by Berinn Rae
She’d spent so much time resisting him.
Stupid.
All thought stopped when he pushed a finger inside her. Her body clenched. He added another finger, and she gasped. When he started to thrust her vision blacked out. All she could do was feel. It’d been so long and it felt so good.
His thumb rubbed against her clit, building that sweet pressure higher and higher.
He pulled back from her mouth to growl into her ear. “Come for me.”
That was all it took.
Her climax hit hard. She strained against him, her fingers digging deep into his shoulders as he rode her through it.
As she came back down, his fingers were still thrusting but they were slowing, easing her to a stop.
She was all but panting as she tried to suck in lungful after lungful of air.
Felix nuzzled her neck. The gesture was both intimate and possessive. It made her heart flip.
“I told you I was good with my hands,” he whispered, his tongue trailing down the side of her neck. He was positively radiating smugness.
“You want to know a secret?” she purred.
“Mm?”
She went to the front of his jeans and slipped her hand inside. Felix’s whole body jerked, a curse exploding from his lips.
She leaned forward to kiss the underside of his jaw. “Artists are good with their hands too.” She pumped her hand as best she could while she went to work on the front of his pants with the other. His jeans were too constricting. A man of his size — and good God, he was huge — needed more room.
When she got his jeans undone, she released him and pushed them down as far as she could reach from her position. Her eyes went wide at the sight. The burn Felix had eased between her legs pulsed to life. She cupped him again and worked him with her hands.
He braced a hand on either side of her, as if it were a labor just to keep himself upright, which she guessed it was considering how tight his body was and how hard he was breathing.
She could feel his tension rising.
“Are you going to come for me, Felix?” She slanted her lips over his and swallowed his cry as his body slammed forward with his orgasm. Warmth covered her hands, but she continued to pump, wanting every last drop.
“Fuck.” Felix dropped his head into the crook of her neck.
Nothing could have satisfied her more.
Chapter 13
The next day Cali practically skipped into the kitchen for her brunch. Technically it was her breakfast, but Felix called it brunch because she usually had it around noon.
She went straight for the white paper bag on the counter. Cali blushed when she realized what counter Felix had placed the bag on.
He’s never going to let you forget yesterday.
Her body hummed just thinking about it. And there was a lot to think about. Or more likely a lot to remember and fantasize about.
And she was determined not to over-think the whole situation. What she and Felix did had been done between two adults. She damn well wasn’t going to start getting attached. No sir.
She took a bite out of her cherry pastry and walked over to where she’d left her purse on the table. She dug around for her apartment keys and left them out. She needed to go back to her apartment and pick out some clothes fitting for an interview. She doubted her jean shorts and T-shirt combos would be very impressive to someone like Vander Donahughe. The only problem was that she’d left her car at her parents’ house. She could always ask Felix to take her or ask to borrow the Hummer.
She sat at the table and finished her breakfast in quiet contemplation as she weighed her options. As she got her glass of milk out of the fridge, she decided to risk asking Felix to borrow the Hummer. Sure, she’d never driven a huge SUV, but how hard could it be?
“Do you even know how to drive one of these?” Felix gave her a skeptical look as he held the keys out to her fifteen minutes later.
She went to grab for them, and like every other time, he pulled them out of reach at the last minute. “Sure. I’ll be fine.”
“I want you to call as soon as you get there.”
“Who are you, my dad?” She lived twenty minutes away.
The heated look he gave her had her eating her words. Felix was most definitely not her dad.
“Fine, I’ll call you when I get there. Now give me the damn keys. I can’t be late for this interview.”
He handed them over and she opened the driver’s side.
“Oh, Cali?”
She paused, one leg in, one leg out.
He held up two fingers, grinning. “Borrowing my Hummer, that’s two.”
Her mouth slacked open. The nerve! She slammed the Hummer door and grumbled angrily all the way to her apartment.
She had to sneak past Mrs. Deder’s office. The last thing she wanted was for her landlady to see her and want to talk. Cali really didn’t feel like talking to her. In fact, she never felt like talking to the woman. Though maybe if she told Mrs. Deder she had a job interview, the landlady would prolong her missed month of rent.
She threw the idea out as soon as it crossed her mind.
If she told Mrs. Deder she had a job interview, the woman would probably think she was going to be involved with drug cartel.
She took the stairs two at a time and jimmied her key to get her front door open. With all the drapes pulled shut the place was nearly pitch black. She put her arms out in front of her as she made her way inside and felt for the light switch on the left.
Once she made it to her room she threw open her closet to scout for anything she might own that would look interview worthy. There wasn’t much. She found an old black skirt she’d worn to Garnet’s college graduation a few years ago, as well as a dark purple pencil skirt she’d bought on the spur of the moment.
She laid both pieces out on her bed and fumbled around for a shirt that wouldn’t show her bra straps. She came across a reasonable cute shirt. It was black. Of course. And had delicate lace trimmings. She paired it with the purple skirt.
She studied the ensemble and shrugged. “Good enough.”
Her only pair of black heels completed the outfit. Now it was time to really impress. She took out a manila folder from her stack of supplies and gently took down her best work from her wall of license plates.
A knock at her door stopped her halfway through.
Mrs. Deder?
Cali put the folder down with a curse. How the hell had she known she was up here?
She looked through her peephole. Her heart stopped. It wasn’t Mrs. Deder. It was Officer Jacobs.
Her first instinct was to shut off the lights and run. What the hell was he doing here? Did he still think she was responsible for the breakin at her parents’?
What if he’s here because of what you did at the station?
Would he be able to arrest her for that?
Of course not. Stay cool. If he asks about it, act confused.
With trembling hands she opened the door.
“Officer Jacobs.” She tried for pleasant but her voice came out squeaky. “What can I do for you?”
“You can extend some common courtesy and invite me into your trash hole of a home.”
Her fingers tightened around the doorknob. She was this close to slamming the door in his fucking face but at the last minute he seemed to pull a warrant out of nowhere.
He waved the slip of paper in front of her face before tucking it back into his pocket. “Now,” he said.
She forced herself to step back and held her arm out for him to pass through.
Behind his back she mouthed, “Asshole.”
“With all due respect,” she said after she shut the door. “I’m kind of in a hurry. So you want to tell me what it is you have a warrant for?” Please nothing serious. And where was Officer Collins? She’d assumed the two were partners. Didn’t cops always travel in twos? At least when they were going to a house with a warrant?
Jacobs stopped a scant foot in front
of her and grinned. Cali frowned when his whole body seemed to shimmer. “I came for a little girl-on-girl time.”
His voice turned feminine, sounding very familiar. “Wha — ?”
Faster than she could blink, his hand shot out. Pain exploded on the side of her face. She didn’t even remember moving. One second she was standing in the middle of her living area, the next, she was propped up against the wall for support.
She blinked away the stars dancing in front of her eyes and tried to focus on Jacobs. He wasn’t there. Standing where he’d been seconds ago was Collette. Her cheeks were more pronounced, her eyes sunken. Wherever she’d been for the past week, it hadn’t been Hawaii.
She’d finally made her move, and she’d caught Cali all alone.
“What the hell do you want?” Maybe if she kept Collette talking she’d think of some way to get out of this. The door was to her back — she could make a run for it, but that left her wide open for an attack. Besides, Cali didn’t run. Especially from perfectly dressed little bitches.
Collette gave a polite smile, taking in Cali’s poorly furnished home. “No Felix to come and save the day?”
“Leave Felix the hell alone,” she growled.
Cali knew there was a history between them, but she’d never been brave enough to ask Felix about it. A part of her didn’t want to know it.
Collette rested her hands on her hips. “Aren’t you a defensive one? Don’t tell me he’s gotten to you already.”
Cali ground her teeth and kept her mouth shut. She would not fall for the bait.
“He’s good like that,” Collette said in a breathy voice. Cali’s blood roared in her ears. “But I should warn you, he’ll reel you in and then leave you in the dust like so much parchment.”
Her eyes grew distant, glazed, as if she weren’t quite all there. Then just like that, she was focused again. The clarity in her eyes belied the insanity Cali had witnessed seconds ago. She didn’t want to believe a word Collette said. This was the enemy, dammit! But she couldn’t help herself. When she’d dated Tyson, she’d ignored the warnings and look how that had turned out.
Felix is nothing like Tyson.
“He’ll use you, Cali,” Collette continued. “He’ll get your hopes up and then walk away without so much as a backward glance.” Her face darkened in remembrance.
Cali’s stomach sank, a chill creeping down her spine. Her words played on the one fear Cali’d been unable to overcome. To care for someone and then have them stab her in the back. Or worse, to have them use her and then leave.
“Leave Felix out of it,” she bit out. “They told me you’ve found your Mirror Mate so why the hell are you so fixated on him?”
The darkness in her face grew at the mention of her Mirror Mate. “I take it your defensive tone of voice is because you believe Felix to be your soul mate? Did they tell you he was? That you two would fall desperately in love with each other with just one glance, like star-crossed lovers?” She sighed in dramatic effect. “Did they make you believe you have to love your ‘Mirror Mate?’” She sneered at the word. “You see Cali, love is a fickle thing — always has been, always will be. To love or not to love is up to the person. I don’t believe in destiny. The man meant for me wasn’t the one that would unlock my powers.” She looked genuinely disappointed by that fact, and jealousy reared its ugly head. Collette obvious was not over Felix or their relationship. Whatever it had been. “You’ll always feel for them, but there doesn’t have to be love. Did they tell you that? Did they get you to believe there is a single love for you out there? Waiting?” She scoffed. “Only fools wait for their destiny to unfold. I waited. For a long time I waited, and you want to know something, Cali? I was never good enough. I never felt good enough until I met Felix.” A warm smile bloomed across her face.
Cali felt sick. She didn’t want to hear this.
“Look — ”
Collette cut her off. “But even after everything I tried to do for him, you know what ended up happening? I wasn’t good enough for him either. Not only did he take away my dreams, he took away my Mirror Mate.”
Cali’s stomach dropped.
Collette smiled as if she knew the path Cali’s thoughts were taking. “They didn’t tell you what he did to him, did they? He’s not as innocent as you paint him to be. He took my soul mate away from me.”
“So this is a revenge gig?” She straightened her spine, hoping Collette couldn’t detect the fear squirming within her.
Collette’s grin grew. “I wish it were that simple, but I came here to find out why you’re so special to everyone.” She drew closer and Cali instinctively took a step back. “Why are you good enough, but I’m not? They all want you, and it makes no sense to me. Why you? What makes you so different?”
That crazed glint was back in her eye. Her arm shot out. Cali hissed as pain sliced across her cheek followed by the hot flow of blood.
Collette watched the blood drip down her face, detached, curious. It freaked Cali the fuck out. “I wonder if what they’re after is inside you? If I cut you up into little pieces, take away your beauty, would they still want you?”
Terror threatened to take control of Cali’s whole body. The curious way Collette spoke shook her down to her very bones. Yet at the same time, Collette asked the very same question that had plagued her since she was attacked. Why her? And still she only had part of the answer. Apparently she was important to someone. Important how? Was there some kind of strange prophecy she was supposed to help come to pass? Were her powers stronger than others’ and she just didn’t know it?
With a sickening sensation she wondered if Felix had lied to her. Did he play up the whole Mirror Mate bit so they could keep her for themselves? Did they want whatever it was Collette’s employer wanted?
She remembered Felix telling her Niella had Dreamed about her. Had she seen something more, something she hadn’t told Cali?
If she got out of this, she vowed to get her answers. She was sick of being in the dark, especially if she was the only one.
She’d been foolish to start relying on the others. Foolish to let them in when they could have been holding back from her and laughing behind her back about it.
That familiar sting of betrayal settled in her chest. She pushed it aside as best she could. She had a mental Illusionist to deal with. The only good news was that Collette seemed to be under orders not to kill her. Though maiming still seemed to be on the menu.
Way to find that silver lining, Cali.
The only way out of this was if she used her powers. She’d been practicing with Felix, honing her skill to try to use it as an offensive weapon. She’d been able to move a pepper shaker by gathering her power and launching a concentrated sonic wave. She’d have to go from moving something four inches tall to moving an entire person.
Fuck it, she thought, she could do this. It was do or die.
If she knocked Collette off her feet, she could make a break for the door. Or she could risk going deeper into her apartment to grab a more substantial weapon to try and knock Collette out. With all the rage boiling under the surface, Cali really wanted to go with the second option.
The skin on the back of her neck started to tingle. She gathered all her energy, focusing it all into one ball of unheard sound.
Pain slid along her arms.
“What the hell are you doing?”
Cali didn’t answer. She ignored the blood dripping from the fresh wounds on her arms and face.
“Are you going to attack me?” Collette sounded delighted. “Please, show me this power that has made you coveted by all.”
The cut on her face stung as sweat slid into the open wound. With no warning, she threw her arms out. A deep whomp echoed in the room like a subwoofer set on high.
Collette staggered back.
Cali dove for her easel. The long wooden legs would make a perfect bat.
Collette laughed, the grin on her face stretching the white skin over her skull. She slowly got t
o her feet. “Was that it?”
Cali held her collapsed easel in front of her like an elongated sword. “Get the fuck out of my apartment.”
Collette rubbed her chest where she’d been hit. “Make me, sound manipulator. Show me why you’re so important. How are you better than me?”
Though she hated to admit it, she should have gone with her first option and made a run for it when she’d had the chance. Now Collette stood between her and the door. Cali had let her anger cloud her judgment.
In the blink of an eye, shards of glass came hurling at her. She used the easel as a shield, but the sides of her arms and her legs were left exposed. Glass bit into her skin again and again. She bit her lip as pain flared, white-hot. Strong arms grasped her from behind. One of Collette’s freakish, faceless mannequins stood behind her, a knife raised in one of its hands.
“Mar her face,” ordered Collette.
Adrenaline scorched Cali’s veins. She jerked from the grip and swung her easel for all she was worth. The thick wooden legs knocked the Illusion back into the barstools by her kitchen. The faceless man blinked out of existence right as something wrapped tightly around her ankles.
Her feet were pulled from behind. Tears sprang to her eyes as she landed heavily on her knees.
That strange white cloth Collette was so fond of was wound tight around her ankles and part of her leg. She couldn’t move, but that didn’t stop Cali from swinging the easel and missing Collette by a few feet. The attack was enough to startle her, and she stepped back. The Illusion at her feet flickered. The fabric loosened and Cali ripped it away from her. It dissolved in her hand.
Collette was breathing heavily, and the fact she wasn’t holding her Illusions for prolonged periods of time meant she was exhausted. Cali scented the weakness like a threatened predator. For the first time, Cali felt she could win this. She needed more of an advantage.
Come on. Think. You control sound. How can you use that?
She scanned her apartment and spotted the lone light fixture above her head. She hadn’t bothered to open the drapes, which meant if she took out the light they’d be in near darkness. For Collette to harm her she needed to be able to tell where she was. Right?