CHAPTER TWENTY

The last time Noelle had been wakened periodically throughout the night had been when she and Jenny had lived in New Orleans and rented a flood-prone house. They’d taken turns sleeping so they could watch the water levels, never believing what the forecast said.

Tamatsu wasn’t a weather event, but he was just as unpredictable.

The room was lighter than the last time she’d opened her eyes. Dawn had come, and so had she, more times than she could count.

He slipped into her again from behind and worked his hand over her mound as he slowly thrust.

“Mmm, I guess I’m not going to be able to get anything done at all today.”

“If you have appointments, you should cancel them.”

“No appointments today. No closings, no meetings—” She paused to grip the sheets, and her body tensed into a semi-rigid state.

He always seemed to find her spot sooner rather than later, and also seemed to take great joy in tapping it. He chuckled at her whimpers, and at her inability to do anything of use while he was inside her.

Breathing was a chore—for entirely different reasons than she’d become accustomed in the past eight hundred years—but she managed somehow.

“I don’t intend on doing any showings today, no matter how many needling calls I get.”

“You’ll sleep the day away?”

“Sleep, and …” Mmm. “Other things.”

“I may have to step out for a bit to handle some business, but I’ll try not to leave you pining for too long.”

“Cocky bastard.”

Her phone, wherever it was, chirped a calendar alert.

She wondered what she could have possibly forgotten, and then, remembering, she slapped the mattress. “Fuck.”

“That’s the idea.” He rolled onto his back, drawing a yelp from her at the change in position. The angle—her sitting backward on him—made her feel full, and a bit too exposed.

She fixed her legs beside him and pressed her hands to his thighs.

“I hate this position.”

“And I love the view.” He squeezed the cheeks of her ass, and she got moving before he got any other ideas about things to do with her rear end.

The phone chirped again.

“Gods, that’s distracting.”

“Mind over matter.” He grabbed her haunches and stirred himself inside her.

She made a noise that was neither groan or growl, but some combination of the two. Already, blood began to pool low down and her skin prickled from excitement.

“I need you.”

“Mm-hmm.” She’d guessed that from how rigid he was inside her. “You brought this on yourself. You didn’t have to start this.”

“You’d have me stop now?” He lifted her a bit to illustrate his question, and in response, she clamped him hard inside her. She loved that feeling of too much—loved feeling like she wasn’t just going to come, but to be launched.

His body shook with quiet laughter.

“Don’t mock me. In case you’ve forgotten, I’m the person in control here.”

“Are you?”

“Who’s on top?” She closed her eyes, set her teeth into her bottom lip, and tried to block out the niggling tug in the back of her mind that she’d left something undone.

She’d do it, eventually. She just needed to finish doing Tamatsu first.

Another chime.

“Nope,” she whispered. She slowly rolled her hips and reveled in the brazen pleasure of being stretched tight and plundered, and at being watched.

She could feel his gaze on her backside and her hips as they worked, and that spurred her on. She hadn’t learned many new tricks since the last time they’d been together, but the old ones had always served her fine.

She jammed her hand between his thighs and took his balls into her hand.

“You—”

“Now, now,” she said, chuckling. She dragged her thumb ever-so-gently across the satiny pouch and rolled the underside atop her fingertips.

She felt powerful watching his thighs clench and his heavy sac tightening in her hand. “I do enjoy how very male you are.”

“I seem to recall you were complaining about the same thing three hours ago.”

“It’s nearly winter.” Slowly, she increased her speed and drilled her teeth into her lower lip. Just a few more taps, a few more strokes. Lovemaking with him was a tightrope between pleasure and pain, and she wouldn’t have it any other way. The stings always gave way to the most delicious relief. “My … My endurance this time of year tends to flag at certain times of the day.”

“So I should try to fuck you only during the day instead?”

“I work days. I—” She unhanded his sac and found something safe to squeeze—the covers—as her body convulsed and sex thrummed around him.

“No worries.” He got in a few more thrusts, gripping her hips tightly, breathing loud and rhythmless. “I’ll find times and places to suit me.”

“What about me?”

“I don’t think you’ll complain.”

His fingers notched into her ass as his vital warmth flooded inside her again.

She sagged atop his legs, feeling boneless and sated—feeling like she could happily burrow against his body and not open her eyes again until March. “I could spend the day inhaling your scent and nuzzling your wings.”

His fingertips skimmed up her spine and then down to her ass yet again. Gripping a cheek, he projected, “I could be convinced.”

“I don’t imagine that would take much work.” She wiggled against his hands.

Her phone chimed again.

“Shit.” At the press of his calloused hand against the base of her spine, she shuddered.

“What is the alert for?”

“Ugh. I’d forgotten that Jenny sent an appointment notification over last night. She coordinated a meeting with Blue and me. I’m supposed to feel him out again and decide if he’s trustworthy enough to be introduced to Willa.”

“Where is the meeting supposed to take place?”

“Henderson Executive Airport. He’s got a private plane and is always on the go. I’ll have to decide whether or not he’ll be checking out Maria tonight.”

“Do you trust him?”

“Not as far as I can throw him.” She pushed herself up onto all fours and was about to turn, but he grabbed her thighs.

“Tamatsu,” she warned.

“I like this view, elf. If I were on death row, I know exactly what I’d ask for as a last meal.” As if she’d needed any hints, he pushed a fingertip into her cunt. It took all the fortitude she had left not to incite him any further by bearing down onto him.

“Sweet Danu, you’re a pervert.”

“So?”

“You once thought the top of me was just as nice as my bottom.”

“Are you inviting me to find something else to fit my cock into? I’m hard, Noelle.”

And she was wet, but living a human life meant having human responsibilities. Perhaps fae in the Otherworld could lounge around and fuck all day, but there were people depending on her. “Love, I need to go.” She wriggled away and turned to face him.

He had the audacity to pout. She didn’t think she’d ever seen an angel pout before, or if she had, they certainly hadn’t looked so debauched while doing it.

Must be the hair.

She picked up a swath of it from his chest and twined the lock around her finger. “I need to do this for Willa. You know I’m right.” And she needed a hair’s breadth of space from Tamatsu. Being with him was as wonderful as she remembered, but she, better than anyone, knew that sometimes lust got in the way of logic. She needed to assure herself that she was doing the right thing, and that the only thing that would come back and bite her on the ass would be him.

“I’m going to go take a shower.” She bent and bussed his cheek. “Maybe you can clean up last night’s spoiled dinner while I get ready, and get something to eat, too. I’m sure you’re hungry.”

“Yes. Hungry.” He palmed her breast.

She shook her head.

“But I’m sure a meal will have to suffice if you’re going to stop touching me.”

“Is there enough down there to hold you over during twenty minutes of separation?”

She crawled to the foot of the bed quickly before he really decided he liked the view too much for her to leave.

“Perhaps fifteen, but I’ll endure.”

She giggled as she put her feet to the floor and stretched her abused muscles. “Hmm, endure. Such an angel. The world doesn’t deserve you.”

Nodding, he padded past her, tall, broad, nude, and perfect.

She blew a raspberry. “Hell, for that matter, I don’t deserve you, either.”