Page 77 of A Hunt Bound in Blood
I nearly choked on my food. “Why do I get the impression that was a gift from Kalla?”
Cammon waggled his eyebrows. “Oh, I like her.”
I scowled. “Back off, princeling. She’s happy with her fae musician.”
His grin widened, growing a touch smug. “Is that jealousy I detect from you, Buttons?”
“In your wildest dreams. I’m just trying to save you from being lit up with fae magic. I bet he could make you dance off a cliff if you got too close to his girl.”
“Hmm.”
He set down his plate and prowled towards me on his hands and knees. Wetness spread between my legs, and the muscles in my lower stomach clenched. I held on to my plate like a shield and took another bite of crisp apple, relishing the sweet juice as it spilled across my tongue.
Cammon’s hand closed around my ankle, and I had no time to prepare before he jerked me towards him. Moving faster than I could see, his hand darted behind my head to protect my skull from cracking against the ground, and he hovered over me, his now-black eyes travelling over my fruit-sweetened mouth, the flutter in my throat, the heave of my chest.
“You don’t have to worry about me giving Kalla a second look,” he said, his voice deep, gravelly, vibrating through my ears to kick my yearning into a radiating throb. “She might be beautiful, but she’s a touch too carefree for my tastes. Turns out I like my vampires closed off and hidden beneath a dozen layers.”
My heart skipped a beat, my skin screamed for him, and so many thoughts and feelings spun through my head that I didn’t know where to begin sorting through them. What did he mean? He couldn’t possibly be saying he was interested in more than sex. The odds of that—
All thought evaporated when he kissed me. His tongue dipped into my mouth, sharing the sweetness of the apple. He sucked on my bottom lip as though it were the fruit he truly craved, and I set the plate down beside us, not caring when I heard it clatter, my food no doubt rolling down the tunnel.
Now empty, my hands moved on their own, grasping at his leather vest, curling into his hair, clutching his shoulders. I needed him closer. Two days we’d been walking in the near dark. With every step, I’d been trying to convince myself that distance was important, that giving into this craving would be a foolish, irresponsible decision, and with every step, my body had argued with me. Now that we were here, now that his mouth was on me and I tasted the lingering spices from the meat mixed with his natural spicy flavour, I was amazed I’d lasted as long as I had.
This demon owned me.
It couldn’t last—it shouldn’t last—but my willpower had disappeared the moment he’d revealed his ridged horns and powerful wings. Or maybe it had been the moment he’d seen my truth and not rejected me for it.
His fingers trailed down my side and curled into my hip, and then he was grinding against me, giving me the delicious friction I needed.
Before I could get used to it, before I could chase the pleasure that beckoned, he pulled back and grinned. I frowned, not trusting that smile, and caught a flash of white in the corner of my eye. His hand left my hip and silk brushed over my face, caressing my skin towards my eyes.
“Want me to stop?” he whispered, his breath tickling my ear.
I did. The thought of that white silk blocking my view, removing my sense of control, was enough to send my heart kicking against my ribs. I opened my mouth to tell him so, but the words caught in my throat, my mind once again at war with my body. My brain wanted to dominate, to be in charge of every small element of my environment, but the rest of me wanted to experience every possible sensation this demon had to offer.
And as impossible as it would have been a few weeks ago, I trusted him. I trusted him not to hurt me, not to push me further than I was comfortable with. To introduce me to layers of myself I’d always been afraid to explore. He was the treasure hunter, and my body was the map, and no one else would ever handle it so well.
The shock of that revelation was almost enough to quench my desire, but my spiking curiosity prevented it from disappearing altogether. And as the shock faded, the idea of surrendering to Cammon made my arousal surge.
So I shook my head. The faintest of movements, but enough for him to register it. For the blackness in his eyes to spread until I stared into two inky voids. Maybe the sight should have scared me, but if anything, it made me feel that much safer.
He bent his head to kiss me again as he slid the blindfold over my eyes, blacking out everything in the lantern-lit tunnel. “Hands on your head,” he murmured in my ear. His teeth caught on my lobe, sending goosebumps bubbling over my skin. “If you remove them before I tell you, I will make you suffer in excruciatingly pleasurable ways.”
I laughed, though the sound came out wobbly. “That’s not much of a threat.”
“Buttons, you have no idea.”
Cammon’s lips trailed over my throat, over the tops of my breasts, beneath my vest. His deft fingers made quick work of the laces, and I soon lay bare beneath him.
“Your problem,” he said as he kissed his way down my stomach and started to work on the broken laces of my breeches, “is that you don’t know how to relax. You almost managed the other night. There was a brief window where I didn’t hear those gears in your head spinning.”
Warm air brushed over my hips when he tugged my breeches down my legs, and I heard the swish of leather hitting stone when he tossed them away.
I couldn’t see him, couldn’t guess his expression or his thoughts about the way my naked body lay across my bedroll, lit only by our small enchanted lantern. Not knowing what was happening was torture—my breath hitched with a vague sense of panic—yet there was a certain anticipation as well.
Cammon’s wide, solid, overheated body brushed against mine, all bare, smooth skin, and my breath came out in a whoosh. His lips returned to my stomach, this time working their way up. Lick, nibble, kiss—a rotating pattern of worship that had my body trembling before he reached my neck.
“Tonight, I want to see if we can keep that window open a little longer.” He was once again right next to my ear, his fingers taking over the exploration of my body where his mouth had left off. “As long as you can bear it, as long as you trust me to take care of you. Think you’re up for it?”