Angel in Chains (The Fallen #3)(34)

Her head lowered. She pressed her lips against his. Tasted him, even as his fingers slid between their bodies and his thumb pressed over her clit. Yes . . . The man knew how to use that touch of his just right.

She tightened her sex around him, squeezing with the surge of pleasure. Then she nibbled on his lower lip. When his breath panted out, she stole it, and gave him her own before indulging in a deep kiss.

Her head lifted slowly as she stared at him.

“I . . . understand now . . .” Az gritted out the words.

His hands were on her hips. Holding so tightly that she might bruise, but Jade didn’t care. She rose onto her knees, then pushed down.

“Humans and sex . . . the need . . .” His voice was raw and rough with passion.

And he’d better not be about to call her a temptation again.

“You’d . . . kill . . . for the pleasure.”

Some had. Some would again. With Az, the pleasure was so intense it seemed to rip her apart. Would she kill for this? For him?

He rose up, positioning his body so that he faced her and his arms were tight around her. Her hands slid over his back. Touched the thick ridge of those scars.

She saw his control break at her caress. His pupils flared wider, seeming to swallow all of the blue in his eyes. Az growled, an animalistic sound as he thrust faster, harder. They wrecked the bed as they rolled and fought for their release.

He caged her beneath him. Lifted her legs so that he could thrust as deeply into her as possible. The pleasure wasn’t a wave this time. It was an explosion. One that rocked through her and made the whole world go dark for an instant.

His name slipped from her lips.

He erupted in her.

Pleasure worth dying for.

Oh, yes . . . more, please.





“They arrive at dawn.” Riley strode to stand beside Brandt as the alpha peered out over the old dock and at the murky water. “The witch will be bringing them. Her and that stray we threw out years before.”

Brandt’s back teeth clenched as rage hit him.

Riley continued, “Who would’ve thought those two would be the ones to bring in the bounty? That piece of shit shifter couldn’t—”

Brandt spun and, in one fast and brutal move, he drove his claws into Riley’s chest. Blood spurted onto him as Riley’s words ended in a strangled gurgle.

“Careful,” Brandt admonished as he took his friend’s heart with a yank of his claws. “That’s my brother you’re talking about.”

And, finally, finally, his brother was showing that he had what it took to carry the Dupre name. Bringing back Jade. Offering her protector’s body. No one else in the pack had been able to bring in the prey he wanted.

Only Tanner. The little brother who’d run from them one dark night.

The little brother who was coming home again.

Brandt jerked his hand from Riley’s body. The man who’d been at his side for the last ten years shuddered, then fell to his knees. His eyes were wide open, his heart gone.

But he still lived. Some shifters just took one hell of a long time to die. Brandt smiled at him before he lifted his boot and kicked Riley as hard as he could. Riley tumbled to the side, fell off the rickety dock, and sank into the murky green water.

In the distance, Brandt saw two gators slide off the bank and begin to cut a fast path through the water. A path that would lead straight to Riley.

Gators were good at following a blood trail. Not as good as panthers, but still . . .

Pretty damn good.

“Good-bye, Riley.” His friend’s death was overdue. Had been, from the moment Brandt realized that Riley didn’t want to catch Jade. The bastard wanted to kill her.

No one hurt Jade. No f*cking one.

And no one screwed with his family.

The gators swam closer. “Don’t worry,” he promised them. “There will be more blood coming.” There always was.





CHAPTER EIGHT

“Remember the plan,” Tanner said as he braked the car at the end of the old dirt road. The thick, sloping trees of the swamp surrounded them and nearly blocked out dawn’s light. “I take in Azrael, and you . . .” He pointed to Heather, “You take in Jade.”

Jade’s heart slammed into her chest. She had the gun tucked into the back of her jeans, and she’d taken the liberty of strapping a knife to her right ankle. Az hadn’t taken any weapons.

Too confident.

And his hands were currently cuffed. Just for show, of course, because even though the cuffs were supposed to be some sort of Other-proof trinket that Heather had pulled out of her box of tricks, Az had snapped free of them earlier in about two seconds.

A test breakaway. To make sure he’d be able to ditch the cuffs when the real action came. And the real action was coming, soon.

“Wait until he comes toward you,” Tanner told Az with a hard glare. “Don’t go charging up to him. Brandt can move faster than any other shifter I’ve ever seen. If we attack first, the game is gonna be over for us all.”

Because the plan was for Az to wait until Brandt came to him. When Brandt was close enough to touch . . .

Az would do his thing and the nightmare would end.

So they hoped.

“We all know the plan,” Heather muttered. “We’ve gone over it enough times by now.”