“Nicole!” He shouted. Great. He couldn’t see her now. With a vamp’s speed, she could be anywhere. “I’m trying to help you!” Keenan called out into the night.
The hit came from behind. A hard, fast tackle that sent him slamming into the ground. He rolled, moving in a blink, but it still wasn’t fast enough. Nicole pinned his hands to the ground and loomed over him.
“Why do I need help from a demon?” She demanded and her teeth lengthened as he watched.
She straddled his body. Her hips and sex pushed down onto him. Keenan had never been in this particular position with a woman. He rather … liked it.
A lot.
His c**k began to swell. “I don’t … I’m not here to hurt you.” He didn’t bother letting his eyes change back to blue. She’d see him as he was. Probably would be better that way. Keenan could break from her hold in an instant, vampire strength or not, but he lay on the ground beneath her and let his gaze slowly rise to her face. “If I’d wanted you dead, I could have killed you back at the hotel. You couldn’t fight back in your sleep.”
“Maybe killing me isn’t the plan.” Her eyes narrowed to slits. “Death is the easy part.”
He’d always thought so. Until her.
“If this is all some trick that you and your demon buddies are working, think again.”
Now she was starting to offend him. “I have no demon friends.” Come to think of it, he wasn’t sure that he actually had any friends.
She leaned closer to him, and her thighs slid against his hips.
Like it.
“What’s so special about me, huh?” The darkness shone in her eyes. To fight or f**k. He’d heard the whisper before. A vamp’s eyes changed to black when she was either getting ready to battle or to screw.
“Tell me, Keenan … Why do I get a guardian? You don’t know me. You know nothing about me.”
Her scent surrounded him. Her hair brushed his cheek. If he wanted, he could lunge up and reverse their positions in about two seconds. Maybe one.
If he wanted.
I want.
He put a stranglehold on the beast that was growing inside of him. A beast he hadn’t even known about until her.
Lust.
“You’re not special,” he managed to grit from between his teeth.
She blinked at him. “Uh, I—”
“You’re just like every other human out there.” If he said it enough, it would be true.
“Wrong answer, hotshot. I’m not exactly human.” And she let her claws scratch his flesh. A light, painful sting.
It shouldn’t have made his c**k twitch.
It did.
He sucked in a breath and tasted her. His eyes squeezed shut. But now … now he could feel her. Supple thighs. Slender, soft body. Control. “You … you were just like the others.” His words came out as a growl. “Going to work. Teaching at that school. Work. Home. Over and over.”
He caught the hitch of her breath. “What school?”
His eyes opened. “St. Mary’s. Down in the Quarter. You’d stay late with the kids, then hurry home, change and meet—who was it? Donna—for drinks at the bar on—”
“How do you know this?”
“You never went home with any of the men.” Not while he’d been watching. “You flirted. You drank. Wore skirts a bit shorter than the ones you used to wear at St. Mary’s—”
A shiver skated down her body—the shiver trembled over him like a silken touch.
“You weren’t any different from a hundred other women in the city. Work, job, friends …” No different. No different from the thousands of other charges he’d taken, but when he’d looked into her eyes …
He’d lost everything.
The rage hit him then, a hard fire that burned with the lust. Keenan lunged up, spun them, and pushed her onto the ground.
“I’m not a human you can jerk around,” he told her, bringing his face in close to hers. “Your strength isn’t going to work on me. Your bite isn’t going to make me weak.” Right then, he was the one wanting to take a bite. And why couldn’t he? Why couldn’t he take what he wanted from her?
He’d burned for her.
“That’s bullshit!” She tried to shove away from him. When would she realize he wasn’t letting her go anywhere? “A vamp can drain a demon, a vamp can kill—”
He stared into her eyes. No, she wasn’t the same woman she’d been. In her stare, he now saw the secrets, the pain, the fury. A fury that matched his own because he wasn’t the same, either. “Sweet, I don’t remember saying I was a demon. Just that the bastard had seen through my glamour.”
Her lips parted.
And he took.
His mouth crashed onto hers, a deep, hard kiss. This need, this consuming hunger—it was what had led the humans into temptation.
Sin.
Oh, yes, he wanted to sin with her.
She didn’t wrench her head away from him. Didn’t bite him with those too-sharp teeth.
But she didn’t kiss him back.
He wanted her to kiss him back.
“Nicole …” His hold gentled on her wrists. Her br**sts were tight. Her hips pressing up against him. Keenan knew the signs of a woman’s arousal but he didn’t know how to get her to give in to her need.
His hands freed hers. He kept his lips on hers and managed to soften the kiss. His tongue swept inside her mouth. Yes. That rich taste that was pure Nicole tormented him. He wanted more. Wanted everything.
And her hands were on him now. In his hair. Not pushing away. Pulling closer.
Her tongue met his. She gave a little moan in her throat, a hungry, hot sound that had all the blood in his body rushing right to his erection.
Lust.
Men had killed for this. Died.
He could understand. Finally.
His hands pushed between their bodies and found the snap of her jeans. Touch.
He had to know what she felt like. Had to see if she was wet. Hot. Would she taste as sweet there?
Her zipper hissed down. His fingers pushed inside and found the soft cotton of her underwear. Her hips arched against him, and her tongue licked across his lips.
And a car’s engine growled in the distance. Coming closer. Closer.
No.
His head snapped up. His breath heaved out, and he couldn’t look away from her. On the ground. Lips red from his mouth. Her arms around him, her claws digging into his skin.
His gaze trekked down her body. His stare lingered on the pebbled ni**les that thrust against her borrowed shirt. Slowly, slowly, his gaze dropped down to the jeans that were unsnapped, revealing the pale skin of her abdomen, the dark black of her panties.