Read Online Running in the Dark by Regan Summers - Free Book Online

had to support myself on my arms.
    “I could hurt you when I’m like this,” he said, his voice low.
    “You could.” I dug my heel into his backside until he pressed forward, arched until his mouth met my skin again. “But I bet you won’t.”
    He lifted me against his chest and I shimmied out of my jeans and underwear in a frantic maneuver that ended with me crashing to my knees on the dresser. His hand slid between my legs, fingers circling and sliding as I leaned forward to kiss him. My own fingers trembled on the buttons of his shirt, and I finally just tore the thing, shoving it back over his shoulders.
    He wrapped an arm around my waist, easing me forward. “Bed.”
    “Here is good,” I breathed, closing my eyes and trying really hard to forget everything in the world except his hand. Which he took from me. “Unfair,” I snarled. But I was done arguing. I gained my feet, kicked off and propelled him backward.
    He landed on his back and I fell hard on outstretched arms, one knee jamming into his shoulder. I slid it off of him, groaned when his mouth found my breast again, and crawled backward on loose limbs. He shifted beneath me and I smiled lazily at the sound of his belt coming undone.
    “I’ll have you know,” I said thickly, “that I am engaging in this act with you despite having seen you in your pimp clothes.”
    “Christ, if you want any act to take place, don’t mention those.”
    I lowered myself onto him, sliding slowly along his length. His head fell back and the last remnants of that awful mask disappeared. We surged together, and between my need, his touch and the liquid heat of his power running over me, I lost myself.
    At some point he pulled me down, wrapping a hard arm around me as I continued to move. I buried my face in the side of his neck, nipping until he turned away and bit into his own wrist. I heard it—the grind of teeth through flesh and sinew—and had the fleeting thought that he shouldn’t have to do that. And then my body dragged my mind over the edge.
    * * *
    “What’s with your wardrobe?” I asked. Malcolm let out an exaggerated sigh that ruffled my hair and made me smile.
    “Bronson’s last deputy, the one who handled affairs during the summer and when Bronson was elsewhere, was flamboyant. I was informed when I came here that it’s now the expected uniform for the job.”
    “To give the local dons a feeling of continuity?”
    “That’s possible. More likely, Bronson hopes this will be the indignity that finally breaks me.” He said it lightly, but I had the feeling that there was more to it. I covered his hand where it rested on my ribs.
    “Why does he hate you so much?”
    “He doesn’t hate me. I irritate him.”
    “Then why would he keep you around and assign you to something like this, running one of his territories? Why not just let you go?”
    “Because then everybody else who owes him service or favors or money would expect leniency too.” He shifted and his hand threaded through mine. “Besides, I’m effective. It’s amazing what people will tell the Master’s proxy when they know I don’t actually belong to him.”
    “So…you’re spying for him?”
    “Not for him.” He sounded so smug, I squinted at him over my shoulder. The lights had gone out at some point in reaction to his presence, and since the candles were behind him, I could barely make out his expression. Just the faintest glow in his eyes, the straight ridge of his nose, and the curve of his lips as he smiled.
    He kissed me, his hand flattening on my stomach to hold me close. I broke away after my neck threatened to cramp at that angle. When Malcolm spoke again, his voice was low.
    “I told you, and myself, that I could handle you working. I even believed it. But seeing you there, with them all around you…” I rolled onto my back.
    “We’re really going to have this conversation now,” I asked. “Again? Not that I mind what comes after the conversation—” He