Must Be Magic (Spellbound) (14 page)

“Bryce…please…yes.”

Her body tensed and relaxed with each burst of pleasure that pushed her closer to release, and her mouth found his, bold strokes of her tongue tugging hard at every reinforcement he had in place.

“I need you inside me.” The words slipped out between each drugging sweep of her lips.

Breaking from her mouth, he nudged her up against the tree. There wasn’t a chance he was taking a single step away from her, prompting him to use his magic for a far more selfish reason than he had in a very long time.

“Telum manus.”
The glow from his amulet brightened the darkness and he held up the condom he’d teleported from his bungalow.

“Nice trick.” She tugged at his pants, getting them down in under three seconds.

“I’ve got a few more up my sleeve.”

“I’m on the edge of my seat, Houdini.”

He nipped her jaw, making her laugh. The sound was as arousing as rubbing the head of his cock across her opening before tearing open the condom wrapper to sheathe himself.

He lifted her up. “Wrap your legs around me.” He could have asked or pleaded, but the edgy demand emerged first, his restraint crumbling around him.

The head of his cock pressed against her slick entrance, hot and demanding, and with one hard thrust he was inside her—surrounded by her and all the bone-drenched pleasure that slammed into him.

They both stilled for a heartbeat, then three…four. Then she flexed her hips and her sweet inner muscles clenched around him.

Holy fuck.

It wasn’t supposed to be this incredible. This moment, this night wasn’t meant to be anything more than a way for him to move past old feelings that had weighed on him more than he’d realized, and now he couldn’t imagine not being with her every night, every moment.

Carefully, he withdrew and sank back inside even slower. He wasn’t sure he trusted himself to go any faster. He was holding it together. Barely. He could face off against defense lawyers with killer instincts as sharp as some of the criminals they represented and not feel the least bit intimidated.

But this woman, her arms locked around him, her lips pressed as tight as the walls of her core around his cock—she intimidated the hell out of him. He couldn’t afford to leave himself open to that kind of hurt a second time, and yet here he was, holding on to Darby, afraid to walk away all over again.

Stunning blue eyes dark with arousal met his and for a second he glimpsed the same fear in her eyes. That this could end much worse than the last time. That any second this little sliver of paradise might vanish beneath their feet and they’d be left with only frustrating and hurtful habits they’d both relied on for far too long.

He didn’t want to lose this Darby when he’d only just found her again. He smoothed the hair back from her face. “Won’t let you go,” he vowed, as though her fears were the same. “Not tonight.”

There was no softness left in him now or in the kiss he claimed hard and fast. Darby made him lose control, made him crave what he couldn’t have, but when he was lost inside her, working deeper and wishing he could have all of her bared for him, he stopped caring about how much it scared him.

“Harder,” she murmured. “Just…harder.”

Bryce cursed under his breath and pumped his hips. Over and over he buried himself inside her. The strain on his muscles and the tree rubbing his arms raw didn’t matter as he felt his release roar closer.

The heat of her skin, the taste of her mouth and the fierce pull between them made it impossible to hold off. Her sex, so hot and tight, clenched each time he drove into her, and her nails raked at the back of his neck, holding him close.

He changed the angle, fit just a little bit tighter, and she cried out against his mouth as she came. Her breath rushed out, the faint whisper of his name on her lips pulling at something deep inside him.

With another rough thrust he pressed his body hard into hers, holding her in place as his own release finally overtook him, leaving him wondering how losing control with her made him feel more alive than he had in months.

Her brother had been right, Darby realized. Bryce was getting to her, but not until she was pinned to a tree, held there by the strength of his body, both of them breathing hard, did she realize exactly how much.

Time hadn’t changed how easily she responded to him. Maybe it never would. Later she could worry about what that meant. Tonight…tonight was all they had before they had to go back to the real world, and as afraid as she was of falling for him all over again, she was more afraid to call their deal off.

She tried to tell herself that realization didn’t have anything to do with what Bryce had said about not letting her go. The way she clung to him, her hands framing his face, his lips just grazing hers, told a completely different story.

God, she was in so much trouble.

“Don’t think so hard. You’ll give Alex another headache.” Bryce’s expression was far too reflective to deny his thoughts weren’t edging into serious territory.

She laughed. “Like he needs another reason to have women lining up to play nurse.”

“Exactly.”

“He seemed to be milking it with that redhead. The anorexic blonde would have been next in line if she’d been able to take her eyes off you.” She could have slapped her hand over her mouth at how catty that sounded. Instead, she smacked her hand over Bryce’s. “Not a word.”

His hand covered hers and he pressed a kiss to her palm before tugging it down. “You won’t hear me say a thing…” he leaned in, his mouth skimming her cheek until he reached her ear, “…except that you being jealous is a serious turn-on.”

“I was
not
jealous.”

“Is that your strongest argument?”

“Hey—” Her protest was cut off when Bryce froze.

“Dante,” he mouthed.

Frowning, she tried to look over her shoulder. How could Bryce even see through the trees…

She glanced back at him. A smug grin curved his lips. “My sleeve is full of them.”

Darby rolled her eyes, barely suppressing the smile tugging at her lips.

Once they had straightened themselves to something close to presentable, Bryce picked up her shoes and they slipped back onto the path. He kept a firm grip on her hand, probably to keep her close in case they ran into her brother.

Avoiding Dante was clearly on Bryce’s mind too. Otherwise he would have stuck to the path instead of dodging around the back of the bungalows.

The vegetation that bordered the grounds here wasn’t nearly as manicured and offered more privacy and shadows. If Dante was inclined to come looking for her—and she really hoped he’d given that up—he probably wouldn’t stake out the back.

“I didn’t realize I’d signed up for a race tonight.” She tugged on Bryce’s hand to slow him down. “I’m still trying to catch my breath.”

“Really?” He reeled her in, capturing her mouth in another drugging kiss that ribboned across nerve endings, tying them up in hot, sluggish knots.

Laughing, she finally pushed him back a step. “You’re cheating.”

“How’s that?”

“You know I’ll do just about anything when you kiss me like that.”

“
Anything
is a pretty strong word.” He slipped the strap of her dress off her shoulder, rubbing softly with his thumb. He bent his head and her eyes slid shut at the warmth of his mouth on her skin.

Hours.

That’s how long she could stand there, taking in each feathery kiss he teased across her shoulder, up her neck. Her jaw came next, then her chin, and finally a whisper-soft brush across her lips.

There was only the distant sound of the waves hitting the beach to mark the passage of time, and when the familiar swell of emotion rose up inside her, she didn’t even try to shut it down.

She didn’t have enough fight left in her for that. She’d agreed to this, welcomed it, and whatever she’d said about not talking about the past, there was no running from it. No pretending their attraction wasn’t built on a nearly decade-old foundation impossible to ignore.

At least not tonight.

She’d deal with everything else tomorrow—the confusion, the misunderstandings, the hurt. Somehow. But for now she just wanted to hold on to this amazing moment that was so much more than just a truce.

She whimpered against his mouth, losing herself to the sensations coursing through her.

As if he’d picked up on the change within her, he linked their fingers and coaxed her toward his bungalow. All signs of his earlier urgency vanished without her having to voice the fact that she wasn’t going anywhere.

She leaned into him, her knees still a little weak and tingling from his touch, and breathed in the scent of the ocean clinging to his damp clothes and skin. He smiled down at her and she grinned back, happier than she’d been in a long time.

The bushes on Darby’s right shook as something tore through the undergrowth. A man broke free of the vegetation and fell forward, collapsing against Darby.

Ripped from Bryce’s grip, she stumbled backward, going down beneath the dirt-covered chest toppling forward. The hard ground knocked the air from her lungs, but didn’t steal her breath as much as the two-hundred-plus pounds on top of her.

“Darby!” Bryce shoved at the guy, tugging her free just as her life-sized paperweight lifted his head. His eyes remained closed before he slumped unconscious to the ground.

She recognized him from the trail that morning. Patrick.

“Jesus, you’re bleeding.”

Panic gripped her throat and she ran her hands down her chest, searching for the injury she couldn’t feel. Her elbow ached a little from where she’d landed, but that didn’t explain the blotches of crimson that had soaked right through her dress.

Bryce tugged at the material.

She caught his hand. “It’s not mine. It’s his.”

“You’re sure?” He checked both her arms and legs again.

“Yes.” She glanced from the man at her feet, to the bushes he’d stumbled from, and back to the man. “He’s the one who’s bleeding.”

Bryce crouched next to him. “Help me roll him over, and then I want you to go for help.”

She knelt on the ground opposite Bryce, noticing the blood already staining the ground despite how dark it was. “He’s bleeding pretty bad.” There was no way that much blood was coming from a few scratches.

“This way.”

Both their heads snapped up at the masculine voice that slashed through the trees ahead of them.

“Where the fuck did he go?” A shadow emerged from the trees. The newcomer spotted them immediately and stalked toward them, arm rising to point something at them.

Bryce gripped her hand, half shoving her, half picking her up. “Move. Now!”

A muted popping sound came from behind them.

Jesus, was someone shooting at them?

Bryce propelled her forward, right into the bushes Patrick had stumbled from. Branches raked at her bare legs as she forced her way into the foliage, Bryce right on her heels.

Her sandals had been abandoned, leaving the bottom of her feet exposed to every twig, rock and tree root as they scrambled in the dark to put distance between them and whoever the hell was pursuing them.

If Patrick had been alive, she doubted he was now. If the guy with the gun and whoever he’d been talking to were friends of Patrick’s, they wouldn’t have shot first and asked questions later.

After witnessing Patrick’s behavior with Tiffany, she’d guessed he was a complete douche, but whatever he was involved with had clearly gone wrong.

From the corner of her eye, she saw Bryce dodge to the right at the last second to avoid the tree trunk that speared up from the surrounding blackness, but clipped the side of it. His hand shot to his head, and he stumbled.

Rushing forward and nearly tripping in the process, she wedged herself between him and another tree, keeping him from hitting the ground. Barely. Unprepared to take that much of his weight, she staggered.

Footsteps thumped on the ground behind them and she glanced back in time to catch a glimpse of white through the trees. The men would catch up to them in moments.

Who the hell were these guys?

As they maneuvered between two trees, Darby waved her hand.
“Valdius Ventus.”

The burst of wind triggered by her magic sent a thick branch snapping back to nail the closest assailant in the chest. A grunt of pain was followed by more muffled gunfire, and shards of bark exploded off the tree next to Bryce’s head.

Darby wasn’t sure who was dragging whom as they plunged through the vegetation, scrambling to put more distance between them and whoever the hell was shooting at them.

Had anyone else heard anything? The crash of water on the nearby beach wasn’t loud enough to drown out Darby’s thundering pulse, but would have masked the muffled shots. No one would be coming to help them.

Bryce gripped her elbow, propelling her forward. “Run that way.” He pointed at the lights she could barely make out through the trees ahead, then turned away from her.

“What are you doing?” She didn’t think Bryce even heard her, and snagged his hand to get his attention.