~*~
“Cameras.”
It was all she said, all Evan figured she could say in the moment. It took him a moment to connect the word to the fact that he’d stripped her jacket from her and shed his own suit coat to feel the heat of her bare back through the thin silk of his shirt. At the rate he was going he’d have them naked before whatever Joel was doing took over.
“Corner.” He managed as a reply, lifting his right arm from her and placing it against the side of the elevator.
There was no need to explain further. The camera was a tennis ball sized globe in the northeast corner of the elevator nearest the doors. It could see the entire space but the closest thing it had to a shadowed zone would be its opposite southwest corner. Gaelle ducked under his arm and rushed to the corner in a burst of Psi-fed speed that was just fast enough to have her make it before Evan’s predatory instincts had him on her again.
Her back was still to him, for which he was grateful. It slowed him down, forced him to plan and think about where he’d place each kiss and how he’d suckle each drop to the surface. If she’d been facing him, he’d have bitten her already, the easy access too much to overcome. He didn’t believe he’d hurt her, but he was rusty at the mechanics of The Drink and had never done it without direct sex involved. That was more of a floor show than he wanted to give if he could help it.
He just wasn’t sure he could help it.
“Joel, a little help here,” he thought frantically as his hand slipped inside of the halter dress to cup Gaelle’s breast. It would take just a tiny movement to have the dress on the floor and he wanted her open to him more than anything.
And so it was. Just as thinking about her blood had brought the sensation and taste of drinking, Evan was now taken in by the feeling of her naked in his arms, pressed against his own nude body. He knew it wasn’t true. At least, he hoped it wasn’t. But he decided if they really were stitch-less in the elevator for all of security to see, there was no reason not to make the most of it.
He kissed the slope of her neck and down along her shoulder, his teeth capturing the dark skin in delicate, sensual bites that ended as soon as they began. His hands learned the curves of her body in a way their friendship had never given opportunity, but imagination had given ample exploration. His body fed on the sounds coming from her as much as the tiny beads of blood he nursed through skin.
She gripped the handrails and arched her pelvis to his touch as he reached for her slick sex. His fingers slipped between her folds and played the hard bud of flesh at the top expertly, teasing the mini-erection out of its clitoral hood to meet more of his gentle attentions.
Phantom lips brushed over his fingers and then heartbeats later became solid, warm, seeking. Evan’s hand was nuzzled aside as the new mouth claimed its prize.
“Joel,” Gaelle moaned and moved against him.
Evan caressed the face he’d missed over the last year, he brushed the thick sable curls he’d wanted to see spilled on his pillow, and he listened to the sighing moans caught in Joel’s throat as his friend feasted upon Gaelle. For a moment the ache of the last year was so acute that Evan was nearly thrown out of the psychic weave of fantasy. The ache quickly melted under the press of Joel’s naked body against his back. It was impossible, as Evan still had his fingers entwined in Joel’s curls where his head was buried between Gaelle’s thighs.
“There are benefits to life on this side of death,” Joel whispered.
There was no time for response as the twin images maneuvered the bodies between them. Evan groaned as he was stroked along the length of his shaft in a sweet, torturous grip. The tight, straining head was brought to Gaelle’s flooded opening and a tilt of his hips, and steady pressure from Joel at his back, sent Evan sinking into her.
Evan’s mouth clamped to her neck and he held them both still, adapting to the tight wetness spasming around his length. His body tried to relax and tense at once as Joel pressed into him, sinking slowly into his body with the same ease Evan had joined himself to Gaelle. There was no pain, no discomfort, no sense of intrusion, merely the blessed, erotic fullness of being penetrated. Apparently there were indeed benefits to the other side of death when it came to the perfect seduction.
Joel’s hands held Evan in place by the hips as his twin image did the same to Gaelle. The two of them stood locked between the languid push of Joel’s pelvis and the lazy explorations of his tongue as his manifested will did double duty. The dedicated administrations caused Evan to move in shallow thrusts inside Gaelle’s bent and braced body, moving him over the hardening, quarter-sized nerve bundle again and again in time to Joel’s tongue on her clit. She spasmed around his length in a continuous wave, the contractions growing stronger as the mini-quakes of pleasure stacked up toward an earth-shaking release.
Evan clenched his jaw as he tried to hold back against the pleasure onslaught. Then all at once Gaelle became a velvet fist around him, milking conscious thought away, and he let go. His jaw sprung open, his mouth latched onto her throat and his teeth slipped free, bringing a ejaculatory rush of blood that matched the shuddering flush throughout his body as he spilled into her.
Joel’s mirror images increased their efforts, tearing another orgasm from Gaelle before his own manifested form cried out. The release swept through the three of them in a continuous wave and they came to the floor of the elevator in a tangle of bodies.
Three bodies.
Three, flesh and blood, fully clothed bodies.
It took Evan a moment to process it all and then to cap the overwhelming encounter with the fact that Joel was truly there sans mental projection. He reached out with trembling fingers and touched the all-to-solid arm. An arm clad in the exact dove gray silk shirt Evan himself wore. In fact, Joel’s attire was identical to Evan’s in every way save the small skull and crossbones pin in place of the throat closer on the rounded collar. Assured the arm was real, Evan gave it a solid punch.
“We. Have. A. Room.”
Joel’s only response was a laugh as he rose with the grace of the bodily-challenged and pulled his friends with him. Immediately engulfed in their embrace he managed to kiss them both before replying.
“I thought I’d cross off two things at once. I’ve got a lot of time to make up for here. Besides, it’s not like they saw what actually happened. Another one of those perks on this side of things.”
The elevator chimed and they began to ascend again.
Joel looked up at the changing numbers. “Hmm, must be harder to hold the mechanism while holding form,” he whispered. “I’ll have to keep that in mind for next time.”
The doors glided apart as Evan and Gaelle slipped back into their respective jackets and smoothed themselves back to presentable parameters. There was so much that Evan wanted to say, but he’d engaged in all the public intimacy he could take for the night, meta or otherwise. Still, as they followed Joel down the short hall to the double doors of their suite, Evan couldn’t help but ask the thought bouncing around his mind.
“What happens now?”
Joel grinned over his shoulder and turned to face them, walking backwards towards the doors. “A great many things happen now. This,” he said, placing his hands on his chest, “Is not just a vague shape formed out of memory. I needed your energy the way a ghost would to manifest, but I’m truly here now that I’ve crossed the veil-line. My Daemon half is paying off in spades finally. I can manifest as one of them instead of your average ghost.
“You know what this means, right?”
Evan looked to Gaelle as her entire being lit up.
“The possibilities are endless.” She smiled.
Joel took their hands and pulled them along with him. “They are indeed, and I know just where to start.” He laughed. “I made a list and everything.”