The Witching Hour (The Grim Reaper Saga (Urban Fantasy Romance)) (25 page)

She laughed and sat up, giving him room to sit the tray across her lap. “You didn’t need to do all this.”

There were tiny saucers filled with a variety of jams and a small tab of butter.

“Well,” his gravelly voice rolled through her veins, “after what just happened, I figured putting something in your stomach couldn’t hurt.”

She smiled and buttered her toast. “You sure do own a lot of food for a vampire. I can’t understand how the sight of this stuff doesn’t just turn your stomach.”

He smiled.

The flavor of sourdough burst in her mouth with the first bite. “Oh,” she moaned, “this is so good.”

He grinned and sat on the edge of the bed. “Glad you like it.”

Eve devoured the toast and drank more than half of the Orange Juice before she spoke again. “Jeez, I just realized that’s the first thing I ate all day. Thanks, really needed that.”

Now that she’d eaten, she was really starting to feel sluggish and his bed was so comfortable, the comforter thick and plush. All she wanted to do was kick off her shoes, curl into him, and sleep.

“So, how did you find this place?”

“Right,” she rolled the r, “kinda forgot all about that. Didn’t I?”

He cocked his head, twisting his lips.

Now came the part that she’d dreaded. Her stomach knotted all over again. “Truth is, after I totally wigged out on you at the beach yesterday...”

“Hmm,” he nodded, “what was that all about? I thought we were having a good time.”

The guy didn’t pull punches. Blunt but honest, at least he didn’t beat around the bush or pretend like he didn’t know what she was talking about.

“We were. I was.” She sighed and gave an apologetic shrug. “This is so hard to say without sounding totally weird.”

She couldn’t look at the open confusion in his deep blue’s anymore. It was just making her too nervous. So she allowed her gaze to roam the room, coming to rest on the burnished cherry wood armoire. “Two years ago I lost someone really dear to me. And it’s crazy, but in that moment I got so carried away,” she paused, taking a deep breath, “and I dunno... I just panicked.”

He grabbed her cold hands, warming them. She looked at him. His touch seemed to fill that empty space inside her, like the seamless joining of two souls.

She drowned in his bottomless eyes. He wasn’t judging her, but comforting and she felt herself falling deeper and harder. Her heart gave a tiny jerk.

“You still didn’t tell me how you found this place?”

Relief made her chuckle. “That’s it. You’re not pissed at me for acting like such an idiot?”

He kissed her knuckle and said, “Who am I to judge?”

The movement of his firm lips against her flesh made her tingle and desire coursed a turbulent path down her body. Making her ache low in her gut and her nipples tighten into hard painful buds.   

She shook her head and patted the spot on the bed next to her. She hardly knew him and yet it felt like he wasn’t really a stranger. There was something very calming about that.

“My sisters forced me to do a séance.”

A grin split his face.

She rolled her eyes. “I swear I’m not a stalker, but you never gave me your number or address and I just wanted to find you and tell you that... I was sorry.”

He crawled next to her, draping his arm around her shoulders and pulling her close. “It’s okay. And I am glad you came.”

Stomach fluttering at the tenderness in his voice, she laid her head on his chest. The steady beat of his heart a song in her ears. The soapy scent of his body filled her senses. She sighed. This was so nice, so perfect.

With a flick of his wrist, Cian turned off the lights and several candles burst to life. A soft golden glow filled the room.

“This is nice,” she murmured, closing her eyes. Sleep crowding her mind and getting harder to ignore.

“Eve.”

“Hmm?” She could stay like this forever.

“Do you want to stay the night?” his voice was a soft whisper.

A small thrill raced down her spine and she nodded, nuzzling his chest with tiny moans until she finally fell asleep.

***

He watched her. It seemed that’s all he could do anymore. In repose she reminded him of a sylph. Angelic and ethereal. Reaching out, he touched the sable polish of her hair. It was silky soft and he rubbed a strand between his fingers.

She moaned and he trailed a finger down her cheek, it was warm to the touch. He wasn’t sure what she liked to sleep in, but of a certain the turtleneck had to be hot. With a swipe of his hand he replaced her jeans and turtleneck with a soft white tank top and pair of cotton sleep pants. Her clothing reappeared by the sitting chair in the corner, draped over the top.

“Rest.”

A soft smile graced her lips, before quickly fading away.

He wasn’t tired, rarely needing sleep the way a human body craved it, but he didn’t want to let her go either. She rolled onto her side. Her backside firmly spooned against him. The white tail feather of her tattoo peeked out the bottom of her shirt.

He reached out, dragging his finger along the design. It was healing nicely, barely pink anymore.

“You are so bonny, lass” he whispered.

It was getting close. Their days were numbered. Already they’d used three. One more day. One more day to figure out how to stop this. It didn’t seem possible that time was moving so fast. But it was and Cian was no closer to figuring out how to keep her safe from The Morrigan than he’d been at the beginning.

He closed his eyes, the weight of her body a comforting presence. In such a short period he’d come to care for this woman more than he’d ever imagined possible.

Smirking, he shook his head. To think she’d gone through a séance just to find out where he lived. She fascinated him, everything about her. Eve was fire and passion, a woman with a dark past who’d come so far.

Her soft, even breathing warred with the mechanical rhythm of the grandfather clock in the hallway. The hands of time were ticking away and all he could do was helplessly stand by and watch it move on.

Sometime later, he wasn’t sure how much she rolled over. Her moans growing louder and louder. Hearing those mewls, seeing her body undulate and move, he had no doubt what she was dreaming about. His lips quirked, his cock twitched.

To touch her, to taste her, he’d give almost anything to have her now.

As if sensing his gaze, her eyes fluttered open. “Cian,” her voice was so soft, tremulous.

“Lass?”

“Do you feel it?”

He wasn’t sure what she meant. He looked out the window. “Feel what?”

“The fire. Do you feel it?”

His heart stuttered. He licked his lips. His testes ached so bad he could barely remember a time they didn’t anymore.

She dragged her foot along the length of his calf, her touch sizzled. It burned, made him crave. Want. His breathing grew sharp and heavy.

“I feel it,” he muttered, feeling secure in the shadows to utter the truth. Sensing the dark would take his words, hold them sacred, keep them safe.

Her eyes were liquid pools. Golden drops of brilliance. “I want you so bad. More than I’ve ever wanted anyone else.”

He sucked in a sharp breath. She had no idea, no clue how much those words made him tremble. Like his world had tipped on its side. He’d known how much she loved Michael, how much a part of her still did. That she could say that to him…

“Eve.” Her name on his lips was a promise, a whisper of something he could not put into words.

She crawled on him, her breasts smushed into his chest. Goddess he wanted this so bad, to rip the clothes from her body, bury himself in her warm haven and forget.

“I need you, Cian. I have from the moment we met. I need you to touch me, to ease the fire in my blood.” She kissed his neck, her scent wrapped him up, made him dizzy and he groaned. His fingers dug into her firm backside, kneading, petting.

He couldn’t believe he was about to say this. She was everything he wanted, she was throwing herself at him and goddess if it wasn’t tempting but… “Eve, you’re half asleep--”

Her tongue flicked at his neck. A moan rumbled from his chest, from the deepest pit of his soul. “Eve…”

“I’m not asleep. I’m awake. Alive. For the first time in a long time. Kiss me, Cian.”

“Lass.” But that was all he could say, there were so many reasons why they shouldn’t do this. Why they couldn’t. But her pants, her moans, drowned out all reason. He’d show her she wasn’t the only one feeling the fire. With his tongue, his body.

Cian growled, and rolled them over, pinning her beneath him. She wiggled, squirmed, and he ground his erection between her thighs. “Is that what you want?”

She threw her head back, her lips parted in a tiny ‘o’. “Yes, goddess yes.”

He was pure instinct now. She was a feast laid out for him, begging him to taste, to suckle. Cian crawled down her body.

“No, Cian… please.”

No sex. He couldn’t cross that line, but there were other ways to gain pleasure. For them both.

His hands were rough as he ripped her sleep pants down the sides. She gasped and then smiled when he yanked on her thong.

“Ohhhh,” she moaned.

He grunted, any other time he would have taken his time. Whipped her up slowly, hot kisses trailing a path down her neck, her breasts, teasing her navel and then maybe laving the sensitive skin between her thighs, but he was hungry. Crazy for the sight of her. The taste of her flesh in his mouth.

He ripped the flimsy thong off and then sat on his knees, stunned to silence for a moment. She was shaved. There wasn’t a hair to hide the peachy perfection of her dewy slit. She spread her legs and stuck her finger in her mouth. She was unashamed of her nudity, her eyes glinted with lust and something nameless, foreign. She stared at him as he stared at her. “Eve,” her name ripped from his throat like a benediction.

“I’m all yours, Cian.” Then, slowly and with practiced ease, she took the finger she’d been sucking on and traced it up her slit. “All yours.”

He was an animal. Cian took her finger, sucked on it hard, tasting her sweet essence. Letting it settle on his tongue like nectar. But one taste wasn’t enough. “I’m sorry, lass,” he crooned, “canna be gentle. So sorry.”

He shoved her legs down hard on the mattress and settled between her thighs, taking her swollen nub into his mouth and sucked. Hard.

Her nails were tiny claws scraping at his scalp and she lifted off the bed, her thighs trapping his head as she rubbed herself on his face. “Don’t want gentle,” she panted, “want you.”

Then there were no more words as he sucked, tasted and devoured. Running his tongue down the long wet length of her. She was a wild crazy thing, her groans growing in pitch and intensity.

Cian couldn’t stop from touching himself. He pulled back just enough to take himself in hand and rubbed hard, his vision grew blurry.

“I’m coming, Cian,” she keened, her knees trembled, and then she was spasming on him, giving him everything she had and Cian roared as his seed blasted from his body with a force of that left him reeling and seeing spots.

They lay there stunned, breathless. Her hands were gentle, rubbing his hair. “Come here.”

Exhausted, he crawled back up her body. She hugged him, her small arms wrapped tight around his body. His lips found hers and she kissed him back. But it wasn’t possession, or lust, this kiss held something both were too afraid to whisper, but felt to the depths of their soul.

He rolled over with a sigh and she snuggled into his chest. Then her breathing grew heavy and he knew she’d fallen back asleep. He smiled and joined her.

She was beautiful waking up, a lazy dance of limbs stretching out and back arcing up. Eve reminded him of a petal opening to face the sunlight after a long sleep.

Her lashes fluttered a second before finally opening. She blinked a few times and then turned to look at him, sleep still in her eyes.

“Good morning. Or should I say good night?”

He knew the moment she remembered what they’d shared last night, her cheeks filled with pink. Her lips twisted and she glanced to her right. She bit her bottom lip and though he’d tasted her once, he knew in that moment if she wanted to, he’d be more than happy to oblige. He would never get enough of Eve.

“Last night was ah…” She licked her lips, still unable to look at him.

“Me too.” He grabbed her hand and placed it against his chest.

She finally looked at him, within her eyes he read that same foreignness he’d read last night. That gentle flutter of something both infinite and profound. He trembled and she shook her head.

“So umm… how long were we out?”

He turned to look out the window, navy blue and violet streaks raced across the endless expanse of sky. “Pretty long.”

“Huh?” She glanced at the bedroom clock and then gasped, sitting up and clutching the sheet to her chest. “I slept for almost ten hours? I gotta go. I gotta...” she jumped to her feet and ran toward the door, “the meeting! Oh my goddess.”

She was a vision, bare breasts bouncing with her hurried steps. Full swell of her backside flexing with each stride. His blood hummed.