Her breath hitched when he pressed ever so lightly, the heat and wet of her a siren song. The simplicity of that moment felt so very right. Goddess he wanted her, wanted to possess her in every way imaginable.

Just a bit more and the heated crotch of her panties rested against his outstretched fingertips. Her lips parted on a soft sound of pleasure, a murmur, a groan, a wordless gust of expression that needed no interpretation.

Keeping his eyes on hers, he slowly pulled the silky material back until she was bared to his touch. He had to swallow and count to ten and then twenty-five when all that glorious sweet slickness met his fingers. He’d made her that way.

Her eyes found focus again and she started to speak.

“Ssshhh. Let me. I want to give this to you. We can talk more about your no-sex thing when I’ve made you come.” To underline his point, he stroked from side to side until her gaze went glossy again and she relaxed.

“This is a very bad idea. With your hands on me, it’s hard to think. All I want is more.”

“Then let me give it to you,” he nearly purred it as he touched her. Covetous. She brought out an intense greed in him. It filled him from head to toe.

“Are you listening to me? Sex is a deeply intimate act. Once we bare ourselves to each other like that it’s going to bind us on a basic level. Once it happens, our connection will only get stronger.”

He backed off slightly, not removing his hand entirely, but ceasing to stroke her.

“This is big. I know it and you feel it, but you don’t know enough about it to truly accept it. The way we feel together is intoxicating. Truly. Our chemicals and our magicks are meant to mix and work best as a unit. You don’t have to believe me, but I need to tell you.” She moved his hand back, out of her panties and he acquiesced, but stayed close.

“In a very real way, we’re drunk on each other. I’m certain about this bonding between you and me. I was raised in a world surrounded by people with bond-mates. I know it exists because I see it every day.

“But you didn’t grow up in a clan and you don’t seem to know a lot about us. So while I’m sure of the bond, I want you to be too. If we do this tonight, you’ll wonder one day and that would break my heart.”

At those last words her bottom lip trembled just a bit and he ached to make it better.

That and he had to admit he understood her point.

“You’re going to kill me.” He moved her so that she fit against his side, not willing to not be touching her. “It’s going to be midnight shortly. Does that count as not rushing?”

She frowned at him, but then shook her head with a slow smile. “You’re going to be trouble.”

He laughed, surprised by her.

“I want to fuck you.” He sighed and then that intensity of his focus was back and she shivered. “And just so we’re clear, I will fuck you. But I understand your perspective and it can wait. Not a long time or I’ll explode.”

She snickered and he didn’t resist the urge to play his fingers through her hair. He liked being around her. She was the kind of woman who had her shit together. The calm and hyperefficient type he rarely ended up with and now he wondered why. He dug the self-sufficiency and the desire to ruffle her feathers and see just how wild she could be once he got down a few layers was nearly overwhelming.

“Why don’t you tell me about the bonding?”

“All right, I will.” She sniffed, slightly snotty and he dug it. “I’m going to give you the basics. You may know some of this so cut me some slack.”

He didn’t know much, he admitted inwardly.

“In every clan you’ve got two types of witches. Commonwealth witches, essentially ninety percent of the clan. And council witches.”

“Why the disparity? Why so many of them and so few of you?”

“Us. We’re freaks of nature.”

He narrowed his gaze. “What?”

“Most science points to a genetic anomaly. And a percentage of that percentage is compatible with each other. And when they connect their magick with the ascension — a spell that’ll unite our magick — they rise to an even greater level of power by several orders of magnitude. It’s our function, and our honor to use that extra power to run and protect the clan for the benefit of its members.”

He tended to see that point and yet it bugged him that the few ran the clan for the many. And he said so.

“The wards at Heart of Darkness? I’ve seen only a handful of witches who can work spells like that. You’re already powerful and unique. Now, me? I could have done it and not tapped into the font. Because I’ve been trained. If you choose to ascend, you’d be able to do it ten times over without much of an effort. So it’s not much of a surprise is it? That witches with that sort of power end up running things?”

“Honestly, I don’t know. I mean, I get it. But it seems undemocratic.”

She shrugged. “It is undemocratic. We’re not a country, we’re a voluntary membership organization whose sole mission is to protect and enrich member witches.”

“Did you get training to rule then?”

“It’s easy to be flip when you don’t know anything. Yes, as a matter of fact. I’ve been in training since before I took my first step. I work, on average, nearly eighty hours a week.”

“So do I.”

She raised one brow, very slowly. “And yet, I’m not attacking your life. It’s the other way around.”

“I’m not attacking anything.” Well, he supposed, it might appear that way. “Did you know your whole life you were meant to be full-council? I mean, because your mom is, you are too?”

She let him get away with his statement, but they both knew she did. “Your mother must have been as well as your father. Children born of unions between two full-council witches will be full-council. Mixed couples it’s about a quarter of the time.”

“It’s a wonder you’re not all inbred freaks.” As soon as it came from his mouth he wished he hadn’t said it.

“Such a way with words.”

“I don’t like my life and future dictated by a bunch of shit I had nothing to do with deciding.”

“So don’t.” She shrugged and tugged free and he felt her absence acutely. “I’m not interested in forcing you to do anything, much less be with me. I want you to make that choice of your own free will. You still have it.” She pushed to stand.

“I do? How’s that? You walk into my club, we have this, this thing between us and now I can’t get enough of you.”

She sighed. “It’s our chemistry. I explained that. Genetics, magick, all that is our personal stew. Yours and mine like each other.” She stepped into her boots and he sat straighter, alarmed.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m going home.” She held a hand out. “This is why I’m glad we didn’t have sex. Stay. Think.” She bent to her bag and pulled a card out. “Here. My numbers are on that. If we decide to go forward, you can try to get into my panties like everyone else. Work for it. I like opera and Thai food and steaks. You can call me for a date and we can get to know each other.”

He could see the hurt on her face. “Don’t go.”

“No. I need to. Because you and I are at totally different places. I grew up knowing this was my path. I greet this bond between us as a wondrous thing. You view it with suspicion. And I get it. You haven’t been educated about what we are and what we do.”

“This doesn’t mean you have to leave. Stay. Educate me.”

“You don’t want that right now and I can’t be here this way.” She picked her coat up and he moved to her.

“I want you. I like you, Meriel. But you can’t expect me to just jump on the bond-mate bandwagon when I didn’t even know I was a council witch until a few hours ago.”

“I know and I don’t. I’m happy to teach you about yourself and your history. If you want that, you know where to get hold of me.”

He stood there, confused and frustrated. “Let me walk you to your car at least.”