Argeneau Family 12. The Renegade Hunter(61)

When his eyes blinked open in surprise, Jo whispered, "I'm hungry too," and then kissed him, her hips shifting against him in demand. A sigh slid from his mouth to hers and then Nicholas began to kiss her, his arms enveloping her and his hips beginning to move, withdrawing and then thrusting into her again and again until the world shattered around them and they fell into the gentle darkness waiting for them.





Jo woke up to find herself splayed on the table like some sort of human sacrifice. Her body was sated but a bit chill, her legs were hanging off the table, dangling in the air, and Nicholas was nowhere in sight. Frowning, she sat up, drawing the robe around her as she did, and started to slip off the table, nearly stepping on Nicholas. Pausing abruptly, she teetered on the edge of the table and gaped at the man lying slumped on the floor at her feet.

"Nicholas?" she said with alarm, and managed to drop to the cool tile surface without stepping on him. Jo then knelt at his side and reached for his face. The moment her palm touched his cheek, Nicholas rolled over, his eyes opening.

"Oh, hello," he mumbled sleepily, reaching for her head and drawing her down as if to kiss her, but Jo resisted.

Pressing against his chest, she took in his eyes and coloring, trying to see what had happened to put him on the floor. "What happened? Are you all right?"

Nicholas chuckled at her concern and sat up. He pressed a quick kiss to her lips before shifting to get to his feet and drew her up with him.

"Maybe you shouldn't get up," Jo said fretfully as they straightened. "You seemed to have passed out or something and—"

"I'm fine," he interrupted her soothingly. "I just fainted."

"Fainted?" she asked with dismay, clutching at his hands. "Are you short of blood or something? Do you need to feed? We can—"

"Jo, it's all right. It's perfectly normal. I'm fine," Nicholas repeated.

"Normal?" she echoed with disbelief. "It's not normal to faint, Nicholas. It's—"

"It is for life mates when they make love," he said patiently, and Jo stilled. She stared at him blankly for a minute, then glanced to the table where she'd woken up and realized that she'd rather blacked out after…

"Oh," she said weakly, but glanced back to him with uncertainty. "Why?"

Nicholas hesitated, and then said, "I'll explain while we eat."

Jo opened her mouth to insist he explain now, but the rumbling of her stomach changed her mind. Nodding, she moved to the microwave and checked the pizza inside. Enough time had passed that the slices she'd heated were room temperature again. Clucking her tongue, she put them on for another minute and then picked up the wineglasses and glanced to the table. Just looking at the damned thing brought back memories of what they'd done there, and she felt her body responding to those memories.

"Maybe we'll eat in the living room," she muttered.

"This time," Nicholas murmured, eyes flashing silver as he took the wineglasses from her.

Jo flushed at the naughty glint in his eye, her body tingling with remembered pleasure, and when he bent to press a kiss to her lips, she opened for him at once and started to raise her arms to slide them around his neck.

"Food first," he growled, withdrawing quickly from her reach. "Food, and then talk."

Jo watched him walk out of the kitchen, a little sigh slipping from her lips. At that moment she didn't care if she ever ate again. She just wanted to feel Nicholas's body against and in hers again. She wanted…

The microwave beeped, announcing that it was done, and Jo gave her head a shake and turned to it thinking that Nicholas was like a drug. She couldn't seem to get enough of him. Sighing, she retrieved the pizza slices from the microwave, divided them between the two plates, and carried them out to the living room.

Nicholas had set the wineglasses on the coffee table and settled on the couch before it. Jo dropped to sit beside him, and then handed him one of the plates and settled in to eat. While she would have been happy to bypass eating moments ago in the kitchen, now that the smell of pizza was wafting under her nose, she was more eager to feed herself… first. It had been quite a while since she'd had that breakfast with Bricker and Anders, and she was really quite hungry.

Jo might have been hungry, but Nicholas was absolutely ravenous. He seemed to almost inhale the slice of pizza and had finished it before she had finished even half of hers. With a little direction, he managed to warm up the next two pieces and brought them out to the living room just as she finished her first piece. Jo had three slices before stopping. Nicholas was on his sixth piece when she set her plate down and turned to him expectantly.