Arrow to the Soul (18 page)

She made her way up the stairs and to her room. Her bones ached and her insides felt raw. Exposing herself to desires of the flesh only brought her closer to devastation. Her hands clenched. He was a beautiful man in face and form. But it was the way she felt, that kick in her chest and hitch in her breathing when she watched him that made him…
more
.

Having never experienced lust until she’d met Adam Collins, the warmth in her body was alien. Everything in her naturally gravitated to him and she had to fight herself every time he came too close.

Yet she pushed her own boundaries, seeking him out, forcing contact when it was obvious she disgusted him. She lifted her sports bra over her head and reached for the waist of her sweat pants.

“I will kiss you, Saya, but it is a boon and nothing more.”

She froze. His voice washed over her skin like drops of acid, eating away at the armor of her despair and replacing it with desire.

Saya did not turn around. Couldn’t have because he would have seen the need in her eyes and that was unacceptable.

“It was a fool’s request. Leave, Mr. Collins, before things between us change once again.”

The falling light of the afternoon sent pinks and oranges through her window. It reminded her of Arequipa. She listened for death now but heard only his breathing. Cedar and citrus invaded her nostrils, and she licked her lips, trying to taste and hold something close that wasn’t hers.

She could not do this. She was Arrow. Killer. Death bringer. Hell raiser. He deserved a woman created for softer things. One who knew something more than anguish.

His warmth was at her back. He too was a warrior. He moved silently, with intent when needed, and she’d witnessed the strength of his mind and body.

His body
. A sound escaped before she could cut it off, and she wanted to go to her knees at her lack of control.

His heat called to her, a siren’s song that beckoned. She’d never heard the like and wondered if she gave in would she be smashed against the rocks of his disdain.

“Turn around,” he said, and his voice was guttural.

“I will not. I cannot.”

“Turn around, or we will fight again and you should know that the next time we fight, I will win, Saya. It is inevitable.”

Her breath shuddered in, and as it released from her lungs she turned. His eyes were darker than the blackest ebony and his gaze was a force pulling her into him. Adam raised his hand and Saya almost flinched. His hold settled on her neck, strong, thumb rasping across the pulse there, a promise in the strokes.

His hand opened and slowly drifted over the top of her chest to her shoulder. “I want so desperately to hate you. I think the emotion is there but it is hidden from me when I need it the most.”

Her eyelids threatened to lower as the feel of his callused palm and fingers on her skin was nearly too much.

“Look at me,” he ordered.

Her gaze snapped to his and her nipples peaked. He was so close. A breath would bring their bodies flush and she wanted that…so badly she wanted that.

“A killer asks for a kiss,” he murmured as he lowered his head.

Saya hissed in a breath, absorbing the blow but unprepared for the ricochet of pain through her heart.

“But it is the woman whose lips I will take.”

His words ended as his mouth settled over hers. For a moment there was nothing but the feel of him there, soft flesh hovering, lips barely touching hers. Saya, the woman, was immersed in the anticipation. Arrow, the killer, wanted to take.

Her tongue flicked out, his met it, and before a breath could pass between them, their tongues dueled. She retreated and he followed, her mouth becoming the playing field as he sipped from her,

Her heart stilled in her chest as his hands rose to cradle her face, holding her for his domination. He was so close his chest met hers and she almost moaned. His heat enveloped her, skimming over her breasts, hardening the tips and causing a tear to fall from her closed eyes. His lips were soft, which shocked her. He tasted of ecstasy-filled promises with a bite of pain. The killer needed the pain. The woman was afraid of the ecstasy.

He stroked into her mouth with his tongue over and over, his lips holding hers in an embrace she’d never imagined. She couldn’t get close enough. She needed to get away. She breathed him in, taking everything he gave her, and when she felt the silk of his hair under her hands she gave in and groaned.

Fear shot through her gut, scattering the lust but unable to conquer it as the warmth returned and she settled against his big body, her curves finding his hollows and pressing there. Panic threatened and she tried to pull away. He didn’t let her escape. Arrow wondered if there’d ever been a time when a man consumed another woman as Adam Collins threatened to do now with her.

A boon. A kiss.
Madness
.

So much need she’d never imagined. So much she’d never felt. How could she let him go? Surely her body would crumble at his feet should he lift his lips away. Surely he’d taken everything she was with the stroke of his tongue in her mouth.

Then the argument was moot as he did indeed pull away, pushing her back at the same time.

Adam swiped a hand across his lips, as if trying to erase the taste of her. “I will not do this with you,” he bit out.

She met his gaze but remained silent. He’d stolen her mind. Words weren’t enough anyway.

“You would take it all from me, wouldn’t you?”

His bitterness was a taste in the air. She bowed her head and turned, stepping to the window and staring out at the dying day.

“Leave, Mr. Collins.”

“I can’t give you something I don’t have, Saya,” he said, and the mournful tone of his voice had another tear falling down her cheek.

“I don’t want anything from you, Mr. Collins. I am a killer, remember?”

He was behind her then, chest against her naked back, lips at her ear. She shivered.

“Whether you want it or not, there is nothing there. Another woman holds what you’re trying to steal.”

His words hurt. Never had she known that kind of pain. And on the heels of the agony was rage. She almost turned but his words stopped her.

“My body wants yours. Under me, on top of me, taking me deep and letting me take you over. But you would seek everything and it just isn’t there for you, Saya.”

Her mouth opened on a silent scream. It wasn’t Arrow seeking to take something that wasn’t hers, it was him stealing her heart from her chest. She reached for the rage and turned then. He didn’t back away, instead he moved closer and she didn’t know what to do with that.

Arrow’s eyes closed, and once Adam sensed her indecision he took advantage. He licked her lips and when she opened them to protest he licked his way inside, taking and pillaging…everything.

She didn’t fight. This was her boon. Out of a lifetime of darkness, this man with his ebony eyes and already-pledged heart was a sharp white light calling to her. Arrow didn’t deserve happiness or pleasure but she was going to take this. Her mind lost to the joy of his kiss, she was willing to pilfer this moment and let him have of her what he wanted.

“Tell me you want this,” he said at her mouth.

“A boon,” she responded desperately as she breathed him in. “It was only a kiss.”

“It’s inevitable. I will have you.”

“My wants will not kill me,” she whispered against his lips.

He sighed and she felt it shudder through her body. “But they may kill me.”

“Then take what you will but know it will only be my body. I too have nothing else to offer.”

“So be it,” he responded roughly and then she was in his arms.

He moved them then, placing her on the soft covers of her bed. He stepped away, shut and locked the door, and then returned to the edge of the bed. “You are beautiful, Saya.”

She was still in her pants, the sweat from their sparring long since dried, but in that moment she felt beautiful. His black gaze was hot as it traced her body, lingering on her breasts before it rose to her face.

“I am going to fuck you.”

She laughed then, low and husky, wondering where the urge to do so came from. “I am going to let you.”

He smiled then and her heart clicked. A tiny thrill shot through her but she pushed it deep, refusing to even contemplate what that click meant.

He glanced down her body. “Take the sweats off.”

Her breath stopped, literally stuck in her throat. She hated being ordered around. That he did it with such ease and command should have tripped every rage switch she possessed. Instead, her body softened. It was unbelievable. Anathema. She managed to regain her breath, and it was flavored with cedar and citrus. She licked her lips automatically but did not do as he’d said.

Arrow would give over more to this man now that she’d ever given another. But she wouldn’t give up control. Not now. He could destroy her. No, she would hold onto something of herself.

“You take them off,” she responded.

The tightening of the skin over his cheekbones excited her. Her body readied even further. She felt the moisture between her legs and wondered at it. Oh, she knew the mechanics of sex but having never known lust such as what she felt for Adam Collins, it was a foreign thing, the way her body prepared and softened for this man.

“Do not push me, Saya. The sparring about got me there. If you push me, I’ll fuck you hard, and that’s not what I want to give you,” he ground out.

She sat up and cocked her head. “What is it you would give me?”

“Pleasure such as you’ve never known. Because that’s what it will be, Saya.”

“I’m nothing more than a killer, Mr. Collins, and as I’ve never known pleasure, it should be an easy task for you.”

He went absolutely still and the air seemed sucked out of the room. “Never?”

She didn’t answer. Instead she stood and shimmied out of the sweats. This left her in thin cotton panties and nothing else. His hands clenched, communicating his need even as desire saturated the air around them.

He pushed his own sweats down and stood before her, gloriously nude, hard cock straining away from his body. Arrow had seen many naked men, but never been in awe of the male form as she was now. Adam was all lean muscle. They rolled and flexed under his skin. Her mouth watered. His body was a work of art. Broad shoulders, slim hips, and tree trunk thighs, he was bronzed all over as she’d known he would be.
Warrior
. The picture of the chieftain she’d seen in the Louvre floated through her mind again. That man didn’t hold a candle to Adam Collins.

“I asked you a question.” His voice was hard, unbending.

There was no place for subterfuge between them now. She was going to give Adam Collins something she’d never given anyone else. She inclined her head. “Never.”

His breath hissed out and then she was in his arms, falling to the bed, being covered by him as he settled between her thighs. His cock nestled against her abdomen, a heated brand that both beckoned and caused anxiety.

“More pieces you seek to take,” he mumbled before he took her lips again.

Arrow wrapped her hands in his silky hair and met the strokes of his tongue like for like. “
Watashi ga omotte iru…”
she whispered when he raised his head.

His gaze questioned her words but she’d not grant him that. Her body, yes. Anything more, no.

He traced her lips with a finger and she tried to bite, but he dipped in and retreated, trailing that finger down her body. He made a path between her breasts before he licked his finger himself and then teased her nipple. Her back arched into the touch and he chuckled.

“So responsive, Saya,” he taunted. “I’m going to taste you now.”

A warning? As his mouth settled over her she moaned his name and pulled at his hair. Whether she was pushing him away or pulling him closer was anyone’s guess because he created a firestorm inside her chest. A nip, a suck, and she went breathless. A tug, a bite, and her body spiraled tighter.

“You like that, don’t you?” Another chuckle. “You taste like plum blossoms. Always you smell and taste of plum blossoms. I would hate you if I could.”

His voice was tortured, and something in Arrow unfurled, reaching up for his pain, determined to dash it away. His mouth moved lower, across her ribcage to her bellybutton where he licked the dip there and teased the hollow. She squirmed as her core wept. Her hands moved from his hair and dug into the skin of his shoulders. Her skin soaked up the feel of his against it and she strained to move closer to him.

He licked over her hip bones and whispered a kiss at her pubis. “Your skin is so fucking soft,” he said, and something in his voice made Arrow still. “Why do I want you so badly?”

Rage. That was the emotion tainting his tone. Then there was no more time to think of anything as he used his fingers to separate her folds and stake his claim.

His touch was velvet. He rubbed lightly, dipping the tip of his finger into her opening, then sinking in farther, testing her. It was uncomfortable for the length of a breath. Then his tongue was against her clit and Arrow's mouth opened on a gasp. 

"Goddamn, you're beautiful," he growled.

Arrow's gaze met his down the length of her body, and what she saw in his eyes nearly destroyed her. 

“I need you,” she whispered, and wanted to scream in denial that she’d let that leak from her mouth.

He smiled at that. Slow and so damn seductive she bit her lip. “Then you will have me.”

She watched him as he licked up her cleft and rolled his tongue over her flesh. He refused to let her look away as he pulled the pleasure from her. The feeling started low in her abdomen, spread throughout her body, and it was alien. Her muscles quivered and Arrow tried to hold on, but in the end, as the color coalesced into a sparkling ball of release, she did scream—his name—as she let herself go.

•●•

Fucking beautiful
. It was his only thought as her thighs tightened around him and her hips rose to meet his mouth. Her taste was the sweetest cream over his tongue. Her response the bitterest pill he’d ever swallowed. She’d taken his mind with her request for a kiss, and now he was lost to her.