under such strict rules and constant supervision for so long, and the last few days had been a revelation. Sometimes she felt as though she was a stranger, waking up from a deep sleep. She hadn’t realized how repressed she had been. She’d thought she was doing what she wanted, and now doubts niggled at her subconscious.
Plus, and she was finally going to be honest with herself, she couldn’t stop thinking about sex. For years, she hadn’t given it more than a passing thought, but now it plagued her. Tannis had hinted that vampires had some sort of powers that made people want them—maybe that’s all this was. Purely a predator-prey thing.
That didn’t stop her nipples from tightening as he stepped around her chair and came to a halt behind her. She stared straight ahead, her body rigid with anticipation as his hands slid over her shoulders. His fingers dug deep into the knotted muscle.
“You’re tense,” he murmured, lowering his head so his cool breath brushed the back of her neck. Shivers of pleasure rippled down her spine, settling in the base of her belly, and she had to shake herself mentally in order to concentrate.
“Er, you’ve just told me you kill your prey—sorry—sometimes kill your prey, and now you’re sniffing at me like I smell good enough to eat.”
“You do smell good enough to eat.” He breathed in deeply. “And while I do sometimes kill my prey, I very rarely kill my lovers.” He kissed her ear, his moist tongue dipping inside, and she closed her eyes to savor the sensation. “So why don’t we fuck now,” he whispered, “and you can stop worrying about it.”
Oh, God.
He kissed her neck, and it felt so damned good, tracing little patterns with his tongue across her sensitive flesh, his strong hands kneading her shoulders. Her head fell to the side to give him better access, and his hands slid down from her shoulders to cup her breasts. Her eyes shot open, and she stared at his hands, the skin pale against the black of her jumpsuit. His fingers brushed over her nipples, massaging her breasts until she was squirming in her seat, pressing her thighs together to intensify the craving burning through her.
“What do you say, Skylar?”
She couldn’t say anything, even when his hand glided to the fastener at her neck and slid it down. She needed to feel him touch her skin. His hand squeezed her bare breast as his mouth left her neck. She let out a little groan of dismay, but he kissed along her jaw line, small teasing kisses. At last, his mouth was on hers, and his tongue pushed inside as he took one swollen nipple between his finger and thumb and pinched it sharply. Pleasure and pain shot through her. Her hips rose from the seat, her head arching back as he swallowed her groan.
“Did you like that?” He soothed the sensitized nipple with his palm, before pinching again, harder this time. Wet heat flooded her core as a deep, scorching need flared to life inside her.
His hand slid over her stomach, his fingers flirting with her navel, then lower, and everything inside her clenched up tight.
“Great,” Tannis said from the doorway. “Nice to see you’re being ‘good’.”
Rico’s hand went still against her. Skylar closed her eyes, fighting the urge to scream her frustration. When she opened them, Tannis was still there, staring at the two of them with irritation flaring in her yellow eyes.
Skylar reached up, pried Rico’s hand from her body, and jerked up the fastener. She didn’t move as Tannis crossed the room, sat back down, and filled up all three glasses from the flask in her hand. When Skylar was sure her own hand would be steady, she picked up her glass and swallowed the burning liquid in one gulp. The warmth spread through her, seeping into the cold corners, and she held out her glass for more.
“Right,” she said, as Tannis poured the whiskey, “let’s go through the intel one more time.”
Tannis raised an eyebrow but didn’t say anything.
Skylar avoided looking at Rico as he sat down next to Tannis. Instead, she opened her palm screen and scanned through the information, forcing her mind to function and hunt for flaws in the security. She was impressed by the amount of information they had managed to dredge up on a classified institution. There were obviously a whole load of leaks out there somewhere.
After a few minutes, she frowned. “It says here