She straightened her spine and he groaned again. Lethal, this woman. And still he smiled because she totally caught him.

“Fine, fine.” He pulled away and headed back to her place. “And I don’t think that, by the way. The last thing you are is dumb. It’s all the backup of sperm in my system.”

She laughed again, the annoyance gone from her features.

“I have to go to New York on Sunday. I’ll be back Thursday unless something dire comes up. That friend I told you about? He’s opening a new club and we’re going to be talking about some possible joint business ventures. The rest of my group of friends will be there too.” He realized he wanted her to know he’d be back.

“Oh. All right then.”

He pulled up in front of her building. “Have a coffee with me?”

Chapter 10

DOMINIC was fairly sure he’d never wanted to have sex more in his entire life. And that included the year he was fourteen.

He’d picked her up at her place for the opera and she’d come to her door looking like she’d stepped from a magazine ad. Hair in a chic updo. She wore some sort of fancy dress and equally fancy shoes. No one could accuse Meriel Owen of not dressing up enough for an evening out.

She’d been elegant and beautiful on his arm. He’d never been to the opera and found himself totally falling into the story. But never enough not to be totally aware of the way she smelled. Or of the rise and fall of those ridiculously beautiful breasts heaved up at the bodice of her dress.

She’d shared a big part of herself that evening and the one before. She’d shown him some of her magick, had helped him with his. They’d debated politics both witch and human. She was a fierce opponent and their discussions had the sort of heat that only left him craving more.

They stopped by Heart of Darkness for a bit, but all he really wanted was her. All to himself. “My building has a rooftop garden. Would you like to come up and see it?”

She grinned. “Is that like asking if I want to see your etchings?”

“It is a lovely garden, even in the cold and wet. And yes, it would leave us astonishingly close to my place. Where my bed is.”

She watched him, clearly wrestling with herself. He gave himself stern lectures to let her figure it out without any pressure.

“I suppose I like gardens.”

“So glad to hear that,” he said as he pulled her from the booth.

He was pretty sure if he didn’t get inside her soon he might die. She was something else and he wanted more.

“FEELS like you can see my building from here,” she said as she shivered just a little.

Nice opportunity for him to touch her though. He took his suit jacket off and put it around her shoulders and held her to his side.

“My father has a garden. Like an acre and a half of garden. Every year he takes on some new project and my mother just sighs and tells him to get on with it. He loves working in the dirt.”

“Are you a gardener?”

She laughed. “No. I am a disaster with plants. I can’t even keep a houseplant alive. At work my office has fake plants in it. What about you?”

“I haven’t been up here in ages. I like gardens and all, but I’m not usually around during the day.”

And then she turned to him, remaining in his arms. “I’d like to go inside now.”

He tried to remain nonchalant but it was a chore not to drive her down to his place at a harried pace. As it was, it wasn’t until he’d closed the door, locking it as he watched her toe her pretty heels off, that he allowed himself to believe it was going to happen. She turned her head, still slightly bent to get her shoe loose, a sexy smile on her face.

“I swear to you I totally am fine with whatever increased connection we gain after we have sex,” he blurted and she straightened, one hand on her hip, head cocked to the side.

“I don’t know if you are really. But looking at you right now, feeling the way you make me feel … I can’t seem to find any willpower at all to make you wait. Hell, make me wait. I want you, Dominic. The need will grow, but I can’t manage to tell you no anymore. I’m not expecting more than sex from you at this point. Feel what you’re supposed to feel.”

She reached up to the neck of the dress and undid something. The material slid from her body and pooled at her feet.

“Uh …” was all he could think to say as he looked his fill at her.

Her smile lost all its caution and he found that a good reason to get out of his shirt. He missed the buttons a few times because he couldn’t take his gaze from her bare breasts. Just beautiful.

She stepped to him, gently moving his hands from the way and finishing unbuttoning his shirt and the cuffs. “I love it when a man wears French cuffs with cuff links. It’s so deliciously old-school and gentlemanly.”

That’s always what he’d thought too. He’d watched Cary Grant in the old movies as he’d been growing up. It hadn’t been a casual coincidence that he’d ended up with French cuffs and a tray full of cuff links. Each set had been a way of telling himself he’d made it. Built himself into a success.

“Your breasts look even better when you’re so close I can see how tight your nipples are.”

Her skin, so warm and very soft, drew his lips. He took his time, tasting and teasing. Wanting to savor her now that he had her in his bed.

Of course now that he had her here in his bed, he was totally going to keep her.

He paused at the base of her neck, feasting on her frantic pulse and the echo of her soft, sexy moans.

He heard the intake of breath when he pulled away. Liked the way she licked her lips as she looked at him. Hungry. Loved the confident way she slid a palm from the waist of his pants, up the wall of his chest and around the back of his neck. Her nipples brushed against him and they both groaned.

“You’re nearly naked. In my front hallway. It’s like Christmas and my birthday all at once.”

She laughed and he twirled her, drawing her back to his bedroom and his bed. They paused at the doorway where he backed her up against the jamb while he made quick work of the barely there panties she had on.

“Now I’m totally naked.”

He walked her back until she landed on his bed. “You are. My favorite.”

And that wasn’t a lie. She was long and curvy. Her skin was pale and pretty. The only tattoo she appeared to have was the mark at her wrist, but he liked the pierced belly button. He bent to tug it with his teeth.

Everything in him wanted her. Wanted this beautiful, intelligent and strong woman all for his own.

“I’m naked,” she repeated, waving her hand at him, “and you’re not. You’re giving me a bad case of the sads, Dominic. Why do you want that?”

Before he could answer, she sat up on the bed and pulled his belt off, unbuttoning and unzipping his pants and shoving them down his legs. “There. I did most of the work for you. Get to it.”

Laughing, he kicked the clothes off and leapt on the bed to straddle her body. He couldn’t recall the last time he ever laughed this much with a woman, much less one he was having sex with. Probably because he never had.

Those lush lips, glossy and swollen from his kisses, called to him again as he pulled her so she rested on top of him, close enough to touch.

“Finally,” he said before taking a nipple between his teeth, “you’re just where I want you.”

She laughed. “Is that a compliment?”

“God, yes.” He kissed his way to the other nipple, enjoying the way she squirmed.

“Okay then.”

The curve of her hips called to fingertips and mouth, the dip at her waist, the swell of her thighs, velvety soft at the back of her knees. Tickled the backs of her thighs as he rolled her over. Her back was a perfect curve as he kissed up the long line of her spine, pausing to kiss each indentation at the base, right above her perfect ass.