“Maybe,” she said, gifting him with a sensual smile as she slid off the stool and made her way to the dance floor.
Kiros gulped down his shot before following her. The club was dark, barely lit, but his preternatural senses allowed him to see it as if it were noon inside, and still he followed using his sense of smell. It was a habit he had no desire to stop.
He took one step, two steps and then stopped short. He took one long, deep sniff and realized something was different.
She, the woman named Eve, smelled unlike anyone else he had ever scented. Yet, he recognized it. Like a fingerprint, no two beings had the same scent.
So why did he recognize the aroma that was distinctly Eve if he didn’t recognize the woman?
He followed her onto the dance floor and pulled her into his arms. “Have we met before?” he asked. “And no, that’s not a line.”
“No,” she said with a soft smile. “Something tells me I’d remember if we ever met.”
He pulled her close to his body and inhaled her scent. Every instinct, every muscle, every molecule in his body immediately roared to life and screamed out one word.
“Mine.”
Chapter Two
Tragic Lies
“I don’t understand,” Nikos said before sliding from beneath the gold desk that lit the dark room. “The Corridor received a report over a hundred years ago. There’s even a copy of the report in my personal files,” he said bewildered.
Things were not adding up, which meant something was missing.
“Yes,” Marcus said. “They sent a report attesting to the fact. Unfortunately it seems as if the details of the report were in fact not facts. It seems that he survived the cleansing. Amazing, when you really think about it. Apparently they had sent their best,” he said, without hiding the note of pride in his tone.
No one survived a cleansing, especially one of the magnitude The Spawn had survived. It truly was an incredible feat. The young one was stronger than even the Master had believed.
“How the hell could they send out such a report?” the other man yelled without warning.
Marcus instinctively tensed sensing the danger in the air. There was no telling what Nikos Karis was capable of doing, especially when angry. And there was no denying that he was currently livid.
Someone had lied.
Someone was lying.
Someone had dared to lie to The Corridor. Someone had dared to lie to Nikos. And there was nothing that Nikos hated more.
Marcus covertly stared at the tic that pulsed at the top of Karis’s tanned forehead, near his snow white hairline.
“He lives?” Nikos whispered into the darkness. Marcus’s head jerked up at the tone.
“Yes,” Marcus cautiously responded. “According to the Guardians, he lives.”
“Make sure that he lives.”
“Yes, sir.” Marcus immediately stood from his seat. He had much to do. There were alumni he needed to send out.
“And if he does?”
Marcus stilled at the sound of the other man’s words. “Yes, sir.”
“Report to me immediately.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Marcus?” Nikos paused for a moment before continuing. Marcus could hear his heart beating to a samba rhythm as he waited for The Master’s words. “Don’t disappoint,” Nikos growled out finally.
Marcus tried to swallow the lump lodged in his throat, but found it impossible. Instead he coughed. “Don’t worry, sir. I’ll have it all taken care of.”
“Yes, you will.”
Because if he didn’t that would be the last day he would ever see. Nikos Karis, Master of the Corridor, did not take disappointment well.
Chapter Three
Dance Floor Foreplay
Gabrielle was not pleased. She was livid. She could not believe his gall. The man had the nerve to turn her down. She wasn’t quite sure if she angry because The Spawn had turned her down or because her plan had not worked. Either way, she was in a mood.
She had planned to lure him outside with the promise of a night spent together between the sheets. She was not above using her body, especially if the target was attractive. And the dossier she had received on him had labeled The Spawn the quintessential playboy.
“Son of a bitch,” she muttered as she sauntered over to the bar to order a shot of whiskey. After her failure, she needed a drink. She grimaced as the liquid slid down her throat. It one of the few things available that her sensitive system could tolerate.
To make matters worse, The Spawn had turned down her offer, only to take the hand of another woman. Apparently he really had been waiting for someone. Now she had to get him away from her, take him outside, and kill him. As if exterminating him was going to be easy without any added complications!
She knew the procedure. She had to report to her handler and tell him that she had failed. She feared his reaction. He was not a merciful man.
* * * * *
He felt good. As much as Eve hated to admit it, dancing with Kiros felt so right. There was no other way to describe the feeling. The man knew how to move. His hips followed the rhythm set out by hers. She could feel his hips moving against hers in the same sensual patterns. And it felt heavenly. It had been a long time since she had danced with a man, even longer since she had danced with a man who could not only keep up with her, but flow at her pace.
And he knew how to make her feel like that night, that moment was all about her. In his arms Eve forgot about the crowd that circled them. She forgot about her friends. She even forgot about the endless amount of work she left piled at home. The only thing she could seem to remember was how enjoyable it felt to have the sole attention of a handsome man.
Kiros’s long arms reached around Eve to pull her closer to him. She gasped at the feeling of intimacy. They were thigh to thigh, chest to breast, groin to groin. It was decadent, sinful, and exhilarating. She could feel heat coursing through her veins, sensations flowing through her lower abdomen. She was getting aroused by his body.
Sensing the danger in being so near a man that exuded that much sexuality, Eve took a step back. Kiros’s arms immediately snaked out, his long, nimble fingers grasped her waist and pulled her back to him.
She stared up at his sizzling, violet gaze, wide-eyed. “I feel it too,” he said before pulling her even closer to him. That was all Eve needed to hear.
Plus you’re just dancing, her mind chided.
She subsided, sliding her body against his, seeking the heat in his arms. And still they danced, moving in the same sensual, sexual rhythm, allowing the music to pump through their veins as they indulged in the burning allure of two bodies, moving, sliding, caressing one another.
Kiros bent his head to touch his lips to hers. Eve could feel in it in his touch. The kiss was meant to be a slow, slight brush of lips against lips, flesh against flesh, but before she knew it, the kiss became something else, something stronger, something more demanding. He slid his mouth against hers, back and forth, before nipping the plump, firm flesh with a teasing bite.
Eve groaned in response before tightening her hold on Kiros. His firm lips pressed against hers demanding access to the moist, inner cavern of her mouth. She complied, opening her mouth to his questing tongue, and he licked the roof of her mouth before sweeping into the hot cave to slide his tongue against hers.
“Oh god,” Eve moaned into his mouth as she clenched her fingers in his hair, bringing Kiros closer yet to her heated body.
He was setting her on fire.
His lips left her mouth to dance along her face, placing kisses against her cheeks, her eyelids, before venturing south, to the column of her neck.
“Stop. Please,” she begged as he placed kiss upon kiss against the wildly beating pulse at her neck. Although his touch, his lips felt so good, they were getting it on in public. That was not something she had ever done before.
“Yes,” Kiros groaned before wrapping his lips around her sensitive flesh and suckin
g hard. Eve immediately felt her knees buckle as she threw her head back to enjoy his ruthless caresses. Thankfully he was holding her so tightly against his body that she didn’t fall to her knees.
He was devastating to her senses and he was demolishing her carefully crafted guard.
Pressed against his body as she was, she could feel that she wasn’t the only one getting aroused by the dance floor foreplay. The proof pressed against her abdomen. He was hard and, by her guess, long, very long.
Eve shuddered as Kiros licked the long column of her neck. Two can play that game, she thought before bending her knees a little and sliding her way up, pressing herself against his hard body. The move made it so that every inch of her body caressed his as she slid against him.
Satin against leather.
Woman against man.
Need against desire.
“Minx,” he growled against her lips before grasping her shoulders and turning her around so that her back was to him. He immediately stepped behind her so that his groin was blanketed by her firm, round ass. Then his hands came around to cage her in his tight embrace, but the most devilish part of the embrace was where Kiros’s large, callused hands ended up: at the top of both of her thighs, bracketing the burning flesh between her legs.
“Payback,” he whispered into her ear before thrusting his tongue inside the sensitive flesh. Eve closed her eyes, grinding her ass against his groin as she enjoyed the wet, raspy feel of his tongue gliding against her flesh. Her eyes flew open as she realized just what Kiros was capable of doing. His fingers at the juncture of her thighs were clenching and unclenching around her thighs in a rhythm that had her pussy moistening so quickly, so much, her eyes widened in shock. She felt herself flooding her panties with her arousal. It was as if her body had no control over itself. She hadn’t been this turned on since... ever.
When Eve realized to what degrees Kiros had manipulated her body she stilled. Kiros immediately stopped moving.
“What’s wrong?”
“This is what’s wrong,” she wanted to scream. They were on the dance floor doing things she only thought about doing in her dreams. And she didn’t want to stop. That therein lay the problem.
She tried to think of an answer that would satisfy his curiosity without telling the truth. Nothing came out but a distressed sigh.
He smiled at her. “I understand.”
His fingers caressed the soft curve of her cheek before moving to the back of her head. Sparks of fire seemed to leap from his fingers to her skin. She was on fire. Worse, she was a cat in heat.
It felt as if her body was lured by him, straining to feel the sizzling heat that coursed between them.
He took her small hand in his much larger one and led it to his back so that it sat at the bottom of his spine, before taking a step to her. They were once again touching.
Breast to chest.
Thigh to thigh.
Groin to groin.
Need to need.
He bent his head and placed a soft kiss against her plump lips. Her eyes immediately slammed shut. He placed his lips against her lips and said the words she didn’t know she was waiting to hear.
“Come with me.”
Chapter Four
Devil’s Food
“I can’t,” she mumbled as she stared at his leather covered chest.
One long, tanned finger pressed against her chin, lifting her face so that she looked in his amethyst eyes.
“Why not?”
“I don’t know anything about you.” she said. Her eyes refused to meet his. That wasn’t the real reason she wasn’t going to take him up on his offer. She was afraid. Kiros could smell her fear.
“Isn’t that the point of a date? I tell you just how much I love being a furniture designer, working with my hands, creating beauty out of something so hard and jaded, and you tell me how much you love...” he whispered, knowing he had to appeal to the sensitive woman beside him. Because leaving without her simply wasn’t an option.
“Being a lingerie designer and making the sexy beautiful,” she finished softly.
“Exactly,” he said with a slow, heated smile. “We don’t have to do anything. I just want to get to know about you.” When she looked up at him with stark disbelief in her eyes, he lifted one hand and placed the other on his chest. “I swear. Tonight is all about you. I just want to take you on a date and get to know exactly what makes you the incredible woman you are.”
Her face was so expressive he could see her every thought. He wondered what she would think if she realized that the look on her face was turning him on almost as much as the press of her large ass against his groin had. She was absolutely delectable.
“I want to, I truly do, but I can’t. I shouldn’t.”
“Why not?” he whispered against the shell of her ear.
“Because... I... I came with friends.”
As if on cue someone called out Eve’s name. Kiros turned to find a redhead and a brunette making their way through the crowded nightclub to Eve. When the redhead reached Eve she teasingly pushed her.
“Where the hell have you been, girl? We’ve been looking for you,” the redhead asked.
“Oh, never mind,” the brunette said as she grasped the redhead’s arm.
“What do you mean ‘never mind.’ You were the one that said you were going to kill her for ditching us and now... oomph.”
Eve turned to Kiros and introduced her girlfriends. “This is my friend Kris,” she said pointing to the redhead. “And this is Mica.” She pointed to the brunette.
Kiros tried to hide his smile, but couldn’t. Apparently Mica had already realized what or better yet who had kept Eve occupied. She had tried dragging Kris away, but when that didn’t work, she simply elbowed the other woman.
“She’s busy,” Mica said before angling her head in Kiros direction.
“You’ve got to be kidding,” Kris muttered when she set eyes on Kiros. “I hate you,” she whispered to Eve.
He liked the two women more and more every moment.
“Maybe you ladies could help me out,” Kiros said to the small crowd before him. All three pairs of eyes immediately turned to him.
“See, I’m trying to convince Eve here to join me for a late dessert, but she doesn’t want to abandon you ladies, so I’m hoping you’ll give her the go ahead, so I can take her out,” he said with a wry grin. He knew he had her. He had effectively taken away Eve’s excuse. He could see it in her girlfriends’ eyes. Eve was going to be spending the night with him.
“You’ve got to be kidding,” Kris said again, but this time to Eve. “One moment,” she said to Kiros before dragging Eve to the side.
Eve had never wanted a man as much as she wanted Kiros. He was the allure her feminine desires could not deny. He was like a gift from Eros, the god of lust, or better yet, the god himself with his six feet three inch muscular frame. He was beautiful, sexy, and sinful with his pale blond hair, violet eyes, and full lips. His touch ignited a fire that burned deep within her womb, a fire that she had begun to believe would never even light. He was every woman’s sexual fantasy come true, but still she hesitated.
Men like Kiros did not get with women like her. The two were like oil and water. There was no mixing. As much as she wanted to indulge in him, she knew better.
Yes, why not? her traitorous mind asked. Why couldn’t she for one night do the unthinkable? Why couldn’t she spend the night with a fantasy man who wanted to indulge in her body?
Yes, why not?
“Have you lost your mind?” Mica roughly whispered to Eve, cutting through her thoughts. The brunette growled at Eve before flashing Kiros a bright smile. Eve was so shocked by her friend’s words she didn’t have time to process her hilarious actions.
“Give me your keys,” Kris said as she held out one open palm.
“No... Wait, why?”
“Because I’m driving your car to your place. Kris and I drove together. She can drive behind me so I can drop
off your car.”
“Why? I’m driving my car.”
“No, you are not. You’re going to Mr. Sexy over there and you’re going to let him give you whatever dessert he wants to give you, because that... he is a once in a lifetime chance,” Mica said.
“I can’t go home with a stranger. I don’t know him.”
“By god, you will by the end of the night. You need dick. Hell, I need dick and I canremember when I last had sex.”
“Kris!”
“Look, Eve, I’m not asking you, I’m telling you. We’ve all been worried about you for months now. Do this for me. For once in your life let go and do something you want to do. Stop living in the shadows. Andrew is not coming back, sweetheart. He’s dead, but you’re not. You’re still alive, so please, for me, live,” Kris said as her brown eyes watered.
“Screw this,” Mica said before turning Eve from Kris. “Look what your ‘stay at home’ routine has done. Kris is crying. I’ve never been the emotional one and unless you want me to go there, you’ll go out with Mr. Sexy”
“Oh, Mica. Not you too?” Eve said on a gasp.
Mica continued speaking as if she hadn’t heard Eve. “So I suggest you go over and tell him yes and then you will get your fill of white chocolate until your teeth are rotten. Got it?” Mica said. Judging by the fire in her emerald gaze, Eve wasn’t going to talk her way out of this, but...
“But --”
Kris snatched Eve’s keys out of the little covert pocket she had sewn into the corset dress. “Think of him as payment for all the shitty dates you’ve ever gone on. He’s God’s way of saying ‘sorry.’ He’s your good karma. Enjoy him... for the rest of us.”
“Fine,” Eve said before hugging both of her girlfriends goodbye. Although she was a little saddened with their behavior, Eve knew that her friends meant well. They had watched her deal with her brother’s death first, then her father’s and finally her break-up with Darren, her fiancé. They had stood by her during the worst year of her life. They just wanted to see her happy, and there was no denying that Kiros looked man enough to make her and every other woman in the nightclub very happy.
Eve's Spawn Page 2