Kissing Sin (Riley Jenson Guardian 2)

I threw my arms around his neck and kissed his nose. It was cold. So were his lips when I brushed a kiss across them. He didn't react to either kiss, didn't touch me in return.

"Riley, I can't take just a taste and stop." His voice was flat, and as cold as his body. And yet there was a desperation in his eyes that warmed my soul.

"Chocolate is like that," I murmured, continuing to brush kisses across his cheeks, his neck.

"What?"

I smiled and kissed his lips again. His teeth were beginning to protrude. I ran my tongue across their needle-sharp ends, letting them cut my tongue, letting the taste of blood touch his mouth.

He groaned.

"You may not want to do this, but you need to. Your hunger burns my skin, and I'm not exactly sensitive when it comes to emotions. But I'm betting there'll be empaths and sensitives at that function tonight. You go in like this, emoting hunger all over the place, and what the hell do you think will happen?"

"Nothing will happen, because it'll be under control by then."

"It won't. It can't, because you're too close to the edge." I stared into the beautiful black depths of his eyes. "Dammit, your skin is cold. Why are you pushing yourself like this? It doesn't make any sense."

"I have my reasons." His hands went to my hips, his touch almost bruising. "Move, or I'll make you move."

I gripped tight with my thighs. "Pretend I'm Barbie, fust another seductive brunette you're planning to wine, dine, and bed. Nothing serious will ever come of us, and you'll never see me after tonight. I'm just a quick and easy fuck."

"I can't do that," he said, voice tight with the tension I could see in his eyes, feel humming through his body.

"Why not?"

"Because you're not Barbie, and you'll never be just a quick and easy fuck."

I raised my eyebrows at the edge in his voice. "But that's all I was when we first met. You admitted that yourself."

"That was then."

"Nothing much has changed since then."

"Everything has changed since then."

"For God's sake, we don't even know each other beyond the realms of sex. And being great in bed doesn't mean we'll be great out of it."

"I know, I know." Frustration edged his voice. "Riley, I want you. I need you. I just don't know if I can stand being with you."

"I'm not asking you to become my full-time lover right now. I'm just asking you to take what you need."

He touched a hand to my face. "You don't get it, do you?"

"What?"

"One touch, one taste, is never going to be enough."

I smiled. "It doesn't have to be enough."

"I know. And if you were something other than a werewolf, I would take all you could offer in an instant."

I sighed. "But I am a werewolf, I will always be a werewolf, and asking me to forget all that I am is like asking you to stop taking blood."

"It's not the same - "

"It is," I insisted. "The moon celebration is vital to a wolf. The dance is vital. Sex is a part of what we are, as vital to us as blood is to you."

"You would not die if you didn't have sex."