Deadly Is the Kiss

by Rhyannon Byrd

  “No. I didn’t.” His breath shuddered past his lips, warm and sweet. “We talked, just like I said.” His eyes narrowed again, and his voice dropped. “But even if I had, what would you be so pissed about? You’ve made it clear that I’m not allowed to suck on yours.”

  “And I’m glad I did!” she snapped, trying to sound tough. But her quivering chin ruined the effect.

  Suddenly wrapping his hands around her upper arms, he pulled her against him as he lowered his head, his lips at her ear. “Damn it, I’m telling you the truth. I didn’t do anything with the redhead. And do you wanna know why?” He took a deep breath, burying his face in her hair, and spoke in a ragged tone. “I didn’t do anything because she wasn’t the woman I wanted. She didn’t smell right. She wouldn’t have tasted right.” He touched his tongue to the pulse hammering at the side of her throat. “What the hell have you done to me, Jules? I don’t even know who I am anymore.”

  Something warm and soft started to burn in her chest. “You…you really didn’t feed from her?”

  He lifted his head, staring her right in the eye. “I didn’t. But you fed from the boy. You owe me an apology, Juliana.”

  For a moment she thought about pointing out the fact that Josh wasn’t a boy, then decided it would just be foolish to prod his temper. But she wasn’t ready to accept his dictates. Not with the memory of him putting his arm around Lacey’s waist and walking away with her still fresh in her mind. Just because he hadn’t gone through with it this time didn’t mean that he wouldn’t the next. “I don’t owe you an apology,” she whispered, wetting her lips. “We’ve made no promises of fidelity to each other.”

  Her voice was soft, thick with pain, and Ashe hated himself for putting her through that. He’d known as soon as he’d gotten close to Lacey, pressing her up against a wall in the back room of the club, that he’d panicked and misread the signs. Juliana wasn’t the mistake he’d needed to avoid—Lacey was. And now he had to find a way to make Juliana understand, to do some serious damage control, because he couldn’t stomach the thought of her walking away from him.

  Not just tonight. But ever.

  “Do you know what’s the first thing I’ll want to do every time another man lays his hands on you?” he asked, digging his fingers into the soft mass of her hair and tilting her head back.

  Her eyes narrowed to sharp, glittering points of light. “What?”

  Very slowly, he said, “I’ll want to kill him.”

  She blinked at the vehemence of his response. “You’re joking, right?”

  He rubbed his thumb over the smoothness of her cheek, thinking she was the most beautiful woman he’d ever known. “You don’t think you’re worth killing for?”

  Her laugh was brittle. “Hardly.”

  For a moment, there was only the sound of their breathing and the wind gusting through the trees. And then he said, “I disagree.”

  She stared up at him, trembling, her eyes filled with the questions she couldn’t put into words.

  “I mean it,” he rasped. “I would kill for you. Easily. Without remorse. Again and again.”

  “What are you saying?”

  Recognizing the fact that he was standing at the edge of that cliff, ready to take that first life-changing step into the unknown, Ashe swallowed the lump of fear in his throat and gave her the words. “I’m saying that you’re important to me, Jules. More important than any other woman I’ve ever known.”

  Tears filled her eyes, shimmering and bright. “You’re…important to me, too. And I’m…sorry,” she said with a hard swallow. “I was jealous. That was the only reason I fed from Josh.”

  “I don’t ever want any other man’s taste in your mouth. Only mine,” he groaned, his pulse roaring in his ears as he shoved the sleeve of his sweater over his forearm. Then he lifted his arm and pressed his skin against her mouth, her lips already parted for her panting breaths. He didn’t wait for her to bite, shoving his skin against the sharp points of her fangs until they dug in with a tight pop. Her eyes went wide, then heavy, her feminine little hands suddenly clutching his arm, holding him to her mouth, her throat working as she swallowed. She took several deep, ravenous pulls, the drawing sensation reaching all the way down to his cock. He thickened, every lush pull making him harder, cranking his hunger up higher…and higher. He wanted the hot surge of his blood flowing through her body, washing away that other bastard’s taste. Wanted to be in every part of her, filling her up.

  “I need to be inside you, but I’m not fucking you against a tree,” he scraped out in a thick voice, nipping the tendon at the side of her throat. “I need you in our room, Jules. Need you somewhere I can lay you down and spread you open, without worrying about some damn assassin shoving his claws in my back and trying to take you away from me.”

  Without waiting for her response, he tore his arm from her mouth and picked her up, carrying her against his chest. “Ashe, I can walk,” she protested, hoping he didn’t plan to carry her through the middle of the crowded nightclub. She brushed her fingers over her tingling lips, the mouthwatering taste of his blood still warm in her mouth, his unique, purely masculine flavor the most addictive thing she’d ever tasted.

  “I know you can. But it’ll take too damn long,” he grumbled, his long legs eating up the ground. Within moments, they had crossed the road and he was setting her down outside the back door of the club, the look in his eyes warning her to move quickly.

  “That desperate?” she teased, arching her brow at him.

  “Woman, you have no idea,” he grunted, ripping open the door and shoving her inside, his hand hot against her lower back. No more than a minute later, they’d maneuvered their way through the crowd, thankfully without running into either Josh or Lacey. Ashe used the key to unlock their door, his mouth already on hers as he pulled her against his chest and walked her into the room. He kicked the door shut with his foot, then reached back and flicked the lock.

  They didn’t even make it into the bedroom, his hands making short work of her sweater and bra as he herded her toward the small dining table wedged into the far corner of the room. Her jeans and panties had fallen only as far as her ankles, her knife still strapped to her calf and her boots still on, when he picked her up, kicked a leg of the table to knock it in front of the mirrored doors of a small coat closet, and laid her down on the chilly surface. Then he pushed between her legs, forcing them apart as he came down over her, his mouth moving over hers as he ate at her low moans, his tongue licking and swirling, driving her wild.

  “Do you have any idea how worried I was when I couldn’t find you?” he groaned, kissing his way down her throat, his tongue flicking against her rapid pulse before he worked his way to her breasts. The husky words shook with emotion, the heat of his mouth as he suckled on her nipple bringing a whimper of pleasure to her kiss-swollen lips. She dug her fingers into his silky hair, holding him to her. It was deliciously decadent, having his fully clothed body pressing against her bare skin, his hands stroking with rough urgency, as if he was desperate to touch her everywhere at once.

  “Take my boots off,” she panted, needing to wrap her legs around his hips. To feel him hard and thick against the place she needed him most. “Please, hurry!”

  He drew his weight off her, but instead of doing as she’d begged, he flipped her over with ridiculous ease, putting her on her stomach. “Damn it, Ashe! What are you doing?”

  “Shh,” he rasped, gripping her hips. Before she even realized what was happening, her knees were on the table, her back arched, intimate bits on shocking display as he spread his hands over her bottom. Her breath caught as he slid his thumbs lower, through her swollen folds, and pulled her open. He made a thick, guttural sound in his throat that was sexy as hell.

  “Always so candy-pink and juicy,” he murmured, the rumbled words so soft she had a feeling he was talking to himself, lost in the view. She could feel the press of his gaze burning against her cleft, a strange feeling of vulnerability and
power twining through her, making her want to fight just as badly as she ached to submit.

  “Head up and eyes open, Jules.”

  At his rough command, she lifted her forehead from the table, her gaze locking with his in the mirror as she braced her upper body on her bent arms, the position pushing her hips up higher. She probably looked like some kind of commando porn actress, with the knife still strapped to her calf and her bottom in the air, her hair flowing around her flushed face in a wild tangle of waves, but it was obviously a look that worked for Ashe.

  “That’s it,” he said with a growl. “Keep your eyes on my face. Just like that.”

  He ran his thumbs to the top of her sex, stroking over the tight bundle of nerves, and she sank her teeth into her lower lip, feeling as if he could see right inside her. Her lashes started to dip, until he snapped another husky command for her to keep her eyes open. Glaring, she said, “You love to give orders, don’t you?”

  His mouth curved with one of those sin-tipped smiles that always looked so good on him, his lips firm and sensual. “I just want you to see what you do to me.”

  “What all women do to you,” she countered, suddenly compelled to make it clear this was nothing more than sex. Just because she believed he hadn’t fooled around with Lacey earlier didn’t mean he wouldn’t run to another woman the next time things got too emotional between them. Like those two repelling magnets, they would keep veering apart, finding it impossible to be comfortable in anything more than a physical relationship.

  “I don’t want another woman,” he argued, his eyes glittering like bright chips of lightning. “And sooner or later, you’re going to believe that.”

  “Stop it. I don’t want to fight with you, but lying is only going to piss me off again.”

  “Just think about it, Jules.” She watched in the mirror as he lowered his gaze to her sex, the explicit position leaving nothing to the imagination. She could see the lust etched into the hard, masculine lines of his expression as he watched his thumbs stroking between her folds, her sex liquid and warm and pulsing. He rubbed the callused pad of one thumb over her tender opening, thrusting it into the slick heat, stirring her into a quivering froth of sensation. Then he pulled it out and wrapped both arms around her, yanking her upper body off the table and against his chest. “Why the hell would I touch another woman when I can have this?” he demanded, one big hand molding over her breast, the other burrowing between her spread legs.

  She blinked at the erotic image they made in the mirror, and had to swallow as she tried to find her voice. “You can’t…you can’t have this forever,” she heard herself say, unable to just give in.

  His dark brows drew together in a fierce scowl. He hadn’t liked her words, no matter how true they were. “I’ll have it for as long as I want it.”

  “No, Ashe.” The compulsion to defy him was impossible to resist. “That isn’t how this works.”

  He held her tighter, as if she was already slipping away from him. “Damn it, why can’t you just stop fighting me and let yourself go?”

  “I…can’t,” she choked out, shaking her head, her long hair streaming over his chest. “Just because you’re important to me doesn’t mean I want you to have that kind of power over me. Over my emotions. It scares the hell out of me.”

  His nostrils flared. “And you don’t think it scares me, too? I’ve been terrified ever since I spotted your little ass sitting on that damn patio in London!”

  She wanted to scoff at that growled admission, but couldn’t. Not when she could see the truth burning in his eyes. “This is so crazy. What’s happening to us?”

  “I don’t know.” His deep voice was tight, his expression etched with raw, devastating need. “But I can’t stand you trying to push—”

  The sudden shrill ring of his cell phone drowned out his words. “Ignore it,” he muttered, burying his face in the curve of her shoulder, his mouth hot against her skin.

  “Ashe,” she moaned, trembling from the stroke of his thumb across her clit, her sheath pulsing around the fingers he’d buried inside her. But her conscience wouldn’t let her choose pleasure over her family. “You have to answer it. What if it’s Knox or someone with information?”

  With a guttural snarl on his lips, Ashe stepped back and dug into his pocket for his phone. Punching the answer button, he put the phone to his ear and barked, “What?”

  “Ashe, get the hell out of there!” Gideon yelled over the line. “Someone must have followed me to Nice. I just got a call warning me that a hit is coming for you and Jules at the club.”

  “Who was it?”

  “Don’t know, man. Didn’t even recognize the voice. Just get the hell outta there!”

  “Watch your back,” he grunted, disconnecting the call and shoving the phone back in his pocket. Looking at Juliana, who had already moved to her feet and was pulling up her jeans, he said, “Someone just called Gideon and told him that an attack is coming. We’ve got to go.”

  “Ohmygod! How did they find us?”

  He started gathering their things together as he explained. “They must have had a surveillance team watching Gid in Marseilles, assuming I’d get in touch with him. Then they followed him here.”

  She was hooking her bra when a knock sounded on the door, her eyes going wide with fear, the warm color beneath her skin fading to white.

  Ashe motioned for her to be quiet, then moved to the side of the door. Stretching his upper body across it, he took a quick look through the peephole, then muttered a sharp expletive. “It’s your buddy,” he grunted, cutting her a dark look. “Kid’s got more balls than I’d have given him credit for.”

  “Josh? I have to talk to him,” she said, yanking her sweater over her head.

  “Not a fucking chance,” he snarled, ripping the door open, prepared to order the punk to get lost. But before Ashe could mutter a single word, a bullet tore straight through the side of Josh’s head.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  MOVING FASTER THAN SHE’D EVER seen him move before, Ashe pushed a screaming Juliana behind him as two vampires suddenly shoved their way into the room.

  “I recognize your faces,” Ashe growled, keeping his gaze on the men as he backed her against the far wall, putting the entire distance of the room between them and the two steely eyed males. “You’re both in the Royal Guard at Court.”

  A deep shudder of revulsion tore through Juliana’s dazed horror as those harsh words hit her ears. The last time she’d seen anyone from the Royal Guard had been the day the Court soldiers dragged her into the Wasteland, kicking and screaming.

  “That’s right,” confirmed the sandy blond. He slipped his gun into the holster under his arm while the other guard dragged Josh’s body into the room, and then shut the door. Blood poured from Josh’s head in an ever-widening circle, but Juliana knew the wound wouldn’t be fatal. Still, it infuriated her that these bastards had used Josh to get into the room.

  “Since when do Royal Guards shoot innocent men?” Ashe’s voice vibrated with fury. “For that matter, when do they accept assassination orders to kill innocent women?”

  “We have no quarrel with you, Granger,” the blond insisted, holding up his hands. He had a lanky build, unlike his partner, who was bald and stocky. “We just want to talk.”

  “Don’t trust him,” Juliana whispered, her intuition warning her that the blond guard wasn’t what he seemed. There was something about him that reminded her of Raphe, but she couldn’t say exactly what it was. He smelled like a Deschanel, and had the same pure gray eyes as she and Ashe did. But he didn’t seem…right.

  “Don’t worry,” Ashe muttered under his breath. “Considering the way he just put a bullet through your friend’s temple, I’ve got a pretty good idea of why he’s here.”

  “Sorry,” she murmured, wishing Gideon’s call had come in just a little sooner, so that they could have had time to get out of the room.

  “We have no quarrel with you,” the bald guard said to
Ashe, repeating his partner’s words. “We just want the girl.”