“Briana—”
She bit down on his lower lip, letting him know her cat was playing with him. “Kiss me, Luc. I’ll go crazy if I have to spend another moment trying to remember what it feels like.”
His blood turned molten in his veins. He opened his mouth, but whatever half-hearted objection might have been perched on the tip of his tongue disintegrated the second her stunning blue eyes met his.
So beautiful. He cupped her cheek, his thumb gliding across skin so soft he could spend years learning every inch of her.
Kiss me.
Her words ricocheted around his head, slicing clean through the last of his restraint. He could barely remember why he was fighting the urge to take whatever she was willing to give him.
Hadn’t he waited long enough? Denied himself even the most innocent touch when every part of him wanted her exactly where she was—in his arms?
“Please—”
He opened his mouth over hers, and the first touch of her lips—soft and scorching—burned through him hotter and brighter than a flare. The heat seared all the way down to the bone as he dragged her into a kiss much faster and harder than he planned. Slowing down briefly crossed his mind, until she gripped his shirt and moaned.
Silky strands of her hair caressed the back of the hand he hooked around her nape. Every bold sweep of her tongue against his jerked at the chain keeping his darkest hungers staked deep within.
He pressed her harder against the door, skimmed his hands up her sides, then slipped them beneath her shirt. Gods, he needed to touch her. Touch all of her. She shivered, and he broke from her lips to explore the slender curve of her neck.
A couple stumbled into the end of the hallway but never made it any further. Not when the woman was pushed up against the wall, the Fae’s hand between her legs, pushing her skirt up.
Lucan twisted the door knob, wanting to have Briana alone. The door gave way only a couple of feet, and then slammed shut. But not before he got a glimpse of the guy inside.
Mac?
“Get your own damn room,” a woman snapped through the door.
“Nessa?” Briana laughed, then didn’t give either of them a second to contemplate what was happening on the other side of the door. “Come on.”
She shoved the steel exit door open hard enough to slam it against the back alley’s brick wall. The damp night air rushed over his skin, but did nothing to cool the fever raging inside him.
A fever that burned hotter when she threw him a tempting look over her shoulder.
The door hadn’t even shut and her mouth was beneath his. He wasn’t sure who reached for the other first—didn’t care. Once he anchored his hands in her hair, as though it could keep him grounded somehow, he cared only about memorizing the drugging taste of her, the way her lips parted eagerly under his.
Not even the ambrosia he’d drunk from the Grail on the day he became one of Arthur’s immortal knights tasted as incredible as Briana’s kiss.
The voice that cautioned him something was wrong was little more than a whisper now, drowned out by the roar of an ocean during a rising storm.
A silky murmur of approval hummed in her throat, and he pushed his tongue into her mouth, stroking deep. Her fingers slid beneath his shirt, skimming his stomach.
He groaned. “I promised your brother—”
“That my clothes would stay on,” she finished for him. “Nobody said anything about yours.” She yanked off his shirt.
Finally.
She ran her palms up his chest. Pure feminine satisfaction sparked in her eyes. His own slid shut at the lazy exploration, her nails lightly raking on her second pass.
“Briana—” He bit down to silence the fierce demand she not play with him. He didn’t know how much he could take.
She stilled. “Haven’t you craved my touch?” She massaged the back of his neck before sinking her fingers into the ends of his hair, tugging just hard enough to make sure he was paying attention.
Had Excalibur itself materialized next to him he couldn’t have looked away from her.
She nipped his jaw. “Has wanting to touch me again never crossed your mind?”
“It’s never been far from it.”
Her cat showed in her eyes, and then she leaned in to seal her mouth over his. Need jack-knifed through him, and he locked his arms around her. With her body flush against him there was no longer a need to imagine the warmth of her skin, the softness, the sweetness—forbidden thoughts that haunted his dreamless sleep.
She somehow edged closer, her thigh sliding between his, and then there was nothing soft or sweet about his thoughts. Once more they revolved about her nails sinking into his bare back as he sank into her.
Hands in her hair, he pressed into her welcoming body, letting her know exactly how hard he was for her. She nipped his jaw, his ear, his bottom lip, pulling him into her mouth and sucking hard enough he ached to see her on her knees, sucking something far more sensitive.
Slipping his hands down to her ass, he lifted her off her feet, grinding her against the length of his cock.
“Luc…” The rest of her words were lost as he recaptured her mouth, sliding his tongue between her lips as slowly as he let her body slide back to the ground.
She tipped her head to the side, inviting him to tease a slow path to her shoulder.
The pounding of her pulse echoed in his head, and he lingered over the sweet spot. He dragged his teeth along her skin, rocked by a wave of hunger so intense it nearly dropped him to his knees.
Gods, he needed so much from her. So much.
The moment his fangs pricked her flesh, Briana whimpered, and he froze.
No! Fighting the ferocious need to hold onto her, he spun around.
She cut off his retreat, surprising him.
“I need to go.” He could feel the hunger invading every cell in his body, taking over. Where the hunger pulsed the deepest, the monster within him stirred. Lucan could again feel its interest in Briana when only blood and death ever appealed to that part of him.
She shook her head. “You can’t leave.”
“If you knew the thoughts running through my head you wouldn’t be standing in my way.” Thoughts he’d be wise to share, if only to make her understand. To make her run. If he lost control…
“You want to drink from me.” No fear or revulsion. Only…curiosity? “Don’t deny it.”
He wanted far more than just her blood. Always had. Which was why he needed to get as far from her as he could. He hadn’t dared touch her in centuries for fear of the consequences. If anything happened to her…
He should have left her with Tristan.
All too aware of the darkness pushing closer to the surface, Lucan made a move to go around her.
She growled, blocking his path once more. “You swore to keep me safe.”
“I thought you didn’t need my protection?”
Briana edged toward him like the lethal predator carefully buried beneath gorgeous blue eyes pleading with him to stay. “But the one thing I can’t protect myself from is you.”
He closed his eyes, his hands clenched tight at his sides. “Right now I pose the biggest threat.”
“Bigger than you think.” She touched his face, her palm cool on his overheating skin.
He hissed out a breath.
“Your eyes are nearly black, Luc. How far do you think you’d get before the madness drives you back to me?”
Fear, cold and sharp punched through his chest. It wasn’t losing himself that he feared as much as the wraith’s rising interest in Briana.
For years after Rhiannon had enslaved him—changed him—he’d been unaware of exactly what she’d done. He’d wake to the aftermath of destruction the wraith had unleashed when Lucan lost control, no longer able to fight the compulsion to follow Rhiannon’s orders.
As the centuries went by he’d learned to recognize the monster’s presence, its awareness. It’s determination.
And right now the w
raith was determined to be close to Briana.
“If you give in now, you won’t lose control,” she pressed.
“You don’t know that.” The words were like blistering rocks in his throat.
Her lips whispered over his, her gaze reassuring. “And you don’t know that I’m wrong.”
He shook his head. “What you’re asking…” He couldn’t bring himself to finish that thought aloud. She couldn’t possibly understand that if he opened that door, he couldn’t guarantee she wouldn’t get hurt.
Briana forced her pulse to slow. She studied his face carefully, trusting her instincts. “You promised to keep me safe. You will. I trust you.”
She wasn’t afraid of Lucan, but even the depth of the haunting shadows in his eyes troubled her. Of all the things Rhiannon had done to Lucan, gradually stripping him of his faith in himself was the worst, and Briana could kill her for it.
But he was here now. With her. She’d waited too long to watch him walk away from her again. She’d been so careful not to think about him, as though avoiding it would somehow change things.
She’d spent months denying what she felt to her core—Lucan was her mate.
She wanted to tell him, wanted to soothe the scars she knew ran deeper than she imagined. She wanted to hear the steady beat of his heart when she fell asleep in his arms, see the lazy smile curving his mouth when she woke there.
She wanted to love him.
Lifting her hands to his face, she ran her thumb across his bottom lip. “Be with me.”
His eyes slid shut. She reached up, pressed a soft, lingering kiss to each closed lid. He trembled in her arms, strong and warm and just maybe feeling the same way she was, like if they let this moment pass it would never come around again.
And she couldn’t bear the thought of that.
Sliding her palm along his jaw, she swept her mouth across his, willing him to kiss her back, to want this as much as she did.
His hands gripped her shoulders, his lips parting beneath hers—
Lucan pushed her up against the wall, his whole body pinning her in place, immobilizing her. The unexpected move rattled her feline half and left Briana off balance. Once she caught her breath and tipped her head up, her chest threatened to seize up on her again.
Pitch black eyes held her in a death stare, the intensity competing with the almost painful hold he had on her.
Lucan was gone, she realized, or at least he wasn’t the one in control.
She knew only scant details of the darkness inside him that Rhiannon had created when she turned him from a knight to a wraith. Cian had told her only that it used to be like blacking out for Lucan, though the passing centuries had given him greater control.
But how much? Would he be able to stop himself if his dark half decided to drain her of blood entirely?
Knowing she couldn’t afford to ever fear this side of him, she chose to put her faith in the man and monster that held her heart in his hands, and boldly met Lucan’s eyes. Whether he was in control or not, he needed to know she wasn’t afraid of him or the wraith.
“Every skilled predator knows you should at least show some teeth when you’re trying to scare someone.”
The feral slash of fangs he offered didn’t frighten her. Neither did the way he stared at her throat as if he could bite it clean through. Not even the cat, who’d snarled at the wraith glamour in the penthouse, seemed concerned by the predator she faced now.
Because both woman and cat were convinced he wasn’t a threat.
“You can’t scare me.”
The last word was snatched away as he spun her around, pressing up against her back and pinning her arms above her head. Limiting her range of motion might have annoyed the cat if not for the heat of his body holding her in place.
He let go of her wrists to close his hand around her throat, but didn’t squeeze.
Determined, she craned her neck to look at him over her shoulder. “Plan on using your sword next?” Maybe she was naïve not to fear the wraith, but she hadn’t been lying when she told Lucan that she trusted him.
All of him—for better or worse.
A cold smile curved his lips, his dark gaze trained on her mouth. Head cocked, he drew his thumb across her cheek and then her bottom lip, as she had done.
“Do it,” she murmured, not entirely sure what she was asking. A million butterflies back-flipped in her stomach and she was sure her heart skidded to a stop when his brows crashed together.
She tipped her head, exposing her neck. Both the man and the wraith needed to know she didn’t submit as a sign of weakness, but one of trust.
Slow and possessive, his fingers trailed the path between her shoulder and her jaw. He leaned closer, his mouth hovering just below her ear, and she bit her lip, trapping her whimper inside. She refused to let a single sound shatter the moment.
Drugged by the seductive stroke of his fingers, she let her eyes close. He drew a circle around and around the thumping pulse-point below her jaw. Anticipation curled through her in silken waves, surprising her.
She’d never thought of him biting her, barely let herself think about kissing him. And now her whole body teetered on the edge of a desire so foreign and overwhelming she could barely stand still.
A shiver broke across her skin, leaving her hot and cold and every skin-tingling degree in between. Tension vibrated through his iron-clad frame and the fingers at her throat hesitated.
When she finally dragged her eyes open, she found herself staring into eyes a pure, rainforest green. He’d come back to her.
“Briana,” he whispered. He lowered his mouth to hers, working her over with such exquisite softness every nerve ending threatened to short circuit.
Seconds melted into minutes, each pass of his lips hotter, slower.
The back of his hand caressed her cheek, then he carefully turned her around, their bodies touching at every possible junction along the way. Holding her gaze, he slid his hand under her shirt.
She bit her lip when he didn’t take his time exploring, but boldly cupped her breast, his thumb circling her nipple. Already hard, the tip ached as he played and tugged before he freed her from her bra altogether. The heat of his palm made her moan, but not nearly as much as the possessive kiss he claimed a heartbeat later.
Short circuit? Her body was in full-blown overload, and Avalon help her, she was willing to go up in flames as long as he didn’t stop.
Unable to keep her hands to herself, she indulged the need to smooth her hands over the defined planes of his chest. He murmured her name against her lips as drops of rain hit his skin, beaded and trailed down to the waist of his pants.
Hypnotized, she watched the progress of those drops, blinking through wet lashes as the raindrops gave way to a shower. Neither of them moved, and his attention didn’t once waver. She’d been waiting so long for him to look at her like this—like he’d finally found what he’d been searching for.
Taking full advantage of that, she drew one nail down the middle of his chest. A glance was all it took to see how hard he was, his arousal pushing at his zipper.
His jaw tightened with the first scrape of her claw down the seam of his cargo pants, and he dropped his forehead to hers. “Have an itch you need to scratch, kitten?”
“Mmmm. All six feet of him.”
He laughed, the rough pitch betraying how easily he could surrender to the cravings she had knowingly forced him to face. “And if he bites?”
“I heal quickly.”
“Maybe I don’t.”
There was no time to interpret Lucan’s meaning. His mouth branded her skin, devouring her with a lazy, slick suction where her neck and shoulder met.
Arching into him, she found him with her hand, her fingers barely closing over the hard length of his cock before he snared her wrist.
“Maybe we should slow down and think this through.” Despite his words, he brought her hand to his mouth, pressing a wickedly hot kiss to her palm.
&n
bsp; The ache for him deepened until it hummed under her skin. “It’s nothing we haven’t thought about before.” Thought. Dreamed. Craved. How she’d managed to last this long without touching him was a mystery greater than the origins of the Lady of the Lake.
“Foolish thoughts,” he whispered, his voice almost pained.
“According to who?” She rolled her hips, shamelessly rubbing against him.
“The goddess who holds my life in her hands.”
“She’s not here now, is she?” Her breath came faster as he slid a hand between her thighs, and then the buttons on her pants were open.
He bypassed her panties altogether, finding her damp for him. Satisfaction curved his lips in an arrogant smile. She gripped his shoulders, keeping him close. His thumb slid across her clit, rubbing in tantalizing circles that soon had her clawing at him for more.
Pleasure licked along her nerve endings and she moaned low and soft. Every fantasy she had dared to indulge was nothing more than a shadow compared to the taste of rain on his mouth, the teasing drag of his fingers up the inside of her thigh. And the way he watched her slide deeper into the delicious pleasure.
“If you stop…” The threat was left unfinished as Lucan stole her words, her next breath from her lungs.
Stole another piece of her she’d never get back, and all she could do was moan against the mouth that closed over hers hard and fast. The mindless swirl of his fingers between her legs drove every thought from her head. Every thought except for how incredible he would feel deep inside her.
Slower, then faster, he circled and stroked, spreading her wetness back and forth across her clit. Long glides of his fingers parted her folds before and after each slick swirl, slowing each moment she felt release within her grasp.
She moaned against his lips. “You’re driving me crazy.”
“Then we’re nearly even.”
Feather-light now, his touch drove her mad. The more she hungered for it, the more he teased, like water continuing to dance away from a live wire at the last second.
Deliciously frustrated, she cupped his face, bringing him closer. “Please…”
Hunger and heat tangled inside her, tightening like the softest silk across her skin.
Primal Temptation Page 6
