Page 23 of One Bad Knight

“Perhaps, but I’ll feel its presence sooner,” I confirmed. “And if you are a target of darkness, other beings will sense it too and begin to thirst for you. Like the She.”

“It’s going to kill me, like it did my father.”

“I won’t let it,” I said, a sudden fierceness in my voice. “It’s why I need to stay close to you, Kat. I tried to keep my distance, but if you are going to be safe, I need to be right by your side. Because if it comes for you, I will stop it.”

She whirled around and stalked across her room in agitation. Then she paced back to stand in front of me again. Fire shone from her eyes. “You didn’t stop it when it killed my father,” she said. “What makes you think you can protect me now?”

Before I could answer, she looked away and rubbed her forehead. “I’m sorry, that’s not fair. You were just a kid. We both were.”

A dark laugh came out of me. If she only knew what I’d been capable of as a kid.

“What?” she asked.

I leaned in, inches from her face now, with a dangerous leer on my face. “You don’t know me. You didn’t know me then. And after I finish this demon off, I’m out of here.”

She needed to let go of this idea that we were friends. I didn’t have friends.

A scowl darkened her face as she faced off against me. “So, you are planning to leave just like last time?”

“That’s right, princess. I came here to take care of unfinished business and that’s it. I’m not here for you.”

“Fine,” Kat practically shouted.

“Good,” I shot back.

Our lips crashed against each other with heat and fury. I wasn’t sure who had moved first, but my hands instantly covered those perfect ass cheeks, pulling her to me. She tasted like sin, salvation, and honey. The heat of her mouth scalded all the way down to my black soul and lit me up with red passion.

Kat grabbed my hair and fought my mouth, her tongue scraping against my teeth. Fuck, why did I feel like I was drowning in her? My cock pressed painfully hard against my jeans. The coolness of her silk chemise contrasted against the delectable warmth of her skin.

I still remembered the intoxicating scent of her sex when I’d been saving her life. The sensation of needing her turned agonizing. I grabbed the hair at the base of her skull and backed her up to the bed, punishing her with my mouth.

Punishing her for what I couldn’t have. For what I was. For all the unforgivable dark things I’d done. How dare she let me touch her. Didn’t she know I could turn her soul black too?

Kat moaned and whimpered under my onslaught, but she didn’t push me away.

Anger fused with desire. I broke from her perfect fucking mouth and made my way down the column of her elegant neck.

Why didn’t she tell me to stop? She needed to tell me to stop. To order me the fuck out of her life.

Even as I sucked at a sensitive spot between her neck and collarbone that made her buck and whine like an animal, I knew it wouldn’t matter. I’d been fooling myself thinking I could leave her to her fate—to the darkness that could swallow her up.

And for some goddamn reason I believed myself to be the lesser evil right now.

“Tell me to stop,” I growled against her skin.

Another needy whine vibrated from her throat as she pushed my leather jacket off my shoulders. It fell to the floor.

One of my hands found its way under her chemise top to press against her bare stomach. My fingertips dipping below the elastic of her shorts.

“Tell me to stop,” I repeated louder, growing angrier that she wouldn’t stop me. That she was forcing me to rely on my own willpower. Around her, it melted into nothingness, leaving me out of control.

Kat’s eyes fluttered open to meet mine, a message emanating from them loud and clear.

No. Don’t stop.

“You think this is a game?” I demanded. My hand burrowed lower until my fingers parted her slick lower lips. She gasped and arched her back.

“Fuck,” I ground out, as my hips bucked of their own accord as I imagined sinking my hardness into the inviting heat my fingertips played with.