Deadly Is the Kiss

by Rhyannon Byrd

  She pressed her forehead against his chest, her shoulders shaking with laughter even as her eyes burned with tears. “God, Ashe. I don’t know what to say.”

  “S’okay.” His arms pulled her a little closer, his hands molding her against the front of his body, the feel of his rigid erection making it clear she wasn’t the only one aroused by the conversation. “Now that we’re sleeping together, it’s so good it’s all I can do not to shove my fangs into you, hard and thick and deep, and make you mine. Can’t get enough of the way you feel under me. So small and tight. So…perfect…” His voice trailed off, and she drew her head back, checking to see if he’d finally fallen asleep. Which he had.

  In fact, he’d fallen asleep with a smile on his face.

  Nuzzling against his chest, Juliana pressed her ear to his heavy heartbeat, his stunning confessions buzzing through her mind in a continual loop. She didn’t know if he would remember any of what he’d told her when he woke up, but she knew that she’d never forget it. Not for as long as she lived, whether that was a matter of days…or decades.

  She was tired and wired at the same time. Too shocked to sleep, but too exhausted not to.

  And terrified that the last of her defenses had just been utterly destroyed.

  * * *

  IN THE EARLY AFTERNOON, Ashe came back into the bedroom with a towel wrapped around his waist, careful not to make any sound and wake Juliana. She was still snuggled in the bed, her dark hair mussed from sleep, cheeks pink from the heat blasting out of a nearby radiator.

  He should have been aching from the top of his head to the soles of his feet after suffering through the effects of that bloody poison, but he wasn’t. He’d removed his bandages before he’d showered, and his wounds were almost completely healed thanks to Juliana’s quick thinking.

  He also should have had the hangover from hell. God only knew what Essie had given him to knock him out. But, in fact, he felt oddly lucid now that he’d showered and shaved, as if seeing clearly for the first time.

  And what he saw was a young, hardheaded woman who drove him out of his mind with frustration and lust, anger and tenderness, twisting his emotions into so many knots he didn’t know up from down most of the time anymore.

  She might not trust him with her secrets yet, but she wasn’t Gretchen. Unlike that bitch from his past, Juliana was worth fighting for. And as he thought of the way she’d cared for him during his illness, of the way she’d held him and whispered in his ear, telling him how much she needed him to pull through for her, he knew without any doubt that letting her push him away would be the biggest mistake of his life. She cared. She just didn’t know how to deal with the fear of being hurt, same as him. But he didn’t have any choice except to figure out how to deal with that fear. He didn’t know where this thing between them was going exactly, but damn it, he needed the time to figure it out.

  Yeah, it hurt to be so close to her with the Burning scalding his veins, but it was better than the alternative, because he had a feeling that losing her would quite likely break him.

  That realization would have had the old Ashe running as hard and as fast as he could, determined to protect his heart. But the new Ashe—the man who’d woken up that afternoon with his hand clasping hers, his head filled with hazy memories of the way she’d held him and comforted him—that man was ready to find his balls and stick with this thing, determined to see where it might lead.

  The thought made him smile.

  After this third attack on her life, he was worried and frightened and so hungry for her he could barely see straight—but for the first time in what felt like a long, hollow forever, Ashe thought he just might be happy.

  And he needed to hold her so badly he was shaking with it.

  As the early-afternoon sunlight slipped around the edges of the blinds on the room’s lone window, he carefully stripped the sweat-soaked sheets off the bed without waking her, moving her body from one side to the other. Next, he covered the mattress with one of the soft crocheted blankets he found in the simple wooden chest at the foot of the bed. Then he tossed his towel on the floor, stretched out on the bed and gathered Juliana’s slight body into his arms, both of them lying on their sides, face-to-face.

  Ashe didn’t know how long he simply lay there holding her, watching her sleep, while listening to the sounds of a quiet rain beginning to fall. He thought of how incredible it’d been when she’d given him her blood the night before, and how hard he’d had to fight not to inject the serum into her vein. He honestly didn’t know how he’d found the strength to resist, the fear that she might hate him for it afterward the only thing that had stopped him.

  When she finally began to stir, he stroked the delicate length of her spine with slow, gentle touches, waiting for the moment when she would open her eyes and look at him. He wanted to see what her gaze would tell him in those first, unguarded seconds, when she found herself lying in his arms. She made a small, sleepy sound that made him smile again, her nose scrunching as she shivered, stretched…and finally lifted those thick, curling lashes.

  She looked right at him…and he groaned, undone by what he saw shimmering in those luminous depths.

  Cursing a hot, husky string of swearwords under his breath, Ashe ripped off her shirt and bra, then covered her mouth with his, unable to wait. He needed her taste, damn it. Her breath. Needed to drown himself in her. But she gasped, breaking her mouth from the kiss as she pushed him to his back. He started to protest, when she lowered her head, pressing those soft, velvety lips against the hammering pulse at the base of his throat. Every muscle in his body went hard with anticipation, his mind dazed as he wondered if she was going to…

  Oh, shit, he thought, as she trailed her mouth lower, pressing sweet, teasing kisses to his chest, across a nipple, then lower, to his ribs. A dizzying surge of blood rushed to his cock, the swollen shaft pulsing and tight and heavy, and he knew there was no way in hell he was going to be able to hold this.

  “I need to be inside you,” he growled, his voice more guttural than he’d ever heard it. “Get those damn jeans off. I can’t wait.”

  “You have to,” she whispered, kissing her way down lower, over his abdomen, her tongue flicking over his navel, and another surge of blood rushed to his cock, making him even harder, thicker, his skin stretched hot and tight around the rigid shaft. He shuddered, covering his eyes with the heels of his hands, his face going hot, as if he was some green-eared teenager anticipating his first blow job.

  Would she like his taste? Like the way he felt in her mouth?

  A harsh laugh jerked from his throat. He couldn’t ever remember worrying about things like that in the past, simply taking his pleasure as if it was his due. But this was Juliana, and damn it, that made it different. He wanted her to feel the same urgent, wrenching need that he did. Wanted her to be consumed by the same primitive, demanding hunger.

  And if the sexy little moan she gave as she wrapped her hands around him and ran her soft tongue over the ripe tip meant anything, then she did.

  “Tell me what you like,” she whispered, running her lips down one side, her tongue flicking against the sensitive veins that wrapped the dark, ruddy shaft.

  Ashe opened his eyes and lifted his head, desperate to see it…to watch her lips and tongue touching that most primal part of him. He might have been able to wrap an air of civilization around him for the most part, but there was nothing civilized about his cock. It was long and thick, the size too much for a lot of women, but Juliana didn’t seem put off or worried, her hot little mouth closing over the swollen head so eagerly, it nearly stopped his heart.

  Struggling for his voice, he rasped, “I love all of it. Everything. It’s so good you’re killing me.”

  “You’re going to have to be more specific than that,” she said with a smile.

  “Seriously.” His voice got deeper. “Just…do whatever you usually do.”

  “That won’t work,” she said, this time with a muffled laugh.
/>
  “Why?” he grated, barely able to think straight. He couldn’t remember his own damn name, much less give her instructions on something this important. He was dying here!

  “I can’t do what I usually do,” she told him, rubbing her cheek against him, “because I’ve never done this specific act before. So, um, it’d probably be a good idea if you don’t set your expectations too high.”

  Ashe shook his head, thinking he mustn’t have heard her right. “What?”

  She lifted shining eyes to his face, her smile turning wry. “I said I’ve never done this before.”

  “You can’t be ser…” His voice trailed off as he took a long look at her blushing cheeks, an adorable blend of embarrassment and excitement burning in her silver eyes. If any other woman had told him such an outrageous claim, he would have called her a liar. But staring at Juliana’s pink face, he knew, instinctively, that she was telling him the truth. At least about this.

  A jolt of lust shot through him, so violent and strong he nearly came then and there, his cock pulsing hard in her grip.

  She gave a soft laugh. “I think you like that. Don’t you?”

  He tried to say yes, but his throat was too tight, his ears roaring. Bracing himself on an elbow, Ashe reached down and put his hand on the back of her head, watching with rapt awe as she let him bring her face closer to the full, glistening head. “Lick it,” he said, the guttural command scraping his throat.

  She flicked her tongue over the tip again, taking the drops of moisture there into her mouth, and he had to grit his teeth. Then she opened her lips over the straining crown, her tongue licking and rubbing, as she breathed through her nose and started taking him in. He made a low sound deep in his throat, pleasure shooting up his spine as his hips surged, pushing him a little deeper. She almost panicked, her hand tightening on the base of his shaft. But then she swallowed…and took some more, the feeling of being in her hot little mouth so good it nearly killed him.

  “Get your hair out of the way,” he told her, his voice raw. “I need to see it. Need to see you sucking me.”

  She used her free hand to pull her hair over her shoulder, her mouth still working him over with that lush, wet suction, her cheeks hollowing as she did a fluttering pull on her way up that made him groan. He ran his finger along the edge of her mouth, her lips stretched wide to accommodate his width, her shimmering eyes staring back at him through her lashes. It was the sexiest damn thing he’d ever seen, pushing him even closer to the edge. “Get up here,” he growled, needing to make sure she was ready for him before he lost it.

  She drew her head back, trailing those soft lips down the side of his shaft. “What?” she whispered, her voice thick with pleasure.

  “I want you up here,” he ground out.

  “Stop distracting me.” She shot him a quick smile before she trailed her lips down the other side.

  Ashe pulled in a deep breath, then slowly let it out. But it didn’t help. “I’m not joking, Juliana.”

  She gave another soft laugh. “I’m sure you aren’t.”

  He was losing it, damn it, and the little witch was enjoying herself. “If you don’t get your ass up here in the next five seconds,” he said, pushing the words through his gritted teeth, “I won’t be responsible for what happens.”

  Her response was to cover him with her mouth again, taking him even deeper than she had before, and a harsh roar tore its way out of his chest, echoing through the room. In the next instant, he jackknifed and pulled her off him, her high-pitched squeal joining his savage growl as he turned, tossing her onto the bed. He came up on his knees beside her, ripping her jeans and panties off, then knelt between her slender thighs, spreading them wider.

  “So wet,” he groaned, pushing two thick fingers inside her, loving the way she held him. Going down on him had obviously gotten her off, because she was soaked, her back arching as he worked his fingers in deeper. “And so damn tight,” he growled, leaning over and taking one of those strawberry-pink nipples into his mouth. He sucked on the tender peak while he worked his fingers in and out, hoping to God she was ready for him, because he was done waiting.

  With a gritty curse on his lips, Ashe replaced his fingers with his cock and shoved inside her, the feeling so incredible he had to lock his jaw to keep from shouting. Heat crawled its way up his chest, adding to the fire in his veins as he worked himself in deeper, and deeper, until she’d taken every inch of him. Then he started to move, riding her with hard, hammering thrusts as he braced himself on rigid arms, his gaze locked tight on the erotic sight of his body driving into hers. It was hard and fast and furious, and he’d have been terrified it was too much for her, if she weren’t clutching his hips, pumping up against him, her tight little sex already pulsing around him. She climaxed screaming, the sweet convulsions rippling along his shaft, squeezing him tight, and he pounded into her even harder. The bed creaked and groaned, slamming against the wall as his release thundered down on him. He raised his gaze, needing to see her face, to stare into her pleasure-bright eyes as it ripped through him with explosive, mind-shattering force, his body all but turning itself inside out as he pumped into her, giving her everything that he had.

  When he finally collapsed onto his side, dragging her with him, he was still shuddering, his muscles twitching with residual pulses. He tried to drag air into his aching lungs, and couldn’t. But hell, who needed air anyway? He could just keep floating on this surreal wave of satisfaction and die happy, without a care in the world.

  Except that he needed to protect the fiery little female lying in his arms. That was definitely worth living for.

  “So what’s the plan?” she asked, the touch of her lips making him smile as she pressed a kiss to his chest.

  It took him a moment, but Ashe finally got his sluggish brain to work. “We’re going to drag our asses out of this bed, grab some food, and hop a train over to Toulouse.”

  “What’s in Toulouse?”

  Wishing he could stay inside her all day, but knowing they needed to get going, he carefully pulled himself out. “Another old family friend,” he said, answering her question. “Her name is Mo and her son Alex is a computer whiz. I called her when we were at Knox’s and asked if she could get him to try and hack into the Council’s private financial records. Specifically Lenora Delacourt’s.”

  Juliana braced herself on an elbow, her gaze wide with surprise. “You really think she might have paid for the assassination orders with one of her personal accounts?”

  He shrugged as he rolled to his back. “If she’s arrogant enough, there’s a good chance. And I know Raphe is too arrogant by half. It would be just like him to use his mother to set the transaction up, allowing him to hide behind her status.” He reached up and tucked her hair behind her ear, rubbing his thumb against her temple as he said, “Mo sent a text through on my phone this afternoon. That’s what woke me up. She said she’s got something to show us.”

  “Do you trust Mo?”

  He answered without hesitation. “With my life.”

  Her lips curved with a soft smile. “Then let’s go see what her son has been able to find.”

  Juliana started to climb off the bed, intending to get ready, when he grabbed her arm, holding her in place. “What is it?” she asked, looking back and seeing the seriousness of his expression.

  His gray eyes glittered with emotion. “If I asked you to stay with Mo’s family while I get to the bottom of this, would you?”

  “No,” she answered, shaking her head. “I couldn’t do that. It wouldn’t be right.”

  “I talked to Gideon while you were sleeping. We both think that whoever called him last night with that warning is probably the same person who helped you escape the Wasteland. For them to know that attack was coming, it’s got to be someone close to the Delacourts, and I have a bad feeling about it.” He sat up, a scowl settling between his dark brows. “This entire situation is unacceptable. I don’t want anything to happen to you.”
/>