Shadowfae (23 page)

“Don’t,” I gasped, but I didn’t mean I didn’t want it. Just that I didn’t deserve it. He shouldn’t have to touch me, not like this, while I still reeked of other men.

“Hush.” The dark intent heating Rajah’s whisper sent anticipation shivering into my bones. The soap slipped from his hand and plopped onto the slate. Pounding water washed the lather away, the suds sliding over his hand and down my legs, but it didn’t matter. His fingers glided into me easily, my hot entrance soaked from within. I couldn’t help but moan. My flesh ached, lumpy with overworked glands and swollen tight from fucking, but having him inside me again felt so damn good.

He parted his fingers gently, twisting them, opening me. My muscles worked against him, pleasure flowering. Warmth gushed down in my channel, Luna’s fluid and my own seeping out over Rajah’s hand to be washed away. Clean hot water flooded his palm, washing up inside, sluicing the mess from me.

He slipped his other arm around my waist and bent his head to my shoulder. “I don’t care, princess,” he whispered, water trickling over his lips onto my neck, his hair dripping hot trails over me. “It doesn’t matter to me what you’ve done, who you’ve been with, whether it’s for thrall or for energy or because you wanted to. I don’t care. I just want you. Not only your body. You.”

I shuddered, my heart slashed and bleeding. His fingers still stroked gently inside me, cleaning me. But he stroked my desire, too, making my nipples yearn for his mouth, my body long to be filled. His empathy ripped me open, exposing my deepest wounds, and impossible words like
love
and
forever
caught on the aching lump in my throat.

I gripped his wrist, pushing him deeper, and his forearm tightened in my grip, urgent. Our bangles clinked together, water spraying. He groaned and pulled his fingers away, and I groaned, too, in protest. But he spun me around, out of the water against the steam-wet wall, and dropped to his knees before me, his eyes fixed on the shiny slickness coating my thighs. “I have to taste you. I can’t not . . . oh, Jade.” He leaned forward and plunged his hot tongue between my folds.

My palms thudded into the slate wall lest my knees buckle. Sensation exploded, waves of excitement rippling my thighs, my abdomen, all the way along my limbs. He wrapped his arm around my legs, caressing my eager clit with the hottest, sweetest, most perfect sensations. My nerves erupted, heat flashing out like lightning to every part of my body. Energy swirled inside me, rapture shocked into burning upsurge. I quivered, helpless, sighing with pleasure.

I resisted letting my head fall back or closing my eyes to revel in this insane bliss. I wanted to watch Rajah go down on me. Watch this impossible, beautiful man who cared so much about my pleasure, giving it to me with an intensity I hadn’t known for years. Maybe ever.

His eyes lay closed, dark lashes a fine mess on his cheekbones. Steam clouded around us, and water sluiced over his back, his drenched hair dripping in his face. He dipped lower, bringing out more moisture, and he was probably licking Luna as well as me but he didn’t give a damn. My clit swelled so hard, every movement was perfect agony. He parted my flesh with his fingers, and I watched his tongue move over me, swirling, flicking, tasting. . . .

Sweet Jesus. Watching him just made it worse. I groaned, my thighs contracting. Tension gripped me, tightening, more, more. My hand fisted itself in his hair, squeezing tight. “I’ll come,” I stammered, breathless, probably the most unnecessary warning ever.

He just sucked me, hard, flicking my sensitive tip over and over, torturing me. I just had time to see his eyes flicker open, smoky with desire, before pleasure slammed into my guts. I shattered, the blood rushing away from my head as energy tumbled out of me, reckless. He held me, roughly prolonging my pleasure with his tongue until I fell against the wall, limp and breathless, my legs refusing to accept my weight.

He wriggled up against me to his feet, hot water sloughing down between us, and kissed me, soft and sweet, scraping wet hair tenderly back from my face. “Okay, princess?”

Weariness drained me, his speckled brown eyes glazed bright with my energy, but I didn’t care. I laughed, no breath in me to make it sound properly. “You’ve had four hundred years to practice that. I’d say I’m okay.”

He leaned in for another kiss, this time long and hard with desire, our tongues sliding together. His cock burned my belly, thick and full, and the taste of my juices on his luscious lips inflamed me, making me want more of him.

I sucked on his tongue, and he made a sexy little growl in his throat, energy flowing back into me from his arousal. How I needed him now. Not just to feed me the energy he’d stolen, but to squeeze him deep inside me, claim him, let him claim me. To prove this wasn’t a dream. I slid my foot up his strong calf, hooking my ankle around his leg, but my other knee gave way and I staggered, falling against him with a giggle. “Oops. Can’t stand up.”

“Then don’t.” He gripped my ass and lifted me, my back slapping against the tiles. The back of my head cracked into the wall and I squealed, wrapping my legs around his hips and my hands over his shoulders so I wouldn’t fall. His fingers clutched me, desperate, like he couldn’t get enough, his hard chest glistening as he panted. “Fuck. Sorry. Did that hurt?”

I loved the way he needed me, the way he lost control like that. I wanted him to lose control because of me. “I don’t care.”

He groaned, helpless, and bent to suck my breast into his mouth, the head of his cock nudging my aching entrance. He caught his teeth on my nipple, the sting shocking me with delight. Tension twanged, tight from my ravaged nipple to my sex. My breath caught, membranes of pleasure ready to burst all over me, all over again. I’d never been so ready. “Yes, Rajah, do it.”

He turned his head to rest his cheek on my wet breast, shuddering, and pushed into me, long, powerful, all the way. “You’re perfect.”

A cry forced from my lips, the sensation more than I’d expected, more than I could bear. He relaxed and thrust in again, this time slamming me down hard, his fingers bruising my ass. My flesh swelled, stretching, accepting, enfolding his burning length, the friction beyond belief. And then he gazed up into my eyes, and I thought I’d die.

He tilted his chin up, offering his mouth, and I dived in, entering him with my tongue in time with his thrusts, tangling my fingers in his sodden hair. I tried to move, but with my back jammed against the wall I couldn’t, and in the end I crushed him to me and let him take me how he wanted, how he knew I wanted, hard, slow, as deep as he could go.

Energy flowed between us, swirling in our mouths and down my throat from his kiss, pouring into my insides where his cock filled me over and over. Rajah-scented steam soaked my nostrils, his taste drowning my mouth, his fragrant wet skin rubbing all over me. I couldn’t get enough. I wanted this to last forever.

But it couldn’t, of course. Not the way my muscles spasmed around him, bunching tight, not the way his cock swelled even harder, his thrusts fiercer, more urgent. My deepest nerves thrummed with pleasure, my most secret flesh sparking alive with tension, clenching harder, tighter. He gasped, his lips sliding on mine. “What are you doing to me, princess? I swear I’m in love.”

Too much.

I erupted, burning deep inside, waves of throbbing heaven welling from our joining. He captured my mouth with his and swallowed my scream, soon matched by his own breathless cry as he came, deep, pressed up against the bone deep within me. Energy surged into me, searing like molten metal.

My skin sizzled, delight rising like fresh perfume, and my rapture coiled like a cat, sleepy and sated. He withdrew and let me slide to my feet, pulling me back under the hot shower. I clung to him, my heart still hammering and spasms of pleasure still racking my body. Damn, that was fantastic. He was fantastic. I don’t know how he let me feel so good, but I wanted more of it.

My nerves sang with vigor, my muscles strong and lively. My spirit crackled, energy spitting like fireworks. I felt like I could run all night, vitality streaming through my veins. I wanted to sprint from here to PrincesBridge, climb hand over hand to the top of the blue neon spire and lean screaming into the wind with bats flapping in my hair. I wanted to pin Rajah to the steam-washed floor and screw him senseless again, feed him with my orgasm, let him feed me, make him come so hard, he passed out.

But I also wanted to lie beside him and kiss all night, his warm limbs wrapped around mine, his fingers gentle in my hair. Fondle his velvety brown skin, taste his tongue, feel his heartbeat. Slide my mouth onto his cock and swallow while he moaned. Settle my chin on his chest and watch him sleep, kiss him awake and watch him smile for me. I wanted to do everything with him.

My heart swelled, hot water sliding through my hair, my body trembling in Rajah’s arms. I’d screwed an incubus before, a sweet young thing with more rapture than talent, back when I was new to thrall and still trying to make Kane notice me by fucking everything that moved. I’d enjoyed the energy fix then, too. But this was better. Out of sight, over the horizon, rocketing into orbit better. More nourishing than stealing souls, more intoxicating than any fairy’s eerie drug. It was like . . .

Like the difference between fucking and making love.

Oh, hell.

I flushed all over, my skin afire, and I buried my face against Rajah’s wet chest so he wouldn’t see into my eyes. And as I rested there, the wrongness of it all speared into me. I couldn’t forget Luna’s soul, gabbling away like a mad turkey in my trap. And I couldn’t forget Rajah and I were enemies, still after the same prize.

For a few blissful minutes, I’d forgotten everything except this extraordinary, compassionate, delicious man.
Please, God, if you’re there, if you haven’t turned your face from me in disgust, let this just be afterglow from incredible sex. Let me just be crushing on him like a naïve convent girl. If this is your way of getting back at me, you win.

Rajah wiped dripping hair from my face and bruised my mouth with his. His lips slid on mine like he couldn’t bear to pull away, his tongue desperate to taste me. “Come home with me,” he murmured between kissing, his breath tantalizing my mouth. “Say you will. Please. I need you again.”

“God, yes.” I couldn’t believe the words spilling from me. I should go home, walk the streets and calm down, go out and pick up some anonymous hot body to work this unbearable intimacy out of my system. Go anywhere but to Rajah’s bed, where I’d undoubtedly die of orgasm overload and a broken heart. Sure, he’d said the word
love.
Right when he was about to come. I’d heard that before.

But if he felt even a shadow of what I felt, I couldn’t let this pass. I sought his mouth with mine, gripping his wet hair in tense hands. “Yes, tonight, now,” I said.

Before it has to end. Before we remember we’re going to damn each other for freedom.

He shut off the shower, reluctantly releasing me. My skin was shriveling up after so long in the water, and the tips of my fingers wrinkled. The sudden cool air shrank it further, beading my nipples. Rajah tossed me a fluffy white towel, and sweet orange blossom scent drifted. Unease shimmered through me, a distant cackle echoing in my head, but I brushed it away.

I wiped myself down, Rajah’s gaze hot on my skin as I bent over. Flushing, I glanced at him. He smiled, dripping. I smiled back, warm and shivery, and a faint ache grew inside me, wetting me all over again. Damn, I was creaming from his smile now. So much for getting him out of my system.

I threw the towel at his head to stop him staring, and he caught it with a giggle.

As he toweled himself, I wandered back to the bed, wrapping my arms over my breasts. There lay dead Luna, his magnificence fading at last, his skin pale and waxy, his glorious hair spilling over crumpled sheets. As far as anyone would ever know, he fucked himself to death on too many drugs. Now that Killian Quinn was dead, no one at St. Kilda Road Homicide believed in magic or demons or soul-sucking succubi. They’d look for poison, and they’d find nothing but cognac and absinthe and elevated adrenaline.

Soft female laughter whispered, and I spun around, my nerves jerking. No one there. Just the starlight, gleaming softly on tortured glass figurines and glinting on the curved brass lamp etched like my soultrap, designs twisting like spiked vines. I wrapped my arms around my chest, shivering. I had to get out of here.

My shiny red dress lay crumpled in a pile beside Luna’s body, the slashed shoulder straps tangling, and I realized I had nothing to wear. I picked up Luna’s coat, and the smooth black silk caressed my skin with fragrant, memory-laden static as I slipped it on and fastened the knotted fabric buttons. It was far too big, of course, my shoulders slim in comparison to Luna’s, but it fell to mid-calf after I pulled my high heels on. People might suspect I’d just come from Luna’s bed, what with my hair dripping and everything, but no one would know for sure I was naked underneath except Rajah.

I tried not to stare as he dressed himself beside me. Damn, the man was beautiful. Beautiful, clever, compassionate, sexy as hell. I wanted to trace my finger on the perfect curves of his chest, bite his smooth brown nipples, slide my cheek over his taut abdomen, lick those luscious hips, nibble the insides of his sleek thighs, take his balls in my mouth and . . .

I looked away.
Get a grip, Jade.

Slowly I retrieved the soultrap from where I’d dropped it, the living brass warm in my hands. The soul lurched inside, boiling, swinging the bottle against gravity as if drawn by a magnet. The cork trembled and I jammed it in tighter. I stared at the trap, emptiness welling larger in my stomach.

“Don’t.” A whisper behind me as Rajah fetched my purse. His smooth arms folded around me, and he twisted the bottle from my hands and stowed it away in my purse, slipping the cord over my shoulder. “Don’t think about it. Not now.”

I wanted to sink into his arms, forget about thrall and freedom and death. “Tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow. You up to walking out of here?”