She brought her mouth to his shoulder, licking the skin by his collar and making him shake. Without breaking their embrace, he urged her to her feet. He lifted her so that she instinctively wrapped her strong legs around his waist. His knees almost buckled. She felt incredible. No, more than incredible. Perfect.
His hands kneaded the rounded curves of her ass and he moved towards the bedroom. She made a small noise against his neck but the tilt of her hips let him know it wasn’t in protest. Her skin tasted like brandy and his lips burned with the liquor.
In the bedroom, he let her down gently on the bed, curving over her. She avoided his kiss again, skillfully sliding her fingers on his lips. “No kissing,” she murmured. “No sex.”
He pulled back to look at her. Michaela’s hair was spread over the white sheets, so shiny that it reflected the dim lights from the lamps. “Anything you want.” Though he was dying to taste her mouth, already temptingly full with desire, he wouldn’t push her.
Cormac leaned down and trailed his tongue lightly along her throat, finding a spot so sensitive that she instinctively clutched him tighter. Fire scorched through him as he felt her move beneath him. His attention narrowed until it was filled by her. The softness of her skin. The heavy black silk of her hair. She arched up and slid a hand across his back, scratching him delicately with her nails. He moved his hand down her stomach, then, without warning, slid his fingers deep into her.
That was all it took. Michaela’s body spasmed around his hand as she arched and cried out. Her hands gripped his and her eyes shut. Cormac watched, more aroused than he’d ever been in his life, as his fingers moved deep inside, seeking the spot that would bring her to the edge again.
“No,” she gasped. “Not again.”
“Yes.” He groaned it against her hair. “Come again, Michaela.”
There. He curled his finger gently and Michaela screamed out loud, bucking against him again. She was soaked now and he could barely restrain himself from stripping her and fucking her until she begged him for mercy and he exploded deep inside of her.
That would be next time. For now, he would focus on her. He bent his head as he moved his fingers quickly in and out. His mouth closed around her nipple, sucking it hard through the thin silk of her blouse.
“I can’t…” Michaela’s voice shook.
“You can.”
How many times did he make her come? He couldn’t even tell. By the end Michaela was limp, her legs spread and her mouth almost burgundy. Cormac had refused to let himself come, out of some insane decision he’d made to not come until he was inside her.
He deeply regretted that decision because Michaela sated was almost sexier than Michaela aroused.
He gave her a last gentle kiss on her temple. “Sleep now.”
She did and he watched over her, his eyes trained on a small blue light that flashed in the corner of her window and his thoughts on her.
Chapter 15
A beam of sunlight woke Michaela and she shot up in bed, images of last night tumbling through her mind. Cormac. His hands on her skin. His fingers. How many times had she come? They hadn’t even had sex and that was still the most incredible experience she’d had. She glanced down.
She was wearing clothes. If a tiny pair of panties counted as clothes.
“Good morning.”
She twisted around. The sheets only covered up to his hips and she gazed down with a mix of desire and dismay. In the morning light, Cormac’s hair was luminous, reflecting the light so it danced on the walls. His eyes were dark green and he tucked his arms under his head, leaving his sculpted torso bare and uncovered. Michaela’s hands itched to touch him, yank off that damn sheet, and ride him until she collapsed.
“We can, you know. The only one stopping us is you.” Cormac lifted one of his hands and traced a teasing line over her thigh as he gazed at her breasts. She resisted the temptation to cross her arms over her chest. She wasn’t a protected young virgin, taught to be ashamed of her body.
It would be nice, though, if her reaction to him wasn’t so obvious. Her nipples hardened as his touch on her leg grew firmer.
“Come here.”
It probably wasn’t a good idea. Now in the bright morning light, she could count a hundred reasons, a thousand reasons, why she should instead get up and have a cold shower. The investigation, first. The fact that she wasn’t entirely sure how she felt about Cormac. It would be a mistake to add in a physical relationship while they were still colleagues. Then the light caught the tiny ring in his ear and reflected a small dart of gold at the wall. She lay down next to him, loving his cool skin against hers. He avoided her mouth and she relaxed deep inside, grateful she wouldn’t feel that terrible desire-killing tension of having to be on alert all the time.
Instead, he pushed her down deeper into the bed as his body covered hers and his face tilted to the side.
“Only this,” she panted as his fingers slid down her hip and plucked at the lace on her hip. “No more.”
He pulled her closer, his mouth trailing down the line of her jaw and to her ear. “This,” he promised. “I’ll wait for you to ask me to fuck you. Until then…”
The dark heat in his promise made her open her thighs, enough for him to bring his hand over and cover her mound. His long fingers pulled aside her panties and stroked her with a gentleness that made her entire body clench. She bit her lip and reached down for his cock, but he moved so she was trapped. “No. You don’t get to make all the rules.” His fingers moved deeper into her body and she knew that he was going to make her come shamefully fast again. Then his thumb moved over her and that was it.
She exploded, crying out as her body arched and her hands clenched handfuls of sheets.
Cormac’s rumble of desire echoed in her ear. “God, I love listening to you come.”
Michaela didn’t answer. Her eyes were closed as her body rocked with the waves of her orgasm and she cursed her traitorous self. She had wanted and not wanted this. Well, that was a lie. She had totally wanted it, but her sense of duty had come down heavy.
It was wrong to have sex with a colleague. That’s all it was. Even when that colleague wasn’t a true colleague. Madden would not be pleased to know that she was intimate with Cormac, and the rest of the council would take it as a sign of weakness. She had to be careful.
She wanted him, though. After all, this wasn’t sex sex.
Cormac had been respectful of her limits every step of the way. It was her decision to make.
Her eyes fluttered open as Cormac straddled her and took her hands in his. “Soon, Michaela. You’ll ask me soon.”
She struggled against his grasp, conscious of a surge of longing when she realized how strong he was. She always chose human males as partners in the knowledge that they could never physically overpower her.
Cormac could.
She couldn’t want that. She was the one in control. Then he took both her hands effortlessly in one of his and reached back down to her soaking slit. Every attempt to buck him off sent his fingers deeper inside until she came again, fiercely.
This time Cormac released her. “Ask me soon, Michaela.”
She couldn’t reply.
She could barely breathe.
* * * *
Cormac sat in the kitchen staring at Hiro’s phone. He was supposed to be looking at the messages Hiro had sent to try and make sense of what the man had been up to. He had opened it up when the shower started.
That was enough to shoot his concentration to shit.
Michaela. Miaoling. Whoever she was, in his arms, under his body, she’d been all that he’d ever wanted. He hadn’t realized how deep and hard her shell was, but hearing some of her story made him understand the safety that she found in it. All arcana lived through horrors, as likely to be perpetrated by their compatriots as well as humans. To be arcana inevita
bly meant a natural resilience to loss. The emotionally fragile generally didn’t live long.
He stared at the golden tea he’d chosen at random from her shelf. There was far more to Michaela than he expected. He’d thought she would be demanding in bed, a nocturnal version of the steel-edged woman visible during the day. That was enough for him. Hell, he would have been happy with whatever she decided to grant him.
That she moved away from his kiss disturbed him, but he would let her take her time. Her smile when she was about to come was the hottest damn thing he’d seen in his life, and he’d lived a very long time.
“What did you find?” Michaela came into the kitchen, her skin still damp from the shower and opened the cabinet for another cup. “Is that tea still good?”
It took Cormac a moment to gather enough of his wits to answer. The morning sun slanted down on her blue-black hair, making it gleam like a dark-hearted sapphire. “Do you wear jewelry?” he asked abruptly.
She poured out her tea and gave him a confused look. “A strange answer.”
“You need emeralds in your hair. Rubies. Gold.”
Michaela sipped her tea. “I have all that,” she said indifferently. “I don’t bother to wear it often.”
“You’ll wear it soon. I want to fuck you with your hair covered in gems, wrapped with gold chains.”
“It will have to wait until I find Hiro’s killer.”
He grinned at her response, exactly as he would have expected from her, and caught the slight breathlessness in her voice. He wanted her unbalanced when it came to thinking about their relationship—whatever it was. From the way her nipples hardened under the thin top she wore, he knew that being unsure was unexplored territory for her. In this one area, he could teach her. It had nearly killed him to stop her from making him come, but he’d decided that he’d wait until he could come in her.
Waiting would make it even better. If he survived it.
“Did you find anything on the phone?” Her hands shook slightly when she brought the cup to her lips, but her voice was now steady.
“I started but it doesn’t look good.”
Her shoulders sagged. “Tell me.”
Time for business. Cormac motioned her down to sit beside him. “I still don’t know to whom he was speaking, but he was taking orders.” He pointed at the lines of text he’d noticed the previous day.
“To do what?” Michaela’s usual tuberose rolled over him and he struggled to concentrate. He’d noticed last night she applied it between her breasts and along her belly and now all he could think about was her standing nude in her bedroom, letting the fine fragrant mist land on her satin skin.
Back to reality. “I don’t know.”
She gave him a stellar smile. “Then figure it out.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
After all, Michaela was the boss.
He rather liked it.
Chapter 16
Michaela sat alone in the office answering emails. She and Cormac had come to an agreement about how to function while Michaela worked and Cormac fulfilled his role as Watcher. The compromise was to have Cormac work in her antechamber, with the door open.
It worked well, because Michaela found having Cormac out of sight did wonders for preventing her need to walk over, push him against the back of that padded chair he was sitting on, and straddle him. She clicked Send and put her head in her hand. This was not the type of woman she thought she was. In all of her masquerada masques, she was always in control. She was meant to lead. She was the one who set the terms.
She never had trouble focusing on work. Anjali came by with some tea and food from the kitchens. “Nothing new,” she reported glumly. She pointed at the pastries. “Someone brought in cheese straws. They’re good.”
“Thanks.” Michaela nibbled at one as they chatted about Nadia, who was still sulking.
She was newly absorbed in mapping out Hiro’s relationships when she heard a step.
“She’s not in.” Cormac’s lazy voice drifted in.
“You weren’t asked.”
Rendell? What did he want? Michaela came out of her office to see the two fey standing almost nose to nose. Rendell smiled at her and tried to step forward. Cormac shadowed his every move.
“I came to speak with you, Michaela, but your dog doesn’t seem to approve.”
“You have nothing to speak with her about.” Cormac’s tone tightened and Rendell took a discreet step back. Both had the radiant good looks and tall, lean bodies of the fey, but Cormac now exuded a dangerous aura of protection that filled the room. Michaela had no doubt the moment she indicated Rendell was a threat, Cormac would kill him.
She was horrified to find this aroused a primitive gratification deep inside of her that went against everything she treasured about her hard-won independence. She didn’t need protection. Her pride fed her anger as she nodded at Rendell. “Come with me.”
Cormac didn’t move, forcing Rendell to shoulder by him, which he did with his mouth turned down in a moue of distaste. Michaela ignored this ridiculous male posturing and gestured Rendell to a chair. As he settled in and steepled his hands under his chin, Rendell watched her with eyes that couldn’t ever be called anything so boring as blue. Azure, perhaps. Were there ugly fey? She’d certainly never seen one. They were beautiful by arcane and human standards and many worked as models in the human world, their slender otherworldly height a highly demanded commodity.
He didn’t say a word, so she prodded him along. “Well, Rendell?”
The fey leaned back and crossed his legs. “You look different, Michaela. More…vulnerable. Accommodating. Open.” He almost whispered the last and a low growl came from the front room. Rendell smiled and his gaze moved to the door.
“What do you want?” She was in no mood to let her sex life be used as a way to irritate Cormac. The two fey were notorious enemies.
If he noticed any difference in her tone, Rendell didn’t mention it. “You know what.”
Interesting. “You’re taking unusual interest in Hiro’s death,” she said. “I didn’t know you were friends.”
“Friends.” He tucked a long thin braid of dark hair behind his ear. “That we were not. My queen is curious.”
Michaela gave him a huge smile. “About the death of a human on a council she is not to know you are part of?”
Rendell smoothed his hand along his thigh, deliberately calling attention to the lengthy bulge in his pants. Michaela clamped her lips to avoid giggling. “Never underestimate Queen Tismelda.”
“Well, you can tell her we’re doing our best,” she said with as much firmness as she could muster without sounding defensive. “The team is working hard.”
“Oksana is demanding answers.”
“Oksana will get the answers when we have them. Was there anything else you wanted?”
“Madden was once your lover, was he not?”
The sound of a pen snapping came from the front room and Rendell looked wickedly gleeful.
That was enough. Michaela pointed at the door. “Good-bye, Rendell.”
Instead he leaned forward, his eyes suddenly serious. When he spoke his voice was low. “Do you know about your guard dog? Know what he’s like? He was one of the most respected commanders in the war, though he was on the wrong side.”
“Is this ancient history lesson necessary?” She kept her tone bored as she lifted her tea to her lips.
“That’s not why he was exiled, though. The queen is generous and many of her opponents were allowed to remain. What he did was so unforgivable that she had no choice.”
“Hard decisions are made in a war.”
“Indeed, but not all of us betrayed our families and our soldiers. He had a choice—to save his forest and himself or those he was sworn to protect.” He stood and swept her a bow. “You’re a smart woman. I don’t ne
ed to tell you what happened.”
Rendell left, tension rolling out of the room as he went through it. She wondered how much of the story was true. The fey were exquisitely skilled liars and Rendell was a shit-disturber of the highest degree. In any case, it was irrelevant. She wasn’t in a relationship with Cormac, and although their physical attraction was undeniable, she was hardly about to let that lull her into a sense of complacency around him. Cormac offered to be her Watcher because he wanted something for himself. She knew it and would act accordingly.
Two seconds later, Cormac appeared in the door, coldly furious.
That was good, because so was she. He had no right to dictate with whom she spoke. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” she demanded.
Those green eyes went almost black. “Was Madden your lover?”
No, but what business was it of his? “Not even discussing this.”
There was a tense standoff and then Cormac gave a slight nod as though admitting her point. “He wanted to make trouble.”
“That’s your problem how?”
“I protect you.”
Michaela looked at him and spoke slowly. “I take care of myself, Cormac. Understand that now. Right now. I don’t need your help. I don’t want it. In fact, I reject it. I have survived without you.”
There was a long and tense silence. Then he threw back his head and laughed.
“What’s so funny?”
Cormac rubbed his forehead. “This. Michaela, I know this. You’re the most capable woman on the Pharos Council and you always hold your own.”
She blinked. “Thank you.”
“The issue is that I am fey. We are possessive about those who are important to us.”
He said it simply, his eyes trained on her. Michaela’s breath caught. Important to him? Since when? How? There was chemistry—if a desire that intense could be called that—but that was physical only.
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