Page 292 of Dragon Slayer

They moved at the same time; he pushed off the door, and she started forward, and they met in the center of the floor, reaching. She pressed her hands to his chest. He was underweight, and still shaky, but her impression was of the warmth of his skin bleeding through the thin material of his shirt, his pectorals lightly muscled against her palms.Vampire, she thought, half-dazed. Healthier and more resilient than any human could have been in his circumstances.

He curled one hand loosely around the side of her throat, cupped her cheek with the other. Gentle, like she was made of glass.

His thumb moved feather-light beneath her eye, his gaze flicking back and forth across her face. Drinking her in – there was no other way to interpret it. But he hesitated. She read the tension in his face; felt the tremor in his fingertips. Holding back.

“Val,” she whispered. “It’s okay.”

He exhaled in a rush, breath warm across her face, ducked down and kissed her.

Her eyes fluttered shut at the last moment, and it narrowed her world down to sensation. The racing of his heart under her hand. The softness of his lips against hers, slightly damp from his tongue. The flicker of his long lashes on her cheeks, press of his nose.

It felt like a very first kiss. Like something out of a storybook.

But unlike her first kiss, she wasn’t a sweaty-palmed kid, and she knew what to do. What shewantedfrom this. From him.

She leaned into him with her whole body, and opened her mouth under his.

He hesitated just a moment longer, trying to be so gentle, the pads of his fingers warm and soft on her face. And then he groaned and slipped his tongue into her mouth.

She’d read somewhere before that the quality of a kiss didn’t have anything to do with lips and teeth and tongues; it waswhoyou were kissing that made it electrifying. And oh, did she ever understand that now. Because this? This was exquisite.

In a graceful stumble, they ended up on the closed lid of a tack trunk, Val sitting down and Mia straddling his lap.

He clutched at her hair, at the sleeves of her shirt. Pressed a line of wet, decadent kisses along her jaw to the soft patch of skin beneath her ear. Breathing raggedly, chest heaving under her hands. “Mia. God. I…” He opened his mouth against her throat and breathed. She felt the faintest scrape of teeth.

Fear. That’s what she should have felt. He was a vampire, and he drank blood to live, and she felt the barest edge of a fang gliding along her pulse point.

Call it love, call it madness, but she wasn’t afraid. She slid her hands up his neck and cupped the back of his head, held him to her.

“I want you,” he murmured, and his voice was a big cat purr. “I want…God, I wanteverything.”

Her neck felt weak, like she might swoon. Her sports bra was too tight, suddenly, all of her clothes itchy and stifling. Everything. Yes, she wanted that too.

He shifted upward again, bit gently at the hinge of her jaw and then recaptured her mouth. A kiss that devoured.

She rocked against him, slight, rhythmic little movements of her hips. She wanted to slide down to the concrete floor and pull him on top of her. Wanted to–

Footfalls echoed off the stall fronts, several sets.

Mia pulled back and saw that Val looked halfway to debauched: cheeks flushed, mouth red and damp, gaze heavy-lidded. She’d pulled hair loose at his nape, thick strands that had come free from his braid.

He sighed, and smiled faintly, and squeezed her waist. “We’re lucky we had that long, darling.”

She wanted to punch whoever was about to walk in on them.

He chuckled at her expression. “I know. Me too.”

They disentangled and stood, and straightened their clothes. There was nothing to do about their heated faces and racing pulses. Maybe whoever this was wouldn’t notice.

A moment later, two guards in black appeared in the threshold, shoulder-to-shoulder, not managing to pull off the intimidating looks they were going for. They glanced between Mia and Val. One, the younger of the two, lifted his brows a degree beneath the brim of his hat, and Mia knew they’d been busted.

The older guard cleared his throat. “Miss Talbot, we’ve been asked to escort you back to the manor.”

She reached over and caught Val’s hand in hers. “What about Val?”

The man’s eyes darted to their linked fingers and then skittered away, as if frightened by the sight. He swallowed. “The prisoner is to return to his cell.”

She opened her mouth –

And Val squeezed her hand. “Lead the way, gentlemen,” he said, all politeness. “I’ll go quietly.”

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