His Witch To Keep (Keepers of the Veil) by Zoe Forward

put a bullet in the middle of his forehead before I allow him to touch you.”
    Oh. My. God. That was almost a love declaration. Her pulse hammered between her ears. “We don’t work. There is nothing between us.”
    A low chuckle came through the phone. “We wouldn’t be talking if you believed that. If I walked in there right now, you would beg me to make you scream.”
    “Oh, please,” she said sarcastically.
    “We wouldn’t make it to a bed before I would be deep inside you.”
    Holy hell, she wanted that. But she resented his assumption. “You are absolutely the most arrogant ass I have ever met. It’d be you doing the begging. On your knees. You’d beg for me to have my mouth around you.” Heat surged through her body, now uncomfortably tight and hot.
    Soft, almost lethal, he said, “Do not put others between us. I will not tolerate it.”
    “There is no us. There will never be an us.” She hung up. Her hands shook as she slid her cell back into her coat pocket. What the hell was that? And why was she so thrilled by Alexi’s jealousy? What didn’t make sense was if he was so jealous, then why had he deserted her eight months ago?
    With a frustrated snort, she slammed her hand against the counter. They didn’t work. End of story.
    Think about Liz. She had to focus on rescuing her sister. Not on the annoyance of a super-hot assassin who wanted to fuck her in the hallway. Those fantasy images would torment her all day. When she caught a glimpse of her red cheeks, she rolled her eyes and blew out an aggravated sigh.
    “You okay in there?” Eli asked from outside.
    Crap, she’d forgotten about him.
    As she stepped out of the bathroom, both of his eyebrows slowly rose. Super-inquisitive mode. Not good. “Important call?”
    She shrugged and clenched her fists in an effort to stop their trembling.
    “Follow me.” He led her into the kitchen. A graveyard of various electronic parts littered her kitchen counter.
    “Oh, shit.” She circled the counter. With a sense of dread she sorted through the collection of cameras and bugs she’d known had been planted in her house. Liz’s kidnappers warned if she touched them, they’d hurt her sister.
    He waved a hand over the electronics. “What is this? Who is monitoring you? Is it whoever’s out there?” He nodded toward the front door.
    She shook her head. Silently, she counted and mentally put parts together. She glanced up. “You missed a camera.”
    He rotated and flipped open his laptop, which rested precariously on the kitchen counter. He punched buttons for a few seconds. “I plugged into the feed. There’s another in…looks like your bedroom.”
    He stomped upstairs, reappearing shortly. He tossed the camera onto the counter.
    The equipment reflected the best of medium-grade crap, which meant no way to trace it. Expensive stuff had only a few distributors, but this heap of electronic junk could be ordered off the internet. Good purchase, if one’s goal was anonymity. Liz’s kidnappers were careful. Smart.
    She jumped when Eli stalked close and yanked up her long sleeves, exposing the cuts and bruising from her zip tie breakout. His cheek muscles tightened, highlighting the north-to-south scar that marred the left side of his face. His remnant of an MI6 mission gone terribly wrong added a bold stamp of danger to his magnetic good looks. He could mask the scar by using his druid power but rarely did. His eyes narrowed. That glare meant a bullheaded bottle of trouble.
    “You’re freelancing? And someone had you tied up.” He plowed all ten fingers into his dark hair, holding it off his face for several seconds before letting it fall back into place. “And someone has you under heavy surveillance, which you already know about. This is entirely unacceptable, Serenity.” He waved over the electronics. “Let’s go to your safe room. Right now. I assume whoever planted these didn’t get in there.”
    She signaled him to follow her to the