Tempting Evil (Riley Jenson Guardian 3)

"But many things can be claimed with patience."

Sweat trickled down my forehead, tickling my cheeks. I wanted to swipe at it, but I couldn't seem to move, held in thrall by the furnace burning between us, by the sensations and desire tingling across my skin, across my senses. I licked my lips, and somehow said, "Really? I haven't seen much evidence of patience lately."

"Perhaps not." He raised an eyebrow, his expression knowing, mocking. "But the real question is, would you like to see it now?"

"No." God, no.

His smile grew, and suddenly he was simply there, all around me, all through me, filling me with heat, filling me with passion. While it was Kade's cock that thrust deep inside, it wasn't Kade I could feel. Wasn't Kade I could smell. It was Quinn. All Quinn. He touched me, caressed me, claimed me. Perhaps not physically, but in a way that was total, absolute, and unlike anything I'd ever felt before. In reality our flesh might not be joined, but it didn't matter, because our spirits had combined and this dance went beyond intimacy, beyond mere pleasure.

It was all passion, heat, and intensity and I was drowning in it. Willingly. Wantonly. My heart pounded furiously, my body screamed for release, and every muscle, every fiber, felt so tightly strung that everything would surely break.

Then everything did break and it was such a sweet, glorious relief that I wept. His fingers touched my wrist, holding lightly, then his teeth grazed my skin. I jerked reflexively when they pierced my flesh, but the brief flare of pain quickly became something undeniably exquisite, and I came a second time.

As I remembered how to breathe again, I became aware of Kade, of his sated body still inside me. His sudden stillness, which was too unmoving to be natural. I glanced at Quinn, at his mocking, knowing expression, which was so at odds with the deeper depths of barely quenched desire in his dark eyes, then looked down at my wrists. At the two fast healing holes. Some of it, at least, had been real. I very much suspected that all of it had been, that he'd somehow crossed the boundaries of reality and imagination and merged the two.

I looked up at him again. Saw on the tip of one finger a droplet of water. A tear. My tear. He raised it to his mouth and slowly sipped it, and it was as if he were savoring the sweetest wine. Somehow, that one action seemed more intimate than anything he'd done in the last few minutes, as if he were drinking in my essence, my soul, making me his in ways I couldn't even begin to understand just yet. I crossed my arms to ward off the sudden chill.

"One day, you will be mine."

His rich voice was so soft, so sure. I licked my lips and tried to ignore the sensation that there was more going on here than I either realized or wanted. "You are not a wolf. We can never be what you wish us to be." Could never be what part of me wished we could be.

"Time will tell."

Yes, it would. And I had a feeling that only my death would dissuade him from his beliefs. But I didn't intend to die anytime soon, so my next bet was simply to ignore his statement, ignore my deep sense of uneasiness, and move on to other subjects.

"Horse-shifters can't be mind-read or mind-controlled. How are you holding Kade so still? How did you take control of him?"

"As I have repeatedly said, I am a very old vampire. And for a vampire, the older you are, the more power you have. Horse-shifters are difficult to read or control, but they are not impossible. No race or person is." He paused, his gaze sweeping the top half of me. "Except, perhaps, one."

I raised my eyebrows. "So are you telling me you can read Rhoan as well?"

"Two, then."

I let my gaze drift downward, and noted that he didn't have an erection. Either he wasn't turned on by what had happened between us, or Kade's release had somehow been his.

"There are more types of releases than mere physical," he said softly. "Emotional release is often far more satisfying."

He was reading my thoughts again, and though it should have pissed me off, it didn't. Right now, curiosity was stronger. I raised my eyebrows again. "So you're not standing there with a wet spot in your pants?"

Amusement touched his lush mouth, and made my hormones do their usual little dance. Sated they might be, but I was a wolf and it wouldn't have taken much to get them interested in another round.

"No, I am not," he said.

"Then how conic all that affected me physically and not you?"

"Because you are not ready to step entirely beyond the physical." He paused. "You once said that it must be amazing to share sex with another telepath. What you just experienced was merely an appetizer."

"And I take it the appetizer is supposed to make me hunger for more?"

"Yes."

"Why? I mean, the appetizer was good, but I can get that sort of good from Kellen any day of the week."

Which actually wasn't true, but hey, it certainly never hurt to remind him that Kellen was on the scene and was a true rival. Because he was a wolf. Because he could give me what Quinn never could.

His gaze tightened imperceptibly and I resisted the temptation to smile.

"You will never achieve the sort of intimacy I'm talking about with Kellen."