Velvet Haven

didn’t mean to disturb you—”
    He laughed, the sound dark, menacing.
    He freed one hand from her wrists and brought it down between their bodies. She followed his hand and watched as he brought it to his cock. Something glinted in the sheen of the water, and she blinked, her lashes heavy with water. Something silver flashed at her.
    “So, do you like it, Mairi? Are the men you bring home for sex always pierced?”
    She looked down and saw the tiny silver ball. Oh, God, his cock was pierced. And covered with the same sigils on his arm and temple. Normally tattoos and piercings would have sent her running, but somehow it suited him. It more than suited him; it completed him. And truth be told, she couldn’t wait to experience just what kind of bone-melting pleasure he and his pierced shaft could give her.
    She looked up at him, blinking through her heavy lashes and her soaked hair. She saw the expression in his eyes, the one he tried so hard to hide behind his tough-guy exterior. And in that moment, she felt far more than just lust coursing through her veins.
    “I’ve never brought a guy back to my apartment for anything, let alone sex. What I want is . . . you.”
    “I can’t seem to get the taste of you out of my head, Mairi, even though I know I shouldn’t be thinking of it, or remembering how damn sexy you looked spread wide for me.”
    “Why shouldn’t you?” she asked as he released her wrists. She ran her hands down over his shoulders and between the muscles of his back. He groaned as she ran her fingertips over the two small bumps beneath his flesh.
    “Do that again, muirnin ,” he moaned. She repeated the action and he shuddered against her.
    In a blinding whirl, he had her turned around, facing the tiled wall. Her T-shirt was thrown aside and his hands were suddenly overflowing with her breasts. He kneaded her from behind as he pressed his cock against her bottom, his breathing harsh against her neck.
    “Please,” she pleaded as she pressed the side of her face against the warm tiles. From over her shoulder, she watched him, watched the way his palms smoothed down the sides of her breasts to her ribs and down over her belly, where his fingers kneaded her. A rush of arousal seeped out of her, but she was too far gone to care or be embarrassed. He knew how aroused she was, because his gaze flickered up to meet hers, a knowing grin on his lips. He held her steady as his hands slowly caressed her bottom, before ripping off her shorts and gathering the edges of her panties in his fingers.
    Pushing the edges of her panties up, he pressed them up into her crease, as his fingers slowly stroked her swollen and slick sex.
    Never had she been more turned on in her life. It was as if every cell in her body was just waiting for Bran to pounce on her and take her.
    “Bran, I want you so much,” she said, throwing her hips back and rubbing her bottom against him. She was drowning in excitement. If he didn’t quit teasing her, there was no telling what she was going to do.
    “What will you do after I take you, Mairi?” he asked, tracing the shell of her ear with the tip of his tongue as his fingers slid slowly, playfully in her folds.
    Probably die of sheer pleasure.
    His voice was velvety dark against her ear. “No matter what happens, I’m going to remember this forever, the way you feel, the way your energy invades my body. And I’m going to keep those memories for the rest of my days.”
    Mairi closed her eyes and let her head rest against the crook of Bran’s shoulder. He was hard and hot against her back as he fingered her. His free hand skated down her belly and over her hip. His touch was overflowing with that magical essence that seemed to seep out of him. She felt the hum start to travel up her body, along the nerve pathways, heating her skin, filling her blood, filling her core with him and his magic.
    “That’s it. Let the energy build inside you. I can feel it drawing me in. It feels so damn good to be pulled into you. It’s a gentle tugging—no, a sucking,” he rasped. “The same sort of sucking sensation your mouth would give my cock.” He brushed his erection up against the cleft of her bottom, letting her feel how hard he was. “I can imagine it, you know, how’d you look tugging me into your mouth, sucking me into your body.”
    “Bran,” she moaned, feeling her body begin to open to him.
    “You cannot even imagine what it’s like to feel you, to feel all this energy