Boiling Point (11 page)

Fauna felt limp, satiated, buzzing with completion. Her well-loved pussy tightened once more on his length.

Cooper buried his face in her damp hair. “I got you, baby.”

“Soap on your cock?” she asked stupidly, intelligent thought still far from possible.

He chuckled, kissed her earlobe. “Rinsed off when I saw you come. I had to get inside you, honey.”

The water turned off. For all she cared, it was a magical thing. She had no idea since her eyes were still locked closed and her forehead pressed to his muscular shoulders.

His arms moved and she whimpered, still feeling weak. Soon though, he wrapped a towel around her and drew her close again. “It’s a good thing we work nights and sleep days. We might have woken the inn otherwise.”

“Mmph,” she said into his chest. Heat burned her cheeks.

“I forgot to tell you, that when a fire elemental makes love without holding back, things can get warm and tingly.”

“You never did that before.”

“I was afraid it would give away my identity too easily. Did I hurt you? Was there too much heat?” he asked.

She lifted wide eyes to him. She shook her head, no. Something niggled at the back of her mind, but she couldn’t place the importance.

“So it was okay?”

He really seemed uncertain.

“You didn’t hurt me. It was—amazing. Intense.” She frowned and lightly smacked his chest. “We weren’t going to have sex again.”

He smiled gently, tucking a wet strand of her hair behind her ear. “Then we’re in luck. There was no sex that time. Only love making.”

She didn’t know why, but that made her want to cry. He couldn’t have said anything more perfect, or more guilt inducing.

“I love you, Fauna.”

She bit back her own ready response, wanting to say the words to him, too. She couldn’t. She just couldn’t let herself love another magical being. It was doomed for failure. What kind of life would they lead with faery and elemental intervention at every turn? What kind of future was that?

It wasn’t one. She knew that better than Cooper ever could. He’d been full elemental his whole life, and apparently an active elemental in his community of other elementals. He didn’t have to live in the human world at all, if he didn’t want to.

Fauna hadn’t the choice. Half-faery, half-human, she lived in the human world with a faery prank bestowed on her. Invisibility without knowing when it would happen or being able to stop it, wasn’t a gift. It was a curse. She had to incorporate that life-altering mess into a
human
existence. Was it any wonder she didn’t trust magical beings for all their trickery?

If she stayed with Cooper and had children, they’d be part human too. What kind of insanity would she be relegating them too? Holiday dinners around an elemental dinner table? The weakest of the magical beings—aside from Fauna—and taunted by other little beasty children? Where lighting candles with one’s fingertip was normal?

Cooper held her through her silence. “I know you aren’t ready. It’s okay. As long as you know I love you, I’ll wait through anything.”

Fauna dragged her hand down his chest. Looking at the contrast between her pale skin tone and his naturally bronzed body. She blinked, not comprehending why she didn’t see her hand on him, then blinked again.

Cool fingers of dread twisted her stomach.

“I’m still invisible,” she said. It took a minute for the words to sink in. Her gaze shot to his. “I’m still invisible.”

Cooper smiled uncomfortably.

“I’m invisible. But. You’re looking at me.” Fauna’s eyes narrowed, watching for any change in his expression.

“That’s not entirely true,” he hedged.

“What part?” she demanded to know.

“You’re invisible,” he began. “To the human eye. Heat signatures are there even when you aren’t visible. I can see you when you disappear.”

“Of course you can,” she groused. Fauna swallowed hard. “Explain.”

She shivered, partly from the damp and partly from knowing he’d tell her something she didn’t really want to hear but should probably know about him.

She stepped away from him and out of the shower. Cooper followed her into the bedroom where she put her night shirt back on. She faced him, arms folded across her chest. Fortunately, she felt the magical tingle fade and knew she’d returned to normal.

“You have body heat. Think of the infrared security cameras we have.”

“Oh, God.” She swallowed the words, as she realized exactly what that meant. Every single time she thought she’d been invisible to him, she hadn’t been.
That’s what he’s saying, right?

“That’s not bad. That’s good,” he assured her. “Just think, you’ve finally met someone where your faery ability won’t get in the way of a relationship.”

“Nice positive spin there,” she said sarcastically. “You couldn’t have mentioned this sooner?”

“You mean like, when I was jacking off, and you watched? When I know that you’re staring at me, and I like it?”

She winced. “Any one of those times would have been fabulous.”

“You just found out what I am. I could hardly tell you before that.”

“Hello? Jacking-off-in-the-shower-man?”

“Are you kidding? Risk the opportunity to see you getting so turned on by me, when you think I don’t know that you have to rub your sexy little cunt until you liquefy with pleasure?”

“Must have been an eyeful,” she agreed tightly.

“Every second,” he agreed, closing the distance between them.

Cooper got to his knees in front of her, pulling her hips to him as he kissed her chest through her thin cotton shirt. Fauna took his head in her hands. She tilted his face up.

“You should have told me.”

Cooper’s expression grew serious. “I did tell you who and what I was. You got upset with me, and I was busily defending myself and our relationship. Then you gave me the silent treatment, and there were showers.” At the last, his eyes twinkled in memory.

“I still should have known. You should have
tried
to tell me.”

“You’re not giving me a lot of room for explanation, Fauna. I’ll tell you anything you want to know.” He smiled brilliantly. “Do you want to know what I see when you disappear?”

She caught her bottom lip. This seemed too easy.
Why does it feel like a seduction?

“Yes,” she answered simply. “Can all elementals see me?”

“Air, earth, and water can’t. Only another fire elemental can see you because our existence relies on heat and sources of heat.”

His hands slid under the hem of her shirt.

She pushed them away. “That was accidental sex in there. I have a lot to think about before the possibility of that ever happens again.”

He looked at her hopefully. “At least there’s a possibility. That’s more than I had thirty minutes ago.”

He looked so adorable on his knees in front of her, looking up with that bright smile. “When you disappear, I see you as though you’ve been dipped in molten gold. You glow so brightly, it’s as though you are a mini-sun. Your body radiates heat. You blush and that golden color changes between lava red and swirling white.”

He stroked her cheek. “But the most beautiful thing about it is that seeing you is just as much about feeling the heat your body generates. You aren’t just visual, Fauna. Your heat tingles the edges of my skin, buffeting against the fine hairs on my arm like the lapping waves of a warm sea.

“You’re gorgeous. I know exactly where your body heats. Exactly where it wants to be touched. Exactly how close you are to orgasm. I know when and how I turn you on by the flow of heat to your erogenous zones, and I know that you heat for me and only me.

He smiled wickedly. “Like right now,” he said, his eyes drifting between her thighs.

Fauna pressed her thighs firmly together. She licked her lips, trying to moisten them, but failed. Her composure was nearly shot, and goddamnit, she could hardly catch a breath.

Did he really see her like that? It sounded amazing. Like she was a glowing goddess, and the way he looked at her only reaffirmed that. Her annoyance faded.

“You can sleep in the bed. Cooper?” She waited until she was sure she had his attention. She stroked his cheek with the back of her fingers. “I need time. Don’t push me right now, okay? I just need—to soak it all in. Figure it all out.”

Cooper got to his feet. He dropped a kiss on her forehead. “I can’t say it’s going to be easy, but I promise to give you whatever time you need.”

She nodded her thanks. “We have a big night tonight. The Plexiglas will have been installed by the time we get back to the lab, and there are some last details I need to program. I’ll need your help on that, especially if we’re trying to keep out non-humans.”

“Then I recommend sleep.”

Chapter Seven

Cooper awoke first. The air around him had cooled by two degrees, and though a human might not notice such a thing, he did. It was as though his cells told him it was night time. There wasn’t a better alarm clock.

He leaned over, looking at Fauna’s sweet face. Her black lashes lay like smudges on her cheeks. Her lips puckered in her sleep then relaxed. Her hand rested on the comforter. One finger twitched and she sighed, butter-soft.

Sinking down beside her, he wanted to kiss her so badly he ached with it, but he’d promised her time.

“Fauna, it’s time,” he whispered huskily.

Her eyes fluttered open. She saw him and smiled, stretched her arms above her head and arched her back. God, if that wasn’t an invitation to kiss her, he didn’t know what was. He’d love to cup one of her lifted breasts and tease the nipple into a high, tight point. To hear her gasp his name again. But more than that, he wanted to hear her say that she loved him.

Cooper kept his body in check and smiled back.

With wakefulness, memory seemed to return and Fauna stiffened. She clutched the covers to her chest, a soft blush warming her cheeks as her gaze danced away from his.

“Thanks.” Fauna rolled out of bed.

He listened to her brushing her teeth while he got dressed. In unspoken agreement, they switched tasks and were out the door in under twenty minutes. It was cruel to do it to himself, but he stopped at the drive-thru coffee shop for their caffeine fix and some breakfast. Then he tried desperately to keep from coming in his pants as he watched her make love to the warm liquid, and creamy foam.

That’s what he called it anyway. He struggled to keep his eyes on the road, and once they’d arrived, to walk without tripping. Each guttural moan, each time her tongue darted out to sweep the foam off her lips, each time she held the paper cup to her face, to smile secretly and inhale flavor-filled steam through half-closed eyes of pleasure, he berated himself again for putting himself through torture.

“Tomorrow it’s orange juice,” he muttered to himself. “
Cold
orange juice, with nasty pulp.” There was nothing sexier to a fire elemental than watching the woman he loved reveling in heat with all her erotic senses.

She’s going to kill me
.
With coffee
.