I glance up again at the huskiness in his tone. His jaw is clenched and his body has gone completely rigid. For a second, I’m worried I’ve made him angry again. “Is this okay?”“Is what okay?” Another vibration stutters through my chest.“Me touching you.”Nathan huffs out a ragged laugh. “Ella, leannán, you haven’t touched nearly enough of me yet.”Ignoring the ‘lover’ endearment, but encouraged by his words, I complete my pass around him until we’re face-to-face again. I palm the back of his neck and rise up on tiptoes to press my mouth to his. My breasts push into his chest, making my nipples hard. Beneath my fingers, his hair is soft. Beneath my lips, his are dry. I flick my tongue out to wet them. Making me work for my pleasure, he doesn’t open for me. Not to be deterred, I continue the kiss, putting my all into it, until, finally, Nathan’s lips part, and he lets me in.We kiss long and hard until I draw away. Without breaking eye contact, I unbutton his pants, drag the zipper do

Mrs Hampson sits back in his chair again. “That still doesn’t explain why you’re here.”“I’m here because I hope you’ll protect me from him.”“Not to be cruel, but why should I care what Ruby does, so long as it has no bearing on me or my organization?”It’s not said unkindly, but Mrs Hampson question still hurts. I push down the pain, take another deep breath, and stare him straight in the eye. If I didn’t let Nathan intimidate me, I certainly won’t let the man in front of me either, no matter who he might be. “Because Maire Walsh was my mum. And on the day she died, she told me that you were my da.”In our world, the only price for betrayal was blood, and she knew fucking well what she’d done was way worse.How did I miss all the signs? How could she have planned all those schemes right under my nose in my own home with my own fucking friends? How could a little girl that knew nothing of the world but what I’d taught her fool me like that?My mind leafed through the moments she’d ma

“Watching you,” I said.“Creepy much?”I wiped my eyes with the heels of my palms. “When you were a little boy, I spent hours in your room every night, watching you breathe, as if I had to make sure you were.”“I know.”“You know? How? You were always sleeping and you were too young to even remember.”“Oh I remember. I heard you every night, but I was pretending to sleep so you wouldn’t go.”I blinked. “All this time you knew? You could feel me in your room?”“Yes. I told you. It takes one to know one.”How did I miss that? I knew I’d been making a lot of mistakes with him since his mother was killed, but it looked like I’d been missing thing way before that. “What do you mean you were pretending to sleep so I wouldn’t go?”“I thought if I woke up, you’d think you were disturbing my sleep and you wouldn’t do it again…and I didn’t want you to stop. I liked it. I liked when you were there. It was like we were having a conversation with no words, in a language only the two of us could un

The Macbeth quote fit to a fucking T as Ella stared through the ten-power Nightforce scope of the McMillan 50-caliber military-grade sniper rifle and saw 100 percent trouble coming her way. Complete with battered cowboy hat, his own Chris Cagle “Chicks Dig It” theme song and honest-to-Goddess dragonskin boots. How the hell had Derek Stormwind found her?Okay, scratch that. She’d always known he’d find her. She’d just nurtured an unrealistic hope that he would be like most men and, once he realized she didn’t want to be found and that she’d made following her trail a real pain in the ass, he’d sniff out easier prey. But Nathan Stormwind was definitely not like most men. Which was why she’d rather be stuck up the backside of one of Artemis’s hunting hounds without a flashlight than face the next few moments.Putting the rifle down on the counter, she uncapped a mini-sized vodka bottle and dashed the contents into her open Dr Pepper can, then brought the soda to her lips for a healthy sw

There is a stockroom by the elevators on the mezzanine level. You will meet me there in fifteen minutes. I will fuck you like a whore, and give you the pleasure and pain you crave. I will not ask you the questions you do not want to answer. That is not what I care about. ”Then he was gone, the shockingly intimate touch and words vibrating through her. She’d gone to the stockroom, and he’d done things to her in the dark that left her gasping and in tears. Her whimpers had only fueled his rough handling of her, as if he knew that was what she needed. She’d wanted punishment and release, and he’d given her both. She hated him, and yet he was in that desolate part of her soul, such that when she met him several times a year, it always resulted in the same. Shameful acts in the shadows that left her crying for Nathan in her heart, even as her body spasmed under Jerry’s ruthless touch.Dark and Light. She wasn’t yin and yang anymore. Dark and Light had become so mixed she was a permanent,