Cassandra's Dilemma (8 page)

She was going to have him.

Careful of her teeth scraping, she took as much of him as she was able, slipping her free hand around his sac, stroking the heavy, straining balls that burned into her palm. The sheet went taut next to her, and she opened her eyes to look across the naked expanse of his thigh. His hands were fisting in the sheet and his hips strained as she took him deeper into her mouth.

She lifted her head and looked up at him, breath teasing along his cock. “I have you, Helcyon.”

I have you. Oh, dear God, let me have you.

He threw his head back as her mouth stole over him again, suckling at the crown as her hand worked his length, pumping him and squeezing, and with a shout, his hips lifted, and he spilled his orgasm. She drained him, drunk on the taste of him.

Chapter Six

Cassie lay spent, her head on Helcyon’s thigh. She wasn’t sure what to say. She’d never been a fan of oral sex.

Until today.

“Cassandra?” The sexy rumble of his voice vibrated through his body. His thigh tensed as she rolled her head and shifted to look up at him. Shyness shifted her gaze away from his, even as he canted his head to look down at her.

“Yes?” she murmured, nibbling her lower lip. She wanted to groan at the flavor of him that lingered on her tongue.

“Thank you.”

The softness of his voice beckoned her like a drug called to an addict, and she sought his gaze. Satisfaction and banked passion glittered in his eyes. Her gaze drifted to the hint of a smile curving the soft lines of his mouth. “You asked me a question.”

“What?” She shifted, intending to sit up, but her breast brushed against the hard muscle of his thigh and her breath caught in her throat. A shudder of desire raced through her.

Helcyon’s hint of a smile bloomed into a full one. “You asked me a question. I wasn’t sure if you still needed an answer.”

Cassie fumbled with her memory. She was practically lying face-first in his lap, his spent cock, soft, warm, and damp from her attention just a scant few inches from her face. The temptation to tease him back to life was almost unbearable.
Question? What—oh!
“Why did you kiss me?”

“Do you still want the answer to that?” The gentleness masked a note of teasing that curled through the words.

Cassie swallowed, shuddering at the pleasure of his taste once more. The man—the Elf—just the flavor of him was intoxicating. Did she still want an answer?

“I assumed it was intimacy,” she ventured. “You wanted…” She hesitated on the last. Was it arrogant to say he wanted her?

“Oh, I do want you, Cassandra. I want you very much. But that was not why I kissed you last night.”

Cassie frowned, despite the delight of his direct admission that he desired her. “No?”

“No.”

Sitting up, she shifted toward the head of the bed, wanting to see his face more clearly and not focus so much on the extremely handsome landscape of his hips. “Then why did you kiss me?”

“To take away your breath—so you would feel no pain.”

A blush like a shadow ran over her cheeks. “Pain? Oh my God! My leg!”

She’d all but forgotten the injury sustained when they were attacked in the hospital. In fact, she’d forgotten they’d been attacked in the hospital. Jerking upward, she twisted to look at her legs, hip bumping Helcyon’s.

“It’s healed.” He spoke quietly, soothingly. His hand slid around her arm and tightened as though afraid she was going to slip away.

“If you have a gift for healing, why did you take me to the Brownie?”

“I do not—but a Wizard can pull the pain and the injury away to themselves. Then he can heal himself.”

“Wizard?” Cassie twisted so that she could face Helcyon. She hesitated, torn by conflicting emotions. Helcyon’s power coiled within him where he lay. He watched her with a quiet intensity that demanded her focus.

“Yes, Wizard.” Amusement flavored his tone. “Have you forgotten your Special Agent Book?”

“Book?” The name of the special agent assigned by Homeland Security to question her penetrated the haze of desire. Her face flushed a deeper red as she forced her gaze away.

Helcyon laughed.

“You’re not very nice sometimes.” Cassie drew in a ragged breath.

“I am sorry, beloved Cassandra. I do not mean to be so. But you are so controlled that the glamour rarely affects you thusly. It is enormously satisfying to see you flushed with desire and ripe for the plucking.”

“Ripe for the plucking?” Outrage rapidly outpaced embarrassment. “Ripe for the plucking? What am I? Some—piece of fruit? Or a bird with feathers?”

His hands tightened around her middle, tugging her forward until she sprawled across him. His mouth nipped her throat, and Cassie forgot how to breathe. “Ripe. Luscious. Sensuous.”

His lips punctuated each word as he kissed along her jaw, pausing to nuzzle the corner of her mouth. Dizzy with awareness, she went soft against the long, hard length of him.

Helcyon’s fingers loosened, stroking her side gently. He played with the hem of her tank top, tickling the flesh beneath. Her desire reflected in his eyes. He was so tempting. So powerful. His broad, muscular chest was decorated with the hint of black tattoos, creating strange formations on his left shoulder.

“Yeah, you could say that.” Cassie’s hand lay flat against his chest, just above his heart. She could feel the steady thrumming under her palm. She could feel the hard muscles of his legs against hers, breast to chest, pelvis to pelvis, breath mingling together.

“Will you make love with me, Cassandra Belle?”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

“I think it’s an excellent idea.”

Cassie laughed. “You would.”

“Alas, I am but yours to command.”

“Right—okay—Wizard. Explain.”

The Elf sighed, obviously disappointed, but humor remained in his eyes. “When one of my people mates with a human, the offspring may become a Wizard. Gifted with magic. When the bloodlines run true, the Wizard can become quite powerful.”

“So Special Agent Book is a Wizard.”

“Yes. It is how he could see the Feth Felen. It is also how he was able to see the portal opening in the doorway when he took you to it.”

Cassie spared a look around her bedroom, alien and familiar in the same instant. “Where is Special Agent Book now?”

“I left him Underhill.” Powerful muscles in his shoulders shrugged before flipping her, and he easily rolled atop her and gazed down into her disapproving frown. “Now, we were discussing making love.”

“No, you were discussing sex. I was discussing the Wizard. Why would you leave him Underhill? He’s Homeland Security. We could use him on this investigation.”

Helcyon’s lip curled. “He can open a portal out on his own. He doesn’t trust the Fae. Now he is suspicious of you. He’s also attracted to you. It’s a conflict for him. I did him a favor.”

“You did him a favor?”

“Yes. You are going to make love with me, Cassandra. Today, tomorrow—seven days from now. We will be lovers. You will break the Wizard’s heart. You are too powerful to be swayed by magical means. So I did him a favor.”

“You are so arrogant.” Sexual awareness zinged through Cassie.

“It is not arrogance when it is truth.” His mouth closed over hers, firm, warm lips caressing hers, teasing, tasting, and coaxing until her mouth opened under his. She wanted to protest but clutched at his shoulders instead. Eternity spread out in the kiss. He struck a vibrant chord within her. Tender amusement reflected in his gaze as he looked down at her. “Bid me stop and I will…”

“I hate you.”

“No.” Smothered mirth hid in his words. “You don’t.”

Her heart pounded in her breast. She wanted desperately to pull him back to her, but the sunlight reminded her that it was another day. Helcyon sighed, kissing her lightly. “We will solve the bombing first and put your mind to ease.”

“Thank you.”

“But of course, m’lady.” The formal language rolled off his tongue easily. Though he verbally released her, they remained entwined, his hardening cock teasing her sex, leaving her damp and aching. “You should sleep while you can, m’lady. We will return to the city of Chicago in a few hours, when the word comes that the field is clear and we might investigate.”

“Won’t Book be waiting for us?”

“Perhaps.”

“You really want a mug shot, don’t you?”

“I am unfamiliar with the term.” Helcyon shifted, rolling onto his back and tucking Cassie in along his side. He pulled the covers up, and despite the sunshine, her eyelids grew heavy.

“It’s the picture they take of you when they arrest you.”

“Ahh—your Special Agent Book doesn’t want to arrest me, m’lady.”

“Hmm, I got the impression that you two don’t like each other.”

“You observe too much—even when you are weakened.” Helcyon sighed and pressed his lips to her temple. “Sleep now, Cassandra.” The compulsion slid over her, sinking her down like a weight.

“Oh, you bastard,” Cassie murmured, sleep swamping her.

“Sleep, lovely. We will have much to do—and likely say
—
when next you awake.”

* * * *

Waking came swiftly and painfully. Cassie jerked up and lurched to her feet, eyes searching the room around her, afraid of what she could not name. Cassie’s heart raced although her gaze revealed nothing hidden in the confines of her room. Even her bed was empty.

Cassie exhaled, insides a flurry of fury at his compulsion to sleep, grief over Billy’s loss, worry for the Danae’s charge, and embarrassment over her own satisfaction. She stood in the middle of the bedroom, panting. She gave a small sigh of thanks that she didn’t have to deal with Helcyon or his appetites at the moment. The last thing she needed was his seduction or male ego. The first act, that was seduction, but her mouth and desire to taste him, that was all her.