Читать книгу Playing with Fire - Michele Hauf - Страница 6

The vixen had the audacity to run her tongue along those bright white fangs. Add that to the lifted brow and her rose-kissed cheeks and I instantly lost the anger that blazed in my hands. Rubbing my palms along my thighs sifted off the after-smoke in emerald wisps.

This little thief would undo me. I had sensed her attempt to bespell me at the top of the Metro stairs, to somehow make me want to submit to her. Hadn’t worked. I am impervious to witchcraft. Though the kiss had been worthy of another go at it. And very well, the spell had sent me flying. How had she been able to do that? Vampires could not maintain such powerful magic, could they?

She boldly approached me, the tip of her finger stroking the corner of her bow lips, eyeing me up and down with pale gray eyes that held a diamond twinkle.

Straightening, I set back my shoulders, because she walked behind me now—was she checking out my ass?

“This apartment is warded,” she said. “How’d you get in?”

For the same reason witchcraft had no effect on me: I could cross any and all wards thanks to the devil’s mark carved into my back. But she didn’t need to know that. “Just lucky. Now hand over what you took or—”

“Or?”

She swung around in front of me, a teasing glitter sparkling her eyes. Everything about her was pale yet bright, and energized with a heightened sexuality that I could feel enter my pores as if an enemy invader I’d like to embrace. I rarely turned down opportunity to dally with a gorgeous woman. The sensual pleasures were meant to be indulged.

Impervious, Cinder, remember that. You do not want to submit to her.

“Just what did you have in mind, handsome?”

If she thought flirting would distract me— Was she wearing pink lipstick, or were her lips that lush and petal soft? Kissable. The compulsion to kiss her arose and—

I grabbed her wrist and slid my hand along the waistline of her tight black pants. Her small frame was lost against my greater bulk, but I distinctly noticed the hard press of her nipples below mine and the heat of her breath that landed on the base of my throat.

What had I come here for? And why was my hand now sliding with sensual ease along her back and around front where I felt no bra beneath the body-hugging black shirt?

“Find something you want to play with?” she cooed. “I know I have.”

Her tongue touched the skin at my throat where the white business shirt gaped open, and I sucked in a gasp. Delicate fingers tickled along my pectorals. The feel of this tiny thief seeking to overpower me did not surprise so much as make me want her to succeed.

“What’s your name, sexy?” she asked.

“Cinder,” came out on a throaty hush that startled me.

What the hell, Cinder? You’re being played by a sneaky vampiress.

I gripped her wrists, abruptly stopping the futile seduction. “What’s the name of the thief I caught red-handed?”

“Parish,” she said, her kissable lips curling to an even more irresistible pink bow. “What makes you think I stole anything?”

My hand dropped to her derriere where the pocket wasn’t formed like a soft womanly curve. Still holding her wrist securely, I slipped the heavy piece out from the pocket and held it before her. “What’s this?”

She narrowed her gaze, but gave no indication she was at all flustered. “What does it look like to you?”

I inspected the heavy disk, about half an inch thick and three inches in diameter and etched with indiscernible runes on what looked like black carbon fiber. I had no clue what it was, but if the Council had chosen to store it in a high-security facility, then it must do something bad. I was familiar with the measurement scale of all things from bad to really bad to oh fuck this is going to leave a permanent mark. I’d guess this thing landed somewhere between bad and the permanent mark range.

“You have no idea,” she said on a ticklish peal. Snagging the disk, she danced away from me and around behind the black velvet couch. “Who are you, Cinder?”

“I am the Council’s security advisor.”

Chagrin heated my neck when she gave me the “seriously” look.

“The security wards were down for two hours,” I explained, “so I could set up the system. How could you have possibly known the window in which the system would be shut off?”

“I didn’t. Guess I got lucky.” She strolled down a hallway, and I knew she was going to hide the evidence.

I smoked ahead of her and landed beside a dresser, but too close to the dainty whitewashed piece of furniture, which caused me to stumble and land ungracefully sprawled across a low platform bed.

Parish giggled at my faux pas, and I could but shake my head at how out of my senses this vampiress made me. Me. The demon of hellfire, the Flaming One. It was as if wherever she went, I felt compelled to follow, whether or not I’d gain the stolen device. I simply wanted to be near her. Had the spell worked after all?

This was going to be a long night.

There was no way the demon would leave with ritrovatore d’anime in his hand. I’d been planning this heist for weeks, and had succeeded thanks to a little reconnaissance help from my tribe members who wanted only the best for me and my mortal father. Now, if the fire demon would get out of my way, I could hop a plane for Venice.

But the distraction of his insanely muscled body and those eyes that couldn’t seem to do anything but smolder at me, made me wonder if a little focused seduction wouldn’t go a long way in getting the demon on my side. A smear of black blood had dried above the leather and silver choker. Apparently the submission spell had not taken. Though he was following me around like a puppy dog. Hmm… No, I didn’t sense unconditional abandon on his part or even a smidgen of undying worship.

But he wasn’t as staunch as he liked to think. I knew I couldn’t physically defeat him, so I’d have to dig deeper into my wiles.

Opening the dresser drawer, I dropped the device onto a stack of silk panties and closed it. A flick of my finger and a whispered, “Claustro” restored the lock spell to the drawer.

Before Cinder could pull himself up to sit, I leaned over him, on the bed, and pulled open his button-up shirt with a daring rip. Mmm, crisp white cotton against deeply tanned flesh. I loved the white-collar corporate raider look on a man who could literally toss flames through the air. And his pants were midnight-black. Oh, baby, what a sexy combination.

“What the—?”

“There’s a handsome man lying on my bed,” I cooed. “Wouldn’t want to let this opportunity pass. Mercy, that is more than a six-pack. I didn’t know they made demons so sturdy.”

“I was forged Beneath. Of course I’m—”

I tongued his nipple, and he hissed with pleasure. “You won’t start on fire if I do this, will you?”

The whole fiery hands thing had freaked me, but I figured it’s because he was a fire demon. I didn’t have a fire extinguisher nearby, so I hoped he could keep his cool.

“Parish,” he rasped. “Not wise.”

“Maybe I should keep a bucket of cold water by the bed?”

“No. Won’t flame.”

I licked down his abs to his stomach. Oh hell, no belly button. What the heck?

“Beelzebub and all the demons in Beneath, what are you up to?”

I maintained seduction mode, but only by not looking at his smooth belly. “Up to? Only your stomach,” I said, then licked a trail higher to a hard pectoral. “Now I’m at your chest. A little higher?”

He gripped the back of my hair tightly, which pulled my tongue off his skin, but I could work with his angry vibe, and bracketed my knees around his hips.

I hadn’t realized demons could look so physically different from other paranormals. If he didn’t have a belly button, then he may not have a birth mother. I could buy into that. Corporeal demons were summoned from all sorts of nasty, or so I suspected.

“Your spell didn’t work,” he said through a clenched jaw, “so now you think you can distract me?”

“I have been known to distract.” Though it was much tougher going the more I thought about his unholy origins. Tossing my head to the side slid my long hair over his bare chest.

He hissed again in pleasure. “I’ll call your bluff. Let’s do this.”

Flipped around, I soared onto my back and landed the pillows with a cushy pouf. The demon crawled over me, his fingers sneaking up under my top. I knew he would get what he wanted—what we both wanted—before the night was over, and what I wanted was a distracted demon.