Gabriel had already given in to the desire to make her come, and now he wanted nothing more than her touch. Her mouth. Her nails drawing blood, her hellfire consuming him as he succumbed to the darkness and fucked her until neither of them could breathe.
But Jacinda Colburn was his weakness. If he didn’t stop now, she’d be his complete undoing—a risk he couldn’t take. Not while his brothers were counting on him to make this right.
He grabbed her wrist, twisting her hand away.
Confusion clouded her eyes.
“Let me touch you,” she whispered, close enough that he could feel the mist of her breath on his cock, warm and wet and full of promise.
He released her wrist and dragged the back of his hand across his mouth, trying to obliterate the taste of her. Failing. He was utterlyfullof her—those blue eyes, the scent of her, the raw ocean-salt of her desire still lingering on his tongue…
Gabriel closed his eyes and shook his head, tucking himself back into his pants. His heart seized up again, a painfully sharp ache echoing through his entire being.
One he couldn’t afford to reveal. Not to her. Not even to himself.
For the vampire and his devious witch-demon, this interlude wasn’t a reunion.
It was a goodbye.
When he opened his eyes again, he found her still on her knees, still blinking up at him, her hand half-raised as if he might just change his mind and finally give in to the pleasure of her touch.
It wouldn’t take much convincing.
So Gabriel thought of his brothers. Of Isabelle. Of all the people counting on him to finally, for once in his reckless life, do the right fucking thing.
Then he grabbed her hands, pulled her to her feet, and said the one thingguaranteedto put those searing blue eyes on ice. “I’dmuchrather talk about your sister.”
Chapter Six
After twenty minutes beneath a just-south-of-scalding-hot shower, Jaci’s experiment came to a disappointing end.
The verdict?
Nope, not even an entire bottle of expensive luxury body wash—withexfoliating pearls and extra moisturizers made from the tears of baby wombats or something—could wash away the touch of that infuriating vampire prince.
She was shocked—and the tiniest bit grateful—he’d even allowed her a few minutes alone in the bathroom, given the murderous rage still flashing in his eyes after he’d hauled her up off the floor. But she wasn’t stupid enough to think he’d let her hang out all day, sudsing away her many sins.
And by sins, she meant him.
Even when he wanted to kill her, his touch was electrifying. Captivating. And if she spent any more time contemplating all the myriad ways she wanted him to make her come—tocommandher, body and soul—she’d probably end up popping off a burst of accidental hellfire and incinerating herself.
So after the shower and a quick change into her reliable sweats-and-spandex combo, she emerged from the bathroom determined to stay on task.
Viansa.
This time, Jaci would cover all the bases: who the succubus was, how she operated, what she wanted.
And most importantly, how to take her ass down.
It was all about the mission now—no room for screwing around with petty things like feelings or orgasms, or feelingsaboutorgasms, or orgasms that felt like—
Knock it off, asshole. Get yourself a giant fucking vibrator, name it Vlad the Impaler, and buzz-buzz-buzz away every last memory of that sexy, arrogant vampire prince. Problem solved!
With a devilish smirk, Jaci made a mental note to charge a few new toys of the battery-operated nature to Gabriel’s credit card, twisted her damp hair into a bun, then marched into the living room to face the music.
Gabriel must’ve taken a detour up to his place because he’d obviously showered and changed too, damp hair curling at the base of his neck, a dark gray Henley stretched across his broad shoulders, perfectly distressed jeans hanging just low enough on his hips not to be obnoxious. His feet were bare, which shouldn’t have been so sexy, but…damn. Bare feet were intimate. They were the jeans-pulled-on-after-morning-sex, let-the-dog-out, let’s-make-brunch-and-then-have-sex-again kind of intimate she hadn’t even realized she’d longed for until that very moment, seeing his toes against the hardwood floor, the shadow of his ankle bone, the casual everyday-ness of a thing she’d never be able to have.
Forcing her gaze away from his feet, Jaci lingered again on the space where his shirt met his belt line. Despite her big plans for Vlad, it still took everything in her not to drop to her knees again and beg the stupid vampire to let her run her tongue along the drool-worthy v-shaped muscles she knew lurked just behind that clothing…
