Page 74 of Smoke and Lure

Liekki’s scowl deepened as he cocked his head to the side, still holding her gaze.His finger closed around her two before she’d seen him move.He squeezed.The man had enough strength to break every bone in her fingers, but his hold was firm but not crushing.He also didn’t move her fingers from him.He just held them as if he were trying to keep her from hurting herself or...take away her pain.

She knew she wasn’t imagining the heat building in his palm, surrounding her two aching digits.Instantly, it soothed her, diminishing the throbbing.A part of her, the self-preservation part, told her to pull her hand away.However, the part of her body that wasallllwoman, kept her in place, absorbing his warmth.

“First, Avalore...while my brother is still fucking the stuffing out of his new bride, I am in charge, and every Drahk in our Thunder’s territory knows it.”He moved his hand so that now he was pressing into the back of hers, making it flatten against his chest.

Thump-thump.Thump-thump.

His heart knocked hard against her palm.

Flummoxed, she stumbled closer.

“As for you, my feisty little lure...”

The ruby flame of a moment ago was smothered, and another color kindled: a flicker of blue.It started cyan, blended with the captivatingly beautiful amethyst of Liekki’s eyes, and quickly shifted to a vivid ultramarine...yet it appeared to darken more with each second.

Avalore couldn’t ignore that the darker his flames turned, the wetter she became.

“...until I say otherwise, you are under my protection and command in this territory.”

“What?I don’t want your protection!”She hissed and snatched her hand away.His touch was doing too many strange things to her body.She wasn’t a fool.She understood that her body was responding to the sexy, intense man with one side of his head shaved low and the other side flowing.His long, raven-black hair dared someone to bury their fingers in it.She maneuvered around the mind traps where Liekki was concerned.

“There has to be somewhere else in this big-ass territory I can find shelter.Even if I have to get a job to pay for it...I’m sure the Blacksmith can use an assistant.”

What the hell did she say that for?All she did was piss off the massive man.

She didn’t even have time to retract her foolish taunt before Liekki growled and stooped down, then grabbed her by the back of her thighs right under the hem of her short skirt, his fingers curling along the inside of her thighs, too close to her heat, as he then hoisted her up.

The shock had her flailing her hands out and gripping his shoulders.His muscles bunched tight and rigid, impervious to her nails as she dug for purchase.

In three steps, her backside smacked against the steel tabletop when she found herself deposited on the long table they had been eating on moments before.

In one fell swoop of his arm, Liekki cleared the table, sending platters, plates, and bowls sailing and crashing to the floor.

She screeched at the violence of his actions.The man was unhinged.She needed to get away from him.She began to scoot back, but he gripped the side of her thighs and hauled her forward.

His face was a mask of fury, and there was a savagery to him.However, as she stared into his face where she expected to see crimson flare swallowing his violet irises, she saw sapphire, the same color that began to bleed through the markings on his arms, chest, and down his torso to disappear into his dark pants.The bright coloring made the sharp edges of his lower abdomen chiseled into a more pronounced V.

The urge to trace her fingers over the taut muscles caused her to curl them into her palm.

“You want to play with fire, little lure?I’ll show you just how hot I can burn.”

Fire.Burn.She glanced up and met his gaze.She wanted to shake her head and tell him no, she didn’t want to burn, but her body was already caught in a blaze—a blaze of lust.Her throbbing sex dampened, and she could not hide the two distinct points of her nipples pushing into the material of the shirt.

“Liekki...”

“I can smell your need.”He leaned his head down and whispered in her ear.“If I kneel before you and slide up this short-ass skirt that had every male in here panting to get a glimpse of your pussy, how wet would I find you, little lure?”

Little lure.He never said it like lore...an abbreviation of her name, but pronounced it with a U, as if she were purposely doing something to draw and attract him.He had to stop calling her that.Every time he used the nickname in his husky, nefarious way, it was like he was stroking between her labia, along her slit.The walls of her sex quivered, and the inside of her thighs became slick.

Liekki’s hands clenched and dug into her supple thighs as he hitched her up against the massive imprint of his cock; the hardness seemed to test the zipper of his pants.

It was right where she wanted, all he had to do was grind his stiff length along her clit in just the right way, and she would find an ease to the agonizing tension between her legs.

He lifted a hand and dragged it up under her single braid and brushed the back of his hand over one of her taut nipples as he passed it.

She whimpered.

No man had ever taken such liberties.But she sat there verklempt and couldn’t get her passion-addled brain to formulate the words to ask him to stop.

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