Page 31 of Path of the Dark
10
Witch
“LET ME PASS.” Ryana hated the tremor in her voice. She didn’t sound like herself—she sounded scared.
Elias didn’t move aside. Instead, he placed his other hand against the wall, forming a cage around her.
“I told you,” Ryana whispered. “Saul attacked my friend. I had to save his life.”
Still, he didn’t reply.
Ryana started to sweat. He was toying with her, letting her fear rise, before he reacted. She had to get away. Grabbing hold of one of Elias’s wrists she tried to pry his hand off the wall so she could get past.
That caused a reaction.
Elias grabbed her by the shoulders and threw her up against the wall. And before Ryana had a chance to fight him, he pinned her against the rough stone. Then his mouth crushed against hers.
The act was so sudden, so swift, that Ryana was momentarily stunned.
The kiss was forceful, possessive. He ravaged her mouth, demanded she open to him, and then his tongue slid between her lips.
Shock pulsed through Ryana, followed by a wild heat that made her gasp against him. Everything she’d been fighting, everything she dared not want, bubbled to the surface. It was idiotic to want this man.
And yet she did.
Shadows. He tasted good. The rasp of his stubble against her cheek, the scent of warm male skin, of leather, overwhelmed her senses. The hardness of his body against hers made her ache to rip those leathers off him.
His dominance, his anger, unleashed something equally ferocious within her.
Elias kissed her with near violence, but she matched him. She devoured him. She bit down on his lower lip, her fingernails digging into his biceps.
Elias tore his mouth from hers. His fingers reached up, loosening the bun that held her hair up. He then tangled his fingers in her heavy waves, pulling her head back so that her neck was exposed to him. His lips left a trail of fire down her throat, before his teeth sunk into the tender skin where her neck joined her shoulder.
Ryana whimpered.
Elias kneed her thighs apart and ground his pelvis against hers, pushing Ryana harder still against the wall. Gasping, she writhed against him while he slid his hands down her back, cupping her buttocks. Then he hooked a hand under one of Ryana’s knees and lifted her up against him so that the pulsing heat between her thighs was pressed up against the hard ridge of his erection.
Slowly, he let her slide down its long heavy length, and as he did so, Elias bit her neck once more.
Ryana cried out, the sound echoing across the empty street. Her body convulsed against his, taking her by surprise. The excitement that thundered through her veins turned into madness. She didn’t care that they were in a public place. She wanted him to turn her around, tear down her leggings, and take her savagely against the wall.
She wanted it so badly, she felt sick with need.
But he didn’t take her.
Breathing hard, Elias yanked himself away. His eyes were dark pools, his face all savage angles. He stared at Ryana, his chest heaving. She could do nothing but gaze back, longing for him to touch her once more.
Elias didn’t move. Long moments passed, before he took a step away, and then another.
Ryana’s gaze slid down his body, to where his erection tented the tight leather of his breeches. She longed to reach out, to trail her fingertips down it. However, the hard look on his face stopped her.
“Witch.” The word fell heavily in the stillness of the street. There was no missing the accusing edge.
Ryana swallowed the urge to laugh. It was ridiculous that the first man she’d wanted in a long while had just insinuated that she’d cast an enchantment over him. As if that was the only way she’d ever get a man to touch her.
If the notion hadn’t been so ridiculous, she’d have been insulted.
Wisely, she didn’t laugh, nor did she reply. She couldn’t speak anyway; lust had completely scattered her wits.
