Frostbite (Last Call #5) (2 page)

“
Honestly?” She shrugged
one bare shoulder. “I don’t usually talk to the men I fuck, so it
likely wouldn’t have occurred to me to inquire.”

No, she probably didn’t. Even he could feel
the stir of her voice in his immortal blood. It was a refreshing
change from the monotony of numbness, but he knew he could tune out
the magic if it threatened to overwhelm him.

The doors began to close, so he blocked one
with his foot. “You can talk to me. That’s the point, my dear. Talk
to me.”

She opened her mouth,
obviously to protest, but the words died on her tongue. Instead,
she closed her mouth, opened it again, and finally sighed.
“I
really
want to
mess up your hair.”

It startled him into a smile, and he prodded
her out of the elevator. “I’m sure you’ll have a chance to do
so.”

Kelsey wandered a few steps down the hall
before turning to face him. “You’ve figured me out already, so
what’s your deal? Not what you are—why you came upstairs with
me.”

A good question. “You’re beautiful. And
you’re magical.”

She blushed a little. “So is everyone else
here. Magical, anyway.”

“
Different kinds of magic.”
He caught a shining lock of her hair and wound it around his
finger. “Your voice will heat my blood. It’s usually damn
cold.”

That gave her pause. “That’s what you are,
isn’t it? A Collector. An angel of death.”

“
A reaper of souls?” The
suit must have given him away—that or the frown. “Does it bother
you?”

She tilted her head. “I might be terribly
shallow, but...no. I want to touch you. That’s all I’m really
thinking about right now.”

The part of him braced for rejection relaxed
minutely. Cain released her hair and held up the key. “Then I look
forward to being touched, as long as you make me one promise.”

“
What’s that?”

He leaned down, close to her ear. A woman
used to silence would enjoy dark whispers. “Keep talking. Your
voice may not strip my will, but it makes my cock hard.”

Kelsey gripped his tie and
swayed toward him with a moan. “That’s better. I don’t want to
strip your will. I just
want
.”

“
Good.” He freed her
fingers and turned her around. “Open the door.” He made the words
an order, just to see how readily she obeyed.

Her hands trembled as she swiped the card
and turned the knob. Sweet submission, or perhaps just a burning
need gone too long unmet. He waited until she’d edged open the
door, then pressed his body to hers. “Don’t forget to speak. I want
to hear your voice.”

“
What should I say?” she
whispered.

He smoothed his hand down her side and
gathered her dress in his fist as the door swung shut behind them.
“Tell me how it feels to know I might say no to you.”

“
Like—” Her head fell back
against his shoulder. “Like doing something dangerous. You know you
could get caught, you almost
want
to. I mean, you don’t, but the fact that you
could...”

His emotions were difficult
to stir, but his body responded quickly enough. His cock strained
the front of his pants as he rubbed against her. “You’ve been
getting away with things for a long time. I think you
do
want to get
caught.”

“
Maybe.” Kelsey moved, slow
and sensuous. “The more aroused I get, the harder the magic hits.
Can you feel it?”

More than he wanted to admit. He eased her
dress higher and stroked her belly. “You’re grinding against my
dick, darling. You know I can.”

“
It could be purely
physical.” She turned in his arms and slipped her hands under the
lapels of his jacket. “What do you like?”

“
Grinding.” He reached
behind her to tug at the zipper on her dress. “A woman’s naked
form. The way she tastes while she’s coming.”

Kelsey tugged down the bodice of her dress
to reveal black lacy lingerie with demure, sweet little ribbons. “I
think I’ll like talking. Not even during sex, perhaps, but
this...is nice.”

Yes, words would unravel her. Even a
reaper’s coldness couldn’t suppress the fascination of learning a
woman’s needs and solving the riddle of her pleasure. “Talking can
be quite an aphrodisiac, even without a magical voice.”

She abandoned her own clothes and reached
for his belt, her features set in hunger.

With his cock aching, he wasn’t about to
stop her. “Use your words, darling. What do you want? Do you want
to touch me?”

Her hands clenched around the leather, and
she leaned her forehead against his shoulder. “I want you naked so
I can look at you.”

He slid his finger under her chin, tilted
her head up. “Undress me,” he whispered before catching her lower
lip between his teeth.

A shudder took her, and she kissed him—hard.
She pushed at his jacket and tugged at his shirt. One button went
flying, but she pressed closer, angling her hips against his
erection with another moan.

Heat flared. It wasn’t her magic because she
wasn’t saying a damn word, not that she could now that he’d licked
her lips apart. He claimed her mouth and pushed her dress past her
hips to pool on the floor.

She kicked the dress away, freed the last
button on his shirt, and moved on to his belt without breaking the
kiss. Finally, she pulled away, but only to whisper, “Shoes.”

He briefly considered making her remove
them, but there were more interesting commands he could issue. One
in particular, though he sat and reached for his shoes before
murmuring it. “Take off your clothing. All of it.”

She hesitated, running her thumb along one
satiny ribbon on the garter belt. “You don’t like it?”

What man wouldn’t? Wicked
black lace threaded with soft ribbons the color of ripe
raspberries, a deliberately manipulative combination of sweet and
wanton. Her lingerie was meant to flatter and blind the male ego
with the contradictory promise of an untouched temptress. He
knew
as much with the
cool certainty of experience and a reaper’s innate immunity to the
machinations of those who might try to trick death.

Knowing didn’t matter, though. Not to his
body, which seemed stupidly human as he watched her fingers brush
her thigh. “It’s very nice,” he said, answering her question
belatedly. “Too nice to risk ripping to pieces if I grow
impatient.”

“
That’s very considerate,”
she murmured, then twisted her hand in the lacy strap and tore it
away.

He caught her wrist before she could tear
anything else and dragged her astride his lap. “If that’s the case,
love, then I’d just as soon you leave it on until I decide to get
rid of it.”

“
All right.” She trailed
her fingers over his shoulders and down his chest. “I feel
surprisingly accommodating at the moment.”

So did he, so he took a moment to layer a
bit more power into his defenses. Not that it would be so terrible
to give in to her, but she’d paid dearly for a night in this room
with a man who wouldn’t. “Perhaps we should discuss how
accommodating you want to be. You said you’ve never been upstairs
before?”

“
No, never.” Her hand
flattened over his stomach and dipped down a fraction of an inch
beneath his waistband before sliding back up.

He caught her chin between his thumb and
forefinger and turned her head toward the discreet cabinet on the
far wall. “That is filled with all manner of wickedness.
Adornments, chains, oils, clever little toys. Some enchanted or
fueled by magic. Everything one might require for a night of
debauchery.”

Her eyes sparked with curiosity. “Are there
any items you particularly enjoy?”

No reason not to answer honestly. He
released her chin and clasped her wrist instead, drawing his tongue
over her fluttering pulse. “Delicate, beautiful bracelets with thin
gold chains. They look as insubstantial as common jewelry, but
they’re enchanted. Not even a werewolf could break free of
them.”

Her breathing hitched. “Will you put me in
them?”

Total abdication of power. He wondered if
she’d ever had that before, or if no man could withstand her magic
long enough to take the burden of control from her shoulders.
“Would you enjoy being at my mercy?”

Kelsey only stared at him. “Do you know what
it’s like? To get everything you want, but sometimes so quickly
that it’s over before you even know what the hell’s going on?”

“
No.” He kissed her wrist
again. “Tell me.”

“
No damn fun, that’s what.”
The corner of her mouth kicked up. “But you? You’re fun, I can
tell. So chain me to whatever you want, as long as we get to make
each other come.”

That, he thought, was an inevitability. “Go
peek in the cupboard, love, and bring back the bracelets. And
anything else that intrigues you.”

Everything she could think of—and a few
things she hadn’t known existed—lay inside the cabinet, but the
thing that intrigued her most in the room was sitting behind her,
half naked and sexy as hell.

Nestled among the toys were the delicate
chains Cain had mentioned, and Kelsey gathered them in one hand.
She studied the other shelves, all the accessories and vials. She
briefly considered the selection of aphrodisiacs and philters, then
bit her lip. She could have muddled someone’s libido just fine
without coming to Last Call, but perhaps he’d like for her to
partake.

Not that she needed to. She was rubbing her
legs together already, reduced to fidgeting to relieve a little
tension as she stared into the cupboard.

Warm fingers slid over her shoulders, the
first hint that he’d moved from the bedside. “It can be
overwhelming,” he murmured. “But we can always start simply.”

“
I’m not intimidated,” she
hurried to tell him. “I’m just not sure if there’s something else
in here
you
want.
Because I don’t really need any of it.”

“
If I’d wanted something
else, I would have told you.” He touched the edge of the chain
dangling from her fingers. “I’m not shy about my
desires.”

She was acting like a nervous virgin—and in
plenty of ways, she supposed she was one. Her memory refused to
supply even the vaguest idea of when she’d last had a man who
didn’t trip over his feet to cater to her every whim, and
now...

It was absurd but true. In this respect, she
was untutored. All but untouched.

“
I feel silly,” she found
herself admitting in a whisper, “for not knowing how to do
this.”

Cain stroked the side of her neck and
pressed a kiss there. “There’s no right or wrong way, as long as we
both enjoy ourselves. But if you’d find relief in having no choices
to make, I’d find pleasure in that too.”

A second item caught her
eye. If he was offering a chance to give up control, to give
in
... Kelsey snatched up
a candle and turned to offer it to him. “This. I might want to try
this.”

A slow smile curled his lips. “So you want
your man of ice to torment you with fire? That’s delightfully
perverse.”

“
It’s like the chains,” she
murmured, already distracted by his smile. “It isn’t about the
bondage or the pain. It’s about the ritual, that you’ll be able to
take the time for it.”

He lifted the candle and rubbed his thumb
over the wax. “Once I put you in the chains, I want you to ask for
everything you want. Don’t hold back. Any desire, any need—I want
you to speak them all. And I’ll meet each one...when I’m
ready.”

He was sin, laying out a fantasy she’d never
even thought to have. “All right.”

Cain wrapped his free hand around the back
of her neck and guided her toward the bed. “Put the chains on the
end table and stretch out on your stomach.”

The nervousness persisted as she obeyed,
trembling by the time she flattened her body to the mattress, the
expensive duvet cool under her skin. She clenched her hands into
fists and glanced back at Cain, focusing all her concentration on
the waves of aroused energy that pulsed around him.

He set the candle next to the chains, and
the bed dipped as he sat beside her. “Relax, love.” He nudged her
hair out of the way and brushed the nape of her neck, then smoothed
his hand down her spine until it rested at the small of her
back.

The touch left her shivering, and she had to
laugh at herself. “This isn’t what you signed on for, is it?
Soothing a skittish lover?”

Another stroke, strong
fingers trailing from nape to waist, and he
tsk
ed at her. “I’m old enough to look
out for my own self-interests. Trust me to do so.”