He let her nipple pop free of his mouth. “Do you have lube?”
“Yes.” She didn’t remember the last time she’d used it for anything other than self-entertainment with her dildo, but that was beside the point. There was lube available and they were going to put it to good use. “It’s in my dresser.”
She flung a hand out to point, realizing a moment too late that she’d be giving him free rein on her goodie drawer. A couple of vibrators, dildos, lube, some silk ties, and maybe even a flogger and a set of nipple clamps she hadn’t used in forever. After a few centuries of sex, she’d tried just about everything at least once, if only to keep things interesting. Somehow she doubted Jack would be shocked. A grin quirked her lips. He might even be inspired.
Rolling to his feet, he moved toward the dresser and opened the top drawer. He rummaged through the contents before he paused, his body stiffening. “Well, now.”
He turned around, the lube held in one hand, while the other had the nipple clamps dangling from the slender chain that joined them.
“Find something interesting?” She tried to sound innocent and failed miserably.
“As if I could resist these.” He set the clamps to dancing midair. His dick was a hard arc against his lower belly, a bead of precum slipping down the long shaft.
The sight made her thighs clench. That cock would be pushing into her ass. Very soon. She arched her eyebrows. “Just remember that turnabout is fair play.”
A visible shudder ran through him, lust flushing his face. His pupils dilated until only the slimmest rim of blue remained. “I look forward to it.”
Gods, the anticipation was going to kill her. Juices slicked the folds of her pussy, her clit throbbing. She all but writhed on the sheets as he walked toward her. Cupping her breasts, she plumped them up, teasing them with her thumbs. “I want you.”
“I love how you let loose during sex. You should do it more often, other times.” He bent forward and kissed her before she could reply.
His tongue thrust into her mouth, and she reached up to try to pull him down onto the mattress with her. He resisted, and a shocked cry jerked from her when she felt the clamps tighten like vises around her nipples. She ripped her mouth away from his. “Jack!”
Chuckling, he sat beside her hip, leaning back to admire his handiwork. He tugged on the chain that connected her breasts, and she arched in reflex, her hips twisting. He licked his lips, his nostrils flaring. He opened one of the clamps, and an extra rush of pleasured pain burst through her. He closed it on her nipple once more, and she couldn’t help a whimper. Somehow, it hurt even more when he put it back on her ... and it turned her on even more, too.
“I want you facedown, with your ass in the air.” The words were guttural, and a muscle ticked in his jaw. He reached out to pluck up the lube from where he’d dropped it on the mattress beside her.
Moisture gushed in her sex at his words. She rolled to do as he wanted, the clamps pulling at her nipples, the chain between them stretching taut as she moved. A shiver went through her, her heart pounding and beads of sweat beginning to dot her forehead. When she was on her hands and knees, she glanced over her shoulder to watch what he was doing.
The top of the lube opened with a creaking pop, and another shiver passed through her, anticipation ratcheting higher inside her by the second. One of his hands slipped underneath her to tease her nipples, opening and closing the clamps, twisting them until tingles ran in waves over her skin. Her sex clenched hard, and she bit her lower lip. She wanted to demand that he stop tormenting her, but she never wanted him to stop. He tangled her up inside in ways that she didn’t understand, ways that she knew were dangerous to her well-being, and still she couldn’t make herself call this off.
Her hips undulated, subtle movements she couldn’t control. Sexual magic whipped inside of her, and she felt it begin to bathe her skin in golden light. The spell that wove their passion together was as natural as breathing now, and she knew how he enjoyed it. She wanted him to know how much she craved him, this. She whispered, “Jack.”
Kissing her thigh, he nipped the sensitive flesh and made her jolt. She felt him shift so that he was behind her, and the muscles in her arms shook. Dropping lower, she pressed her face to the mattress, her hips arched in offering.
Cool lube drizzled over her heated flesh, slipping between her buttocks. A shudder went through her. “More.”
“Don’t worry, sweetheart. You’ll get more. I have to make up for not getting to come at Trudy’s. Your ass is mine tonight.” One of his fingers used the lubricant to ease into her anus, and the sensation made her moan.
She loved having her ass fucked, always had. Her hands fisted in the sheets when he added a second, and then a third finger to her anus, stretching her for his cock. “Hurry.”
“No.” He smacked her backside with his free hand, and a burst of hot magic shot out of her. He groaned, his breathing a heavy rasp behind her. He added more lube to her ass, pressing her rear passage wider.
“I want you inside me, Jack. Fuck me hard.” She closed her eyes, rocking herself back into his hand.
“Jesus Christ.” His fingers left her, and she bit back a triumphant smile. The blunt head of his cock probed at her opening, and she sucked in a shuddery breath, excitement exploding deep inside her.
Her teeth clenched together as he slid slowly into her ass, his cock stretching her beyond what his fingers had done. A high keen pierced the air, and she realized it had come from her throat.
Jack stilled when he was hilted inside her, his palms brushing over her back. “You’re so tight.”
“Yes.”
“Am I hurting you?”
Yes. “Don’t stop.”
She arched her ass higher, taking him still deeper. A harsh groan ripped out of them both. The white-hot pleasure knifed through her, sizzling her nerves. Her mind went blank, not a single spell occurring to her. All she could do was experience.
Nudging his cock back and forth, he stimulated her without thrusting. It was maddening and enticing at the same time. She rolled her hips under him, unable to stop herself. The small movement made a moan spill out of her. Gods, it felt so fucking good, she didn’t know how she’d stand it.
He slowly withdrew, the movements sending gooseflesh skittering over her limbs. Her hands fisted in the sheets and she held on for dear life. “More, Jack. More.”
“I’ll give you more, honey.” He pushed into her anus again, and the stretch was just as exquisite, more pleasure than pain now. He thrust into her again and again, picking up speed and force. Each time, it rubbed her clamped nipples against the bed, adding to the already overwhelming sensations that swamped her system. His hard belly slapped against her ass with each plunge, the carnal sound shocking in the quiet room. Their breathing rushed in heavy pants, the bedsprings squeaked under them, the headboard thudding against the wall.
The only magic between them was the reciprocal pleasure spell she’d initiated when they started. It didn’t seem to matter. With Jack it was good with or without the magic. The way he craved her sluiced pure fire through her, and her own desires fed his in an endless loop that made her sex clench on emptiness, that drove her right to the very edge of climax. She slid one hand down her belly to tease her clit in time with his swift plunges into her anus.
“I can feel how much you like my cock in you, and how much you like playing with your clit while I fuck you. I love this spell of yours.” He’d said he loved several things about her tonight, and a pang struck her every time he did, a longing she refused to recognize.
She swallowed. “Me too.”
“Good.” He ran his palms in circles over her back, her buttocks, then drew one back to slap the fleshy part of her upper thigh.
She squealed, jerking forward. His hands closed over her hips and hauled her back into his thrusts. He sank deep into her ass and rotated his pelvis, setting her off like a bursting rocket. Her inner muscles clenched in an enormous rush that sent he
r spinning. He continued thrusting, milking her orgasm for all it was worth, groaning each time another wave of climax hit her. Moving her fingers down, she shoved them into her pussy, grinding the heel of her hand against her clit.
Jack slammed deep into her ass, deeper than he’d ever been before. “Come for me again, Selina. Give me everything.”
She shouldn’t, she couldn’t. She didn’t have everything left to give to anyone. It didn’t matter, because she was screaming for him, her body turning inside out with the pleasure streaking through her. She came so hard, her skin flushed, tingles breaking out over every inch of her flesh.
One, two, three more thrusts and he emptied himself inside of her, filling her with hot fluids. His fingers dug into her hips while he held her in place, and he made guttural sounds of ecstasy as orgasm gripped him as fiercely as it had gripped her. She knew because the spell still wove between them, twining deeper than she should let it. She shuddered, collapsing to the bed with him, and slowly managing to reel her spell back in. Using a last pop of magic, she cleaned up any mess they’d made on the sheets. She was too spent to deal with showering, so a spell was just the thing. She grinned. It was good to be a Magickal sometimes.
“That’s the way to unwind from a long day at the office.” She stretched against the sheets, her back bowing off the mattress.
“That’s my kind of post-date celebration.”
Her euphoria diminished a bit. She sighed and pushed a hand through her disheveled hair. “It wasn’t a date, Jack.”
He was quiet for a long time. “I’ve been telling myself all along that I don’t want to date, that you’re far too dangerous to my peace of mind to be someone I date formally. I told myself I just wanted friends with benefits—or colleagues with benefits, as it were.”
Too dangerous for his peace of mind to date. What the hell did that mean? What exactly was he saying? Her heart tripped and she sat up, clutching the sheets to her breasts. She realized they were still clamped and she pulled the clips away, a shudder running through her as sensation roared back into her nipples. “I—I’m not sure what you’re getting at.”
“Everything I was telling myself ... it was all bullshit. I like you. I want to date you.” He took a deep breath and folded his hands behind his head. “I don’t know where this thing with us can go, but I want to find out.”
It couldn’t go anywhere. Her time was ticking down like some bomb about to go off. Her insides squeezed, her throat tightening until she almost couldn’t breathe. “I’m not in a place in my life ...”
“That’s bullshit, too.” He turned his head a bit to look her directly in the eyes. “Give me a good reason why.”
What could she say? She couldn’t tell him the truth, that when they figured out who this killer was, he was going to murder her, too. And that was the positive outcome. The worst possible scenario was she died before they found out his identity, and she was gone before he was caught. She’d rather take the bastard with her. And there was no way she could tell Jack that.
He lifted his eyebrow at her silence. “Are you seeing anyone else?”
Throwing her hands in the air, she sighed. “When would I have time to do that? We’re in the middle of a murder investigation. I’m kind of busy.”
“So, we’re in an exclusive sexual relationship, we had dinner together at a restaurant, and then we came home and shagged like rabbits hopped up on speed.” He remained calm and relaxed against the pillows. “Sounds like dating to me.”
“It wasn’t a date, it was food followed by anal sex.” She folded her arms and glared down at him. “Don’t make it more romantic than it actually was. You finger-fucked me in a parking lot.”
His dark brows arched upward again, a wicked grin slashing across his face. “And you got off on it, so apparently my nonromantic approach does something for you.”
“Shut up.”
“Selina ...”
She frowned. Desperation began to crawl through her. She needed to deflect him. “Why are you pushing this? You said you’d been married before. I would assume that divorce would make a man leery of relationships.”
“I didn’t get divorced.”
Oh, shit. She closed her eyes as that deflated her. If he’d been married and was single now, without having been divorced, that only left one ugly option. “I’m sorry for your loss. I just assumed ... I shouldn’t have.”
“I didn’t specify, and it’s hardly odd for marriage to end in divorce these days. What is it now? One in two? Two in three? The odds were pretty high that you were right.” He sighed and sat up, propping his forearm on his bent knee.
“What happened?” She shouldn’t ask. She knew she shouldn’t, but she hadn’t been able to shut down her fascination with this human so far. Now was no exception. “How did she die?”
“She killed herself.” The words were blunt, and his gaze was locked on her face, waiting for her response.
The shock of it hit her, jolted her deep within. “What? Oh, gods. Jack.”
“It was a long time ago.” His tone was flat, empty, and that made her ache deep inside. His very lack of response dragged at her soul.
She had to reach out to him. She had to. Slipping her hand into his, she squeezed his fingers. “There’s no such thing with something like that. It lives with you.”
“Yeah.” He swallowed. “It really does live with you.”
Much like her cousin’s death had lived with her. On so many levels, they were so alike, and that was going to make leaving that much harder. Emotion she hadn’t let out in decades built up inside her, and she wanted to lay her head against his shoulder and sob for him, for herself, for everything that she’d lost, and for everything that she’d never have.
But she couldn’t. She’d locked so much of herself down when she’d lost Bess, just to stay sane and not let the guilt eat her alive. She’d iced over her heart because she’d had to. When had that protection become a prison? And did it really matter, since she was already on a collision course with Fate?
10
He’d never told anyone about his wife. Never. Not once in almost twenty years. There were people who knew, of course. People who were there through it all, like his mother and Darren, and people who’d read his personnel file, like Luca. But he’d never told anyone, point-blank, that his wife committed suicide. How could he talk about it and not relive the nightmare? All of it was better left behind him. He huffed out a laugh. It looked like Selina wasn’t the only one who’d put up walls.
“Is the coffee almost ready?” she called from somewhere in the depths of her house.
He slid the carafe into position and clicked on the machine. “Just about.”
“Most excellent.” The way her voice echoed told him she was probably in the bathroom.
A few seconds later, the sound of the shower spraying confirmed it. He smiled and continued moving around the kitchen, finally making her that French toast he’d promised. He cracked the eggs into the bowl, added a little milk and cinnamon, and mixed them together, only half his mind on the task. The other half still chewed over what had happened the night before. It felt like something fundamental inside him had shifted, some weight he hadn’t even realized he was carrying around had lifted.
Whatever walls he had, this thing with Selina was making him break them down. He’d admitted—out loud—that he wanted more than just sex. He’d admitted—out loud—that his wife had taken her own life. It hadn’t even been that bad. Of course, Selina’s reaction to the little bombs he’d dropped on her had been mixed.
She hadn’t pitied him or fawned all over him, she’d given him tough sympathy, and it was the reaction he’d needed. No babying anyone and no bullshit, that was his Selina.
However, she’d also completely rejected the idea of anything other than an affair. It had taken him a long time to find a woman who made him want to try relationships again. He didn’t want to let that slip away.
Maybe it was that he was mortal, but he di
dn’t have five hundred years to get his shit together. His time was limited, so when he saw something he wanted, he went after it.
And he wanted Selina.
He’d tried to hold it off, tried to deny it, but it had been no use. It hadn’t been a lie when he told her he didn’t know where this was going, but he was going to pursue it and find out. If working with him on this case made it harder for her to avoid him ... Well, he was ruthless enough to take advantage of that.
His first wife hadn’t called him a relentless bastard for nothing.
The egg on the French toast sizzled when it hit the hot pan, and the tantalizing smell of it filled the air, mixing with the rich aroma of brewing coffee. His stomach rumbled in anticipation. It only took a few minutes to have a pile of piping hot slices on a plate.
“Ooooh.” Selina moaned as she came in the kitchen door. She was wrapped in a towel, her hair in damp strands around her face.
He grinned at the sight. “Didn’t even bother to get dressed before you came to breakfast, huh?”
“Are you insane?” She flipped open a cupboard and pulled out two large coffee mugs. “After I smelled that, you’re lucky I bothered to throw on a towel. I could have just walked out here dripping wet.”
“It’s your floor that would get messed up, not mine.” He used a spatula to fish out the last batch of French toast before he turned off the stove.
She slanted him a quick smile. “That’s why I grabbed the towel.”
They sat at the small table and chairs she had tucked into the sunroom off the kitchen. He divvied up the food on their plates and slathered his with syrup. She put sugar in his coffee and handed it to him, then drank hers black. He sipped it and found that she’d put just the right amount of sweetener in it. Well, she’d been paying attention during the time they’d been together, though he doubted she’d care to have him point that out.
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