AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I hadn’t seen him move, but he was imperceptibly closer. I could feel the heat radiating off his chest, pressed only an inch from mine. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, you didn’t warn me demons could shape-shift into the appearance of other people. Like you.”
“They can’t shape-shift into just anyone. And I didn’t know the one who was hunting you was that sickfuck.”
He spat the last word with so much venom. His irises had gone super-black, and I knew I was treading on dangerous ground, but some inner demon (pardon the pun) was poking me with a pitchfork and egging me on.
“You didn’t tell me that he wanted me for his bride either. I mean, hell, he got to sample the goods and everything, and I didn’t even know who it was that I was—”
His hands shot out, gripping my upper arms. I swear I saw flames licking around his shoulders, but I didn’t budge. I couldn’t if I tried. His fingers dug into my skin. There would definitely be bruises there tomorrow.
“What did you just say?”
I couldn’t speak.
“Answer me.”
His voice had dipped to that low, gravelly pitch.
Full of trepidation, I could barely whisper when I finally replied, “I thought he was you.”
The storm raging in his eyes stilled. For a fraction of a moment, he held me there in his burning gaze. One hand wrapped the side of my throat, his fingers holding me in a firm but painless grip, his thumb stroking my pulse.
A whimpering sound escaped my lips before I whispered, “Jude.”
He struggled with something, though I didn’t know what. But I was caught in his feral gaze, both afraid and excited at the intensity of his tight expression.
Finally, his brow softened. His grip loosened. Yet there was an edge of danger flaring between us, igniting to a melting point.
The hand at my neck came up and tucked a loose lock of hair behind my ear. Slow and steady. I felt as if I’d been burned where his finger traced along my skin. Pleasantly so.
The same arm suddenly snaked around my waist, his hand pressed at the small of my back, pulling me flush against him. I gasped. The other hand dropped my arm, gripping my hip instead. His thumb pressed against my pelvic bone. I resisted the urge to squirm. He dipped close to my ear, his breath hot against my neck.
“Hold on tight, Genevieve,” he whispered, pressing me hard against his body. His lip grazed the sensitive shell of my ear. A warm tingle bloomed between my legs. “I wouldn’t want to lose you in the Void.”
“Wha-what?”
My brain had stopped functioning for a second. The exquisite torture of his body against mine had caused all circuits to misfire. Then I realized what he meant a split second before it happened.
All the air was sucked from my lungs. I wrapped my arms around his neck. A soft pressure seemed to fold me inward, pressing me into an enveloping darkness. We slipped fast, so fast, through a black void. Not all black. Unidentifiable images flitted in flashes of white and gray. I had no idea what they were. Feeling the onset of motion sickness, I squeezed my eyes shut and clung to Jude. I felt the pressure of his unrelenting grip. Caged in muscular arms, I felt safe, despite the unnerving sensation of weightlessness as we crashed through time and space.
A soft whoosh, pressure gone, and all was still. I realized then I was panting with my forehead pressed into the center of Jude’s collarbone.
“Breathe, Genevieve,” he said huskily, brushing a firm hand up my spine. “You’re home now.”
I opened my eyes. We were standing next to my bed in my apartment, my beige goose-down comforter half hanging off the bed. Some of my clothes were junked in a pile, including the last T-shirt of his I’d borrowed. I still clasped him around his neck, fingers laced at his nape, my body pressed intimately to his. I let go at once, stumbling back awkwardly.
A crooked smile spread across Jude’s perfect face.
“Why don’t you give me some warning next time?”
“I did. I told you to hold on.” Still smirking.
“More than three seconds’ warning, please,” I said in a syrupy voice with a wide smile.
His smile smoldered, heat returning to his gaze. “Do you have class tomorrow?”
I shook my head, finding it hard to swallow when he looked at me like that. “I work at the dojo in the afternoon.”
