Crimson Truth (Onyx Assassins 4)

She cried out against my mouth, and the kiss became something carnal and untamed—something dangerous.

“You kiss pretty dirty for someone who’s always so...clean,” she whispered, running her tongue up my neck. Then she scrambled out of my arms, pulling her shirt back up over her bra and smoothing the lines of her now docile hair as she regained her footing.

Bite. Touch. Taste. Claim. The demands of my body consumed every thought, but I gripped the arms of the chair, willing myself to stay right where I was. There would be no biting Jocelyn. No feeding. No fucking. Nothing.

She was forbidden. This was forbidden.

The very thing we’d just done had gotten my brother killed.

“What the hell was that?” I managed to ask as she sauntered away, her ass swinging as she walked to the bed.

Bite. Touch. Taste. Claim.

Oh, shut the fuck up. She’s not a vampire.

“That?” She glanced over her shoulder with a wicked, tempting smile. “That was a little energy expulsion.” Her hands smoothed over her hair. “Thanks for the help.”

My jaw hit the fucking floor.

“Are you just going to sit there? It’s time to go, Bennyben.” She hefted her duffel bag over her shoulder and headed for the door, leaving me a discombobulated, throbbing mess.

This was going to be way fucking harder than I’d initially thought.

6

Jocelyn

“Watch your step.” I glanced over my shoulder at Benedict, looking so damn out of place in his pristine suit as he crossed into my territory.

He paused at the edge of the stone stairs I was already climbing, each step laid into the earth and covered in moss. Ancient, gnarled trees hugged the winding staircase, the forest a tangle of branches that weaved through each other so tightly and high above that little sunlight penetrated this area.

“So many stairs,” he said, arching a brow at me.

“Too many for you?” I teased. “I can whip up a spell to carry you up them if you’re worried about stamina.” Already I could feel my powers soaring—the land, my land helped restore them instantly. We were at our strongest here, like Alek had guessed earlier, but I wasn’t about to admit that. Admitting our strengths wasn’t something I was good at.

A low, warning growl rumbled in his chest, and he caught up to where I stood a dozen stairs ahead of him in a blink. “You’ve never met anyone with my kind of stamina,” he said, and I couldn’t help but grin.

That was the fucking truth. His kiss had proved as much.

A flicker of heat raced down my spine at the look in his eyes, the challenge and promise in them. The feel of his lips on mine stormed me like a crashing wave, all-consuming and stealing my breath.

His kiss.

Goddess, damn him.

It was supposed to be a little tease to ruffle Benedict’s perfect life. A fun way to expel the energy that had gathered and threatened to drive me insane if I didn’t release it into the universe.

But in reality? He’d blown me away.

The way he’d tasted, like citrus and mint.

The way he’d tipped my head back, claiming my mouth in a way most males could never do. Always too afraid of the witch princess. Not Benedict though. He didn’t cower or submit. No, he shifted into that primal animal my mother had always warned me about. Though, there was nothing in my body that had wanted to run and hide from the blood-thirsty beast. I’d loved the way his kiss stung, loved the way the sharp tips of his fangs had dragged along my neck. Hell, I’d practically baited him into biting me. Even though I knew it was forbidden, I couldn’t help myself. I wanted to see if he’d do it and I equally wanted to see what it felt like. And to top it all off?

I wanted more.

And I hated that. Because he was him and I was me and we had no business crossing those ancient drawn lines. But I certainly couldn’t stop from entertaining that memory and adding on to it in my own mind, the idea of going farther. A warm shiver danced down my spine. Stamina, he’d said. I wondered just how long he could keep me up at night?

“We’ll see,” I finally responded, returning to the climb.

The same climb I’d made a million times. I was pretty sure I learned how to walk on these stairs. My mother claimed they were laid by her ancestors’ ancestors, and spelled with all manner of protection to withstand the elements that rippled over all witch territory. That very power is what kept outsiders from realizing the full scope of our territory, let alone its collective power. Each step represented the blood of our past, the twelve covens uniting in this slice of territory ages ago. A culmination of feuds buried and peace settling within our people.