In the time it took him to think it through, some of the passion had dimmed in Astrid’s eyes.
“Oh no, you don’t. Stay with me.”
“I’m here.” She chewed on her bottom lip and craned her neck to stare up at him.
“Let’s go.” He gently urged her from the ground and kept his grip tight enough she couldn’t get away. Or more importantly, to keep their bodies apart. If she changed her mind, he might explode at this point.
Thunder—from the south, the north, all around—grumbled and created an intimate space.
“Please, Griffin. What are we doing? This is crazy. I don’t want to hurt you.” Her arms trembled and her expressive face creased. Freckles dotted across her nose giving her an air of innocence. He growled again, an insane urge riding him to tear apart that innocence beneath him.
“You’ll have to trust me on this one.”
“I can’t.” Her chest surged with her struggling and he forced his gaze to stay on her face, not on those delectable tits. Emotion flashed across her face. He’d seen it before. In his own reflection. Guilt.
Battling back his lust, he ground his teeth. Now more than ever, he needed to put a stamp on her and find out what she hid.
“Come on.” He let go of one of her hands and tugged her. Leading her to a large pine and around it, he captured her wrist again and drew her arms above her head. Before she could made sense of what he did, he pinned her to the tree.
“Are you sure this is a good idea?” Her question spoke of more than her unease about her powers hurting him. She questioned what she was doing here. As did he. But he had nothing to hide.
But she ached for direction. She needed it. It bled from her pores, the way she sought reassurance.
“You wanted to know about CTF. This is how I’m going to tell you.” He ran his protected hand down her chest. She shuddered and a long groan escaped her lips. Hefting one rounded globe he squeezed and kneaded. Not able to feel her softness, he missed the slide of flesh across his palm but her heat soaked through the fabric.
Her lips parted on her panting and her eyes closed.
His cock was so hard, it pressed against his jeans and practically begged to be released. But he held onto that lust and directed his thoughts at seduction instead of taking.
“Our syphon is careful. She only helps with criminals who will not reform. We had a mage who could bend light. Kept breaking into houses and stealing. She disabled him for a few weeks and he got caught. Spent some time in jail and learned his lesson.”
Slowly, he traced between her ribs as she squirmed and thrust her chest forward. Her tightened nipples taunted and teased him.
“You’re torturing me. What are we doing, Griff?”
“We’re torturing you.” His chuckle went dark and his grip on her wrists tightened as he slipped two gloved fingers into her waistband. Her hips bucked. “Shh. Stay still, sugar.”
“I can’t.” Her pleading soothed a primitive part of him dormant until now. An unreasoning anger crowded into the lust. He was flat-out pissed at her for making him want her so much.
“If you move, we’re done talking. You wanted to hear about CTF, didn’t you?”
“I do.” Her eyes squeezed closed in a look of concentration and her arms shook as she leaned against the tree. “Tell me.”
Tearing his gaze from her trembling lips he stared at his covered fingers disappearing into her pants. So near her pussy but so far away. Tropical heat radiated between their bodies. But he couldn’t feel her. Fumbling, he tried to unbutton the closure, talking as he maneuvered the humid air to tease over her nipples. She whimpered but didn’t budge an inch from the tree.
“You’re from one of the families. You know. When one of our kind gets into trouble, we’re called in. Asked to help the offender. Get to the bottom of things. We’ve had to detain real troublemakers. When a rogue kills, what can we do but take his power? Non-talents couldn’t contain a psychic who mentally rapes women while he forces them to do unimaginable things.”
His passion died back as he spoke. That case had been a bitch. The respite from the consuming lust helped him focus on the damn button he couldn’t open. Astrid trembled, her eyes glazed. He wasn’t even sure she’d heard what he’d said.
With a hard tug, he ripped open the button. It broke off and tumbled to the ground. He shoved her pants down and sucked in a humid breath. And then couldn’t fill his lungs again. She was gorgeous. Long legs. Perfect skin. Narrow waist but soft, with a small, rounded belly. Below her hips, ample enough for him to clutch, light trimmed hair covered her mound.
“Thank the storm, you look like a woman.”
“Please, Griff.”
With a frustrated huff, he hesitated. He needed both hands. Without a sense of touch, he couldn’t find her clit and drive her over the edge. But he refused to let her hands go. In the throes of desire, she could make skin to skin contact and that’d be a disaster.
“Fuck it.” He covered her mound and pressed down in merciless circles.
The frustration built, making him strain toward her. This was such a bad idea. In so many ways. He might be turned-on enough to spill in his pants but he wanted more.
“I want to drive my cock into you. Your tight pussy. You’ll clutch all around me and cry out for more. You want more, sugar? You creaming for me now?”
Whimpering, she undulated. Cheeks bright, mouth open, she keened and picked up a rhythm, thrusting into the pressure he gave her. His erection hardened even more, nearly staggering him with the pleasure-pain. Wind swirled, whipping her hair and caressing her body. Electricity, want and pure seduction slid over his skin.
He flexed but didn’t dare curl his fingers to give her more. These gloves weren’t fit to go inside that pussy that he wanted to touch, taste, fuck. Oh how he wanted a taste.
With a growl he let go and stumbled back.
“This isn’t going to work.” He shoved off his gloves and let them fall.
“No.” She’d slumped against the tree, decadent, a goddess who stared down at him with her passion so bright it pained to look and know he couldn’t have. Her trembling radiated out to him on the wind that hadn’t died down.
His cock ached. Fumbling, he finally got his frantic motions to work and get his own damn button to snap off. Shoving down his zipper, the relief was instantaneous but short-lived.
Astrid moved to bring up her pants.
“Stop right there.”
She froze. The pants dropped back around her ankles.
With a wave, he stirred the air around her, stroked her skin and let the sense of it float back to him on a current. “Back against the tree so I can see you and you can see me.”
“This isn’t what I came out here for. I wanted to talk, to apologize.” Her nose flared and her cheeks turned bright pink.
“It was just an excuse and you know it. Something draws us together. And that something wants to show you how my talent can please you.”
Her head tilted. Brow furrowed, she glanced around. The tree behind her blocked the view from the mansion. The shrubbery he’d been working on shielded them even more. Out here in the gardens, privacy cloaked them. She’d regained control of her ragged breathing, more the pity since his cock hadn’t lost interest in their play.
“But talents shouldn’t be used like this.” Staring at his cock, licking her lips in a way that tormented him, she tugged up those damn pants and pulled them over her hips.
Clouds gathered above and cast them in shadow. Rushing from the sky, wind gusted through the tree and down her body to push into her pants and shove them back down.
Eyes wide, she startled and glanced up as she bent.
“What I wouldn’t do to be behind you when you bend over like that.” He leisurely palmed his balls and stroked his dick, staving off the ache he’d had since he first saw her hands pushing aside the branches to crawl out. She’d been disheveled, gorgeous and imminently fuckable. “What do you think our powers are for, sugar? Certainly not for hurting others. If I can control it and what I do now brings you pleasure, brings me some fucking relief, what difference does that make?”
“You should only use it for good.” Now keeping her gaze away from where he circled the base of his cock, she frowned at him and reached for her waistband.
With a thought, he sent the wind surging again, swirling around her hips and teasing between her legs.
She jerked and her mouth fell open.
“Oh.” Licking her lips, she dropped forward onto her hands and knees. Her pert breasts hung down, nipples extended and her hips squirming. She glanced up and her parted lips invited the vision of sliding his cock between her lips, but he stayed on the ground, stroking himself as he sent tendrils of air to stream over her pussy.
A small cloud drifted down from above and raindrops fell, focusing along her spine in a staccato. The scent of rain came to him with the musk of aroused woman. His grip tightened and his cock thrust upward.
“Do you see how good it is?”
“Yes, this is very good.” She panted and bit her lip.
“Since I first saw you, I’ve had an insane urge to do this.” While one fist was busy stroking himself, he used the other to direct his will on the weather now surrounding Astrid.
An eddy of wind circled her chest, caressing her, tantalizing. Another created an arrowhead of rain and air that burrowed in and sought that bundle of nerves hidden from his sight. Her hips thrust back, finding her own rhythm. She closed her eyes, bit her lip and moaned. He’d gotten it, that pink clit he longed to suckle. Opening his senses, he let the fog and humidity speak to him, to telegraph her softness, her heat, her vibrant need that enthralled him entirely.
Her moaning grew louder and her gaze latched onto where he pumped himself harder and harder until her gorgeous eyes glazed and lost focus. Her pleasure cascaded over the dew-laden air.
Her pussy would be wet, plump and swollen. She’d welcome him inside her, deep. Oh so deep. If only he could mount her. He groaned and shoved the directed wind into a vibrating thrust against her clit.
With a yell, she jerked and shuddered. Her prolonged release hung in the air and sparked an electrical current that tingled over him, pushing him to heights he’d never reached before.
His hips surged and he clung to the scent of Astrid’s cream carried to him on the air. His head spun with the need to fuck her and his balls drew up tight, his cock oversensitive and the base of his spine tingling. He couldn’t hold it in, he had to let it go. Jerking into his hand, he spilled all over his fingers with a grunt. Sagging back, he relaxed as the buzz made him warm and heavy.
Replete, at peace for the first time since this mess had all started, he reveled in the small tremors echoing pleasantly through him. The storm around them quieted and the sky cleared. Birds cheeped and nearby, a frog talked back. The world was pretty fucking amazing right now.
“I don’t understand this.” A rustle and a strangled derisive laugh brought him out of his drifting.
Hand still on his softening cock, he straightened and watched Astrid frantically tug at her clothes. She was turning tail and running—and he’d watch that delicious ass as it disappeared.
She’d had a point, which he’d ignored while lost in the lust. It nagged at him, that he’d used the wildness of the storm for sex. It was dangerous. Stupid. And it wasn’t even for the blonde woman destined to be his talent-partner.
The buzz shattered and his languid stupor fled. He shoved up from the ground and turned from her to gather his wits.
“Don’t come near me again.” Her words broke their tenuous connection.
“Great idea,” he muttered. Still, as she stomped away, he did watch her tight ass all the way back to the mansion.
Light sparkled in his peripheral vision and he bent. His button lay in a tuft of grass near the gloves he’d discarded. He pocketed it and tugged on a glove. Then, some urge drove him. For long minutes, he searched, growing more and more agitated.
There. A little black button. It fit the pants she wore. Nondescript. A bit fancy but not showy—probably something a designer would pick. He put it in his pocket alongside his and rolled his shoulders.
His storm had taken control of him since he’d found a syphon waif in the mountains.
Now he’d gotten that weather system to move along and he could get back to normal. This had taken the edge off. Now he could think, be reasonable and stop acting rashly.
Trudging in the wake of Astrid, he caught the scent of rain-kissed woman and groaned.
He’d have to talk to Ray, let him know his powers had decided to go wonky, but later. Right now, he needed to work himself into a sweat and empty his mind for a while.
After a quick change to work clothes, he climbed into his truck. He’d grab takeout and then head to one of his regular customers’ place.
Getting away from here was the best idea he’d had in two days.
And that’s what he did. He called Ray. And he stayed away. All the long day.
Later, as the sun set over the landscaping job site where he’d pruned and hauled limbs for hours, he climbed back into his truck.
The big vehicle started with a smooth rumble. He pointed it toward home but then sat idling.