“Do you do this?” he asked. “Touch yourself?”

“What?” I gasped as another finger joined in.

His fingers stilled. “Do you pleasure yourself, Serena?”

What in the hell kind of question was that?

I moved my hips to urge him on, but he placed his other hand on my belly, stopping me. “Are you serious?”

“What?

Is that too personal?”

“Yes!”

“I find that amusing considering where my hand is.”

Well, he did kind of have a point there.

“And what I’m about to do to you is going to be very personal.” His lips were suddenly against the side of my neck, hot and firm. “So, how often?”

I refused to answer him.

Hunter trailed hot kisses down my neck. “Once a week? More?” He pulled his hand away and turned me around. One hand landed on my lower back and his lips…his lips were so close to my nipple, drifting over the swell of my breast. My breath caught in my throat as his tongue flicked over the rosy bud. My entire body shuddered.

“I bet you do, and the next time?” He teased my nipple. “You’ll think of me.”

He was so arrogant, but then he drew my nipple into his hot mouth, and I didn’t care. Pleasure rolled through me, and I wrapped an arm around his neck, my fingers digging into his hair. His free hand slipped down and my panties were gone.

His hand was between my thighs, fingers brushing over my throbbing cleft.

Hunter lifted his head, nuzzling my neck under my ear. Then his face was in my hair. “You’re so beautiful. Damn it, you’re so fucking beautiful.”

My core clenched. Hot, tight shudders racked my body. His fingers were barely touching me and I felt close to tipping over the edge. Again. This wasn’t nice—oh no, this was raw, full of painful need. My hips surged forward, grinding against his hand. Pleasure spiked, making me dizzy and breathless.

Hunter growled low in his throat as his hand settled on my hip, stilling my movements. “Tell me what you want. Say the words.”

Frustration caused my eyes to snap open. He couldn’t be serious.

I pushed against his shoulders, but he stared down at me, telling me without words what I must do. Part of me hated him.

And the other…well, it wanted to drown in him.

He wore a wicked grin as his thumb smoothed over my clit.

“Yes,”

I whispered, glaring at him. “Okay.

Yes.”

“Yes, what?”

My tongue darted out, wetting my lips. “I want you…”

“You want me to do what?” Again, his thumb brushed over me.

I groaned. “I want you to make me come.”

A satisfied smile split his lips. I expected his hand to return to me, but he pulled his hand away, and I was close to punching him.

Then suddenly he moved, sweeping his arm across the top of his desk. Items clattered to the floor and a second later I was on my back and his mouth was under my chin, making a slow descent. His dark hair, his lips drifted over my breast. A tiny feminine sound caught in my throat.

Hunter moved down, spreading my legs wide as they dangled off the desk.

Vulnerable—I was completely vulnerable to him.

Lightning rushed through my veins as he spread my legs wider and grasped my hips.

His tongue glided from my navel to just above the bundle of nerves.

Instinctively, I tried to close my legs. It seemed a little soon to be doing that.

“Hunter…”

“You’ll like it.” He kissed my inner thigh. “I can promise you that. Open your legs, Serena.”

The air left my lungs, and slowly, my thighs parted on his command.

“Wider,” he urged, and I did so. Lowering his head again, he sliced me open with his tongue. My head fell back against the wood and my eyes closed. This was a first. I hadn’t wanted anyone to do this, but sweet Jesus, Hunter— Hunter captured my flesh with his mouth, parting my lips with firm, determined strokes of his tongue. I cried out. He sucked like I was the sweetest nectar, his very life force.

Lost in the raw sensations, I grasped his hair and rocked my hips against his mouth. He growled in pleasure, dipping his tongue in and out. My back arched. My heart pounded. His tongue worked me until I was thrusting unabashedly, panting heavily. The fierce heat was building and building until I feared it would consume me. My body liquefied as he moved on to my clit and added a finger. His sucking and thrusting matched the tempo of my hips. I couldn’t breathe as every muscle locked up, ready for what was surely going to be a mind-blowing orgasm.

“Hunter, oh yes…” I bucked and climaxed with such force I was surprised I hadn’t tossed myself off the desk. The whole time, he kept his mouth on me, soaking up every last drop while my body spasmed with sweet aftershocks.

When the tremors subsided, he leaned into me and pressed down, letting me feel his own arousal. The length of his hardness burned through his clothes. He wanted me —badly. I could feel it, and there was a good chance I’d let him have me. Right now. Any way he wanted on this desk.

I raised a leg, curling it around his. I rolled my hips up, reveling in the way a shudder racked his body.

His parted lips were inches from mine and he was breathing fast. A change came over him, swift and consuming. His features became angular, sharp, and paler than normal. His eyes burned, and the temperature in the room dropped. The overhead light flickered.

My heart skipped a beat as I placed a hand on his chest. His skin was icy now. “Hunter…”

Suddenly, he was off me. In a blink of an eye, he was across the room near the bookcase.

Shadows crept from the corners of the room, cloaking Hunter, nearly obscuring him.

Sitting up, my heart slammed against my ribs like it was trying to come out of my chest. “Are you okay?”

There was no answer.

Nerves twisted my insides in knots. I started to slide off the desk, but the low sound that crawled out of Hunter’s throat stopped me in my tracks.

“Don’t,” he growled.

My heart dropped. “Don’t what?”

A moment passed.

“Don’t come near me.”

I froze, half on the desk, half off.

The warm, pleasant flush faded in the wake of tiny bumps spreading across my flesh.

“Leave,” his voice caved and then picked up inside my head. Get out of here.

This was not one of the moments where I was going to be the chick that slays the beast with her naked charm. This wasn’t a TV show, book , or movie. Icy fear trailed fingers down the back of my spine. I could barely make out Hunter’s form in the spreading shadows.

The whole not afraid of what he was thing sort of went out the window.

I darted from the room, running like the very devil was after me. My bare feet smacked off the hardwood floors of the living room. I made it to the staircase and grabbed the rail. My hand slipped off and I lost my balance, hitting the step on one knee. I looked up.

“Oh my God,”

I whispered.

Frost seeped up the railing, spreading along the wall and the steps. My breath exhaled harshly and the puff of white, misty air froze, a tiny cloud suspended in air. Lights in the house flickered and then went out.

I didn’t dare move, but it was too late. I could feel Hunter. He was nearby, all around me. Goose bumps covered my entire body.

Ice touched the bare skin of my shoulders, and a second later I was on my back, the edges of the steps pressing into my spine. At first I couldn’t see anything other than a darkness so empty and vast it was hard to look upon.

“Hunter,” I whispered, shivering so badly I shook.

He solidified into what he’d called his true form.

His body the color of midnight oil, muscles rippling as he leaned over me.

Heart pounding, I wrapped my arms around my chest and pulled my knees up. He said nothing as his head cocked to the side.

Sapphire specks appeared in his pale blue eyes, churning fast.

Oh God, this was so not good.

I was probably going to die on the staircase; naked as the day I was born.

Two hands slammed into the step on either side of my head, snagging on my hair and causing my neck to jerk back. His eyes locked with mine, and I didn’t recognize him—it was not the Hunter from the study seconds before or even the smartass, arrogant jerk I’d come to find amusing in a weird way. There was nothing human about his intense stare. No compassion. No warmth.

I shuddered, trying to make myself as small as possible, but my knee brushed his midsection, and he made a sound that was a cross between a growl and a hiss.

Oh crap.

Hunger flared in his gaze, a stark sensual need mixed with something darker and deadly. His head lowered until the chilly tip of his nose brushed mine. The air constricted between us, and a low burn started in the back of my throat.

“Please,” I whispered.

Hunter froze, and then a shudder rolled through his body. He twisted his head to one side and then the next, as if he were working out a kink. Then he was gone—simply just gone.

There was no sound, absolutely nothing. I was alone.

Chapter 14

I barely slept an hour without waking up and staring into the shadows that had invaded my bedroom. If Hunter was there, he didn’t make himself known.

When dawn crested, the house was still colder than normal. After a quick shower, I threw on a long-sleeve shirt and jeans and went downstairs.

There was no sign of Hunter while I made a pot of coffee and took my mug out onto the deck where we’d eaten dinner last night.

Last night felt like forever ago and a dream.

I’d learned more than I’d thought I would about the Luxen and his kind, but even with the knowledge I gained, and with all that I had seen since the moment Mel told me about Phillip Vanderson, it could not have prepared me for what came over Hunter. I didn’t understand what triggered the change in him.

Tucking my legs against my chest, I sipped my coffee as I stared into the deep shadows the thick branches cast along the floor of the forest. I’d been scared last night, maybe not as scared as I’d been when the Luxen blew up Mel’s car or attacked me in my apartment, but pretty damn close. I had no doubt in my mind that Hunter had wanted to feed from me and, if he had, it could’ve very well killed me.

But he’d stopped.

I almost couldn’t believe it. I’d seen the look in his eyes. There hadn’t been an ounce of compassion or humanity knocking around inside him, but somehow he made himself stop. I had a feeling that was a first for him.

My thoughts wandered from one troubling thing to the next as I finished off my coffee. I needed to find out why the Luxen wanted to silence Mel and me so badly. If it really had to do with the threat of exposure, or if Mel had overheard something the Luxen didn’t want known. If the latter was the case, then maybe I’d have the upper hand somehow.

Wasn’t much, but it was something.

I set my mug aside and rubbed my temples, thinking about what Hunter had said about the Luxen’s need for power and their history of dominating species.

God, it was almost too much to consider, but I forced myself to replay the whole conversation with Mel.

It was painful— thinking of her and how I hadn’t believed her.