Vadim held the door open for Ella and then followed her toward the stairs and the elevator bank. She looked back at him over her shoulder.
“How much time do we have?”
“To get something to eat and get back here? Just under two hours.”
She groaned. “At this time of day it’s going to take us that long to get to your hotel in the commuter traffic.”
“Not if we don’t use the car.”
“I keep forgetting about that.” Her smile made his body come to life. “Can you take us right into your room?”
He could.
As soon as they materialized, he wrapped his arms around her and backed her up against the nearest wall, his tongue in her mouth, his hands roaming her jeans-covered ass.
“Morosov, what about my dinner?” She slid a hand around his neck. “I’m starving.”
There were so many filthy things he could say to that. “Sex first, dinner after.” He lifted her until her thighs hugged his hips and his cock ground against the seam of her jeans.
“But what about our talk?”
He scowled down at her far-too-innocent face. “After.”
She rolled her hips against his hardness and he fought a groan. Why did she always wear so many clothes? He had her naked in a second and stretched out beneath him on the bed, her legs spread wide by his. With a sigh he bent over her breasts and licked one hard nipple into his mouth. She started to squirm and he increased the pressure, sliding his fingers over her swollen clit and into her welcoming warmth.
She climaxed almost immediately, and he added another finger, transferring his attention to her other breast. His cock beat an urgent pulse along with his heart, wanting to be in her, to be joined to her in every way possible.
“Morosov...”
Why did she insist on talking when he was busy savoring the delights of her skin and scent and texture?
“Morosov, let me up!”
He raised his head to look at her. “What?”
She blinked at him. “I want something to do.”
“Then touch me.”
“I can’t reach the bit I particularly want to touch.” She pushed on his chest, and he reluctantly allowed her to sit up. She immediately turned around until her mouth was a tantalizing inch from his cock, put out her tongue and licked a drop of clear liquid off the crown.
“Mmm, nice.” Ella murmured.
He rolled onto his side, and her lips slid over his cock and took him deep. With a groan he returned his attention to her clit, using his tongue and mouth and fingers to bring her to another climax. Even while she still shuddered, he eased his shaft from her mouth and, reversing their positions, pushed her onto her back, spreading her knees wide with his.
She grinned up at him, her cheeks flushed, her blond hair escaping her haphazard braids. Something inside him tightened. She infuriated him, but he needed her as he needed oxygen. Something about her made him feel alive for the first time in years, made him want to protect her with every magical power he had inside him, good and bad. She was his mate. If it came to it, he would gladly die for her.
Words pressed on his lips. He wanted to slash his chest with his nails and bleed for her, have her lick his blood, give her everything...
“Morosov.”
He opened his eyes and looked down at her again.
“Get on with it! I’m done waiting.”
Without another word, he plunged deep inside her and felt complete, their minds in harmony, their bodies even more so. Every time they made love, the bond between them strengthened. Did she feel that? And if she did, would she ever acknowledge it to his face? This was when he knew her completely, and where he felt safe. He thrust deeply. Her hands tightened on his shoulders, leaving her mark, as he wanted to mark her.
But there was still some part of her that held back, that resisted him... Sometimes he wanted to take her to the edge and force her over the abyss into knowing him and the depths of his personal hell. She was right to be wary. He could destroy her with one breath. He yelped as she tugged at his hair.
“Pay attention! Stop thinking and just...”
“Fuck you?” He increased his tempo, driving shorter and harder. Her feet crept up to his hips and he worked her even higher, her knees over his elbows as she started to come and come and...with a muffled howl he joined her, spilling himself deep inside her.
When she pushed at his chest, he obligingly rolled off her and subsided onto the covers with a groan.
“Morosov.”
“My name is Vadim. Can’t you even call me that when we’re naked?”
“Okay then, Vadim, although I doubt that’s your real name, anyway. You didn’t use a condom. Did you assume I was on the pill?”
He opened one eye. “I know you are.”
“You’ve never asked me!”
“But I know you. If you were planning on leaving this life on your twenty-seventh birthday, you would never allow yourself to conceive a child.”
Her hand came toward his cheek and he tensed, but she merely stroked him gently. “That’s pretty observant for a guy.”
“I’m your mate.” He caught her fingers in his and kissed them. “However, you should also know that I could make any method of birth control fail.”
She rolled away from him and sat up. “What the fuck?”
“Exactly.” He smiled. “I really can.”
“You wouldn’t dare!”
Her scowl was tremendous but not intimidating at all, because he was staring up at her heaving breasts and tight pink nipples. It was nice to occasionally get the upper hand with his female.
“Morosov, look at me. You have to swear that you will never do that, or else that is the last time I’ll ever let you make love to me.” She climbed off the bed and started looking for her clothes, which he had folded neatly on the chair beside the fire.
He smiled slowly and put his hands behind his head. They were making love now rather than just having casual sex? That was progress. She stomped into the bathroom and the shower went on. While she was occupied, he ordered room service and then rose from the bed and followed her into the bathroom.
“That’s my toothbrush!”
Ella glanced back over her shoulder to see Vadim in all his naked glory, glaring at her. She spat slowly into the bowl and rinsed.
“I’ve put it back. Keep your feathers on. After the Fae public-health service announcement you just gave me, I’m entitled to be fricking annoyed.”
She headed into the shower and allowed the steady drum of the water to soothe her tangled nerves. Her threat not to have sex with Vadim ever again was an empty one and he knew it. She could barely keep her hands off him at the best of times, and he wasn’t much better. That had surprised her. Under that calm exterior he was as wild about sex as she was, and easily the best lay she’d ever had.
“Thank you.”
“Don’t read my mind!” He stepped into the shower behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist. She tried to stick an elbow in his gut, but he simply laughed and held her slightly away from him. “I’m not talking to you.”
“Even here?”
She tried, but she couldn’t shut him out anymore. “You have to promise you won’t get me pregnant.”
He nuzzled her neck and then her throat, and her knees went to jelly. “Not even if you wanted me to?”
A vision of a mini-Morosov danced inside her lust-driven brain, and she wasn’t sure if he’d planted it there or it was coming from her. That was even more terrifying than the thought of being pregnant.
He bit down slowly on the tendon in her neck. “We would make beautiful babies.”