Throb (2 page)

The graph also hid his dominant hand,
leaving its purpose up to one’s own imagination.

This hadn’t been the
exciting news she’d planned to share with the group, but she got a
couple of impressed, “oohs” from the crowd nonetheless. After a
quiet moment in which everyone took some time to either ogle Finn’s
pasty white abs and mussed
hair,
or politely look away and clear
their throats, Veruca let out a low laugh.

“Well. As exciting as that may be to some of
us, it wasn’t what I had in mind to share. I’ll be sure not to
leave my e-mail up during the next meeting. What I wanted to say
was that, at the end of summer, we’ve got another location coming!”
Pausing, Veruca ran her gaze over her subordinates, catching a
mouth twitch from at least three of them, letting her know she
wasn’t the only one who’d kept the obvious joke to herself. “Yes,
those of you who like the warmer climates may consider putting in
for a transfer, as we’ll be opening a small B&B just outside of
Las Vegas.”

****

Finn didn’t want to risk
setting out the good plates, so he went with the everyday
dinnerware. He’d managed to go the whole day without screwing
anything up and it seemed like tempting fate to go rooting around
in storage in an attempt to carry expensive glass—ceramic? Clay? He
wasn’t sure what plates were made of, now he thought of it—up to
the kitchen and out to the dinner table. Lighting the candles
around the living room had been adventure enough, and he’d
singed
his
fingers twice.

He looked damned good in a
black suit with a baby pink bow tie and shiny shoes, though, and
Veruca would be home any moment, tired from a long day of boring
meetings full of stuffy shirts. She’d
be
ready to be wined and dined
and…

A few moments passed as the pasta steamed
inside its foil package and Finn tried to think of a way to rhyme
getting laid with dined, but nothing came to him.

Giving up, he went back to humming along to
Paul Anka, wiggling happily as he filled the plates with food and
tried to make everything look pretty and romantic. He considered
garnishing with more pepper hearts, but he’d eaten all the red ones
with hummus while trying to decide what to eat for lunch and he
didn’t think yellow hearts worked quite as well for the
holiday.

Veruca would get the picture, though, he
knew. He’d never met anyone who got him quite as well as she did.
He probably could have used broccoli and she’d have understood what
he was aiming for.

Grinning giddily as he
checked the time, he rushed the plates out to the table, risked his
fingers to light the tapers in the centerpiece, and raced
back
into
the kitchen for the wine and glasses. Veruca opened the front
door just as he’d set down the glasses and he looked up to see her
across the house.

“My love!”

“I see the house is safe,” she said with a
smile, unwrapping her scarf to drape it over the coat rack with her
jacket. “And you haven’t burned down either.”

“Yeah, no, everything’s great. Nothing to
report. I mean, there was an incident with a paper chain, but it’s
hardly worth mentioning.”

“Dinner looks amazing. Did you get those
fuzzy handcuffs?”

Finn opened his mouth to joke that he’d
remembered he already owned some, but his brain jumped in before he
had a chance to realize what it was telling him to say.

“Sixty-nined!”

“Pardon?” Veruca asked,
looking only slightly confused
by
his outburst. “Is that the plan for
later?”

“No, no,” Finn said, before reconsidering.
“I mean, yes, definitely. But no, I was—it doesn’t matter. How was
your meeting, my love?”

“Fairly uneventful,” she said, idly reaching
up to tug at his bow tie as if it needed tightening. Finn knew she
just liked the excuse to be close, so he set down the unopened wine
bottle and wrapped his arms around her. Still focused on his tie,
she smiled. “There was a distraction as I announced the Vegas
location, though.”

“Did someone’s IRA plummet in value and set
the whole place on its ear?”

“Your e-mail popped up on the screen for the
whole room to see.” She lifted her gaze to meet his. “The only
thing covering your manhood was the chart pertaining to the most
recent quarterly ADR.”

“It was a really long chart, then, eh?”

“There was hardly any rise
to the
X
axis at
all, actually.”

“Well, that can’t be right. When it comes to
my manhood, there’s always a rise.”

“Even now?” Veruca said, lowering her hand
as if she would check. Against the urging of his hormones, Finn
caught her hand, backed up, and lifted her arm to turn her into a
twirl before aiming her at the chair in front of her plate.

“For now, we’ve got a piping hot dinner to
enjoy. Then we’ll see where the night takes us. We can talk DAR and
mess with my axis all you want.”

“Daughters of the American Revolution?”
Veruca asked, settling in and letting him slide her chair under the
table like a gentleman.

“Is that a request for an
orgy?” Finn asked, hustling around to get the wine and opener.
“Because it doesn’t have to be just daughters, you know. We can
have some
sons
in there as well.”

“That’s what D.A.R. stands”—Veruca shook her
head—“Never mind. What have we for dinner, darling?”

****

Finn hadn’t skimped on the meal, which
pleased Veruca. Everything about Finn pleased her, really. Sure,
he’d spent a load of her money and probably dented up one of her
smaller speedboats bringing the food home, but that didn’t matter.
He wasn’t greedy, he wasn’t mean, and he truly loved her. She’d
come across a great many people in her life, whole groups of whom
had less power than Finn had in his little pinky, and yet he was
the generous one.

If it hadn’t been for her,
he’d have spent barely anything on the meal at all, probably
content with grazing in the kitchen for whatever looked vaguely
edible and crunched between his teeth. She’d found him munching on
potpourri
once
though she wasn’t entirely sure that hadn’t been a
joke.

She smiled at him across
the table, enjoying the lines of his face, the slope of his
shoulder, and the shadows that draped across the skin of his throat
beneath his open collar. It was
high
time she get her hands on him and
show him how much she appreciated all that he’d done while she was
gone.

There were questions to be asked about the
Fourth of July paper chain that had come unstuck and plummeted to
the kitchen tile, but they could wait.

“I missed you today,
darling,” Veruca said, leaving her shoes
under
the table as she circled
around to stand next to him and caress his face gently. “Even when
you embarrassed yourself in a room full of executives.”

“Hardly embarrassing,” Finn insisted,
turning in his chair to better face her. “I was incredible.”

“I guess I can’t disagree there. I heard a
few oohs and aahs at the look of you. Not just women, either. You
have wide-range appeal.”

“You’re all I want to appeal to
anymore.”

“Well, that’s simply not true,” Veruca said,
leaning down to kiss him softly. “But I appreciate the
sentiment.”

Finn smiled against her
lips, kissed her sweetly, and then reached around to guide her down
to sit
in
his lap. It was a tight squeeze between him and the table,
but Veruca had never minded being pressed against her beautiful
Irishman. They stayed close like that for a bit, Finn rubbing his
hand up and down Veruca’s arm, his other twining into her bound
hair.

She knew he’d be content
with
that
if things ended there. Finn had come into her life like a
storm that continued to rage in her heart. There wasn’t a moment of
any day where she didn’t ache for him in some small way.
Occasionally that ache manifested in a desire so tenacious she’d go
from simply admiring him to tearing at his clothes and ordering his
hands upon her. Finn was always happy, eager, and ready to oblige,
no matter what she demanded of him.

His soul glowed in his
chest, bound about his heart. Before he’d moved in, the only
humming she’d hear when
home
came from the occasional and
easily forgettable souls of the small creatures who naturally
inhabited her private island. Birds would dip into her magical
range, their tiny souls registering gently at the edge of her
senses.

Finn overtook her, though,
which she welcomed. His soul was strong, thick,
good
in every sense. Despite the
fact that he had the ability to raise the dead, to control an army
of corpses in whatever way one might abuse the undead and their
hunger for life, he preferred to satisfy the living.

As he slid his hand up over her shoulder to
cup her cheek and deepen the kiss, Veruca felt her body yearn for
all the ways he could satisfy her.

Kissing a line to his ear,
she whispered words of love, suggesting they take
to
the bedroom
to see where the romantic holiday would take them. Without
hesitation, Finn shifted his grip, scooted back his seat, and
lifted Veruca, catching her mouth in a quick kiss. Resting her head
on his shoulder, Veruca trailed her hand up and down his back,
enjoying the act of just touching him, loving the smell of him. She
wasn’t sure he’d showered since they’d done so together the night
before, and that only made her want him more.

He always smelled so
delightful, his natural scent soft and almost earthy. It wasn’t
that he reminded her of running full-tilt through a forest or
digging in
dirt
, but when his natural smell overtook any soap or shampoo,
she felt grounded.

Finn set her on the bed, and Veruca sat up,
wrapping her arms around his waist and leaning into him so she
could just hug him to her for a moment. He stroked her hair and
rubbed her back and after a few moments, breathed a happy sigh and
said he loved her.

Looking up, Veruca smiled.

“I love you, too,” she said, and Finn beamed
like it was the first time he’d ever heard it. Overwhelmed, she
reached up, pulling him down over her so she could feel his heart
against hers and wrap her legs around him. He kissed her deeply,
passionately, arching to allow access when she reached between
them, undoing the buttons of his vest. Slowly, indulgently, she
untucked his shirt enough that she could slide her hands around his
waist, up under his shirt, scratching her nails lightly across the
warmth of his back.

He hummed against her
mouth, happy as he always was when she touched him, and moved his
mouth to kiss
along
her neck nipping her skin as he went. He wouldn’t
leave marks, reading her desire without her having to lay it out.
Finn always seemed to know how she wanted him, whether she’d enjoy
seeing the reminders of his teeth and hands along her skin the next
morning, or if she wanted to take things slow and soft.

“Oh, Finn,” she said, besieged with pure and
overwhelming love once again. She repeated his name softly against
his ear, moving to unbutton his pants, before pushing against him
so she could roll him over and pin him beneath her.

“You’re my everything,” he whispered, one
hand holding her against him, the other wrapped in her hair beneath
the knot of her hair. “My whole world.”

“Te
amo
,” Veruca murmured.
“
Eres tan
hermosa
.”
Grinding against him, she gasped at the feeling of him hard
beneath her. Lust had built up along her skin, electrifying her
nerves and making every touch of his
hands
tingle. She felt as if her senses
couldn’t
breathe,
as if she would suffocate if she didn’t get as
much of him touching as much of her as possible. Slipping a hand
down into his trousers, she rubbed him roughly, shoving at his
pants with her other hand, before sliding down his body so she
could suck him into her mouth.

“Jesus,” he said,
breathless, surprised and overwhelmed as she slid a hand down to
massage him, to drive him wild. She fought off a smile as he let
out a long string of expletives, and resisted when he reached for
her, trying to tug her back upward. Giving in when she was sure
she’d driven him near the edge of ecstasy, she pushed up, getting
to her feet to admire him sprawled out on the bed. His pale face
was flushed, his bow tie still somehow centered and perky beneath
his chin. Right down to his
midsection,
he looked fancy and
presentable, but from there he looked ready to be ravaged and
ridden rough.

Fixing her gaze pointedly on his cock, she
reached up to loosen her own tie, taking the time to admire him,
making it clear from her stance she wanted him to stay down. She’d
undress for him, making him watch instead of letting him
participate. Lips parted, he watched her hands, his body tense and
eager. Smiling, she slipped the tie over her head, tossed it aside,
and moved to unbutton her shirt.

“I’m going to have you,” Veruca said,
keeping her voice slow and serious, moving her gaze to hold his.
“Kick off your shoes.”

Breath quickening, Finn licked his lips,
doing as she said before moving his hands to grasp his pants as if
he’d pull them off. Veruca shook her head.