by Cynthia Eden
Damn him.
“Put your arms around me,” she snapped at him. “Pull me close. Hold me. Then lie to me and tell me that everything is okay.” Wasn’t that simple enough? Obvious enough? Wasn’t it—
He locked his arms around her. He pulled her as close as possible. Then he held her. His body was warm and strong against hers. His lips moved against the shell of her ear as he whispered, “Everything is okay.”
A choked sob slipped from her. Part sob. Part desperate laugh.
Just…desperate.
“It’s not a lie. I will make everything okay for you. I’m going to eliminate Eric. That was my mission. I’ll do it, I swear. “
She wanted to believe him. “Who’s in control of you?” Her head lifted so that she was staring up at him.
He gazed into her eyes. “I am.”
“Who has the stone?” Her heart jerked in her chest. “Is it Luke?” It had to be Luke. Luke had been the one to send Adam to her. He must be the one—
“I don’t know where the stone is. I hope the fucking thing was destroyed.”
Her eyes widened.
“The last time I saw it, Simon had it. But we both know what happened to him…”
He’s burning in hell right now.
“I searched that prison once I hauled my ass out of the ocean. See, I didn’t choose to vanish when the big battle was going down there. Leo grabbed me, snapped off my wings, and dropped me into the ocean.”
“And now you dropped him the same way.”
His lips stretched into a cold smile. “Payback is a bitch.”
Her breath caught. “Do you think he could have the stone?” No, no, if Leo had it, he would have used it on Adam.
“I’m hoping it was destroyed when Simon’s prison was attacked. I couldn’t find a trace of it there when I returned. So either it’s gone…”
“Or someone else took it.”
But he shook his head. “If someone had it, they would have used it by now. They would have summoned me. You don’t just keep a gargoyle waiting. No, I think it’s gone…”
She wanted to believe him. But Sabrina was very much afraid he was doing exactly what she’d just asked him to do. Hold me. Then lie to me and tell me that everything is okay. “If someone does have it…if someone uses it…what happens to you?”
A muscle jerked along the hard line of his jaw. “I go back to being a mindless puppet.”
Her heart hurt even more. Luke, if you’ve got his stone… “I want to help you.”
Adam blinked.
“There has to be a way to break the curse. Let me call my friend Cordelia. She’s the most powerful witch I’ve ever met. If anyone can break that spell, it’s her.”
“You…you really want to help me?”
“You didn’t ask for any of this.” She was pushing past her own pain right then because his pain was so strong. She could feel it, nearly bleeding from his pores. “You were trying to help someone.” Meredith. She’d be hating that woman for eternity. “You didn’t deserve this as payment.”
“And you didn’t deserve to have some psycho terrorizing you.”
“I want him stopped not because of what he’s done to me…but because of what he’s doing to the other women out there.” That was why she’d finally broken and gone to Luke. “Eric will keep killing, I know it. He has a taste for blood and pain, and he isn’t going to stop. He’s too smart, you see. Too smart for the cops to ever catch. Too smart for his victims to escape before he cuts them. He’s got all the power, and Eric loves that.”
“Then we take his power away.”
She licked her lips. He seemed so certain. So strong. Her hands rose and pressed to his bare chest. “Are there any other secrets that I should know about?”
He shook his head.
“You sure?” Sabrina pushed. “I mean, your witchy ex Meredith isn’t going to appear and come gunning for us both, is she?”
“Meredith is ash. After she…after she had me and my best friend Toren fight to the death, I killed her while she slept.”
Oh. Oh, shit.
“Luke was at my side. He made sure she didn’t wake. He also made sure the fire was hot enough that even a witch of her power wouldn’t survive.” He paused. “She burned the same way my sister burned.”
She was about to start crying again. No, wait, too late. She was crying. What was happening to her?
His hand rose and he wiped away her tears. “I thought a muse was supposed to be cold. That you lived to drive mortals to the brink of madness, and then you walked away.”
“That’s not who I am.” But it was what she was. She did bad things without intending to do them. Darkness followed wherever she walked. She eased back and took a long, hard look at Adam. “That’s why your aura looks the way it does. The shadow…it’s the gargoyle. And it covers the man completely. I can’t see you because he’s so strong.” I’m calling Cordelia. Whether he wants my help or not, he’s getting it. He’s suffered long enough. “There has to be more for you out there.”
“I think I’m looking at more.”
And he was staring at her. His gaze had heated. His face—she could see his need. The desire for her.
“Adam…”
He bent his head and kissed her. At first, the kiss was soft and tender. He could be tender. He was asking, not taking.
Her hands were still pressed to his chest. She could feel his heartbeat beneath her touch.
His tongue slipped between her lips. Thrust inside. Tempted her to respond to him. Tempted her to want him.
The way he wanted her.
Her eyes had closed. Her breasts—they tightened. They ached. Her hips moved restlessly against him. It was dangerous to go down this path. Sabrina knew it. Wanting him, giving in to that desire—the pleasure would just bind them together.
I already feel bound to him.
“I’ve never wanted a woman,” he whispered against her mouth, “the way I want you.”
Not even Meredith?
“Sabrina?”
She loved the way he said her name. He rasped it. Desire curled around the word. He made her name sound sexy and beautiful.
Her lashes lifted. Time for her turn to give him a truth. “I’ve never wanted a man the way I want you.” She wasn’t stroking his ego. Wasn’t trying to spin some web of seduction around him. Her words were the flat truth. His touch ignited her. His strength turned her on. And his pain…
It wrecks me.
Sabrina stood on her tip toes and kissed him. But she wasn’t gentle or tender. She was passionate. Demanding. And she wanted him the same way. His hands closed around her waist and he lifted her up, moving to pin her against the back door.
Strength…turn on.
Her legs locked around his hips. She could feel his cock pushing against the juncture of her thighs. Big, long, hard. She needed him to plunge inside. She was on a sensory overload, her emotions were careening out of control, and the fire of a powerful orgasm would blast everything out of her mind.
Pleasure…she could live in the moment. She could forget everything else, just for a short time.
Her shirt flew across the room. Had she taken it off? Had he? Didn’t matter. His mouth was pressing to her collar bone. He was kissing and licking her, and his powerful hold—seriously, he was lifting her with one hand—pushed her up so that he could better access her breasts.
She still had on her bra, but he kissed her through the soft fabric. Her nipples were so sensitive, and a surge of heat flew straight down to her sex. She was getting wet for him. Already. She’d been furious with him, she’d been hurt, and now…she needed.
Her reaction to him wasn’t normal. Sabrina knew that. She knew she should probably be scared of the way she responded to Adam.
But there wasn’t any time for fear. Her nails raked over his shoulders. “Fuck me, Adam. Right now.”
He growled. Animalistic. Hot.
Then he was easing her onto her feet. Wait—what?
He’d better not be stopping. But, no, he’d just lowered her so that he could strip away the rest of her clothes. And he did strip her, in pretty much record time. Then he was lifting her up again. Holding her and positioning her, and his jeans were open and the broad head of his cock came toward the entrance of her body.
He didn’t thrust inside of her. The head of his cock waited, stroking over her core but not plunging inside.
“Adam!” She squirmed against him. “What are you doing?”
“Look at me.”
Her gaze flew to his.
“I want you…the way I have never wanted another.”
Her breath heaved. Her sex quivered. Her body was so tight, her muscles aching. She was wet and ready and she wanted him inside of her…
And the way he was talking…the way he was staring at her as if she were the only thing that mattered in his entire world…
Sexy.
“I will never want another this way. Just you.”
Oh, wow, that was sweet, that was—
He thrust into her. Adam sank balls deep and a moan broke from Sabrina because he felt so incredibly, wonderfully good. Her legs locked tightly around his hips, and he used his hold on her waist to lift her up and down, moving her quickly, and every move seemed to push right over her clit. She was panting and pretty much clawing at him. He was driving into her with relentless force, and it was too much.
It was everything she’d ever wanted.
“Never…another…”
She kissed him. Sabrina came as she kissed him. Her sex contracted around him and the pleasure was so strong that she thought her heart might just stop. She thought the whole world had stopped spinning because the release just blasted straight through her…and seemed to destroy everything in its wake.
He pushed her back against the door, pinning her there with his body. His thrusts became even wilder, even harder, and she realized he was driving her toward another climax. The first hadn’t even ended, not fully, but she could feel another building. He was so big and thick inside of her, filling her completely. She couldn’t catch her breath. She couldn’t slow him down. She couldn’t slow herself down. She could only feel and feel and…
She came.
So did he. A hot tide of release that spilled inside of her. She squeezed him tight, holding him right there. She wanted that moment to last and last. Their time together, safe. So much pleasure.
Control was gone for them both. They were both fully exposed and as she stared into his eyes, she caught a glimpse of the man he’d been.
Tender. Kind.
A protector.
A literal freaking knight in shining armor.
Too bad that something bad had changed all that for him.
He pressed another kiss to her lips.
And too bad that she was just another bad thing that had happened to him, too.
Chapter Twelve
“What did the binding stone look like?” Sabrina’s voice was soft, but curious.
Adam glanced back at her. Struck, as always, by just how freaking gorgeous she truly was. Why couldn’t he get used to her beauty? To the brightness of her eyes? The full curve of her lips?
He rubbed his hand over his chest. They’d moved into the main section of the club—his club. He’d bought the place just a month ago, and he had such big plans. He wanted to renovate it all. Turn it into safe nightclub for the paranormals in the area. Hell, maybe he’d even let in humans, too. He wanted to put down roots in Miami. Wanted a home…
I want her.
She’d put her clothes back on. Covered the body that he loved to see. And he’d gotten the rest of his clothes, too. But his twitching dick told him that leaving the clothes off would have been a killer idea. Because he could have kept right on making love to Sabrina—
“Adam?” She waved her hand toward him. “Did you hear me? What did the binding stone look like?” She bit her lower lip.
He rolled back his shoulders. “Nothing special about it, appearance-wise. Had a red tint. Small enough to fit in a person’s fist. But it…I heard Simon say once that the rock was always warm. Always hot, like it had a charge to it.” He’d thought that Simon might have left the stone secured in the safe that the guy had at his prison in the Everglades, but, by the time Adam had returned, there hadn’t been any part of that safe left behind.
Her expression had turned determined. “I’m going to see if Cordelia can find it.”
Now he stiffened. “Sweetheart…” The endearment slipped from him. “I get that you’re trying to help me, but the last thing I want is for any witch to be anywhere near me or the binding stone that’s linked to my gargoyle.”
She took a tentative step toward him. “I understand but…she’s not like Meredith. Cordelia is—”
“No witch.” He wasn’t budging on this one.
Her eyes narrowed.
“The mission isn’t me. It’s you.” And he needed to focus on that. “I told you before that I’d be hunting Eric tonight, and that’s precisely what I intend to do. This place isn’t locked down to keep Eric and his goons out, not the way that the penthouse was, but with Leo flying around out there, hell, this seems like the safer bet.” They had enemies closing in from all directions. “I can transform into the gargoyle, and I’ll track Eric’s scent.” He tracked better as the gargoyle. Always. “I’ll hunt him down, and he’ll be dead by dawn.” One problem eliminated.
“Let me come with you. I can help.”
He shook his head. “If you come with me, you’ll just distract me.”
A furrow appeared between her brows.
Hell. He hadn’t meant his words as an insult. “I’ll be worried about you. Focused on protecting you. I need to be focused on—” Why not just say it? “Killing.”
Her long lashes swept down to hide her eyes. “I’m not so different from her, am I?”
Now he was lost.
“Your Meredith.”
First, she isn’t my anything.
“She wanted you to kill for her. To hunt for her. To protect her.” Her lashes lifted. Her eyes were so big and so deep. “And here I am getting you to do the same thing.”
But Adam shook his head. “You are nothing like her.”
“I’m bad, Adam. Believe me, I am.”
Okay, if that was the game she wanted to play. If she really wanted to try and pretend that she was a creature of darkness when he had started to see the truth about her…when he’d started to see her for exactly the woman that she truly was…“Tell me the worst thing you’ve ever done.”
She hesitated.
“Come now,” Adam chided. “You know my secrets. Shouldn’t I know yours?”
Sabrina eased out a slow breath. “Yes, I guess that is fair.” She swallowed. “The worst thing I ever did? I stared into a lover’s eyes…and I made him stab himself in the heart. I made him kill himself while I watched.”
Not what he’d expected. “Sabrina?”
But she’d turned away from him. “Like I said…” Her voice drifted back to him. “I’m not so different from your Meredith.” Her shoulders were stiff. “I’ll stay here. I won’t try to run away again. Just…go. It’s time for all of this to end.”
All of this…
Did she mean it was time for them to end? Because he wasn’t ready to end things with her. Not even close.
But he did have her psycho ex to deal with…and he’d sworn to take care of that problem. So Adam didn’t say another word as he headed for the stairs. He climbed them slowly, and his mind should have already been focused on his prey.
Yes, he should have been thinking about the coming attack.
But he kept thinking of Sabrina. And the pain that had been in her voice when she’d told him about her dead lover.
***
The nightclub’s windows were covered with boards. The front entrance was chained shut. From the outside, the place appeared deserted but…
“I think I see a light on in there,” Raymon
d murmured.
They were still in the back of the limo. The guards were still armed. Kevin was still bleeding. And Eric…
I found my Sabrina.
“We can’t just go storming in the place.” Raymond shifted in his seat. “Because if she’s in there—”
“She is,” Eric was certain. Her tracking signal had led him straight to that old club.
“Well, if she’s there, then so is the gargoyle. And unless we get lucky and take him while he’s human, the guy will just kill us all.”
Eric could practically smell the fear in the car. He glanced around as he considered his options.
Some people in that limo were expendable. Others weren’t. It was a lucky thing he’d already called in some back-up.
“He won’t touch us…not if we have her.” And that was the trick. Getting close enough to grab Sabrina. According to her signal, she was just past that entrance door. Ten feet inside. So close.
To get her, though, a few people would have to be sacrificed.
“Witch, can you distract him?” Eric barked.
Kevin’s mouth dropped open. “Wh-what? Why the hell would I want to do that?”
“Because if you don’t, I’ll put a bullet in your head?” Or rather, one of his guards would. “I’m thinking if you go out there, you throw a little of your magic at him…”
Kevin swayed.
Eric smiled and finished. “Given the guy’s history with witches, I’m betting it will piss him off. He’ll come at you, and that will give us the chance to get Sabrina. Once I have her, I’ll get her to call off her attack dog.”
“Interesting plan,” Raymond said, inclining his head. “You gonna make her give you the stone?”
Kevin shot his step-brother a surprised glance. Then the witch turned his attention back to Eric.
“If she has it, then absolutely,” Eric replied smoothly.
“Um…” Kevin cleared his throat. “What happens if the gargoyle kills me before you get Sabrina?”
Another vehicle slid in behind them. Back-up, perfectly on time.
“I’ll have plenty of guards around you. They’ll be firing on the gargoyle as soon as we see him. When they start shooting, you duck. Between the bullets and the spells, that should be enough of a distraction to get her.” Total bullshit answer. Eric didn’t really give a flying fuck what happened to the witch.
