Bewitch(31)

“Why did you agree to do this with me?” She had never felt so nervous about posing a question. She stood before him, naked and shivering, afraid that he would tell her he had done it to further his connection to his inner incubus so he could get the ring.
He smiled and her heart missed a beat. “Because I wanted you. Simple as that. You’re beautiful.”
Those words warmed her but couldn’t fully chase away the chill gradually stealing into her soul. She smiled and took his hand, and led him from the shower.
“Why did you want to do this with me?” he said and she looked over her shoulder at him, and then raked her gaze over his gorgeous body. Did he really need to ask?
She smiled properly.
“Because I wanted to get into your pants.”
He grinned and gave her a look that said he had known her reason all along.
She tossed a towel at him and dried herself off. When she was done and he had finished too, she took hold of his hand again, her nerves returning. This was probably going to be one step too far but she was chilly from the shower and sharing body heat sounded like a really great idea to her.
She led Payne to the bed and drew the dark covers back. Payne smacked her backside and she gasped.
“I get the right side.”
She frowned at him. He was calling a side of the bed? Someone had certainly made himself comfortable in her home. She realised that the right side of the bed meant he would have to walk around it. She could go along with that.
He set off and Elissa stood there, barely resisting her need to sigh as she watched his cute behind as he walked. The man did have the body of a god. A sex god. Purr.
He hopped onto the bed, reached over and grabbed her arm, pulling her down onto it with him. He threw the covers over them both and kissed her breathless.
“You think this will work?” he said and lay back, dragging her with him.
Elissa settled into his side, her head on his chest and his right arm around her. She hooked her right leg over both of his and placed her hand on his chest. His heart was thumping. She smiled. She had enjoyed that kiss too. It had felt different to the passionate ones they had shared in the heat of the moment.
“We’ll find out soon enough.” She closed her eyes and listened to his steady heart. Strong. Powerful. Just like the rest of him.
That kiss had felt too good.
Elissa focused on Payne. Being held like this by him felt too good too.
She wasn’t sure what she was going to do now.
This had started out as a game, a way of satisfying her curiosity about him, but she could see now that she was attracted to him, and that was a dangerous thing.
She’d had her one night with him.
Her head said to explain to him about Luca in the morning and let him go alone to retrieve the boy and the ring from Arnaud.
Her heart said to go with him and relish every second that she had with him, no matter how dangerous it was to allow herself to fall for him.
Elissa looked up at him, watching him sleeping, his face soft and relaxed. Beautiful.
She was already in too deep to walk away.
She wanted to be with Payne.
Even if it meant dancing with danger.
Even if it meant risking ruin and death.            







 
    Dark and Deadly: Eight Bad Boys of Paranormal Romance by Jennifer Ashley, Alyssa Day, Felicity Heaton, Erin Kellison, Laurie London, Erin Quinn, Bonnie Vanak and Caris Roane
    
 


 
CHAPTER 9
Payne woke alone with the fall of darkness, deeply sated and a little sore. He stretched out beneath the blue satin sheets and settled his hands behind his head, unable to remember the last time he had woken feeling so relaxed or the last time he had slept through the day like the dead. Normally he woke several times in the daylight hours. He hadn’t stirred once while Elissa had been tucked against his side, warming him with her soft body, her palm resting on the centre of his chest and her breath skating over his skin. He had fallen asleep to the sound of her steady heartbeat, counting each one, thinking about everything they had done and the things he had confessed. What did she think of him now?
There had been sympathy in her silvery eyes, and she had held him so close to her, tighter than anyone had held him in his long weary life. The feel of her arms around him, and the warm emotions flowing through her, had stripped away his strength and left him shaking right down to his bones. He had wanted to stay there with her in that shower, resting on her shoulder, letting her compassion wash over him and carry away the pain. He had wanted to forget it all in her arms, hoping to find a way to reinvent himself as something better, something she would look at with affection rather than pity.
The sound of a page flipping came from the other room. Elissa. Leafing through her books. When had she risen?