“True,” Aerolus said. “The Covington woman and the worker from payroll knew of Covington’s deceit. The Djinn might have overheard the two talking.”
“Or had access to the company’s personnel accounts,” Cadmus offered.
“Like Jonas Chase.” Marcus said his name like a curse.
MARCUS
I stared at the ceiling in my bedroom, wishing I could ignore the fact Tessa slept so soundly just two inches away. Just the scent of her drove me crazy, and knowing she lay nearly naked next to me, clad in one of my thin white T-shirts, was more than any man, or prince, could stand.
No matter that Tessa was not of Tanselm. No matter that she came from another plane entirely. Everything within me cried out for her, and I had already decided to accept her as mine, as if that might be a major hardship.
I’d tried to avoid the truth, but for all my faults, I’d never lacked integrity. The truth stared me in the face with bright blue eyes.
Tessa Sheridan was my affai. I knew it. She knew it. I’d confessed the truth to her just a few days ago.
In the six months I’d worked at Temita, I’d been constantly aware of her, if only to keep her potential distraction as far away as possible.
She slid a thigh over me and murmured in her sleep, causing my temperature to rise a few hundred degrees.
I closed my eyes and tried counting aloud the reasons I shouldn’t make love to her again. As if by uttering them in the dimness of reality, I could convince myself to ignore her.
I whispered, “One, the more I’m with her, the more I want to be with her. Like bending her over her desk at work. Soundly claiming her has only whetted my appetite for more.” I noted my present erection and shook my head. “Two, making love with her cinched our bond even tighter, confusing my focus and making her more vulnerable to Djinn attack.”
She shifted, and I sucked in a breath. One of her hands drifted over my midsection, her fingers resting all too close to my twitching cock.
“Three,” I whispered through gritted teeth. “She makes me forget finesse, makes me lose control.” A loss of control hit me where it really hurt.
“Four,” Tessa rasped, “she’s too aggressive.” She wrapped her fingers around my pulsing shaft and pumped me. “She makes me come even when I don’t want to.”
I groaned and she tightened her grip. Jerking me off, playing on the sensitivity of my cock like an expert. Harder and faster, then slower, with longer pulls.
She watched my face while she touched me, those intense blue eyes taking me that much closer to climax.
“Tessa,” I gasped, almost leaping off the bed when she leaned in to bite lightly at one of my nipples. “Sertia, please.”
I didn’t know what I wanted more, to come in her hand or lose myself in the addicting taste of her sex. Because burying my head between her thighs and making her moan sounded like a terrific idea.
But she took the decision out of my hands when she let me go and slithered down my body, taking my dick in her mouth.
Sweat broke over my brow as she sucked hard, swallowing the milky beginnings of my orgasm. She used her tongue to take me over, settling over the underside of my crown as she stroked me into ecstasy.
I groaned as the wave crashed, sweeping me into oblivion, and shuddered into her mouth, aware of her groans as she swallowed me.
The act was so intimate, so giving that I finally surrendered to the inevitable.
“I love you. Do you know that?” So much for poetry and flowers. Even in Tanselm, women wanted loving words and a romantic setting.
“I know,” she whispered back, kissing her way up my body. “It took you long enough to admit it.”
Wait. She should have returned the sentiment, not berated me for saying it.
“But I forgive you.” She sounded amused.
“You forgive me?” For some odd reason, Tessa always seemed to spark my temper. And right after a mind-blowing orgasm.
“I do,” she whispered against my lips.
I stiffened then groaned when she thrust her tongue inside my mouth. I tasted myself, the sexy act one I cherished despite her aggravating tendencies.
