Velvet Haven

against the pad of his thumb as he traced the jagged marks. On the surface it was an old wound, but he’d bet all his magic that the pain ran much deeper than the surface of her pale skin.
    Their gazes collided and he felt his body being pulled into her shamed expression.
    “Please don’t ask,” she murmured, her lips quivering.
    Mairi had secrets. Fascinating secrets for one whose aura was supposedly in perfect balance. He should let her keep them. He had his own secrets to worry about. But for some damn reason he couldn’t let her move away from him.
    She started to tremble, and he stepped closer, his nose nuzzling the soft patch of skin behind her ear. She smelled good— familiar —he thought as he breathed deeply of her skin. The animal in him wanted to suckle that soft flesh, and he let that part guide him. When he brushed her throat with his lips he heard the rush of breath whisper past her partially opened mouth. When he began to suck her, he felt her fingers curl into a claw before they threaded through his and squeezed tight.
    Their bodies brushed together in an enticing undulation and her aroma wafted between them, the scent of the wetness he knew was trickling between her thighs. Inhaling, he imagined what it would be like to taste her, to feel her essence on his tongue.
    She whimpered in a mixture of fear and desire. She didn’t know what to make of her longing. She was not a woman who slept around indiscriminately. He knew that. Couldn’t help but be turned on by that and this new, secret side to Mairi.
    “I won’t hurt you, Mairi,” he murmured, licking the tiny bruise he’d given her. He trailed the fingertips of his free hand, the one with his Sidhe sigils, down her throat and into the valley of her breasts.
    He inhaled her skin again, drunk on her smell. She smelled so damn good to him.
    She arched against him as his fingers found the hem of her shirt. Beneath the fabric her skin was warm and silken. Her harsh rasping breaths aroused him, and he pressed his pelvis into hers, making her feel how hard he was for her.
    “I wanted you from the moment I first saw you, Mairi. And I want you now. Feel how much.”
    In a slow, sensual circle he ground his cock against her. Her eyes went round and her tongue came out once more, but he caught it with his lips and sucked at its tip. She fell into him and he let go of her wrist, wanting her hands on his shoulders, his back, clutching at his hair.
    As if she knew what he desired, she pulled him close, rubbing her breasts against his chest as his tongue crept between her lips, tasting her. Beneath her shirt, his palm slid up over her ribs to the edge of her bra. He could have pushed the satin cup up, revealing her breast, but he pulled it down, allowing her breast to spill out over her bra into his hand. She was big and full, her nipple hard, scraping against his palm. He tugged at it, and she moaned into his mouth as she raked her nails through his hair.
    It was Mairi who deepened the kiss, taking his tongue against hers as she rubbed the front of her jeans against his cock. It was her sexual perfume that clouded the air, and his thoughts. She wanted him. And he wanted her tasting his passion, feeding her pleasure.
    Tearing his mouth from hers, he kissed a path along her throat and neck over to her ear. She shivered, her nipples hard stabbing points that he could feel through his clothes. “I want to feel you tremble like that when I thrust into you.”
    He realized how big he was compared to her, standing short and small against him. He didn’t want her desire mixing with fear. He wanted her free, uninhibited to take what she wanted from him.
    Sliding down the wall, he reached for her, taking her with him. She balked, but he held her hand in his until she was sitting on his lap and they were looking into each other’s eyes. He was her size now, and the wariness in her eyes slowly ebbed.
    “Do not fear me.”
    “How did you know?”
    “I could smell when your arousal turned to fear.”
    She looked at him oddly, and he knew then he had slipped up. No mortal man could sense, let alone smell, such a thing.
    She moved as if she were trying to get away. “I don’t want you to go without tasting you.” Cupping her cheeks, he kissed her, felt her come into him as their tongues tangled, their mouths angling and moving against each other.
    Mairi wiggled on his lap and Bran gritted his teeth. He was hard. He didn’t understand it, but he actually