Kai (A Dark Assassins Novel Book One) (8 page)

“Kai?”

“Do you believe me when I say I wouldn’t hurt you?” he demanded.

“Yes.
 
I was just wondering what it tastes like to you.”

“It’s hard to describe.
 
Most blood is tinged with a metallic flavor that I don’t particularly enjoy, so it’s a bit of a chore to feed.
 
I need blood to survive, to keep my strength and speed, but I don’t see it as a feast, like humans do with food.
 
But I have to admit that the small sample of yours tasted like nectar.”

She blushed at his description of her blood.

He realized at that moment what she’d taken at the dinner table, but every thought went out of his head when she cuddled into his body and tucked her head underneath his chin.
 
It was a rush that she trusted him with her life, but as she curled against him, he realized that she trusted him with feeding as well.
 
Her panic had been evident when they discussed feeding as an abstract thought, but his demonstration had allayed her fear, and she was comfortable with him.

In order not to break her trust, he wrapped his arms around her and relaxed back onto the couch.
 
Slowly, the tension in his body relaxed and he became lost in her scent and each beat of her heart, comfortable with her closeness.
 
Her breathing settled him in a way that he shouldn’t have allowed, and when her soft voice floated up to him, it took him a minute to process what she said.

“I’m ready.”

Hell, he wasn’t so sure he was.

Chapter Six

Olivia

With one simple gesture, Kai had taken away her fear.
 
A small part of her still expected him to sink his teeth into her neck and drink his fill, despite what his demonstration proved.
 
Although she understood who he was and what he did for a living, he had shown her nothing but respect since the moment she’d spotted him looming above her, and she had no fear of him.
 

Logic should have had him following orders, but he had questioned her about her work and the bio-weapon she had uncovered, and he’d given her the benefit of the doubt and allowed her to explain.
 
She relaxed into his hold, serene and confident in his ability not to harm her, and found it was the one way she could relay to him, without words, that she trusted him.

As he held her, he gave her the impression that he wasn’t in a hurry to drink from her, despite the fact that he hadn’t eaten in over twenty-four hours by her estimation.
 
It confused her that he might enjoy holding her in his arms, because although he’d been cordial, there seemed to be an underlying hostility whenever they were together.
 

A silent attraction simmered between them, and although she sensed that he distanced himself from her because of it, she continued to grow more aware of him whenever he was near.
 
She had chosen to ignore the tingling that indicated when he entered the room and focused on her work, and so far, it had worked.
 
But since she’d seen him naked, all muscle and sinew with a glorious tattoo displayed on his right shoulder and arm, the picture of him would make an appearance when she had thought her concentration had been at its highest.

When she had settled on the fact that he would need to feed from her, she worried about the pain of his bite, but never thought it would feel like an aphrodisiac.
 
It wasn’t until he brushed her curly hair away from the spot on her neck that she wondered whether his bite would be more intense than a simple brush against her wrist.
 

A nervous shiver overtook her body a split second before his tongue touched her wrists, and then a sensation of warm pleasure traveled up her arm and into her chest.
 
The area then became numb, and when she raised her other wrist to see whether his first touch had been a fluke, the same jolt of awareness struck her before the venom in his saliva anesthetized the area.
 

As she sat quietly in his arms, she made a list of possible causes for her reaction other than sexual, but knew that she didn’t have enough factors to determine a conclusion.
 
In the end, she closed her eyes as she absorbed his warmth and memorized how her body fit into his.
 
She grew so comfortable cocooned in his arms that when his lips touched the shell of her ear, she barely noticed.

“Relaxed?” he asked.

“Mm-mm.”

His chest rumbled with a low laugh, and his arms tightened.
 
“Even for a human, you are strange.
 
Also funny, brilliant, and beautiful.”

Her soft laugh echoed throughout the room, but his lips drifted behind her ear and moved her attention from his words to the feel of his lips on her heated skin.

Opening her mouth to beg for something she couldn’t express, she shuddered when he buried his face in her hair and inhaled sharply.

He continued his delicate exploration down her neck until he reached the barrier of her shirt, which he tugged aside.
 
When his lips pursed against the sensitive skin around her clavicle, she bit her lip to prevent a whimper from escaping her throat.

“So soft,” he murmured, his lips never moving from her skin.

She had no words to express the sensations that rushed through her at the innocent brush of his lips.
 
Kai’s touch affected her more than she realized.
 

The few dates she had been on in the past had left her confused, wondering what trance men spun to have women forget about everything else around them.
 
The kisses she shared with those men had been so far removed from explosive that she’d given up on finding the one man who would leave her breathless and wanting.
 
She smiled when she realized where her thoughts had taken her.
 
A man hadn’t drawn out her dormant feelings.
 
A vampire had.

His hot breath traveled across her collarbone until he found her jugular.
 
Her heart beat in an unnatural rhythm from the excitement of being in his arms, but there was no way to hide her reaction from him.

This time, when he stroked his tongue over the area, the prickle of heat lingered on her skin for much longer than it had before, and she was unable to prevent the cry of need that escaped her lips.
 

His tongue slicked over her skin once again, and her body tensed at the sensations that left her breasts tight and her core throbbing.
 
When he pulled back, her eyes opened as she tried to find her voice to protest his desertion, but he quickly shifted her on his body, until her legs straddled his thighs and her breasts were flush against his chest.
 
As she relaxed, her core brushed against his hardness through layers of clothing, distracting her, while his teeth sank into her neck with practiced ease.

Everything that she’d been worried about—the pain, the pierce of his teeth against her skin, the sound of him drinking from her—were muted in the background.
 
Pleasure, unlike anything she’d ever experienced or could’ve dreamed of, washed over her untried body and she unmercifully pressed herself against him.
 
Her strangled cries of pleasure were drowned out by the constant growl that rumbled out of his throat as he drank.
 
But with each pull, she moved closer and closer to release.
 
When she whispered his name, trying to convey her swirling emotions from this new revelation, his body tensed under hers.

In a flash of movement, she found herself pressed against the wall near the kitchen, grateful she had something to lean on, as she found her knees barely able to hold her up.
 
After his last lick on her sensitive skin to close the punctures from his teeth, she reached blindly for him, but her reach met with emptiness.
 

A metallic whir reached her, but she ignored the sound.
 
Her body shivered without his warmth pressed close to her.
 
Her eyes blinked open and found him in front of the picture window, staring blankly at the shimmering lights of the town, his head bowed.
 
She could hear his breathing from across the room, while he stood stiffly with his back toward her, effectively shutting her out.

While her mind searched for a reason for his abrupt departure, her body cooled from the distance between them, and the horror of the situation presented itself.

He needed to feed, an essential need for everyone, and she took the opportunity to take her pleasure from him, all because she couldn’t control her desire when he touched her.
 

Embarrassment washed over her, even as she remembered his hardness pressed against her core and his hips surging up to meet hers.
 
With his heightened senses, and he could surely smell her arousal from his touch.
 
She had accosted him, aroused him, all because she couldn’t control her need for him whenever he touched her.
 

The situation between them would be considered adversarial.
 
In a round about way, she had been a factor in creating a drug that could kill him and his colleagues, and he’d done her a great favor by vowing to protect her.
 
Although her reactions to his touch had been unexpected, she shouldn’t have allowed herself to be carried away by the wonderful sensations he drew from her, and by doing so, she had made it awkward between them.
 

A deep breath escaped her tight throat and she glanced up to see that the stiffness of his posture hadn’t relaxed.
 
She decided to give him distance, and she needed to get her rioting emotions under control.

“Excuse me,” she said.

She turned and stumbled down the hall toward the bathroom, and shut the door with a quiet click.
 
Not bothering with the lock, she turned on the cold water and splashed her heated face several times.
 
A small vibration of pleasure was still present as she moved.
 
She closed her eyes, trying to will it away.
 
Her nipples felt tight against the cups her bra, and her panties were damp with unfulfilled pleasure.
 
As she smoothed down her shirt, she resisted the urge to check the marks on her neck.

It took several minutes before she could breathe normally, and as the fog cleared, she knew that she had to come up with a plan to combat her response when he touched her.
 
Pain and sickness were her forte, not ways to combat gratification or pleasure, especially when she didn’t have experience to deal with her attraction toward Kai.
 
It wasn’t because he saved her life, or him being an immortal that made him an unknown quantity.
 
It boiled down to the way his touch ignited her and made her crave more.
 

The one problem of her newly discovered attraction.
 
He made a vow to protect her because of the situation she had brought to their attention and not because he chose to have her stay.
 
She had to remember that although essential, feeding from her was distasteful.
 

Her life became endangered the moment she had made the decision to destroy research, but although they were stuck together until a group decision had been reached, she knew she had to make it as easy for him as she could.
 

So, she became resolute.

She would become numb to his touch and lecture her body not to react to him, no matter how many times a day he would need to feed.
 
If need be, she would think of scientific calculations in order not to react, do anything to get her mind off the pleasure from his touch.

That, or expire from unfulfilled lust.

Chapter Seven

Kai

Kai had heard her quick retreat as she hurried down the hall, recognizing which door she disappeared behind by the soft click as it closed, but couldn’t manage to unfreeze his large form in order to follow her.
 

His chest heaved with deep breaths as he tried to cool his heated body.
 
Aware of the distant flutter of wings from nocturnal birds outside and the silence throughout the rest of the house, his thoughts refused to budge from the woman in the other room.
 
Rough fingers rubbed against his forehead as he tried to understand his reaction to the taste of her blood, the smell of her skin as it heated from his touch, and a sexual urgency that had left him stunned by the intensity of it.

He couldn’t decide what affected him more.
 
Her sweet blood that had tasted more like a delicacy, or the desire that pulsed in his veins as her soft curves pressed against him.
 

She had trusted him, despite her fear and the way he had treated her since he brought her home.
 
He found himself torn between taking her soft mouth beneath his, or sinking his fangs into her luscious skin.
 
But in the end, his thirst had won out.

Between the contract on her life, and trying to keep his distance from the temptation she presented, he hadn’t given much thought to sustenance, and that had presented a danger that he hadn’t thought through.
 

He never allowed a lapse in feeding, but he knew that answer didn’t allow for the reason he reacted with such intensity to her taste.
 
He wanted to blame his reaction to her presence in his home or the simmering attraction beneath the surface, but while he drank from her, pleasure beyond anything he’d ever felt gripped him.
 
Avoidance had deepened his need for her, not detracted from it, and he knew he couldn’t stay away from her for a moment longer.

Without a solid idea how to proceed, he hurried to the bathroom door, pausing when he heard her voice.
 
When he realized what she said, he smiled as he listened to her whisper to herself as her feet shuffled on the tile floor.
 
Relieved that he hadn’t been the only one distressed by what had happened, he struck the door with a soft rap so he didn’t startle her.
 
Her mutterings came to an abrupt stop, and he found he missed her voice.