Protecting His Witch (Entangled Covet) (Keeper Of The Veil series Book 1) (4 page)

Chapter Four

Kat needed to travel back to her apartment tonight. There were patients to see tomorrow. And dance practice in the afternoon. She also didn’t relish being the recipient of a screaming litany from her boss when she missed work. At least she didn’t have any pets waiting for her at home, having put down her cat a month ago after he lost his battle with kidney cancer.

She hadn’t been able to control when she transitioned back to her normal life in the past, but there was always a first time. Right?

She darted into the restroom, intent on escape. Gossiping women and flushing toilets crowded the fluorescent-lit linoleum disaster. She backed out.

Noting there was no attendant at the coat-check station, she slipped around the reception desk. At the far wall of the cloakroom, she halted. “Come on. Please, let this weird evening end,” she whispered to herself.

Nothing happened.

Warm breath tickled the hairs on her neck. A hand snaked around her abdomen. Kat sucked in her breath and tensed. Every self-defense instruction she’d ever learned surged to the forefront of her mind. She prepared to yell, but the instant sound crested in her throat, a hand clapped over her mouth.

“Don’t scream,” a familiar masculine voice whispered in her ear.

Her body stiffened.

His hand released her mouth, but he maintained his opposite palm on the back of her neck. Chills skirted down her body.

She turned and met Matt’s dark blue gaze. She resented the smug perception smoldering in his eyes. His jacket hung unbuttoned and the tuxedo tie undone. The cocky bastard expected a whole lot.

“Leaving?” he asked softly. His hand moved slowly from her neck to chin and gently stroked.

Pride demanded she leave. She would not allow this evening to end with them in bed and the utter humiliation of her being pushed out in the morning. Her festering anger bubbled to the surface. She jerked away from his touch but he caught her arm. “Let me go.” She jerked again and he caught both of her arms, pulled her against his chest.

“We need to talk, wildcat,” he said. “Just give me a few minutes.”

Despite the coolness of his tone, she felt each heavy exhalation as it exited his body. His eyes blazed, excited. She should be frightened that he restrained her, but deep down she knew he would never physically hurt her. A fire of sexual need started in the pit of her stomach and quickly warmed every inch of exposed skin. Indignant fury warred with desire.

She said, “We have nothing further to talk about.
We
are in the past. Over.” She slammed her eyes closed to hide her lust from his too-knowing gaze and to avoid being drawn into the seduction she knew lay in those sexy, deep blues. An instinct stronger than anger tempted her to wrap her body around him. She wanted every bit of the wild abandon she’d found with him before.

“Look at me,” he ordered.

“No.”

He pressed her against the wall and said hoarsely, “We are far from over.”

She wiggled, needing to put some space between them. His heat and fresh masculine scent was all over her, making her abdomen clench with want. Anticipation and desire electrified her body. She fought to keep her eyes closed. If she opened them, he would suck her into his sensual vortex.

His palm curled around her lower jaw with a touch that was gentle but controlling. In a raw voice, he rasped, “Please, rescind it.”

Her lids popped open. She asked with a deceptive calm. “Rescind what?”

His body tensed against hers.

She glimpsed the barely restrained desire eating at him. His gaze slid to the chain around her neck and followed its path down to where it disappeared into her dress. Evidence of his arousal pressed tight against her abdomen.

She swallowed, knowing she should tell him to back off, but couldn’t voice the words through the desire clogging her throat. Defeating his iron control challenged her. Rational thought fled. She wanted to tempt him. To push his control over the edge. She arched her back until her breasts rubbed his starched shirt.

His breath hitched, then came in irregular pants.

She bit back a smile.

“This is insane,” she murmured. She yanked her hands from his grip with surprising ease and fit them around the back of his head to draw him to her lips.

He murmured, “Not as insane as how much I want you.” And resumed kissing her. His hand shifted to fit the nape of her neck while the other cupped her butt and pulled her core to his groin. Her legs instinctually wrapped around his hips, pushing up her dress.

He groaned when she tangled her tongue with his.

A moan detonated from deep in her chest. Behind her head, his fingers expertly removed the few pins holding the French twist in place. He tangled his fingers in her hair and then molded them around the back of her head.

Shamelessly, she ground herself against him, desperate to be closer. The muscles of his back jerked when she dug her nails through the fabric of his tuxedo jacket.

He chuckled low. “That’s the wildcat I remember.”

His words pulled her abruptly from her passion free fall. She couldn’t fight this attraction, but what remained of her functioning brain advised she stop. She was seconds away from begging him to quench the painful pressure building between her thighs. My God, she was on the edge of explosion just from a kiss. If that happened, she would plead with him to finish this right here in the cloakroom. Ten years of nighttime fantasies of him swam in her mind.
End this right now!
she ordered herself. She refused to become a repeat one-nighter, no matter how incredible the sex promised to be.

There would be consequences.

She tore her lips from his and lowered her head. She panted for control over breathing. What the hell was she doing? “We’re not doing this again.” She chanced meeting his gaze.

He cradled her chin—controlling, but not painful. The pupils of his eyes were so dilated that the blue was but a thin line. A tic worked furiously in his cheek. In that moment she saw a glimmer of the real Matt. The one her body burned to unmask. He clung to control by a thread. One little push and intuitively she sensed he’d explode. What would happen then she wasn’t sure. But she didn’t fear it. To the contrary, the mere thought made her knees tighten as she recalled the ferocious lover cradled between her thighs.

He rubbed the pad of his thumb along her lower lip. “Whatever this is between us isn’t over.”

Her voice came out as little more than a whisper. “It has to be. You’re getting married.” She wriggled to unlatch her legs from around him, but he had her pressed too tightly against the wall to escape.

“I haven’t proposed to anyone yet.”

“Well, you have a girlfriend…again.”

He leaned toward her and whispered, “Not for long…”

Oh God, yes. Please kiss me again
.

At the last second, he shifted to kiss the hypersensitive zone just beneath her ear. She groaned and her legs involuntarily tightened around his waist again.

“Please…not tonight,” she whispered, wishing she didn’t have to beg. But apparently her self-control flew out the window when this man touched her.

His breath was hot on her ear. “You’re right. This isn’t a good place, but you’re not getting off that easy.”

A momentary sting burned the underside of her left wrist where his thumb rubbed steady circles. Heat shot from her wrist directly to the junction of her thighs as if his hand was on the bare skin of those private folds, stroking erotic circles. She groaned and rubbed against him seeking something more. The sensation focused on the hidden nub.

“Come for me, Kat.”

Sensation intensified. She whimpered and tangled her hands in his dark hair to pull him in for a deep, openmouthed kiss. Her body arched against him as her orgasm crested. His mouth buffered the moans that rose from her throat when her world detonated.

Oh my.
She rested limply with her head against his chest in his strong embrace. Her ear registered the loud thumping of his heart. His scent enveloped her and soaked deep into her pores where she feared she’d never eradicate him.

When her brain came back online, it quickly skipped from euphoria to humiliation. He touched her wrist and she climaxed? How utterly pitiful she must seem to him.

His rapid, heated breaths tickled her ear, but he held himself motionless.

“Please, let me go.”

In a hoarse voice he said, “Reverse the curse. Please end it. Once I’m free of it, we can finish this without anything hanging over us.”

She blinked up at him. “What curse?”

He eased her feet to the floor and kept a hand on her elbow.

She was grateful for his support because her jelly legs weren’t on board with walking yet. She smoothed her dress.

“Don’t play games with me, Kat. Do whatever you need to do to reverse it.” He leaned in and gripped her arms.

“What are you talking about?” How could he be so calm after that? So seemingly in control and focused on her reversing something? She could barely wrap her mind around coherent thought. A curse? She recalled her parting words to him all those years ago. He must’ve believed it to be real. She hadn’t intended such.

Beyond that…wow. That meant he hadn’t been satisfied by any woman since her. Her heart squeezed. She owned a piece of this extraordinary man that no other could claim. That didn’t mean she trusted him farther than she could spit. Even if she’d meant to cast a curse, she had no clue how to reverse it. Based on the stubborn set of his lips, he would push this until he got what he wanted.

She’d try mind coercion to get by him and leave, not that she expected it to work on someone so strong-willed. It worked on pets, if she could reach beyond their hospital-induced panic, and occasionally on some people. She announced, “I’m leaving. Please, let me go.”

He scrunched his forehead, but didn’t move. “What do you want from me in order to get rid of it?” His eyes pleaded with her to help him.

That meant none of her abilities worked on Matt. And she couldn’t help him since she had absolutely no clue about curses. “I want to go home.” She tried to back out of his clamp on her forearms, but he didn’t release. His thumb stroked circles on her bare arm, shooting chills down her spine.

“Is there some guy waiting for you at home?” he asked hoarsely, pulling her close to him again.

Jealousy? From him? “Not that it’s your business, but no. Unlike you, I don’t cheat when I’m in a relationship.”
As if she’d had a relationship
longer than a first date
. No one she’d “dated” measured up to what she’d experienced with
him.
Damn him for ruining other guys for her.

“That’s not fair. You tend to pop into my life at random. Why won’t you rescind it?”

Desperate to distract him from the curse she asked, “What’s that tat mean?” She pointed to the intricate woven Celtic-looking square tat on his right wrist. She remembered it from that night long ago, but never had a chance to ask.

He glanced at the mark. “Mistake of youth.”

“We all make mistakes.” For a few seconds she allowed her gaze to roam over the angles of his face, memorizing each detail from the strong chin to the arched dark eyebrows. The thick ridges of his biceps and wide shoulders strained beneath the dress shirt. Men in her world just weren’t made like this without CGI-screen magic. Her body cruised rapidly into overheat again.

“Hey, you can’t be in here!” a man yelled from the cloakroom entry.

They jumped simultaneously. Matt released her and put himself between her and the middle-aged man in a maroon jacket adorned with a museum name tag.

The attendant stormed toward them. “What are you doing in here?”

“She needed her coat.”

“Where’s her ticket?” The attendant held out his hand.

Matt patted his jacket and produced a ticket. “Here’s mine. She lost hers.”

Tingling spread in her body.
Oh, no.
A world shift was starting again. “I’ve got to go.” She rushed past the attendant in a jog toward the exit.

“Kat, stop! We’re not done.”

She pushed out the front doors and staggered into the side of the building when vertigo teetered her world. One couple huddled together against the bracing wind while waiting for their car to pull up to the curve. A valet helped an elderly lady into the backseat of a limo. Kat stumbled along the sidewalk with a hand against the side of the building. The familiar whirling sensation flowed through her head. Then it stopped. She hadn’t left Otherworld. Yet.

Matt would be behind her. Right now she couldn’t handle another confrontation with him. She darted down an alley, hoping not to run into anyone, and slipped into a recessed doorway.

Now what?

She rubbed her itchy right wrist. Her fingers traced a raised area. It burned. This called for an immediate evaluation. She rotated her wrist into the beam of ambient light from a streetlamp. A raised pink outline of a symbol rested on the underside of her wrist—three ovals that intersected in a triangular symbol. It wasn’t a tattoo but more of a scarred burn. A brand?

Oh. My. God.
She rubbed at the area and then scratched the mark, desperate to erase it. But it remained. Now her skin was red and sore around the reliefed symbol. This must’ve been how he’d managed to create the sensation of touching, and then made her come. Witchcraft? Or something else? Something evil?

Her heart beat too fast. She couldn’t breathe. She stumbled against the concrete alcove, dizzy.
Breathe.
With her hands on her knees she breathed deeply until the light-headedness passed.

He’s not evil.
She believed that on a fundamental level. But he did have his own magical, or at least supernatural, abilities. Could this mark be a curse or hex? Her mind whirled with possible curses he might cast onto her in retaliation for the one he believed she’d cast onto him. Why would he do this now, and not years ago in undergrad? They hadn’t had much time together in undergrad. Or motive.

A curse? She focused on slow breathing for a few seconds when panic spun her mind again.
Be rational. Don’t freak out.