Anya Bast - Witch Heart

This was a man who could help her explore the side of her femininity that had been neglected for so many years. He could help her revel in the ultimate expression of life while she fought to keep hers.

Yes, this was a good decision. This was a man accustomed to doing this for many women, a man who would use her as she would use him. Perfect. She closed her eyes, waiting for his kiss.

But it never came.

Her eyes opened. Slowly, his gaze fastened on her mouth as he sat up. "As much as I hate to cut this short, we need to tell Theo and Thomas you've separated the magicks."

What? A moment ago he'd been ready to tear her clothes off. She warned him to tear her clothes off! Jolted from her bliss, she also sat up.

Recovering quickly and trying to mask her confusion she replied, "Of course, you're right. Pleasure shouldn't take the place of business."

Adam held her gaze steadily. "Pleasure should always take the place of business, Claire, but it shouldn't take the place of guarding your life."

Suddenly feeling uncomfortable about their whole exchange, Claire stood and went for the door. "I'll go tell Theo."

Adam stared at the open doorway, listening to Claire's exchange with Theo in the living room. It was true they needed to share information as soon as they got it, but this particular bit could have waited awhile longer.

It had made a convenient excuse.

The addition of her air magick had opened some kind of floodgate. He'd been attracted to her before, but once she'd peeled her magick from the elium, the sexual draw had exploded. He couldn't remember being this attracted to a woman since he'd been with Eliza.

All he'd wanted was to ease her pants down and off, explore and tease every luscious inch of her body until her cries had echoed loud enough to bring Theo running. It had been so, so hard to pull away. Especially since she'd been laying there beneath him, nipples hard, chest heaving, lips rouged and swollen from his kisses, and her eyes had been begging him to do it.

Giving in to the passion in that moment had just been wrong. It had seemed like… adultery. Adam bowed his head. Gods, how stupid! Yet, there it was, stupid or not.

Eliza had been in her grave for seven years now and she'd slap him silly if she knew he'd pulled away from a woman because of her. Fuck! He'd slept with lots of women after he'd grieved for Eliza and moved on! But none of those women had ever evoked anything like what he'd felt with his wife.

Until Claire.

And there was the problem. That's why it felt like adultery.

Adam rubbed his chin and squeezed his eyes closed for a moment, trying to work out the why of that. It was probably the air magick. Once that eased up, he could keep the promise he'd made to Claire and help her make up for lost time.

Fuck Thomas and his opinions. Claire was an adult and could make her own decisions. If she wanted to take what Adam offered, so be it.

But it would have to wait until this strange, jarringly familiar intensity faded.

"Adam."

Claire moaned and her eyelids fluttered open. One muscled arm was thrown over the side of the bed above her head. She couldn't see any more of Adam's body.

That was a good thing.

She closed her eyes again and slid her hand between her thighs, where the erotically charged dream she'd just woken from still made her warm and achy.

Never had she had a dream like that.

He'd hovered over her, his big body pressing hers into the mattress, breath hot on her collarbone, belly button, inner thigh… His spiky blond hair had brushed her skin as he'd drunk from the center of her, driving her fast and hard toward a shattering climax with his lips and tongue.

She'd never even known such acts were possible. They didn't do that on Eudae as far as she knew.

Claire fisted the sheets in her hand remembering how, after he'd brought her to climax with his mouth, he'd held her wrists above her head, spread her thighs apart with his knee, pinned her down with his hips and thrust his cock deep inside her.

It had been so real.

And her climax had almost been real, too. It had fallen just tantalizingly short, leaving her slick and wanting between her thighs. The dream had made her nipples sensitive and her mouth wanting to be kissed again like he'd kissed her last night.

Clare brushed her nipple with her fingers, sending a shock wave of pleasure through her body that made her gasp. Under the pad of her index finger, her clit felt swollen, needy.

She groaned in frustration.

He'd really come on to her the night before, had tried his best to seduce her. She'd gone for it, too. She'd fallen at his feet like some stupid virgin female desperate for a tumble. Houses, she'd admitted that she wanted sex from him and had practically thrown herself at him to get it. If he'd worked her pants off and done all those erotic things that had been reflected in his eyes, she would have let him and moaned for more.

But instead he'd abruptly cut short their liaison — that excuse he'd used had been abominable — and had barely looked at her twice since then, even though she was sleeping in the same room with him. All he'd done when it was time to sleep was mutter good night and snap off the light.

Bastard. He was playing some game and she didn't know the rules. So she simply wasn't going to play.

Yes, she still wanted him. Her body ached for more of the touch he'd teased her with, for the caresses he'd given her in her dreams. But she wasn't going to be tempted and then ignored. Damn him if he thought she was that desperate.

If he wanted her, which it appeared he didn't, he was going to have to work for it now.

ADAM WOKE WITH A GASP AND THE BIGGEST GODDAMN hard-on he'd ever had.

He took a labored breath and rolled over, careful of his painfully erect cock. Claire's bed was empty, the sheets and blankets neatly tucked in around the mattress they'd put on the floor for her. Her voice came from the other room, where she talked to Theo.

What the hell!

He hadn't had a dream like that since he'd been a preteen and at least back then he'd come in his sleep and received some kind of relief.

He ground his palm into his eye socket and let out a shuddering breath. Just the sound of her voice right now made his body tight with desire.

"Fuck," he swore low and rolled out of bed. He needed a shower — a cold one.

As he crossed the floor near her mattress, he caught a whiff of Claire — that unique scent of her which was a combination of soap and some kind of flower he couldn't place. It made his knees go weak with desire. It made him want to collapse onto her bed and roll around in it like a feline in cat-nip.

He double-timed it to the bathroom and ran the water in the shower while he chuffed off his sweatpants and tossed them to the floor in a wad. Then he climbed into the shower and let the lukewarm water sluice down his body, pound on his shoulders and head.

Adam leaned one hand against the tiled bathroom wall and closed his eyes, trying to banish the memory of the dream and failing. He hit the cold water on the faucet big-time, but not even that helped.

The soft brush of her inner thigh against his cheek, the taste and scent of her filling his senses and making him crazy with the need to fuck her. The sweet feel of her clit against his tongue and the way she shuddered and moaned as he brought her to a hard and fast orgasm by sucking that sweet little bit of flesh into his mouth.

Afterward, the delicious give of her thighs against his knee and the feel of her wrists under his hands. The hot, velvet snare of her sex around his hard cock, so sticky sweet and perfect. How he'd fucked her hard and fast — flesh slapping on flesh — until she'd shattered a second time, the muscles of her pretty, perfect sex milking his shaft…