Savage Breath of Darkness

by Candice Stauffer

  “Now that’s one hell of an enormous fucking whoop-de-doo. What are you going to do when you find me, Zack?”

  That brought a frown to his face in a hurry. “Woman, you’ve one hell of a bad temper and mouth on you.”

  “What? No answer?”

  He stared at her for a few seconds, his frown slowly turning into a smile.

  “Fine. I’ll answer for you. Nothing. You’re going to do absolutely fucking nothing except frustrate and annoy the fuck out of me.”

  Looking way too pleased for her liking, his smile widened. “You think I am frustrating and annoying?”

  “You know damn well I want you. You know damn well I need you. You show up with your big fucking muscles bulging everywhere in all the right places, strutting around like a fucking sex god, tormenting the hell out of me and then you freak out, get mad and take off.”

  He stared at her for what seemed an eternity, a suggestion of anger hovering in his eyes. “I don’t get mad at you.”

  “I never claimed you get mad at me.” She struggled to pull away from him, but he held her in a firm grip and refused to budge an inch. “Let go of me.” She squirmed and used her palms to push against his heavily muscled chest. “You don’t get mad at me. You get mad at yourself. Don’t you dare deny it. You’re mad as hell right now because you want me, but you can’t have me. The idea of trusting yourself enough to be with me freaks you out.”

  “You belong to me.” His voice was pure, dark seduction. A sexy as hell erotic growl.

  “What?”

  “You heard me.”

  “Belonging to you means nothing. You’ll never touch me. Not really. You’re too afraid you’ll hurt me.” And that was a tragic shame. His touch caused her heart to race with anticipation. His touch heated her flesh. His touch heated her blood. It never failed to cause a slow burning fire to spread throughout her body. It caused her pulse to race. She loved to feel the heat of his flesh against hers. “I understand.”

  “No. You don’t.”

  “Why the hell do you think I stay away from my sister. I fear I’ll hurt her.”

  “It’s not the same.” He shook his head. “You wouldn’t hurt her.”

  “I already hurt her. I attacked her.”

  “She’s fine.”

  “If Caleb hadn’t stopped me, I would’ve killed her. Sometimes I wish he would’ve killed me.”

  He reached out and brushed a few strands of hair behind her ear. “Don’t say that.”

  “I could hurt her again.”

  “You wouldn’t do it. You couldn’t. You love her.”

  “ You were born immortal. I was born human. You’ve lived for thousands of years. I don’t know a fraction of the things you know. How do you expect me to have more control over this damn curse than you?”

  Several breathless moments passed by as they gazed into each other’s eyes. “It’s different,” he said.

  “How?”

  “What I feel for you is different.”

  “Bullshit is bullshit, Zack. It stinks even if you call it something else.”

  “You think I smell bad?” he laughed.

  “You know that’s not what I’m saying. I feel the same hunger for you as you feel for me.”

  “It’s not the same.”

  “Why? Do you want me more than I want you? Do you need me more than I need you?”

  “My desire for you isn’t simply dangerous. It’s deadly.”

  “Deadly?” A delicious current of electricity moved from her toes, up her spine, and to the top of her head. Her flesh heated. “Do you plan to kill me, Zack?”

  “You need to stop playing games with me.” She felt a rumble deep beneath the ground. “It’s too dangerous.”

  “I am not playing games with you. I feel out of control around you. I feel insane with hunger, with a need that is brutal and violent.” She shook her head. She couldn’t fight for them if he refused to stand by her side. She couldn’t fight her demons and his. “Fine. You’re right. I give up. We’re too fucked up to be together. We don’t have a chance in hell.”

  He stared at her, studied her face as if searching for something. He didn’t move a muscle. He didn’t even seem to take a breath. His expression remained emotionless. Cold. Dark.

  “It was good to see you again, Zack.” Fighting an urge more powerful than a compulsion to close the distance between them, she took a step back away from him.

  Something changed in his eyes. Not something. His eyes suddenly filled with a fierce smoldering look. “Where do you think you’re going?”

  “Don’t get all predator on me. I’m not running from you. I know better. Besides, I will always want you.” She needed him too much to keep allowing him to push her away and pull her back anymore. “I need to take care of a few things.” She forced herself to smile. “I’ll see you later.” She turned away from him and walked right into his arms. “Damn it, Zack.” She tilted her head back to look up at him. “Don’t do the shifty thing to cut me off.”

  He cupped his hands around her face and gazed into her eyes for a moment, and then he slowly leaned down and brushed his lips over hers. Then, claiming her mouth with his, he kissed her deeply, savoring the taste of her kiss, the feel of her lips moving over his. “Why?”

  Remembering she was pissed off at him, she bit his bottom lip hard enough to get him to lift his head. “I don’t like it.”

  His hands came down on her shoulders. “You bit me.”

  “I did.” She lifted her chin to let him know she meant business. “And I will do it again if you try to kiss me again.”

  Silencing her, his powerful arms swept around her, dragging her so close her body melted into his heavily muscled frame. “I happen to like the idea of you biting me.” He bent his head and captured her mouth with his.

  Arching her hips, allowing her body to move against his, she kissed him deeply, savoring the feel and taste of his kiss. Then, staying true to her word, she bit his bottom lip, hard. A deep, sexy growl rumbled in his chest as his hold tightened. His body was so hot, so magnificently rock-hard against hers. She released his lip and, despite intending to get the hell away from him, she linked her hands behind his neck and kissed him.

  “I am not leaving you frustrated and annoyed anymore,” he whispered against her lips. “And I am not allowing you to walk away from me anymore.”

  “Allowing?” She tilted her head back to look at him. “What I choose to do is not dependent on your permission.”

  “That’s what I said. I am not letting you walk away from me anymore.” The need, the hunger in his eyes, echoed in his deep, sexy as hell voice. A current of heat moved from her toes, up her spine, and to the top of her head.

  “I told you that I’m not walking from you. I’m not walking away from anything. I just need to take care of a few things.”

  “Come home with me.” His voice caused her entire body to overheat with desire. It was perfect. Deep. Seductive. Intoxicating.

  She needed to give her body and soul to him, fully and completely. He was fascinating. Mysterious. Dark. And way too fucking sexy. “I can’t.”

  “You’re coming home with me.”

  Looking up at him, feeling the heat of his body against hers, she felt utterly vulnerable to him. His body was hard and muscular, so perfect in every masculine way. “I am not going anywhere with you.”

  5

  He was smiling at her, but something very dark and dangerous flashed in his eyes. No. Not dangerous. Something wicked. He was up to something. “Sorry. It’s too late.”

  “Too late for what?” she asked.

  “We’re already here.”

  She glanced around. “Damn it, Zack.” She glared up at him. “There should be a law against shifting with another person without consent.”

  “Who would you get to enforce it?” he laughed.

  “Stop trying to be funny. I can’t do this crazy back and forth thing with you anymore.” She tried to shift away, but he blocked her
power to prevent her from doing it. She shoved him with all her strength, but he didn’t move at all. “Damn it, Zack. You are starting to piss me off.” She shoved him again. “Let me fucking leave or I’ll...”

  “Or you’ll what?” he cut her off.

  She opened her mouth to respond, but she stopped short.

  “Or you’ll what?” he asked.

  Staring up at him, she listened to the strong, steady sound of his heart. His enticing, masculine scent filled her lungs. “I want to leave before I lose my mind.”

  “I want you to stay with me.” He released her.

  “For what?” She watched him unbutton his shirt, open it, pull it off, and then toss it on the floor. He stood in front of her. Tormenting her with the sight of his large, dominating, incredibly sexy masculine body. “What the hell do you think you’re doing, Zack?”

  “Isn’t it obvious?” He looked wildly erotic. His perfectly proportioned muscular body was a delicious treat for her eyes to feast. He looked hot. So hot and sexy that it took every ounce of her strength to look away. “I am taking my clothes off.”

  He was driving her absolutely fucking insane with lust. Her heart raced. She struggled to keep her gaze on his rather than his sexy body. He didn’t have to look so damn hot. So fucking perfectly masculine. “I don’t want to see you naked,” she said, knowing damn well he knew she was lying her ass off.

  She felt the heat of his gaze touching her, slowly spreading over her flesh like a smoldering fire. His lips parted and slowly curved upward. A shiver of excitement ran through her body. She felt intoxicated. The look in his eyes. The need. The desire. The heat. The hunger. Savage. Raw. “That’s not what you said in your dream last night.”

  “If I ever had a dream and you were naked, it was a dreadful nightmare.”

  “Dreadful? That’s a lie. I was with you. It was a wonderful naughty sex dream. You were mad as hell because I didn’t take my clothes off fast enough.”

  “That sounds more like your kind of dream.”

  “No.” With a wave of his hand, he removed her clothes.

  The air rushed from her lungs in a surprised gasp. Every stitch of her clothing simply vanished. “What the…” She shivered as a cool breeze swept across her exposed flesh. A cool breeze he made her feel because she no longer felt differences in temperatures. “What the fucking hell do you think you’re doing, Zack?” She didn’t even bother to make any attempt to cover herself. She was too mad. And she wasn’t in the least bit shy.

  He smiled. “In my dream, we started out naked and stayed naked.”

  “You’re making a fool out of yourself.” She took a step closer to him.

  He unbuttoned his jeans and pulled them down and then kicked his feet free. “Am I?”

  Giving him a thorough visual head-to-toe once over, she nodded her head slowly. “I don’t want you.”

  He closed the distance between them and touched her. Electrifying vibrations followed the movement of his hand from her thigh to her hip. His fingers biting into her skin, he massaged her hips. Then, his powerful arms swept around her, dragging her so close that her body melted into his heavily muscled frame. “You want me,” he whispered, his lips against hers, causing her to shudder. “You need me. Only me.”

  “No. Not you. I want a brick factory.” All thought lost to him, to her desire for him, she pressed her body closer to his.

  “Why?”

  She crossed her arms over her chest. “I want to drop one on your fucking head.”

  “A brick factory?” he laughed.

  “A huge brick factory full of bricks.” She paused for a second. “Big fucking bricks.”

  He kissed his way from her collar bone up her neck, and then he nibbled on her ear. “It wouldn’t kill me.”

  His mouth was close enough to hers that she could feel the heat of his breath on her lips, and it ignited a flame of desire deep in her belly. She wanted him. She wanted to kiss him, taste him. “It would hurt.”

  He lifted her up. “Only a little.”

  She circled his neck with her arms and wrapped her legs around his body. “And suddenly…I…oh, damn it.”

  “I know you want me,” he whispered in a deep, seductive tone that sent electrical currents zipping through her body. “You need me as much as I need you.”

  “Lust is a cruel bitch.” The feel of his strong, muscular body against hers caused her to burn with lust. “I really fucking hate you, Zack.”

  Her entire body ached in the most amazing, delicious ways as he bent over and lowered her onto the bed and positioned his body between her legs. “But you’re on fire for me.”

  “Damn it.” Her nails gently raked across his shoulders and up his neck to his scalp. “Why do you have to smell so damn good?”

  “I could ask you the same question.” He bent his head and kissed her. A slow burning, passionate kiss. He savored every second of it. Her lips, her tongue, and her teeth setting him ablaze with a delicious combination of love and lust.

  “Stop,” she whispered against his mouth. “I can’t do this with you.”

  “Only with me.”

  “Get off.” She pushed at his shoulders. “Let me get up. Get off me. I am afraid, Zack.”

  He lifted his head to look at her. “Of me?”

  She shook her head. “No.”

  “Tell me.” She heard her own moan, a low whisper of longing, of desperate need. She’d never felt as needy as she did at that moment.

  “I don’t know.”

  “You know. Talk to me.”

  “With you…I…I feel so...” she trailed off.

  “Savage.” He smiled, that slow, sexy, wicked as hell smile, that always caused her blood to burn with desire.

  “No.” She shook her head. “Yes.” She nodded. “But that’s not what scares me.”

  “Tell me what scares you.” She could get lost listening to his voice and looking into his eyes. His lips curved into a slow smile. “Tell me.”

  “I have always been alone.”

  “You will never be alone again.”

  “I have never wanted anyone to really know me. Not even my sister.”

  “But?”

  “I want you to know me. I need you to know me.”

  “That’s good.”

  “No. It’s terrible.”

  “Not as far as I am concerned.”

  “I really, really fucking need you, Zack. In a pathetic, clingy way. I have never needed anyone before.”

  “How does that scare you?”

  “You know.”

  “I don’t.”

  “What if you decide to fool around?

  “With what?”

  “Another woman.”

  “Are you serious?”

  “I would lose it.”

  “You’re the only woman I want to fool around with.”

  “I would hurt you. Bad. Really fucking bad.”

  “I believe you.”

  “I would kill you.”

  “That will never happen.”

  “It could.”

  “No. It couldn’t.” He shook his head. “You are incredibly small. I am extremely big and enormously strong. And I am not easily killed.”

  “You’re not funny.”

  “You are mine. I am yours. I don’t want any other woman. I don’t share what is mine, and I would never expect you to share what’s yours.”

  “What if you wake up one day and decide to give up on us?”

  6

  F rom the day they met, Zack had made every possible mistake. He failed to keep Emily close, to stop her from walking away from him time and time again. “I’ve hurt you. I’ve made you feel abandoned and rejected.”

  He claimed her mouth, savoring the way her full lips softened under his. He could kiss her for forever. His tongue found hers, danced with hers. It was a long, drugging kiss. A kiss he would never forget. A kiss he intended to make sure she would never forget. Then, breaking off the kiss, he stared into her eyes and brea
thed with her for several seconds. “Give me a chance to prove that I will never fail you again.”

  She narrowed her gaze and shook her head, her hand smoothing over his jaw. “You have never failed me.”

  “That’s not true. I’ve failed us time and time again.” Before she could respond, he captured her mouth with his, kissing her deeply, cherishing the sweetness of her kiss, of the sensation of her lips moving over his.

  His lips were firm and incredibly hot as he feasted on hers. His kiss was demanding. His lips left her mouth and began a rousing trek from her throat, to her shoulder, and then to her breasts.

  “I refuse to pretend I’m the victim in our totally fucked up situation. We’ve both fucked our fair share of things up.”

  Lifting his head, he met her gaze. “Woman, this is not the time to argue with me.” He cupped her breast in his hand, teasing her nipple with his thumb. “Fucking things up started with me.”

  “Agreed.” Her moan, a low whisper of pleasure, of longing made him more rigid and engorged. Her need fueled his. Her hunger increased his. He was so damn swollen and hard, throbbing and aching. “But I played along and continued to fuck things up.”

  Lightly, he swirled his tongue around her nipples creating delicious sensations. “Did I not just tell you that it’s not the right time to argue with me?”

  “I’m not arguing with you.” Her flesh was so wonderfully hypersensitive. “Our habits of fucking things up proves we’re compatible.” Her entire body screamed for his touch, for his attention. The heat of his thick, heavy erection pressed against her thigh ignited flames of ecstasy from her head to her toes.

  Cupping her breasts in his hands, he bent his head and took his time swirling his tongue over her nipples and pinching them between his teeth. He nipped, sucked, and teased her nipples with his tongue. Arching her body, delicious red-hot embers of pleasure smoldering between her legs, she tangled her fingers in his thick hair, holding him to her, pressing her breast against his mouth.

  He kissed his way up the column of her throat. “Everything in me loves everything about you.” His gravelly words uttered against her flesh drove her fucking insane.

  “I can’t lose you again.” She’d never wanted or needed anything more than she needed to feel his cock buried deep inside her body. She hauled in a breath and tensed. Her need for him terrified her. It completely defied reason.