He returned to the living room wearing only his pajama bottoms, and sank onto his heels next to her while she examined the dog’s leg. “Diagnosis?”
“Just bruised, I think. I can’t find any puncture wounds, and he doesn’t react when I press on it.”
“We’ll take him to town tomorrow, have him checked out at the vet’s. We’ll need food for him, anyway.”
The dog lifted his head at the mention of food. Nicholas grinned, scratching the pup behind the ears again, and Ash found herself looking at Nicholas instead, examining his every feature. Only a few hours ago, she’d been jealous, and horrified by what she’d been feeling. Now, she couldn’t imagine not wanting to feel like this again.
He met her eyes, and his grin faded. Slowly, as if giving her the chance to retreat, he moved to her, brought her to her feet. His head bent, and he brushed his lips over hers. “I’m sorry for the bath, too.”
“Nicholas—”
“And the floor.”
She smiled against his mouth. “I liked the floor. Except the end.”
“It won’t happen again.”
His lips pressed to her cheek. Again, and again. Her tattoos, she realized.
“Will you kiss every symbol?”
She felt his laugh, a soft rumble through his chest. “I’ll damn well try.”
His lips moved to her neck, and she let her head fall back. Her hands lifted to his shoulders—but she stopped. Her throat tightened.
She wanted this, so much. But she didn’t want it like this.
“Stop, Nicholas. Stop.” When he stiffened against her, she said, “I can’t.”
He immediately drew back, face carefully blank. Not cold. A mask of tension and pain. His gaze searched hers, and he finally closed his eyes and nodded.
“All right.” His voice was the same, rough with strain. “But don’t go back outside. I’ll build up the fire again. Or you can stay in the bed. I’ll keep you warm.”
And torture her? “I can’t do that, either. I can’t
“Can’t touch—No. No, Ash.” He gave a hoarse laugh, shaking his head. “You can. Anywhere. Any way you like. Anything. Punch through my chest if you want. My free will, that’s yours. Whatever you want to do to me, I want it, too.”
Trembling, Ash looked to his chest. He offered a measure of trust that she hadn’t expected. It wasn’t even the qualified bending of the Rules they used in training. Her hand shook as she flattened her palm over his heart.
It pounded, but not in fear.
“For how long?” she wondered.
“Until you don’t want to touch me anymore.”
That might be longer than he thought.
She grinned up at him, and he’d just begun to smile in return when she was on him, her hands in his hair, dragging him down to her mouth. Hotter now, and his hands slid to her ass, lifted her against his rigid length. Ash’s head fell back, and she panted.
“Naked,” she said. “Get naked now. And on the bed.”
Nicholas went out of order. Pants still on, he swung her up, carried her into the bedroom. She reached around, tried to shove down his waistband, and the moment he set her down beside the bed, she pushed him over. He fell back on the mattress, his laugh shaking the bed. She followed him down with her knee braced beside his thigh, and hooked her fingers into his pajama pants.
She paused. “Am I going too fast?”
He sat up. “Do you plan on going demon-fast?”
“No.”
“Good. Because I’d like to see what’s happening.” He unzipped her jacket, pushed it off her shoulders. “I’d like to feel it, too.”
“You will.”
“We’ll do slow next time, then.”
He pulled her hoodie and T-shirt over her head in one motion. Her hair spilled down, slipping across her breasts.
“Sweet Jesus,” he breathed, pushing the strands aside to expose the vermillion symbols again. “I’ll kiss every one. Just so that I know I’ve kissed every inch of you.”
His pulled her toward his lips, but not to kiss. Ash cried out as he drew her nipple into his mouth, sucking the hardened tip. Searing pleasure burned down her spine along the path of his fingers. Red light glinted against the dark of his hair. She gripped his shoulders, lost in the heat of his mouth, the tease of his tongue.
“I can’t stop my eyes from glowing,” she whispered.
He lifted his head, bent to press a kiss to the large glyph between her breasts. “Good.”
“It doesn’t bother you?” She had to ask.
“No.” He rose up, kissed the corner of her mouth. “You’re beautiful to me.”
Her heart swelled. “I have horns.”
“And I’m a bastard who should have known what might happen when you lost control. I saw you change in London. I should have been prepared for the same when you came.”
“You have scars. And you have good reason not to trust demons.”
“But not you.” He pressed his lips to her temple. “And I don’t care if your skin turns red. I don’t care if your wings form. I don’t care if your scales come out—”
“I have scales? Like a judging angel, or like a dragon?”
“A dragon.” He held her face between his hands. “But for now, just shut up and let me tell you that you’re beautiful.”
Not with words. He told her with another kiss, sweet and thorough. He told her with each lick as he moved down her body, teeth tugging at her nipples, tasting his way down her stomach. He told her with his eyes when her jeans vanished and he parted her thighs, spread her open to his gaze, when looking wasn’t enough.
His mouth covered her, tongue sliding between her slick folds. Fire shot through Ash’s blood, burning every nerve. She cried out, lifting against his mouth. With a groan, Nicholas bent his head, took another long swirling taste that left her panting, writhing.
“God, Ash. So sweet and hot.” Coming up for breath, he pushed her knee wide. “And we’re going to go slow now.”
So slow. An eternity of the thrust of his fingers and the flick of his tongue, the bed creaking with the desperate jerk of her hips, his hungry assault against her slick flesh, the raucous pounding of their hearts.
And then it all disappeared, narrowing down to just the ecstasy bursting through her, white-hot. She screamed with it, her back arching as it burnt her down.
Slowly, she built her awareness again, of Nicholas’s soft kiss against her thigh, her stomach, moving up until she opened her eyes and he was there, too. She smiled up at him, and his gaze slipped to her mouth.
“Don’t move,” he said.
His head dipped, and he flicked his tongue across her lips before sliding between. Ash moaned at the subtle penetration, then stiffened when he licked the long point of her left fang. A shiver ripped over her skin, a sweet and painful tightening. She cried out in surprise.
He lifted his head again, studying her face. “Do you like that?”
“Yes.” She licked her own, but it wasn’t the same. “How did you know to do that?”
“I heard it about vampires once. But it looks like you get the benefits, with none of the bloodsucking.”
She grinned, and realized that the fangs were already gone. A laugh escaped her when she saw Nicholas’s disappointment. She’d make up for it. Rising up, she caught his mouth in a kiss, her fingers sliding down and curling around the thick shaft behind thin cotton. Somehow, he wasn’t naked yet. But she—
Had to let the dog out.
Slipping out of the kiss, Ash groaned her frustration, hoping she’d been mistaken. The sound came again. A scratch at the front door, an anxious whine.
Nicholas froze, as if suddenly aware that she’d heard something. “Ash?”
