Синтия Иден - Midnight Sins

“Tell me,” she said, her voice husky. “I need the words.” She craved them. It made the dream more real.

“I want to taste your breasts. Lick your nipples.”

Her breasts ached with need. Too sensitive. She arched toward him. “Do it.” A challenge.

His back rose from the bed. His lips closed hungrily around her left nipple. Sucked hard. Licked.

Bit. A light, sweet bite.

Cara shuddered and rubbed her sex over his cock. The slick cream from her core covered his thick length. The wet heat made it so easy for her sex to slide over his erection.

And it would be so easy to take him inside.

His mouth was on her other breast now. Wild. Desperate. Licking and sucking and the rough rasp of his tongue felt so good. She pressed her breast closer to him, wanting more.

Needing everything from him.

“Wh-what else?” The words were gasped. Her sex throbbed with need. Her entire body seemed to vibrate with tension and sensual hunger.

It had been too long since she’d fed from a man’s release—and known the fierce pleasure of her own. “What else…do you want?”

His head lifted, lips wet with a soft sheen of moisture. The look in his eyes caught her breath. “I want you spread beneath me.”

She lifted slightly on her knees. His hands still held her hips. The fingers of his right hand were just below the half-moon birthmark on her left side. She rose a few inches higher, breaking the flesh-on-flesh contact of their sexes. Cara gazed down at her body. At the ivory skin. The light hair that shielded her sex. Then her gaze drifted to his body. Golden skin. Rippling muscles. Thick, full cock. She licked her lips. “What about above you?”

His gaze dropped. His eyes narrowed as he stared at her sex and his lips parted. “I want to taste you.”

She could all too readily imagine the warm swipe of his tongue on her flesh. “That’s just—”

A sharp, shrieking cry erupted in the room.

Cara jumped in surprise.

Todd swore.

The damn phone .

The dream connection began to fade as the phone rang again, and its piercing call pulled Todd closer and closer to reality.

And farther away from her.

Saved by the bell, again. Cara’s lips tightened. More like screwed by the damn bell.

She climbed from the bed. Her body ached with unfulfilled need, even as the demon greedily lapped up the sensual currents still permeating the air.

Put him back under . He can’t fight you in the dream state. A dark, insidious voice whispered in her mind. Finish. Take your pleasure. Give the man his.

His hand snaked out, caught her wrist in a steely grip. “Stay with me.”

A reluctant shake of her head. “That’s not how it works.”

The phone pealed again, the sound even louder as it broke the veil of fantasy.

His eyes seemed so aware as he gazed at her. Hunger and need raged in those dark depths. She wasn’t certain just how aware he was of what was happening between them. Did he sense that it was so much more than just an erotic dream?

“You need to be careful.” It was the woman who spoke, fighting back the demon’s snarling demand and her dark wishes. “I’m not who”— what —“you think I am.”

His fingers tightened around her. “Then tell me who you really are.”

Her lips curled as the phone shrieked again. “Lover,” he could have been, “I’m not even human.”

A final demanding cry from the phone swept away the dream and carried her spirit back to her body.

I’m not even human .

Todd’s eyes shot open and he reached for the phone, nearly knocking the nightstand onto the floor. “Damn it, what ?” A bleary look at his bedside clock showed that he’d managed to sleep for two hours this time. Two whole fucking hours.

And screw it to hell, but he’d been enjoying that dream. Or at least, he had until Cara had whispered her little secret at the end. Just what in the hell had that been about? How fucked up was his subconscious? First the damn wolf nightmares—the fucking claws and teeth—and now this shit.

Couldn’t a guy just have a good sex dream anymore?

“Ah, Detective?” The rough, slightly arrogant tone had him slapping a hand to his forehead.

Captain Danny McNeal. Aw, hell.

“Is this a bad time for you, Detective?” Annoyed now—and it really didn’t pay to annoy the captain.

“Sorry, Captain. I was…” fantasizing , having almost unbelievable sex …“sleeping.”

A grunt. “Well, Sleeping Beauty, if you can manage to drag your ass down to the station—”

His back teeth clenched. Drag his ass. Fucking nice. He’d worked most of the night to protect the people of Atlanta. He deserved to let his ass get some sleep now.

“—Smith has some info on your case.”

Now that had him finally snapping to full wakefulness. “Be right there.” But he was talking to the dial tone because McNeal had already hung up on him.

Bastard.

Todd met Colin on the steps of the precinct. His only consolation was that his partner looked like shit. Exactly the way he felt.

Smith’s timing could have been a hell of a lot better.

Or, depending on the victim’s perspective, he guessed it could have been worse.

But he knew the rules. The case came first. Then sleep.

As long as he could function adequately at his job and not jeopardize any civilians, well, he was good to go.

He and Colin rode the elevator silently down to the Crypt. The Crypt was Smith’s domain. It housed the medical examiner’s office as well as all the cold slabs, so the place always chilled him to the bone.

When the elevator doors slid open, he expected to hear the usual soft strains of Smith’s jazz music, but, instead, a heavy, thick silence filled the air.

Colin hesitated. “Maybe you should talk to her alone.” His face was tense, lips tight. “I don’t…know if she’s ready to see me yet.”

Now that was damn odd. As far as Todd knew, Colin had rescued Smith from that psycho who’d taken her.

At his raised brow, Colin said, “Bad memories, you know? She just got back, I don’t want to stir anything up for her.” The man looked seriously uncomfortable.

“You haven’t talked to her since she’s been working in the Crypt again?” Todd had gone down the first day to check in with the good doctor. She’d seemed quiet, her face a bit too tense, but otherwise, she’d appeared just fine.

Colin gave a curt shake of his head. “Not yet.”

“Well, hell, man, there’s no time like the present.” He sauntered down the small hallway, grabbed the handle of the door, and opened it with a quick pull. “After you.”

Colin lifted his chin. Marched forward. “Damn it, I don’t want her to freak out.”

Yeah, well, Smith had never really struck him as the “freak out” type. More the serious, smart, and very-much-together genius type.

Colin entered the Crypt first, then Todd swept inside behind him, calling out, “Smith! We’re here—”

She stepped out from behind a row of filing cabinets. Her dark gaze immediately went to his partner, and a tremble seemed to roll over her entire body.

“ Smith! ” He lunged forward, certain that the ME was about to faint.

Colin beat him to her. He grabbed Smith, holding her easily and then pushing her down into a nearby chair. “Easy.”

She sucked in a deep gulp of air. Her skin, light, creamy brown, had completely healed from the attack. The bruises had faded. The scratches and cuts had healed. Smith looked like her old self. Gorgeous face. Exotic eyes. Hair dark as night.

But the fear that he saw lurking in those dark eyes, that was new. Before, Smith hadn’t been afraid of a damn thing.