by Patti O'Shea
“I’m wearing heels.” And there was no way she was running through Los Angeles barefoot.
“That doesn’t matter. Come on.”
“Doesn’t matter. That’s easy for you to say,” she muttered, but thinking about facing the giant green demon again was enough to stop any more comment. Her feet would recover. Probably.
They started out at a jog, but before she realized it, the world around her had blurred. She gripped Marax’s hand tightly. Knowing demons had preternatural speed and discovering she could actually attain that velocity herself were two different things. She decided not to think about that or she’d start freaking out. “Do you want directions to my apartment?”
“We’re not going there,” Marax said. As if sensing her question, he added, “There’s a possibility the galghoan could trail us by following the wisps of personal energy we leave behind. It’s better if we don’t lead him to your home.”
“Where are we going then?” she asked.
He grinned and looked over at her. Chloe felt her cheeks heat as well as a couple of other areas. She recognized that smile and knew what it meant.
“Let’s find a hotel room, have a few rounds of adrenaline-charged sex and then figure out what our next move is,” he said.
Yep, she’d read Marax exactly right.
Chapter Six
Marax took a moment to look around the hotel suite—marble fireplace, tiled floor, grand piano, French doors opening out onto a balcony—and his lips curved. This was more like it. Not that the accommodations at Infinity had been horrible. Considering.
Chloe wandered out of the bedroom and his heart beat faster as she came back over to him. “No luggage, looking like this—” She shook her head. “I can’t believe they let us in the hotel let alone rented us this suite.”
“Money talks,” he said calmly. She’d seen how the attitude had changed the instant he’d pulled out his black credit card. “And it’s LA.”
“True.” She stepped away, then stopped and turned. “I felt like everyone behind the desk could tell I wasn’t wearing any panties and I was thinking, wow, if you only knew how I lost them.” She smiled, but her cheeks were red. “Then I remembered what happened after you tore them off me and I decided it was worth it.”
As he recalled her kneeling on the chair, naked except for her heels after he’d gotten rid of the thong, Marax had to agree. He felt his skin heat and tried to push the image from his mind.
They had a lot to talk about and he had no business thinking about Chloe being bare under her dress. Or recalling that she was tight enough to squeeze his cock so good, or how much he loved her taste. He cleared his throat. “This is the land of movie stars. No panties is probably tame even for this place.”
“Let me have my delusions of being wild, okay?” She laughed quietly. “For me, this is scandalous behavior.”
Chloe drifted off again, headed to the balcony this time and Marax sighed. One nice thing about the room at Infinity was how small it had been. He didn’t know if it was adrenaline or if his desire had her uneasy, but whatever it was, she couldn’t seem to settle in one place. He followed her outside.
Her hands rested on the railing and she leaned forward slightly, as if trying to get a better view. The position highlighted her gorgeous ass and Marax was struck by a need to go to her, bend her forward, and take her from behind. He stepped toward her before he remembered Chloe didn’t want to be on display and this was far too public. It took him longer to regain his control than he liked, but as soon as he had it, he went to her.
Marax stopped beside Chloe and leaned his hips against the railing, facing the hotel. “We have things to talk over,” he said.
She let out a long sigh. “Too many things. I don’t know if I’m ready to deal with it all, not tonight.”
He felt the same way, but there were a couple of items that couldn’t wait. That the number one subject wasn’t how the hell they’d ended up mated told Marax how far gone he was. “Yeah, I know, but answer something for me. What did you do while I was fighting the galghoan? One minute I was worn down and the next my powers were not only back at full strength, but over and above that. You were involved with it.”
Chloe didn’t glance his way. “Every wizard has a special innate skill, something that few others have. My talent is the ability to amplify powers—not only mine, but also the power of others that I choose to include in my circle.”
“What’s your demon power?”
“I don’t have any demon powers.”
“Yes, you do. Whatever you have might not be as strong as a full demon’s, but they’re there.”
She looked at him blankly.
“Do you know where we draw from?” Marax asked.
“It looks like a lake, right?”
That wasn’t its true appearance, but it was one of the most common ways it was described. “A lot of demons see it like that. Have you tried using that source?”
“A few times. Good enough?”
Not really, but they had more important matters to cover. “On that subject, yes, but before I can take you back to bed, we need to discuss why you were angry at me earlier.”
“I’m angry with you now. Present tense.” Finally, she looked at him. “You lied to me and you used me.”
“No,” Marax denied immediately. “You might consider it a lie of omission, but that’s not how it was. The instant you were near enough to talk to, lust kicked into high gear. All I could think about was having you and nothing else mattered at that moment, not my nephew or your sister.”
She shifted, crossed her arms over her chest, and glared. “But you did use me? I notice you didn’t deny that.”
“That’s a little gray.” The admission made him uneasy, but he owed her the truth. “I noticed you immediately, but I followed you around the club because I saw the picture of your sister you were showing others and I knew that was the wizard I’d been sent to find.”
“Why did you think Olivia would be at the club?” Chloe’s voice gave nothing away.
“I had nowhere else to start searching.” He shrugged. “I’d hoped she was a regular and that she’d be willing to sell me the antidote.” That got him a stronger glare. “You know wizards have a reputation for being opportunistic.”
“Those are wizards who’ve splintered off. The main groups don’t sell potions or amulets to demons or vampires.”
Interesting. He’d thought rogues were strictly a vampire problem; he hadn’t realized the wizards had their own to deal with, as well. “Is your sister considered one of those outlaws?”
Chloe lost the militancy in her posture. “Not yet, but she’s headed in that direction. That’s if she doesn’t get expelled first.”
Marax reached out and took one of her hands. “I’m sorry.”
She laced their fingers and turned to sit next to him on the rail. “Tell me how you ended up at the club tonight. Your grace,” she tacked on.
It was Marax’s turn to sigh. “I told you I was head of my family. The title comes with the responsibilities.”
“You’re a lord?”
“No, an earl.” He definitely didn’t want to talk about this. Marax returned them to the track that would—hopefully—get him some more sex with Chloe. “My nephew, Agares, and some of his friends went out last night to celebrate. Two of them came back with green skin after your sister doctored the round of drinks he’d bought. According to him, he did nothing to provoke this.”
“Nothing to provoke it?” Chloe was fired up again and the passion in her expression, in her eyes made him remember the way she’d looked as she’d ridden him.
“You don’t need to come out swinging—no one believed him.” Marax shifted close enough to Chloe that their shoulders brushed. “And since I’m the one who’s had to deal with Agares’s attitude most often over the last year, I have no doubt he was obnoxious and deserved the lesson he received.”
Chloe studied him, shook her head and said, “Olivia is n
o innocent in this thing, either. I know that. Just the fact she was carrying that potion with her to begin with tells me she was up to no good.”
“Why did you get involved in all this?” Marax asked.
“Because Olivia called me and I’ve always raced to my sister’s rescue.” She turned toward him, her knee bumping his thigh. “What got you mixed up in this? You had to know the potion will wear off in a few weeks.”
Marax heard the question, but her skirt had ridden up, and while she wasn’t exposed, it was a near thing. His attention was riveted, hoping the dress would go a little higher. It didn’t matter. Blood roared in his ears as it rushed to his cock. “Open—” His voice came out thick and he had to clear his throat. “Open your legs for me, Chloe.”
“What?” From the corner of his eye, he watched her look down, and with a growl, she tugged her dress toward her knees. “We’re talking, remember?”
She would have sounded more forbidding without the breathlessness, but it did remind him that they needed to finish this conversation. Marax had to force himself to meet her gaze. “I know. You have to admit the view was distracting, though.” She scowled and he shrugged. “How’d I get involved with the search for your sister—that was the question, right?”
“Yep. I would think an earl had underlings he could send on such a mission.”
That was the second time she’d brought up his title. It appeared as if that needed to be a topic of conversation, as well. He added it to the list he had running in his head and worked on answering her. “In six days’ time there’s a ceremony scheduled, one that Agares will take part in.” Marax thought about explaining what the ritual was for, but decided that would take them off on a tangent and the information wasn’t that important. “The boy’s grandmother was adamant that he look normal for it and that I handle it personally.”
“The boy’s grandmother?”
He nodded. “That would be my mother, the dowager countess. I don’t know how familiar you are with demon protocols, but given her position, I had no choice except to do as she asked.” Chloe didn’t respond, but he scented her arousal. He followed her gaze and discovered she was staring at his hard-on. “I didn’t lie to you and I didn’t use you,” Marax said urgently. “You feel the overwhelming need the same as I do. You get lost in the desire the same as I do. You know I’m telling you the truth.”
“I don’t like losing my self-control.”
“And you think I do?”
“But you’re a demon.” Chloe had a faint red glow in her eyes, he was certain of it.
“So are you.”
“No, I’m—”
“You’re only part wizard.” Marax stood and gently tugged Chloe to her feet. “The rest of you is demon whether you like it or not.”
“I only let her loose for one night.”
It wasn’t that easy, but he didn’t tell her that. “The night’s not over yet, is it?” She shook her head. “Then let’s not waste the remaining hours.”
Chloe stared at him and then nodded. “You’re right.”
And she was the one who pulled him inside, through the suite and into the bedroom.
Chapter Seven
Marax had a split second to take in the navy and white bedroom decor and the fact that Chloe had left the two bedside lamps on before she pushed him against the wall and kissed him. If she wanted to be the aggressor, he’d find enough control to let her hold that role. Whatever her fantasy was, he wanted to give it to her.
He held her hips and followed her lead, but when she ended the kiss, Chloe stepped back and looked at him expectantly. Maybe he was wrong about what she wanted.
With a quick movement, he switched their positions and slid his thigh between her legs. “You mentioned wanting to do it standing up. Do you still feel that way? Tell me what you want—anything, and I’ll give it to you.”
“I want…” Chloe’s voice trailed off, but he waited. “I want you to fuck me like I’m some demon you picked up in a bar.”
Wild.
He only heard the one word in his head, but it fell into place. She’d made some comment earlier about wanting to pretend to be wild. “You are some demon I picked up in a bar,” Marax told her. “You didn’t know anything about me except my name when you sucked my cock.”
Before going further, he took a minute to study Chloe, to make sure this was really what she wanted. If he’d guessed wrong, he could fix it by telling her the truth, that her behavior with him was tied to their being mates. Marax relaxed when he knew he hadn’t made a mistake. Her lips had parted, her breathing was faster than it had been, and that red glow he sometimes caught in her eyes was there. This was her fantasy—to be bad.
“You let a stranger eat your pussy.” He raised his leg higher, the material of his slacks grazing her bare sex. “More than let. You grabbed my hair and held me there.”
Chloe reached for him, but Marax used his hands to pin her wrists to the wall on either side of her head. “Marax!”
“No. You’re a bad girl.” She made a noise of dissent. “Really? Do you think a good girl wraps her hand around the cock of a man she’s known less than half an hour and guides it inside her body? Do you think a good girl would ride me like I was her own personal fuck toy?” Marax bit her chin, before kissing away the sting and nibbling his way to her ear. “I came inside you,” he murmured softly. “You’re so wicked, you allowed a demon you just met to come deep inside you.”
Marax pushed his leg higher, and with a gasp, Chloe ground her sex against his thigh. Her wetness seeped through the fabric of his trousers, but he let her make another shimmy before he broke contact. He cut off her protest with a kiss.
Her tongue nudged his lips, and when he opened for her, Chloe surged inside. There was frenzy, desperation in the way she took his mouth and Marax reveled in it. Long before he was ready, he ended the kiss and moved back. She took a step toward him, but he stopped her with a gesture. “I want to look at you,” he told her. The thickness of his voice didn’t surprise him. He was so hard he hurt, but arousing Chloe got him hot.
She was a delicious mess. Her hair was disheveled, her lips were red and slightly swollen, and have mercy, the skirt of her dress was high enough for him to see the lips of her sex. “Turn around,” he ordered.
“What?”
He made a spinning gesture with his hand and said, “Give me your back.”
Slowly, Chloe complied. He could have told her that she was as beautiful from this side as she was from the front, but she didn’t want pretty words from him. Not right now. He tugged her skirt up to her waist and took a moment to study her exposed bottom. When he noticed her looking over her shoulder, watching him, his cock jerked. “Eyes forward. I didn’t grant you permission to turn your head.” He gave her a light swat and nearly lost it when she stuck out her ass, asking for more.
Spanking wasn’t one of his kinks, but he gave her a couple more gentle smacks after she faced the wall. He wondered if she’d be disappointed when she learned that most of the time he was almost as straitlaced as she was. Maybe not. Marax had a feeling that this was going to be an occasional game for them, not something she’d want from him regularly. He could live with that.
“Stand up straight.” When she did, he lowered the zipper on the back of her dress. Moving farther away, he said, “I want you naked, but leave the heels on.”
She teased him. Unmercifully. Chloe swayed and shimmied and turned, alternately concealing and flashing her breasts and ass at him. Marax felt sweat run past his temple. He began silently chanting demon philosophical principles in an effort to hang on to his control, but he wasn’t sure how much help it was, not when his mate was far more interesting than the Philosophy of Korig.
By the time her dress hit the carpet, the need to press Chloe up against the wall, lower the zipper of his pants, and shove his cock inside her was so overwhelming that he could almost see it in his mind’s eye, he could almost feel his— And then he caught on; she’d found a m
ind-path between them and was trying to incite him. “I told you that you were bad,” Marax said. He could barely get the words out. “You don’t get to call the shots, remember?”
“I want you now,” she told him.
He shook his head and damned if she didn’t slide her hand between her legs and start playing with her clit. As much as he liked this, he said, “No.” He moved close enough to give her ass a quick swat and ordered, “Link your fingers behind your head, feet shoulder-width apart, and stand at attention.”
Chloe obeyed quickly. Her nipples were hard and Marax couldn’t help but run his thumb over one of them. She was arching to press herself into his palm before he could make himself stop touching her. He walked to the other side of the room, hoping the distance would help him hang on to his control, but he couldn’t keep from staring at her.
He didn’t want to be mated. Not yet and certainly not now. But all things considered, it could be worse. Chloe was beautiful. The blazing red hair, the deep brown eyes, those full lips. He had to fight off the memory of them wrapped around his cock before he could continue. Her body was nicely curved, but lean and lithe, a little bonier than the women who usually caught his attention, but damn she was fine and he definitely liked how she responded to him.
It wasn’t only her physical attributes he liked, although given the circumstances, no one could blame him for focusing on those first. Chloe was loyal to the people she cared about. Why else would she rush to try to help her sister? She didn’t fall apart when the chips were down or turn into a screaming idiot. She’d also been smart enough to stay behind him and not try to take on a much larger and far more powerful demon. The thought of her attempting to fight the galghoan, of having to wade in and rescue her from that kind of stupidity, made him doubly glad he had a mate who could think through situations and apply common sense.
“You like that I cowered behind you?” Chloe sounded surprised, disgusted with herself, and breathless.
“You didn’t cower, you—” Well, hell. He’d been transmitting his thoughts to her. “When did you tune in?”
