Behind the Veil: 3 (Temptation Unveiled) (7 page)

Her fingers spread to skim across his rib cage and she
stopped, the strange texture of raised skin making her pause. Not a scar. She
leaned closer, her lips a breath away from his right nipple, to study it.

It was some sort of brand or tattoo. A dark, swirling design
that would be beautiful, if she didn’t have this horrible feeling it had been
meant to hurt. “What is that?”

He hissed out a breath as she touched it. “A reminder of why
I left my old life and obligations behind to serve the
Fianna
. Of the
debts I owe.”

“What debts?” Sheridan skimmed her lips against the edge of
the mark, closing her eyes and savoring his delicious scent. He smelled of the
forest. The earth. Magical. “Mob debts? Gambling debts? What do you owe to that
con man Myrddin and his gang of misfits? You won’t get out of this room until
you answer my questions. Is he behind this?”

“I’m just a simple tracker, Detective. You’ve got me all
wrong.” His groan rumbled in his throat as he looked down at her with need in
his eyes. “You’re right about the dialogue, love. Is this an official police
interrogation? How do you expect me to concentrate when you’re touching me like
that?

She couldn’t seem to stop. “I don’t know. I’m kind of
worried about my mental state if you want to know the truth. First the usual nightmare,
then that weird guy in the cave and now this. I’ll admit I was missing my gun
earlier today but that is no excuse for this. What do you think my mother’s
dream dictionary would say about me chaining a naked Fae prisoner up to this
kinky Frankenstein bed without a lawyer?”

Sheridan met his gaze and licked her lips. “Or about me
thinking of riding him on it, in front of all those nice officers?”

Finn groaned. “Not as much as it would say about you
thinking of your mother when you have me naked at your command.” His grin made
her heart race. “But I’m more interested in those other kinky fantasies you
said you’ve had about me. Refresh my memory, Detective. What did we do and how
much did you enjoy it?”

She flicked his nipple with her nails and he inhaled
sharply. “Thank you, Faery Freud, but I’m the one asking the questions. Behave
or I’ll tell you about the ones you were in with the Brad twins. In graphic
detail.”

“The Vikings? I’m willing if you are. As long as I got to be
in charge…and neither of them got to touch you.”

“So not going there then.” She glanced around the room so he
wouldn’t see her blush. It was an ordinary interrogation room…for a porno. But
none of this should be here. She shouldn’t be here. She’d just gotten an
important message…something she needed to tell Meru. “Where is Danu?”

Finn glanced around the room and lowered his voice. “The
audience I can handle, but now you’re invoking Danu? If you wouldn’t mind,
Sheridan, I’d rather she not see me like this. With you and your family around,
I’m not sure she wouldn’t come when you call. Especially in your dream.”

Sheridan shrugged. “She never has before. No one has. And
believe me, I’ve called for her more than once. Hell, I’ve even begged for
Myrddin
.
I’ve never seen anyone else until now. Never left my own interrogation room.”

“Oh Sher…”

Sheridan circled the room, studying every corner and sliding
her hand over each wall. Nothing. No clues. No other exits. “This is so weird.
I thought she might be in here. I saw her in the last room. And then that man
said—”

“Sheridan.”

She shuddered. His voice always did this to her. She’d long
ago decided it was one of his “gifts”. The sound of it. That slight, almost
undetectable accent. It was a voice that could heat her blood with one word.
Make her thighs tighten and her heart race. It had to be a Fae enchantment. She’d
believed her experiences had left her immune to its power. Hoped.

Obviously she was wrong.

When she came back around to stand beside him, she crossed
her arms defensively. “Don’t distract me, Tracker.” She ran her eyes over his
lovely, muscular body anyway. Thoroughly distracted. “Either you tell me where
you hid it, or I have to wake up. I don’t have time to play.”

“Before I tell you about whatever it is I’m supposed to be
hiding, answer me first.” Finn licked his lips again, studying her body. “When
you imagined me before, was I tied up like this?”

“No,” she admitted, her voice lowering. “Not you. Never
you.”

He lowered his thick lashes. “Do you let me have my way with
you
, Sher? Without fear? Do you like it?” She nodded and he closed his
eyes for a heartbeat, groaning. “You shouldn’t have told me. Though you wearing
that
is enough to make my restraint worth it.”

“Wearing what?” Sheridan looked down at her body and her jaw
dropped. “What the hell? Was the animal print not enough?”

Sheridan walked over to stare at herself in the window and
pointed at Harold, who obediently flipped a switch that made the row of
Chippendale cops disappear and turned the glass into a reflective surface.

“Great.” Now she was dressed as Catwoman. “This just keeps
getting better.”

Finn groaned. “Without a doubt.”

A black leather bikini top and low-rise leather shorts
revealed the lean muscles of her arms and legs, as well as a stomach that had
never been so tight and flat. She touched it with a kind of awe. She actually
had the faint outline of a six-pack. All these weeks of hard work with Raj,
these months of training, seemed to be paying off.

She was now officially in better shape than any man she’d
ever dated. Except for Marco, the weightlifter she’d ended things with after he
became addicted to spray tanning. But even
he
wouldn’t have been able to
run up the side of a mountain without straining one or more of his bulky,
orange-tinted muscles.

She could.

Would it be enough? Would any of it be enough when facing
off against the
Dark
?

She studied her scars, wounds that wrapped around her side
and peppered her back and legs. The deepest mark was a slash from the top curve
of her left breast to her collarbone. An image of herself screaming, of the
blood covering her body, popped into her mind’s eye. She shook her head,
determined not to go back to that part of her dream. She had to wake up first.

But why?

Why was she trying to leave so quickly? She didn’t actually
want to. She wanted to stay in this place where, at least for the moment, Eonis
wasn’t in her head. Where she was free. Here with Finn, who was currently
trussed up like a holiday meal made just for her.

Don’t think about that, Sheridan
.

But how could she think about anything else? Her short
shower hadn’t satisfied her. The three orgasms she’d given herself before she
fell asleep hadn’t done the trick either. The need for him still burned inside
her. She was ready for him now. Wanted him now.

Was that it? Had her insane desire for Finn helped her
escape from her nightmare when nothing else could?

She saw him in the mirror’s reflection, his cheeks dark and
his eyes like violet flames as they studied her. This. Yes. The dream was so
much more detailed than the fantasy. More real. Had she ever imagined feeling
this way again? Sexy? Feminine? She couldn’t help wondering what he thought. “Enjoying
the view?”

His voice was deeper than before. Seductive. “If I enjoyed
it any more, I would embarrass myself for the first time in well over a
thousand years.”

Sheridan turned around, gesturing to her bared skin. “Even
with all these changes? Even with the scars?” She couldn’t believe she’d asked
him that. Dream or not, she didn’t want to know. Didn’t want his pity. “Never
mind.”

“I might wish you’d never suffered to earn them,” he rasped.
“But if anything, they only add to your beauty, Sher. My only complaint is that
you’ve taken out that sparkly little jewel that adorned your bellybutton when I
first met you. The one I wanted to wrap my tongue around.”

She strode back to him and cranked a lever beside the
slab-like table, until he was horizontal. She climbed up onto his body and
straddled his hips.
This
was her fantasy. Her reward for all that time
spent in the darkness. Even so… “I shouldn’t be doing this. I should be
remembering that we don’t even like each other. I should be interrogating you
and getting answers.”

When Sheridan rolled her hips experimentally against the
hardness she could feel through the towel, they both moaned.

“Not to argue the point,” Finn said breathlessly, “but not
even you can deny the evidence of just how much I
like
you, Detective
Kelly.”

She smiled, wanting to believe him. “It wouldn’t be much of
a fantasy if you didn’t. But this is definitely different. We don’t usually
talk this much. And like I said before,
you
aren’t usually the one restrained.
Why haven’t you demanded to be released or flashed away yet? Why haven’t you
held me down?”

He huffed out a rough breath. “I don’t appear to have much
choice in the matter. This isn’t my dream. But tell me honestly, since you’re
so sure we don’t like each other… If this were really happening, if I were
really here and free, would you come anywhere near me?”

He lifted his hips off the table, pressing his erection
against her as if needing more. She arched her neck and gasped for air as he
spoke again through clenched teeth. “Would you be this close to me now?”

She couldn’t lie to him. Not here. There was no point. “If I
were awake? Not a chance in hell, Tinkerbell.”

“Exactly,” Finn grumbled. “I suppose I can take comfort from
the fact that you must feel safe now or you wouldn’t be calling me names again.”
He looked into her eyes, his expression one of restrained intensity. “Do you,
Sheridan? Do you feel safe with me now? Locked up and controlled like this?”

“Yes.” Her answer was no more than a breathless whisper.

His smile was a sexual challenge. “Then stay. Get your
answers. You’re safe here, so stop thinking so much. Hate me and ignore me in
the morning when you wake, but tonight? You can do anything you want to me.
With me. Anything.”

Anything. She rocked her hips against his erection again,
leaning down to kiss his neck. “I want the spear. It’s so long and hard…I need
it, Tracker.”

“Love, I’ve got exactly what you need.” Finn groaned. “Take
off my towel and search me again.”

She huffed out a laugh against his skin. “That’s not the
spear I’m supposed to be looking for.”

Finn swore. “All I can think about is your lips on mine.
Your taste. Kiss me, Sheridan. Stop the interrogation and kiss me.”

“You’re awfully bossy for a submissive dream fairy.” But she
lifted her head and kissed her way up his body slowly. Teasing him. “I’m the
one in charge here, apparently. I say when and where you get kissed. My dream,
my choice. Isn’t that what you said?”

“Did I say that?” Their lips were inches apart. She could
feel his breath across her cheek as he inhaled and softly sighed. “Then choose,
Sheridan Kelly. What do you want to dream about?”

Though she knew it made no sense, Sheridan smiled as a dark
thread of excitement snaked through her. “I could really get into this
dominatrix cop thing. Maybe I could dream up a nice paddle as well. Get a
chance to spank
you
for a change. If you were the real Finn, I would.”

“I know.” A shadow crossed his expression. “Lucky for you, I’m
not real. If I
were,
I would never forget the implication that you’ve
allowed me to spank you before. That you enjoyed it. Especially when the real
me wants to throw you over his lap and make you beg and cry out for release for
introducing him to the new and wonderful world of sexual frustration while you
were denying us both our pleasure. Lucky this is just a dream. No consequences.
No commitments.”

She nodded, shivering at the thought of the real Finn
spanking her. Driving her to the edge. “That
is
lucky. Although, since
it is just a dream, I’d like to see you try, Tinker Stud.”

“Stud?” He snorted. “That’s a step up from Tracker or Tinkerbe—”

Her mouth on his cut him off mid-sentence. Oh yes. She
remembered those lips. The first time he kissed her. The first time she forced
herself to push him away. How many nights had she lain awake regretting that?
Imagined a different ending, one that would have satisfied them both?

She moaned against his mouth and tilted her head for a
deeper kiss. She wanted more. His tongue came out to trace her lower lip,
asking for a permission she gladly gave. Yes. More.

Something inside her, something she’d thought completely
buried, came roaring to the surface. Need and passion. Hunger and desire. His
taste… He was as delicious as she remembered. As instantly addictive. She bit
his lower lip and whimpered at his growl, thinking of her latest fantasy. But
this was so much better.

Her hips rocked against his almost unconsciously. She wished
there was nothing between his skin and hers. No layers of leather and terry
cloth to separate them. Too many layers.

A moment later Finn tore his mouth from hers and swore. “
Bloody
hell
, I’m starting to love the way you dream. Sher, you let me go.” He sat
up, his arms wrapping around her as the handcuffs disappeared and his torture
rack became a bed. “I knew you’d feel like this against me. Now that I do… You’re
making it hard for me to hold back, Sher.”

She looked down their bodies and realized that not only was
he free, but what little clothing she’d worn had disappeared. So had his towel.
Sheridan lifted her hips and pulled out of his embrace enough to sit on his
thighs, studying his body. Speaking of hard. “Are you
kidding
me?”

He chuckled roughly. “You see how you affect me? Just look
at you. See what I see. You’re perfect.”

Sheridan couldn’t. She had no desire to look away from him.
She bit her lip. “I’m not. Don’t say that. I don’t need you to say that.”