Shadow Thief - Eva Chase Page 0,11

trust right now. Keep in mind that you did barge into my apartment without an invitation or even asking.”

He lowered his head in mock shame. “Point. The limits are yours to set. So…” He grinned at me again, making his face somehow twice as handsome than it’d already been. My pulse hiccupped. Maybe this wasn’t such a great idea after all…

What the hell. I’d pretty much committed already. It’d make a great party story someday. Did I ever tell you about the time I made out with an incubus?

I stepped back from the door. “Come on in, then.”

Ruse sauntered inside and kicked the door shut behind him. His eyes shimmered with a golden cast now—a little of his mortal façade fading away to reveal the shadowkind form underneath.

He brought his hand back to my face, letting his knuckles tease across the line of my jaw in a way that left my nerves shimmering too. He set his other hand on my waist. With our bodies just a few inches apart, the heat of his washed over mine, setting off a fresh flare of desire. I swallowed hard, resisting the urge to meld right into him, and he tilted my chin up to meet his first kiss.

Holy fucking cannoli. I’d thought I’d been kissed pretty skillfully in the past, but just the brush of Ruse’s lips set all those past encounters into pale relief. My mouth tingled, more heat swelling in my chest, and he drew me closer. The perfect pressure turned the shimmer of my nerves into outright sparks.

Before I’d realized I was moving, my fingers had curled into the front of his shirt, holding him in place as if I had any reason to worry he might be going somewhere. I kissed him back, instinctively seeking even more, and he hummed encouragingly. With a small shift in angle and a stroke of his tongue, he coaxed my lips apart.

If he was feeding off the intimacy of this interlude already, I couldn’t sense it. All I could feel was the blissful heat and the delicious curl of his tongue around mine. The hand on my side trailed higher until his thumb traced the curve of my breast.

More sparks shot through me at that touch. I swayed into it automatically.

He caressed my cheek once more and then tangled his fingers in my hair in a gesture that was somehow both confidently controlled and wild. The passion stirring inside me spread further, pooling between my legs with a growing need.

How could I give up everything he could offer now that we’d started? How could I possibly ask him to stop?

A fresh flash of cold broke through the haze of pleasure that’d been consuming me. Those questions were exactly why I needed to stop it—now.

I pulled myself back with agonizing effort. My face was definitely flushed now. As I pursed my lips, my mouth tingled with the after-effects of the kissing. I gathered myself enough to say, “That’s enough. We’ll leave it there.”

The incubus didn’t make any move to persuade me otherwise. He simply studied me with an expression halfway between amusement and approval. A little more color had come into his previously pale skin—a sign that my contribution had given him enough of a “snack” to make a difference?

“For now?” he suggested, with an implied, until later?

I wet my lips without meaning to, sending a renewed quiver of bliss through my body. “We’ll see,” I said, ignoring all the parts of my body screaming, Yes, pretty please, with multiple cherries on top! And also, let’s see what you can do with those cherries…

I’d enjoyed that little make-out session—hoo boy, understatement of the year—but I’d rather be sure I didn’t come to regret the gamble before I rolled the dice again.

5

Sorsha

Monster advocacy wasn’t exactly the type of work you could openly advertise. Technically, the group where I did almost all of my socializing—along with picking up tips for new collectors to target—called themselves the Shadowkind Defense Fund. Outside of the four walls in which they held their twice-weekly meetings, we usually shortened that first word to “SK” or simply referred to the group as “the Fund.”

Those four walls were contained in a discount movie theater that showed second-run films. Tonight, the warble of a recent Marvel soundtrack filtered in from the showing beside us, all epic orchestration punctuated by the occasional explosion. The small popcorn machine brought in for our private party filled the air with a salty buttery smell—and something spicy that