The Cursed (League of the Black Swan) (23 page)

“And you did incinerate that
Oliver for Sheriff
sign the woman was holding when we walked out.”

Luke banged his head against the back of the couch. “Where did she
come
from?”

He made a gesture with his hand and started a fire in the fireplace. “Do they just lurk around, hiding signs in their pockets, and wait for me to show up? Isn’t there anybody else in this town that people can ask to be sheriff?”

Rio took another long drink of wine. “Is that a sign in your pocket, sir, or are you just happy to see me?”

That set her off again, and she laughed until she was breathless from it. Luke loved watching her laugh. He was a little worried about the drinking, but he was also happy that the wine was making her relax and forget her problems for a little while. Also, she was freaking hot when she laughed. She put her whole body into it, throwing her head back and enjoying every ounce of amusement. He wanted to hold her against his body and feel the vibrations of her laughter travel through his skin.

“I think you should kiss me, Luke Oliver,” she said, decisively, putting the bottle on the fireplace hearth and then launching herself at him.

Kit yelped and ran for cover down the hallway, and Luke found himself with an armful of warm, curvy, slightly drunken woman. When she started wiggling around in his lap and nestled her head on his chest, he groaned.

“You’re going to drive me over the edge,” he said fervently, trying to think of something—anything—to fight off the massive erection that was already starting to strain the crotch of his jeans.

“That’s kind of the point,” she said, giggling, and then she licked a hot trail of fire up the side of his neck. “Who needs edges? We are puppy and duck egg rescuers! We throw caution to the winds! We should eat, drink, and fuck merrily, for on my birthday, at least one of us might die.”

A bolt of chained lightning sizzled through him at her sexy version of the old saying. He was surprised to hear her talk like that; he bet sober Rio would be surprised at herself, too. Although maybe that was the point.

“Did you need to drink wine to gear up to seduce me? Imagine how great that makes me feel,” he said grimly.

She stopped feathering little kisses along his jawline, and he immediately wanted to take back his stupid question.

She pulled back far enough to look him in the eye, and her silly grin had vanished. “I don’t actually get drunk on Fae wine, Luke. It relaxes me a little, so I can sleep, and it makes me feel happy and silly, but I could drink three more bottles of this and then head out for a day’s work at my old job, if I’d wanted to do it.”

Her lashes swept down to hide those beautiful golden eyes from him. “It’s not drunken courage I need to seduce you, Luke. It’s just plain old ordinary courage. You may not have noticed this, but I’m not very practiced at this kind of thing, and you have about a kajillion years’ worth of experience.”

Her eyes flashed amber fire. “Don’t think I don’t hate that, too. How many women have there been? Did you always use condoms? Did they even
have
condoms?”

She suddenly moved sideways so she wasn’t sitting on his lap anymore, and he wanted to howl.

“That’s a good question, actually,” she said, pushing her hair away from her face. “When were condoms invented?”

He pounced on her, pushing her back on the couch and stretching out his full length on top of her, while being careful to hold part of his weight on his arms so he didn’t crush her. He bent down and caught the edge of her earlobe between his teeth and bit gently, nearly groaning again when she cried out and trembled beneath him.

“That’s a terrible question. Any question either one of us could ask now would be a terrible question, in fact, but to answer what you’re really asking, you are safe with me. It’s been a long time, Rio, and I always used protection. Not to mention, I’m immortal, and human illnesses can’t touch me; I’m also a wizard, so I can control the possibility of conception. For now, though, why don’t we quit talking altogether?”

When she took a breath to answer him, he took complete advantage and captured her mouth with his. He took her mouth as if he were a conqueror: claiming her. Possessing her.

Branding her as his own.

Rio moaned into his mouth and made little gasping noises that inflamed his predatory instincts. He wanted to take and take and take—everything she had to give. All of it. All of her. Her warm body trembled under his and he settled his cock into the vee between her legs, exactly where he belonged.

“Luke,” she whispered, when his lips left hers to travel down the side of her neck, kissing, licking, and gently biting. “Oh, gods, Luke, you’re—I don’t—I need you so much.”

His breath quickened, and his arms tightened around her. The beast within him roared out a claim, and he realized that both he and the beast needed her surrender—but they needed something else from her, too.

“Rio, my name is Lucian,” he growled. “I need you to say my name.”

She met his gaze, her face glazed with desire, and he’d never needed anything so much as he needed to sink his cock into her sweet heat, but he forced himself to wait.

“Say it,” he demanded. Pleaded.

“Lucian,” she breathed. “Kiss me again, Lucian. Touch me all over.”

He leapt up off the couch and lifted her with one arm under her shoulders and the other under her lovely rounded ass.

“We’re going to my bed. Now.”

She pouted a little. “Then will you kiss me?”

He bent his head to murmur in her ear as they walked. “Yes, then I’ll kiss you. I’ll kiss your lovely lips, and then I’ll kiss those perky nipples until they plump up and you squirm in my arms.”

He shoved the door to his bedroom open so hard that it smashed against the wall and rebounded shut as soon as he’d passed through with his precious cargo in his arms. He tossed her on the bed and stood staring down at her, reveling in her parted lips and widened eyes.

“And then, my beautiful, brave, sexy woman, I’m going to kiss every single inch of your hot little body and tease you and taste you until you come, screaming, in my mouth.”

Rio’s heart stuttered in her chest. She’d unleashed the predator that Luke always kept so tightly controlled, and now she was going to see the power and passion that he’d hidden. Her secret, feminine heart rejoiced at the idea, but her courage faltered a little.

He pulled his shirt off, and she allowed her gaze to travel down the rippling muscles of his chest and the tight six-pack abs. His body was an incredible specimen of pure male perfection, and—at least for tonight—he was hers. She shivered at the thought, but then she crooked a finger at him.

“I think this would go better if you were a little closer.”

He shouted out a laugh and leapt onto the bed, pushing her back and caging her in with his arms and legs.

“I have been dreaming about this moment since we were on that rooftop,” he confessed, just before he kissed the skin above the neckline of her sweater. “Hell, if I’m being honest, since the first time you delivered a package to my office.”

Her breath caught in her throat when she felt the warmth of his hand slide up under her sweater to the bottom of her breast. Time for her own confession.

“I had a similar reaction to you,” she admitted. “I think I nearly bored Clarice to death talking about you for a while.”

He stopped kissing her and stared down at her with a delighted expression on his face.

“Really? Tell me every sexy little detail,” he said and, for the very first time since she’d known him, the tiniest hint of an Italian accent was present.

For some reason, that made her hesitate. This man—Lucian Olivieri—he hadn’t wanted her before. What had changed?

He must’ve seen the shadow cross her face, because he tilted his head and then rolled onto his side next to her.

“What is it? What were you just thinking?”

“If you really had thoughts like that about me, why did you turn me down?” She wanted to look away, but courage demanded she face him.

His eyes darkened. “I didn’t want to blow things up. There’s a curse hanging over my head, Rio, and I should tell you all the details, so you can make an informed decision as to whether you want to stay in my bed or run screaming for cover.”

“I’m not really the ‘run screaming for cover’ type, as you may have noticed,” she said with some asperity. “So let’s leave all talk of curses and birthdays for tomorrow, if you don’t mind.”

Then, because he was ticking her off, she leaned over and bit the tendon of his neck where it met his shoulder, and he instantly grabbed her and yanked her on top of him.

“I have to warn you that I can’t think when you do that,” he growled. “Any nobility I might’ve had is very close to going out the window. All I can think of is driving into your hot, wet body while you wrap your legs around my waist and beg me to go harder and deeper.”

She gasped, feeling heat and a rush of creamy readiness pool between her legs. The man was every primal, forbidden fantasy she’d ever had, wrapped up in the scents of spice and leather and magic. She wanted to rub her body all over his, push her breasts into his mouth, and beg him to suck on them until she exploded. She wanted him on her, around her, inside her—and her nipples peaked to hard, swollen buds at the mere thought of it.

She didn’t know how to say any of that, though—it would’ve embarrassed her to death if she tried. Maybe she could work her way up to talking dirty another time. Instead, she grabbed him with both hands and pulled him closer.

“I need you to touch me right now,” she demanded from between gritted teeth. “I don’t know how to say this—I don’t know how to
feel
this. My entire body is aching for you, and I’m going to explode if you don’t do something
right now
.”

A blazingly seductive grin spread across his gorgeous face, and within five seconds flat she found herself stripped naked. He stood up to tear off his own clothes, and she got her first glimpse of the Dark Wizard of Bordertown in all his hard-bodied, erect, masculine glory.

A trail of silky dark hair arrowed down from his navel to where his erection jutted proudly out in front of him. It was long and thick and so hard that she couldn’t take her eyes off it.

She finally tore her gaze away and stared up at him, suddenly feeling a little apprehensive.

“I think we have a problem.” She had to stop to clear her throat and lick her lips, and she noticed that he watched the stroke of her tongue with fiery and avid interest.

Suddenly, she felt every bit of her own nudity, and she yanked the quilts on his bed up and around her body.

“Don’t even think of hiding those luscious breasts from me,” he said, stalking forward.

The movement put his straining erection at eye level with her fascinated gaze, and she swallowed. Evidently this was not the right thing to do, because he groaned really loudly.

“I don’t think so,” she tried again, crossing her legs. “There is no way that’s going to fit.”

He threw back his head and laughed, and she could tell he was honestly amused.

“That’s the wonderful thing about this, Rio,” he said. “I’m going to make you so hot and so wet for me that we’ll fit together just perfectly.”

While that promise was still ringing in her ears, he pulled the quilts away from her body and took her breasts in his big hands. She drew in a shaky breath and blushed a hot pink when her nipples visibly got harder just from the touch of his gaze. When he bent down and licked a delicate path around one, she thought she might explode into a million sparkling pieces.

“It’s so—why is it—is it a wizard thing?”

He grinned and then licked her nipple into his mouth and sucked on it, and she cried out from the intensity. She’d never felt anything like it, not even back before her nascent mind-reading skills drove her away from boys and then men for what she had feared was forever.

Luke switched his attention to her other breast, leaving his fingers to lightly pinch the one he’d abandoned, and she felt any attempt at rational thought vanish.

“These are so incredibly beautiful,” he murmured, when he finally lifted his head, leaving her gasping and writhing beneath him.

He took her mouth again, and she met his attack with one of her own. This was no surrender. She gave no quarter and took none. She wanted him fiercely, desperately, and without reservation.