“Don’t let go of me!” She snapped the command at him.
For a long moment, he didn’t move, every instinct screaming at him to back off and not get involved. But when her eyes lids fluttered shut and her body went limp, fury tore through him. “No.” He crouched in front of her again and framed her face with both hands. “I need you.”
For a moment, she didn’t respond, but then her eyes opened again. “Mutual need. Take me, I’m yours.”
Again, with the surge of blood to his cock, like he was some animal who couldn’t control himself. “My leader is trapped in the demon realm. I need your help to find him.”
She studied him. “You’ll give me sex only if I assist you?”
He grimaced at the way she’d phrased it. “I don’t have sex. How else can I save you?”
She shook her head, and her eyes fluttered shut again. “Lust demon,” she murmured. “Only sex.” She took a shuddering breath, and then went still.
Shit. He didn’t do sex, and now he was supposed to make out with an unconscious woman? What the hell? If there was any way, any other way, he would do it, but there was nothing else. He had no other choice if he wanted to save his leader. Whatever it took to engage his mission. He’d made an oath, and there was no other path.
With a deep inhale, he calmed his mind, shutting down his physical response to her. He steeled himself against her femininity, and then he lowered his head and pressed a kiss to her mouth.
The moment his mouth touched hers, he froze in absolute shock. Her lips were softer than he could even conceive of, like the air itself had come together to form her lips. He’d never experienced anything like it, and his entire body came alive. Energy rushed through him in a violent frenzy, and lust slammed into his gut violently.
He gritted his teeth against the warring urges to drag the woman into his arms and unleashed himself onto her, and the equally strong instinct to hurl her aside and bolt for safety before anything further could happen.
He did neither. He simply kept his mouth against hers, hoping that the closed-mouth kiss would be enough. Even aside from the fact that he wasn’t going to have sex, there was no way in hell he was going to take advantage of an unconscious woman, no matter what she’d said during her brief moment of lucidity—
Her lips suddenly parted beneath his.
Desire rushed through him, and before he could stop himself, he kissed her again, deeper this time, running the tip of his tongue over her lips. The moment he did, she responded. She began to kiss him back, her decadently mouth moving under his in a rush of sensual temptation that was beyond anything he’d every experienced.
She slipped her tongue between his teeth, and he groaned when he felt it slide across his in a sensual caress. Sweat broke out on his forehead with the effort of restraining himself, but he kept to the script, deepening the kiss while never moving his hands to her body.
Then she slid her arms around his neck and pulled him closer. He lost his balance and went to his knees, falling against the side of the bed as she took over the kiss. Her mouth was hot and sensual, a temptation of the most sinful kind. His cock was hard as a rock, straining against his jeans, and his entire body was screaming for more.
She deepened the kiss, a carnal assault against his defenses, stirring up desire in him that he’d never experienced. What this what his teammates had felt when they’d met their soulmates? Was this what all men felt when they fell under the spell of a woman? For the first time, he comprehended the power of a woman over a man. He’d always kept himself so far removed that no woman could access him, and yet with one kiss, he was consumed with thoughts about what he wanted to do to her, of what her breasts would taste like, of how he wanted to part her legs and—
Shit!
He jerked back, breaking the kiss, but she didn’t release him. Her grip was surprisingly strong, and he didn’t want to hurt her by exerting the effort it would take to break her hold. “I can’t do this,” he said.
She met his gaze, her icy blue gaze steady. “You have to,” she said softly. “There’s no other way.”
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Books By Stephanie Rowe
PARANORMAL ROMANCE
Heart of the Shifter series
Dark Wolf Rising
Dark Wolf Unbound
Dark Wolf Untamed (Coming Soon!)
Shadow Guardians series
Leopard’s Kiss (June 10, 2016)
Order of the Blade series
Darkness Awakened
Darkness Seduced
Darkness Surrendered
Forever in Darkness
Darkness Reborn
Darkness Arisen
Darkness Unleashed
Inferno of Darkness
Darkness Possessed
Shadows of Darkness
Hunt the Darkness (Coming Soon!)
NightHunter series
Not Quite Dead
CONTEMPORARY ROMANCE
Wyoming Rebels series
A Real Cowboy Never Says No
A Real Cowboy Knows How to Kiss
A Real Cowboy Rides a Motorcycle
A Real Cowboy Never Walks Away (Sept. 2016)
Ever After series
No Knight Needed
Fairy Tale Not Required
Prince Charming Can Wait
Mystic Island series
Wrapped Up in You
ROMANTIC SUSPENSE
Alaska Heat Series
Ice
Chill
Ghost
YOUNG ADULT
The Once Upon an Ending Series
The Fake Boyfriend Experiment
Ice Cream, Jealousy & Other Dating Tips (June 2016)
The Truth About Thongs (Juky 2016)
How to Date a Bad Boy (August 2016)
Pedicures Don’t Like Dirt (September 2016)
Geeks Can Be Hot (October 2016)
For a complete list of Stephanie’s books, click here.
About the Author
New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Stephanie Rowe is the author of more than forty-five novels, and she’s a four-time nominee for the RITA® award, the highest award in romance fiction. As an award-winning author, Stephanie has been touching readers’ hearts and keeping them spellbound for more than a decade with her contemporary romances, romantic suspense, paranormal romances, and YA contemporary romances.
For the latest info on Stephanie and her books, connect with her on the web at:
@StephanieRowe2
StephanieRoweBooks
www.stephanierowe.com
[email protected]
Acknowledgments
Special thanks to my beta readers and the Rockstars. You guys are the best! There are so many to thank by name, more than I could count, but here are those who I want to called out specially for all they did to help this book come to life: Malinda Davis Diehl, Leslie Barnes, Kayla Bartley, Alencia Bates Salters, Alyssa Bird, Donna Bossert, Jean Bowden, Shell Bryce, Kelley Daley Curry, Ashley Cuesta, Denise Fluhr, Valerie Glass, Heidi Hoffman, Jeanne Stone, Dottie Jones, Janet Juengling-Snell, Deb Julienne, Bridget Koan, Felicia Low, Phyllis Marshall, Suzanne Mayer, Jodi Moore, Ashlee Murphy, Elizabeth Neal, Judi Pflughoeft, Carol Pretorius, Kasey Richardson, Caryn Santee, Amber Ellison Shriver, Summer Steelman, Regina Thomas, and Linda Watson. Special thanks to my family, who I love with every fiber of my heart and soul. And to AER, who is my world. Love you so much, baby girl!
Leopard's Kiss (Shadow Guardians) (Shadows Guardians Book 1) Page 31