Colin: Her Warlock Protector Book 4 (6 page)

If she’d had an answer, she would have given it to him. Instead, aware of those green eyes trained on her every move, she knelt on the bed and stripped her shirt over her head, removing her bra with a few expert flicks of her fingers. Her breasts were soft and heavy, and because he still looked like he wanted answers, she took one of his calloused hands and brought it to rest against her breast.

With his other hand, he drew her close. He cupped her jaw as he kissed her deeply. He pulled her tongue into his mouth, suckling on it tenderly before releasing it. The rhythm of their bodies together awakened a slow-burning fire in her belly, and now more than ever, Selene knew what a dangerous game she was playing.

She moved so she straddled his lap. Her clever fingers tugged at the buttons of his shirt. She could see the insignia he wore at his collar, and she deliberately turned her mind away from it as she started to undo the buttons. Selene glanced up to see him looking at her, a slight smile on his face.

“What?” she asked, suddenly self-conscious.
 

“You look like you're working so hard,” he said. “Why don't you let me help with that?”
 

She started to ask what he meant, but in a matter of seconds, she found herself sprawled on her back with Colin kneeling over her. She watched, mouth suddenly dry as he whipped his shirt off.

She ran her fingers over the lean muscles of his body, the hard plane of his stomach, the breadth of his shoulders, and the sharp curve of his hip. When she brushed her bare fingertips across his nipple, he made a pleased humming sound. When she tracked the scanty trail of hair that led into his trousers, he growled playfully.

“Are you looking for something?” he asked, his voice dark velvet, and she grinned at him.

“Thought I'd see how I felt about what you're offering.”

Suiting actions to words, she trailed her hand down the front of his trousers and squeezed the bulge she found there. The noise that Colin made was just short of needy, and his large hand came down over hers.

“I don't want to finish too soon,” he cautioned her, but his words only felt like a challenge. She squeezed again, relishing the pleasure that shivered his body.

“Is that a worry?” she asked innocently. “All those years of being the big, strong, Corps colonel, and here you are, trembling like a leaf.”
 

She wasn't sure what she was expecting, but she knew that she liked what happened.
 

Colin pulled her hand from his body, and she found herself flat on her back. Before she could get her breath back, he was stripping her jeans and her underwear away, and as she watched, he stripped to his skin. Now there was nothing between them at all, and she could see his erection, dark, hard and pulsing. She wanted it, and she reached for it again, but he pinned her to the bed.

“Do you want to see what I've learned over all those years? Hmm?”

“Show me,” she said challengingly, and with a dark laugh, he spread her legs.
 

For a moment, she thought he was going to drive straight into her, but she realized that she was mistaken when his dark head lowered between her legs. She had a brief moment of discomfort when she realized that she hadn't shaved in a while, but apparently he had no problems with that. His clever fingers parted her folds, and he laid a long, deliberate lick along her slit, stopping just short of her clit. He did it again and again, until Selene realized that he was avoiding that taut bundle of nerves on purpose.

When the edge of his tongue came closer an immeasurable time later, the rough of it just catching her clit, she moaned. Her hands landed in his hair, and she tugged hard, drawing a half-breathless laugh from him.

“What is it, darling?” he whispered in amusement. “What is it you want?”

“Damn you. You know!”
 

She’d intended for her words to come out as imperious, but instead they were simply demanding and needy. She tried to push his head down between her legs, she tried to arch her hips to bring him closer, but the man was made of steel. She could neither move him nor bend him, and finally she simply lay back and let him lap at her, driving her closer and closer to what she wanted but unable to ever reach that peak.
 

Finally, he had mercy on her, and his tongue was a fury. He lapped at her clit and sent her straight over the edge with a long wail. The pleasure bloomed as bright as fireworks, and she knew that she couldn't take anymore. She was vaguely aware that he had withdrawn from her, but then he was back again.
 

“Shh, shh, love, I'm here. I just needed to be prepared.”

She nodded mutely, and then her arms looped tightly around his shoulders.

“I need you,” she whispered, and she was no longer even certain how she meant it. “I want you inside.”

His laugh was mostly a groan, and he placed a tender kiss on her lips. She could taste herself on his mouth, and the thought made her squirm again. Her orgasm left her exhausted, but there was still a bright spark of pleasure there that was not yet doused.
 

 
He rose over her, and she felt the blunt head of his manhood probing her slick sex. She expected to flinch at how sensitive she was, but his body over her and his weight resting on her was enough to ground her, to keep the sensations at a place where they felt good.

When he slid inside her, they both tensed. She whimpered a little at the slight stretch, just shy of pain. He reached down to touch her face.

“Are you all right? We can stop.”

“I don't want to stop,” she said, and she didn't.
 

She wanted this fullness and this gorgeous sensation of joining with him. She wanted him deep inside her, and when she set her hands on his hips, he understood.
 

He started to move, slowly at first, and then picked up speed. After a few moments, she relaxed, and the discomfort faded into something deeper and wonderful. She could feel him touch her deep inside. She could feel the slide of his hard flesh inside her. There was something primal about the way he took her, about the way his sweat-sleek body moved over hers.

He's all for my pleasure,
she thought hazily, and somewhere, she recognized it as the truth. She wanted him. She needed him like this. And when his body started to shake, she knew that she had never wanted anything more.

He moved slightly, sending another lightning bolt of pleasure through her, and her body started to tremble. To her disbelief, she realized that she was going to climax again. She grasped at his arms, burying her face in his shoulder. It felt like it should have been too much, too soon, but she allowed the sensations to carry her along until they overwhelmed her. This was what she wanted. This was what she needed, and as he thrust into her one more time with a muffled roar, she let go.
 

The pleasure this time rolled through her like thunder, something she couldn't stop if she tried. She wanted it. She wanted all of the sensation that this man could give her, and she wanted to be overwhelmed by him. The feeling completed her even as it awoke a kind of panic in her mind, and that paired with the pleasure drove her to unbelievable heights.

She was crying out wildly, and she didn't even know it until her throat was sore. Her legs ached from the tension of arching her body towards Colin's hard thrusts, and when he collapsed on her, she felt a kind of peace that she had never known in her life.
 

“I never want this to end,” she said softly, and he stiffened as if startled.

“It doesn't have to,” Colin replied, and it hurt a little that there was a certain caution in his voice.
 

“What do you mean?” Selene asked.
 

“I mean that you can come back with me. You'll have your hearing, and once the Corps understands everything, the next part of your life can start.”

“That sounds…amazing.”

“It might be hard to believe, but it will be.”
 

Colin pulled away from her with aching gentleness, and she watched silently as he disposed of the condom and came back to sit beside her. Tentatively, she snuggled up next to his side, and he put his arm around her comfortably. They were as easy with each other as if they had been lovers for a hundred years. She knew about the Wiccan immortality. They could have that if she agreed—if she bowed down to the authority of the Corps.

“There is a whole world out there that is looking to welcome you with open arms,” he said softly. “If you came with me, I could protect you. We could stay together, have intense chases across the city. Maybe you would let me remember at least a few of the times that I beat you.”

She looked up at him with surprise.
 

“You are perhaps the only person who knows about my abilities and isn't entirely terrified of me. I wonder why that is.”

Colin eased her down on her back, and he came to lie down by her side. He traced patterns on the flat of her belly and looked thoughtful.

“I suppose it is because I saw you at the diner with that girl. She was hurting, and you made it stop. That's not the work of a woman who erases the memory of others on a lark. I have a feeling that every time that you've done it, there's been a compelling reason for you.”

She took a deep breath and then another.

“Not always,” she confessed. “Sometimes, it's been extremely selfish.”
 

“Tell me.”
 

If he hadn't said it with that soft, soft plea in his voice, she would have said no. She didn't even know that she wanted to tell him until the words came rushing out.

“You keep talking about a hearing,” she said quietly. “You keep talking to me about meeting my old coven master, and how I injured him. I did swear my allegiance to that coven in Montana. I was prepared to live out a long and happy life out there, among those same people who you say were going to embrace me.”

He shifted to take her into his arms, and against her better judgment, she snuggled up to him. She suddenly didn't know if she was going to touch him for the last time. For a moment, that thought took her breath away.

“I was happy there, and then Lester came asking after me. He came to my little cabin up in the mountains when I was all alone. He asked me if there was anything I wanted. I told him I didn't need him to chop my wood or tend to my horse, but he did anyway. He told me that I needed him. He told me that after all the good things he did for me, that the coven did for me, I owed him. He didn't understand why I didn't see it.”

She laughed bitterly and Colin held her tighter.

“Did he hurt you?” There was mayhem and murder in his tone, and though Selene warmed to hear it, she knew it made no difference.

“He wanted to. One day, he cornered me in the shed. There was no one for miles, and he had made sure that we were alone. He got closer and closer, and I knew that if I didn't do something…”

She was silent, and she only spoke again when Colin whispered her name.

“I was so young then. I panicked. I reached for his mind. I don't even know how I did that. I…I think I could do that again, but it frightens me. He was looking at me with this perfectly blank face, and I ran back to the house, grabbed a few things and got the hell out of there.” She sighed. “I've been running ever since.”

Colin was silent for a long moment, and when he spoke, she could tell that he was hiding a deep and powerful fury.

“What he did to you was wrong, and Selene, I swear to you that if you had told someone, no one would have blamed you. Those are not the actions of a coven master towards one of the youngest and most vulnerable witches in his coven. He deserved everything you did and more. I read the file, and you made him lose a full week of time. He pitched a fit over it, but now it's easy to see that he deserved everything you did and more.”

“I know there are truthtellers among the Wiccans,” Selene said softly. “Men and women who can tell the truth of what they hear. There's no evidence beyond my word. No one would ever believe me.”

“I believe you,” he said firmly. “I promise you, Selene. When we return, I will stand by your side, and I will call whatever witches or warlocks I need so that the Wiccan world will hear your truth. You deserve a space in my world, and by all of the gods and the saints, you will have it.”
 

 
She smiled, and buried her face in his chest. Let him take it for agreement if he wished. She didn't believe him any more than she believed in Santa Claus, but she let his words and his anger wash over her. He was with her and he believed her. It was healing in its own way, and telling him the story she had kept inside for years made her feel lighter, as if a weight had been taken from her shoulders.

 
Nestled in each other's arms, they drifted off to sleep, but Selene knew that it would not last. With an ease born of long practice and necessity, Selene roused herself after a few hours. It was almost noon, but the bedroom that they slept in was so dark it could have been any time at all.
 

She quietly gathered her things and made sure that Bitsy was tucked safely into her bag. The ferret made a soft noise of protest, but she was in no mood to listen to her pet's protestations that day. Silent as a shadow, she paused by the bed. In sleep, Colin looked young, the care lifted off of his face. With the amulet in her hand, she knew that she would not need to worry about him finding her again.

She paused. Though she wanted to kiss him, she left.

SHE SPENT THE afternoon looking over her shoulder, wondering if she might see an angry Colin appear by her side. She stayed on the move, just another young woman making her way through a bright Chicago winter day. The cold was crisp and refreshing, and she drank an enormous cup of coffee. From time to time, she touched Bitsy for comfort, causing the little animal to chitter with pleasure.
 

 
She had almost forgotten about her assignment, but as dusk started to fall, she knew that she needed the money, especially if the Corps was going to continue chasing her. She looked down at her clothes, and realized that though they were still tidy, she needed better if she hoped to do her job.