I can’t abandon her, not with an unconsummated bond. That will only drive her out of her mind with frustration.
It will drive her insane with need.
She just doesn’t know it yet. I simply have to wait it out and she’ll come to me, I know that.
Not that it’s making things easy for me either.
“You know you won’t be able to resist me for much longer, right?”
She scowls at me. “Your confidence is something.”
I straighten then turn to lean my hip against the table. “So I’ve been told.”
“Oh, by who? The victims you’ve assassinated?”
Blood rushes to my face. Anger spikes my blood. It’s only when I find myself standing in front of her that I realize I’ve crossed the floor to her. My chest heaves as I bend down and shove my face close to hers.
She winces but doesn’t back away.
No, of course not.
The human has a strong spine and lots of courage. She’s fearless or just stupid. Or both. “Don’t push me.”
“Or what?” She gnaws on her lower lip.
The scent of her creeps over me. Insidious, seductive. All female. And mine. My groin tightens. My pulse pounds at my temples.
Her chest heaves, those luscious breasts rise and fall, and the flesh of her cleavage trembles.
I drop into myself then project my phantom self toward her, trail my telekinetic touch over her skin.
I know my ears are lengthening, but I can’t stop myself. Just looking at her on the bed is enough to arouse me.
Her spine curves, her gaze widens, and her pupils dilate. “Wha…what are you doing?” She shudders, then brings her thighs close together and folds her knees close to her chest. “You…you are touching me.”
“Not with these.” I hold up my hands.
Another trembling grips her, and her head falls back. “I can feel your fingers trailing over my chest, around my nipples.” A small scream tumbles from her lips. “You didn’t just do that. You pinched my nipples.”
“I did…”
Her breath comes out in a gasp. Her nipples are so tight and hard that they push out against the shirt over her chest. Her hands grip the mattress on either side of her body. “Please.” She mewls.
“Please what?" Touch you? Caress you?
“Please don’t do this.” The anguish in her voice slinks over my skin. My chest tightens.
Damn. What is it about her that there is no way I can hurt her? And yet if she doesn’t come to me, if she doesn’t ask me to take her…very soon I’ll have to do it anyway and consummate the bond or it will begin to affect her. It will begin to affect me, too.
I drop my hands to my sides and step back. “I’m sorry.”
Her shoulders slump, and her body goes limp on the mattress.
I swivel around and walk to the window, then grip the ledge. The skin across my knuckles stretches white.
“What is it?” Her voice is low and unsteady.
I sense her sit up in bed.
“I haven’t been completely honest with you.” I stare outside. “You know when I said I rebuilt you?”
“I thought you meant it as a figure of speech.” Her voice falters.
“Not quite.” Turning, I lean my hip against the window frame.
“What you don’t know is that the soul bond needs to be consummated on the physical level, too.” I set my jaw.
Her brows draw down. “What happens if we don’t…” She worries her lower lip. “You know…”
“Fuck?” I tilt my body toward her.
Her cheeks redden. "Yeah... that."
She can't bring herself to even say the word? What the hell? She can't be that innocent. Can she?
I drum my fingers on the windowsill.
“If we don’t mate on the physical level, it will only weaken me. You will continue to drain me of my life force through the bond.”
“It’s a ploy.” Her lips turn down.
“I wish it were.” I fold my arms over my chest. “If we don’t fuck—" Yeah, I say that word, just to see how she reacts. Obviously, I am not a caring kind of guy, one who is considerate of his mate's feelings—"Well then, you will survive, but I will get progressively weaker until I die.”
19
Gia
“So if either of us breaks the unconsummated bond, it will eventually kill you?”
He angles his head but doesn’t reply.
“And you shared your life force with me, knowing it would put you at my mercy?” I press my palm to my cheek. Why am I still blushing? We're just having a conversation. A life and death kind of conversation, that's all it is.
He straightens to his full height. “Don’t go making me out to be something I am not, Starlight. I just acted on instinct to save your ass.”
"My gorgeous ass." Don't know why I said that...except well I am tired of being on the defensive. He'd been trying to get a rise out of me and well what do you know, seems I am not done challenging him either.
He stiffens, then a smile cracks his face. "I stand corrected, your drop-dead-gorgeous-ass-ness." He half bows from the waist. “Even a warrior like me is not completely heartless, it seems.”
“Why do you find it so difficult to accept that perhaps hidden behind all those barriers you put up against the world is someone who wants to do what’s right?” I prop my hands on my waist.
“Now you are making me out to be something I am not.” He widens his stance. “I told you already there is no redemption for people like me. We live by violence and die by it, too.”
He rolls his head from side to side. His joints pop.
I am sure he does that just to look menacing. It only makes him more vulnerable. More open. More like he’s as unsure as me as to where all of this is leading.
“I don’t agree.” I take a step forward.
His shoulders freeze.
“Don’t come close.” He thrusts out his chest.
He looks strong and lethal and one hundred percent alpha male. Desire curls low in my belly. I swallow and take another step forward, so it brings me within a few inches of him.
His gaze narrows. Heat rolls off his body and swirls around me. I scent that very male essence of him. That hint of morning rain laced with dark chocolate. My mouth waters.
“Don’t do this, Gia.” A pulse ticks at his jaw.
I angle my head back, all the way back so I can meet his gaze.
His blue eyes deepen until they are almost turquoise. Flickers of amber dance in their depths. Mesmerizing. Alluring. Yet there are so many secrets in them.
I want to throw myself at him and ravage him, tear off all the walls he’s put up between us until I can see who he truly is.
I raise a hand to touch his cheek.
He snakes out his arm and grabs my wrist.
His touch shivers over my skin, all the way to my core. My pussy clenches, and moisture pools between my legs.
His nostrils flare. “Don’t start something you don’t intend to finish.”
I tighten my lips. “Don’t try to tell me what I can or can’t do.”
“You don’t realize the repercussions of your actions.”
“Don’t I?” I toss my hair. A strand goes flying and curls over his shoulder.
A vein twitches at his temple. He leans in close enough for his nose to bump mine. “If we cross this line, there is no going back.”
“I know.”
“You don’t.” His lips curl up in a smile that doesn’t meet his eyes. Those blue eyes of his go dark.
The skin over his features stretches.
He seems cruel and merciless.
A man who’s almost at the edge of his control. Almost. Once it snaps, I’ll get to see what he is inside. Someone who will take without caring. Someone who will fulfill his own desires. Who will not stop until he is sated. Until I am sated. My toes curl. I want that. I want to see him raw and exposed. Want to feel the heat of his feelings burn me. Want… I just want.
>
“I can feel what you are thinking.” My insides seem to have dissolved into a gooey mess. I want to fold myself up against his chest and hide. Instead, I jut out my chin.
“Oh?”
“You are wondering how it will feel when I trail my fingers over your throat. When I cup your breasts, squeeze that firm flesh, then lower my head to your chest and bite your nipples. Draw them into my mouth and swirl my tongue around their hard edge and suckle them.”
His words are so explicit I swear I feel the warmth of his tongue tugging on my nipples. Warmth pools in my lower belly. My breasts swell, and my entire body tenses.
Every muscle under my skin feels as if it is stretched to breaking point. I shake my head, not daring to say anything. Not daring to trust my voice.
“I won’t stop there either.” His breath sears my cheek. His gaze narrows.
I want to tear my gaze from his features. To take a step back and run away…but where?
The full impact of my condition sinks in. Either I spend my time trying to get away from him and fail or I give in to him, mate him, consummate the bond, and then…?
Then find out what his real plans are.
It’s the only way to get information that will help my team back at the Bureau. It will give us a chance to find out more about what the Faes are planning.
Wouldn’t anyone else from the Bureau do just that?
Isn’t that what we are trained for? If it means I need to give my body up to him, then so be it. It’s a small price to pay to complete my mission, to make sure the people I am supposed to protect stay safe.
“What else…?” My voice cracks. I clear my throat. “What else would you do?”
Spots of color flare on his cheeks. His lips firm. He rakes his gaze over my face, down to my chest. “I’d drag my tongue down the valley between your breasts, over your concave waist, to your belly button, and lower to that secret hollow between your legs.” His eyes gleam.
My thighs clench. Heat pools in my belly.
“All the while my fingers would grip your hips and bring you close, raise you to your toes and position you…” He takes in a deep breath then lets it out.
My leg muscles bunch. I almost don’t dare say anything, and yet I need to. I feel like I am caught in this web of words he’s slinging over me and I need to see where it ends. “Then…?”
“Then I’d drop to my knees, so your pussy is exactly at the same level as my face.” His voice goes harsh. The tendons of his throat move.
“And…?” I exhale. There is a shifting feeling near my heart.
“And I’d raise your tunic, bury my nose in your cunt, then flick my tongue over your folds, draw in your essence. Lick your pussy, suck on it, then sweep my tongue inside your soaking channel.”
A moan spills out of me. Heat sweeps my skin. Every part of me seems to be burning up. I want him. I want all of what he’s described. It’s like nothing anyone has ever wanted to do to me before. I’ve never been this close to a man.
I’ve never wanted anyone to do this to me either. Him, only he can bring me to that edge of pleasure and push me over, and when I shatter, he’ll be there to catch me.
“Say it.” His voice shoves aside the thoughts jumbling my mind.
“Wh…what?” I force my eyes to stay open, when all I want is to squeeze them shut, to throw myself at him and ask him to just take me, no more talking, no more questions asked.
“Say that you want to consummate the mating bond.” His voice catches.
No, that must be my imagination. I peer into his eyes and he meets my gaze. The blue of his iris darkens until they seem as dark as his pupils. Sweat beads his brow and a pulse beats at his throat. I hadn't been mistaken. He's as uncertain as I am, too. My heart stills then starts to pound again. “Do you want me?”
He frowns. “What have I been trying to tell you all this while?”
“Do you want me as your mate?” I press my palm to my chest, my fingers splayed out.
His body stiffens, he lowers his chin. “Yes.”
“Take me, Dante.”
20
Dante
Her words go straight to my head. Something inside me snaps. Her taste crashes over me. Hot, throbbing, and so sweet. My head spins. She tastes like everything forbidden, yet like what I have been waiting for all my life. She tastes of a redemption that I hadn’t dared hope for. Need thickens my blood. My dick throbs. I swing her up in my arms, and she wraps her legs around my waist. She’s so tiny, so fragile.
My heart stutters. My biceps tense. I bring her close enough for her breasts to graze my chest.
She locks her ankles around my waist, then crushes her nipples into my skin.
Every curve of hers imprints on my planes. Every part of her quivers as it meets its match. Her thighs grip my waist.
I turn and begin to walk out of the room.
“Where are you taking me?”
“To my bedroom.”
“Why?” She peers up at me. “There’s a perfectly good bed here.”
I stalk out of her room. “I want you in my space, covered in my scent. Smelling of me. Tasting of my essence.” My words sound possessive, but I don’t care. The time for hiding is over. It’s best she gets to know what I really am. Feral, primitive, uncontrolled. I cannot, will not, restrain myself again. Not with her.
I tilt my lips over hers.
She moans, then parts her lips. My tongue tangles with hers. The taste of her sinks into my blood. My heart thumps. My belly twitches with need. I speed up my steps.
She tears her lips from mine. “Why don’t you teleport?” Her eyebrows draw close.
“I only do that if someone’s life is in danger or if there is a real need for it.”
“Like when I was dying?”
My throat closes. I don’t want to think about how she’d been then. Pale, lifeless. Her skin cold enough to send goosebumps popping on my skin. I glide my arm up her back to cup her nape. “I’ll never let that happen again.”
“I’ll hold you to that.” Her gaze sidles away.
A prickle of apprehension crawls down my spine. Then she presses her legs into my sides and literally climbs up, so her face is level with mine. “But first there’s something I need to ask.”
“What’s that?”
“Are your ears the only part of you that sharpen when aroused?”
“What do you mean?” I frown down at her.
“I mean, I’ve heard things about Fae males and their sexual prowess…”
“Go on.” A low burst of heat flares in my groin.
“And that you have, you know…certain additions to your appendages that are aimed at pleasuring females.”
“And where did you hear that?”
“I may or may not have had other Fae males try to woo me.” She bats her eyelids at me.
I stare. It’s clearly an overtly feminine gesture aimed at distracting me. And strangely, it’s succeeding. I shake my head. “Tell me.” I squeeze my arms around her.
She groans, and I force myself to loosen my grip. “Well?” I pull back my ears.
“Well, you know us, women, we like to gossip.”
“No, I don’t, and you can do better than that.” I bare my teeth, knowing my canines have grown. I want her to see that. Need her to be aware of the kind of beast she's inviting to lay with her.
Her gaze drops to my teeth. “When you do that… I…” She shakes her head.
“What?”
“I want you to bury them in my flesh.”
Desire tightens my groin. I lower my head to her neck then sink my teeth into the soft skin. “Like this?” I bite down with enough pressure to mark, without piercing her flesh.
She groans, and this time the sound is of pleasure. Her thighs clench. I feel the moisture that wets the cloth over her pussy. My dick throbs and weeps to be let out of its constraints. “I swear you are saying all this just to drive me over the edge,” I whisper against her skin. Then I lick the skin I marke
d.
Her head falls back, giving me more access to her neck. “Is it working?” Her voice is just a little above a moan.
It sends another jolt of heat flushing over my skin.
“Fuck this.” I drop into myself, letting the energy locked inside me flow out, over my skin, shattering me into tiny pieces.
The air thins around me, and the hairs on the nape of my neck rise. The world tilts, and then every particle of me flutters back into place.
I press her into the bed and cover every inch of her body with mine.
She groans, and her eyelids flutter. “You teleported?”
I simply drag my lips down her neck to the valley between her breasts.
“I thought you said you only teleported in emergencies?”
“This is an emergency.” I nuzzle her breast then drag my mouth over the erect nipple and bite it.
Her head thrashes back on the bed. “You know what else is an emergency?” She swallows.
I sweep my palm over her side to her hip and grip it. “Tell me.”
“The way I am wet and melting and ready for you.”
Her words slam into me. Every part of me tenses. My dick goes so hard I think it will burst my pants. My balls draw up. Very slowly, I let go of her and sit up, to straddle her body.
Her breath catches.
I slide back from the bed, then lower my legs to the floor and stand.
She stays frozen, on her back. Her legs are apart, her arms are flung out. Her thick hair streams out on the bed.
“You really like to live dangerously, don’t you?” My voice comes out rougher than I intended.
She gulps. Fear rolls off her mixed with that sharp sweetness of her arousal. Her belly jerks and she raises her knees as if to lock them together, then brings them back down in place. “Only with you.”
She bites her lower lip, and holy fuck, I know I can’t wait anymore.
“I thought I would take it slow the first time. Introduce you to my body, get to know you, allow you to adjust.”
“And now?” She juts out her chin, then tucks an arm behind her neck.
My gaze is drawn to her chest.
To how she trails her fingers down her breasts, over her belly button to play with the folds of her pussy. I can’t remember the last time a woman had me in such thrall. Never. And not again. I’ll never let this human get the better of me. I will not allow her to seduce me. Definitely not in bed.
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