Page 20 of Bird on a Blade (Hunter’s Heart #1)

CHAPTER NINETEEN

SAWYER

S he can’t be in here. She can’t be looking at me like that, her eyes sweeping down my torso and lingering on my cock. It’s too dangerous. My blood is boiling.

But fuck me, she looks perfect. Her wet shirt clings to her torso and reveals the outline of her bra, the pebbles of her nipples. Her hair curls around her face. I can’t stop staring at her.

“Can I—Can I join you?” she whispers.

I know I should tell her no. Send her back out to the church. I can jerk myself off while I think about biting into her hard nipples until she bleeds. It’s safer that way.

But she takes a step toward me, her eyes big and scared but at the same time flooded with lust. I can’t send her away. The most I can do is warn her.

“Edie, if you get in this shower with me, I’m going to fuck you whether you want me to or not.”

Her breath hitches, and I know I should tell her the truth of it, that if I fuck her then I might kill her. But she answers before I can.

“I want you to.”

It’s like a bomb goes off in my head. She gave me permission, and there’s nothing I can do to stop myself. I clear the bathroom in two steps and devour Edie’s mouth in a brutal, agonizing kiss. She melts into me, her tongue lashing against mine as I twist my hand up in her hair to hold her in place against the counter. I want to consume every inch of her bite by bite.

I drop my free hand down to squeeze at her tits, and I’m reminded she’s still dressed.

“Get this off,” I growl into her ear. “Now.”

I release her and step back as she peels the wet T-shirt away from her skin, her eyes constantly flickering over to me. I stroke my cock listlessly as I watch her undress in an agonizingly slow strip tease. I need her naked. I need her flesh.

“Hurry,” I tell her, not sure how much longer I can contain myself. I try to calm down by fucking my hand as she drops her shirt aside, yanks on her jeans. It’s torture. She’s taking too long.

And then she fucking stops and looks up at me in her bra and panties. I squeeze my dick so hard it hurts. “Keep going or I’m going to cut them off of you.”

Something flashes in her expression. A dangerous flirtation. “You don’t have your knife.”

I grin at her the way I would a victim, showing all my teeth. “Then I’ll rip them off you with my bare hands.”

Edie just looks at me?—

And then drops her hands at her side, one eyebrow arched, like she’s daring me to try.

Oh, that is very fucking dangerous. Lust surges through me, and I lunge at her, ripping at her panties to get at her naked body. I scrape my nails against her skin and for a moment I’m not ripping her underwear off. No, I’m rending her flesh from her bone.

Edie moans as I claw at her bra, bringing me back to reality. I tear violently at the hooks on the stupid thing until it comes undone, then I fling it aside. Edie’s breath quickens against my skin, and I capture her mouth again, yanking hard on her leg to hike it up around my hip and give me access to her sweet, hot cunt. I press my cock up against her folds—not entering her, not yet. But her arousal is more than clear.

“You’re wet for me.” I still don’t quite believe it, that I could kill for her, that I could come to her covered in another man’s blood, and she still wants to fuck me. And yet the evidence is right there, soaking across my dick.

And then she confirms it completely with a whispered, throaty, “Yes.”

I can’t stand it anymore. I need to kill her. I need to fuck her. Right now, they’re the same thing.

I grab her by the waist and drag her into the shower as if I’m dragging her into the ocean to drown. She cries out when the water hits her skin—I like it almost painfully hot. I silence her scream with another kiss, ruining her mouth before I move down to ruin her neck with my teeth. Edie moans, bucking against me, and I slide my hand up between her legs until I find her throbbing clit.

“Are you ready for me?” I growl the question into her throat. I don’t know why I ask. I’m going to shove my cock into her whatever she says.

It doesn’t matter, though, because she gasps out, “Yes,” and that’s all I need to hear. I whirl her around and press her up against the tile, knocking her legs wide until I see her pussy glistening through the haze of shower steam. Then I press my cockhead against her pretty pink flesh, bracing myself before I slide into her. Because I still don’t know what’s going to happen when I finally feel that wet, willing cunt clamp down on my cock.

Edie whimpers and bucks her hips backward like she’s as desperate as I am. And I can’t wait any longer. I thrust my full length into her, and it’s like I’m thrusting my Bowie knife into her soft belly and splitting her open so I can reach in and grab the most precious parts of her.

She even fucking screams like I’m cutting her .

But I’m not cutting her. My knife is on the altar where I left it, and my cock is buried in the pussy I’ve dreamt about for fifteen years. For a minute, I can’t move. Can’t even fuck her proper. All I feel safe doing is wrapping my arms around her waist and chest and pulling her up to me so we can stand like that, interlocked beneath the hot, steaming water, the blood running down my body in ribbons. She’s breathing hard against me, and I can feel her heart thudding beneath my palm.

And I know, suddenly and fervently, that I will never silence that heart or still that breath.

Because killing her means I will never feel this again. Being inside my perfect prey is the closest thing to Heaven that I’ve ever known.

“Edie.” I say her name like the prayer it is?—

And then I start to fuck her.

It’s easy, with the way the fear of my killing her just evaporated. I pound into her pussy as hard as I can, and she welcomes me, bracing one leg up against the shower wall so I can sink my cock even deeper inside her. I press her against my chest, squeezing and slapping at her big tits until she’s whimpering and gasping and matching my urgency as she fucks me back.

I don’t say anything. There ain’t a single word in any language that could express how it feels to finally fuck my perfect prey, and so I don’t try to ruin the moment. The only sounds I need are Edie’s desperate moans, the wet slapping of her ass against my hips.

She’s close to coming. I can feel it, the way her thighs tremble and her breath gets fast and panty. But when she drops her hand down to her clit, I know the angle ain’t quite right for her to finish. Still, I immediately knock her fingers away and press my mouth against her ear.

“ I’m going to make you come,” I tell her, and then I thumb her clit. It’s like pressing a magic button. Edie howls in pleasure, her body shuddering against mine, pussy walls fluttering furiously against my cock. It takes every ounce of willpower not to spill my cum in her right then and there, but I want to keep fucking her through her orgasm. I want to drag it out as long as possible until she’s gibbering and wordless and limp with pleasure.

It works. Edie slumps against me, chest heaving, and I fold her over her a little so I can grip her hips as I piston in and out of her still-spasming cunt. She reacts, bracing her hands against the shower wall, and it gives me a whole new angle, a whole new sensation, one that sends a fire racing up my belly.

I’m not gonna last long, but I’m gonna enjoy every second of this.

I run my hand along Edie’s spine until I’m holding her in place by the back of her neck. Some distant part of me knows I shouldn’t be doing this because it’s what her piece of shit ex did, but I still curl my fingers around to the front of her throat. Maybe I’m testing myself. Maybe I just want to imagine what it would be like to kill her without actually doing it. Maybe I just want her to know that she belongs to me.

I’m shocked when she doesn’t shove me away.

“Edie,” I gasp, increasing the pressure on her neck just a little. She moans, her pussy quivering. “My perfect fucking prey.”

I can’t stand it. Squeezing her throat, being inside her—none of it’s enough. I want to possess her completely. I want to devour her body and her soul. But I don’t want to fucking kill her.

Instead, I yank her up to me by her throat and sink my teeth into her shoulder, deeply enough that blood blooms across my tongue, salty and coppery and delicious. Edie screams—in pain, I think at first, but then I feel her come again. Small, fluttery. But undeniable.

How the fuck did I get so lucky?

I lap up her blood, still fucking her, certain I can taste her pleasure. My muscles tighten, and I keep tasting her while I come, moaning into my orgasm. It shudders through my whole body and leaves me almost as boneless as her .

“My god,” Edie breathes, and I release my bite and nuzzle against her neck, holding her close to me. The shower pours around us, the air thick with steam, and I don’t ever want to stop touching her. My Edie. My perfect prey. I kiss her everywhere I can, my lips leaving trails of her blood on her skin. I touch her everywhere I can, too, like I’m trying to memorize what her body feels like. Her tits, her ass, her belly. Her heartbeat.

Because I fucked her, and she survived.

And that means I can do it over and over again.