Never mind that he’d admitted to creating a revolutionary program to break passwords. Didn’t the boy understand the implications of that? He damn sure hadn’t thought about the liability for Dominic or Poseidon if it was ever used to steal anything from another computer system.
He was only fifteen. Just a kid. Brilliant—and naïve. Josh was Bradley’s find, his shining star who’d taken their code to a new level. Bradley would be furious, feeling about Lexie as he did, to know that Josh had what appeared to be a major crush on her.
How would she react if Dominic confronted her about her visits with Josh, if he asked her intentions?
The Lexie he’d met that one magic day seemed so fresh, so real. Barely more sophisticated than Josh.
But the Lexie whose gaze was filled with guilt? The Lexie whose unease around him led to questions?
There were so many questions Dominic wanted to have answered. If he’d never known Celia, he would have just asked them. But once a man learns that he can’t trust his heart, he gets a little gun-shy of asking what’s in another’s.
Did he really want to know if Lexie had come after the Poseidon job by accident or by design? Was Bradley right that his desire for her was clouding his mind? Could he live with himself if he found out she’d duped him?
Could he live with himself if he didn’t know?
He cursed, long and low, and buried his face in his hands. He stayed there for a moment, fighting for air.
Then he lifted his head and stared at his reflection in the dark glass.
You’ve never been a coward before, Nikos. Go ask her.
The turbulence in the air reflected that in Lexie’s heart. A cold front was on its way south, but for now, the humidity hung like damp laundry. Since she loved to watch a storm build, Lexie had opened the doors of the dome, leaving only the screen doors between herself and the outdoors. In deference to the heat, she’d stripped to her silk chemise, which barely brushed the tops of her thighs.
She prowled the interior, Rosebud cuddled in her arms. As she scratched the cat’s jaw, Lexie tried to cope with Josh’s revelations, with Max’s confirmation that the innocent Josh’s password decoding program could have been used by anyone—including Dominic. That the mysterious code could be Max’s.
And what of Dominic? Even if she could prove that he didn’t know, the fact remained that she’d spied on him, plain and simple. How would he stomach that?
And what about that kiss? What about the hunger, the insane desire to forget everything she’d learned, to ignore everything but how something in him called to something deep inside her? Even now, knowing what she did, knowing how easy she was to dupe, she could not find it in herself to care.
Could not forget him.
Ragged from lack of sleep, raw from the unabated hunger she felt for one man, nerves frayed by turmoil, Lexie was desperate to escape. “Music, Rosebud. We need music.” She looked over her selections. She considered soothing, then rejected the idea. No classical, no Sade. Maybe bluesy ballads, Teddy Pendergrass, Luther Vandross. No. Her mood matched the weather—edgy and turbulent.
Melissa Etheridge. Soon the raw, smoky sounds of Melissa’s voice filled the dome with sensuous, poignant, aching need.
“Come on, Rosie. I’m too raw to eat, and sleep is out of the question. Let’s dance, girly cat. Let’s just dance.” She began to move around the room, losing herself in the painful glory of someone else’s desperate longing. She hoped it was a hell of a storm tonight.
Dominic threw down his book in disgust. He’d read the same sentence five times.
He stared out toward the Austin skyline, the distant lightning matching his mood.
Finally, his jaw tight, he shoved his feet into deck shoes and stalked to the garage, climbing into his Jaguar, burning rubber as he left.
He left a message for Ariana that he didn’t know when he’d be back but not to worry. He gripped the steering wheel tightly, the jagged edge of hunger gnawing at his insides as he wished the miles away.
It took two wrong turns for him to finally find the right road. When he turned down the drive leading to the dome, he wondered if she’d hear his engine and run out the back to escape him.
As he parked, he glanced up at the building thunderheads. A blue norther headed this way. The weather suited his disposition: full of heat and turbulence. Charged. Crackling. Unpredictable.
When he stepped out of the car, he knew his worries about her hearing amounted to nothing. Her sound system was cranked up to a level that probably meant she’d heard nothing at all. He stopped for a moment to identify the sound.
Melissa Etheridge. Hot and sensuous music. Perfect.
He couldn’t stand still a moment longer. Ready or not, wise or not, he had to see Lexie.
Had to touch Lexie.
He walked to the open door. And halted dead in his tracks to watch her.
Like a kick in the gut, the sight of her hit him hard. Dancing with the cat, head thrown back, long, slender throat arched and exposed, clad only in deep violet curve-hugging silk.
Watching those hands stroke Rosebud’s fur and remembering them on his own skin…seeing her eyes closed, her hips swaying…he itched to touch her. Craving rocketed through him—no slow syrupy desire, but raw, jagged desperation.
He opened the screen door and stepped inside.
She sensed his presence and whirled to face him.
The storm’s energy intensified as lightning cracked the night. Thunder rumbled in the distance.
Lexie clasped the cat before her like armor. Her eyes widened, her pupils huge as she saw him standing in her doorway. She didn’t speak.
Her longings came to life before her. Power and magic blazed around him.
Sweat dampened his T-shirt, clinging to every muscle. Razors of desire sliced through her, treacherous and deep, as she imagined licking up each rivulet of salty promise.
Dominic’s nostrils flared as her scent drifted to him on the quickening breeze. His gaze devoured the gentle swell of her breasts as lace curved to barely cover her nipples, plunging into the sweet valley between, disappearing behind the cover of the cat held before her like a shield.
She was going to need better protection than a cat.
He stepped forward, propelled by raw hunger too long denied. Driven by dreams of rapture. Heated to a burning pitch by the ache of trying to deny what was real.
He was real. She was real. They were here, together, on this storm-tossed night. He would sort it all out later. For now, he had to touch her or lose his mind.
He stalked her like the predator he was.
“Nikos—Dominic—” She held up her hand like that would stop him.
“Nikos,” he rumbled, moving closer.
She skirted a chair, placing it between them. “We have to talk.”
“Not now.” He closed in on her, sure steps leading him to what he now knew was inevitable.
If Lexie didn’t understand that, he would show her.
She retreated again. Rosebud yowled.
“Put the cat down, Lexie. She can tell what’s going to happen, even if you are too stubborn to admit it.”
Her nostrils flared. Her eyes sparked in temper.
But she let the cat go.
He found himself smiling.
She didn’t smile back. “I don’t know you, Nikos. I don’t know who you are.”
“No words. Not now. Words are the enemy.” He reached out, sliding his fingers into her hair as he drew her close. “Touch me. We will talk, but right now I have to touch you.” He lowered his head, his breath whispering across her lips. “Let me back into the magic. Forget everything but who we were that night.” His eyes were dark with pain and longing and hunger.
Every fiber in her being craved that, too, desperate to go back to the magic.
But Max… “Nikos, I can’t—” Her voice trailed to a whisper as she studied him.
He looked so tired, so careworn. The wolf standing outside the fire, hungry an
d alone. She thought of all of the people who depended on him. Her own doubts crowded in, the sense she’d had from the first that he was special, that he could be the one—
She touched his face. Cupped her hand on his jaw.
He exhaled as if weary to the bone. “I need you, Lexie.” She was startled to realize that even this indomitable man could be vulnerable, that the lone wolf needed rest, needed solace.
Nothing could have moved her more. Again her instinct that he knew nothing of the theft reared its head. The man before her was not a thief—in her heart she knew that as deeply as she’d known anything. And she’d told Max what she knew. Max himself had begged her not to take this on her shoulders any longer, assuring her that he had enough to take it from here.
Sweet, slow, molasses-thick longing swirled through her veins. She needed him, too.
He brushed her lips with his thumb, murmuring something in a mixture of languages, something raspy and impossibly erotic.
When she opened herself to him, winding her arms around his neck, he groaned his hunger and despair.
As he drew her sweetness into him and drank from the clear waters of her generous heart, he pulled her into him, wrapping his arms tightly, wanting to absorb her.
He lifted his mouth just a fraction. “I am starving. Let me have you.” He growled a warning. “Hold back nothing. I want it all.”
The dam burst within her. Rushing waters of desire surged and overran all her reasons, all her questions. She let need deluge her, drench her, pressing her body so closely to his that she could feel his sweat soaking into her skin. With what small movement he allowed her, she brushed her breasts along the hard wall of his muscled chest.
He jolted, battled to go slow when he wanted to feast, to plunder. He wrapped chains around the greed, keeping his mouth away from hers to torture hot kisses over every inch of her skin.
Not close enough, Dominic anguished. He’d never get close enough. His hands slid over the smooth curve of her hip, cradling her sassy behind as he drew her against him, aroused to a fever of jagged, piercing need.
Greedy, yet dying to make it last, he ground his jaw, sucking in air in a desperate bid for control. He pulled his hands away for a shuddering, dangerous moment and struggled to slow down.
“Lexie…I need you too much.” He had to touch her. Had to. He took one finger of each hand and slid them under the straps of her chemise, gripping hard to a composure fraying worse with every moment that passed. As he slid the straps off her shoulders, he placed a gentle kiss where each one had touched her delicate skin.
Lexie was having none of his self-denial. She all but crawled over him inch by inch, her nails digging into his skin as she responded to the depth of his hunger.
The chains snapped.
Dominic gave up all pretense of restraint. He devoured her mouth with his own, while he scooped her up in his arms, never breaking the kiss. He tore himself away for one desperate moment and growled, “Which bed?”
“Outside.”
With no hesitation, she chose the one which would bring them closer to the storm. They would be surrounded by an energy field almost as strong as the one that crackled and flashed between them.
He grinned, the slash of white teeth brilliant against his bronzed skin. “Ah, Lexie, you’d make a good pirate yourself.” He covered the ground quickly, coming to a halt out on the porch, where they contemplated the majesty of the thundering sky.
But not for long.
No longer trying to fight their deepest longings incited hearts full of desire too long suppressed. Fears of the future added gasoline to the intensity of the flames.
Lexie’s skin rippled with goosebumps as the quickening breeze stirred. She released herself to the man she craved, letting his kisses follow the wind as it caressed her body.
Gently, ever so gently, he laid her on the swinging bed, slowly rocking it as he stood beside it, knowing his heart was in his eyes. Her own generous heart welcomed him into her arms, soothing and healing the pain that had not ceased since he’d left here so few days, yet eons ago.
As he drew the silk down her body, he covered each inch with cherishing kisses. He’d never felt such raw need or ached with such tenderness. He filled his hands with her flesh; he stroked her satin skin, soothed and aroused with his tongue. But over it all, beyond anything he’d experienced, the night glistened with something stronger, richer. Something he didn’t dare name.
Lexie’s skin burned, it thrilled, it wept at his touch. His hot tongue, his silken kisses, the whisper of the wind as it skimmed her flesh, all galvanized her, sent her soaring. The storm within her matched the building fury of the storm outside—and Nikos was the sorcerer, calling fire from the sky. His strong hands spread her open before him, ranged over her as his fingers traced her hidden folds, sliding within her deepest secrets. When he lowered his head, licks of fire danced over her nerves. When she felt the first sultry touch against her most sensitive flesh, she writhed in a longing so strong it was painful.
“Nikos…Nikos…” Her head rocked from side to side as the bed rocked beneath her. She lost her bearings in the unspeakable bliss. Dizzying rapture overcame her, exquisite ripples of pleasure turning her blind and deaf to all but the glory.
Dark satisfaction filled Dominic as he watched her fly on the wings of delight. It was almost enough to give this to her. He could almost ignore the inferno inside him—somehow giving to her had become more important than satisfying himself.
Until she opened her eyes and the heat of her gaze drew him down to burn with her, turn to ashes in the red hot blaze. She tore at his clothing, all but tearing off his shirt.
Then she smiled her own pirate’s smile. Ran her fingers over his chest, her gaze greedy.
She rose and shoved him to his back, her quick fingers sliding beneath the waistband of his shorts, fumbling a little as she drew down the zipper.
Took him in her hands and made him gasp.
Then she teased and made him groan, nails grazing over his body like lazy cat claws, both promise and danger.
“Lexie…” he warned.
She arched a flirting eyebrow, slicking her tongue over her lush lips, then trailed one long, sizzling wet path down his belly, one torturous dip into his navel. As she nipped with her teeth, she soothed with her tongue, all the time letting her nails torment and delight. When she took him into her mouth, his whole body shuddered.
The storm clouds built. Lightning exploded at her back as the sorceress lured him into her spell.
He stood the vicious torment as long as he could. When she threw her head back and laughed in delight at his growl, he grasped her waist and lifted her, holding them both on the tantalizing cliff’s edge.
Their gazes locked, and time literally stopped.
There were no words for what he felt in his heart. What he saw in her eyes.
Her lips trembled as she placed a finger on his mouth. He sucked gently upon that long, delicate finger for an endless moment too precious to last.
He drove his fingers into her hair, brought her to him for a reverent kiss.
Then he let go, crazed to have her, to claim her. All he could see was her, all he could feel. “I want it all,” he growled. “Everything you have.”
She lifted trembling hands to stroke his brow, and Dominic knew then that he would consign the rest of his life to the flames of hell to keep her, if that’s what it took. He never let his gaze leave hers as he reached deep within his own heart to find the man worthy of this woman’s generous spirit.
The heavens crashed around them, and he drove within her like a man possessed.
Lexie gripped him tightly, wrapping those long legs around his waist as she feasted greedily on his mouth. The sky lit up with flares of lightning; the thunder matched the roaring of their blood.
She sobbed as she shattered; he poured himself into her, murmuring her name. As Lexie and Dominic found their way back to their own private paradise, the heavens opened up.
Chapter Ten
Her head pillowed on his chest, Lexie slept against him, boneless as an innocent child. Outside, the fierce storm had blown itself out, a gentle, steady rain falling, the air blessedly cool for the first time in months.
The breeze whispered across the patio. Goosebumps rose on her skin, and he drew her closer, rolling them to cover her with his body to keep her warm. He pressed a kiss to her hair, his heart too full. He ached. He wanted. Reason and regret danced a ragged two-step and wouldn’t be brushed aside.
He shouldn’t have come. She was everything he’d remembered—and more. Both generous and greedy, she’d responded to his touch as though made only for him, eager with a need that matched his own as if she felt the same desperation to return to the bliss they’d once shared—
Before it was lost to them forever.
Desperation. Guilt. Longing. They had been there in the green eyes, in the clutch of fingers, in the depths of her kiss.
He didn’t want to know.
But he had no choice.
Dominic wanted nothing more than to lock them both away forever in Lexie’s magical kingdom, the only place he’d ever found peace.
But duty called.
Beneath him, she stirred and sighed softly. His fingers tightened in response. Casting away reality for another moment, he bent his head to nuzzle her throat, smiling against the hum of her pleasure.
“Mmmm…” She sighed again, one graceful arm stretching above her head.
He lifted his head, greeted by sparkling green eyes. Gently, almost reverently, he brushed a kiss over her lips. “Good morning.”
She smiled, and it was like the sun breaking out. “Good morning.”
Then her phone rang.
Lexie groaned. Dominic cursed. “Leave it.”
She smiled. “Okay.” Slender fingers slid into his hair—
The ringtone stopped. Immediately started again. She stiffened. “That’s Max’s ringtone—” She sat up quickly. “Normally he’d leave a message.” She turned to him. “I’m sorry, I have to—”
Texas Magic Page 13
