Page 46 of Stalk the Dark
Thwack.
My breath twisted in my chest.
Thwack.
His muffled groan made my core contract.
And then he moaned, this sound more pleasure than pain, and the breath I’d been holding escaped from my lips in a sharp exhale.
He stilled.
I froze, internally cursing myself for being a nosy cow and opening the damn door.
He turned his head, offering me his shadowy profile. His dark hair was damp, probably with sweat, and falling across his forehead, strands sticking to his cheekbones. His throat bobbed, and when he spoke, his voice was a defeated rasp. “Do you make a habit of walking into people’s rooms?”
My face burned with shame. “I’m sorry. So sorry.”
He snorted and turned away. “Get out.” He didn’t need to raise his voice for the words to act like a punch to the chest.
I backed out of the room, closing the door softly before leaning against it, heart battering my ribs.
This was not my problem. Not my business. But it would be a while before I managed to get the image of him on the ground out of my head and even longer before the sound of his moan of pleasure stopped echoing in my ears.
Sleep wasa reluctant bed partner that night. The urge to run, to be out in the night, to patrol was an itch beneath my skin. I worked out doing push-ups, jumping jacks, and sit-ups until my body ached. Until the image of Hemlock’s naked back, rippling with muscle and painted in silver scars finally released its grip on my mind’s eye.
When sleep did come, it dragged me into fitful dreams of stone rooms and marble floors, of whispers down long corridors—the playground for ominous shadows.
“Orina, this way…”Ezekiel beckoned me forward, and I realized I was in his castle. An area I’d never seen before, one my mind was fabricating.“This way, come…”
I followed his voice into a silver-kissed room where drapes billowed and shadows writhed behind the gauzy curtains of a four-poster bed. The soft pile of a luscious carpet cushioned my soles as I drifted forward, skin pebbling with the chill trickling in from the open window.
Closer. I needed to see.
Silk caressed my fingertips as I drew back the curtain, and the scent of sex hit me hard. Two women lay entwined, long, slender limbs wrapped about oneanother in a love-drunk embrace while they leisurely explored each other.
Heat unfurled like questing fingers low in my belly, reaching for my core. The women kissed deeply, devouring each other for long, aching seconds before turning their ember eyes on me. No…not on me, on something behind me.
I felt the chill of his body a moment before he wrapped an arm around my waist. His other hand went to my throat, curling around it and cradling it.
“Hello, Orina, so nice of you to join us,” Ezekiel said, lips brushing my ear. Heat spiraled though me from the contact. “Mmmm, you like this…” The curtains on the bed blew open to reveal the women, head to toe now as they worked each other with mouths and tongues. “Do you like the way it makes you feel?” He squeezed my throat gently, while his hand around my waist slipped down to the juncture of my thighs.
I wanted it. I wanted to be touched. But not by him.
“Don’t…” My voice trembled.
“You don’t sound so sure.” He cupped me through my sleep shorts, applying pressure with his long fingers, and I couldn’t help but offer him my hips.
His laugh was breathless and delighted. “Oh, yes. So responsive. Shall we test how much?” He slipped his hand into my waistband, fingers inching over my pubic bone down to the epicenter of my arousal, throbbing, wanting. Needing.
I wanted to be touched. To feel that sweet release, but not this dream. Not with him.
I needed to wake up.
Needed to wake up right now?—
I sat up in bed gasping, blood pounding in my head and throbbing between my legs, the need to come a tight spiral inside me. I slipped my hands into my shorts. Fuck, I was wet. Ready. Yes, oh fuck…I bit down on my bottom lip, chasing that feeling, that sweet crest that came just before release. It hit hard, lifting my hips off the mattress and holding me there, tense and quivering, for a beat before releasing me.
I lay there for long minutes after, heart thudding so hard I was sure the world could hear it.
