Chapter One

      I struggled through a haze of cool fog, pushing my way out to emerge naked on an empty city street where a solitary streetlamp lit the corner of the next block. Drawn to its unearthly glow, I floated along on silent feet, my focus forward, the warmth it promised tugging at me like an invisible string, guiding me, beckoning, pulling me.

      As I neared, a shadow broke away from the lamp pole.

      A flash of fear brought me to a momentary halt, my pulse leaping, flight instinct warring against the lure that urged me forward.

      The shadow’s soft chuckle heated the night air. Warm hands reached out to grab me, wrapping me in a cocoon of naked, muscular male.

      My fear evaporated and I sighed, burying my face against his chest. “Blaise.”

      “Yes, sweet Katya, it’s me.”

      My fingers curled into the hair at the nape of his neck, tilting his head toward mine, my lips longing for the caress of his. I hated that I needed him, like a body needs liquid to quench its thirst. “Where have you been?”

      “Out.” He brushed his mouth across mine with the lightness of butterfly wings.

      I wanted more, pressing into him, lifting my head, impatient, my nerves tingling in anticipation.

      His lips met mine, crushing, invading, his tongue edging past my teeth. He pushed me backward until my shoulders connected with the solid brick wall of a building. Then he pressed a knee between my thighs to part them and lifted my legs to wrap around his waist.

      The brick fell away, replaced by the soft, billowy bed of cottony clouds. I sank into the comfort, taking him with me, my ankles locking behind his back.

      His cock pressed into me, thrusting into the slickness of my channel, stretching me with his thick, hard girth.

      I moaned, my tongue twisting around his, thrusting in rhythm with his hips, his cock, the way he moved over my body.

      Ripples of release pulsed across my nerves, building in cascading explosions until my back arched off the clouds.

      His cock thrust one last time and we ignited in a simultaneous release of the purest sunburst of energy.

      My breath held as I rode the waves of ecstasy to shore, the ebb and flow of sensation drawing me back in and out until I fell back to earth, my descent cushioned by the grasp of his hands on my hips.

      When at last I could breathe on my own, I lay limp, my muscles and bones liquefied under Blaise’s intense assault.

      “Open your eyes,” he whispered, pressing his lips to each eyelid, coaxing me to comply.

      “Not yet,” I mumbled, my legs tightening around him, refusing to let go, refusing to awaken from whatever dream I was in.

      An annoying buzzing blasted through my refuge of half-sleep, half-dream, shooting through my ear, straight into my head. “What the hell?” My eyes popped open, my ankles released, my heels falling to the mattress of my bed. The incessant buzzing continued, complete with a clatter of plastic on the wooden surface of my nightstand, effectively ending my sensual dream.

      Blaise rolled off me, collapsing against the pillows.

      I snatched my cell phone up, punching the talk button. “Danske.”

      “Meeting at the precinct in fifteen.”

      My boss’s words cut through the remaining haze of sleep, chasing back the lingering fluffs of fog, returning me to earth with a resounding thud.

      “Fifteen?” I glanced at the clock and groaned. I wasn’t due on duty for another hour and a half. “I need a shower.”

      “I don’t care what you smell like. Be here in fifteen.” Lieutenant Thomas, the detective assigned the illustrious duty of managing Manhattan’s Paranormal Investigative Team, had spoken. “And bring Blaise with you.”

      “What if I don’t know where he is?”

      “Cut the crap, Agent Danske. Where you are, he is. Both of you, in the War Room in fifteen.” The line cut off.

      I glanced at my partner, Blaise Michaels, the demon who’d taken up residence in my life. “You hear that?”

      He nodded.

      “Does he think you live here?” I tossed back the blankets, strode naked to the scuffed dresser I’d purchased from a secondhand store and yanked open the top drawer, digging around for a bra and panties.

      “How will anyone take me seriously, if they think you’re living with me?” I flung a narrow-eyed glare at him. “And how the hell did you get in? I locked the double bolts and windows before I hit the sack.”

      He shrugged. “I have ways.”

      “Don’t tell me another one of your talents is to walk through walls.” I shoved a foot into the leg of my panties and then another, drawing them up my thighs, completely aware of the demon eyeing my every move.

      And damned if my body didn’t play traitor on me and burst into red-hot flaming desire. “You—” With my underwear firmly in place around my hips, I poked a finger at him. “—are not invited into my apartment without my explicit consent. Do you hear me?”

      His grin infuriated me, at the same time it flicked all my damned “on” switches, sending a wash of purely decadent juices to my pussy.

      “I mean it.” Ah hell, who was I kidding? “No one will take a female on the force seriously if she’s sleeping with a team member. We can’t see each other anymore.”

      His smile broadened. “Okay.”

      I turned my back so that I wouldn’t have to look at his mocking face and slipped into a pair of black