Masked Attraction (9 page)

Fierce satisfaction seared him. “Then I’ll take dork.”

Chapter Seven

Zoe had never tasted anything so good as Daniel Light—until she tasted Daniel sweaty.

She palmed his pecs, leaned in, and licked. He was slick from their run, and both hands and tongue skated over hard mounds of muscle and sleek hot skin, making her groan. “This has changed since high school. A lot.”

He chuckled. “How would you know? You never touched me like this then.”

“I thought about it.”

“You
did?
”

She peeked up. His shocked face would’ve been funny if she wasn’t so hot for him. But she was, and his naked torso was even more ripped than a wolf’s. Pressing herself against it, she was overcome with the need to kiss, lick,
bite
all that glorious male strength. She couldn’t get enough of him.

Overcome with lust—and something more?

Whatever. He felt and tasted so good, nothing mattered beyond now. She petted everything she could reach. His skin was hot silk over iron, his back broad wings of muscle that stretched and contracted as he caressed her. She grabbed those powerful wings and slid her hands slid down to his narrow waist.

His mouth was on the crook of her neck, chasing shivers of desire along her skin. Lifting on her toes, she pressed into him, rubbing her nipples erect against the light hair of his chest.

He slid his hands between them, into her panties.

“Not yet.” She stopped petting long enough to work his zipper open.

“You first.”

“Not this time.” She peeled his pants and boxers down a few inches, and grabbed for him.

His cock sprang greedily into her hands, two fists’ worth. She stroked the sleek, hard skin, and he gasped.

“Okay…whatever you say. Whatever you want.”

“That’s better. Daniel, I want you to…” She gestured at him, his pants, and the door.

He read her flawlessly, as he always did, shoved his clothes down to his feet, and kicked them off. Then he went to the door and leaned his back against it. His erection jutted eagerly toward her.

Oh, yes.

She sauntered toward him, came to a stop when the tip of that gorgeous cock brushed her belly. His breath sawed in and out. Giving him a devilish smile, her gaze never leaving his, she slowly knelt.

The rasp of his breath suddenly stopped.

Much better.
She gave him a hot little lick. A throttled noise came from the back of his throat, almost like a howl. So she had to, she really did.

Opening her mouth, she drew him in and sucked.

He hissed. “You,” he panted, pulling out. “You first.”

“We did that.”

The sight of him, full and straining for her, took her breath away. Made her heart pound double time. He was so tense, so ready, his muscles stood out like bricks.

Rising, she turned her back to him, hooked her panties with her thumbs, and drew them down her hips, teasingly slow. “How about nobody first. How about us together?”

Daniel swallowed, hard. “Zoe, don’t. I haven’t…I didn’t…”

She cocked a little smile over her shoulder. “No condom? That’s okay. I’m good without.” Wolf shifters were immune to most diseases and didn’t have to worry about children until mated.

His breathing became rough. “Don’t offer unless you really mean it—”

She tilted up her naked rump.

Instantly he seized her hips, fingers biting into her.

An excited gasp escaped her throat, anticipation soaring. But then he stood there, panting, fingers clenching and unclenching, obviously still trying to restrain himself.

All that control was sexy, but enough was enough. She spread herself, letting him see and smell how much she wanted him, how hot and wet and ready she was.

With a raw groan, he gave up the fight and drove himself into her.

Satisfaction drilled her, and a long, hot slide of heightened sensation as he thrust inside. She felt every hot inch going in. Moaned with each vein and bump that stretched her. He filled her, and she loved it.

Then he began to move. His thrusts were powerful, smooth and regular. Assured. He gripped her hips firmly to hold her for his driving rhythm.

“More.” She ground herself against him. “Faster.”

“Faster? Or
harder?
”

As he always had, Daniel gave her exactly what she needed, pounding into her like an oil rig.

“Yes. That.” She rippled in ecstasy. “
More.
” She moaned it.

“I’ll give you more.” He sank deep inside her, over and over, driving like a machine. Hammering into her as hard as she could take it, but jerking, groaning, as if even his amazing self-discipline had worn thin.

Thin, but not completely gone, because he wrapped one arm around her and dropped a hand to her cleft, where his fingers found her hard little clit.

Still thinking, with the last vestiges of his awareness—thinking of her.

His first stroke down the nose of her clit shocked a thrill through her. He began burnishing her pleasure in rhythm with his thrusts, pushing her up a mile-high rollercoaster.

Panting, her heart pumping in her ears, she wriggled between his thrusting cock and fingers, shockwaves echoing, winching higher, and higher still.

To the very top.

Hanging there, at the top of infinity, she could see the vast landscape from here, a climax bigger than the sky itself.

All she had to do was fall.

“Come for me, sweet Zoe,” he breathed in her ear, pounding her so hard, their bones seemed to mesh. “Come apart in my arms. I want to see you do it.”

She groaned. “You…too…”

“Not yet. I want to watch you come. Come
now.
” His hot mouth latched onto her shoulder.

Like an alpha wolf taking control.

She responded instantly with everything she was. Leaped. Sailed off the edge of the world.

The earth dropped out from under her. Orgasm didn’t sing, it bellowed. She shrieked as she plummeted earthward. Climax hit, waves of contractions so hard it hurt, followed by hurricanes of release. Like a skydiver caught in huge updrafts, screaming as she fell only to whoosh upward, her stomach swooping. And again, and again. Just as she started to come down, he’d pump into her, triggering another contraction and release. She realized somewhere in that huge rollercoaster ride he was holding off his own orgasm until she was fully satisfied.

The hell with that. She reached behind her, grabbed his hips and pulled.

In her desperation, she yanked so hard she buried him inside her to the hilt. He made a strangled sound, music to her ears, so she clamped down on her internal muscles, squeezing him as hard as she could.

He roared, gut-deep, and came. Hot, jerking inside her, extending her own orgasm, rolling it longer, rippling it into infinity.

Her world went white. Noiseless except for a cotton mallet pounding a pillow drum, the thudding of her heart.

The terrible contractions eased. In their place…perfect peace.

She felt mellow, her muscles glowing, her brain clean and new. Sex was always good. But with Daniel it was amazing.

Opening her eyes, she caught sight of herself in the mirror.

She expected the heaving breasts, the flushed skin. Expected the sheen of perspiration and the weary but satisfied expression. Expected the big, happy pupils and thin corona of contented green.

But instead of satisfied peridot, her irises were
emerald
. Her mother’s mated color.

Mated.

The world dropped out from under her a second time. Her limbs trembled. Impulsively, she turned to Daniel, burrowing into his arms. He smelled like the best thing ever, like chocolate and flowers and bath oils all in one. Affirming, even if the color of her eyes hadn’t already told her, the truth.

Mated.

It was a disaster. She’d mated. No flowers, no candy, not even a dinner and movie.

Mated, without romance—her worst fear come true.

Chapter Eight

Daniel leaned back against the door, Zoe a warm, limp weight against him. He wrapped grateful arms around her. He felt wonderful, made new. Happy. Complete. That had been much, much more than sex.

With her, even in a janitor’s closet, it was making love.

“You have the key?”

Her voice came from the depths of his arms, muffled against his chest. He heaved a sigh. Well. Guess that was that. The joining of a lifetime to him was only more sex to her. Maybe not even great sex at that, since he was only human.

He released her, wishing the reluctance to leave his embrace was on her side as much as his, but not hopeful. Next time, he’d use his power.

Magic would give her an orgasm that would blow her mind.

If there was a next time.

Daniel’s shoulders slumped. His limbs were unaccountably heavy as he picked up his tux jacket and extracted the key from its pocket. A stink emerged with it, stinging his nostrils—the acrid stench of evil magic. He stifled his flinch and opened his third eye. On the ethereal, fingerprints glowed blood red on the key.

Damn and blast. Zeus had used blood magic to extract the key from Zoe’s lovely cleavage. The fingerprints were small, a woman’s, meaning the sacrifice was not Zeus’ own. Not death, thank goodness, or the bloody color would be tinged with black; but there
was
pain.

With a grimace of distaste, Daniel cleansed the stink off with a whisper of power.

Zoe rubbed her arms, goose bumps rumpling her skin. “Chilly in here.”

She’d felt him use his power? Usually, only another witch could detect magic. Maybe their lovemaking
had
attuned her to him…their
sex,
that was.

He handed her the key. “What do you want it for?”

“Masked ball, remember? Prize going to the most romantic man? The parchment. I still need the key to take the parchment from the case and give it to the winner.”

He winced. The prize for romance; the one he’d come for. The one he’d now definitely blown by behaving like her boyfriends in high school, only wanting to get in her pants, nothing else mattering.

All his sexual expertise, his skills in seduction, learned painstakingly over years—they’d all vanished simply at the sight of Zoe’s upturned hips.

“You pickpocketed it.” She lifted the key to her nose, sniffed it, and smiled. “I can’t believe, in the middle of all that chest-beating, you thought to lift it. You didn’t slug him in a testosterone rage…you did it for a reason. Because you were thinking.” Her smile warmed as her gaze rose to his. “You were always thinking. It was one of the things that made you special.”

Dorky really was a good thing. His shoulders straightened and his chest expanded. He felt like a king. “Thanks.”

Her green eyes glowed. He wanted to fall into their dark depths forever, swim in their emerald depths…

Emerald?

Wizards had a saying: “Power shows in the eyes.” It was true for magical beings from witches to shifters to familiars.

He blinked, but her irises didn’t change. The thin rings were definitely darker, no longer peridot. His heart beat faster as he got a strange idea. “What happened to your eyes?”

Her smile disappeared. “Nothing.” She turned her head away, shaking it, mahogany tresses rustling against her shoulders. “Sometimes I get emotional. It makes my eyes look darker.”

She was telling the truth; he knew from his arcane classes that some shifters’ eyes were as good as mood rings. An emotional bellwether. But he couldn’t help thinking—the most extreme emotion for a wolf shifter was
mating
.

He sucked in a breath, on the edge of something huge…

“I’m scared, Daniel.”

Everything—thoughts, hopes, fears—evaporated in the wake of her need, and he immediately reached out to comfort her.

His arms swished air. She’d already turned and bent to pick up her panties.

His gaze was drawn helplessly to the curve of her backside, but he was still determined to comfort her when she was ready.

She straightened, not facing him, obviously not ready.

Instead of pulling her into his arms, he patted her shoulder awkwardly. “Why are you afraid?”

“I’m thirty-nine.” She slid the wisp of lace up over her long, long legs, over her hips. “My biological clock is ticking extra-loud.”

“L-loud?” he croaked. The afterimage of her panties gliding up those long legs reduced his vocal cords to mush.

“Yes.” She hunted around for her dress. “Urging me to find a husband. Settle down.”

“And that’s a problem?”

She snared her dress and stepped into it. “Well, if I marry a man now, how will I know if it’s because I truly love him? How will I know he loves me, and it’s not just because I jumped him? I won’t have any romance to compare.” She paused pulling the dress up. Her shoulders were knotted, her spine stiff. “How will I know, years down the road, if my husband truly loves me, or if it’s just sex keeping us together?”

“But romance isn’t the same as love.” Even as he spoke, her words echoed in his mind. They made no sense, but the sadness, the fear behind them was very real. Need kicked him, the need to understand, to help. Was she not telling him everything? Maybe because she thought he was human, she couldn’t say what she really meant, and he’d have to read between the lines. Her hormones were urging her to settle down…stars. Did she mean her wolf? Again her words echoed, but now he heard the meaning behind them.

My wolf will force me to take a mate.
Sex and pups forced on her, without choice.

Suddenly he understood.

The key was important because it unlocked the parchment.

The parchment was important because it unlocked romance.

Romance was important because
she thought it would unlock the secrets of her heart.

He started dressing, too, infinitely sad. Zoe, with all her experience and guts and smarts, didn’t understand herself in this one key area.

It was vital he get the parchment—
the world as we know it will end
—but, this was Zoe. More, it was a hurting, vulnerable Zoe. Anyone else, he’d use all his talents in seduction, learned from a hundred beauties, and bedazzle her until she gladly gave him the prize.

But Zoe would lose the key to her own heart. He wouldn’t hurt her that way.

Then she turned, holding the key out to him, her vulnerability, her soul in her eyes. “On second thought… Take it. It’ll be safer with you.”

Words clogged his throat. If she’d handed him her physical heart he couldn’t have been any more honored—or terrified. He swallowed, hard.

Here was the means to take the parchment. And because she’d handed it to him willingly, he had the permission.

She’s giving the key to me.

It would hurt her forever. How could he do that to her?

The world as we know it will end
. How could he
not?

“Daniel, please?” She offered the key again.

Neither mattered. She needed his help.

He answered as he always had. “Yes, or course.” He took the key and tucked it again into his unburned breast pocket. “I do understand what this means. You can trust me.”

She exhaled a loud
whew
and smiled, her relief palpable.

He could never abuse her trust. It nailed a decision that, if he were honest with himself, he’d already made. He needed that parchment, yes. But he knew from high school what it was like to be hurt badly. He’d never do that to another soul, much less Zoe.

He’d have to find another way to get the Quatrain.

Zoe was surprised how relieved she felt, giving up the key to Daniel—her mate. She turned her back to him in a silent request to zip her dress, just as her wolf pulled back its ears and growled.

She jerked to attention. “Something’s wrong.”

Daniel gave her an efficient zip. “What?”

“I don’t know…wait. Shouting.” Coming from the ballroom. “Feet running. Hear that?” She turned.

He cocked his head, listening. “Now I do. It’s getting louder.” He threw on the rest of his clothes.

She’d started toeing on her shoes when a voice cut through the rest, high, tight.

“Zoe!
It’s gone.
”

Dorine.
Zoe hobbled to the door, barely slowing to scoop her heels in with a finger.

Daniel, fully dressed and immaculate, was already opening the door.

The planner ran down the hallway, ducking into each open doorway as she passed. “Zoe, where are you?”

“Here.” She waved and trotted toward her.

The moment Dorine caught sight of her, the planner’s face crumpled with relief. “I only turned my back for a moment, I swear.”

“What’s gone?” Though, from the cold weight in her gut, Zoe knew.

“The parchment.”

“Show me.” She grabbed Dorine’s elbow, surprisingly lean with muscle, and tugged her toward the ballroom. Daniel followed.

“I don’t know what happened. The case is open and I can’t find the key—”

“You left it in the lock.”

“Oh.” The woman’s cheeks flushed. “I’m sorry.”

Zoe could smell the stink of emotion coming off her, shame and the bite of rage, probably at the thief. “It’s all right. I found it when the party started. I locked the case and took the key.”

“Then how—?”

“I lost it, too.”

They reached the ballroom, where a crowd buzzed around the front table. “Damn my paws,” Zoe muttered. “My romantic evening, ruined.”

“Not at all.” Daniel clasped her shoulder. “This will only add to the mystery and intrigue.”

Sure enough, as Zoe neared, champagne and speculation both flowed freely.

“I heard it was stolen by a famous cat burglar.”

“I heard it was a lost duke, reclaiming his inheritance.”

“The Queen of Heart’s lover, lost for years at sea.”

Zoe shook her head with a rueful smile. Daniel was right. The theft, far from detracting, had made the party that much better.

“Maybe the loss is a good thing now,” Dorine said. “But what about at midnight? What if the parchment is never found? How will the Queen of Hearts bestow her prize?”

Zoe’s optimism waned. Dorine was right. Success was a fickle thing.

The planner shook her head. “Maybe the servers know something. I’ll go ask.” She left.

Zoe managed to wedge her way into the center of the gossipers. The case below the fountain was open.

Empty.

Seeing that void brought the loss crashing home. Her eyes prickled. Her prize, gone. She wasn’t sure if she meant the parchment, her dreams of romance, or her right to choose her mate.

Or maybe all three. Her chest hollowed, and she barely suppressed a shudder.

Daniel must’ve caught it anyway, because his arm came around her shoulders, warming her.

He leaned in and murmured in her ear. “Are you all right?”

She shook her head. “It’s nothing.”

“I know you better.”

He turned her to face him. His star-shot blue eyes were as serious as she’d ever seen.

“It’s okay. We’ll find the parchment.”

He’d figured out the problem without her saying a word, and
he’d help her.
Despite already having gotten sex, despite not really needing anything more from her. She needed; he provided.

As he always had.

Why had she not appreciated that? None of her high school boyfriends had lifted a finger on her behalf. Even her adult men friends were only helpful before sex.

She’d taken Daniel’s support for granted—worse, had considered it something of a
turnoff.
Family helped you out, and girlfriends. Who wanted a boy more like family or a girlfriend?

That kind of thinking had gotten her the pregnancy scare. Now she knew better. Now she knew dependable and supportive was the sexiest thing a man could be, because with the right man, sex could be lovemaking, and scares could be joyful surprises.

Because the other name for a man who was also family and friend?

Husband.

Desire ignited her veins like a lit fuse. She wanted that, wanted a husband, one who’d make a home with her. A family.

Tethered to Daniel’s star-shot gaze, she nodded. She meant more than they’d find the parchment…
Husband.

His return smile only held relief. “Good.”

He dropped his hands and turned toward the case. He hadn’t seen it. Preternaturally aware of her needs, this once, he’d been blind.

Unless he’d seen it and was rejecting it. Rejecting
her.

Like Tommy, damn it.

No. Daniel is different.

No, he was a human, and a man. Besides, a human as her wolf’s mate? Scauth would never accept him. She wiped at suddenly itchy eyes.