Captivating The Witch. Michele Hauf
well. This could get interesting. If not...uncomfortable.
“What are you up to?” she asked. “I thought you hated witches. Called us vile.”
Indeed he had. Not the best way to start a working relationship, but he could manage. “I needed to speak to you,” he said. Could he really do this? Did he need a witch? Especially one so distracting as this one?
“So you—you kidnapped me?”
“This is not a kidnapping.”
Though when she shook her bound hands between them and gave him an incredulous gape, he couldn’t deny it did look nefarious, if not downright cruel.
“Now you know what it feels like,” he said reactively. “To be bound.”
Her jaw dropped, stupefied. He couldn’t help a vainglorious smile. So he wasn’t keen on condescending to her sympathies. The witch had bound him. And it had hurt like hell.
To his men he said, “I didn’t tell you to tie her up. I just asked you to bring her to me.”
“She’s a witch, boss. We had to tie her up or she’d put a spell on us. Malcolm told us the marks on her fingers cast spells if she can use her hands.”
Ed considered that one and conceded with a nod. “True. Good call, men.”
“Oh, I am so out of here.” The witch backed away, bound hands beating the air with her words. “Most powerful? Maybe. Most pissed off? You better believe it.”
Glitch rushed to grab her by the arm and she struggled, kicking her high-heeled shoe and landing the pointed toe on his thigh. Yikes. That had to hurt. Glitch yowled and hobbled off, clutching his wound. Inego grabbed her other arm.
“Enough!” The minions glanced to Ed.
The witch pleaded with her thrust-up hands. “I can still throw magic with my hands bound. But I’ll be much more compelled to listen if you treat me with respect.”
Indeed. But could he trust her? She’d once already used witchcraft to soften his anger and make him kiss her. Her mouth was a pretty pale pink today. And those eyes. Had he ever gazed into such vivid green eyes? There were things in them. Mystery. Adventures. Worlds.
Hell. No. He wasn’t gazing.
“I’ll count to three,” the witch threatened. “Then I’m bringing out the big magic.”
“Boss?” Glitch asked on a worried wobble.
“What kind of minions are you?” Ed said to them. “You’re frightened of one little witch? You managed to get her here without taking harm.”
“I’m going to have a bruise,” Glitch whined and clutched his thigh.
“Where did I find you two?” Ed muttered, pacing before the threesome.
Right. He’d rescued the dastardly duo from exile to Daemonia after both had been caught with their proverbial fingers in the cookie jar. Working a V-hub and selling vampire blood to their fellow demons. They were two stupid lunks who had needed direction and a purpose. Which he was trying to give them.
And the best way to lead was by example.
Ed thrust out some minor magic in a black curl of smoke that melted the ropes bound about the witch’s hands. “My men should not have been so cruel. I apologize.”
“Yeah? Too little, too late, buster. This is nuts!” She turned and marched out of his office, the tight skirt she wore luring his gaze to the sensual wiggle beneath the pale green fabric. Yeah, so gazing was good. Real good.
Inego and Glitch cast him wondering stares, which blew his gaze off course.
“Idiots,” Ed hissed. He strode after the pissed-off witch. What was her name? “Tamatha!”
Instead of turning right to go down the hallway to the elevator, she’d unknowingly taken a left and now stood like a captive doe before the wall where his secretary normally sat. At least the secretary was spared this scene, though. She was out having a baby demon that could very likely be born with scales, thanks to her affair with a dragon shifter.
“I’m so sorry.” Ed walked up to her and tried to put his hands on her shoulders to calm her, but she slapped at his wrists and hands. “Tamatha, please, I want to talk to you.”
“They put a freakin’ plastic bag over my head!”
He managed to pin one of her shoulders against the wall and worked to wrangle her opposite wrist, to calm her, to make her listen to him. And to be prepared should she try to fling more magic his way.
“I could have suffocated!”
Indeed, he had best give more detailed instructions next time he sent his men after such a pretty, delicate creature who— “Ouch!”
Pressing his forehead to the wall beside her head, he rode out the pain of a direct hit from her pointy-toed shoe to his shin. Damn, those things were sharp! He was probably bleeding. He didn’t want to risk looking because he still had her in a loose but compliant hold.
“Sorry,” she said softly. “I didn’t mean to hurt you. I’m not cruel. But you bring up my defensive instincts.”
When her hand stroked over his cheek and temple, a wave of strange desire shivered through his system.
“Tamatha,” he gasped. A lush tide of delicious warmth overtook his muscles and his body melted against hers. He could not...resist. “Oh, goodness and light.”
Bracketing her face with his hands, he kissed her like he’d never kissed a woman before. Sweetly. Reverently. With such a longing that it must have shown all over his skin in the shivers he felt riding the tattooed surface. Her breath spilled over his lips and entered his pores. Her aura of lemon perfume surrounded him with a sticky sweet allure.
He was falling, succumbing, slipping into a strange kind of submission...
Realizing he was once again kissing the witch, Ed abruptly broke the connection. “Ah hell.” He looked at his hands, still gently bracketing her face. And there, on her face, the glint in her eye as the curve of a smile tickled onto her perfect lips. “What did you do to me?”
“Me? You’re the one who keeps kissing me. I didn’t do a thing but get kidnapped and roughed up by your henchmen. And then you pressed me up against the wall and had your way with me.” She cast her glance aside. “Not that there was anything wrong with your way. Which is why I haven’t wielded magic against you. Yet.”
“I believe I should be thankful for that. Why is it every time I see you I want to...to...?”
“Hurt me?”
“I don’t hurt women. I just want to—” he made a motion to shove but curved his fingers away from touching her “—push you away. Witches are vile.”
“So you’ve said. Repeatedly. Great way to kill the mood, buddy.” She shoved his chest, but he didn’t step away from her.
“Yes, but if you are so repulsive, then why do I end up kissing you every time we meet?”
She tilted her head and tapped a finger on her lips. Those luscious, sweet, soft lips demanded more thorough attention. And so he would see to it they had it.
Ed again kissed her, this time pushing his hands through her hair and caressing the softness that spilled over her shoulders in waves of unnatural silver. Goddess hair, he thought. Not of this realm. He pressed his body along hers. To feel her, to take her all in...
“Ahem,” she muttered against his mouth, and he sensed her need to push him away, when all he wanted to do was get closer than close. Inside her. Intimately. Her gaze veered over his shoulder and to the door of his office.
Ed glanced around behind him. Glitch stood in the doorway, observing with a smirk and dancing gaze. The idiot didn’t