0449474001339292671 4 fighting faer (5 page)

He smiled, a small, restrained smile that made her desperate to nibble on something, like his earlobe. Or his cock.

She swore silently. She
had
to get control of those thoughts!

“I was going to stop by your office,” he explained, “but by the time I called, they told me you’d left for the night. So I decided to see if I could catch you at home.” He could catch her anytime, and she’d probably thank him for it. Maybe even ask for more. Sheesh, she reflected, striding to the sofa and sitting down so she could cross her legs and press her thighs together without the move being quite so conspicuous. If anyone deserved to be named after history’s most famous fallen angel, it was this Lucifer. She could picture him arguing with an irate deity. She could almost picture him winning. But she couldn’t picture him harboring any jealousy toward mortals. Why should perfection get jealous? Besides which, if he had the same effect on all women that he had on her, the man clearly didn’t need to see anyone as competition.

She forced herself to respond casually. “Now why did Reggie give you my name? Are you a friend of hers? Because she’s never mentioned you.” Trust me, I’d remember if she had.

“Well, I need a favor.” He took a seat on the other end of the sofa and watched her through ridiculously green eyes. “But I’m more of a friend of Dmitri’s, actually. I only met Regina last night. I’ve been…out of town.”

Corinne felt her libido screech to a halt. She pried her gaze away from his crotch, where it had wandered completely without her knowledge. Honest. “Damn it,” she muttered under her breath. “All the good ones are married, gay or another species. Shit.”

“What was that?”

Her cheeks flushed, and she shook her head quickly, trying to hide her disappointment as she uncrossed her legs. “Uh, I was just wondering how long you’ve known Dmitri.”

“Not as long as you’re thinking, I assure you.” His mouth remained unsmiling, but he was clearly amused. She wondered how he managed to do that, express things so clearly when his expression rarely changed. “I am about the furthest thing from a vampire you can get. This tan is the real thing.

Sun-induced.” He paused and leaned conspiratorially closer. “I don’t suffer from the furry form of PMS,
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either. I promise.”

Her eyes narrowed in suspicion, even as she felt herself begin to relax. Her libido certainly wasted no time in revving back up. She re-crossed her legs, the move inching her a tiny bit closer to him. “Are you reading my mind or something?”

Lucifer’s eyes twinkled. “Nope. Just your face. You’d make a pretty lousy poker player. Plus, Dmitri warned me you weren’t wild about people like him and Graham.” When he put it that way, it made her sound like a racist. Species-ist. Whatever. “I like Dmitri and Graham just fine. They’re great guys.” And, no, she did
not
sound defensive, thanks. “It’s just a little new to me. How long have you known?” She refused to contemplate the surrealism of this conversation, or the fact that she’d apparently moved a few inches across the sofa cushions. She’d heard of magnetic men, but this was ridiculous.

“Years. I met them at a club in midtown about ten years ago. I admit it was weird at first, but you get used to it. So,” he said, shifting against the sofa cushions to bring himself a little nearer to her. “When I mentioned I was looking for someone to help me out, Misha mentioned you. Are you available?” Oh, in all sort of ways. How do you want me?

She bit the inside of her lip until she could come up with a more reasonable—and less desperate sounding—answer. “I suppose that depends. What was it you needed help with?” He stared at her, his eyes glinting wickedly. “The same thing you do, actually.” Somehow she doubted he needed help keeping his panties from getting any damper. “Yeah, right.”

“It’s true. I’m looking for information, and I have to figure that if you’re an investigative reporter, that’s probably what you’re looking for too. Am I wrong?”

She raised an eyebrow and shifted closer. That had sounded suitably vague. “What kind of information?”

“It’s a bit of a long story.”

Corinne stifled the urge to suggest he tell her all about it while she got him naked. And was it her imagination, or had he been staring at her breasts before he gave that last answer? And, oh dear, she was close enough to touch him now, wasn’t she? “I’m not so sure how much help I’ll be if I don’t know what you want.”

Corinne wondered if Luc could see her eyes glazing over and her tongue hanging out. What was it about this man that made her ready to strip naked, open wide and get all acrobatic with him on the strength of a ten minute acquaintance? She had never been shy about sex, but this struck her as a wee bit excessive. It was a damned good thing he’d told her he wasn’t a vampire or anything, or she’d be panicking at the thought of him knowing what was going on in her dirty little mind. He had to be able to guess, though, considering the fact that during their brief conversation she’d managed to shimmy from one end of her sofa to the other until she had practically climbed onto his lap.

Blushing, and mortally embarrassed, she uncrossed her legs and made a move to push herself up out of her seat altogether, but he stopped her with a hand on her leg. On her thigh, actually. Her upper thigh. So
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high that the edge of his hand brushed lightly against her shorts-covered pussy when she inhaled sharply.

How likely would he be to press charges if she just attacked him now? He saved her from finding out.

“Right now,” he murmured, leaning close enough that she could smell his spicy, minty breath when he spoke, “what I want is a little different from what I told Dmitri and Regina.” Corinne heard choirs of angels, but that might have just been the huge echoing relief she felt when she finally gave in and buried her fingers in his sinfully dark hair.

“Oh, good,” she murmured, reaching her mouth up to his, “because they know too damned much about my sex life as it is.”

The first touch of her lips felt like home and tasted like brandied cream.

Luc growled his pleasure against her mouth and scooped her up into his lap, obsessed with getting closer to her. To hell with his scruples, with their different species, with the fact that she probably only wanted him because of the magic he exuded. At this point, he didn’t care. All he cared about was that he wanted her in a way he’d never wanted another woman, and she was willing to give him what he needed.

Everything else could sort itself out later.

Her lips parted eagerly for his tongue and he plunged deep, seeking the unpolluted taste of her, the flavor that lingered in the soft, inviting recesses of her mouth. He could sense in her the same lust that threatened to send him over the edge, which wasn’t helping his struggle for control. It was a strange twist of fate that humans should find something about the Fae so irresistible when their people had chosen to live so far apart, but there it was. Not even glamours could hide the fact that the Fae were magic, nor keep some humans from sensing it. Corinne’s lust was her reaction to that sense, and it was driving him out of his mind. Not that he minded if she lusted after him, but he still didn’t know how to treat her. He knew humans and Fae were physically compatible, but he’d grown accustomed to taking the women he wanted without the elaborate mating rituals humans observed, and he didn’t picture a human woman appreciating the bold sexuality so common among his people. Besides, somewhere in the back of his mind, he had the feeling he should care that it really wasn’t him she lusted for, it was the magic he couldn’t hide, not even behind the strongest glamour.

All Fae possessed glamour before all other magics, the simplest and yet most potent power they wielded. By casting a glamour on himself, a Fae could alter his appearance in the eyes of any living being, even other Fae, if he had particularly strong talents. It accounted for all the stories of the seductive beauty of his race. Tam Lin had indeed been captivated by the beauty of the Queen of Faerie, but at least a little bit of that beauty had come from Her Majesty’s particularly strong glamours. Those very tricks usually proved the undoing of any relationships between Fae and mortal. For some reason, humans tended to get all bent out of shape when they discovered their perception of their lovers was based on a web of pretty
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lies, and Luc guessed Corinne would be no exception to that.

He hadn’t used a glamour to enhance his looks, just to disguise them. After Rafe’s warning that Corinne held suspicions about anyone from a different species, they had decided Luc should use his magic to make himself appear human to Regina’s friend. He didn’t even use a big spell, just a few simple incantations that reshaped his ears into a more human (meaning, less pointed) form, softened some of the sharper angles to his features, and disguised the glow of enchantment all Fae wore like a visible aura. But a glamour was a glamour, and human senses occasionally got just enough of a taste of the magic that powered it to find it very seductive indeed. He was willing to bet Corinne wouldn’t appreciate the difference between a big lie and a small one.

Still, with the taste of her lingering on his tongue, he wasn’t all that sure he cared. All that mattered to him right now was the taste of her, the feel of her under his hands and the warm, musky smell of her arousal filling his senses.

“Mm.” Her throaty moans drove him crazy. This human he’d been afraid of shocking apparently didn’t know she was supposed to be significantly less aggressive than a Fae woman. Her hands released their grip on his hair and dove between their bodies. She shifted position, throwing one slim leg over his and turning until she straddled his lap, but she never interrupted their kiss. Their mouths fed on each other as she slipped her hands between them and attacked the buttons of his now too-tight jeans.

Luc barely remembered to stop himself from releasing them with magic. Instead of whisking them both naked with a flick of his fingers, he had to endure the maddening slide of her fingers over his engorged cock, the brush of knuckles against his shaft, as she struggled with metal and denim. When she finally got the last of the buttons open, she moaned her relief against his mouth and slid her hands inside the open jeans to close reverently around him. Slim, feminine fingers curled around his cock, measuring his width and assessing his hardness. Lady knew, there was no way on Ithir he could possibly get any harder, short of turning completely to stone. And even then, it would be a close call.

Her other hand burrowed lower until she could cup his balls in her palm. The satisfied purr she gave when she did that almost finished him in her hands, and he’d be damned if he’d let go of so much as a drop of his seed before he got inside her.

He tore his mouth from hers just long enough to strip his shirt over his head and toss it away. Before he had time to grasp the hem of hers, she dove headfirst for his bare chest and laid her warm, clever tongue against the hollow of his throat. Shit. Between her stroking hands and her darting tongue, he didn’t stand a chance. So much for trying not to scare her. At this point, it was either scare her or disappoint her.

Easing her hands from around his cock and other, more sensitive bits, he went for the fear.

In one dizzy rush of motion, he stripped her T-shirt over her head and tumbled her back onto the sofa.

Before she could do more than blink up at him, he had her shorts, shoes and socks off and was kicking his jeans off to join the pile of abandoned clothes on the floor. Naked, he forced her legs wide apart and settled himself in the saddle of her hips, his cock poised at the entrance of her already weeping pussy.

Bracing the weight of his torso on one hand, he curved the other around her breast, flicked his thumb over her erect little nipple and grinned down at her.

“Hey,” she protested, even as she parted her thighs wider and wrapped her smooth, golden legs around his hips. “You’re not fighting fair. I was enjoying myself.” Luc ducked his head until he could scrape his teeth over the delicate tendon along her shoulder. “I’m not
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fighting at all.” He inhaled deeply to capture her scent. It was a heady mix of honeysuckle, clove and warm, willing woman. “And I’d much rather we enjoy ourselves together. What do you say?” He rocked his hips against hers, savoring the music of her whimpering gasp. The entrance of her pussy bathed him in hot moisture, easing his way, luring him inside her waiting passage. Goddess, he couldn’t wait to be inside her.

Teeth clenched, he rose up above her, watching the arch of her throat as she threw her head back, the fluttering of her eyelashes when he gently kneaded her full breast. He eased his hips forward until the head of his cock pressed hard against her entrance—not inside her, but poised to thrust home. “Well?” he demanded through gritted teeth. “Do you want me, Corinne?” Her eyes flew open and glared up at him, snapping with heat and need. She released her grip on the sofa cushions and sank her nails deep into his shoulders even as she locked her ankles together more firmly behind his back. “What do you
think
?” she hissed as she drew into a tight coil of energy beneath him and used the strength of her legs to slam her hips up hard against his.

His cock sliced deep inside her, driving into her like a battering ram, but she flowed slick and hot in welcome. He could feel her heels digging into his spine, but he didn’t care. All he cared about was the feel of this woman beneath him, around him, lifting her hips to meet his thrusts as he began to fuck her with a fast, brutal rhythm.

Corrine cried out, her head dropping back to the cushions even as her hands clutched frantically at his shoulders. She tugged as if to pull him nearer, and Luc obeyed, pressing their sweat-slick bodies together from neck to groin as he continued to pound her cunt. He’d never felt anything as amazing as this woman’s body and the sensations it created in him. He fucked her as if he wanted to crawl inside her skin, to get so close to her that not even the air could separate them.