Heart of the Fae (The Otherworld #1)(75)

“I notice everything you do. You haunt my steps and my dreams. You’ve bewitched me, Sorcha, and I want my soul back.”

“I don’t know how to give it back to you.”

He leaned closer, his breath fanning over her lips. “I wonder if you taste like the sun.”

“You’re drunk.”

“Yes, I am.”

She didn’t move as he leaned down and devoured her.

He tasted like whiskey and peppermint. Her eyes fluttered shut as the textures of his mouth slid against hers. Soft lips, like velvet, nibbled at her own. She couldn’t breathe, didn’t want to, even as his arms slid down the wall and slipped around her shoulders.

Teeth nibbled at her full bottom lip. No, she realized, not teeth. The harsh edge of crystal biting into her swollen flesh as he pressed harder.

She inhaled in surprise, and he took advantage of the opportunity. His warm tongue swept into her mouth, bringing with it an explosion of flavor. Spices, foreign to her senses, made her drunk as their tongues tangled.

Strange, she hadn’t thought it would be like this. And then she didn’t think at all.

He tasted her, unmade her, whispered endearments she didn’t understand against her mouth. The crystals sliced at her skin, splitting open her lip, and pouring the metallic taste of blood into her mouth.

He didn’t stop. She didn’t want him to.

Warmth poured over her like a wave. She couldn’t think. He was everything and nothing, tying her to the ground by the electric heat of his mouth. His hands slid over her shoulders and massaged her muscles until she relaxed against the wall.

“I knew you would taste like sunshine,” he whispered against her lips. “I knew it from the moment I first set eyes on you.”

“Another flaw?”

“Entirely.”

He dedicated his attention to sipping from her lips. To licking, and sucking, and tasting every inch she would allow him. Hot breath slid across her cheeks, crystals cold and scraping, a sharp contrast to the soft flesh of his skin.

Teeth worried at the sensitive peaks of her ears. Her knees went weak, mouth dropped open in pleasure even as her eyes snapped open. Her nerve endings came alive. Heat rippled through her from the points all the way to her belly.

“What—” she gasped.

A pleased, masculine growl rumbled in her ear.

His hands traveled down her arms, smoothing across the skin he found so flawed. Somehow, she didn’t think he meant it as an insult. She’d seen the Fae for herself, so perfect they looked like stone. Perhaps he saw something alive in her. Something real.

She arched her back as one of his hands trailed across her collarbone. He nibbled at her ear, scraping both teeth and crystal against the sensitive flesh. His hands traveled further, fingers trailing along the gaping, oversized neckline of her dress. She thought surely her mind would fracture from the pleasure as his hands ghosted over the soft swells of her breasts.

Until the air went cold.

His breathing changed. The hot gusts of breath stilled to calm, measured inhalations. He pulled a long strand of web from her shoulder, the sticky filaments stretching out across his fingers.

“What is this?” he growled. “And you say you had no need for protection?”

“It’s not what you think.”

“You lie.” His eyes narrowed further, an entirely different beast staring at her through the windows of his soul.

“I didn’t speak with anyone,” she whispered, cowering against the ivy. “Stop looking at me like that.”

“Like what?”

“Like you want to hurt me.”

“I promised I wouldn’t hurt you, and I will hold true to that vow. No more lies, little human. Why were you in Unseelie lands?”

She swallowed and contemplated lying. How much should she tell him? The Queen wouldn’t want her running her mouth, and the information she held was a secret. Sorcha still didn’t know who had opened the portal from this side or if it was entirely the Queen’s doing.

But he would know if she lied. She wasn’t certain how the Fae knew, if they tasted it in the air or could read body language. If he knew, then he would continue to push until she told the truth.

Sorcha had never been a good liar. “I don’t know why I was there. The portal opened from this side, and there was information the Unseelie Queen wished to share with me.”

“That portal can’t open on its own.”

“I don’t think there are any Unseelie here.”

His eyes darkened, storm clouds brewing in the vivid blue. “Oona.”

“What?”

He didn’t answer. The heat of his body disappeared, leaving her shivering and alone.

“It’s probably better he left,” she said with a shaking sigh. But she didn’t believe the words. How could she when her body was quivering with unfulfilled pleasure?

Was that how it felt for her sisters? Surely it couldn’t; they had no attachment to the men who came to the brothel.

A memory surfaced of a blond man with his arms wrapped around Briana. Sorcha had caught them in an alcove outside the brothel, whispering words of endearments, the likes of which she’d never heard before. The soft press of lips to skin, the sound of gasps and sighs.

Maybe they did know what this felt like, Sorcha thought. Maybe they’d had it ripped away from them so many times they forgot to tell her.