by Anna Abner
His hands cupped her bottom. “Ever fooled around in a shower?”
“You know I haven’t.” She kissed the pulse beneath his jaw and then the blunt rise of his collarbone. Her tongue snaked out and lapped at his throat. “Sounds fun.”
“Mmm. It is.”
She soaped up both hands and lathered his shoulders in white foam. Shiny bubbles dribbled past his ribs. Her gaze dipped lower. Below his tight abs, David was fully aroused. Dani clenched her inner muscles, and a groan slipped past her lips. She wiggled her fingers between her legs, finding her body wet and ready for him.
David bent her over. He fumbled with a condom and then buried himself inside her with a series of blood-churning thrusts. Dani opened her body to him, praying he’d never stop.
She catalogued every new sensation, from her calf brushing his hairy leg to the pressure of his fingertips on her hips to the slickness between her legs and the way he filled and stretched her core until she sobbed from the overload of emotion. Physical intimacy was more intense than she’d ever expected. And too addictive by half.
David thumbed her cleft, finding her pleasure point and pushing her to whole new heights.
* * *
Wrapped in a chocolate-colored towel, soft against her belly, Dani sauntered into the master bedroom. She was clean again, and if a person could sparkle, she’d be made of glitter.
David’s wounds were rebandaged, and he whistled a ballad under his breath from the other side of the room.
“Oh, wait. I remembered something.” Beautifully naked, he ducked out the door and rummaged in the kitchen cupboards.
His closet doors hung open, and on the linens shelf above David’s suit coats and white dress shirts, Dani spotted half a dozen different cameras. Nice ones, too, not like the cheap digital one she’d bought herself at Walmart. These were professional cameras with long, fancy lenses and dials galore.
“Are you a photographer?” she called, stepping into the closet and catching a pleasing whiff of his scent—musk and cologne mixed with the smell of leather shoes. She lifted the nearest camera and inspected it more closely. It was surprisingly heavy in her hand.
“I used to be,” David shouted from the kitchen.
Dani replaced the camera in order to flip through a stack of identical silver frames piled into the corner. She turned the top one around. It was a gorgeous, black-and-white photograph of the hood of a muscle car. Not the way she’d snap it, though. The unusual angle revealed the beauty and feminine lines of an object she would not normally think of as either of those things.
“Wow.” She reached for the next frame as David padded back into the bedroom. It was a headlight and part of a fender, but so close up the shapes and patterns in the plastic and chrome looked organic.
“These are amazing,” Dani said. “Did you take them?”
He had pulled on a pair of boxers and now hovered in the closet doorway carrying scented candles and a fireplace lighter. His gaze wasn’t on the framed art in her suddenly moist palms. It was directly on her.
“Thanks.”
“Why are they hiding on a shelf? You should hang them up.”
He set the candles on his dresser and slowly lit each one. A sweet jasmine fragrance wafted into the air. Once David flipped off the overhead lights, the bedroom softened with a warm, flickering glow.
“My late wife framed those years ago. They used to hang in our house, but we’ve moved a couple of times now and—” He shrugged. “I don’t know.”
“You don’t take pictures anymore?”
He shook his head.
“Was it the accident that stopped you?” Dani asked, though she knew the answer. What else could it have been? Near-death experiences tended to shake people up.
“I got overwhelmed taking care of my son and working for the city. I didn’t have the free time, I guess.”
It made her terribly sad that he’d given up something he both cared about and was talented at. She knew all about sacrifice and how cold it could be. After all the tenderness he’d shown her, she wanted to give him something in return.
Dani offered him the camera. “Will you take a picture of me?”
He accepted the equipment, but set it back on the shelf and chose another model, a slightly larger one. “This is the only one with fresh batteries.” David unscrewed the lens and replaced it with a different one.
His eyes roamed her body, and though the towel covered her private parts, she felt stripped naked. His eyes darkened to a husky green as he examined every inch of her as if she was a nude model and he was the French artist with a brush in his hand. She forced her arms down at her sides as her nerve endings prickled to life.
“Stand by the bed,” he said, his voice a growl in his throat.
She circled him to stand with her knees against the soft comforter on his bed. David pointed the camera at her. He captured several shots of her face in rapid succession, and then smiled seductively.
“Can I pretend you’re a ‘68 Corvette, Daniela?” he asked, his eyes raking her one more time. Before she could answer, he said, “Lie on your side.”
Flushing pink, she climbed onto the mussed blankets, fanning her hair behind her. Slowly, she unwrapped the chocolate-colored towel, baring her body to his gaze.
He started at her feet, aiming the camera across her exposed calves. Click, click, click. With great care, he bent her knee and pointed the camera down her bare thigh. Then up it. Then across it. Finally, he straddled her hips.
“Arms above your head,” he directed, his camera clicking nonstop. He shot Dani’s bare arms, and then her hands. “You’re so beautiful,” he whispered. His camera went quiet, and he set it aside. “You shine when you smile.” He kissed her, and the banked fire in her belly roared to life all over again.
“I love the way you kiss,” she said against his mouth, arching to feel even more of him.
David rolled with her, pulling her on top of him. “Are you sore, darlin’?”
“Yeah.” She wiggled her hips, exploring the tenderness between her legs. “But it’s a good sore. Why?” She kissed the corner of his mouth. “Are you?”
“Mmm.” He playfully slapped her rear end before capturing her mouth in a fiery, passionate kiss that made her forget any tender places as her body melted for him all over again.
He urged her up, and she straddled him, palming his pecs for balance.
“I will never get enough of you,” she said, her fingers rubbing through his coarse, curly chest hair. “Never.”
This time Dani slid the condom on him, and then she discovered the pleasure of riding her man hard.
Chapter Thirteen
Dani wasn’t completely awake, but sort of floating between sleep and full consciousness, her body warm and loose and humming softly. She’d never been so at peace in her own skin.
David reached for her under the sheets, cupped her waist, and rolled her onto his chest.
Smiling, she kissed his throat and sat up, the sheets sluicing away from their naked bodies. Golden and tousled, he was even more beautiful in the morning light. He hardened against her cleft. He must not be satisfied, either. Grinning, she wiggled in a circular motion.
He flexed his hips to get nearer her core, but then his eyes flared, and he groaned in frustration. “Oh, no. I used my last condom last night.”
Once in the shower. Twice in the bed. Yep, three gone. “You don’t have any more in a drawer or something?”
“None.”
Dani rubbed her cheek against his throat. “That’s okay. I don’t care if I get pregnant.”
Having children was something she’d tortured herself over. She wanted to be a mother, but had never thought it was possible. Being in a relationship with a man would only bring him in danger of her magic. And she’d never put a child within her toxic reach. But now the concept of a baby of her own was suddenly possible.
“What?” David’s fingernails dug deeper into her hips, causing lightning strikes of pain. �
��You want to get pregnant? Today?”
Dani pried his hands off her. “All I’m saying is, if I got pregnant, I wouldn’t be upset about it.” What was the problem? Two seconds ago he’d been warm and ready to play. And now he had an unsettled look in his eyes. “Are you saying you don’t want to have a baby with me?”
David deflated beneath her. “I need a minute.” He set her on the chilly mattress beside him, and then he covered himself to the nipples in blankets.
Ouch. “I get it.” She slithered into her panties. She didn’t see her pants, but her shirt was on the floor by the bed and she jerked it on, ripping at least one seam. “It’s fine to fuck me,” she shouted, “but God forbid I want something more.”
He sat up, frowning. “You want a baby? God, Dani, I can’t shift gears that fast. Three days ago I was convinced you were a coldhearted bitch—”
“Gee, thanks.”
“—and today you want my baby?” He scrubbed his hands through his hair. “What am I supposed to think?”
“Fine, David,” she snapped. “I shouldn’t want anything permanent.” Dani finally found her pants and stepped into them.
“Don’t leave.” David rose, fully nude, and clasped her hand. “Let’s talk about this. I’m a little surprised is all.”
“What is so surprising?” She twisted her hand away. “For the first time in my adult life I have the chance to make a child, and you’re surprised I’d want to?” A family of her own was all she’d ever wanted. And it was the one dream always out of reach.
“You were never going to have children?”
“No. My magic could—” She was unable to finish that thought.
“What about adoption?”
“It’s not the pregnancy that’s the problem. I can’t touch people, babies included.”
David took her hands again, and this time she let him pull her into the circle of his strong arms. “Look, I’m a single parent. I have to be careful. Because when I have another kid, I’m going to be married.”
She studied his handsome face, her gaze lingering on his full lower lip. He was the kind of man she’d fantasized about all her life. And there was a chance, albeit a slim one, that he and Ryan could be her dreams come true.
“Okay,” was all she said. Okay to waiting, okay to marriage, okay to all of it.
“Does this mean,” David began, “you might not want to break the binding spell?”
The thought repulsed her. She was a witch. Born into power. Chosen by fate to cast magic.
But what if? What if she wasn’t a witch? What if she could fall in love, emotionally and physically, with a magnificent man? What if she could get pregnant, carry a healthy child to full term, and give birth the way normal women did every day? She didn’t have to be alone anymore.
Bright, glittery hope sparked inside her chest.
“Maybe I am saying that,” Dani admitted. “Are you saying you’d want to get married again?”
“Of course I want to get married again. I loved being married the first time. And Ryan deserves to be part of a family.”
“So do you,” she said under her breath, and then louder, “Do you want more kids?”
“Yeah.” He shrugged. “Definitely.”
“Well, I want a lot. A house full. Now you know.”
Without warning he tightened his hold, nearly suffocating her. “Leave your magic bound,” he whispered into her hair. “Just for a while.”
* * *
A baby? David ducked his head under the shower’s warm spray, unable to comprehend how, in mere days, he’d gone from not really liking Dani to considering putting a baby inside her. Good Lord. A baby?
Everything in his life, if he discounted the whole necromancy mess, was going incredibly well. He had a great job he’d toiled for years to earn. He had a happy, healthy little boy. Yeah, he was single and had been for four years. A few dates, here and there, didn’t count as relationships. But until that morning he’d been fine with postponing romance until he had more free time or until Ryan was a little older. They had his mother, after all, filling that maternal void.
And then Dani spun into his peaceful life like a tornado, tearing up his peace of mind and all his plans.
Why was he even contemplating this? He wasn’t ready. Period. Dani would have to understand that he needed more time to decide if he was even emotionally prepared for a serious relationship with her, let alone marriage and family.
David slammed the faucet off and snatched a fluffy towel, still damp from Dani’s earlier shower, and scrubbed it over his face and shoulders.
He wasn’t ready. She’d understand.
So why couldn’t he shake the image of Dani, naked and curled in his mussed bed, her belly swollen with his child?
* * *
Dani sipped sweet coffee and perused David’s newspaper. There was a short article on page two about David Wilkes’s escape in the dead of night from a house of horrors in the forest. She wasn’t even mentioned by name, but then she lived in Springfield and wasn’t a city manager.
David strolled into the kitchen fully dressed with his cell phone propped between his right ear and shoulder. “I miss you, little man,” he said. “Be good for Grandma. Now put Mr. Sims on the phone.” He poured himself a cup of coffee and then leaned over the counter beside her.
In all the time she’d known David, she’d only ever seen him wear work clothes. Slacks or khakis. Dress shirts or polos. She’d never seen him in faded, well-worn blue jeans and a gray tee with a shark riding a bicycle silkscreened across the chest. Her mouth dried out as she wantonly stared, memorizing the outlines of his pecs and biceps bulging through the cotton shirt. His jeans hung on his hips like they’d been designed just for him. She’d liked his business attire, but she loved his casual clothes.
Just because she could, she gave his rear end a playful pat. “Morning sunshine,” she teased. “Lookin’ good.”
He winked at her. Into the phone, he said, “Bad idea, Mitchell. Don’t let her leave. We’re still digging up suspects here. But that’s not why I called. I need a favor. I want you to find someone. A current address would be amazing.” He returned to his bedroom, and his voice faded.
Dani flipped through the rest of the paper and finished her coffee before David rejoined her.
“Do you want to check on Cole before he gets shipped off to Texas?” he asked.
“There’s nothing I can do for him right now. I’d rather find Jeff and the Carver and check them off my to-do list.”
“I think we should let the police handle them,” David said.
She recognized the fear in his eyes. Maybe losing his wife, and nearly his own life, had taught him all this supersized caution.
“We know things the police don’t.” She rounded the corner and massaged the back of his hand, exploring the ridges in the bones of his long fingers because nothing was stopping her anymore. “Like about the Dark Caster and his cabal. Maybe we can track them down easier than the police can.”
“I don’t want you anywhere near those people.”
“Let’s see what we can find out from here.” She removed her hand only because she needed it to dial her cell phone.
Holden answered her call right away. “Dani? You okay?”
“I’m good. Where are you?”
“New York. But we’ll be home soon.” He cleared his throat. “I hope you don’t mind, but I sent my spirit companion to keep an eye on you.”
Dani didn’t love the idea of being watched by a ghost she couldn’t see, but it did comfort her that Holden was thinking proactively. An ex-witch and a noob necromancer could use all the help they could get.
“What do you know about the Dark Caster and his cabal?” Dani asked. Because she knew next to nothing, except that they’d tried to put a demon into Rebecca Powell and then abducted her and David. They obviously hadn’t done their homework, or they would have known there wasn’t a chance in hell she’d cast a demonic-summoning spell.
“Why? What’s happened?” Holden asked.
“Nothing. That’s why I’m worried.” She lifted her coffee mug to take a sip and realized it was already empty. “They went to all that trouble to take David and me, just to ignore us now that we’ve escaped.”
Avoiding eye contact with David, she helped herself to a second cup of hot coffee.
“Cole’s the expert.”
“He’s not the expert on anything anymore,” she said sadly.
“Cole told me these demon possessions are only an appetizer to the Dark Caster’s big plan—open a Chaos Gate and unleash hell on earth. I’m guessing the necromancers who took you are either being punished for losing you or they’re on to bigger things.”
“They cannot open a Chaos Gate,” she stressed. Dani liked earth the way it was, thanks.
“I agree. But no one knows who the Dark Caster is or where he hangs out.”
“One person does.” She took a deep breath. Holden wasn’t going to like this, but she didn’t perceive an alternative. “I want you to talk to Derek Walker.”
“No. And before you ask, no, I will not remove the memory spell from him, either. He’s lucky I didn’t gut him for what he tried to do, what he did, to my girlfriend. I will not show him mercy.”
“He’s the only one—”
“No. And if you get another necromancer to remove my memory spell, you’ll make me a murderer, Dani. I’ll have no choice but to kill him. I won’t have him threatening Rebecca again.”
“I’m still going to talk to him,” Dani said.
“You’d be better off tracking down this Carver guy. Because he’s probably searching for you, too.”
Holden might be right about that, but he was way off on Derek. The guy had actually met the Dark Caster. Dani didn’t know any other person, besides Jeff and the Carver, who had.
David poured a spoonful of sweetener into her mug and stirred for her. “What did he say?”
“Not much. So I have a better idea.” She wouldn’t betray her friend, but maybe there was another option after all. “We need to go see the Raleigh coven.”