“I was at my club in Bethesda.” He snaked an arm around her waist. “But they’ll live without me.”
Already, she felt her insides tightening, a pool of heat gathering in her core. Her body had absolutely no sense of priority. But the minions wouldn’t come out until later tonight…
Then he caught her earlobe between his teeth and tugged. Her breath came out in small gasps until he let go, his hands splayed across her lower back.
“I need to…I need to shower first. I’m sweaty.” Somehow her brain still registered that she’d been training half the day.
“I can help you with that.” He scooped her up, smiling when she laughed. Heading through her apartment, he stopped once to kiss her and then again to help her get out of her workout clothes. “It’s probably a good thing you won’t take me up on my offer.”
“Why’s that?” She tugged his shirt over his head, then moved on to his pants.
“Because I’d never get anything done.” He stepped out of his pants, standing gloriously nude in her front of her. “All I’d want to do is worship your body all day.”
She walked backward into the bathroom, stopping when she hit the sink. “I don’t see anything wrong with that.”
Leaning around her, he reached into the shower stall and turned on the water. Steam quickly filled the bathroom. When he straightened, he tucked his hair back. The look he gave her was curiously intimate.
“What?” she asked.
“You’re beautiful.”
She rolled her eyes. “Flattery will get you laid.”
“I sure hope so.” He dipped his head to her breast, drawing her nipple into his mouth, teasing it with his tongue and teeth. The way he devoured her breast and then the other drove her crazy. Tight coils sprang low in her belly as she watched him worship her body.
When they did move into the shower, Julian was more interested in tasting every part of her than he was with helping her wash. Not that she minded. Her legs were literally shaking when he knelt and peered up at her through thick lashes.
She placed her hand on his cheek. Her chest swelled with a powerful foreign emotion as her eyes locked with his. He lowered his mouth to her sex, making a long, deep swipe with his tongue. She didn’t even have time to catch her breath before he did it again. His tongue swirled and stabbed, turning her insides to mush as she clasped the back of his head, greedily rocking against him. Then he sealed his mouth over her clit and sucked hard. There was nothing but white-hot pleasure as her orgasm rocked through her. Lily’s knees buckled, and he caught her as he stood and entered her with one quick thrust.
Maybe this was wrong–everyone besides her believed so–but as her head lulled back and he took her the closest to Heaven she’d ever been, she decided this kind of wrong was so right for her.
Hunting with Julian was kind of weird.
This was the second night in a row they took to the streets, and she still hadn’t gotten used to doing this with him. Like she said, it was weird.
Weird because it was like hunting with Luke, with the exception that she couldn’t stop looking at Julian and remembering what it felt like to have his mouth on her, his fingers in her, the way he kissed her… She cleared her throat, focusing on the humans crowding the street near the Verizon Center. Her cheeks felt hot.
But then she gazed at him again.
God, he was beautiful. She always thought he was, but she never really grasped just how beautiful he truly was. Out here, with the moonlight and the weak flicker of streetlamps, his cheekbones seemed more pronounced, his hair softer, and the indent above his upper lip more lickable.
All around them, people passed her over to stare at him. Male, female, the young and old stared at him. It was more than his looks, she quickly realized. He had this confident swagger that begged people to get out of his way.
She sighed, shaking out her shoulders. They’d been at this for four hours without a deadhead or minion in sight. Last night had been a bust, too. Other than the two deadheads and a minion who practically pissed himself the moment Julian touched him, they hadn’t made any headway. The only thing she accomplished thus far was making herself horny. “Where in the hell are they?”
He tucked his hair back, eyes scanning the crowd as they rounded the avenue. “You do this every night? Walking around until you hear a deadhead?”
“Pretty much.” She shoved her hands into her cargo pants, catching two girls in their early twenties checking out Julian and whispering. A grin played across her lips. “It’s usually busier than this, especially on a Saturday night.”
“I’ll have to take your word for it.” He smiled. “Hungry?”
“Always.”
They stopped at a late-night eatery and hung out there for a little while. She made sure to pay attention to her Nephilim radar. Exchanging stories while they ate, she was amazed by how comfortable she was with him doing normal things—human things.
It was like a date—a weird, twisted date that would probably end with them killing something, but that was splitting hairs.
Afterward, when they headed back out into the musky night, she smelled rain in the air. Julian clasped her hand, and her heart exploded with ecstasy. How many times had she seen humans doing this, or Nephilim who hadn’t accepted the Contract? Too many times for her to count, and never once had she thought it would be her doing something so mundanely beautiful.
Overcome by the normalcy of holding his hand, she tugged him off the sidewalk and inside a dark parking garage.
“What?” Surprise colored his words.
Standing on her tiptoes, she pressed into him while still holding his hand. She kissed him like she’d never kissed him before. Her lips bruised from the intensity, but Julian was all about it. He swept his free arm around her, growling against her parted lips.
“You have no idea what you’ve started,” he warned in a low voice. “I will take you right here, inches from the sidewalk.”
She started to tell him that she was completely down with that, but then she heard the eerie whining of a soul…and felt the shiver that accompanied a minion. It was so close, so unmistakable, that it shocked her to immobility for a second. This was what they needed—a deadhead and the minion that had coaxed the soul into the human.
Score.
Julian’s hand squeezed hers as he tipped his head back. “They’re right up there, aren’t they?”
“Yeah,” she said. She wiggled out of his embrace, pulled her hand free, and released her blades. “Really odd timing.”
“Yes.”
She knew he was thinking the same thing. There were no such things as coincidences. Together, they started toward the ramp that led upstairs. Her eyes flickered over the shadows as they passed an unmanned security booth. She had a feeling she knew where the guard was.
The awareness increased, like an invisible finger trailing down her spine. She caught Julian’s brilliant gaze and nodded.
He glided in front of her and then simply disappeared. Show off. She rolled her eyes and broke into a light-footed run. Rounding the sixth ramp, she vaulted over the cement wall and landed in a crouch.
And she found the guard.
He stood beside a Mercedes, staring down at his dark uniform. A funny smile twisted his lips as he tugged on the material. The first thing a deadhead did when it came to was check out its clothes. It cracked her up. She laughed.
The deadhead jerked in her direction. He tipped his head to the side. “Nephilim.”
Straightening, she wiggled her fingers. “Hello. Nice night, huh? Mind telling me where your buddy is? I really don’t feel like looking for him.”
Actually, that was what Julian was doing. Popping in and out, tracking down the minion. It was still here; the tingling at the base of her neck told her so.