Dark and Deadly: Eight Bad Boys of Paranormal Romance (48 page)

“What’s wrong?” she whispered, a frown marring her beauty, turning her eyes dark.

“If you come near me... I won’t be able to stop myself. You have to understand... I’m on the edge, Elissa. Both sides of me are hungry for you... I don’t want to place you in danger.”

She hesitated and he couldn’t blame her. The gold and blue were probably swirling in his eyes by now, red and pink flushing his markings and announcing his aroused state to her as well as his deep hunger.

Elissa held his gaze and took another step towards him.

“What are you doing?” He backed off another step and she smiled, a sensual one that stole his breath and beat at his defences and control.

She didn’t stop. She kept advancing and he kept retreating, but he was shit out of luck. His back hit the closed door. He considered teleporting but he wasn’t fast enough. Before he could think of a location to leap to, she had closed the distance between them and had pressed her hot palms against his chest, searing him through his dark grey shirt and branding his very bones with her name.

His hunger spiked, the twin urges swirling together and combining, turning him dangerous. He had only ever experienced such a need once in his lifetime, and he hadn’t been able to control himself then. He had come close to killing the woman he had once loved.

He wouldn’t be able to live with himself if he hurt Elissa like that.

He cared too much about her.

He caught both of her cheeks in his palms and forced her to look up at him. “I don’t want to hurt you.”

His hands shook almost as much as his voice had. Her smile stole his heart and the way she lifted her hands and covered his, holding them against her face, had him quaking with need.

“You won’t. I want to do this, Payne.” She drew his right hand away from her face and kissed his palm, and then trailed her lips to his wrist. She followed the line of his fae markings, kissing them, stirring his hunger to new heights.

“But... I might not be able to hold off.”

She paused then and he felt her shaking, sensed her fear. His vampire side fed on it, hungry to taste more, to scare her until she visibly trembled. He tamped it down. Elissa was his mate.

Payne froze as the certainty of those words struck him. Where had his doubt gone? He looked down into her eyes and felt sure that he was right and that Elissa did belong to him now, and forever. She had worked her way into his heart and he had told her all of his dark secrets. He had confessed everything and let her see a side of him that he had hidden from everyone, even his last love. He had kept his distance from them all, had lived alone in this world surrounded by people, but he hadn’t been able to keep Elissa at arm’s length. He had only been able to draw her into his embrace and felt the need to hold her close to him and never let her go.

“I can do a spell,” she said and she sounded so sure that Payne could no longer deny his twin hungers.

He swooped on her mouth and kissed her, determined to possess all of her.

After this time, things would never be the same between them again.

After this time, Elissa would belong to him.

She would be his mate.

Elissa knew something was off with Payne. Different. She could sense it within him, a hunger and need she hadn’t noticed before. He had acted possessively with that other male and had claimed she belonged to him. Did he truly believe that? She knew about vampires and that many claimed mates. She didn’t know how they did it, or how an incubus knew or claimed their mate either. Did Payne truly believe that she was his mate?

What if she was?

Did she want to bind herself to Payne?

He scooped her up into his arms and carried her to the bed. She thought he would toss her onto it but he gently laid her down, almost reverently, and leaned over to kiss her. She melted into the dark green covers, giving herself over to his kiss and the passion it stirred in her veins. His tongue stroked the seam of her lips and she opened for him, allowing him to enter her mouth and tangle his tongue with hers, flooding her with his taste. Hunger sparked within her, stronger than before, desire that threatened to control her actions. She tried to focus, knowing that if she didn’t cast her spell soon she would be too far gone, too hungry to have Payne inside her, his long cock filling her up, to care about the consequences.

Payne kissed along her jaw and she mourned the loss of his mouth on hers, ached for him to return. He reached her throat and moved over her, positioning one knee between her thighs, his hands pressing into the mattress on either side of her ribs.

“My spell will probably stop you from coming until I lift it... you’re sure you’re okay with that?” It wasn’t the most romantic or erotic conversation to have while a gorgeous man was sucking on her pulse point and driving her wild with need, but it was necessary, and she had always been focused on doing things that were necessary. Verity had joked that she would never live life because she spent too much time following orders and refusing to take risks.

Her sister would be proud of her.

Here she was, on the verge of allowing a demon inside her without any form of protection other than a spell.

It was hard to concentrate with Payne licking and nipping at her throat, sending shivers coursing over her arms and down her spine.

He growled against her skin and she tried again.

“You’re okay with this?”

He pulled back this time, the colours in his eyes already brightening, his pupils wide with desire.

He nodded.

Why did she have the feeling he would have agreed to anything she had said? Was he even listening to her? If she had said the moon really was made of cheese, would he have nodded?

“You know, the moon is made of cheese?” She shrugged when he frowned at her. “I was just testing.”

“I’m fine with this,” he husked, desire dripping from his deep voice, and she shivered again, a hot rush of need racing through her blood.

“Mother earth, whisper naughty things in my ear in that voice.” She grabbed him around the nape of his neck and dragged his mouth back down to her throat.

He chuckled darkly into her ear and whispered, “I want to get inside you... do you want me inside you?”

“Uh-huh.” She nodded and leaned her head to one side, giving him better access to her throat.

“What part of me do you want buried in you?” he husked and licked the shell of her ear. “This?” He dropped his hips and ground his erection against her thigh. “Or these?” He scraped the points of his fangs over her earlobe and she shuddered and moaned beneath him.

“Dirty witch,” he purred and she melted.

“You make me like this.” She grabbed his shoulder and rolled, forcing him onto his back and ending up astride his hips. She moaned with the memory of when she had been like this before, naked with him inside her, riding his beautiful cock. Her groin throbbed, hot and damp for him, ready to welcome him back inside. “Gods, I want you.”

She made fast work of his shirt buttons and ignored the way he smirked, a flicker of pride in his eyes. Yes, he drove her wild and made her do things she would never have dreamed of doing before meeting him. He didn’t have to look so smug about it.

She tore the rest of the dark grey shirt open, sending buttons pinging across the room.

Payne growled at her. “I liked this shirt.”

“It was in my way,” she said and spread the sides of it, revealing his delicious body. He flexed for her, every muscle rippling and making her ache to touch him. With her mouth. She lowered her head and swept her tongue over his pale hard flesh, savouring the feel of him beneath her. He groaned and tensed again, his hips rising off the mattress to press against hers. She bore down on him, grinding her body along the rigid length of his cock. “Mother earth, you’re wearing too many clothes.”

He chuckled again. “So are you.”

Elissa rose off him and yanked her black top off, freeing her breasts. Payne groaned and she paused to appreciate the hungry way he stared at her, as though he was barely stopping himself from taking command and devouring her.

As though she was beautiful.

Images popped in her head, visions of them naked and entwined, Payne moving against her, making love with her in front of the fire.

She frowned at him, right into his gold and blue eyes. They glowed brightly.

“I thought I warned you about that?”

He smiled sheepishly. “I can’t control it sometimes when I look at you... it just takes over...”

“Why don’t I react to it the way I do with the other incubi? When they turn on the charm, I feel powerless and as though I want to do those things with them.”

His smile faded and he averted his gaze. His hands skimmed up and down her thighs.

“Payne?” She wouldn’t let him get away with the silent treatment. She had never had an incubus attempt to use his powers of persuasion on her before Payne, so she had thought perhaps it was a witch thing and that was why she could sense he was attempting to lure her with the visions of them making love. When one of the males in the orgy had tried the same trick, she had wanted to go to him, had felt hungry for him and needy. She had been wrong about Payne and her immunity to his charms. “Is it because you’re only part incubus?”

He shook his head.

“Then what is it?” She had a suspicion she knew but she needed to hear him say it.

His steely gaze shifted back to her and he looked as though he was afraid to tell her. He sighed and scrubbed his hands through his hair. “You’re my mate.”

Elissa stared straight into his eyes, trying to see if he was telling the truth. He had never looked so deadly serious and it sent a shiver through her. When she had announced her plan to come with him, she had said about coming here as his mate, and he had reacted in a bad way. Now she knew why. She had thought perhaps it had had something to do with what that bitch had done to him but it was so much more than that. He had reacted weirdly all those times around her, had challenged incubi males, because she really was his mate.

“Seriously?” She had to check because she was having trouble getting herself to believe it.

He nodded. “I can’t control you or read your aura. It’s a sure sign... and you make both sides of me insane with a need to claim you.”

She tensed. He smiled slightly.

“Don’t worry. I won’t.”

Elissa frowned at him now. Why the heck not? Didn’t he want her? An urge to slap him for that rose up inside her but she ignored it, deciding it was safer to glare at him rather than strike him. He was a vampire. He would be able to sense her anger.

He sighed. “Believe me, Witch, I want to... but you don’t want to be tied to a fucked up excuse for a male like me.”

She didn’t? Who the heck was he to decide that for her anyway? He really needed to get over his complex about his dual natures and stop letting it colour his judgement. Couldn’t he see in her eyes that she wanted him with all of her heart?

Hadn’t everything she had been through with him shown him that she already belonged to him in some way?

She opened and closed her mouth, trying to form a response that would convince him that he was wrong about her. Before she could get it out into the open, he had rolled her onto her back and sucked her left nipple into his mouth, shattering her thoughts and stealing her voice. She groaned and melted into the bed, hungry for more as his cool tongue flicked the bud and then swirled around it. Sparks shot out in all directions from the centre of her breast, electrical currents that lit her up inside. She writhed beneath him, unable to control herself.

Payne groaned and slid his hand over her bare stomach. She raised her hips, encouraging him to continue heading south, towards where she needed him most. He undid her belt with one hand and then worked on her jeans, getting them open without breaking his stride. He circled her nipple with his tongue and then sucked it greedily into his mouth, the pleasure of his caress too much for her. She arched her chest into him, eager for more.

He slipped his hands into her underwear and tore another moan from her throat as his fingers found her moist centre.

“Payne,” she whispered, breathless and alive with sensation. She rocked her hips against his fingers, her mind already two steps ahead, imagining his tongue stroking her there and his fingers plundering her body.

Payne reared back and stared down at her, shock written across his face. “What did you just think?”

She blinked, as surprised as he looked. A blush scalded her cheeks. “Um.”

Judging by how surprised he looked, he had just got hit by whatever she had been fantasising about, and he really hadn’t expected her to be able to project it into his head just as he could project naughty things into hers.

A sudden image of him grasping her hands above her head, pinning them to the mattress as he took her swift and hard, burst into her mind and Payne choked, his eyes shooting wide.

Oh, it was definitely a two-way street.

He growled, grabbed her hands, and pinned them above her head, just as she had imagined. She groaned as he thrust against her, grinding his hard bulge between her legs, teasing her. That hadn’t been part of her vision. He had been naked and inside her, not irritatingly clothed.

Elissa wriggled and he tightened his grip on her, giving her a taste of his full strength. Mother earth, it made her hot for him. A shot of lust straight into the vein.

Payne clutched both of her wrists in one hand and worked on his jeans with his other, freeing his cock. He stroked his hand down the length, revealing the crown, and she licked her lips, hungry to taste him. He groaned and sat back, pulling her with him. He stripped out of his shirt, tossing it onto the floor, and his boots and socks followed. He made quick work of his jeans and underwear and then tackled hers. Elissa tried to help but only got in his way, earning a dark growl from him. He yanked her shoes off and then pulled her jeans so hard that she ended up flat on her back again.

He threw her clothes onto the floor and she lay bare on the bed, excitement flowing through her, her mind darting all over the place, imagining the possibilities. Payne knelt before her, gloriously nude and rock hard. Her gaze lingered on his hard cock and she nibbled her lower lip, hungry for another taste of him. He grabbed her arm and pulled her to him, forcing her onto her knees. He rose to his at the same time, tangled his fingers in her long hair and guided her towards his hard length.