by Watts, Mia
She nodded.
“I had touched glass on my way back to you. It was enough to make needing heat critical. I can’t look human if I’m not normalized.” He pointed to the sobbing, shivering creature on the floor. “He’ll have some serious recovery ahead of him.”
Lachen squirmed toward Fauna. “Please…please…”
“Don’t let him touch you, Fauna. He’ll take your heat and leave you hypothermic.”
Fauna climbed onto the lab table. “You used my heat before. What if you needed it like this man? Would you?”
Cooper planted his hands on his hips. “I’m a thinking being, sweetheart. He’s acting on instinct, but he also doesn’t love you. I do. There isn’t anything I’d do to hurt you.”
“But what if you couldn’t help it? If you were dying?”
“If you were dying and it meant killing your sister to save yourself, would you do it?”
“No,” she snapped.
“Then don’t reduce me to an animal living purely on instinct. I have a brain and I use it. I have a heart and it belongs to you. Why the hell would I ever put you at risk?” He shook his head at her like he’d been insulted.
She supposed he had been. She’d done nothing but berate him for being who he was born to be, and insinuating that it made him less than human. She was no less human for her faery-half. If anything, she embraced it more fully. Maybe even to the detriment of the other half of her family.
For the first time, she wondered what her rejection of the faery realm felt like for her mother. God, she’d been so selfish. So hateful. Her mother must have felt like Fauna disdained her, or loved her less than her father. It wasn’t true, and she’d told her she’d loved her countless times, but when you rejected something that was inherent, it had to sting. It wasn’t like those traits could be removed at will. They just existed.
And I either learn to accept them, or I go on being bitter about something I can’t change and hurting those I love.
Tears welled up in her eyes as she held the extinguisher steady on Lachen. “Cooper?”
“Yeah.”
“Are they going to get here soon?”
“Any minute, honey.”
“Good,” she declared.
“Do you want me to leave a guard, so you can go back and rest?”
“No.” She met his gaze steadily. “I want to finish this work. It’s important for all our kinds. Once the cloning on human DNA is completed, though, how will that change anything?”
“We’ve kept a low profile since the beginning of time. We have people everywhere, just like humans and faeries. I think it’s time we all stepped out for a summit, humans, faeries, and elementals.”
“Won’t everyone know about us then?”
“No. Kind of like Area 51 or other governmental secrets, this can be kept too.”
“What about others like Lachen?” She nodded to the still form of the salamander who’d passed out from pain.
“There will always be others. We’ll just keep doing what we can to keep the peace and hope it works. What else can we do?”
Fauna nodded. She hugged the extinguisher to her chest since it appeared Lachen wasn’t an immediate threat. Cooper came to her and carefully pulled the device from her hands, setting it aside with great care.
“I guess winter sucks for you.”
He smiled and it set her heart to tripping. “Not my favorite season, but I manage. Salamanders can increase their skin temperature and their core body temperature as needed. It just takes more energy to keep the cover in place.”
“Why didn’t he?” she asked, motioning to Lachen.
“You put compressed cold chemicals on him. That doesn’t just wipe off, it clings. Things that aren’t us, aren’t naturally occurring, are difficult to compensate for. Like glass, or the Plexiglas, or chemically engineered fire foam. Snow is just water. Cold air, is just air. Those adjustments are easy.”
“Oh.”
He lifted himself up to sit on the lab table beside her while they waited.
“Cooper?”
“Hmm.”
“I’m sorry.”
“About what?”
She took his hand, lacing her fingers with his and relishing the heat between their palms. “A lot of things, actually. I’ve been so narrow-minded about you, about magical beings in general. I know I have a lot of biases to work through, but you aren’t part of my hang-ups.” She looked at him, earnestly hoping he’d understand.
“I want to be part of them, because it means I’m part of your life.”
“I’ve been unfair. This thing we have is pretty scary for me.”
“How can I help?”
“You are, just by letting me take time to figure out what’s happening between us.”
“As long as you don’t say it’s a work-sex thing again.” He smiled teasingly as he said it. The words had to have hurt him.
“It’s never been that. I was too stubborn to admit that I wanted you. I thought if I said it was a work convenience that I could believe it.”
“You don’t?”
She caught her bottom lip under her teeth and shook her head. “I’ve been attracted to you since the day I fell on my face in my office.”
“I know. Your heat signature gave you away.”
She sighed, exasperated. “Thanks for sharing.”
“Hey, you had me going since I first read the security docket on you before I ever took this case. Sure, I thought you were insanely gorgeous and that’s all I had to go on at first, but Fauna Harper, you challenge me in so many ways. Being with you is a daily adventure.”
She laughed. “And being with you is a daily biology experiment.”
“Surely there’s more to me than that,” he scoffed.
Fauna captured his face in her hands, and dragged it down to hers. She kissed him, taking her time testing the softness of his full, warm lips, the sweetness when the tips of their tongues brushed and retreated.
“I hate being wrong.”
“Oh, yeah?” He waited with apparent interest.
“Sex with you has nothing to do with bodies moving. I love you, God help me.”
Cooper growled, swooped toward her in a full possession kiss that left her breathless. “Council better get here quickly,” he muttered.
She laughed, circled her arms around his neck to keep him close. “When I get you back to the room, I’m going to generate some serious heat with you.”
“Baby, you already are. Much more and I won’t be able to walk.”
Chapter Eight
On the last step at the inn, Cooper grabbed Fauna. She turned in his arms, laughing and when he lifted her, she wrapped her legs around his waist and held on. Cooper carried her all the way to the bedroom, kicking the door closed behind him.
He dropped her backward onto the bed and diligently began undoing her pants. Fauna caught his hands. “Can you give me a second? I want to clean up first.”
Cooper appeared to think about it, then shook his head. She laughed, swatting his hands away.
“Hold that thought. I’ll be right back.”
She practically tore her clothing from her body. She didn’t bother to wait for the water to warm. She rolled her shoulders toward her chest as she huddled beneath the cold drops, trying to get wet enough to put the soap to the best use.
Cooper’s warm body came in behind her. His hard cock snuggled between her ass cheeks and his hand rubbed her belly while the other one cupped a breast.
“It’s freezing. I’ll clean up and be right out,” she told him.
Cooper’s body heated. Steam rose from her skin where the shower had wet her down and suddenly the cold water didn’t seem to matter anymore.
“Nice trick,” she said, wiggling her bottom tighter against him.
His teeth grazed her neck. “You drive me crazy.”
She tilted her head to one side, allowing him to better reach her. “You’re doing a bang-up job of driving me nuts too, stud.”
<
br /> “I can’t believe you made me wait until the programming was finished.”
She turned to face him, gasping when his cock formed a ridge on her belly. “Would you really have felt the lab was safe if we hadn’t finished the job?”
“Maybe,” he grumbled. “The council would have watched over it.”
“While you and I come back here to satisfy our primal urges?” she mocked.
“Point taken.”
She reached between them, stroking his penis. “Point received.”
“Not yet, but soon,” he replied.
Fauna didn’t argue when he soaped her up, his hands sliding all over her, tantalizing her, awakening her body for what would follow. She was so ready. For the first time being invisible felt freeing.
She didn’t worry about faeries and elementals and whatever else was out there. As long as she had Cooper, the rest she’d just learn to live with. She’d deal with it as the situation arose.
She didn’t need to dry off from the shower. Cooper heated. He moved around her, skin to skin, tormenting her with the feel of his naked body brushing hers. She barely noticed her skin drying.
Cooper lifted her, swinging her feet into the air, and carried her to the bed. “There’s something I’ve been dying to do.”
“Oh?”
Once again, he put her on the bed. Cooper caught her hips and dragged them off the edge, then kneeled on the floor. He draped her legs on either of his shoulders. “I’m starving,” he growled.
Fauna sprawled, stretching across the bed as butterflies of anticipation rioted in her belly. Cooper parted her pussy, opening her wide to the cooler air and his hot, steamy breath. He inhaled sharply and Fauna felt the blush rise in her cheeks.
“I like the way you smell. Next time, we aren’t cleaning your cunt first. I want to taste you exactly the way you are.”
“Trust me. These things need clean—” her words were lost on her squeak of pleasure as he dragged a tongue over her inner folds. Her eyes rolled back on the second and third time. Fauna fisted the covers, trying hard not to dissolve into tears of excruciating need and desire. Because that was how she felt. Her body and nerves were confused with tumbling sensations she couldn’t make heads or tails of. She only knew that she didn’t want it to stop.
His tongue seemed to heat and oh, God, she was going to scream again! Her clit strained for the wicked warmth. Her body flooded with wanton moisture, quivering as his talented mouth worked her over.
His lips closed on her clit. Pussy still held wide, he darted his tongue deep into her weeping channel. Hot and wet, textured and undulating, Fauna couldn’t help the way her hips rocked to take it deeper. Like a brand, she knew where he’d licked and where he hadn’t. She couldn’t believe the heat. Not enough to burn, her body throbbed all the same with the building tension in her pelvis.
Cooper returned to her clit after swiping up her sensitive inner lips. She felt hot and cold all over. Unable to keep herself from falling into the sensual storm, she reached up and cupped her breasts. She took them in her hands and rolled her nipples, pinching them with careful pressure in time to the suction on her clit.
He moaned. “Oh, God, baby. That’s it.”
“Don’t. Stop,” she panted.
“I’m watching you, honey. I’m watching you play while I eat your sweet pussy.”
This time she moaned. She arched into her breast play, putting on a show for him which he appreciated with taste after taste of her cunt. When his tongue speared her tight channel again, she cried out, hips jerking, pussy clenching as streaks of color blazed behind her lids and his hot, hot tongue thrilled her flesh.
She’d barely come down, was still floating on the heady cloud of passion, when he climbed onto the bed with her and helped her change positions.
Cooper didn’t give her time to catch her breath. That was the last thing he wanted her to have. He wanted to steal her senses so completely that she never doubted what they had again. That she gave it a chance and came out gasping because she didn’t want it to end.
He pushed her legs high and wide, thrusting forward until he felt the undeniable give of her cervical wall. It cupped against his cock head sending shivers down his spine. Fauna’s unconscious cry of pleasure perfectly echoed his sentiment.
They were good together. In work, definitely in play, and absolutely in mind. It didn’t matter what worlds they’d come from as long as they lived their lives together in the same one. If she wanted it in the human realm, he wouldn’t argue the matter.
His home was with Fauna. But there would be time for that. Right now, she was just getting used to them as a couple. Eventually he’d share his plans to spend the rest of his life with her. When she was ready.
Cooper pulled out and pushed back in, nudging that unseen wall a second time and loving it when she tossed her head for the scope of feeling he knew they shared.
“Look at me, sweetheart,” he panted.
Fauna opened her pretty green eyes and stared at him as if from a distance. “Cooper. You feel so good.”
He leaned to kiss her, tasting her mouth the way his body claimed hers. His balls tightened, and he rocked against her, deliberately slowing to prolong the moments they were joined.
Fauna stroked his shoulders, his back, anything she could reach. With a cry of anguish, she bucked her hips and flipped them. Fauna sank down on his shaft from above him, her body shuddering with the deep penetration and readjusting to the new position.
“I want on top,” she said, breathing heavily. Her breasts jiggled enticingly.
“I’m not going to complain.”
Fauna rose up and lowered on him. Cooper caught his breath. His fingers clenched on her hips, holding more than helping her, feeling with his hands the motions she made on him as she climbed to her peak taking him with her.
So damn sexy.
She moved quicker. Urgency knit her forehead and parted her lips. Her body shivered, so close, too far, from climax. Cooper lifted and lowered her. Fauna rode through with his help, crying out as it crested and took her. Then he turned her onto her back and pounded her greedy pussy. It spasmed around his cock. Cooper pushed through her fluttering muscles while they milked him dry.
With a shout, Cooper came, buried to the hilt inside her. His hips jerked a couple more times. Staring down at her, her face still flushed with pleasure, her pupils dilated, he couldn’t imagine a more perfect future than one with her in it. He kissed her softly.
“I love you, Fauna.”
“I love you, too.”
Epilogue
“I’m so glad everything worked out,” Thistle Harper, Fauna’s mother, said.
Flora passed her the green bean casserole. It was covered with golden fried onions and sprinkled with Sumac, her mother’s addition. Fauna ladled some onto her plate. “What do you mean?”
Thistle blinked widely. “Why, you and Cooper, of course.”
Fauna’s eyes narrowed. She shot a look at Dill and Sage to see if they knew what she was talking about. Sage grinned and sent her a wink. Dill was too busy trying not to acknowledge his partner’s hand sliding up his thigh. Mason wasn’t giving up though and clearly cupped him under the table, sending Dill into a spurt of coughing.
“Why do I get the feeling that you were involved even though I never saw you at Harper Security,” Fauna asked.
“I’d never involve myself. I much prefer letting nature take its course, even if it needs help,” Thistle said.
“That sounds like an admission,” Cooper noted.
“Of course not. If I hadn’t gone to the elemental council and given them Fauna’s file, you’d never have come to Harper Security. But I had no direct hand in that, even if I arranged everything.”
Once again, her mother managed to baffle.
“What’s meant to be, will be. I was meant to assist, and I did without doing,” she summed up happily.
“I don’t get it,” Cooper muttered behind his napkin.
; “No one does,” Fauna replied on a sigh. “She’s like the faery equivalent of The Riddler.”
Flora, her twin, laughed. Willow, her other sister, tossed back a glass of wine, her eyes dancing with mirth.
“I wouldn’t laugh if I were you, Will. That makes you next for Mom’s non-meddling, meddling,” Fauna pointed out.
Willow sobered. “Oh, God, no.”
“Pass the dinner rolls,” Cooper said significantly.
Thistle gave a happy little squeal and clapped her hands excitedly. Everyone else put down their utensils. But no one passed the bread.
Fauna looked from one family member to another. Confused.
Sage seemed to know the score. He and his partner held hands on the dinner table. Flora and her husband Ian, turned in their chairs to look at Cooper, huge smiles on their faces. Dill and Mason tried to appear innocent.
Fauna wondered if her mother was wearing another one of her panty sex-toys like she had last Thanksgiving, but she wasn’t bouncing around enough or panting. So, probably not.
Willow giggled one minute then suddenly turned into a plank of Brazilian Cherry wood. Rather pretty actually. She’d have to tell her little sister later.
Her dad cleared his throat several times and dabbed his eye with his napkin.
“What the hell is going on?” Fauna demanded to know.
“Fauna,” Cooper began. “I just issued the code word, so it’s now or never.”
“Code word? What?”
“We’ve been together now for fifteen months. Almost sixteen. In that time, we’ve hardly been out of each other’s presence. I know that you’ve had your concerns about me being an elemental, but I’m really hoping we’re past that.”
She nodded, eyes already welling with tears as she realized what was coming. As she realized that her whole family knew what was coming and had been in on it.
“I love you with all that I am. Please say you’ll marry me?”
Fauna flew into his lap, planting a tear-flavored kiss on his lips. “Yes.”
“Really?”
She pulled back to look at him, and laughed. “Yes, you moron. I love you.”