Page 50 of Veil of Blood and Bone

Chapter 10

Forest

She’ll be like cream on my lips, and I’ll lap up every drop. The brush of her tongue to mine carries the weight of fate.

I didn’t plan to hunt her down for this.

I wanted to ask her why I knew her, if I’ve been a part of her existence before—and how many of them—but this...

My thumb scrapes across the hardness of her nipple, massaging her breast. This works too.

Helene rocks along my thigh and arches her hips, the pace insistent, needy. Eager.

Oh, to taste her.

I’ll claim this woman with my mouth and my hands and thrust inside her, mark her. She claws at my wool sweater to keep me close.

I circle her waist with an arm and haul her closer to me while she rides my upper leg.

“That’s it, little shieldmaiden,” I mutter against her overheated skin, nipping her chin. “That’s right.”

Once she comes, I’ll pick her up, and I’ll feast on her. She’ll use the shelves for leverage and lock her legs around my face. I’ll suffocate in her, gladly.

I want her coming.

I want to watch the way her face blushes and bliss turns her body molten. Will she throw her head back and cry her pleasure to the gods? In honor and sacrifice to them?

I can practically feel her clenching around me.

She circles her hips on my thigh with a groan in her throat, rumbling through her and into me. “Yes, yes.”

She lifts her gaze to mine and our eyes lock. I’m distantly aware of her tongue darting out to lick her lips. The intent of the moment transforms her eyes to a tawny shade of gold and green and brown. There’s no hiding what she craves.

The ambush was my idea, but one word from her, a single no, would have stopped me in my tracks and damned me. But my memory of her from last night is clear in my head. Helene and I know each other.

When? Why? How?

“Come for me,” I grunt, gripping her waist again.

She increases the pace, the friction, moaning out her yes with every forward glide. I drop my face to the side of her neck and trail kisses to her chin before dragging my teeth to her skin.

It takes a long moment to realize the lights overhead have dimmed. The fluorescent, candle shaped bulbs nestled in the sockets of the tarnished chandelier fade and the rest of the room goes gloomy.

I steal another smooch. “Come, Helene.”

She’s close. Her scent changes. Her eyes go heavy lidded and she grips my shoulders for purchase.

Instead of heating up, frost crawls across the shelves, up the walls, ivy seeking anchorage. It steals the last bits of warmth from the room and when I break the kiss, white fog gusts from Helene’s mouth.

She searches my face as glass breaks at the front of the store. “Forest?”

I clutch at her, drawing her into the safety of my body. A cutting wind rips through the open main door. Energy shifts, changes, charging along well-worn paths inside, and I go still.

“What’s happening?”

The draft picks up, and I set her aside, pleasure forgotten. “Stay here.”

I stride toward the display windows and her sister’s terrified squeaks. They travel on the cruel breeze and slide like needles into my brain.