by Cecilia Lane
“That’s it, little minx. Beg me. Tell me how much you want me.” He nuzzled his way up her throat and licked the soft spot under her ear and forcing another moan from her chest.
Ari growled. She didn’t want to beg, but her body betrayed her. Words poured out of her mouth and her hips rocked into the velvety tip of his cock that teased her so. “Please fuck me. I need you inside me. Need your cock. Fill me up.”
“Fuck, Ari. You don’t know what you do to me.”
Oh, but she had some idea. His cock was thick and long, all for her. She reached between them and stroked his throbbing length from base to tip. “Need you, Chase.”
He brushed her hand away and notched the head against her wet heat. Inch by inch, he fed her his cock. Her pussy clenched around him and sucked him further in. He stretched her until her skin prickled and she felt she could almost take no more. Still, he pressed on, slow penetration and slow retreat, until he bottomed out. She gasped and twitched, pain blending with exquisite pleasure.
“So tight. So hot.” Chase groaned in her ear.
He pulled his hips back, sliding his cock from her cunt, and she whined. Even that brief loss of connection was too much. She needed more. She panted with the need to move, to feel him inside her until they both were screaming with pleasure. She got her wish when he pushed roughly forward once more.
It was quick and dirty and exactly what Ari wanted. They could have died. The demon might still kill them. She’d spent too many years as the chubby, quiet girl who cleaned rooms for a living and obeyed her mother’s every word. She needed to feel alive and Chase gave her that.
Need and desire twined deep inside her. Each thrust pushed her into the hard rock floor beneath her. She’d be covered with bruises by morning, but she didn’t care. The slight pain mixed with indescribable pleasure.
Chase withdrew and then thrust forward again; Ari wrapped her legs around his hips. Each thrust yanked a gasp from her lungs. The feel of his cock sent sharp shards of bliss through her body. Chase’s moans mingled with growls that only excited her more.
“Feels so good, Chase…”
He slammed into her again and again. Harder and harder, faster and faster. Panted breaths turned to moans. Moans were replaced with sharp cries of joy and Ari wondered just how much more she could take before she came apart.
Her fingers dug into his shoulders and arms, looking for any part of him to hold on to for sanity’s sake. She lost her grip with each thrust and was pushed closer to the edge. He hadn’t let her finish before, but now he seemed determined to drag her climax out of her before he was done with her.
His hands gripped her hips, fingers poking sharply into her skin. She glanced down and saw tiny pricks of blood welling from the tips of claws piercing her skin and grinned. That was the life she needed. Blood and pain and pleasure.
The slap of their skin mixed with the musky scent of their sex. She loved every sound and smell. She loved the sight of Chase biting his lip or closing his eyes against the pleasure. Her toes curled with the pummeling thrusts of Chase’s fucking.
Hot arousal quickly built inside her as he powered in and out of her. Each growl from him vibrated through her body and stoked her flames higher. She could almost touch the climax that inched closer and closer with every drive of his cock.
He shifted slightly and then a new sensation threatened to spill her over into the awaiting pleasure of her release. His thumb swiped hard against her tender clit and her cunt milked him in immediate response. Her hips rolled to meet his thrust and the new swipe of his thumb.
Joy rocked through her limbs and pleasure arrowed straight to her wet heat. The outer edges of her vision started to darken and she caught her lip between her teeth.
“Almost. Chase. Please.” She babbled and writhed under him, lost in the pleasure he gave her.
“Do it. Come on my cock.” His voice was thick and ragged.
The command teased out the last bit of pleasure she needed. It drove her wild to be told what to do and to comply. Her pussy clamped around him and she grinned at the curse it brought from his lips. She jerked and spasmed, locking her ankles around his back. Her nails raked down his shoulders and then she was overtaken by the flash of passion.
Burning fire and pure bliss roiled through her in unending waves. She shook and basked in the molten joy. Something more, something other, joined in the release and she knew her magic had returned to her in full force. Nearly lost in her own pleasure, she almost missed the roar that came from Chase and his final, hard thrust that locked their hips together. Aftershocks of her own orgasm clenched around his cock as he pulsed and twitched inside her, bathing her insides with his seed.
Ari shook when Chase balanced himself above her. She smiled sleepily up at him. While she had recharged her magic, her body was still exhausted from using up all her ability and the bone-shattering pleasure that still rode through her. She didn’t complain when Chase dropped to her side and threw an arm over her.
Chapter Six
Chase stared at the ceiling of the cave. The morning light had arrived quickly and without mercy after a faint glow illuminated the sky outside of their den. He could no longer avoid the day.
He felt like the biggest piece of shit in the world. He’d tried so hard not to take advantage and study Ari’s gorgeous curves when he undressed her. That she’d kissed him and didn’t stop him meant little. He still pushed himself on her in a moment of weakness for them both. He should be locked up.
Agents were supposed to remain distant from their assets. It didn’t bode well for their operation if one became too attached. Then suddenly, the hypothetical goal of tracking down a rogue vampire became about protecting someone, even if it meant the vamp got away. It was bad for the Agency and bad for any innocent lives that were threatened because of an agent’s selfish feelings.
Ari wasn’t even a vital contact. He’d stumbled upon her in the woods while she worked prohibited magic. He shouldn’t have let himself get close to her. He should have marched her right to the nearest phone and reported the crime to the Agency. He should have cuffed her and left her behind while he tracked the demon himself.
But he’d be dead if it weren’t for her, he reminded himself. It didn’t excuse sleeping with her, he sniped back at the apologist part of his brain.
He’d spent too long undercover with the illegal fighting ring to not recognize there were lots of grey shades in a world that wanted black and white laws, but he couldn’t defend his actions. She was his mate, but she was also a criminal. That should have meant paws off.
Ariadne mumbled in her sleep and pressed herself closer. He should move and put distance between them. He’d already committed an awful violation. He didn’t need to dig the hole deeper by continuing to snuggle her.
His bear snapped at the thought. There wasn’t anywhere else the beast wanted to be. A small part of him agreed and so he remained frozen in place, caught between wanting to enjoy the woman curled against his side and doing the honorable thing by moving away.
He may have been able to get away with not reporting his memory loss incident, but there was no way he could live with himself if he didn’t mention sleeping with his suspect and asset to Eustace. His supervisor had a habit of sniffing out the truth from agents and suspects alike. Chase doubted Ari would keep it quiet once she was in custody and being questioned over her activities.
Losing focus on the objective and giving in to his primal urges would be a dark mark on his record. One that he deserved. And one he had a hard time regretting when he thought of how she felt in his arms. Too right with curves too perfect. Exactly how he imagined his mate should feel.
Chase choked back a growl. He hated that she made him so conflicted. He always knew what was right or wrong for himself, even in a world of grey areas. Ari revealed that he didn’t have as firm a grasp on his own moral compass as he assumed.
Her eyes opened and locked with his. Instead of the hungry look from the night before, her
stormy grey look was wary. He hurriedly unwrapped his arm from around her back and awkwardly held it aloft.
“Morning,” she said after a long moment of staring at him.
Even if he hadn’t put physical distance between them, there was certainly a wall being built. Her greeting was frosty at best, accusatory at worst. Still, she didn’t move from her spot against his chest. It was all too much for him to puzzle out.
“Last night—“
“Can’t happen again,” he said gruffly.
She visibly stiffened. A new scent hit his nose. It was sharp and stung—disappointment? Of course she would be angry with him. He’d overstepped the bounds between them. But disappointment didn’t make sense. She should be glad that he wouldn’t further complicate matters between them.
“Right.” She rolled away from him and reached for her clothes.
He turned away from her as she pulled on her clothes and busied himself with dragging the remains of his jeans on his frame. There was no saving his shirt, especially after he’d torn a bit of it to make the bandage tied around her hand.
Give him ring fights any day. At least those bouts were simple to understand. Ariadne Wren was a mystery.
Ariadne didn’t know why she hurt so much. She understood the exhaustion she felt down to her bones. That came from using up all her magic. She understood the ache of her hand. That came from slicing it open to work the protection spell. She didn’t understand why her heart felt like it was breaking into a thousand shards aiming for everything inside her simply because Chase didn’t want to repeat their night together.
She was not interested in the man. He was a shifter. Shifters ruined everything. She had simply used him to help warm herself and recharge her magic.
But was it really that simple? He had saved her from the lesser demons and defended her against the greater demon. He’d offered to help rescue her mother and willingly gone into battle with the demon. A deep well of goodness existed in the man and he was easy on the eyes, to boot.
Ari’s jaw clenched and she jerked her eyes away from caressing over his strong back. She would not think nicely of the brute. He was still an Arcane Affairs agent and a shifter. There would no salvaging whatever tiny spark existed between them when he put handcuffs on her and carted her away.
She should never have slept with him. It was out of character for her and she laid the blame at his feet. She was always the quiet and reserved one while Raina had the big personality and drew men to her like flies to honey. Chase made Ari wild and filled with wanton need. It just wouldn’t do.
She inhaled a shaky breath. There were more pressing issues to concern herself with than the sting of rejection. A demon still inhabited the world and her mother was still being held captive. She refused to think of her mother’s predicament in any other way. She wasn’t prepared to face any other possibility.
Ari turned her thoughts to her home. It’d always been neat and orderly, if a little eccentric. They were a family of witches; so it was no surprise that there would be weird items that popped on and off their shelves. While she didn’t have her mother’s spell book, she did have an idea of one object that might help.
Small, bronze, and cast like a woman in flowing robes, the trinket was dusty and always out of reach of the girls’ grabby hands. When they were older, their mother threatened to use it on Ariadne and Raina if they ever tried to sneak out of the house. It would immobilize a creature—or a daughter—until the witch who powered it stroked the trinket and released the captive. It would be the safest way to put the demon on ice until the spell book was in her or her mother’s hands.
She cleared her throat and Chase turned to face her. “We should go back to my home before we set off again. If I can find it in the damage, there’s a trinket that might help.”
“Help with what? I can track it by the sulphur scent.” His eyes narrowed.
“The trinket should help keep the demon tied to one place.”
“You’re a witch.” He spoke slowly, eyebrows drawing together. “Can’t you just do whatever spell is needed to banish it? I can fight it again to keep it distracted. We’ll lose valuable time if we double back.”
Ariadne opened her mouth then snapped it shut. She looked anywhere but at Chase. She had hoped to find the book when she found the demon, but the beast was determined to play vanishing tricks. She should have thought to look for the trinket before, instead of relying on hope alone. “I… don’t know how. I need the spell book it stole. That’s why we need the trinket. We can keep it locked in place while we find the book.”
It all sounded perfectly reasonable in her head. If he had listened to her last night when she tried to explain herself, it shouldn’t come as a surprise to him. But when she peeked at him, she saw his eyes blazing with anger.
“What do you mean, you don’t know how to banish the demon? You summoned the thing without knowing how to put it back?”
She scuffed her shoes in the dirt. “I told you last night. I didn’t intend for the demon to be summoned.”
“Yes, but the lesser ones—“
“Also not my fault! I was trying to summon snakes to drive you away.” Her voice was so quiet on her last sentence that she simultaneously hoped and worried he wouldn’t hear her.
But he was a shifter with all the great senses to go with it. He growled. “You wanted to drive me away? What, was the tip at breakfast not enough for you?”
She glared at him. “You’re all the same, aren’t you? Cocky assholes that think you can get whoever you want by crooking a finger. I’m sick of your kind waltzing in here like you own the entire mountain. You took my sister from me and it destroyed my mother. So pardon me for not wanting to cater to the furry kind anymore!”
Pain flashed in Chase’s eyes so quickly that she wasn’t certain she saw it. His face turned blank and unreadable after that. Why should he be surprised? She was a witch and he a shifter. They were natural enemies.
Ari took a deep breath and let it go after a handful of seconds. She sought the calm that she should find in nature, but it did nothing to soothe the turmoil inside her. And, she admitted, she wanted to explain herself to Chase. He had done nothing except be associated with the root of her anger.
“I was angry. At my sister. At my mother. At shifters. The summoning circle fed off it. I shouldn’t have attempted any magic in that state of mind, but I was desperate. I wanted the resort to be free of shifters because my family was torn apart by one of them. The circle ate up my anger and grew. Then the lesser demons appeared. You came shortly after that and know the rest.”
She expected him to yell at her. She deserved it, certainly. Any harm that came to the world would be because of her, regardless of what she had intended. Maybe she should be locked up.
“Come on. Let’s head back to the cabins and find that trinket. Anything that can help will be of use.”
Ari nodded and sat to lace on her shoes and again try to find some semblance of calm. There was none to be had when she could feel the anger rolling off Chase in waves. She did her best not to stare at him, but it was increasingly difficult. His shirt was ripped and he stuffed the rag into a back pocket of his jeans. Jeans, she saw, that were torn as if they exploded from the inside out. He didn’t even try to put on his shoes; they were sliced down the middle and gutted from the claws of his bear form. Even a partial shift had torn nearly everything apart.
She stood and approached the ash line at the mouth of the cave. Chase’s heavy steps followed after her. She closed her eyes and felt for the magical barrier protecting the cave. It was still intact and she couldn’t feel any alterations to the magic. Glancing at Chase, she warned, “Once we cross the line, the protection spell will be lifted. The demon will be able to attack us.”
Chase’s nostrils flared. He frowned and tested the air again. “I can hardly smell anything out there.”
Ari nodded. “It’s the spell. It keeps everything out and us in. Interesting that it includes scents.” Tha
t would be something she would add to the spell book if they survived the ordeal.
Chase breathed deeply. “I don’t think I smell any new trails. The sulphur scent is fainter than everything else. I don’t think the demon has been back since you drew the line last night.”
“That’s what I’m worried about. If it isn’t here, what has it been doing all night?” Ari studied the tree line across from the cave and chewed on her lower lip. There were too many terrible possibilities that she didn’t want to imagine.
“Only thing to do is keep going. Standing around wondering isn’t going to solve anything.”
She passed through the magical barrier. It felt like a cold breeze hit her full in the face and then vanished. The early morning chill was the only thing left behind. She smirked as Chase stepped through and shivered. “Should I have warned that you’d feel it?”
“Laugh it up, witch.”
“Get to sniffing, shifter.”
His chest rose and fell as he sampled the air around the cave. He took a few steps forward and Ari stayed back. She didn’t want to interfere or mingle her scent with what he searched for.
“Nothing. Same as before. There isn’t even much of a trail to follow.”
“With no definite trail, we might as well go back to the resort and see if I can find the trinket.”
“We’ll change your bandage, too. I won’t have you getting an infection in the middle of all this.”
Ari pressed her lips together to hold back the smile that threatened to spill over. She tamped down the hope for genuine concern from Chase. It almost erased the hurt of his outright rejection.
The silence of the woods made the silence from Chase all the more unbearable. She should hear birds chirping and bugs buzzing, but not even a breeze rustling the trees made a sound. Only their feet hitting the ground made any noise at all and the steady treads were making her uncomfortably anxious.
She didn’t want to be the first to speak. She didn’t want to appear to be chasing after his attention.