She sat on the bed and leaned back. The damp tank top stretched over her breasts. She was quite obviously not wearing a bra, and her nipples were hard against the fabric. What I wanted to do, more than anything, was to throw her down and rip that cotton off her body. I wanted to kiss and lick her between her thighs until she screamed my name loudly enough for him to hear…
“Of course you weren’t trying to seduce me. My mistake.” She looked up at me from under her long eyelashes and rolled over, giving me a view of her ass. I was desperate to run my fingers over that fabric, to feel her heat.
Her cheeks were lightly flushed. “Something the matter, Orion? You look…dazed.”
She was using my exact phrase against me. Smart-ass.
I didn’t feel entirely in control of myself as I found myself moving closer, back into her room. A moth to a flame. I sat next to her on the bed, but my eye was drawn back to that fucking bruise on her neck.
I reached out to brush my fingertips over it. At the contact of my fingertips against her skin, she gasped slightly.
My heart was ready to explode.
“Just making sure you’re healing properly.” My voice sounded husky, and I pulled my hand away from her.
Her lips appeared full, slightly pouted. There was something about how she looked right now—seductive and adorable all at once—that was robbing me of rational thought. I wanted to taste her so much, it hurt.
She bit her lip and brushed her fingertips over my wrist. “I’m fine. I’m a demon now, Orion. You don’t have to worry about me breaking.”
She was right, of course, and yet, I’d never felt more compelled to keep someone safe. All I could do was thank the gods she trusted me enough to come with me here, into my home. I stood, trying to force myself to move away from her, to douse the fire in my thoughts.
“I want to kiss you, just once.” The truth tumbled out of my mouth before I could stop myself. “But that’s all, Rowan. Just one kiss tonight.”
One kiss was fucking dangerous enough.
“Just one?” She cocked her head. “What are you so afraid of?”
One more heartbreak, and it will be the end of me. My sanity already hung by a thread. “You,” I said softly. “I already told you that.”
With her big brown eyes locked on me, she rose from the bed and wrapped her arms around my neck. Under the thin cotton, her breasts brushed against my bare chest, making me stiffen even more.
I cupped the side of her face. Fire swept through me as I leaned down to press my mouth against hers.
When our lips made contact, I immediately knew this was a mistake. If she rejected the real me, I’d lose my mind. If I fell in love completely and lost her, I’d also lose my mind. But around Rowan, I made fucking terrible decisions, and my tongue swept in to taste her. My whole body had come alive for her. I savored the way her tongue welcomed mine, and her muscles became soft and pliable in my arms. Oh, gods.
For the first time, I felt her succubus magic entwined around me, an inviting caress that stroked my back. I slid my hand up her spine, gripping her hair to tilt her head. I was overwhelmed by the urge to strip her naked and make her scream.
She would ruin me.
Arching into me, she moaned lightly, and that sound nearly made me lose the little control I had. I needed to fuck her hard against the wall. I wanted her to remember how perfectly we fit together—
I hardly knew what I was doing as I lifted her higher off the ground and she slipped her legs around me. One of her hands gripped my hair. With her back against the bedpost, I pressed my hard length against her. Had I ever been this desperate for anything before? Not even after centuries in prison.
The sound of one of the dogs barking interrupted us. Rowan broke from the spell first, pulling away from the kiss. Her lips were swollen, her cheeks pink. She’d never looked more beautiful.
“Don’t really know what I’m doing here.” She caught her breath. “You’re my rival.”
I pressed my forehead against hers, trying again to remember how to form a sentence. What had she said?
Ah…the rival thing. She thought I was dangerous.
As it happened, I thought the same about her.
Rowan had shown up in my life and thrown everything wildly off course, and when I was around her, I felt as if the world were tilting beneath my feet.
My plans for vengeance had always been the light that shone a path through madness, like the little illuminated ships floating along the river. Without vengeance guiding my way, I was in the dark again. Chaos. She brought that into my life.