Page 14 of Lycan and Lark
A silent cheer of victory whispered through her and she took another crisp sip from her glass. The fruity vodka drink was sweet and tangy on her tongue. Tendrils of her long, high ponytail flipped over her shoulder as she peered up at Lark’s other form again. She was still gloating, letting the buzz of excitement and triumph feed her cocky attitude. Their eyes locked again and a sudden shiver skittered through her. A wicked grin lit Lark’s false features. It held an unspoken threat that sent fear and lust flooding through her veins.
“Ladies’ room! You coming, Aria?” Gigi’s voice nearly made Aria leap from her human skin.
“Let’s do it.” She coated her nerves in a shrill voice that was meant to sound cheery. The two women slid from their booth and headed toward the bathrooms. Aria looked straight ahead as she moved past Lark’s seat at the bar. She knew his eyes were on her. The heat of his gaze could have melted her spine.
Gigi stumbled into the bathroom, slamming open the first stall door. Aria headed toward the second stall but was met with a paperOut of Ordersign taped to the top of the door. She backed herself up to lean against one of the sinks.
Gigi sighed in contentment as she relieved herself. “Girl, I had to pee so bad!” She finished up and tumbled out of the stall. Aria took her place, listening as Gigi sloppily washed her hands and tore the paper towels off. Unsuccessfully from the amount of tearing sounds followed by “Dammit!” she was hearing. Aria giggled in her stall. Ginger really was a lightweight for a lycan. “Meet you back at the table!” Aria opened her mouth to protest but the door to the bathroom was already slamming shut.Thanks for nothing.
The hallway leading back to the main bar and dining room was dark and quiet. She had barely made it out of the bathroom when a warm hand wrapped around her mouth and dragged her back into the shadows. The other arm wrapped firmly around her waist. The body holding hers hit the wall behind it and pulled her in close. She could feel heat melting through the material of her halter dress.
“Look what we have here.” The deep voice purred in her ear and her knees softened. She knew it was him before he had spoken of course. Caramel and burnt sugar had swarmed her senses the moment he laid his hands on her. The hand wrapped around her mouth moved slowly down, tracing her jaw until it landed at the base of her neck. The fingers stroked the soft exposed skin of her throat and a soft moan slipped from her parted lips.
He spun her suddenly. Her back hit the hard wall behind her as his larger body crowded hers. She got her first look at his eyes. The glamour had dropped. Shiny silver and shimmery turquoise irises glowed in the darkness as he stared down at her.
“Enjoying your date?” he asked in a tone that was anything but friendly.
“Why would you care and where the fuck have you been?” She spit the words out with the force of the anger and bitterness she had tasted for so many days.
Lark smiled. He brought his nose down to the side of her neck and ran it along her skin, inhaling deeply. The gesture felt so personal, so intimate, that Aria gasped. “Miss me?” His voice was gravelly and it scraped deliciously across her skin.
“No.” She knew the moment the words left her mouth that it sounded pathetically untrue.
Larktskedagainst her throat. “Your thoughts say youdidmiss me. So does the syrup that’s dripping from your sweet little cunt.”
Aria’s thighs instinctively closed. Lark noticed the motion and drove his knee between them. He forced his way in, driving her thighs wider.
“Don’t try to hide what’s mine.”
Aria panted heavily. She shook her head, trying to clear it from the sweet scents and crushing pressure of the heated air around her. If he thought he could just waltz back in a week later and pick up where they left off behind the coffee shop, he was wrong. Aria had felt humiliated when he hadn’t shown up again. She had stared out the windows like a lonely puppy waiting for their owner’s return. It made her sick to think about. No man was going to have that kind of control over her.
“I’m not yours, and I’m busy.”
Lark drew his head away from her neck, giving her the full weight of his luminous gaze. “Right, yourdate.”The word came out of his mouth like a curse. That wicked smile returned and Aria’s pulse leapt beneath her flushed skin. “From now on, any part of him that touches you, will be removed. Permanently. Even lycans don’t have the ability to regenerate entire limbs.”
“You wouldn’t.”
“You know I can do it, you remember what happened to the men in the alley.” He chuckled darkly and Aria shoved against his chest.
“Is this your idea of flirting? Because dismemberment has never been a big turn-on for me.” She crossed her arms, glaring up into his dark, angelic face.
“Another lie,” he mused and Aria scoffed.
“It is not.”
Lark leaned down to whisper in her ear. “I know exactly how you feel about what happened to them.” His fingers ran up her inner thigh, dipping beneath her dress without resistance. He skimmed his fingertips along her slick entrance and she bit down on her lip to hold in the moan that wanted to free itself from her heaving chest. “So wet for me, Aria.”
Feet shuffling down the hallway pulled her attention back to the present.
“Remember what I said. Any part of him that touches you.” He vanished like smoke into the shadows. Aria peeled herself off the wall and sighed heavily. Lark was covered in his glamour and sitting in the same seat at the bar by the time she returned. She dropped into the booth, her skin itching from the unfinished need within her.
“What did I miss?” Aria breathed out.
Ginger started up her story again but Aria barely heard it. She looked up at Hunter whose golden eyes were trained down on her. His nostrils flared slightly and Aria squeezed her legs together more tightly. He could scent her arousal. Fucking Lark. Heat washed her cheeks as resentment and embarrassment flooded her.
Hunter pulled his arm away from the table and settled his hand on her bare thigh. Aria’s pulse was thrumming rapidly. She dared a look back at Lark and his eyes narrowed at her. She felt trapped in that fierce gaze, unable to tear her eyes away.
Every muscle in her body froze as she silently willed her date to take his hand back, to grab his drink or something. But he had caught her scent and his hand squeezed down tighter on the exposed skin.
