Page 6 of Hex Me (Immortal Vices and Virtues: All Hallows’ Eve #7)

Max

THE CROSSROADS

I t was the motherfucking honeymoon suite.

Sabrina and Kieran had booked a room in a historic hotel—something he hadn’t believed still existed out here in the Crossroads.

Then again, he’d only been to the new portal town a handful of times since the gate to Tartarus had opened.

Tamsin had been largely in charge of managing external House politics, leaving him to deal with internal House issues, so she was far more familiar with the town.

Max let out a low whistle as he took in the suite.

Decadent . That was the first word that popped to mind.

Complete with a four-poster bed, heavy damask curtains, renaissance-style paintings, and heavy wooden furniture, along with protection charms already spelled into place.

The room was designed for a couple, not two solo travelers being forced to share.

No wonder Kieran had looked so smug earlier.

“This is swishy,” he murmured to the still irritated witch.

“Did you just say the word ‘swishy’?” Tamsin asked, one eyebrow arched. She dropped her bag to the floor and rolled her neck from side to side. He knew from experience that she could open portals easily, but she looked tired. Had making one so soon after her return to the House worn her out?

When he noticed her staring, he realized she was waiting for him to respond to her taunt.

“Does it matter what I say?” Max asked. “Yer gonna take umbrage with it nae matter what.” He placed his leather suitcase beside the bed. The only bed. Which meant they were about to have an argument.

One he was determined to win.

“That’s not true,” Tamsin muttered.

Max crossed his arms over his chest, giving her a look. “Point proven.”

His prickly witch leaned down and opened what he called her Mary Poppins bag. It seemed to hold an impossible amount of crap. Then again, Tamsin manipulated space and time; who knew how much stuff she could shove into what appeared to be a fabric bag?

He kicked his shoes off and wiggled his poor, abused toes.

While his partial shift had healed his foot, he could still feel echoes of the pain.

The rich brocade carpet was soft under his feet, but there was no way he was going to sleep on it, not if he could help it.

“Yer sleeping on the floor.” He pointed vaguely at a spot somewhere between the bed and the wall.

Both of Tamsin’s eyebrows rose at that. “Excuse me? I’m sleeping on the floor? Aren’t you meant to be a gentleman?”

He snorted. “Nae sure where ye got that impression from. Ye can manipulate space. Make the floor comfy, I dunno. But I get the bed—I called dibs.”

“ Dibs ?” Tamsin opened and closed her mouth a few times, but no other sound emerged.

Max pretended to be busy with his leather-bound suitcase so she wouldn’t see the smug twist of his smile.

“I’m sleeping on the bed,” she said evenly.

“Then ye will be joining me, cos I am nae sleeping on the floor,” Max replied, pulse hammering at the thought.

Fuck, what would it be like to sleep next to her? To have her scent surrounding him the moment he opened his eyes in the morning? To have her warmth and body tucked near him?

His cock jerked at the thought.

“Fine. You can be in the bed, too,” Tamsin grumbled. “But you lay one single finger on me, I’ll turn you into the ugliest toad the world’s ever seen.”

“A toad?” Max turned, surprised to find Tamsin already standing within two feet of him.

She rarely got this close if she could help it—not that he’d taken to noticing her positioning any time he was around.

He breathed in, the scent of amber and orchid wrapping around him like an embrace, making his cock even more interested.

Not now, he thought, trying to get the rogue appendage under control.

If she noticed his hard-on, she’d turn him into aforementioned toad, and he had a ball to attend.

“Ye forget,” he said, crouching down to rifle through his suitcase, “if ye cast a spell on me, it won’t last. I’ll just turn phantom and re-form human.”

“And if you re-form butt-ass naked in the bed, expect to lose a limb or two.”

He looked down at himself, deliberately focusing on his groin that was thankfully obscured from her view by his crouched position. “A limb? I dinnae know ye were so well acquainted with my body. I’m flattered.”

A strange, high-pitched sound escaped Tamsin. Her right fist clenched tightly as her pale-blue eyes flashed with a burst of magic.

He wondered if they did that when she was aroused…

Stop wondering, or yer gonna end up missing body parts.

“Well, I’m gonna get ready for the ball,” he muttered, satisfied now he’d gotten a rise out of her.

“I’m assuming fancy is the dress code?” He stood, holding his toiletry bag in front of his waist; not exactly natural, but he wasn’t willing to take a chance.

Keeping it there, he strode into their bathroom, shutting the door ever-so-gently behind him.

Max grinned when he heard a solid thump against the other side.

There was something so delightful about Tamsin in a temper.

He placed the toiletry pack on the vanity and looked around the bathroom.

The shower was mounted over a claw-footed bath, surrounded by a white curtain, and the pale pink tiles he stood on were cold under his feet.

He closed his eyes and a picture bloomed in his mind, with little prompting on his part: Tamsin in the bath, the water up to her chest and bubbles obscuring her body, her long legs and arms propped on the edges of the tub.

Her head rested on a towel while her magnificent hair was tied in a messy bun atop her head.

Her cherry red lips curving in a slight, inviting smile.

He swallowed and his cock grew rock hard.

Fuck.

He needed to get his arousal under control. He’d never been this…bad about it. Sure, he’d thought of them together, but he’d never been driven to this point before. Where he was getting aroused just being with her, near her, just from thinking about her.

But there was something about knowing Tamsin was in the next room while he was naked that had him imagining her in here with him. Of her eyes glowing as she took in his body, his passion for her. How her red lips would part in invitation.

Yer an idiot.

That he was.

Shaking his head at himself, he placed his glasses on the vanity and stripped.

Climbing into the shower-bath, he turned the faucet on, hissing as the stream of cold water touched his skin.

He bit his lip when it slid over his erection, the cold water not affecting the damned thing at all.

Maybe he needed to take care of it; that way he wouldn’t react so strongly to Tamsin the next time he saw her. Which would be all too soon.

Yer gonna jerk off with her in the next room?

Something about the idea made him feel like a creep—while also exciting him. Knowing that she had the potential to walk in on him at any moment, see him aroused and hard, and realize it was all for her.

Because of her.

He quietly knelt in the bath, bowing his head as the warming water hit the back of his neck, sliding down over his shoulders and back like tiny fingers running over his flesh.

He imagined that it was Tamsin touching him, her fingers trailing over him, and he grasped his cock in one hand, wishing it was her palm, her fingers closing over him.

Slowly, he moved his hand up and down the hard length, closing his eyes and picturing his prickly witch in the bath with him, her dark hair wet and clinging to them both.

Trapping him in her web. He could almost smell her with him, but it was a darker, lusher scent made so by her arousal as she brought him to the edge of sanity—from wanting him as much as he wanted her.

She’d look at him with those pale wolf eyes, seeing him, accepting him—all of him.

His hand squeezed as he envisioned dropping his head to kiss her, her lips dueling with his, her tongue warm and demanding in his mouth. Challenging him, pushing him to give her the pleasure she deserved. That she wanted.

“ Fuck .”

He thought about how it would feel to caress her—to run his fingers over the curves and valleys of her body.

His fist pumped harder, faster, his hand gliding up and down the slippery length of his cock as he imagined cupping one of her breasts in his hand, feeling the nipple pebble under his touch.

He would worship it with his fingers and mouth, while his other hand dipped down, sliding over her hip to glide lower between the apex of her thighs.

Pressure built in his balls and a tingling sensation spread from his legs to his spine as the show in his mind continued to evolve.

His breathing grew fast and shallow as he pictured delicately cupping Tamsin’s pussy, before dipping his fingers between her folds, her wet arousal all over his hands.

Feeling her body shudder with pleasure, with need.

For him.

Ecstasy thundered through him, exploding through his body as he imagined Tamsin’s breathy moans of bliss as he touched her. Her hands grabbing him, pulling him closer. Wanting him. Taking him.

He gasped her name as he came, as he drowned in the most intense orgasm of his life, shaking from the power of it. He didn’t know how long he kneeled in the shower, shock holding him immobile as the evidence of his pleasure disappeared with the onslaught of sanity and the shower’s spray.

He sat up, titling his face into the warm water, running wet hands through his tangled hair. Fuck. He’d just came so hard he wasn’t sure he could stand straight. And Tamsin Redthorne had been in the next room, none the wiser.

But he couldn’t pretend any longer that he didn’t want her. If imagining them together made him lose his mind, he could only wonder at what being with her in real life would do to him. He couldn’t go back now, not anymore; to pretending the chemistry between them didn’t exist.

Because he had to know what they could be to each other.

No more games.