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The kiss turned hot and lush, and when his hands ghosted along my neck, holding me in place to better feel my skin against his, I came alive with a fury. We fought to devour one another with tongues and teeth and hands that wandered over delicious curves and valleys until my core pulsed with feverish need.
“You like the way I touch you, Jade?” He trailed his lips to my neck and pressed wet kisses along my jawline until he reached my ear. “I could kiss you forever. I want to take you against this wall—drop to my knees and worship your wet cunt until you wake the whole godsdamned city.”
A moan slipped past my lips, and he nipped at me.
His hand bracketed my thigh and urged it higher along his hips until the heels of my boots stabbed into his ass. “And Jade? When I bury my cock so deep inside your body, you don’t know where I begin and you end, I’ll make you scream my name, so you never forget who owns your body.”
His lips returned to mine, drinking in the sounds I made as he ground his pelvis against mine. The friction was everything I needed and not nearly enough. Forcefully, I pulled myself away to suck in a breath while he busied himself with the buttons of my jeans. I knew if Alexei slipped his hands through my panties, he would find me dripping from his words and touch.
My hands grasped onto his hair, pulling so tight on the strands they must have stung his scalp. Before I could decide whether to continue, the sounds of people reached us from the street.
Yanking my lips away from his, my worst fears were confirmed when I caught the shocked faces of Sara, Genevieve, Elaine, and Tabitha. I pushed Alexei away with a curse, my feet dropping to the cobblestones as I adjusted my clothing.
Tabitha, alone, stood frozen, while Sara and the others wolf-whistled at the scandalous scene.
Seeming to wake up from a nightmare, Tabitha finally gritted out, “Come along, Belle. You don’t want to worry your great aunt, do you?”
All the reasons I should stay away from Alexei returned in a flash. Surprisingly, it wasn’t the shame I always feared being discovered with the vampire prince that startled me, but the creeping doubts from earlier, wondering if I had just been played.
Sparing him a last glance, I whispered over my shoulder, “Let me know when it’s time to deal with Trystan. And this time, do so without ambushing me in front of the others.”
Nearly sprinting from the alley, I pushed past Tabitha and the others without a word.
Secrets had become one of my closest companions this year, but after one night in Salem, I feared they would unravel. I had to remember my purpose here: harness my spirit magick, find the staff, and prepare for an unavoidable future as High Priestess.
Alexei Vasyliev and his dangerous charisma didn’t fit into my future, but for the first time, I admitted to myself how desperately I longed for him to be my ruination.
11
Late morning light crept through the gauzy curtains overlooking the Atlantic from the second-story bathroom as I settled deeper into the tub with a contented sigh. I ran a loofah covered in Liliane’s lavender and oat bespelled soap over my arms, any tension from the previous night washing away.
After catching Alexei and I in the alley, Tabitha had ignored me, choosing to loiter on the streets with the other witches while I fled back to Aunt Liliane’s like a robber in the night. I wondered if she would use this as blackmail against me, or worse, if she had already spilled the secret to everyone back home.
It was no secret she used to envy my role as the future High Priestess. She may still think me out of the running since I joined Alexei’s Court as mystical guide, but one word to Grandmother and I would fall even further in her esteem. I knew I shouldn’t let it worry me, but old habits were hard to break.
Since I was a child, I knew my future as High Priestess. Every encounter growing up held the understanding that I was no ordinary witch but a future leader. A lonely endeavor I had resigned myself to when the other witches were too jealous or fearful to truly befriend me. But for months I had been freed from that burden, and I had begun to foolishly hope.
My shoulders ratcheted up with renewed tension. Unbidden, I glanced to where the Amulet of Davorina sat on my towel, too paranoid to leave it unattended. The gold chain and sparkling onyx gem radiated power, but beneath the dark magick, the talisman reminded me of the way Alexei’s eyes glittered. The way he had held me, like he wanted to both smother me with his desire but still held himself back with an iron-clad restraint I didn’t expect him capable of.
And his filthy words growled into my ear… Even now, goosebumps raised over my skin at the memory.
He was right. Icravedit.
Alexei had stirred to life something inside me I hadn’t explored in years of remaining depressingly celibate. Glancing down at my flushed chest, I bit my lip, my body feverish and cold all at once.If I could release some of the tension building within me from so long without, then I could think clearly and see this attraction for what it was: desperation for physical release.
I dragged the lathered loofah over my collarbones, the scratchiness tantalizing on my sensitive skin. When I closed my eyes, I could almost visualize him here beside me. How his eyes would darken to mere slits as his fangs lengthened with the need to pierce my neck while his body worshipped mine.
Would it hurt? Would it feel dangerously erotic?
He was the Prince of Pleasure, after all. Males like him could wring every drop of pleasure out of a female until she grew maddened, desperate for him. With him, there wouldn’t be any emotional, self-conscious musings like it had been in the past. With Alexei, I could simply explore with no complicated feelings.
The wanton curiosity compelled me to drop the loofah into the warm water and caress my breasts, squeezing them together. My nipples budded to hard points, and I let my fingers pinch them hard enough to sting.
A swallowed moan followed as one hand trailed down my abdomen to my core, already dripping with arousal from imagining his passionate kiss. I bit my lip and teased my opening, spreading the moisture up to my clit and rubbing in tight circles.?My breath panted out, desperate for the elusive orgasm that would cure me of this wicked attraction.
I was nearing my peak when a hard knock on the door startled me. Guiltily, I dropped my hand, sending droplets of water across the wallpaper.
“Y-yes?” I croaked, covering my aching breasts with my knees.
