“So you can get a general idea of what this hallway looks like. Lots of that sort of soft wash of blue there. Humans obviously. But you can see deeper now. Now you can see the sorts of energies they expel. Weres have that vibrant green, but it’s got this sort of verdant feel on this level. Vampires are red, obviously. But you can see if they’re using darker energies and hurting people. With witches …” She paused and saw it.

“Witches are the brilliant blue. You can see a lot of it near my door. But mages, or anyone who uses unnatural energies has a sort of sickly gray smudge.” Just like the one in the hallway ahead.

His mouth flattened into a hard line and he grabbed her upper arm, marching her back toward the elevators. “We’re leaving.”

“No, we’re not. You can see that it didn’t get close to my door. My wards are holding just fine. We just know someone who’s doing something bad has been here. We don’t know enough to panic.”

She moved to her front door and unlocked it.

He went inside first and she followed closing up behind herself. “We’re fine in here. No one has been inside since I left. I need to tell Nell, but this doesn’t necessarily mean they know where I am.”

“Oh, so a random mage was just walking down your hallway and stopped near your door. Just because.”

She called Nell, who gave a similar lecture.

“Go stay at Dominic’s or come here, but you need to move to a place where you’re defended better.”

“I’m just fine here.”

“Shut up. Put Dominic on the phone.”

“No.”

“I can hear the entire conversation anyway, Meriel. I already had an appointment for us to look at an apartment in my building and one across the street. I planned to grovel and then suggest it. This obviously pushes my timeline forward. Let’s get some of your bags. We can come back tomorrow and get more.”

“Pushy much?”

“You know it. Don’t test me on this. I’ll bring this to the quorum if I have to. You should let me keep you safe. Plus my building is close to the office and it’s close to Heart of Darkness. We can be together and you can be taken care of.”

“How do you know I’m safer anywhere else?”

“What I know,” Nell barked into her ear, “is that you’ve got a mage lurking around your hallway. If Dominic doesn’t have one, that makes his place safer. Plus you’ll draw even better being so close to the font. You won’t win this one so let it go. Anyway, his place is closer to mine.”

“She’s right.” Dominic raised a brow as he shoved her clothes into a bag.

“Hey! You’re going to wrinkle that.”

“Yell at me later. I want up and out of here. I have a bad feeling.”

Chapter 22

HE stalked her as she walked through his place. She sent him the side-eye but he wasn’t deterred. He liked having her in his apartment. Which was sort of funny given that he’d never, ever seriously considered living with a woman. Now though? This woman? He wanted her with him all the time.

She would be safer, no doubt. He’d be around. She’d be closer to her job and he wouldn’t have to run back and forth across the lake to see her.

“You’re making me nervous.”

“No, I’m not. Very little makes you nervous.” He smiled and she huffed and went back to putting her clothes away.

“I missed you when you were gone.”

She must have gotten a pedicure when she was in San Francisco. Her toes were different. A deep, dark red. Like every other part of her, her feet were sexy.

She looked up at him, suspicion on her face. “Mmm-hmm.”

“Why you gotta be this way?” He added a little bit of a purr, just for her.

“What way is that?”

“How was San Francisco?”

“Useful.”

“Are you going to remain prickly so that I have no other choice but to seduce a good mood back into you?”

“You’re pretty bold for a guy who’s still in the doghouse.”

He stood and moved to her. “But you know my general feelings about being challenged.”

She held a hand out, trying not to smile but failing. “Stop that. I have to unpack and do laundry.”

He shook his head. “Your clothes are already in the washing machine. Laundry — check. Your stuff is hanging in the closet — check.”

“Are you in charge of my schedule now?”

“Or maybe you need your own stress relief. Orgasms are good for you. And maybe, maybe I’ll do it just because I can.” He got closer and she moved around the bed.

“Maybe you’ll be bloody by the end.”

He shook his head. “Maybe. But that’s part of the fun of fucking you, Meriel Owen. A man needs to be kept on his toes. You never let me slack.”

Her smile broke free and she threw a pillow at him. “I have stuff to do.”

“Yes, yes, you do.”

He pounced, bringing her to the bed with him. Laughing, he rained small, sweet kisses across her forehead and the bridge of her nose. “How can I want you so much?”

“Because I’m fabulous?”

“Well, yes. Certainly your body is fabulous. You’re gorgeous. You’re tight and hot and wet every time I get near you.” He slid his palm down her belly, stopping to cup her sex.

Her soft gasp echoed through his system. Pounding at him like the blood in his veins.

“It’s more than that. I can’t quite believe you’re mine.” He eased her shirt open, exposing one of those pretty bras she favored. “And I’m greedy for you.” Deftly, he popped the catch between her breasts and freed them. “For these.”

He pressed a kiss between her breasts as he unbuttoned and unzipped the pants, easing them down.

“You’re astoundingly good at getting my clothes off.”

“It’s my favorite pastime. Well, my second favorite.” He leered and meant it.

“Who am I to stand between a boy and his favorite sport?”

But she gave as good as she got. Rearing up, she pulled his shirt off and kissed over his chest, rubbing her cheek against him like a cat.

And then her hand was down his pants and she was gripping his cock, a definite look of challenge on her face.

“Show me what you got, then.”

His pants were off, followed by his boxers. As much as he loved the way she looked partially clothed and disheveled, he preferred naked. So off came her shirt and bra, the pants and a pair of teeny red panties.

“I’ve got a witch naked in my bed. A pretty flush on her skin. Nipples hard and dark.” To underline this, he bent and licked across one and then the other until she yanked on his hair to get his attention.

“Yes, mistress?” he teased.

She grabbed him again, thrusting a few times to underline her urgency.

They hadn’t been together since Sunday morning. He’d missed this thing between them — the urgency to take her and to feel the trembling of her muscles as he made her come, the easy familiarity they’d had since the first time he touched her.

He’d run from that and it hadn’t worked. He didn’t feel better without her. He missed her and her voice. The way she was so orderly and in charge but once it was just Meriel and Dominic, she’d softened and given herself to him. To them.

Why he’d ever imagined running from her would fix the ache in his heart he didn’t know. She made everything better. Even as she laid him bare and saw him down to the bone, she accepted him.

This intimacy they had drove him to possess her, to touch and kiss every part of her skin he could. The sweetness of her lips drew him back time and again. He wanted to take it slow, give her pleasure for the entire afternoon.

She writhed as he slid himself against her. But before he could get any further, she wrapped her legs around him and rolled over, straddling him. “You’re going too slow. I need you now.”

He didn’t ask where she got the condom she held up. It was one of his; she’d probably found it in his nightstand. It didn’t matter, only that she had it and wanted to use it.