The Beast Within (20 page)

Instead, he turned toward her and touched her face. “It wasn’t your fault. You were a kid.”

“None of that changes why my parents went to see you.”

A helpless anger filled his chest. The damn woman was turning him inside out. “Get over it, Mira. So you were born frigid. Deal with it. Quit feeling sorry for yourself.”

Her eyes blazed with hot gold and she slapped his hand off her face. She got to her feet, turned to face him and jammed her hands on her hips. Her skin flushed all the way down to the top curve of her breasts in that black T-shirt. “Sorry for myself?” she snapped. “I’m glad I’m magic-blind. It forces me to be human and not treat others like they are usable and expendable! My parents wanted to change me, and my grandparents on my mother’s side wanted to get rid of me. Well, you know what? Screw them. I like me the way I am.”

The wave of pride in her rolled over him. Mira was self-confident and flat-out refused to allow other people’s opinions to define her. She didn’t fall over herself trying to impress him or manipulate him, not his Mira. No, she stood there and told him that she liked herself just the way she was. That kind of confidence in a woman was just plain sexy. He grinned at her. “I like you.”

She narrowed her eyes. “Why? Magicals either want to change me or use me. The only thing you need from me is to not expose your secret about the portal.”

She was sharp. And she challenged him. It was a new experience. Gage moved fast, getting to his feet to tower over her by a good eight inches. “I have a business manager, a housekeeper and all the staff I want. I don’t
need
you….” He trailed off on that lie. He needed her to fix his powers. He was using her. He put his hand on her shoulder and then slid his fingers to cup the back of her neck and told her one thing that was true, “I
want
you. I like your fire, your confidence. I like the way you care enough for your grandmother to demand and blackmail me into finding her.” He lowered his head and tugged her closer to his mouth. “And I like the way you kiss.”

H
e didn’t
need
her.

He
wanted
her.

Mira felt a new warmth blooming around her heart. As if that secret place where she’d kept her deep wish to be desired, wanted and accepted was unfurling with soft sweeping wings. His long fingers intimately cupped around her neck drew her toward him. He watched her with those turbulent eyes with roiling blue-and-gray desire. Real desire. His full mouth was so close to hers, she could feel his breath and almost feel the tang of his rich amber taste on her tongue.

Desire shivered down her spine and spread a pool of thick yearning in her stomach.

If this was what magic felt like, then her rule of not dating magicals was meant to be broken. She went up on her toes, meeting his mouth.

He groaned, his other arm snapping around her waist and lifting her off her feet. Instinctively, she wrapped her arms around his neck, feeling the cords and muscles bulging with his incredible strength. He tilted his head, his breath hot as he sucked her lower lip into his mouth, abraded it with his teeth, then soothed with his tongue.

Her body flared to life, her nerve endings begging for his touch. She twined her legs around his hips, trying to ease the need.
More!
She ran her hands over his shoulders, the soft cotton of his T-shirt frustrating her. She moved her mouth over his jaw, kissing, licking, tasting, needing more of him. Down the strong column of his neck, shivering at the electric-salt taste of his skin, the deep male scent filling her nose and throat.
More!
She dragged her tongue along the collar of his T-shirt and tasted the velvety hot edge of his mantling.

Her tongue hummed.

“Damn, you’re a wildcat,” Gage groaned. He planted his hand on her butt and pressed her aching core to his hard dick straining his jeans.

A jolt of pure, untamed heat shot through her. Rubbing herself against him, with her mouth pressed to his neck, she demanded, “Not enough. More skin, more of you.”

His chuckle rumbled against her breasts. Her bra was too tight….

Then it was gone. All their clothes just vanished! The cool air of the hotel room blew against her back, while the heat of Gage’s naked chest pressed against her nipples and his…

She pulled back, instinctively trusting his arms to hold her and looked down.

They were both naked and the two gemstones, the moss agate and the ruby that had been in her bra, tumbled down to rest where her legs wrapped around him. His erection jutted up, with the thin lines of mantling swirling around the almost plum-colored head. The two gemstones were nestled together, green and red, at the base of his penis where their bodies met.

It struck her as meaning something. The togetherness, the way the stones touched both of them so intimately. It sent shivers through her and those soft wings in her chest fluttered. She started to reach for the stones, and the back of her hand brushed against his cock.

It jerked and swelled impossibly bigger.

She forgot the stones and, instead, brushed the tip of him with her thumb. Then she curled her fingers around the hard length, feeling the pulse of his magic. It was moving into her, through her, touching so much of her. She slid her legs to the ground, scooping up the gemstones with her left hand.

Gage didn’t stop her. He let her be free.

She pressed her mouth to his triskellion and felt the answering hum. It shivered through her, reaching into her and she stroked the symbol with her tongue.

“Mira.” Gage breathed it out in a whisper as soft as the hum of his power. He cradled her head as she kept bathing the symbol with her tongue, tasting the ancient amber power. She stroked her hand down the hard ridges of his stomach and curled her fingers around the length of his swollen cock. She brushed her palm up and down, then feathered her thumb over the tip.

When she felt the bead of moisture on her thumb, she moved down his stomach and licked him.

“No more, wildcat.” Gage pulled her up, then pressed her back onto the mattress. She watched the mantling on his chest and stomach; the colors were pulsing and deepening into a vibrant plum with swirls of gold. She reached out to touch—

In a move so fast she couldn’t really track it, Gage gathered her wrists in his hand and stretched her arms over her head. She still had the gemstones in one fist. He looked down into her eyes, the blues and grays churning with a promise. “I’m going to make you purr for me, little wildcat.” His voice was low and thick.

She opened her mouth.

He ducked down and slanted his mouth over hers, wet and demanding, kissing her with fierce possession. Violent, rolling need had her arch beneath him, pressing her breasts against his chest.

Her nipples brushed across the velvety hum of his mantling, wringing a gasp from her. It was like…magic caressed and stroked the sensitive buds, making her pant and her stomach jump while she clenched her thighs together hard.

Gage kissed along her jaw, sliding his body down, his mouth wet on her neck, while his chest and mantling caressed her nipples. She writhed, desperate for more.

He held her wrists pinned with a gentle strength and kissed down her collar bone.

Her skin was so sensitized now that everywhere he brushed sent wild, desperate sensations through her, then pooled deep in her womb. And when his mouth closed over her nipple, she bucked upward.

Gage slid his thigh between her legs, holding her open while he licked and sucked one nipple, then the other. The heat of his thigh teased her but never quite pressed against her.

A low sound of frantic frustration slipped up her throat.

He lifted his head, those eyes latching on to her face. “Not quite a purr, kitty. I’ll have to do better.”

“Gage! I can’t take any more!”

He released her wrists.

She barely moved her arms before he slid down her length, rubbing his magic over her belly, then dropping down to the ground on his knees. His hands took hold of her thighs and spread them apart. The cool air touched her hot, aching clitoris.

It was followed by the touch of his thumb feathering that sensitive spot.

She jerked her hips.

He cupped her bottom and lifted her up and leaned in. She couldn’t move, as if his sheer power and intensity held her pinned, while her nerves screamed for release.

He licked her.

Mira slammed her hands to the bed, clenching one fist around the gemstones, and gathering the spread in the other one.

Gage groaned as if he’d just tasted his favorite dessert. The rumble shot through her. And then he was licking her again, his tongue rolling and caressing her clit. Her body wound tighter, her heart pounded, and she was close, wild, writhing when he penetrated her with a finger, then two and stroked deep. Pumping in and out. Building. Tension twisting. Need growing sharp and vital. She lifted her hips higher, spread her legs wider, giving him everything.

He growled against her, his mouth closed over her clit just as he bent his fingers inside her.

Spasms slammed into her, a white heat of pulsing pleasure ripping through her. A deep sound of pleasure rolled out from her throat and mouth. Her muscles sang with the bliss dancing across her nerve endings.

And then she was flying…in a spinning vortex. Panic exploded. Her purring moan turned to a scream locked in her throat as she hurtled through darkness.

Gage’s powerful arm caught her and slammed her against his chest as time and space spun around them.

Her brain finally caught on. They were flash-jumping.

Decades of training kicked in and Gage landed flawlessly. His mind was still on Mira.

The taste of her. The feel. The sounds of her low cries of pleasure that resembled a purr. His need to be inside her, feel the waves of her orgasm clamp around his cock as he drove into her.

His cock throbbed against her belly. When they’d jumped, his fingers had been deep inside her, his other hand on her thigh and his mouth suckling her clit. He’d felt her bone-deep panic when they’d jumped, and managed to shift their bodies to grab her and press her against his body to protect her.

He looked around and recognized the place. “The Wizard Room.” Fuck, he hadn’t been here in seventeen years. The wall behind his chair was painted black, with glittering knives, swords, crystals, scepters and books floating across it. The massive black-leather chair was up on a bloodred dais. A bar stretched across the back wall, and in between were leather couches around glass tables. Track lighting ran around the room, flashing colored strobes. He knew there was a door to a bedroom in that black wall.

A strange sensation moved through his chest, where Mira was pressed up against his triskellion. He didn’t want her in here, didn’t want her to be touched by this place. By his memories. This had been the ultimate VIP room. Women vied, schemed, begged for an invitation to this room.

For the chance to get picked to screw the wizard.

“What is this place?”

He looked down at her face. The color of her orgasm had drained off, and she looked strained. “Raven’s Claw Nightclub. You’ve never been here?” He saw gleaming bottles of liquor in a row beneath the massive flat screen that took up most of the wall space over the bar. The last time Gage had been here, there’d been a bulky TV mounted in the corner.

“Not in this room. I usually meet Bret in his office. We have to find some clothes! What if someone sees us?”

He didn’t care about clothes. “What the hell are you meeting Bret for?” Gage knew he was the magic-sensitive that owned the club.

She snapped her head back, but couldn’t get free of his arm around her waist. “I sell him wine for the club and don’t take that tone with me, wizard.”

He narrowed his eyes, not liking the hot stab of ugly anger roiling in his gut. Frustration added to the mix. He’d forgotten about his magic, about flash-jumping, about everything but making love to Mira. He looked down at her and his brain froze. He turned her to face him.

“What?”

His gaze tracked where his markings curled like possessive ribbons around her breasts and rolled down her belly disappearing into her hair, then reappearing on the insides of her thighs. Swear to the Realm, he’d never seen anything more breathtaking.

Her gasp caught his attention. “What is it? This is what I saw in your lab.” She jerked her head up. “What have you done?”

Ignoring her, he looked down at his triskellion, watching the slow turning. The three spirals were not completely in sync, one feeding into the next in a perfect symmetry, but it was closer.

More powerful.

“Gage!”

He looked at her face. “You’re grounding my—”

Voices close to the door cut him off.

Mira froze, turning, trying to cover herself with her hands.

Gage felt the heat of his magic rush through him. Using that, he quickly conjured up clothes. For himself, jeans, T-shirt, boots and jacket. For Mira, he knew just the thing.

“Oh!” Mira said in surprise.

The voices moved away. He looked down and saw the way the halter cut showed off her breasts, hugged her body and ended at mid thigh. He’d paired the dress with strappy silver sandals. She looked gorgeous. Her brown eyes sparkled, her face was flushed and her brown-and-gold hair floated around her face. How had he ever thought she was plain? She glowed. He lifted his gaze to her eyes.

“This isn’t my usual style.”

“It’s how I see you.”

Her skin warmed to that golden tone he loved. She shifted on her sandals, worry eating away at her smile. “What were you going to say? About the mantling on me?”

He’d been going to tell her the truth. He wanted to tell her the truth. Except he couldn’t be sure, not yet. He hadn’t been fully inside her, hadn’t…He ran his hands through his hair. Mira wasn’t his parents who had just wanted more and more from him, and she wasn’t Jillian. But she was desperate to find her gram and no telling what she’d do if she found out he’d lied to her. He looked in her eyes and said, “It’s temporary.” Then he took a breath and changed the subject. “Do you have the gemstones?”

She frowned at him, her intelligent eyes narrowing. But she pulled her hand up and showed him the two stones. Then she said, “My Gram and the wizard aren’t here?”

He took the stones from her and put them in his jacket pocket. “No. Let’s look around and see if we can find another gemstone.”

Mira walked across the room toward the dais. He fought the urge to stop her. He didn’t want her up there. Memories of all the women vying for his attention, fetching him drinks, feeding him delicacies, leaning over to show him their breasts, or bending over to reveal no panties…in a roomful of people. Mira would be disgusted.

She was a wildcat in bed, in private, with a man she trusted.
Trust.
She trusted him and he was using her to restore his power.

She stopped at one of the leather couches below the dais, running her hand along the cushions.

He sighed and dragged his gaze away from her ass cupped in that dress to search the bar.

“You said this is the Wizard Room?” She walked across to another couch. “I thought you were a recluse and didn’t go out?”

He kept looking around the bottles and glasses. “Not anymore. Years ago I came here. It’s obviously still a VIP room.”

She stood and looked at the dais. “You sat up there like king or dictator. Let me guess.” She half turned to shoot a look at him. “Women begged for your attention, throwing themselves at you.”

He shut the door to the fridge and turned. He didn’t want to talk about this. “Jealous?”

She turned away and marched up the three steps. “Do you miss it? All that admiration, all that fawning.”

He’d been working seventeen years to get it back. It’s what he’d worked for from the time he’d been born. His parents, once they found out they’d had a rare magic-born, had raised him to be master of the universe. It was his due. If he’d worked hard enough…

And he had. He’d made it. Then he’d spent the next thirty years fulfilling their wishes. Houses, cars, boats, trips, jewels, clothes…it was never enough. He always owed them more. They’d nearly sucked him dry with their endless demands until they’d died. They’d both been bitter, angry shells, furious that all the stuff never fulfilled their expectations of…hell, he didn’t know. “I thought I did. Then I met you.” Now he didn’t know what the hell he wanted. “Just search, Mira.” It felt like the walls of this room and his memories were closing in on him. He wanted to get the hell out of here. If Mira grounded his magic, then what? Could he just walk away?