Oh, hell—
The real problem where that question was concerned was that she was way, way too tempted.
“No, thank you.” Jerking her head forward, she stared between the front seats to the road beyond.
“I’d be more than happy to accommodate you.” Leaning closer, he all but whispered the words in her ear.
Oh, she just bet he would.
“No.” She didn’t have the breath to put that “thank you” in there a second time.
Chills were racing over her skin, tearing up her spine and, she swore, sizzling in her lower stomach. Her flesh was warming, her ni**les sensitive and the need for touch was like an ache just under her flesh. An ache she had no idea how to assuage because she was damned if she thought it was completely advisable to sleep with him.
But, yes, she did want to sleep with him. She wanted him to touch her, to hold her, to give her what she had so far managed to deny herself. To share a bed with a man, or with a Breed, and to learn all the things sexually that she hadn’t really had an interest in until now.
And why now?
Never had she ever had a reaction like this to any man, let alone a Breed.
As he sat back in his seat, she peeked up at him, swallowing deeply at the impression of pure raw power that surrounded him like an invisible mantle.
Dark-skinned, more so than any other Breed she had seen before, he was rumored to have the DNA of a rogue black Wolf and a voodoo priestess, and the dark bronze tone of his skin reflected both.
His eyes were as black as midnight with what appeared at times to be small pinpoints of blue. His jaw was so hard, so arrogant and savagely hewn she knew he would be as stubborn as hell.
High cheekbones, strong, arched brows, and such long thick black lashes, they simply made her jealous.
His skin fascinated her. Darker than the strongest tan, but it wasn’t black. It was simply such a dark, dark earth tone that she wondered if it held the warmth and vibrancy of the earth it so reminded her of.
The name, Stygian Black; the name suited him.
The black eyes, the nut brown flesh, the air of power and strength.
Damn, she could feel him watching her again. Her shoulders were tingling.
Narrowing her eyes, she glanced up, glared—
She could do without another once-over, if he didn’t mind. If she became much more interested in the fact that he was glancing at the upper curves of her br**sts—
The sound of Braden clearing his throat from the driver’s seat as he slid the driver’s-side window down an inch or so had a flush of raging embarrassment staining her face. It was probably staining her entire body, damn it.
Flattening her lips, she considered kicking him, but he was wearing those damned black boots Breeds wore with their mission uniforms. She’d read they were so tough that a snakebite couldn’t even penetrate them. She doubted he’d even feel her foot slamming into his shin.
He smiled.
The bastard.
“Leave me alone.” Pushing the words through clenched teeth as she clenched her thighs against those stirrings of arousal, she wondered if there wasn’t some way to get the door open and just push him out of the moving vehicle.
“How am I bothering you?” he murmured with such false innocence that the Breed on the other side of her actually chuckled.
If only she had a few more years’ training on her. That vehicle-tossing thing was something Cullen was really good at; perhaps she could have convinced him to teach it to her.
As it was, in a physical confrontation with a man like Stygian, her only hope was in simply running.
And she had a feeling she couldn’t run far enough or fast enough to get away from this Breed.
If the look in his eyes was any indication, running wouldn’t be an option.