“Why not? I think we both enjoyed it. You did enjoy it, didn’t you?” She looked so
unsure. How could this woman ever doubt her ability to knock the socks off a man? She was stunning, and when she kissed, it was like a dream. Maybe she was just playing him up, trying to be coy. But no, that wasn’t her way. She was an upfront woman. She wanted to know why he couldn’t be with her? Shit he had (at least) two good reasons.
“It doesn’t matter if I enjoyed it, Nanu, because it isn’t happening again.”
She stepped up into him, pressing her body lightly against him, cautious of his stomach injury. Her hands perched like hummingbirds on his pecks.
“Why can’t it happen again? I think about you, Henry. I dream about you.” Her voice was a bare whisper, a gentle tickle over his ear. Her warmth permeated his body, making him want to pull her closer, wrap himself around her. Bitterness crept in. He stepped back, welcoming the chill over his sweaty skin.
“It doesn’t matter why.”
“Of course it does,” she said with a shake of her head. Her dark hair whipped side to side.
Her hair shined in the light. He’d always wondered how it would feel if he touched it. Slightly coarse, satin soft, or something altogether different. “Henry, please just tell me why we can’t be together.”
Henry stilled and looked away from her. She was so adamant. Frustration laced her voice.
It hurt to know that he was denying her. Fine, he’d tell her. He’d tell her then never speak of it again and avoid her at all costs. Even if that meant disobeying his commander, because after she knew the truth, he wouldn’t be able to hide his bitterness or anger.
Henry locked gazes with her and marched up to her, cupping her face in his hands. She stretched towards him as if she’d been waiting for this moment. Her eyes fluttered like they wanted to close, her lips moved toward his. If he wasn’t as tall as he was, she might have come close to reaching them too.
“Open your eyes. Look at me when I tell you this, Nanu.” She did, the crinkles at the corner of her eyes pulling tight with concern. “I won’t be with you because I can’t do what I do and come back to someone like you. I take lives for a living, you save them. It doesn’t mix. It won’t work. Blood is on my hands every single day, no matter how much I wash. It’s always there. The faces of those I take are always with me. I kill fathers, brothers, sons, people with families. I am a killer, Nanu, not a man for you.”
She breathed unsteadily; her eyes glinted on the verge of tears. He cursed and this time pushed her out of the doorway and moved around her. He hit the first step when she spoke.
“Wait, wait. That’s it?” Stiffening, he turned slowly to her. He looked at her as if this would be the last time he did so.
“No. You, Nanu. You’re the other reason.”
She called out after him to wait, to explain what he meant, but he ignored her pleas and didn’t turn back around.
Chapter Nine
Chloe tossed the covers off her fire-drenched body. Sweat beaded her forehead and neck, soaking the pillow beneath her head. What was wrong with her?
She turned and rolled around on the bed no longer finding any comfort in the soft
cushion. Where had her damn angel feathers gone?
Her arms latched onto her stomach and she moaned deeply. Sharp, gut-wrenching stabs beat inside her like knives trying to break out of her skin. Her breaths wheezed in and out and suddenly the pain was gone as if it’d actually broken out of her body.
Panting, Chloe arched her back off the bed as a blinding energy pulsed inside her. Pants turned into a long, drawn-out moan as liquid heat pooled between her legs, as her breasts pulled tight and heavy.
She was drugged or had food poisoning. Something was wrong. She moaned as her
stomach jerked and another wave of wet release pulsed through her core. What kind of food poisoning did this? No, no, impossible. It wasn’t time yet. She had another day.
Shakily she came to her feet, wobbling so hard she grabbed onto the corner of the
bedpost to keep from falling. The wood was hard beneath her hands, solid and thick. She pushed her chest into it, reveling in the hard strength of it, then she rubbed her lips across the wood.
“Oh my God!” Jerking away from the all-too-sexy post, she wobbled over to the dresser to pull her clothes back on. Oh, God! Each step swished her sex’s lips back and forth, bringing forth a surging need deep within her. She only got as far as pulling on a baggy t-shirt, before she flung open the door. Help, she needed help. Of course Draven wasn’t there. He was probably still training, a whole day later.
Anger infused with her arousal and she had to steady herself against the doorframe. Is this the new moon? Impossible, Henry said it wasn’t for another day. She hadn’t figured out what she was going to do about it yet. She was supposed to do that today. Maybe she shouldn’t have procrastinated.
With one hand braced against the wall, she walked slowly down the hall. It took her forever to reach the top of the stairs and by then her breaths came quick again and her core was all too ready for this whole growing into sexual maturity thing.
She looked wildly down the stairs. Where the hell was everyone? Not a creature was
stirring, not even a cold vampire commander that she really wanted to thaw out right now.
She started down the stairs; it took much longer than it should have. One step at a time, she walked like an old lady with a cane down the stairs. When she finally reached the bottom step, she was trembling on the verge of an orgasm. She sucked in air and thought of things to cool herself off. Baseball came to mind, but then she pictured all those baseball players’ tight butts and fit bodies and quickly canceled that train of thought.
With nothing to lose, she darted barefoot across the floor and flung open the study door.
Four sets of eyes trained on her, then peered over the single baggy shirt she wore. There was no time for embarrassment. She started towards them but couldn’t make it. The trip down the hallway, the stairs, and the short sprint here was all too much. Obviously she was a superhero, because how she managed that with the rampant heat threatening to erupt inside her at any second was simply amazing.
She locked her knees to keep from falling to the ground. She had a feeling she knew what her body would do once she hit the ground. Spread her legs wide and offer herself to any—and all—the warriors watching her. The only thought that kept her (barely) from doing just that was the fact she wasn’t wearing panties.
“Please,” she said, her voice a wretched moan. Tyrian looked over her with little interest.
“Are you ill?” Cold words had never sounded so sexy. She shivered and another gush of heat dampened her core.
She couldn’t stifle the moan that came out. “No,” she said unevenly. The energy it took to get here taxed her, so she fell into a chair. Spreading her legs open and closed, open and closed as she wrung her clammy hands in her t-shirt. “You lied, Henry.” She meant it to sound angry but she just sounded husky, sexy.
He blinked in surprise, and everyone’s gaze turned to him. He threw up his hands and backed away. “Hey, I bumped into her last night and she asked me when the next new moon was. It’s tomorrow. That’s all I said.” Chloe wanted to tell him she was sorry, that it wasn’t his fault. Okay, it really was. But whatever. She couldn’t make herself talk. It was as if she was dying from the inside out but not in waves of pain, in waves of hot arousal.
Her gaze fell to Tyrian who looked completely unaffected. He stood tall with his