Lauren Dane - Heart of Darkness

Dominic sighed and raised a brow at her.

“You and your precious font and your clan. What do you know about struggling? About working for anything?”

“Focus, Gloria. Why is it you’re mad again?”

“We’ll see how smug you are when I go to the press and expose you.”

Dominic leaned forward. “And how will your friends the human-only separatists feel when they know you’re a paranormal too? If you do that, you only expose yourself … Gloria.”

His voice was wrapped with so much violence it sent a shiver through her. They hadn’t known for absolute sure Gloria was working with the humans. Simply taunting Gloria into revealing all her plans seemed too easy, but Gloria wasn’t working on all cylinders and had already given them more information than Meriel had thought she’d expose.

Nell held out five fingers. Just a bit more to go.

But she didn’t deny it. Which answered that question. “Oh, is that you, Eduardo? My baby boy.”

“I’m not your baby boy. And my name is Dominic. My father gave it to me. He says hey.”

“I don’t think he can.”

Meriel felt sick. Gloria meant Felix, who she obviously knew was dead. Because she’d helped kill him. Not that he’d been anything less than a villain by that point too.

Dominic laughed and it made the hair on the back of Meriel’s neck stand up.

“I said my father gave it to me. Not my biological donor. The man who raised me. But back to your threat about going public and your buddies the human separatists. I’m not sure who’s worse, but I know they’d get a fairer shake in the court of public opinion than an old, shot-out hag of a turned witch with no power and a giant drug habit. You think you can control them when this gets out?”

“They’re stupid, but useful.”

Nell’s gaze darkened, her mouth hardened. Gloria had just admitted she was part of this plan.

Meriel decided to poke at her some more. “I imagine they’d be more useful if you had a plan instead of just rolling into town draining a few witches and going away.”

Nell nodded, giving her the keep going with that motion of her hand.

“You don’t know who you’re dealing with. Until a few years ago, they were uselessly attacking Others. The odd hunting and killing of a Were. Vampire stakings. And then there was a story about how one of these silly groups had caught themselves a witch and wanted to kill her. I was nearby and stopped in.”

The phone was silent for a few moments and Meriel wondered if she’d hung up. But no, she came back on the line. Talkative woman, Gloria Ochoa. Meriel would be pleased to use that against her.

“Sorry about that interruption. I’ll tell you more when we meet. Then I can teach you my lovely ritual and introduce you to some mages who’d love to play with you awhile. Some of them even have bounties on the heads of clans. I’ll be sure to point them in your direction. You can’t win. I’m too powerful.”

She would eat this bitch for breakfast. And she’d smile as she did it.

“First I’ll kill your mother. She’s the icing on the cake. Oh, I’ll be so powerful after that. Then I’ll let them drain you partially, but I have better plans for you. A ritual I’ve found to be very effective.”

“Oh, I’d pay money to see that.” Meriel laughed. “Not in a million years are you half the powerhouse my mother is. But I’d love to see her rip you to shreds and then curl her lip at the mess on her shoes. But I’m growing super bored with this back-and-forth smack talk. I have a job, so if you’re done?”

“I’ll drain you slow. Feast on your fear and pain. And then I’ll kill you. Afterward, I’ll take Dominic. Maybe I’ll keep him around if he’s useful. Pretty bait for witches I’d wager.”

She also didn’t seem to understand just what a bond was. Which was good too.

Nell gave her the thumbs-up that they’d unraveled the confusion spell and had traced the call. They knew where she was.

“You’ve been warned, Gloria Ochoa. There is a warrant for your death in all our territories. You can’t have Dominic.”

Meriel hung up.

NELLhad left and Meriel came back inside to find Dominic hanging up the phone. “We can move into the new place at the beginning of the month.”

They’d chosen the apartment open in this building. Ron had already volunteered to help with the warding, not just of the apartment but of the hallways too.

“But I turned it down.”

“What? Why?”

“I think we need a house. I want a house. I like it here in downtown, but being at Tom’s reminded me how much I like living near water. I want to buy a house with you. I don’t want to worry about how loud I’m being and I don’t want to hear people walking above me all the time.”

“You want roots? With me?”

He moved to her and swept her up into his arms. “Yes. I want to build a life here with you. In our house where we’ll raise our family. What do you think?”

“I think I can manage to like that. I think I can suffer through waking up next to you for the next six decades or so.”

“When I’m with you like this, I can sort of see the appeal of a magick addiction. You make me drunk on your magick.” He breathed in deep at her neck and walked her backward until her back met the door.

“Here I am again, Dominic, backed against a door while you have your way with me.”

He kissed her just behind her jaw and if she hadn’t been pinned to the wall like a butterfly in a case, her knees would have buckled at the shocking pleasure of the heat of his tongue and the scrape of his teeth where her skin was so achingly sensitive.

He was so good to her. Every touch telegraphed just how much he wanted her. Rough, yes. Hard, yes. But his touch never hurt, was never aimed to harm her in any way.

He needed her so much she often saw the strain in how he held back. It filled her up in the best kind of way, this man.

This man she wanted as much as he wanted her in return. She managed to break free and fall to her knees, looking up at him while she unzipped his jeans and pulled his cock out.

Dominic groaned at the sight of her there, so raw and carnal, on her knees, a hand on his cock as she licked her lips.

It was he who had to lean against the wall for a change as he placed his palms against the door and looked down at her. At this beauty who’d come into his life without warning and had turned everything he knew upside down.

He groaned when she took him into her mouth and then was lost to her and the way she knew what he needed and how he needed it. There was no ugliness between them and what was around them they’d overcome.

So close, she took him so close with the heat and wet of her mouth. He had other plans though, so he had to force himself to pull her back as he got so very close to the edge. “Couch. Bend over it. Panties down.”

Her eyes widened and a flush rose up her neck. He couldn’t resist such a response and cupped the back of her neck to take her mouth again.

Her hum of satisfaction was sweet and spicy all at once. But her squeal of surprise when he got them to the couch and spun her, bending her forward, shot through his system like a pinball. When she made those sounds, when she gave herself over to him and his pleasure the way she did, it undid him.

His usually chic and elegant woman was bent over a couch. Bare-assed. Her normally tidy hairdo had come loose, freed to tousle around her face.

Her beautiful face he caught glimpses of as he began to thrust. The curve of her cheek, or the pink of her lip caught against her teeth.

This was no long, sensual lovemaking session. He needed her with an intense greed. Needed to reconnect with her on this level. His system screamed for more, faster, harder, more more more. And when he reached around her body to touch her clit and drive her toward climax, she squirmed back against him in entreaty.