“Are you okay?” Ash asked.
“Yeah, but all this supernatural crap is doing my head in.” She studied him over her glass. The room was falling into darkness casting shadows across the hard angles of his face. He was beautiful, all sharp cheekbones and the long lines. “Well at least I know you’re not a vampire.”
His full lips curved into a smile. “I’m not?”
She nodded to the window, where evening was just falling. “I’ve seen you in daylight.”
His smile broadened, showing gleaming white teeth, not a fang in sight. “Of course you have. And of course I’m not a vampire.”
“Good.”
He leaned across and filled her glass and they drank in companionable silence for a while. Considering he was such a scary badass, he was relaxing to be around. Some of the tension of the day drained from her and she sighed. After placing her glass on the table, she stretched, trying to ease the kinks from her shoulders.
Without speaking, Ash rose to his feet and moved around behind her. He pulled the grip from her hair and ran his fingers through the long strands. His hands moved to her shoulders and he kneaded lightly. Heat burned through the thin cotton of her shirt from his fingers, but it felt so good. It had been a long time since another human had touched her like this.
There was no point in telling herself there was nothing sexual in the contact, because she’d be lying. He might not mean it to be sexual, but little shivers ran across her skin, concentrating at her breasts and between her thighs.
His hands splayed, his thumbs digging out the tense little knots between her shoulder blades while his fingers continued to smooth the skin on her shoulders. Her breathing slowed, and warmth suffused her, spreading from his touch to settle low in her body. She bent her head giving him better access.
“Is that good?” he murmured.
“Oh yeah.”
He must have taken her words for license to go further, because his hands shifted and his fingers slid beneath her shirt to caress her bare skin beneath. He played with the strap of her bra and a jolt ran from her breast to her belly, every nerve ending coming alive. When she glanced down, her nipples were tight, little points pressing against the cotton.
His hand slid around to cup one breast over her bra and her head fell back against the cushions, the tension seeping from her muscles, leaving her limp and pliant beneath his touch. She had no thought of denying him; this felt too good. Just a while longer. His palm grazed over her nipple and brought it singing to life. She longed to feel his hand against her bare breast and a small groan escaped her.
He lowered his head and his hot breath feathered against her throat sending her heart rate speeding and her blood throbbing through her veins. As his lips brushed against her skin, she tilted her head to the side, giving him better access, and his teeth nibbled at her flesh.
Maybe he was a vampire after all, but at that moment, his hand slipped beneath her bra and he squeezed her nipple between his finger and thumb and all rational thought fled. She groaned when he withdrew, but then he clasped her upper arms and turned her so she knelt on the sofa, facing him.
His eyes had gone even darker, and were half-closed, framed by the thickest, blackest lashes she’d ever seen on a man. As he leaned in closer, she realized his eyes weren’t black but the dark sapphire blue of the midnight sky. And his hair wasn’t black either, but deep brown and glinting with rubies.
One hand moved to slide beneath her hair to cup the back of her neck and draw her closer.
“I want to kiss you,” he whispered against her lips.
“You do?”
“Do you know how long it is since I kissed a woman, even wanted to kiss a women?”
“No.” And she wished he’d stop talking about it and do it. She raised her hands to his shoulders and pulled him the last inch. He laughed softly but then his mouth was on hers and she wasn’t thinking anymore.
Like his hands, his lips were hot. They slanted over hers, and she opened for him, heat flashing through her. There was nothing tentative about the kiss, his tongue pushed inside like hot, wet velvet. He filled her, forcing everything from her mind but the feel and taste of him. Sharp and sweet with a hint of spice. His kiss wrapped around her, sucked her under, until she could feel it with her whole body. In her breasts pressed against his hard chest, in the warm coil of flame in her belly, the moist heat between her thighs.