“Yes, we study very thoroughly in the art of being a killjoy,” she drawled. “We are forbidden to smile or laugh. Enjoyment is expressly prohibited.”
“I knew it,” he slurred, and she laughed despite herself.
Something crashed in the shower, and she quickly spun around in alarm. Raum was on the ground, and so were all the shampoo and bodywash bottles from the shelf.
Before she knew what she was doing, she raced into the stall to help him up and make sure he was okay.
Sheknewhe was. He was a demon. Even if he’d fallen and cracked his skull and broken his neck, he would heal and be fine. She knew that. But something about this infuriating man drew protective instincts out of her that she’d never felt before and had no defense against.
She had the sense that she would violently decimate anyone that tried to hurt him, and that alarmed her. The person she was around him didn’t feel like the person she’d been for the last few hundred years.
And the more time she spent with him…the more she didn’twantto be that person anymore.
“You clumsy demon,” she chided. “Are you okay?”
He climbed to unsteady feet but didn’t reply. She kept a hand on his arm to make sure he didn’t fall again. The moment should have been funny, but there was nothing humorous about the way he was looking at her.
The spray pelted her clothing and quickly soaked through. It tunneled through her braid and splashed onto her face. But she was too busy staring into Raum’s eyes to care that she was getting wet. He was very naked, and she ought to have been fleeing. But she didn’t move a muscle.
Something made her feel like she’d been waiting for this for a long time.
“Sunshine…” His voice touched something inside her that he had no business touching. And yet, another part of her thought thatonlyhe had business touching her there. No one else.
He reached up. His hand moved slowly, giving her ample time to move back…had she wanted to. When his palm touched her cheek, her eyes closed involuntarily.
What was it about him? How did he have this power over her? Why did she want to surrender so badly?
His thumb ran across her lower lip, and her eyes snapped open, locking with his. His fingers traced back along her jaw and then curled around the base of her braid.
She didn’t move. Didn’t dare breathe. She was a prisoner to the moment with no desire for freedom.
The hand in her hair tugged her head back, and next thing she knew, their lips collided.
18
Cold Shower
Sunshine melted into the kiss. He tasted like heat and spice, and his lips were startlingly soft, in opposition to the firm grip he had on her braid.
Water cascaded down her back, soaking through her clothes and running over her face into her eyes. Raum hauled her closer, and her palms landed on his pecs to steady herself. His naked pecs. Warm water slid over smooth skin and hard muscle.
He pressed deeper into the kiss, and she heard the soft moan climb up her throat. Her fingers curled, nails digging into his skin.
He pulled back for only a second, and she shamelessly chased him. But he had no intention of stopping. When his lips crashed into hers again, he pushed her back until her spine hit the tile. He tugged her hair, exposing her neck, and then stooped to drag his mouth along the tender skin of her throat.
When he pressed his body into hers, there was no missing the hard length of his arousal against her stomach. She could have been wearing a snowsuit and she would have felt it.
The now-familiar sensation of desire electrified her blood. It sensitized every touch, every breath, every taste, until the need for more was all she could think about.
He did that amazing thing with his thigh again, shoving it between her legs until the hard muscle pressed against her pelvis, and her heart ramped up to a furious pace.
She hadn’t been able to stop thinking about kissing him since the first time it happened. She’d done it twice more since, but she was far from cured of the addiction. It had only made her want more. And this time, it was different.
This time, she was kissing him because she wanted to, not because she was trying to lure him into a trap or because a succubus wanted to feed off their lust. This time, there was no subterfuge, no hidden agenda, no lies between them.
This time…he was drugged with demon scorpion venom.
The remembrance was like a splash of cold water to the face, and she pulled back with a gasp. There wasn’t far to go. The hand around her braid kept her head immobilized, and his body and strategically placed thigh kept her pinned to the wall.
