Bound by Light by Anna Windsor Page B

triad—were still in the room. His surroundings—conference room, Sibyls, cops, and all—came back to him with mind-jarring speed. Just as fast, he realized Merilee was completely aware of the thoughts and sensations battering his self-control.
    That pissed him off enough to get a grip, at least for the moment.
    With a curt nod to Freeman, Jake said, "Fine." Then to Merilee, to rattle her on purpose, "Are we going to see Charlotte Heart?"
    Merilee’s eyes widened.
    Seemingly on reflex, she lifted her pad, and Jake saw her add up the fact that he knew shorthand, and ancient Greek, and that he had deciphered her code as fast as she wrote the words on her pad.
    He expected that to wipe that teasing little smile off her face.
    Unfortunately for his increasingly miserable cock, it didn’t.
    "Seriously." Merilee, who refused to wear her leather face mask because it was "too confining," blew Jake a kiss along with a gust of hot wind, then turned back to face the night-darkened neighborhood ahead of them. Her blond hair rippled like liquid gold in the breeze. "You can tell me you want me straight out. I don’t mind. I’m a big girl."
    Jake felt like his head might explode.
    Heads, actually.
    What was he supposed to say?
    I don’t want you?
    He wasn’t a liar.

Not to mention the fact it didn’t take a shitload of vestigial memories to teach a man that telling a woman she wasn’t attractive—well, that would be stupid, to say the least.
    Merilee knew all of that. No question in Jake’s mind, the way she was laughing.
    Wind. The most relentless force on the planet. The next time I see Mother Anemone . . .
    He and Merilee were moving north on foot, beside light traffic, four streets away from the townhouse and heading for the home of Charlotte Heart, coven priestess. Merilee had filled him in on Heart’s info and history, in between teasing him until he was ready to throw her down on the sidewalk, take her in front of the entire city, and just have done with it.
    Only the austere residential setting with its iron gates, swept sidewalks, porch lights, and potted plants dissuaded him. Some kid might see. That, and he was supposed to be concentrating on observation, details, and potential threats to New York, its citizens, law enforcement officers, his new "partner," and himself.
    Not breasts crossed by a quiver’s leather strap.
    Not a leather-clad ass bouncing against the lower limb of an olivewood reflex bow, barely concealed by a silky black shawl.
    Merilee dropped back to walk beside him, and her nearness made Jake’s throat close.
    This was too damned complicated.
    She should be out with a triad, boosting their spirits with her never-waning sense of humor. He should be with a human police partner, or maybe his brothers, patrolling. Concentrating. Not drooling.
    Keep moving. Don’t look at her .
    He studied the dozen or more political posters hawking this candidate or that candidate for president. They hung everywhere, on walls and fences, even staked in yards. But Merilee was right beside him, and it might ease the pounding in his body if he just took her hand. It would be so easy to walk with her like a friend, a lover, instead of a fellow officer and warrior. She made him comfortable like that.
    And completely insane.
    Her laughter once more tickled his senses. "Quit being so serious. If you aren’t interested in me, why didn’t you fight harder about us getting assigned together?"
    "I wanted to." Jake’s words burst out like a bark. "This shouldn’t be happening."
    Merilee’s next glance was wounded, highlighted in the multicolored glows of streetlamps and traffic lights.
    Fuck!
    Jake took a breath, tried to get himself together again. "I didn’t mean that in a bad way. Just . . . you’re a Sibyl, and I know you’d be more comfortable with your own—but I did promise Mother Anemone I’d look after you until your triad could fight again."
    Merilee slowed down. "Mother Anemone. Yeah." Her expression grew