“No,” she whispered. “I like the weight of you on me. And I like you inside me.”
Both made her feel like she wasn’t floating off the planet.
They kissed lazily for a little bit, and then she wasn’t sure who started moving again first. Maybe it was him. Maybe it was just the friction of her shifting as she repositioned her hips. But as his arousal pushed into her, he then retreated—and sank into her again. And then he eased away—and came back.
The momentum now started, there was no stopping it, and that was exactly what she wanted.
As her head rolled back and forth on his pillow, she stared up at the ceiling above. Tears came to her eyes, and they were hot down her temples. It was so good to just feel… good.
And Dev’s body was incredibly powerful as he started to pound into her again, and she only wanted him to go even harder—
As if he knew that, he pushed his torso up off her, the muscles of his chest flexing, his abdominals clenching and releasing as he dug into her in waves. Angling her pelvis, she linked her legs over his lower body and swept her hands down his ribs. He was a male animal, in the throes of mating, and she wanted to receive everything he had to give her. On a primordial level, this was just so right—
Another release snapped inside of her and she arched up, her breasts rising, her breath stopping, her eyes seeing stars.
Like, actual stars.
She’d always assumed that was something for novels and movies…
Dev continued to pump, a growl coming out of him, and then he pitched forward, his face once again in her hair, his exhale a roar in her ear, the scent and feel of him taking over everything—
Click.
Click.
He was still ejaculating into her when they both looked to his door. The handle was turning slowly, as if someone were quietly testing the lock.
She’d never seen a human move so fast.
One moment, he was on top of her and coming; the next, he was grabbing a gun out of his bedside table and pushing her off the far side of the mattress. She landed with a thump right next to where she happened to have thrown her clothes.
Scrambling to get dressed, she peeked over the bed.
Dev was naked and advancing toward the door like it was second nature to him, the gun up and steady, his stare fixated on the panel, his magnificent body carved with muscle and power.
And that was when she smelled it.
The sweet, sickly stench of alesser.
Closing her eyes, she could only guess that the slayer had caught her own scent somehow—so she had brought the enemy right to his door. Literally.
“Dev.”
He shook his head with a jerk. Then he glanced over his shoulder. “Dematerialize.”
Lyric blinked.“What.”
“Now’s not the time. I know what you are.” He nodded toward the window. “Crack that and go.”
A sudden, tingling awareness came over her, a warning that the reality she had thought she knew wasnotwhat had been going on—
All at once, a buffering hit the air around him, some kind of aura emanating out from his body before retreating.
Abruptly, he was fully clothed. And that was when it happened. As he glanced back at her, she met his eyes… and realized they were navy blue with a black rim, a color combination she had never seen before. For all the times she had looked at his face, for all the times they’d stared at each other, the color of his irises had never registered.
It was the one detail she had never seen about him, she suddenly realized.
And while she was grappling with that—and so much more—he said in a voice that cracked with regret, “I’m sorry, Lyric.”
