Deadly Is the Kiss

by Rhyannon Byrd

  Her blush spread over the surface of her skin like a grass fire, turning her rosy and pink. “This is ridiculous. We don’t have time for this now.”

  A ragged burst of laughter shook his chest as he lowered her to her feet. “Who knows how much time we have?” he muttered, pushing his jacket off her shoulders. “You’re a wanted woman, Jules. Danger breathing down the back of your neck, hard and focused. If I want to get my fill of you, I had better do it fast, before some new threat sinks its teeth into us and I end up dying trying to save your life.”

  She flinched, blinking up at him. “Please…don’t say that.”

  The sincerity of those quiet words hit him right in the chest, confusing the hell out of him.

  Her hands gripped his arms. “I mean it, Ashe. I don’t want anything to happen to you.”

  Before he’d even decided how to respond, he heard himself saying, “Then stop trying to push me away.”

  She must have read the determination on his face, because she was the one who took a deep breath and reached for the hem of her torn sweater, pulling it over her head. As she let the sweater fall to the floor, Ashe flexed his hands at his sides, his pulse hammering at the sight of the black satin bra propping up the creamy swells of her breasts. The scratches on her shoulder and upper chest were already fading, thanks to the rapid healing genes of their species. Only a few faint lines remained from her run-in with the Lycan.

  Even so, he still wanted to rip the bastard to shreds all over again for causing her pain.

  “Get it off,” he grunted, jerking his chin at the bra. He felt like a bloody caveman, ready to drag his knuckles and pound his chest, demanding her submission, but there was no help for it.

  Her head fell forward as she reached behind her back, undoing the clasp, her long hair streaming over her shoulders. A second later, the black satin fell to the floor, and hunger tore through him. He stared, hard, his ragged breathing sounding loud in the heavy quiet of the room. Her breasts weren’t the largest he’d ever seen, but he didn’t give a damn. What they were was impossibly beautiful…graceful, like the rest of her body. Perfectly curved and full and pale, her nipples small and pink, already pulled tight with need. A blatant temptation he couldn’t resist.

  Putting his hands on her rib cage, Ashe lifted her off the floor, bringing those succulent breasts to his mouth. His heart pounded as he pressed a soft kiss to the healing scratches, then lowered his head and hungrily tongued one small, velvety nipple, rubbing and licking at it. His breathing quickened as she arched her back and made a needy sound deep in her throat, her nails digging into his shoulders. He couldn’t get enough of the way she tasted, moving to her other breast with a soft growl, licking and sucking until her nipple was like a plump, ripe berry on his tongue, driving him wild. He wanted to devour her. Lick every sumptuous inch of her firm little body from head to toe, as if he could somehow imprint himself on her with the ravenous demands of his mouth.

  Needing more of her—needing all of her—Ashe gave a final lick to both nipples, taking a moment to enjoy how they looked all shiny and wet from his mouth, their color darker…deeper than before. Then he tossed her back into the middle of the bed, a gasp of shock spilling from her lips as she bounced there once…twice.

  Leaning over the side of the mattress, he quickly tugged off her boots and jeans, then fisted his hand in the front of her black panties and gave a hard yank, wrenching them off in shreds. She cried out, her eyes huge in the blushing warmth of her face, lips parted with her increasingly fast breaths as she tried to cover herself.

  He could scent the embarrassment simmering beneath her desire, her shyness yet another surprise that he hadn’t expected. One that made the corner of his mouth twitch with a smile.

  “Uh-uh. Spread your legs and pull your knees out at your sides,” he told her, his low voice filled with need and lust and things he didn’t want to think about. To even acknowledge. “I need to see you, Jules. All of you.”

  “I…uh…” The fiery blush on her cheeks spread, sweeping over her pale skin, her body vibrating at a high frequency, making him wonder how much time had passed since she’d last been with a man. He knew better than to hope for more than a few months, at the most. She was too beautiful, too sensual. Hell, the guards who worked for her family probably did their best to get her into bed as often as they could.

  Shoving the infuriating thought aside, Ashe ripped off his sweater and followed her down onto the dark blue bedding. He’d wanted this woman for so long, and now he had her naked and laid out before him, her pale skin gleaming like a pearl against the stretch of midnight-blue beneath her. He couldn’t believe it was even better than he’d imagined.

  “Don’t be shy,” he coaxed in a low murmur, crawling over her and placing a kiss against her trembling fingers. The searing heat in his veins burned hotter, her warm, sensual scent making his mouth water. “Come on, Jules. I want to see what you’ve been hiding from me for so long.”

  With a deep breath, she pulled her hands away. Then she slowly exhaled, and relaxed the muscles in her thighs, inching them apart. “That’s it,” he groaned, running his tongue over the sensitive tip of a fang as he caught his first glimpse of her thick, slippery folds, his heart pounding to a brutal, painful rhythm. Struggling for control, Ashe rubbed a thumb over the pale, soft skin of her inner thigh, thinking it was a good thing she’d made that stipulation about no feeding. He wanted her blood—wanted the feel and the warmth of it sitting in his mouth—his fangs already aching with the need to feel that pale skin giving way beneath them. But he had no doubt the taste of it would push him too far.

  But there were other things he could get his mouth on, and he was done waiting.

  Wedging his body between her slender thighs, he pushed them wide, his eyes burning as he ran his gaze over that most lush, intimate part of her. It made his chest hurt just to look at her, she was so pretty and pink and delicate.

  He exhaled in an audible rush. “Been waiting for this,” he rasped, his voice sounding drugged to his own ears as he ran two fingers through her juicy folds, getting them nice and wet. Then he lifted the fingers to his lips and sucked them into his mouth, desperate for the taste of her.

  Bright splotches of color burned across the tops of her cheekbones as she stared at him down the quivering length of her body. “What…?” she whispered, studying his expression. “What are you thinking?”

  Pulling his fingers from his mouth, he shot her a slow smile, loving the way he could now scent her on his lips. “I’m thinking you taste as sinful as you look.” That you taste like mine.

  Her blush somehow got even brighter. “Um…thanks.”

  “My pleasure.” He swiped his tongue over his lower lip. “Literally. I could lick your sweet little pu—”

  “Okay,” Juliana gasped, waving her hands in his face. “I get it! No reason to go into detail.”

  The smile on his lips made her breath catch, his deep voice almost tender as he said, “I didn’t think it was possible, but your blush just keeps getting brighter.”

  “I’m embarrassed!”

  “Don’t be.” He braced himself on his elbows, his rugged face so close to her sex she could feel the humid warmth of his breath. She felt too exposed, her head spinning, her mind unable to come to grips with how she’d ended up in this situation. An hour ago, she’d have bet her life on the fact that she’d never so much as allow Ashe Granger to kiss her—and now she was naked on a bed in his hotel room, with his mouth only inches from her sex, as vulnerable and exposed as a woman could be.

  She should have been slapping his face and telling him to shove his manipulative “deal” up his ass. But she couldn’t, because she needed this as badly as he’d claimed to need it. Even though she knew her heart and her pride were going to pay for the pleasure later, she had to have it. Had to have at least this much of him, an insatiable craving twisting through her body with so much force she couldn’t focus or latch onto a thought.

  Then she
couldn’t think at all as he used his thumbs to spread her open, a thick, hungry sound slipping from his lips as he leaned forward and put his mouth on her.

  Ohmygod…

  She could feel the liquid rush of pleasure pooling between her thighs as he licked her, the rough, primal sounds he made telling her just how much he enjoyed what he was doing. Hunger speared through her body with such explosive force she jerked open, arms and legs sprawled wide in sexual abandon, her body given over completely to her senses as the breathtaking sensations pulsed and swelled within her.

  Her mind spun, shock warring with a need that was too powerful to control. He’d only just started and already she was losing it, writhing and arching beneath him, acting like someone she didn’t even recognize.

  “Just do it! Please,” she begged, her head tossing from side to side as she planted her feet against the mattress and pushed up, pumping against his greedy, devastating mouth. She felt as if she were going to shatter into a million pieces if he didn’t hurry up and push her over the edge. “Go faster! Please!”

  “No way in hell,” he muttered, doing something insanely wicked with his tongue. “I want this to last.”

  Pushing her trembling hands into his short, dark hair, Juliana realized that she’d never expected it to be like this. Never expected he would pleasure her this way as a part of their deal, instead of simply seeking his own relief as quickly as he could.

  Obviously, she’d been wrong. As he flicked a smoldering look up at her face from beneath his lashes, his gorgeous features stamped with raw, brutal hunger, it was clear he didn’t plan on rushing any part of the experience. Apparently determined to prove his point, the intoxicating strokes of his tongue became slower…deeper, forcing her to accept the stunning fact that he was savoring every part of her, getting off on the intimate act as strongly as she was.

  And, God, was she getting off.

  She could have come within seconds, and he knew it. But he deliberately kept the blinding, shattering release just out of her reach, gentling her whenever she got too close, which made the sensations grow and swell, until she was crying and gasping, her nails digging into his broad, muscular shoulders hard enough to draw blood.

  In a low, silken whisper, he asked her, “You ready to come now, Jules?”

  “Damn you, you’re being such a bastard,” she snapped, her voice cracking, shaking with emotion. “Just do it!”

  His low laugh rumbled against her flesh, and she could feel his slow, wicked smile.

  “I love it when you get bossy,” he told her, closing his mouth over her clit and softly sucking, just as he shoved two thick fingers back inside her, twisting them hard and deep. She arched as if she’d been electrocuted, her plush sex clamping down around him in a deliciously warm, wet hold. He pulled his fingers back, thrusting them in again, and she broke, screaming and pulsing as the mother of all orgasms stormed through her.

  “That’s so perfect,” he growled, nearly following her over that blinding, crashing edge.

  Minutes later, when he finally lifted his head, another harsh growl vibrated in Ashe’s throat as he stared up at her, the feral part of his nature recognizing her for exactly what she was: the most stunning, mouthwatering, addictive woman he’d ever known. Her face was dewy and pink, soft tendrils of silky hair stuck to her temples and her cheeks, her mouth puffy and red from the bite of her teeth. Her gray eyes were heavy and lambent, hazy with satisfaction—but he could see the shock simmering in their stormy depths. The pink tip of her tongue darted across her lower lip, a kind of shy half smile curving her beautiful mouth as she stared back at him.

  “Wow. I’m, um, normally not that…out of control,” Juliana panted, still struggling to catch her breath.

  A sin-tipped smile touched his mouth, making him too gorgeous to be real. “You don’t hear me complaining, do you?”

  Shaking her head, she thought he looked like some kind of breathtaking, ancient virility god as he braced his arms on either side of her hips and lowered his head again, giving a playful lick to her navel.

  “To be honest, I loved it,” he murmured in a dark, husky rumble, crawling over her a little higher, lapping his clever tongue against the tender underside of her breast. “There’s nothing in the world better than having a woman melt all over you.”

  Oh…damn.

  That easily, the warm, mellow glow slipping through her veins started to cool. She shivered, the chilled air in the room suddenly brushing over her skin like icy prickles of disappointment. She felt the ridiculous sting of tears burning at the backs of her eyes and wanted to die, the idea of crying in front of this man even more humiliating than the exceptional way he’d just handled her body. “So, um, any woman would do, huh?”

  He went still, as if just realizing what he’d said. Then he slowly lifted his head and looked her in the eye, his stare deep and searching. “I wish it were that simple,” he finally said in a low voice that was rough around the edges. “Fucking has always felt good. I’ll be the first to admit it. But being like this with you…I don’t—” He gave a hard, frustrated shake of his head. “I don’t have a frame of reference for this kind of thing.”

  “What kind of thing?”

  Several heavy seconds of silence passed before he blew out a sharp breath and rolled to his back beside her, his dark gaze focused on the ceiling. “Never mind,” he muttered.

  “Never mind?” She made a choked sound of disgust as she sat up, scrambling to cover as much of her body as she could with the soft green throw draped over a corner of the bed. “That’s so like a man. God forbid one of you ever actually talked about his emotions!”

  CHAPTER FIVE

  ASHE TURNED HIS HEAD toward her, staring at the elegant line of her spine, wondering what the hell it was that she wanted from him. “What do you want me to say, Jules?”

  “I don’t know.” Looking back at him over her shoulder, she brushed away the tears that were tracking down her cheeks. “I just…I can’t separate emotions from sex. I thought that I could, but I’m not…I’m not like you.”

  “I don’t mind if you get emotional and cry,” he told her, his voice thick as he stared at the moisture glistening on her long lashes, her gray eyes luminous and bright. “A few tears aren’t going to scare me away.”

  “Well, good for you!” she snapped, and he knew he was in deep shit when even that waspish tone of hers turned him on. He might not trust her, but their physical chemistry was as explosive as he’d always suspected it would be. Hell, it was even stronger.

  His gaze traveled down the thick, shiny fall of her hair, over the pale curve of her hip, then the smooth length of her thigh. She was so delicate, but strong. Deliciously soft, but with a backbone of steel. A dangerous, potentially lethal combination, seeing as how it appealed to the predatory warrior in him on every level.

  Reaching down to rearrange his aching shaft, Ashe felt the hunger moving through his body like a sinuous living thing, the beast prowling for a way to get what it wanted. So clearly, he could see himself grabbing hold of Juliana, rolling her beneath him and shoving himself inside her. Working his way in deeper…and deeper, until he’d made her take every inch of him. Then he’d fuck her until neither one of them could remember their damn names. Until he couldn’t even remember why he couldn’t just take what he wanted and bite— No! Don’t even go there.

  He gave his head a hard shake, clearing his thoughts. Christ, what the hell was he doing? Her bloody life was in danger, and here he was thinking with his dick again, same as he’d been doing for the past hour.

  He was an idiot.

  Sitting up beside her, he started to get off the bed, only to find himself leaning toward her instead, his mouth suddenly buried in the sensual curve of her neck and shoulder, his tongue seeking out the throbbing rhythm of her pulse. Her skin was exquisitely soft beneath his lips, his fangs burning with the need to sink into her tender flesh again…and again, until he’d marked the hell out of her.

  Her brea
th caught, but she didn’t push him away. “Are we…are we going to have sex now?” she asked, sounding adorably belligerent, but aroused.