Paragon - Chapter 47: Chapter 47

I was absorbed in her book. My head propped on my hand as I scanned each page on her glass desk. Who would have considered poker to be an apt take on manipulation and ultimate skill over sheer luck. I had always thought it to be a fool's game–a rigged casino cash cow. Until now.
Now I had to know if that was another talent she had hidden away...
If Quinn was half as good as her pool ability–well she'd be running the game from the West end to the East. She could lie to me. The mortals she played would be helpless if she willed it.
I was already on the 50th page by the time her bedroom door opened. She leant against the frame watching me while my head was tipped over her desk intently.
"Do you normally read in the dark?" She quipped with a frown.
I leant back in the chair, pinning the page I was on. "I can see well enough."
"Of course you can..." She muttered, moving to her walk-in wardrobe and flicking on the light within.
"Do you play poker?" I blurted towards the door.
"Why do you ask?" She called, with a smile in that voice.
That meant she was good.
"That's not an answer!" I retorted, shutting the book and drawing out of the chair about to ask for something to–
She threw a pile of sleep wear at my head before I could open my mouth. I glared and a laugh was muffled beyond the door. "I used to!". That much made sense. Why not use your inhumanly strong people skills to beat people at their own game.
While I was internally debating her past, the rest of me had no time to prepare for her walking out of that closet in nothing but a tank top hugging her body carelessly. I was rooted in place as she waltzed past into the bathroom. Those curves shown off in the sway of each step–
"Quinn."
"What's up detective?" She answered naturally.
"Put some clothes on."
The sink flowed and she laughed into it.
"I normally sleep like this."
"What part of normal is having an immortal in your bed?" I seethed.
She rounded the corner with a toothbrush in her mouth and a knowing look in her eyes. My own went anywhere but her bare legs. The only respite was that her top went far enough to cover that part of her...
"What's wrong, Fletcher? You've seen more." She smirked, turning back to the sink and away from my burning glare.
"So you think it's a good idea to try again?" I demanded.
"Oh, there are many things I'd like to try–"
"Quinn!" I growled, while her laugh came between spitting water out.
I stared at the t-shirt and sweats. Then shook my head before pulling my shirt over my head in the darker room. I turned my back from that demon in the bathroom but I still sensed that heartbeat. That pulse was too dangerously quick for a mortal seeking sleep. The water shut off in the sink. She was silent–as quiet as a mortal could be. Yet I still heard her when she padded across the carpet to approach my back.
"Don't." I stated flatly ahead of me in the darkness.
The only light coming from the street through the crack in the curtains. She ignored me and slipped her hands around the waist of my jeans from behind. I sighed through my nose and called upon all of my restraint I'd grown so used to using around her.
Yet in this darkened room and her closeness pressed against me–it was crashing down. The heat of her body was too near and made me want things I couldn't have.
"I'm not doing anything." She mumbled against my shoulder.
My blood turned to ice and my hands tightened into fists at my sides. She was pure warmth against my cool skin. Her lips trailed against my shoulder and made everything in my head cloud.
"You think because of what happened in Japan you can push every limit?" I asked of her slowly, still facing the curtains.
Her lips moved against my skin. "I think I want to find out."
Her hands moved from the material and trailed over my stomach making me clench my teeth. "We're not–going to have much time together if you keep–" I caught her hands and turned rapidly to meet her eyes.
Her breath caught as she watched my own.
"God your eyes... are incredible." She whispered, staring at the faint golden glow they took on in heightened darkness. I was sure she had seen this before.
I smirked when her gaze flickered between them.
"And they aren't in the day?" I drawled darkly.
Her eyes skipped past them and ran along my torso briefly. I sighed at the mortal but didn't dare to release her hands. They were secured for a reason between us.
"I think I like you any time of the day." She stated plainly.
"The feeling is mutual, Adams. But you play with too much fire." I murmured, dropping her hands and plucking the t-shirt off her carpet. She watched me silently as I pulled it securely over my head, until I turned to her face again and she stole my lips with her own.
I drew in a quick breath before she deepened it between us and made my desire rush me.
"You're kidding yourself–if you think I'm going to treat you like a guest." She uttered between our lips. I returned it and responded by pulling her hips towards me. The low sound that followed only made me smile more before kissing her slowly.
"I think I can handle–you and that darkness of yours."
She pulled back and took the side of my jaw with a look that told me otherwise.
"We'll see." She whispered, before she dipped her mouth close and took my lip between her teeth. I groaned in a mix of exasperation and desire. The monster within me was more than awake–it wanted control.
I let it.
My hands went below her thighs and pulled her up against my waist. She wrapped her legs around me tightly, dragging in a heavy breath before crashing her lips against mine in a desire I wasn't ready for. I shouldn't have allowed–
The darkness shut away the cautions. The drawbacks or dangers. I acted as desire dictated now.
I walked the mortal back to the sheets and dropped her into them. Her blood beat like a symphony below me. I dropped down to her slowly and pinned my hands beside her face. But she did not wait. She leant up to meet my lips and dragged her hands through my hair to rip me back into a saner part of myself.
Hold your mind. Keep in control.
One of her hands slipped from my hair and trailed a line of heat down my body. I released her lips and dragged in a slow breath that tasted like her. I ran my lips down her neck and drank in that intoxicating scent. My teeth were points by the time I reach the base.
"You're still you." She breathed.
I pulled my head up carefully to meet her eyes and breathed in again. "Not for much longer if you keep this up..."
She grinned breathlessly beneath me before running her hand underneath my t-shirt and up my back. I sighed when she grazed her nails along my skin. Thoughts of her skin bare against my own filled my mind like a chaotic storm. I was losing myself again.
"I won't overstep... much." There was no such promise in her eyes.
"Not such a good liar after all." I breathed, shifting my leg and keeping my weight off her. It only encouraged her to shift her own leg between mine and pull my hips closer. I growled low.
"If I wanted to, I would." She stated, tugging my jaw near her face as she did. "The fact is, detective–I want you to know I have no intention of keeping my word."
It's like she wanted the worst part of me at the surface. Every deliberate touch and movement of her body against mine was dragging it nearer. A demon that limited what we were and could be–yet she was not afraid. Her lips were sending me far into the back of my mind. To a place that couldn't control how I reacted anymore.
I dipped down and ran my tongue along her bottom lip. Her reaction did nothing for my sanity. She met my tongue with her own, burning more desire hotter between us as our legs tangled.
I stopped breathing when her hand went for my jeans and unzipped them. When she tugged the material lower my hand went almost instinctively around her throat. She paused in the dark and noticed the sharp glint of my teeth and presence of a much darker version of myself above her. It wasn't a tight grip. It was one that warned but I barely controlled. If I didn't she wouldn't be breathing at all.
She didn't take her hand off my waist and I wasn't entirely lost to the side that would act on instinct. So I slipped out of my jeans myself while carefully watching the mortal whose heartbeat only increased more wildly.
I forced my eyes closed and took my hands off her to grip the sheets around us.
I felt her fingers brush against my cheek and opened my eyes again.
"Sorry for ambushing you."
She did not sound sorry at all.
I smiled despite it all and took another burning breath. "You have no idea how much I want to react to you." I told her calmly. "When you walk around in front of me barely clothed. When you touch me like that. When you kiss me in that way..." I sighed and shook my head, "–it gets harder every damn time."
"Just let me... for once." She murmured.
A faint smile was still on my lips. "As much as I want this–there's something I want more, Quinn." She waited in anticipation like the answer would unleash that part of me, "–to keep you safe with me. To be with you as myself. Not something else."
"Why do you have to be so bloody sweet about it?" She groaned, pressing her head back into the sheets with resignation. I chuckled and pressed my hand against her cheek.
"We've come a long way. I wouldn't say never."
Her hands returned to my waist but the dark desire was gone in them. "You could always make me a cold blooded immortal and we can skip the safety rules..."
I grinned at her shameless calm.
"Are you so sure you're ready to let go of mortal food?"
"I think you taste better than pizza." She smirked before stealing my lips once more. I shaped mine to her own and felt the same restless desire tear its way through me. If I could feel this every day, every hour–I'd want for nothing.
"How much longer do I have you for?" She asked low, pulling back to scan me intently.
"I'll be planning my work for Paragon tomorrow. If I leave it too late they will grow suspicious."
Her heart rate spiked for a different reason.
"What are they asking you to do?" She whispered, tracing the edge of my face with her fingertips.
Infiltrate a prison. Assassinate two men that would bring the country to its knees. Get out without suspicion.
"Nothing too difficult." I winked.
She rolled her eyes and kissed my neck. I pulled her against me closely. The sheets were still a tangled mess around our legs–we didn't give it a second thought.
"I'll find you before I go tomorrow night."
"You better." She mumbled against my shoulder. "Then they can leave you the hell alone for another decade."
"I wouldn't count on it." I sighed, staring at the ceiling.
"If you came back to me every time... I don't think I'd care."
I tilted my head down to her. She watched me back from her spot against my shoulder. I brushed my thumb slowly against her jaw and nodded. "I couldn't even stay away from you after one meeting–I'm completely screwed now."
She laughed lightly against me and drew her arm around my waist tightly. "And I know where your vault is now... I have all the leverage I need to keep you."
"They are just things, Adams... just things."
Those were her words before but my own now. The look of understanding she gave me was tinged with something more. But she did not say it. Instead she drew herself closer to my side and tucked her head beneath my own.
"You better be here when I wake up." She muttered, before drifting off entirely.
I kissed her head and did not sleep for many hours after her breathing had evened out. My night had never held my attention before like this night in March did now.