Blade on the Hunt

  She stretched, going to her tiptoes to kiss his neck, licking over the sensitive skin at his jaw, letting herself delight in his groan when she grazed her teeth against his jugular. Pushing right to the edge of breaking the skin. She didn’t have teeth made for such things but when she bit down he arched into her and spun, backing her against the tile at her back.

  His eyes were lit, reflecting the light back at her. She drew a breath through a gasp as sensation ripped it from her.

  “I’d say you were playing with fire, but you know that.” He gripped her easily, leaning his weight against her to hold her in place as he kissed across her brow and down her cheeks.

  “I like fire.” Some might say it was a flaw, but Rowan understood it brought this man to her, so she was good with that.

  “Of course you do. Why not? It’s dangerous and could easily harm you.”

  She laughed, her fingers sliding into his hair as he nibbled down her throat and over the upper curves of her breasts.

  “You’d be bored otherwise.”

  His hands, slick with soap, roamed all over her body, paying particular attention to her nipples until she writhed against him. And then...he went south, dropping to his knees before her.

  She closed her eyes as the water rushed over her skin and sighed happily when he spread her open and took a lick and then another, nudging her thighs a little wider to get more of her with his mouth.

  He didn’t waste any time, instead driving her hard and fast until she came in a sharp rush of pleasure.

  He didn’t stop there. A man of his word, he pushed her into another climax that felt so good it nearly hurt.

  He surged to his feet and kissed her. She held on as he devastated her lips and tongue, his taste filling her.

  It hadn’t even been a full day since they’d had sex last, but this was different and they both knew it. He knew more about her now. Had seen enough to render her vulnerable to him. And she hadn’t worried. It meant he knew her more. That knowledge was achingly intimate. Raw.

  She hadn’t hidden her reaction to it. Had let him see her vulnerability and that had deepened their connection. Especially when he hadn’t rejected her or walked out.

  He broke away, pulling her from the shower and wrapped her in a warm towel the size of five people, picked her up and deposited her on the edge of the counter, stepping between her thighs.

  “Here you are again, between my legs.”

  “My favorite.”

  It was a tease, but she loved the lazy confidence in his tone.

  The counter put him at the perfect height to slide right inside her with one hard stroke. Hard enough she grunted and then adjusted her position to wrap her legs around his waist while she leaned back and braced her hands on the edge of the counter, just inside where his rested.

  “Yes, just as delightful as the last time I was here.” He kissed her neck, teasing them both with a graze of his incisors against her skin. Always walking that edge and never crossing it. Never showing any resentment that she’d never given over to him and let him take her blood.

  She’d never told him why. He’d never pushed when she hadn’t shared the details, though he did manage to leave her feeling like he wasn’t angry or insulted and that if she ever did want to tell him he was there.

  She shoved that from her mind and rolled her hips to meet his thrusts.

  Between them this was always perfect. She never had to think about sex with him, they just went at it and it worked. The rest of the relationship stuff filled her with various emotions and she already had a lot of emotions and was generally cranky and mean and yet he loved her anyway.

  She opened her eyes to find him looking at her as if she was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen.

  She had no defense against this wonder he filled her with. She couldn’t hold him back or wall him out. There was nothing to do but take that leap and be vulnerable.

  “I love you,” she murmured and his gaze sharpened, lips curving up as he continued to fuck her.

  “I find myself rather pleased by hearing you say it.” He leaned in to kiss her as she stretched up to meet him, their mouths colliding in a tangle.

  There never seemed to be a point where she got enough of him. Never enough of this rutting and petting, of the sweat slicked crush of his hips against her inner thighs. He filled her with fire.

  “You are mine.” He said this and took her bottom lip between his teeth. Harder and harder until he balanced on the very edge of drawing blood.

  Her heart sped. Adrenaline spiked. He brought this out in her in a way no one else ever had. It was by turns exciting and deeply exhausting. She didn’t know what to do with the tenderness so she just sort of pretended it wasn’t there until she tripped over it or figured it out.

  He let go slowly and licked over the sting. His strokes had slowed, but they’d gone harder and deeper.

  “Nothing to say, Hunter?”

  “Your cock feels really good.”

  He snarled but then laughed.

  He nipped her bottom lip again. “You. Are. Mine.”

  That little snarly possessive thing was recent and it totally made her tingle. He was so all buttoned up and well mannered that when he got a little tousled it was so unbelievably hot.

  “Do you want me to agree? Right here with your cock in me? With my scent all over you and my toothbrush on your counter? Am I yours, Scion?”

  “It wasn’t a question, Rowan. It was a statement.”

  He added a swivel on each thrust so he ground himself against her clit and orgasm slowly began to build. Again.

  “And are you mine then?” She regretting saying it aloud. It sounded...like someone else.

  But his response, that widening of his eyes and the emotion on his features erased most of her embarrassment at needing reassurance. “Most assuredly. You’re a pain in the ass. You kill my Vampires and scare the ones you leave alive. You’re rude and ill mannered. You do have very good taste in wine, I give you that.”

  She laughed. “Thank you, Scion. I’m glad to know my surly ways were what hooked you.”

  He kissed her slowly as he ground himself against her again and again. “You’re so wet and hot. Drives me crazy. So close. You’re tightening up around me. Give me number three then.”

  Rowan let it all go and came so hard she cracked her head on the mirror as she arched to take him deeper.

  He put a hand between her skull and the mirror and sped his pace, making that hot little fuck-mumble only she got to hear and came, closing that loop between them.

  Chapter Six

  He’d set her on her feet and she’d looked up, her affection plain on her features. “I’m yours, Clive.”

  He thought about it still, even as he made sure she ate and had some wine. The sun would be up soon. He felt it drawing power and his own waning. But he wanted every moment with her he could get before he went in to rest.

  “The tea is working. I’m sleepy and warm and sort of lazy.”

  She hadn’t said much and he wanted her to be relaxed so she could rest even more than he wanted to talk with her about The First.

  “Come with me.” He stood and she followed, taking his hand. The robe looked fantastic on her, as he knew it would. He liked seeing her in something he’d chosen. Growing up as she had in Vampire culture, she’d know wearing it was a sign of their intimate connection.

  She hadn’t just told him she was his, she’d shown him. He had another item, not necessarily a gift, but something he wanted to give her. But it wasn’t time yet. Soon, he figured.

  “You don’t have to stay.” He pulled the comforter back. He liked warm bedding, with some weight. Since their body temperature lowered so much as they rested, most Vampires tended to choose bedding that would keep them as warm as possible. r />
  “It’s not that I don’t want to sleep with you.” She got in and he watched the beguiling sway of her ass as she did.

  He slid beside her and pulled her close.

  “But you don’t know if I’m here or not. You’re unconscious and your room is so perfect and pristine and I’m not pristine. I like to work when I need to and sometimes that’s before you wake or after you go to rest. I have to make calls and yell at people. That’s a big job and it can jump time zones.” She paused. Most likely reveling in the memories of the last call she made to yell at someone.

  Rowan continued. “I eat in my bed and you hate that. I have snacks in my room and your eye tic comes back every time you open one of my drawers and find jerky. I leave coffee cups on my bedside table and you’re obsessively and unnaturally neat.”

  He shuddered at the memory.

  “I’m not hurt or offended. And I am glad you don’t leave dried meat products in my dresser drawers.”

  She laughed. “Goddess you’re so fucking uptight. You get faint when you see pillowcases that don’t match.”

  “I knew it was love when my revulsion at your slovenly ways didn’t stop me from wanting to be around you. You also forgot to mention you use a top sheet instead of the fitted ones. It makes no sense. You’re supposed to use the sheets the way they’re intended.”

  The look she gave him amused him greatly.

  “I’m a rebel that way I guess. I hear using the wrong sheet is like a gateway to dogs marrying cats and buffalo roaming the streets smoking weed.”

  He had no idea what she was talking about, but it was most likely one of her pop culture references to humans he’d prefer to avoid anyway.

  “When we move in together we’ll work around it.” He hadn’t meant to say it to spook her, but once the words were out he was glad he had.

  She didn’t even stiffen. “We’ll need a place with two bedrooms on either side of a shared sitting room. I can eat crackers in bed and you can iron your underpants and have a stick up your butt about lint or the pinstripe on your pajamas being too wide in yours.”

  He groaned. “You’re never going to let that go. A man has to have some style, Rowan.”

  “Pajamas don’t need style. You’re not even conscious when you’re resting! It’s not like you’re out at a nightclub. Just who are you trying to impress? I’d rather see you naked and no one is in your bedroom to see your PJs but me. You could sleep in a T-shirt and your boxers or sweats even.”

  He curled his lip. “And while I’m at it I’ll microwave a frozen dinner and watch a reality show too, shall I?”

  She guffawed. “You make me laugh, you fucking weirdo. As I was saying, the problem isn’t a solution between Rowan and Clive. We’re both freakishly odd and for whatever reason that works. But your people would be in my house, especially if we live at Vampire HQ instead of way from that madness.”

  He wasn’t opposed to finding a place outside the main part of town. Once they chose the next location for the Scion to live, he could get plans started there for a custom home. But contact with his people would definitely come with being his partner. “You’re growing on them.”

  “I’d like to run them over with a tank. Except Alice. You can keep her because she’s like a badass Vampire Mary Poppins.”

  He’d have to tell Alice that. She’d love it.

  “You’re not arguing about moving in with me?”

  “We have some killing to do first. But I’m not deluded about who you are. You’re not just any old Vampire, you’re a master Vampire. Which means you’re super spoiled and haughty and used to getting your way in all things. You’ll just mope and sniff and be British until I relent. David needs his own suites and your people aren’t allowed there. I need a place to work, which will be a no Vampire zone. And a secure place to park my car.”

  He should be suspicious of how easily she was taking this. Maybe her tea had been drugged. He wouldn’t put it past Dina to dope Rowan up to get her to actually sleep. But Brigid didn’t usually allow such nonsense and quite often burned anything intoxicating from her system.

  But he’d take it. Because he did want her with him. Wanted her in his home where he knew she was protected. And, where everyone knew she was his.

  He also knew David was part of the package. “Of course.” Along with Hunter Corp. and its endless politics and machinations—which he was less enamored of. But he’d take this as the victory it was and get started on the plans. Once they dealt with the hunt and whatever was going on with The First, he’d lock this living together thing in.

  She sighed, content for the moment and he breathed her in. He wanted this to be what he experienced before going to sleep and her scent on the pillow when he awoke was acceptable since he knew she wouldn’t be staying. It was enough that she’d been there.

  “He’ll get better,” she said very quietly, finally speaking of her father. “I think the adventure he went on eased some of the pent up stuff that led him to this place. But he can’t come with us. It would be total anarchy and I have too much to do already.”

  “All right.” She didn’t need answers from him. Rowan had more experience with The First than anyone else he knew. She understood him and while she had fear, she also had love. Complicated and twisty, but that came with what they all were.

  “He’s well enough to wrest a promise to visit more from me in exchange for staying here. You’re coming too.”

  This pleased him immensely.

  “I am?”

  “Really? Now you want to be coy? After you nailed me on your bathroom counter you’re going to expect me to pretend you aren’t giddy and doing a jig in your head at more access to the boss?”

  She snorted. “Well probably not a jig. Not even in your imagination. Though I might recall that image to keep from popping you in the junk the next time you get uppity. Which we both know will be very soon because you like being uppity. It’s your prime directive. That was a Star Trek reference, in case you’re so stunted you don’t know what I meant.”

  He smiled against her hair, still a little damp from the shower, her scent now mixed with his shampoo.

  “I find the return of your vulgarity and lack of manners reassuring now instead of horrifying. You’ve gone and done it, Hunter. I’m broken.”

  “Next think you’ll be eating McNuggets and drinking diet soda.”

  “Let’s not be hasty.”

  She laughed, tipping her head back to look into his face. “Go to sleep, old Vampire. Maybe I’ll order you some Crocs while you’re sleeping.”

  “Where would we put a crocodile?”

  “In a moat we have around our new house. Which is a great idea, actually. But I meant shoes. Plastic shoes. People garden in them and chefs seem to like them too. They sort of look like orange rubber wooden shoes. With holes.”

  “Plastic shoes?” Horror spun through his system at the idea.

  “You could go wild and not wear socks.”

  She was laughing so hard it was difficult to understand this last bit, but he knew she was teasing and quite honestly the mere thought of plastic on his feet was enough to turn his stomach.

  “It’s easy to mock when some people have standards.”

  She laughed more, hugging him. “I’m going now. Rest. Goddess, I feel better now. Orgasms and mockery overruled the stress. You’re handy that way, Scion.” She rolled from his bed.

  “Leave the robe here.”

  She paused at the door, looking back at him over a shoulder. “And walk naked back to my rooms? All right then. It’s late enough that I probably won’t see anyone.”

  He frowned. “You do have a point.”

  “I’ll return it here after sunset.” She turned as she shook her head, moving back to the bed to kiss him one last time. “So spoiled.”

 
“It’s rather a nice situation for me, I do say.”

  She flipped him off as she left the room, calling out a goodbye as she left. She shut the door to his bedchamber and then he heard the locks engage. It would keep the room dark and free of sunlight and anyone not possessing the code out while he was more vulnerable.

  He waited there as the sun rose and made his lids heavy. Thinking of her walking through the halls, going up stairs and around corners. He’d made the trip to her suites, housed in the same high security wing as The First, enough times to know how long it took to get there.

  When he’d gone through the trip enough to be assured she’d be back, he let himself fall away and rest, knowing she’d be there when he awoke.

  Chapter Seven

  “We’ve compiled a list of candidates for you to choose from, Rowan.”

  Rowan looked at the screen, glad the people on the other side couldn’t see the tightening of the muscles in her back.

  “That’s not necessary. I don’t require any personnel from Hunter Corp. with me on this mission. I’ll need the resources I already make use of—archives, records, data, safe houses—that sort of thing.”

  Roth Wesslyian, king-sized asshole and a human she’d had the great pleasure of punching, cleared his throat. Sadly, he hadn’t gotten fired after his little freak out at the Keep. To be fair, he and several others had been influenced by magic. But he was still an asshole. And he still got up her nose. And he was still plotting to fuck with the balance between Vampires and humans.

  “This isn’t some personal vendetta, Ms. Summerwaite.”

  She loathed him nearly as much as she loathed having her time wasted. “Really? Thanks for telling me. I’d never have known that. In any case, I have my team chosen and don’t require your opinion on staffing issues.”

  “Your valet has sent a formal request to accompany you on this hunt.” Susan Espy, mentor, stand in mother figure and fantastic assassin, also ignored Roth’s comments, but the David thing annoyed Rowan greatly. Having to deal with it then was a surprise and that showed and that weakened her.