This Side of the Grave (Night Huntress, #5)(51)

She smoothed her hand down Spade’s chest. “Don’t worry, I’m fine. Looks and sounds much worse than it is, really. Now, where’s the kitchen? Did I mention I was starving?”

I’d just gotten out of the shower when Bones shut the bedroom door behind him, his gaze somber. After dinner, which all of us ate so Denise didn’t feel like the odd person out, we’d finalized the details of our plan. Everyone agreed it was our best way to hopefully head Apollyon off at the pass, but Spade wasn’t the only one who had misgivings about his spouse’s safety. I was nervous for Bones, as he was for me, but we both knew not acting posed the greater danger. Still, now that we were alone, I felt his disquiet in the emotions grazing mine. His natural heady, burnt sugar scent was more reminiscent of kitchen accident than crème br?lée right now.

I stopped towel-drying my hair and went over to him, sliding my arms around his neck as I laid my head on his chest. Soon, I’d have to reapply the garlic-and-pot packets all over me, but for now, I could hold him without those smelly impediments.

“It’ll be okay,” I said, my words puffing onto the fabric of his shirt. “This will work.”

Hard arms encircled my back as he pulled me closer. “I know. Just don’t fancy being separated from you.”

I let out a small snort. “I don’t like it, either, but Denise is the ultimate decoy. You saw her. She’s now my twin, right down to my cup size. If you saw her out at a bar, even you would swear it was me.”

“Not as soon as I got close,” he replied, head lowering until his mouth brushed my jaw. “Forget the heartbeat; she doesn’t smell like you, her voice isn’t yours, her posture is different, and she looks at people differently than you do.”

“How do I look at people?” I asked, bemused. All the other things he’d listed made sense, but few except Bones knew me well enough to notice those differences. Denise’s heartbeat was the biggest concern, but we had a way around that which would work for all but someone right up next to her—and I didn’t think Spade would let anyone get that close.

Bones pulled back, staring into my eyes even as his fingers traced my face. “You have the gaze of a fighter. Noticed it right off when we met. You looked at me . . . and I could tell you were mentally assessing my strengths and weaknesses before anything else. At the time I thought it was odd, because that stare didn’t match the green girl who tripped over her words when she asked me if I wanted to f*ck.”

Laughter bubbled from my throat. “I was trying to lure you outside so I could kill you, but unlike every other vampire I’d met up to that point, you weren’t cooperating. Should’ve known right then that you’d be trouble.”

His lips curled, a hint of green appearing in his gaze. “Ah, but that only made me more tempting to you. You couldn’t resist the challenge. That’s why you came looking for me the very next night, and why you agreed to let me train you even though you still plotted to kill me those first few weeks.”

He was right. Back then, believing all vampires were evil bloodsuckers, I’d been determined to kill Bones despite the fact that he was much stronger than me. And he was right that the lure of defeating such a powerful vampire appealed to my sense of challenge. Or recklessness, depending on who you asked.

“What about you?” I breathed, standing on tiptoe to brush his mouth with mine. “If I’d have fallen back with my legs open like all the other women you came across, you’d have given me the night of my life, and then forgotten my name before breakfast. But I was immune to your charms and prettiness. Must’ve shocked you.” I couldn’t stop my grin as I lightly nipped his lower lip. “So I’m not the only one who couldn’t resist a challenge.”

“You weren’t immune to my charms for long, as I recall,” he responded, a brow arching with sinful meaning.

“I admit to being stubborn when it came to resisting your appeal.” Spoken as I unwound my towel to let it drop to the floor. “But I’d have to be all the way dead not to want you.”

His eyes were now completely green, and fangs gleamed out from his upper teeth. I loved the way his gaze raked over me. Like it was the first time he’d seen me this way, and he couldn’t stop himself from staring. I knew my body, was well aware of its flaws, but Bones made me forget those when he looked at me. Under the hunger in his gaze and the swell of his lust cresting against my subconscious, I felt beautiful, strong, and sexy. Free to do anything without fear or shame.

His hands slid down my bare skin, power caressing my senses at the same time. I opened my mouth as his head dipped, feeling those inner sparks ignite with his kiss. They increased as his tongue stroked along mine with deliberate, intimate thoroughness. He’d use the same slow, deep strokes when his mouth was somewhere else, and the thought made my loins clench with anticipation. Bones only rushed things when I wanted him to; when impatience made my need so sharp that I couldn’t endure the delicious way he drew out foreplay. Tonight, though, I wanted him to be the one who felt drugged with passion, and if I let him keep kissing me, I’d soon be past the point of enough mental capacity to do that.

“Get on the bed,” I said, tearing my mouth away.

He carried me there, trailing more dizzying kisses down my neck at the same time, but I resisted when he started to lay me onto the mattress.