Wicked Burn

  Simone nodded. “I agree. We can explain what happened well enough that you’ll be cleared and the demon nation won’t fall into disfavor.”

  “Well, hell. We wouldn’t want that,” Nick drawled, irritation clawing through him.

  Moira frowned. “I haven’t figured out who Bear is avoiding in Ireland, but I’ll keep working on it.” She took a deep breath. Then she stilled. Her eyes widened. She took another deep breath and then lunged up. “Oh my God. You slept with the demon. I smell him on you.”

  “There wasn’t any sleeping involved,” Simone said dryly.

  Nick grinned. He loved the woman’s spunk. The way she owned her life, no matter what. “I’d like another round,” he said.

  Moira half-turned, delight dancing across her face. “Well, isn’t this a nice turn of events?”

  Was it? God, he hoped so.

  Moira bounded up. “I have to head to the airport to meet my mate, but I’ll give him your best.”

  “Say hello to Connlan.” Simone cleared her throat. “Also, last night was a onetime liaison, and I wouldn’t mind if you kept this between us.” She gestured between Nick and herself.

  “Of course.” Moira kissed Simone on the cheek and crossed to Nick to do the same. She reached the door. “I’ll only tell family.” With that and a humorous chuckle, she disappeared into the hallway.

  Nick shook his head. “The world is about to know about last night.”

  “Aye.” Simone stood from the table. “All right. We have the hearing tomorrow morning, and I need some sleep. I’ll call the Guard and have them meet me at my apartment.”

  Nick lifted himself to his full height, heat ringing through his ears. “Oh, I don’t think so.”

  Chapter 11

  Simone faced the demon, more aware than ever of his power. But she was tapped out. In all her life, she’d never expected to be defending herself against treason charges. She loved her people, and she loved her nation. Leading them on the Council had been the greatest accomplishment of her life.

  Now they wanted her head.

  Somebody out there hated her enough to work tirelessly manufacturing damning evidence. Good evidence. Now she had a rogue witch group after her, and she’d had sex in an alley with the one male who had the power to shatter her heart.

  She was tough, and she was smart, but her emotions needed a break. “Nick—”

  “No, Simone.” He crossed corded arms. “I understand you require space, and I’m fine with that. Take the master bedroom, get some sleep, and we’ll attend my hearing together tomorrow. I’ll sleep on the couch.” He glanced at the damaged door. “After I fix my damn lock.”

  She didn’t have the energy to argue, and this way, she wouldn’t have to deal with the Guard. “All right.”

  If he was surprised by her acquiescence, he didn’t show it.

  “Thank you for the eggs.” She moved by him toward the bedroom, ridiculously pleased when he stopped her with a hand around her arm.

  He leaned down and brushed her lips with his. “Sweet dreams, little bunny.”

  Desire tingled through her, but if she didn’t sleep, she’d be of little use tomorrow at the hearing. “Good night.” Turning, she wandered into the masculine bedroom. Dark wood floors, black comforter, oils of Russian landscapes on the walls. The room smelled like Nick—dark and of the forest.

  She slid into the bed with a soft sigh and took inventory of small hurts. Bruises and cuts from the run through the cemetery as well as the sex against that brick building. Well worth the slight pain. She turned her face into Nick’s pillow.

  The dream caught her almost immediately.

  Nicholai had just left her after she’d all but begged him to take her with him. So cold and so . . . gone. Even when he had been standing right in front of her, it was as if he no longer saw her. She didn’t exist any longer in his world.

  She’d sat on the ground near a stone ledge, at a nice picnic spot away from her mother’s home. The day was sunny and bright, and all she wanted to do was crawl into a hole and pass out.

  Her mother found her sobbing into her knees. In a rare show of maternal compassion, Viv had gathered her close.

  “He’s gone,” Simone had said. “Forever, he said.”

  “Shhh.” Viv ran a hand down Simone’s hair, tucking her into her neck. “He hurt you because you let him.”

  “I know.” She’d completely opened her heart as well as her body. Never in her entire life had she felt the weakness now slicing her apart.

  “You’ll know better next time. This is a tough world for women, and the only way to survive is to gain your own power. You can do that, Simone.” Viv had rocked her the way she had as a baby. “You’re going to be on the Council, and someday you’ll run it. Make your life on your own merits and not with a man who’ll leave.”

  Simone had looked up, tears blurring her vision. “When will it stop hurting?”

  Her mother had smiled. “Soon enough. For now, let’s get you to work.”

  They’d both looked up as the eldest Enforcer, Daire Dunne, crossed the meadow, fury on his face.

  Simone stood and wiped her tears. “I’m fine, Daire.”

  “I’ll fucking kill him.” Daire reached down to assist Viv up. “Right now. I’ll go find him.”

  Simone shook her head. “He’s a demon, and I should’ve known better.” Yet her cousin’s concern and anger warmed her freezing heart a little. “It’s over.”

  “No.” Daire turned to go.

  Simone yelled at him, more than prepared to eviscerate the male who’d hurt her so badly all by herself.

  Her shout in the dream woke her up to the present.

  “What?” Nick rushed into the room, his knife already out.

  She gulped in air. Hell. What had she been thinking to have slept with him again? Her mind was mush. “Bad dream. Sorry.”

  He paused and ran a hand through his thick hair. “Oh.” The doorway framed him, so tall and broad. He was wearing a loose pair of sweats; his bare chest spoke of a deadly soldier, one well trained. Yet she knew, without question, that Nicholai Veis’s true power lay in his brain, in his massive intelligence and his ability to treat the world as if it were a game of chess.

  He declared checkmate every damn time, and he probably always would. Right now, he was on her side, but what about the future?

  “You’re thinking awfully hard there, Simone.” He crossed into the room, all grace and power.

  Her lungs compressed in direct proportion to every step he took. So deliberate, as if giving her every chance to stop him.

  She straightened her legs, shoving the bedclothes to the end of the bed. “You were right to end us so long ago.”

  “I know, but that doesn’t mean it was easy. It wasn’t. Hurt like hell.” He studied her, reaching the end of the bed, his eyes glowing with a hunger he did nothing to hide.

  That was the first time he’d mentioned his own pain. So there had been pain. She shook her head, trying to stay in the moment and not escape into a fantasyland where everything worked out for her the way it did for her cousins. “Right now, things are looking dismal, Nick. You have to admit that.”

  Arrogance was stamped hard on his chiseled face. “If you mean the trial, I agree. If you mean that I have one scintilla of a plan to let you be beheaded, you’ve fucking lost your mind.”

  She gaped, and not just because she had absolutely no intention of letting anybody kill her, either. But a demon didn’t get to negate her people or her laws. She’d do that herself. “Coven law is absolute. You have no say.”

  He smiled then, and she saw the legend who was whispered about far and wide. “Simone, I’ve always adored your allegiance to your people, and I’ve admired your self-possession.”

  “Ah, okay.” Her breath started to come faster. What was he getting at?

  “But if you think I’m going to allow you to be taken from this earth, taken from me, by a setup, then you don’t know me. Hell, even if you had committ
ed treason, I wouldn’t let you pay for it by being executed.”

  The determination, the absolute conviction of his tone, shot awareness down her back. “What in the world are you saying?”

  He took another step, putting his knees flush with the bed, his masculine form towering over her. “I’m saying that you will not die. If I have to kidnap your ass, I will. Fight me or not. I’ll win.”

  Her mouth dropped open. “You’re joking.”

  “Do I look like I’m joking?”

  No. He looked like a warrior about to wage war . . . and come out victorious. “I don’t think it’s your place to make that statement.” Her mind was spinning, but she figured logic was the only way to get through to him.

  He leaned down, his face an inch from hers, raw determination glinting in his eyes. “It is my place. If you’d like, I’ll be happy to cement that place right here and right now.”

  Nervousness exploded through her. Awareness of her vulnerability arrived second. “What in the hell are you talking about?”

  “Lie back, or hell, turn over onto your hands and knees, and I’ll mark you like no woman has ever been marked before. The second you become mine, I can protect you from any species out there, including your own.”

  The sensual threat ticked along her every nerve, centering in an entirely private place. One Nick apparently believed belonged to him. She shook her head. “I’m not that kind of woman.”

  He lifted one eyebrow. “What kind of woman?”

  She plucked at a loose string on the bedspread. “The kind who gets lost in a man. The kind who obeys without question. Hell, Nick. The kind who lets a man shield her.” Even if she had been that woman eons ago, he’d changed her by leaving.

  He watched her, no expression lightening his face. “Baby, I’m not the kind of man who would give you a choice.”

  Her chin dropped, and she was fairly certain her eyes bugged out. Even so, a tension, one she barely recognized as intrigue, lit her from within. “Excuse me?”

  “If it comes down to life or death, health or injury, I don’t give one shit about what type of woman you are beyond the obvious.”

  Oh, hell no. “What exactly is ‘the obvious’?” she asked, anger tingling through her hands.

  His shoulders settled. Truth, primal and raw, darkened his eyes to the black of a sky without the moon. Mysterious and powerful. “The obvious? You’re mine and have been since the first time I laid you down in that meadow years ago.”

  She reared back, her heart fluttering. In warning or temptation, she had no clue. “The caveman mentality doesn’t work for me, and it sure as hell won’t work for you.”

  He smiled, even while his lids half-lowered. “Caveman? Oh, hell no, baby. This is modern man, modern demon . . . all aboveboard and truthful. I’m not using subterfuge, and I’m not going vampire-ape on you. I’m calmly, very pointedly, telling you how it’s going to be. If there’s a threat to you, I’ll do whatever it takes to get you to safety.”

  “If it causes war?”

  “It won’t.”

  “If it does?”

  He lifted a broad shoulder. “So be it.”

  She shook her head, panic edged with something warm flowing through her. “You can’t go to war over me.”

  “Watch me.” He somehow edged even closer, nearly leaning over her. “You’re exactly the type of woman to go to war over. How can you not know that?”

  “I’m well aware of that fact. Of course, I can wage war on my own if I so choose.” There was a time when she had enjoyed the badass side of Nick, but she could fight her own battles. “If I require assistance, I will certainly let you know.”

  “Do you plan to let them kill you?” Curiosity glimmered along with darkening hunger.

  “No.” Simone Brightston had little time or patience for martyrs. “But I’d like to trust the system I’ve worked within for so long. If it fails me, I’ll plan my next move.”

  He reached out and ran a finger across her upper chest, tracing the path between her breasts. “I’m choosing to back off while we deal with the trial and with finding your enemy. At that point, I’m coming full-force. Prepare.”

  She didn’t like time lines, and she didn’t like warnings. Yet she wanted the damn demon with every molecule in her body. Maybe just one more night to get rid of the hunger that wouldn’t stop igniting in her. Why deny herself? Slapping mental shields into place, she reared up, wrapped her fingers over his shoulders, and yanked him down on top of her.

  Chapter 12

  God, Nick loved Simone’s sense of self. No pretense, no false modesty, and no coyness. She wanted him, so she grabbed him.

  He landed on her, his cock instantly pressed against the vee of her legs. Right where it belonged. “You directing things, little bunny?”

  She smiled, all powerful siren. “Don’t I usually?”

  “No.” But that didn’t mean he’d deny her.

  “Hmmm.” She kicked the bedclothes down farther to allow for full-body contact. Her hands splayed across his upper torso. “You have one of the most ripped chests I’ve ever seen.” A soft hum escaped her as she caressed him.

  “War requires physical as well as mental preparations.” His voice turned demon hoarse, and his lungs burned.

  She leaned up and licked along his bottom lip. “Take your sweats off.”

  He smiled then, grasped her waist, and rolled them over so she lay on top. “You take them off.”

  Her smile held danger of the most feminine nature. The kind that made a guy either run for the hills or meet the challenge, because she was worth every damn second. He already knew that fact.

  She kissed him right behind the ear, and a rapid shiver shot through his body. Humming, she kissed her way down his torso, planting her knees between his thighs before drawing down his pants. His dick sprang free into the cool air.

  He dug his fingers into the sheets, trying to restrain himself, when all he wanted to do was toss her onto her back.

  “Very nice, Nicholai.” She grasped him and licked her way from the base to the tip.

  Sparks flew inside him, and his balls drew up tight. He closed his eyes, and his chest expanded. “Remember about payback,” he ground out.

  She sucked the tip into her mouth and chuckled.

  The vibrations ripped through him, and he groaned, flashes lighting behind his eyes. Nails scraped along his balls, and that was it.

  Growling, he reared up, manacled her waist, and flipped her onto her stomach.

  She yelped and dissolved into laughter, her face buried in a pillow.

  He’d forgotten. Somehow, he’d forgotten how the woman could make him hotter than a horny teenager and yet fill him with amusement at the same time. With fun and something lighthearted. No wonder she owned his heart.

  Even so, she’d thrown down a challenge. So when he flattened his palm on her backside with a loud smack, she shouldn’t have been surprised.

  She reared up. “What the hell?”

  Now he laughed, grabbed the inside of her elbow, and tugged her around. She lost her balance and fell onto her back.

  He rolled and effectively pinned her. “I told you about paybacks.”

  Dare filled her eyes. “You want to play, demon?” With great finesse, she slammed both of her fire-filled palms down on his bare ass.

  Heat seared his flesh.

  He growled, reached for her elbows, and jerked both arms above her head.

  She smiled. More plasma fire cascaded along her wrists, burning him. “You’re outmatched, Veis.”

  “Oh yeah?” His temper pricked at him, even though his dick was hard as rock. “One chance. Snuff the fire and stop burning my hands.” Truth be told, it was beginning to hurt.

  “Then let go.” Arrogance tilted her delicate chin.

  He levered himself up, tightened his hold, and gazed directly into her stunning eyes, piercing her mind.

  Her pupils widened.

  He kept the attack gentle, holding back any pai
n, sliding friction and erotic images into her consciousness. Every erogenous zone in the body responded to pleasure spots in the brain, and he began to caress each one.

  The fire along her arms sputtered and died.

  He stimulated the pleasure center of her brain. She arched against him with a soft cry.

  Slowly, he reduced his presence, and then let her be.

  She gazed up at him, desire flushing her cheeks and her lips a deep pink. Wonder crossed her face. “You shouldn’t be able to get past my shields.”

  “I barely can, so don’t worry.” The fact that he could, even a little, showed that she trusted him whether she liked it or not.

  “Oh, I’m going to get you for that.” Her voice went husky. “Using your powers isn’t fair.”

  “You used yours.” He grasped the T-shirt covering her, one of his favorites, and ripped it in two. Her pretty pink nipples had sharpened to points, and he drew one into his mouth.

  She gasped and tunneled her fingers into his hair, scraping his scalp.

  He paid homage to her other breast. She was firm and full bodied, and so damn sexy he had to force himself to slow down and enjoy himself. He traced a path down her abdomen to draw off the borrowed sweats and toss them on the floor. “You shaved.” Good Lord, she was bare.

  He almost came right then and there against the bed.

  She chuckled. “It’s the modern thing to do, you know.”

  Actually, he’d been rather busy planning and fighting a war in modern times. “I didn’t know.” He leaned down and kissed her before running his tongue through her slit. “I like it.”

  “Me too,” she groaned. “Are you planning to talk me to death?”

  He smiled. “No.” Then he went at her. No mercy, no gentleness, just pure delight, but not enough pressure to push her over. After several minutes, he had to clamp his hands on her thighs to hold her still.

  “Damn it, Nick.” She smacked his head, not so lightly. “I will burn the damn hair off your head,” she groaned.

  He grimaced. The woman didn’t make idle threats, and he had probably tortured her enough. “All right.” He twisted one finger inside her and snapped his lips against her clit, trapping it.