chapter Six
Angela was impressed.
So this was what a kitchen was supposed to look like, she wryly acknowledged.
It was more than the hand-carved cabinets, granite countertops, and stainless steel appliances. It was the heavy oak dining table in the center of the ceramic tiled floor and the matching china cabinet that displayed the prized dishware.
This was a place where families gathered to share meals and laugh away the troubles of the day.
It wasn’t a makeshift lab for a distracted scientist. Or a place for a child to sit alone with dinner from the microwave while her mother was flirting with her fellow drunks at the nearest bar.
She squashed the ridiculous pang. She wasn’t that lonely ten-year-old girl anymore and she was perfectly happy with her private apartment and her kitchen filled with microscopes.
Pulling a water bottle from the fully loaded fridge, she was debating between a salad and a tuna sandwich when a husky voice whispered in her ear.
“Did you find anything to tempt your appetite?”
With a muffled shriek she turned to glare at the man towering over her.
“Dammit,” she muttered, pressing a hand to her racing heart. “You really need to wear a bell.”
He flashed his rare, bone-melting grin. “Kinky, but whatever turns you on.”
She swallowed a groan as desire blazed through her with stunning force.
Even furious with his betrayal and unnerved by the disruption of her peaceful life, she still wanted him with a raw, aching need that was frightening.
Against her will her gaze drank in the lean, starkly beautiful face and stunning blue eyes that studied her with an unwavering intensity. His hair was even more ruffled than usual and her fingers itched to smooth the dark strands that shimmered like copper in the fading afternoon sunlight.
Then they could travel down to discover if his body was the chiseled perfection she’d always fantasized.
Abruptly realizing his eyes had darkened, as if he could actually sense her disturbing awareness, she shut the fridge door. Instantly she stepped back as his heat wrapped around her.
“How long did you have to practice sneaking up on people?” she breathed, shivering at the prickles that raced over her skin.
“It’s a natural talent.” He closed the tiny space between them, reaching to pluck the water bottle from her hand and tossed it into the recycle bin. “One of many.”
She licked her dry lips. “Is modesty another natural talent?”
“No, but this is.”
He leaned down to capture her lips in a kiss of sheer possession.
“Niko,” she muttered, the breath squeezed from her lungs as he wrapped his arms around her, moving slowly, as if to give her ample opportunity to step away.
Or perhaps he was worried his superior powers would frighten her, she realized as he gently tugged her against him.
Tilting back her head she met his smoldering gaze.
“Tell me no and this ends now,” he husked.
Her lips parted, but the word was stuck in her throat. “I thought you wanted dinner?” she instead hedged.
His hand shifted to her lower back, pressing her against the thickening length of his arousal.
“You know what I want.”
She shivered, her hands lifting to rest against his chest. “Do I?”
His tongue traced the curve of her lower lip. “I can demonstrate if you need clarification.”
Oh, she wanted him to demonstrate.
She wanted him to rip off her clothes and take her in a glorious storm of pagan passion. She wanted him to kiss her with a hunger that would drown out the voice of insecurity that whispered in the back of her mind.
“It seems—”
“What?”
“Convenient.”
“Convenient?” He made a sound of disbelief. “Trust me, lusting after a female for six weeks is anything but convenient.”
“If you were so overwhelmed with lust you hid it well enough. I did everything but spread myself naked on the lab table and you couldn’t have shown less interest.” She lowered her gaze, her cheeks flushing with embarrassment at the memory of her awkward flirtations and his blatant apathy. He’d only reinforced her opinion she was lacking the mysterious quality that attracted the opposite sex. “Now, when you need my cooperation, you suddenly find me irresistible.”
“Angel, look at me,” he said, cupping a hand beneath her chin, urging her face up to meet his eyes that were darkened with regret.
“I’m looking,” she muttered.
“It might not have been my intention to hurt you, but I did,” he said softly. “You felt betrayed by my charade; can you imagine how much worse it would have been if I’d given in to my desire and taken you to my bed? Not even I am that much a bastard.”
The resentment she’d been nursing for the past few hours faltered at his low words.
“So it was for my own good?”
His gaze slid to her mouth. “It certainly wasn’t for mine.”
He had a point, a tiny voice whispered in the back of her mind. She wasn’t sure she’d ever have been able to forgive him if he’d actually taken her as a lover while he’d been lying to her.
Still, that didn’t mean this wasn’t just another game.
“If you say.”
He frowned. “You can’t doubt my desire for you?”
“Trust me, you wouldn’t be the first man to want to be ‘just friends,’” she said dryly.
“Christ, Angela,” he breathed. “As much as I want to be your friend, I’m desperate to make you my lover.”
Her heart missed a beat as she met his brooding gaze. “Desperate?”
Without warning he grasped her wrist and pressed her hand against the thick length of his erection.
“Tell me, angel, does this feel desperate to you?” he growled.
Her suspicions were seared away as her fingers curled around the impressive bulge. Even through the heavy material of his jeans she could feel the pulsing heat and straining urgency of his need.
It was intoxicating.
Her mouth went dry as her stomach clenched with excitement. She’d never understood why women rushed to the window when the football team jogged past wearing nothing more than gym shorts. The male body was a collection of vital organs surrounded by muscle and bone and hard-wired to a brain that allowed it to function.
It wasn’t until this man entered her lab that she got it.
Just being near Niko was like being plunged into an electrical storm. The heat, the sizzle in the air, and the prickles of anticipation that warned she was about to be struck by lightning.
And worse, her brain shut down until all she could think about was wrapping herself so tightly around him he could never escape.
Dangerous, dangerous sensations.
Her fingers slid down his erection, her heart skipping a beat as he seemed to grow even bigger.
“It feels—”
“Yes?” he groaned, his hands gripping her shoulders as if he wasn’t convinced his knees would hold him.
Angela felt a strange jolt of . . . what was it? Female power?
He wanted her.
Truly wanted her.
Of all the lies he told her this wasn’t one.
“Large,” she murmured.
He gave a choked laugh, his face tight with his barely leashed desire.
“Should I be flattered?”
Her awkwardness was forgotten beneath the heady realization that she could affect this man with a mere touch.
“Not really, I don’t have much to compare it to,” she admitted. “As I said, I’ve never been the kind of girl that attracts the opposite sex.”
“Only because mortal men are blind.”
She snorted. “All of them?”
He studied her upturned face with an undisguised hunger that squeezed the air from her lungs.
“If they had the superior senses of a Sentinel they would have seen what I see.”
“And what’s that?” she managed to ask.
He lifted a hand to tug the scrunchie from the messy remains of her ponytail.
“Thick, sable hair that starts out prim and proper in the mornings, but during the day sexy little tendrils escape to play against your long, utterly kissable neck.”
She trembled as his fingers threaded through the loose strands of her hair.
“Oh.”
He growled low in his throat as he lifted a fistful of hair to press it to his nose, breathing deeply of the apple shampoo she used.
“Do you know how many hours I devoted to fantasizing about releasing your hair from its bondage so it could spread across my pillows?”
“Bondage?” The word came out as a croak as she all too easily pictured being handcuffed to Niko’s bed, her body a willing slave to the promise of paradise.
Keeping one hand tangled in her hair, he used the other to gently trace the sensitive skin of her temple.
“Dark velvet eyes that tempt a man to become lost in their depths,” he continued his verbal seduction, his voice smoky.
“Boring brown,” she corrected.
He ignored her interruption, his smoldering gaze tracing every line and angle of her upturned face.
“A noble little nose,” he murmured. “Did you know you scrunch it up when you’re concentrating on your work?”
“I do not.”
His fingers drifted down to trace her nose before outlining her trembling lips.
“A mouth that is as ripe and delicious as cherries.”
Her lips instinctively parted at his searing touch. “Niko.”
“And this skin.” The warm fingers continued their path of destruction down the length of her neck to trace the loose neckline of her sweatshirt. “As smooth as the most expensive silk.”
“I’m too pale.”
“You’re perfect,” he growled in response. “Ivory silk. It tempts a man to discover if you’re the same porcelain shade all over.” Holding her gaze, he lowered his hand to the hem of her shirt. “May I?”
She knew what he was asking. And that if she agreed there would be no turning back.
“Yes,” she whispered.
Obviously a man of action, Niko didn’t hesitate to pull the sweatshirt up and off her body. It happened so fast that Angela didn’t have time to feel embarrassed. Then, catching sight of Niko’s harshly appreciative expression, she forgot to worry that she was too skinny, or too pale, or too whatever else her insecurities could imagine.
“Yes,” he rasped as his hands reached to dispense with her lacy bra. “Ivory tipped with rosebuds. An irresistible combination.”
His fingers cupped the small mounds of her breasts, his thumbs teasing the nipples to tiny points of aching pleasure. She sucked in a startled gasp, her back arching as if to beg for more.
Muttering a low, rough curse, he lowered his head and licked the tip of her breast.
Angela jerked in astonishment, her hands lifting to plunge into the short strands of his hair.
“Dear . . . Lord.”
His own hands slid down the curve of her waist, tugging her against his rigid muscles at the same time he sucked her nipple between his lips.
She groaned, as he caught the tip between his teeth. It felt so good. Blissfully, wondrously good.
“I want you,” he whispered, kissing a path to her other breast to torment it with the same dizzying skill.
“I want you too,” she husked.
And she did.
What had his word been?
Desperately. Yes, that was it.
She wanted him desperately.
This was chemistry at its most basic form.
He made a low sound deep in his throat, planting impatient kisses up the line of her collarbone until he buried his face in the curve of her neck.
“But—”
“No,” she snapped.
He pulled back with a frown. “No?”
Dammit. She’d spent six weeks tormenting herself with the fear that this man who filled her every fantasy could never desire her.
Now that she was in his arm, hovering on the edge of paradise, she didn’t want it snatched away.
Just once she wanted to say the hell with logic and common sense and give in to temptation.
“Don’t give me a reason why we can’t do this,” she muttered. His hooded gaze skimmed down to her nipples that remained hardened with desire before returning to meet her frustrated gaze.
“It’s more a warning.”
“A warning? Oh.” She wrinkled her nose. “Yeah, I’m not stupid. I know the routine. This is just sex. It means nothing.”
“No.” The blue eyes flared with a stunning emotion. “It means everything.”
If Niko hadn’t been battling his caveman urge to strip Angela of her remaining clothes and take her against the fridge, he would have smiled at her baffled expression.
Hell, he didn’t blame her for looking at him like he was out of his mind.
Until he’d encountered this woman he would have bet his left nut he would never utter those words.
“What did you say?”
“You heard me.” He gently brushed a stray curl from her flushed cheek. “For me this isn’t just sex.”
“You don’t have to pretend, Niko.” She unconsciously licked her lips, her expression troubled. “In fact, I would prefer that you didn’t.”
With a low growl he was scooping her off her feet and heading out of the kitchen.
He didn’t know if it was the lip-licking or her refusal to believe that he was sincere that tipped him over the edge, but he knew that one way or another he was going to convince her that this was no longer a matter of duty or revenge or mere lust.
Crossing the living room he carried her up the stairs and into the bedroom loft.
It was a spacious room with an open beamed ceiling and hand-carved furniture scattered across the polished wood floor. At the far end of the room were glass sliding doors that led to a back balcony that offered a view of the pool as the sun slid beyond the horizon.
A beautiful sight, but not nearly as beautiful as the woman in his arms.
Niko moved to gently place Angela on the large brass bed. Then, standing at the edge of the mattress, he simply relished the sight of her stretched across the emerald green comforter.
Man. How many nights had he tortured himself with this precise image?
The dark hair spread in wild abandon. The pale face flushed with need and the midnight eyes smoldering with invitation.
Only this was far better than any fantasy.
A fiercely possessive emotion clutched at his heart as his gaze slid down the delicate curve of her neck and over the soft swell of her naked breasts.
It was raw and primal and shockingly perfect.
With jerky movements that would have made his fellow Sentinels snicker, Niko kicked off his shoes before removing the rest of his clothes. He was acutely aware of Angela’s covert survey of his nude body, her breath catching as she caught sight of his fully erect cock.
For once his vanity didn’t assume she was impressed by his lean muscles or his wide chest sprinkled with dark hair. Or even the imposing size of his erection.
For all of Angela Locke’s impressive intelligence and independent nature, she was still remarkably innocent. Combine that with her mysterious conviction she was somehow undesirable and it was bound to make her skittish.
Moving slow enough it didn’t seem like he was pouncing (pouncing could come next time . . . and there would be a next time) Niko stretched out on the mattress beside her so that they were lying face to face. His only touch was the finger he used to trace the line of her jaw.
“No more pretense,” he murmured. “The truth. Once I take you I’m never letting you go.”
She shivered, her body shifting to press against him even as her eyes held a suspicion she couldn’t entirely disguise.
“If this is a ploy to get me in Valhalla . . .”
“I’ve already given my word I won’t force you to go to the compound,” he said, his voice thick as his cock jerked in reaction to the brush of her hip.
“Isn’t that where you live?”
“For now, but Sentinels aren’t vulnerable like many of the high-bloods, so we have the choice of living among norms,” he assured her, not bothering to mention that she’d eventually have to spend time at Valhalla. The Mave would want to be certain her growing powers couldn’t hurt her or those around her. Yeah, that was a conversation he didn’t mind putting off. Indefinitely. “Once Dylan has been captured we can go wherever you want.”
“I—”
He smiled wryly as her words disappeared and she stared at him with silent wonder.
“Too much, too soon?” he teased.
With a choked groan she wrapped her arms around his neck. “Kiss me.”
He did.
White-hot pleasure seared through Angela as he kissed with a clear intent.
This time there was no teasing, no slow buildup, no tender nibbles.
This was unapologetic hunger that threatened to consume her.
And exactly what she needed.
She didn’t want to think of the past, and the future was something to worry about . . . later.
She wanted to become lost in this moment.
As if sensing her need, Niko’s kiss became even more demanding, his tongue dipping into her mouth with an intimate sweep. In concert, his hand cupped her breast, his thumb rubbing over the tight peak.
Angela squirmed against him as the electric sensations jolted through her.
“Niko.”
He pulled back, studying with a hint of concern.
“Am I frightening you?” he whispered.
Her heart squeezed with a dangerous emotion. God, he was so beautiful. A sexy, lethally beautiful male who had enchanted her the minute he’d strolled into her lab.
But it was his instinctive urge to care and protect her that threatened to destroy the barriers she’d built around her heart.
No one had ever, ever treated her as if she . . . mattered.
As if she was the most important thing in his life.
The knowledge was more erotic than any amount of hard muscles and male beauty.
His brows drew together. “Angel?”
In answer, she plunged her fingers into the heavy thickness of his hair.
“I have wanted you from the moment I saw you in the doorway of my lab,” she confessed in soft tones. “I didn’t know what hit me.”
His soft chuckle brushed over her cheeks, his eyes darkened to indigo.
“Trust me, the feeling was entirely mutual.” Holding her gaze he slid his hand down the flat plane of her stomach until he could unfasten her jeans. “I tried to convince myself that you were just a part of the job, but I knew from the beginning I was lying to myself.”
Her body felt as if it was on fire as he expertly rid her of her remaining clothes. Then, still holding her gaze, he slid slowly downward. The rub of skin against skin made her shiver with excitement.
His lips touched the base of her throat before moving to her collarbone, tracing the delicate line with the tip of his tongue. Only when she was clutching at his broad shoulders did he allow the teasing kisses to travel down the curve of her breast.
“You’re so warm,” she whispered.
“All Sentinels run hot.” He shifted just enough to capture the tip of her nipple between his lips.
“Oh.”
She nearly came off the bed at the avalanche of sensations rushing through her body.
He was good at this.
Really, really good.
While his tongue and even his teeth pleasured her nipple, his hand slid down the curve of her hip. Angela squeezed her eyes shut, allowing herself the pleasure of exploring the broad width of his back, relishing the feel of silken skin over hard muscle.
She was growing lost in the surge of building sensations when his fingers encircled the back of her thigh and tugged her leg over his hip.
Her eyes widened as she felt the hard thrust of his arousal press against her most sensitive spot. She’d expected him to roll her onto her back, not to remain on their sides.
“Like this?”
He smiled at her hint of surprise. “We can do it anyway you want, but I’ve wanted you for a very long time. This seems . . . safer.”
“Safer?”
“If you haven’t noticed, I’m several sizes larger than you.”
Her own lips twitched. “Yeah, I’d noticed.”
His smile faded as he studied her with an oddly somber expression even as his fingers drifted up and down the back of her thigh, the light touch sending shocks of excitement through her.
“I’m also a Sentinel, which means my strength can be hazardous if I’m not careful.”
She held his gaze. “I trust you.”
His eyes briefly closed, as if her soft words had touched something deep inside him. Then, lifting the indecently long lashes, he met her gaze with a stark need that pierced straight to her heart.
“I’ve never wanted a woman like I want you, angel,” he said, his voice husky. “I can’t be entirely certain of my control.”
That newly discovered thrill of power flared through her. She didn’t know how she’d ever managed to capture the interest of this astonishing, sexy, compelling man. But for once she wasn’t going to allow her self-doubts to ruin the moment.
Angela leaned forward, nuzzling the corner of his sensuous lips.
“I’m certain.” She kissed a path along his knotted jaw and then the strong column of his neck, addicted to his intoxicating taste. “You would never hurt me. Not intentionally.”
He sucked in a deep breath.
“No, I would never intentionally hurt you.”
She slowly kissed a path back to his lips, her hips rubbing against him in blatant invitation.
“No more talking.”
Framing her face in his hands, he claimed her lips in a kiss that she felt to the tips of her toes. Oh . . . yes. She shivered with pleasure, her mouth parting to allow his tongue to tangle with hers.
Drowning in the heat of his devouring kiss, she stroked her hands over the hair-roughened skin of his chest. A delicious excitement curled in the pit of her stomach as he tugged her leg higher on his hip, the tip of his cock sliding through her damp *.
She hissed in pleasure, her nails digging into his chest.
Easily sensing the growing urgency of her desire, Niko pulled back, his face strained as he struggled to maintain control of his spiraling desire.
“Angel, I can’t wait,” he rasped. “I need to be inside you.”
His rough voice sent a flare of aching desire through her.
“Yes,” she breathed, shuddering as his fingers drifted over the curve of her hip.
With infinite care he explored the tender skin of her lower stomach before heading ever lower.
Angela muttered her approval as he covered her lips in a hungry kiss, but even distracted she gave a strangled groan when his seeking fingers stroked through her damp heat.
“God, you feel good,” he muttered. “Are you ready for me?”
Ready?
Hell, she’d been ready for weeks.
Another stroke or two of those clever fingers and she’d be reaching paradise alone.
“Please, Niko,” she muttered. “Now.”
His low hiss filled the air, his erection pressing eagerly against her damp heat.
“Next time,” he muttered.
She blinked in confusion. “What?”
He gazed deep into her eyes, a thin layer of sweat coating his face.
“Next time I intend to spend hours pleasuring you.”
A sly smile curved her lips. “Or maybe I’ll pleasure you.”
“Oh, shit.”
His control snapped.
Just like that.
Reclaiming her lips, Niko’s hands shifted to her lower back and with a forward thrust of his hips he was entering her in one sure stroke.
She gasped, but not from fear.
Exquisite pleasure blazed through her and she pressed her face into the curve of his neck. She’d never done anything but the traditional missionary position. Now she realized that the current arrangement allowed her to feel every slow stroke into her before he was retreating and returning with a slow, insistent thrust.
“Niko,” she breathed, feeling overwhelmed.
It was more than the extraordinary bliss of feeling him moving deep inside her. It was the sense of intimate connection with this man that went beyond the physical.
“I knew it would be perfect,” he whispered as he continued his measured pace. “I knew you would be perfect.”
“I never realized.”
“Never realized what, my sweet angel?”
“That this could be so—”
“So?”
“Life altering,” she breathed, her body moving in perfect rhythm with his.
His low laugh echoed through the air with an unmistakable satisfaction.
“You belong to me now,” he vowed.
Belonged?
If she’d been in her right mind, she might have protested the possessive comment.
But instead she arched her back as her body began to tighten with a shimmering anticipation. His steady, unrelenting pace was stoking an inferno deep within her that threatened to combust.
“Angel,” he breathed, giving her leg a tug higher as he angled his hips upward.
His slight shift was enough to press him even deeper within her and with a shocking force the tension that coiled between her legs abruptly shattered into a thousand pieces.
She cried out and wrapped her arms around his neck as he gave two more deep thrusts before he was reaching his own climax.
She held on tightly as they both struggled to recover from the explosion of sensations, their ragged breaths the only sound to stir the air.