Ripper (Hunter #1)(78)

He really went to the Hell plane. His father was really a Hell Lord. I knew it on an intellectual level, but seeing that tat reminded me that even Hell had its beauty.

His jaw had tightened, his body stiffening the minute he told me the truth. I’d shed my shame the night before in telling him my story, but Gray still had his. If it was anything like mine, he hadn’t really earned it.

I walked up to him, feeling awfully proprietary. We’d had a crappy morning and my first instinct was to pull away. Or it should have been. I always pulled away, but I didn’t want to be anything but close to Gray. I ran my fingers along the dragon. There was something visceral about the tat and I gasped a little when I could have sworn the thing moved.

Gray caught my hand and held it there. “Don’t. He likes it. He likes it as much as I do.”

“He?” Now that my hand was still, I could feel something. The dragon was warmer than Gray’s skin and there was a restlessness to it, as though the skin was vibrating under my touch. Was it alive?

Gray’s eyes had that slight tinge of red to them that let me know his demonic half was being stimulated. “It feels good, baby, but I know it shouldn’t. You have to move your hand. I like it too much.”

“Why is it wrong?” It might feel good to him, but I kind of liked the sensation, too. Odd at first, but then it almost seemed to hum against my palm in a pleasant way.

“It’s part of my demonic life. Kelsey, when I was thirteen it was small. It grew with me and it wasn’t like I sat in some chair and had it added to. It’s my family mark. My father touched me and then I had this thing on me. I never changed before that day, never had the strength or power.”

Likely hadn’t been immortal. His father had somehow turned on his demonic genes. It might account for his human nature. If his father hadn’t shown an interest, he might never have been more than a slightly stronger than normal human.

His father cared for him. Normally, that would be a good thing, but a Hell Lord’s love was probably fairly obsessive.

“So it’s alive?” I didn’t move my hand.

“I don’t know. I try not to think about it, but since I met you, I feel it more and more.” His eyes closed. “It feels so f*cking good to have you touch me.”

Not just him. He meant he liked it when I touched it. “Let go of my hand.”

His eyes came open and I saw the pain there. He lifted his hand. “Of course.”

He didn’t understand anything at all. I ran my fingers along the tat, tracing the lines of the dragon as it hummed against my skin. There was something ferocious about it, but I wasn’t scared. It was a part of Gray and that meant it somehow belonged to me. I petted it.

The damn thing practically purred for me.

When I looked up, Gray’s eyes were flashing red and I saw the beginnings of his fangs.

“I don’t want you to go tonight. Do you know what I do want?”

Oh, I know what he wanted. He wanted me safe, but there was more to it. Deep down, he wanted me to stay home and wait for him, to be the sweet woman who gave up all the danger because she trusted her man to save the world. The caveman inside wanted me tending his elegant cave, serving him dinner, waiting for him in bed.

I wasn’t that girl. I would never be that girl, but if I could fight my instincts, maybe he could do the same.

And maybe there were two sides to the man. Maybe I was talking to the wrong side. I’d seen the human side of Gray. He kept the other side hidden so well it was easy to forget it existed, but could he ever be happy never feeding that part of his soul? Could he be at peace with a woman who didn’t accept all of him?

I dropped to my knees in front of him.

“What are you doing?” Gray’s voice had gone guttural.

When I glanced up, his eyes flashed red and his hands were trembling. “I’m taking care of you. All of you.”

I kissed his tat, feeling it spark off my lips in a way I can only describe as electric. Gray groaned and he seemed to struggle to stay on his feet. His skin heated under my fingers as I licked the outline of that magnificent dragon. My dragon.

Gray’s hand sank into my hair and he pulled me off with a jerk. That brief pain seemed to sensitize my skin, making my nipples hard, my pink parts soft.

“It’s never f*cking done that.” He was panting, his hands on the fly of his jeans. That was when I noticed the way his nails, usually perfectly manicured, had become neat talons. “It grows with me, but I never f*cking felt it move on my body. I never felt it…want. It wants you.”

“You want me. It’s a part of you so it gets to have me, too.” The temperature seemed to have spiked in the room. Hot water splashed across my skin, but it was the sight of Gray peeling his jeans off and tossing them aside, his cock already hard and wanting.

His cock. That dragon that seemed restless on his skin. They both wanted me. And they belonged to me.

My own personal demon lover was savage, riding the edge of our morning fight and what was still coming this evening.

“I want to kill Vorenus. I want to rip his throat out. I want to kill every vampire who thinks he’s f*cking what belongs to me. Mine, Kelsey. You’re mine. Come here.”

I let go of all those old instincts. New ones flared inside me. They were both alien and comforting at the same time. My old instincts were born of pain and suffering. These came from a place deep inside me, my primal self. They were untouched by years of neglect. They were simply me and touching that dragon, feeling it bend to me had sparked them back to life.