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“Brad’s grandfather is in there with him, but he’s still sedated and unable to respond to them.”

“Poor guy.” Vadim shook his head. “Perhaps we’d better not disturb him, then.” He turned to Ella, who wasn’t looking very pleased. “Shall we go and find Ms. Phelps and get her up to speed?”

“I’d rather see Brad.”

He took hold of her elbow and propelled her along the corridor.

“We’ll do that in a moment. Do you particularly want to go in there and face his grandfather?

We can’t answer a single damn question for them yet.

” She went to speak, and he kept talking.

“It’s not likely that Adam will get in there either, with Delia and that thug on the door. ”

“I suppose you’re right. Maybe we should come back later.”

“Let’s do that. We can ask Ms. Phelps to call us when the ex-senator leaves.”

She grimaced. “Okay, but I just have a bad feeling about this.”

So did he, but he didn’t want her to know that. “How about we catch an early dinner at my hotel and return this evening?”

“I suppose that would work. Look, there’s Ms. Phelps.” She walked over to the nurse’s station. “Hey, we just got barred from Brad Dailey’s room by some secret-service guy.”

“You did?” Ms. Phelps took them back into her office and shut the door.

She patted ineffectively at her blond bun.

“I’m not surprised. That man was demanding I show him full security checks for every single member of staff and patient on this ward!

If the ex-senator wants his grandson to have more privacy, he’ll have to pay for a private room on a secure corridor.

” She lowered her voice a fraction. “It’s not as if Brad is a VIP. ”

“How long is he staying?”

“The former senator is leaving in about two hours. He’ll hopefully be taking his security detail with him. Brad’s parents are due in tonight at around eleven. They are flying in from Florida. They were on their yacht.”

“Nice.” Ella said. “So will you call us just before the senator leaves? We need to talk to Brad.”

“He hasn’t been very responsive today at all.” Ms. Phelps shook her head. “His doctor fears he might be going into a coma of some kind, his body signs are so minimal.”

“Well, thanks for the heads-up. We’ll do our best to get him to talk to us, but we’ll understand if he can’t.”

Vadim held the door open for Ella and then followed her toward the stairs and the elevator bank. She looked back at him over her shoulder.

“How much time do we have?”

“To get something to eat and get back here? Just under two hours.”

She groaned. “At this time of day it’s going to take us that long to get to your hotel in the commuter traffic.”

“Not if we don’t use the car.”

“I keep forgetting about that.” Her smile made his body come to life. “Can you take us right into your room?”

He could.

As soon as they materialized, he wrapped his arms around her and backed her up against the nearest wall, his tongue in her mouth, his hands roaming her jeans-covered ass.

“Morosov, what about my dinner?” She slid a hand around his neck. “I’m starving.”

There were so many filthy things he could say to that. “Sex first, dinner after.” He lifted her until her thighs hugged his hips and his cock ground against the seam of her jeans.

“But what about our talk?”

He scowled down at her far-too-innocent face. “After.”

She rolled her hips against his hardness and he fought a groan.

Why did she always wear so many clothes?

He had her naked in a second and stretched out beneath him on the bed, her legs spread wide by his.

With a sigh he bent over her breasts and licked one hard nipple into his mouth.

She started to squirm and he increased the pressure, sliding his fingers over her swollen clit and into her welcoming warmth.

She climaxed almost immediately, and he added another finger, transferring his attention to her other breast. His cock beat an urgent pulse along with his heart, wanting to be in her, to be joined to her in every way possible.

“Morosov…”

Why did she insist on talking when he was busy savoring the delights of her skin and scent and texture?

“Morosov, let me up!”

He raised his head to look at her. “What?”

She blinked at him. “I want something to do.”

“Then touch me.”

“I can’t reach the bit I particularly want to touch.” She pushed on his chest, and he reluctantly allowed her to sit up. She immediately turned around until her mouth was a tantalizing inch from his cock, put out her tongue and licked a drop of clear liquid off the crown.

“Mmm, nice.” Ella murmured.

He rolled onto his side, and her lips slid over his cock and took him deep.

With a groan he returned his attention to her clit, using his tongue and mouth and fingers to bring her to another climax.

Even while she still shuddered, he eased his shaft from her mouth and, reversing their positions, pushed her onto her back, spreading her knees wide with his.

She grinned up at him, her cheeks flushed, her blond hair escaping her haphazard braids.

Something inside him tightened. She infuriated him, but he needed her as he needed oxygen.

Something about her made him feel alive for the first time in years, made him want to protect her with every magical power he had inside him, good and bad.

She was his mate. If it came to it, he would gladly die for her.

Words pressed on his lips. He wanted to slash his chest with his nails and bleed for her, have her lick his blood, give her everything…

“Morosov.”

He opened his eyes and looked down at her again.

“Get on with it! I’m done waiting.”

Without another word, he plunged deep inside her and felt complete, their minds in harmony, their bodies even more so.

Every time they made love, the bond between them strengthened.

Did she feel that? And if she did, would she ever acknowledge it to his face?

This was when he knew her completely, and where he felt safe.

He thrust deeply. Her hands tightened on his shoulders, leaving her mark, as he wanted to mark her.

But there was still some part of her that held back, that resisted him… Sometimes he wanted to take her to the edge and force her over the abyss into knowing him and the depths of his personal hell. She was right to be wary. He could destroy her with one breath. He yelped as she tugged at his hair.

“Pay attention! Stop thinking and just…”

“Fuck you?” He increased his tempo, driving shorter and harder. Her feet crept up to his hips and he worked her even higher, her knees over his elbows as she started to come and come and…with a muffled howl he joined her, spilling himself deep inside her.

When she pushed at his chest, he obligingly rolled off her and subsided onto the covers with a groan.

“Morosov.”

“My name is Vadim. Can’t you even call me that when we’re naked?”

“Okay then, Vadim, although I doubt that’s your real name, anyway. You didn’t use a condom. Did you assume I was on the pill?”

He opened one eye. “I know you are.”

“You’ve never asked me!”

“But I know you. If you were planning on leaving this life on your twenty-seventh birthday, you would never allow yourself to conceive a child.”

Her hand came toward his cheek and he tensed, but she merely stroked him gently. “That’s pretty observant for a guy.”

“I’m your mate.” He caught her fingers in his and kissed them. “However, you should also know that I could make any method of birth control fail.”

She rolled away from him and sat up. “ What the fuck ?”

“Exactly.” He smiled. “I really can.”

“You wouldn’t dare!”

Her scowl was tremendous but not intimidating at all, because he was staring up at her heaving breasts and tight pink nipples. It was nice to occasionally get the upper hand with his female.

“Morosov, look at me. You have to swear that you will never do that, or else that is the last time I’ll ever let you make love to me.” She climbed off the bed and started looking for her clothes, which he had folded neatly on the chair beside the fire.

He smiled slowly and put his hands behind his head. They were making love now rather than just having casual sex? That was progress. She stomped into the bathroom and the shower went on. While she was occupied, he ordered room service and then rose from the bed and followed her into the bathroom.

* * *

“That’s my toothbrush!”

Ella glanced back over her shoulder to see Vadim in all his naked glory, glaring at her. She spat slowly into the bowl and rinsed.

“I’ve put it back. Keep your feathers on. After the Fae public-health service announcement you just gave me, I’m entitled to be fricking annoyed.”

She headed into the shower and allowed the steady drum of the water to soothe her tangled nerves.

Her threat not to have sex with Vadim ever again was an empty one and he knew it.

She could barely keep her hands off him at the best of times, and he wasn’t much better.

That had surprised her. Under that calm exterior he was as wild about sex as she was, and easily the best lay she’d ever had.

“Thank you.”

“Don’t read my mind!” He stepped into the shower behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist. She tried to stick an elbow in his gut, but he simply laughed and held her slightly away from him. “I’m not talking to you.”

“Even here?”

She tried, but she couldn’t shut him out anymore. “You have to promise you won’t get me pregnant.”

He nuzzled her neck and then her throat, and her knees went to jelly. “Not even if you wanted me to?”

A vision of a mini-Morosov danced inside her lust-driven brain, and she wasn’t sure if he’d planted it there or it was coming from her. That was even more terrifying than the thought of being pregnant.

He bit down slowly on the tendon in her neck. “We would make beautiful babies.”

“Shut up! I’ve only just realized I’m going to live beyond the age of twenty-seven. I haven’t come to terms with having you around yet, let alone a kid!”

His chuckle reverberated against her wet skin, and his newly erect cock pressed against her ass.

This time she did manage to get her elbow in his chest and spun around to face him.

He looked quite breathtaking, his dark blue eyes narrowed in a combination of amusement and lust as water dripped down his perfect cheekbones to his perfect abs and his perfect…

She stuck a finger in his face. “You’re messing with my head, aren’t you?”

“I might be.”

“Can you really make me pregnant?”

“Yes.”

“But not without my consent.”

He nodded. “Naturally.”

“Do I even need to be on contraception, then?”

He shrugged. “It’s up to you. You don’t need it.” He reached down and palmed his growing erection. “It’s much nicer for both of us if there’s nothing in between us.”

“Like a nice fluffy towel, for example.”

She stepped smartly out of the shower and shut the door on him. He kept smiling, his fingers gently teasing his thick shaft. She found it difficult to look away. She grabbed a robe and walked back out into the bedroom, rubbing her hair with a towel. Her stomach rumbled and she checked the time.

“We need to order some food.”

“Already done. It should be here fairly soon.”

He appeared in the bathroom doorway, a towel wrapped low around his hips.

He strolled across to her and her stomach tightened in anticipation.

“We still have a few minutes.” He sat down, and before she could say anything, he brought her on top of him, his cock unerringly finding her wet center and driving home.

She pushed back at him, demanding control, and he gave it to her, his eyes half-closed, his hands riding her hips as she controlled the depth and frequency of his thrusts.

He didn’t even need to touch her clit to make her come this time.

She loved it when he gave himself to her like this.

It was like controlling a force of nature.

With a sigh, she rested her forehead on his shoulder and gulped in some much-needed air. His hand caressed the back of her neck, his thumb circling her spine. “See? Much better skin to skin.”

She reluctantly climbed off him. “We still haven’t talked.”

“We can do that while we eat.”

She headed back to the bathroom and heard the knock on the door that heralded the arrival of their food. The tantalizing smell of barbecue made her lick her lips and hurry to clean up.

When she emerged, Vadim was uncovering plates on the small table and setting out silverware and water glasses. He was fully dressed in his shirt, tie and pants.

“It smells good. What did you order for me?”

“Ribs, curly fries and beans.”

“Really?” She smiled at him. “Does it come with a side of you lecturing me about my eating habits?”

“No, just eat.” He shook out his napkin and sat opposite her. “You need your strength.”

“What do you have?”

“Some grilled halibut, mashed potatoes and asparagus.”

“Of course.” She would’ve said more, but she was too busy devouring the ribs, scooping up beans and eating fries with her fingers. She’d probably need another shower after this. Vadim would be amazed…

“How did you manage that?” She gestured at his clothing. “You love having a shower. I can’t imagine you got dressed without one.”

“It’s an old Fae spell.”

“Can you show me how to do it?”

“If you wish. But eat your dinner first. We’re running out of time.”