he hadn’t liked what she’d just said.

“Is that why you thought we haven’t made love since Asmoday abducted you?

Because I don’t want you enough?”

Sophia shrugged again helplessly. “You’re blocking yourself from me. To be honest

with you, I don’t know why you’ve been so uninterested in me for the past few days.”

“Uninterested?” Che repeated, stunned. One of his cheek muscles leapt in tension.

Gods, he’d made so much progress with her, but this hellish situation that Asmoday
had created had hurtled him practically back to his original “start” position.
Nevertheless, a big part of this was Sophia’s infernal stubbornness. There was no way
in Hades that she couldn’t have noticed how unbearably stiff his dick was every night
when he held her and she eventually drifted into a restless sleep.

Still, the image of her tied down to that bed and Tony Mendelero’s scrawny,

pumping ass kept leaping across his mind’s eye. Watchers were incredibly sensual,
carnal creatures, but the mere idea of rape resulted in a deep, organic sense of revulsion
in them. That Sophia had been subjected to such a thing because of his own weakness
left Che feeling as volatile as a mound of dynamite with a sign on it that read Light Me.

Sophia’s raised eyebrows and her pointed challenging glance in reaction to his one-

word question acted as his match…or more correctly, his torch.

He stood abruptly and grabbed her hand. Sophia cried out in surprise as he

marched her militantly toward the patio doors. The full knowledge of what he was
doing—of what she’d suggested—suddenly crashed down on her. She pulled at her
hand desperately, but Che was already sliding back the doors, a grim expression on his
face.

“Don’t worry, Sophia. I’ve shielded us. They won’t realize we’re there.”
Sophia stilled at that, then began to follow him cautiously into the dim great room.

“Why doesn’t Ash or Sam or Shem shield them?” she whispered nervously.

“Avala and Andrea aren’t their lemans or even their regular lovers. The twins are

probably hoping to brew up enough Rush energy to attract other Watchers to join in on
the fun,” Che said impassively.

“Will the twins become one of your knight’s lemans now?” she asked curiously as

she followed him closely into the dim room.

“No. They’re two of the most powerful women in the world, although they’re

nowhere near the caliber of a Watcher mate. A natural progression will take place if
they’re interested in being in another relationship. If they are, they’ll end up as lemans
to the most powerful unmated Watcher alive—probably Jax.”

He stopped abruptly and Sophia crashed into his back with a yelp of surprise.

“Looks like the show is underway. Pick your seat, Sophia.”

Sophia peeked around Che’s wide shoulders.

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“Oh, my…” she muttered almost incoherently. Che noticed her slack jaw and

glazed expression. He rolled his eyes and pulled her over to a couch not ten feet away
from where Avala and Andrea were currently entertaining his troops.

Sophia tried to speak, but the sight of so many naked limbs, eager mouths and

several combined feet of tumescent cock temporarily left her thunderstruck. Andrea
and Avala acted as the cog of the wheel for their erotic play. Sophia shook her head in
stunned disbelief. The twins may be fifty-eight years old, but their bodies were those of
women almost thirty years their junior. Andrea was kneeling on the couch. Her sister
squatted over her, her knees ground into the soft pillows at the back, so that Shem and
Ash were being offered two firm, pale bottoms stacked one on top of the other for their
hedonistic consumption. Shem was in the midst of relishing his blessing—or drowning
in it, given the amount of juices on his face—by sitting on the floor and leaning back on
the couch while he gripped Andrea’s bottom and lustily ate her cunt. His beyond
impressive cock occasionally bounced enthusiastically on his belly as if in nonverbal
answer to Andrea’s appreciative moans. Ash knelt on the floor behind Avala. His large
hands spread her cheeks wide while two thick fingers rammed enthusiastically in what
appeared to be a very well lubricated channel, given the slurping sounds that coincided
with his movements. His tongue, in the meantime, was busy alternating between
rimming and penetrating Avala’s asshole.

Sam looked to be enjoying himself, as well. In spades. He stood behind the couch

where all the activity was taking place. He was so tall that the back of the couch only hit
him at his upper thighs. Andrea and Avala were both giving his cock an enthusiastic
polishing with their tongues and mouths. Sophia could tell by the ruddy color of Sam’s
organ and the taut expression on his handsome features as he watched the twins
skillfully gobble him up that he wasn’t going to be able to keep his control much longer.
She knew she was correct when Shem’s jaw began to flex more rapidly on Andrea’s
cunt and she responded in turn by treating Sam’s balls and shaft to a tuneless,
appreciative hum.

“Finish one of them off, in the name of the Mothers,” Sam muttered tautly, never

taking his eyes off his cock or the twin’s enthusiastic servicing of it. Sweat glistened on
his muscular torso. “I can’t take much more of this!”

Sophia glanced over at Che, wide-eyed, wondering how he was responding to the

proceedings. She felt like a total pervert when she realized that he wasn’t even watching
the orgy. His piercing eyes were focused solely on her face.

“You really did want to watch, didn’t you?” he asked incredulously.
Sophia swallowed thickly. Something about seeing all that naked, pleasured,

pleasuring flesh and then seeing the sexiest, most desirable creature in the world sitting
there next to her, the picture of male insouciance and knowing that he was hers and
hers alone—well, it did something to her. It really did.

“I thought it might break the ice between us,” she whispered apologetically.

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“Ice, my ass. You’re getting so hot watching those five, you’re about to

spontaneously combust,” he said flatly. He ignored the bloom of color on her cheeks.
“Honey, there’s no ice between us. I’ve just been worried about you. Gods, do you think
I want to subject you right away to that,” he waved his head toward the small mountain
of quivering, groaning flesh nearby, “after everything you went through?”

Sophia’s jaw came unhinged. “That’s what’s been bothering you? Che, I’m not a

victim! I told you on the day you saved me that I knew you would come! Asmoday
planned to hurt me but he never really did. It would have been one thing if I was afraid,
or hopeless as to the outcome, but I tell you, I knew you would come. The only thing I was
aware of feeling at the time was fury.”

“And you don’t think there’s the remotest possibility that part of your fury was at

me, for not protecting you like I said I would?” Che asked coldly.

“No!” Sophia answered defiantly as she brought her face to within an inch of Che’s.

“You’re the one who’s angry at yourself, Che. Don’t project your shit onto me!”

They just stared at each other in mounting tension for a few seconds. Both of them

blinked in vague disorientation when Avala’s increasing whimpers escalated to screams
as orgasm crashed into her. Ash went momentarily rigid as he experienced the
uncommon strength of Che’s former leman’s sex energies pound through his being.

“By the Fathers, you’re in for a treat,” Ash informed Sam with a dazed expression a

few seconds later as the two of them switched places. “I can’t believe Che’s been the
sole recipient of that times two for the Gods know how long. Lucky bastard. He has all
the luck.”

“You’re about to get very lucky too, Big Boy,” Avala assured him seductively as she

flicked at the head of his bobbing cock with a supple tongue. “I believe in giving and
taking in equal measure and you just gave me one hell of a sweet pop.”

“Where would you like it, Avala?” Sam asked almost politely as he positioned

himself between her thighs.

Avala kept her gaze on Ash as she continued to tease his cock with her tongue. “I

want that fat cock in my pussy, Sam. Ash here has first rights to my ass. He is the one
that primed it, after all.”

Sophia gave an almost pained groan of restrained lust as she watched Sam thrust

long and hard into Avala while Avala crammed Ash’s thick pillar between her lips.
Andrea chose that moment to raise her chin toward the ceiling and howl wildly as she
climaxed.

“Oh God Che. Can we have a soulful heart to heart after you fuck me?” Sophia

asked in a shaky voice as she faced her mate. “You have my one hundred percent
guarantee that I’m not going to break. I’m only going to melt for you, honey, surely you
can sense that?”

Che ground his molars so hard he wondered if he was turning them to dust. Love

and lust for Sophia raged in his body like a consuming fire. He easily sensed how
aroused she was, and that was sending his desire for her beyond the scope of anything

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he’d experienced in his life. He just nodded his head once rigidly and Sophia was up
pulling on his arm.

“Let’s go out to the guesthouse,” she whispered tensely before taking one last,

lustful glance at the progress of Andrea’s and Avala’s games. She almost raced for the
patio doors, beyond eager to begin the first afternoon of a lifetime of afternoons, nights
and mornings of her own voluptuous entertainments with Che.

* * * * *

So much pent-up energy and lust surged inside Sophia that she could barely keep

her foot stationary enough to work her jeans off the opposite ankle once she got to her
bedroom. She glanced up, flushed with excitement and desire, and noticed that Che
was just sitting on the edge of the bed watching her calmly, his singular eyes glowing
like fire and water fused. Sophia straightened slowly at the sight.

“Come here.”
She felt her heart momentarily clench and then pump again more rapidly at his

quiet command. Che Ammadon, the sexiest Watcher alive, Avala’s description leapt to
Sophia’s mind as she made her way to him and the rest of her clothing melted off her
just as Che’s did. Sophia bit her lower lip hungrily as Che’s thighs spread to admit her
and her eyes to tour all of that bronzed, muscular flesh.

Oh yes. Avala was so right.
Che reached up to lightly skim his fingertips across her jaw. He studied her

soulfully. “I think part of me permanently dropped out of existence when I saw your
vital double there in New York and I realized that you’d been taken from me.”

Sophia’s lips parted in awe at the emotion behind his deep voice. His lambent gaze

thoroughly enslaved her, acting even more potent than the most intimate of touches.
She blinked when she saw his beautifully shaped lips quirk, as though he’d just read
her thoughts. Sophia followed him unerringly as he gripped her forearms and brought
her down over him as he reclined on the bed.

“Che…Che…thank you for telling me how you felt,” she muttered in a low,

emotion-filled voice as she wiggled her body against his dense male flesh. “But I’m not
traumatized. Don’t you think I’d know if I was? I just want to get on with my life. With
our lives.” Their gazes remained locked in what felt to Sophia like a sacred, hot stare.
That was why she was vaguely surprised when her brain finally encoded what Che said
next.

“Does this all mean that we’re going to be regular spectators at Watcher orgies?”
“No!” Sophia answered vehemently. Che just laughed.
“I suspect that at the very least, the Issian Festival is going to become one of my

lusty mate’s favorite holidays.”

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“Che…” Sophia’s protest was stilled on her tongue when she felt him caress her

bottom and spread her legs by opening his own thighs. She moaned and squirmed in
the beginnings of sexual agony when she felt him dip his finger into her honeyed heat.

“Hold still,” he admonished thickly as he continued to spear her with his gaze. “I

can feel how excited you are, honey. Let me take the edge off before I subject you to my
more avid attentions. Look at me!” he suddenly ordered with stark authority.

Sophia blinked and resisted the urge to stare between her legs. Che slid his big

hands along the sensitive skin at the sides of her body. His right hand spread the dew of
her desire over her skin as he caressed her, leaving Sophia in little doubt that it was
those fingers that had just been stroking her appreciative pussy deeply. And yet…what
felt precisely like two of Che’s fingers continued to fuck her thickly creaming channel
with increasing boldness while another created a counter-rhythm by firmly palming an
ass cheek. Sophia began to pant as she felt him spread her natural lubrication onto her
right nipple and rubbed erotically. She was inundated with pleasure from the
ministrations of four talented hands. Che watched her with immense love radiating
from his eyes and just a seasoning of humor.

“I can’t throw a solid vital double like my talented mate can. But even though you

can’t see my etheric double with your eyes, I think you’re going to find that I feel very
real.”

“I require only one Che Ammadon,” Sophia said honestly between cries of

mounting pleasure.

“Oh, I know. But that’s the beauty of it. This is all one Che Ammadon, honey,” he

said with a wicked up-thrust of his eyebrows. He watched her closely as she gasped
and her surprise segued to pure lust. “You liked watching Ash do this to Avala.”

“No, I…” Speech dropped from Sophia’s behavioral repertoire as she felt Che part

her bottom cheeks and begin to tongue her tiny, muscular opening. At the same time,
he stimulated her brain, making her bottom begin to sizzle with a slow burn that would
eventually necessitate enough friction to supply an explosion. His thrusting fingers in
her pussy, the fact that he held both her breasts at once, plucking sensually at her
nipples, and his relentless, scoring stare combined to send Sophia to the peak of a
frighteningly powerful wave of climax.

“There’s no reason to deny your desires with me, Sophia,” Che said gently as he

watched her cheeks flood with the heat of incipient orgasm. “I’ll never share either your
body or your being with another but, beyond that, anything that makes you aroused
makes me aroused. No further explanation necessary.”

Sophia barely had a chance to soak in Che’s hard, uncompromising words before he

flicked his etheric fingers over her distended clit. Her ears roared as immense, mind-
bending pleasure shuddered through her being. When Sophia came back to herself, she
realized that her face was pressed blindly into Che’s hard chest.

“Oh, my,” she said breathlessly as she raised her head and blew a strand of dark

gold hair out of her mouth. “I told you I wouldn’t break! That was extremely nice.”

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Subtle Touch

Just the sight of his sexy, curving lips was sufficient for her to slide off his hard

body so that she could reach avidly for the delightfully heavy, hot pillar of male flesh
pressed against her belly. Oh yeah. Every one of those three Watchers making love to
the twins earlier had mouthwatering cocks, but only Che’s shapely penis was worthy of
a true god.

“Uh-uh,” Che said calmly as he thwarted her intentions and brought her back fully

on top of him. “I have something else in mind for you.”

“What?” Sophia asked, wide-eyed at his grim, determined manner.
“I’m going to kiss your sweet little mouth, hold you steady and watch the

expression of pleasure on your beautiful face while you’re being fucked in both your
ass and pussy.”

“What?” Sophia repeated stupidly before Che grabbed both her shoulders and

brought her down to his mouth for a rapacious kiss. She sighed blissfully as she melted
into him. He must have put every ounce of his millennia of experience with lovemaking
and every last drop of his immense feelings for her into that kiss. Sophia had never felt
so loved, so electrified, so…

“Treasured,” Che whispered against her puffy, damp lips. “I treasure you, Sophia

Alexandra Galanis. You’re the heart of my very existence.”

“I love you, too,” Sophia replied softly, knowing that the words didn’t suffice, but

also knowing that Che didn’t mind. She felt so close to him right now that he was
reading the emotions that swirled in her eyes like bold print.

Che never broke his gaze on her as he repositioned her body so that her knees

planted in the bed next to his hips and he brought his throbbing erection to her liquid
core. They both gasped in pleasure as he firmly planted the head in her hot sheath and
flexed his hips boldly. Sophia moaned and tried to sit up to give him a more hospitable
angle, but Che held her ruthlessly against him, her breasts crushed to his chest.

“Hold still. Let me work it into you,” Che insisted gently, but he thrust his hips

with paradoxical aggressiveness. Sophia trembled with pleasure as he sliced repeatedly
into her resisting flesh while he held her immobile, never releasing her from his hot
stare. Their desire-tightened expressions reflected in the mirrors of each other’s liquid
eyes as Che burrowed farther and farther into her tight, silky flesh. By the time he was
finally seated in her to the hilt, Sophia’s entire body shook with longing.

“I’m going to come, Che,” she whispered desperately.
“No, not yet.” His deep, mellow voice was soft in volume, but at the same time, it

didn’t brook any argument. But Che did have to admit that the pleasure of holding his
mate so tightly, skin to skin while his cock was buried in her clinging, muscular depths
and their souls were bared completely naked for the other’s focused stare was almost
too much to bear. “Come here, Sophia. Let my kiss cool you for a moment.”

Che’s kiss cool her? Sophia almost snorted at the unlikelihood of that, but she was

so hungry for him that she could have cared less about the ridiculousness of his
proposal. And much to her surprise, as pleasurable as his firm lips and nimble tongue

149

Beth Kery

were, instead of igniting her, they had the effect of taking a quick, refreshing dip in the
frigid Lake Tahoe waters.

“Better?” he asked huskily against her lips after a moment.
Sophia blinked dazedly. “I don’t know how you do that, Che Ammadon.”
His smile reached his aquamarine eyes. “Magic,” he whispered. He saw his lovely

mate’s eyes go wide as he used his etheric hands to part her luscious ass cheeks.
“Prepare to be boarded, lovely.”

Sophia instinctively started at the seductive threat inherent to Che’s words and the

entirely real sensation of his dick pressing to her asshole. But a pair of hands held her
hips firmly, even as his fingers also lightly held her jaw, forcing her to maintain their
electrified gaze even as his engorged cock slowly pierced her rectum.

“Ohhh!” Sophia cried out in stunned arousal.
“Steady,” he whispered soothingly. His thumb swept aside a tear that fell down her

delicate cheeks and onto her parted lips. “You can take it, Sophia.”

Sophia groaned in ecstatic agony. The sensation of being filled in both places was

indescribable. The pleasure and pressure rattled at the barriers of her very
consciousness. “I can’t, Che! There’s not room inside me for two of you!”

Che answered her by gripping her hips tighter and thrusting deeper, all the while

watching her reaction with eerily pitched attention. His thumb rubbed her full lower lip
suggestively as she gasped for air. “There’s room inside you for more than two of me,
honey.” He laughed, deep and sensual, when he saw her expression. “Okay, okay. Two
will do for now,” he growled out warmly at the same time that he used his corporeal
hands to shift her lovely body up and down on his straining cock in her pussy to a
controlled, constrained, but entirely blissful effect.

“Does that help?”
“Oh God, yes!” Sophia managed to say between irregular panting.
“Good. You’ll take more in your ass, then, I daresay,” Che said wryly as he stuffed

his teeming flesh into her tiny, hot channel without waiting for her agreement. He
watched her face tighten as he began to pulsate slightly in and out of both entries at
once. “Do you like that, lovely?”

“You know I do,” Sophia answered through lips that had gone slack. She meant it

literally, not figuratively. Their beings were so entwined at that moment that she
experienced Che’s pleasure in equal parts to her own. So even though her flesh was still
somewhat resistive to being so overfilled, that must have been the reason why she
looked into his eyes and said without the benefit of words, Harder! Make me take all of it
like you did the other day. Fuck my ass as hard as you do my pussy.

Che’s eyes glowed like the embers at the deepest, hottest part of a fire. “Is that

really what you want, Sophia?” He didn’t need to see her avid nodding, though, to
know the truth. His entire being clenched to restrain the explosion of release for which
his body clamored greedily. Sweat dampened their skin, making for an exquisite glide

150

Subtle Touch

as he used his arms to pulsate in and out of her hot pussy. When he sensed that Sophia
was on the edge of a monstrously powerful orgasm, he buried his corporeal penis in her
to the hilt, pressing himself determinedly into her depths until the head of his organ
kissed the end of her womb.

“Hold still now, Sophia,” he ordered through a clenched jaw.
He held her tightly to his corporeal body while his etheric double drilled into her

ass. The sensation was exquisite—consciousness-altering. He watched, transfixed, while
Sophia convulsed repeatedly in orgasm and her face became transformed under the
power of ultimate pleasure.

Sophia felt her sense of self loosen and fracture as sensations too great for her brain

to handle thundered through her. She left herself and observed what was happening in
the bed from some position about five feet above her body. Who was that carnal woman
below her, the one whose mouth was open in a disbelieving scream of pleasure and
whose ass was currently being thoroughly plowed?

Sophia stared, disoriented for a moment, because as her consciousness wavered in

one of her subtle bodies, she could “see” what would have been invisible to her
corporeal eyes. The Che who was currently in the process of thrusting into her with
uncompromising strength resembled the Che that held her steady for the onslaught
from below, with the exception that she seemed to be seeing the fucking Che through a
dark bluish-gray lens. And why was she seeing everything as if through a translucent,
rapidly shifting wave, as though the air itself shimmered and pulsed from her being to
Che’s in a powerful, relentless rush of energy.

Oh.
That was what Watchers meant by a Rush.
Che’s indomitable stare rose several feet, only to pin her spirit as irrevocably as he

always did. “Precisely. Now would you mind getting your consciousness back down
here so I can come inside you?”

Sophia gasped for air at the abrupt physical sensation of Che grabbing blindly both

at her hair and waist while his other hands held her bottom steady as he sliced once
more into her body. His penis jerked and throbbed deep inside both her pussy and ass
as he came violently. He shouted in wild triumph and pleasure. Sophia’s eyes went
wide with a wonder that she knew would never diminish as she realized she was
encircled in the powerful arms of a god who held her small body to him tightly while
he pinned her with his laser-like, consciousness-splicing eyes and spent himself at her
farthest reaches.

“Che?” she asked a while later as they fully came back to their physical bodies and

Sophia nipped languidly at his chest.

“Yes, honey,” he answered quietly. His fingers delved in her hair, glorying in her

softness.

151

Beth Kery

Sophia kissed a tight, coppery nipple before she raised her head to meet Che’s eyes.

She squirmed a little in his lap when she noticed that he watched her with an erotic
focus that utterly belied the satiated sprawl of his big body and his mellow voice.

“If you’re not convinced now that I’m not going to break in two if you make love to

me, you never will be.”

Che’s hand stilled in midair. The second he erupted into heartfelt laughter, Sophia

was right there with him. Tears of happiness actually leaked from the corners of his
eyes a while later as he tried to catch his breath.

“Honey, you’re incorrigible.”
“But you’re not worried anymore about me, are you?”
Che just shook his head before he resumed stroking her hair. “Sophia, I’ll likely

always be a little worried about you. You know what you mean to me.”

She bit her bottom lip as she delved into his temporarily vulnerable emotional state

as sinuously as a dolphin spearing the depths of the ocean. “But you’re not worried that
I’m emotionally traumatized by Tony Mendelero, Andy Moore or Asmoday anymore,”
she said with abrupt confidence. “That was all I wanted to know.”

Che blinked in disbelief at the sensation of having Sophia’s spirit dip into his own

essences so confidently before he laughed. “Like I said—incorrigible,” he murmured.
But all the while, an incredulous thought kept resonating through his head. Did any
mated Watcher really have a clue as to just how mysterious and powerful their bonded
mates really were?”

“Do you think that Asmoday is gone for good?” Sophia asked softly into his chest.
“Honestly? I doubt it. He’s likely only been sent underground weakened from my

attack. Jax and I haven’t been able to discover any hint of him on any realities. A spirit
like his generally leaves a pretty strong stench wherever he goes,” Che murmured
wryly as he stroked her hair.

“At least the Dionytion Stone has been recovered.”
“And it’s no small thing, in terms of magical power, that we have Asmoday’s true

weapon.”

Sophia nodded, noticing with satisfaction Che’s small gasp at the sensation of her

hair gliding across his sensitive skin. She feasted her eyes on the expanse of his
muscular, bronzed chest.

“Hmmm,” Sophia hummed with growing satisfaction as she dipped her head to

tongue a beaded nipple. “I’ve got a hypothetical question for you, Che.”

“Purely conjecture, no doubt,” Che muttered darkly as his eyes detailed every

nuance of her nubile tongue.

Sophia ignored his sarcasm as she drew up from lapping at his flesh like a cat at its

sweet cream. “I was thinking…your Truest Self is pretty hot stuff. What would you
think about the idea of us holding our focus on the Astral Plane long enough so that I
could get more than just the cum shot of your big ol’ shining Truest Self?”

152

Subtle Touch

“Sophia…”
She glanced up and gave him a teasing grin. It did her a world of good to see Che

Ammadon, the sexiest Watcher alive, actually blush as he stared at her with aroused
disbelief.

“I know,” she whispered as she nipped delicately at a suddenly rock-hard nipple.

“I’m incorrigible. And you’ve no one to blame for that but yourself.”

153

About the Author

Beth Kery lives and works in northern Indiana, where she juggles writing,

parenting, and maintaining a love life with varying degrees of success.

Beth welcomes comments from readers. You can find her website and email

address on her author bio page at www.ellorascave.com.

Tell Us What You Think

We appreciate hearing reader opinions about our books. You can email us at

Comments@EllorasCave.com.

Also by Beth Kery

Fleet Blade
Subtle Magic

Discover for yourself why readers can’t get enough of the multiple award-winning

publisher Ellora’s Cave. Whether you prefer e-books or paperbacks, be sure to visit EC
on the web at www.ellorascave.com for an erotic reading experience that will leave you
breathless.

www.ellorascave.com

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