Slayer's Kiss: Shadow Slayer, Book 1 (4 page)

He stilled. “Stay?”

“With me. Here.” Kara looked down, twining her fingers together. “I thought, you know…maybe we could get to know each other a little better. Share some secrets.” God, how was it possible she could simultaneously want to die of embarrassment and rip his fucking clothes off?

Gavin swallowed, and his jacket fell limp in his grip to dangle by the tips of his fingers. “I can’t. I mean, I shouldn’t.”

He paused and cleared his throat, but the look in his eyes and the tiny dark spot soaking through the front of his charcoal slacks made her feel like she was going to spontaneously combust. She shifted restlessly, unable to quell the heat building between her thighs.

“Please?” Her voice cracked from the humiliation of it, but when he didn’t say a word, she pressed on. “I don’t want you to think I do this a lot. Actually, I
never
do this. But I want to. With you.”

Gavin’s hands fisted at his sides and he took a ragged breath. “I won’t try to tell you I’m not interested.” He looked down at himself with a pained grin. “But I think I’ll just ask you to unlock the door, then call it a night.”

The air left Kara’s lungs in a loud whoosh. It felt as if she’d literally been deflated by his rejection. “Sure. Of course.” She smiled at him. She could break down later. “Let me grab the other keys.”

“Kara,” he said when she turned on her heel and fled to the master bedroom.

She didn’t answer. There was nothing more to say. All she had to do was open his door, then she could find Abbey and take her frustration out on some deserving asshole who couldn’t keep his hands to himself.

But when she rounded the corner of the bed and reached down to the bottom drawer of her desk, what she saw hit her like a kick to the gut. “
Holy shit!
”

There, on the floor, sticking out from under her lavender dust ruffle, was a glossy black feather.

Chapter Three

Gavin burst through the door like he was ready to slaughter an army. “Kara!”

Kara crouched by the desk, black feather in hand, pondering what it all meant and how she was supposed to explain it to Gavin.
Uh, been dreaming about screwing a guy with wings, and I think he might have left this behind. Don’t worry. My exploits are confined to dirty nighttime fantasies and luring men out of bars to kick their asses. I’m not a crazy slut. Really.

“Sorry. I, uh…overreacted. I thought maybe Mr. Pibb killed a bird or something, but… Ha.” She laughed weakly. “It’s only one feather.”

Gavin’s eyes narrowed on the feather in her hand and his nostrils flared. The expression on his face made the handsome businessman look dangerous. He strode forward, took Kara’s hand and pulled her to her feet. “May I see that?”

“Sure.” She handed it over easily, wanting to play along and get him out of there fast so she could take a cold, Gavin-less shower and process what in the hell was going on. Mr. Pibb had never stepped a paw outside the apartment in all his ever-lovin’ life, and she always left the balcony doors closed. How could he have found a feather?

“Aha!” Kara exclaimed. As she realized what was happening, her shoulders slumped in relief. “I’m going to kick that witch’s ass.”

Gavin blinked. “Pardon?”

“I mean, that
bitch’s
ass,” she amended. “See, Abbey put this here to mess with me. She knows how I love…
birds
.”

Yeah, she’d flip Abbey the bird, all right. Her best friend must have put a lust spell on the feather and shoved it under Kara’s bed. No wonder her neighbors were looking hotter and her dreams were spicier than a habanero pepper. Leave it to Abbey to take Kara’s love life into her own hands. When it came to sex, that witch had a wicked sense of humor.

Kara got the spare key from the drawer and held it out to Gavin. “Here you go. Just bring it back tomorrow after you get copies made. Sorry about the confusion tonight.” And she wasn’t talking about the time mix-up.

But to her surprise, Gavin slipped the feather into his pocket and took the key from her fingers, just to let it drop to the floor. “I’ve decided to take you up on your invitation.”

He stepped forward and took her in his arms, pressing his never-ending erection firmly against her belly. “I’ll stay.”

Her heart almost sputtered to a stop. Would it be wrong to let this go further now that she knew their feelings were based on nothing more than a charmed feather? She should have known magic was involved when a man as attractive as Gavin couldn’t look at her without his pants bulging at the seams. “Uh…Gavin. Maybe we should—” was all she got out before he bent to her mouth and crushed his lips against hers.

The moment she tasted the exotic flavor of his tongue darting into her mouth, her doubts washed away like leaves in a storm, until only one thing remained—she would die if she couldn’t have him inside her. Now.

Gavin’s fingers sank into Kara’s hip as he lashed her with his tongue. He tasted of dark, addictive things Kara had never sampled before. The force of his kiss would have rocked her back, but he cradled her head in his left hand, sucking the breath from her lungs as he consumed her.

Kara ground her pelvis against him with a whimper. “I need this.”

She reached a hand down to feel the steel of his penis beneath his trousers. For a moment, she couldn’t wrap her mind around what she was feeling, until finally, she let out a gasp. He couldn’t really be that large, could he? There was no way he’d fit.

Gavin plucked her hand away from his groin and brought it to his chest. “Not that, princess. Not tonight.”

Kara pulled away and looked at him as if he were insane. “Not tonight? What are you, some sort of pussy tease? Is that how you get your kicks?”

He stared at her from behind his dark blond lashes—and laughed! “Yes, princess, I’m a ‘pussy tease’. Here, let me show you.” He closed the space between them and lifted Kara into his arms as though she weighed less than the feather in his pocket.

“What are you doing?” She was suddenly unsure about the wicked gleam in his eyes.

Gavin didn’t say a word as he laid Kara on the center of the bed. When he stood and began unbuttoning his dress shirt, she swore if her heart beat any faster it would explode. After the dress shirt lay in a heap on the floor, Gavin peeled off his white T-shirt to reveal the most perfect torso Kara had ever seen, with wide shoulders and a broad chest almost too heavily muscled for her comfort. Around his neck he wore four leather cords and from each one hung a different pendant.

“I hate all these layers you people wear. I want to feel you against my skin.” His voice was so deep and gravelly with his desire for her, Kara could feel the rumble down to her core.

“‘You people’?”

He paused for a moment, as if she’d asked a tough question, then he shook it off. “Lie back,” he commanded as he crawled onto the end of the bed and began slowly unzipping her boots. He pulled off her socks and massaged his thumbs along the arches of her feet, squeezing them hard.

“Oooh,” she groaned, stretching out on the bed and splaying her toes. She couldn’t even complain about his opinion on women’s clothing. If he wanted her in less, she’d wear less.

“You like that?” He kissed the top of her foot. “Yes, I can tell you do. I can smell you, Kara. You’re wet for me. You want me, don’t you, princess?”

Kara glanced down to see him run his tongue along the tips of her toes. “Please, Gavin.” A bead of sweat trailed down her temple.

He smiled. “I wish I could. I want to be inside you more than I’ve ever wanted anything.”

What was he saying? Was he saying no? Kara couldn’t understand him. Her heartbeat pounded in her ears until she thought she’d go deaf from the rush of blood, and her pussy pulsed in time with the beat. She pulled her foot back and reached her hand out for his belt, trying to sit.

Gavin took her by the shoulders and pushed her back onto the bed. “So eager.” He kissed one knee. “So rushed.” Then trailed his tongue along the other. “Why won’t you let me take my time? Do you know how long I’ve waited for this?” But even as the words left his mouth, Gavin grasped Kara’s leather skirt around the hem and yanked it up around her belly. “Too long…” he murmured into her thigh.

With his mouth pressed to her thigh, he missed her slightly delirious gaze. “That’s hard to believe. With your looks, I doubt you wait in line at the DMV.”

A warm snicker fanned her skin. “I’ve learned the value of delayed gratification. I’m nothing if not a patient man.”

When he kissed a path to her old cotton underwear, she tensed. Pretty underwear wasn’t a requirement when she and Abbey went hunting. No one ever got far enough to see under her skirt anyhow. “I, uh, have nicer underwear. They’re in the wash.”

“Kara,” he growled.

“What?”

“Stop talking nonsense.” Gavin grasped the edge of her panties in his teeth and worked them down her thighs. “And spread your legs for me.”

The air in her room felt electric, crackling with sensual energy, and the night was cool against her heated flesh. When the tip of his tongue flicked at her mound, parting her carefully groomed thatch of hair, she squeaked.

Holy shit.
He couldn’t really be going there, could he? She reached down and grasped his hair. “No. No one’s ever done that to me before.”

“Want to play games,
virgin princess
?” He retreated an inch and slowly licked her thigh. “I’ll play.”

Kara yanked his hair again. “No. Really.” It seemed so intimate. Too intimate. Sex was sex, but a man burying his head in her crotch was something else altogether. Finally, frustration won out. “I don’t want to be rude, Gavin, but can you just fuck me already?”

His sexy smirk faded. “You’d rather let a man ride you like a brood mare and bury his seed in your womb than allow him to pleasure you with his tongue?”

Kara frowned. He sounded like some guy from an old movie. “Why are you talking like that? You sound…different.” Kinky role-playing shit.

“Sorry,” he said with a smile. Any accent she thought she’d imagined was gone. “Where were we?”

“I think you were talking about riding me like a brood mare, but you can keep the ‘seed’, thanks. I have a condom around here somewhere.”
Probably old and expired.
And with her almost nonexistent periods, she wondered why she even bothered with the Pill.

“You are unbelievable. I think you may be purposefully ignoring my wishes and trying to take advantage of my—” he glanced at his pants and the huge tent there, “—
condition
.” He smiled and continued. “So let me put it this way… The only way you are going to come tonight is on my face. If you aren’t comfortable with that, tell me now so I can take the key and go.”

She narrowed her eyes at his challenge. She wasn’t about to let him walk out before putting out this fire he’d ignited in her. “Fine,” she told him, spreading her legs wide.

Gavin chuckled. “Are you sure?”

Her eyes flashed. “Do it, you son of a bitch, or so help me, you’ll never see another newspaper again.”

Kara could feel the deep rumble of his laughter against her skin as he ducked between her thighs. Her knees tensed around his head, but as the first lap of his tongue washed over her, she dissolved into a mindless puddle and let out a low groan.

“Oh, Gavin,” she murmured, reveling in the rhythmic rasp of his tongue against her clit. “Oh, right there.”

Nothing she’d ever done to herself could compare to what he was doing to her now. She thought she might die from the pleasure. Kara reached down and took his head in her hands once again, but this time she pulled him to her, not taking a chance he might escape.

His tongue beat against her again and again, and she could feel her juices flowing, wetting her channel, inviting him in. His fingers sank into the flesh of her ass, angling her against his lips. And when his tongue darted inside, licking her opening and probing her folds, she thrust against his mouth.

Her hips rose to meet him as he buried his face in her wet core. Gavin groaned, and the bed rocked beneath her as he rubbed his cock against the mattress.

“Sweet Mother of Eve, I never thought you’d taste this good, Kara,” he growled between swipes of his tongue. “I want to eat you up, lick every drop of your juice until I’m never thirsty again.” He panted against her, grazing her flesh with his teeth.

Kara reveled in the new sensation, loving the feel of his thick tongue as it thrust into her before circling back to her clit. When she was finally whimpering against the pillow, Gavin found a rhythm, lapping at her in time with the flex of her driving hips.

Kara didn’t want to come. She wanted to stay there with Gavin forever, suspended in time, his silky hair between her fingers, his mouth suckling and pressing into her slick folds, his hands kneading her ass. She didn’t want to come…but she did.

She cried out, yanking his hair harder as she exploded from within, her womb contracting then expanding like a supernova, as if all the energy in the room coalesced in her tiny, hooded bundle of nerves before firing to every other cell in her body.

The muscles of her channel spasmed, clutching at something he wouldn’t give her, trying to milk the long shaft he’d refused her. She ground against his face instead, something in her soul crying out in frustration against this man who should be inside her. Filling her. Completing her.

When the last tremors of her orgasm shook her, Gavin soothed her swollen flesh with light strokes of his tongue. Kara almost moaned aloud. It was the best thing she’d ever experienced. And the worst. She’d never felt as physically content or as emotionally empty as she did in this moment. Utterly alone.

Kara never cried. She didn’t cry when she was passed around from foster home to foster home. She didn’t cry when the man in the alley forced her against her will at seventeen years old. The only time she’d ever allowed tears to fall was when the woman who’d been like a mother to her had finally succumbed to cancer so many years ago. So she didn’t understand what was happening when her throat closed and a single wet, salty drop trickled down her cheek.

Gavin looked up at Kara from between her legs, his lashes fluttering in surprise. “What’s the matter, princess? Did I hurt you?”