Page 17 of Bane of Hate and Silver (Primordial Inheritance #1)

Becoming Star-Crossed

J ules laid frustratingly awake in her bed that night.

The book sitting on her bedside table wasn’t even an adequate distraction.

After reading the same page three times without comprehension, she'd given up.

Instead, their perfect kiss replayed over in her mind, yet again.

Was he worth it? Was Luca Cain, a werewolf, worth giving up the peace she found in her solitude?

Would he add to her life or destroy it? Maybe both, if she was honest.

With an aggravated groan, Jules got up and walked to her living room.

Gliding to sit on the plush couch, remote in hand, she turned on some makeover show Monica had been watching.

She zoned out, almost immediately. Jules bit her bottom lip, remembering his heat, his taste.

Woodsy, earthy, with a hint of spices that couldn’t quite be placed.

One kiss had gotten her so tied up inside.

Nearly three centuries without romantic physical contact of any kind was probably the cause of that.

Due to how the first century of her immortal life had been spent, and with whom, she’d vowed to never trust anyone with her body or her heart again.

Romantic attachment was not in the cards for her.

However, Stephen Cain and his Beta best friend were two of the kindest and gentlest men she’d known in her life.

Luca, it seemed, had followed in their footsteps.

“This is hopeless,” Jules said aloud and walked out the French doors in her bedroom and through the grass. She gingerly padded down the path of rocks, worn from years of use that came long before her life there. When grass gave way to sand she started to jog.

With no destination in mind, she kept moving. Slowly enough that if some night owl was watching the water they wouldn’t see anything other than a young girl running on the beach. Heaven help anyone who thought to take advantage of that.

Jules ran for miles. Five, maybe ten. Her paced slowed as she happened upon a rocky cove she’d never seen before.

The clustering of large rocks and caves jutted into the sky above her.

Sitting alone on the highest cliff was a lone figure.

The moonlight silhouetted his tall and lean frame.

Her heart knew him instantly. Frozen and looking up from beneath him, she considered her next move.

Watching as he stared out at the water. Two choices arose, hide in the caves until he left or approach.

Move on with her life like he’d never existed or throw all her mantras on love, trust, and life into the ocean to be swept away with the waves.

In a blink of time and space she was standing behind him on the rocks. A metaphorical portal to her past life closing behind her. “Did I just discover your thinking spot?”

Luca twisted at her question. Concern, surprise, and then a glimmer of happiness flashed through his eyes as she walked up and sat on the rock next to him.

“Not my only one,” he said, his voice husky and deep. “But it’s the closest one to you.” He nudged her with his elbow.

She giggled quietly. “Hmmm… I hadn’t pegged you as the broody type.”

“Oh, I am,” Luca claimed, playfully stern. “I brood like it’s an Olympic sport.”

“Oh okay,” Jules said, smiling. “My mistake.” For a few moments they sat in companionable silence, looking out at the water and listening to the waves.

“Couldn’t sleep either, I take it?” he asked, shifting on the rock next to her and looking down at his hands, planted on the rocks by his thighs.

“You know, I really tried…” Her voice trailed off as she shifted enough to face him. Eyes locked, they sat there searching each other for a long moment. Breaking eye contact, Jules bit into the soft flesh of her bottom lip.

Very tentatively, Luca lifted his hand to the side of her face.

Fingers just barely brushing against her skin.

When she didn’t pull away his thumb caressed her lower lip, releasing the tension there.

“What have you done to me?” she asked, leaning across the small space between them.

His forehead dropped to rest against her own.

“I suspect,” he whispered, his lips gliding closer to hers. Breath kissed her skin like a warm breeze. “It’s the same thing you’ve done to me.”

Closing the distance between them, her lips met his.

The kiss was a chaste one for only a few moments.

As his tongue caressed the seam of her lips his hands gripped her hips, moving her onto his lap.

She opened for him, melting into the fire that was his touch.

One hand moved from her hip to slip under the thin satin tank top, caressing her bare back.

Her icy skin warmed at every touch of his fingers, her body igniting at every point of contact.

Jules lifted her hands to his shoulders and pushed him back slightly. He complied with the distance she had put between them, although somewhat reluctantly. Her eyes found his as she panted. “This is a bad idea.”

His eyes darkened. “I don’t care.”

With shifting hands, she released him. Luca’s lips came down harder on hers, more desperate than before. Hands sliding down to her backside, pulling her towards him. Her breath caught, feeling the size and hardness of him between her thighs.

Luca stilled as Jules placed one delicate hand against his chest, just over his pounding heart. He paused at her hesitation, pulling back to look at her. She fidgeted with nervousness and uncertainty, tentative for reasons he had yet to discover. “I…” Her voice trailed off.

“We can go as slow as you want.” It pained him to offer it.

He wanted her right here, right now. Wanted to taste her and cum inside her.

He wanted to claim her body and soul. Wanted, with every fiber of his being for her to be his for the taking.

Luca could sense uncertainty in her as she stiffened against his lap.

Luca had been with women here and there, mostly human, and mostly only once or twice as needed.

Werewolf women wanted mates, partners for life.

Until this moment he’d never even considered the possibility.

Until this woman, this vampire, had kissed him in the Rose Garden he’d never entertained the idea of something long term.

“I’m sorry. I’m not…”

He dropped his hands from her body as she shifted back, off his lap. He missed the feel and weight of her on him.

Standing, she started to back away. “It’s definitely not you I don’t want, I just…

” She was rambling. It was impossibly vulnerable, and adorable.

He’d seen sexy, strong, confident, untouchable, but this was something new.

Something deeper. She turned away. He bounded to his feet before he lost her completely.

Luca reached out, spun her gently, and pulled her toward him.

His hands came to rest on either side of her neck, thumbs tipping her head up softly until her gaze met his hungry one.

“Don’t be sorry.” He leaned back to bend enough to touch his lips to her forehead in a soft kiss. “If being immortal taught me anything, it’s patience.”

“Okay,” she said pulling herself closer to him, resting her cool cheek against his abdomen.

A growl escaped low in his throat. “However, if you keep touching me, I’m definitely going to have to take a swim in that very cold ocean, like now.”

Jules smiled against him, her body shaking slightly as she chuckled.

“Well come on then Dog-Man.” She pushed away and jumped from the top of the cove of rocks to the sand below.

The drop was long, a human would have broken something on impact, but not her.

She landed nearly soundlessly while sand shifted and sprayed around her.

He watched in awe as she stood from her crouch, salty wind whipping red tendrils of hair around her.

A goddess of something, maybe death. She turned, looked back up at him, and threw her arms wide. “You coming or not?”

He was definitely coming. He’d almost cum in his jeans at the sight of her. With a howl he launched himself off the rocks and chased after Jules who had already almost reached the waves.

Nicholas opened the door to Chad’s apartment about an hour before sunrise and promptly tripped over a black duffle bag right inside the door. “Again?” Nick mumbled a string of curses under his breath.

“Hi Baby,” Chad called over the cheery music reverberating off the walls around them.

“You left your gym bag in front of the door again,” Nick chastised.

“Oh, did I? Silly me.” The human’s tone of voice was strangely clipped. Off somehow.

Nick’s nose crinkled as he moved farther into the small space.

Chad left the human concoction that smelled rancid to Nick’s vampire senses boiling on the stove, walked over, stood on his sock covered toes, and pecked Nick on the mouth.

Nick grasped the back of Chad’s neck and deepened the kiss, thinking of the satisfaction to be taken from the human’s body.

Not blood, he’d had plenty of that earlier tonight.

He hadn’t actually meant to kill the two humans in the Rose Garden.

Unfortunately, the woman had pricked her finger and sealed her fate.

The man might still be alive. He’d caught up with him shortly after finishing the woman.

But he’d scented werewolf and fled the scene of the crime without looking back.

He hadn’t taken the time to ensure the man was finished.

Every once in a while, he felt actual remorse about his lack of control.

Dwelling on it tended to unsettle him. Tonight was one of those rarities, he wanted nothing more than to get out of his head and into Chad’s bed.

Nick slid one hand under the man’s t-shirt.

He was rock solid, very muscled for a man in tech security.