Page 67 of Will It Hurt?

Maia’s features scrunched up like I’d stuffed a lime wedge in her mouth.

“I don’t like this,” she said, her voice low, although we both knew that Jinn would be able to hear us. “I don’t like this one bit, Aisla.”

“Think about it this way,” I said with a confidence that was only half-shaken. “She won’t hurt me because she won’t have anyone else to perform the spell for her. She needs me.”

“What if something happens?” Maia demanded. “What if she gets too rough and kills you? What if she drains you dry?”

“I do have something called self-control, human,” Jinn said.

“Do not speak to me or I will commit a crime,” Maia snapped at her before glancing at me. “Do me a favor and think about what you’re doing?”

Think.

To be perfectly honest, that was a hard thing to do when Jinn kissed me. In fact, a small part of me was still imagining the burst of warmth from being pressed against her chest.

“Aisla.” Maia’s fingers waved back and forth in front of my face. “Did you hear what I said?”

“Yes.” I replied too quickly to make it seem believable. “I mean, yes, I’ll think about it.”

She pulled away with a huff, mumbling under her breath. The words barely reached my ears as she moved through the living room.

“My bloody heart can’t handle all this excitement,” she muttered. “My nerves are shot.”

Jinn’s shadow fell over my right shoulder. “She speaks to herself like an old lady.”

“That’s Maia,” I said with a deep sigh. “Wise beyond her age.”

“ Paranoid beyond her age,” Jinn corrected.

I glanced over at her. “Maybe. I suppose only time will tell.”

We winced as Maia dropped something in the pantry and cursed loudly.

I placed a finger to my lips and pointed towards the stairs.

“Are you still up for—”

“ Yes .” With one arm across my waist, she lifted me to her chest and held me close. “Yes, please. ”

***

I wanted to focus on the vamp that was slowly divesting each layer of clothing and neatly folding it into a stack on my windowsill. But Maia’s words sat in my chest like weighted lead.

Why did it feel like my mother had forbade me from sleeping with someone, and now she was stationed downstairs, listening for any suspicious activity?

“You look worried.” Jinn undid the buttons at her wrists, letting the shirtsleeves hang loose. “Second thoughts?”

“No.” I unzipped my jacket, shaking off the unpleasantness that lingered from Maia’s rebuke. “Never.”

A single brow rose. “Never is a long time, little wytch.”

I shrugged. “If I lived my life according to what Maia deemed appropriate, I may not live at all.”

Jinn made an agreeable noise, her fingers working on the row of buttons between her breasts.

“I have a question.”

The words tumbled out of me.

She paused, her fingers on the hem of her trousers .

“Earlier, on the parapet,” I began, wetting my suddenly dry lips. “The shadows were a part of you, weren’t they?”

Her gaze narrowed as she tried—and failed—to decipher what I was asking.

“Yes,” she said. “They were.”

I pulled my jumper over my head and let it fall to the floor.

“And.” I cleared my throat, glancing everywhere but into her eyes. “Can these shadows be used for… Other things?”

From the corner of my eye, I could just make out the sly smile that creased her lips.

“It depends,” she said with a little vibrato in her voice. “On what other things you have in mind.”

My lips pressed into a tight line before I spoke.

“I’m under no impression that this thing between us would be more than one night,” I said, tugging the cotton undershirt over my shoulders. “After all, you live down south and my covenstead is here. And you won’t need me after the spell. So…”

Her gaze dropped to the simple black bra that cupped my breasts.

“I think I should ask for exactly what I want,” I concluded.

“And what is that, little wytch?”

She closed the distance before I could blink, her bare skin cool against my own, nipples tight and hard as they brushed against me.

“I want you to fuck me with your shadows.”

Something dark swirled in her gaze, and I saw a brief flash of the woman who had tried to choke the life out of me a few days ago.

Except she wasn’t trying to murder me this time .

And if the low vibration in her throat was any indication, the only thing getting murdered tonight would be my pussy.

I would welcome it.

But first…

I brushed my knuckles over her cheek and neck, letting my fingers drift over several smooth inches of skin. Fuck, she was perfect. Not a freckle or a mark in sight. Just an endless expanse of pale moonlight.

A rush of goosepimples followed my touch, racing across the canvas. It was almost endearing, this decidedly human reaction.

When I skimmed the sides of her breasts, she inhaled sharply.

“I thought the undead didn’t need to breathe?” I teased, letting my nails rasp against the tender flesh.

“We don’t.” A smile played at the corners of her lips. “But I like to do it for dramatic effect.”

How had I never realized how funny she was? I caught a nipple between my thumb and forefinger, pressing down until she gasped.

“Don’t say funny things,” I warned her. “This is just one night, remember? You’re not supposed to be endearing.”

“Right.” She nodded once. “I’ll do my best to be a bore.”

“Good.” I reached backwards to unclasp my bra and watched as she stilled, tracking my every move. “After all, I’m not here for your sparkling personality.”

Heat quivered in my belly as she stared at my bare breasts, eyes locked onto the gold barbells that glittered under the orange lamplight. Something sharp flickered in her gaze.

A predator , I thought. Caught between restraint and instinct .

I grabbed her wrist as she reached for me, holding it steady.

“Did I say you could touch me, Jinn?”

She scoffed, a little puff of air that betrayed the current of frustration thrumming around her.

I leaned in just enough to make her think I would close the distance—just enough for her lips to part in quiet anticipation, just enough for her to think her palm would come in contact with my pierced nipples…

But I held back at the last second.

The frustration tightening her shoulders was immediate.

I smirked. Good.

“You’re cruel,” she murmured. Her fingers twitched, aching to touch, to take.

I tilted my head, letting my gaze drag over her, slow and deliberate. “Am I? I don’t think it compares to what you did to me on the parapet.”

“Is that what you want? Revenge?”

I lifted a hand, tracing my fingers just close enough to her skin to make her shiver, but never making contact. Down her arm. Over the curve of her waist. Up over her breasts. Hovering above the dip of her throat.

The look in her eyes shifted.

Hunger, I could handle. Hunger, I expected.

But this?

This was possession.

Like she was already deciding which part of me she’d take first. How she’d savor it. How she’d ruin me.

Surely she could hear my heartbeat—I was certain it betrayed me by hammering against my ribs. Wordlessly, I placed a hand against her middle and pushed. She fell backwards onto the foot of the bed, sprawling on top of my multi-colored quilt .

“Stay,” I ordered, flicking the button of my jeans open with a pop. “Stay very still.”

“You seem to think you’re in charge—”

“Hush.”

I had no idea if it would work, but I caught the flicker of surprise in her eyes—the quick calculation of whether or not she was willing to obey.

I didn’t give her a choice. Instead, I cast my jeans aside and dropped to my knees.

My palms were dark against her bare thighs.

“If you’re very good,” I said, looking up at her. “I just might let you come.”

“Let me?” she began incredulously.

“Hush.” My palm landed on her thigh in a quick, sharp slap, and although her eyes narrowed, she did as I commanded.

I dragged my fingers over her muscles.

“For all your bluster, you’re really soft here, you know,” I said, taking in her subtle musculature. “Just how I imagined you.”

I set my nose along the inside of her thigh, inhaling the scent of her—dark and musky and so fucking perfect. Inch by inch, I moved upward, reveling in her light quiver.

Triumph surged in my veins. I was barely doing anything, yet I was making her tremble. Me. I had the power to make this centuries-old vampyre turn to putty beneath my lips with the promise of pleasure.

I felt her longing, her vulnerability, and… Fuck, it was mine to command.

I hummed against her skin, loving the way every part of her body had stalled as she waited for me to make contact with the weeping slit that needed my attention. Her eyes never left mine as I let my head dip lower .

She was perfectly pink and red and slick. Every inch of me ached to press my mouth to her.

“Open for me,” I breathed, and she let me in without hesitation.

I ran my lips lightly over her wetness, gathering it on the tip of my tongue. She tracked my every move, her fingers clenched hard on the quilt.

My position on the floor offered me an unparalleled view of her torso. Each muscle flowed into the next, the line of her core rippling slightly like a taut wire as I breathed deliberately over her needy little slit.

“If I keep teasing you like this, I wonder if you’ll beg me.”

Her lips flattened into a thin, unhappy line.

“Or will you keep your pleas bottled inside?”

I traced two fingers over her puffy lips and spread them apart to reveal the little treasure I sought. The impatient animal in me wanted to pitch forward and suckle on her clit straight away, but the lover in me wanted to have a little more fun.

I gathered a stream of saliva between my lips and let it dribble down onto her clit. Her skin was cool, but my saliva was warm, and when it made contact, she hissed under her breath.

“You’re so wet,” I said as she stared at me with barely controlled lust. “Tell me—did sucking my pussy on that parapet get you this wet?”

“More than you can imagine, little wytch.” Her voice was a low rumble. The words speared through me like a sharp edge of a blade.