The exact moment his lips closed over mine, he thrust his finger, capturing the moan as my hips rocked forward and then back against his erection. I reached up behind me, wrapping my arm around his neck.

The kiss deepened and I was restless, wanting so much more. The steady pumping of his finger drove me crazy and close to the edge, but it wasn’t enough.

He knew it.

He was teasing me.

His mouth left mine and then his lips moved against my throat. The wet flicks of his tongue as he tasted my skin followed and I groaned. “Hunter.”

A low sound of approval hummed through his chest and in the next second, he grasped my hips, lifted me up, and turned me. Water splashed everywhere, but I was centered on him and not all the potential water damage.

Hunter lowered me, my knees sliding on either side of his hips. His thick manhood waited as he captured my mouth in a deep, searing kiss. I held on to his shoulders, soaking in the taste and feel of him. God, I couldn’t get enough of him.

“I need you,” he growled.

“Now.”

My blood was on fire as I reached down, wrapping my fingers around his thick base. I lowered myself onto him, gasping as his thickness spread me. I placed my hands on his chest, running my thumbs over his nipples as his fingers dug into my hips.

He stared into my eyes, and his gaze was a heady mix of lust, yearning, and something far deeper as he thrust up and I cried out. He took me fully, sealing us together. The distinct pulse in my core hammered. I rolled my hips, moaning as I found a rhythm that reached every spot of me. He cupped my ass, pulling me down as he pushed up.

Quickly, the slow rolls and thrusts weren’t enough for either of us. He was panting and I was gasping.

Our lips mashed together.

My hands were on his cheeks, holding him there as our bodies moved together in a fast, almost frantic pace. A luscious wave of intense pleasure rolled over me. I was completely overwhelmed by him, but I had been since the beginning.

This was just more, so much more.

“You feel perfect,”

Hunter grunted, slamming up and wringing a strangled moan from me.

“You are perfect for me, only me.”

Those words sent me over the edge, tumbling into a release that shattered every part of my being. He was right, so damn right. I was perfect for him, only him.

Chapter 25

We lay together in bed, legs tangled and our bodies flush and damp.

Her head rested on my chest while I traced lazy shapes along her hip and waist. The figure eight made her shiver and wiggle closer, so it was my favorite.

When we’d left the tub, water had been everywhere and as Serena had bent to retrieve towels from the linen closet in an attempt to clean up some of our damage, I got an eyeful of that curvy, perfect ass. I’d jumped her.

I’d flipped her around and in one powerful surge, lifted her, and pinned her body between the wall and mine. As my mouth had covered hers, I slammed inside, all the way. Her body yielded in a way that made me want to stay inside her, but it hadn’t been a slow seduction of soft touches. Her legs had wrapped around my waist and I couldn’t stop myself.

Our joining was fast and pounding and she matched every thrust. Her wetness drove me to the brink, and when she convulsed around me, I followed her within seconds.

I’d carried her to the bed once I’d felt confident my knees wouldn’t fold under me. I’d had every intention of letting her be at that point, but seeing her on those damn golden covers, her hair a halo of light clinging to her bare shoulders and breasts, an insatiable hunger swelled.

Not the kind to feed.

I’d wanted her again.

And I’d seen the hunger in her eyes, so I’d taken her again, on her knees.

That lovely ass pressed against my hips, my arm around her slender waist.

It hadn’t been gentle, but neither had Serena. She had reached around, her nails digging into my hips, urging me on. There were only the sounds of our bodies, our moans, and panting breaths. It was a fucking beautiful chorus. I was hungry for her, starving in a way a man needed a woman.

A man—not an Arum.

Fucking blew my mind, but it had been the truth.

That time, the stirrings of a darker need never outweighed the want to be inside her, near her.

The buildup had been almost painful. There had been a fire inside me, shooting down my spine, filling my groin. I’d curled an arm under her breasts, held her up as my thrusts lost the rhythm and my hips grinded against her ass. We’d come at once, a fucking explosion of bright lights.

We’d fallen onto the bed afterward, exhausted and sated.

I’d cupped her flushed cheek in one hand, brought those plump lips to mine and kissed her slowly, leisurely. And we hadn’t moved since.

“Did I break you?” I asked, half serious because I’d taken her hard.

Her hand curled against my stomach as her shoulders shook with silent laughter. “No. Did you think you did?”

I smoothed her hair back from her cheek. “I was… rough.”

She lifted herself up, eyes sleepy as she stared down at me.

“And I enjoyed it.”

“Oh, that I know.”

“You’re so cocky.”

“Ah, don’t say anything with the word cock in it.”

“What?”

She giggled.

“Will I wake the slumbering beast?”

“The slumbering beast is always awake around you.”

And hell if the “beast”

wasn’t stirring. Instead of indulging in it, I settled her back down beside me, liking the way she felt. I plucked up a piece of her hair and twirled it around my finger.

“Do you think Luc will come through tomorrow?”

she asked, voice quiet.

“Yes.” I unraveled the silky strand of her hair.

“He’s a man of his word.”

“Man?”

I chuckled. “He’s a kid of his word.”

“I don’t understand Luc,”

she admitted as she snuggled closer.

Snuggled? Snuggled had become a part of my vocab? Fuck. “He doesn’t like Arum, Luxen, or DOD, but Paris was Luxen and Luc’s helping you. Why?

And what the hell is he?

One of those hybrids you mentioned?”

“Ah, Luc is…different.

There really is no explaining what he is or how his logic works. I think he’s half insane to be honest.” The truth was Luc claimed to be a hybrid—a product of when a Luxen successfully healed a human and mutated their DNA—but I had my suspicions. He was like no hybrid I’d ever met.

Serena was quiet for so long I’d think she’d fallen asleep if it weren’t for the nervous energy humming around her. “Then you’ll have to feed after he gets you a piece of opal?”

There was no reason to bullshit with the answer even though I wanted to.

“Yes.”

There was another long pause. “Then what?”

The million-dollar question. “My brother—the one I claim—lives outside of Atlanta. He’s got a pretty nice setup going on.

It would be safe…for us.”

Us. There. I said it. No big fucking deal.

Serena stilled, and damn if my heart didn’t do a very human thing and jump against my ribs. “I can’t go to Atlanta,” she said finally.

Not what I was expecting to hear.

My brows furrowed as I tipped my head down. “And where do you think you’re going?”

She took a deep breath, causing her breasts to push against my side and my cock jerked. Now was so not the time for that shit. “I need to go to Colorado,” she said. “I need to get in that post office and find what Mel wrote down.”

What in the fuck? I swore I did not hear her right, but her words bounced around in my skull. She wanted to go back to Colorado? “Are you insane?”

She coughed out a short laugh.

“Honestly?

Sometimes all of this makes me feel insane.”

That wasn’t a good enough answer. “You want to go back to the state where a very powerful Luxen lives—a Luxen that wants you dead?”

She frowned.

“I remember that the senator wants me dead.”

“Are you sure? Because I can’t come up with another logical reason why you’d want to go back there.”

Serena sighed. “I need to go back, Hunter. I need to know what was worth Mel’s life— my life. Maybe whatever is in that letter can somehow bring the senator to justice.”

I barked out a short laugh. “He’s never going to be charged or held accountable for what he did to your friend or you, Serena. So you might as well let go of that.”

“I know he won’t be, but maybe whatever he’s planning is enough to take him off the grid—get him in trouble. At least then he gets some sort of punishment.

It’s better than nothing, right?

Because I can’t live with the fact that Mel’s murderer—the person ultimately responsible for her death—gets to live his life like he’s done nothing.”

I didn’t say anything to that. I got the need for revenge, but if she went back to Colorado, she would be killed.

“I can’t allow that,” I said —and, fuck, I felt righteous in my decision. I couldn’t let her do this, because she would die, and I wasn’t okay with that. And if I was honest, I was fucking terrified of the idea.

Somehow, in the relatively short time I’d known Serena, she had wiggled her way into my cold body.

She was my light, my warmth, and I wasn’t ready to let her go.

Serena sat up, shyly holding the sheet to her breasts, but her eyes were a steely brown as she met my gaze. “You can’t stop me, Hunter.”

I almost laughed, because I could stop her.

“I can.”

Her hand curled into a fist around the edge of the sheet. “You aren’t keeping me safe from the DOD anymore. It’s not like you have to do this job any longer.”

“Job?” I sat up swiftly, startling her enough that she scooted back. “Do you really think this is a job to me?”

“It is a job to you.”

“It was a job to me, Serena. Not anymore.”

She seemed to work that over and then shook her head. “I can’t walk away from this.”

All I could see was her pretty eyes, lifeless and fixed. Pressure clamped down on my chest. “The hell you can’t.”

“And you can’t stop me,”

she said again, taking a deep breath. Her voice was strong and even when she spoke again.

“I appreciate everything you’ve done to keep me safe. I will never…I won’t forget that, but I have to get that letter.”

She stopped again and took another deep breath, holding the sheet higher.

“Please, Hunter, don’t try to stop me. I know you can, but please don’t do that to me.”

For a moment, I didn’t hear anything as I stared at her. Part of me didn’t know if I was just brushed off with the expression of gratitude or what. Wasn’t like I laid my soul bare or some kind of shit like that, but her response stung like a bitch. I cared for her.

Couldn’t deny that shit any longer, but she hadn’t even considered that any of my actions were anything more than a job. Obviously I’d put more into this than she had, and here I was, worrying about her, fearing for her, and she thought I was just doing a job?