Night Unbound(44)

“I am.”
“Then why were you at David’s? If he had sensed your presence—”
“I was there for you,” Zach interrupted, curling his hands into loose fists to keep from reaching out and touching her. There was something so . . . stimulating about seeing her like this: full of pique and energy and life. “I was there to protect you.”
She blinked. “What?”
“Your mental barriers are no defense against Seth’s or David’s intrusion. If they were to read your thoughts and discover you’ve been meeting with me in secret, I wanted to be there to prevent them from rendering whatever punishment they thought your defection warranted.”
Frogs and crickets competed in song while she stared up at him, lips parted in surprise. “You were there because you were worried about me?”
“Yes.”
More frogs and crickets.
“Zach, if Seth and David had read my mind and decided to punish me, you couldn’t have stopped them. As immensely powerful as you are, I don’t see how you could defeat both Seth and David if they combined forces. And I know they would have. David and Seth are like this.” She held up two fingers and crossed them.
Seth and David were close. But, after everything Zach had seen in the past year, he knew that Seth wouldn’t need to combine forces with David to defeat him.
Something it galled Zach to admit. “It was a risk I was willing to take.”
She threw up her arms. “Why?”
“I already told you. I was worried about you and wished to protect you.”
“Well, you can’t do that,” she declared, confusion flirting with irritation in her features. “You can’t just—”
He took a step closer to her.
She broke off.
He took another. “I want to try something.”
She closed her mouth. Something flared in her incandescent eyes.
He had spoken the same words to her in her dream. Did she remember?
Her throat moved in a swallow. “What?” she asked, voice hesitant.
“I want to try something,” he repeated, mere inches separating them.
“Okay.”
Zach raised a hand to her face, slid his fingers over her soft, soft skin.
Her breath caught.
Dipping his head, he pressed his lips to hers.
Electric.
His heart leapt to life inside his chest, ramming against his rib cage.
Lisette’s heart began to beat as fast as his.
Tilting his head, he increased the pressure, deepened the contact, and drew his tongue across her lips. She tasted incredible . Even better than she had in the dream.
Heat rushed through him when she parted her lips and touched her tongue to his. Looping an arm around her waist, he drew her closer. Every muscle tightened with need as she rose onto her toes and leaned into him. He thrust his tongue into her mouth, wanting more. And she met the intrusion eagerly, returning stroke for stroke.
Zach had never felt anything like it in his long existence.
Fire ignited in his veins as she slid her arms around his neck and ground her hips into the erection that strained against the front of his leather pants.
And he didn’t want it to end.
Breath coming fast, he raised his head.
She stared at him, face flushed with desire.
“You didn’t pull away,” he whispered.
Shaking her head slowly, she smiled. “Are you going to try something else now?”
Zach smiled and, after giving her cheek one last stroke, slid his hand down to palm her breast. Her eyes glowed a brilliant amber, brighter than he had ever seen them. He drew his thumb across a hardened peak.
Moaning, she rocked her hips against his.
Lust careened through him, making him crave more. More of her taste. More of her touch.
As if she had read his thoughts, she buried her fingers in his silky hair and urged him to lower his head again. Their lips merged, tongues stroking and tasting. Emboldened by her response, he tightened his arm around her. Curled his fingers around her braid. Pressed her closer. Kneaded her breast. Explored. Teased. And, with every touch, every lick, and every brush of her soft, full lips, he grew more desperate, wanting to rip the clothes from their bodies and feel her bare flesh against his.
 

 

Lisette lowered her arms and slid them around his waist, intending to explore his broad, muscled back, and encountered satiny feathers.
She broke the kiss, surprised, and lowered her heels to the ground. She had forgotten for a moment. . . .
“Lisette?”
She glanced up.
The need in his golden eyes turned her insides to liquid fire.
“Is it . . . is it okay to touch them?” she asked, unsure.
The beautiful wings disappeared.
“Touch me,” he pleaded.
And any barrier that struggled to hold her back crumbled. Giving him a small smile, she nodded. Touch him? She could do that.