it was still romantic in tone. Her queen-size bed with its green patchwork quilt looked lonely. She planned to remedy that quite soon.
Keira walked back over to Finn, kicking off her shoes as she went. Stopping in front of him, she let her gaze wander over his body and appreciated, not for the first time, what a strong, virile male he was.
As she slid her hands down his back and then up and across his broad shoulders, she felt the warmth of his skin beneath his clothing. Clothing that was in the way. She wanted the feel of him beneath her fingertips. Skin on skin.
She’d never before been so utterly consumed by a man. Oh, she’d had sex before and it was one of her favorite things to do, but this all-encompassing need was something new. Different. So different that it frightened her a little. What was it about this man, this demon, that moved her so?
She lifted her eyes to his, seeing how passion darkened his blue eyes, and knew what was different. She loved this man. With his arrogance and his hardness, she’d experienced such gentleness from him that she knew he had it in him to be kind, softer than he let on. She was certain what she felt was love.
Yet she saw no reciprocity in his gaze. Lust was there, to be sure. Plenty of lust. But no love. She knew it was a bad idea to feel this way. Stupid, even. But there it was.
While it might be a bad idea, love itself was never bad. She loved Finn, and she would do what she could to keep him from harm.
Right now, though, she wanted him naked and in her bed. And she would take the lead on their coming together. She wanted to entice him. Not through any glamour, but through emotion. Through her love, perhaps he could find it in himself to do more than “care” for her. She wanted him to love her back.
Keira pushed his leather jacket off his shoulders and let it fall to the floor. Then she set her fingers to the buttons of his shirt. She slid that off his shoulders, too, and it joined the jacket. Unable to resist the allure of his musculature, she traced her fingers up his biceps, over his collarbone and across his pectorals. She thumbed his tight little nipples, eliciting a sharply drawn breath from him.
Leaning forward, she pressed a kiss into the hollow of his throat, then on his Adam’s apple, pausing only to draw back to study the tattoo that spread from the right side of his neck down onto his shoulder. “Why do you have this?” she asked.
“It’s a holdover from my rebellious youth,” he murmured.
“Really?”
“No.” He chuckled. “I got this in a ritual my people performed. When a boy reaches manhood, he is given a marking.” He brought his hand over and briefly touched the side of his neck. “It identifies our demon and our place in demon society.” He dropped his hand back to his side.
She traced part of the tattoo, smiling when he tilted his head, his eyes closing at her touch. “This line?” she asked.
“That one marks the place where I was born. Everything above it is a replica of my grandfather’s tattoo. My mother’s father,” he clarified before she could ask.
She gave a short nod and ran her fingers over more of the black lines. “I’m sorry,” she whispered. “It just looks like a bunch of squiggly lines to me.”
He grinned and looked down at her. “That’s all they are, but they have meaning. Or rather they had meaning a couple thousand years ago. Today, not so much.”
“Whether or not they have meaning, it’s still sexy.” She placed her lips against his neck. His pulse beat against her mouth, and soon hers matched its rhythm.
Keira brought her hands to Finn’s head, cradling it in her palms, and gently urged him toward her. Their lips met, breaths mingled. This was what she’d been craving. The feel of him under her hands, beneath her mouth.
She skimmed her tongue across the seam of his mouth and he opened for her. She slipped inside, softly caressing his tongue with hers, enticing him to follow her when she retreated. He gathered her closer, his big palms flat against her back. She moved her hands to his shoulders, curling her fingers into his firm muscles, testing his strength. When his mouth moved down her neck, she sighed and tilted her