He wiped away the sticky remnants of blood, working his way from the tips of her fingers to her forearm. When her hands were clean, he reached for a clean cloth to wipe down her abdomen. Concentrating on his washing, he almost didn’t hear the low, nearly inaudible moan that broke from her lips.
He paused, and his gaze lifted to her face. Her eyes were half-open, and her lips were parted and invitingly moist. Her body trembled slightly at the intimate contact.
“W-what happened?” she slurred woozily. “Where am I?”
Maddox withdrew his hand. “Don’t worry. You’re safe.”
Jesse struggled to sit up. A long low moan broke from her throat. “I . . . ugh . . .”
Maddox pressed a hand against her shoulder. “You should lie down,” he urged. “Try and get some rest.”
She immediately shook off his touch, clutching at her face with her hands. “I can’t,” she gasped painfully. “I’m burning up inside.” She flung out her arms as if attempting to fling off the very skin she wore.
Suspecting the worst, he immediately stiffened. “The hunger?”
Jesse made a strangled sound in her throat. “No,” she grated. “It’s something else. Something more.” She started tearing madly at her shoulders and chest, digging in her fingernails deeply. Raw red scratches appeared in her flesh. “I’m burning up. It feels like electric acid boiling under my skin.”
Maddox grabbed her flailing hands before she harmed herself. Remembering the way the dying demon had attacked her before its energy dissipated, he wondered if she was somehow affected by the lingering remnants of its energy. Though he’d done his best to wash the unclean beast’s blood off, traces of dried blood still lingered.
“Calm down,” he said, forcing himself to speak in a steady voice. “We’re going to cool you down.” Somehow he got her off the bed and into the bathroom, half dragging, half lifting her into the tub. Curling an arm around her waist to keep her standing, he turned the tap on full blast. Cold water rained down on them.
Jesse immediately ceased her struggling. Limbs quivering, her body sagged against his. A great sigh of relief winnowed past her lips. “Better,” she murmured. “That feels so good.”
The shock of her warm body pressed against his sent Maddox’s senses reeling farther from the bounds of concern. He could not think as anticipation began to twist though his belly, circling and swirling, rushing to tighten the skin everywhere on his body until the flesh of his groin began to grow rigid.
Hastily he lifted her away, putting some much-needed distance between them. “Are you going to be okay?” he asked, his voice hoarse and grating even to his own ears.
Slowly opening her eyes, Jesse nodded. Tilting back her head, she lifted her arms, running her fingers through her hair. “Y-yes,” she stammered. “I—I think so.” Thin rivulets of water streamed over her, beating away the last flakes of blood. Her bra and panties practically disappeared. The hard rosy tips of her nipples blossomed against the clinging material.
Mouth going bone dry, Maddox was barely aware of his own wet, clinging clothes. His heart stumbled over several erratic beats. “Good.” Flipping off the water, he started to climb out of the tub.
Jesse’s fingers curled into his shirt, and her eyes widened and flared with something akin to desire. Her eyes had begun to change, taking on a softly luminous glow that made her sometimes-gray irises appear almost white. “Don’t go.” The heat of her touch was like a flame, scorching and searing him to the bone.
Maddox started to shake his head. It was as if Jesse had stepped out of her body and something else had stepped in. She wasn’t a victim now, but a powerful woman with an appetite. “We shouldn’t.”
Jesse smiled and reached up, taking his face between her hands and pulling his head in a downward tilt. “I need you,” she breathed. “Now.”
Maddox found himself drawn deep into the merciless center of her unblinking gaze. A strange sense of anticipation rose in his chest—an anticipation that ranged from all-consuming terror to a sudden, terrifying lust.
Lurking inside Jesse was the beast he craved. At the moment he desired nothing more than to sacrifice himself to her. Whatever she needed, whatever she wanted, he would offer it.
Willingly and without hesitation.
Jesse was melting. She was on fire. But the heat came from within her heart, spilling down to pool heavily in her core. Images of their naked bodies writhing together filled her mind, sending away all logic or reason. She knew only that she wanted Maddox. She had to have him.
At any cost.
Still holding his face, she drew him close, claiming his mouth with intense pressure. His lips briefly resisted hers, challenging her to take what she wanted.
An unholy thrill went through her as she traced the seam of his lips with her tongue, breaching his defenses to take full possession of his mouth. The contact of tongue against tongue caused her core to flare brighter and hotter than before. She heard herself growling softly, reveling in wondrous power.
Her assault became bolder. She pulled at his wet clothes, fighting her way through the soggy mass to find warm hard flesh underneath. Somehow his shirt came off, and then she was tugging open the front of his jeans, eager to free the erection straining beneath the heavy denim. Unthinkable desires and urges steamrolled through her mind, flooding her senses even as they defied her not to give in to the temptation of the heated pulse beating beneath his skin.
Dimly she felt his hands tug at her bra, freeing her breasts from their cruel confines. When his hand cupped one bare breast, it was all she could do not to rip her fingernails through his vulnerable flesh. Instead, she immersed herself in the erotic sensations filling her, almost crying out when his thumb skimmed the aching tautness of her nipple.
An indistinguishable sound rolled past her throat.
A low laugh passed his lips. “You want more, don’t you?” he murmured.
“Yes,” she gasped. “Everything.”
Taking control, he pressed her back against the wall. His questing hands skimmed toward her hips. Slipping his fingers into the elastic band of her panties, he tugged the wet cotton down over her hips. Seconds later, his hand invaded the silky juncture between her thighs.
Barely managing to bite back a gasp of surprise, Jesse welcomed the exquisite explorations of his fingers. Clutching at his strong arms for balance, she lifted and braced one foot against the opposite edge of the tub, allowing him better access to the throbbing ache that was threatening to drive her insane.
With the scantest touch of his fingers, he caressed her dewy softness. Jesse cried out softly, clutching her fingers deeply into the solid ridges of muscle. Despite her recent shower, her skin was burning up and her throat was dry and parched. Her nipples were puckered tight, straining for the relief of his mouth upon them. Every nerve and vein in her body throbbed and vibrated, demanding satisfaction.
As if able to read her mind, Maddox responded. His mouth plundered the tender arch of her throat before blazing a fiery path to the silken tautness of her rosy nipples. She gasped aloud as moist suckling heat closed around one quivering tip, even as his fingers easily penetrated her.
A curse and the feel of tearing skin beneath her fingernails brought climax closer.
Jesse opened her eyes long enough to see the deep scratches she’d carved across his shoulders; red, raw, and welling with fresh blood.
She shook her head to deny the shock and the pleasure, but the needs of her body betrayed her.
Hand slipping away, Maddox lifted his head. “If you want a taste, take it,” he urged. Repositioning their bodies, his hips intruded between her thighs. His erection, swollen and impatient, pressed against her creamy sex.
A cry of intense hunger tore from her throat. The smell of his heated, sweating skin pressed against her own was enough to drive her wild with longing. “I can’t,” she gasped.
As though to punish her for her refusal, Maddox delivered a hard thrust. The single move impaled her, filling her to the ends of her depth. A savage growl tore from his lips. Deep inner muscles rippled around his pulsing shaft. “Do it,” he urged. “Tear me up. Take what you want . . .” His voice was harsh, strained by his own voracious urges. “Take what you need.”
Mesmerized by the sensation of their bodies locked together, Jesse slid trembling hands across his sweat-matted chest. At the same time she felt the demon inside, eager to have the thing she’d continued to deny it. For a moment her formidable barrier of steely denial wavered. The demon, the invader, the black hungry beast within her, fought to take control of her mind. Escape was close.
So close.
All it needed to emerge, to break free, was a taste . . .
Even as she fought against the dangers of falling so deeply into the chasm of complete surrender, Jesse responded to his command. Maddox slid his hand beneath her hips to raise her, bracing her more firmly against the wall. His hips ground into hers, drenching her in ripple after ripple of pleasure. Jesse felt the tide of climax begin to swell inside her, close to bursting forth in scalding waves of ecstasy.
A low growl tore from her throat as she raked her nails across his chest, harder and deeper than before. Driven by the desperation to feed, her demon lent her a strength she wouldn’t have otherwise possessed. Several deep scratches appeared, releasing a trickle onto skin already scarred by a lifetime of strife and battle. Her fingertips were stained with crimson temptation. The scent of blood and sweat heated by the intensity of sex scalded her senses. She wasn’t human anymore.
Maddox hammered her harder. Jesse’s nerves thrashed as she soared through peak after peak of rapture, each one sharper, hotter, and more intense than the one before.
Maddox leaned in closer. “Share it with me,” he begged. “Become one with me.” Each slam of his hips into hers intensified the deep throbbing friction boiling inside her core.
Having lost all awareness of herself as a human being, Jesse lifted a trembling hand. Eager to taste the succulent temptation, she smeared his blood across his lips. At the same instant, his mouth moved forcefully over hers, bringing them together and solidifying their connection in a way no other could.
But it wasn’t enough.
Fingers curling into the damp curls covering his head, Jesse wrenched back his head. The demon begged for more.
Driven to complete their joining, Jesse used her teeth to tear at Maddox’s jugular. At the cloying scent of blood, she eagerly sucked at the heated skin beneath her lips.
Maddox’s entire body tensed. Catching her by the wrists, he slammed her arms back against the wall even as a moan of elation tore past his lips. There was nothing she could do but endure the last solid thrusts of his penetration.
Trapped beneath his weight, Jesse writhed against him. Pulsating contractions closed around her even as a stream of white-hot heat poured from his body into hers. Locked down by the strength and dominance of the predatory male, she felt her pleasure splinter into a million fiery shards, spiraling through her until she was utterly consumed—body, mind, and spirit.
It took a few minutes for the heat and intensity of the moment to fade away.
Jesse slowly opened her eyes. It didn’t take her long to realize she was still pressed against the wall, her body contoured to fit the shape Maddox had molded it into. Below the waist they were still firmly joined.
He drew a deep breath. “Damn, that was intense.” Big hands brushed clinging tendrils of hair away from her forehead. “Totally awesome.”
His words and the emotion behind them prompted Jesse to blink hard, clearing away the haze floating in front of her eyes. She uttered a tiny gasp of dismay as her vision focused. Not only were Maddox’s shoulders and chest covered with a raw mass of scratches, but his mouth was also smeared with flecks of crimson. And though she hadn’t managed to break the skin, an imprint of her teeth marred his neck. Her own hands were stained with his blood.
The pleasure of the past few minutes evaporated. As she gained full use of her senses, a gasp rolled past her lips. Her heart seized in her chest. “Oh no.” The sound of her dismay echoed off the water-dampened walls of the bathroom. “I didn’t mean . . . Did I hurt you?”
Maddox’s hands clasped her waist. “I’m okay.” Guiding their bodies apart, he stepped out of the tub and lifted her after him. “You didn’t hurt me.”
Jesse glanced from her hands to the scratches in his skin. The sight wasn’t kind on her composure. Snippets of his words, spoken in the heat of passion, echoed in her mind.
Take what you want
, he’d urged.
She stood motionless, frozen with shock. On the outside her skin burned, while inside she felt as if a thousand icicles had just been shoved straight through her heart. Disgust caused her stomach to roll over. “You wanted me to drink your blood.” Her words were blunt and grating against her ears. “While we were having sex.”
Guilt flared in his gaze as he fumbled to pull up and rezip his jeans. “I’m sorry,” he said, refusing to look her in the eyes. He took a deep breath and released it. “I didn’t mean for things to get that intense.”
Jesse refused to accept his words. It was a lie, outright and bald-faced. “Why would you do that to me?” she demanded. “You know how hard I fight to keep this thing from taking over.”
Even as she asked the question, she felt a stab of self-recrimination. She never would have had intercourse with him if she’d known he was going to drag her down into something so vile and tainted. But she’d wanted him and had opened herself up to the greedy, wanton desires burning in her soul.
Didn’t Maddox realize she could have, by all rules of demonic logic, ripped out his throat and saturated herself in his blood? It was true he was more than a mortal man, strong and quite capable of taking care of himself. But what he’d done was dangerous, on several levels. Like a child sneaking into the lion’s cage on a dare to pet the dangerous animal, he’d deliberately tried to bring out her inner beast. Though she’d briefly reveled in the excitement of being taken in such a primitive and painful manner, she couldn’t reconcile a moment’s pleasure with the danger in which he’d placed both of them.