Adam groaned and held her tight.
His gaze met the wolf shifter's.
Her mouth suckled him, drawing his blood from right above his heart and taking it with her tongue and lips.
The lust he felt each time she drank from him exploded through his body.
The wolf kept watching him.
The pack stayed in the shadows.
Adam shuddered. Her mouth.
Maya's lashes fluttered. He didn't want her to see him as he was-some horrible mix of man and dragon. Face changed, teeth deadly, wings, talons, scales.
Her eyes opened.
No fear.
Hunger. Need.
No fear.
Her tongue licked across the wound. Then her mouth lifted, lips red and glistening. Her lips trembled, curved. "I…was…hoping to see you…again, S-Slick."
Her words were for the man, not the beast. His arms tightened around her.
Maya's smile slowly faded and her lashes closed.
CHAPTER 14
She felt like she'd been hit by a truck. Or maybe by a dozen very pissed-off level-ten demons.
Maya groaned, feeling pain in every cell of her body. Her mouth was bone dry and her lashes felt like weights were holding them down.
"It's all right." Adam's voice. Close. A hand, his hand, smoothed over her cheek. "You're safe."
Safe. She liked that word.
But she hadn't been safe before. She'd been in the alley, surrounded by the pack. Snarls. Growls.
Pain.
Then he'd been there. Adam. Her dragon. Roaring with fury. Fire on his breath and wings on his back.
Maya forced her lashes to lift. She needed to see him.
Bright light flooded her eyes, making black spots dance in the air around her head. She blinked them away, found him.
Sitting beside the bed. Shirtless. Streaks of blood on his chest. Worry on his face.
She lifted her hand, wanting to touch him.
He caught her fingers in a grip of steel. His gaze held hers. So intense. Emotions swirled in his stare. Anger. Fear. Lust.
"You're a liar, Maya Black." He said the words softly.
Not exactly the impassioned words she'd been hoping to hear. "Y-yeah, w-well-" Damn, her throat hurt. She needed a drink, bad. "Y-you're a w-winged dragon."
He blinked at that, then leaned forward, closing the space between them and keeping his gaze on her. "You told me you didn't help people." His lips thinned. "Then you risked your life not just for Cammie, but for that boy."
The young shifter. Her heart lurched in her chest. "I-is he all…right?" Her voice was getting stronger. She swallowed a few times, trying to ease the ache at the back of her throat.
A muscle flexed along his jaw. "You should worry about yourself."
Well, the pain she felt meant that she was alive. What more was there to worry about? "H-
how…is he?" That boy, with the tortured eyes-had he survived the wounds she'd inflicted on him? "He's healing." His fingers tightened around hers. "What the hell were you thinking?"
She'd been thinking the boy was just a kid. Tortured. Held prisoner, and, thanks to her, poisoned with silver. "C-couldn't…leave him."
"Like you couldn't leave me?"
No, that had been different.
"And what about that prostitute on Quentin Street?"
What? "You fought that demon when you saw him attacking her. You couldn't just leave them alone, either, could you? You had to help. "
He made the word sound like a curse.
Beneath the pain, her own anger begin to stir. "I do…w-what I want." She didn't need some thousand-year-old dragon telling her how to run her life. "I-if I hadn't gone back, the…boy would be dead." Of course, until Adam had told her that the kid was healing, she'd thought he had died.
"You almost died saving him."
Maya shook her head. "S-saving him was…the easy part." She sighed. "Damn p-pack…they nearly…k-killed me."
"And I nearly killed them." Stark.
A frown pulled down her brows as she stared at him. "Adam…"
He brought her hand to his lips. Kissed the palm and she felt heat tingle across her skin. "I nearly killed them all," he whispered again. "I wanted to burn them to dust."
She swallowed. "What stopped you?"
His breath blew against her hand. "You did."
Oh. She didn't exactly remember stopping him. Maya just remembered opening her eyes and being damn grateful to see him.
Because for a few minutes there, she hadn't thought that she'd ever look into his eyes again.
"Adam-"
"You need to drink."
Her eyes immediately fell to his throat.
"You fed in the alley, but it wasn't enough. You need to take more blood."
She licked her lips. His blood would soothe her terrible thirst and help her fight the weakness that weighed down her limbs.
He eased into the bed with her. Brought her hand to his chest. Such a warm, strong chest.
His fingers tangled in her hair, urged her head close to his neck. "Take all that you need," he said, his voice rumbling against her ear.
Her tongue smoothed over his flesh. Felt the vibration of his pulse. Fast and hard.
"Take, Maya. Take from me."
Her teeth pierced his skin and the rich taste of his blood filled her mouth.
More.
Her lips tightened greedily around him and she drank, loving the flavor of his essence. So much power, so much strength. She could literally feel it pouring into her.
Her fingers trailed down his chest. Dug into his skin. And she kept tasting him, drinking him in and strengthening the bond between them.
He shuddered against her and shifted his body, pressing the swollen length of his arousal against her leg. She could feel the thick shaft, through the thin sheet, through the bloodstained jeans he still wore.
Maya was aware of an emptiness inside. A hollow ache. She wanted him to fill her, to thrust deep and sure into her sex and stop the yearning.
Her tongue swept over his neck, catching the drops of blood that trickled over his skin. She moaned, the tightness in her body changing swiftly from pain to taut need.
"Easy," Adam said, and his hands caught her shoulders and pushed her back against the pillows.
"Your body needs more time to recover."
His blood would heal her. Her body would mend. She needed him. Her br**sts were tight, the ni**les hard and eager for his mouth.
She saw the slight flare of his nostrils, knew that he could smell the cream spreading between her legs. Yet his hold on her didn't ease and she didn't have the strength to fight him. " Adam ." A whispered demand.