The intensity of my emotions slams into my chest.
My breath catches. I raise my head from my beautiful feast and look at her. Her body shudders. Aftershocks of the climax ripple over her skin. Her cheeks are flushed. Her eyelids flutter. Her lips move, but there are no words forthcoming from her. I rise to my feet and bend over her.
Propping my elbows on each side of her face, I bracket her in. Sweat beads her forehead. Her lower lip wobbles. I blow over her flushed features, and her eyelids flutter.
“Ask me again, Fire.”
“Wh… What?” She swallows.
“The question you asked me earlier.”
She shakes her head.
“Don’t disobey me, not now.”
Her chin trembles. “Have I satisfied your appetite, Chef?”
“No.”
She cracks her eyelids open. A furrow appears between her eyes. Her gaze sweep over my face.
“You’ve only whetted my hunger.” I hold her gaze. “I am afraid you are growing on me. Your taste is an aphrodisiac, and I am hooked on it. I lower my attention to her mouth. “You are fast becoming my favorite starter…”
Her lower lip quivers.
“And main course.” I bend and flick my tongue over a rigid nipple.
Her breath catches.
I slide a hand under her hips then sweep my thumb up her slit. “And dessert.”
She wriggles her hips, and her thigh muscles jerk.
I drag my mouth to the valley between her breasts, up the creamy column of her throat to her lips. Then raise my gaze to hers.
Those amber eyes flash at me, bright, so full of life. Her pupils are wide and black. There’s a depth to them that calls out to me. That tells me I can spend a lifetime discovering her, trying to tame her, and yet I’ll always be surprised. My heart hammers. Goosebumps flutter over my skin.
A warmth pools in my chest. Tenderness. A need to take care of her. A fierce desire to own her, protect her…satisfy her. All of it fuses together, comes tighter in a perfect storm that batters against my mind. My heart. There is a pressure pushing against my rib cage and I am sure it's going to crack open. “What are you doing to me, Fire?”
She shakes her head.
A teardrop slides from the edge of her eyes. It trails down her cheek and I lick it up. My breath hitches.
“Your tears.” I frown. “Why do they taste sweet?”
Color drains from her face. “It can’t be.” Her voice comes on a whisper. Her body goes rigid.
“What do you mean?”
“Let me up.” Her voice is harsh; her breathing quickens.
“When I am good and ready.” A vein pops to life at my temples. Something in her eyes. She’s hiding something from me. Anger churns my gut. I will not let her hold anything back from me. “Whatever it is, I demand that you tell me, now.” My voice is hard. I don’t stop the dominance that infuses my tone. Nice one. I care for her. I want her, have just decided that I am going to keep her, and already I am threatening her, with what? The force of my personality?
She could disagree with me, clam up and not tell me anything, and you know what, there wouldn’t be a damn thing I could do about it. I’ll give her anything she wants. Be a slave to her demands. Good thing I am never going to tell her all this. Best that she never finds out exactly who holds the power in this relationship because it is not me.
“You sure you want to hear this?” One side of her lip curls.
“I don’t intend to repeat myself again.” I thrust out my chest.
The amber of her eyes sparks. The skin around them tightens.
“Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
I tilt my head.
“Dragon tears should taste salty, except…”
My pulse thuds. A drop of sweat slides down my back. “Except?”
“Except to their mates.”
15
Jess
As soon as the words are out, I know it’s a mistake.
His jaw firms and a pulse leaps to life at his temple. He straightens and takes a step back from me.
Adrenaline laces my blood.
My heart hammers so fast I am sure it’s going to jump out of my rib cage. If I let him go, this…whatever it is between us is over.
Funny that when he was the one doing the chasing, I wanted to run.
Now, when he’s retreating from me—and I know a man who is hiding behind a façade when I see it—then, somehow, I want to throw a chain around him and hold him to me. Talk about reverse psychology, eh? I snake my leg around his waist and push myself up to a sitting position. “Scared you, did I?”
His eyebrows lower. “I still didn’t give you permission to ask questions, did I?”
“Cut the crap, Soldier.”
His eyes flash, and his ears lengthen further. A tremor of fear undulates up my spine, or is it desire? At this stage, I can’t tell. I saw him as he tried to dominate me. Watched him as he tried to impose his will on me. Been helpless when he’d pleasured me with his tongue, oh, and let’s not talk about the orgasm-inducing food he seems to specialize in making.
But this: this slow buildup of anger, seeing the emotions coursing through his veins, watching that mask of the perfect soldier that he is crumble away as the feral side of him comes to the fore makes my pulse quicken. My belly quivers.
Moisture drips from between my legs.
His nostrils flare. He crouches over me, close enough for our noses to touch. “You will not speak until I give you permission next.”
I bare my teeth at him.
Mistake.
He peels back his lips, and his canines drop.
They seem to lengthen as I watch. Heat flushes my skin. That shouldn’t turn me on. It shouldn’t. Those are lethal. He could tear me to shreds with them. No, he won’t hurt me. He’ll play with me. Drive me to distraction with his ministrations. Bring me to heights of passion. He may walk away from me, which, he doesn’t know it yet, but that’s not going to be that easy, but the man won’t hurt me, that much I know. And how? How is it that I have accepted that fact so calmly, eh?
His breath sears my cheek.
I open my mouth to speak, and his gaze narrows.
The words stick in my throat. I want to speak, to disobey him. To tell him we need to talk about that damn bombshell I’ve just dropped, which is clearly there out in the open between us, but something stops me.
The weight of his dominance is a physical force between us. It pushes down on my chest, drags at my shoulders.
I clamp my lips shut and glare at him.
His chest rises and falls, and his lips curl. “Good girl.” He flicks out his tongue and licks my cheek.
A shiver trips down my back.
That was so feral, so animalistic. So beautiful. He’s tasting me, absorbing my essence into him. More than when he’d sucked on my pussy. This…this feels more intimate.
An act of possession.
Heat flushes my cheeks. A visceral need for something more coils inside. Goosebumps flare on my forearms followed by a chill which pinpricks its way over my skin. How can I be both hot and cold at the same time? He’s not the only one having a strange reaction to this chemistry between us. He’s my mate, that must be why I feel so drawn to him. Is that why there is this compelling need to throw myself at him, to ask him to… To… mount me? I bite my lips.
His gaze falls to my mouth, of course, it does.
He’s watching me with so much attention, stalking my every move, and that little gesture doesn’t go unnoticed.
He raises his hand and feathers his knuckles over my jaw.
Blood thuds at my temple.
Damn the man. I should be angry at him for once again trying to put me in my place. For trying to show me I am nothing but a…a woman? His mate? He’s running scared, that’s what it is. And I don’t get it. As long it’s about the body and physical lust, it’s all okay.
Take it a step deeper, try to talk about feelings and call this what it a
ctually is: more than just a quick fuck and the strongest of the male species seem to retreat. Two can play this game. I press my lips together.
He frowns, then swipes back the hair that has fallen over my forehead. “So beautiful, so soft.” His voice catches.
This alpha-hole is drawn to me as much as I am to him.
He wants me as much as I want him.
And for all his demands that I obey him, he hadn’t made me do anything I didn’t want. He hadn’t hurt me, far from it. He’d pleasured me. Given me one—okay, two mind-blowing orgasms, if you count the foodgasm.
The thought of the flavors from what he’d cooked makes my mouth water again. I look sideways at the empty plate.
His gaze follows in the same direction. “You hungry for more, hmm?”
His voice deepens another notch.
I swallow.
It was just a simple question, so why am I sure that he's asking me about something completely different? I nod, then drop my legs from around him to place my feet back on the chair.
“You can have more, on one condition.”
My gaze shoots back to his face.
Everything is barter with this man. He doesn’t know how to talk in any other language. Is that how he grew up? Always needing to give to get something? Has no one ever simply just shared with him because they wanted to?
Because I want to… Need to…what? Give to him?
I want him to take from me. To throw me down and simply fuck me. He’s my mate, so it’s okay to open up to him, right? To agree to whatever else he has in mind. He’s running scared. And me? I’m going to call his bluff. I am going to agree to everything he says.
Give in to his every demand. Allow him to do with me as he wants. By giving in, I am going to own him, as much as he wants to own me. He may be the more dominant, no question there, but by going along with what he wants, I am going to change the balance of this relationship. I am going to get from it what I want, too. Which is…is…him.
I want him.
I tilt my head, then drop it forward. I lower my chin to my chest. It’s a gesture of total submission, and he knows it.
His breath stills, and his shoulder go solid. His chest muscles seem to ripple with some unsaid emotion.
“You agreed without asking what I wanted from you?”
16
Tristan
A fierce need twists my insides. My groin hardens, and my dick strains my pants. Possessiveness sweeps over my skin. I want to reach out and gather her up in my arms. Trace the shell of her ear with my tongue and tell her that she is mine, that I’ll always keep her safe.
I rake my fingers through my hair.
And then what? Take her back to the barracks that I share with the other Fae Corps? This safe house in the hills of Malaysia is the only space where I have some measure of privacy, and this, too, is shared with the others.
By mutual consent, when one of us needs it, the others tend to give it a wide berth. Essentially, I am a soldier who owes everything to the Fae Corps. It has given me a life, a purpose.
I’d joined them and never looked back. My entire life had become the next mission. To hunt out those who’d hurt me and what’s mine. Especially her. But can I defend her from myself? Can I protect her from my true nature, from what I want to do to her?
She winces, and I loosen my hold on her.
“You’d do anything for me?” I should just take her at her word, but something inside me insists that I clarify my intent. I need to know she understands what she’s getting into. That once I start, I cannot stop. Not until every part of her is owned by me. Not until every inch of her body is marked by me.
I trail a finger over her jaw. “Answer me, Fire.”
Her gaze widens.
I jerk my chin. “You have permission to speak.”
She flushes but doesn’t protest, just peers up me from under her eyelashes.
“Losing your courage, are you? You’ve wanted this from me, I know that, and now when I offer it to you, you hesitate.”
I lower my brows. “Still as sassy as ever. Do you always do this?”
She frowns. “Do what?”
“Say the first thing that comes into your head without waiting to think through the consequences?”
She licks her lower lip; her gaze falls to my mouth. “Consequences,” she breathes out the word.
And fuck if my cock doesn’t twitch.
She knows exactly what she’s doing. Goading me. Pushing me over the edge. I so want to give in to it and take her without a second thought. And that’s what I want, isn’t it? To fling her on her back and ram into her, bury myself in her heat, roll around in her scent; rub my seed into her skin and mark her forever as mine.
A fierce surge of possessiveness grips me, and with that a need to…protect. To protect her from me. The conflicting emotions rattle around in my head. Blood thuds at my temples. There’s a pressure building in my chest, and it urges me on, tells me to simply take what I need from her and damn the consequences, but my heart…it pounds in my rib cage, insisting once I taste her there is no going back. Once I have her, I’ll be spoiled forever. I won’t be able to stop until I have claimed her, made her mine completely.
“It won’t work, you know.” I bend down and thrust my face into hers, so close that our eyelashes almost tangle.
She flinches and her pupils dilate further, “I have no idea what you are talking about.”
“You think you can give yourself up to me, then use my needs to weaken me? You think you can tame me with your skin, your scent…” My gaze drops to the triangle between her legs. “Your cunt.” I slap my palms on either side of her hips on the table. “Well, guess what?”
Her breath hitches. She holds my gaze. “What?” The word is barely a wheeze of sound.
“You’re right.” I bare my teeth in a smile, or a grimace, or fuck, maybe both. “Once I take this step, there is no going back, Fire. I need you to realize that. I need you to know that once I take your body you will be spoiled forever. Your life as you know it is over. You’ll give me complete control. And you know what else?”
She swallows. Her thighs squeeze together. That sweet scent of her arousal shimmers in the air between us and my groin tightens. She shakes her head.
“You are going to enjoy every moment of the time, we are together. But I cannot mate you, Fire. All I can give you is physical pleasure, the kind you’ve never experienced before. The kind that will ensure you cannot walk—or is that fly? —straight for days. Pure, unadulterated lust that comes along but once in a lifetime, that’s all I can offer you, for I have sworn never to take a mate.”
17
Jess
His words slam into my chest with the force of a storm. The intensity of his tone sends a surge of need sweeping through my blood.
My belly quivers.
The emptiness inside me grows until I am sure it’s consuming me fully.
His eyes blaze at me with that diamond hardness I am coming to recognize as his trademark. Every part of him is uncompromising. His shoulders, the planes of his chest, his obliques, his biceps, his rock-hard stomach. Those powerful thighs, all of his big body quivers with unleashed tension. Every fiber of him seems to be pushing down on my shoulders. The force of his personality makes the air heavy around me. I take in a breath only for it to catch in my throat. My skin puckers. Never in my life have I felt so helpless yet so calm. So in control.
“You think you can walk away from this unscathed?” I force the words out through a throat that feels bruised. Every pore in my body quivers with fear.
Blood thuds in my ears.
His features are set in a hard mask.
Every ounce of emotion, of that tenderness I thought I’d glimpsed earlier dissolves, leaving behind what he is.
The shell of a man with that core of cruelness that had attracted me to him in the first place. He will not be gentle or caring. He will not care for my feelings… Emotions, what are they anyway?
“I know I will walk away from this unscathed. But will you, Fire?” His eyebrows furrow. His eyes gleam with something that resembles pity, and that is the last straw.
“Ego much?” I infuse as much carelessness as possible in my tone.
His cheeks flush, and for a second, I am sure I have said too much. He was right that I never think before I speak. Once I start, I can’t stop, not until I have completely, utterly dumped all my thoughts out.
Then his lips curl in that cocky expression that I am coming to associate with him. “Not ego, just a fact.”
He feathers the knuckles of his hand over my shoulder and warmth pools in my lower belly. Dumb body, always responding to his every single move as if we are tied together. There seems to be a direct connection between my skin, my heart. My core to his essence.
“You only going to keep talking here or also going to follow through with your actions?”
“Only after you confirm that you know what this deal is about.”
“So we’re back to negotiating now?” I grimace.
“Life is a transaction, Fire.”
“And don’t I know that?” I can’t stop the bitterness that creeps into my voice.
“I don’t want it to be this way. I wish I could give you more than just physical pleasure.” He sounds so sincere.
His eyes shine with a strange inner light. His chin goes solid. There’s that strange intensity again. If I refuse him, will he fall to pieces? Nah, I am kidding myself. He’s a Fae Corps assassin. Killing is what comes easy to him.
Property of the Fae Page 7
