He had killed.
“Are you going to throw that at me?” he asked.
My pulse pounded as I stared at him. “I didn’t know if it was you.”
“It’s me.” He cocked his head to the side, his gaze drifting over me. I shivered. It was feral. Possessive. “You’re frightened.”
I forced myself to put the vase down, and my hands were shaking as I smoothed them over my hips. I tried not to be so affected by the fact he’d just killed something, but if he hadn’t, I’d probably be dead, and it wasn’t the first time, but it was still unnerving.
Hunter took a step forward and, intuitively, I stepped back. “And I don’t think it has anything to do with the fact there was a Luxen outside.”
The urge to lie was too much. “Well, that was pretty nerve-racking. I didn’t know what had happened or if you were okay. You were gone for over an hour and—”
“You’re frightened of me,” he interrupted.
Words died on the tip of my tongue. Truthfully, I was a bit frightened of him. Who wouldn’t be? But it was more being scared of what he could do and not of what he was.
The corner of his lips tipped up. “It’s understandable. It’s very human of you.”
“You say that like it’s a bad thing,” I said.
“It’s a weakness.”
Irritation rose. “Being human isn’t a weakness.”
He raised a brow. “It’s not?”
“No.”
His gaze was trained on me as he stalked forward. “Come.”
A quiver started in my stomach as much as I wanted to not feel it. There was something different in the way he walked, the way he looked at me. “Come where?”
Hunter went into the study, holding the door open. I took a deep breath and then walked forward, spine straight. He crowded me as soon as I entered his study, picking up a strand of my hair and then letting it fall back onto my shoulder.
I was all too aware of the way my body tensed as he stepped even closer, his chest nearly flush with mine. God, he smelled wonderful—soap and spice. I didn’t like that he was this close, and at the same time I sort of craved it in the way you wanted to do things you should never do.
Breathless, I struggled to get back to the important stuff. “Do they know I’m here?
Will there be—” Clasping the sides of my cheeks, he drew my mouth to his. The kiss took me completely off guard. It was fierce, punishing, and hard, but my lips immediately parted. A hot, sweet flush swept through my body.
He backed me up against a stacked bookcase. The length of his arousal pressed against my belly as his hands skimmed over my arms, down to the tips of my fingers, and to the drawstring on my shorts.
“The Luxen was looking for you,” he said, unraveling the string with quick, nimble movements. “He is no longer looking for anyone.”
Muscles in my lower belly tightened as I stood there, my chest rising and falling too quickly. “So they know where I am?”
“It appears the senator does.” He paused, slipping his fingers under the band of my shorts. His cool fingers brushed my skin, causing me to jerk. He looked up, his eyes locking on to mine. “Only this Luxen knew. He wasn’t lying. When I feed from them, I can pull on their thoughts and memories.”
I gripped his wrists and a smile pulled at his lips, as if I amused him. “But how did the senator know?”
“I’m going to find that out.” He lowered his head and his lips brushed the curve of my jaw, then dipped to my pulse. His tongue flicked over the skin there, eliciting a gasp from me. “Later.”
I could barely breathe or focus. “What if the senator tells another Luxen? I’m not safe—”
“You’re safe.” His hands lowered over my hips even though I had a grasp on his wrists. “For now.”
“For now?” I swallowed, but my mouth felt dry.
He murmured something, and then his teeth scraped against the side of my neck.
Unconsciously, my body jerked and he broke my grip, sliding around to cup my rear.
I gasped at the coolness of his hands, a startling contrast against how warm I felt.
This was too fast. I barely knew him. He was something that truly existed beyond my comprehension. My life was a confusing mess right now. How could I be sure of what I wanted or did? There was also this scary, hard edge to Hunter. He was like a wrapped present and I had no idea what existed under the layers, but…
But I had no one but him right now. As powerful and dangerous as he was, as different as he was from me, I didn’t feel as if he would harm me. And I had no idea how much longer I would even be alive to frolic in my messy life. Did I want to die a practically born-again virgin? And if I did survive this, did I want to walk away denying the intense attraction between us? But most of all? I wanted him.
I wanted him so badly that I ached, so why I should I deny that? I wouldn’t.
Chapter 13
Hunter’s hands were on the outside of my shorts. My fingers dug into the cool skin of his forearms. “Hunter…”
His mouth was on mine again, kissing away any reservation I had. Hunter kissed like a man staking a claim, like someone who never had the luxury of doing so before. And those hands…those quick and agile hands tugged my shorts down. He broke the kiss long enough to get them below my knees, and then he was back up, his tongue demanding entrance to my mouth as he lifted me off my feet, leaving the shorts in a messy pile.
“Wrap your legs around my waist,” he ordered.
My body obeyed his demand without thought. That was the power of Hunter, I realized distantly. He was pure seduction like this, his voice deep and wholly persuasive.
Hunter growled his pleasure as he pressed his lower half against my core. His erection strained through his jeans and the thin satin of my panties. With his hands cupping my rear again, he rocked his hips forward, drawing a loud gasp from me, and when he thrust forward once more, nudging the bundle of nerves, the intensity of the arousal that swept through me was startling and pushed me into the unknown.
I grabbed fistfuls of his shirt and tugged up. Hunter lifted his arms long enough for me to drag the material over his head, and then he grasped my hips. I slid my hands over his shoulders, surprised to find them warmer than normal, and I wanted to be skin against skin with him, no barriers, but as he nipped at my lower lip, I couldn’t find the words to tell him.
“Put your arms up,” he said in a low voice, “and grab hold of the shelf.”
I gripped the shelf above me, my fingers digging in, brushing the spines of the books stocked there. The movement arched my back, making me feel feminine and vulnerable all in the same moment.
Wrapping an arm around my waist, Hunter reached up, his fingers digging into the vee of my tee shirt. Before I knew what he was up to, he tore the material right down the middle, jerking my body toward his and then back against the shelf. Books rattled.
A few toppled onto the floor.
Goddamn.
My breath stalled in my lungs at the display of masculine power. I was pretty sure that nothing in this world could get hotter than this.
Hunter proved me wrong.
The bra was the second article of clothing to be ruined in a nanosecond. The flimsy scrap of silk and underwire fluttered to the floor, and then Hunter’s mouth was on the peak of my breast, his tongue circling and then latching on, sucking in tandem with the thrust of his hips.
Molten lava coursed throughout my veins. Desire swirled inside, dazing and out of control. Raw heat built as his mouth tugged on my breast and his tongue rasped over my nipple. It was all about feeling and the raw, exquisite sensations shooting down to my core, warming and dampening me. My hips thrust against his thick muscle, seeking, wanting, and needing more. God, he was huge.