Crimson Kiss (Onyx Assassins 5)

I sheathed my blade, clenched my jaw, and shoved my hands into my front pockets to keep from reaching for her. “It isn’t that easy!”

She arched a brow. “It’s not? Funny. I thought it just required me getting wet, and you getting hard, and since I felt you at the club, I don’t think you have a problem in that department!”

She was trying to kill me. That was the only possibility in this absolute madness. Avianna was trying to murder me.

“Or was I mistaken?” She walked toward me, her hips swaying, her eyes spitting fire. She flat out stalked me like she was the predator and I was the prey.

The thought had a growl rumbling in my chest.

She put both her hands on my chest. “Maybe you don’t really want me?” Her fingers drifted over my blades and she gripped one in each hand. “Hmm.” She leaned in so her belly met the hardness of my dick. “Seems like you do.” She unsheathed one blade, then the other, turning to the side and putting them on her dresser.

Is that what it would look like if we shared a single room? My blades on her furniture? My leathers in her closet? If we’d given into the bond and accepted it, I’d sleep next to her in this room, my body between hers and the door. There was no way I’d make her downgrade to my minimalistic quarters. No way I’d make her downgrade to me. The weapons looked out of place in here. They took the ultra-feminine, soft space and hardened it in a way that grated on my nerves.

“Me wanting you has never been the problem, Avianna.” I ground out the words.

She unsheathed the next two blades and the symbolism wasn’t lost on me. It would have been more efficient to slip out of the holster, but she wasn’t aiming for efficiency.

She was disarming me and making sure I knew it.

“Then please, Hawke, do tell me exactly what the problem is.” She put the daggers next to the other two on the dresser.

“Fucking you—” I flinched at the coarse words when it came to her. “Sleeping with you would only strengthen the mating bond.”

Two little lines formed between her eyebrows.

“You feel it already, don’t you?” I picked up her hand and tugged the glove off finger by finger, exposing her skin as I pulled the length of satin down her arm. My mating mark stood out against her pale skin. Seeing it fucked with my head in too many ways to describe.

Pride. Satisfaction. Anger. Fear. Need. Those emotions were only the tip of the iceberg, and I’d always prided myself on not feeling anything.

“The bond?” she asked, glancing at her hand as it lay on my chest.

I nodded. “I know I do. I’ve always been able to sense you, Avi, but now I could pinpoint your location on a map if I needed to.”

“That could just be the blood.” She feigned a shrug.

Out came the daggers sheathed down my thighs. The hilts clanged on the dresser.

“Yeah. But it’s not. The blood wouldn’t tell me what you feel. It wouldn’t amplify my own desires because it picked up on yours. It wouldn't do this.” I tugged mentally on that shimmering thread and Avianna fell against me like the tether between us was physical.

“Fine. I feel it,” she admitted softly. “It’s how I knew you were pissed off tonight.”

“I’m always pissed when I see Samuel.” I left out the part where I’d sworn to kill him. “He deserves to greet the sun for what he did to you. What he’s doing to you.”

She stepped back. “He’s as much of a prisoner in this as I am.”

I laughed. “Trust me, Avi. No one could claim they were trapped into marrying you.”

“Only you.” She arched a brow. “I remember the look on your face when you first saw the mark.”

“I don’t matter.” I swallowed past the boulder that crept into my throat. “Fate fucked up when she paired us. I’m not on your level, Princess. I’m not even on the same field.”

“And yet here we are.” She stuck her hand up between us, flashing the mark.

“Here we are,” I agreed. “That mark is the only reason your body craves mine.”

“That’s a lie.” She took another step back, then pulled the pins from her hair. Curl by curl, it fell, caressing her shoulders the way I longed to. “I have always wanted you.”

“And you have always had that mark,” I argued. “From the moment we met.”

Her mouth opened, then shut. “I thought you were beautiful long before you touched me.”

“For all fifteen seconds?” I cocked an eyebrow at her.

“Yes!” Her chin rose.

“Then I know the bond has addled your brain, because beautiful is the last word any female would use to describe me.”

“You’re so wrong,” she ground out. “But I’m not going to fight you on that point tonight.”