by Diane Saxon
She huffed again and fought the urge to wail just a little bit. She’d only met him a few times, but he made her heart hammer like no other man had. She wanted to devour him like the big tasty morsel he was. That was the problem. Her hormones raged so fiery, she kept exploding. When he stared at her with the same emotions shimmering from his sexy deep-green eyes, she lost all control—and when he licked his lips…
She closed her eyes and pictured his sexy top lip. She wanted to run her own tongue over it. Nice and slow. Even the thought of him sent heat rushing through her veins, making her skin vibrate.
It wasn’t as though she could hunt him down. If she found him, she’d probably incinerate him. She glanced at her perfect pale pink nail polish. At least she’d managed to keep that on for an entire day.
With a lazy twirl of the lock of hair that had managed to escape her severe bun, Ginny scanned the library. Shame he hadn’t come back for his book. Fat chance. He’d obviously decided she wasn’t worth his attention.
She sighed and pushed another book on top of the pile to return to the shelves when they closed their doors for their lunch hour. She’d let the other three members of staff go early while business was quiet. It would give them a better chance to restock the shelves in the official lunch hour when there were no visitors. Vacation time was always the toughest. Parents dragged their kids in kicking and screaming quite often and abandoned them while the parents went God only knew where.
“Hello.”
She knew the moment she laid eyes on the sweet old gentleman in front of her there was going to be trouble. Instead of screeching, the hags in her head sighed in anticipation of the forthcoming challenge.
“Good—” She peered at the clock and sighed. “—afternoon, sir. How may I help you?”
His sweet round face, filled with confusion, made the ache in her chest expand. Oh, bless him.
“My wife…” Oh dear. Wives. “…asked me to do a little errand and pick up a book for her.”
Oh dear heaven. Why did women do this? How was it, since time began, women had not yet evolved sufficiently to realize they should not ask men to do these little errands for them?
Sympathy oozed, making her a glutton for punishment as she gave him her most understanding smile. “What book would that be?”
His narrow shoulders deflated, and his lined forehead scrunched into tight creases as he concentrated. Then a dawning light flashed through his faded eyes. “She said it was a green book.”
“A green book?” It could be worse than she thought.
“Yes.” His engaging smile seemed so confident.
“Where did your wife see this green book?”
“In the window.”
“Excellent.” She nodded and watched the hope radiate from his craggy face. She stepped from behind the console and headed for the library window while she bestowed the old gentleman with a genuine smile. After all, it was not his fault evolution had not touched the female of the species.
She waved him forward, leaned over the backboard unit, and let her hand flow over the display of green books promoting Earth Day.
“Any particular preference, sir?”
His exhausted look told of a longtime married man with a wife full of high expectations. Ginny’s tough banshee heart wavered.
“Did she say what the picture was on the front?”
“A tree.”
How very helpful. She peered at the display with ninety percent of cover art displaying trees.
His sad, worn gaze met hers, and they each blew out a weary sigh.
Possibly, one more try. Ginny bobbed her head in encouragement. “What does she like to read?”
He closed his eyes, and his creased lips rolled inward. “Those sexual fantasy things.”
She bit her tongue, desperate to ignore the urge to laugh. “Romance?”
“Yeah.”
She glanced over the backboard and then plucked out a book. Pale green, tree of life. She Came Upon A Prince. “I think perhaps this one.”
His look of pure relief warmed her soul and allowed heartfelt pleasure to sweep over her. Sometimes life was worth the pain, and the sweet wave he gave her as he left the library filled her with momentary joy.
Ginny glanced at the clock. Time had really dragged. Three more minutes, she sighed, and she could turn the key in the door. Bliss to be closed for a full hour. The others would be back shortly, and they could start their book shuffle in peace.
Her stomach growled in ever-growing impatience. She was starving. They wouldn’t remember to bring something back for her lunch. They never did. She watched the large hand of the clock tick onto the next marker. It was going to take all day simply for three minutes to pass.
“Miss!”
Holy cow! She almost jumped out of her skin as Mr. Obnoxious stood in front of her desk, tapping his fingers in a fast rhythm on the countertop. She’d never even heard the slide of the front doors. Never noticed him slither across the room. She’d been distracted by the clock, but she could have sworn he just appeared in front of her.
She plastered on a strained smile and met his eyes for a moment before she skittered her gaze away from the swirling darkness in their depths. The man had a definite problem. He seethed with anger. The malevolence of his emotions vibrated from him, touching her skin and making it crawl. The fine hairs on the back of her neck stood on end, raising goose bumps that trembled over her flesh.
A quick glance assured her the library was empty. “Yes, sir?”
“You need to order this book for me.” He slapped a piece of paper on the counter, and as she reached for it, he grabbed her wrist. Her breath stuck in her throat as she met his seething glower. The soft slide of eels writhed in her stomach, and Ginny clapped her free hand over her mouth to stop the bile rising. His grip tightened while she tried to wrench away from him, his unpleasant aroma making her gag. “Sir, I think…”
The quiet swish of the front door opening heralded another customer. Mr. Obnoxious released his grip to step back, the light reflection caught in his glasses obscuring her view of his eyes, but she caught a glimpse of a red glow as it raced across them. Her heart beat a vicious rhythm as he turned away, unsure what she’d just witnessed. His voice carried to her as he spoke over his shoulder while he beat a hasty retreat.
“Another time.”
Confused, she squinted at the tiny piece of paper, which appeared to be blank. She reached out, touched her fingertips to it, and with a puff of gray smoke, it disintegrated into a small pile of ash. She stared at it for a moment, and then raised her head, looking left and right. She leaned forward across the counter to get a better view of the long, empty aisles. She could have sworn someone came in. Her life certainly seemed to be sliding into the weird lately. Ever since she’d met the football player.
Ginny slipped from behind the desk and sauntered to the end of each aisle to check if anyone was there. No one. The man had quite terrified her, for no particular reason. Her stomach still rebelled against the slow twist of worms. She wasn’t used to being manhandled, and normally the screaming banshees would have wailed their hearts out and zapped him with at least a nosebleed, but it appeared even they had been shocked into silence.
At the last aisle, she bent at the waist, fully expecting to see someone. She peered around the edge of the bookshelves. Huh. Empty.
“Nice butt.”
She jerked upright so quickly, the sound of her own spine cracking filled her ears. A secret thrill shot through her, and before she turned, she already knew who the deep smoky voice belonged to.
Sea-green eyes glowed at her from where he casually leaned against her counter. That sexy top lip of his had pulled straight as he treated her to a welcoming smile that revealed his perfect, white teeth and weakened her knees.
“Hi.”
“Hi.” She strolled over as casually as possible, trying to make her walk a bit sexy, but just succeeded in banging her ankles together to give an almost imperceptible stumb
le. Almost, but from his widening grin, she knew he hadn’t missed it. He’d made her into a klutz. Damn him.
“I wondered if you’d had lunch yet. Are you hungry?”
The man was always trying to feed her. Which wasn’t such a bad thing as banshees were always willing to eat to sustain all the wailing and weeping.
“No, I…” Her stomach gave an embarrassing gurgle, determined to make a liar of her.
“Great.” He dumped a bag on the counter, and the distinct aroma of hot chicken rose from its depths. She almost dribbled, so intense was her mouthwatering reaction. She wasn’t quite sure which morsel was more attractive—the steaming hot one in front of her or the chicken on the counter.
“Oh, my…” She peeped inside the bag, lightheaded at the sight of fries displayed in four square bags on each side of a box. She reached in and flipped open the lid. Fried chicken. Her mouth watered until she swallowed several times in rapid succession, almost choking herself. Her eyes filled with tears as they met his amused ones.
“Hungry?” His left eyebrow flicked up and down as he inquired again.
Preempting her denial, her stomach gave another loud protest as though it had a mind of its own, and the disloyal women in her head screeched their desperation. She shrugged and watched his smile widen. His straight top lip dipped in and made her crave something other than food. She stared at his mouth, tempted to just lean in and give it a swift nip. She moved forward, her lips parted, and…the telephone rang, shrill and loud.
“Sweet Christ!” She wondered if she might get struck with lightning for her last curse, but she grabbed the handset off the desk simply to stop it from ringing. “Shotten County Library—how may I help you?”
“Are you alone?”
“No. No, I’m not alone. What do you want?”
“I’ll be in again tomorrow.”
The line went dead. A loud buzzing resounded in her ears as she met Matt’s confused expression with one of her own. “It was the little man—ummm—Mr. Obnoxious. Do you remember? You must have passed him when you came in.” She flicked her fingers to indicate the exit.
“No. There was no one here when I came in.”
“Yes, you must have stepped inside. I heard the door slide open, before he left.”
“Ginny, I never passed anybody on my way in. You were on your own, peeping down the aisles, displaying your pretty rump to perfection when I came through the door.”
“Strange, I could have sworn…” Probably best if she didn’t swear; there was something strange going on, and as she didn’t want to scare Matt off, it might be better to keep her thoughts to herself. After all, he was only human. He might have accepted her disappearing in a profusion of fireworks, but was he really prepared to be greeted by the Underworld? Huge as he was, she suspected he didn’t have the necessary requisites—like being half banshee, or half demon. He definitely wasn’t half demon. Although she’d have no objection if he offered to take her to hell and back.
She leaned an elbow on the counter, cupped her chin in her hand, and stared at him. She allowed her gaze to cruise over his face, framed by his wild blond hair. The rich jade of his eyes invited her to fall into the depths of them and lose herself.
Her stomach let out a furious protest, accompanied by the wild moans from the hags, making their desire for food known. She had a desire for something more.
She jerked upright, shoved her hand into the paper bag, flipped open the box lid, grabbed a piece of fried chicken, and pushed it into his mouth. Emerald eyes widened with surprise. Long black lashes fluttered, and her stomach roared as she grabbed another piece of chicken for herself and started nibbling on it. “I’m hungry.”
He spluttered. Just her luck to choke the guy. “Me too…but not that desperate.”
“I’m desperate. Eat up.”
He grabbed a handful of fries and pushed them into his mouth, his gaze still fixed to her face as he grasped her meaning.
“I have limited time. I have to eat. If I don’t eat, I’ll get the shakes this afternoon, and when I get the shakes, voices sing loud and aggressively. Not just in my head, you understand, but they spurt from my mouth and deafen people. Even in the library, I cannot contain the voices at all times.”
She took another bite of chicken, filled her fingers with fries, and then spoke around the food. “The voices—they’re muted here.” She pushed fries into her mouth and licked her lips as heat swarmed through her stomach, up her chest, and down to her thighs, making her weak with lust.
“Also—I don’t poof in the library.” She waggled another handful of fries at him in an effort to make him understand. “This building was erected on a pagan mound, or as it’s called, a barrow. The barrow pre-dates Christianity by hundreds of years, and for some reason, the pagan origins protect me.” She swallowed. “You need to know that. I don’t poof here.”
To show his support, he shoved another piece of chicken in his mouth, and as the heat in his eyes burned her, food and the history lesson ceased to matter.
She grabbed his hand and pulled him away from the central aisle, almost running down the reference section where she knew there was a blind spot from the security cameras. She dragged him behind her, stopped abruptly, and turned to slam him against the rack of books. She grabbed his lush blond hair, fisted it, and hauled his face down to hers to give him a frantic, greasy kiss.
She slammed her eyes closed as her lips met his. Willing and able, he joined the desperate rush. His tongue pillaged her mouth, hot and hungry, with the taste of salt riding strong.
Her hands plundered his silky hair as he reversed their positions; the firm press of the shelving made a willing prisoner of her. He raised her arms above her head and sent a quiver of anticipation through her veins. Her heart beat a thunderous rhythm in the base of her throat. He held her by the wrists. The soft, worn leather of the old reference books pressed cool against the backs of her hands as he consumed her mouth. In contrast, the heat from his large hands when he released her poured over her flesh as he skimmed his fingers along the underside of her arms to smooth over her bosom. Appreciative gasps ripped from her lips. Hands still above her head, she invited him to devour her. He tilted his head, and his mouth roamed the length of her neck with insistent little nips to keep her attention and weaken her knees.
A desperate groan slipped from her lips while her body bowed as he moved lower to dip his tongue into the warm valley between her breasts.
•●•
He had no idea if he was going to survive. She drove him higher than he’d ever been before, and he’d only managed to get his hands on her and kiss her. The sweet smell of her skin, the soft touch of her fingers—umm, well—the yank of her fingers. Desperation was evident in every move she made, every sound she emitted from her perfect, plump lips.
He cruised his mouth back up the length of her neck, enjoying the heavy weight of her perfumed breasts in his hands. He sucked in the silken skin over the racing pulse at the base of her throat. His tongue smoothed over the flesh he held in his mouth. He felt the groan reverberate through her throat and flicked his thumb over her taut nipple.
“Oh, oh.”
With a sharp jerk, she wrenched her fingers from his hair and grasped his shoulders.
Thrilled at her response and keen that at last he seemed to be going to get the chance to explore his mate, he repeated the move with his thumb, stunned she hadn’t yet exploded into a profusion of fireworks.
The firm grasp of her fingers tightened on his shoulders like steel clamps. She might be a little thing, but she sure was undeniably strong. He nipped her neck in retribution. She flung back her head, making him flinch at the loud thunk as her skull connected with the heavy leather-bound books behind her.
“I’m coming!” she shrieked, almost exploding his eardrums.
He reared his head back and stared at her. “Already?”
Bright puce flooded her face, her lips parted, and a small keening wail escaped her. Wow, she rea
lly was responsive. Her lush breasts heaved beneath his hands, and the thrum of her pulse escalated to join the rhythm of his own heartbeat.
“No,” she gasped. “No…the door.”
She gave him a firm shove. Off balance, he reeled backward into the opposite shelf. His hand caught a row of books and sent them careering to the floor as his lunchtime leisure break took off in the opposite direction, tugging her clothes into place and screeching at whoever hammered on the front door.
“I’m coming. I’m coming!”
Her voice impatient, the fast clip of her heels echoed against the stone floor as Matt glanced at the fallen books scattered all around. He hunkered down and picked one up.
The Elusive Orgasm—Have You Got Her Coming or Going?
Laughter spluttered out of him.
“Ssshhh!” How one small noise could be so vicious, he had no idea, except it sounded sharp and panic-stricken. She obviously didn’t want anyone to know she had an assignation. He stared at the book in his hand, gave a silent snort as he slipped it inside his jacket, and headed to the opposite end of the aisle to hide until he could slip unnoticed out of the front door.
He leaned forward to peer around the edge of the bookshelf and treat himself to one last look at the cute librarian who made his mouth water and his pulse thunder. Something uncomfortable happened to his heartbeat, but it was to be expected. She was his mate.
He could slide out the door or…nah, no way. It was too good to be missed. He enjoyed making the sumptuous babe blush, and the bright hue of her cheeks still glowed from their recent encounter. Frustrated he might be, but he wasn’t above teasing her. Besides, she was right, she didn’t poof in the library, and that could prove very interesting.
He sauntered from behind the bookshelf and watched as her gaze settled on him, eyes widening in horror to make him smile even wider. He delighted in watching the color suffuse her face. It was radiant. She was priceless.
“Hey.” He leaned on the counter, his attention caught by the willowy blonde librarian whom Ginny had evidently just let in the door. The woman’s hand went straight to her chest to pat above her heart.