Wrong answer that time, McKay. He looked like he was considering walking home, cropped shirt, booty shorts and all.
“Just sit closer and get your hands around my waist.”
He squeezed his eyes shut and scooted in. I could only imagine what he was thinking. The big scary man in leather and a kilt on a big loud bike just told him to put his arms around his waist. Poor kid had to be terrified. It sounded like a bad porno set-up.
“Leave the saddle horn alone. We Brits don’t use one. Keep it above the belt, Allan me lad, and I’ll have you home in a jiffy and changing into real clothes. Tuck your face into my back and no one will know it’s you.” I added the last to spare him any more embarrassment. He practically leaped backward, then relaxed and put his face between my shoulder blades.
I wanted to take Admire riding like this, just to see if she’d kiss my neck as we traveled. I wanted her to squeeze me at stoplights, nuzzle me at intersections and laugh for the feeling of the wind in her hair.
If I lived through Thursday, I was going to stay in Memphis. I was going to buy a Triumph just like this one and we were going to live. No more sleeping in a shite-hole office. No more hand-to-mouth cases. I had money, a fair bit, put by and more coming in retirement pay.
I followed Jinx’s directions through the just-waking city. Morning commuters looked at us. A rowdy young man whistled from his convertible. I gunned my engine at him and took off at the green.
Jinx kept his face down, trying to remain invisible. I let everyone think I had a curveless, hairy girl riding behind me. He hung on tight, but carefully kept his hips away from my arse. I wouldn’t have bothered him. I didn’t care for men. Had a few back during school and training, but never really amounted to much. I’d always liked the women much better.
Thinking of women made me want to get rid of him and get home to Admire as quickly as I could. I’d ask Jinx about coffee and pastries, pick some up on the way home. I’d return the bike and catch the trolley back.
We pulled up in front of his place. I parked the bike and turned to ask about good pastry shops and the words died in my mouth.
Admire stood on the front porch, a forgotten fast-food bag beside her, along with Saraphina, and they both wore identical scowls. Admire crossed her arms when she saw me. Hostile and defensive, that was my girl.
I climbed off the bike and Jinx scrambled off, taking off his helmet. Admire and Saraphina looked at me and the bike, looked at Jinx and the clothes and then looked at each other.
It wasn’t a long look, but it spoke tomes, volumes even. Admire came down the stairs. I tried for a sincere smile.
“Jinx, I don’t even want to know. Bran, there’s just one thing I need to know. Did you bend him over the bike and fuck him?”
“Admire, love, not in my wildest dreams. I haven’t had a man in thirty years and more. Well, twenty-five.”
Jinx had made it to the porch, because Saraphina could be heard clear down to the street. “Why do you see the demon girls? Hunh? You need a nice human girl. I have four nieces, all of them beautiful girls. And they all make goulash and pierogies to die for.” She had his face cupped in her hands and was looking at him with a mixture of affection and unhappiness. “You keep this up, Allan, one day you’re not coming home to me yelling at you. You’re not coming home at all and your pretty cousin will have to get your things, including all those damn nickels.”
“I’m sorry, Miss Saraphina, I really am. I don’t know what happened. I promised Deej I wouldn’t go there anymore. And last night, I just walked past the door. Then I woke up with a VIP pass I didn’t buy, in a VIP suite I hadn’t paid for, with no clothes bigger than a postage stamp. I don’t even know if I had a good time!”
She let go if his face and hugged him. I worried she would suffocate the poor kid in all the shawls. “There is tea and I made muffins. Come, eat and I will make sure those nasty demons left nothing behind them.”
“Five-minute rain check?”
He dashed up the stairs, relieved at the apparent easy forgiveness, while Saraphina stared after him. He came down a few minutes later and dropped a couple buckets of nickels in my girl’s front seat.
“For the gas. Thanks.” He pecked her cheek and vanished inside with Saraphina before she could grab him. I had a feeling that if Admire got her hands on his face, it wouldn’t be sweetness, but a fine old-fashioned Glasgow Kiss she’d lay upon him. And I was betting her forehead was harder than his.
Without her cousin to focus on, she turned the still-smoldering anger to me. “The last thing I need is for you to encourage him. Why didn’t you tell me where you were going?”
“He asked me not to. How’d you come here?”
“I remembered hearing Jinx. I thought I’d dreamed it. But I checked in with Saraphina and he hadn’t come home. So I figured you were out doing taxi service.” She looked over the bike, and I saw appreciation in her face as the anger faded away. “You are too sweet by half for your own good. And sexy enough to eat.”
I pulled her in close. “Eat, hmm? I think we can work that in.”
She finally smiled at me. “Into our ever so busy schedules? I bought breakfast. It’s probably cold.”
“Don’t care.” I kissed her for that smile.
“Neither do I.” She glanced back at the bike. “Can I have a ride? Just around the block. I know you had to borrow that from someone.”
“It’s Jackson’s. He won’t mind around the block, but mind you don’t soak the seat, darlin’.” I could smell that she was doing that over-aroused thing that only seemed to happen around me.
“Filthy-minded skirt-boy,” she said, stretching up just enough to kiss me. “The ride, and then home, so we don’t have to borrow Saraphina’s room.”
“I’d fear for the beads.” I straddled the bike and handed her the helmet.
“It’s the patchouli that’s the problem.” She put the helmet on and climbed aboard.
I let her have a few blocks, gave her a big thrill. In truth, I wasn’t quite ready to take Dorothy home to her daddy myself. We got back and D.J. was breathing hard, all flushed. I wanted her right there, on the street, on the seat of the bike.
Instead, I took the helmet from her and gave her a kiss. “Follow me, love. You can drive me home from the delivery.”
I led the way back, imagining how hot she’d be getting as she followed, watching. It was hard giving that key back to the Bluesman. The Triumph had been a sweet ride. I would definitely have one of my own if I decided to stay here. Wouldn’t name her Dorothy, though.
D.J. waited in the car, watching the mages work on their bikes. She looked uncomfortable around mages, like they were going to tell her to shove off for being a No-Talent. I knew they wouldn’t, at least not this time.
I thanked Demarco Jackson again for the loan of his girl and went to where my girl waited for me. She smiled as I got in. Her breathing was way too fast.
“Home, right now.” She never opened her teeth as she put the car in gear and pulled out of the parking lot. I’d never tell her she sounded like a steam engine. She took a breath and got herself under control. “Eating is on the agenda, and then breakfast. Hope you can wait on the food.”
“Oh, aye.” I reached over and ran one finger from her temple and down her face and neck. She shivered and almost stomped on the brakes, and never mind the lorry behind us. “Easy, love.”
“If you make me come in traffic, I can’t drive,” she managed, her teeth clenched again.
I kept my hands in my lap after that, for all the good it did. She got us home and near to dragged me up the stairs to her office. The bed was up, but she didn’t give me a chance to pull it down, just pushed me onto the sofa and dropped to her knees in front of me.
Being ever gentlemanly, I opened my own knees with a smile, for I saw her plan. Yes, she could just eat me up. Right under the kilt she went, licking from my knees up to my plot, with never a moment for me to get out of my kit.
She shoved the
kilt up for a breath of air and looked at me with a wicked gleam as she sucked the head of my cock. Not a bad one for someone who had never tasted it before last weekend.
Easy and slow, she worked down, trying to swallow everything. I knew she couldn’t, but I loved her for trying. Her tongue pressed along the bottom until I wanted to thrust into her mouth, making her gag on me. My beads came up to my throat, but only enough for me to feel them. I could still breathe. I stopped myself from moving, not wanting to hurt her.
She pulled off and I fear I whimpered with the loss of her sweet lips. But she rectified the matter at a nonce, moving down and licking across my balls.
“Fucking hell, woman. More!”
Ever the trooper, my girl, she tried gamely to get my balls into her mouth and managed one. The beads drew up tight on me, and bliss, bliss and heaven, her mouth was sucking my balls.
The world closed into those two sensations, the lack of air and her mouth. The pounding in my ears was the same as the throbbing in my nuts as she sucked them, and it matched my heart.
I couldn’t last, there was no way for me to last like this. She gave a soft little moan around them and I was lost, spraying everywhere, not caring what I hit, only knowing that the entire universe had taken up residence behind my eyelids and was exploding.
She laid off my balls and I sat there panting as she licked my cock and kilt clean of what I’d spent.
“Mmm.” She came up for air, her face red and sweaty. “I’m starving.”
I stared at the water-stained ceiling, just breathing. Then a soft rumble reminded me that I did have a stomach and it had been a busy morning without sustenance.
She came up, kneeling over my lap, and kissed me. I could taste my own self all over her mouth. I looked at her, all flushed and bright eyed. I’d left traces in her hair and on her forehead.
“Hello, love. Have I told you how amazing you are?” I was proud of myself for stringing together so many words. “Let’s clean you up.”
She caught her breath as I ran my tongue up the side of her face to catch the droplets near her eyebrows.
“Bran—”
“Shhh. Let me.”
She shivered under my tongue and ground against the chains across my kilt. It was turning her on that I was licking my come off her face, just like it had turned me on to have her kiss me after I’d been eating her sweet pussy.
“I’ll return the favor to you, precious, after breakfast. We need to clean up. Been a busy morning, lass.”
She gave me a smile and a kiss. “Yes, it has. Since you didn’t screw Jinx, you think maybe I could get a ride when we get back?” She kissed me again. “Not that your mouth isn’t amazing.”
“Insatiable woman.” I pulled her close and licked her neck to suck her earlobe. She squirmed at that. “Feed me or I perish and then you’d have to summon my brother, Artair the necromancer, to get me up for you.”
She laughed and swung off my lap. “Since I’m not into necrophiliac three-ways, let’s go find food.”
Chapter Fourteen
D.J.
Wednesday already. The time had flown. The big summoning was tomorrow. One way or another, we were almost done. Bran was going to be gone after tomorrow. I rolled up on one elbow and looked at him in the early light, taking in every moment I could get with him.
I had been having a very weird week, and for me that’s saying something. My first man, lots of firsts on that front, and now, here I was, awake before eight, not hung over and watching my lover sleep.
He wasn’t handsome. Even if he hadn’t been scarred so badly, he would be interesting-looking, maybe cute, but not classically movie-star handsome. The scars added character and made him look utterly ferocious, even while he slept. I knew what was under the rough exterior. He made me feel like I was the most special person in the world, something I had never experienced. I didn’t want that feeling to stop.
I wanted to keep him, but of course the Witan wouldn’t allow it. They wore out combat mages. I’d heard of a few retiring, but I doubted Bran was one who was going to get to. They seemed determined to get him killed by his old nemesis. I half expected the orders to come down that all the combat mages from elsewhere were to clear out of town and leave Bran to his work.
There was no hope for any sort of domesticity, for him to stay and share my cheap office-apartment, keep my lumpy old Murphy bed warm. I wanted it. I wanted a proper apartment, with a real kitchen and a real bed in a real bedroom for the first time in my life. Still didn’t want kids. No white picket fence, a girl for me and a boy for him, lawn and flowers in the burbs. None of that, but him and me in a one bedroom would be just fine.
He stirred and woke up, smiling at me. “Morning, love. What’s on my schedule for today?”
I considered snapping at him, demanding to know if I was his personal secretary. I settled for kissing him instead. “Evening meeting with the CMs. Making love to me all night and then sleeping all morning before you go out and kill the monster. This morning and afternoon are free.” I looked at him. “I’ll take you to see anything you want to see, after your workout.”
“I want a steak. A nice big one, all rare and bloody, with plenty of pepper and garlic.”
I nodded, telling myself he hadn’t really sounded like a condemned man ordering his last meal. “Want to go to Tunica? All the steak, prime rib, shrimp and crab you can eat.”
“After the morning workout, lovely. Mine and yours. Are you finding things a bit better since you’re learning?” He gestured to the two unopened bottles from the weekend, and the third beside them, two-thirds full.
“A bit,” I allowed. I wasn’t going to tell him how much better I was sleeping. I hadn’t had nightmare one with him in my bed. “I wish you could keep teaching me.”
“Teach you to put a bit of an aggressive edge in your shield today, if you’ll have it. And to charge yourself, so you can draw on the mana if you’re tired or weak.” He dodged the implied question and kissed me again. Of course he couldn’t keep teaching me. Good as gone, Admire, get that through your skull. I ignored that snotty little voice and kept kissing him as long as he’d let me stay. The bar of light from the broken blind slat was a couple inches farther across the pillow and landing in my eyes.
“What do you want right now?” I asked. “Breakfast, workout or sex?”
“Coffee, tea or me?” he teased. “You first, my love. Workout and then breakfast.”
“Dammit, we start too many mornings this way and I’ll eat a toaster pastry before I wake you up.” I didn’t mean it. On the other hand, I was wondering if I could reach a box of pastries on my desk without having to sit up tomorrow morning.
He pulled me close and whispered, “I hope there are many, many more of these mornings.”
For some reason, our local CMs had picked the Kooky Canuck for the meeting. Maybe they decided Canadian food would help a Scot feel at home. Or maybe they just had a sense of humor. I didn’t mind. The place made the best burger in town and the Witan was paying.
The waiters looked a little disturbed to see a bunch of leather-clad bikers, dripping mana from every pore, come in. Didn’t blame them, since even one CM tended to suck most of the air out of a room. Twenty of them, well, I was amazed the roof was still on the building.
But we sat down, and ordered drinks from a poor little girl who looked a tad green at all the concentrated power. I pegged her for an untrained talent, like me. But she stayed completely professional about it and wrote it down as fast as we ordered.
Demarco ordered four of the enormous six-pound burgers. Our apparent peaceableness put the staff more at ease. Bran stared at the menu description while Demarco was ordering the burgers. “That is terrifying, lad. I love it.” He tapped the dessert menu, drawing my attention to the Avalanche, eighteen scoops of ice cream. “Bring your pixie tribe over as a peace offering, since you’ve taken up with a Big and not their leader,” he teased me.
I snickered at that, imaging about a milli
on pixies, all high on ice cream. Then I sat very quietly, not wanting attention. Yeah, I know, right? Me. But I do specialize in not being seen when I don’t want to be. It’s a useful trick that I use a lot on cases. But I figured that it wasn’t going to work in a room full of combat mages. But as long as they were talking to Bran, they ignored me.
Athena, of the Arkansas Amazon branch of the Rebs, was making good suggestions and the men weren’t listening to her. Typical of men. The pitchers of beer were draining at an alarming rate, until Emil, from Legba’s Bastards, did something to the pitcher. He poured the other three full from that one, and it refilled itself. Handy trick, if a bit rough for the proprietor. I made a note of how many pitchers we went through so Bran could pay the nice man and we didn’t have to work our poor waitress to death.
Helga, in from Salem, and Libby of the Hell’s Belles were getting the same treatment as Athena. Summer, however, had plopped herself right into the conversation without regard for manners or taste and was holding her own.
Bran, however, was losing his temper as plan after plan was proposed and discarded. He drank three mugs of beer, and ate about a quarter of one of the burgers by himself.
He pounded his empty mug on the table hard enough to rattle the silverware. Everyone looked his way.
“You’re not thinking big enough. This isn’t some garden-variety demon to be banished with a bit of salt and iron. This is a prince of hell itself. He is a Dominion, ranked above Belial and only a level below Astaroth. He is the equal of Lilith and Carreau the Merciless and Azazel, the angel of Death.”
A few of the CMs looked impressed, most didn’t. I knew I was. Dominions were heavenly governors, angels in charge of nations, if my memory served me right. And an infernal one would be capable of ruining whole nations.
“So you got something better, Lady?” the mouthy Summer demanded of him.
He stared her down. A hundred generations of fighting Highland ancestors burned in his eyes as he stared. The little girl sat down and let him talk. “You follow my lead. I’m the only one of you who’s faced him. This is the one case it’s better not to have a plan.” He poured more beer from the enchanted pitcher. I stuck to tea. I was driving, after all. “You’ll be around to lend power, keep the crowd calm and knock back the imps if they come for me.” He looked at each CM in turn. “Oeilett is mine, understood? I have the spells and weapons to kill him. Any of you goes charging in, all you’ll be is dead or a hostage. And I can’t be looking out for your hide and my own at the same time.”
Spellbound Desire Page 11
