Page 34 of Fanged Temptation

I grinned against her throat, and felt her breathy exhales brush past my ear. I had never known Leah to swear that often, but damn if it didn’t sound good hearing her come undone, feeling her jolt and writhe beneath me.

My own hips bucked against her thigh, and my muscles spasmed of their own accord as I buried my face in her neck,gripping her shoulder as my own climax cracked me in two. Leah groaned my name, and a string of profanities, digging her nails into my back as the rolling pleasure ground the both of us down to dust.

I was left panting and breathless, a dead weight on top of her, brushing damp strands of red hair from her eyes.

Leah blinked up at me, fog clearing from her pupils as her heaving breaths slowed and the sweat cooled on her skin. A faint tremor traveled down her body, rippling under my palm, and her face was flushed with exertion.

Once again, we stared at each other, wordless and sated, and entirely spent.

Eventually, Leah opened her mouth. “Wow.”

A tremulous laugh bubbled from my lips and I offered a watery smile in return. “Just ‘wow’?”

“Jesus Christ, my soul left my body, just give me a minute to collect myself!”

“Fair, fair.” I chuckled, trying and failing to rise from her chest. Every muscle in my body had turned to liquid and the look in her eyes – a brilliant green gleaming in the low light – had me mesmerized.

“I think I have to agree.” I cupped her cheek, brushing a thumb over her bottom lip, pink and plump from punishing kisses. “Wow.”

16

Leah

When our heads had finally stopped spinning and our breathing had returned to normal, Maxine rolled off me and flopped onto her back with a sigh.

She stretched out on the mattress, hair fanning out around her, and closed her eyes. “I’ll be passing out now.”

I snorted a laugh, overly aware of the sticky wetness on my inner thighs. “Just like that?”

“Yep, just like that.” She hummed, tip-tapping her feet in the air where they stuck off the bed.

I chuckled again, but a single thought struck me and the laughter quickly died in my throat. Beneath the lingering warmth of our bodies and the afterglow of an earth-shattering orgasm simmering in my veins, I felt like a traitor.

Youarea traitor,I reminded myself, the guilt coiling tighter in my gut.

While Maxine dozed, her eyes closed and her guard lowered, I lay wide awake, grappling with the implications of what we’d done. What I had done.

She had no intention of ever going home, and from the terrified note in her voice when I brought it up, she clearly had a good reason. The more she’d opened up, the more I realized how damning my role in all of this was.

Yet here I was, lying next to her with my dress still bunched at my waist, our ankles hooked and our hair tangling together. I was the one who invited her into my bed. I was the one who kissed her like the world was ending. I was the one falling in love with her all over again.

I was the one suspending a knife over her back.

Every part of me wanted to protect her, wanted to tell her the truth. But the threat of her family loomed too large in the background, a collar tightening around my throat. If I disobeyed them, if I failed to bring Maxine back, who knew what they would do to the only real family I had left?

Her mother and her brother, when they’d turned up at my house that day, hadn’t just threatened me. They’d threatened my grandfather. I saw the damage those claws could do, and the hungry way they sniffed around the house, taking in our scents. Running hadn’t been an option. They could have followed us anywhere.

There was no way to explain the situation to my grandfather either, and he was too old to be uprooted from his home in San Francisco where he’d lived for the past fifty years.

I exhaled shakily, draping an arm over my forehead as I stared at the low ceiling. Maxine stirred, mumbling something incoherent beside me, then settled again.How the hell is she asleep already?I tried not to move, afraid I’d wake her and she’d see the turmoil dancing in my eyes.

How do I make this right?The question plagued me, demanding an answer I didn’t have. My rational side argued that I should distance myself, that indulging in this relationship would only make the betrayal worse when it finally unfolded.But how could I step back now, when her lips were still pressed into my memory, when her touch still lingered on my skin?

I had to find a way out, though I had no idea how. My grandfather was everything to me but… so was Maxine. How could I possibly choose who deserved my loyalty more?

I couldn’t bear to lose her, I realized, a burning ache settling in my chest. Not again, not after what we’d just shared. The prospect of ending things now, of letting her vanish again, tore at my heart in a way that felt violently wrong.

Yet, the ominous shadow of her family stood between us, looming like a menacing figure in the dark.

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