by Nora Ash
“Damn right you shouldn’t.” I moved back a bit so I could look up at him without craning my neck too much. “What right do you have to judge me like that?”
A touch of the primal anger from before flashed in his eyes, but this time I recognized it for what is also was. From what I’d seen in The Shade’s gaze. Possessiveness.
He forced it down, opting for an apologetic look instead. “I’m sorry I said those things to you. And that I didn’t explain… better, about the mark and what it means. Truth be told, I didn’t truly understand it myself, until… until I saw his mark on you. But most of all, I’m sorry you had to submit to him. I claimed you, and I should have been there to protect you.”
My own anger withered at the sincerity in his voice. Unless he was a frighteningly good actor, he meant what he said.
I nodded once, to show my acceptance of his apology. “Thanks.”
A small smile pulled the corner of his mouth up. “You know, other girls would have climbed me like a tree after a heartfelt apology, and you just say ‘thanks’?”
And there we were again, right back to him being an insufferable ass.
I narrowed my eyes. “Other girls don’t know what an arrogant jerk you truly are. Or perhaps you use that mind control thing on them, who knows?”
His smile widened. “Ah, there you are. I did miss your wicked little tongue tonight. There are surprisingly few humans who will give a superhuman attitude.”
“Perhaps because you mind rape the ones that do?” My tone was still more than a little sharp.
“You’re just never gonna let that go, are you?” he hummed. “We can’t mind control people, you know. It’s just that you find our pheromones rather appealing, and we can ramp them up a bit when the situation requires it.”
I blinked, baffled that he was sharing information about his kind with me. As far as I knew, no one had any knowledge about superhuman pheromones. “So you can’t make people do what you want?”
Lightning scoffed. “Well, not unless they’re female and already have at least a small sexual interest in me. And then I can mainly just get them to bang.” His smile turned wicked. “Don’t get me wrong, it’s a very useful skill. But if I could simply mind control people I’d just ask the mayor what he’s up to, not attend his boring parties and pretend like I give a flying fuck about his art collection.”
“Oh. Is that what you are doing? Trying to find an in with him?”
He sighed, stretching his long limbs as if he was particularly tired after the Autumn Ball. “Yup. As long as he sees me as a friend, he won’t suspect I’m looking into his affairs. And neither will anyone else. Which, of course, is just another reason you need to keep your lovely, round ass out of trouble.”
I ignored the comment about my ample backside. “And why are you telling me this?”
“Apart from trying to stop you from breaking into the mayor’s office another time? Because it’s my responsibility to take care of you, and maybe by explaining things a bit better, I can stop you from rushing head-first into whatever trouble you can find.”
I eyed him suspiciously. “What, exactly, do you mean by it being your responsibility to take care of me?”
“You’re mine.” A flash of the anger from before filtered through his blue gaze. “I protect you. Not that fucking pickpocket who thought he could come in and erase my mark.”
“Oh. Right.” I didn’t have the nerve to tell him that, if The Shade had marked me to get under his skin, then it was working. “Does that mean you’ll tell me what the heck is going on?”
Lightning sent me a long glance. “I can’t tell you everything. You’re a human, and there are rules. But I can tell you that whatever Wilkins is involved in, it’s somehow linked to the supe community. There has been a shift in our ranks, and there are whispers of something big going down soon. I don’t know what yet, but whenever there are secrets circulating, it’s never good. What I’m dying to know is how Wilkins is involved. My gut instinct tells me he’s deeper into it than simply bankrolling the supe leaders with city funds, but how exactly they’re using him, I don’t know.” He raised his chin at me, lips slipping into a soft quirk. “You didn’t happen to stumble across any leads while messing around on his computer, did you?”
The tone suggested he was half-joking, and I hurriedly shook my head. I’d yet to look through the pictures I’d taken, and in case there actually was something on there, I’d want to see it myself before he or The Shade yanked it from me. “Nuh-uh. Nothing of interest.”
“Figured,” Lightning sighed, finally hopping down off my desk. “He’s too slippery to get caught redhanded. But never mind—I don’t want you worrying yourself over any of this going forward, understood? Your little gamble seems to have paid off, meaning you’re no longer at risk as far as Wilkins goes. So no more getting yourself into trouble, hm?”
I wondered if he knew just how much he sounded like his archenemy when he went all “primitive protector” on me. Then, when his pointed gaze indicated he wanted a response from me, I nodded seriously, giving him as honest a facial expression as I could muster.
“Of course not. I just wanted to be safe. If the mayor and whoever else might have thought I was a threat are pacified after tonight, I’m out.”
I wasn’t out, not by a long shot. I’d been pulled way too far into this to just tap out, even if I believed that no one would ever try to hurt me for that damn article again. Not after what happened with Peter Miller, and the promise I’d made to Aaron. But I was fairly certain that saying anything along those lines to the superhuman staring at me wouldn’t be in my best interests.
“You wouldn’t be lying to me, would you, Kittykat?”
“Of course not.” I managed an expression of hurt at his accusation. “Do you think I find it fun to be chased through the streets by a pack of goons? I just want my life to go back to normal.”
“Fair enough. Then I presume you don’t mind if I look through your phone? See what sort of pictures you took tonight?”
Fuck.
“Of course not.” I handed him the device, because if I didn’t he would know I’d lied. “Though that’s pretty violating, just so you know—a masked vigilante demanding to rifle through citizens’ phones.”
He gave me a short glance before flicking through to my photos. “You’re not a citizen—you’re mine. Be happy I asked you. That’s not how most of these bonds work.”
“What do you mean?” I asked, genuinely affronted. He made it sound like I was some sort of… slave. An unpleasant sense of foreboding nestled in my gut.
“I mean that most humans who are marked by a supe become little more than his property.” Lightning didn’t even bother looking up from my phone as his words made icy tendrils travel up my spine.
“What? You—are you saying you see me as your property? That is so fucked up! I can tell you right now, that’s not happening, buddy!”
Lightning snorted, eyes still glued to my phone’s screen. “No, I’m saying that’s what normally happens. I have no idea why you’re different. You just are. When I saw you crouched under a table in that coffee shop, I knew there was something… unique about you. I’ve never claimed a human before, yet you—I wanted to mark your neck from the first time you opened your mouth.”
I blinked. “Uh… what… does that mean?”
He looked up at me then, and there was not an ounce of hesitation or sarcasm in his glowing gaze. “It means you’re mine, Kathryn. Mine. It means I had to fight every goddamn instinct in my body not to flip you over and fuck you raw when I saw The Shade’s mark on you. It means I will protect you with my own flesh if need be.”
That… didn’t even come close to answering any of my questions. In fact, it only gave birth to more as I stared at the dark possessiveness in the superhuman’s eyes. More questions and a hot pulse low in my abdomen that seemed to spread up through my body for every second his gaze was locked in mine.
Dammit. Why did Neanderthal beh
avior get to me like this?
Lightning finally broke eye contact, looking back down on my phone without another word. I was quiet for several moments while my dazed brain tried to come to grips with his words and their disturbing effect on my body. Then the image of Elias Shaw flicked over the screen, and I was jolted out of my stupor. If I wanted to keep whatever I’d found on the mayor’s computer for myself until I’d had a chance at sorting through it—and not get caught in a lie—then I needed to distract him. Now.
“Why didn’t you have sex with me?” The words seemed to just fall out of my mouth on their own before I managed to clamp my lips shut around them. A hefty flush shot into my cheeks when Lightning raised his gaze once more.
“Beg your pardon?” His soft tone was in complete contrast to the searing heat of his darkened eyes.
I gulped, instinctively licking my lips. “You, ah, said you wanted to… at the mayor’s office. Why didn’t you?”
“Did you want me to?”
Well… that wasn’t exactly the reply I’d imagined. I blinked and cleared my throat. “T-that wasn’t what I meant.”
“Oh?” Finally, he put my phone down. Only it didn’t ease any of the tension in my pulsing body. Lightning closed the small gap between us with steps as smooth as a stalking feline and, when he was right in front of me and my heart was pounding, bent down with one hand on each armrest of my chair, closing me in.
“Tell me then, Kittykat. What did you mean?”
“Just that… The Shade said a claim wasn’t valid without sex, and… and you didn’t sleep with me when you marked me, either. I just don’t understand why.”
His eyes narrowed at the mention of his enemy. “I think I told you, the last time I was in your apartment. You may not think I’m the hero the rest of the city believes in, but I don’t force women to submit to me. Unless, of course, they ask me to.”
My heart thudded erratically when he lowered his gaze from my eyes to my lips, only to slowly raise it again.
“Are you asking?”
The sensible part of my brain wanted to say no, because despite all his rippling abs and wicked smile, I knew he wasn’t the hero he postured as. I knew I needed to back away from the heat in his eyes before I was consumed.
Unfortunately, the sensible part of my brain wasn’t currently in control. When I mindlessly leaned forward and pressed my lips to his, my ovaries were in the driver’s seat.
Lightning growled low in his throat when my mouth pressed against his, and as the lush flavor of his kiss washed over my senses his strong hands landed on my hips, pulling me up from the chair and flush against his firm body as if I weighed nothing.
I moaned incoherently into his mouth, too wrapped up in the electric currents racing underneath my skin. His tongue swept in between my parted lips and delved deeper, and I melted in against his powerful frame.
The hands on my hips stroked up, easily finding the buttons in my footie pajamas without ever breaking the kiss. But when he’d opened all the buttons and lifted his hands to brush it off my shoulders, my apprehension reared its ugly head. With The Shade I hadn’t been naked, and despite the intoxication of Lightning’s desire, my brain suddenly filled with images of his eyes on my soft, imperfect body.
When my hands found his and stopped their attempt to rid me of my clothes, Lightning broke the kiss. He looked down at me questioningly, and I felt a humiliated blush spread up my chest to my face.
“I’m sorry, it’s just…” I fumbled with the front of my footie pajamas, trying to button it up again. His hands paused my attempt.
“No.” It was a borderline growl. “I want to see all of you.”
I flinched, trying to shy away, but Lightning was determined. He pushed my hands away and pulled at the fabric covering my shoulders, letting it slide down my torso. My nipples tightened at the sudden exposure to the air, and I made a vain attempt to hide behind my arms while Lightning yanked the footie pajamas over my hips, grabbing my panties on the way down and letting both pool at my feet.
“Let me see you.” It was a flat-out command.
I wasn’t normally too bothered by my rounded figure, so why did I feel this way now? Just because the man in front of me was physical perfection, just because no one had seen me fully naked in years… I did my best to silence the inner panic and, reluctantly, lowered my arms and raised my chin up in defiance.
The low, rich growl that vibrated out of Lightning’s chest made my pulse throb for something entirely different than embarrassment, and I felt the heated knot in my abdomen melt as moisture began to seep from my core.
He reached out, grabbing my hips hard, but when his leather-clad hands touched my skin he pulled back with a grunt. With swift movements he yanked off his gloves, only to grasp me by the hips once more. His touch was as heated as his kiss had been when his fingers dug into my flesh, pulling me close.
“Don’t ever hide that beautiful body from me again.” Lightning’s voice was hoarse and deep, its rumble echoing deep inside of me. “Do you understand?”
I nodded slowly, too dazed by the desire thrumming through my body to object. In his eyes I saw no judgment of my imperfections, nor disappointment—only a deep, fiery need. It turned me on like nothing before it.
Of their own accord my hands reached for his suit, fumbling for a zipper or buttons—anything to get to his skin. I needed to feel it under my fingertips, needed to stroke my hands over his firm muscles and know that he was really there.
Lightning chuckled and reached behind his back, undoing the top part of his two-toned suit. When he stripped it off, I could barely grasp the magnitude of his masculinity. Every single muscle in his chest, arms, and stomach were clearly defined and thickly coiled around his tall frame. A smattering of hair trailed down his lightly bronzed skin below his navel, disappearing behind his crimson-and-charcoal pants that clung to the pronounced “V” of his hips like a second skin.
“Oh, wow.”
I wasn’t even aware of my own breathy appreciation before Lightning’s lips quirked up in response. Then his hands returned to my body, and my brain tapped out.
He was like a firestorm, embracing me with scorching heat and bruising strength emphasized by featherlight brushes of his fingertips as he rounded every one of my body’s curves.
“I need more of you,” he whispered hoarsely against my ear, sweeping his hands up over my soft stomach to cup my full breasts. “How do you do this to me? I’m aching to be inside of you.”
I groaned an agreement, and then moaned when his mouth dipped to my left nipple, sucking it deep into his mouth. The firestorm turned electric, and I arched into him as his teasing suckles went straight to my clit, making it ache and throb for attention. I reached out for him, letting my hands roam over his chiseled chest, and was rewarded with another rich growl that vibrated against my palms.
His mouth came off my nipple with a wet pop, but instead of going straight for the other, he reached down and grabbed my ass, lifting me up so I was forced to part my thighs for his hips. Before I managed much more than a squeak, I was on my back on my bed, staring dumbfounded up at the smirking superhuman.
“Lightning speed,” was his only comment. “Let me show you what else it’s good for.”
Faster than my eyes could track he’d knelt between my still-spread thighs, and then his mouth pressed against my slit.
I gasped and grasped at the sheets, because without pausing he delved his tongue in between my parted flesh, licking broadly from my entrance to the pearl up top.
“God!” My outburst was followed by immediate panting and thrashing as his tongue lashed at my clit from every possible angle, faster than my nerves could even fully comprehend. The result was a whirlwind of sensation bursting through my poor nub and into my bloodstream where it overloaded my entire system. I was faintly aware that I was screaming like a banshee, but I was way too far gone to care. The desire that had been smoldering in my abdomen since he first entered my apartment was set
free and running rampant through my body, rising up through my squirming spine like a tsunami.
My orgasm struck before I’d even realized it was building.
“Yes! Fuck! God, yes!” I clutched at his head as I crashed over the edge, pressing my thighs tight around his neck as my body rode it out. Only the merciless lashings against my clit never allowed me to ebb, and as if someone flicked a switch, the stimulation turned agonizing.
“Stop, please, God, stop! No more!” I wailed my plea out while flailing desperately in Lightning’s iron grip, but I might as well have attempted to dislodge a mountain. Thankfully, he stopped on his own, giving my pulsing clit a gentle kiss before lifting his gaze to mine.
“I asked if you wanted me to make you submit,” he said, his rich voice drifting over my mound and abdomen in a warm caress. “I do hope you don’t think we’re done now—or you are in for a rude awakening.”
I groaned and let my head fall down on the sheets I’d crumpled up in my fitful orgasm. “Human here… remember!” I gasped, trying to control the tremors still rippling through my body. “You need… to slow down!”
Lightning’s smirk turned decidedly wicked. “Why? I enjoy seeing you struggle to take all the pleasure I can give your beautiful little body.” Another kiss landed on my clit, and another, followed by gentle suction. I moaned and lifted my hips, caught between needing to rest and wanting to chase the slow burn of pleasure he stirred once again.
Lightning didn’t give me much of a choice.
The gentle sucking turned more insistent, and I forgot I’d wanted a break. Bursts of pleasure burned through my nerves, but he was gentler this time, letting me climb toward my peak at a steady pace rather than rushing me forward. When two of his fingers dipped into my pussy and curved for my g-spot, my moans and gasps turned to sharp whines and yelps. He finger-fucked me deep and fast, forcing my hips to buck up against his demanding mouth.
“Lightning!” I pleaded, not even fully conscious that my grasping hands were tugging roughly on the mask covering the top half of his head. “More, more, more!”
