Crimson Highlander (Onyx Assassins 2)

“You’re the only woman I want!” Did I want a female to listen when I needed to keep her safe? Hell yes. A female to bear my young and raise them while I defended our species? My chest tightened at the thought. The only female I could even see in that role wasn’t even a female…she was a woman. She was Valor.

“Lachlan,” she whispered, her cheeks blooming with the kind of color that only reached her cheeks when she was with me.

I laced my fingers behind my neck to keep from reaching for her.

Her eyes raked down my chest, her scent sweetening with a rush of arousal that triggered everything primal in my body. Everything hurt. My muscles. My chest. My fangs. My cock. Everything. And I knew she was the answer to it all.

“I don’t know if I want the bond,” I admitted. “And that has nothing to do with you and everything to do with rearranging my priorities—my life. But don’t for one second think that means I don’t want you. I ache for you in every way possible. I wake in the evening hard, knowing it’s only that wall that separates us. I scent the air for you. I listen for you. My mouth waters at the memory of the taste of you. My once-focused mind is now a fogged-up mess because the physical need for you invades every thought. So please believe me when I say that you need to walk out of that door before something happens that neither of us can take back.”

Her lips parted. “And what if I want it to happen?”

My breath froze in my lungs. She doesn’t mean it.

“We can act on what we want without accepting the bond, right?” she asked.

Don’t breathe. Don’t move. Shit, you have to answer her. “In theory.”

She swallowed and nodded. “Okay, then what if we just…took the edge off? Gave ourselves one night to indulge in each other?”

Fuck yes, my cock answered.

Nope. No. Run now. That was my brain.

“The bond would only intensify with physical contact,” I growled, trying like hell to keep a leash on myself.

“But it won’t be complete, right? We wouldn’t be…locked into it or anything?” Her gaze fell to my abs and glazed over. “It doesn’t have to mean anything.”

“You’re fucking killing me.” I shut my eyes, but it didn’t help. The scent of her was all around, filling my lungs, my nose, my mouth.

“Good, because I’m dying over here!” she snapped. “I’m not like you, Lachlan! I don’t have three hundred years of experience under my belt to give me that god-like self-control you’re working with over there!”

My eyes flashed open. “God-like, hmm?”

“Of course, that’s what you pick up on.” She slammed her hand into the granite, and I winced. “I want you all of the time. It’s like you flipped on the switch to my sex drive, and I can’t turn the damned thing off! My body hums when you walk in a room, and the second you touch me, I go hot and achy—”

“Valor,” I groaned. “You have to stop.”

“I don’t want to stop. I want you!”

“Physically,” I managed to say. The logical side of my brain was shutting down, shifting to the part that only wanted to focus on getting her to scream my name again.

“Physically,” she agreed. “Like I said, it doesn’t have to mean anything.”

“It doesn’t have to mean anything,” I repeated. My chest tightened like a fucking vise, but I ignored the flash of pain. What would one night hurt? I’d already kissed her, already put my hands on her, already brought her to climax. It wasn’t like the bond could possibly hurt any more than it already did, right? So what if we’d been ill-matched. In this regard—our attraction, we were a perfect fit.

But she was human, and I was most certainly not.

“I’m going to give you one last chance to walk out that door.” My voice sounded like it had been dragged over broken glass. “Because I’d like to think I’m a good enough man to hold back, but I’m not sure anymore. So let me be as blunt as possible.”

“Okay,” she whispered, her heart rate accelerating.

“If you don’t walk out right now, I’m going to be all over you.” I dropped my arms to my sides. “I’m going to strip you bare, lay you out like a banquet, and then feast.”

Her eyes darkened.

“I’m going to fuck you with my fingers, my tongue, and only after you’ve come once, maybe twice—my cock. Don’t worry, you’ll be slick, wet, and ready for me, begging for me.” I moved forward, reaching for my towel.

“Lachlan.” It was half plea, half moan. She kicked off her heels.

“This is your last chance, Valor. If you let me get my hands on you tonight, I’m going to ruin you for anyone you think might have the balls to try and take my place.” I slid one hand along her cheek, then tunneled my fingers through her hair. The other hand drifted up her waist until I found the zipper under her arm.