STORY EXCERPT

Elena whirled, her hand reflexively going for her Glock even as her night vision amped to maximum power. What she saw would’ve made her laugh if her heart hadn’t been lodged securely in her throat. Not ten feet off the trail, a man hugged an enormous oak tree as if he had smashed right into it.

A very well-built, very delicious-looking man, she noted. Arousal stirred in her center even as she steadied her gun on his broad bicep.

“Hold it, buster.”

“I’m already holding it, muirnin, and my name isn’t Buster.”

Muirnin? Forget the way the FM-radio DJ voice flowed over her like silky melodic notes. What kind of endearment was “muirnin”?

“It’s Tavius.” The well-built bod peeled himself off the tree and stepped back. He turned to face her and, oh man, GQ’s best had nothing on this guy. One thin, dark brow arched over one expressive electric-blue eye as his gaze landed on the barrel of her Glock. “You can shoot at me if you want, but I promise you’ll miss.”

“Don’t be so sure. I’m a sniper, a sharpshooter.” And she’d been trained by the best. A mentor who was former Army Ranger turned FBI turned agency. Thanks to the strict instruction he gave her and the brutal practice he put her through, she had gained sheer confidence to go right along with her skill. “I don’t miss.”

Tavius grinned, a slow tilt of his lips that put her in mind of handcuffs, whipped cream, and black leather.

Elena barely suppressed a moan as whips of heat slashed at her pussy.

“Unless that gun fires spectralites, you’ll miss no matter how good you are, muirnin.”

“Stop calling me that,” Elena snapped.

He radiated sex appeal. So much so that it seemed to crackle like power in the air between them. It made it difficult for her to think beyond hot, sweaty bodies and tangled sheets. She shook off the image and shifted her focus.

“And what are spectralites?” Why did she get the sudden impression she was being ignored?

Probably because I am.

Damn it, here she stood less than ten feet from this man, holding a gun on him now aimed directly at his chest. His very impressive, broad, rippling, enticing chest that was so not what she should be focusing on now, and he was looking everywhere but at her! Ugh, men could be so infuriating.

“No time to explain.” He spared her a glance through those truly remarkable electric-blue eyes. They were eyes that would send bolts of erotic ecstasy through her center as he gazed down at her, his cock hard and positioned to plunge in her tight, sopping channel.

Elena’s grip on her Glock tightened as the muscles in her pussy did the same. Unfazed by the conglomeration of hormones going on inside her, he returned his attention to scanning the woods around them. Not that she could expect him to know the randy effects merely looking at him had on her. It wasn’t like she started to glow a bright do-me red when she got hot enough to fuck.

The power hovering around them seemed to thicken, making it harder to breathe. He appeared unfazed by that, too. Couldn’t he feel it prickling along his skin?

“I followed a guy here. I don’t suppose you saw where he went.”

“I don’t suppose I did,” Elena said dryly. It miffed her to have her mind go on an express trip to Fuck-Me-ville, especially when the driver of the train didn’t seem the least bit interested. He followed a guy here? How? From where?

“Are you sure?” He shoved long, slender fingers through silky-looking strands of dark brown hair.

Elena’s scalp tingled, imagining those fingers sliding through her own long, blonde hair as he settled himself behind her and prepared to mount her doggie-style. Christ on a pogo stick! The image made her cream her panties.

“Look. I didn’t see anybody,” she told him through gritted teeth. “I saw a flash, heard a sound. I felt a gush of wind on my face just before I heard you cry out and turned around to find you kissing that tree.”

That got her another look out of him, and, oh boy, the provocation swirling in those blue eyes put her in mind of sheer male dominance that ignited an almost-uncontrollable flame to submit. His gaze slid down her body like melted hot wax and climbed up again. By the time he settled on her eyes, her body felt as if he had touched and tasted every inch of her naked flesh from her head to her toes.

Cripes! The man was potent.

“I didn’t cry out, and I wasn’t kissing the tree.” His gaze dropped to her mouth as if simply saying the word “kissing” had him thinking of doing precisely that to her.

It certainly made her think about it. She dared a glance at his lips, still slightly curved in that mocking grin. Oh yeah, those were definitely kissable lips. Her tongue ached to trace their shape, to delve between them to the warm recesses of his mouth, to tangle and dance with his tongue.

“I’ve never felt anyone move like that except a vampire,” she admitted quickly, trying to keep the conversation on track. It was a struggle given that what she really never felt was this intense attraction and almost-uncontrollable urge to jump a man’s bones before she even knew his name.

Oh, but wait. She did know his name. Tavius. Did that make it okay to rip off his clothes, push him back against the tree, lock her legs around his waist, and ride him to oblivion?

Somehow she didn’t think so.

“That’s exactly what it was.”

ADULT EXCERPT

“Elena, muirnin, something is going on here.” He tightened his hold on her hip, drew lazy circles with the thumb of his other hand along the small of her back.

“Touch me.” The words sounded of more demand than request this time, her tug on his wrist stronger, harder. She managed to pull his hand from her hip and brought it between their bodies to cover her breast.

The sigh she made mirrored the one rising in his throat. He couldn’t stop his fingers from squeezing at the plump orb in his palm. He couldn’t stop his thumb and forefinger from finding the beaded nipple and closing around it, twisting it lightly until her head fell back on her shoulders and she moaned her pleasure.

He should let her go. He should walk away. Something between them changed in the span of a heartbeat that he couldn’t define.

He also couldn’t resist it.

Tavius dipped his head, licking a path down the length of Elena’s throat as he palmed her breast more fully, more roughly. She lifted her shirt, exposing her breast, and he knew he should stop her. She didn’t want this. At least, that’s what she claimed moments ago.

Her fingers dove into his hair and she guided his head down to her breast. Whatever she did or didn’t want before seemed a moot point now. He pondered that even as he licked her nipple into his mouth. He traced the pebbled surface with his tongue as he sucked. Her taste seared itself into his brain, urging him to sample more of her, pushing all his concerns aside.

He felt crazy, overrun with an alien vigor he couldn’t resist any more than he could control. Her fingers fisted in his hair as he feasted on her breasts, tugging and pulling, and he rode on the forcefulness.

He let his hands fall to her ass, his palms cupping her firm cheeks as her body arched into him. It was madness the way she surrendered to him. It would be so easy to let himself go as well, to take her as completely as he’d wanted almost from the start.

“Elena,” he said hoarsely against her breast. “Muirnin, do you know what you’re doing?” As badly as he wanted her, he couldn’t go a lick further until he knew she was in her own mind. Had the power consumed her enough to take full control?

“Mmm, hmm, I’m trying to get your mouth and hands on more of my body.” She sounded as strained as he felt. Raking fingers of pain and fiery explosions of hunger ripped through his cock.

“Are you sure that’s what you want?” He wouldn’t be able to stand it if he did anything to hurt her, physically or emotionally. He wouldn’t take advantage of the trust she seemed to be putting in him, wouldn’t take advantage of it, or her, for the sake of his hormones or any powers.

“You said we wouldn’t have sex. There are other ways to make each other come.”

Relief so acute and potent it felt silly rushed through Tavius. She knew. Whatever the jolt of power had been, she at least managed to maintain her senses enough to know her own mind.

It was all the go-ahead he needed. The power still niggled at his brain. He would analyze it later. He might even thank it for giving her this little push. Right now, he would forget it in favor of the offering writhing in his arms.

He turned her, backing her against the wall of the hallway as he started to kneel. He framed her sides with his hands, gliding his palms over her curves as he licked his way down her abs. He stopped at her belly button, dipping his tongue inside and smiling against her flesh when she let out a quivering, breathy laugh.

The laugh turned into a sigh of anticipated pleasure when his hands caught the waistband of her shorts and tugged them and her panties down as he settled on his knees in front of her. Smooth, bare pussy lips met his view, and he didn’t attempt to stifle his moan of appreciation.

“Gods, you are truly beautiful, Elena. This right here”—he traced her bikini tan line with the tip of his finger—“is so incredibly sexy.”

He looked up her body to find her gazing down at him, wonderment twisting with the flames of desire in her expression. “You like tan lines?”

“Love them. The contrast of dark to light flesh is perfect.” He flattened his hands on her thighs and pushed them up her flesh, turning them over when he reached her breasts. He took the heavy weights in his palms. “Just like these.” He skimmed his thumbs over the still-beaded nipples. “Dark nipples and milky flesh are the beauty of the Gods.”

She blushed, a tinge of pink rising to her cheeks that he found endearing to his very soul. Her hair fell around her face like a curtain of blonde silk as she bent her head to look down at him.

He lifted a breast higher, the nipple nearly touching her lips. “Lick it for me, Elena.”

She blinked at him but didn’t question. She opened her mouth, her tongue tracing the pebbled surface the way he did moments before. When she closed her lips around the nipple and sucked it between her teeth, he heard himself make a pained sound he couldn’t be sure he ever heard himself make before.

“Damn, that’s amazing. I have to feel you, muirnin.”