In the Company of Witches (19 page)

He inclined his head, an almost courtly gesture. “My apologies. I assumed females aren’t as openly avid in that regard as males.”

“Then you were definitely born in a different century, Mikhael. Women are now free to demonstrate as much depravity, decadence and lust as men.”

“Good to know.”

Mikhael actually had experienced forward women. Drunk, trashy or manipulative females mostly using sex for reasons that weren’t about pleasure. She was looking at him as if she wanted to start licking and devouring him like that chocolate. Her interest was clean, reciprocal lust, with a hungry emotional under layer that captured him.

“We could just skip the game,” he offered.

“Oh no. I’m going to beat you fair and square. The stakes are too tempting. Women might feel lust, but we have more self-control.”

“I could test that theory.”

Raina bet he could shatter it beyond repair. Women had more self-control only because their hearts were often way too involved in their lust. She was dangerously interested in the man himself, when she should keep tunnel vision on those rippling muscles and the
very
nice-sized package under his jeans.

He won the next hand. Sitting back, he gave her his own long, raking appraisal. “Take off your bra.”

“I haven’t taken off my shirt.”

“I get to determine the order, right?”

Shrugging, she wriggled out of it under the cashmere. As she thrust out her breasts to reach behind her and unhook the bra, his heated regard was intense. The cling of the silken yarn delineated her nipples in a way she knew was even more provocative than seeing her naked. She covered her own precarious reaction to that by hanging the lacy bra on her chair arm, then dealt the next hand. When he won that one, he wanted her panties.

“Hand them to me. You’re not very good at this game, Raina.”

She merely lifted a brow, rose. When she did, because of his long legs stretched out next to the table, she was straddling his crossed ankles. Pivoting, she did a shimmy to pull her snug tailored skirt up, hooked the panties and worked them down in a smooth motion, giving him an extremely brief glimpse of her ass and what lay between her thighs. When she turned back around, he was eye level with her breasts. It reminded her of his mouth there, suckling her, but she knew how to play this game. She liked playing it with him, noting the fire in his dark gaze, and the tighter fit of his jeans. Putting the swatch of silk in his hands, she brushed her fingers across his palm. Stepping back, she settled in her chair, crossing her ankles and sliding her legs to a demure ladylike angle as she picked up the deck.

He lifted the panties to his lips, inhaled her arousal, then draped them over his thigh for safekeeping. He also won the next hand.

“Open the top two buttons of your shirt. Only those two.”

He was diabolical. If he’d had her pull off her shirt, it would be like stripping for the bath. Erotic, yes, doing it in front of him, but he was like a master pastry chef, knowing exactly how to stretch things out, making them thinner and thinner, stopping just short of breakage.

“You’re good at this.” She gave him his due. “Most men aren’t.”

“I have selfish motives. The more I arouse you, the more you release that sex demon scent of yours. Your skin is flushed; your pulse is rabbiting. It makes me hard as a fucking rock, knowing I can get you this hot.”

When his gaze passed over her, it was like they were already in bed, his hands on her. He made her want to take him to bed, take
him
in her bed, over and over. “I could lift you up against the wall right now,” he continued. “Push up your skirt and thrust into you without any interference. Your nipples are erect, and I’d feel that, no padding to interfere. I’d put your feet on the floor but keep my hand between your legs, my fingers inside you while I pinned you to the wall by the throat. Then I’d suckle your nipples through the cloth until the fabric was wet, and they’d stand out even more than they are now.”

She tilted her head so another of her dark curls loosened from its barrette, sliding along her cheek. “This is cashmere. You’d owe me a dry-cleaning bill.”

“I’d gladly pay it. Because when it was all over, I’d mark you and your pretty clothes with something other than my mouth.”

H
E THOUGHT HE ALMOST HAD HER THEN, HAD PUSHED
her to the point she’d set aside the cards and let him slam her against the bookshelf as he’d described. Though he saw a fine tremor in her hand, and that scent grew to a maddening musk, she simply dealt another hand and gave him her mysterious smile, though he noted it was tight at the corners.

As they continued to play, her staff found excuses to keep wandering through the outside garden. They didn’t linger too obviously, because if they did, her eyes would shift to them and they would disappear. But not fast enough.

After she’d opened those top two buttons, Luke was the next one to wander down the garden path to get the latest intel on their game. Mikhael cut his gaze toward him before Raina could do it. Whatever Luke saw in his face made the incubus practically vanish into thin air. It quelled any casual wanderers for a good while, with no repeat business from the males, his message delivered loud and clear.

It was a ridiculous reaction. They’d likely all seen Raina naked. Hell, maybe they had sex demon orgies on slow days. He wasn’t an overly possessive male. While he was fucking a woman, no one else was, but when he was done, he was done, and she was free to do whatever with whomever. So this was a unique feeling.

Having other males around her—excessively sexually motivated ones—goaded some primitive instincts he was unable to quell, even by mocking himself.
Doesn’t matter. You’re still thinking of tearing the dick off the next one who walks through that garden.

She didn’t take new clients, but she had a small, exclusive group for whom she was available when they requested her. He’d heard that from her staff. She damn well better not have one while he was here, because he was going to be inside of her every night. Probably mornings and afternoons as well.

He shook himself out of it. Lord and Lady, in a minute he was going to swing from her clematis vine and beat his chest. She was giving him an odd look, so he slouched down in the chair, stretched out his legs even farther to the right of the table, rehooking his ankles. With a smile oddly more shy than coquettish, she slid her feet out of her heels. He’d noticed she didn’t much care for wearing shoes, but then, witches could be like that. She was wearing stockings today, but he knew her feet were soft and silky smooth. Last night, he’d put his lips on them more than once, teasing the arches and the tips of the painted toes, caressing the ankles with hands and mouth.

Now she put those soft feet on his thighs, and he found it easy to rest his arm on her ankles, hooking his fingers under her arch as he stared at the cards, only half seeing them. He’d had easy moments with his one-night lovers, because casual sex came with casual day-after behavior. This was unique, though, this comfortable silence, no hurry to be anywhere or do anything other than be in her company. It didn’t even have anything to do with the pending arrival of Isaac’s demon.

She won the next hand, probably because of his lack of attention. “The shoes,” she said.

He toed off the Italian loafers. Next hand, he gained back ground. He wanted the shirt completely open, framing her breasts. He brushed her hands aside, did it himself, making her keep her hands on the chair arms while he did it. Her breath on his forehead was enough to make him want to lift his attention to the luscious mouth, but instead, once he’d opened the cashmere, arranged it around the sumptuous offering of her naked breasts, he made himself sit back, recross his ankles without indulging a single touch, though he could feel her yearning as sharp and potent as his own. He really should have worn slacks, because the denim was starting to cut like a son of a bitch.

“I seem to be winning so far,” he noted. “But I think you’re holding back.”

“Could be. Scared?”

“Petrified,” he said, deadpan. “Can’t you tell?”

Those full lips curved, and he could vividly imagine them wrapped around his cock, particularly when she moistened them with the tip of her tongue and blinked those mink lashes at him. “Your stoic routine isn’t fooling me,” she said in that bedroom voice. “You’re shaking in your custom-tailored one hundred percent cotton boxer shorts. Which, by the way, I’m looking forward to seeing you strip off.”

H
E DIDN’T GAIN AS MUCH GROUND OVER THE NEXT
hour as he expected. She was a damn deft player, in judgment, bluffing, losing, recouping. However, at last he had her stripped down to stockings. He had his reasons for holding off on the bondage options he’d insisted on integrating. For one thing, her anticipation and trepidation about it just intensified the perfume of that succubus energy. For another, before he started tying her up, he wanted her in just those stockings. It tested the hell out of his control, however.

She had her legs crossed, not in modesty, but to display her legs and titillate the imagination as to the treasure between them. Clothed in her stockings and long hair, she carried off being naked with grace and beauty, not vulgar commonality. It made her touchable and untouchable at once. Had she lived centuries before, she would have been a mistress to kings, a geisha in demand by the emperor himself.

He was well aware he lost the next couple hands—and his socks—because of it. Now she was considering her next option, drawing out the tension in her own unique way. Since she was eyeing the straining denim like a cat contemplating cream, he’d bet he was about to get some relief. At least from the jeans.

“All I want this round is…this.” Touching his bare abdomen, she slid her fingers down to the waistband of the jeans. When she hooked beneath it, he held his position, leaned back in the chair, watching those deft fingers slip the top button. She stopped there, though, letting her sharp nails glide over the fly, following his erect length on the outside before she sat back. She opened another chocolate now, sucking on the sweet as she regarded his still-confined cock. He imagined spilling the whiskey over her breasts and sucking the bitter taste off her flesh.

“I don’t think we talked about touching,” he noted.

“It was just along the way.”

“You keep staring, you’ll be on your back on these cards, and I’ll be buried inside that sweet pussy of yours.”

“Not likely. It’s a challenge to you now. Seeing how crazy we can drive one another.”

“How am I doing?”

Those green-gold eyes glittered. “You know exactly how aroused I am, Mikhael.”

He tapped his losing hand. “Why the socks?” he asked.

She tilted her head, those lips curving. “The sexiest man in the world still looks ridiculous in only a pair of socks. I’d rather have the socks go first, and leave the jeans on until the last possible moment, because jeans on the right body”—her eyes coursed over him—“can be as stimulating as the man beneath, and both should be savored.” She arched a brow. “I expect you understand that, as much care as you’ve taken to slowly unwrap me.”

She was right, but there was another reason. He had an end goal, and it relied on precise timing. Despite the feminine power she was demonstrating, he was facing a wild, beautiful creature who’d been damaged when it came to this particular vital treasure in her makeup. He was going to be the first male who enjoyed it the way it was meant to be enjoyed, treating her as she should be treated.

It sharpened his resolve. He won the next hand, and when he did, he left his cards on the table. “Left wrist, tied to the chair.”

She was left-handed. He’d chosen the dominant hand deliberately. “I assume you keep restraints, somewhere?”

He saw the brief flash of uncertainty, quickly schooled to that same indifferent look. “In the cabinet, over there. Not conjuring silver chain this time?”

“No. Not this time.” Rising, he found nylon rope that would satisfy his purposes. Normally, he would have ordered her to go get the restraints, bring them back and place them in his hands. Her Master’s hands. But he knew what was going on beneath the surface of that practiced faint smile she still had glued to her face. She knew he saw through it, but still she kept her shields in place. That touched him, made him do what he did next.

As he’d been searching for the rope, in the corner of his eye he’d seen her move her hand to the chair arm, a little bit of a hesitant jerk to the motion, the fingers tight on the wood. When he returned she’d forced it to relax, forced her body to relax. Meeting her gaze briefly, he wound the rope around her wrist, three, four turns. Then he dropped to one knee, pressed his lips to her knuckles. Her fingers flexed, another sign of uncertainty, and he glanced up at her, his lips still on her hand. There was something raw in her expression, so he turned his cheek, rubbed his five o’clock shadow against her fair skin, tickling her and making her smile, though that bright, unstable look was still there.

“Easy,” he murmured.

She took a breath. “This is going to make it difficult to deal.”

“You’ve done all the dealing until now. I can share some of the load.”

She pursed her lips. “About time you did something useful.”

“I’ll see if I can’t improve my value to you.”

On his next winning hand, he chose a touch, payback for her caress when she’d unbuttoned his jeans. He slid a knuckle down her sternum, the pleasurable valley between those generous breasts. He watched them heave on a quick, shuddering breath. If she’d still worn the bra, one that was front-closing, he would have flicked that fastener, watched the cups ease their hold, the breasts swell outward. He traced the curve, but didn’t touch the nipple, no matter how much a temptation the stimulated jut of it was.

“Still want to keep playing?” he asked in a low tone. “Want to quit?”

“Not on your life,” she said, though she had to clear her throat first. “I think you’re taking more liberties with your touch than I did.”

“Damn right.”

She sniffed, but a tiny smile bloomed, something almost girlish. He’d like to see that one more often. Though he put 110 percent into every effort, because that was how to be effective, this was immersion for the sake of the moment, instead of the end goal, and that was unique for him.