After a short pause, I replied in a low voice, “Yes.” Suddenly, I was flat on my back on the long table with my legs locked around his waist.

“I’m going to f**k you now. Fuck you hard and deep, so that all you feel is me.”

It hadn’t been a false promise. He began ruthlessly pounding into me, holding my gaze with eyes that blazed with possessiveness. At the same time, he was zapping my clit over and over with his thumb, and I was almost sobbing with the burning pleasure/pain of it. I could feel my orgasm creeping up on me fast, and so could he.

“I love feeling you come around me. Let me feel it, baby. Now.”

A particularly hard zap to my clit knocked me over the edge and sent an explosion of sensation tearing through me, pulling a scream from me that Jared eagerly swallowed. Wanting him right there with me, I tore my mouth from his and bit into his shoulder, drinking him into me.

“Christ, baby.” With a guttural groan, he slammed into me one last time and held himself still as he pulsed deep inside me.

He flopped forward, but landed on his elbows, careful not to crush me. Well I’d certainly never be able to look at this table again without smiling − which would make any future meetings in this room kind of interesting. With reverberations still racking our bodies, he rested his forehead against mine and gently kissed me, sipping from my mouth. “Don’t pull away from me like that again.”

I sighed. “I was just ticked off.”

“I’ll make sure she leaves.”

“She’s not going anywhere. She stays.”

He jerked back to examine my face. “What do you mean, she stays?”

“If she wants to see our Binding ceremony, that’s exactly what she’s going to do.” Because it would severely piss her off.

“You won’t be able to hide your feelings from her, Sam,” he told me gently. “You won’t be able to pretend she’s not feeding your insecurities.”

Smoothing my hands over his shoulders, I joined them behind his neck. “I know that. She’ll sense that she’s getting to me. But she’ll also see that I’m not going anywhere; that we’re going through with that ceremony whether she approves or not. Besides, I wouldn’t want to be robbed of the chance to use my gifts on her.” Magda might have a bad attitude, but so did I, and mine was much worse.

It was a long moment before he spoke. “If she gets too much—”

“I’m not going to challenge her, Jared. I know what it’s like to feel a blood-link die – I’d never been through more pain than what I had when I killed Victor. I don’t want you going through that.”

He looked a mixture of amazed and pissed. “You think I care about a bit of f**king pain?”

“You probably don’t. But I care about putting you through it. See, this is how I feel when you try to protect me and I don’t need it. It’s going to work both ways.”

He opened his mouth to say something, but then snapped it shut. “Come on, let’s get back. People will be wondering where we are.”

As we were both fixing our clothes, something occurred to me. “She probably felt it, didn’t she?”

“What?”

“When we were shagging, she probably sensed it through your blood-link as you’re still in close proximity.”

He tilted his head and frowned thoughtfully. Then he shrugged. “Maybe.”

What could only be described as an evil smile surfaced on my face. “Good.”

He chuckled. “So merciless.” Linking his hand with mine, he gave me a light yet still very possessive kiss before teleporting us back to the parlour. But he didn’t teleport us to the balcony, or to the doorway, or to a quiet corner. No, he teleported us to the centre of the dance floor with a wicked laugh. The sod knew I didn’t like slow dancing.

(Jared)

Before she could pull away from me, I aligned her body to mine, took her arms and curled them around my neck. I then slid both of my arms around her, settling one under the curtain of her dark hair that covered the bare skin of her upper back, and snaking the other down her body. It was with great reluctance that she joined in the dancing. As usual, I found myself enthralled at how snug she felt against me…even if she was stiff as a board. “Relax.”

“I will when you move your hand from my arse.”

“But it’s comfortable there.”

“You know I don’t like slow dancing.”

“Dancing is just like sex – get the rhythm right and you can’t go wrong.”

“We could just go back to the apartment and have some more sex?” she said hopefully.

“We can’t leave our own gathering early.” Could we?

“You know you want to,” she breathed into my ear before nibbling on the lobe.

“None of your little tricks,” I admonished with a smile, tapping her ass lightly but punishingly. Ignoring her scowl, I tightened my arms around her. When that scowl morphed into a grin, I narrowed my eyes. “What?”

Sam tipped her head toward her left. “I think I may have been right. I think Jessica Rabbit might have sensed us shagging.”

Glancing briefly in the direction she had indicated, I almost laughed. If the look on Magda’s face was anything to go by, Sam was right. Hell, steam might as well have been coming out of her ears. I personally didn’t give a shit either way, but I could feel that Sam was smug. If that cheered her up, fine.

Nuzzling Sam’s neck, I breathed her in, took inside me that vanilla scent that was tinted with honeycomb. It was the best smell in the whole damn world. My c**k was in total agreement; it rose to attention when even a hint of it was in the air. I let my tongue flick out to taste her pulse. Her skin tasted slightly like her scent; like vanilla and honeycomb, and like energy and mine.

“Stop it, or I’ll get horny again.”

I smiled at the breathlessness in her voice. I loved how sensitive her neck was. “I’m already there.” Subtly, I ground my once-again-hard c**k against her.

She laughed and moaned at the same time. The sound of quick, purposeful footsteps had us both swerving to see our personal assistant coming toward us.

“I’ve been looking for you.” Fletcher’s perceptive eyes scanned both of us. “Been for a bonk, I see.”

“What’s your excuse – you being my best friend – for being so late?” she snapped.

“Oh chilax, will you.”