them, Illium’s speed in the air a thing of beauty. “How can he keep up?”
“He’s the fastest angel in the city, probably one of the fastest in the world.” Venom swung past a lumbering people mover, slid in front of a sedan, then moved back into the other lane so quickly that she wasn’t sure the other drivers had even seen him.
Dmitri’s red Ferrari appeared behind them a second later. The leader of the Seven went to overtake, but Venom blocked his every move. Illium, meanwhile, kept pace as the two vehicles screeched into another turn that threatened to spin the Bugatti.
But the torque forces didn’t win against Venom’s handling and they rocketed away. All the way back home, where he brought his vehicle to a stop in front of the Tower itself. Dmitri pulled up two heartbeats later, looking over through the open window of his car. His grin was as untamed as Venom’s, and when Illium landed in between the two cars, he completed the trifecta of beautiful, dangerous men.
Venom’s fingers touched the back of Holly’s neck, his arm stretched out and braced on the back of her seat as he leaned across to speak to the others. A sudden, sharp sexual awareness rippled through her body, the tiny hairs on her arms rising. She thought she’d caught it in time, but Venom’s hand curled around her nape.
He rubbed his fingers gently over her hypersensitive skin.
She couldn’t look at him, her heart beating so hard in her chest that she could barely hear the conversation the others were having. She heard Illium laugh, saw Honor’s hand on Dmitri’s cheek as she turned his face toward hers for a kiss, watched Illium and Venom bump fists. And felt Venom’s fingers brushing her skin in a slow, rhythmic motion that went straight to her core.
“. . . tomorrow.”
She caught the last word before Dmitri pulled away to drive his vehicle around and down into the Tower garage. Illium lifted off a second later in a wash of wind that blew her hair back from her face.
“Kitty.” It was a liquid enticement. “It’s the adrenaline. Your blood is pumping.”
Forcing herself to look at him, Holly sucked in a breath. His eyes glittered with the same atavistic sexual heat that burned in her. “Why not?” she whispered. “Have you ever been with a woman even a little like you?”
“You are a kitten,” he said, but he didn’t take his hand from the back of her neck. “I don’t fuck babies.”
“And I don’t fuck anyone anymore.” She stared into those wild eyes without fear. “I’m too scared I’ll kill mortals and I’m terrified I’ll plunge vampires into horrific pain.” All it would take was a single brush from her fangs.
“You’re safe,” she said, twisting in her seat and moving with instinctive speed to fist a hand in his hair. “You want me.” He was doing nothing to hide his reaction.
“You’ll regret it in the morning.” He tugged her hand out of his hair, his grip on her nape tightening as he hauled her halfway across the center console. “I don’t do relationships, either. You’re a relationship type of kitten.”
Holly wanted to spit back a sarcastic comeback, but he’d muzzled her with the truth. Despite the horrific madness growing bigger and bigger inside her, she still craved a normal life. She was the girl who’d grown up planning her wedding, the girl who’d played house with her dolls. Uram had altered the path of her life, but he hadn’t changed the fundamental heart of her.
“That,” she said, running her finger over his lips, “doesn’t mean I want to build a relationship with you.” Venom was too dangerous for her peace of mind; he saw too deep, understood her in ways she didn’t understand herself. “I just want to scratch a bad physical itch.”
“That, I can do.” Dropping her back into her seat, he swung the vehicle around and raced away from the Tower. She didn’t ask him where they were going—it was clearly not to a bed where she could satisfy the craving low in her body, tumescent and hot and ready.
He brought the car to a halt near Central Park just as she’d finished taking off her hoodie in a vain effort to cool down. Getting out, he removed his suit jacket and threw it inside, then unbuttoned his shirt sleeves and rolled them up. After which he removed his shoes and socks and put them in the car.