Page 52 of A Clash of Moonlight
He felt Nora enter the sunlock compartment, the vampire’s equivalent to an airlock on a spaceship. When the outer door closed, he unlocked the one in front of him. It weighed over a quarter ton but swung smoothly open, revealing Nora.
“Thank you, James.” He had to force himself to acknowledge the human’s presence. All he wanted to do was wrap Nora in his arms. He wanted to smell her, to taste her. He wanted to talk to her.
Her customary cool expression in place, she stepped out of the sunlock and into the greeting room.
“I was not sure you would come.” Jared shut the door.
“I don’t know why I did.” She maintained her cool composure, and had he been a weaker man, had he not been certain of what he felt, he might have maintained the few feet of distance between them. Plus, when he had asked if she wanted this to end, she had replied back that she did not want to be the cause of his death. That had to mean she cared. It had to mean that this was more than a physical release or a fling. It had to mean she wanted him like he wanted her.
He closed the distance between them with his supernatural speed and slanted his mouth over hers.
She melted into his arms and her lips burned his, igniting his aura, which he did not have to hold back with her. He unleashed it, unleashed every part of him that he kept hidden away. It was all hers. He would be hers.
Her tongue stroked his. He pressed her against the steel door, kissing, touching, breathing her in. His mouth skimmed her throat. She tilted her head back, giving him access. Permission.
His teeth scraped her skin.
She whispered something unintelligible.
“This is why,” he said. “This is why you are here.”
Her hips ground against him. It took all his effort not to sink his fangs into her neck. He would have her, but not yet.
Not yet.
“Nora.”
She moaned, and he nearly lost his mind. Her eyes were rimmed in gold. Their edges were soft though, not cutting. Not threatening. He was pleasing both her and her wolf.
He said her name again. Her fingers slipped over his waistband. She pulled him tight against her and held him there. He did not move. Prayed that she did not either. If she moved her hips, if she made that sound one more time…
“I can’t sleep with you again,” she said. She sounded as if she was in pain.
He kissed her neck. The curve of her jaw. “What if there is a way to stay together?”
Her breasts pressed against his chest as she drew air deep into her lungs, slowing her rapid heart rate. “My father will kill you. I already said—”
“I know.” He clasped her hands and put a small distance between them. He had to. Otherwise, he would sink either his teeth or his cock into her. “But he would not harm you. If we procure a contract from a coven—”
She laughed and pulled her hands free from his.
“A full coven,” he said.
Her smile faded. “You can’t be serious.”
“A binding contract infused with magic, linking us together. A soul bond.”
Her eyes went wide. “That’s… That’s insane even if we could trust a full coven.”
“If we link our lives in a way that is irrevocable, your father would not kill me.”
She paced away from him. “And Arcuro would be okay with this? Okay with you screwing his enemy’s daughter for fun?”
“You are more than a diversion,” he said.
She circled back. “You don’t understand what you’re asking. The pack means more to my father than I do. He won’t kill you if it leads to my death, but he’ll exile me from the pack. Lone wolves don’t survive long. They grow moonsick, or they’re forced into other—”
“You are powerful enough to form your own pack.”