Death Wish (Alexa O'Brien, Huntress #5)(87)

Arys entered with the silent stealth of a true predator. A human never would have known he was there. I took a few steps back, placing me in the middle of the kitchen. When he crossed the threshold, there was fire in his eyes and an arrogant smirk on his handsome face.

“Alexa,” he practically purred my name. His energy ran high. It felt thick with blood, darkness and hunger. Hunger for me.

I stared at him, wide eyed and cautious but also curious. I never saw him move from the doorway, but he was suddenly there, pulling me against him with a forcefulness that both alarmed and excited me. The power I held ready fell flat; he’d extinguished it as simply as blowing out a candle.

His tongue plunged between my lips to explore my mouth. Demanding and insistent, he kissed me with such aggression that his fangs cut my bottom lip. Trying to err on the side of caution, I placed a hand on his chest and gave a gentle push. He refused to be budged.

“Arys,” I pulled back from his kiss and tried to get him to meet my eyes. “Where have you been?”

He didn’t answer me. Instead, he stared at me with a deep, drowning desire. He moved fast. Grabbing my wrists, Arys spun me around so my back was to his chest and pushed me against the table. With one hand, he pinned me in place, the other reaching beneath my robe.

I gasped when he hooked two fingers in my panties and jerked them roughly down my legs. My robe easily slid aside for him to expose me. A strange concoction of fear and arousal sprang forth. The wolf within me was excited by his fierce aggression, but the human side of me was afraid of death at the hands of my lover.

The heat of his mouth against the back of my neck starkly contrasted with the cold drops falling from my damp hair. Arys slid a hand into my wet hair, holding my head so I couldn’t turn to look at him. His teeth were sharp against my skin, scraping along my neck but not yet puncturing.

It was all happening so fast. Was I going to let him take me like this? By force like an animal?

A shiver crept through me. He fumbled to free himself from the confines of his jeans. Despite my apprehension, a surge of heat pooled between my legs.

I couldn’t move because of the way he held me pinned. I struggled to turn around to face him, but he held firm. With one strong hand, he grasped both of my wrists, crushing them together as he forced them above my head. He was hurting me, dominating me like a possession rather than a person. Not so different from the way he’d treated the victims he’d taken to his bed before killing them.

Memories flashed through my mind, surfacing from the depths of my subconscious. Arys’s memories surfaced in bursts of blood-stained images, visions of Harley and Arys terrorizing faceless, nameless men and women.

Unease gripped me. Maybe I shouldn’t allow this to happen.

I gasped as Arys buried himself inside me. Something awoke within and I snarled. The dark laugh that spilled from him taunted my desire. I was drawn to the darkness in Arys, always drawn in. He held me down on the table, completely at his mercy, and against my will, I loved it.

Arys’s powerful thrusts forced me to cry out. The free hand he stroked along my hip slipped down between my thighs to the sensitive place there.

The power overtook us, growing to catch us up in the dizzying flow. A sinister element tinged it. It called to me, tempting me to look further into the abyss, to step closer to the edge.

The act that consumed us had nothing to do with love. It was downright rough and dirty sex.

My claws left deep gouges in the tabletop. Arys’s name was a constant cry as I spun headlong into the promise of ecstasy.

He never gave me a chance to catch my breath. Releasing his vice-like hold on my wrists, Arys turned me to face him and lifted me onto the table. Stepping in between my legs, he reclaimed my body with his.

He leaned in to kiss me, and I slapped him across the face. It was impulsive and instinctive. My claws left bloody red scratches on his cheek. Mischief gleamed in his eyes. He bared fangs at me in a cocky grin.

“Is that all you’ve got?” He taunted before shoving my arms down and kissing me with a heady fervor that left me breathless.

Even the wolf couldn’t stay mad at him. He oozed sex appeal and a sensual masculinity I couldn’t deny. I clung to him as together we raced toward paradise.

I sensed the bite was coming. I was eager for it when Arys went for my neck with the aggression of a rabid dog. My pained sound only encouraged him. The scent of blood and sex filled the room, an aroma that had come to be both heaven and hell for me.

The sensation of his lips and tongue on my wounded neck combined with the blissful pleasure between my legs easily drove me over the edge. I fell through a cloud of euphoria, becoming entangled in a sticky web of darkness. It threatened to devour me, to cover me in shadows until I was no longer the light to Arys’s dark but one with it instead.

I pushed Arys away. I needed to clear my head. The orgasmic rise and fall of energy was suffocating. He resisted but eventually stepped back, watching me closely.

My hand went to my neck. It wasn’t bad. The bleeding had already slowed. I tugged my robe back into place and hopped off the table. I wasn’t sure how to feel about what just happened.

Buzzing with an overload of energy, I cast a wary glance at Arys. “Wanna tell me what that was all about?”

His midnight blue eyes shone with remnants of our power, though the insane sparkle had thankfully faded. “Did I hurt you?”

“Yes, but not the way you’re thinking.” I bent to retrieve my underwear, slipping them back into place. A large bruise on the inside of my thigh caught my eye. “Tell me what happened to you at the hospital. You really freaked me out.”