Not Quite Dead (A NightHunter Novel) (27 page)

He nodded, and his entire body seemed to relax. "Yeah, I am. Because I know you can do it. I know you
will
do it."

She rolled her eyes, feeling deflated. "Yay, me. I'm capable of murdering the men I care about. I should put that in my online dating profile—"

"No
." He caught her arm just as she was turning back toward the dining room. "No online dating profile. Just me."

His claim of possession on her was evident in every line of his suddenly taut body, and in the intensity of his voice. Desire rushed through her, tumbling in all directions like a wild river, crashing through every obstacle in its path.

She stiffened, even as her heart jumped. Yes, she didn't want anything from him, but to have the man who'd just made love to her declare she was off limits to anyone else was a really nice feeling, even if it came on the heels of an order to murder him if necessary...not that he was going to get her. She couldn't let herself fall any further. She already felt like she could barely breathe around him, and his knife felt as if it were burning through her jeans. "We have to focus on Tristan," she said. "We must have a plan by the time the sun sets."

"I know." He pulled her closer, his eyes glittering with intensity. "But a plan isn't the only thing I need right now."

Oh...there was no mistaking what he meant. She pushed against his chest, trying to get some space. "I already told you. I'm not getting naked with you again. I'm not good at casual, and anything deeper just doesn't fit with you, with this entire situation, or with me."

"I know it doesn't fit." He skimmed his finger along her jaw. "Sometimes, that just doesn't matter." His gaze went to her mouth. "There's something about you that gets to me, Jordyn. You're inside me, like this light that won't let the parts of me die that have been fading for so long." His arm wrapped around her lower back, and he pulled her close. "I wasn't hungry until I met you, and now it's like a thousand years of deprivation have come roaring back into me, and the only thing that will take the edge off is you."

Something inside her softened at the truthfulness of his words. She'd felt his emptiness, and she knew he was telling her the truth. It wasn't flirtation or arrogance, just a stark honesty and a baring of his soul.

The intensity of her response to his words was terrifying. She felt so naked and exposed, her emotions dangling dangerously in a wind that could rip her apart. The depth of her grief after Walter's betrayal was almost insurmountable, an abyss so deep that it had almost sucked her away forever. She couldn't go there again, not for Eric, not for anyone. Trepidation made her hands tremble. "Don't start with me, Eric. I can't do this with you."

A slow grin spread over his face, as if he knew exactly how much he was affecting her. "I think you can."

"Stop it!" She poked her finger into his chest, irritated by his disarming smile and the arrogant gleam she saw in his eyes. "Just because you think you can be charming, and you gave me a spectacular orgasm doesn't mean that you are allowed to try to woo me with some suave approach. I'm immune, thank you very much." Total lie, but if she lied enough times, it would become real, right? "I want to deal with the vampire situation, which is kind of pressing at the moment, not deal with this." She smacked his hand away as he reached for her. "I mean it. You're just not that charming." But he was. Utterly charming. How could she possibly think he was charming when he was made of shadows and demon spirits, and couldn't promise not to kill her? But she did. She loved the way he craved her. She loved how he challenged her on every level. And she resonated with the depth of torment that permeated every cell of his body, and the strength of his being that had kept his dark side in check for so long.

"Jordyn." His voice slid like a silken caress over her flesh, and suddenly she was reminded of what it had felt like when Tristan had spoken to her, only Eric's voice was even more alluring, playing over her flesh like fingers dancing across her soul, sliding with the utmost temptation across every inch of her flesh.

She swallowed, torn between covering her ears and engaging in random chants so she couldn't hear him, or capitulating completely to him and bounding into his arms begging for him to make her his. She tried to settle for a dignified response, and simply glared at him. "Don't speak. Seriously. Don't."

"I need you." His gaze went to her mouth, and her neck began to pulse where he'd bitten her. As if sensing her response, his gaze slid from her lips to that same spot that was tingling, and his eyes darkened to pitch black, and she felt a pulse of hunger from him.

Did he want only sex? Or did he also want more, like her soul? Because, despite his claims to the contrary, the sheer intensity of the energy rolling off him felt like it was far more than a superficial seduction that would be easy for her to resist. It was a deep, instinctual craving that gripped her ruthlessly, awakening an answering response in her.

Oh, God, was that a vampire thing, or an Eric thing? Not that it mattered. He was so utterly compelling that she loved every second of his attempted seduction, and the game they seemed to be playing. Oh, Lordy. She was in deep, wasn't she?

Heat simmered in his eyes, and a deeper longing raked across her flesh. She took a step back, chills prickling down her arms. For a split second, she thought she saw a shadow flicker beneath the skin on his cheek. "Do you feel okay?"

"Not sure. I feel a little hungry." He quirked his brow. "Are you offering me a light snack?"

"What?" Her hand instinctively went to her neck. "Do you want one?" Oh, God, had she really just asked that? She hadn't meant to. Damn him for getting past her shields. Was she really so easy? Apparently, yes.

He didn't answer aloud but she felt his voice brush through her mind.
Jordyn. You have no idea what I want to do to you. Sinking my teeth into your flesh is just the beginning.

Oh...wow. "You're talking in my head."

It appears that I am. Strange.
His eyes blazed.
Intimate.

Yes, she had to agree with that one. She met his gaze, her heart thundering. "You're different than you were. You know, since that vampire bit you."

"Yes, and no. You're just beginning to see me for what I am. But the fantasies in my head? Yeah, they're different now." He ran his thumb over her neck, and she sucked in her breath as all her blood seemed to race to that spot. "I can't sever the tie between us. I know I should, but I don't want to. I loved every single moment of making love to you, and, I'll be honest, biting you was unbelievably hot." His voice lowered. "You're under my skin, Jordyn, deeper than I want, deeper than I need, and deeper than I ever thought of going with a woman."

Her heart hammered violently at his words. "I'll try to be less adorable."

He laughed softly. "Won't help. I like it when you boss me around. I like a lot of the shit you do. All I want is quick and casual, as I told you when I first met you. But one night isn't going to be enough with you. Not even close, no matter how dangerous it is to both of us." He lowered his voice, sliding his fingers over the handle of the knife she'd tucked into her jeans, reminding them both that she had the power to stop him. "I fought it, but I'm in now, and I'm not pulling back."

She shook her head, not wanting to hear those kinds of words from him, because they felt too good. There was too much at stake to risk making choices based on affection and, heaven forbid, love, and if he kept saying things like that, she was going to plummet straight off the proverbial cliff into his lethal arms. "No, Eric. I can't do this with you. I told you, I can't get emotionally involved. Sex complicates things for me. Love blinded me before, and I'm not doing it again. So, let's keep it that way. We had sex one time, to save our lives. That's it, okay?" She saw the denial in his eyes, and wanted to hit him with frustration. "Don't say it," she warned. "I don't want to hear it."

Eric didn't release her. Instead, he leaned closer, until his lips were brushing against her ear. "I want more."

She shoved at his chest. "Get off me. Go take a moment of privacy in the corner and deal with yourself that way."

"Won't work. It's not just the orgasm that I'm craving. I want
you
." Eric's eyes were turbulent, swirling with shadows that held a new significance now that she'd seen what he could become. "I don't like it. I don't want to want you. It's dangerous. To you. To me. To Tristan. I want to keep you at a distance, and protect you from afar. And yet..." His finger traced a circle around the mark in her neck. "It's going to happen again. Sex. Intimacy.
Biting
."

Her pulse hammered in her neck, but she pulled out his knife and angled it against his neck, so the tip was pointing under his jawbone. He went still, his eyes blazing.

"Don't touch me," she said. "Don't even fantasize about me. Do you understand?"

For a long moment, he didn't answer, and her heart started hammering. She could see from his relentless stare that he understood perfectly, and it didn't matter. "You'll have to kill me to make me stop fantasizing about you," he said, his deep voice playing over her flesh like invisible fingers. "Use the knife, Jordyn." As he spoke, he palmed her hips, pulling her against him.

Her belly hit his, and heat seared through her. He waited, his thumbs tracing small circles on her hips.

Then, slowly, ever so slowly, she let the knife fall to her side. Dammit. She wasn't going to kill him for wanting her, and they both knew it.

He grinned, triumph gleaming in his eyes as he lowered his head to kiss her, moving ever so slowly, and giving her plenty of time to stop him.

She didn't want to do this. Kissing him to stay alive could be excused. If she kissed him now, there was no way she could claim it was for any reason other than she wanted to. His life wasn't at stake. Hers was perfectly intact at the moment. No demon was hunting them. If she succumbed to his maddeningly endearing charms, he would know that it had simply been because of him, and even worse,
she
would know it was simply because of him.

"I don't date men." Her fingers tightened around the knife. She had to stop him. She had to. Why did the damned knife feel so heavy to lift? It felt like it weighed a thousand pounds. It was doing her no good down by her hip, but she couldn't bring it up. It was as if her arm had gone numb.

"I know you don't." He brushed his lips over hers. "I don't either."

"Ha. Funny man." She clenched her fist tighter around his knife, but couldn't quite manage to do anything other than press the flat of it across her thigh. "I don't have sex with them either."

"I know. I don't either." He kissed the other corner of her mouth.

She had to bite her lip to keep from smiling at his infuriating response. "Stop it."

"The kisses? You don't like them?" He trailed sensual kisses along her jawbone.

"Of course I like them. You know I do. Don't pretend to be an idiot. We both know that you're perfectly capable of feeling my emotions now that we did that blood bond thing." She folded her arms over her chest, fighting against the ardor stirring inside of her.

"You mean, when I bit you? That blood bond thing?" He swept his tongue across the spot where he'd bitten her, and desire whipped through her body so fast that she had to grip his arms to keep from falling.

She let out a completely embarrassing squeak before she could stop herself. "Yes, the biting thing." She gripped his arms. "Don't you dare kiss me, Eric. Just don't."

He grinned at her, his mouth barely a whisper from hers.
Are you so sure about that?

"Yes." She could feel his breath across her lips. His hands were drawing sensual circles on her hips. He smelled of outdoors and fresh earth, along with something more potent and dangerous.

Kiss me, Jordyn. Kiss me.

The unbridled hunger in his voice cut through her, and she sucked in her breath as an answering need rocked through her. She snapped her gaze to his, and she saw in his face that he needed her as badly as she wanted him. They were in it together, way over both their heads.

He met her gaze without flinching, and the air thickened between them until it was wound so tight that one breath would shatter it.

"Jordyn."

She swallowed. "What?"

"Now."

They both moved at the same time, coming together in a kiss that grabbed them both mercilessly and hurled them into an abyss of need and unrelenting hunger, from which there was no way out.

The moment Jordyn's body sank against him and her arms wrapped around his neck, Eric knew he was lost. He was hers. Forever. No matter what the cost. With a low growl of possession, he locked his arms around her, trapping her against him as he kissed her.

He wanted to finesse her. He had too much pride to fumble. He needed to give her a long, slow seduction that brought her to release a thousand times before he even thought about taking care of himself. That's what he wanted, and yet, with the taste of her lips, every last bit of the control he prided himself on vanished, consumed by a need for her so great that he could perceive nothing except the woman in his arms.

He swept her up against him, and nearly staggered when she wrapped her legs around his hips, kissing him back every bit as fiercely as he was kissing her. The last time they'd made love, he'd been more than half-insane, and barely aware of what was going on.

Now, he was aware of every nuance of her body, of her kiss, of her scent, and of her own need for him. Her femininity swirled around him, mixing with his own roaring hunger, igniting it even further. He dragged them away from the kitchen, and leapt up the stairs to the second floor without breaking the kiss. He caught her scent at the door to the first bedroom and knew this room was where she'd been sleeping.