Fairy Tales Of New York: Taming The Beast Part 6

He scrolled through his list of contacts until he found the one he was looking for and tapped it, wondering why the h.e.l.l this process couldnt be quicker.

"Seb?"

"What?" he muttered, lifting the phone to his ear and concentrating on the ringtone instead of her.

"Do you ever think of me?"

"In what context?" He started drumming his fingers on the desk.

"In the hot and naked context."

Seb went still. The drumming stopped. He cut the call. Right. Well. There was a question. Did he think about her hot, naked and in his arms? Panting and pleading and begging him to do to her all the things he shouldnt want to do to her? "No."

"Thats a shame."

"Is it? Why?"

"Because Ive been thinking about you in the hot and naked context a lot lately."

"I thought you hated me," he said, his temperature rocketing. "Didnt you once call me a wallowing coward?"

Her eyes clouded for a moment. "You remembered."

"Its not something Im likely to forget."

"No. I guess not. But maybe youre not the only one whos rea.s.sessed." She tilted her head, her gaze too d.a.m.n shrewd. "I think you wanted me back then, Seb. I think you still do. Maybe as much as I want you."

A bolt of desire shot through him but he ruthlessly stamped it down. "Youre mistaken."

"Youre very keen to get rid of me."

"Its late. Im tired."

"So take me to bed."

Seb nearly fell off his chair. Yes, yes, yes. "No."

"The speed and certainty of your answer suggests youve thought about it."

"It hasnt crossed my mind once."

"Really?"

"Really." And technically that was correct because it had crossed his mind a hundred times, but that didnt matter. "But even if it had my answer would still be no."

"Why?"

"Because my fledgling relationship with Zelda is too fragile." True.

Mercys eyebrows rose. "Whats that got to do with anything?"

"Everything. If you and I got involved Id end up hurting you. Zelda would hate me all over again for that and that is not going to happen." Again, true.

"What makes you think youd hurt me?"

"Its what I do. You know that. I know that. Everyone knows that. So forget it, Mercedes. There is no way in h.e.l.l you and I are going to have s.e.x again. Hypothetically speaking or not." And disappointingly, even more true.

She looked at him for a long while and he could practically see the cogs of her brain whirring, so expressive were her eyes. "I really think youre overthinking this, Seb."

"I dont."

"Im not looking for anything permanent," she said, getting up from her seat and walking slowly towards him. "I dont want a relationship at the moment and commitment is the last thing on my mind. Im busy enough as it is with my MBA. Ive worked incredibly hard to get here," she said, perching her b.u.t.t on the edge of the desk and sliding it along until her legs almost touched his knees. "And Im not going to waste the opportunity I have for anything or anyone. However I would quite like some s.e.x and I would quite like it with you."

"You cant have it with me. Go and find it with someone else," said Seb, gritting his teeth against the revulsion that rose up inside him at the thought of Mercy with someone else and just about resisting the urge to push his chair back and remove himself from her brain-addling orbit because that would be weak.

"Ive tried," she said with a sigh of what sounded like exasperated distress.

Seb stilled. "Dont tell me youve failed." How was that possible? How could any man look at her and not want her?

"Thats exactly whats happened."

"Why?"

"You ruined s.e.x for me, Seb."

He stared at her. "How the h.e.l.l did I do that?"

"You used me. You used s.e.x as a weapon."

No, he hadnt. But yes, that was what she thought. s.h.i.t. "Ive apologized."

"Its not enough," she said. "What you did has colored my judgement and warped my instincts. Now I find that whenever the opportunity for s.e.x arises, I worry so much about motives that the mood disappears." She b.u.mped his knees with her legs and he felt the contact like a bolt of electricity shooting though him.

"Thats ridiculous."

"Im glad you agree."

What? No. Yes. Wait. What was he agreeing with or not again?

"So what Im suggesting, Seb," she continued, clearly unaware of the disintegration of his brain, "is a fling. No strings. No demands. Just s.e.x."

A fling? Just s.e.x? He wasnt sure that was possible with Mercy. "You once looked at me as though you wanted to slay my dragons," he said roughly.

"I was sixteen and you were easy to romanticize," she said, a charming hint of pink hitting her cheeks. "I wouldnt make that mistake now. And, seriously, arent you even the tiniest bit curious? Dont you want to know if it would be the same as before?"

No. He wanted to know if it would be better. "I thought you said you barely remembered it."

"I lied. Look, Seb, theres no harm to be done," she said, her eyes dark and shining and utterly mesmerizing. "Really there isnt. All Im after is some scorchingly hot s.e.x. A little light conversation and a whole lot of action. A way to relax after a long hard week. Pleasure. Release. Oblivion. Thats it. Truly. So what do you think?"

Think? Seb was having trouble breathing, let alone thinking, because he could imagine that. Had imagined it. All of it. Even though hed tried his d.a.m.nedest not to. So what she was suggesting sounded good. Incredibly good. But it wasnt going to happen. It couldnt. Although for the life of him he couldnt remember why not.

Perhaps she was right and he had been overthinking things, he figured with the one remaining brain cell that was functioning. Who was he to tell her how she felt? And what did it matter how she looked at him? As long as they were both on the same page and it seemed, they were it could work.

And perhaps, somehow, he owed her, if she thought hed used her and it had affected her s.e.x life. Five years was a long time to go without. He could help fix that. And really, how hard would a fling with Mercy be to handle? He wasnt twenty-six any more. He was older and wiser and in a far better place now. He had a grip on his hormones and his control was absolutely rock solid.

Besides, she wasnt a threat. Of course she wasnt He was overestimating her power over him. Hadnt he proved he could resist her the night of Zeldas slumber party? He could easily have acted on the attraction that shed been so keen to deny, but he hadnt, and that spoke volumes. So hed be fine.

"What do I think?" he said, slowly getting to his feet and giving in to the desire hammering through him, the heat firing along his veins and the delirium beginning to cloud his head. "I think, Mercedes, that you might have a point."

Chapter Five.

Oh, thank G.o.d for that, thought Mercy, giddy with relief and desire as Seb reached for her, hauled her into his arms and slammed his mouth down on hers. For a moment there shed thought he was going to reject her offer, reject her, but he hadnt and G.o.d she was glad, because this was where she wanted to be. Where shed always wanted to be, if she was being honest. In his arms. Kissing him and kissing him and giving herself up to the mindless pleasure coursing through her.

As his mouth plundered hers and tremors of sensation rippled through her, Mercy lifted her arms, planted her hands on his shoulders then slid them round to the back of his neck, using him to arch herself even closer. She could feel the hard length of his erection jutting against her and it made her head swim and her heart race because she wanted him inside her so badly she ached.

One of his hands was on her waist, the other tangled in her hair and as he pulled her tighter to him he angled her head to deepen the kiss. Urgency rose up inside her and she gave up what was left of her reason to simply feel.

Electricity zipped through her, making her moan and shudder in his arms. In response his body tensed as if it was taking every drop of his control not to just toss her to the floor and ravish her, which she truly wouldnt have minded.

He felt so good, hot and hard against her. And his kisses... Lord, she could drown in them. Was drowning in them, so much so that she barely registered that hed released her head until he slid his hand down her side, beneath her jacket and up to cup her breast. She nearly went up in flames. He rubbed his thumb over her nipple and she tore her mouth from his to gasp because she could hardly breathe for the excitement.

Her head fell back and Seb kissed his way along her jaw, to her ear and that sensitive spot just beneath it, all the while tormenting her with his caresses.

"This what youve been thinking about?" he muttered against her neck as his hand, his fingers, his thumb, wreaked havoc on her senses.

"Yes."

"Me too."

"And more."

"Youll have it."

He nudged her back and she hit the edge of the desk. She leant against it, much as she had maybe ten minutes ago, only this time she was sandwiched between the desk and Seb and she couldnt think of anywhere else shed rather be. Or be doing. Apart from touching him properly, the way he was doing to her, because suddenly his hands were all over her.

He pulled her off the edge of the desk, then lifted her skirt and palmed her b.u.t.tocks, pressing her hips tighter against him and grinding. He shifted her onto his desk. She parted her legs and he stepped between them and as he started kissing her again she thought he was right where she wanted him.

Drumming with an urgent need to feel his skin beneath her hands, she slipped her arms from his neck. She reached down, tugged his shirt out of the waist band of his trousers and yanked it open, b.u.t.tons flying and popping everywhere and then finally she had her hands on him.

He felt just as she remembered. Hot. Hard. Smooth. Except for the thin jagged scar that started from just below his ribcage at his back and swept round to his hip, the scar that shed kissed at length and now traced before moving her hand round to the hard flat muscles of his abdomen and the rough hair that arrowed down.

She felt him shudder, tense, and so with her heart beating like a hammer and her breathing all ragged and shallow and not at all fit for purpose she traced that too, grappling with the b.u.t.ton of his pants with her other hand, unzipping his fly and slipping them both inside his shorts to feel him.

She wrapped her fingers round his c.o.c.k, so hot and velvety and hard, and her mouth watered because she wanted to taste him so badly. But she barely got to stroke him because with a rough curse, Seb stopped her, gripping her wrists and stilling her movements. His jaw tight, he pulled her hands out, away from him and up, and then further, until they were above her head and she was looking right into his eyes, so close she could see the flecks of black in the dark brown.

"Whats the matter?" she breathed, thrills running through her at the hint of wildness, of danger, she could detect in him. "Too much?"

"Too close. I promised you more."

"Control slipping, Seb?"

"Of course not," he growled, as if the very idea of it was risible. "But five years, Mercy."

"What of it?"

"I should take my time."

"Dont you dare."

"Is that a challenge?"

"Absolutely not."

"Too bad."

And then, eyes dark and glittering and glazed with desire, he was leaning over her and bending her back and down and Mercy went willingly. He released one of her wrists to reach behind her and sweep his arm across his desk, and away flew papers, pens, mouse, keyboard, clattering to the floor as he pushed her the rest of the way.

He straightened, leaving her like that, lying back wantonly, excitement thundering through her and her heart racing and then he looked her over, slowly and thoroughly and wordlessly, as if wondering quite where to start, as if proving to her as well as himself that his grip on his control was as strong as it had ever been.

Beneath his heavy-lidded gaze Mercy felt as if she was about to burst into flames. She wanted to squirm, writhe, beg, and unable to stand any of it much longer she was just about to tell him exactly where to stuff his b.l.o.o.d.y challenge when he pulled off her boots, dropped them to the floor, then wrapped his hands around her ankles.

He began slowly sliding them up her calves, her knees, her thighs, and her breath caught at the feel of his rough palms on her bare skin. The friction made her shiver. Made heat pool and desire coil low in her abdomen. Made her head swim with need.

Seb stroked his hands higher, over her hips, lifting the skirt of her dress and pushing it up to her waist, then slipped his fingers beneath her panties and in one smooth, clearly very practiced movement, slid them down and off.

He splayed his hand over her abdomen and Mercy gasped, her muscles there tensing, quivering, as her hands clutched uselessly at the leather surface of the desk. And then he moved his hand down, over her, his fingers slipping through her soft curls, sliding over her heated flesh, and then into her, so deep and sure that she groaned and her back bowed off the desk.

While his fingers continued to do wicked, indescribable, heavenly things to her he leaned over her, set his mouth to the spot just behind her ear that only moments before had had her writhing and panting and did so again.

She closed her eyes and yielded to the sensations pouring through her pleasure, frustration, tension, desperation and deep, deep desire so great that she was only dimly aware of him moving, easing his fingers out of her and replacing them with his mouth, and then she couldnt think at all.

As he used his lips and tongue on her all she could do was tremble, spread her legs wider apart and clamp both hands to the back of his head. She couldnt even writhe because he was holding her so firmly in place.

"Dios, Seb," she moaned and it sounded like a plea, like shed lost her mind, which wasnt surprising because she had.

Beneath his continued, relentless, ruthless a.s.sault on her she could feel the tension inside her growing, could feel the need for release clawing away at her, and it was so unbearable. She needed it to stop. She wanted it to carry on for ever.

"Please," she groaned hoa.r.s.ely, and then just when she didnt think she could stand it any longer, just when she was about to beg again, in earnest this time, he pressed harder, sucked harder, and that was it. Her o.r.g.a.s.m hit with the force of a tidal wave and she shattered, gasping, crying out, coming hard against his tongue and his mouth, and quaking beneath his hands.