he’d wanted to take that day and every day since.
Watching her expression, he rolled one of her nipples between his fingers, her whimper lodging in his chest before traveling south in pulses.
“If you’re going to say no, goddess,” he said. “Do it now—”
She shook her head, hair still down, framing her face in tousled waves. “I want this,” she whispered in that sexy, husky voice of hers, her body restless against his, pressing. No more ice or wariness in her eyes. Only heat, unadulterated, unhidden, all for him.
Thank the powers. This was how he wanted Delilah. Completely undone. Wild. For him.
“Good.” He pressed into her softness, claiming those luscious lips again. Plucking at her nipple and swallowing her moans. Gods, her taste—soft and decadent and yet with a bite—could become addicting. Better than bourbon. As heady as magic. Like energy and aching and pleasure all in one.
She tugged at his lower lip with her teeth, then sucked, demanding more, and his cock surged.
A change in lighting flashed—dark than light, but slower than a blink—and he lifted his head, both of them panting. They’d moved locations again. He knew exactly where. The hallway inside the Syndicate building. Not a soul in sight.
Their second encounter that day. Who gave a shit? He was more interested in this encounter.
Roughly, Alasdair yanked her skirt up, trailing a hand up her quivering thigh, then brushing it over her panty-cover mound. Soaked. For him. Already.
“Hell,” he groaned, thrusting his tongue into her mouth, imitating what he had every intention of doing with his cock.
Her hands found their way to his pants, which she undid, pushing both those and his boxer briefs down until he sprang out, turgid and pulsing, into her hand. She squeezed, hard, milking his cock with a viselike grip, and his hips bucked against his will.
If he let her keep that up, he’d come faster than he ever had as a callow youth. “Slower,” he begged.
“Like this?”
Drawing back, they watched each other as she pumped her hand down his length in long, endless strokes. In retaliation, he played with her over those wet panties, brushing at the bundle of nerves hidden underneath until she was thrusting into his touch.
Inching back the elastic edge, he slid a finger into her, her inner walls gripping him, slick and soft. In a second, he’d replace that finger with his cock, but right now, he couldn’t look away from the play of emotions over her expressive face.
How could I ever have thought her cold?
Lust reflected back at him, the same haze of need that held him captive, but more was there. Trust. The glitter of excitement. And a wariness that wrapped around his heart like barbed wire, cutting deep. Compelling him to make this so fucking good for her, she’d never look at him like that again.
“Delilah.”
That was his voice. Turning his head, he found the ghosts of both of them standing in the hallway.
Delilah’s previous self turned to face him. “Yes?” she asked.
Only now, instead of frost in her eyes, he caught the flash of something else. Something hotter. There, then gone, hidden away. Holy shit. How had he missed that last time?
The woman in his arms stirred restlessly, and he pumped his finger in her, deliberately adding the push of his thumb against her clit, grinning like a fool at the audible hitch in her breathing. “Don’t look away,” he said.
“Your manipulations worked out,” the memory of himself said.
She raised her eyebrows coolly and said nothing.
“That is the only reason I’m allowing you to walk out of here unchallenged and unscathed.”
Her head came up in challenge, and damned if, like that day, his gut response was a combination of respect and a deeper throb of need.
“I’ll keep that in mind,” she said.
She turned to go, only to be stopped by his hand on her arm, his touch insistent. He remembered suddenly how he hadn’t wanted her to go. Not because he was angry or irritated or threatened, even though he was, but because of her. He’d been…fascinated.
And resentful of that fact.
“I don’t make this warning lightly,” he murmured. He’d needed something to say.
“I believe you.”
“Stay away from my people.”
Now she cocked her head. “I’ll stay away from them if they stay away from me and my clients.”
There. That moment was when he’d decided to keep a close eye on Delilah. Personally. A decision that had led him…here.
Previous Alasdair’s lips thinned.
“You didn’t like that,” Delilah in his arms said, rolling her hips in time to his