Night Shadow (29 page)

against the window, his body tense, his green eyes glittering in the

moonlight.

She could feel the aftermath of his adrenaline high; it surged through him

still. Sliding his fingers between hers, he brought both hands up to his

mouth. “We’re going to share more than a bed.” He kissed her fingers, his

breath warm against the back of her hands. Her heart started to race in

anticipation as he drew her hands up to shoulder level, pressing their

clasped fingers against the chil of the leaded window.

A few kisses would be great. Alex was a superlative kisser . . . Lexi let her

lashes flutter to her cheeks as his lips grazed her jaw. Kisses were good.

She turned her head to give him access to her neck. Smart move because

the sensation of his damp mouth against her throat shot down to all her

girl parts and made them sit up and take notice.

Naked, she thought dreamily as he trailed kisses along her col arbone.

Hmm. Skin to skin. Sleeping in his arms spoon-fashion. Bliss. The problem

was her sleepy blood was starting to wake up. Not enough to insert tab A

into slot B, but horizontal, and spooning.
There
was a plan.

“There’s a bed not twenty feet aw—”

“Too far.”

Shimmering would take al of a second and they’d be on a warm

horizontal surface. “Hocus—”

“Concentrating on the
pocus
here.”

Lexi huffed out a laugh. “That was terrible.”

He released her hands and she used one to cradle his head as he kissed

her again, sliding her other hand to the small of his back. His body was a

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Night Shadow

furnace against hers. The juxtaposition of his resilient heat against the

unyielding cold of the glass at her back made Lexi shudder.

Wrapping her arms around his neck, she lifted up onto her toes and

captured his mouth with hers. Without hesitation he kissed her back. A

kiss so deep, so carnal, she forgot how to breathe. She traced the tender

bottom curve of his lip. His strong white teeth nipped at her finger, and

just a rim of green showed around his black pupils as his gaze held hers.

After minutes—or was it days—he broke away, only to nibble a path of

need from her ear to her mouth. “I’m not good with words.”

He didn’t need words. The way his gaze held hers, the intensity of his

kisses, told her enough. Enough for now. “I’m okay with that. I prefer a

man who’s good with his hands.” And other moving body parts.

She tasted his desire on her tongue, his hunger in the fierce grip of his

fingers on her bottom as he urged her closer.

For a woman who three minutes before had only wanted to go to sleep,

she was already wet and burning up. Her skin was on fire. Her lips pulsed.

She couldn’t seem to get close enough. She
had
to feel his bare skin and

slid her palm under the back of his shirt. Her fingers encountered hot,

satin-smooth skin—until she moved higher. The hypertrophic scars from

his time spent caged and tortured on Marezzo years ago were a stark

reminder of what this man had already been through. His marauding

mouth stil ed. “Don’t—”

“Shh.” Lexi knew her light caress wasn’t hurting him. The nerve endings in

her lips tingled, and transmitted a signal to her vital organs. But this was

about him . . . As she smoothed her fingers across the lines of scar tissue

indicating how frequently he’d been whipped, she wished she could take

this away for him too, then realized how incredibly foolish she was being.

Lord, Alex would laugh if he knew how desperate she was to protect him.

Keep him safe, to see him . . .
happy.

Not your job, sweetheart.

Hel . Of course he knew. He could read her mind.
Lofty goal, huh?

Can take care of myself.

I know.

Right now how about we make each other happy?

I lo—“Like—I like the way you think—ah—right there,” she managed to

praise as he gently sucked on the spot under her ear. The spot that made

her knees go weak, and her insides sing. The sensation was compounded

as he cupped her breast through her shirt and bra, to find her nipple hard

and aching. He measured her breasts, weighing each one in his cupped

hand and then tormented her by skimming each nipple with his thumb.

Her back arched as she leaned forward. She wanted to remember these

moments together. She wanted to imprint him into her DNA. She wanted

to mark him with her scent, so that no matter what, he would never

forget her.

Her lips found the pulse pounding at the base of his neck. Hers throbbed

even faster. Her hands skimmed down his biceps and she looked up at

him with her heart in her eyes.

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Night Shadow

His thumb roughly stroked across the hard peak, causing Lexi to hum low

in her throat and rise up on her toes the necessary inches to get their

pelvises aligned.

He raised his head slightly. Inches away, his eyes appeared so green, so

translucent in the snow’s reflection that Lexi imagined herself underwater.

Which explained why she couldn’t catch her breath.

He gently brushed aside a lock of hair that had fal en into her eyes. “Lex .

. .”

He didn’t finish, but hearing her name on his lips, hearing the desperation

in his voice, made her feel almost freaking invincible. Lexi’s heart pounded

in response to his touch and she smiled up at him. This is what he

needed, what they both needed—mindless physical release.

“I thought we were supposed to be relaxing?”

“I promise, we’ll be extremely relaxed when we’re done.” He touched her

cheek. Softly. Reverently. His touch shimmied to her toes. She shifted

restlessly, her breasts aching for the feel of his hands on her bare skin.

His fingers glided up her cheek and combed through her hair. He cradled

her head in his large palm, then drew her toward him, inch by slow inch.

Cool air bathed her naked back. He lowered his head, and she touched his

face with just the tips of her fingers. His jaw felt rough as his mouth

crushed down on hers, and she tasted anger mixed with the fear. She

understood it, savored it, because it matched her own.

She met his almost violent demand. Her teeth raked his lip. His scraped

her tongue. She heard a low, fierce growl and realized it had come from

her.

His erection pressed against the juncture of her thighs, a-l-m-o-s-t where

she wanted him.

One large hand shifted from her behind to her breast. Her nipples ached.

She pressed her chest against his, trapping his hand. Making the pressure

harder. Unbearable.

He nudged her back a little, just enough. His fingers found her nipple

through her shirt. He squeezed to just this side of pain, then captured her

cry against his neck. Lexi panted. She pulled his T-shirt up to his

shoulders. He did the rest, magical y making it disappear.

Magic was excellent. “My turn?” she asked hopeful y, trying to get his belt

undone.

“Uh-uh. I’m going to peel you out of these clothes the old-fashioned way.”

Sneaking his cool hand up under the front of her T-shirt he spread his

palm across the swel of her breasts, then ran the back of his fingers

inside the lace edge of her bra,
almost
touching her nipple. “I love

touching your breasts. Firm and soft and the perfect size for my hands.”

Lexi wiggled to get closer.

He kissed her again, his tongue scorching, insatiable, driving her own

need higher. Higher. Lexi kissed him back with hot, sweet abandon, a low

hum in the back of her throat. Nothing held back, no artifice. Her tongue

active, insistent, ravenous, a blatant simulation of the more intimate act.

Frantic hands brailled his naked back and shoulders, crushing his hand

between their bodies.

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Oh. So much for the old-fashioned way. There went her T-shirt and pants.

“Boots?”

He lifted her easily.
Look Ma, no hands,
then hooked her leg over his arm.

“Just a suggestion,” she murmured dryly when he ignored her. Lexi

wrapped her legs around his waist. Crossing her feet in the small of his

back she slid her arms around his neck, gripping his hair.

He braced her back against the chil of the window as he lowered his head

to rake his teeth across her nipple. Her back arched as he stroked a line of

fire down her throat, across her chest, and paused at the juncture of her

thighs. She loved the feel of those callused hands on her skin. Wherever

he touched, flames licked and spread. Her hand clenched in his hair as he

sucked the hard peak of her nipple into the hot cavern of his mouth. His

teeth lightly scored her areola and her breath strangled in the back of her

throat.

Her stomach contracted as his fingers found her slick folds beneath the

panties she stil wore. Oh, God. So not fair.

“Panties. Off.”

He chuckled. “That doesn’t work.”

“I know,” she could barely talk. “It was a prompt.” To show him that

turnabout was fair play, she dipped two fingers into the waistband of his

jeans. He dragged in a breath, and they slipped down farther, her

fingertips brushing his sex. Their hands, trapped between their bodies,

bumped. “Wanna play chicken?” she taunted, pushing her hand farther

until her fingers brushed against his satiny length.

He slid another finger deep inside her. She whimpered, her body bucking

at his touch. The scent of her own arousal made her hotter. And him

harder.

“I can’t get enough of you,” his voice was raw as he tasted a damp path

across her breast to give the other one equal attention. “I want to taste

every part of you, hel I want to devour you, consume you—”

“Let’s stick to taste. No devouring. We’re in a spooky castle, God only

knows where.”

Alex chuckled against her neck, and he took a playful nip. That stung a

little, and shot her heart rate up several delicious notches.

“Are there by any—chance—” she attempted to speak in ful sentences

when there was barely enough air in her lungs to say a word. “Wizard

vampires
?”

He lifted his head and grinned. “Probably.”

That gave her pause. “Really?” Only half the word was pushed out

because she was so close to orgasm she could barely suck in enough air.

He shook his head. “I have no idea.” His hands moved over her body,

demanding, seeking, pressing. Frantic, bruising caresses—and hers were

no less gentle. He fil ed her world with his taste, with the Alex smel of

him, with the rough texture of the hair narrowing down from his chest to

his groin, to the tensile strength of his muscles.

“Get rid of your pants!”

“Yes, ma’am.”

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Oh, she
loved
magic. “Now my panties. Come
on,
Alex. Really, make it—”

He sprang free, pulsing, ready.
There.
“Oh, God,” she dropped her

forehead to his chest. “Thank you.” Her hand found him like a heat-

seeking missile. Her fingers curled against his hot flesh. His eyes closed

and his stomach muscles clenched as she stroked and teased with just the

right pressure to make him even harder. His stomach muscles tightened

convulsively.

“Enough . . .” he sucked in air as her fingertip found the head of his sex,

rubbed at the bead of moisture there. “Enough talking.”

“I was done chatting
hours
ago.”

He knew where she was most responsive, where she was the most

sensitive, and brought her close to the brink as he played his fingers over

her, in her, until she begged for release. “Please, Alex—” she panted,

incapable of drawing a full breath. “I’d—really like—to say—I don’t want to

rush you. But could you
please
—hurry—”

He slipped into her wet heat, entering her on one long, deep, gut-

wrenching thrust. “Oh God. Alex!” Her curves complemented his hollows.

Her softness his hardness. Pelvises locked together as they surged. And

ebbed. The window behind her rattled. She didn’t give a damn if they

went sailing into the night.

“You feel so good, so good.” Her breasts slid against his chest. Too

sensitive. Too exquisite a sensation. She cried out softly, burying her face

against his arched throat. She kissed the hard thudding beat of his heart.

Praying for more, satisfied with less. Her eyes lost focus, her breath

caught, and her internal muscles clenched around him like a fist. Digging

her heels into his taut flanks, Lexi knew that every thrust reaffirmed life.

With every pump of his hips, every flex of his muscles, every thrust, he