“Are you attending the Festival?”
The annual Fae celebration was only a month away by Avalon time, which moved much slower compared to the earth realm, yet it shouldn’t surprise her that Oren was already making plans.
“Possibly.” Definitely if her grandmother had her way. Elena preferred to keep her options open.
“I’m told the Queen plans to make some changes in the Court.”
“I can neither confirm nor deny. You know I’m not part of any inner circle, Oren.” She imagined he would pursue her relentlessly, determined to charm her if he believed she had Titania’s ear.
In truth, she’d only seen her grandmother a few times since the truth about her parentage came out, and weirdly enough they’d spent most of that time playing cards. The Queen had a fondness for poker that Elena hadn’t expected.
Oren continued to talk about the festival and the preparations his family was responsible for. Elena commented at the appropriate intervals, keenly aware of the way Vaughn watched her, his gaze melting straight through her dress.
“I think you’re wolf is done waiting.”
“He is not my wolf.”
“Perhaps you should tell him that. Here he comes.”
Unable to stop herself, she turned around.
Vaughn strode toward her, the hunter about to corner his prey.
“So this is what it looks like to see the formidable Elena smitten.”
“I’m not—”
Vaughn’s lips curved in a wicked smile, and her stomach gave a soft tug. Oh my.
“—smitten,” she finished lamely. Conscious of Oren’s curious gaze, she shook off the flush that swept up from the bottoms of her feet. “He’s just a frenemy.”
Oren laughed. “A frenemy with benefits if he has his way.”
“Now I know you’re jealous,” she quipped despite the way her pulse danced under her skin.
Vaughn was five feet away. Four…three…
She resisted the urge to press her hand to her heart to slow the galloping beast too moved by the gargoyle.
Two…one…
Something in the center of her world trembled and then steadied as Vaughn took her hand, drawing her out of Oren’s embrace.
“I’d promise to bring her back but I’d be lying,” Vaughn said to Oren, his glittering blue eyes never leaving Elena’s.
Oren stepped back, and from behind Vaughn he mouthed, “Smitten,” and walked away, heading toward the redhead Vaughn had abandoned.
And then there was just her and the wolf.
Voices echoed around them, flashes of movement skated along her peripheral vision, but she couldn’t take her eyes off Vaughn.
She hadn’t forgotten the people in the crowd that would happily bury a blade in her back, or that any of them could have hired her latest immortal stalkers.
But none of that stopped her from dismissing every single one of them as big of a threat as the wolf snagging her undivided attention.
“Was he the dog hater?”
“Well if he wasn’t before…” she trailed off.
Vaughn’s shoulders shook with laughter.
What would it be like to rest her head against his chest and hear the rumble of it against her ear?
“You knew I was coming here when you walked into that boutique tonight, didn’t you?”
He nodded.
She should have put that together before now. Maybe if she hadn’t been trying so hard to figure out what it was about him that kept getting stuck under her skin.
“You didn’t crash the party, did you?” She wasn’t sure how he’d managed an invite after what happened in the casino, but he must have some kind of connection if Mac hadn’t thrown him out already.
“Not exactly.”
“Are you meeting the buyer?”
This time the mention of his sister’s abduction didn’t faze him. “Not here. The meeting is set for a couple hours after sunset tomorrow.”
In less than twenty-four hours, he’d have his sister back. So what had brought him out tonight… “You’re still worried I’ll make a play for your prize.”
Vaughn didn’t bother to deny it had crossed his mind.
“Why not take me out of the picture altogether then? Why take the chance?”
“Because that’s what a Shadow would do?” he guessed, reading her mind. “Regardless of who you think I am, if I thought you were a genuine threat, I wouldn’t have let you tag along the other night.”
“How many times did you practice that line in the mirror?”
“Maybe I’m just one of the few people who’ve realized that you’re not as reckless and vindictive as you’d like everyone to believe.”
His hand slid down her back as he brought her impossibly close. Close enough it felt like they were barely dancing at all. His jaw scuffed her cheek.
“I think your bark is worse than your bite, Ivy.”
Her half-shut eyes popped open, his proximity as potent to her senses as any street narcotic and twice as addictive. “You’ve been waiting to say that all night, haven’t you?”
He winked at her, and that unexpected light inside her brightened a few more degrees.
A gust of wind cut across the rooftop, blowing her hair in her face. She brushed it aside only to have Vaughn draw his finger across her cheek, gathering the pieces and tucking them behind her ear.
“You keep doing that”
“And you keep enjoying it.”
There was that. Her gaze dropped to his mouth, the curve of his lips a tantalizing line she wanted to run her thumb across, and then her tongue, and…
“I think I’m being summoned.”
A few feet away Mac stood with his arms folded across his chest. It was the perfectly blank expression on the other gargoyle’s face that told her how furious he was. No one could do the kind of mad that masked itself as professional politeness the way Mac could.
“Busted,” Elena murmured, curling her fingers into her palms to prevent herself from holding on when Vaughn took a step back.
“Try not to turn into a pumpkin before I return.”
“Somebody’s feeling optimistic.” Although if Mac wanted him gone, he wouldn’t have been allowed in to begin with.
She didn’t rejoin Oren as Mac followed Vaughn to one of the waterfall-fed ponds closest to the gate. She didn’t bother to hide her curiosity about the exchange. Whatever Vaughn had said about knowing Mac through Briana, there was much more to it than that.
Even if the surrounding noises were too loud to eavesdrop on their conversation, she doubted they spoke loud enough to allow any immortal to overhear their conversation.
Interesting.
They walked through the gates a few moments later and disappeared inside without Vaughn so much as glancing her way.
Pumpkin indeed, she thought, nearly an hour later when Vaughn still hadn’t reappeared.
“Did your friend leave?” Cori asked joining her at one of the tall stools at the far end of the bar.
Elena had chosen the spot intentionally, wondering if Miguel would actually throw the knife at her. It would certainly liven the party up. Not even Oren’s presence could stem the growing tide of boredom without Nessa or Vaughn to keep things interesting.
“How’s the nine lives working out for you?” Elena asked, preferring to stick with a subject that wouldn’t leave room for crazy ideas, like finding Mac and asking what was going on. If Mac had discovered the theft, his and Vaughn’s conversation wouldn’t have been quite so civil.
“It’s an adjustment,” Cori answered, a thoughtful smile on her face as she watched Ryker.
Cori had been clueless about the immortal world she’d been born into without realizing it, until Ryker had found her. Elena had watched them for a while before finally making her move, wondering what Ryker’s endgame was.
In the beginning she hadn’t cared that he was keeping tabs on Cori by posing as her neighbor, preferring to see how the hand played out before ruling h
im out as a threat to her or Cori.
“He’s still mad,” Elena observed, watching the wolf frown when he noticed who his mate was talking to. Elena got that look a lot.
“He just wants to be sure it didn’t fall into the wrong hands.”
“And do you think it did?”
Cori fiddled with a cocktail napkin. “I think you didn’t have to help us. You could have found another way to get the dagger—” She cut herself off before anyone started paying attention to their conversation. “And that tells me all I need to know.”
Once the young panther had a few decades to walk in her immortal shoes, she’d doubtfully be so quick to give Elena the benefit of the doubt.
“Do you like him?” Cori turned on the edge of her seat, refusing to let a comfortable silence settle between them. “You certainly danced like you like him. A lot.”
“He’s just…” The right word eluded her. She shrugged and picked up her drink only to find her glass empty.
She started to signal the bartender to order another drink, then stopped herself. How much longer did she actually plan on waiting around?
Elena slid off the stool, answering her own question. “I think the party is over for this girl. Stay out of trouble, Cori.”
“I hope he finds you,” Cori called out behind her.
Elena didn’t comment, nodding to a few guests on her way out. She spotted Mac from the corner of her eye but kept going. No way was she going to be the girl who had to know where her man went.
And Vaughn wasn’t even hers.
Blowing out an impatient breath, she paused in front of the closed elevator doors. “You are not disappointed,” she muttered to her herself as she jabbed the button to call the elevator with a little more force than she planned on.
“Disappointed about what?”
The voice came from behind her, low and rough and sending an unexpected shiver curling up her spine.
She turned around, all the wild butterflies she’d struggled to tame exploding into flight in her stomach.
Blue ice on fire.
That’s how she would’ve described Vaughn’s eyes if anyone had asked. He stood less than two feet away, his jacket gone, his shirt sleeves rolled past tan forearms, his hands tucked in his pockets.
Probably the safest place for them, especially when she was thinking pretty damn hard about feeling them on her body again.
“Nothing,” she answered when she realized he was waiting for her answer.
“Too bad. I thought you might have been disappointed about not getting a goodnight kiss.”
“Pretty sure I’ll survive without one.” Liar, liar, dress on fire.
“And if I can’t?”
Elena took a step back, coming up against the elevator doors. She glanced down, stunned that she’d done the unthinkable with the gargoyle. She’d retreated.
She slowly raised her head.
Vaughn met her gaze, the ice in his eyes ablaze with a heat that scorched her from the inside out. She didn’t notice him take a single step yet somehow he ended up so close she had to tip her head back to watch his face.
She couldn’t look away as he dipped his head, his lips grazing hers. Her heart thumped at the breathless tease, and she moaned in protest, a sound so raw and desperate she barely recognized herself.
Vaughn opened his mouth over hers, sinking into the kiss, anchoring them both in a storm that broke with explosive force.
His arms locked around her, his fingers raking up her back, tangling in her hair, his lips pushing against hers, his tongue sliding in as if to punish her in wicked strokes for going so long without knowing the taste of him.
Elena couldn’t move, trapped in the onslaught of sensation that began with the drugging domination of her mouth and quickly spread to every cell in her body, each one catching the next on fire until every nerve ending smoked and crackled.
“Vaughn,” she murmured against the mouth that didn’t let up. Not for second.
His body pressed hard into hers and he deepened the kiss as if he could reach every part of her. Explore and conqueror, brand and claim.
Every…single…inch.
Breaths coming even faster than hers, he drew back and touched his forehead to hers. “There. I pounced.”
***
The elevator doors scrolled open, but there wasn’t a chance of her falling. Not as long as he held onto her.
Her eyes widened, then a grin spread across her lips that had him leaning in for another taste.
The wolf howled in pleasure while the man just kept holding on. He backed her into the elevator, not stopping until she hit the wall, her mouth parting and sliding under his every step of the way.
The slick stroke of her tongue knocked a few dozen brain cells offline, but he was pretty sure he could function just fine without thinking about a damn thing. As long as Elena kept kissing him back.
The doors shut, sealing them inside. He buried his hands in her hair, tipping her face up and changing the angle. He couldn’t get deep enough.
“You crushed it.” Elena probed the limp flower in her hair, one of the petals falling to the floor.
Unapologetic, he nodded. “I’ll get you more.” Dozens more if that’s what she wanted.
She laid her palms on his chest, her expression considering. “You’re not going to bite me, are you?”
He grinned and slanted his mouth across hers. Her hands slid down his chest, her nails scoring the fabric that felt too heavy and hot on his skin. And then she made that breathy sigh against his lips that left him so damn hard for her.
Hard and hungry and—
Elena caught the waist of his pants, rocking into him, those hard and hungry parts straining for more contact—the innocent brush of her fingers, the grip of her palm, the sweetness of her mouth.
“What about the cameras?” He growled as another teasing brush of her hip nearly had his eyes rolling in the back of his head.
The brazen curve of her lips stirred the need simmering in his gut. “What cameras?”
He spun her around, crowding her back as he flattened her hands on the wall above her head. She pushed back against him, an arch that caught his aching cock in a slow grind.
Fuck.
He grit his teeth and swept her hair aside. He nipped her neck. “What was that you said about biting?”
She rewarded him with another roll of her hips, the friction painting a wide streak of heat from his feet to his balls. “If you mark me—”
“You’ll what?” He caught the tender skin between his teeth, sucking soft and slow.
She tipped her head, giving him better access. “Just because you’re cute doesn’t mean I’ll play fair.”
He moved up to her ear, then the corner of her jaw. “Cute? Are we in high school or something?”
She huffed out a breath. “You wouldn’t have come within a hundred feet of me when I was younger.”
He gripped her hips, the dress sliding beneath his palms. “That scary, were you?”
“Terrifying, actually. One of those wolfish looks and I would have blown you away.”
“Bad choice of words, Ivy.” He pitched forward, letting her feel exactly how much he liked the sound of that.
She laughed. “That’s not what I meant.” She lifted a hand from the wall, but he was faster, slapping it back down.
“Give me a minute.”
“To what?”
He ran the back of his knuckles across her chin. “I’m still figuring that part out.” He’d thought about getting his hands on her so many times he couldn’t quite wrap his mind around what he wanted to do to her first.
He traced the outline of her lip, and Elena snapped at his finger, her teeth just missing him. Amused, he carried on, following an invisible path from her mouth, down her throat, between her breasts…
She shuddered.
He kept going, sliding lower, her abs contracting beneath his touch. “You thought I left without saying goodbye, didn’t you?”
/>
“You’re free to do what you want.”
He caught her jaw, tugging her chin to meet his gaze. “Am I?”
Her eyes flared in understanding.
They weren’t talking about what happened earlier. Not that he had any intention of talking about Mac’s warnings to stay away from her. Maybe if he had left, if he hadn’t seen the barely veiled pleasure on Elena’s face when she’d turned around in front of the elevator, he might have listened to Mac.
Vaughn couldn’t stop this now. Didn’t even want to try.
Elena was too deep under his skin, and the more he tried to dig her out, the deeper she sank. He couldn’t take a breath without taking in the intoxicating scent of vanilla and rain-drenched blueberries, couldn’t flex a finger without wanting to touch her, couldn’t brush his lips against her skin without wanting to devour her.
She didn’t look away as he gathered one corner of her dress in his palm, dragging it up over her hip. The inside of her thigh trembled under the caress of his fingers, a burst of color flashing across the back of her shoulder.
He opened his mouth on the same spot, imagining her tracings warming her skin where she temporarily lost control of masking them. Did it happen every time she felt an attraction to someone or was she responding to the push-pull chemistry that continued to burrow deep inside him?
He kissed the fading tail of her mystical tattoos, wanting to unfurl the vanishing ivy and see where every twisting vine led. Did it curl low across her belly and disappear beneath the panties edged in lace trim?
He slipped a finger under the elastic of the fragile material that was already damp. “That didn’t take long,” he mouthed against her neck.
She turned her head, her cheek rubbing his. “You’ve got one more minute and then I’m done playing the submissive.”
“The world will grind to a halt the day you submit to anyone.”
And he loved that about her. She kept her hands on the wall because she wanted to, curious about what he had in mind. And when she wanted to turn around and touch him, there would be no stopping her.
He parted her slick folds, groaning at the slippery wetness that coated his fingers. “Have you thought about this? Have you woken from a dream, imagining me touching you like this?” He dragged his fingers along the crease.
Primal Bounty_Pendragon Gargoyles Page 11
