Pia Does Hollywood (Elder Races, #8.6)

It’s okay. Everything is okay now. His arms closed around her tightly. What do you remember of what I was telling Tatiana?

Not much. Burying her face against him, she inhaled his healthy, clean scent. I fell asleep a few minutes after we sat on the couch.

With a few quick, concise sentences, he filled her in on the conversation. The lab has the contagion isolated, and Grym let me know about forty-five minutes ago that he personally destroyed all the blood samples. Quentin and Aryal are still out with Shane. They’re combing through neighborhoods street by street, but they haven’t found any more infected for a few hours now. Right now, they just want to err on the side of caution before calling an end to the search.

She lay still, absorbing the news. And you’re sure Morgan has gone?

I’m certain he has, after giving me the amulet. He said he had done what he was commanded to do. Dragos paused. His voice turned darker and edged. I should have known who he was. I should have remembered him. He’s very dangerous, Pia. He walked through my dragonfire unscathed, and he blocked every attempt I made to get at him.

If he’s not Light Fae, then what is he? Could you tell?

He shook his head. There was too much fire burning all around us, so I couldn’t get his scent. Just from looking at him, I think he has some human blood. But he’s clearly not fully human. He was faster and could jump much farther than a human could.

She shivered. Now I understand why you’ve been so obsessive about trying to recover those lost memories.

You never know. Something may still come back to me.

He didn’t sound convinced of that, and neither was she. The longer he went without recovering those memories, the less likely it was that he would ever recall them. Dr. Shaw had made it very clear. They would have to live with the consequences of that fact and be grateful that he had recovered as many memories as he had.

Shrugging it off, Dragos leaned over her again. Enough about him. We have the rest of tonight before your week resumes, and I intend on taking full advantage of it.

Gladly, she surrendered to the change in focus. Ooh, she crooned, running her fingers lightly along the powerful bulk of his shoulders. The silhouette of his body was darker than the rest of the room, as he eclipsed the night. From the darkest part of the shadow, she caught a glint of his intent gold eyes. What do you have in mind?

It was too dark for her to see his smile, but she could hear it in his voice. Probably too many things for the amount of time that we’ve got, but you never know. I’m an ambitious man.

Settling back against her pillow, she whispered, “Let’s take everything on your list one at a time and see where we get.”

“Item one,” he growled quietly. The intense shadow moved, and suddenly his mouth was on hers, hard, hot and demanding.

Desire surged through her veins, burning away logic and common sense. In that moment, he could have asked her for anything, and she would have agreed gladly.

Thrusting his tongue into her mouth, he ran a greedy hand down the curves of her body, pinching and flicking at her nipple with a thumbnail and kneading the soft, full flesh of her breast, while the hard length of his erection pressed against her hip.

It could never be boring between them. All their lovemaking over the last eighteen months had conditioned her to associate his touch with such extreme pleasures that all he had to do was touch her hand and give her that keen, hard smile of his, and she melted into liquid heat. Her body was greedy for it, for him, and the thought of what they would do—what he would do to her—made the muscles in her thighs start to shake.

I can smell it on you, he muttered in her head. Your arousal. It makes me so damn hungry. You’re already wet, aren’t you?

Uh huh, she whimpered.

Wiggling under the heavy weight of his large body, she ran her own hand along the long length of his torso. His hot skin felt like silk wrapped over iron muscles. When her questing fingers found the tip of his cock, they both groaned. His own mounting arousal had caused moisture to bead at the slit. Using the ball of her thumb, she took the moisture and rubbed it along the broad, mushroom head, until he hissed and grabbed at her wrist.

Sometimes he could let her tease him, and then other times, like now, his dominant side took over. She was more than happy to go with either scenario. Pinning her wrists on either side of her head, he growled telepathically, Open your legs.

Hunger pulsed. God, she loved it when he got growly and autocratic. Arching in a stretch that rubbed her torso against his, she put her mouth lightly against his and whispered, “Make me.”

He stilled. Then it was as if she had thrown a lit match on a lake of gasoline. Everything went up in flames.