Anya Bast - Witch Heart

"A bored Atrika is a dangerous Atrika ."

"Any kind of Atrika is a dangerous Atrika ."

Falling into silence, they walked through a copse of trees in the darkening twilight. Leaves crunched under their shoes and their breath showed in the cool evening air.

Claire caught her breath as the view emerged.

Adam came to a stop beside her. "The bluff overlooking the Mississippi."

"It's gorgeous."

Adam had known what she'd needed more. All he'd had to do was touch her power and he'd understood her better than anyone else had in a long time. She closed her eyes for a moment and inhaled deeply. "You really do know how to heal people."

"That's my thing, strangely enough. Odd skill to have in such a destructive element." The edge of his mouth crooked upward. "Healing is my greatest strength. Thomas would say my greatest strength is demolition and I'm pretty good at that, too, but healing? Yeah, that's really my thing."

She stared at him for a long moment, looking past the surface of the personality he put on display and straight into the center of him. Claire tipped her head to the side. "So you heal everyone but yourself?"

His slight smile faded and he shifted a little. "Everyone's got wounds."

She redirected her gaze to stare out over the bluffs. "True, but some people's are deeper than others."

He jerked his gaze away from her. "Mine aren't."

She didn't believe him.

The sun sank below the horizon, tangling the sky in hues of red, orange, purple, and yellow until full dark settled over them.

"Maybe this place can be beautiful after all," she murmured.

"Claire?"

She turned toward him and opened her mouth to answer, but he pulled her up against his chest and settled his lips over hers.

Her breath rushed out of her at the slow, erotic drag of his mouth across hers.

Adam didn't kiss her, not at first, he just rubbed his lips compellingly against hers. Slow. Thoroughly. Like he was about to devour her, but was biding his time. Tasting. Savoring.

Making her crazy.

Her fingers curled into the fabric of his shirt at the shoulders and she held on for dear life as his sensual assault on her mouth continued. His kiss alone promised wonder in bed. Her breath hitched a little in her throat. Then he slanted his mouth across hers and really kissed her.

Claire's toes curled in her shoes.

His teeth raked her bottom lip and her lips parted for him. She allowed her tongue to softly brush his, but the slight touch seemed to make him crazy. Adam crushed her to him and kissed her deeper, until his kiss drove all thought from her mind.

He slipped his hand beneath the hem of her shirt and massaged the small of her back with one strong hand, then brought it up to finger the clasp of her bra.

He broke the kiss and rested his forehead against hers, breathing heavily. "I want you, Claire."

"For the last few days, I thought I'd done something to repulse you." Her voice held a quaver.

He laughed, a raw, gravelly sound. "Like I said, I'm too attracted to you. That's the problem."

"I don't see any problem. I'm attracted to you, you to me. We've got time to kill. We're both of consenting age. I've gotten over my fears that Rue will rip your head from your neck. Where's the problem?"

"You don't care if my head is ripped from my neck?"

She pretended to think. "Well, maybe a little. You wouldn't be able to give me those incredible kisses if you had no head."

He chuckled a little and then stared down at her for a long moment, his face shadowed in the half light. "Let's go back to the house. I think we have some unfinished business."

By the time they got back, the house was dark save for the spill of light under Theo's bedroom door. Adam had taken her by the wrist as soon as they'd cleared the front steps and she practically had to jog to keep up with his steady progress toward their room. If Theo had been standing in their way, Adam probably would have just run him down.

Once inside the room, he bustled her past the mattress on the floor to his bed. He flipped on the bedside light as soon as they got there.

She flipped it off.

He flipped it on again.

When she went to turn it off once more, he reached out and caught her hand, kissing her fingertips. "Uh, uh," he murmured. "I want to see you, every beautiful inch."

Her cheeks heated, but contentment flared through her.

He knelt on the floor between her spread legs and pushed the hem of her shirt upward, kissing over her stomach as he went. Finally, her shirt was gone and he drew a sharp breath.

She was clad in only her bra, a pretty pink lace one that she'd bought on their shopping expedition the first day. It pushed her breasts upward and showed her nipples through the filmy fabric. She'd purchased it because she'd never in her life owned something so feminine.

Adam looked like he wanted to gnaw it off her.

He drew his finger over the plump swell of one breast, then brushed his knuckles over her nipple through the fabric. She shuddered in pleasure and her nipple instantly pebbled. Farther down, her sex reacted.

"Pretty," he murmured, then lifted a brow. "Wonder what else is?" He dropped his hands to the button and zipper of her jeans and made quick work of them. When he slid her pants down and off her, along with her shoes and socks, he found the matching panties.

He made quick work of those, too.

She gasped in surprise when he spread her thighs and the cool air of the room bathed her sex.

"So fucking pretty," he murmured, staring down at her. He held her spread with a hand to each thigh. Then he leaned in and breathed over her.

She trembled with pleasure, her hands fisting in the blankets on either side of her. He rose then and kissed her. At the same time, he pushed her onto her back with the pressure of his mouth. His clothing rubbed roughly against her bare skin, sending shivers through her.

There was something very erotic about being nude while he was clothed, but that didn't change the fact she wanted him naked. She pulled at his shirt.

"Let me touch you, look at you," he murmured against her mouth. "We have time. There's no rush. Let me savor you."

His hand planed her thigh slowly, spreading her once more for him. He kissed his way down her body, over her collarbone, then over the swell of her breasts still in the pretty pink bra. He ran the tip of his tongue down her solar plexus, dipped it into her belly button, dragged it over the swell of her stomach.

Finally he pinned her thighs to the bed with his two broad, strong hands and kissed her between them.

"Adam!" she gasped, her body jerking off the mattress in a combination of acute arousal and utter shock.

He raised his head. His eyes were heavy lidded with lust. "What's wrong?"

"What are you doing?"

"I'm going down on you, Claire. I wanted to see if you taste as sweet as you look, and you do. Better. I want more."

His voice was a silken snare, roughened velvet. His own passion rolled off him in intoxicating waves.

Houses, she hadn't been wrong when she'd thought he looked ready to devour her.

"Don't tell me Ty never did this to you."

She shook her head, cheeks heating. Claire didn't think daaeman did this at all. It was like what Adam had done to her in her erotic dream.

"Lie back, Claire. Relax. Let me enjoy you." He yanked her down an inch, forcing her to recline. With a firm grip on her thighs, he kept her spread and open to his devilish lips and tongue. If she had wanted to move, which she didn't, she wasn't sure she'd be able to. She was essentially at his mercy… and it excited her.

His lips worked over her, weaving an intimate dark magick that she'd never before experienced. He nibbled on her labia, drawing them between his lips. He slid his tongue against her clit, which had fully plumped out from its hood, pouting for attention.