Page 6 of Emerald Rising
Chapter 3
EMMY
Who were these guys? They were insane! I mean, who licks a girl’s hand and then kisses her? It doesn’t matter if he’s one of the hottest guys ever, no sane person does that. The one that had kissed me, River, was lifting his shirt and looking at the stab wound. Wow, his torso was sexy. All dips and planes and that V… Nope. Wasn’t looking. I wasn’t letting my eyes feast on the dark intricate lines of the tattoos that covered his skin. They didn’t make my mouth water. Not one little bit. They were crazy. No, I was crazy. Oh, god. Had I cut my hand too deeply and this was all a dream? Was I actually dying of blood loss in the real world?
No, that wasn’t possible. Okay. Deep breath. In and out. In and out. In and –
Ah, fudgenugget. That wasn’t helping. I was still hysterical. Still staring at River’s torso like I wanted to lick it and still crapping my pants because I was alone, with three hot men, who just appeared from nowhere, standing in my lounge like it was the most natural thing in the world. They were all tall, way taller than my petite stature. Blaze was the tallest and the most intimidating to look at. He had shimmering silver eyes and shoulder-length hair, almost as white as the moon in a clear bright sky, glowing with an ethereal light. His hair was as white as mine was dark. I hated my hair; my thick black waves were so devoid of colour that it reminded me of an empty canvas. But that was me. I was the canvas that no one had wanted to fill in.
River turned his eyes back on me and I flinched. He really did look annoyed. His red eyes glowed in the low light and I suddenly felt like prey. Oh, god. Why did that make my skin crawl with anticipation? At least he’d covered his abs back up, which was a shame, but probably for the best. They were far too distracting.
“How’s your hand?” he ground out.
I looked down at it, expecting to see an open wound but all I could see was some flecks of dried blood and a faint pink line where I’d cut myself. “It’s healed. How did you do that?”
“I licked it,” River replied with a snarl. Oh, boy. I think I really upset him when I stabbed him. I did feel a little guilty about that, but it served him right for thinking he could kiss me. It didn’t matter that I’d wanted him to, that I’d enjoyed his mouth on my hand more than I cared to admit, or that I was silently wishing he’d do it all over again; you don’t just kiss a girl you met five seconds ago.
A lock of his thick black hair had fallen onto his brow and it just made him look sexier. He looked dishevelled and I wondered if that was what he looked like when he got out of bed in the morning. This was beyond crazy.
His nostrils flared as he stared down at me and I gulped. I couldn’t decide whether he wanted to eat me or fuck me. I didn’t know which was worse. There was so much hunger burning in his gaze that I was suddenly very afraid and very turned on.
He took another step toward me but Ash and Blaze both stuck a hand out to stop him.
“Let’s give Emmy a moment or two to collect herself,” Ash said in a deep, pleasurable tone. His voice was like honey. It clung to my senses and pulled my attention to him. He was perfection. Blonde hair, piercing blue eyes and a smile that made my insides melt. The light caught on a little sliver of silver shining across his lip and my stomach flip-flopped. Oh, my. He had a lip ring. His face was that of an angel, but that little silver ring spoke of a deviousness that had my pulse racing. I wanted to feel it on my skin as his mouth learnt the curves of my body and my mind was suddenly wondering what other little devious things he had hidden beneath the surface.
“Thank you,” I replied weakly. I really did need a moment to take a breath. This was all a bit much. I needed a drink. And it needed to be a strong one.
I stood up on shaky legs and walked over to the cabinet at the far side of the room. I pulled out the decanter and a glass and gave myself a liberal three finger measure of whiskey. I downed it in one. My nerves were so frazzled. Who were these men and why did they look like they’d stepped off a cover of some fashion magazine?
I’d never found myself in such company before. I was a relatively good girl. Yes, I still had some vices, but I had never found myself under the gaze of three very handsome, very bad-looking boys. They had my skin tingling and my body shivering, and it was insane how easily I found myself attracted to them. Like there was a connection between the three of us. I could feel it pulsing right beneath my solar plexus. It pulled me towards them, made me want to stare at them, covet them and own them. Urgh. What was wrong with me?
I poured myself another whiskey and took another deep breath. Not that it seemed to do anything to help my poor, frazzled nerves. I needed to find out who these men were, where they came from and what they were doing in my bloody lounge.
I lifted the glass to my lips but froze when I felt a breath caress the back of my neck. I spun around and gave a little yelp. Blaze was standing barely an inch from me, those strange silver eyes staring down at me with an intensity I couldn’t decipher. Hunger? Rage? A combination of both?
In my shock, the whiskey glass fell from my fingers, but before it hit the ground, Blaze caught it nimbly between his fingers.
“G… Good reflexes,” I stammered.
Something about this guy made me nervous. Out of the three of them, he was the one who scared me the most. He didn’t speak, didn’t give away any emotion, just stood there brooding and looking at me like he couldn’t decide what to do with me. He looked lethal. His shirt stretched across his chest like it was fighting to keep his body encased in the material. His arms were massive and his thighs… Oh, god. They were huge.
I reached out to take my whiskey glass back, but he pulled it away and turned it to the spot where the faint outline of my lip gloss had stained the glass. He took a slow sip from the exact spot where I had drunk from the glass. Watching him drink it shouldn’t be hot. But my core did a little pulse at the way his throat bobbed when he swallowed. He kept his eyes on me and it was like time slowed and nothing existed outside this moment. When he finished, he handed me the glass back with a wolfish grin curling one corner of his mouth.
“You have good taste,” he said in a deep soul-rumbling voice. His tongue flicked across the seam of his lips and I shamelessly tracked the motion. Wait. Was he talking about the whiskey or my lip gloss?
Before I could get a chance to ask, he wandered back to the other two and I had a chance to admire his butt as he walked away from me. There must be something seriously wrong with me if I was admiring a stranger who looked like he could murder me a thousand different ways.
I needed to get my head in the game here because I was one step away from declaring myself insane and getting myself committed. I needed answers and I needed them now.
