Bewitched & Betrayed snippet featuring Raine & Mychael

Mychael looked down at me. "If you can't control a situation, you have to know every detail, don't you?"

"What's wrong with that?"

Mychael's eyes twinkled from under the brim of his hat. "I'll bet you don't like surprises for your birthday, either."

"No, I don't. And what the hell does that have to do with anything?"

He leaned in close with a conspiratorial whisper. "Not all surprises are bad."

Mychael took my face in his hands and those blue eyes gazed down into mine. There was no question reflected there, no uncertainty, and he sure as hell wasn't asking my permission. Those eyes told me what he wanted.

He kissed me.

His lips didn't demand, they simply took. With delicious slowness. His fingers of one hand ran lightly up the curve of my ear, lingering for a breath-catching caress at the tip before sliding down to my throat, leaving a trail of tingle-inducing heat in their wake. By the time his hand slipped around the back of my neck and pressed me to him, my hands were on him, sliding up to his chest and around his neck. My hands didn't ask my permission, either. Traitorous hands.

Mychael's kiss turned into a tantalizing nibble, gently pulling my bottom lip between his teeth, sucking, nibbling, teasing.

I opened my eyes and was met with twin pools of deep ocean blue, gleaming with mischief as he released my lips and planted light kisses on my nose and forehead. His lips lingered there, the warmth of his breath and body doing a fine job of banishing the night cold--or at least giving me something better to think about. His lips had released mine, but his arms were wrapped firmly around my waist and didn't seem to be in a rush to let me go.

"What was that for?" I found myself short of breath.

"Hopefully, a pleasant surprise."

I looked up at him, a slow smile spreading across my face. "Eh, I've had worse."