“You’re right.” His gaze scorched over her small breasts barely concealed by her tiny top, before he bent forward and allowed his lips to skim over her brow. “Any male who has come before me will soon be forgotten.”
Her hands lifted, intending to push him away. Instead, they landed against the bare skin of his chest and promptly refused to obey the commands of her brain.
They didn’t want to push the sinfully delicious creature away. They wanted to mold the chiseled muscles that were covered by bronzed skin that felt like polished silk. To explore down the hard planes of his stomach and discover exactly what was hidden beneath those black boxers.
“Arrogant bastard,” she managed to breathe, her nails digging into his flesh as his lips nuzzled the tender skin of her temple.
“Arrogant, yes. A bastard, no,” he murmured, his voice distracted as he absorbed the golden sparks that danced along her skin. An Incubus feeding. The knowledge sent a shiver through her. Not with horror. But with a raw, earthy pleasure. “My parents were mated.”
Her mouth was so dry she could barely speak. “Master, this isn’t funny.”
His tongue traced a languid path over the shell of her ear. “I agree.”
“I can’t—”
“Why?” He nipped the lobe of her ear, his fingers tightening in her hair to tug back her head, leaving her throat exposed to his searching lips. “It’s a natural exchange between our species.”
It didn’t feel natural.
It felt extraordinary. A rare, wondrous rush of sensations that she wanted to close her eyes and simply savor.
But she wasn’t supposed to be melting into a puddle of goo beneath his expert touch, was she?
There was a reason…but what the hell was it?
“We don’t even like each other,” she at last managed to dredge out of the fog that clouded her mind.
“You don’t have to like me to feel pleasure in my arms,” he murmured, his lips closing over the pulse hammering at the base of her throat to give it a gentle suck.
Her back arched off the bed as a depraved need twisted her stomach and created a damp yearning between her legs. In the past few minutes the fading dusk had painted the room with vivid orange and violet shadows, increasing her odd sense of being whisked from the mundane world to a place of warm spices and golden magic.
“I—”
He released a low, sinful chuckle. “Hmm?”
Her hands slid to his shoulders, unwittingly squeezing the hard muscles. “This isn’t going to happen.”
His lips traveled downward, tracing the deep plunge of her neckline. “Did you swear fealty to my House?”
A sigh tangled in her throat. Lust continued to thunder through her, but it’d altered. Slowed and intensified until her blood barely trickled through her veins, like warm molasses.
She was melting from the inside out.
“Yes,” she managed to mumble.
“Did you agree to do whatever necessary to protect me and the interests of my family?” he pressed, his tongue tracing the curve of her upper breast.
Somewhere in her muddled brain she knew he was leading her into a trap. Unfortunately, she’d lost the ability to think clearly from the second she’d landed on the mattress.
Oh, and the ability to breathe.
And move…
“Yes, but—”
His head lowered another strategic inch, allowing his lips to brush the tip of her breast that was poking through the thin material of her shirt.
“This is your duty, Sloane.”
A groan was wrenched from her throat. Suddenly it made perfect sense.
This was her duty.
Oh. Her contract didn’t say “You must have sex with Tiege.” She would never have signed the stupid thing. But it was damned clear that she would do whatever necessary to protect and service the House of Furia.
And if she were being honest she would admit that if he’d been another Incubus she wouldn’t have hesitated to offer her energy. She might be a warrior, but she was a Nephilim. She understood that the exchange of sexual energy had nothing to do with human morals.
But he wasn’t just another Incubus. He was Tiege, Master of the House of Furia.
And the mere thought of having sex with him was…
Terrifying and glorious and so dangerously tempting that her instincts for self-preservation had kicked in and urged her to keep this male at a very respectable distance.
Now, she was being commanded to give him the power needed to perform the sacred ceremony. The perfect excuse to give herself permission to indulge in her deepest fantasies.
How the hell was she supposed to say no?
Truly the only sensible option was to accept that this was her duty.
Her hands traveled over his shoulders and up his neck to tangle in the silk of his dark hair.
Anticipation shimmered through her, completely drowning out the tiny voice in the back of her mind that whispered something about Hell and the pathways of good intentions…
CHAPTER THREE
Stripped of her coat and weapons, Sloane no longer looked like a lethal Blade.