Make Me: A Monsters & Artifacts Short Story

Chapter One

Kat-October

I was really fucking tired.

Three weeks of researching a scalpel that supposedly had the magical ability to reverse any illness, and I still didn’t have a specific location.

I was one of the researchers in the new Medical Research Department within the Secret Archive, an organization that found and housed powerful supernatural artifacts that were a danger to the world.

Well, most were a danger unless you knew how to use them. For the longest time, the Archive only allowed their agents to acquire and secure the artifacts, leaving hundreds to sit forgotten on dusty shelves. But recently the Director had agreed to a very limited use, namely the application of a few very specific artifacts in the field of medicine. 

That’s the team I joined, and we all knew that if we didn’t succeed, many other research programs wouldn’t even be considered in the Archive. We were the guinea pigs and everything was riding on our success. 

Which is why I was working myself to the damn bone, trying to find things like this damn scalpel. I wasn’t a trained agent; I was a researcher and a level three witch. Not the most powerful, but not weak either. I had enough juice to help out any agent I was paired with and more than enough intelligence to get the job done in the field. In my time here, I’d worked from every kind of agent and every kind of supernatural species, even the slightly frightening Ephemerals, who looked like bona fide demons.

None of that usually mattered though, because we were all here for one purpose: to protect the world.

Now I was also here to make the world better. I’d been excited about that prospect when I was first added to the team, ready to dive in and finally do more than just be a supernatural junk collector.

And then I’d met my partner. 

The single most frustrating, arrogant, grumpy Gargoyle on the fucking planet!

Just thinking about him had my anger boiling and my power crackling at my fingertips.

He was a know it all. He called my magical abilities “parlor tricks”. He punched first and asked questions later. We’d been lucky to get that damn artifact on our first assignment and now here I was, stuck with the son of a bitch on a second mission!

If I didn’t believe so strongly in our purpose here, I would’ve told our lead agent, Professor Turner, that I was done after that first trip with Zach.

That was his name.

Zach, the grumpiest Gargoyle.

I rubbed my eyes and tried not to think of him. It was almost two in the morning and I needed sleep, but I could feel that I was close to a breakthrough with the location. I wasn’t a fan of the Archive library, so I’d checked out some books and was reading at my desk. We all had small offices within the section of the Archive’s London offices that had been designated for the MRD. Most of us practically lived here when we were on a case, and I was no exception. 

I’d slept here for the past two nights and it showed. My clothes were starting to get a little ripe, and I felt grubby as hell, even though I’d bathed the day before. 

Maybe a nice hot shower would help clear my head, give me a break. At the very least I could catch a nap after.

I grabbed my toiletries bag and headed for the agent locker room, which was co-ed. When I first started here, I thought it was completely strange until one of the female agents explained that by the time they all had undergone training and field acclimation, they’d seen each other naked dozens of times.

“You get a little desensitized,” she admitted. “Besides, if anyone is uncomfortable, there’s gendered locker rooms on the upper floor.”

And she’d been right. I’d seen so many Orc, Gargoyle, Werewolf and Ephemeral asses and dicks that it was nothing by now. Besides, I was probably alone here tonight, anyway. This part of the building was practically a ghost town except for our team and I was pretty sure everyone but me had gone home six hours ago.

But just my luck, I was wrong.

I’d just gotten under the warm spray in one of the stalls, closed my eyes and started to relax when I heard the unmistakable click of claws on the tile floor.

“Hello?” I asked.

“Burning the midnight oil?” Zach’s voice carried a sneer. “Your little spell not work?”

“It’s not a fix all,” I snapped as I lathered up with the soap and tried to ignore the fact that Zach took the stall right next to mine.

“Or a fix anything, apparently.”

“Did you hang around just for the opportunity to give me shit?”

“Don’t flatter yourself. I had actual work to do.”

I couldn’t hold back the loud grunt of frustration and rinsed the soap off. All joy in the pleasure of a perfect temperature shower went out the window. I swear, this asshole could ruin anything.

I turned off the water and grabbed my towel at the same time Zach did, our hands tangling.

“That’s my towel!” I said, as he snagged it off the hook.

“No, I hung mine there.”

“God damn it, hand me the fucking towel!”

“You left yours on the bench!” he yelled.

I peeked around the stall door and cringed.

He was right, the fucker.

I wasn’t shy about my body and I was too tired to really give a fuck about this jerk seeing me in all my wet glory, so I stepped out of the stall and marched up to my towel.

“You’re welcome,” he snarled, standing buck naked in the doorway of the shower room.

I ignored him and propped my foot on the bench so I could dry my leg off. 

It was then that I noticed the enormous cock swinging between his beefy thighs. And the fact that it was standing at attention.

Was he getting aroused by the sight of me drying off?

Why was that thought so damn hot all of a sudden? Was I really that fucking desperate for a shag that I’d fuck this asshole?

Gargoyle dicks were a bit different from your average supernatural being. They had a knot, nothing super special about that. But just at the base of the knot was this tiny little horn like protrusion that leaked a powerful aphrodisiac that tasted like warm honey. It was also at the perfect height to stimulate a woman’s clit. I’d had my fair share of Gargoyle cock during my time here, so Zach’s should’ve been just like any other. 

But it wasn’t. It was larger than any I’d ever seen, and to my absolute shock, this asshole’s cock horn was currently leaking golden fluid onto a dick that was actually getting harder right before my eyes. It was framed by thick thighs that looked like they belonged on a body builder, his stomach wasn’t as defined and it could even be described as having a slight roundness to it, but I could also see the evidence of muscles if he moved just the right way. His arms as they raised to bring the towel up and dry his hair flexed into mouth watering mounds that I wanted to sink my teeth into. And when a drop of water cascaded slow down the strong column of his throat and sank into the hollow at the base, I wondered what it would be like to lick that spot and make him whimper.

But all these thoughts could be explained away as a sign of extreme fatigue, nothing more. What I couldn’t explain was why my pussy was acting the traitor by becoming wet at all these thoughts and why my clit actually fucking quivered.

I tried to ignore him, but Zach took a deep inhale and chuckled.

“You getting hot at the sight of my dick, little witch?”

“You getting hard at the sight of my cunt?” I challenged, propping my other foot on the bench and stepping to the side to expose my bare attributes.

He took a slow step toward me, taking his time looking down my body, which was still damp. I dared him to judge the roundness of my hips, the thickness of my thighs and the soft pillow of my stomach, but all I saw was glittering lust when he finally looked me in the eye, a deep scowl on his broad face.

“What if I am?” his voice rumbled, and he leaned closer.

What happened next, I still can’t explain.

My hands yanked him by his broad shoulders just as he grabbed me by the back of the neck. Our mouths crashed onto one another as we fought for dominance, tongues and teeth clashed.

I was so fucking aroused that I was driven by pure instinct and base need. In the back of my mind, I was screaming at how wrong this was. I hated this guy. But that only made it hotter.

“I’m gonna teach you how to show some damn respect to your–,” he began.

“Elders?” I finished for him.

He growled and spun me around until my hands were braced against a nearby wall.

“I’m going to enjoy fucking this pussy,” he said in my ear. “Or are you a cock sucker? You want my cum on your tits, down your throat?”

“Someone took their Viagra today,” I said, unable to stifle a groan when he brutally pinched my nipples.

“You like that? You want me to use you like a sex doll? Like a little whore?”

“How do you know I’m not using you like a whore?” I shot back and grabbed his dick.

It was a bit of an awkward angle, but I managed to squeeze the meaty girth and stroke him hard.

He let out a deep rumble. His eyes rolled back for a second and I laughed in delight.

He soon took back control by shoving two thick fingers deep inside of me. I was so wet that the noises he made as he eagerly finger fucked me were obscene, but the heel of his hand was also hitting my clit so I was suddenly incapable of speech as waves of sensation rolled through me.

“Beg me for my cock,” Zach demanded. 

“No.”

He yanked his fingers out and before I could even mourn the loss, a sharp stinging pain rocked through me.

The asshole had spanked me!

And I’d liked it. When nothing happened for a moment, I looked over my shoulder at him. The thick muscles in Zach’s arms and shoulders were tensed as he held himself above me, jaw clenched.

“I shouldn’t have done that without asking,” he ground out, “but your ass was fucking begging to be spanked.”

He kneaded the flesh, and I gasped at the stinging pleasure.

“Do it again,” I said.

“Do you have a safe word?”

“Colors. Green for go, yellow for slow down, red for stop.”

And that was all he needed.

Again and again his hand came down on my bare ass until I was crying out from the pain.

“So pretty with my marks on you,” Zach chuckled. “Maybe I’ll make you my little office fuck toy. Would you like that?”

“I don’t know,” I panted, “you haven’t fucked me yet. How do I know you can deliver?”

“You just can’t help it, can you?”

He swatted me six more times, and by now tears were coursing down my cheeks but I wasn’t sure if it was from the spanking or the fact that i was so horny if I didn’t get fucked right the hell now I would die.

“I’m going to have so much fun stretching your pussy.”

“Big words usually don’t mean a big– Ugh!”

He was not gentle, and I didn’t care. He worked himself into me with rough thrusts until I could feel his heavy balls slapping against me. I was only a little sorry I wasn’t going to get his cock horn. With the way it had been weeping, I would’ve been two orgasms in by now, just from that.

“You’re so fucking tight,” he said it like he was almost offended by it. “I’m not gonna be slow.”

“Good. I want you to fuck me hard.”

He groaned, his thick hands dug into my hips as he swirled his hips, still buried balls deep inside of me. I let out a long moan at how fucking good it felt when Zach’s finger was suddenly rubbing on my clit. It was fast, two circles, and he was gone.

“No,” I complained

Until a new sensation started.

Warmth built from where he’d touched, filling me like a wave.

He’d rubbed some of the aphrodisiac from his cock horn on my clit.

“I want to feel you come at least twice before I fill you up. You okay with me coming inside this tight pussy of yours?”

My head was still clear enough to nod.

“I’ve got an implant, and I was tested recently.”

“Me too.”

“This doesn’t mean I like you,” I glared over my shoulder.

He was a dark being, drenched in shadows as his wings flared out behind his massive body and he stared down at me. I hated to admit how fucking hot he looked right now.

“Same, you’re still a pain in my ass.”

“Good, then start fucking me before I change my mind.”

He actually laughed, a deep, jagged sound.

“You’re such a little shit.”

And then we both were lost.

He fucked me hard and long. The slapping of our bodies and the uninhibited screams and groans echoed throughout the empty locker room. The first orgasm hit me hard and fast. My body shook, and I was reeling, but Zach didn’t slow down. 

And I loved it.

Loved being fucked rough and thoroughly by this giant Gargoyle.

Loved how taboo this felt. I hated this asshole, and yet I wanted more.

When the second orgasm hit me like the most glorious freight train, I was sobbing uncontrollably. My clit was so sensitive, my entire body was shaking, on fire and flying apart all at once.

I didn’t think I could take much more when Zach’s hard thrusts started to get erratic, and then he was swearing in a breathy, groaning voice as he buried himself deep inside of me and emptied himself..

“Fuck Kat,” he said, using my name for the first time as he trailed biting kisses up my spine. “You took me so well.”

I was feeling so good I didn’t even mind that I had just a little bit of affection for how talented Zach was with his giant cock.

When he pulled out of me, his come poured out of me and dripped down my thighs.

“Wait here,” he said.

When he came back, he had a warm washcloth. I reached for it, but he ignored me and knelt on the floor to start wiping gently between my thighs.

“I can do that,” I whispered as I looked down at him.

“I made the mess. I’ll clean it up.”

His voice was back to that sharp bite he had ever time we spoke, but now I heard the subtle difference, a softness. Seeing this huge Gargoyle kneeling and being so gentle with me was…well, it was kinda sweet.

But even so, I refused to fall for him. He was my co-worker, and one good fuck didn’t mean we were meant to be together. Just because our hate fuck was fun didn’t mean I was gonna throw away all the anger I had at him for all the snide comments.

When he was finished, he paused, staring at the hand marks on my ass that I could just barely see.

“I hope I wasn’t too rough,” he rumbled. “I should’ve asked first. I’m sorry.”

“Stop,” I said, standing up straight and putting my hands on my hips. “I would’ve stopped you if I didn’t want it.”

He stood and crossed his massive arms, a smug smile on his face.

“Oh really?”

“What? Just because you’re huge and I’m a ‘little witch’?”

“Exactly.”

I snorted and shook my head, but the anger I usually felt after an interaction like this was less sharp.

I’m just tired…my defenses are down…doesn’t mean a damn thing.

“Like I couldn’t have you on your knees again faster than you could get the upper hand,” I said.

“That sounds like a challenge.”

I gave him a wide grin, swiped a finger down the length of his still hard shaft and walked away. Leave them wanting more wasn’t just good advice for show business.

Chapter Two

Zach

For being over two hundred years old, I sometimes wondered if I’d ever learn. 

The rules were simple:

Never fuck someone you worked with.

Never fuck someone that made you feel more than arousal.

Never fuck someone who you couldn’t avoid seeing more than once.

The rules had served me well for the last fifty years after losing my mate. He’d been with me for over a hundred years and decided to up and leave, as if nothing that happened between us mattered a damn bit.

He’d also been my Archive partner.

Hence the damn rules.

Which I’d thrown out the window at one look at Kat’s pussy.

To be fair, it was a very nice pussy. And it had been far too long for me. It was a moment of weakness, and I had no doubt the loud, opinionated witch would use it to her advantage.

It’s fine. I’ll lay out the rules for her and if she doesn’t like it then that’s her problem. I never promised anything. It was just a quick, dirty fuck…a very good one, but still…

So I walked through the hall two days later with the script in my mind, how it would all go and the perfect exit since I needed to talk to Professor Turner about my next assignment. I would be in and out before she had a chance to throw a tantrum. 

I knocked on her broom closet sized office and when she said to come in I was prepared to be unaffected by her. I mean, it was good and fun, but I’d had my share of nights like that and I was always able to move on the next day. 

But as soon as I walked in and saw Kat in a high-waisted leather skirt that hugged those thick curves like a second skin and a cleavage baring red top, my brain switched off and I forgot everything that I’d carefully rehearsed. Her dark hair that I’d had wrapped around my fist was around her shoulders, and those fuck me lips were painted a deep red to match her top.

“What do you want? I’ve got a meeting in five minutes?” she asked, barely sparing me a glance from the file she was perusing.

Her tone was bored, annoyed and with a hint of hostility.

In other words, her usual.

And for some reason, it was getting me hard.

Which was even more confusing since I was also burning with anger. She was acting like we hadn’t done anything at all, that it was nothing, like…

Like I was about to. So what’s the problem?

I crossed my arms across my chest and resolutely denied my body its obscene reaction to this woman. 

“I wanted to address what happened in the locker room Friday night.”

She glanced up at that and a smile bloomed on her face that took me by complete surprise. Maybe she was being defensive because she thought I was going to be cruel, or dismissive. Maybe…

“Hey Kat,” said Andy, Professor Turner’s wife and partner, “you coming out with us tonight? Halloween costume competition and shots.”

“I wouldn’t miss it! What time?”

Oh…of course, it was for Andy. Not me…which is fine. It’ll make this easier.

“Everyone is getting off early to go change and then meeting here at nine. You coming Zach?”

Kat snorted.

“He’d have to get the stick out of his ass first,” she muttered.

I leveled her a withering stare and shook my head.

“No thanks.”

“Okay, suit yourself. See you, Kat.”

“By Andy.”

I expected Kat to look at me so I could continue, or address what I’d said. Hell, even an annoyed roll of her hand indicating that she just wanted me to get on with it would’ve been preferable to being completely ignored.

“What is your fucking problem?” I burst out before I could help it.

She let out a tired sigh.

“What Zach? You want to make sure I’m taking anything to HR? Or do you want to hear how great you are, how my pussy will never be the same, how I fingered myself all weekend to memories of you?”

And I was hard again.

Fucking stupid…

“Did you?” I challenged.

She gave me a grin that was as cruel as it was seductive.

“Wouldn’t you like to know?”

I would.

“I wouldn’t. I just wanted to make sure you understood that it was one time that’s it. There will be no repeat performances and I want us to remain professional.”

“Sure Zach, if you say so.”

I heard the eye roll in her tone and I growled, prowling toward her desk, where she was perched on the end.

‘I’m fucking serious, Kat. I do not do work place romances.”

Now it was her turn to give me a withering stare, and she snapped the file shut.

“It was a fuck Zach, not a key exchange for christ’s sake. I’m not picking out destination wedding locations. Although I hear Paris is nice this time of year.”

I was unsure how I’d gotten so close to her. It was only supposed to be one, intimidating step. But now I was being wrapped up in the spicy scent of her perfume, the flecks of green in her brown eyes tormenting me.

If I hadn’t been so focused on her, I would’ve missed the way her breath hitched just a little, the burn of those eyes flicking down to my mouth and back up at me. Her bottom lip stuck out, pouty even when her mouth was closed. I wanted to draw it between my teeth, make her bleed just a little and then own her hot mouth with my tongue.

“Just a fuck huh?” my voice was too husky.

And it was stupid, dangerous even, but I couldn’t resist running my thumb along her bottom lip. Her lipstick must’ve been magicked to stay put because none of it came off on my skin. That pissed me off. I wanted a piece of her, to mess her up as much as she seemed able to do to me.

“Yes,” she whispered, her whiskey soaked, Kathleen Turner rasp going straight to my cock.

I was about to kiss her until she couldn’t breathe any air but mine when a chirp went off in her office.

We both jerked away from each other and she jumped off her desk.

“Fuck, I’m late!” she said.

And if I hadn’t known the way her chest and cheeks flushed when she was turned on, I’d have thought that she was unaffected by the whole exchange. But I did, and she wasn’t. She was as knotted up inside as I was.

“It’s best we say away from each other,” I said as she gathered up another file.

“Yeah, agreed. The last thing I want is you getting clingy,” she said with a smirk.

“I’m not…this isn’t…”

She arched an eyebrow at me, lips pursed in a playful grin.

“Use your words Zach.”

“Fuck. Off. Kat,” I growled and stalked out the door.

Chapter Three

Kat

This could not be happening. I could not be falling for Zach the asshole!

But I hadn’t lied when I’d said I’d spent the weekend fingering myself.

And using every single dildo I had, trying to duplicate that mind blowing stretch from his cock.

Nothing was as satisfying as the real thing and I’d lost two days and nights in acute sexual frustration.

I told myself that I’d chosen this outfit because it made me feel confident and I wanted to nail this interview today. But really, I wanted to see how he looked when he saw me in it. I wanted him to lose all sense of speech and stare at me like he hated the impulse to devour me.

And while I got exactly what I wanted, it was still the dumbest decision of my life.

I’d swore to myself that I’d stay away from emotionally unavailable partners, that I would do better this time and not get my heart broken. But the first chance I get, I’m letting Zach the wonder schlong fuck me hard against the locker room wall. It would be bad enough if that was all it was, just a sexual attraction. But it wasn’t. I saw something in his eyes that night. I saw the way he looked at me just now. What we did had cracked him open just enough for me to glimpse something else under the exterior that made me want to punch things.

If his attitude was any indication, however, Zach was about as likely to let me in as he was to confess to secretly loving flower arranging. I should have been grateful that he wasn’t boyfriend material. I wasn’t.

I wanted him in ways that I hadn’t wanted anyone in a really long time. I wanted to know him, to find out why he was such an ass. I wanted to pry those cracks open a bit more and see if I could trust him with a little of me. And, of course, I wanted to him to fuck me until I couldn’t walk.

None of that is going to happen, though. He’s who he is and I’m…well I’m about to find out if I’m sticking around past the new year. This is all doomed and there’s no way I’m doing a fuck buddy situation with him, not that he seems up for that anyway.

I took a deep breath, made sure my clothes were adjusted properly and went into the small conference room where Professor Turner, his wife Agent Andy Turner, and Assistant Director of the Archive Trey Park were sitting around a table.

The instant I closed the door, I felt the ancient, primal energy rolling off Trey. It caught me by surprise, and I glanced down at his tattooed forearms.

Dragon…holy shit I’d heard rumors but…

Dragons were extremely private, most didn’t associate too much with Mundanes or other Supernatural beings. The fact that the Archive had one of them as Assistant Director was astonishing.

“Please take a seat,” Trey said, his voice smooth and low.

I could almost see the blue tendrils of power curling around him and forced my spectral sight to behave. 

“We’ve reviewed your application for the position in Cairo,” Trey continued, “and I have to say that you’re the most qualified applicant by far. I guess I’m confused, however. Didn’t you fight to get on this team?”

I took a deep breath, prepared for this question.

“Yes,” I said, “I did. And I still believe in our mission here. But I know how hard it is to get other Archive offices to trust us after the damage the former director did.”

She had been a terror in every way imaginable. And many of the offices were hesitant to allow powerful artifacts out of their sight in case what happened before when the previous director, Francesca, had abused her power, happened again.

“I believe,” I continued, “that I could help facilitate trust with the Cairo office and help them start to trust the London office and also enable Professor Turner and his team to continue their work.”

“That’s not exactly what the position entails,” Professor Turner said. “In fact, to be frank, it’s beneath your skill set. Someone with an entry level of experience would be a better fit.”

“We’re afraid you’ll get bored, in other words,” Andy said with a smirk to her husband.

“I understand that but–“

Trey held up his hand.

“Before you launch into what I’m sure is a very well thought out explanation, let me say what I’ve come here to.”

I swallowed and gave him a nod.

“I have decided to refuse your application for the open position in Cairo,” he said, “and instead offer you the newly created position of Liaison to the Cairo office.”

My heart jumped in my chest.

“What would that entail?” I asked with a smile.

“What you described a moment ago. You’d work to foster more trust between the offices, as well as working to strengthen their magical containment units and security. You’d use your magical acumen to assist the agents in acquiring artifacts and send those that pertain to Professor Turner’s endeavors to him.”

“If this works, you could be sent all over the world to the different offices,” Andy said.

I couldn’t stop smiling, and my body felt like a thousand bees were swimming through my blood. This was more than I could’ve hoped for. A brand new position that fit my skill set, that I could make my own.

“You also have the option to create the role in whatever capacity you see fit,” Trey added. “You would need to authorize sweeping changes through me, but you will have the authority of the London office behind you.”

“That’s a lot of trust you’re placing in me.” I was breathless from the weight of it.

“It is, but you’ve proven yourself. You’d start after the new year, and escort the entry level witch to the post you originally applied for. She will report to you as your assistant in addition to her other duties.”

“Thank you,” I said, sure that I was going to burst right out of my skin. “This is…well, I don’t know what else to say!”

Andy gave me a big hug, and both men shook my hands.

“You’ll need to wrap up whatever cases you’re working on with Zach and recommend a replacement,” Professor Turner said.

Like a needle brushing against a balloon, my enthusiasm popped.

I hated that the thought of leaving him hurt, that the thought of anyone else being his partner made me dig my nails into my palms. It shouldn’t be that way! One fuck didn’t make him mine! So why the hell was I feeling like this?

“Of course,” I said instead. “When will you tell him?”

“After the holidays, probably,” Andy answered. “I have a feeling he’s going to be hard to please when it comes to a replacement. He’s been quite happy with you.”

I choked at those words and gaped at her.

“This is him being happy with a partner?”

Trey chuckled.

“Yes Zach is…difficult. But the fact that you’ve stuck around speaks very highly of you and how you’ve been able to draw him out. I almost considered sending him with you–“

“I could ask him.”

The words were out before I could really think it through and three pairs of eyes widened.

“Uh, okay,” Andy said. “I thought you would want to leave him here. I mean, the work is good, but you two fight constantly.”

“Yeah, we do but…Trey is right. We somehow make it work.”

What the fuck am I saying?

“Think about it,” Professor Turner said, “and let us know when you talk to him. It shouldn’t be too hard to transfer him as well, make the position something that two people could do.”

I nodded, trying to find that pure,undiluted joy that had been running through me only a moment ago, but I couldn’t seem to uncover where it had gone.

As I walked out, scenarios zipped through my mind. How would I ask him? Did I even want to ask him?

I thought of the conversation this morning, of how he’d looked at me like he wanted to fuck me against the desk one minute and couldn’t stand me the next. That was not the kind of confusion I needed, especially going into a brand new position where I’d need to focus on the problems around me, not making sure I didn’t piss off my partner at every turn.

Still, as the day wore on, I couldn’t avoid the feeling that I should at least ask him.

I took a deep breath, checked my makeup and hair, then realized what I was doing and took myself firmly in hand.

I am a powerful witch. I am worthy of being loved by someone who appreciates me. Being treated like shit is not foreplay.

I nodded to myself and walked the short distance down the hall to his office. I was just outside when I heard another voice in there with him and stopped. This was a moment I would regret since not only is listening in on a private conversation a creep thing to do, what I heard hurt like hell, too.

“So what’s the deal with you two anyway?” said a voice I recognized as another team member, a Werewolf named Rafe.

“What do you mean?” Zach asked in that defensive, growly tone that somehow made my lady parts quiver.

“C’mon man, you know what I mean. All the tension, the growling, the angry stares that aren’t completely angry.”

Zach didn’t say anything.

“You fucked her, didn’t you?”

Zach snorted.

“Are you kidding? Kat’s the last person I’d do that with. She probably has teeth down there for fuck’s sake. Besides, you know I don’t shit where I eat.”

I didn’t expect him to kiss and tell, especially after his obvious worry this morning that I was going to do just that. But to have him deny it like that was a deep punch to my ego.

With a swallow to my pride that felt like shards of glass were going down my throat, I backed away.

It was a good thing I was leaving in six weeks, because too much longer and I’d fucking kill Zach.

Chapter Four

Zach-December

Kat the Witch had cast a spell on me.

That’s the only explanation I could think of as to why I couldn’t get her tight pussy out of my mind since we fucked six weeks ago.

That night I’d been exhausted, overworked, and stressed. I’d wanted a hot shower, a glass of scotch and to sleep for a week. Then in strolled that fucking witch with her dark eyes, her plump hips that begged to be bruised and a pussy that had milked me like no other.

I didn’t like her.

I hated her.

Hated the way her lips pursed when she glared at me when I made any suggestion at all about a mission.

Hated the way she blushed when the latest in a string of losers she’d been dating sent her a text message.

Hated that I still woke up hard, remembering how she had begged me to fuck her rough and dirty, just like I like it.

Now I was sitting here with Luke Turner, my boss at the Secret Archive, his wife and a few of the other agents at the yearly Christmas party, trying not to look around for Kat. She hadn’t shown up yet, and that was frustrating considering I’d only shown up to ruin her night. Maybe to get a little of her attention for once.

She gives everyone else the time of day, but not me. Not even after what happened. It’s like it was just another fuck to her…not that that’s bad. It didn’t mean anything to me either.

I’d never had a woman I couldn’t get out of my mind before. And the fact that it was Kat, the most know-it-all Witch I’d ever met with the most infuriatingly sexy voice, just made it that much more torturous.

A spell is something she would do too. Just to fuck with me. It ends tonight.

“You still with us, Zach?” asked Luke.

“The splinter of the true cross is not in Switzerland,” I said, as if I’d been doing more than skimming the conversation.

“How do you know?” asked Andy, his wife.

I opened my mouth to answer when that woman’s voice cut in.

“Because I told him it wasn’t.”

The sound was like the smoothest scotch, rich and sultry with the barest hint of a burn the longer it stayed with me. I dreamed of that sound, of the noises she’d made as I’d plunged into her. And when it wasn’t a dream, when she was right here in front of me like she was now, I was powerless against it and that wouldn’t do.

I didn’t bother looking at her and didn’t move when she gave my arm a little shove. There was plenty of room on the other couch.

But Kat, determined bitch that she was, decided that the sliver of space between me and the arm of the small couch was the perfect place for her peach of an ass. Her soft curves pressed against me, the tight, dark red wrap dress with the plunging neckline and six inch black stilettos with sparkly red bows on the back made her look like a pornographic Christmas present that I wanted to open with my teeth and tie to a spanking bench until she learned some fucking manners.

“There’s a whole sitting area going on, you know,” I hissed.

“Yeah, but I like it here,” she said with a poisonous sweetness in her voice.

I growled at her, my teeth showing and her dark eyes narrowed. I suppose some might say hooded, as if it were some benign reaction. But I knew better. She wasn’t turned on, she was angry.

I took a breath in and cursed myself.

Because she was also aroused, deeply. I wondered how wet she was, if it was like it had been that night. I’d had my share of cock and pussy in my day, and I could count on one hand the ones that felt like an addiction. 

But not one of them had me by the balls like Kat did after one god damned taste.

And now my cock is getting hard.

I downed the drink in my hand and jumped up from the couch. Since this was an Archive exclusive party, I didn’t have to bother with the magical glamour that made me appear like a Mundane male. I could just be what I was: a large, pissed off Gargoyle.

“I’m getting a drink,” I mumbled.

“Finally, a little room,” she said and stretched out where I’d been sitting, long pale legs on full display against the black upholstery.

I was frozen as an image of her splayed out on my black leather couch at home, skin glowing in the moonlight, hit me. She met my eyes, and something sharp passed between us. The same electric spark that I’d felt in that shower room months ago. The one we’d both been pretending hadn’t happened.

Her lips parted, a flush rising on her gorgeous cleavage as her eyes sparked. If I didn’t move, she was going to get up and follow me. And then…

I’ll fuck her mouth this time, paint those tits in my cum and rub it in so she smells like me all fucking night.

“I’m thirsty,” she said, “and since someone hadn’t bothered to offer to get me a drink, I’ll have to do it myself.”

“I’ll get you a drink,” said our newest addition, a young Orc who looked like a linebacker and had been panting after her since day one.

“Oh, you’re sweet, but I’m not sure what I want.”

The way he watched Kat walk away, how his eyes zeroed in on that dip of her waist before her body blossomed into wide hips, made me see red. Of course, about half a dozen others also eye fucked her as she walked across the room to the bar, including me. But that wasn’t the point. She wasn’t theirs to eye fuck.

She’s not mine either, damn it!

“She’s not fucking helpless,” I snapped at the Orc.

“Uh…I know,” he said, jaw tightening. “What’s your problem? I was just being nice.”

“Ya know what?” Andy said, trying to hide a grin. “I’m hungry, and the buffet is open. Anyone else?”

The Orc looked like he was about to say no so he could stay and fight with me, but Andy slipped her arm through his and insisted he go with her. Luke walked up to me with a nervous smile on his face.

“Look, this is probably none of my business but–“

“If you’re about to say what I think you are, it’s not.”

Luke nodded.

“Well, be that as it may, you’re my friend and I’d hate to see you let someone like Kat slip away. You two obviously like each other.”

“We don’t.”

He chuckled.

“Okay Zach, whatever you say. My point is, a woman like that isn’t going to wait around forever. You two might have something. If you get out of your own way, that’s all I’m saying.”

My eyes widened, and I was speechless as I watched him walk after his wife and the rest of the team, who gave me looks ranging from pity to confusion. Did everyone know about that night? Had Kat been running her mouth about it? I’d thought she had been tight-lipped, but what if she’d been gossiping with everyone this whole time? What if it was just like the last time I’d let someone in, only to find out that everyone knew he was done with me before I did?

The passion I’d been ready to expel onto Kat developed a dark edge and was starting to curdle by the time I stormed up to her at the bar.

“I need to talk to you,” I said.

“And people in hell need ice water.”

“Now Kat.”

I grabbed her arm and half dragged her down a hall that I thought had led to a set of empty offices. Instead it was the lifts, one of which was standing at the ready, doors open.

Fuck it.

I pulled her in and pushed the button for the rooftop garden.

“What the fuck Zach?” she yelled. “You can’t just drag me out of a party, I’m not your–“

“Shut the hell up,” I snapped, stabbing the stop button.

She wobbled on those heels as the elevator jerked to a stop and I found myself steadying her with a hand on her elbow. She tried to yank out of my grasp, but I held on.

“What gives you the right to tell everyone about what happened in the showers?” I demanded.

Kat stared up at me in shock, her plump red mouth opened like a bow. I wondered what my cock would look like with her lipstick smeared around it and then forced myself to focus. 

“I haven’t told anyone about that disgraceful incident,” she said, and then poked my chest with her finger. “Maybe they think something’s going on because you growl at anyone who comes near me.”

“I don’t, I’m just growling at you.”

I leaned toward her, and Kat took a step back.

“Oh really? Is that why Marcus asked me yesterday if we were dating?”

“Who the fuck is Marcus?”

“The new Orc team member? The one that offered to get me a drink, and you bit his head off.”

Shit, I thought his name was Matt.

“He looks at you like you’re a piece of meat.”

I pressed into her and Kat stepped back again.

“And? What do you care if he does or doesn’t?”

“I don’t.”

“Oh really? Is that what this,” she motioned between us and her hand grazed my stomach, “is conveying? You shoving me into an elevator and stopping it between floors is going to make them think–“

“I don’t care what they think.”

“Bullshit! You’ve been nothing but worse to me since that night, even though you wanted me as much as I did you. So stop pretending that I’m doing anything to you!”

Was there actual hurt in her voice? And why did it matter so much to me if there was?

I took one more step and her back was against the elevator wall. I braced my hands on either side of her head, claws scrapped against the metal as I tried to get a hold of myself.

“You are driving me fucking crazy is what you’re doing. Walking around in tight clothes that leave nothing to the imagination of anyone that walks in the door and now this fucking dress.” I rasped, “I hate that I can’t stop thinking about all the things I want to do to you every time you walk through the damn door. I hate that I can still feel you wrapped around me all these weeks later. And I hate every single fucking male in that office who makes you smile, who makes you feel anything.”

“Does that include you?” she asked with a wicked grin. “Because you make me feel all kinds of things.”

“Shut up Kat.”

“Loathing, the need to punch something,” she counted off on her fingers. “And a teensy bit of nausea.”

“I’m serious.”

“So am I.”

“Shut. Up.”

“Make me.”

I let loose a long, dark growl before I slammed my mouth down onto hers.

Kat’s red nails scratched a path down my face as I dug my fingers into her ass and lifted her up. My tongue plundered her mouth, tangling with hers for dominance, and our teeth clashed. It was less a kiss and more of an explosion of pent up frustration and nearly two months of unsatisfied passion. I couldn’t think of anything but fucking her in every single orifice. I wanted to coat her ass with my spend, to see her choking on my cock, hear her screaming as I pistoned into her tight cunt.

“You are such an ass!” she gasped as I bit her throat. 

“I hate you.”

I reached between us and found a lace thong that I ripped off her.

“I hate you mooooore, ah fuck…oh Zach.”

My finger was plunged up to my knuckle, thumb rubbed merciless circles on her clit, which was ripe and hard.

I pulled back enough to look in her eyes as I held her pinned to the wall, her legs around my hips and finger fucked her slow. Kat’s dark eyes glittered up at me, anger and lust an inferno that I let myself fall into.

“You like that?” I rasped. 

“It doesn’t mean a damn thing,” Kat whispered as she clung to me.

“Really? So if I stopped…”

I did, and she whimpered, pelvis moving, searching for what I’d taken back. I chuckled, dark and low against that sensitive spot on her shoulder that I’d never forgotten.

“I’ll get you off, if you beg.”

“Fuck you.”

“No baby, fuck you, with my fingers,” I grazed her clit and she gasped, “with my tongue,” I licked up her throat, “with my cock,” I ground myself into her. “But only if you beg me.”

Kat tried to move, to find any kind of friction, but I made just enough room between us that I could still hold her to the wall without letting her get any kind of satisfaction. Her legs were too spread to do any good on her greedy little clit, and I knew just from smelling her that Kat was as aroused as I was.

“Please,” she said through gritted teeth.

“Please what?”

“Please, fuck me.”

“With what, be specific, Kat.”

She growled at me, and I got even harder. Had any woman, ever, been so mean, so obstinate with me to this effect?

“Please, fuck me with your tongue.”

I had been expecting her to ask for my fingers, and I had hoped she’d ask for my cock, which was aching and leaking so much pre cum that the entire front of my pants was wet.

But I had mentioned my tongue, and I’d been wondering what she tasted like for too long.

I eased her down to the floor and rucked her skirt up around her tits.

“Hold it in place,” I ordered her.

She took the handful of fabric, cheeks flushed almost as red as her dress. 

When I knelt down, I let out a groan at the gorgeous sight that met me.

Her pussy had one strip of trimmed, dark hair on it, otherwise it was waxed smooth and ready for my mouth. The little hair that remained glistened with her arousal and I ran my tongue up in one long lick.

She hissed and grabbed one of my horns.

“No steering,” I snarled. “I’m in control and you come when I tell you.”

“If you expect me to say ‘yes sir’, you’ve got the wrong witch’s pussy in front of you.”

I chuckled and snagged one of her legs, tossing it over my shoulder. She was still wearing those fuck me heels, and I ran a hand up her smooth leg from her ankle up to her inner thigh. I spread her pussy lips with my thumbs and there, wet and pink, peeking from its hood was her clit, just begging to be nibbled on.

“I’m gonna feast on you, drink you down, and ruin you for anyone else. When you sit at that desk, and you look at me you’re going to remember what I looked like with your come on my face, you’re going to think of my tongue fucking your tight little hole, and you’re going to squeeze your thighs together to get relief,” I smirked up at her furious, turned on face, “but nothing will be enough until you beg me to make you come under your desk.”

“I thought you were gonna eat my pussy, not talk me to death.”

I slapped her cunt, and she yelped, but it ended in a moan. So I did it again, and she twirled those full hips in desperation.

I couldn’t wait any longer, and I dove in without finesse, only raw hunger.

I sucked her clit between my lips as I slipped two fingers into her and worked her fast and hard. Kat’s hand on my horn tightened, but she didn’t try to move me. I sucked hard and backed off, over and over, hearing her pant and plead with me as I drove her to that edge time and again.

“Please, Zach, you…fucking…asshole, make me come!” she screamed with her palm hitting the wall for emphasis.

The flat of my tongue pressed to her clit, and I curled my fingers inside of her at the same time. She let out a throaty yell and her channel clenched around my fingers. I kept at it, riding out her orgasm and then some. She was trembling above me, incoherent words poured from her mouth as the leg supporting her began to bend.

I caught her and set her straddling on top of my lap, her wet cunt further soaking my ruined pants. Sweat dotted her brow and her eyes were hooded, head lolling to the side, completely lust drunk. I filled my hand with her hair and yanked her head back to look at me.

“We’re not done. You’re going to ride my cock, then I’m going to bend you over and fuck you again. We’re getting this out of our system tonight and that’s it, understand?”

“Yes,” her dusky voice was at once sensual and vulnerable.

I’m not sure what got into me, but I let her hair go and brought her body to mine, cupping the back of her head against my shoulder. Kat hesitated, and I thought that I’d misread and she hadn’t needed an embrace when her arms wound around me, body melting and pliable against mine. It felt…right to hold her like this and that revelation caused a cold hand to grasp my heart and squeeze.

“What you do to me,” my whisper was hoarse, the confession unbidden, “it’s too much.”

“I know. I feel the same.”

We held onto one another for another few minutes until she pulled back. Her mascara was smeared, as was her red lipstick, hair was mussed and her dress was skewed, one nipple peeking out from around the decolletage. I couldn’t help it. I ran my finger over it, the tight bud responding to me.

“You’re so beautiful,” I murmured. “A fucking sex goddess tempting me to let it all go and just…”

I pinched her nipple and Kat gasped against my mouth. Her hands undid my pants with expert speed and had my cock out before I could tell her ‘no’, not that I wanted to. She was already straddling me, so it took nothing for her to slip me inside of her drenched channel.

We both let out a deep throated moan when I was seated inside of her and a sense of rightness wrapped me in warmth. It scared me as much as it tempted me and all I wanted was to forget how angry she made me, how hurt I’d been by others and sink into this feeling, into her. 

Kat started to ride me with determined rolls of her hips, but I didn’t want her in control. I was going to fuck her, even if she was on top. So I clasped her hips hard as I thrust up to meet her grinding down. I lost count of how many times I bottomed out in her, my mouth sucking on her perfect tits as she begged and cried out for me over and over. The aphrodisiac in my cock horn kept her orgasm building until it shattered over her in the most beautiful whimpers. This time, a rush of liquid poured out of her and I took an in-ordinant amount of pride in knowing I’d just made her squirt.

“That’s right,” I growled against her skin, “no one fucks you like I do. No one makes you squirt, do they, baby?”

“Shut…up…you…asshole.”

I chuckled and pumped up into her faster. I’d held back before to make this last as long as possible, but now I was too close to the edge. I had to come, but–

“Shit…” I stopped and panted, “…condom, I didn’t…”

“It’s okay,” she whispered. “I haven’t been with anyone since…”

I stared up into her eyes as her words cracked something deep in my chest.

Since me.

She hadn’t been with anyone, not even those weak men she’d been dating, since I’d fucked her in the showers.

Six long, excruciating weeks ago.

“Neither have I,” I said, barely audible.

Something like panic lit up her eyes and I could tell that she was about to run. I couldn’t let her go. I had to hold on to this moment because something told me it wasn’t going to come around again.

So I began to fuck her, deep and hard, so that whatever happened I would be branded onto her deepest parts and she’d never forget me. My hand slid between us as I rubbed my cock horns honey into her clit, desperate for one more sight of how beautiful she looked when she came.

“Zach, I can’t,” she sobbed.

Gods above the way she said my name! Still with a little anger, but now with so much hunger and vulnerability. No one, ever, would say my name like Kat did, and I savored every second of it.

“Come on baby, you got one more in you.”

Her fingers bit into my shoulder and she started to cry even as she pleaded with me to make her come.

This time, when her tight pussy clenched around me, Kat dragged me over the cliff with her. And it really did feel like falling without a landing. Over and over, the waves crested until I was trembling, holding her to me as I licked and kissed her sweaty skin. We both came back to earth slowly, our breaths mingled as we shared one slow, soft kiss that lasted forever.

Kat pulled back first with a broken sigh and when I looked at her, there were tears on her cheeks.

“Did I hurt you?” I asked, brushing them away with my thumbs.

She didn’t answer right away, and I started to worry. Finally, she gave me a watery smile and shook her head.

Reluctantly, I let her go, and she climbed off me. I gave her the handkerchief from my pocket to clean up with and she gave me a crooked smile.

“Very old school.”

I shrugged.

“I’m two hundred and seven years old. Some habits are hard to break.”

“And here I’m thinking you don’t look a day over one-fifty.”

I chuckled at that and attempted to fix my own clothes, but it was hopeless. I didn’t really want her scent off me any way, not yet.

When she was ready, I reached over and started the elevator again. Neither of us really wanted to go to the rooftop now, so we just let the doors open and hit the button for the lobby without a word.

We stood side by side, not touching, not looking at one another. The tension in the air was suffocating. Did she regret this? Had I pushed her? What the hell was that between us?

“Zach,” Kat said, her whiskey soaked voice unusually soft, “I need to say something.”

I took a breath and braced myself for the “this was fun, let’s never do this again” kind of talk. When I turned to her, though, there was none of the bravado and cockiness I’d come to associate with Kat. Instead, she was biting her plump bottom lip and twisting her fingers. She couldn’t even look me in the eye.

I must’ve really pushed it too far.

“Look Kat–“

“I’m leaving,” she blurted out.

I stopped breathing, eyes widened.

“What?”

“I’m…I’ve been offered a promotion to a new liaison position at the Cairo office. It’s a really great opportunity and I’m taking it. I leave after the new year. I just…I didn’t want you to hear it from someone else, not after…”

My brain struggled to take in the words. I’d been prepared to be told that I’d been a brute, that I was out of line, that I had no right to barely speak to her since Halloween and then suddenly lock her up and fuck her until she screamed. 

But this?

I was not prepared.

So, of course, I reacted like an ass.

I crossed my arms and stared down at her, walling up my bruised heart once again. I’d been an idiot to let her in, even a little. 

“Okay.” I shrugged and turned away.

I could practically hear her gaping at me.

“That’s it?” she demanded. “Just ‘okay’?”

“What do you want? Weeping and wailing, on my knees begging you not to go?”

“Some kind of reaction would be nice.”

I whirled around and pinned her with a hard gaze.

“You’re not my girlfriend. We’re not in a relationship. We aren’t even fuck buddies, so why should it matter to me if you go to Cairo or not?”

I didn’t see her hand coming, but the force of the slap echoed in the elevator and I saw stars. My Kat had a mean right hook.

Not my anything. Never has been, never will be.

I didn’t want to care that she had tears in her eyes, I didn’t want to care that for the first time since I’d met her, Kat was speechless. 

But I did.

It tore at me, and I wanted nothing more than to take it all back, to indeed get on my knees and apologize to her.

Before I could get my head out of my ass though, the elevator opened, and she ran out, leaving me alone with her scent embedded in my brain and her heartbreak echoing in my ears.

Chapter Five

Kat-February

I should’ve known better than to think that this new position would get me away from all the dangerous bullshit that went into working for the Secret Archive. After a few months where the most harrowing part of my job was navigating the politics between Archive home offices, I’d thought that it would be no big deal to help pick up a dangerous artifact and make sure it made it safely back to Cairo.

It wasn’t that I’d forgotten about the Protectors, it was that I’d been sure that they hadn’t known about the box and its contents. But I should’ve known better. The Protectors were a rogue group of former Archive agents that had been loyal to Francesca. When the new Director had decided to take the goal of the Archive away from world domination and more toward its original purpose, the rogue agents walked and formed their own group. They were fast becoming a real thorn in the side of the Archive between killing agents, sabotaging offices, and stealing artifacts. And right now, that ‘thorn’ had me and my novice assistant tied up in a drafty warehouse while they tried to open the magically warded box that held the artifact.

So far, they’d been stumped as to how to open the thing without setting off the mystical defenses wrapped like ribbons around it. 

The box itself was a complex containment unit that had generations of protection spells over it. Mine was the latest to be added to the beautiful network of spells that I could see. It was the first one they’d have to break, although they hadn’t noticed yet that my magical signature and that one matched.

Hopefully I can get us out of here before they do.

I had the minimum in field training like most Witches level three and above, but that didn’t mean I had the mentality of a field agent. I knew I wouldn’t be able to withstand torture of any kind. And I also knew that what was in that box was dangerous enough that I’d try.

“If I get you loose, you need to run, okay?” I whispered to the young witch behind me.

“No!” she whimpered.

“Listen to me, I know this is scary, but you can do this and I need help. So,” I managed to siphon enough magic to singe the zip tie on her wrist, “try to snap this and get out of here.”

My head immediately started throbbing after drawing just that much magic against the dampening cuffs they’d slapped on me. It was dangerous to do that at all, but I really didn’t have a choice right now.

The young witch’s wrist twisted and pulled until the tie snapped.

“They’re not looking. You have to go now.”

She gave a stifled sob and got on her feet. Before the others turned around, she’d slipped through the half broken side door and I sent out a silent prayer to any deities listening that she found help soon.

I tried to bring forth a little more magic to see if I could maybe undo the ties on my hands, but it was no use. They’d used ones that were tougher on me, probably knowing that they’d need me in the event they couldn’t open the box.

A trickle of something warm came out of my nose and I knew it was blood. I was feeling light-headed and rested back against the pole I was tied to. Time passed in a weird kind of fogginess that I was only dimly aware of before someone was pulling me up onto my shaking legs.

“Tried to use magic, huh?” sneered one of the men. “Stupid fucking witch.”

The energy to produce a snappy come back eluded me and so I stayed silent as he dragged me toward the box. The energy coming off it was a little nauseating, and I swallowed back a burning trial of bile in my throat.

“Now I know,” said the leader, a man by the name of Sebastian, “that you will probably feel the need to resist. That you’ll try very hard not to give in to the pain. And to be honest, I have no interest in hurting someone as lovely as you.”

He dragged a knuckle down my cheek and I turned away.

“But that doesn’t mean I won’t.”

Sebastian snapped his fingers and I was dragged to a chair. My ties were snapped off and then new ones bound my wrists and ankles to the chair. I was trembling by now, so afraid that my teeth were chattering.

“Oh, poor thing,” Sebastian bent down and roughly brushed my tears away. 

“F-fuck off.”

“This doesn’t have to be horrible, you know. Just help us undo the first layer of spells. We already know how to undo the others.”

I pressed my lips together tight and stared at him with all the defiance I could muster. There was no way I was letting them have any access to what was in that box.

He sighed as if I were putting him out and shrugged.

“Well, alright have it your way.”

A case snapped open to my right, and I forced myself not to look at what was likely a spread of torture tools. My heart was pumping so hard that I felt it in my throat. Terror was clawing at me and the one thought that came up was Zach.

How I wished I had one more chance to see him.

How I hoped he never found out what happened to me.

How I wanted it to be so different.

But all of that went out of my head the moment rough hands seized my head and held me as a sharp sting hit my neck. I screamed at the shock of it and when I was let go, I braced for more.

What happened, however, wasn’t at the hands of a person. 

My vision started going fuzzy and my body felt too hot, too tight. Soon, I was sweating and yet I was also freezing. Now I shook with violent chills instead of just fear.

“This is a very rare poison,” Sebastian said, his voice oddly deep. “It takes its time. Giving the victim a heighten sense of everything around them, while also loosening their tongue.”

My eyes shot open, and I stared at his fun-house mirror image in horror.

“No…” I gasped.

“Yes,” his hands coasted up my bare arms.

I was repulsed by the touch, but had no way to move away. When his hands coasted along either side of my throat, he tilted my head up. He was so close that I felt his breath on my face. He was right about the heighten sense. I smelled everything on his breath, felt every single puff like it was a hurricane. It was overwhelming and my mind started to panic from too much sensation.

“How do I break the first spell?” he asked.

I pressed my lips tight and grunted at the effort of holding my words back.

“How,” one hand trailed down to my chest, “do I break the first spell?”

Again I resisted.

“Do you know what it would be like if I let my friend here start to carve you up while you were on this? Do you have any idea the level of pain I could create from a simple cut?”

And suddenly burning agony ripped up my arm and I let out a sobbing scream. 

I hadn’t seen the knife in his hand, but he’d left a trail of blood on my arm from shoulder to ring finger. It wasn’t deep. In fact, I could tell even in this state that it was fairly shallow, but with this drug in my system it felt like he’d cut me to the bone.

“Please…” I begged. “Don’t…don’t make me…”

Blood soaked the long sleeve of my shirt and started to drip down my finger and I knew as he cut a line from my knee to my ankle that I wasn’t going to last long. 

“Tell me what I want to know before I start carving deeper,” he hissed at me.

My mouth gaped open and shut as I tried to breathe through the blinding pain searing through me. I couldn’t imagine it getting worse, but I knew this man would make good on that threat. I was seconds away from giving in when the world around me shattered in an explosion of wood and smoke.

I still couldn’t make my eyes focus, and with the smoke and confusion of the fire fight around me, I didn’t know exactly what was transpiring, only that I was saved. My head lolled to the side and my hearing was starting to feel like I was under water.

Someone was saying my name, or I thought they were any way.

When hands touched my face, I reared away with a cry of fear.

“Kat, baby, it’s me. It’s Zach.”

I would’ve known that growly rasp anywhere. Hearing him say his name sent such a profound relief through me that I started to cry. 

My wrists and ankles were untied, but the barest graze against the cuts had me keening in agony.

“Shit…baby what happened? These aren’t that deep.”

“Injected…something.”

“I need a medic now!” he roared. “Stay with me, okay? I’m going to pick you up.”

“No, don’t…hurts,” I whimpered.

“I know baby,” he pressed a kiss to my forehead, and I started to cry harder. “If they weren’t already fucking dead, I’d…”

“There’s a medic at the emergency office,” said a voice I didn’t recognize.

Without another word, his strong arms scooped me up, and the movement made my stomach heave. I was puking before I could warn him, and just managed to turn away from him before doing it.

Zach didn’t say a word about it, just cradled me against him and carried me outside. The light hurt my eyes and I winced, burying my face in his chest. 

“I’m taking you to the emergency field office,” he said, laying me down on what I vaguely recognized as the back seat of a car. “Just hold on for me, baby, okay? I’m…fuck Kat, I’m so sorry I should’ve been here.”

“Yeah, you should’ve,” I managed.

He let out a wet chuckle, and I cracked my eyes open just enough to see honest to god tears on Zach’s face. I didn’t recognize my hand as I reached up to touch those impossible tears.

“You care.”

It wasn’t what I wanted to say, but it was what I felt. The awe of it, seeing Zach fall apart because I was hurt.

Zach let out a broken breath and nuzzled my hand.

“Yeah baby, I care,” he kissed my palm. “So fucking much.”

A few minutes later, I passed out into blissful oblivion with his words ringing in my mind.

Chapter Six

Zach

I paced outside in the front of the small, squat building that served as the temporary field office for this op, guilt gnawing at my bones. The blood hadn’t been copious, but the sight of her bleeding at all, the fear in every single cry from her lips, it all made me terrified like I’d never been in my life. This was not the Kat I knew. The woman who could reduce me to a desperate mess on the floor of an elevator, or the shower of the locker room.

This was a woman who’d been lost in a drug induced whirlpool of fear and pain. A woman I should’ve been protecting as her partner at the very least.

After the Christmas party, I’d had a long weekend to think about how I’d fucked up that situation and had every intention of making it right when I saw her the following Tuesday. But when I’d gotten to her office early with one of those sweet coffee concoctions she liked and an enormous cranberry scone, her belongings were gone and so was she.

Kat had requested and was granted an early transfer the very night of the party. She’d also asked for me, her partner, not to be invited to the small going away party she’d had at a local pub.

That stung more than anything and told me that it would’ve been foolish to go after her. She didn’t want me anymore, and I couldn’t blame her.

So I’d spent the last two months volunteering for every crap assignment I could get my hands on, trying to stay as far away from her still empty office as I could. And now here I was, rescuing the woman I couldn’t get out of my mind, that I’d hurt and driven away.

I ran a hand through my dark hair, wearing my glamour in case anyone saw me, though all I wanted to do was launch into the sky and fly until my wings gave out. Anything other than waiting to find out if Kat was going to be alright, sick at the thought that what I’d said to her in that elevator would be our last conversation.

“Agent Walters?” said one of the medics. 

“How is she?” 

“We were able to purge the drug from her system. It was mystical in nature, so it was a fairly simple process, though it has left her weakened. Her magic will take a few days to return. Other than some shallow cuts and a few bruises, she’s otherwise fine.”

I let out a long breath and braced myself against the door jamb. I wanted to see her with an ache I couldn’t fully explain, but after what happened between us…

“She’s awake and asking for you.”

The relief that poured through my veins was like a thousand shots of espresso. 

I ran inside, shoving past the small man and into the tiny infirmary. She was always the biggest personality in the room, taking up space like the queen she was and never apologizing for it. But here, laying on the white cot, propped up with three pillows behind her, Kat looked so vulnerable, so fragile. I wanted to wrap her up and protect her, even though she’d likely cuss a blue streak at me.

Instead, I sat on one of the nearby chairs and resisted the urge to take her hand in mine.

There was an IV snaking out from her left hand and a bandage going up her right arm. She was pale, mascara streaked under her eyes, her lipstick was gone and there was a cut on her mouth. The dark eyes I’d seen in my dreams hundreds of times now stared at me, wary and wide. 

And she’d never looked more beautiful to me.

I’d rehearsed a thousand things to say if I ever saw her again.

Some were angry.

Some were flirty.

Only a few were groveling, but for some reason, that was where my instincts took me.

“I’m sorry,” I blurted out, “so sorry that I wasn’t here. That you were hurt, that I…that I said all those things to you the last time we saw each other. I didn’t mean them. I was just blindsided, and I reacted stupidly.”

Her mouth twisted into a smirk.

“Should I be recording this?” she asked, her voice a little raspy, like she’d made herself hoarse screaming.

It made me see a little red, and I swallowed down the impulse to go hunting for more rogue agents to punch.

Instead, I reached out and ran the pad of my thumb gentle over her bottom lip where the split was. 

“I never should’ve let you leave that elevator,” I whispered. “I should’ve tied you up and taken you home with me like I wanted to. Instead, I let you go and I’ve regretted it every moment since.”

Kat’s inhale was sharp, and her eyes retreated from mine as she stared at the blue blanket around her legs.

“You didn’t owe me anything,” her voice was quiet. 

“I did. I owed you respect, at the very least not to act like an asshole.”

She snorted a laugh and nodded.

“Okay, that’s true.”

It made me smile a bit to know that the real Kat was still in there, that she hadn’t been broken because of this.

“I would like to stay here for a while and make sure you’re okay, if that’s alright.”

“Just a while?” 

Hope swelled in my chest and I was so afraid to trust it. But I’d also known what it was like to be without her for months, and to almost lose her forever. I could be brave if it meant I could have just a chance to be with her.

“Well,” I said, clearing my throat, “you could use a real partner, I think. Whatever they’re doing here, it’s shoddy as shit. I’d have never let you be taken captive.”

Her dark eyes sparked with amusement as she smiled up at me.

“Oh really? You’d have taken out a dozen men on your own?”

“Close to it. But I would’ve also made sure your escort was properly outfitted and briefed about the threat. I don’t know what kind of show the Cairo office is running, but this is completely unacceptable.”

My temper was starting to rise, and I knew Kat could hear it by the sly grin she wore.

“I don’t know,” she said. “I think they did the best they could. They are a small office and have limited resources.”

“That’s no excuse! You could’ve died! That artifact would’ve fallen into their hands, and then where would we all be?”

“Zach–“

“Seriously, I need to look at these mission briefs because they should’ve known that something like this–“

“Zach.”

“– would’ve brought the roaches out of the wood work. And sending you in! When you’ve only had minimal field training! What were they thinking?”

“That I was a level three witch who could handle herself.” 

Now her voice was growing a bit testy.

I heard it and the sudden rush of heat that went straight to my dick was irresistible. This was our foreplay, and I hadn’t realized until this moment how much I’d missed it.

“Oh, handling yourself by getting caught?” I chided, knowing exactly what I was doing.

Her eyes flashed, the smile gone.

“You’re blaming me for this?”

“No, I’m blaming that shit show of an office you left me to go work at!”

I hadn’t meant to say that, but there it was, out in the open.

We stared at each other for a moment, the air crackling between us before we lunged at one another.

She yanked on my hair hard enough to hurt when she pulled me to her and my hands tensed around her throat, not hard but insistent. Our mouths were sloppy as we devoured one another, panting in between clashes of teeth and tongues. 

“Don’t you ever,” I bit her jaw, “leave me again.”

“You don’t get to,” her nails bit into my shoulder, “tell me what to do!”

My hand dove under the blanket, her skirt rucked up enough for me to slide up the inside of her thigh and hook my finger around the cotton of her panties.

“Yes I do,” I plunged two fingers in, “when your pussy is this wet for me after a few kisses, I get to tell you whatever the fuck I want.”

She opened her mouth to say something and instead groaned low and obscene in her throat as I finger fucked her. My mouth bit and sucked its way down her throat while she clung to me. 

“I’ve missed this pussy, the way you grip me…God Kat.”

“Zach…” 

The way she said my name damn near undid me and every last scrap of that wall I’d built around my heart fell to pieces. I pulled back to look at her, still moving inside her tight channel with one hand while the other caressed her cheek.

“Tell me what you want,” I breathed. “I’ll give you fucking anything. Name it.”

“Make me come,” she whimpered.

“Anything else?”

I could see the words on the tip of her tongue and the fear that kept them back, too. I’d put that fear there, I’d hurt her, and now it was up to me to make it right.

Starting with this orgasm.

I rubbed her wetness over the perfect little pearl at the top of her cleft and ran my thumb in circles while I worked my fingers inside of her. I made her look in my eyes the whole time, savoring every gasp and spark in her eyes. Knowing the second I’d urged her to the top of a peak, only to back away and relish the whimper of need she let out.

Need for me, for what I could give her and no one else.

Again and again I teased and stoked her fire until she was trembling, pleading with tears running down her round cheeks, and my hand was soaked in her nectar. Only then, when she begged so prettily, when I could see the knowledge in her eyes that I was the only one who could do this to her, did I push her over the edge.

She came with a choking cry that nearly had me spilling in my pants. Once the trembling stopped, and her little mewling pants had faded, only then did I slowly pull my fingers out and made sure she was looking as I licked her off each digit.

“Best thing I’ve ever tasted is this pussy.”

Her fingers curled on the shoulders of my shirt and more tears fell in fat drops down her now flushed cheeks.

“You hurt me,” she said through clenched teeth, “and I hated you for that.”

“I deserve your anger. I was an ass.”

“Stop making this so fucking easy!”

“Okay,” I said with a smirk I couldn’t hold back, “then how about this? I needed time to get my head out of my ass and it wasn’t fair of you to expect me to just roll over and do whatever the hell you wanted me to do that night. I told you it was overwhelming with you. That should’ve been a clue. I wanted to be with you, but I just needed a little time.”

She stared up at me, her plush mouth open and hands flexing open and closed like she was expelling excess energy. 

“That explains a lot,” Kat admitted after a moment. “And…you’re right. I sprung it on you after ignoring you for weeks. I’m sorry.”

“Thank you. Now, can we get out of here so I can fuck you properly?”

“I’d like that. But wait…first…I need to know, what do you want after that? Do you want to go back to London and we’re just friends who fuck sometimes? Do you want there to be more? Do you…Do you want to stay? Be my partner again?”

I took her hands off my shoulders gently and held them, careful of her IV and the healing cut. Though I knew what I wanted to say, nerves ricocheted inside of me, making it hard to talk. Finally, I was able to work some moisture into my mouth and I met her cautious gaze.

“I’ve thought about this every day since you left,” my voice was raw, “and I want to stay with you if that’s what you want. I’m not saying this is a forever thing because I don’t know how you and I will be together. We could be a disaster.”

She snorted a laugh and nodded.

“Or we could be amazing,” I continued. “I want to find out. So if you still want me, then I’ll be your partner. I’ll stay here in Cairo and we can see where this goes.”

Kat bit her bottom lip and my already hard cock got inexplicably harder. When she stared up at me through her thick lashes, I was seconds from saying fuck it and burying myself in her right here.

“I’d like that,” her whiskey soaked whisper made me groan. “But before we get out of here, I need to take care of something. Stand up.”

I frowned at her and did what she asked, not quite sure why Kat had asked me to stand up. I didn’t have to wonder for very long. 

Kat knelt on the bed, the blanket fell from her waist, revealing her skewed skirt and the wet stain she’d left on the bottom sheet. She stared up at me, a sultry grin on those kiss bruised lips. Staring down at her, I knew without a doubt that while I could pretend I was in control, that I was in charge even, it would never be true again. This woman now owned me. And I’d never been more ready for it.

Before I could think any further down that road and what it meant, her deft fingers were loosening my belt and unbuttoning my jeans.

“I’ve been thinking of this ever since Halloween,” she breathed as she freed my aching cock.

She stared at it for a second before licking me from knot to tip. I hissed out a breath and went to grab her hair when she batted my hand away.

“You wouldn’t let me steer before, so you don’t get to either. Hands at your side.”

I was panting, hot all over and my balls felt so tight and all she’d done was lick me once. At this rate I wouldn’t last long, but that was probably a good thing. I was shocked someone hadn’t come in already.

Taking her time, Kat’s hand cupped my balls tight while her other hand gripped me at the base around my knot. I let out a moaning breath that ended on a whimper just before she closed those plump, perfect lips around my head.

She hummed in pleasure at the release of my pre-cum, and I damn near lost it right there. Her mouth made a slow descent, tongue flat and soft against the underside of my cock, and I felt every single tiny advance as if it were a million bombs going off inside of me. My hands were clenched so tight onto my jeans I swear I heard a rip, but I couldn’t think about that or anything as Kat slowly tortured me.

Up and down, up and down. A tight twist of her fist when she bottomed out and then again. I lost track of time, of anything other than the hot slide of her mouth over me.

“Can I…Fucking hell…Kat!”

Her name came out like a plea, a prayer and a curse all at once and I couldn’t find my voice after that.

“Fill my throat with your cum,” she ordered.

And then she was no longer slow. She was fucking me with her mouth and her hand, showing absolutely no mercy as she got exactly what she’d requested.

The release hit me fast and sudden, bright spots blinding me and I let loose a roar that I couldn’t have held back if I tried. Every single nerve ending in my body exploded as my cock released a spend that filled her throat and her mouth, it dribbled out the sides along with saliva, wetting her chin and sliding down her neck. She groaned, eyes rolled back as she swallowed me down to the last drop. And when her lips popped off me, I watched her with hooded eyes full of wonder as she wiped up every single escaped drip and hungrily licked me off her fingers as I’d done to her.

This woman was going to be the death of me.

I was so fucked, and I didn’t care.

She could truly have anything she wanted, down to the blood in my veins, and I’d open my flesh without a question. I caught my breath while she tucked me back into my pants as if she hadn’t just upended my entire world.

“Well?” I growled. “Was it as good as you imagined?”

She wiped one last bit of cum from her chin and gave me a grin that would make Aphrodite jealous.

“It was adequate.”

“What? That was–!”

She threw her head back and let loose a low, throaty laugh that was my new favorite sound.

“You are too easy to tease,” she said with a playful twinkle in her eye. “It was fantastic. But I do have ideas on how to make it better next time.”

I arched an eyebrow and pulled her up so her face was even with mine.

“Oh really?”

“Mmmm…”

I was about to explore the taste of me on her tongue with a long, thorough kiss when one of the medics peeked his head around the door.

“If you’re ready, I can discharge you now.”

Kat smirked up at me.

“Are we ready, dear?”

I growled and ran my claw over her cheek.

“More than, baby.”

And it was the truth. I wanted whatever life with Kat would bring, the good and bad, the infuriating and the sensual. It would never be boring, that was for damn sure, and she would never take my bullshit. 

“What’s that grin for?” she asked, getting out of bed slowly.

“I was just thinking about what it’s going to be like with you.”

“And?”

I cupped her face between my hands and slanted my lips across hers, taking my damn time to make sure I put every dream I could muster into that kiss. When I pulled away, her gaze was the most open and beautiful I’d ever seen, her whole heart shining out.

“I think I could fall for you,” I admitted. “I think I might already have.”

“Me too,” she breathed. “But let’s take it slow, okay?”

I nodded as my thumbs caressed her cheeks.

“Everywhere but the bedroom,” she added with a smirk.

I gave her a dark chuckle.

“Now baby, that I can pretty much fucking guarantee.”

***

THE END