Sweet Ruin (33 page)

She grinned. “Oh, yeah.”

He clutched her closer. “Do you make them do things?”

“I’m a voyeur only. I try not to make shells move. Messes with their minds.”

“You don’t say.” His jaw was sore from his own hits. “I had no idea why I was punching myself in the face. And then to step off the ledge?”

“I usually can’t sense anything inside a shell, but I tasted your fear and felt your heart thundering. Sorry I scared you.” Just as her delicate fingertips had climbed up, they began to trail back down.

“What’re you doing, Josephine?” He barely recognized his voice. Gods, she made him feel reckless. And exhilarated.

Young.

“It’s like I’ve got
you
cuffed. You can’t escape my clutches.” Her hand dipped to the waist of his trews, then inside. She gasped to find his cock erect and aching for her attention.

“Why would I ever want to escape?” he asked, hissing in a breath when she thumbed the crown in a mind-numbing circle.

She moaned, her nipples hardening against her shirt. He needed to touch her too! Battling his fear, he released the chain and rewarded his palms with plump flesh.

FORTY

I
would kill to take you,” Rune murmured, nuzzling her ear. “I’d fuck you right here.”

He cupped Jo’s tits, getting so caught up he seemed to have forgotten all about the drop below. “You really would?” She shivered when he swept his thumbs across her nipples.

“Say the word. Though I wonder if I could last long enough to get you ready.” His brows drew together. “That’s another sentence I never thought I’d say.”

“Get me ready?” Next to his bowstring, his shirt opened into a V, revealing damp skin and that rune on his chest. She wanted to trace it with her tongue.

“You’re so tight, Josie. I’m going to do everything I can to keep you from hurting.”

She grasped his dick at the base. Couldn’t fit her fist around it. “I take your point. But you don’t have to worry about how tight I am”—she leaned in to kiss that rune—“because I won’t sleep with you unless we’re monogamous.” She darted her tongue to his skin. He tasted delicious, the salt of his clean sweat making her moan.

She wanted to keep kissing down his torso, to the rune around his navel. Then head lower to the hot, swollen part of him that pulsed in her palm. When she stroked him, he rocked to her grip.

“You’re a wicked little tease.” He tweaked her nipple, drawing a whimper from her. His other hand dipped down her front.

“Tease? You haven’t seen anything. What if I used telekinesis to stroke you?” She moved her hand on him. “You could be standing across the room, and no one would see I was jerking you off. You’d never know when to expect it.”

His eyes lit with excitement. “I want this!”

Then stick around.
“Soon. It’s still kind of new to me. I just learned how to do it at your place.”

“Is that why you destroyed everything?” He started unbuttoning her jeans.

“Partly. Plus I
was
jealous.”

He unzipped her, then grazed his fingertips above her thong. “I knew it.”

“Is it so bad to want this”—she squeezed his dick—“all to myself?”

His nostrils flared.

“And then you could have me exclusively too.”

“I want . . .” he trailed off. “Damn it! Mortals approach.”

The mountain was teeming with them. With a last stroke that made him shudder, she drew her hand from his pants.

He cursed under his breath, then zipped her back up.

“Rain check?”

“The second time you’ve asked for that today,” Rune said. “Will mine or
Desh’s
be honored first?” Totally jealous!

He could deny it all he wanted to. Hell, he was even trying to deny
her
feelings. Schoolgirl crush? Bullshit.

She gazed up at his penetrating eyes—glowing magenta in the sunlight—and things grew clear. The facts: He’d pleasured her more than anyone ever had, and his expression promised more soon. He was the strongest male she’d ever met, the smartest, the most accomplished. Taking his blood made her feel connected as never before.

She knew from his memories that when Rune loved, he loved deeply.

Why
wouldn’t
she want him for her own?

He and Josephine sat on a bench, watching the sun begin to set, and even Rune could admit the sight was a spectacle. Maybe she
was
making him see the worlds anew.

Earlier, they’d reached the summit and explored, then cased the teahouse. He’d detected no sign of Nïx, no lingering Valkyrie scent. They’d beaten her here.

Most of the humans were dispersing—leaving a few couples and the occasional night climbers with headlamps on—so he and Josephine had found seats to soak up the last of the sun.

Both of them were lost in thought, but the silence was companionable.

Josephine was likely imagining her reunion with her brother. He feared she was building up their meeting so much that disappointment was sure to follow.

A troubling notion.

He ought to be plotting their next move, but his musings were fixed on the day-walker beside him.

He ran his hand over his chin, replaying their interaction. He really had expected her to deny his crush accusations, perhaps convincing him of her feelings.

What
would
happen if her infatuation waned? Wouldn’t that be ironic? Rune wanting a tart more than she wanted him.

He still couldn’t believe she’d possessed him. More unbelievable—he wouldn’t mind if she did it again, as long as she didn’t float him off a mountain. . . .

When a young vendor strolled by with a cart of wares for sale—food, gloves, even jackets—she asked Rune, “Will you buy something?”

She didn’t look cold and wouldn’t be interested in the food. “Ah, you want a souvenir, then. To go with your others,” he said, clearly delighting her. “What shall we get for the table in your motel room?”

Her entire visage seemed to glimmer. “It doesn’t matter what—so long as it’s from here.”

He stood and surveyed the cart. Candy bars, Red Bull, peanuts. The only thing with distinctly Chinese lettering was some kind of drink in a ceramic jug.

Rune pointed to it, raising his brows at the vendor. The mortal male mimed drinking, then stumbled in a circle. Josephine laughed.

Ah, alcohol. Rune took one. The vendor was happy to accept U.S. currency.

Returning to her side, Rune asked, “Do you want to try this?”

“You drink it, you poor thing. After the stressful day you had?”

He grinned. “Have your fun.” He uncorked the jug, eyes watering at the smell. “Good gods, this will be strong.” He tried a taste.

“What’s it like?”

Unusual. “It doesn’t burn going down, and yet I can tell the alcohol content is high.” Perfect. When she fed later, she’d grow intoxicated. He took a healthy swallow, drinking for two.

He’d already planned to loosen her inhibitions to get information from her, but now he had even more reason. Though today had answered a lot of questions, it’d raised so many more.

Why had she been separated from a brother she loved? And why hadn’t she known her own species? Where were her parents?

Why hadn’t she been taught to read?

Earlier, when he’d suggested they stay near the summit, she’d said, “Where will we sleep? Maybe in one of the hermit caves we passed? You probably didn’t see them, with your eyes squeezed shut and all.”

Smart ass. “We’ll get a guest room on the mountain.”

“How do you know they have them?”

“There was a notice in English on the bulletin board.” She’d stood beside him, appearing to read it.

“Oh, yeah.” She’d shifted her gaze away. “I remember reading that.”

With that statement, Rune had realized two things.

Unlike natural-born vampires, Josephine was physically able to lie.

And she probably couldn’t read.

In Tortua, he’d tossed the
Book of Lore
at her. Thinking back, he could see how frustrated she’d been. And the fact that she hadn’t harmed a single page in his library was telling; he believed she
wanted
to learn.

Teaching her English wouldn’t be hard, but it would take time and commitment. For once in his life, he didn’t know where the future lay with a particular female. He took another long draw from the jug.

The final light of the day hit the peaks, rays streaking the stone. When was the last time he’d watched a sunset?

As night fell over the mountain, the temperature quickly dropped. He wrapped his arm around Josephine, pulling her close. An unfamiliar wave of . . .
something
washed over him.

Relaxation? Satisfaction?

She drew back to gaze up at him with those luminous eyes.

Death and death rolled into one? Then why did she look so
alive
? “What?”

After a hesitation, she leaned her head against him and sighed.

“Right now, I bet you think I’m the greatest thing since bagged blood.”

“Right now, you’re not so bad, sport.”

For a male who’d never hoped to have a fated female, he was settling in with Josephine at an alarming rate.

Only known her for a blink of an eye. . . .

Then why was he picturing his emotions as an expanding flame?

FORTY-ONE

J
o and Rune sat next to each other in a mountainside restaurant. Outside, the temperature kept dropping and the wind picked up, making the structure quiver, but their spot in the corner was warm and cozy. Paper lanterns cast a muted glow. Soft strains of exotic music sounded.

Even to a blood-drinker, the food scents were appealing. She needed to steal something from this place to remind her of her first dinner date.

Rune had arranged for them to get a room in a guesthouse and a meal. Dinner and a bed. She wondered how often he’d done that with a female.

Just three nights a year meant twenty-one thousand times.

Let that one alone, Jo.
She wouldn’t overthink this, not when she’d shared such an incredible day with him. He’d bought her a souvenir—her first
real
one—and then he’d held her on a bench, like that couple in New Orleans.

This was really happening!

After sunset, they’d taken a few minutes to return to Tortua and her motel for warmer clothes. She’d placed that emptied jug on her table beside the groom’s cufflinks.

With her new memento, she would remember the day she’d spent exploring a mountain in China with her dream guy.

“What are you thinking about?” he asked now.

“This entire day.”

“What was your favorite part?”

“Teasing you on the plankway was fun. And I loved watching the sunset with you.” When he’d put his arm around her, Jo had concluded that the more he got to know her, the more he liked her. So she’d decided to open up to him tonight.

Of course he’d been holding back—because
she
was. Once he realized she was awesome, he’d fall into line.

The restaurant host, an elderly man with a shaved head and a bounce in his step, brought them menus, indicating they should read one side.

One side, Chinese. The other,
English
. Shit. She’d have to get food to look human!