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“She’ll survive,” Fenn said. He paused for only a heartbeat. “She, like us, was born with a rare power. Hers is a form of healing she’s learned to use to extend her natural lifespan.”
“Holy shit,” Sienna said. She gave herself a shake. “But I think you buried an interesting story. What’s this ‘us’ you mentioned? Weren’t you born … you know, undead or whatever?”
He huffed and sank back into the cushion of her sofa. “Human, actually,” he said. Before Sienna could point out how confusing that was, or how distracting he looked finally relaxing into her couch, he continued. “Everything that exists will cease, in some way or form, eventually. But we are necessary, so when one of the Four is extinguished, their unique magic is automatically drawn to whichever soul has the most potential. Candidate souls can be living humans or anyone recently deceased. In my case, I was alive in the biological sense when the void found me.”
Something about the way he phrased the final sentence gave Sienna pause. A dreadful thought occurred to her and her question came out in a whisper. “Did you already … have a dangerous power?”
Fenn turned his head enough to let her see the wry tip of his lips. “My touch hasalwaysbeen lethal.”
Understanding jolted through her like an electric shock. And she could only think of one thing to do. She pushed herself forward, grabbed his head in her hands, and brought her face up to his until their noses nearly touched. “Not to me,” she said softly. She didn’t wait for his response before leaning in and pressing her lips to his.
First Kiss
Itwasasthoughhis world exploded when Sienna’s lips melded to his. Her warm, bare hands slid back along his jaw until her fingers were digging into his scalp. Everywhere her flesh touched his sent sparks of flame and something possibly warmer shooting into him. He couldn’t help but groan at the sensation, and the moment the sound left him, Sienna swept her tongue past his faintly parted lips.
He had only ever imagined what it was like to kiss another. That was one thing he could never manage to accomplish without exposing the other party to direct contact that would surely have killed them. Now, as Sienna’s tongue swirled around his and she tightened her hold to let her breasts press against his chest, Fenn was glad he’d never tried. He didn’t want another memory competing with this sweet, addictive taste.
He wrapped his arms around her back, letting one hand slide up her spine until his fingers were tangled in her hair. She hadn’t been entirely wrong that he probably had other things he should be doing. Nor had he lied when he’d told her that he wasn’t strictly obligated to be present. And for the first time in as long as he could remember, certainly since before his mortal death, he didn’t want to isolate himself.
He wanted every taste of this unique, fascinating woman he could possibly get his hands on.
Their tongues danced from one mouth to the other, her fingers playing over the back of his neck and pulling at his hair, until she could no longer breathe. By the time she pulled from his lips she was sideways in his lap, sitting on his raging erection, and both of them were breathing hard. Her cheeks were flushed a beautiful rosy color that complimented her hazel eyes and her lips were a bit swollen, but that was it. There was nothing wrong with her.
Even after all that contact, she hadn’t so much as developed a rash.
As if reading his mind, Sienna grinned and tapped the exposed skin at the base of his throat deliberately. “See?” she said. “I’m totally fine.”
Fenn exhaled, attempting to remain rational despite the burn racing through him. “You had no guarantee,” he said. “That was reckless.”
She laughed faintly and shifted forward, her fingertips playing across the side of his face. “I have been accused of that in the past, it’s true.” She pressed her lips to the underside of his jaw in a brief, chaste kiss that did something strange to his chest. Then her breath washed over his ear. “I’d say it all worked out, though.”
Fenn swallowed. He wanted her, indisputably, but he wasn’t sure in this moment what he actually wanted more—to relieve his aching dick in her hot core, or to simply experience the ecstasy of her touch along the expanse of his body. Both sounded amazing.
Both options were unequivocally off the table.
Drawing on his lifetime’s worth of hard-learned restraint, Fenn lifted her up and off his lap. He set her back in her spot on the sofa and stood, putting himself out of easy reach.
“Hey! What was that? Don’t try to tell me you weren’t into it.”
Fenn shoved his hands into coat pockets. “That’s irrelevant. You’ve proven your immunity to my touch, but we still need to establish how.” Did they? He didn’t feel like he was thinking clearly.
Sienna huffed. “Seriously? Come on.” She stood and stepped closer to him, reaching out for him. He moved back and she stopped, her arm hanging in the air. “I thought we were getting past this.” The hurt on her face sliced through him and Fenn averted his gaze.
“What did you think was happening, Sienna?”
“I-I don’t know, okay?” Sienna threw her hands into the air. “But I know I’m drawn to you, and I know there has to be something between us if I’m immune to your death touch. Not to mention those visions I’ve had of you. So you can’t just ghost me.”
She did have a point. He hated that as much as he hated that he knew he needed to stop giving in to her. Fenn hardened his expression and faced Sienna again, half of living room between them. “I am the immortal embodiment of death itself,” he said. “My human life ended nearly eighty years ago, and when I was alive, I was responsible for the deaths of countless innocents. You don’t want to get involved with me, Sienna. That only ends one way.”
Sienna drew a deep breath, her chest puffing out and her shoulders arching back. Almost as if she were squaring herself for a fight. Then she planted her hands on her hips, never breaking eye-contact, and said, “I don’t give a damn who you are. You don’t get to haunt my dreams, give me nightmares, then somehow turn into my source of comfort and secret fantasy for most of my life, just to prove to be real and tell me I’m not worth your time. Newsflash, Mr. Grim Reaper, I’ve seen more death than the average person. Turns out I’ve seen other visions of you that I didn’t realizewereyou until after the other night. I know what you do. I know we’re incompatible, okay? But I’m not normal, either. And if I’m gonna keep seeing you, I’d rather do it in person.”
Her shoulders dropped with what remained of her breath when she finally trailed off, a tear rolling down her cheek. She looked away, then, and her cheeks flamed again.
Fenn closed his eyes, attempting to sort out his unusually confused emotions. He wasn’t used to giving a shit about the people around him. He’d worked hard not to, because sympathy for even one human could quickly become detrimental.
“Christmas,” Sienna said, her tone a little weaker.
Fenn opened his eyes and frowned at her. “What about it?”
