The note: Just a pretty, everyday watch I thought you might like.

There were notes with each and every thing, explaining why the gift was in the basket. They were all thoughtful. They all implied he knew me.

Bose earphones. To drown out the others while you are confined in this tiny cave.

A box of Swiss truffles: This is the best chocolate I’ve ever had. I am submitting it to you for your assessment. Everyone knows women are the chief experts in these things.

The last thing I pulled out was a fountain pen shaped as a quill, its stand designed to look like a bottle of ink. The note: I confess, I got carried away. I thought it was cool until I got it. Online ordering, what can you do?

“Hey…” Austin poked his head in. “You okay?”

“Yeah.” I placed the—actually quite cool—fountain pen back into the basket and started loading everything else up. “What’s up?”

“Did you get any good stuff?” He walked in, cool and confident, the swagger of a king. “You should see the watch I got. It’s a Patek Philippe Grandmaster Chime out of his personal collection.” He searched my blank face. “No? Well, trust me, it is a helluva watch. He somehow knew I was a watch guy.”

“You’re not freaked out about that fact?”

“No. He just wants us to know he’s done his homework. He has the home-court advantage, and he’s showing it. I’ll wear it to dinner tomorrow night.”

“You can’t wear it to dinner tomorrow! It’ll look like he has the upper hand. Or like he’s buying us. We can’t accept this stuff.”

“Wearing it will show that I am taking all of this in stride. Which I am. I don’t care about these little things. The food, the accommodations, the note in the room next to yours, where the watch was waiting for me, suggesting I place the second most powerful person in our crew there, since I’ll be sleeping with you…” Austin looked around the room and then shrugged out of his jacket. “This is much nicer than I was expecting. More spacious and defensible, too. We’re trapped in here—there are no exits save the door we came through—but there is a limit as to how many people they can send after us. The bodies will pile high before they can get through the door. They’ll create their own barricade.”

“Gross.”

He laid his jacket across the back of one of the chairs and undid the cuff link on his right sleeve. “We’re going to be okay. We’re going to get a good night’s sleep tonight, we’ll explore a little in the morning, looking for exits and places we can sneak the gargoyles in, and tomorrow night we’ll assess the danger with the other mages. You might actually be able to make a few connections while you’re here.”

I blew out a breath. I felt too jumpy to network. Like I’d try to karate-chop anyone who came up to me.

“Remember,” he continued, shutting the door and throwing the lock. He undid his other cuff link before starting to unbutton his shirt, walking toward me. “Everyone here is in the same boat.” He pulled his shirt from his muscular shoulders, exposing his perfectly cut torso. He worked at the button and then zipper on his pants, pushing the fabric down and stepping out, toeing off his shoes and then his socks as he did so. He stood nude before me, his hard length at attention. “Elliot Graves has been missing from the magical world for a long while.” He stepped around me, and I felt his lips on the curve of my neck, his fingertips like butterflies across my back before they took hold of my zipper. “Before that, he was the most cunning, ruthless mage the world had ever known. The crime boss of all crime bosses.” My zipper whirred as it lowered, the fabric of the dress loosening and falling open across my back. “He killed, maimed, and stole his way to an empire. He never took on a partner.” My dress slid across my skin, silky smooth, until it pooled at my feet. “For the first time it seems like he’s inviting people to work with him, and everyone here will be as eager as they are cautious.”

His lips trailed a line of heat down the center of my back. His fingers curled around the sides of my panties before he pushed them down my legs.

“Everyone here is doubtless also wondering if he plans to kill them to make a little more room for his reemergence into the magical world.” He stepped in front of me before sinking to his knees, looking up at me. “No one here has the team we have. No one here is as safe as you are.” His gaze held mine. “You are being professionally wooed by this man. This place, its setup, the expensive gifts… He wants an audience with you, and he is not going through all of this trouble just to kill you. Not right away. Not before you have an opening to kill him first.” He leaned forward, his cobalt eyes still connected with mine, and licked up my center.

I sucked in a breath, tingles spreading across my body.

He pulled back just a bit. “I need you to go out there tomorrow like you’re headed into battle. I need you to own who and what you are, and take no prisoners. These mages can smell weakness. You can’t show any. I know you’re anxious and stressed, so I will spend a great deal of time and effort helping you relax tonight…” He sucked on the little bundle of nerves at the top of my sex, gently scraping it with his teeth and flash-boiling my blood. “I will serve you dinner in bed after I pleasure you, before pleasuring you again, until you are boneless and unable to keep your eyes open. We’ll sleep in late, and then you will strap on your armor, knowing that you have the absolute best team in the world at your back. And then you will lead us into danger.”

I ran my hand through his dark brown hair…and opened my legs a little wider.

“That’s my girl.” He took to me like he was starving, sucking and licking and making my eyes roll into the back of my head. His fingers dove and retreated as his mouth worked in tandem, winding me ever tighter.

I let the sensations move through me, focused on his ministrations and his proximity, allowing myself to let go. My hips swung toward him and away as his plunging fingers sped up and his suction increased. The orgasm swelled out of nowhere, sweeping me away. I shuddered above him, crying out his name and yanking on his hair.

He gave me a hearty growl before standing and picking me up, carrying me to the bed.

“I don’t want you to hold on to anything tonight,” he told me, ripping back the covers and settling me in. His body pushed me into the soft mattress. “I want you to release it all onto me. Any lingering doubts or worries—release them to me.” He ran his teeth up my throat, and I shivered. He kissed my lips firmly before sweeping his tongue through my mouth. His thrust drove the air from my lungs. “I will hold all of that for you.” He started to move, his eyes on mine, so intense. “I will hold your concerns and your fears so that you can focus on kicking ass. Trust me, Jacinta.”

I sighed, arching back, wrapping my legs around him.

“Mmm,” he said, his thrusts a little harder, a little fiercer, pounding his need into me, giving me a promise of protection.

His heart within my chest thudded a steady rhythm. Something deep inside of me moved, yearned to break free. To explode outward. I swung my hips toward him, feeling my control ebb. Feeling the pleasure build.

“That’s right, baby,” he growled into my ear, striving harder, driving the exquisite bliss through me.

“Harder,” I groaned, out of breath, clutching onto him tightly. He was the only thing in the world at that moment. I lost myself in him, giving myself to him so totally that I didn’t have to think. That I couldn’t think.

My body wound tighter. The sensations rose higher until passion flooded me with a sweet release. I shuddered against him as he quaked above, panting.

He took only a moment to gather himself.

“This is the first time I’m not on call,” he said. “Nothing will interrupt us tonight. I can completely give in to this never-ending craving for you.” He lifted up between my thighs, his delicious body glistening. “Which position would you like next? Pick any one you want. We’ll get through them all before I pound that stress out of you, I think.” But he didn’t wait for an answer. He just sat on the bed and pulled me up on top of him. I wasn’t surprised to feel he was already hard again, already ready for me. “How about this one?” He kissed me deeply as he guided his hardness into me. Against my lips he murmured, “Are you ready to tell me how you feel yet?”

Just the mention of it made me constrict my arms around him. I jerked my hips, grinding against him. I yanked his head back by his hair and harshly dragged my teeth up his throat.

He shuddered. “Hmm, that’s how it’s going to be, is it?” I could hear the excitement in his words. “So be it.”

He trapped me to him, lifted me a bit, and then hammered into me, over and over, driving the pleasure deep. Inwardly smiling, outwardly grunting with the onslaught, I slipped into the feeling and said goodbye to reality. I’d deal with our situation tomorrow. Tonight I’d think of nothing else but Austin.

Fifteen

“What’s our status?” I stood in the center of the common area and popped the best truffle in the world into my mouth.

Austin had urged me to keep all the stuff in the gift basket. According to him, I could chalk it up to collecting my dues for all of the mage’s badgering, treat the gifts as participation trophies for bothering to show, or assign no emotion to them at all and immediately forget where I’d gotten them. Thanks for the goods, what was your name again?

Given that literally no one else had any reservations about keeping their gifts, each having been given one or two things perfectly suited to their interests and taste, I’d decided to compromise. I would pick and choose a few things to keep. The truffles were the first things out of the basket.

Cyra jogged out of the hallway that led to the rooms, dressed in a black pantsuit with a ruby pin on her lapel. Designed to look like a phoenix shedding flames, it was her gift from Elliot Graves: a magical memento that would help her control her fire shedding after rebirths.