Phantom Shadows Part 29

Bastien stared at him. "You trust me with your security code?"

"No. I'll change it tomorrow. Right now, I don't care. I'm eager to get back to Jenna. So, here." He handed Bastien a sticky note. "Make yourselves at home."

As soon as the tacky paper stuck to Bastien's finger, Richart disappeared.

Bastien looked at Melanie as silence surrounded them.

Seconds later, they were in each other's arms, bodies straining against each other, lips melding in a searing kiss, sticky note sticking to who-knew-what.

Melanie rose up onto her toes, wrapped her arms around his neck and clung tightly.

Bastien ravaged her lips, his kiss fierce and demanding, his hands . . .

Antic.i.p.ation seared her as he slid his hands over her back and up her sides, his fingers grazing the sides of her b.r.e.a.s.t.s.

He raised his head. When his eyes met hers, they glowed brighter than she had ever seen them. "Wait," he murmured, voice hoa.r.s.e.

Melanie dropped back onto her heels, wanting to scream.

"No, it isn't what you're thinking."

He must have felt the twinge of disappointment and frustration that had struck her. She had a.s.sumed he was going to try to dissuade her one last time.

"I don't want to stop. I just want to slow down a little." He shook his head. "I've been fantasizing about this for too long. I don't want to rush it. I want to savor it."

Melanie's heart raced as she nodded. "Savoring sounds good."

He smiled. Such a tender smile. His face relaxed, looking youthful and utterly irresistible.

Reaching up, she touched his stubbled cheek.

Who else ever saw him this way?

Bastien captured her lips once more. When his tongue delivered a tantalizing stroke, she parted her lips and drew him in.

Some of the urgency may have been tempered, but there was no less pa.s.sion. Fire heated Melanie's blood as he drew her close, pressed every inch of her front to every inch of his.

Bastien's body heated as Melanie buried her hands in his hair, her fingers grazing his scalp. He wanted to go slow. He really did. But he could feel everything she felt.

When he slid one hand up to caress her breast, he felt the sharp arousal that darted through her. When he drew a circle around her tight nipple with his thumb, then pinched the sensitive peak, he felt the shock of electricity that shook her and shortened her breath. When he trailed his lips down her throat over her s.h.i.+rt and closed them over her nipple through the soft cotton cloth . . .

Bastien groaned. There were definite perks to his gift. And being able to feel exactly what pleased her had to be the best one.

Melanie moaned. Bastien's mouth was so warm and wet and he knew exactly how to use it to rekindle the desperate need that had claimed her earlier. Her breath shortened. Sliding her leg up the outside of his thigh beneath his coat, she hooked her knee over his hip and ground her core against the hard bulge behind his zipper.

His hand tightened on her breast. His lips sucked harder. He gripped her hip with his free hand, then cupped her a.s.s and urged her to rock against him. "Wrap your legs around me."

Melanie didn't hesitate. Jumping up, she wrapped both legs around him.

He turned and pressed her up against the nearest wall. "Perhaps I was mistaken," he said, eyes blazing down at her as he thrust against her. "Fast and hard has its merits, too."

Melanie nodded, pleasure consuming her despite the material that separated them. "Fast and hard is good."

Their surroundings blurred. A second later, they were in the bedroom Melanie had used earlier. Bastien kicked the door closed. "Take off my coat," he ordered.

Melanie hurried to peel it off his broad shoulders.

"Now my s.h.i.+rt." He lowered her feet to the floor.

She was already on it, hands shaking with need as he nibbled her throat and continued to fondle and tease her b.r.e.a.s.t.s.

Warm, tan skin stretched taut over muscle drew her heated gaze and demanded her touch. Leaning forward, she drew her tongue across one masculine nipple.

She felt a tug, looked down and saw bare skin from her waist up. No sweater. No s.h.i.+rt. No bra. "How did you do that?"

"I'm immortal."

"Cool."

"If you liked that . . ."

Lifting her, he crossed to the bed and laid her atop the covers.

He blurred as Melanie felt another tug. She looked down . . . and her boots, socks, pants, belt, and panties were all gone.

She grinned. "I like this. Now do you."

Laughing, he blurred for a split second, then stood naked before her.

Melanie laughed with delight and pulled him down atop her.

Bastien captured her lips once more, consuming them as their limbs tangled and teased. Flames scorched her with every touch. Every stroke of his tongue. Every caress of his fingers as they slid down her stomach to brush her c.l.i.toris.

She gasped.

"You're already wet for me."

She nodded, head falling back.

Bastien parted her legs with a knee and settled his lower body between them. She was so beautiful. So pa.s.sionate. As eager to please him as he was to please her. She slipped a hand between them and curled her delicate fingers around his heavy erection.

He hissed in a breath as she squeezed and stroked, inciting a riot within him even as he did the same to her. When she guided him to her entrance, he forced out a gravelly protest.

"I want to taste you first."

"Taste me later. I want you inside me."

He wasted no time, plunging in to the hilt, groaning at the feel of her tight, moist warmth.

She caught her breath. Moaned. Writhed beneath him as he had imagined her doing too many times to count since he had met her.

"So good," she murmured, gripping his a.s.s and urging him on as he withdrew and thrust again and again.

Melanie gazed up at him. Bastien's hair tumbled down and caressed her already sensitive flesh as he moved against her. Those eyes . . . She couldn't look away from them as he reached between them and stroked her with his fingers in time with his thrusts.

A climax rippled through her, stealing her breath, splintering her thoughts. Bastien stiffened above her and shouted her name.

Sheer ecstasy.

As the last tingles faded, he lowered his forehead to hers. Melanie wrapped her arms around him and hugged him close, loving the feel of his big, muscled body on hers, though he supported the bulk of his weight with his forearms.

As his breathing evened, Bastien t.i.tled his head, touched his lips to hers in a profoundly tender kiss, then drew back and smiled down at her.

He was so beautiful. So perfect.

And she loved to see him smile.

She loved to make him smile.

She grinned up at him.

His eyes narrowed with amus.e.m.e.nt-laced suspicion. "What are you thinking?"

"I was thinking immortal speed isn't just a plus on the battlefield. You stripped me naked in only a couple of seconds."

"I can do more than that in a couple of seconds."

"Really?" She couldn't imagine what.

He winked, then blurred.

A second climax drove through her, catching her totally off guard. She thought she may have even screamed with it, gripping the sheets with fists as her body convulsed over and over again.

When she opened her eyes, Bastien was grinning down at her as if he had never moved.

Melanie stared up at him in amazement. She didn't even know what he had done-it had happened so fast-but her heart raced madly and . . . she didn't think she had ever come so hard in her life.

"What the h.e.l.l was that?" she panted.

He laughed. "Another benefit of being an immortal."

That was one h.e.l.l of a benefit.

He left her long enough to turn the overhead light off, then hastened back to bed. Reaching down, he pulled the covers over them both and drew her close.

Quiet enfolded them as they lay in the dark. Weariness snuck up on Melanie and weighed her down. Though she was tempted to try anyway, she thought she would have been too tired to do anything other than lie there like a limp noodle if they made love again.

Almost dying was apparently exhausting . . . and continued to mess with her head in slow moments like this.

What must Bastien have thought earlier tonight when she had basically voiced a living will?

"Do you think I'm paranoid?" she asked softly.

"No." He seemed as disinclined to move as she was. She didn't think she had ever seen him so relaxed and content.

"You don't think I overreacted when I told you I want to be transformed if anything else happens to me?"

"No. I think you were being smart and practical. s.h.i.+t happens in this business. Even in the hallowed halls of the network."

"Yes, but most of the s.h.i.+t that happens at the network is instigated by you."

He chuckled, the rare sound of it trickling through her and relaxing her like wine. "True." Another moment pa.s.sed. "Times are changing though. You might consider making your wishes known to Seth and Chris. Someone at the network needs to know in case I'm not around and something foul goes down."

"Linda knows."

"Good. She seems like good people."

Melanie smiled. "She is." She was pretty d.a.m.n courageous, too. Linda had been scared as h.e.l.l when Vince, Cliff, and Joe had taken up residence in the network, but she had sucked it up and worked with them until she had lost that fear.

Unlike Dr. Whetsman and certain other colleagues.

Melanie guided her mind away from the job. She didn't want to think of work when she had Bastien snuggled up with her. All she wanted to think about was how good it felt to have his large, warm, muscled form pressed against hers.

Well, that and . . .

"Go ahead. Ask me," he murmured.

"Ask you what?"

"The question I imagine you've been wanting to ask ever since the meeting."

"Are you sure you aren't telepathic?"

He grunted. "I wish I were. It would take all of the guesswork out of dealing with people."

"True."

"So go ahead and ask me."

"Who was the woman?"

"The one Ewen caught me draining?"

Melanie nodded as lethargy stole upon her. She shared Tanner's belief that Bastien wouldn't kill anyone who hadn't done something seriously wrong. So what had the woman done? What had she been to him?

"She was a madam . . . of sorts. There were a lot of homeless children and poor children in what the ton would think of as the seedier parts of London. Always hungry. Working at a ridiculously young age to help put food in their mouths and on the family's table."

"I'm guessing there were no child labor laws back then."