Authors: Ann Macela
Tags: #General, #Fiction, #Fantasy, #Paranormal, #Romance, #Suspense
Wild Magic (37 page)
“I’m sure I’m going to be stuck in a planning meeting or trying to contact informants most of the morning. If I leave the building, I’ll phone. Oh, and don’t call me either, not unless it’s vital.”
As though she’d bug him at work. She knew better. He had his stubborn cop look again, so she said only, “Okay.”
“John will be here if you need help while we’re gone.” Fergus pulled a card out of his pocket and wrote on it. “Here are both my and John’s cell numbers. Will you be back tomorrow night, even if it’s only to sleep?”
“I don’t really know. It depends on what Ubell’s up to. My boss did say the accountants and computer techs got nowhere with the info from Finster’s safe. Some even higher-powered techies are looking at it now, trying to hack Ubell’s programming. Let me ask you something I’ve wondered about. Suppose you do take Ubell out. Destroy the Stone. What happens to the financial info and everything he’s set up by magic?”
Good question
, Irenee thought and turned to Fergus for an answer.
, Irenee thought and turned to Fergus for an answer.
“Hmmm.” Fergus stroked his beard and looked off into the distance for a few seconds. “As you know, for a spell to be ongoing, it has to have energy from somewhere. For example, if you don’t supply it to your lightball, it goes out.”
“Yeah, I’m learning ‘maintenance,’ as Johanna puts it.”
“In this particular case, I would think the maintenance must be coming from the Stone, and it, not Ubell or Finster before him, has been supplying the spelled computer programs. It definitely has the range. If so, when we destroy the Stone, we stop the supply, and the programs lose their enchantment. Your accountants should have no trouble with them.”
“Okay,” Jim said with a smile. “I hope you get both him and his Stone soon.”
“You two get some rest,” Fergus said. He nodded toward the conference room. “There’s no need for you to stay. The bunch in there will argue every possible scenario, but we can’t come to a real plan until we hear what the legal masters and both councils say”
“Sounds good to me,” Jim said. “I hate those kind of meetings. Let’s go, honey”
Irenee was about to protest—she wanted to hear what the scenarios were. She might need them in the future. Then Jim looked at her, took her hand, and said, “It’s ‘later.”’
If she said good-bye to Fergus, she didn’t remember it. Jim’s golden-green gaze sent excitement skittering up her backbone, and his touch warmed her to the core. Other parts of her body came alert, too. She practically raced him to the elevator.
Fortunately, no one else entered with them because, even before the door closed, he wrapped his arms around her and kissed her. Exactly what she had in mind, so she kissed him back. By the time the car stopped on the fourth floor, she was practically climbing his body. They stumbled out into the hall, almost straight into another couple waiting to enter.
“Oh, sorry!” she managed to mumble.
Jim just grinned, and the guy—probably as old as Fergus!—grinned to match Jim’s and said, “Oh, we understand completely.”
Mortified, she dragged her soul mate down the hall.
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
Once inside her condo, Jim pulled Irenee into his arms and took up where they left off. Her embarrassment went out the window in the heat of his embrace and the fire in his kisses. They left a trail of shirts, her bra, and her shoes in the short hall and fell onto the bed. After rolling back and forth in a tangle of limbs, she managed to land on top and straddle his thighs.
“Wait, wait,” Jim gasped and captured her hands when she attacked his belt buckle.
“Why, why?” she asked, laughing and stretching their arms to each side, which had the effect of bringing them chest to chest.
“Because,” he said, letting go of her hands, flipping her over, and making himself comfortable between her legs, “I want to take this slow. We might not see each other for days, and I want something to remember you by.”
She was still pushing at his shoulders and trying to figure out how he’d managed to put her on the bottom so effortlessly when the meaning of his statement hit. She stopped struggling. “Oh.”
“Oh,” he repeated and kissed her softly, leisurely, like they had all the time in the world. From her mouth, he worked his way slowly down her neck to her breasts, where he fondled one while he licked and suckled the other.
She luxuriated in his touch while her body warmed and tingled—her usual response to him, she realized.
They’d made love, she couldn’t remember how many times since yesterday. Yesterday? Yes, it was only last night they’d truly become soul mates. Their first mating had been glorious, but ... this time felt different, somehow. Less hurried, less stressful, more sure.
As in all the others, her blood was singing through her veins, and his hands and his lips were causing sparks to excite her entire system.
But ... this time, all her senses were heightened. All sensations more intense, more alluring, more . . .
The smell of him, his lemon-lime shaving cream, his shampoo, himself. She took a deeper breath.
The feel of him when she slid her hands over his skin. Rough in places, smooth in others. His hard muscles bunching, relaxing. The puckered slash he’d told her had come from “an idiot with a machete who thought he was a pirate.” The silky curls in his hair that gave him a boyish look at times and that she loved to twine around her fingers. His morning whiskers scratchy on her lips; his smooth cheek now after his shave. All she could reach right now were his hair, back, and shoulders. It would do—for the moment.
She didn’t have to open her eyes to see him. She had him memorized, from the top of his brown hair to the golden green in his eyes to his firm lips, to his strong jaw. Down to his broad shoulders, down to the smattering of dark hair on his chest arrowing to his sex, down to his long legs to his feet ... and back up.
All she could hear were her occasional moans and the slight creak of the bed. That was okay. She knew the sound of his deep voice, could pick it out from a crowd, and loved to hear him say her name.
His taste. Salty, sweet, like no other. His kisses possessed her.
Then there was his touch on her—of his lips, of his tongue, of his hands. If his kisses were passionate, his touch possessed, claimed, enticed, excited.
She couldn’t get enough of him. Now or ever.
She opened her eyes when he kissed his way to her navel. She still had her long suit pants on, but so did he. She slid her hand to her buckle, and he stopped her from unfastening it. He glanced up, gave her navel a little kiss, and murmured, “I’ll get there, honey.”
She squirmed, groaned, “Faster.” He only kissed his way back up to her breasts and played there a while, until her nerves were sparking, and she was arching into him.
Finally,
finally
, he undid her buckle, lowered her zipper, and slid her pants and panties down her legs and off. Standing quickly, he stripped off his own clothes.
finally
, he undid her buckle, lowered her zipper, and slid her pants and panties down her legs and off. Standing quickly, he stripped off his own clothes.
He held still for a couple of seconds at the foot of the bed, simply looking at her. Before she could demand, or ask, or
beg
him to come into her arms, he leaned over and started kissing his way back up her legs, climbing on the bed as he did so.
beg
him to come into her arms, he leaned over and started kissing his way back up her legs, climbing on the bed as he did so.
If his previous touches and kisses had aroused, these caresses inflamed and enthralled. When he finally kissed her most intimately, she quivered all over. When he licked and sucked her most sensitive spot, she began to writhe, then moan. Sparks began racing through her, and every muscle tightened, to the point of pain. Tension built and built, and she thought she would burst. She grabbed the bedspread for an anchor in the storm and pressed herself into his mouth. Ecstatic release came with her cry, “Jim!”
She was still shaking when he moved swiftly up, drawing her legs around him.
“Open your eyes, Irenee,” he said in a low voice that sent more sparks through her center.
She did, to look right into his. The golden green was darkened, his expression serious, his skin pulled taut on his face. Her laughing lover had become passion personified.
He was poised at her entrance, braced over her on his arms. “Touch my center.”
When she did, he balanced himself on one arm and placed his palm right over her breastbone. Slowly, oh, so slowly, he pushed into her. She raised her hips to accept him, glorying in the connection, the possession, the becoming one.
When he was totally inside her, he lowered his face close to hers and stared into her eyes. His voice was raspy when he declared, “No matter what happens, I’m yours, and you’re mine, and we will belong to each other forever. I’ll do everything in my power to keep you safe.”
His words thrilled her to the core and inexplicably made her want to cry at the same time. All she could whisper was, “Oh, Jim, yes,” before he was kissing her, obliterating all thought.
Magic energy, more powerful than ever before, began to swirl through their linked bodies. Stronger and stronger, as their heartbeats increased. Faster and faster, as they began to move.
He possessed her, as she did him. Each thrust, each acceptance proclaimed their oneness, their merging, their mating.
The tension in their bodies grew, multiplied, as she grasped him tightly when he was deepest inside her. At first he paused momentarily each time, but soon they were meeting each other, stroke for stroke, both straining, reaching ... reaching ...
“Jim!” She cried out his name as she climaxed, waves of ecstasy rolling through her. Through the roar of blood in her ears, she heard him shout, “Irenee!”
He poured himself into her, and she rejoiced. He collapsed into her arms, and she held on tight. She would never let him go.
How long it was before either moved, she didn’t know. Eventually he rolled to the side and pulled her to face him.
After a while, she managed to open her eyes about halfway. His eyes were closed, and his lips were smiling. He looked ... relaxed, satisfied, happy—no, stronger than happy. Blissful.
She felt the same.
She ran her fingers through his hair, played with the curls until he captured her hand and kissed the palm.
He blinked at her and smiled again, his eyes twinkling. She could hear the laughter in his voice when he said, “Now I understand why the men around here have goofy expressions on their faces practically all the time.”
“What? Really? They do? I never noticed it.” She ransacked her memories, but had no clue what he was talking about.
He chuckled, kissed her softly on the lips. “It’s a guy thing, honey. You wouldn’t notice.”
The light dawned. “Oh.”
“Have you got any ice cream?”
“I think there’s several pints in the freezer. Why?”
“After our expenditure of energy, I need replenishment. After that, we really need to get some sleep. I have to leave early and stop by my apartment in the morning before I go to the office.”
She had the nagging notion they needed to discuss something, but whatever it was would have to wait. She was too tired to think, and besides, ice cream sounded good to her, too—especially with chocolate raspberry syrup.
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
Jim woke when she started kissing his chest. He lay there for a few seconds enjoying the feeling of her lips moving up from his navel. Then he realized his cock was already awake and even more thoroughly enjoyed being held in her hand.
He glanced at the clock. Five in the morning, just getting light, and the alarm was about to go off. He should be exhausted. They’d been awake again at two, going at it like rabbits. Or was it minks? Whatever. Instead, here she was, and there he certainly was, ready to go again. Where was all his “stamina” coming from? Must be the soul-mate phenomenon. After all the pain, this must be the payoff.
Damn, what a time to have to get up, and he didn’t mean this kind of “up.”
He shut off the alarm before it could sound. A couple more horizontal minutes couldn’t hurt.
When she reached his magic center, it began to vibrate. The pulsations heated his blood and warmed his muscles—and gave him another idea. Maybe it would be better to spend the couple of minutes in a more active—although still horizontal—manner.
He reached a hand under her chin and tilted it up. He couldn’t see her smile, but he could hear it when she said, low and sultry, “Good morning.”
“Good morning,” he answered with a scratchy voice. With her hand doing what it was doing, it was a miracle he could speak at all. “Come up here.”
She slid up his body and, lying on him full length, captured his cock between her legs. An elbow on each side of his head to brace above him, she bent and gave him a little kiss on the lips. “Do we have time for this?”
He shifted, lifted her hips, and slid inside. His filling her almost took his breath away, it was so perfect, so right, so complete. “Let me introduce you to the concept of the ‘quickie.’”
Breakfast turned out to be a slightly more hurried meal than he had originally planned.
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