Maia's Magickal Mates [The Double R 3] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) (20 page)

Prentice bent his head as she leaned forward.

“Let’s go somewhere,” she whispered.

He should have been put off by her aggressive forwardness, but nothing about modern women surprised him anymore. He didn’t miss a beat as he went with the flow and said, “I’m staying at the Colcord.”

“Ritzy digs,” she said, obviously impressed.

“I like my creature comforts.”

She chuckled at the understatement, and Prentice cupped her elbow. “Shall we?”

“We shall.”

Prentice watched her return to her girlfriends to inform them that she was leaving and point in his direction.

He grinned and wiggled his fingers at the three women. It didn’t matter if they remembered him or not. He had nothing to hide and didn’t plan on doing anything to their friend from which she wouldn’t recover. However, if things got out of control and anything untoward
did
happen to Amy, Prentice knew that he could easily handle the situation to steer any resulting investigation away from himself.

Once Amy returned from coat check with a stylish black leather jacket, Prentice escorted her toward the exit, effortlessly cutting a path through the writhing bodies on the floor and enjoying the infectious passion of the music and the people dancing to it.

They made it outside into the pleasantly cool night, and Prentice turned his ticket over to the valet, a different one from the one that had taken care of him earlier.

When the valet returned his car and keys, Prentice gave him the requisite fifty then helped Amy into the passenger seat before firmly shutting the door.

“Are you here on business?” Amy asked once he got into the car and belted himself in.

Prentice grinned, giving Amy points for being observant. “Yes, I am.”

“What type?”

She disappointed him with her inquisitiveness. He thought she knew the score.

“I’m in finance,” he said tersely and started the car.

Amy seemed to have gotten the message as he drove the short distance to the Colcord in silence, giving him an opportunity to think about what he wanted to do tonight to prepare for tomorrow.

He could have looked at this assignation as all fun, but everything he did had a higher purpose and led to his ultimate goal. Certainly, he would have fun in the bargain, but that was not his final objective.

Prentice went through the tedious rigmarole of leaving his car with the hotel’s valet service, generously tipping the gentleman before getting his ticket. He put his hand under Amy’s elbow and led her into the lavish marble and art deco lobby of the hotel, stopping at the desk to check for any messages. Getting none, he headed for the elevator.

Amy seemed to have shut down totally, and Prentice fleetingly wondered if he would have to deal with a bout of female pique once they got to the room.

He did not look forward to that, moreover would not tolerate it.

Prentice entered her mind to get a feel for her mood, picking up on her nervousness and doubts at her ability to please such a formidable and powerful man as Prentice. She harbored no anger toward him.

Good, he thought. She was exactly in the state of mind he wanted her—insecure, submissive, and soon to be at his mercy.

Prentice let Amy into the room in front of him, flicking on the overhead light as he loosened his tie and draped it over the back of one of the suite’s chairs. He took off his designer jacket, carefully folding it and placing it on the back of the chair with his tie while he watched Amy explore the room.

When she finally paused in front of the king-sized bed he smiled and asked, “Do you like what you see so far?”

“I’ve liked what I’ve seen ever since I laid eyes on you.”

He admired her frankness and her contradictions.

One minute she was retiring and uneasy, the next she was a bold, confident flirt secure in her abilities to seduce the likes of Prentice Teague.

He thought he might give this one the royal treatment instead of the brush-off after. Maybe he would let her stay behind while he took care of his business in Atoka. It would be nice to come back to his hotel room knowing she would be there, willing and able to service him.

Of course it all depended on how she performed tonight and what sort of energy he was able to obtain from her.

Amy slid off her coat and, following his lead, she neatly folded it and placed it on the back of the chair beside the bed. She hopped up onto the foot of the bed and sat waiting for him.

“I didn’t tell you to relax yet, Amy.” Not that she was relaxed. He felt her tension all the way across the room, fed off of it.

“I just thought—”

“Don’t.” He moved across the room, recognizing the rebellious but wary light in her blue eyes as she watched him. Prentice stopped before her and bent at the waist to kiss her forehead. He reached out to caress her face, sliding his hand from her cheek to her nape, and drew her closer. He kissed his way down her face until he reached her lips and seized her mouth with his.

She gasped when he thrust in his tongue and explored just at the opening before invading further, deeper, subjugating.

Prentice pushed her back against the mattress, using his knee to spread her thighs wide.

He put his hand between her legs, stroking the heated slit behind the crotch of her pants until she groaned into his mouth and squirmed beneath him. He pulled away enough to let her get some air, willing her to open her eyes and look at him. “It will be everything you dreamed it would be, Amy. I promise you.”

“I…I know.”

The uncertainty in her voice was music to his ears.

He wasn’t gentle when he pulled her slacks and blouse off, leaving her quaking and panting beneath him on the bed like a strung out junkie in just her panties and bra.

He slammed into her mind then, hard and forceful so that she could not deny his presence even if she wanted to, even if she chose to disbelieve.

Amy glanced up at him, eyes widening with realization as he skimmed the surface of her mind before twining his thoughts around hers. He eased in now, letting her know that he had total access, had had it all along.

He held her in abeyance while he slowly stripped down beneath her rapt gaze.

When he returned to her, she was ready for him, hot and wet, so slippery when he eased his finger beneath the edge of her panties and drove it inside her. “What naughty thoughts are you thinking, sweet Amy?” As if he didn’t already know.

Her fear was palpable now, warring with her desire and curiosity to see how far he would go with her, still afraid of what he would do to her.

Prentice ripped her panties and bra from her before lowering his face to her cunt and taking a healthy whiff. The salty-sweet tang of her arousal mixed with the heady scent of her vulnerability and invigorated him.

“Please…” She reached for him.

Oh, little Amy was stronger than he thought.

“Not yet.” He buried his face between her legs to take his first real taste of her. He felt her knees trembling around him as she bent her legs and tried to bury her hands in his hair.

“No.” He stopped her with his thoughts and her hands hovered above him, desperate for something to do but caught between the commands of her own body and his will.

Prentice buried his tongue inside her as deep as it would go, swirling it around before plunging it in and pulling it out until he reached a frantic rhythm that was totally overwhelming to dear Amy.

She bucked and gasped beneath his manipulations so wildly Prentice thought she might be having a seizure.

He slowed his ministrations so that Amy could catch her breath. He didn’t want the poor child to die after all.

“Oh God, oh God! Please…”

He watched as her breathing slowed and she finally lay still on the bed. Perspiration shone on her smooth, pale skin, making it glow beneath the light of the room, giving her an ethereal appearance, as if she had already died and gone to the great beyond.

Not yet, Amy. Not yet. I have plans for you.

Prentice crawled up the bed until he straddled her hips. His cock was hard as cast iron while pre-cum leaked from the slit in its head. He teased her wet folds with it, mingling their juices as he planted his palms on either side of her head and stared down at her. “Say it again, Amy.”

“Please?”

“No.”

“God.”

“That’s it.”

Maia had been having a bad feeling ever since they’d touched down at the airport in Oklahoma City. She didn’t know how or why, but she knew that Thayne and Cade’s Aunt Aura had not died from a massive stroke. Knowing this, she was gladder than ever that she had decided to accompany them to Oklahoma to attend their aunt’s funeral. She needed to be near them, with them. They needed her protection. From what she wasn’t sure. She only knew that she should be with them now.

According to the lawyer who’d called Thayne, a neighbor had found Aura dead on the floor in her kitchen. The coroner’s initial findings bore out the manner of death, ruling out any kind of foul play.

Maia remained doubtful but had not expressed any of her concerns to the brothers. They had enough to worry about mourning the only mother figure they had ever known since their own mother’s death.

She did not look forward to the upcoming service but knew attending it could not be avoided. She had committed to being there for Thayne and Cade if they needed her.

After Aura’s lawyer, Mr. Chandler, met them at the airport, he soon escorted them back to her home on the ranch where Thayne and Cade spent the better part of the day giving Maia a tour of their childhood home and giving her a bird’s-eye view into the type of upbringing the pair of them had received and the type of people that their aunt and uncle had been.

Maia sensed such pure and sweet vibes from Aura’s house and the people who visited that she soon began to relax beneath the outpouring of well-wishes and love.

Aura seemed like the type of person that Maia would have liked to have known, and she was sorry that she did not have a chance to meet the woman who had loved Thayne and Cade enough to give each of them a chance at a good life.

She felt like she owed the woman so much for taking care of Thayne and Cade until they were able to take care of themselves, until they could meet her.

“How are you holding up?”

Maia glanced up from her cup of herbal tea as Cade sat down on the sofa beside her.

It had been a long day of travel and meeting Aura’s friends and neighbors, and they had finally begun to unwind from the day only an hour ago. Tomorrow would be an even longer day when they attended last rites for Aura and then listened to the reading of her last will and testament.

“I’m fine, but I should be asking you how you’re holding up.”

Cade shrugged as if to communicate his usual nonchalance, but Maia knew that he had been deeply affected by the last couple of days’ events. She knew how devastated she had been at the death of her father so could imagine how Cade felt despite his silence.

Maia didn’t even want to touch on the situation that existed between her, him, and his brother or what they had been discussing right before Thayne received the fateful call. She knew, however, that they would not be able to put off the inevitable forever. After the funeral and reading of the will, there would be nothing stopping them from hashing out the issues standing between them all.

She wasn’t looking forward to that conversation.

“You about ready for bed?”

“Where’s Thayne?”

Cade chuckled at her obvious evasive tactic. “He’s riding at the indoor arena. It’s one of his ways of dealing with stress.”

“And how do you deal with stress?”

“I think you already know the answer to that.” He moved closer to her, and Maia hated that she flinched when he reached to touch her. She hated the hurt look that sprang in his sapphire-blue eyes, too, but she couldn’t help her anxiety. She worried not only about what he would see when he touched her now but what that vision would do to him.

“I’m sorry,” she murmured, knowing it in no way conveyed all she felt, but she couldn’t think of anything else to say.

“It’s okay.”

“No it’s not.”

“You can’t help how you feel.”

“I still want you,” she blurted.

He grinned, but the sad look remained in his eyes. “But you’re afraid of me.”

She couldn’t answer him.

“The bitch of it is, I know how you feel, and I don’t blame you.”

That he accepted her rejection so easily sent a sharp pang of remorse shooting to her chest. She remembered how much of a freak and pariah she had felt in junior high and high school when news of her visions got out. She particularly remembered how the kids both feared and were sickly curious about her and what she could do.

“I think I will head up to bed now.” Maia put her empty cup down on the coaster atop the end table.

“You know where your room is?”

Maia nodded as she stood. She glanced down at Cade for a long moment then bent at the waist to kiss his cheek.