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“Be mine.” Not a question, a statement of fact. In his heart, she was his. Would be his. Always. “And I don’t really give a shit about what the rest of my family thinks. Not that I’ve got much of one left, anyway.” A few cousins, spread across the United States. “Hell, baby, your family is the one I’m more concerned about.” How would they feel about having a human in their fold?

“All day,” he continued, “I’ve thought about you. Wanted you. Wanted to touch you and taste you and—” He broke off, because he had to feel her mouth under his. The kiss was too fierce, bruising in its intensity, but she met him, her lips feeding on his with a wild hunger—a hunger he knew well.

The thought of losing her—it ate away at him. His hands worked on her clothes, all but yanking the fabric away. Todd needed to feel the softness of her flesh against his, needed it more than breath right then.

He had to show her how good it was between them. How good it would always be.

But her hands rose and pushed against his chest. His head lifted.

“Todd…it’s more than sex to you, isn’t it?”

The question pierced his heart. “Do you even need to ask, baby?” This time, when he kissed her, his lips were soft. “You’re in me, Cara. So deep inside me. Hell, I didn’t think anyone would ever know me like you do.” And he hadn’t believed he’d ever need anyone the way he needed her. “I told you once that I would follow you into hell.” His hands lifted and he framed her face. “I meant that. I’d do anything for you.”

“You’re not—not just saying—” She stopped, shook her head. Her face was wistful, her eyes watchful.

He tightened his hold on her. “Don’t you understand, baby? You’re mine—the woman I’ve always wanted, and never thought I’d find.” Todd had to swallow before he said, “I know I should be better. More, for you, but I’m just a man, a man who touched the best thing he could have ever imagined one night.” Time to drop his pride. “I love you, Cara. Love every part of you, and if you’ll let me, I’ll spend the rest of my life showing you just how damn good a human and a demon can be together.”

Her lips curved upward slowly, and the darkness in her gaze seemed to lighten. “You love me?”

“More than anything in this world or any other.” Stark truth. And, damn, but he was praying she felt even a fraction of the same way about him. She had to feel something, and if she gave him enough time, he’d show her how great they could be together.

“I know things started the wrong way between us.” Extreme understatement. “I wish I’d met you without the case. Just seen you singing one night.” He would have felt the same way about her, but the suspicions and accusations wouldn’t have been between them.

Her right hand lifted, and she traced the lines of his face. “Do you know that before I met you, I was ready to give up sex?”

He slowly shook his head, shocked. Could a succubus even do that?

She laughed softly. “Then I met you, and everything changed for me. Everything.

He hoped she meant—

“I love you, Todd Brooks, and I will keep loving you for all the very, very long years of my life.”

She loved him. Fucking miracle. He crushed her against him, drove his tongue deep into her mouth, and tasted the paradise he’d been craving.

It should have been a soft, tender mating. Their feelings were spoken now, real, but the emotions were too raw, as was their hunger.

Their hands fought, ripped at the clothing. Fabric gave way quickly beneath the assault.

Then his mouth was on her breast. Licking, sucking, kissing, loving the sweet flesh. His hands shoved down her shorts. Tore away her panties to find the creamy flesh that waited for him.

Her fingers unsnapped his jeans, pulled down the zipper, and his arousal sprang out, hard, ready, so eager for her that moisture coated the broad head of his cock.

There was no waiting. He stumbled over to the chaise longue. Nearly fell onto the cushions and dragged her down over him.

Her thighs were parted, so when she fell onto him, she straddled him and her hot, wet sex slid over his cock.

Another kiss. Lips, tongue. Tasting. Taking.

His hands touched her—frantic touches, caresses all over her flesh.

Her fingers wrapped around the length of his erection. Squeezed, stroked, and had his eyes rolling back into his head.

His lips tore from hers. “Can’t…wait.”

Her smile would have tempted a saint—and it sure as hell tempted a cop. “Good.”

Then she was positioning his length, lifting her hips, and pushing the head of his arousal into the tight opening of her sex.

He thrust up, jerking his hips off the chaise at the exact moment her hips drove down onto him. Their moans filled the air as his cock lodged deep within her.

When her sex clenched around him like a hot fist, there was no stopping him. Todd’s hands dropped to the cement for balance and his hips began to piston up against her. Harder. Faster. The night sky glinted above—a million shining stars winked over Cara and he thrust, sinking into the hottest paradise he’d ever know and starring at stars—and his succubus.

Her eyes were shining. A glow inside the darkness. Her hand was on his chest, right over his heart.

The heart that had always been hers. He just hadn’t known—

Her sex contracted, a ripple of movement that had Todd gritting his teeth and choking out her name.

Release was moments away, but damn it—he never wanted the passion to end.

Never wanted to leave her.

Her thighs clamped over his legs. The site of her bare breasts tormented him, and his head jerked up. Todd caught one nipple in his mouth, then slammed deep into her again.

The warmth of her palm seared his skin. Power filled the air. Danced over his body.

The climax hit him, and the world exploded into a shower of those stars he’d seen. Millions of stars. Pleasure flooded him as he pumped into her, driving as fully into her honeyed clasp as he could go, and filling her with the hot essence of his release.

Her magic roared through him and she called his name. Her hips bucked, her sex clenched, and the quiver that shook her body shivered through him.

He licked her breast as the aftershocks of pleasure hummed through his system.

His hands rose from the cement and wrapped around her.

Todd’s head lifted and he stared up at her face.

His Cara.

The spark of her energy danced in the air, the spark that even now was heating his flesh and sending energy pumping inside him.

When he kissed her again, he tasted the magic and he tasted the power of the woman he’d gladly fight the devil to possess.

And, well, perhaps he already had.

The bull pen was all but deserted when Smith knocked lightly on Danny McNeal’s office. It was well after 11 P.M., but she knew he was still working. Though the blinds were drawn in his office, faint light glowed from beneath his door.

“Come in.” His voice was gruff, hard, as it usually was.

Her shoulders straightened and her left hand rose automatically to smooth over her hair.

Then she walked inside, keeping her head high and her strides long and easy.

She saw his eyes widen, just the tiniest fraction, when he caught sight of her.

“Dr. Smith.”

Ah, so she was back to doctor, hmm? Smith placed her report onto his desk. “My notes on Cameron Komak’s body.”

He dropped his pen. “That was fast.”

Well, there hadn’t exactly been a lot left to work with.

“What’s the determination?”

Now this was the tricky part—but she had a feeling she’d probably be dealing with a lot of tricky cases from now on.

The thought wasn’t as unsettling as it had once been. In fact, now, well, the cases almost seemed…challenging.