My tongue seemed to be clawed to the roof of my mouth. Corrigan sighed and raked a hand through his hair. “Look,” he said, “I know this isn’t ideal. I’m not trying to make light of the terrible things that happened here and this isn’t a celebration. But, in view of the fact that we have to stay for now, and that you promised me dinner, I thought that maybe we could at least manage some food.”

His eyes drifted down to the pizza box in my hands, and I gave him a shy half-smile. “You beat me to it,” I said softly.

A slow lazy grin, tinged with just a hint of surprise, spread across his face. “Where did you get pizza from?”

“I had a little help from Aubrey,” I admitted. “Where did you get the posh picnic?”

“I arranged it earlier when you went off to talk to the dryads.”

We both remained standing there, just looking at each other. I bit my lip. Corrigan’s eyes moved to my mouth, then back up to my eyes again. Without looking away from him, I knelt down, and placed the pizza box carefully on the cloth, then stood back up again. A look of mutually surprised understanding passed between us. My heart thudded.

“Last chance to back out, kitten,” he said quietly. There was a hopeful wariness on his face.

“I told you not to call me that, my Lord.”

A predatorial smile curved its way across his mouth. I smiled back. Then we sprang at each other.

Corrigan’s lips were hot against mine as I pressed against him with an insatiable, insistent need. He tasted warm and masculine, with just a hint of toothpaste mintiness hovering in the background. He raised up one hand, twisting his fingers through my hair, while the other curved tightly round my back. I wrapped my arms around him, luxuriating in the feel of his tight trembling muscles under my skin.

His hand moved down to my bottom, squeezing it and pulling my body even closer against his, then his lips left mine and began moving down my throat, nibbling and nipping downwards. I moaned and clutched him tighter, all semblance of rational thought completely leaving me. His breath was scorching hot against my skin and, deep inside, my bloodfire matched it, swirling around with heated seductive need. Corrigan shifted his weight ever so slightly, causing both of us to stumble and fall backwards, me on top of him, with an answering crash of breaking glass as one of our feet connected with the ice-bucket and sent it flying into the champagne flutes. I laughed and half-sat up, straddling him with my legs, my hands gripping his broad shoulders. Leaning over him, I smiled down.

“Looks like you’ve found yourself in a rather compromising position, my Lord.”

He half-growled back at me, hands on my waist, and flipped me round in a movement so swift that it took my breath away, completely reversing our positions, his body hot and heavy against mine. Then he curved his head down and whispered in my ear, “Not for long, kitten.”

His mouth found mine again, stifling whatever response I could possibly have managed to muster. One of his hands was snaking its way under my t-shirt, searing against my skin. Sod this. I pushed him back slightly, forcing him to half sit up, then I peeled off my t-shirt and flung it away to the side. He grinned down at me then gestured to himself, so I reached out and undid the first button on his crisp white shirt, then the second and the third. When I fumbled on the fourth, I cursed and gave up, pulling at the fabric and ripping the remaining buttons off. Corrigan just raised his eyebrows at me in amusement, then shrugged out of the rest of his shirt, throwing it to the side so that it sailed through the air and joined my t-shirt in a messy heap on the ground.

I stared up at him for a moment, his broad tanned chest with smooth skin and erect nipples, then I reached up and ran my hands over him, revelling in the feel of his body. He groaned and leaned downwards again, crushing my body and kissing me hard before moving down my chest, his hand cupping one breast while his mouth attended to the other, sucking at it through the soft satiny fabric. The barrier of my bra annoyed me, and I felt the faintest flicker of embarrassment that my underwear was considerably more functional than pretty. I needed to feel his lips on my skin, not teasing like this.

“Corrigan,” I groaned.

He understood and half lifted me up, undoing the clasp at the back with a deft movement that any well-advertised Latin lover would be proud of, and pulling it away, until it remained caught around just one of my arms. Then he returned his mouth to my breast, gently nipping and pulling with his tongue and his teeth until I could barely breathe. His hand moved up to my shoulder, caressing the deep marks of my Draco Wyr scar, and making me shiver.

The weight and length of Corrigan’s erection was obvious and I tugged at the button on his trousers, trying to undo them. A sharp stone was digging uncomfortably into the small of my back so I reached underneath and pulled it out, flinging it to the side, then returned my attention to much, much more important things. My fingers scrabbled away, until I finally achieved success, unfastening the button. He pulled away and stood up, looking down at me. My eyes travelled down the expanse of his chest and stomach, admiring the clearly defined muscles and the trail of dark hair that led downwards.

“Are you sure about this?”

His voice was gruff and I was forced to pull my attention away from the tight bulge in his now unbuttoned trousers. The doubt that was reflected in his face made my heart ache, and I suddenly wished that I’d not been so stupid as to waste so much time in getting to this point. Instead of answering him, however, I undid the fastening on my own jeans and wriggled out of them. Hot molten gold lit Corrigan’s eyes, and he did the same, then looked down at me.

“Mack, you’ve got no idea what it is you do to me,” he groaned.

I drank in the sight of him, towering over me. There were innumerable scars over his body, most of them faint lines carved into his skin. They didn’t detract from his immutable sex appeal, however, they just added to it. I didn’t think I’d ever seen a man who was such a testament to virile masculinity. I actually had a pretty good idea of what it was that I did to him, because he was doing the same to me. I reached up and curved my hands round his hips and tugged him back down. He smiled, baring his white teeth, pushed my panties down, pulled them off and then with one swift movement moved inside me with a possessive roar. I cried out as he filled me, my hips rising to meet his.

Twisting round, I forced him beneath me so I could be more in control. Then I leaned back slightly, enjoying the sensation of having him deep inside me, and we found a rhythm. My breath was coming fast and sharp, and Corrigan groaned as his hands reached up to my waist then slammed me down onto him, again and again. I moaned as the need and desire overwhelmed me, building to a crescendo of feeling.

“Mack…”

My eyes met his. “Now,” I half-sobbed.

He jerked his head in acknowledgment and thrust upwards. I screamed as my body shuddered in ecstasy. Corrigan quaked beneath me, then I collapsed on top of him, sweaty and panting. His arms wrapped round my back, hugging me to him, and we both lay there, exhausted, with our ragged gasps as the only sound filling the entire area. I could feel his heart throb against my ribcage and I closed my eyes, peace and happiness flooding through me. Corrigan’s hand moved up to my head, and softly stroked my hair, smoothing it down.

“I have to admit, our date has somewhat exceeded my expectations,” he said with a low purr.

I smiled into his chest. “I’m sorry.”

His body stiffened beneath me. “For what?”

“For being so pig-headed, Corrigan. I shouldn’t have pushed you away before. I was an idiot.” In oh so many ways.

He relaxed. “Yes, you were. Why the sudden change of heart?”

I really didn’t want to tell him that I’d overheard his conversation with Lucy. It seemed sneaky, eavesdropping on him like that. But I didn’t want to lie to him either. I took a deep breath. “Well…”

He jerked suddenly. “Someone’s coming,” he breathed into my ear.

Alarmed, I sprang up. The last thing I needed was to deal with anyone happening upon us in such a state of in flagrante delicto. Not that I was ashamed of course, but the never-ending innuendo that I’d have to deal with afterwards wasn’t worth it. I scrabbled for my clothes, yanking my pants and jeans back on. Corrigan did the same, albeit at a more leisurely pace. I was just hooking myself back into my bra when I heard Aubrey’s raised voice. I couldn’t work out who he was talking to, but it was nice to see that he’d taken my instructions seriously.

Corrigan raised his eyebrows slightly.

“I told him to make sure we weren’t disturbed,” I explained.

His mouth quirked up at the side. “So you had this all planned then, did you?”

I pulled my t-shirt over my head and shook out my hair. “Not exactly.”

Corrigan chuckled. “Clearly, I had no chance.”

I scowled at him. “Hey, you weren’t exactly complaining.”

He licked his lips, and my stomach flipped. I was prevented from saying anything further, however, as the figure of Solus appeared, rounding the corner. Aubrey was hanging onto his ankles and shouting something along the lines of ‘stop it, they’re eating pizza!’. Well, that was a euphemism if ever I heard one. Solus shook him off, and wandered casually up to the pair of us. Corrigan was still shirt-less and it was all I could do not to slap the leery grinning Fae in the face.

“Well, well, well,” he smirked.

Corrigan moved in front of me, and my mouth dropped open. Oh, he so wasn’t go to go all caveman on me now, was he?

“You’re interrupting,” he growled. “We’re busy.” The emphasis that he placed on the word ‘we’ left very little to the imagination.

“I can see that,” murmured Solus, no end of amusement audibly visible in his voice.

I stepped out from behind Corrigan, irritated. “What do you want?”

“Dragonlette, you don’t have to worry,” he said, “I’m not the jealous type. I don’t demand monogamy in my partners.”

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