She frowned again, squirming unease fluttering in the pit of her belly. Black undies. The very color underwear Chad loved to see on—
“Oh, for fuck’s sake, Darcy!” she snapped, cutting the ridiculous thought dead. “Don’t be so goddamn stupid.”
Snatching up the skimpy knickers, she bunched them into a ball and shoved them into the top drawer beside her bed. She’d felt foggy when she’d woken this morning, a little disoriented, a little exhausted. A night of wild, passionate dream sex did that to a person who deprived him or herself of the real thing.
Quick as a flash, an image of the silent man with the shaggy blonde hair she’d seen this morning outside the library flitted through her mind. And then it was gone, leaving her with a squeezing tightness in her sex she hadn’t experienced for a long time. Well, hadn’t experienced while awake, that was.
Scowling, she turned and left her room. Dreaming of sex with a faceless man every night and now getting horny over a stranger in the street she’d seen for all of about four seconds? It’s no wonder she’d found a pair of knickers on her bed. She was losing her mind! She’d probably put them on the bed to wear before having a shower and forgotten about them.
Storming back along the hallway, she rolled her eyes. Damn it, she really needed to get a grip. Hearing voices in public libraries and whispers in her bedroom…anyone would think she’d stepped into a b-grade horror movie, the way she was behaving.
But what about the photo? Explain the photo, Darcy.
She reached into her back pocket and yanked out the folded photograph. “The photo’s just about to go up in smoke.”
Still doesn’t explain its existence though, does it?
Refusing to think about just what the explanation might be, she plonked down in front of the fireplace once again. Jaw clenched, she retrieved the cigarette lighter from the hearth and held it to the photo’s lowest corner. “Destroyed. Again.”
She flicked her thumb and the cigarette lighter flared into life. Face composed, pulse steady, Tess leaned forward and touched it to the bottom edge of the creased photo.
The glossy paper smoldered for a second, as if denying the hungry desire of the flame. Black smoke curled from its blistering surface. The smiling faces trapped there began to bubble, twist. As she watched, they began to melt and then it was alight.
Heart pounding and throat tight, Tess dropped the burning paper into the fireplace. “Once and for all.”
She closed her eyes, suddenly completely drained.
And that was when he came to her.
Her silent dream-lover.
Am I asleep? The words fell from her lips without a sound.
Smooth, velvet-cold hands brushed across her shoulders, up her neck into the heavy curtain of her hair. The piercing gaze that drove her so wild night after night raked over her face. A smile pulled at his mouth, a mouth that could do wicked things to her. Had done wicked things to her.
With gentle pressure, barely more than the beat of a butterfly’s wing, he pushed her backward until she lay flat on the floor before the roaring fire.
Roaring?
A frown dipped Tess’s eyebrows, even as she gazed with rapture up at her lover’s descending lips. How could it be roaring? She’d only placed three logs in—
His mouth crushed hers as his hands grasped her breasts.
Even through the material of her tank, she felt their cool surface brand her flesh. Her nipples hardened immediately, aching for more, sending bolts of squirming electricity straight to her already squeezing sex.
His tongue plunged into her mouth, licked at her teeth. He tasted like mist. He felt like steel. The massive organ between his thighs rubbed at her wet sex, sopping the crotch of her shorts with the pearlescent beads of pre-cum on its tip and her own greedy juices. She pushed her pussy into its long, rigid length, wanting to feel it pressing on her swollen nether lips.
The hands on her breasts moulded to their shape, fingers playing over her flesh, despite the material of her shirt and bra.
What shirt? What bra?
The blazing heat from the fire touched her bare limbs and, with a moan of pleasure, Tess realised she was naked. Naked and flat on the floor with her lover’s hands on her breasts, worshipping her taut, aching nipples and his throbbing, engorged cock sliding over the pulsing bud of her clit.
When did that happen?
Did it matter?
The mouth on hers was all that mattered, the hands on her breasts, the fingers on her nipples. She arched her back, hungering for greater contact. His body was cool and she was so very, very hot.
Sucking her tongue deeper into his wet mouth, her lover moved his knees between hers, pressing her flatter to the floor with a bulk that somehow felt lighter than smoke. His hands left her breasts and she whimpered in protest, sensing, rather than hearing his responding chuckle. As his mouth continued to drink from hers, he pulled on her thighs, inching his palms down her legs until she locked them around his hips. The action thrust his cock harder against her entry and a moan rolled in her throat as scorching bolts of white lust shot straight to her clit. Fuck, he was good. A master craftsman, and she was his creation—a being forged from cold despair to become an object of burning, wanton desire.
Hands scouring up his back, she tangled her fingers in his short hair and yanked up his head, dragging the tip of her tongue up the bowed column of his neck, luxuriating in the gelidity of his smooth skin. He tasted like the night.
His Adam’s apple moved under her lips as an inaudible groan sounded in his throat. The response flooded her pussy with wet heat. She knew he wanted to pleasure her, but rarely did he let her know how much she pleasured him. The times he’d come to her in her sleep he’d taken her to blissful release without once demanding anything of her—the perfect dream lover—but now his consuming desire had moved beyond the blaze in his eyes, the fervor of his actions. Now she knew she affected him too.
She weaved her lips up his neck, let her teeth nip at his earlobe as her fingers moved to the hard pebbles of his nipples. His cock twitched as she dragged her thumbs across each and she felt new beads of pre-cum squeeze from its hot head.
The only warm part of his body…
The thought flittered through her befuddled brain, unimportant.
Ignored.
God, she wanted this so much. Wanted to have him fill her, fuck her until the end of time.
Wanted so much for it to be more than a dream.
As if he heard her, the silent man lifted his head, staring at her with eyes that burned. It is more, Tess…
The soundless words moved from his lips to her ears and Tess gasped. “You spe—”
He didn’t let her finish.
With a thrust that was both brutal and total, his cock plunged into her willing pussy. So deep, she felt its bulbous head press the wall of her sex.
“Oh, God.” She threw back her head, sinking her nails into his shoulders as he drove into her again. Yet even as she did, her hands seem to grasp nothing.
You’re going mad.
Balls, heavy and hot with desire, slapped against her ass as he penetrated her again, again, again. Yes, she was going mad. A clear case of sexual insanity.
The fire roared higher. Devouring oxygen.
Lush lips fell on her neck, like ice on her sweat-slicked shoulder. Teeth nipped at her fevered flesh as a cock that grew larger and larger with every thrust, punched deeper into her pussy, invading not only her sex but her being as well. Filling her. Consuming her.
Possessing her.
The cold thought sliced through her pleasure-fogged head and her heart froze.
NO.
An angry shout rocked the room—her soul—in a silent voice somehow familiar.
Chad?
Eyes snapping open, Tess stared up at her lover. And saw the ceiling. “What the…”
Rising up onto her elbows, she looked around the empty lounge room, squinting at the bright midday sun flooding through the windows. Sha
meful disgust rolled through her. Christ. Scrambling upright, she dragged her fingers through her hair. Her scalp felt hot with sweat, but whether from the sweltering heat of the day, or the sweltering sex she’d just dreamt, she didn’t know.
She shifted, crossing her legs beneath her in an attempt to ignore her still throbbing pussy and aching clit. She let out a ragged breath. What the fuck was wrong with her? Not only was she dreaming during the day, her mind was so messed up, her one source of release now sounded like her dead ex-boyfriend?
She dropped her head into her hands, feeling stupid. Stupid and empty. Opening her eyes, she stared blindly at the barely charred logs. She needed to get her act together. She couldn’t go on like—
Something bright and colorful in the fireplace stopped the thought.
Something that shouldn’t be.
Her heart a pounding hammer in her chest, Tess leaned forward, trembling hands lifting the “something” from the scattered ashes.
The photograph of her and Chad. More perfect and spotless than it ever had been.
Mouth dry, blood cold, Tess stared at it. “What the fuck is going on?”
Note from Lexxie
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About Lexxie
Award-winning romance author Lexxie Couper started writing when she was six, and hasn't stopped since. She's not a deviant, but she does have a deviant's imagination, and a desire to entertain readers with her words. Add the two together and you get erotic romances that can make you laugh, cry, shake with fear, or tremble with desire…sometimes all at once.
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eBooks by Lexxie Couper
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http://www.lexxiecouper.com
Stimulated, a Contemporary Romance series
1. Blowing It Off
2. Revving It Up
3. Switching It On
4. Plugging It In
Heart of Fame, a Contemporary Romance series
4.5. Compliance
5.5. A Single Knight
8.5. Combustible
9. Balls Up
10. Lust’s Rhythm
The Boundaries, a Science Fiction Romance series
1. Assassin
2. Agent
3. Animal
Savage Australis, a Paranormal Romance series
1. Savage Retribution
Fire Mates, a Paranormal Romantic Suspense series
1. Sera’s Dragon
2. How to Love Your Dragon
3. Crouching Tigress Horny Dragon
4. Scorched Desire
Dangerous Desires, an Erotic Contemporary Romance series
1. The Bad Boy Next Door
2. The Good Girl In My Bed
Stand-Alone Titles
The Stone's Soul
Shadow Whispers
Copping a Feel
Kat and Mouse
Lexxie recommends … Renee George
“Hi Awesome Readers, if you enjoyed reading this book, you’ll absolutely love Renee George’s sinfully sensual erotic romances as well. I promise you won’t be disappointed. Lexxie”
Midnight Shift
Midnight Shifters, Book 1
Renee George
Chapter 1
His mouth tasted of smoke, not from cigarettes, though she wouldn’t have minded, but this was more woodsy, natural and earthy, reminiscent of burned hickory. At the Millstone Bar, Benoica Dilian—who preferred Benie—had spotted the gorgeous creature right away. He’d been a bold brunette and beautifully built with his long torso, wide shoulders, and sculpted muscles. He’d known all the right things to say, and she knew in bed he would have all the right moves.
She’d taken him to a quiet, out of the way motel. The kind that rented by the hour. The walls were beige with a few dark stains, the curtains a large flower print with one side held closed with safety pins, and the bedspread was a hot paisley mess. Benie wrinkled her nose at the mustiness, but places like these didn’t smell like potpourri. She cast a worried glance at the decor before promptly turning off all the lights.
“I like it dark,” she told her pick-up. “It’s more mysterious and sexy, don’t you think?”
He took her in his arms, and when his tongue swiped across her lips, the heat of his mouth made her knees tremble. “I want to see you,” he said. “Let me turn on the lights.”
“No,” she whispered. “Don’t.”
“But you’re so beautiful, and I’m so beautiful. It’s a shame to waste us in the dark.”
Benie grabbed the front of his jeans and squeezed. “We seem to be doing okay.”
“Yes, we sure are,” he agreed.
If she was right about the man, he would make his move soon. She breathed in his scent, the aroma arousing her even more. Yeah. She was right about him. “God, you smell good. What are you wearing?”
“It’s all natural, darling.”
“Good genes?”
“You have no idea.” He kissed her neck, his hot breath causing goose bumps to rise on her skin. “More talk or more action?”
She ground her hips against him. “More action. Definitely.”
He didn’t need additional urging as he lifted her shirt and cupped her breasts.
When his deft tongue twirled her nipple, she almost forgot her purpose. Almost. “Shit, yeah,” she told him, reaching into her back pocket. “God, that feels so good.”
He lifted his head, drawing himself up the length of her body. “Tell me you want to fuck me.”
“I want to fuck you.” She mentally added: up.
“How bad do you want it?”
She wanted him to stop talking and get to gettin'. Make his move already before she decided she didn’t care about having proof. Then it happened. The bite. All the evidence she needed. “Son of a bitch!” Damn, it hurt. Reflexively, she bashed his face with her forearm and yanked a two-inch push dagger from her back pocket. She pressed it into the side of his neck, then reached over and flipped on the bedside lamp.
The blond stared dumbstruck at her. “What the fuck are you?”
She looked at her arms. Her skin had shifted to beige and flowers as she blended into the background where she wasn’t clothed. It had been why she’d turned the lights off in the first place. “You don’t get to judge me, asshole. I’m not the one eating women…and not in a fucking good way.” The man was an other worlder who fed on aroused women, and she’d felt his powers of seduction firsthand. Her bits still pulsed! But off-the-charts arousal wouldn’t stop her from doing her job. “You are guilty of murdering five women in the past two months, and who knows how many countless more women during your existence.”
He chuckled, but then winced when she pushed the tip of the blade into his neck.
“Me biting you doesn’t prove a thing, sweetheart.” He smiled a dazzling smile and put his wrists up. “Go ahead and take me in. A warden tribunal will clear me.”
The wardens were a group of OWs who policed themselves, albeit badly, as evidenced by this slimy bastard. They only took action if the perpetrator’s actions threatened to expose them to the human world. Benie shook her head, not liking that he thought she was an OW lackey. “I’m not a warden.
” She sunk the blade into his neck and destroyed his main artery with a quick twist. “I’m an executioner.”
She jerked out the dagger.
His eyes widened with surprise as his fingers clawed at the spurting wound. The black ooze of his blood and the pungent, musky scent he released as he struggled to cling to life confirmed he was Leiol—a species mythology and fiction called incubi, but was actually only a hominoid evolution that survived on human flesh. The sex pheromones they excreted made their quests for food more like fishing than hunting. They dangled the bait and reeled the humans in when they jumped on the line.
Knowing he fed on humans like catfish didn’t make killing him easier, but she had little regret. If she hadn’t taken his life, he would’ve continued preying on innocents. That was something Benie couldn’t allow.
As incubus’s eyes turned milky, he let out a final, shuddering breath. Benie dropped him to the floor, and his body landed with a dull thud.
She walked to the wall mirror positioned above an oak-colored laminated bureau. Her skin shifted again to fit her surroundings—the floor, the walls, even the television stand. As her heartbeat slowed, her skin returned to flesh tones and freckles, her hair changed back to auburn, and the bite mark flared an angry red around the broken skin where his teeth had penetrated.
Benie had allowed the guy to attack her first. It was the first rule of hunting her parents had instilled as part of her training. Make sure your target isn’t human. Her fingers trailed underneath the bruised flesh. She’d heal. She always did.
Her parents had never discussed how they’d come to adopt her, but she knew they’d saved her from a fate worse than being a slayer.
Benie rubbed her face then straightened her clothes. She had bigger problems to worry about. Lately, her body’s camouflage mechanism had been faulty, and she found it harder and harder to control. Which made hunting more difficult. She’d been raised to hate the other worlders, OWs, the ones mythology called supernatural or paranormal or sometimes even gods. Who were, in fact, no more than branches of the same evolutionary tree as humans. Some lived for super long periods of time, centuries even, which lent to their appearance of immortality. But as a slayer, Benie had learned a long time ago that all monsters could be killed.
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