INFLAME: (a gargoyle shifter and witch romance) (Underground Encounters Book 8)

by Lisa Carlisle

  Elise lifted her head to stare at Marguerite. It was astonishing that somehow she could act childish and as unyielding as her stone form one minute and so grown up the next—especially after all the most recent outbursts. But, that was part of growing up, right?

  “I appreciate you understanding,” Elise said. “But, it doesn’t make any sense to start anything when we’re leaving next week.”

  “Why not?” Marguerite responded. “That’s what I’m doing here with him–trying to build a relationship. And hopefully it can continue after we leave. Why can’t you do the same? I may know little about romantic relationships, but if you two want to be together, you should be together.”

  Marguerite had a point by summarizing it so simply. But, it was bound to be more complicated than that. Pining for someone an ocean away would lead to heartache, wouldn’t it?

  Elise gave a carefree wave that belied the turmoil churning within, like she’d mixed an explosive mix of ingredients into a cauldron. “Let’s just enjoy the day and see what happens.”

  Lucan returned to them with a pleased smile. He handed them each a bag of the delicious scented roasted nuts. “For the loveliest ladies around.”

  Her heart skittered the way it often did when she’d see him. “Merci.”

  When she took the bag, her fingers brushed his and the familiar shocks heated her. Had she been the one to make that happen? Or had he?

  She glanced up and caught his gaze. The familiar jitters churned inside. She could feel Marguerite’s eyes on them and practically sense her holding in a grin.

  Elise tried to keep from sneaking glances at him that way for the rest of the afternoon, but, it was difficult. It happened far too often as they wandered through the various levels of the aquarium, observing the penguins, fish, turtles, and sharks in their tanks. Now that she was aware that Marguerite was privy to all these heated looks, she had to resist doing so.

  After they shared two enormous pizzas from an Italian restaurant in the North End, they polished it off with cannoli. After they returned to Salem, Elise suggested walking off their meal with an evening tour.

  Marguerite said, “I’m tired after walking all day. I’ll go back to the hotel room and watch a movie and you two can stay out,” she added with a ghost of a smile.

  Lucan suggested, “Your uncles could come and keep you company.”

  Marguerite put her hand on her hips. “You mean keep an eye on me.” She clucked her tongue. “Sure, I deserve that. But, yeah, why not? I mean, they are my uncles.”

  She’d warmed up to his brothers right away, a much different reaction to when he’d met her.

  When Lucan contacted his brothers, Danton was busy with a shift as a bouncer at Vamps that night, but Mattias was happy to head on over.

  Marguerite grinned and shooed with her hand. “Go and have fun with the tour. I’ll be fine.”

  Elise’s heart pounded. She felt as awkward as a girl of Marguerite’s age being alone with a boy for the first time. The feeling continued during the tour, which was exacerbated by the spooky vibe the tour guide used to heighten the suspense. With it being Salem, he wove several dark secrets into the locations. When he pointed out a location of a gruesome murder, she moved closer to Lucan. He took her hand and caressed her palm. With their hands joined, somehow everything in the world seemed right again. She’d seen him take on vampires to defend her and Marguerite. His protective nature wasn’t stifling at all, but comforting.

  He steered her away from the tour and off to a side road.

  “Where are we going?” she asked.

  “I’d rather be alone with you, Elise, than share you with a bunch of strangers.”

  She took a deep breath and turned to face him. “I want that, too.”

  “It’s been a perfect day. Not only because I was able to spend time with Marguerite.” He searched around the area and ran his fingers through his hair. He shuffled from one foot to the other. “And I know I probably shouldn’t say this, but much of that is because I’ve been able to be close to you.”

  Her heart did that little jolting again. She hadn’t told him what Marguerite had said. Should she? Gods, she wanted to step closer to him and be the one running her fingers through his hair. Run her hand down his cheek and stroke his jaw while she gazed into his eyes. And then lean up to kiss him.

  But, did it make sense to stir more agitators into an already combustible cauldron when they would be leaving soon?

  She exhaled with a shaky sigh. “I know what you mean. I’ve been wonderfully happy spending time with you and Marguerite.”

  He searched her and squinted. “Is it because Marguerite and I have been getting on closer?”

  “Partially,” she said. “But it’s more than that. I feel the same way about you.”

  He appraised her with a searching gaze. She felt exposed. Her breath quickened and pulse raced. Each word she said, each touch of her fingers, seemed to reveal her innermost desires. If she couldn’t hide them from Marguerite, would they be just as evident to him?

  Lucan took a step closer, into her personal space, all the while studying her reaction as if waiting for her to retreat. But, still, his presence wasn’t close enough.

  He cupped her chin and tilted it, so she was forced to look at him. “I know I shouldn’t say this, and I know she might hate me for doing so, but I can’t go another minute without admitting how I feel.”

  Words. She should find words to respond. She should at least tell him what Marguerite had said earlier, but how could she put them into a coherent sentence when her insides had melted?

  “She won’t,” she managed.

  He squinted and dropped his hand. “What?”

  The sudden absence of his hand on her skin stung her as cold. She wanted him touching her.

  “When—umm—when we were outside the aquarium, she said she sensed something going on between us.” This wasn’t the time she wanted to talk, but she had to. It was his daughter and he deserved to know how she felt. He didn’t want to hurt her, that she could see, and she admired him for it all the more.

  “But—I—we kept our distance.”

  “It didn’t matter. She knew.”

  “Oh.” He rubbed his jaw. “She’s a smart girl. Perhaps I am unable to suppress my feelings about you after all.”

  “What feelings?” She had to hear them. She had to know if these sensual fireworks she’d spun up in her head wasn’t just her fantasy.

  “I want you, Elise. More than I’ve ever wanted a woman. Holding you again was both bliss and torture. Because you’re in my arms, but I can’t have you.”

  Her mouth fell open. Her quickened breaths ceased altogether. Her heart tumbled over and over itself. “Lucan,” she whispered. She lifted one of his hands and placed it on her cheek.

  Lucan caressed her skin with a hint of worship in his eyes. He traced his fingers along her jawline and over her neck. She tilted her head to the side to urge him to continue. She’d never felt more appreciated, more alive, more desired. He continued down the side of her body and over her breasts. A muffled growl vibrated from his chest.

  In the next breath, he trailed his fingers over her arms and took hold of her wrists. Raising them above her head, he pinned her against the brick wall. She moaned as a rush of excitement flooded her, pooling with heat in her core. Nothing had ever felt like this. So raw, so primal. No man had ever made her feel this way, so overcome by her desires, and for once, so desperately wanting to follow them.

  Their eyes met and in one burning moment, the universe seemed to still. Anticipation left her trembling with hot, overpowering need. And then he spread his legs wider, reducing the space between them. He lowered his head. Time moved again, but it was in slow motion. So agonizingly slow. She needed him, now, damn it. She reached up on her tiptoes to bring her lips closer to his.

  When they finally touched, a desperate sigh escaped her. Lucan explored her mouth with slow sensual deliberation. His kiss deepened as he pressed her a
gainst the wall, the hardness of his length left no doubt he felt the same urgency. She returned the kiss with greedy desire. He released her wrists and moved his hands down her body.

  When he cupped her ass, she wrapped her legs around him and he held her aloft against the brick. She’d never done anything like this before. So risqué and naughty. Such a turn on.

  A guttural sound escaped him as he moved his mouth from hers and moved it to her neck.

  “Yes,” she purred, keeping her voice low.

  When he growled a feral sound, it sent vibrations along her sensitive throat.

  “Not here,” he said. “I hear people coming.” He lowered her to her feet.

  She uttered a sound of protest before catching up to his words. The idea of getting caught was a turn on, but being caught could be problematic, as they’d discovered with Marguerite. She smoothed her hair and then her sun dress while trying to tamp the frustration.

  “How about we go back to your room?” she suggested.

  He fixed his gaze on her. That hungry look in his eyes made her tremble again—that burning look was for her.

  “We can’t with her in the next room. It wouldn’t be right.”

  True. The rooms were adjacent and the walls between them too thin.

  “Hold on. I just checked in with Mattias. They’re heading out for ice cream.”

  She became aware of the heat suffusing her cheeks. “We’ll be alone?”

  He nodded with a seductive smile. “Just the two of us.” His eyes probed her with a feral glint, promising all sorts of decadent acts she’d only dreamed could happen.

  Anticipation simmered within, stoking her inner heat. “Yes.”

  Although they rushed back to the hotel, it still wasn’t quick enough. By the time they reached his room, she was already burning with heat. They barely closed the door before they tumbled onto the bed. His eyes burned with fire and hunger, driving up her already insane level of desire.

  He pinned her body with his massive one and took her mouth in a hot, demanding kiss. His scent, his taste, everything about him spoke of virile masculinity. And she responded like any woman likely would, turning wanton with a need for more. To feel him inside her, filling her the way she’d yearned for since their first forbidden moments.

  She wrapped her arms around him, running her hands over the hard muscles in his shoulder blades and down his back. Fascinatingly smooth. No signs of the wings that could protrude from there.

  As he moved down her body, claiming her with mouth and tongue, a primal growl vibrated along her skin. His hands roamed over her as if marking every inch as his. He caressed and kissed her breasts and she arched beneath him, every sense ignited by his touch.

  She’d never fantasized about being taken like this until she’d met him. He woke something within her with his touch—some sort of savage lust combined with a certainty that they should be together.

  At least once.

  No, now was not the time to think about tomorrow and how an ocean would soon separate them. Now was the time to feel. To crave. To claim.

  His fingers stroked her inner thighs and her muscles tightened. He followed with his mouth and tongue, leaving a hot, wet trail as he traveled higher. She was on the grip of agony as she awaited more.

  He finally touched her where she needed him most and a strange sigh of relief escaped her. As he stroked her and slipped a finger in and out of her channel, she moved with him and moaned. She dragged her fingers through his hair. His face was right before her sex, deliberately teasing and leaving her on edge. He exhaled over her sex and his hot breath made her tremble. She arched up, a silent plea to take her. He rewarded her with a long slow glide of his tongue.

  He moved his fingers inside her as he mastered her with his mouth. She was mindless, completely enraptured by his spell. She clung onto the sheets as he owned her, bringing her to the precipice and then back again.

  “Lucan, please,” she begged. Never one to be vocal about her desires before, she didn’t care how wanton she sounded now.

  “What do you want?” he crooned and kissed her inner thighs again.

  “You!” she demanded. “I need you.”

  “Ma belle.” He then plundered her with fingers and mouth.

  All that build-up crested. She fisted the sheets as her muscles hardened. Her body quaked like a thunderous storm and she shattered with a cry. She arched off the bed and fell back feeling boneless.

  Lucan pulled away. When she peered at him through half-closed lids, he rolled a condom over his thickness. She swallowed at the sight of him. He was enormous. He slid his body over hers and kissed her. His lips were gentle, but the taste of her in his mouth was so decadent. It stoked a new dark wave of rapture within her. He slid his hardness against her and glided the tip into her folds. With her still so slick, he slid right in.

  She clutched his shoulder blades and wrapped her arms around him, coaxing him in.

  “Yes,” she cried.

  He moved in slow, allowing her to adjust to his massive girth, a decadent combination of pleasure verging on pain.

  This was what she desired. This was what she so desperately needed—to be joined with Lucan, at last.

  Chapter Fourteen

  LUCAN’S ENTIRE BODY turned taut as he sank himself into her tight channel. With her arms and legs wrapped so tightly around him, he only moved a few inches in and out. He buried his face against the soft dampness of her throat and her scent wrapped around him

  “Lucan,” she whispered. She relaxed her tight grip on him as she trailed her fingers down his back.

  Her touch stirred his need. Her sultry tone drove the urgency higher. As if his senses weren’t already captivated by her. Her taste had him throbbing with a need to drive himself deep inside. The scent of Elise’s arousal had left him rock hard. She was like that for him. Her feminine aroma had always affected him, but combined with this, it had woken a beast within him. A savage need that demanded more. To claim her as his and never let another man close to her.

  Mine, his soul whispered.

  She was his. His lover.

  His mate.

  No, he wouldn’t be confused by lust into thinking things like that. He struggled to regain self-control and focused on the sensations of gliding in and out of her. Her tight walls clasped around him so perfectly, it took all he had not to explode at once.

  No way in hell would he succumb to that already, not when he’d waited so long to have her. He struggled against the urge to pound faster and forced himself to slow the pace. Shit, it feels so good. So damn right.

  He pulled back and glanced down at her. Her cheeks were flushed and eyes hooded with desire. Desire for him. He caressed her face. “You’re exquisite,” he said. He lowered his head and captured her mouth with another kiss.

  As he drove inside her, she writhed beneath him. The urgency rose as he pounded into her with a feverish pitch.

  He flipped them so she straddled him. Yes, this was better. He could see and feel more of her, and experience what she wanted as she set the pace. He traced the curves of her body as she ground against him. When she leaned forward, he captured a perfect breast in his mouth once more. She tasted so good. He had to enjoy the other one again.

  Once she quickened the pace, he had to release them and sank his head back on the pillow. Her face was caught up in rapture and he never wanted to forget how she looked at that moment—a beautiful goddess, a sensual witch.

  Pleasurable sounds escaped her as she rode him. He thrust into her from below and her sounds intensified into cries and yelps. Her muscles tightened. She was right there again. Damn, he couldn’t wait to feel her explode on him.

  “Yeah, baby. Come for me,” he coaxed her.

  She murmured small sounds and then cried, “I’m right there.”

  As her walls tightened and pulsed around him, she yelped. It was too much. Too exquisite. Lights flashed behind his eyes as all his senses fired to overdrive and then burst. He thrust so deep
ly inside her, she cried out. He detonated in a blinding explosion of lights and heat and fire and sensation.

  She collapsed on top of him and her heart pounded against his. He caressed her back as he held her body close, unwilling to let her go any time soon.

  Once again, his soul whispered, Mine.

  LUCAN COULD BARELY keep his hands off of Elise over the next few days. They zipped past too quickly. Lucan spent as much time as he could with Marguerite and Elise, while sharing his daughter with her uncles and her Aunt Tracy. After all, they wouldn’t be around for much longer, so he had to make the best of it.

  He’d booked the hotel room for the week. Why not splurge? They were worth it. He’d earned compensation for guarding the club. Tristan’s wife, Maya, had given them a bonus when she’d heard about their freedom and then had offered them other staff positions in the club. Mattias helped with bouncer duties like Danton. Lucan picked up a few bartending shifts, but promised to leap into action if necessary.

  The best thing about the two-room suite was that Elise slipped into his room whenever she could. Although Marguerite occasionally rolled her eyes when she caught them holding hands, she followed it with a grin. Still, they didn’t want to push things by shoving their relationship in her face.

  Thursday night he was on the schedule at Vamps. Mattias and Danton stopped by the hotel. They’d relished their new roles as uncles, and spoiled Marguerite whenever they could.

  “Since your dad is working tonight, why don’t we take you out on the town?”

  Marguerite widened her eyes. “Can we go to Boston to see Wicked?”

  He smirked. He couldn’t picture his brothers at the Opera House watching the musical.

  Lucan said, “Fine with me. It’s up to your uncles.”

  Mattias arched his brows. “As long as food is involved.”

  Danton suggested, “Would you like me to invite Aunt Tracy? She’s not working tonight.”

  “Yes, bring her,” Marguerite insisted.