a small sigh. “Yes, I found Otto Von Schmidt. Veda actually gave him up for me. He’s in Berlin, and you and I will be going there tomorrow. And even though you need to get some rest, I’m not inclined to let you go to sleep just yet.
With that, Carrick’s mouth was back on mine. I’m completely captured, falling swiftly to his thrall.
The kiss is deep but swift, for Carrick pulls back to take his shirt off. My mouth goes dry as he works just the top few buttons and easily pulls it off, tossing it to the floor.
I can’t help it.
I let my eyes roam all over his perfectly honed chest and stomach, admiring the “V” reaching upward from his low hanging jeans.
Then his hands are on the hem of my tank. “Been looking forward to doing this myself, stripping you without magic.”
Oh, geez. My eyelids flutter, and I almost let myself fall again.
But I cannot be intimate with him again until I let him know what happened tonight. The information is too important, and my guilt at doing something dangerous too nerve-wracking.
“Wait,” I exclaim, knocking his hands away. “Um… would you like a nightcap first? You know… to relax us. Get us in the mood while we chat a bit.”
Carrick’s expression clouds, his lips pressing flat. The man is far too smart and attuned to my every emotion. “What’s going on, Finley?”
“Um,” I drawl, my words failing as I sit up and cross my legs on the bed. I can’t look at him, so I pick at a string hanging loose from the hem of my pajama pants.
Carrick issues a long-suffering sigh and moves over to a chair that sits adjacent to the bed. It’s part of a pair, separated by a table with a beautiful glass lamp. Dropping down into it, he leans forward with elbows on his knees. “What did you do?”
My head snaps up, my eyes wide with innocence. “What makes you think I did anything?”
This is a stall tactic. He knows I did something, I know I did something, and yet I’m still working up the guts to tell him exactly what I did.
“Finley… you may not quite understand it yet, but there is nothing about yourself you can hide from me. I know every expression that gives away every emotion, and right now, you think I’m going to be mad at you so you might as well spill it, let me get mad, and then I can fuck you.”
I growl low, frustrated that his words—especially the part about fucking me—gets me all discombobulated and jumbles up my emotions even further. Now I can’t think of anything but Carrick fucking me, and I’m quite positive that’s the most important thing right now.
“Finley,” Carrick barks, his eyes dark and swirling with ire, and I jump. “Just tell me what in the hell you did.”
It makes me laugh nervously. “Sure you don’t want to have sex now?”
“The only thing I’m sure of,” he warns ominously, “is that I’m inclined to blister your ass if you don’t come clean. But we’ll have sex after, I promise.”
“Ugh,” I exclaim dramatically, deciding I just need to get it over with. I swing my legs over the side of his bed and plant them on the floor. I brace myself with my palms on the edge of the mattress and look directly into Carrick’s eyes. “I went to Kymaris’ house.”
Carrick explodes off the chair and I don’t even see him move but he’s in front of me. “You did what?” he thunders.
I’m not truly scared, but I want space, so I deftly slip to the right and remove myself from his presence, walking a few feet across the bedroom and turning back to face him. I hold my hands out, a request he just stay right where he is.
He does, but his pupils are red, his hands clenched into fists.
“It was Rainey’s hairbrained idea,” I say, totally throwing her under the bus. She’ll forgive me. “But Maddox went with us, and we just watched her house from a good, safe distance, and, as you can see, I’m perfectly safe and healthy, and nothing bad happened to me.”
The Rainey part does not affect him, but he relaxes slightly when he takes in my other assurances. I know he relaxes only by his hands loosening and the red in his eyes dimming.
Gaze dropping to the floor, I try to think of what to say next because the only thing left is to