“I don’t get to stay here often,” she said as she felt him move behind her, crowding her against the railing. “But I love the view. From here, you can feel the pulse of the city below.”
“Why here and not at your home?” he asked her again, the warmth of his breath caressing the shell of her ear.
“You’re tenacious.” Her fingers tightened on the rail as she felt his hands move to her hips. “It’s peaceful here. Almost anonymous.” There were no hidden eyes watching, no malevolent ears dissecting each word, each move she made. Until his arrival, she had been safe here.
She turned, unable to bear the threat of his large body behind her without the benefit of seeing his face. Would he show a shift of expression? A subtle warning tense of his body if he made his move to kill her here?
When she stared up at him, his head tilted to the side and his eyes gleamed oddly in the dim light.
“You think I’m going to kill you?” Sensually full lips curved into an amused grin. “I wouldn’t kill you, Scheme. Fuck the hell out of you, yes. Turn you over to Breed Law, definitely. But I won’t kill you.”
“You can’t turn me over to Breed Law, Tanner.” She sighed as she regarded him calmly. “I haven’t done anything.”
She was a double agent for the Bureau of Breed Affairs. Jonas might be a son of a bitch, but he wouldn’t see her pay for the very crimes she had committed to gain evidence against her father and the Council.
If only she could trust Tanner. If only she were certain he wasn’t her father’s agent, that he would believe her need for asylum and the information she had. She was half tempted to spill her secrets to him and take her chances, but she couldn’t take chances with another child’s life. Not until she knew for certain.
“Your signature is on kill orders, pretty girl,” he whispered, leaning forward to lay his lips against her ear. Wicked incisors scraped over the tender shell. “Pictures of your meetings with several suspected Council members. All we need is the confession of a Council soldier or member to crucify you. Do you think that’s possible?”
Her lips quirked wryly. “I think, Tanner, that you could acquire just about anything you wanted, if you wanted it bad enough.”
He frowned, his brow furrowing with a hint of frustration as his fingers tightened on her hips.
“You’re so confident of escaping Breed Law,” he said softly. “You should know better. Your father has headed the training branch of the Council for decades, and for the past ten years, we know you’ve been involved. Proving a definite isn’t all that hard to do.”
Breed Law. The statutes that were made into law years before gave the Breeds not just the right to govern themselves, but the right to seek vengeance. Not that vengeance was easily sought. It first had to be approved by the Breed Cabinet, comprised of twelve Breed elected members, it would then go to the Oversight Committee in D.C., which was comprised of eight humans and four Breeds.
So far, there had been only a few executions of high-level Council members, and many incarcerations. But the pressure against the Breed Cabinet as well as the Oversight Committee to execute those found guilty of the attempted slaughters of the Breeds was becoming overwhelming.
“So prove it.” She shrugged.
It would never happen. No one would dare betray her father in such a way, except her of course, and even if someone did, she had the agreement she had signed with Jonas years before.
It was too bad Jonas trusted no one at Sanctuary. Having a fallback position was always important. In this case, there was no safety net other than the place she had found to hide the agreement they signed. And until she knew for certain who her father’s spy was, then she could give her information to one person only.
“You could come clean.” He lowered his head further, his teeth rasping over her shoulder, followed by his tongue.
Scheme forced herself to breathe normally, and nearly failed. That should not be erotic. She shouldn’t be creaming helplessly in response to something so simple.
“I just showered,” she whispered at his ear. “I promise you, I’m very clean.”
He nipped her shoulder. The sensual little pain brought a gasp from her lips and sent weakness shuddering through her body.
“I smell you,” he growled then. “You’re wet. So wet the scent of your arousal is like a drug.”
Scheme tried to force herself to focus—she really did try. Her lashes fluttered against her cheeks, though, as his lips were suddenly on hers.
Sweet heaven. She hated kissing. She really did. But this kiss. Her hands tangled in his hair immediately, holding him to her as his lips slanted over hers and his tongue took immediate possession of her mouth. This kiss, hot, blistering with sexual intent and lustful demand, literally swept through her senses.
His arms wrapped around her as he dragged her from the rail only to turn and press her into the wall of the balcony. He surrounded her. He was around her, inside her, heating her, warming her. Sending shards of brilliant heat to explode around her clitoris as her h*ps arched against him.
Damn, he needed to bottle this kiss. He could make a fortune.
One big hand moved to tangle in her hair, pulling at it, causing her scalp to sting erotically as he pulled her head back, breaking the kiss before his lips singed her neck.
Scheme’s eyes drifted open, not that she could see much; her vision was hazy, dazed.
Lifting to the tips of her toes, she sought to push the aching flesh between her thighs against the stiff length of his erection beneath his slacks.
Oh, that was good. A whispering moan fell from her lips as she finally managed to rub the aching center of her body against him.
Then his h*ps thrust back to her, one hand gripping her ass to lift her.
“Put your legs around my waist,” he panted at her ear, doing that growly thing again. It made her want to lick his lips, to feel the vibration of it against her own.
Her legs moved around his waist, and then she saw stars.
Oh my. This was dangerous. She whimpered—and she never whimpered—when his c**k pressed fully against her thighs and his h*ps rotated against her.
“I’ve been dying to shove my dick inside you.” Explicit. He did not mince words in the slightest.
“Oh geez, you’re such a romantic,” she gasped, in no way turned off by the dangerously erotic statement.
“Did you want romance?” He nipped the line of her jaw. “Pretty lies to soften this?”