by Mary Hughes
“No good.” He urged her to keep moving. “We have to find somewhere completely hidden. Preferably with a locked door.”
“You don’t ask for much, do you?” Her tone was light as she grasped his hand with a renewed hold and tugged him forward.
He ran behind her along the colonnade portico, head swiveling for entrances. Her wolf must’ve been to the fore, because she was almost too fast for him. His heart pounded as he tried to keep up, his breath rasping in his lungs.
Running faster than he’d run in his life, and it was almost not fast enough. They’d wheeled through a corner when the door banged open behind them.
Zeus shouted, “Give me that woman!”
What a one-trick pony, Daniel thought.
Just as power shot past his head and crashed into the stucco of the wall next to them.
Adrenaline kicked him up beside Zoe, to shield her if another blast came.
“What the hell…?” Zoe growled the words as she whipped a quick glance back. Her wolf was definitely close to the surface.
“Hey,” the guy in the kissing couple yelled. “Keep it down. You’re spoiling the mood.”
“There.” Zoe tugged him toward an arched door flush with the wall, directly opposite the ballroom. She sprinted for it.
Daniel admired Zoe’s steady lope, especially considering she was running in high heels.
Footsteps thudded through the garden, Zeus cutting a direct path.
Damn it. Daniel had to turn and stand, to defend Zoe while she got away. He let go of her hand.
Or he tried to. Her fingers tightened painfully around his, and she yanked him hard enough to get him airborne.
And then they were at the door. Zoe practically ripped it open then dragged Daniel through.
He found himself in another hallway, this one all windows.
Hiding place. The corridor stretched for seeming miles. Nothing but windows. Nowhere to hide. No doors to lock. Muscles tightening, nerves singing, he swung his head left…and nearly missed the exit door directly across from him.
Zoe saw it at the same time. She flashed a grin at him, and despite the danger, the sun rose inside his heart. Renewing his grip on her hand, he dashed them through.
Onto the festively lit, upper lakeside terrace. Lake Michigan was a slash of gray-blue on the horizon.
The terrace was empty of people.
Yes. Free to use his power, Daniel had a chance now. He didn’t know how much Zoe knew about magic—wolves knew about witches, but the two sets didn’t exactly mingle—so he opened his mouth to prepare her for the mages’ battle. “Zoe, I’m—” Catching sight of a set of security cameras scanning the patio, he groaned, “—screwed.”
Behind them came the slap of a door and Zeus’ muffled roar.
“Lower terrace?” she asked.
“Right behind you.”
She flew across the patio, with him drafting in her wake. He was careful to keep his body between Zeus and her, braced for another blast of magic. If only Daniel knew if the fire wizard was using prepared rocket talismans or throwing raw power. Thrown magic was a drain, and the other witch couldn’t keep it up for long.
Even with the danger, running with Zoe buoyed him, energized him—the feel of the wind in his face, her slim hand in his, running easily in perfect synch. He hadn’t been this alive, this happy, since high school.
Magic zinged past his ear, so close his hair singed.
“Stop, you bastard,” Zeus bellowed. More power sang toward them.
Daniel threw up a quick shield, covering it for the cameras as a swipe to his forehead. He was surprised when the sleeve of his tux actually came away damp.
“He’s persistent.” Zoe started down the south set of elbow-bracket stairs.
The moment they turned onto the return flight, Daniel could see the lower terrace wasn’t any better for hiding, either themselves or his use of magic.
But across the terrace and a few more flights down was his Ferrari. “Zoe, my car. It’s parked on Lincoln Memorial. Right in front.” He’d definitely have to do something nice for that police officer.
“Great.” As they hit the last couple stairs, she raised her voice, almost shouting, “Which car is yours?”
“Shh. If he knows—”
“Is it that red Ferrari?”
“Damn it, Zoe—”
“Quiet.” She yanked him to a stop on the lower terrace and faced him. “Not a peep, or I’ll have your balls for my personal chewtoys, hear?”
He opened his mouth to ask a pointed question or two, realized she had a plan, and shut it with a snap—then actually heard her words. Her lush mouth on my balls…? He swallowed, hard.
She nodded, satisfied, toed off her high heels, snatched them up, and led him cat-footed across the lower terrace. Across, not toward the razorback stairs down the bluff. Toward the mirror staircase on the other side.
Zeus appeared at the top of the south stairs, his back to them as he started down.
Daniel’s heart thumped, waiting for him to turn his head and see them, right out in the open.
Arrogant or in a hurry, the other mage didn’t check to see where they were, or where they were headed.
We might actually get away with this.
While Zeus’ back was turned, Daniel and Zoe slunk up the north staircase, Zoe monitoring the cowled wizard with glances cast over her shoulder. Her shifter body-awareness no doubt kept her from tripping.
Just as the evil mage turned the stairs’ bend, she dropped. She pulled Daniel down with her.
He crouched beside her in the shadows of the thick concrete spindles and held his breath, pulse thumping madly, as he waited to be discovered.
Zeus plunged onto the terrace. Daniel’s lungs began to ache.
The bastard stopped mid-terrace, head whirling like a hunter seeking prey. Burning to breathe, Daniel clenched his Zoe’s hand. She gripped hard in return, reassuring him.
Finally, finally, the black fire mage shouted, “The key and the woman are mine,” dashed to the long switchback descending the bluff, and started down.
Daniel’s breath whooshed out in relief.
Zoe tugged him to a crouching stand. “Come on,” she hissed. “He’s watching his feet. The minute he looks up, he’ll see we’re not on those stairs.”
“Unless the lake creates an optical illusion.” Daniel touched the wand in his pocket, pointed at Zeus and said, “He’s following a phantasm.” On the word, a shadowy double blob appeared on the switchback, vaguely couple-shaped.
They crept up the stairs, keeping watch on the cowled wizard.
Suddenly Zeus looked up. Zoe froze, clutching Daniel’s hand tight. Despite the furious rush of his blood, he liked that, liked the feel of her relying on him.
Zeus waved his fist—at the blob. “Give me back that key.”
A spray of magic shot from his fist.
“What was that?” Zoe’s eyes were wide. “Did he just shoot electricity from his bare hand?”
An evil mage is after you… yeah, and potentially scare the crap out of her? If she wasn’t thinking magic, now wasn’t the time to tell her.
“Must be some sort of freehand stunner.” He urged her into motion again.
“That shoots electricity?”
“Um, yes?”
“Cool.” Taking the lead, she ran him up the rest of the stairs.
On the upper terrace, he said, “When he finds my car empty, he’ll come back. We need to hide.”
Or at least go someplace where he could grab a breath, explain things to her, then go out to fight this fire mage alone.
She hauled him into the house, zipping along from one hallway into the next until it seemed as if they’d run all the way back to the ballroom, twice
Finally she found the janitor’s closet.
She pushed him inside, crowding in behind him, and flipped on the light.
Daniel bent over and sucked oxygen. Panting, he tried to form words to explain. His image, opposi
te him in a mirror over a shallow floor basin, mimicked him. To his right was a rack of equipment, to his left a set of shelves. Behind him, Zoe shut and bolted the door.
She fell with her back against it, her chest pumping hard with sobbing noises.
She‘s crying. Explanations and heroically going off to fight the villain flew out of his head. He whirled to comfort her.
She raised her head, eyes brimming with tears behind her mask—cheeks and lips plumped with…a smile.
She was laughing.
“I can’t believe that worked.” She shook her head, thick lustrous hair swishing against the mounds of her breasts. Under the dress, the October chill had tightened her nipples into points. Zoe adopted Zeus’ heavy growl. “Gimme the key and the woman!” She fell to laughing again.
Beautiful Zoe, laughing. It was magnetic, impossible to resist, and he joined in, feeling light.
“Classic villain, right?” He twirled imaginary mustache ends. “You must give me what I want—or else!”
“But I can’t.” Touching wrist to forehead, she affected a fainting heroine pose. “I can’t pay the rent.”
“But you must pay the rent. One way or another.” With a lecherous grin, he waggled eyebrows, the mask tugging at his face.
Her own smile dissolved into something much more serious, much warmer. She tossed aside her shoes. “I’ll take the other.”
Gazing into her eyes, the moment bubbled inside him with infinite possibility. Anticipation lit his veins, his muscles, fueling his reaching for her. To his shocked delight, her arms lifted at the same moment, hands eagerly reaching for him.
She met him in an explosion of lips and tongues and groping hands. He was surprised their magic didn’t ignite. More than a kiss, he devoured her and she him, merging mouths like mixing essences. He ran ardent hands over her curves. She was so soft, yet sleekly muscled.
Twining her arms around his neck, she pulled him into her, kissing him as if trying to crawl down his throat, so enthusiastically he laughed, “Wait.”
“No more waiting.” She peeled the jacket off his shoulders, continuing to dive into his mouth with abandon.
Ah, hell. She was right. No more waiting. Daniel helped her get his jacket off then yanked open his bow tie and threw it away, just as it occurred to the hazed portion of his brain he could have done some interesting things with it.
She’d already flipped off his cufflinks and was busy popping the studs of his shirt, kissing and licking the corner of his mouth as she worked the small pearl-and-onyx fasteners free. Her tongue was hotter than a flame.
“How’d you get the key from him? I never saw it. You’re amazing.”
His chest swelled. “It wasn’t hard. While he was busy with his posturing, I picked his pocket.” As he reached behind her to unzip her dress, his lips found her tender earlobe. Kissing her soft flesh made his mouth buzz.
“Sneaky. Smart.”
His chest expanded so much he had an insane urge to beat it like a silverback ape.
She undid the last of his studs and yanked the tail of his shirt from his pants, nearly ripping cotton. “At least you’re not wearing one of those sash things.”
“A cummerbund?”
“Man girdle. Yeah.” When she frantically pushed apart his shirt and revealed his T-shirt, she released a groan. “Will these clothes never end?”
In answer, he grabbed the bottom of both shirt and T-shirt and tugged everything off over his head. His mask nearly came off with them. He couldn’t quite care, tugging it quickly back into place, ending up with one eyehole off-center.
Her eyes roved over his naked chest. “You’ve bulked up since high school. It hasn’t changed you.”
The frank appreciation in her gaze made him hot, but her words didn’t. “What do you mean, I haven’t changed?”
Zoe unzipped her dress—then stripped it off. Her breasts sprang free, and her navel was a perfect dent in her creamy belly. She stood before him in lacy panties, thigh highs, and nothing else. He gaped, stunned motionless except for his roving gaze.
“You’re still a dork.” She grabbed him and kissed him so deep she was mating his mouth.
“Not anymore,” he managed around her tongue, wrapping arms around her slim, nearly naked body. Skin-to-skin, her breasts crushed against him in her urgency, was so insanely arousing, his whole body was on fire.
“Not any less.”
She petted his ribs and chest until he was broiling and eager to be completely naked, too. Naked with her in a janitor’s closet. Not very romantic. Somehow, he couldn’t quite care. Because, naked. With her. It was romantic enough for him.
“Is dork a good thing?” he asked hopefully.
“Are you still thinking?” she countered.
“Not much.”
“Which means some.” She glanced at his mask. “You’re crooked.”
“I know. I’m thinking, but only how to best please you.”
She adjusted his mask with a smile. “Then you have your answer.”
“I do?”
“Yes.” Zoe plastered both hands against his chest, pushing her bountiful breasts together like a harvest cornucopia. “If you weren’t a dork, you’d turn your brain off. The only thing you’d care about was how to please yourself. But you’re thinking about my desires.”
Fierce satisfaction seared him. “Then I’ll take dork.”
“And I’m thinking about yours.” She leaned in and took one hot lick of his chest.
His whole body clenched in anguished need.
Chapter Seven
Zoe had never tasted anything so good as Daniel Light.
Palms braced on his pecs, she leaned in and licked again. He was slick from their run, and her tongue skated over hard mounds of muscle and sleek hot skin, making her groan. “This has changed since high school. A lot.”
He gasped a laugh. “How would you know? You never touched me like this then.”
“I thought about it.”
“You did?”
She peeked up. His shocked face would’ve been funny if she wasn’t so hot for him. But she was, and his naked torso was even more ripped than a wolf’s. Pressing herself against it, she was overcome with the need to kiss, lick, bite all that glorious male strength. She couldn’t get enough of him.
Overcome with lust—and something more?
Whatever. He felt and tasted so good, nothing mattered beyond now. She petted everything she could reach as he caressed hard palms over her in return.
Each stroke aroused her more. His skin was hot silk over iron, his back broad wings of muscle that stretched and contracted as he caressed her. She grabbed those powerful wings. After a luscious grope or two, she slid her hands slid down to his narrow, muscled waist.
His mouth was on the crook of her neck, chasing hot shivers of desire along her skin. Lifting on her toes, she pressed into him, rubbing her nipples erect against the light hair of his chest. Need sparked through her breasts.
He slid his hands between them, down her belly, burrowing into her panties.
“Not yet.” She stepped back, popping his hand out. Quickly, she reached in to work his zipper open.
“You first.” Panting, he grabbed her wrists.
“Not this time.” She peeled his pants and boxers down a few inches, and grabbed for him.
His cock sprang greedily into her hands, two fists’ worth. She stroked the sleek, hard skin, and his fingers loosened and fell away.
“Okay…whatever you say. Whatever you want.”
“Daniel, I want you to…” She gestured at him, his pants, and the door.
He read her flawlessly, as he always did. He shoved his clothes down to his feet and kicked them off then went to the door.
He leaned his back against the metal. His erection jutted eagerly toward her.
Oh, yes.
She sauntered toward him, came to a stop when the tip of that gorgeous cock brushed her belly. His breath sawed in and out, his eyes going supernova.
/>
Giving him a devilish smile, her gaze never leaving his, she slowly knelt.
The rasp of his breath stopped.
Much better. She gave him a hot little lick.
A throttled noise came from the back of his throat, almost like a howl. So she had to, she really did.
Opening her mouth, she drew him in.
He hissed.
She sucked.
“You,” he panted, pulling out. “You first.”
The sight of him, full and straining for her, took her breath away. Made her heart pound double time. He was so tense, so ready, his muscles stood out like bricks.
“We did me, first, already.” Rising, she turned her back to him, hooked her panties with her thumbs, and drew them down her hips, teasingly slow. “How about nobody first. How about us, together?”
Daniel swallowed, hard. “Zoe, don’t. I haven’t…I didn’t…”
She cocked a little smile over her shoulder. “No condom? That’s okay. I’m good without.” Wolf shifters were immune to most diseases and didn’t have to worry about children until mated.
His breathing became rough. “Don’t offer unless you really mean it—”
She tilted up her naked rump.
Instantly he seized her hips, fingers biting into her.
An excited gasp escaped her throat, anticipation soaring. Her sex throbbed for him.
Fingers clenching and unclenching, he panted hard, obviously still trying to restrain himself.
All that control. Sexy, but enough was enough. She wanted that monster cock to fill her, thick, deep, and now.
Reaching behind, she grabbed his straining erection and brought it in to kiss her sex.
Smooth, broad, hot, the head of his cock spread her lips, slipping in her wet readiness. She trembled with anticipation.
She could just imagine how glorious all that masculine fire would feel, buried inside her. Her belly exploded in desire. “Daniel, please. I want you to do this. Do it, now.” She circled her hips, pulling him in another inch.
With a raw groan, he gave up the fight and drove himself into her.
He impaled her to the hilt. Her whole body erupted with pleasure. She broke out in a sweat as heat flushed through her.
