by Marie Hall
“I’m fine,” he grinned, noticing her gaze as he slipped himself back inside his pants. He stood and grabbed her hand. “But if you insist I know something that can warm me.”
She snorted, slapping her palm against his chest, unable to resist giving the firm muscle beneath a small squeeze. “You vampires. Think you’re so tough. Even you guys can’t walk around with soaked clothes all night long. For one night, let me baby you.”
Hearing her call him a vampire yet again made the full weight of the lies crash down around him, there wasn’t much he could do for her, but he could give her truth. And maybe in the end when he was gone she’d remember that at least he’d done that for her. “Eve, I have something I need--”
In a matter of seconds he watched the smile on her face slowly slip and the golden eyes lose their luster. She gave a crooked smile and placed cold fingertips against his cheek. “First we get warm. Then if you still need to,” her mouth turned down, “we’ll talk.”
Tendrils of her confusion and fear skated down his spine. Eve was procrastinating. As if somehow she instinctively knew this conversation was one she wouldn’t want to hear.
A hollow ache spread through his chest. Each time he put this off it made it all the more difficult. But he couldn’t ignore the entreaty in her gaze.
“Alright. Later.”
Relief smoothed her brows. “Good,” she sighed and walked toward her bedroom, stopping at a closet and tossing him some clothes. “Put those on. Should fit. Give me a second to get out of this and meet me in my bedroom in say... two minutes?”
He nodded and she walked away.
There was a time and place for everything. What sense was there in rushing to tell her? She’d find out soon enough and it didn’t seem like she was in a hurry to know at that.
Looking down at the carpet, a vision of her slick skin sliding along his, burned his vision. Cian’s scalp tingled. Now she wanted him to join her in the bedroom, and there was no way he’d be able to stop himself from making love to her again.
He closed his eyes for a brief moment. She’d said two minutes. It was nearly that. He glanced down at his wet clothes, quickly stripped and put on what she’d tossed him--a baggy pair of lounging pants and white shirt.
“Cian, you coming or what?” Eve asked walking out into the hallway, wearing a navel baring top and short white shorts. She stopped, her mouth tipping at the corners, golden eyes turning round with delight. “Nice.”
Her obvious perusal heated his veins.
“I’ve never seen you dressed so casual. It’s a nice picture.”
Eve sashayed up to him, dragging her hand across his chest. His nipples pebbled at her touch. Heat coiled long fingers around his heart. Her touch was like fire, branding him and making the flesh prickle.
Slowly she walked around him. He dragged her perfume deep into his lungs.
“Oh very nice.” She grabbed onto his bicep and squeezed. “I think you should wear these shirts more often.”
He grinned, but then stiffened when she walked behind him. Curiosity and excitement lapped up against him like the gentle waves of the sea; she was remembering something. And he was sure he knew what it was.
“You once told me you have a tattoo. Where is it?”
He ground his jaw.
She lifted up the edges of his shirt, exposing just a tiny sliver of his skin, but it was enough. A loud gasp, and then she bunched the shirt the entire way up his back.
“Wow. You weren’t kidding about having a tattoo. This thing is massive. So intricate.” Her warm breath rippled along his skin.
He didn’t move. Let her touch him. But he felt raw and exposed. What must she see when she looked at him? At the hideous mark of his shackles.
“Can you take your shirt off?”
His heart trembled. He closed his eyes and in one swift motion took it off. He felt like a caged animal that’d been beaten and manhandled. On the defense and edgy. “I despise it.”
“What? Oh no. No, it’s beautifully done. The black is so vivid and bold.” The warm press of lips touched the center of his back.
The design, a symbolic manifestation of the servitude he was forced to endure, and she’d kissed it. He turned, pulled her into his embrace and wrapped his arms tight around her, wishing he could crawl inside her skin, where it was safe and warm and good.
She meant everything to him. Her actions made him realize he was making the right choice. This was a life worth preserving. The world had to see what he saw, had to know her, because Eve was someone worth knowing.
“Thank you.”
She giggled. “For what?”
“Just,” he shook his head, “thank you.”
She pulled back, a happy twinkle in her eyes. “Come with me.” She grabbed his hand and walking backward, pulled him down the hall and into her room.
***
Eve bit her lip, glancing at him from beneath her lashes. A nervous flutter of wings lit in her throat. Her bedroom was bathed in the flickering golden glow of candlelight. The woodsy scent of incense undulated through the air.
Now she was a vision of sultry seduction, but a second ago he wouldn’t have recognized the madwoman kicking socks and panties under the bed to hide them from sight. She crossed her fingers behind her back, hoping he wouldn’t encounter a bra or two she might have overlooked.
With the rest of the house, she was such a clean freak. Not a spec of dust left to gather anywhere. But when it came to her bedroom, for some reason she never worried about dropping a bra or panty on the floor and leaving it there until laundry day. Probably because she hadn’t been laid since the wheel had been invented. Who would see her room to care?
“I’m sorry the bed’s not made. Kinda ruins the whole seduction thing I know.” She gave a self-effacing laugh. “But I only had two minutes, so you’ll have to forgive me this time.”
His gaze stole her breath. Mysterious eyes, full of pain and hurt, but when they looked at her it was different. It was a gentle caress, a twisting, knotting perusal that she felt all the way to the tips of her toes.
After what had just happened in her living room she shouldn’t be so nervous. But that had been all fire and brimstone. This was so much more.
She led him into the room and sat him down on her bed.
“Lay on your stomach, Cian. Please.”
He turned to her, a question turning his lips.
“Just trust me.” She smiled and placed a quick kiss on the side of his mouth.
“Hmmm, I don’t know.”
She swatted him and he jumped. She threw her head back and laughed at his wide-eyed shock. “Lay down you, or I’ll have to bust out my Kung Fu moves.”
He chuckled, laying face down on the amethyst comforter. “You’ve got me.”
“So trainable. I love it,” she teased and straddled him, sitting down and pushing his hair aside. Maybe later she’d give into her other fantasy of rolling around in the thick strands.
She ran her hands along the contours of his chiseled back, fascinated with the dark lines of his tattoo.
The skull itself was frightening, but the intricacy of the artwork beyond reproach. She narrowed her eyes. Man the thing looked really fresh. The ebony ink darker than any shade she’d ever seen, with none of the typical green tint to a fading tattoo. The color reminded her of shadow.
“You’re gonna have to tell me who gave you this thing, Cian. I think even Mingan would be jealous of this one.”
He just grunted as she reached over to the end table and grabbed her oils. She opened the stopper, poured a generous amount onto her hands and rubbed them together.
The rich herbal scent filled the room.
He moaned even before she started the massage. “What is that?”
Eve dug her hands into the tight muscles of his back and began to knead out the kinks. “It’s Balsam Peru I mixed with ylang ylang. You like?” She slid her thumbs along his spine, rubbing deep and pushing hard.
“Mmm.”
The vibrations of his groan shooting between her thighs, made her whimper in response. Liquid heat pooled inside her crotch. “I’ll take that as a yes.”
“Yes,” he grunted. And then: “You have magic fingers.” Every word he said rolled through her body, stoking the already growing fire.
Slicked up fingers made it easy to drive out the knots, the shimmering substance made his skin glisten. The powerful scent filled her head, her nose. She sucked it deep into her lungs, smelling not only the oil but the musk off his body. The effect was making her hot and itchy. Her lower stomach clenched and she could only hope he was feeling half as good as she was right now.
“I feel it, Eve.” He rolled over, making her slip from his back and falling onto her side. He gripped her waist, a devilish smile played on his lips.
“I’d swear you were reading my mind,” she chuckled, sliding her hands along his chest.
“No, just your emotions.”
She bit her lip, burying her nose in the crook of his neck. “Goddess that’s so embarrassing.” Heat settled in her cheeks.
He tipped her chin back and shook his head. “Don’t be. It’s one of the things I love about you. You make me feel at ease. I know who I am when I’m around you.”
Wow! Brain cells went dead. Her stomach flopped and blood thundered in her ears. She melted. Warmth crept into her limbs. And it just felt right. Fast or no. “Me too.”
He closed his eyes, a painful expression twisting his face. He slid his arm beneath her body and pulled her tight to him. She felt the beat of his heart; it felt like it was going to fly out his chest.
“Eve.” More than just her name came out his mouth. That one word encompassed a coiling need.
“Make love to me, Cian.”
***
His heart constricted. The peppermint warmth of her breath tickled his cheek. He itched to trace her lithe curves like a figurine and devour her mouth with his own. Cian closed his eyes and tried to breath.
All he got for his effort was the tantalizing fragrance of scented herbs and flowers. It tugged like an invisible magnet, demanding he crush her to him and give into the passion that hadn’t yet been sated. But he wouldn’t do this fast, he would take it slow and savor her like a fine wine.
She nipped at his neck. “Kiss me, Cian. Make me yours.” The hot, kittenish whisper speared his heart.
Golden eyes full of want blinked back at him. Slowly, deliberately he lowered his head, brushing his lips over hers in a gentle caress.
Eve wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him down, forcing him to lie upon her completely. He touched his lips to hers, his tongue sliding along the seam of her mouth asking without words for entrance.
She parted on a sigh and he darted inside. Tasting her sweetness and moaning deep in his throat. He slid his hand along the length of her naked thigh and when he encountered the cotton of her shorts he tugged gently. Then he flicked his wrists and both their sets of clothes were gone. For the first time they were body to body.
“Whoa. What was that?” she gasped, “did you just take our clothes off?”
He bit his lip, fighting the grin.
“Didn’t know Vamps could do that.”
“There’s a lot about me you don’t know.”
“Another challenge, eh? Mmm… I like,” she moaned, moving underneath him. “Take off the gloves, touch me everywhere.”
He stiffened. The temptation was like a powerful magnet, demanding he do it. Demanding he finally feel her. “I... I can’t.”
Her brows lowered as he crawled back off of her and sat up. It would only take one time… a cockroach to die in her apartment and he’d turn reaper. If even one digit on his hand grazed her, she’d go comatose. A frozen corpse. A soul trapped in a dead body. Just like the man Indigo had killed the other night.
“Hey. Hey.” She grabbed his hand and brought it to her lips, rubbing her mouth against the leathered knuckles. “It’s okay, really. If it’s a disability or anything, I hope you know you can trust me. But I won’t force you.”
He dropped his head, closing his eyes as the beauty of her words ran through him. So much deceit. Lies. That’s why he wanted to tell her the truth. To show her.
She placed his hand against her beast. His eyes snapped open and she smiled.
“I always thought Christine should have gotten with the Phantom.” She reached up and touched the side of his face. “Nothing you could show me would make me love you any less. But please, don’t let my ignorance ruin this night. Let’s finish what we started.”
She grabbed him by the shoulders and rolled him down on top of her. He forgot his worries, his fears, everything fled as he stared into the beauty of her face. “I don’t deserve you, Eve.”
“Shh.” She gently bit him on that spot between collarbone and neck. Fire raced down his spine. His gaze grew hot, hungry.
He grabbed one coral colored nipple and rolled it between his thumb and forefinger.
Eve hissed, arcing up and running her fingers through his hair. “Cian!”
Smiling at the sharp desire piercing her voice, he took the nipple into his mouth and suckled. Her flesh tasted sweet and salty. He laved the same kind of attention on the other breast before moving down.
He rubbed his cheek against the creamy smoothness of her flat belly. A violent wave of desire slammed through him, making him dizzy for want of her. Eve was projecting, writhing and moaning beneath him. Her lust his, her need raining through his veins.
Wanting to taste everything, he went lower still, his face between her thighs, staring at the very essence of what made her a woman. He’d tasted her once, now she was his addiction. He needed more and he would have more.
He kissed his way down her thighs, biting gently and imprinting a trail of red upon her skin. She dug her nails into his scalp, her salty-sweet scent wafted through the air. He ran a finger down her wet slit, exposing the pink engorged flesh.
Eve hissed, bucking up.
“So bonny,” he breathed, then lowered his head and took her swollen nub into his mouth, sucking, tasting and inhaling all of her. She was musky and tart, and he couldn’t get enough of her.
Groaning, she slammed herself deeper into his mouth, grinding her hips on his lips, demanding wordlessly he take more. He swirled his tongue around the silky smoothness, pulling her clit between his teeth and sucking hard.
A raspy moan expelled from her lungs. He grinned, finally came up for air, and licked his lips.
Her eyes were glazed as a wicked grin rolled across her face from ear to ear. She held out her arms. A repeat of the other night. Obeying without hesitation, he moved up her body. Inches separated his lips from hers.
Then she claimed his lips. This was no gentle kiss. It was blistering fire, and scalding. Teeth colliding, tongues dueling, breath leaving of lungs type kiss.
Her rumbles of approval vibrated straight through his chest. Elemental need ripped through him.
She pulled away first. Her face flushed. Her lips full and cherry red. Eve pushed against his chest, forcing him off so that she could sit up. His body throbbed, ached for her. It was a desire so sharp it was painful, like a thousand razor blades slicing through his skin.
Rosy flush of her face even more obvious against the wealth of black hair cascading down her back. “I want to ask you a favor,” her voice came out a husky, throaty whisper.
He could deny her nothing. “Anything.”
His black priestess. Her powers held him enthralled. Her desire for him poured over his body like waves of thick, warm honey.
“Undo your hair.”
Immediately, he pulled the leather thong from his hair. The long strands fell heavy to the floor. Her throaty laughter filled the room. She pushed him down, splaying his hair out on the bed and then lay down upon it.
She laughed, rolling around and dragging the ends along her slick body. “Goddess, it’s so soft. I’ve wanted to do this since the moment I laid eyes on you.”
&n
bsp; He was content just to watch. To see the delight sparkling in her eyes and the laughter playing on her bow shaped lips.
“I’ve never seen anything like your hair. Polished sable and ivory. So long. What man wears hair down to his knees? And yet. I can’t imagine you any other way.” She stopped and stared at him. “You’re so beautiful.”
He trembled and pulled her onto his chest. “Eve, you make me feel alive.”
She sighed, nuzzling his neck. He rolled them over, his hands framing her face. The beautiful vixen in his arms was more than he’d ever imagined.
“I can’t wait anymore. Take me now.”
The words touched off a wildfire of passion. Now. He had to have her now.
He grabbed her by the hips and pressed the long length of his cock against her slit, she was slick with dew.
Excited tremors moved through her body. Wanting to give her exactly what she asked for, he gripped her waist. She growled and arced her back. Pressing herself against his erection.
“Oh yes.”
Not able to withstand her temptation another second he slipped completely into her warm haven.
Cian pumped into her. She hissed. Her pelvic muscles milking him, clenching in a vice grip. A wild groan spilled from his lips. Her hands fisted the sheets.
He couldn’t take it. This hellcat. This witchy woman of his heart. He didn’t just want her body. Cian wanted all of her. “My gothic rose.”
Eve rose up, increasing the tempo, matching him drive for drive. The sharp slap of their bodies a testament to the crazy passion between them. It was a riot of lust far too great to ignore. And yet, it was more. This was more than just lust and sweat and passion.
“Yes,” she cried.
The pale flesh of her skin began to glow purest white while his turned darkest ebony. He sucked in a breath, not so lost in his haze not to notice what was happening between them.
He stopped moving and pulled out. Eve gave an inarticulate cry, her eyes widening at the colors of their bodies. Like ice on shadow. She lifted her hand and traced an invisible line between them. Her light banished his darkness.
