The big box shuddered to a halt.
“Wh-what did you do?” But she knew.
“We’re clearing the air here, Cara.” He exhaled heavily. “The captain knows about our relationship. Hell, Gyth knew I’d been with you the minute I walked into the station.”
The quiet words rocked through her.
“I don’t make a habit of talking about my sex life.” His mouth tightened. “I came in today because I was on duty. Apparently, Gyth has one hell of a nose. He”—Todd’s jaw clenched—“smelled you on me.”
Yeah, those two-faced shifters could do that.
“Kissing and telling—that’s not my style.”
“But then I’m not your usual ‘style,’ now am I? You think I’m some kind of freak because I happened to be born a demon and—”
“You’re not a damn freak!” She winced at his yell. “Or a monster or—”
“What am I, then?”
His mouth snapped closed.
“What am I? What am I to you? A suspect? An itch that you want to scratch? A—”
“You’re mine!” Nearly a roar.
She shook her head and wondered if her ears would stop ringing soon.
He grabbed her, crushing her against him. “I hate this case. I hate bringing you in. I hate seeing you scared and angry. I hate wanting to rip my partner apart because he questions you—and I hate myself because I have to stand there and watch—because if I go too easy on you, the captain will sure as hell suspect you’re involved—and that you’re using your sex demon powers to slip into my mind and make me weak!”
Wow. She knew her eyes had to be wide—and that her mouth was hanging open in surprise. “Todd, I don’t—”
“There’s the case, baby, then there’s you and me.”
Well, that was the way it should have been—but…“I keep finding myself in the middle of your case, Detective.”
“I know. And it f**king sucks.”
He had no idea. He wasn’t the one who kept popping up as a suspect.
“Cara…” Almost desperate. His hands were too tight on her. “Christ, woman, I—” His mouth crashed onto hers. Rough, Demanding.
So right.
A hot flush of excitement spread through her. She was still angry with him, she didn’t like the way he’d confronted her during the interrogation, but—ah, damn it, yes she still wanted the guy.
The sensual power flowing from Todd in waves wrapped around her.
The man sure had some kind of potent sexual energy.
And she was the one who was supposed to be dangerous.
He ripped his mouth from hers, breath rasping out. He freed her hands, only to raise his arms and slap his palms on the wall behind her head, effectively caging her.
She tasted him on her tongue—and wanted more. “A-aren’t you nervous?” She asked, wetting her lips and watching his gaze drop with a helpless surge of pleasure. “I mean, you’re all alone here with a demon. There’s really no telling what I could do to you.”
He’d sure gone running fast enough this morning.
“And you’re all alone with a man who wants you so badly he can hardly think.” His mouth hovered over her lips. “Are you nervous?” The question was whispered right back to her.
Yes.
His scent surrounded her, just as she knew the tempting lure of her pheromones surrounded him.
“Is any of it real?” He asked, and there was a spark of unmistakable anger in his eyes. “The lust, the need…is it all a trick?”
“I told you before.” She hadn’t lied then, wouldn’t lie now. Screw her pride. “I want you. Have from the moment I opened my door to you.” Her head shook, a little sadly. “That’s no trick.”
“But what about how I feel?” His right hand dropped to capture her jaw. His thumb brushed over her lip. Pushed just past the edge of her teeth. “Are you making me want you?”
Her sex clenched with hunger just from his touch. He stood so close to her that she could feel the hard ridge of his aroused c**k pressing against her.
His hand moved, drifting down her neck until his fingers rested lightly over the pounding pulse in her throat. She tried to answer him as honestly as she could, saying, “My pheromones, my scent, they’re designed to lure…”
“You mean the way you smell like sex and paradise? Yeah, baby, that’s a damn big lure.”
“I don’t release the full scent with you. I mean, I have, when we were making love, there was no way to stop it then, but now, and before, I’ve tried to control it.” Okay, she’d let it slip in the interrogation room—but he’d pushed her too far. And he’d certainly caught the scent plenty of other times—but not the full onslaught.
“Just the scent of you arouses men.” His voice was thick with tension.
“It can.”
“You said you weren’t using your magic on me.”
“Not to hypnotize you.” She hadn’t.
Damn, but she wanted the man to kiss her. That mouth of his was so close—
“What about the dreams, Cara? Those sweet, wild-as-hell dreams I had?” His fingers eased over her collarbone. Slid down the vee at the top of her shirt and paused in the valley between her br**sts.
“I-I didn’t mean to—”
He brushed open the edges of her shirt. Slid his fingertips under the lace of her black bra. Her flesh was so sensitive that when he found her nipple, she gasped with the pleasure that arched through her.
Even as she realized that the seductress was being seduced.
“Didn’t mean to what?” he whispered, then his mouth finally took hers. Lips touched. Pressed. His tongue thrust deep. Tangled with hers.
Only to withdraw too soon.
He gazed down at her, and there was no mistaking his need. Or her own.
“What didn’t you mean to do?” His voice was gravel rough.
She could still taste him on her tongue. “Come to you, that way. I-I…in the past, I’ve had to focus my power. Project.” Hunt.
“When I closed my eyes, I just went to you.” And it had been wonderful.
“It was all real then?” His fingers strummed her tight nipple.
“Yes, in a-a sense.” She licked her lips. “The pleasure was real, but it was just a dream.” She hadn’t actually been in his room.
Hadn’t felt the warm, naked contours of his body.