Night Series Collection: Books 1 and 2 (40 page)

I whimpered, shuddering as his large palm framed my flat belly. His mint-tinged breath nipped at my ear.

“Demon, you just don’t know,” he murmured and then dipped his head into my hair and sniffed me.

My legs were shaking so hard if he dropped his arms I’d fall. My head was spinning, my thoughts a scrambled mess of want and need, and desire tipped with an animalistic yearning to claim, to mate. To possess.

And when his lips brushed against the vein of my neck, I almost came undone. Everything inside me buzzed and pitched. My body felt like a million excited neurons rubbing and shoving against one another. I was a giant nerve. Exposed and raw.

Then he nipped me. It wasn’t even a hard bite, but it was enough.

I screamed as my entire being became one throbbing, spiraling helix of pleasure that bloomed one right on top of the other, cresting like a wave, and I was going to shatter into a million fragments of myself. Lost in this pleasure.

But he was there and he was murmuring things I couldn’t understand, rubbing my arms, and then I did hear him. He was telling me to come back, and I opened my eyes.

And then it dawned on me that I’d probably had the best orgasm of my life and he’d never even gotten to second base.

Mortified, slightly humiliated, I shoved him back hard. My legs were still quaking, and my stomach was a feathery, fluttery mess.

“What do you think you’re doing?” I snapped and pointed at the door.

His eyes narrowed and I hated that I missed his warmth, his arms around me. I suddenly felt cold and exposed. I crossed my arms over my chest.

“You enjoyed every minute of it.”

I could lie, but what was the point? Lust was supremely satisfied, purring and undulating in waves inside me, rubbing her soul against mine like a cat curling between her human’s legs.

Squeezing my eyes shut, I pointed to the door again. “I gotta get ready. Leave so I can do what I need to do.”

In seconds the air felt cooler, less tangible. He was gone and I dropped my head, years of fatigue crashing down on me. From the moment I’d tagged Billy as mine, this was all I’d ever wanted, for him to hold me, want me, desire me as I desired him. But Billy was an enigma to me. Much as I wanted—needed—him, his mysteries went so deep I couldn’t trust him.

Hands shaking, I splashed water on my face, quickly brushed my teeth, and didn’t overthink it when, instead of grabbing the tattered jeans and shirt I’d been planning on wearing, I grabbed my hip-hugging leather pants and royal-purple belly shirt. Not because the combination of black and purple made my eyes really pop.

That wasn’t it all.

I also didn’t overthink it when I draped the necklace with the silver pendant
A
over my neck. I’d taken to wearing it recently and if he laughed, he could just blow me. I so wasn’t in the mood for anybody’s crap today.

I expected he’d be gone like he usually was. Billy was generally only good for a quickie before leaving me high and dry. But not today.

He was sitting on my bed, reading that stupid book of Middle Ages poems and looking more delicious than he had just seconds ago. His hair was mussed, and there was an adorable lock slipping over his right eye that he kept shoving out of his face every couple of seconds.

I couldn’t help but remember the feeling of his hands scraping my nerves raw or the heavy fluttering of bats’ wings banging in my belly.

“You done staring?” he finally asked, looking back at me with those same dull brown eyes that had haunted me from the moment we’d first met.

I lifted a brow when he did the same, taking a leisurely sweep of my body from head to toe. Yes, I’d also put on a little lip-gloss and maybe slipped a ruby-encrusted skull-and-crossbones barrette into my hair. His lips twitched. I notched my chin higher. I so wasn’t going to explain myself to him.

“So let me guess, we don’t have much time to talk? That it? Ready for you to disappear whenever you are,” I snapped. I was totally being waspish and I knew it, but that’s what happens when I don’t get more than ten minutes of sleep before getting a pity orgasm from the man of my darkest masochistic desires.

Scratching his bristly jaw, he smirked. “The game has changed, Pandora.”

“What exactly does that mean?” I asked, trying to temper the wild fluttering of my heart that started at the sound of my name dropping from his sexy-as-sin lips. “And since when do you call me by my given name? It’s always been ‘demon’ with us,” I spit out, more hurt than I cared to admit.

I crossed my arms.

The silence was long and heavy. Luc would probably show up soon, ready to give me my marching orders for the day. If he found Billy in my room, “losing his shit” would take on new meaning.

Having seen both fight, I was pretty sure they’d kill each other.

He sighed and suddenly I sensed the games were gone. Shoulders dropping just slightly, he looked at me and there was a wealth of meaning in it. And as old as I am, as good as I believe myself to be when it comes to reading the truth of people, I doubted every single thing my eyes were seeing.

Because my heart was saying that what’d just happened back in that bathroom hadn’t been another one of his games, but real. That he wasn’t my enemy. That he’d never been my enemy.

But my head was screaming not to believe it. Even Lust was reminding me that we’d fallen for it once before and Luc had nearly killed me. My fingers flew to the heart-shaped scar on my chest.

My ears rang from the sonorous silence.

“You tried to kill me.” I didn’t mean to say it. There’d been no thought to wear my heart on my sleeve and let him see just how much his betrayal had destroyed me that night.

He shook his head. “No.”

I really wished he’d give me a reason for that no, but no was all I got. I cannot even begin to describe what it felt like to be one hundred percent in the gaze of a killing priest.

I swallowed, feeling the beat of my heart throbbing in the side of my neck with each breath as the world around me narrowed into tight focus. It was just me, him, and nothing else.

The moment was infinite and absolute, full and yet as fragile as a spider’s web. I should look away from him; I should do lots of things. But we were playing a game of chicken and neither one of us was blinking.

“You died.” And this time I knew he could hear my heart behind the words.

In a fraction of a second I was enveloped in powerful arms. He’d moved so fast I hadn’t even had time to jump out of the way. His heat, his scent, it filled up every broken, bloody space inside me.

“Pandora, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

I swear when I lifted my hands it was to push him away, but my brain and my hands worked completely opposed to one another, because what I wound up doing was crushing my fingers into the thin fabric of his T-shirt and burying my nose in his chest. Shuddering out soundless tears.

I’d sworn after crying for Kemen that would be it, there would be no more. But I’d kept Billy locked away. I’d shoved him so deep down inside me that I hadn’t looked and I hadn’t prodded the festering sore. I’d ignored it, willed it away. Pretended he’d never existed and I would survive this.

But he was here now and it was like losing him all over again, watching as his body exploded into a thousand slivers of pure white light.

His hands were gentle on my back and he didn’t pull away even as my tears soaked his shirt. He let me cry and I realized I needed to do it.

Then his lips were back in my hair and I was so confused, because he was kissing me and whispering to me that he was here now and he’d never leave again.

The dam had burst and I couldn’t stop until it was all gone.

Finally, what felt like hours later, he framed my face and his eyes devoured me. “It was the only way.” His thumb played with my cheekbone and I shuddered into that touch.

“I don’t trust you.” I said that, but I was clinging to him like a baby monkey on its mother’s back.

“Did you read the book?” His minty-smelling lips were so close to mine that I felt the whisper of breath move against me like a gentle caress.

Nodding, I sniffed a final time. “It doesn’t make sense. Why can’t you just tell me what it means?”

His lips thinned. “You’re going to figure this out, and you’re going to free me.”

My brows lowered. “Free you?” Was that all this was? His way of keeping me close enough so that I’d
free
him?

I shoved him back, pushing all my power into it. But he refused to release me, and instead the push carried us both to the bed. Twisting so that he took the full brunt of our fall, he shook his head.

“Little demon.” He chuckled. But this time it didn’t sound like a slur, more of an endearment. His hands framed my face and all I could think about was the fact that our hips were perfectly aligned and there was something thick and rigid poking into my thigh.

I clenched my teeth, still royally pissed and just as equally turned on.

Lust was a real bitch sometimes.

“I can’t tell you about the book. In fact, there’s a lot I can’t tell you.”

“Can’t or won’t?” I hissed with narrowed eyes.

“Can’t.” His mouth kept opening and closing as if he wanted desperately to tell me something. Judging by the way his throat worked, he was waging an internal battle with himself before he finally sighed. “Can’t, princess.”

“Princess?” I curled my nose and lips. “Why are you acting like this, Billy? Why?” And just then the necklace I’d tucked inside my shirt slipped free and the dangling
A
swung between us like a blazing sign that read:
Yes, I’m completely obsessed with you
.

Swallowing, he grabbed the pendant and just looked at it for a moment. Shame crept like hot fingers across my cheeks. I’d found that necklace the night outside the club when I’d accidentally stabbed him with my stiletto.

Okay, maybe not so accidentally, but startling a demon (even a half-breed) was a surefire way of getting a boot in your ass. Or in my case, a sexy black heel embedded in your chest.

His gorgeous lips twitched. “I should have known it was you. I looked for that thing the next day, never could find it.”

Pulling it out of his hands, I patted it back inside my shirt. “Finders keepers; nine tenths of the law. Look it up, Priest.” I lifted a brow in case he had any ideas of taking it back.

“No.” His fingers grazed the spot where I’d tucked the pendant away. “I like seeing you wear what’s mine.”

“What does the
A
stand for?” I had my suspicions, had had them for some time, but now that he was here and obviously in a sharing mood, I had to know.

“My real name.”

I had to admit for as hard as he was, the man was as comfortable as any cushion. I wiggled my hips and couldn’t help but grin when he moaned in return.

“You keep that up, and I won’t be such a gentleman.” His words were sharp.

“Who said I want you to be?”

There was a fire that danced in his eyes just then. And I blinked because it was the first time I’d ever witnessed it. Or then again… an inexplicable sense of déjà vu suddenly hit me, a feeling that I’d seen it before.

But the moment was gone before I could really figure it out.

“Fine.” I leaned down until our lips just barely brushed against each other. “Then what is your name?”

His hands continued to slide down my waist, maneuvering dangerously close to my backside, making me tingle in all the right places.

“Asher.”

“I knew it,” I whispered, wondering if in some cosmic way whether Asher/Billy/my death priest (whatever) and I had been destined from the start of time.

It was scary and all-consuming, and as much as I didn’t want it to, I couldn’t seem to help but believe it was true.

His smile was indulgent and warmed me to my toes.

“What should I call you then?” I asked.

Then his hand was sliding over me and I curled into it, moaning and desperately ravenous. There were still so many questions, but none of them seemed terribly important at the moment.

“Pandora…” His voice had grown husky, and just as I was sure he was going to claim me, mark me, I smelled sulfur.

“Shit!” I shoved my hands on his chest and jumped off just seconds before Luc appeared.

L
uc wasn’t happy.

And that was a serious understatement.

“What the fuck is going on here!” He shoved his hand in the direction of Billy, but his stink eye was all for me.

Growling, Billy shot to his feet and made as if to come to me. But that didn’t happen, because the moment he moved, Luc was on him. His forearm was pressed into Billy’s throat and he had him pinned against Kemen’s wimpy trailer wall.

“Hey!” I screamed, slapping at his chest, but Luc’s face was shifting, morphing into the stuff of nightmares. His skin flashed a dark gray as fangs began to drop and lengthen.

Billy didn’t look at all terrified to be held in place by a barely checked Nephilim. No, the idiot laughed. “What you gonna do, demon?” He spat and then as quick as only a death priest could move, there was a massive Bowie knife in his hand, which was suddenly pressed against Luc’s throat.

This was a pissing contest for the ages and I wasn’t putting up with it.

“Tuck it away, boys,” I growled, wrapping my arms around Luc’s middle and forcibly prying him from Billy.

If he’d really wanted to resist, there was no way in hell I could have yanked Luc off. Visibly shaking with fury, Luc let me hold him and I fluttered my fingers up and down his chest, humming in the back of my throat to get him to put the demon to bed.

Billy’s eyes narrowed. “That was quite a hello.”

“You motherfu—”

“Enough!” I spun Luc around and yanked his face to mine. “Stop. You can’t just go killing my guests, Luc.”

“Guest!” He jerked his hand at Billy. “He’s a fucking death priest, Dora. Do you get that?” He stabbed at his head with his pointer finger.

A growl rumbled from behind me.

God, I had horrible taste in men. Why oh why was I always so attracted to alphas? Surely a beta would be so much easier to deal with.

“I’m not your enemy here.” Billy spoke up from behind me.