His thumb grazed her again and one of his fingers dragged along something inside of her. She moaned again and started to pant breaths. The heat was too intense. It was everywhere. And unlike before when she’d been taken by surprise, this was a buildup. To that lovely feeling. But it wasn’t a lovely feeling now. It was frustrating and jaw-clenching. Like a carriage that would not go fast enough, or a dream where she couldn’t run.
She felt his mouth, saw the top locks of his head bowed between her legs, her skirt obscenely bunched around her waist, her knobby knees bare to the air. Felt him do something, and she exploded. Her stomach clenched as the top half of her body half rose from the table and then flopped back down. Tremors wracked her, and he continued touching her as she rode the lovely feeling. The end of the frustration.
She settled one hand on her stomach, breathing deeply. The second time was somewhat different from the first, which had been different from last night, but it was lovely all the same. An even more languid feeling took over her body. She was exhausted.
She saw him watching her from between her bent knees. There was something dark and dangerous in his eyes.
“You are now mine, Marietta Winters.”
Chapter 12
“Explain to me again about this odd man?” she asked.
He should have reveled in the fact that she was still flushed and slightly breathless, but his heart was beating much too quickly. He had lost control for a moment there. The world tilted oddly on end. He couldn’t let that happen again. He had needed to switch his plan to take her against the table to simply pleasuring her again instead. He was afraid of what might have happened had he done the former. Would she have entangled a piece of his soul?
“He was seen lurking around the last victim more than once. We need to track him down,” he said.
He shoved the fear away. He was in perfect control. He always was. Nothing had changed. Nothingwouldchange.
“How did you discover this?” she demanded.
“Luck. There was a notice about a necklace matching the one the woman had on. An inquiry into the necklace gave me a name and an address, along with the information that a strange man had inquired after it and was always following the victim around.”
Spun tales in his direct power.
“And the middle two victims?”
“Still no word on them.” There hadn’t been. He didn’t count that he already knew their names.
“Shall we tell the Runner?”
Cold sweat broke out on his forehead and he surreptitiously wiped the side of his hand across it. “Not yet. We need to establish something first. He’ll never believe us otherwise.”
She looked disappointed. He wanted to shout. There was no way he was telling Dresden a thing. Just a little bit of investigating on Dresden’s side and…No. He wasn’t even sure why he was telling her this part. Better for him to secrete her with her brother and carry this on himself.
He tried to say that exact thing. His mouth opened but nothing emerged. He tried again. She looked expectant.
“Yes?”
“Nothing.”
It wasn’t healthy, this want, this need, to keep her around. Why? Because she seemed able to read him more than any other female of his quite large acquaintance? Because he liked sparring with her? Because of that damned spark that wasn’t going away?
What the devil was it about her?
She wasn’t that attractive.
His mind was already conjuring up plenty of pictures of her face in wanton lust. How she responded to him. He had never seen anything more beautiful than her response.
She was too opinionated.
He hated doormats. He liked her spark.
She wanted control.
The voice in his head was silent.
“Gabriel?”
