Page 21 of Bird on a Blade (Hunter’s Heart #1)

CHAPTER TWENTY

SAWYER

A n hour later, Edie and I are tucked together in bed. The storm’s abated, but it’s still overcast, and the room is dark enough I could almost fall asleep. Edie actually has. She’s all curled up against my chest. I run my fingers through her still-damp hair, listening to her slow, steady breathing.

I can’t sleep, though. I’m worried. Not about what I’ll do to her, not anymore, but about what other people will. The man I killed earlier is just the beginning, I’m sure. She said he had a partner. That partner will come looking for her. One disappearance is unusual enough. Two?

The only way I know how to protect her is to kill. But what if that puts her in more danger?

Edie makes a soft noise and rolls over and flutters her eyes open. Up close, I can see the streaks of green in her golden-brown irises.

“Did I fall asleep?” she murmurs, rubbing her forehead.

“For a little while.” I grin, wrapping one of her curls around my finger. “I guess I wore you out.”

She blushes and ducks her head, dark hair falling over her eyes. I pull her into me, wanting to breathe in her scent and feel her soft warm body pressed against mine. She yields to me, which is something else I find I like. Prey who wants to be prey. Prey who desires her predator.

“I do think—” I stop, not sure how to say exactly what I want to say. Edie looks up at me through the long fringe of her lashes, a line of worry creasing on her brow. “I think you should stay here.”

When she doesn’t respond right away, I add, “With me.”

Her eyes go wide and she pushes up on one elbow. “Why?”

“So I can keep you safe.”

Her fingers curl against my pillow. Her lips part like she’s about to say something, but she only stares at me.

“You said earlier that the man had a partner,” I say. “When that partner doesn’t hear back, he’s going to come out here. Or send someone.”

“Police?” Edie says in a small, scared voice.

I melt at that. Such a human fear. “I wouldn’t worry about those idiots,” I tell her. “Especially if you’re with me. They won’t find you.”

She rolls onto her back, the blanket sliding down to reveal the tops of her lush breasts, and blinks up at the ceiling. I expect her to refuse to stay, if I’m being honest. To tell me I’m a goddamn monster and she can’t live in this rotting-out old church.

Instead, she says, “I think you’re right.”

“Really?” I sit up and she looks over at me. God, that’ll never stop making my heart squeeze up in my chest, having her look at me like that.

Especially when she’s naked.

“Yeah,” she says. “I mean, if you don’t—if you don’t mind me being here—” She frowns and toys with her hair. “I’ve got another month left in the cabin, but if Scott’s PIs know I’m there, I can’t stay. I feel like if I leave Virginia, if I keep running?—”

“They’ll find you.” I can’t stop myself from touching her, running my fingers along the side of her neck, smoothing my hand over her chest, where I can feel her heart beating. I love it, the sensation of her blood pumping through her body.

“I can’t believe they found me,” she says softly. “I used a fake name. I’ve had a secret bank account for years, that’s how I’m paying for everything. My friend Charlotte has been using my old credit cards in California so they’d think I’m still there?—”

I grin at her deviousness. She’s not a Hunter, but it seems she can think like one when she needs to.

“It wasn’t me who ratted you out,” I say, acting like I’m serious.

She laughs. It’s such a soft, twinkling sound, a normal sound. I’m used to silencing laughter. To cause it?

I can’t help myself. I roll on top of her, catching her mouth in a kiss.

She melts into me immediately, her arms wrapping around my back. The blanket’s still between us, thin cotton separating me from her, and I hate it but I also don’t want to stop kissing her because she’s making these small, desperate noises in the back of her throat.

I do slide my thigh between her legs, giving her something to create a little friction on. That’s immediate, too, the way she starts rolling her hips against my leg, chasing release.

“You want to come again?” I break the kiss so I can rasp into her ear. So I can hear her say yes.

She obliges, the word breathy and soft. “Yes .”

“I’ll see what I can do.” I sit up and whip the blanket away. Edie lays spread out on my mattress, her body gorgeous in the grey-filtered light spilling in through my window. Her legs are spread, giving me a full view of the dark hair curling around her glistening pussy, and her tits seem to pool on her chest, each one tipped by a hard, pink nipple.

I pull one of those nipples into my mouth, sucking and licking at it. Edie moans, squirming beneath me. My cock’s already up for the job, but I don’t want to fuck her again just yet .

“Sawyer,” she gasps, threading her fingers through my hair. “Are you—are you going to bite me again?”

I pull up just enough so that I can look at her, at the lust flooding through her eyes. “Did you like it?” Me making you bleed ? I don’t say that last part.

She nods, very sightly.

“So did I.” Then I attack her tits, sucking and licking at them, and then, when she’s moaning and thrusting beneath me, when she’s good and desperate, I bite her left breast on its side. Not as hard as I did earlier. Not hard enough to draw blood But hard enough that Edie gasps and jerks beneath me.

“Fuck me,” she whispers.

“No.” I move over to her other tit, pulling as much of it into my mouth as I can. She arches her back like she’s trying to force even more of her tit into my mouth. I respond by scraping my teeth against her nipple.

“Please!” she screams, legs quaking.

I release her from my mouth, feeling a little regretful. “I’m going to make you come first,” I tell her.

And then I drop down between her legs