"Sure," she said. "I was just waiting for Elias to cash out the bar." She leaned to the side to look around me and smiled. "Hey, Angel."
"Hey, Kenya." She didn't sound near as happy to be there as Kenya was to see her.
I pulled her past my grinning friend and into the office, closing the door behind us, but not bothering to lock it. It would be a moot point anyway if anyone really wanted to get in. Witch or vampire. As soon as we were inside, I released her hand and put mine low on my bare hips. "You wanna tell me what the hell that was out there?"
"Magic," she answered without hesitation. Her eyes dropped to my chest, then my stomach, and lower for a brief second before they flew back up to my face. "Do you think you could put some clothes on maybe?"
"No," I told her when I got over my shock at her honest answer. I'd expected lies, excuses...something. Not a straight up honest answer. "Why did you do it?"
This time there was a brief pause. "I didn't like her touching you. And I didn't like you so close to her."
"You didn't..." The words faded away. Again, not what I was expecting. "That's what I do here. It's how we bring in money."
Crossing her arms over her chest as best she could with her coat still in one hand and her bag in the other despite Elias's manhandling, she rolled her eyes. "What do you need money for? Unless you guys are just really bad at investing." Those hazel green eyes travelled down the length of my torso again. Only this time when they dropped lower, they stayed there. The tip of her tongue wet her red bottom lip, making it glossy.
Jesus fuck.
I could feel myself, already half hard the moment I got within three feet of her, grow harder still under her heated stare. "Angel." I barked out her name. I was about to bust out of my G-string.
Her eyes, when they flew to mine, were more green than brown now.
"You need to stop looking at me like that," I gritted out.
"Itoldyouto put some clothes on," she retorted.
"What are you even doing here?" I asked her, changing the subject, cuz this particular argument wasn't going to get us anywhere but equally naked.
Her chest rose and fell on a deep sigh, then she set her coat and designer bag on one of the chairs in front of the desk. When she turned to face me, she looked just as bewildered as I felt. "I don't really know," she said softly. "I just...I don't know. You were in my head."
I knew exactly what she was talking about. Though I wasn't about to be as straight up about it as she was being. "So you decided to come crash my show?"
"I decided to come watch your show," she corrected me. "The crashing part wasn't planned and surprised me as much as it did you." She pressed those blood red lips together and wouldn't look me in the face.
"Eyes up, Leeloo," I told her when I caught her eyeballing me again. If I had any sense of self-preservation, I'd do as she asked and put some clothes on. But some masochistic part of me was really liking the way she couldn't keep her eyes off of my near naked self.
She didn't do as I asked. "But I like looking at you," she said softly. "And isn't that the whole reason you do what you do? So women will look at you?"
"Other women, yes. You? No." It was a cruel thing to say. I knew that. And it almost had the desired effect I was hoping for. Almost, but not quite.
She went completely still for a long moment, a disbelieving smile fluttering around her lips and then dying. She narrowed her cat eyes and took a step toward me, green fire in her eyes.
"Stop," I told her.
Ignoring my order completely, she kept coming, slow and steady, until she stood so close the fullest parts of her breasts brushed my chest with every breath she took. In her heels, the top of her head came right about to my nose, but I still outweighed her by about eighty pounds of muscle. Not that it would help me if she decided to go all witchy on me. The A/C kicked on, the vent behind her blowing air our way and her scent overwhelmed me in a rush, the self-control I'd been hanging onto by a string flying out the window. My gums burned as my fangs punched down and I opened my mouth on a hiss.
A visible shudder swept over her at the sound and her eyes dropped to the razor-sharp points. I could hear her pulse pounding, fast and hard. Could hear the rush of her blood through her veins. The strong beat of her heart. I could smell her hair, the clean scent of her skin, the spicy sweetness of her blood, and the musk of her arousal. Feel her warm breath on my collarbone. "Leeloo..." There was a warning in my voice. A warning she chose not to heed.
"I can't stop thinking about you," she whispered. "About what it felt like when your fangs were deep in my wrist. How every time you pulled on my vein, I could feel it all the way to my womb. I'm aching right now, just thinking about it."
Her hand came up between us, ghostly white against my dark skin. Carefully, she placed it flat against my chest. I couldn't stop the moan of pleasure her touch conjured from deep within me. "What are you doing to me, witch?"
Chapter 16
Angel
Gods, I didn't know. I had no idea what I was doing here or why I'd even come to this place. I just couldn't stop thinking about him. That night with the djinn kept playing over and over in my head, but still, I knew I should stay away. I didn't need Jamal asking any more questions. Or worse, just pulling them out of my head. I couldn't get too comfortable around him. Couldn't let down my guard.
But I wasn't lying when I told him I ached for him. It was true. I did. I didn't understand it, but it was there. Was this all a part of it? The whole mating thing? Ever since the night he'd taken my blood, I had an uncontrollable urge to give him more. Give him anything he wanted. My blood. My body. Anything except the reason I was in the graveyard to begin with. "Please," I whispered. I didn't know what I was begging for. His touch, maybe? His bite? "Please," I repeated.
