Phoenix Broken (29 page)

He ran his swollen tip up her slick slit, making them both shudder. "Say my name," he said, watching as her head fell back, her hands leaving him to claw at the floor. "Fucking say it, Des."

"Scott," she whimpered, twisting as he went to his knees. Des lifted her hips in blatant invitation and he yanked her to him, cupping her lush little ass in one hand.

"Again."

"Scott!"
She screamed it as he thrust deep. His name reverberated through the room as he took her hard and fast. Scott couldn't have stopped if someone had put a gun to his head. She felt like nothing he'd ever dreamed off, and everything; a slick velvet heat that seemed molded just for him.

Des was coming within seconds, so hard it took his breath away, clamping down on his length in rhythmic pulses that threatened to send him over the edge. She murmured his name, mixed with words in both Saanis and English as she soaked him with her juices.

Holding back at the sight and feel of her release nearly undid him. Her muscles convulsing, pulling him deeper into her body as he fought to hold out.

It felt so good.
All of it.
The sting of her nails digging into his back, clawing for purchase as he drove into her harder. Scott beat back his own release viciously. His need to fill her was desperate, unreasonable. There was no way he was stopping just yet. He wanted to go so deep she'd
never
forget the feel of him.

There was only Desdemona beneath him; surrounding him,
engulfing
him …and Scott wanted to drown in her forever.

They barely slept the entire night. Catnaps in-between bouts of hard, sweaty sex that only made his need for her grow.

After the floor—when they'd both somewhat come to their senses—he'd lifted her in his arms to shove the coffee table out the way with his hip; unmindful as books and magazines slid to the floor in a glossy avalanche. Scott proceeded to throw her onto the couch, pulling her legs over his shoulders to sink inside her again.

Later, he bent her over the arm of a soft, over-stuffed chair and took her from behind. Slowly that time. Feeling her satiny ass cupped against his hips. Both of them watching their bodies come together in the slivers of broken mirror on the wall. The house was a disaster. Besides the cracked mirror, half the hangings on the wall had fallen. Mags never came home, or if she tried and left, they never noticed.

Des' phone rang and rang, until she finally turned away from him long enough to send a text. Scott knew very well who that text went to, but he buried his jealousy by burying himself in her.

It'd been hours before they made it to her bedroom, but even then they hadn't slept right away. Des pushed him back into the bed, taking control for the first time. Riding him, her body dancing with the shadows; looking so mesmerizingly beautiful Scott couldn't help but come again, though he'd thought himself incapable by that point. The drug had left her by then. She watched every second of his release, her hands going still on his chest just before her own orgasm struck. Her muscles locking on and draining his utterly spent cock as her body flickered and glowed with that beautiful luminescence. Des collapsed in his arms, shaking.

"Told you," Scott whispered as he ran his hands up and down her sweat-slicked skin, "you can have both."

She gave a soft giggle before sliding immediately into sleep.

They'd given a whole new meaning to the term
sated.

And now, within a few minutes of opening his eyes, Scott wanted her again. He knew he had to go, though.

He
had
to.

His phone, by some miracle laying on the night stand, showed just after five in the morning. He had to get to Merry and Frank's to pick the kids up for school. Even Toby would panic if Scott wasn't there for their traditional Monday morning breakfast, no matter what excuse Merry might come up with.

With a silent oath, Scott eased out from under the heavenly curves draped over his body. He inhaled as he laid her back down as gently as he could, tucking her hair behind one delicate ear, resisting the urge to kiss that soft pink shell. He should shower here, but he wanted that smell on him for the ride home. The intoxicating scent of
her
and what they'd done together at last.

He found his jeans and yanked them on. Looking down at her, her naked form boneless on the tangled sheets, face soft in sleep, Scott had no regrets.  In this moment, there was no guilt, no whys, what fors or what nows. He reached over her to grab his watch, which for some reason he'd spotted hanging off her headboard.

Des opened her eyes.

“You should get more sleep, angel.”

He was right, she should. She was more deliciously exhausted that she'd ever been in her life. Des had never known humans to have such stamina, but Scott had been insatiable. He'd taken her with everything he had. She could still feel the imprint of his hands on her body, of him pulsing inside her as they looked at each other.

“I was, but then my pillow moved.”

Scott wrapped his watch around his wrist, his expression going from open to guarded in a blink of an eye.

Des sighed. At the small sound, his eyes softened, making her heart ache. He reached down to brush a strand of hair from her face. “Go back to sleep, Des. It’s not even six in the morning. I've got to go get my kids.”

She took a slow breath. “Will you be back?”

He fastened his pants, before stretching over her to grab his t-shirt from another bedpost. She watched the muscles ripple in his stomach, forcing her fingers to remain curled under her pillow when they itched to reach for him.

"Will you still be here?"

Shit
. Guido. Phoenix Inc.
Fucking Miles Rousseau.
None of that mattered at the moment. Not with him staring down at her, that question in his eyes.

“Yes. I will.”

Scott pulled the shirt over his head. "Then I'll be back."

Des was thankful the action hid him for a minute. She allowed the warm flood of relief to flow right to her toes. When his head emerged again, she’d schooled her face into what she hoped was a blasé acceptance.

He gave her a searching expression. “Tonight then. Say nine?”

“Yeah, the sooner the better.” Her voice came out far huskier than she meant it to, but it made him smile.

“My feelings exactly.” Scott hesitated. For a moment she was sure he was going to bend down and kiss her good-bye, but he straightened instead. “You are okay with this, right?"

She smiled easily, ignoring the twinge of pain working its way deep inside her. “More than okay. It’s what I’m made for, after all.”

His lips tightened. “Des. Don't. I didn't—”

“Hush.” She sat up, unable to bear this dance. Letting the sheets fall, Des moved to the edge of the mattress, knowing the sight of her naked would distract him.

She wasn’t wrong. Scott sucked in a breath as she got to her feet, letting her breasts brush his chest. “I need a shower and you need to get to your kids. You’re welcome in my bed, whatever your reasons for being there. I think I’ve made that
abundantly
clear.” She moved for the bathroom quickly, but he was behind her before she could clear the doorway.

Des tried to turn, but Scott's arms came down, his palms slapping the door in front of her.

He pressed against her naked body, his hips cupping her bare ass.

The ridge of his erection pressed into her skin through the denim of his jeans. His voice though, was anything but hard. It was soft and warm with a concern that brought tears to her eyes. “If you can’t handle this, or me, tell me, angel.” Her legs went weak as the endearment she adored made her melt.

Goddamn him.

“Never fear, I can handle anything." She willed herself to believe it, to turn with a jaunty smile, "Now …have you decided if you’re going to do something with that," she looked down and traced the bulge in his pants with a finger, making him hiss out a breath, "or you're going to let me take my shower?”

“Oh, we’re gonna do something with it alright,” He bit the words out as his eyes trailed over her, "just not right now.
Damnit.
I've really got to go, Des."

“Alrighty then.” She shrugged and reached for the bathroom doorknob again. “See you soon, Johnny.”

He leaned over to press a kiss to the top of her shoulder, his lips gentle, “I like it better when you call me Scott," he whispered.

Her fingers tightened on the shiny brass, squeezing hard, as she choked down a sob. But when she finally for the courage to look behind her, the bedroom door was swinging shut.

"Me, too,” she whispered to the empty room. "But I shouldn't."

No, she shouldn’t. It was far smarter for her to think of him as Johnny. The hot guy with the killer moves that could be one of any number of men, in any number of clubs, in any number of places.

Not Scott; the complicated, broken and dangerous man who had snuck into her heart and claimed it as his own, whether he wanted it or not. It was just her luck that she wanted him far too badly to say no to his little arrangement. The sex last night had been amazing. Everything she'd hoped for with him and more.

And it wasn't enough.

Des wrenched open the bathroom door. If she'd had any doubts about what he was to her, they'd vanished in the night.
Mate.
There was no denying it. He was hers. Her body was sure, even if her heart was protesting.

The real question was, could she ever be
his?
And Des thought the answer to that was a resounding
no.
Maybe Scott's only chance for love had died with his wife.

She slumped against the door, staring up at the pale blue ceiling with hot eyes.

It wasn't Scott's fault he was broken. It wasn't his fault that she wasn't strong enough to push him away to save herself. He'd asked her, more than once, if she could handle what he was offering.

Well, whether she could or not, Des was a big girl. She'd deal with her own decisions. And right now, that meant letting herself cry a little and taking the biggest, hottest bubble bath in the history of the world.

Because sometimes that's what big girls did.

He hadn't been completely honest with her. Staring at the deserted bar in the hard October morning sunshine, Scott put the SUV in park.

After a lightning fast run home to shower, he'd gone to eat breakfast with Merry and Frank; their Monday morning tradition when the kids spent the weekend at their grandparents, which they did every first and third weekend of the month. He'd endured Merry's quizzical looks. Watched Frank shake his grizzled head when at one point she'd opened her mouth. Scott had breathed easier when she shut it again.

The kids hadn't seemed to notice anything. Toby had retreated back into himself after the openness of last week, but had joined Tish in a giving Scott a quick hug when he'd dropped them off at school.

Technically, work should be next on his list.

It could wait. There was something he had to take care of first.
Someone.

The big demon was at the bar when Scott was escorted inside by one of the goons he recognized as Docie May's handlers, the one with the spider tattoo on his face.

"When I told her I would allow you in my club I meant during business hours,
dem
." Calimente didn’t look up from the ledger he was studying. "Go home before you get into trouble."

"Got something to say first."

"So speak, human."

The spider face demon laughed at his boss's words. Scott ignored him, his eyes never leaving Calimente's profile.

"I want you to back away from Des. Whatever excuse you have to make, you make it. She’s not safe around you."

Guido turned his head at last, smiling. A thinly amused slash of white in that swarthy face.
"Interesting.
Tell me, are you trying to stake some kind of claim here?" The demon's face was alight with a curiosity that made Scott uneasy.

"It's not like that."

"Isn't it?" Waving a hand that flashed with gold even in the dim light of the bar, the demon dismissed him. "Go away,
bestia.
You bore me."

Abruptly presented with Guido's broad back, Scott recognized the deep insult in the gesture as his teeth ground together. The guards behind the bar smirked as their boss tossed back his whiskey.

Scott leaned forward and tapped one broad shoulder of that hand-tailored suit.

Guido knocked his hand away without turning his head. "Do not make me repeat myself. Desdemona is not for the likes of you; a man who knows not his own mind." The words were thick with distaste as he poured himself another shot. “She deserves a partner who worships her as her father did her mother.”

"That choice isn't yours to make." Scott said, though his insides squirmed at the truth in the demon's statement. He already knew damn well Desdemona deserved better than him. That he should leave her alone. He just…