It was as he’d been eating some delicious caviar that the flush he’d felt earlier moved to a full body, electric rush of heat and energy. Meriel’s magick. He could smell her on the air, a phantom of her citrusy perfume.

He held it together for another few minutes, thinking he was just imagining things, willing the presentation to wrap up so he could call her. But it went on and on until he finally held a hand up.

“If you’ll all excuse me for a few moments.”

“Is there a problem?” Evan looked him over.

“I need to check on something. Please do go on. I’ll return shortly.” He said this all as he was already propelling himself from the room, his phone clearing his pocket.

“Hello, Dominic.”

The smile she usually had in her voice when she said his name wasn’t there. Her cheer was slightly practiced. That’s when he knew something was wrong. That’d he’d felt it across the country was a punch in several ways.

Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson once said that the best thing about science was that it was true whether you believed in it or not. The bond was there and to continue to deny it seemed totally pointless when he could not only feel her upset thousands of miles away but that he wanted to be with her.

“What’s wrong?”

“What do you mean? Are you all right?” Dominic heard talking in the background, a male voice and another female voice he recognized from Monday night, Nell.

“I’m sitting here in a meeting and I felt … weird. I hoped it would pass and it did for a while. But then it came back. This thing exploded in me. You. And for a second it was like I was with you, touching you. I could smell you, Meriel. Your magick is on my skin as if I’d just held you. What the fuck is going on?”

He fisted his free hand a few times to keep from shaking. He should be there with her right then.

“Nothing really, I don’t think. I’m sorry it interrupted your meeting. I should have thought to warn you that we could feel each other sometimes.”

He snorted. “Don’t be sorry. Tell me what’s happening.”

“You’re very bossy.”

“I am. Now, tell me.”

“I was at the grocery store and had a feeling. Just a feeling. Something wasn’t right. The energy of the place shifted and it was all wrong. I just needed to get out of there. I didn’t see anything. I came home and called Nell. You probably felt it because my magick rose in response to my fear. Really, I’m all right. Nell and Gage are on it. They couldn’t find anything either.”

He was leaving that night. Period.

“I’m coming back to Seattle.”

“Because of this? Oh why? Don’t do that. I’m fine. Really. Nell and Gage both are right here. I’m not a wuss, you know. I can kick butt when I need to. Take care of your job and see your friends.”

“I don’t want the entire country between us when you’re scared.” Having Nell there was one thing, but he wasn’t going to leave her protection up to anyone else. She was his and he’d protect her. Period.

“I’ll be getting in long after your bedtime so I’ll call you in the morning.”

“Are you even listening to me?”

“Of course I am. But listening is not the same as agreeing. I appreciate your concern for my business, but I’m coming back tonight. And that is that. Don’t open your door to anyone. If you get hurt, I will be pissed off.”

She sighed, but when she spoke again, the smile was in her words. “All right. Call me when you get in. Or … come to me. I’ll be here.”

Chapter 13

FIVE in the morning and she stood before him, light from the nearby fireplace on her skin. He should have gone home and called her at a decent hour but she’d told him to come to her, hadn’t she?

He came in and dropped his bags to the side before sweeping her into his arms. And he needed her so much it made him blind to everything but the weight of her against his body.

He struggled from his coat as she closed the wards and in a step he was on her again.

That sweet ass of hers in his hands, he picked her up and sat her on a nearby table. “Perfect height.” He drew a fingertip over the swell of her bottom lip, down her chin and the long line of her neck.

Her skin was warm and soft as he continued down the slice of creamy skin revealed at the front of her robe. Naked for him beneath the silk.

He halted at the belt, sliding his finger back and forth over her belly button.

“You’re not wearing anything under this.”

“Nothing but my skin.” Her mouth tipped up at the corner and he dipped his head to capture it.

“This is all I’ve thought about since the plane took off to go to New York on Sunday.” Just days before but it had felt like a week he’d been away.

“I’m sorry.” Her breath caught when he untied the belt and parted the silk, exposing her beauty to his gaze.

“Don’t be. Nothing anywhere near as good as this in New York.” He ran the backs of his knuckles across her nipples and watched as they tightened in response. He bent his head and kissed the curve of her shoulder and across her collarbone.

As he did that, her nimble fingers attacked his shirt buttons as she left a trail of kisses where she could reach on his shoulder, her hands sliding all over his chest and arms.

Heat seeped into him, need scorching his insides. She pushed him back just a little, enough to get his pants unbuttoned and unzipped.

“Now,” she said right before she scraped her teeth over his nipple and it shot straight to his cock.

She shoved his boxers down and grabbed him, pumping him a few times in her fist to underline just what it was she wanted.

“Hang on a sec,” he murmured as he bent to pull a condom from his pocket. But he paused to press a kiss to the seam at the back of her knee. The sound she made drove him crazy, a deep, hoarse moan.

Pushing her thighs wider, he kissed up her leg, licking along the seam where it met her body. Her grasp tightened, pulling his hair just this side of painful. He nipped the inner part of her thigh, pausing to breathe her in.

He pressed his palms against her hips to hold her just so, angle her so that he could taste every part of her. His thumbs spread all that beauty to his touch, to his mouth and his tongue.

She shivered delicately as he breathed against that hot, slick flesh. Her nails dug into his shoulder as she urged him on, the other hand still in his hair.

It seemed impossible for that elegant and ruthlessly controlled woman he knew to also be this wanton. This lush, sexy female so unabashedly taking her pleasure.

He drove her, knowing just what she needed, and it wasn’t too very long before she arched hard, her muscles tightening as she came.

“I hear Portishead when your mouth is on me,” she whispered, shivering as he brushed his lips against the heart of her before standing again and rolling a condom on.

He brushed the head of his cock against her and they both groaned at how good it felt. “Is this a good thing?”

He flexed his hips and pressed inside.

“Yes. Her voice is like sex. The lazy afternoon of fucking kind.”

“Yes, that is a compliment. And perhaps even a mandate.”

She laughed and he was so glad he’d come back.

And then he forgot about everything but the way it felt to be buried in her as deep as he could get. Wanting to come battled with his desire to never end this moment.

But she had plans, wrapping her legs around him and pulling him in deeper. She arched to sit more fully, her nipples sliding over his chest. Her nails dug into his shoulders.

But it wasn’t until she licked up the side of his neck to bite his ear, tugging and whispering, “More,” that the driving need to fuck her, to be in her as she wrapped around him took over.

He had to have her. He stood up straighter, adjusting her as he began to thrust just like she’d begged for. He swiveled his hips as he met her body and she gasped, her inner walls gripping him even tighter.