The Council (Darkness #5)(18)

“No.” He ran his fingertips down her face. “She smelled like decay. Not completely, but… I don’t quite understand it. Others smell you and suck in a deep breath. Your arousal smells just as good to others as to me. So I should’ve smelled something equally as good from that female, but…”

“So you stopped to analyze.”

He smiled. “Yes.”

A relieved smile flickered across her face. She leaned her head against his chest. “This place is weird. I know I won’t lose you to it, but at the same time, it’s all your kind, and none of my kind.”

“The female in the hall was human…”

“No.” She put a hand on her chest. “My kind. Humans with self-respect.”

“Ah.”

“The pheromones must’ve worn off on most of them by now. So why stick around? They don’t seem afraid—someone offered to be Charles’ pet. She offered to be his pet. What the hell?”

“I was offered blood as a hello. Something is off here. That female was getting something from it, though. She said I could have her for a favor. Why would the humans be in demand for sex above our own kind, though? What’s the difference?”

“She had the smell, though, you said. Maybe it’s that.”

Stefan pulled her closer. “I don’t know. The more I know of this place, the more twisted it seems.”

“Maybe Regional isn’t the best of ideas.”

“I was thinking the same thing.”

Sasha bent and softly touched his lips with hers. Electricity singed through their lips and swelled in the link. She deepened the kiss as her hands felt down his chest. Her h*ps moved against his hard bulge, a soft moan starting deep in her throat. “Take me, Stefan.”

His hands traced her chest, rubbing a hard nipple through her shirt. Right before he took off the shirt. Her bra came off shortly after, his mouth sucking in that nipple until her head fell back.

“Can you take blood?” she asked softly, her h*ps rocking just right.

“I can take yours, but you better not take mine. My strength is in question, your magic is.” His voice hoarse, his fingers worked at her pants, having them unbuttoned in a flash, then standing her up to take them off. He pushed his pants down. His erection bobbed up, craving her. Wanting to push into her so deeply, so thoroughly, it was all he could think about. She stripped his shirt, kissing down his chest and softly biting one of his ni**les.

“They’ll come at you pretty hard, huh?” she asked softly, her body slowing.

“No harder than they’ll come at you. But we have Dominicous and Toa, who’ve been through this before. And we have Charles and Jonas, who we never have to worry about switching sides or loyalty. And I have four other guys that love to fight dirty. Plus, and I hate to admit this, we have a bunch of jumpy shape-shifters ready to make their point. They don’t even know which point they want to make, but they know they want to make one.”

She laughed, rocking her h*ps forward in a long draw, dragging her slick sex against his manhood. At the top, she angled, and sat down slowly.

Stefan’s thoughts disappeared. Lights and colors danced in his vision. Her hot sex wrapped around him dizzyingly, so tight. She pulled up, squeezing him, the friction making his eyes flutter. Then back down. His hands squeezed her butt cheeks, his legs trembled and his body shivered.

Then he couldn’t help himself. The need for her all day, the pressure on them both, the uncertainty—

He lifted her off him and threw her onto the couch. He covered her body a second later, thrusting into her with an animalistic need.

“Umm, yes…” Her eyes drifted shut as her legs squeezed his body close.

He drove into her, hard and fast, desperate. He clutched her shoulders, striving to get to the center of her to anchor himself. His lips met hers, deep and passionate. Their tongues matched the thrusts of their bodies.

Her h*ps swung up to him. His groin pushed down into her. Nails scratched up his back as she bared her soft, vulnerable neck to him. Unlike that other woman, this neck was pure. His.

He opened a cut and took a long pull. Sweet and spicy, she coated his tongue and filled his senses, the magic in her singing as it merged with his. Her ragged sigh made his balls tighten, right before her insides spasmed in a cock-crushing cl**ax.

“Oh,” he moaned, clenching his fists and holding back with everything he had so that he could keep going.

As she settled back into the couch, a small smile curving her lips, he started again. Slowly at first, so as to keep a tiny bit of control, and then faster. The friction had his teeth grinding and his body flexing. Plunging into her, deeply. His balls tightened up. His tip started to tingle.

“Hmmm, YES!” Her eyes fluttered. Her body trembled. Her sex tightened around him as she orgasmed. He exploded into her a moment later, emptying completely before collapsing on top of her.

Her arms came around him, as did her legs, holding him close.

“You and me,” she said softly, snuggling her face into his neck. “We’ll beat this together.”

“And if I left to give you a better chance?”

She laughed into his skin. “I’d blow up a lot more than a door to track you down and haul you back.”

Chapter 5

A few days passed in much the same way. Stefan had at least two challenges a day, and for the first few, he didn’t get a scratch. He said they lasted a few minutes each and he walked away from unconscious, or quivering, men and women. The challenges got worse, though, as news spread. At the end of the fourth day, he always had one or two of his men with him, and still he had to heal with ice packs and compresses, the bruises and battering starting to leave their mark. Still, he was kicking ass and making a name for himself. No one had seen the like since… well, since Dominicous.