“I don’t know.” Lyra laughed. “Just don’t tell anyone, okay? I don’t want everyone to think I went soft or anything just because I fell in love.”
Theron took that moment to slide in next to Lyra. Fiona figured it was because of his vampire heritage that gave him that extrasensory hearing. Or he was just that in tune to his new wife. She liked to think it was the latter. It was more romantic that way. And seeing the two of them together, so in love, so mismatched yet perfectly in harmony, made Fiona want to believe in romance.
“Your secret is safe with me, ma petite sorcier.” He kissed the top of her head.
“You really shouldn’t be eavesdropping.”
“I was only a little.” He smiled at Fiona as he continued to snuggle Lyra.
She returned his grin. “I just came over to wish you both well. I hope you have a long and beautiful marriage.”
“Merci, Fiona.” He grabbed her hand and pressed his lips to the back. “I wish the same for you.”
She frowned, taken back. “What? I’m not getting married.”
“Oh, I’m sorry. I thought you caught the bouquet. Is that not the way of things?”
“It bounced off my head. Not a very good omen, I don’t think.”
“Perchance, but if I’m not mistaken, that bounce propelled you into another direction.” He lifted one eyebrow, knowingly.
Fiona thought about the way she’d felt sitting in Hector’s lap. Even now her heart picked up a beat or two. The sensation of his skin against hers, his heart quickening next to hers. The way he looked at her, with longing and need in his dark gaze. Thinking about it made her ache all over again.
Beaming, she leaned forward and kissed both Lyra and Theron on the cheek. “Thank you.”
Before they could respond, she swirled around to search for Hector.
But after ten minutes of looking and asking various people if they knew where he went, Fiona couldn’t find him. She saw Caine sitting at a table and sat down beside him. She knew that he and the inspector had been talking earlier.
“Have you seen Hector?”
“I think he just went to the washroom.”
“Thanks.” She got up from the table and, gripping her purse tight, started toward the washrooms.
She didn’t mind the dark. It was kind of pretty with all the witchlight floating around, basking the room in a warm green glow. It was almost as good as candlelight.
And that’s when she ran straight into five feet ten inches of egotistical witch.
“Just the girl I was looking for.” He smiled, but it was like a sliver of ice stabbing her in the stomach. Fiona felt the floor drop right out from under her.
Chapter 5
Hector came away from the bar with two glasses of champagne. Now he just had to find Fiona. Before he’d gone to get drinks, he’d seen her talking with Lyra and Theron, and then she disappeared. Which wasn’t unlikely, as it was fairly shadowed in the room.
He spotted Caine chatting with Jace and Tala and went toward them. “Hey, have you seen Fiona?”
Caine nodded. “She was just here looking for you, my friend. I told her you went to the washroom.”
“Okay.” Champagne still in hand, Hector wandered toward the bathroom in the far corner. It was out of the way and in the dark. He really wished he could conjure one of those witchlight orbs right about now. Maybe then he wouldn’t feel like he was going to trip over something and fall onto the floor.
As he neared the far corner, he could hear voices. One of them didn’t sound too happy. And it belonged to the woman he was looking for.
“Please take your hand off me, Oliver.”
Hector could see them now. Fiona was shoved up against the wall, and the man who’d danced with her earlier was looming over her.
“Hijo de fu pinche madre,” he murmured under his breath. Setting the glasses onto the floor, Hector stalked toward them, his hands clenched tight. “I’d do what the lady asked there, buddy.”
Oliver swung around and glared. “Mind your own business, buddy.”
“Fiona is my business.”
“Is she, now?” Oliver sneered. “I didn’t realize how far she’d fallen after I tossed her aside.” He looked Hector up and down with a condescending curl to his lips. “I knew she was ridiculous, but a human from San Antonio, that’s just unnatural.”
Fiona pushed past him. “Don’t be an ass, Oliver. I know it’s a difficult task, but I’m sure deep down inside your soft interior you can find some decency.”
Oliver’s eyes widened and he raised his hands toward her. The tips of his fingers glowed green. “You bi—”
But that was all he was able to get out before Hector punched him in the mouth. Oliver went sprawling backward and landed smartly on his rear end.
“Mind your mouth, buddy. Didn’t your nanny teach you any manners?”
“I’ll sue you,” Oliver snapped. His words were a bit slurred due to the fact that both his lips were cut and he was bleeding.
“Don’t you be ridiculous, Oliver. You deserved that and more.” Fiona moved over to Hector. She grabbed his hand and inspected it. “Does it hurt?”
He nodded, enjoying her attention. “Maybe a little. The guy has buck teeth, I think.”
She brought his hand up to her mouth and pressed a kiss to the bruised skin. “Better?”
He nodded, wanting to tell her it hurt in other places, not on his hands, but by now they had a bit of an audience. Lyra, Theron and the others had gathered around.
Lyra glanced at Hector and Fiona, then down to Oliver, who had yet to get up off the floor. “Is there a problem here?”
“That Neanderthal punched me.”
Lyra and everyone else glanced at Hector.
He wrapped his arm around Fiona’s shoulders. “He was going to use magic on her.”
“What? I would never—” he sputtered.
Theron and Caine moved toward Oliver and yanked him up by the arms, none too gently judging by the wince on the witch’s face.
“Time to go. The party is over for you,” Caine said. “Not a good idea to be bleeding in this group.”
They dragged him sputtering and complaining all the way to the exit. The rest of the crowd dispersed, leaving Hector and Fiona alone.
“You saved me, again.”
“Not really,” he said. “I’m sure you could’ve handled that guy all by yourself.”
“Maybe.” She ran her hand down his arm. “But I liked that you did.” Her fingers entwined with his. “Does your hand still hurt?”
“A little.”
“We should get some ice on it.” She smiled, and there was a little twinkle in her eye. “I have some in my room.”
He nodded, and with his arm around her still, they walked toward the elevator. When they arrived at the closed door, Hector pushed the button, and then he said, “Hmm, maybe we should take the stairs.”
Fiona smiled. “I’m willing to risk it, if you are.”
The elevator doors opened and the two of them went in. The doors slid shut behind them and it started to descend.
Hector nearly sighed in relief. “So far so good.” He smiled at her.
She returned his smile, and he lost track of all the things he was planning to say to her, about chance and risk and never letting an opportunity pass you by. Clichéd phrases that would do better on bumper stickers and motivational calendars.
What he really wanted to do was kiss her. Hold her. Touch her. Bury himself in the ultimate beauty of her.
He wouldn’t let the moment escape. Not again. Not this time. He’d waited too long.
“I—”
That was all she was able to say before he had her in his arms, his hands under the silky strands of her hair, pressing her close. Her lips parted in a sigh, maybe to protest, but he didn’t let her do anything else before he covered her mouth with his.
The kiss was everything he imagined it would be. Soft, sensual, erotic as hell.
He swept his tongue over her lips and into her mouth, reveling in the way she responded to him. She matched him in every motion. Little moans of pleasure escaped her when he nipped lightly at her bottom lip.
He wondered what other little sounds he could get from her. Would she moan when he touched her body, setting his fingers to play at her br**sts? What would she do when he parted her sweet cleft with his fingers and circled her pleasure spot? He grew hard thinking about it, imagining it. So hard that he knew she felt it pressing against her.
Looking into her face, he saw the high color on her cheeks. She was flushed from his kisses. It made her look even more desirable with her stunned feelings so evident on her face. He loved the way her eyes darkened to sea-green and her lips opened, swollen and wet from his kiss. It made him think of another part of her body, and he had to bite down on his lip to keep from groaning.
“I want you, Fiona. From the second I saw you, I’ve wanted you.”
“I want you, too, Hector.” Her eyes sparked, confirming her statement. “But I don’t do free and easy. I’m not that kind of woman.”
“Me, neither.”
She laughed.
“I mean I don’t do free and easy, either. I don’t believe in one-night stands.”
“Good.”
He smiled and rubbed his hands up and down her back, fingering the strands of her hair. God, what would all that glorious hair look like spread across his pillow?
“Why isn’t this thing going any faster?” He jumped up a little, bouncing the elevator.
Fiona smiled, and he saw a little mischievousness in the glint of her eyes. The elevator lurched to a stop between floors.
Hector’s eyes widened. “This isn’t in the realm of ‘free and easy’?”
She shook her head, then playfully tugged on his bottom lip with her teeth. “More in the naughty arena.”
“Lucky me. I get to be stuck in an elevator with a very naughty witch.”