He’d given Faith’s mind a considerable push when he’d told her to go home. She should have mindlessly obeyed and left the club. Yet she’d stayed.
Horace wanted Faith gone, out of harm’s way. He had to watch out for everyone else in the bar. But something about Faith made him pay extra attention to her. He didn’t get visions and had never been adept at seeing the future, so he knew what he felt meant nothing. Even so, he intended to do everything in his power to make sure Faith stayed safe, even if that meant keeping her as far away from everyone, himself included, as possible.
No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t seem to shake the worry that Faith’s life was in as much danger as his.
****
“Sometimes foreknowledge can be enough to change the future,” Stone said with a yawn several hours later as he headed toward the door.
Horace nodded. Time had drifted to the small hours of the morning. The last of the club patrons had left about a half hour earlier. His employees kept busy cleaning up.
It had been a relatively quiet night. Horace had stopped a college student from overdosing on prescription drugs, broken up a fight, and had handed over two drug dealers to the local authorities.
He rubbed the back of his neck. The tension bound up there had turned into dull thud at the base of his skull about an hour ago. He felt tired and ready to go home.
“Hey, Horace!” Tim called from the bar. “Do you have a minute?”
Horace gave a nod and then told Stone, who looked as weary as he felt, “Go on home. I just need to wrap up with Tim. After that, I’ll be right behind you.”
Stone hesitated before releasing a long breath. “It is late. Call me if you need anything,” he said as he headed toward the front door.
Horace joined Tim at the bar. He listened as Tim explained how he’d found a glitch in the new computerized cash register system. “It’s not recording who entered the transaction, which means we won’t know who gets the tips from the credit cards.”
“I’ll call the tech guys tomorrow,” Horace assured him. “Go home to your wife and kids. I’ll lock up.”
“Did you see—?”
“We’ll talk more tomorrow.” He simply wanted to go home and bury himself in the darkness of his covers. Not that he’d get any sleep. His mind was too tuned into Faith who must be tucked into her own bed by now like a real-life sleeping beauty. Thinking about her and her bed was making him feel as if he was losing his mind.
Those feelings were dangerous, considering—
He couldn’t think about that.
And he shouldn’t be thinking about Faith. Hell, he wasn’t going to get any rest tonight.
While kicking himself for losing control over his emotions, Horace started to lock up and head out to his car when he spotted Faith. She had a garbage bag slung over her shoulder and a determined stride as she started to go out the back door.
“What the hell?”
He felt tired and prickly and—thanks to Faith—horny as hell. Didn’t a man have a limit to the amount of teasing he could take? The gates holding back his sexual desires suddenly snapped, and he forgot about all the reasons he should stay away from her.
Horace strode after her. If Faith insisted they play games, he’d play.
And play to win.
Chapter Three
“What are you doing out here?”
Faith immediately recognized his voice. His crisp no-nonsense tone had the power to turn her legs to tingling pools of jelly. She breathed in deeply and tossed the trash bag into the dumpster before turning around to face Horace.
Heck, she’d been waiting for this all night, some uninterrupted time with him. Getting her wish shouldn’t make her heart hammer in her throat, should it?
“Since I was still around at closing,” she said, trying to sound as nonchalant as possible. “I thought I might as well pitch in, help out.”
“You shouldn’t be in the alleyway at this time of night. It’s not safe.” He took a step toward her. His midnight blue gaze pressed down on her. “You’re not safe.”
It took considerable willpower to stand her ground and keep a sarcastic tug on her lips. She didn’t want to admit that she’d stayed and helped Tim clean up with the hopes of catching a moment alone with Horace. A moment exactly like this where anything could happen. Nor did she want him to know that she had already lost her nerve. The predatory way he was looking at her made her entire body feel all quivery.
“I’m not safe...from you?” she asked. Her voice cracked.
“Yes, from me.” He took another step closer.
What had she been thinking? She knew nothing about the illusive Horace West. No one did. Not really. She’d heard he didn’t date, but that couldn’t be right.
“Perhaps I enjoy living on the edge,” she said, surprising herself with the flirty lilt in her voice. She stood a bit taller, tilted her head a bit more, and reminded herself that, no matter how sexy, he was just a man—a man who set off sparks when he touched her. Heck, she could taste the sparks on her tongue right now, and he still stood several feet away.
Oh boy, she was in over her head.
“You don’t have to scare me,” she said. “It’s my birthday, and I’m looking for someone to enjoy it with me. I had thought that you might—”
He touched her hand. His fingers felt hot, as if they should have burned her. And in a way they did. But not her hand. His touch burned deeper. She glanced down and watched as he traced the soft skin covering her knuckles.
“I’m not trying to scare you,” he said softly. “But I do hope you take my warning seriously.”
“You are warning me...of what?”
“I haven’t been with a woman in years.”
“Years?”
“My choice. I have my reasons.” His tender caress trailed up her bare arm.
The sparks between them heated the already scorching summer air. She had to swallow several times before she felt she could talk without her voice wavering. “I-I see.”
“It’s not that I haven’t had the opportunity. Women have hit on me before.” He gave a rueful grin. “Happens pretty much every night.”
She nodded and swallowed again. Should she feel embarrassed that he considered her simply another one of his groupies?
Poor guy, he’d made it clear to her earlier that he wanted to be left alone. But instead of staying out of his way like a good girl, she’d made a nuisance of herself all night.
And she never tossed herself at a man like this. She should be dying from mortification just about now. But she didn’t feel the slightest bit embarrassed. The way he caressed her, lightly rubbing his fingers up and down her arm, made her feel sexy.
Aroused...
And more than a little needy.
“Never,” he said, his soft bedroom voice pressed on her chest and vibrated low in her belly. “Never have I been so...so tempted.”
He took another step closer. His leg pressed up against hers, nudging her. The club’s rough brick wall bit into her back. She didn’t realize until that moment that he’d been directing her, driving her, like a lion would a gazelle, until she was trapped between the club’s back wall and his body.
“I don’t know what it is about you, Faith.” He brushed his lips over hers, a teasing gesture that made her hungry for his kiss. “I feel drawn to you. Like a moth is drawn to fire, you know?”
Only she was the one getting burned.
Perhaps she should have listened to his warning. It was hard to think with him this close to her. She could only feel. Her body ached for his touch, his mouth, his body. And that alone made him dangerous.
“I-I—perhaps—we—shouldn’t—”
“Hmmm...” he said and slanted his mouth over her lips. Tasting, savoring, demanding, she respond. His tongue plunged into her mouth and swirled into her depths, careful around her newly pierced tongue.
“You’re right, you know,” he said as soon as he pulled back from a kiss that Faith had
n’t wanted to ever end. His voice was a low purr. “We shouldn’t be doing any of this.” But his body said that it was too late for her. That he would do with her what he wanted.
He pressed his knee between her legs and eased them apart. With her legs spread and vulnerable to him, he lifted her hips until the tips of her toes barely touched the ground.
“Do you want me to stop?” he asked.
Every rational part of her shouted at her, telling her that she’d regret what they were about to do. But she didn’t feel very rational at the moment. Whether it was a good idea or not, she wanted to be here.
With him.
Doing this.
She nuzzled his neck. “Please, don’t stop.”
Horace’s hands traveled over her hips and up her body, and eased beneath her tank top. He touched Faith’s bare skin just under her firm breasts as if his hands belonged there.
He seemed to know what she liked. Or was it the excitement of this crazy moment making her extra sensitive to the pressure against her breasts as he slowly moved his hands higher? Her nipples beaded and ached for more. No one had ever touched her like this before. Her breasts felt vividly alive and suddenly connected to the soft flesh between her legs with a zinging cord of electricity.
“Don’t you dare stop,” Faith managed to say again between kisses.
Pleasure danced in Horace’s eyes. “Wouldn’t dream of it.”
Faith’s throat felt clogged with passion. Heated blood pounded through her body, demanding she seduce this man into doing more than just touch her.
His questing hands traveled down her flat belly and lower. He hitched up her skirt so he could caress her between her legs. She wore black lace panties, a last-minute decision she was now glad she’d made. She could feel the heat of him through the barely-there fabric. He stroked her until she was wet and panting.
With a sharp tug, he ripped away her lace panties and dropped the ruined bit of fabric on the ground.
“Hey!” she cried out in surprise, an automatic protest to losing an expensive piece of lingerie. But her attention quickly returned to how he was touching her. Horace parted her soft curls and eased his forefinger deep into her, taking what had been left of her breath away with that one bold move.
He wanted her. She could taste his desire in the way he parted her lips and kissed her so deeply that she had trouble figuring out where she ended and he began. And his heat/her heat licked at her like flames in response to the way he was using his hand and his mouth, mimicking what he planned to do with the rock-hard arousal pressed against her belly. She found herself panting with anticipation.
The snig of his pant’s zipper sent a shiver of delight down her spine. Faith never really expected to her birthday wish to come true. And not like this. Sex with her dream guy on her birthday. Sex against the brick wall...in a smelly alleyway next to a dumpster. Her panties torn and discarded on the ground. This was so, so not like her. But then again, neither was following a man around a nightclub like some besotted groupie.
With Horace, she became a different woman. Her hungers made her vulnerable in a way she’d never been vulnerable before. Every part of her throbbed with desire.
When he eased her skirt up higher on her thighs, she wrapped her legs around his waist. The tip of his wide erection caressed her moist opening. She pressed against him, letting him stretch her. He grabbed hold of her hips and held her before she could lower herself completely onto him. He held her suspended, throbbing for him and praying that he wouldn’t change his mind. With one quick thrust, he buried himself inside her all the way to the hilt.
She gasped. She’d been impaled. He’d put her in a sexual position she avoided. It made her too vulnerable. Around men, she liked to be in control. Calling all the shots. But with Horace’s strong hands on her hips, he guided her, and she rode him. He set the rhythm. He dictated the pace. An excruciatingly, frustratingly, wonderfully slow pace.
She could feel every inch of him move inside her as he raised and lowered her. Faith’s heat made him hot and wet. And he made sure every slick inch of him rubbed against her, teasing her.
But he held her release at bay. The calculating glint in his eyes told her he knew what he was doing to her. He continued to tease, taking her to the brink but not letting her fall over the edge. She cried out in frustration and wiggled against him.
He lifted her, holding her so that her gentle folds barely touched the tip of his shaft.
“You wanted to play games,” he said. The heat of his voice caressed her neck, making her tremble. She gyrated, trying to wrench control of the situation, but his hold on her kept her pinned to the wall and unable to find the release she was growing more and more desperate to have.
He kissed her, plunging his tongue into her mouth, mercilessly taking his time. He must have known that he was making her crazy. Her mind and body throbbed as one—an inescapable need that demanded to be sated.
“Please,” she whimpered into his mouth. “Please, don’t make me beg.”
“Why not?” he murmured. A wicked smile teased his lips.
“Because...because...I’m going to die...” She was barely able to get out between her short, halting breaths. “I...I’ll do anything...anything...you...want...”
One corner of his mouth kicked up a little higher. His right brow rose too. “Anything?” He lowered her slightly so his arousal pressed into her. “Anything?”
She nodded. Horace had done this to her. He’d made her lose her mind. The Faith Summers she knew up until a heartbeat ago would have never pledged herself so completely to a man without a wedding ring waiting for her finger.
“I want to mark you.” There was a tremor in his voice. His gaze grew dark and intense.
Faith didn’t know how he’d meant to mark her. But it didn’t matter. In the heat of her need, she didn’t even pause to wonder. She simply nodded.
“Yes. Please. Yes.”
With a look of satisfaction, Horace impaled her completely. And gave her what she wanted, what she desperately needed. He moved her hips faster and faster, pumping her. And as he’d promised, he lowered his head and sucked on her left breast.
The pressure of his lips grew stronger. He licked her nipple. And then scraped the tight nub with his teeth. Nipping her. Biting her. Teasing her with a sensation that was a confusing blend of agony and ecstasy. And it felt so intense, so real, that she struggled for a smooth breath and heightened her need for release.
Her body grew tighter and tighter, begging to be dropped over the edge of bliss. His blunt teeth tore through the sensitive skin just above her nipple as she threw her head back and cried out. He didn’t let up. He suckled her blood while pumping into her, riding her orgasm. She felt his arousal grow thicker, fuller, pulsing inside her. Stretching her. Filling her completely.
It was too much, too much. She struggled against him.
Horace released her breast and kissed her. But he wouldn’t let Faith escape as she rode on the wave of a second orgasm, one that he shared with her. The heat of his seed scorched her womb.
Faith wrapped her arms around his neck and held on to him...
Forever.
****
Forever.
It felt as if her heart would never slow down. Horace kept Faith pressed against the hard brick wall outside his club for a little while longer before he gently lowered her onto her wobbly legs. To support her, Horace wrapped his arms around her waist and swung himself around so he could lean against the wall, and she could continue to press her head against his warm, safe chest.
He feathered kisses over her temple and down her cheek. Then, with a deep sigh, Horace gently caressed the angry red mark he’d put on her breast. The sore skin underneath his fingertips tingled. He’d marked her. She now belonged to him.
Faith had no idea what such a thing meant to him. Or to her.
It should have frightened her. She didn’t do relationships with controlling men. And she’d never been the type to let a m
an put his mark on her, not even a temporary mark. This was so not like her.
But when he touched her, she tightened her arms around his chest and let herself sink into his heat. For this one magical moment, she belonged to Horace. Faith had never felt so cherished, so complete.
It was as if she’d been touched by fate. Everything about this crazy night felt right—natural. Faith ran her hand down the side of Horace’s rough, stubbly chin. She pictured a lifetime of nights with Horace as crazy and wonderful as this one. Could this be what love felt like?
Even his slow, steady breath matched hers. Horace reverently kissed her neck before murmuring against her ear, “You do know that there can never...? That we can never...?”
“What?” He had to be kidding.
And even if this was a joke, she planned to give him an earful. She poked her finger on his chest. “You just can’t—!”
****
“Shhh...” Horace pressed a finger to Faith’s well-loved lips.
He’d spotted a shadow in the darkness. It could be his imagination. Or perhaps one of the stray dogs he regularly fed had come around hoping to find a late-night snack. Or even an oversized rat had crawled out of the sewers in search of food. But the shadow moved again, and Horace got a better look. It unfolded from a crouched position, forming the unmistakable shape of a man.
Horace’s “this was a one-time thing” breakup speech would have to wait. The shadowy figure held a long cylinder in its hand. The object caught in the light above the club’s back door. Metal glinted in the darkness.
The shooter.
Horace lifted his hand to stop the forces of fate from marching forward with its plan to kill him. He intended to crumple the barrel of the pistol the shadowy figure had pointed at them—but sex with Faith must have wrecked his focus. No matter how hard he concentrated, his powers refused to come to him.
The shooter had them cornered, and he couldn’t do a damn thing about it. They didn’t even have time to run. A flash lit the dark alleyway just as an explosion cut through the air. The sound must have bounced off the walls. It seemed as if it went on and on forever.
Mystical Seduction Page 3
