In Deeper (14 page)

She swung her feet to the floor and stood. “You better not be lying. It’s not funny.”

“Come to my room, and find out for yourself.”

* * *

Micah grinned and tossed the phone aside. When he’d flown in, it had been late and he hadn’t wanted to wake her. Having her call him, knowing that she had no clue he was in the same house, had been perfect. He’d planned to surprise her at breakfast the next morning, but phone sex worked even better.

Tugging a couple tissues out of the box on his bedside table, he swiped at the mess he’d made on his stomach. He wadded the tissues and tossed them at the wastebasket. He was still hard, his cock ready and waiting to bury itself inside her tight, sweet pussy.

She didn’t knock. Instead, she opened the door and barreled straight to his bed. He had time to register a blur of pale blonde hair and blue silk before she was upon him. Her arms and legs wrapped around his naked length, pressing her body to his with an urgency that was as soul-stirring as it was hot.

“Why didn’t you tell me you were here?” Accusation colored her tone.

He wrapped his fist in her hair and brought her face up to meet his. “I wanted to surprise you.”

“Oh.” He swallowed her response with his mouth. His tongue licked at the seam of her lips, toying with her bottom lip, and delving inside. Kissing Celeste was like taking hold of an electric fence and holding on for dear life. She turned him inside out and left him gasping for breath.

Celeste broke free of the kiss and nuzzled his cheek. His unshaven jaw had to be rough, but she acted as if it didn’t faze her. “You don’t have to keep doing this. I’m in good hands here. Your brother will protect me. You said so yourself.”

“I want to be here.” He kissed her again, wishing he could say the words he wanted to say as easily.

She pulled away again. Her amber eyes glowed in the semi-darkness. “Why? Why are you going to so much trouble for me?”

He laced his hands behind his head and sighed. With her astride him, clad in nothing but a naughty little negligee, it was a struggle to think, much less face questions he wasn’t ready to answer yet. “I told you I would help.”

She sat back. Her knees framed his hips, and her pussy was achingly close to his dick. Her breasts jiggled as she slapped her hands against her thighs. “The truth, Micah, or I get out of this bed and leave.”

“Threats won’t work on me.” He placed his palms on her waist and slid them up her silk-clad body to her breasts. He thumbed the pointed nipples. “You want this too much.”

She slapped his hands away. “Possibly, but I’m not giving in.”

“Really?” He removed his hands and allowed them to rest against the mattress. “Then show me. Go back to your room, unfulfilled and wet, and tell me you won’t wish you were in this bed with me, filled with my cock and my scent on your skin. Every inch of your body will be marked. I’ll start with your luscious breasts before I make my way to your pussy. I’m going to stay there a while, just so you know, and then I’ll sink my teeth into your delectable ass. Not one fragment of your skin will be untouched. So when you go back to your lonely bed, think about what you could’ve had, and tell me you won’t wish you’d stayed here with me.”

“You’re not playing fair.” Her hips moved, almost as if by their own accord. “You’ve had your fun, knocked the edge off. Why can’t you say why you’re really here?”

He surged forward, twisting his hands in her hair and holding her to his chest. “I’m here because you are. I can’t put it any fucking plainer, Celeste. I’m here because you’re all I can think about.”

Her eyes lost their sparkle. “So it’s just sex to you?”

“Everything is just sex.” The statement had once been true, but it wasn’t now. “Give me a chance to please you. Let me knock the edge off, as you said. Then we can talk.”

She struggled against him. “I want to talk now.”

“No, you don’t.” He played his ace in the hole. “You want me. You’re only being stubborn. I can smell your lust.”

She jerked one arm free. “Then you should be able to sense my irritation too.”

He held on to her. “Don’t leave. You want answers, but I can’t give them to you. Not yet. Half of my life I had to pretend I wasn’t attracted to you. You belonged to my brother, for fuck’s sake. Can’t you give me time to acclimate myself?”

“You were blind if you ever looked at me and thought Drake was the one I wanted.”

He resisted the urge to curse. “At least I didn’t live a lie my entire life.”

Her shoulders dropped, and she curved them inward, as if trying to hide from him. “Low blow, Micah. I told you why I had to do it.”

“No one is blaming you. We all did what we had to. Drake suffered too. I know he did. What we are, it’s not easy. We spend ninety percent of our time hiding our shifter nature from the world. It’s a hard life.”

She lifted her head. “What happens the other ten percent?”

He grinned at her. “What do you think?”

Relief filled him at the sight of a reluctant smile on her face. “Only ten percent?”

He linked their fingers and pulled her toward him as he lay back on the mattress. “Maybe in our case, we should raise it to thirty percent.”

“Agreed.” She sealed her lips over his, and he knew he had her. He set out to do everything to her body he’d promised, and then some.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

If anyone thought it was odd that Micah was doing a whirlwind tour around the country, while spending every night on Tybee Island, they didn’t comment on it. The next two weeks flew by. With Micah in her bed every night, Celeste didn’t have time to worry about the threat to her company. But the daytime hours were a different story.

A knock on her office door grabbed her attention. Turning her gaze from the blank screen on her computer to the figure standing in her doorway, she attempted to smooth a frown away. “Good morning, Karl.”

Her assistant moved into the room. “You’re here early, Ms. Proctor. Is there anything I can get you? More coffee perhaps?”

She glanced at her empty mug and nodded. “If you don’t mind. It’s been a rough couple of weeks.”

Karl’s eyes were shockingly blue against his ruddy complexion. He was auburn-haired and freckled, and he’d always reminded her of Dennis the Menace, but she couldn’t ask for a more efficient employee.

“Of course I don’t mind.” He came forward to fetch her mug. “I’m here to help any way I can.”

“Thank you, Karl. What would I do without you?”

“Probably work yourself to death.” He gave her a soft smile and moved out of the room. “I’ll be back in a jiffy.”

She turned back to her computer and pulled up her calendar. They went to press in two days. The anniversary celebration was Friday. Only three days away. There were so many things to do. She lacked the energy to do more than stare at a blank screen.

She rubbed her forehead and shivered. The room seemed colder than it had. What was wrong with her? She couldn’t afford to be sick. Not now.

Karl returned with her coffee, and she gave him a smile of gratitude. “Thank you, Karl. Does it seem chilly to you?”

He shrugged. “No colder than usual. Would you like me to turn up the temperature?”

“Yes, a degree or two. I hope I’m not coming down with something.”

He studied her. His pale, intent eyes scanned her face. “Do I need to take you home?”

She shook her head. “I can’t afford to be sick. Thank you for the offer though.”

“It still stands.” He left the coffee on her desk and backed away. “Let me know if you change your mind.”

For the next few hours, she vacillated between warm and icy. Karl turned the temperature up like he’d promised, but with her wildly varying hot and cold flashes she refused to ask him to change it again.

She was in the middle of composing an e-mail to Emilio about his latest article when a new message landed in her in-box. Sighing, she saved Emilio’s e-mail in the draft folder and clicked on the new message.

Immediately she wished she hadn’t.

It was a picture of her, clad in a bikini aboard a yacht, with her arms wrapped around Drake. His hands were draped against her ass, and they were both laughing.

She remembered the outing. It had been five years before, not long after she’d finished her Masters, back when she’d imagined herself to be in love with the alpha. A good day, but one better left in the past. The last time she’d seen the photograph, it was buried in a box of old mementos and tucked away in her closet.

Shit
. That’s why they’d broken into her house. Someone sought dirt on her. Anger roared to life. She was tired of it, tired of having her privacy invaded, and the empty threats.

Without thinking about it, she responded to the e-mail.

“Fuck you,” she typed into the message box and hit send. Moments later, a notification appeared that the message was undeliverable. Figured.

She snorted and deleted the e-mail. Drake would be furious that she hadn’t forwarded it to his IT guys. The last thing she wanted was the photo falling into the wrong hands and being misconstrued. It was already bad enough with Micah and Emma knowing she and Drake had once had a relationship. There was no need to rub the physical proof in their faces.

She should’ve saved the effort. Less than five minutes later, her cell phone rang. She saw it was Drake’s number and answered immediately. “Hello?”

“What the hell, Celeste? Where did that picture come from?”

She dropped her head on the desk and cursed. “How did you see it?”

“My guys hacked into your e-mail program. They get copies of every e-mail you receive.”

She straightened. “Seriously? Drake, that isn’t cool at all. My work e-mails are personal. Do you know what would happen if someone scoops our articles?”

“Settle down, Celeste. They’re permanently deleting all the legit e-mails. They only need access to the threatening ones.”

“You should’ve told me.”

He snorted. “So you would’ve increased the security on your program? Thanks, but no thanks.”

She hated that he knew her so well. “Why do you think he sent me the picture?”

“Honestly?” Drake sighed. “No clue. The perp isn’t following any normal pattern. Business and personal lines are both being crossed. Either he’s obsessed with you or he envies the magazine’s success. Hard to tell.”

“The gala is in three days, Drake. Three! I can’t risk everything I’ve worked so hard for. And the last thing I want is Emma seeing that picture of us and letting it upset her.”

“Don’t worry about my wife. I’ve told you. She understands what we had in the past is gone. My only concern is how comfortable is Micah with it?”

Her heart thudded against her rib cage. “Pardon?”

“I’m not a fool, Celeste. You’ve spent every night in Micah’s bed. I’ve seen the marks and smelled him on you.”

She rubbed her thigh, envisioning the reddened area of Micah’s latest bite mark. “It’s not like that with us. We’re just having fun.”

Drake hummed and continued, “The media would have a field day with that picture. There’s no way for us to prove it happened years ago. With your company being in the spotlight, the papers will make a mountain out of a molehill.”

“Can your people shut it down? Keep the picture from being printed if it gets out?”

“We can try.” His voice softened. “Be careful with Micah. He may not act like it, but he has a soft heart. I don’t want him to be hurt.”

The mild rebuke made her spirits sink lower. “I don’t want that either. It’s complicated; that’s all I can tell you right now.”

“You love him.” It wasn’t a question.

She hesitated, but the truth was impossible to ignore. “I have for years.”

“I suspected as much.” Another sigh came across the line. “If it helps, I’ve never seen him act with another woman the way he acts with you.”

She nodded in agreement. “Probably a good thing. There were many times I thought he hated me.”

“It was all a show, a way to pretend he doesn’t care. What I did to him, to you, was wrong. I shouldn’t have allowed it to go so far. Our relationship made it easier for me to focus on the Society and work. But it wasn’t fair to you and I apologize.”

Celeste felt the prickle of tears behind her eyelids. “It’s as much my fault as yours. I pretended to care more than I did. You never meant to hurt me. I know that. But I fear we hurt Micah more than he wants to admit.”

The snick of the door closing drew her attention. She glanced up and saw Micah framed in the doorway. She’d known he would arrive today but hadn’t expected it to be so early. Happiness filled her with the knowledge that he was back for more than a night.

She heard Drake, and she turned her attention back to the phone. “Micah just walked in. I’ll call you later.”

She disconnected the call before he said anything more. Micah moved forward, but she stayed in place, unable to find the strength to stand. He made her that way, weak and needy. Two things she’d sworn she would never be. “What are you doing here?”

He didn’t stop. Instead, his sure strides carried him across the room. He didn’t stop until he reached her. With a groan of repressed desire, he bent down and lifted her into his arms. “I couldn’t wait. I had to see you.”

She felt the prod of his erection against her hip. Although her body softened, readied for him, she barely lifted her head. “I don’t feel well.”

“Shit.” He lowered her back to the chair and crouched before her. “Look at me. Look at me, Celeste.”

She struggled to make her eyes focus on his worried face. His dark blue eyes were troubled, and the angle of his jaw was off, as if she were looking at him through water. “My head. It hurts.”

He touched her cheek. His palm was cold, so cold, and she turned her face into his hand. He cursed beneath his breath. “My God, you’re burning up.”

The lethargy she’d been fighting all morning hit her all at once. She slumped in the chair with a whispered moan. A pounding headache kept her conscious, but her eyes wouldn’t force open, despite her best attempts. Micah gathered her in his arms and pressed his lips to her temple. “I’m taking you home. You’re sick.”