Only when the touch of her skin filters into my blood do I realize that I have wrapped my fingers around her wrist.
I tug on her hand, and she doesn’t resist. I bring her glistening fingers to my lips and ease her forefinger inside my mouth.
The taste of her infuses my veins.
I bite down on her finger lightly, and she shivers. She wriggles her hand in my grasp, and I tighten my grip.
Coercing her hand to the side, I slap her palm down on the sink in front of her.
Her breath hitches, but she stays where she is. Impressive.
Still holding her gaze, I reach for her other palm and place it flush on the surface as well.
She gulps but doesn’t say anything, just holds on to the edge of the basin with her hands. The skin stretched over her knuckles is white.
I take a step back, hold my hands up to show her I am not forcing her. I tilt my head.
She raises her chin and her lower lip quivers.
I want to tell her that if she wants to leave then now is her chance. If she doesn’t want this, doesn’t want the pleasure I can give her, then she should get out of here. But something warns me not to speak. If I do, it will break this strange trance that holds the two of us. This communication that we have established on the unspoken level.
So I jerk my chin toward the exit, all without breaking contact with her gaze in the mirror.
Her eyes follow the direction I’ve indicated. She frowns, her muscles go solid, then her eyes skitter back to hold mine in the mirror.
In a very deliberate gesture, she widens her stance. She pushes back from the sink, so her butt is poised in the air. Without breaking the connection, she circles her hips, and again.
Each move of hers is meant to seduce. Her skirt rides up just enough so I can make out the edge of her panties. White seams, simple cotton underwear. She hadn’t come here to pick up a male. She hadn’t intended to part her legs like this and invite someone to glide their fingers inside her and… What the hell is this? An attack of consciousness?
“Last chance.” My voice comes out on a growl. "If you want to leave, then now is the time."
Yeah, okay, so I know it’s a mistake to speak, but I can’t help myself. I need to share what I have in mind; and in a fashion, that leaves no room for misinterpretation.
Blame my chivalry on pure greed.
I want her to remember me with unadulterated lust. I need her to understand that she yearns for this as much as me.
Her eyes sparkle. “Who said anything about leaving?” She darts out her tongue and runs it over her upper lip.
Heat flushes my skin and sweat breaks out on my forehead.
What is it about this woman that I have such a visceral reaction to her? I’ve never felt this turned on, this needy for a female before. And I won’t again; not for anyone else. The thought sends a skitter of awareness prickling at my nerve endings. I hesitate.
She holds my gaze in the mirror. “I want you.” Her gaze scrolls down my chest to my crotch where the evidence of my arousal must clearly strain against my pants.
Even before the words have left her mouth, I close the distance between us. I shove her skirt aside, seize her panties, and tear them off.
3
Gia
A scream spills from my mouth. That restrained violence in his action makes my nerve endings fire with anticipation. My skin feels too tight. My fingers tingle.
The stranger holds the scrap of fabric up, then he slips it in his back pocket.
Umm, okay.
Footsteps sound outside the door and I freeze.
He doesn't change stance. Those blue eyes blaze. He scans my features with an intensity that makes my toes curl. A vein throbs at his temple.
Goosebumps flare on my skin.
My heart rate speeds up, and adrenaline spikes my blood. The noise outside the door fades and my shoulders slump.
I've never done this before. Never. Closeted with a stranger and in such a public space? My stomach flutters. Is that the attraction? The fact that I don’t know him. That we are here in this space where anyone can walk in. I am not an exhibitionist, yet the thought that we could be caught at any time only adds to the sense of danger that clings to him.
He holds my gaze in the mirror. One side of his lips curves up. It’s as if he’s read my mind.
My skin heats. My nerve endings tingle.
He skims his big palm up my inner thigh.
I shudder.
He stops just short of my core.
My shoulders bunch.
“Didn’t take you for a tease—” My breath catches.
He forces his muscled thigh between my legs and yanks them apart.
A moan bubbles up, and I bite my lips to swallow it back. I don’t want him to see how much he’s affecting me. How much the sureness of his moves, his every dominant gesture, the sheer confidence with which he handles my body, turns me on.
Moisture gathers between my thighs. Heat flushes my chest. Damn, I am so turned on, and it’s just by his nearness.
The scent of him, musky, smoky, complex, like a midsummer night when the leaves on the trees ache for the caress of moonlight…and what am I even thinking? My brain cells feel like they are melting. I try to squeeze my thighs together, and he shakes his head.
“That’s my job, remember?” He drags the edge of his hand across my clit.
Flickers of pleasure radiate out from his touch to pool in my belly. I groan, and my eyes flutter shut.
My head falls forward.
The heat from his chest flows over me and seems to hold me captive. It feels like I am lit from the inside. “What are you doing to me?” I gasp.
He doesn’t reply. Just dips his head, so his breath sears the nape of my neck. Then he kisses me there.
I shudder, and my mind empties of all thought.
He grips my waist only to drag his big hand up my side then up and around to the front.
Little pinpricks of pleasure dance over my skin. The pleasure is so intense I have to grit my teeth to stop myself from crying out. “I… I don’t normally do this.”
“What?”
“This…” I crack my eyelids open to meet his gaze again. “Throw myself at a random stranger who crosses my path.”
“Nothing random about this.” He drags his palm up to cup my breast.
My nipples tighten into nubs, waiting, wanting his touch so bad. My toes curl.
“What do you mean?” I frown as his words register.
“Just that this was meant to happen. You and me. Meeting like this. Being attracted to each other.”
His finger trails circles around my nipples. My chest pushes out; my back arches as if my body is trying to shove my breast into his palm.
“Are you sure?” I still hold his gaze in the mirror. My lips are parted, and color streaks my cheeks. I cannot recognize the woman I see in the reflection. I am the bodyguard to the leader of Moscow, and she is going to take the pledge to her people today.
Some of the sexual haze clears from my head as that thought sinks into me. I straighten my shoulders. “I need to be somewhere else. I—”
His fingers pinch my nipple. Liquid lust ripples over my skin. My core pulses. Moisture pools between my thighs.
His nostrils flare. Damn the man, but he can scent my arousal.
Those blue eyes of his darken until they seem almost turquoise. Flares of amber leap in them.
He flicks his ears back, and I stare.
“What?” He growls.
The tendons on his throat move as he speaks, and I so very much want to lean up and lick his skin, just taste him again.
“Your ears,” I gulp. “They are pointed at the tips.”
“So?”
“So they weren’t before.”
“No, that only happens when I am aroused. As does this." He peels back his lips, and his canines drop.
Fear tugs my nerves. Anticipation stretches my skin.
“You are Fae?”
He jerks his chin.
Don’t say it. Don’t say it, “And, ah, are you… aroused now?”
"What do you think?" His lips draw up in a smirk.
"I think, you need to finish what you started." What the hell? Am I really doing this? Baiting this male? Trying to push him over the edge?
He lowers his head and closes his teeth around the side of my throat. The sharp tips of his canines graze my skin without breaking the surface.
The gesture is so animalistic, so feral, desire twists my gut. My thighs clench. Maybe I don’t want him to control himself. Maybe I just want him to take me before I come to my senses and realize everything about this scene is wrong.
His palm squeezes my breast, and I moan.
With his other hand, he rams a finger into my pussy, and I can't stop the whine that dribbles from my lips.
He licks the skin he’s marked, then rubs his cheek against mine. Moves in close enough for me to feel his chest muscles flex under his shirt.
That scent of him is everywhere around me, sinking into me. I want more. Much more. My head falls back on his chest.
He adds another finger to the first, shoving it into me. He drags his fingertip over the walls of my wet channel.
I cry out.
Shivers of heat flutter down my back, and my arms and legs tingle.
“I am going to make you orgasm so hard you’ll forget anyone and anything who came before me.”
The sound of his voice arrows straight to my core. More moisture flows out from between my thighs.
He adds a third finger and thrusts the digits in and out, then all the way in. He curves his fingers, even as he brings his other hand to the curve of my waist; he applies enough pressure, so I lean my waist forward. My butt twitches.
His fingers slip in deeper, hitting a spot inside me that I didn’t even know existed.
My thigh muscles clench, my toes curl. Every pore in my body seems to pop.
I thrash my head to the side and brush against his neck. The scent of him fills my nose, and I draw in his essence. It’s harsh yet filled with that edge of sex, just like him. Heat gallops up my veins. I can’t stop myself from flicking out my tongue and dragging it over his skin.
I feel his breath catch, feel his big body brace, feel all the planes of his chest go solid. His arousal digs into the curve of my waist. I want…need more…something more.
As if sensing the restlessness gathering inside me, he pushes his body into mine and covers my smaller frame.
His pelvis cradles my butt, his hard chest covers my back, and his fingers, those wicked fingers continue their assault on my channel. I sense him widen his stance, moving his legs apart as if to better hold up the weight of my body. The thick length of his shaft strains his pants and throbs against my butt. I am surrounded by this stranger, wallowing in his heat.
My head spins. My throat goes dry, and I want more. Much more.
A low growl rumbles up his chest. “You are so fucking responsive, like no female I’ve ever met before.”
His voice sweeps aside the fog in my mind. Reminding me once more that I need to leave before it’s too late.
I turn my head to tell him just that when he tilts his head and closes his lips over mine.
4
Dante
The skin around her eyes tightens. A moan bleeds out of her, and I swallow it down.
I slide my tongue inside her mouth and swipe it over her teeth. I’m ravenous for her. My stomach flutters. Hunger, that’s all it is. A need for her that I can slake. All I have to do is take her…mate her…never let her go.
Mate her?
The thought scrambles my brain, slams against my temples. Liquid heat strums my nerve endings, even as my thigh muscles spasm.
It can’t be. This utterly gorgeous, slip of a woman who barely comes to my chest, who has the most magnificent eyes that speak to me, and call to me… Cannot be my mate.
I can’t take a mate. Not now. Not when I am in the middle of the most important mission of my life.
She moans and flicks her tongue over mine, battling with it.
All my attention focuses right back on the origin of the most exquisite experience of my life. The taste of her like melted honey and crushed ginger sinks into my blood. My groin hardens and my cock strains at my pants. Whoever she is, I have to have her.
I move my arm to lay it across her chest, then bring her flush against me. The curve of her spine molds to the angles of my body. Her butt twitches and her shoulder blades dig into my chest.
I want to make sure she never forgets this encounter. I have to leave her… I cannot possibly let myself be involved with her, not now…not ever. If I do, I’ll never be able to complete the mission I started, all my best laid plans will go to dust, and I can’t have that, not when I am so close to my goal.
Her shoulders tremble. She bites down on my tongue. I feel it all the way to the tip of my cock. I slide a fourth finger into her channel, and her pussy clamps down on my digits. My groin tightens, and my chest hurts. If only a different part of me was embedded in her. That muscle, which is pulsating with need, which is fixating on her, which insists that she’s the one. The blood thuds at my temples.
All my nerve endings seem to catch fire. I hook my fingers inside her, and her entire body goes stiff.
She strains in my hold, rises on tiptoes, and her spine bows. Her breasts push up. Then a low cry bleeds out of her. Moisture streams from her pussy, drenching my fingers, pooling in my palm. She shatters in my arms.
The breath shudders in and out of me, my chest rises and falls, liquid lust grips me, and I tighten my hold on her. I am going to have to leave, but something in me insists I give her something to remember me by.
I yank my fingers from her then spin her limp body around to face me. Her head lolls, and her knees almost give away.
A part of me rejoices that it was me who brought her to that shattering edge. No one else will be able to do that. No one…should touch her… No, that doesn’t make sense. For I have to go. I have to get out of here.
Anger twists my gut. I need to make sure she’ll never forget me, that my touch, the feel of my fingers, the taste of me is imprinted in her.
I grip her waist and hoist her up on the edge of the sink.
Her body quivers. Her feet don’t even touch the floor.
“Look at me.” My voice is harsh, fiercer than I intended.
Her eyelids flutter.
“Now.” I infuse the same authority I use to address my team into my tone.
She raises those long eyelashes and trains that heart-stopping gaze of hers on me. Amber sparks in them. Her cheeks are flushed, her lips bitten. Her thick, auburn curls bunch around her shoulders. She looks like she’s been thoroughly fucked, and damn if I don’t want to complete what I’ve started.
“You’re leaving.” Her chin wobbles.
“I have to go.” I narrow my gaze on her, try to show that this little encounter hasn’t affected me as much as it has her.
She scissors her legs around my waist, then raises her head and nips at my chin.
Goosebumps flare on my skin. My dick throbs and pushes against that secret triangle at the apex of her legs. “Why did you do that?”
“You’re not the only one who gets to decide what you want out of this. You don’t get to write me off, not like that.”
“Oh?” I tilt my head.
There is a warm feeling in my chest that is growing by the second. My lips pull up in a smirk.
Goddamn, but this human has spirit. She’s stronger than I anticipated. More obstinate than I give her credit for. More…everything than I expected. She would be, because she is my mate…not. I shake my head to clear it.
She frowns, then throws her arms around my neck, knitting her fingers in my hair. Her fingernails rake across my scalp. Shivers of lust streak down my skin.
I raise my palms and cup her face.
Her gaze widens. The silver sparks in her eye
s flare. A pool of awareness shimmers between us. It’s more intense than anything I have ever felt. There’s this visceral connection with this woman, something I hadn’t anticipated. It’s not just physical, it’s more and… I cannot do this, not now.
“I am sorry.” Swooping down I close my mouth over hers.
5
Gia
The taste of him flows into me. Like a deep, dark taste of cocoa, with the tang of cinnamon.
He seems to be pouring his essence inside me. As if he wants to imprint his taste on my lips, and he does. He doesn’t want me to forget him.
And that doesn’t make sense.
I’ve just met him, and he’s already stamped his touch all over me.
I find myself clinging to him, pulling him closer, making sure to thrust my breasts into his chest. Locking my ankles behind his waist, plowing my heels into his back, I yank him closer.
His hardness nudges my core. I raise my pelvis and press my pussy flush over his throbbing shaft.
A dense cloud of heat rolls off him and pours over me.
Sweat beads my forehead.
The planes of his chest shift, his muscles coil, I know he’s about to leave, and I want to stop him. Yet I know I am powerless to do so. I need to see him again…and I won’t.
If he goes, I’ll never see him again.
Something inside me snaps. I tear my lips from his so suddenly that my teeth graze his lower lip. Drops of blood pop up, and he licks them off.
He watches me with hooded eyes. The tendons of his throat move as he swallows. He wants to say something. I can sense it. And yet…he doesn’t move, doesn’t talk. He waits and watches me. Heat surges to my cheeks.
“Why did you do that?” My throat feels raw as if I have been screaming.
“What?” His voice is flat.
“Bring me to climax only to let me go?” I curl my fingers over his skin.
“Because I couldn’t let you go without marking you.” His lips twist.
“You doing that to make my life a living hell?” Heat pools in my chest. My throat closes.
Fated Mates: Paranormal Romance Series Starters Boxset Page 2