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.
The back of the sofa was between them, and she wanted nothing to separate them, not the sofa, not clothes, nothing. Without releasing his hold, he shifted and came around the side, crawled over so he was kneeling in front of her. He pushed her backward with his body, and she sprawled onto her back as he came down over her, his mouth still fused with hers.
This was better, much better. The long superhard length of him pressed against her, his erection like steel pushing at her belly. She was going to go up in flames any moment. She was burning from the inside.
The pain came out of nowhere. One second she was drowning in the dark sensual promise of his kisses, the next, a red-hot poker was drilling into her skull. Every muscle in her body clenched.
Ash went instantly still against her, then slowly backed away.
“Are you okay?”
She heard the words through a fog of pain and for a moment, she couldn’t answer.
“Faith?”
He sounded really worried now. She forced her eyes open. At least her vision wasn’t blurred; she could make out Ash’s almost scared expression.
“I’m okay,” she ground out. It was a lie, but the pain was receding to a manageable level. “Just a migraine,” she said when he continued to stare down at her.
His eyes narrowed. “You have a headache?”
Chapter Seven
“A real headache—honest,” Faith said with a weak smile. “I have some painkillers in my bag. Would you get them for me?”
Ash stared down at her and tried to slow his heart rate. She’d scared him. And even now, he couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something seriously wrong. Her face was so pale, and he could tell from the way she held herself that she was hurting.
“Pills,” she reminded him.
“Shit, sorry.” Casting her one last worried glance, he scrambled to his feet and headed into the kitchen where she’d left her bag. He grabbed it, then got a glass from the cabinet and filled it from the tap.
She was lying exactly where he’d left her, her eyes closed, her figure tense. After putting the glass on the table, he crouched down beside her. He opened the bag and found the bottle of pills, read the instructions, and shook two out onto his palm.
“Faith?”
When he got no answer, he touched her lightly on the shoulder. Her lids flew open and she gave a little jump.
“Here.” As he held out the pills, she parted her lips. The lips he’d been kissing only minutes earlier. He placed the medicine on her tongue and reached behind him for the water, cupping the back of her neck while she drank to hold her steady. Her eyes closed and he laid her back and straightened.
But she didn’t appear comfortable. He crossed the room into the hall and found her bedroom. After grabbing a pillow and the bedspread, he hurried back. She hadn’t moved, and he gently lifted her head, placed the pillow beneath, and covered her with the spread.
As he sank down into the chair opposite, he was shaking.