For a moment, he made himself focus on the dozens of drawers and cabinet doors facing him. Dark hardwood, about half of them sporting digital or manual locks. And the walls. Stone. Probably too thick to let out any noise, screams or otherwise. No mirrors on these walls. Instead, he could make out charts, bulletin boards, graphs, and posters, all neatly arranged and neatly labeled. Most of them looked like they’d been drawn by hand instead of by machine—and expertly drawn, at that.
He risked asking another question. “What are you working on?”
Riana put down her weird silver pistol-thing and came closer to him. Twenty feet. Fifteen. Ten. Five. She had changed clothes after locking him up and taking her nap. No more leather bodysuit. Her lab coat protected tailored brown slacks and a tight-fitting ivory blouse that showed every curve and dip, including a mouthwatering bit of cleavage decorated by that odd crescent pendant.
Worse than the bodysuit. Christ. How can she be even more beautiful in a friggin’ lab coat?
If he gave her a pair of glasses, she’d look like Wonder Woman in disguise. The image of Riana spinning in circles as lightning flashed and her clothes fell away to reveal a form-fitting leotard—with gold cups to hold her breasts high—almost made Creed sit down on the stone floor.
“I’m running about six procedures right now.” Riana pointed to a pad and pencil on the nearest countertop. “Some are related to the Latch case, like determining the origins of that salt sample and a more detailed exploration of the skin sample—and the one I’m planning to start next is about you, though it might take a while.”
Creed felt his eyebrow arch before he could gain control of his reaction. Shit. Is that why she had locked him up? Did she intend to cut off body parts and stir them up with chemicals to see what reacted?
He ground his teeth, then forced himself to relax his jaw. “What are you testing about me?”
She came closer. Four feet. Three feet. Two. Creed knew he could reach through the bars and touch her if he wanted to, and he thought about it.
“I took a mouth swab when we had you handcuffed earlier.” Riana leaned toward him, so close he could smell that rain-and-lavender scent that made him want to groan. “I’m starting your advanced genetic profile—Sibyl-style. It takes much longer than the tests you use, but it’s far more detailed and specific than what you’re used to requesting to solve crimes. We can compare it to all the genetic databases in the world, as well as information we’ve collected on all known supernatural species.” Her eyes flashed. “I want to see what you’re made of, Creed Lowell.”
The beast stirred in Creed’s depths, a snarl amid the pounding of blood in his ears. He smashed it down, hard and fast. Not now. This woman was his, only his, and all his. No sharing. He felt irritated, intrigued, and aroused all at the same time. Invaded—yet oddly hopeful that this woman might actually be able to find some answers about his true nature.
“Don’t tease me, honey,” he said, only half jesting. Did she know what she was doing to him? His body, his mind?
Her gaze didn’t waver. “I never tease.”
Creed let go the blanket, then grabbed it again when it threatened to unwrap. “Do you really think you can map my insides under a microscope?”
“It’s a start.” Riana’s eyes blazed at him. “With the kind of analysis we do, your genes will show me things you can’t imagine.”
Bullshit you never tease. Bullshit!
She liked torturing him.
Not that he minded.
He pushed aside thoughts of learning more about his heritage and winked at her. “If I show you mine, will you show me yours?”
Riana’s smile made every muscle in Creed’s body tense. “We can discuss that later. Much later, perhaps.”
“I want to discuss it now.” He could barely rasp out the words. “Come another step closer. Let me touch you again.”
Her smile shifted to a look of shock, then heavy-lidded desire. Her hand trembled, and she tried to hide her reaction by straightening her lab coat.
Too late, beautiful. I saw that.
“Come here,” he demanded. He let go of his blanket and gripped the bars with both hands. The blanket unwrapped, and he crushed it between his gut and the bars, keeping it up, though barely. He felt a tingling from the elemental lock, but in his human form, it was mild. The space between the bars was just wide enough for his face, and narrower than his head.
Riana didn’t say anything, and she didn’t move, but she stared at the blanket. She seemed to be thinking about taking him up on his offer.
“You have me trapped.” He leaned forward, pressing his chest into the bars. “I can’t do anything you don’t want me to do, can I?”
“This needs to wait,” she murmured, but the throaty whisper gave away her desire.
Creed’s hands tightened on cold bars, doubling the humming sensation until it felt like a gentle current across his palms. He felt it through the blanket on his gut, too, and his thighs, and his swelling cock.
“A horde of Asmodai could attack tomorrow,” Creed countered. “Don’t wait. Come here. Now.”
He held her gaze, wouldn’t look away, wouldn’t temper the raw desire he knew had to be showing on his face. More than that, he wouldn’t turn loose the almost tangible rope of attraction connecting them. In his mind, he yanked on that rope, harder and harder.
Come here…
Come here…
With the sexiest little sigh, Riana stepped toward him.
9
Riana had time to think,
What in the name of the Goddess am I doing?
She couldn’t form a coherent thought after that, because she was kissing Creed again. Their lips met with a hungry force, and she tasted the lingering, burning spice on his tongue as he thrust it into her mouth. She let him in without hesitating, answered his tongue with her own, felt her breath leave in a rush as she gave herself fully, totally, to the fire of the kiss.
Did he growl?
Did she?
He forced his arms through the bars separating them, grabbed the lapels of her lab coat, and pulled her closer, closer, until the cold bite of the lead on her cheeks and shoulders seemed to give way to the heat of his hard, muscled flesh. Only the thin fabric of her blouse and silk chemise separated her nipples from his bare chest. And that blanket shielding his body from hers, it was gone. She felt it brush her ankle as it fell to the floor.
In the next second, she was reaching through the bars, too. Her hands found the thick, corded muscles in his back and she couldn’t help digging her fingers in, deeper, deeper. Then her hands slid down to his firm, hard ass.
This time, she was sure he growled. He kissed her harder, crushing his mouth into hers. She gasped for breath, but couldn’t stop, couldn’t let him go. He thrust forward, and she felt the steel of his erection against her belly. God, but she wanted to take his cock in her hands, her mouth. She wanted him deep inside her. She wanted him to burst out of those bars, tear off her clothes, throw her down on one of the counters, and drive into her until she screamed.
Creed had his arms around her now, as best he could manage with the bars. Delicious. The man tasted delicious. That spice, and salt, and something so utterly fresh and powerful and male. And he felt even better. She squeezed the flexed muscles in his ass.
He broke off the kiss and stared into her eyes with such intensity she answered with a little moan. Damn, she wanted him. Her whole body tingled. Her nipples ached, and she knew she was wet. She didn’t lose control of herself like this, not for any man—especially a man she had only known for a handful of hours. But she was losing control over Creed Lowell. She wanted to see those black eyes burn for her, and never stop. She wanted him to kiss her again, and again, and again.
As if she had shouted her thoughts for him to hear, he did kiss her again. Just as passionately. Just as deep. She lost herself in the firm but yielding pleasure of his lips and tongue. So demanding. So insistent.
Then he seized her ass, squeezed once, and lifted her straight off the ground.
Riana let go of Creed’s ass and grabbed the cell bars out of reflex. She tried to move back from the kiss, but he had her bottom lip in his teeth again. Her eyes flew open to see his, see that mocking, teasing, dancing light flickering in the endless black depths. Urgent, yet patient. He wasn’t desperate the way he had been when he kissed her to stop her from taking his ring.
Those eyes said,
I know you could get away from me if you wanted to, but you don’t want to. I’ll take you right now, right through these bars…and you’ll let me.
Her eyelids fluttered, then closed.
She could escape. She was more than trained in escaping any hold, in any situation.
But she didn’t want to.
Not even close.
She was lost again, letting him kiss her. Letting him take her just like he wanted, Goddess help them all.
His hard cock pressed between her legs now, moving heat, stroking her sensitive center through her slacks and the thin strip of her panties. He had unnaturally good aim. He might as well have had her naked, lower lips parted. He might as well have been stroking her with his thumb, rhythmic, persistent, refusing to stop no matter how hard she bit him.
She was biting him.
Shit.
She realized she had stopped kissing him and pressed her face against his neck, and now she was biting him, tasting him. A lead bar had to be six inches inside her right ear, and she didn’t even care. Riana made herself ease up on his neck, but he only pulled her closer.
“I like you crazy,” he said in her ear, his voice so low she shivered all over just from the sound of it. “I want you wild.”
Riana felt as if her mind was expanding like a balloon pumped with helium. She had the mad urge to jam her legs through the bars and ride Creed like a wild stallion until she had taken every bit of energy he had to offer. Instead, she clenched her thighs against his erection and felt his groan of approval more than heard it. She was so sensitive, so ready she almost screamed with need each time the man moved.
That’s it. Enough. I’m going in that cell, and we’re getting this out of our systems right now, before it gets any worse.
She stopped kissing his neck, opened her eyes, and pressed her hands against his shoulders. “Let me go.”
He swore and thrust his cock forward and up, sending electric shocks through her whole body. “No.”
“Put me down,” she insisted, only the words came out in a hoarse gasp. “I want to come in there with you.”
Creed slowly stopped the maddening, delectable thrusts between her legs. Her clit ached instantly, and she wished she could wave her hands and make the bars disappear. Her clothes, too, but she had a feeling Creed could take care of them fast enough once she got in the cell.
He lowered her to the floor so gently, like she was some fragile treasure he might break if he handled her too roughly. All the while his night-black eyes bored into her, searching for something she couldn’t identify.
Truth?
Emotion?
Passion?
Plenty of all three, without question.
Creed turned her loose, obviously hating to do it. Riana hated it, too. She pulled away from him and turned toward the cell door, already fumbling in her lab-coat pocket for the keys. Her hand shook as she did it. She had never responded at such a primitive, basic level to any man, much less so fast and so totally. Why him?
Her fingers closed around the keys.
Riana looked up at Creed, feeling the heat in her cheeks. The intensity in his gaze rattled her down deep inside, and heated her body even more. Another few degrees and her skin would catch fire, she was sure of it.
She should turn around and walk out of the lab right now. Get away from him for a few minutes or hours. A week. A month. Goddess. Go take a shower. Go sit in a vat of ice cubes. Something. She did not need to go into that cell and give herself to a man—a supernatural creature—she hadn’t even known for a week.
I’m insane. I’m confused. What if that’s one of his abilities? I need to find my center, get my thoughts together. Talk this out with somebody.
Both of her hands were shaking now, and flames seemed to touch her skin everywhere she wanted Creed’s hands. Her breasts felt heavy. Her nipples tightened like his mouth was already fixed on the responsive tips, and her core throbbed like his cock was poised for entry. Had she ever been so aroused?
Riana took a step toward the lab door.
Creed jammed his arm through the bars, caught her by the shoulder, and spun her until her back was to him. She caught her breath and dropped the keys on the floor in front of her, out of his reach, as he pulled her backward until she was once more pressed against the cell bars. This time he held her around the waist and pulled her up until she was standing on her toes. She frantically gripped the bars again for balance.
Instantly, she felt his teasing bite on her neck, sending chills straight down her spine and doubling the ache in her clit. His lips moved to her ear, and she shivered again and again, nearly over the edge from the ragged warmth of his breath, from the thrust of his cock against her ass.
“Sorry,” he said, his bass voice making her insides vibrate. “Not waiting.”
Riana’s heart hammered in her throat as he used his free hand to rip open her blouse, push up her silk chemise, and cup her breast. His fingers closed on the hard nipple and pinched. Molten pleasure erupted from the spot and flowed all over her body.
She actually screamed. Not loud or long, but enough. Enough for him to know he was free to do whatever he wanted.
Damn. Damn!
“Yeah. Like that, honey. Get as wild as I know you want to.”
Oh, sweet Goddess…
She was still on her toes, but he had his hands on both of her breasts now, pushing up, pressing, kneading, rubbing her pulsing nipples between his fingers like he knew exactly how to drive her completely out of her mind.