Chapter 11
Lance
Icould hear Quinn not-sleeping through the walls of the cabin. Her breaths hadn’t evened out into the slow, subdued pace of human slumber. Every few minutes, the sheets rustled as she rolled one way or the other.
She’d gone to bed an hour ago, but something was keeping her awake. And my awareness of her was distracting me. I could have gone out into the swamp to get some distance, but my thoughts kept drawing me back to the mortal woman in the next room.
The vibe she gave off was getting stronger, sending little pulses of warning through my senses. As if I could have believed she was any sort of threat after what I’d seen of her. She’d gotten distressed over the possibility that she’d accidentally caused me the tiniest of injuries. Not even Torrent or Crag would have given a second thought to a minor accidental smack.
No, she wasn’t any kind of danger to me, no matter what the strange energy she gave off implied. And I didn’t want to stay away from her. There were so many delicious possibilities hovering between us.
She’d kissed me yesterday. She wanted to do more than look. And so did I. It’d been good—better than I’d even hoped. Like devouring the most thrilling flavor of ice cream, except warm instead of cold, and having the sweet heat of it flood my entire body.
That thought sent me out of the shadows to the kitchen. I considered the cartons in the freezer—despite my requests, Crag had only brought back three flavors, which was hardly enough variety—and settled on caramel ripple. I scooped out a dollop with my claws, plopped it into a bowl, paused, and then grabbed another bowl to fill. The frozen treat was my favorite food because of the particularly enjoyable contrast between the cool creaminess and the echo of fire that lingered in my throat even in human form, but mortals loved this stuff too, didn’t they?
I found two spoons and carried the bowls over to Quinn’s bedroom. The door was closed, so I simply carried the ice cream into the shadows around it and emerged on the other side with everything still in order.
Moonlight streamed over her from the curtainless window. She was lying with her face toward the wall and her eyes resolutely closed, as if she could convince herself to sleep by strength of will. Her determination about all things really was delightful. I moved one of the bowls over so I held both with the splayed claws of one hand and sat down on the edge of the bed next to her.
As I’d expected from past observations of human behavior, she startled. Her mouth opened with a yelp of surprise, and I clamped my hand against her lips to muffle the sound so the others wouldn’t come running to her rescue. “It’s just me,” I whispered.
Quinn huffed against my palm and rolled onto her back as I removed it. She glowered at me. “Just you, sneaking into my bedroom and smothering me like a maniac.”
“Is there something wrong with being a maniac?” I asked. “Anyway, I brought you ice cream.”
She grumbled something inarticulate to herself but sat up to accept the bowl. “Were you planning on waking me up for this midnight snack, or could you tell I wasn’t asleep?”
“You’re a very noisy not-sleeper. By shadowkind standards.”
“Well, when shadowkind don’t sleep at all, I guess I won’t worry too much about that.” She eyed the ice cream and took a tentative spoonful.
The way her face softened at the taste of it, a faint smile curling her lips, sent that heat I’d felt while we’d kissed unfurling down through my abdomen again.
I wanted to lick the traces of the cream off her mouth, but then my own portion would go to waste. There was plenty of time for all wonderful things. I popped a heaping spoonful into my mouth, gulped it before it could melt, and beamed at the sensation of the sugary chill sliding down my throat.
“You are deeply weird,” Quinn informed me, as if she wasn’t polishing off her ice cream as quickly as I was.
I turned so that I could rest my elbow on her raised knees, only the thin sheet separating our skin, and shot her a grin. “And you like it a lot.”
Her mouth flattened, but the flush that spread across her pale face told me why she didn’t argue. There wasn’t anything to argue about. I was right.
Of course, I was coming to like her a lot too. I hadn’t spent this much time around any one human before, at least not one who’d given me a choice in the matter. Mortal reactions and quirks really were entertaining. And now that I’d had a taste of this one, I couldn’t help being increasingly curious about what other reactions I could provoke beyond the color in her cheeks and the dilation of her pupils. What effects those reactions would have on me.
A whole new area to explore that I’d never indulged in before.
I let my gaze travel over her as I finished the last of my ice cream. The sheet had fallen to her waist. She was wearing a tank top and nothing underneath it, the small nubs at the peaks of her lightly curved chest poking against the fabric.
I’d seen men and women—both human and shadowkind—embracing in Rollick’s club or out on the beach plenty of times, and it seemed the women particularly liked having those nubs and the slopes around them caressed. That and farther down. What did she have on under the sheet?
Quinn set her bowl on the bedside table and licked her lips, the motion yanking my attention back to her mouth. I tossed my bowl onto the floor with a thunk and slid closer.
Her eyes widened with the tiny catch of her breath I was starting to savor. “What are you doing?”
“You like this too. Why shouldn’t I do it?” I curled my fingers to angle my claws away from her flesh and traced one knuckle lightly across her lips.
Quinn pulled back, but only a couple of inches, her flush deepening. “Just because someone likes something doesn’t mean they necessarily want to go ahead with it.”
I cocked my head. “Why wouldn’t they? If you know you would enjoy something, then why avoid it?”
“I was trying to sleep.”
I snorted and reached a little farther to graze her cheek. My finger skimmed down over her jaw to the side of her neck, where her pulse jumped against my hand. “You weren’t doing a very good job of it. This is more interesting than lying there not-sleeping, isn’t it?”
“Why do you want to do it?” she asked abruptly, folding her arms over her chest and hiding those enticing curves.
“It’s enjoyable for me too. It’s something different from all this waiting around here, isn’t it?”
“So, you’re bored.”
“I’m curious.” I extended my claws and teased just the very tips along her jaw, easing them back when she shivered. “I won’t hurt you. My reflexes have gotten very good. I don’t slice and dice anything unless I intend to.”
“Well, that’s a relief,” she muttered, but her breath had quickened. I wanted to drink it in. All those little signs of desire pulled at me like a magnet.
Maybe she needed the reminder of just how much fun the collision of our bodies could be.
I tucked my hand behind her shoulders and pulled her to me, bowing my head to claim her lips the way she’d captured mine yesterday in the water. A soft sound escaped her, and then I was reveling in the pliant heat of her mouth, turned even sweeter by the lingering traces of caramel.
Yes, this—this was what I’d been craving. This and more. My tongue flicked out to sweep between her lips, and her tongue rose to meet it. A stutter ran through her breath. She clutched the front of my shirt, her mouth pressing even more emphatically against mine.
No wonder humans got so worked up when they saw another being they wanted to mesh with like this. Nothing else I’d ever encountered matched this feeling.
I kissed her again, my hand starting to stroke down her bare arm, and Quinn pulled back. Her cheeks were ruddy and her eyes starkly bright with hunger, but she placed the heel of her hand firmly against my chest as if she thought she needed to hold me back, that words wouldn’t be enough.
Or maybe she was holding herself back from me.
“What did you mean yesterday?” she said. “About—about having fun ‘while we can’? What are you expecting to happen that’ll mean we can’t?”
I couldn’t tell her what I knew, what Torrent had reminded me of so pedantically. When Rollick knew we had her and came to collect, we were handing her over to him, whatever his intentions were.
I found it hard to believe that our boss was literally going to devour this woman, but it was hard to tell with the demon. Sometimes beings that powerful did inexplicable things. Possibly he’d meant a more metaphorical devouring like the one I’d like to engage in right now.
Picturing him looming over her on a bed like this brought a flare of emotion I couldn’t explain into my chest. A growl formed at the base of my throat. Mine.
She wasn’t, though. Since when did I collect humans—or anything else, for that matter? She was his.
But for now, until he got his head out of his ass and realized we were waiting for him, she could be mine temporarily. I’d make it the most pleasant possible wait for her.
“You don’t want to be here forever,” I said, keeping my answer simple. “You’d like to be going back to your regular life as soon as we can arrange it, wouldn’t you? It’s not as if I should be staking a permanent claim.”
Something flickered in her eyes that I couldn’t read, but her shoulders relaxed. “Well, true. I wasn’t expecting you to.”
I let my lips pull into another grin. “Then what’s the problem? Let’s continue having our temporary fun.”
She hesitated for only a second longer, and then she pushed forward to kiss me like she had yesterday.
Somehow it was even more delicious when she took that first step. But as her mouth moved against mine and her hands trailed down my chest, a shiver that wasn’t entirely pleasant tingled through me.
The wonder and desire tangled through me were knotting into something that felt closer to need. Like shewas entangling me, like I might find myself unable to break free.
No. It wasn’t like that. She wasn’t like that. I’d watched her for long enough to know. I wouldn’t be doing this otherwise, after restraining my curiosity for so long before.
I knew there wasn’t any real danger, but I slid my hands down her arms to her wrists instinctively. Without releasing her mouth, I tipped her over on the bed and straddled her hips. Then I stretched her arms over her head and pinned them to the pillow just above the rumpled waves of her hair.
Her body shivered under mine with a fresh waft of heat. She didn’t object. She might even like my assertion of control.
She’d believed me when I’d said I wouldn’t hurt her.
I smiled against her lips, my twinge of anxiety fading as quickly as it’d risen up. Now I could take my time exploring every plane and crevice of the delicacy that was her mouth.
When her tongue twined past mine to dart into my own mouth, a sharper clang of lust jolted to my groin. My blood was collecting there, turning me hard and sensitive with the inescapable urge to thrust myself against her.
Into her.
Not yet. There was so much else to discover in the friction between us. I left her mouth to nibble the crook of her jaw, the underside of her chin, the column of her throat, marking every spot that provoked a headier gasp from her. The sounds she made offered sparks of elation I’d never encountered before.
There was so much joy to be unearthed in this kind of melding. Why had I never tried it before?
I knew the answer to that, but I’d rather not look at it. Not while I was having such a good time.
I wanted to see what I could conjure in this woman with more than just my mouth. Tugging her arms closer together, I encompassed both of her slim wrists with one hand, my long fingers holding them both in place. Then I teased my other hand down her side.
She arched into my touch, those graceful mounds brushing my chest. I swiveled my palm over one, watching and feeling how the nub hardened at the contact. A little whimper spilled from Quinn’s lips.
Yes. Perfect. I repeated the motion, seeing how far I could raise the peak. Then, with a glimmer of inspiration, I stroked the tips of my claws over the nub.
“Fuck,” Quinn murmured, her eyelids fluttering.
I couldn’t restrain a smirk. “Good?”
“Good. No complaints here.”
I chuckled, but I was finding myself irritated with the layer of cloth that separated her flesh from mine. I could provoke even more intense sensations without that barrier, couldn’t I?
Without questioning the impulse, I raked my claws down the center of her shirt, just forcefully enough to slice through the thin fabric while only skimming across her skin. A noise that was half yelp, half gasp burst from Quinn, turning into a ragged moan as I brushed the severed pieces aside with a graze of my claws across her naked breast.
“You’re wrecking my clothes,” she grumbled, her voice too breathy to give any punch to the protest. “I don’t have that much here, you know.”
I grunted dismissively. “Crag can go get you more if you need them. It was in my way. Now I can do this.”
I bent over and lapped the tip of her breast right into my hungry mouth. For now, she was mine, and I intended to explore all of her in every possible way.