The Silverwing's Sorceress: THe Shadow Slayers, Book 2.5 (7 page)

He took her roughly by the arms and pulled her to him, grasping her by her nape and pressing his mouth firmly against hers. Her body responded in a wash of sensation, her tongue reveling in the taste of his sweet mouth, her insides turning to jelly. “Jaxon,” she panted, “we shouldn’t.”

Still holding her arms, he pressed his thigh between her legs and tipped her off balance, laying her down in the hallway where they’d stood.

“You feel this?” He sucked at her neck and nipped at the tender flesh above her breast. She gasped in pleasure when he yanked the towel lower and took one aching nipple into his mouth, sucking hard. “This,” he growled against her skin, “is a spark.”

She couldn’t bring herself to stop him, and when he kissed her again, she felt so lightheaded, she could barely conjure a rational thought.

And then he moved lower, and thinking was done. Removing the towel completely, he laid her bare under him, and the next thing she felt was his hot breath against the V of hair between her thighs. She grasped his head, and his short, ultra-thick hair was pure silk under her fingers. She’d felt the unusual and luxurious texture of his hair before, but always in play. Never with both hands gripping his head in passion.

“Spread your legs for me,” he commanded.

Without a word, she complied, opening to him completely. When his nose nudged into her folds and he drew a deep breath, his resounding growl vibrated through her core.

“I’m not sure this is a good idea,” she protested weakly. At least she thought she did, but she wasn’t sure she’d actually said the words out loud. “Friends can’t be—”

When his tongue lapped at her slick center and found her clit, she forgot anything she was about to say and simply pulled his head tighter against her.

He started a rhythm that was absolute perfection. Total mastery of the art. The right pressure. The right spot. His tongue, the perfect blend of strong and smooth. Her body was going to come before her brain had a chance to catch up. But then…he stopped.

“Tell me you don’t want this, Abbey.” His soft breath tickled her swollen clit. “Tell me you feel nothing for me but friendship.”

She whimpered and ground against his face. “I want it.”

With a snarl of victory, he buried his mouth in her folds and feasted on her, bringing her over the edge so fast, she was almost embarrassed when she screamed her release and bucked against him, her ass clenching as she thrust against his mouth, desperately trying to get more of his talented tongue.

Her orgasm went on and on, until her hips finally relaxed into the faintly scratchy carpet. Jaxon kissed her inner thighs and ran a gentle hand over the fabric of her bandages before his lips touched down once again on her breasts. He nibbled a slow trail to her mouth, and when his lips met hers this time, their kiss was filled with emotion.

Her heart lurched. No matter how much she wanted to lie there with him and simply bask in the glow he’d given her, they’d already taken this too far. “Please let me up.”

He met her eyes, his eyebrows raised as though he wasn’t sure if she was serious. “Is everything all right?”

She shimmied out from under his weight, trying to block out the delicious feel of his chest hair against her naked breasts. “It won’t be if we continue down this path.”

When he stood and crossed his arms over his chest, she reached down, snatched up her towel and turned toward the bedroom.

“Is that it, then?” he asked. “Would you really walk away and treat me like one of the men you’ve used and discarded?”

“What?” She whirled to face him, so instantly livid, she could have blown smoke from her nostrils. “Hey, I didn’t ask for that. I said no, if you remember.” At least she thought she did.

“That was a no?”

“Yes, it was.”

He dragged his tongue over his moist lips. “You just came apart in my mouth.”

“Jaxon! That’s disgusting! You don’t talk like that. One-night stands talk like that. What’s the matter with you?”

“Stop acting so innocent. I know what those other men have done to you. I know what you like.”

She wrapped the towel so tightly around her breasts, it just about cut off the circulation. “How would you know that?”

“I can’t live with two women and not overhear the talk. It seems if a man wants to fuck you, all he has to do is pull your hair and tie you up, and you’ll let him do anything he wants… Any man but me.”

“Oh, please. I’d hardly say
any
man. And besides, that’s because you’re special.”

His laugh made the hairs on her arms stand up. “Lucky me.”

She felt his words like a jab to the jaw. She’d never heard him be anything less than grateful for what they had. “And, by the way, even if you think that’s what I used to be into, that was before Gable tied me to those rocks and made a nametag out of me. I’m done with all that. It’s not the same anymore.”

Jaxon ran a shaky hand through his hair. “I would kill him if he were alive, you know that, don’t you? But you have to start living again, Abbey. You can’t be afraid of everything. Your body. Men. Me. At some point, you’re going to have to take a risk.”

“Maybe. But I won’t risk our friendship for something that would never last.”

His eyes lit with angry fire, but he didn’t say anything more, just turned and walked down the hall.

“Who’s running away now?” she called after him.

He turned back, his face a bitter mask. “I’m not running. I’m going to catch an early dinner. You eat your invalid chicken soup, if you wish. I’m eating rabbit.”

Her jaw dropped. “You just said something mean!”

“Yes I did,” he answered with a defiant tilt to his chin.

“That’s not like you either.”

“Maybe you don’t know me as well as you think you do.” He slowed by the laundry room, then a moment later, Abbey heard the front door slam shut.

She sat in the hall, dropping to her bottom on the damp terrycloth towel. Why was he trying to make this so complicated? And even more importantly, how long was she going to be able to resist him?

Jaxon stalked through the woods, silent but for the occasional snap of a small twig. If his wings were working, he could have floated without touching the ground and gone invisible to anyone but his own breed.

The sooner Abbey shut down that ward, the sooner he could fly them out of this place, and yet he suspected that in the long run, that damn book would bring them nothing but grief.

Kara didn’t want them back at the apartment until she’d dealt with the black-wing stalking her and Claudius’s summons to appear before the Northwestern Coven, but Jaxon wasn’t enjoying his one-on-one time with Abbey at the moment. Well, that wasn’t true, he’d never enjoyed anything more than tasting the tender flesh between her legs. But mostly, being alone with her was a special kind of hell.

Why was she so damned put off by the idea of there being more between the two of them? To his mind, they were perfect together.

A rabbit dashed between two trees, and Jaxon followed closely, the rock in his hand aerodynamic enough to ensure he would knock it out on the first pitch if he could get a clear shot at its head.

Hunting had always been easy for him. If his mind was clear, he would have had that rabbit by now. But instead he was absorbed by thoughts of Abbey spreading her legs for him when he’d told her to. She might be independent outside of the bedroom, but she liked firm leadership within. And that was something he longed to give her. He’d never had a female of his own, and whether she liked it or not, Abbey was his.

If it weren’t for that damned wound, she might already have given in to him. He prodded her to take risks, and yet he’d neither told her what he believed could help her condition nor taken a chance at healing her himself. But if he told her the truth, their
friendship
might truly come to an end.

Jaxon rounded the next tree where he’d seen the rabbit flee, and then he paused, lifting his nose into the wind. It smelled like smoke from a barbeque. The rabbit forgotten, he crept along, following the scent until he came upon a small cabin. It couldn’t have been a half mile from Abbey’s.

Jaxon approached the cabin carefully, assessing the grounds. There wasn’t a car in the driveway, but then there wasn’t really a driveway, either—just a thin path in the scrub brush and trees that ended directly at the cabin door.

On one side of the house, there was a tall woodpile, but other than that, very few signs of life. If not for the smoke coming from within, he might have thought the cabin wasn’t inhabited at all.

He approached the front entry, dropping the rock in the yard. From the window next to the door, he saw a thin man dressed in jeans and an old SDSU sweatshirt who looked to be in his thirties. The man stood at the stove, wrestling with a smoldering hunk of meat.

“Fucking woodstove,” the man said, then he came straight toward the window where Jaxon was standing, reaching to open it just before he saw Jaxon and jumped back, dropping the pan to the floor. “Who are you?”

“I’m so sorry to bother you,” Jaxon began, feeling ridiculous for talking through a sheet of glass. “I’m staying at the house up the road, and my fiancée and I have had a car accident. May I borrow your phone?”

The man put the pan in the sink and came to the door, opening it just a few inches and looking Jaxon up and down. “A car accident? Is everyone okay?”

“Yes, thank you. The car is finished, but we were unharmed.”

“Where did you come from?” the man asked again.

Jaxon couldn’t blame him for being wary. They likely didn’t get many visitors being out in the middle of nowhere like this. “My fiancée has a house not more than a mile up the hill.”

“The brick house with the big front doors?”

“Yes. Are there other houses on this mountain?”

“Nope. I’m Brad, by the way.” He stuck his hand out, and Jaxon grasped it firmly.

“Jaxon Hex.” He released Brad’s hand and quickly scanned what he could see of the room from his position on the porch. “I apologize for the intrusion, Brad, but if you have a phone I could use, I would appreciate it.”

“I don’t. Sorry. No phone and no car. And there aren’t any cell sites up here anyhow. You’d have to have a satellite phone to make a call.”

“Ah.” Jaxon nodded, disappointment filling him. He would’ve liked to bring back good news to Abbey to smooth over yet another awkward incident between the two of them—an awkward incident he planned to repeat if given half a chance.

“My wife has one, though.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, and of course you can use it. But she’s gone into town for a shopping spree. As if she didn’t have enough dresses.” He laughed, one man to another lamenting the mysteries of women. “But I don’t mind, as long as she doesn’t expect me to go along. I’m happy here in our vacation home…when I can get the damn stove to work.”

Jaxon smiled. Things were starting to work themselves out. “She’s returning tonight?”

“No. She just left today. She’ll be back in two days, on Tuesday, with groceries and way too many clothes. Come by Tuesday around dinnertime and not only will I let you and your girlfriend use the phone—I’ll grill you a steak, too.”

“That’s very kind of you.”

“My pleasure. I figure we should take advantage of having neighbors around before vacation ends and we all head home.”

“Thank you, Brad.” Jaxon shook his hand again and left with a smile.

Things were improving by the moment. He had a way to call for help in two days’ time if Abbey couldn’t find the spell to take down the ward, and in the meantime, he had two more nights to convince her to put aside her damn rules—and start playing by his.

Chapter Five

“I’m sorry, Abbey.”

“Huh?” Seeming surprised by Jaxon’s arrival, Abbey looked up from the black book and shoved the hair from her eyes.

Jaxon stood in the entryway to the kitchen, content to be back by her side no matter what words had passed between them earlier in the day. “I was unkind about your…soup. And I’m sorry.”

She glanced at the empty bowl beside her with a wry smile. “So the mighty hunter has returned. I was scared maybe I’d driven you off for good this time.”

“I gave it my best effort, but it’s impossible to stay angry with you.”

“Thank God,” she said, and the sweet relief on her face eased the pressure in his chest. “Where’s your dinner? No rabbit after all?”

He grinned. “I don’t have dinner—but I have a dinner invitation.”

“What?” she stood, pushing her chair out from behind her.

“Our neighbor doesn’t have a phone, but his wife will be returning on Tuesday, and we’re invited to dine with them and use her satellite phone.”

Abbey’s smile lit up the room. “That’s awesome!”

“Yes. Now you don’t have to use that damned book.”

“What? Of course I have to. Even if I didn’t want to get your wings working, the temptation would kill me. I have to read it. And it’s in English! Well, sort of. Old English, but I’m understanding it for the most part.”

His gaze raked over
The
Book of Death
. “Abbey, did you hear anything I said about clans who would happily end your life just for being in possession of that book?”