by Eva Chase
“I’ve finally got you alone,” Ruse said in his equally chocolatey voice, tipping his head so his lips brushed the shell of my ear. Just that small contact, not even a kiss, sent an eager shiver through me.
I swiveled on the stool and looked up into his languid eyes. My heart might have skipped a beat at the heat in his gaze. Even with that silly baseball cap on his head to hide his very real horns, there wasn’t anyone sexier I’d ever seen.
He couldn’t have worked any of his seductive voodoo on me while I had my protective badge pinned to my undershirt in its usual place over my heart—just in case I happened on any shadowkind whose motives I couldn’t trust—but he had plenty of totally non-supernatural charm to go around too. Taking the allure out of the incubus would have been as impossible as taking the purr out of a cat.
“We’re hardly alone,” I had to point out, motioning to the crowded room. “Did you follow me here? I thought you were taking care of your new best friends?”
Ruse grinned. “Oh, they’re well taken care of. Sometimes I impress even myself. I just had a suspicion I’d find you here. I know who you turn to for information and reinforcements.”
“I’m not sure I’ve gotten either.” I gave his solidly muscled chest a nudge, more playful than designed to push him off me. “You’ve found me—what are you going to do with me now?”
His grin stretched wide. “Why don’t we start with a dance? That seemed to work well for us last time.”
The last time we’d danced together—in my old apartment after he’d put on an ‘80s dance mix to cheer me up—I’d pulled him into bed with me later that night. I still wasn’t totally convinced that diving under the sheets with him again was a great idea. All the heights of bliss he could take me to were offset by that whole emotional manipulation side of his powers. He’d promised never to poke around inside my head again, but he’d promised that before the first time he’d done it too.
As he led me onto the dance floor, my uncertainty wavered. I’d forgotten just how good his hands felt against my body—trailing now from my waist over my hips and down my thighs. He stayed close as we shifted and swiveled with the music’s haunting rhythm.
When I stopped for a moment as one song faded out, Ruse pressed a kiss to the bare skin at the side of my neck. I couldn’t stop my breath from hitching at the jolt of pleasure.
“Hmm,” he murmured against my hair. “The devourer has joined us in the shadows. I’m getting the impression he’d like to have you this close always. You know, my offer to show him the ropes between the sheets—perhaps literally, if you’d enjoy being tied to the bedposts—still stands. Imagine all the fun we—”
Before he could finish that torturously tempting offer, another of our companions pushed through the dancers toward us. Omen’s eyes blazed so furiously in their icy way that even Ruse went still.
His boss came to a stop right in front of me and jabbed his finger at my chest. “What the hell do you think you’re doing here?” he demanded, low but cutting.
“Dancing?” I said with an innocent smile.
“I know who runs this place. I know she talks with your Fund.” He said the last word with a sneer. “I told you, we can’t count on the other shadowkind for this. We’re handling it ourselves.”
“I never agreed to that. And anyway, I barely told her anything. I’m not an idiot.”
“As far as I’m concerned, the jury’s still out on that one.” He jerked his hand toward the doorway. “Let’s go. You’ve interfered enough for one night.”
My body balked at the idea of following his orders, but his arrival had reminded me that it probably wasn’t the safest for me to stick around here anyway. I was pretty sure the Company’s people had looked for me here once before. From Ruse’s reaction, he wasn’t up for more dancing anyway.
“Interfering, huh?” I said, jabbing my finger right back at Omen. “That must be some brand-new way of saying, ‘Provided an essential component to my masterplan.’ You’re welcome, by the way. Lucky for you, Luce, I’m ready to call it a night.”
“You,” Omen growled, but a second later he reined in the temper I’d known that nickname would provoke—even if I wasn’t totally sure why—with a flick of his gaze toward the crowd.
He couldn’t keep his cool forever. One of these days, I’d get under his skin enough to break the beast right open.
Maybe I’d better hope Jade had sent a few buddies my way before that explosion.
7
Sorsha
The New-Age cabin didn’t have electric lights, but I’d scrounged up a huge candle in a glass jar. The label said Lawn Mower, and the scent fit: like fresh-cut grass with a hint of diesel. I could tell why that one had been abandoned in the closet. It was better than the stale, dusty smell that had filled the cabin before, though.
As I blew out the flame for the night, Pickle let out a sleepy, squeaky murmur from the amethyst incense bowl now filled with shredded gauzy scarf. I’d set it in the shower stall in the tiny bathroom to give him the sense of a cavern. He’d have preferred a whole tub to trundle around in, but we were both making do with what we had.
I tucked myself in under the sheets on the cramped lower bunk, lay my head on the thin pillow—and all at once the warm weight of another body solidified against mine, making the space twice as cramped as before. I flinched with a lurch of my pulse. Then I registered Snap’s breathtaking face gazing down at me in the dim moonlight that seeped through the cabin’s window, his sweet but dark scent, like clover and moss, filling my nose.
He was already pulling back at my initial panicked response. Balancing precariously on the edge of the mattress rather than leaning against me like before, he stroked the side of my face in apology. “I’m sorry. I forgot that you can’t tell I’m here until I come out of the shadows. It’s started to feel so much like you’re one of us that I find myself thinking you have the same awareness.”
“That’s all right.” I didn’t mind his company in my bed now that I knew it was him. I gave him a gentle tug toward me before his tall but slim frame tumbled right onto the floor. His body settled against mine again—chest to chest, one toned leg tucked over my thigh, those golden curls nearly brushing my cheek—and a hungrier heat formed low in my belly. I couldn’t resist tracing my fingers along his smooth jaw in return. “Was there any particular reason you decided to drop in on me in bed?”
His smile looked a little sheepish, but his eyes gleamed with a hint of their monstrous neon green, unable to disguise his eagerness. “I was thinking—after seeing you and Ruse at the bar—I wanted to be that close to you again. We don’t have to do anything other than this. I’d be happy to just lie next to you while you sleep.”
Oh, my darling man—if I could even call him a man. I’d never have thought a being who was apparently capable of inflicting horrifying magic could be so enticingly adorable, but Snap somehow managed to be both in one.
I let my fingers trail down to where the collar of his Henley shirt splayed open over the lean muscles of his chest. “So you came here just to cuddle, huh? No interest in anything more?”
Another flash of neon flared in his eyes. “I didn’t say that.” His head dipped, his lips grazing my temple with his next words. “I would like very much to taste you again, Peach. Maybe in ways I didn’t get a chance to last time?”
“Hmm. The truth comes out,” I teased.
Snap drew back an inch to meet my eyes again. “Not just for me. That night, what we did together—it felt better than anything I’ve ever experienced in this realm or the one of shadow. But mainly because of how we connected so completely, sharing in the sensations. I want to do it again and again, but only if you’re with me, wanting it too.”
He spoke so earnestly it made my chest ache, both because of the adoration in his tone and because I knew how much of his affection was probably due to the novelty of the experience.
Sexual pleasure wasn’t something shadowkind instinctively sought out in thei
r own realm—it appeared to be the domain of mortals like me and mortal bodies like the ones he and his kind wore here. Many higher shadowkind sought out that bliss once they discovered it, and some like the cubi kind needed it to sustain themselves, but Snap hadn’t spent enough time mortal-side to have stumbled on those desires until now.
“That attitude is a good one to have,” I said. “But it won’t only be me you can experience this with, you know. You’ll find you can feel just as good with other women—maybe even men too—when you broaden your horizons.”
He let out a soft huff. “No. There wouldn’t be anyone else quite like you. I’ve never seen—the courage you show, so willing to fight for us even though we’re not like you—your patience as we adapt to this world. You don’t shy away even from the parts of us that make others call us monsters. You stand up with us against our enemies even without the same sorts of powers, no matter what you’ve lost… I only hope I can be strong enough to match you.”
My throat constricted with a pang that shot straight through my heart. Okay, he might have made a pretty solid case there, even if I had trouble seeing myself as half as valiant as he did. Not being willing to stand by while living, feeling beings were caged and slaughtered was a pretty low bar to label someone a hero.
I caressed his jaw again, running my fingers up it and into his soft curls. “Well, I think you’re pretty amazing too. This world can be a shitty place, but you manage to find every bit of beauty in the simplest things. You want to understand everything just for the sake of understanding it—most people only care about what’s going to help them get ahead. I’ve never met anyone who wanted so badly to help and create joy in every way they can. I have no idea how I’m going to let you go.”
I felt the ache of that uncertainty even more when he beamed down at me. He kissed my temple where his lips had teased me before, and then my cheek and the crook of my jaw. “Then don’t.”
For a moment, I tried to imagine what it would be like if the devourer didn’t leave my life once this mission of ours was over. Could he really be a boyfriend, despite what I’d said to Vivi? Sharing an apartment with him, introducing him to all the other mortal pleasures like my favorite movies and music and—of course—food. Going out on the town with him, sharing in his wonder. Meeting up with friends…
How would I explain our relationship to anyone from the Fund? I wasn’t sure even Vivi could manage not to be weird about it.
Would I get tired of his awe once I’d been around him for a while? Would he end up irritated by my many flaws as the initial glow of attraction faded? I’d had enough trouble making any kind of ongoing relationship work with actual human dudes. My track record suggested this would be the longest of longshots.
There was no point in saying that to Snap, though. It’d only ruin what we had right now. When we didn’t know if we’d even survive to the end of the mission, it hardly mattered anyway. If we both got to have a future, one where maniacal organizations weren’t attempting to eradicate his entire species, then we could worry about the practicalities—if we hadn’t already determined that we were headed nowhere fast.
Right now, I wanted him as badly as he clearly wanted me. That was the only answer I needed.
Instead of talking, I drew his mouth to mine. He leaned into the kiss with all the eager passion I adored in him. As he deepened it, his tongue slipped between my lips, twining around mine with that skillful forked tip.
Mmm, yes, I definitely wasn’t in any hurry to give this up.
The first time, days ago, we’d taken things slow while Snap explored his desire, and had gotten each other off with only our hands. The devourer had gathered confidence since then. As he kissed me again, ardently enough to coax a whimper from my throat, he was already tugging my undershirt up, placing his hands to avoid the silver-and-iron badge I left pinned to it out of habit.
The moment I eased back to pull it the rest of the way off, he palmed my breasts. In a matter of seconds, his long, lithe fingers had tweaked both my nipples into hardened nubs. Quivers of bliss flooded my chest, drowning out the twinge of my injured shoulder as I tossed the undershirt aside.
I yanked Snap into another kiss, but he didn’t linger in it long before making good on his wish to taste me. He slicked his tongue over the peak of one breast and then the other, the forked end teasing my nipples even stiffer with the most incredible sensation.
I groped at his shirt, wanting to feel his naked chest against mine. Snap reached for the hem and then paused with a neon glitter passing through his eyes. He grinned with an unusual slyness, blinked—and the shirt simply disappeared.
Scratch that—all of his clothes had disappeared. I gazed down his sinewy frame to the erection jutting from between his thighs, and a fresh flush of desire washed through me. I’d known the shadowkind constructed the clothes they wore separately from their bodies when they emerged into the physical space, but I’d never seen that fact put to use to quite such enjoyable effect. Two thumbs up for instantaneous nudity.
“Very smooth,” I said, and Snap looked even more pleased with himself for the second it took before he was kissing me again. He continued fondling one of my breasts to blissful effect while his other hand trailed heat down my side all the way to my hip. I arched to meet him automatically, and his knee slipped between my legs. His thigh pressed against my sex with the most delectable friction. I shivered in delight, unable to stop myself from rocking into that contact.
Snap smiled against my mouth and shifted his leg, his erection rubbing against my hip, moving with me until I moaned. Pleasure surged from my core. My fingers clenched where I was grasping his shoulder and his hair, my desire taking on an urgent edge.
The same urgency appeared to have gripped Snap. His breath stuttered over my lips. He kissed me again, hard, and then said in a voice so strained with need it rocketed my own hunger even higher, “Maybe more tasting can wait. I want to be inside you—that’s how it’s supposed to be, isn’t it? That’s what feels right.”
My own breath was coming shaky. “Yes,” I managed to say, never so grateful that shadowkind didn’t reproduce the same way mortals did, because I sure as hell hadn’t gotten a chance to stock up on condoms. “I mean, there are all kinds of ways that are totally right, but that’s the one—that’s what most people like best.”
The devourer made a wordless sound of acknowledgement and yanked at my panties, which I couldn’t conveniently will out of existence with a blink, more’s the pity. I squirmed out of them and splayed my legs, reaching down to help guide him. As my fingers stroked the hot, silky length of his cock, Snap groaned, but his instincts led him well. Without any further direction, he teased the head of his erection over my slit and in, in, in with a deliberate care that had me burning for more.
When he’d pushed all the way to the hilt, pleasure radiated from where we were joined all through the rest of my body. He went perfectly still, his eyes locked on mine through the darkness, wide with a delighted sort of wonder. A short, breathless laugh escaped him. His rapturous expression choked me up all over again. I resisted the urge to buck against him and propel this union toward its climax faster than he seemed to intend.
“This,” he murmured. “This is the best. With you.”
“Snap…” I didn’t know whether I was going to return that tender sentiment or beg him to drive me on to further satisfaction, but then it didn’t matter, because, thank all that was taut and tingly, he started to move. Pulling back and pressing forward, gently and then with more forceful thrusts, watching my face with avid attention.
With each whimper that fell from my lips and each rush of bliss that sent my eyes rolling back, he adjusted his rhythm, his angle, his speed, until every plunge of his cock inside me set off rising waves of ecstasy. The bunk bed squeaked as our hips smacked together, and a giggle just as breathless as his laugh tumbled out of me. The realms really ought to thank me for waking up this potential in him, because he was fucking brilliant at fucking.
“If you get there before me, it’s okay,” I said around another gasp, but he shook his head. His features had tensed against his release even as he held the same rapt attention on my reactions.
He ran his fingers over my hair and across my thigh, fitting us even more tightly together. One thrust, and another, and another, each searing a headier pleasure through me.
With a little cry, I careened over the edge in a burst of bliss. Snap’s groan and the clutch of my hair told me he’d followed.
His body slackened, but he held his muscles tensed enough to stop his full weight from squashing me into the mattress. He lowered his head to claim one more kiss. I reveled in it, my limbs gone boneless with release.
“There isn’t much room,” he said after, and I understood the question he was asking. He was a cuddler, as much as he enjoyed other activities too. Tonight, I could embrace that part of his nature. Maybe a small part of me could even believe I deserved this devotion.
“You can stay.” I scooted over so my back leaned against the wall. Snap settled onto the mattress beside me, pulling the sheet back up to cover both of us. It was a tight squeeze, but our bodies interlocked as if they’d been meant to fit together. I nestled my head beneath the devourer’s chin and brushed my lips to his chest. Snap’s arm tucked around me, holding me there, secure.
Our breaths evened out in harmony. Shadowkind didn’t need to sleep, but in physical form, they could. After a few minutes, Snap had relaxed completely against me. When I traced my fingertips over his bare torso, he didn’t stir. My own eyelids drifted down. The ache swelling around my heart was nothing but contented now.
