“Very well.” He sent that cool stare of his over her, then he fingered the neckline of the finely knit jersey she wore. “My sweater?”
“I have no clothes here,” she shot back.
He grasped the neckline and tore it right down the middle.
Shock rippled through her as he spread open the ruined sweater, exposing her bare chest. Worse, she hadn’t worn a bra because of her injuries. Her fingers clenched, but she schooled her features, refusing to show him her apprehension.
A tic worked in his jaw as he examined her. She glanced down at herself. Several tinges of blood smeared her chest. Why didn’t he tell her he wanted to see if she was hurt? Probably because she wouldn’t have let him. But with her feeding so thoroughly for the first time ever, all the initial ice-splinter stings had already healed. “I’m okay—”
His head lowered, and he licked the red smudges on her shoulder, then his warm tongue trailed down to her left breast, and her nipple hardened.
Oh, shit. She gasped, her heart galloping to her throat. “Nik, I said I’m fine.”
He didn’t respond, seeming determined to find out for himself. His tongue laved every inch of her chest, then slid along the dressing covering her wound. Even though she knew it was another way they healed, with their saliva, a quiver of heat darted through her, and that darn piercing of his stroked her skin—gah! A deep ache built in her core.
“Dammit, Nik,” she stifled a groan. Please, please, don’t let him know how turned on I am.
His tongue swiped over her nipple—oh, god. She bit her lip, choking off her whimper. “Wh-what are you doing?” she forced out the words, sounding like she’d swallowed a handful of grit. “Let me go.”
He looked up, but nothing showed on his unreadable features. “I’m not done.”
And he lowered on his haunches, his warm, calloused palms gliding down her legs to her ankles. At the tiny bloody smudges there, he picked up her left foot and ran his tongue over them, then up her calf, finding every smear.
Goddd. Shadow shut her eyes as he dragged his mouth past her knee to her thigh, and she stifled a groan, her nerves stretching, tightening, her blood buzzing like a lit fuse.
Since her damn body betrayed her, she pressed her lips into a tight line and fought not to show just how much his touch affected her. But when he tucked the hem of her short plaid skirt into the waistband, her eyes snapped open, and her mouth went dry.
Now he watched her as he slid his tongue over the top of her thigh. Maybe she was panting, Shadow had no idea. Still…
“If this is your idea to teach me a lesson or whatever crapass reason you have, it’s not gonna work, you-you savage!”
“Let’s see, shall we?” He rose to his feet, then wrapped her loose hair around his hand, and lifted her face to his.
“Really?” She glowered at him. “Like you don’t already have me trapped, you cave—”
His mouth captured hers, cutting off her words, his tongue sliding over hers, sucking and stroking, his tongue piercing a tormenting caress. His bare chest lightly brushed her nipples, setting her alight.
A whimper escaped her. Shadow forgot her precarious situation and kissed him back, need surging through her like wildfire. Her shackled hands grabbed onto the post, and she strained forward, trying to press into him. But he broke their kiss.
Leaving her breathless, he withdrew a few feet, his lips wet from the carnal connection. His eyes blazed with heat, but his expression remained cool.
Oh, hell. She wasn’t going to outlast him with his demented game to teach her a lesson. She clenched her teeth so she wouldn’t beg him to come back and kiss her. Touch her. Give her release from this ache building in her core, tightening every nerve-ending in her body.
Amusement flashed briefly in his light eyes, then the fiend lightly brushed her sensitive nipple, and she bit her lip.
“Never disobey me again, Shadow,” he said, tone like granite.
She knew better than to blurt out her irritation, then he’d probably keep her here, shackled with his stupid ice cuffs, until she was old and gray.
“Okay, okay, I’m sorry,” she muttered, refusing to look at him, so he wouldn’t see her fury.
“Next time, heed my warning. Right now, I don’t care that you gave me ease back in the cell. Never put yourself in harm’s way again. I’m too fucking perilous for you to take such chances with your life.”
With a wave of his hand, and the ice manacles cracked, splintering to the floor. Her hands freed, she clutched the ruined sweater together. Before she could stalk off, he grasped her arm. “Now…” The ominous word cut through her frustration, and. “We will talk.”
Meeting his hard stare, her stomach tensed. Just because she got hurt by the ice blast?
The girls had warned her he was dangerous. They—heck, she—hadn’t realized just how much until now. The man was ruthless in making a point.
He swept her into his arms and headed for the door. Still a little too shaky from what just occurred, she remained silent, but her mind raced. With his ability to sense lies, she was seriously worried about how much to tell him. Hell, what to reveal about what she was.
So far, she’d managed to wing her way through with half-truths.
Nik paced the length of his room after setting Shadow on his bed, his mind reeling. Terror, unlike anything he’d ever known, continued to rage through him, even if it was edged with desire. Dammit, he dragged his palms over his buzzed hair, trying to focus.
Pivoting, he examined her, reassuring himself he hadn’t caused any lasting. Obviously, she was okay when she mouthed off at him every chance she got.
She gripped the ruined sweater together, sending him sullen glares. At the blood smears on her cheek and neck, his heart shuddered at how easily he could have lost her. He did another head-to-toe psychic scan and found nothing. No dark souls, no darkness in her at all, except from her nodes.
He frowned, recalling the intense agony of his psychic shields splintering, of Shadow entering his cell moments before the souls escaped him…ice flying everywhere, hurting her. His panic at trying to get them out of her...of Shadow touching him, hugging him…then a sense of peace took over—
Peace? He must be losing his crazed mind.
Whatever it was, this reprieve from his endless torment would be transient, as his long, pain-filled life had shown him.
Nik rubbed his silent chest. No ruckus within, but this wasn’t unusual after the blood moon. The souls oftentimes quieted for a short while once trapped in him again after their failed bid for freedom. But the fight with Race caused his mind to blur out those moments of the souls escape and return.
Shit. He rubbed his jaw. Questions spun his mind.
Nik turned to her. At her mulish expression, yeah, he’d probably have to drag every word out of her. How did she calm him down and take away the agony of his curse?
“It seems there’s something you haven’t told me.”
A slender shoulder lifted in a shrug. “Dunno what you’re talking about.”
“What happened in the cell?” he asked again, because no human could escape the kind of souls he harbored. And those things wouldn’t just ignore her. They would have taken over her body and destroyed her mind within minutes.