Wild and Free (The Three #3)(117)

He looked again to her. “I’ll be finding the brother of Abel Jin.”

She cocked her head to the side. “You know, I can help with that.”

“Then I’ll be finding the brother of Abel Jin with your help,” he amended, and she grinned at him again.

“All I need is a little bit of his blood,” she told him.

“That can be arranged,” he replied.

“It’ll be quicker and require a lot less paraphernalia, chanting, and fiddle if I could see him in person and touch him. I mean, it’s not like it’ll happen in a snap, but it won’t take as long.”

Yuri tensed. “That’ll not happen.”

Her brows knit together. “Why not?”

“He’s a member of The Three, Aurora, currently hunted and residing in a safe house, an extravagant one, but one that’s guarded by hundreds of vampires, wolves, and state-of-the-art security. Regardless of how safe it is, it doesn’t negate the fact that being around him is dangerous.”

Her lips parted.

“I’ll send for his blood,” he continued. “They’ll deliver it while we deal with that coven. Then you can help me find the brother.”

“You like me,” she whispered, and he focused more closely on her.

“You’re likeable.”

The light came back into her eyes before she shared, “I like you too, you know, though you’re altogether too smug and dry as a bone, but that last isn’t so bad when you’re being funny.”

“Your flowery compliments warm my heart, my sweet, in a way I’m sure never to forget.”

She laughed softly even as she said, “Like that. Dry as a bone but funny.”

“I do know what dry means, Aurora,” he informed her.

“You’re also cute,” she shared.

Fuck.

She called him cute.

He looked to the house not knowing whether to laugh or show her how not-cute he actually was.

“In a hot way,” she added.

It was at that boldness when it suddenly became clear she was not unconsciously appealing. She was extremely conscious of just how appealing she was.

She was also a consummate game player.

And a tease.

And both made him want her all the more.

“Perhaps we should cease talking,” he suggested to the house.

“Okeydoke,” she replied agreeably but did it not acquiescing to his suggestion. “Though, I’ll point out, when someone tells you you’re cute and hot, the done thing is to return the compliment.”

That was when he looked down at her, right in her eyes, and returned the compliment.

And he did it like the vampire he was.

“You know you’re beautiful. You can’t not know, you’re that beautiful. I want to taste you in a variety of ways. And I want very badly to f*ck you, doing it slow and gentle to the point it drives you mad and you beg for more, which, of course, I’ll give to you, as much as you want. Then I’ll take from you, as much as I want. You know that too. You’re far from stupid, which is another reason why I want to f*ck you. What you might not know is that it will happen. It’ll happen after taking down a coven and before finding Abel’s brother. So in the meantime, I’d appreciate if you’d stop playing your games. I’m all for a tease. But I also decide when the teasing ends. And I’m not sure you’re ready right now for how I’ll do that.”

“Uh, okay,” she breathed, staring up at him, and he was wrong even if he was right.

He wanted that light in her eyes while he was buried inside her after he’d made them both come.

But he wanted that light that was in her eyes right then while he was f*cking her and she was begging him to make her come.

“I kinda want you to kiss me, like, right now,” she whispered.

“That would be foolish since I absolutely want to kiss you, like, right now, but I want it in a way that it won’t stop at kissing and I’m not keen on finding out what your mother will do if she walks out of that house and sees me f*cking her daughter who I mounted on the hood of a car.”

“Okay, maybe kissing right now isn’t a great idea,” she replied, still whispering.

“Agreed.”

“Though, if you’d find the time, you know, sometime”—she made her eyes big—“soon, I’d appreciate it.”

“You’re being charming again,” he noted.

“I’m not sure how to stop that,” she returned.

“This is part of what makes you charming,” he murmured, again looking to the house.

“Yuri?” she called.

He sighed and turned his eyes back to her.

“I have a feeling I’m gonna be super glad you chased me into my house and started choking me,” she declared.

That was when it happened.

That was when Yuri stood outside a hoarder’s hovel, staring down at a beautiful witch in the middle of nowhere in Texas, threw back his head, and burst out laughing.

With fortunate but disastrous timing—because when he was almost done, instead of pulling Aurora in his arms and giving her the kiss they both wanted—Barb made her presence known by demanding, “What on earth in these circumstances could possibly be funny?”