Most of which involved whips, chains, and handcuffs.
Alexion's hand collided with hers as they both reached into the bowl. She was still surprised by the coldness of it. No wonder he kept his coat on.
"Why are you so icy?" she asked.
"I'm cold?"
"Like a corpse."
"Oh," he said, as if he really weren't aware of the fact that his body temperature would rival an ice cube's. "Well, I am dead."
"So am I, but I have a pulse and some warmth." Which gave her a strange idea. Taking his wrist into her hand, she realized that he didn't have a pulse.
She swallowed as he watched her. "Why don't you have a pulse?"
No sooner had the question left her lips than a heartbeat started. His skin actually warmed while she held on to it.
Dropping his hand, she shot to her feet. "That ain't right. What the hell is wrong with you?"
"I didn't mean to offend you," he said honestly. "The only one who touches me is Simi and she's cold too. I didn't think about what my skin would feel like to you or I would have warmed it up first."
She was completely confounded by his words. He could control his heartbeat and body temperature? That was unheard of. "How do you do that?"
"I think it and it happens."
Danger sat back down and reached out to touch his face. It felt like any other man's face. Granted, his skin was warmer than before, but it still wasn't quite the temperature of a normal human.
His dark whiskers were rough against her palm, prickly, and it sent a foreign ache through her.
He closed his eyes as if savoring the feel of her hand on his skin. He turned his face ever so slightly in a gentle caress. When he opened his eyes, the deep-seated hunger in his gaze almost frightened her.
Before she realized what he was doing, he dipped his head and captured her lips.
Her first inclination was to pull back and slug him, but there was another part of her that sparked to his gentle kiss. And it was gentle. Tender. It was a lover's kiss and it set her blood on fire.
She could only barely remember the last time she'd slept with a man. One-night stands had never appealed to her. Well, that wasn't exactly true. For a brief time, when she had first become a Dark-Hunter and learned of her freedom from disease and pregnancy, she had explored her sexuality.
But that hadn't lasted long. Since Dark-Hunters were forbidden to develop romantic relationships, it left her with nothing but sex. And sex without some kind of mutual caring wasn't fulfilling to her.
She pulled back. "I'm not an easy lay, Alexion."
He actually smiled a real smile at her. It was charming and unexpected. "I am."
Shaking her head, she laughed at him. "Most men are."
Alexion didn't respond to her comment. How could he while his body and lips were still burning from the sensation of her mouth on his? That woman had a tongue that set every fantasy in his mind alive. It made him wonder what else she did well along those lines...
"If you change your mind, Danger..."
"I won't."
Damn. It was one of the reasons why he wished Acheron had sent him to a male Dark-Hunter. By now a man would have been on the prowl for a woman of his own which would have allowed Alexion ample time to find a bedmate for himself.
He somehow doubted Danger would be open to taking him out to get laid.
"I understand," he said to her.
Yeah, right. He might mentally understand, but his body wasn't listening. It wanted a taste of her so badly that it was all he could do to remain seated.
His celibacy was hard enough on him in Katoteros. On earth, it was unbearable. To be so close to a woman and not have her...
He actually whimpered.
"Are you all right?"
"Fine," he said, wishing a cold shower would work. But he was long past that. He'd been so long without a woman's touch that nothing except release would help him.
"So do you have any cheap friends?" he asked.
She gave him a disgusted glare. "You are a pig!"
"You go two hundred years without sex and see how you feel," he said defensively. "It's easy for you to sit there sanctimoniously while you condemn me, but you can have sex anytime you feel like it. All I have are the next few days. After that, I have to pray for a Dark-Hunter uprising to have another shot at a woman. Have you any idea how often those happen?"
"So you look forward to killing us?"
"No, but after a couple of hundred years, you do start having some radical thoughts."
Danger stared at him in disbelief.
"And it would help if you had chosen a movie where people kept their clothes on. You know, Disney makes a damn good movie too."
He was unbelievable! "I can't believe you're Ash's chosen whatever and all you can do is think of getting laid. You are such a man-slut! You don't even care who you sleep with."
"That's not exactly true. I do have some standards. Granted, not many, but still..." He sucked his breath in sharply. "I'm so hard it's painful and when you consider the fact I don't really feel pain like a human does, that says a lot." He actually pouted and that succeeded in making her feel sorry for him. But only a little.