The Mane Event (12 page)

“Yeah, Mace. I trust you.”

That was definitely the answer he had been hoping for, he just never expected to get it.

“Of course,” she continued, “I’ve been told on occasion that I’m an idiot.”

Mace slid his hand behind the back of her neck, pulling her toward him. “Since that still works in my favor, I’m okay with that.”

He kissed her again, allowing himself the chance to explore her mouth. Enjoy her taste.

She trusted him. He wanted to roar it from the roof. Because to Mace that meant Dez MacDermot was all his.

Why did she suddenly feel like the weakest gazelle of the herd? With Mace kissing her, claiming her again. And she had a feeling this would only be the beginning. Whether she meant to or not, she’d given him what he wanted. Not sex because, let’s face it, he could have had that anytime in the last eight hours. No, she’d given him what she hadn’t given any other man besides her father. She’d given him her trust. The fact that this revelation seemed to move him to a new level of passion warmed her. Made her feel like the most important person in the universe.

But Mace always made her feel that way. That too-smart-for-his-own-good, scrawny kid acted like she was the queen of his universe then. She didn’t realize until she’d gone to a new school, she used that feeling as her life raft. When things got too harsh at the Cathedral School, she knew she only had to go to two o’clock biology class. One look at Mace’s funny, but so cute, little face would lift her day and make her feel like she could handle the hell until she escaped for good.

Of course, that little kid no longer existed. In his place was this man making her tremble simply by kissing her. His kisses, like his smiles, held such promise.

He stepped away from her and walked to the bed, gently pulling her along with him. He positioned her beside it, then kneeled down. He tugged her hand until she followed, kneeling in front of him. She had no idea where this was going, but he had her intrigued.

Mace kissed her neck, licking that sensitive spot right under her ear. Her breathing grew labored as he took both her arms and gently pinned them behind her back with his own. With that one move, her back arched and he lowered his head to capture a nipple between his lips. She jumped. Practically out of her skin.

“Hold it.” He paused, his gold eyes watching her closely. She cleared her throat. “My nipples are really sensitive.”

“Am I hurting you?” he asked around her nipple.

“No. No. Not at all. It’s just—” She stopped. She saw the wicked intent in his eyes. The lust that said he wanted her screaming and coming until
he
was satisfied she’d had enough. “Jesus Christ, that’s what you want.”

He grinned.

She tried to pull her arms away. “Mace Llewellyn, you let me go!”

“Really, baby? You sure that’s what you want?” He sucked on her nipple and her back arched again, practically throwing him off. She gasped, her head resting on the bed behind her. He put her in a position where she wouldn’t be uncomfortable but where he had complete control.

Tricky son of a bitch cat!

“Mace…” She growled it. Her warning growl. But he only laughed.

“When you’re ready to beg for my cock, baby, you let me know.”

“Beg? I don’t beg.”

“Good.” He released her breast long enough to grin at her. “Then when you do, you’ll really mean it.”

His mouth returned to her breast and she couldn’t speak. It felt too wonderful. Too extraordinary. Too everything.

He only focused on her breasts. He teased. He licked. He sucked. He did practically everything but marry one. It didn’t take long before her climax started sneaking up on her. That never happened before. She usually always needed to have a finger, tongue, or dick involved with her clit to even have the hope of getting off.

But as she sped within seconds of climaxing the bastard stopped. He pulled away and blew on her nipple or nuzzled her breasts. He did it over and over again. Constantly bringing her to the brink of an orgasm guaranteed to permanently blind her and then backing off. He kept it up for so long she was close to crying. Her entire body hummed like a tuning fork. Her hips wouldn’t stop rubbing against him. Eventually, she told her ego to fuck off.

“God, Mace. Please.”

“Please what, baby?”

“You know what, you asshole.”

“Is that your idea of begging? Because it’s sorely lacking.” She glared at him as she tried to get her arms loose so she could strangle the fucker.

He licked both her nipples again, and she thought she might really start crying.

“Any condoms?” he finally asked.

Oh thank God!
“Top drawer of my nightstand. By the Luger.”

“My, you’re awfully prepared. Expecting someone else, were we?”

“Mace Llewellyn.” She really hoped he could hear the warning in her voice, because she was very close to losing it.

“You know, I can wait all day. So if you want to be bitchy…”

He lowered his mouth to her nipple and she bucked under him. “Okay. Okay,” she sputtered desperately. “I got it as a gag gift from some of the other female detectives. For my birthday.”

“Aw, baby. Did I miss your birthday?”

“
Mace!
”

“Okay. Okay.” He laughed as he kept her arms locked behind her with one of his big hands while he reached over and dug into her nightstand drawer. “Christ, you have more guns,” he muttered. He pulled out the box. “Whew. That’s good. They’re extra large.”

“Mason.”

He grinned like the evil cat he was, ripped open the box, and took out a condom. With amazing skill, he rolled it on his dick with one hand.

He grabbed Dez around the waist and tossed her up on the bed. By the time she landed Mace had already crawled up her body. He rubbed and licked his way along her legs, stopping to nuzzle her crotch and give a quick lick to her clit, which almost sent her over the edge—but not quite. He dragged his big body over her until they were face to face. He stared down at her and, for a minute, she thought he wanted more begging. But his hand reached up and cupped one side of her face. “You are so beautiful, Dez.”

Dez looped her arms around his neck and opened her legs wider so Mace could fit comfortably between them. “That’s really sweet and all but can that fuckin’ wait ’til later?”

Mace chuckled. “Damn, Dez.”

Growling low she rubbed her head against his chin. He’d done it to her a few times—she wondered if it would work on him as well. When she heard him purring, she knew it had.

With one quick, hard thrust, he slammed into her and she had never been so happy to have a dick inside of her before. She worried about his size, but she was already so wet, so fucking worked up, that she was thankful. His big cock filled her up and took her right to the edge. But Mace left her hanging there because he wouldn’t fuckin’ move.

She peeked up at him. His eyes closed, his face frowning in deep concentration, his sweat dripping onto her skin. She briefly wondered if she did something wrong. If she screwed something up. The one thing she really didn’t want to screw up.

“Jesus Christ, Dez. You are so fuckin’ tight.”

She smiled. She couldn’t help herself. She hadn’t screwed anything up. She was actually doing damn well for herself. “So hot and tight. I’m going to lose my mind being inside you.”

Dez leaned up, her mouth beside his ear. “Mace Llewellyn, you make me wait one more goddamn second and I really will start shooting.” She brushed his cheek with her forehead and he brushed her back. “Fuck me, Mace. Please. Just fuck me—”

She didn’t get a chance to say another word as his mouth slammed down on hers and he began fucking her in earnest.

By the third stroke, she climaxed around him. Her entire body clenching and pulling him in deeper. She screamed out, “Fuck!” Most likely waking up the lovely old couple next door.

She’d never come so hard before in her life. But Mace didn’t stop, he kept going, shoving her right into a second climax and a third. Each one she prefaced with a “Fuck! Fuck!”

Suddenly Mace buried his face against her neck and announced his orgasm with an actual roar.

Dez smiled at that, leaning back against the warm sheets. Her eyes closing in exhaustion. Mace pulled out of her and, she assumed, disposed of the condom.

Sleep just started to take her when Mace poked her in the forehead with his index finger. “Hey, MacDermot. What are you doing?”

Dez opened her eyes to find Mace over her again. “Trying to sleep.”

He raised an eyebrow. “We’re not done.”

“What do you mean, we’re not—” But he cut her off by pushing his already-hard dick inside of her again. He stopped to put on a fresh condom, but other than that, he was as hard, if not harder, than before.

“You can’t be—”

“That just took the edge off.” He kissed her cheek, then leaned in next to her ear. “So, if I were you, baby. I’d get comfortable.”

Holy fuck.

Mace woke up out of habit. He glanced at the clock next to the bed. It wasn’t even six yet. He started to stretch and quickly realized he was alone. He growled. He’d waited a long time to wake up in Dez’s bed. He always planned for her to actually be in it when he did.

He closed his eyes and listened. She had to be around somewhere. The television played in the living room. Naked, he went downstairs, stopping at the last step.

Dez, also naked, sat on her big couch. Her knees pulled up so her chin rested on them. He smiled. She was actually watching old episodes of
Cops
. He chuckled to himself. Such a cop…

She didn’t even know he stood right behind the couch until he reached out and touched her shoulder. She actually screamed, jumped up, and stumbled back away from him, tripping against her coffee table and landing on it.

He didn’t move, afraid he’d scare her more. It must have hit her. The truth about what he was. And like most humans. She wasn’t ready to handle it.

“Jesus, Mace! Don’t sneak up on me!”

Mace took a deep breath. He understood. It took a lot for humans to understand about shifters. About their lives and how their bodies worked and how they weren’t evil, blah, blah, blah.

“It’s okay, ya know.”

“What’s okay?”

“To be scared.”

Scowling, “Scared about what?”

“About me. Being what I am.”

“Oh, get over yourself, Captain Ego. You and your big but silent lion feet startled me. That’s all.”

Torn between being annoyed and wanting to fuck her on that coffee table, Mace decided to sit down on the couch instead. He stepped over the back and planted himself on the burgundy cushions.

“What’s going on, Dez? Talk to me.”

“Nothing’s going on.”

“Don’t lie to me, Desiree.”

She leaned over, her elbows on her knees, and ran her hands through her hair. After a few moments of silence, she took in a deep breath. “Petrov’s body had marks on his throat. Claw marks. Except that the grip implied…” She looked at him with those beautiful gray eyes. “Thumbs.”

Mace observed her closely. She must have the smoothest skin known to man. Except for the frown lines in her forehead, which she always had, her skin was flawless. Clearly, Dez lived a relatively clean life. No drugs. Very little drinking. And, until recently, very little sex and the difficulties that sometimes come with it.

“Are you going to answer me?”

“You didn’t ask me a question, so I was staring at you instead.”

She rubbed her eyes with the knuckles of her hands. “Mace, what am I going to do with you?”

“Well, we’ve got that big bed right upstairs—”

“Mace.”

“Or I’ve been thinking about fucking you on this couch too.”

“Mace!” She took another deep breath. “Mace. This clearly involves—you know—your people, and I’m not exactly sure how to handle this. It’s not like I can go to my lieutenant and tell him there seems to be a rash of ‘shifter killers’ around.”

“You don’t have to. This stuff works out on its own. I just need you to stay out of the way, Dez. I can’t have anything happen to you.”

She leaned forward and ran her finger along the wound she recently unbandaged. “You mean like this? We both know this wasn’t an accident.”

Debating what to say, he glanced down at her feet. The nails painted a bright red, she wore a small silver ring on the second toe of her right foot. Damn, even her feet were cute. “It wasn’t an accident, I just don’t know why they targeted you. Unless they had something to do with it.”

“They?”

He sighed. Things kept getting difficult. Well, more difficult. No point in lying now, though. “Hyenas.” When she simply raised an eyebrow at him, he continued. “You know. Hyenas. Natural enemies of lions?”

“Yes, Mace. I know hyenas. I watch the Discovery Channel.”

“They did this to you. I’m assuming whatever club you were in, whoever you met with, were hyenas.”

Dez nodded slowly. He didn’t think she understood, but apparently her NYPD attitude wouldn’t allow her to show that weakness.

“There’s one thing that confuses me.”

“Just one thing,” he teased. He knew this had to be freaking her out. It still amazed him she hadn’t tried to go for her shotgun again.

“Yeah. The club I was at last night…Shaw was there. I mean, he’s like you, right? He’s attached to your sister?”

Mace nodded, surprised at how quickly she caught on. “Who did you meet exactly?”

“Gina Brutale.”

“Yeah, they’re hyenas all right.” Mace realized exactly how lucky he was. “The Brutales are not to be messed with, Dez.”

“I wasn’t. She called me. Said she had information on Petrov. She said he was in love with her. Is that even possible?”

“Sure. You can fall in love with anybody. And I’ve heard hyenas are a wild ride in bed.”

Dez glared at him. “Thanks for the info, Mace.”

“Just trying to be helpful, Detective.”

Dez ran her hand through her gorgeous mane of hair. “Brutale owned the club. The Chapel on Sixteenth.”

Mace shook his head. “If they owned the club then that was hyena territory. I’m sure the club is considered neutral but, still, Shaw must be playing Russian roulette if he’s hanging out there.”