Six
“You’re here,” Genevieve said as Hunter slid her down his body.
“You’re really here.” She circled him, disbelief, joy, and sexual hunger eating at her. Pink pollen twirled around them.
Hunter remained utterly still. He was as harshly gorgeous as ever, only somehow more savage looking. Her heart thrummed with excitement, even as confusion rocked her. “How are you here? You aren’t a corpse and you aren’t a spirit, but you’ve been gone for three days.”
Trees swayed around them, and the scent of moon-magic and jasmine wafted headily through the air. Rays of muted light illuminated the clearing.
“I . . . didn’t die,” he said. He stared at her neck, his eyes red. “I should leave.”
“No! Stay.” She bit her bottom lip. Never had she been more overjoyed, more confused. “Why are your eyes red? Wait, the red is fading. I don’t understand. What happened to you?”
He didn’t answer.
She forgot the question, anyway, as she reached out, hands brushing his jacket to the ground.
“I missed you so much,” she told him. “When I thought you were dead, I wanted to die, too.”
“Genevieve,” he said, the sound of her name a moan of pleasurepain. He squeezed his eyelids together. “I should go. You’re safe now.”
“Don’t leave. Stay with me. Please.”
“Something happened—”
“However you survived, I don’t care. I just want you.” She flattened her palms over his chest, his nipples deliciously abrasive. “Mmm. So good.”
His hands tangled in her hair, and their gazes locked. “I want to kiss you.”
“Do it. Kiss me.”
He leaned toward her and nuzzled his nose over her neck. “You smell so good. Better than I remembered.” The more he spoke, the more slurred his words became.
“Kiss me, Hunter. Please.”
He paused only a moment before straightening and crushing his lips against hers. His tongue slid into her mouth, already heating, already slick and flavored with passion. He tasted like urgency. They’d been apart so long —days that seemed to have stretched beyond eternity.
Her hands tore at the button on his pants, and in seconds, he was naked. All the while, he rained little kisses over her entire face. Desire rushed through her blood. “No more waiting,” she said breathlessly.
“No more waiting,” he agreed. Something dark blanketed his expression, his eyes suddenly going red again. “I’m not going to hurt you,” he said, his voice rough, filled with determination.
“I know.”
“Good.” He tumbled her to the ground. His lips clamped around her hard, aching nipple, and his hand trailed down her stomach, raising gooseflesh. He stopped at the apex of her thighs, dabbling at the fine tuft of dark hair.
“Yes, good,” she moaned.
She kneaded her hands down his strong torso, reveling in the hard muscles hidden under male skin. Power radiated from him.
He began sucking her nipple, his teeth surprisingly sharp, wringing another gasp from her. He licked away the delicious sting. “I’m not going to hurt you, I’m not going to hurt you, I’m not going to hurt you,” he chanted.
“You can’t. As long as you’re with me, you can’t.”
“How did I push you away all these years?” His voice was strained, laden with carnal intent, heavy with arousal.
She arched into his fingers, silently begging him to move them inside her. No, wait. She stilled. Before she forgot everything but his touch, she wanted to fulfill the fantasy that had been floating through her mind for years. “I want to take you in my mouth.”
Like a sea siren of long ago, she rose over him, her hair falling like a dark curtain. She walked her fingers down the muscled ridge of his chest. Scars slashed left and right over his ribs, jagged badges of past pain. This was not the body of a bar owner. This was the body of a warrior.
He sucked in a breath when she licked each of his nipples. He moaned when she cupped his testicles.
“You aren’t just a bar owner,” she said, voicing her thoughts and blowing a hot puff of air on his abdomen. His muscles quivered. “You’re much more.”
“Yes, but I don’t want to talk about it. Move a little lower, sweetheart, and help me forget.” He growled, and hearing that desire-rough growl made her shiver.
“Besides running the bar, what is it you do?” she persisted. She wanted to know him. She didn’t want to simply be his lover, she wanted to be his confidante. His . . . everything.
A muscle ticked in his jaw. “Hunt vampires, demons, and other creatures of the night. That’s how I got my name.”
She circled his navel with her tongue. His hips shot toward the sky.
“Have you destroyed very many?” she asked.
“Many.” An aroused breath shuddered past his lips, and his eyes closed. “Then I met you and decided to settle here and now I think it’d be a really good idea if you moved a little lower. I don’t want to talk about the past anymore.”
Shock brought her to an instant halt. “You settled here because of me?”
“Yes.”
Surprised, happy, she sucked the entire length of his penis into her mouth. He was so big, her mouth stretched wide.
He began to babble. “I was afraid another gnome would try and hurt you, couldn’t let that happen, had to stay near you, damn you feel so good, I need to get inside you. Oh, that feels good. Your mouth. Heaven.”
“I love you,” she said, never ceasing her up and down strokes.
His hips shot up, and he growled low in his throat. Hoarse. Animalistic. She worked him, savoring every sensation, every taste.
“Holy hell, I can’t stop,” he managed to gasp.
She sucked him dry.
When he lay limp, collapsed against the dried leaves and twigs, she crawled over him. Feminine power filled her, and she grinned slowly, wickedly. “I’ve wanted to do that for a long time.”
“Not nearly as much as I wanted you to do it.” Twin circles of pink painted his cheeks. “I didn’t mean to go off so quickly. That just felt so good, and it’s been so long, and it made me forget—” He cut himself off and pressed his lips in a thin line.
“How long has it been?” The question sprung from her before she could stop it. She didn’t want to hear about his other women. Wanted him only to think of her. Her body, her mind. Her heart.
“About a year,” he admitted sheepishly.
He pushed her to her back with quite a bit of force, and she smashed into the ground with a gasp.
Instantly he frowned. “I’m sorry, baby. I didn’t mean to push so hard.”
“Don’t be sorry. I’m not hurt.” Smiling seductively, she stretched her arms toward him. “I like it when you’re rough.”
His expression softened, and his gaze raked over her. Desire blazed all the hotter in the blue depths of his eyes. No longer red, she realized happily. Why did they turn red? Was he a demon now? If so, she didn’t care. He
