“I feel analyzed.” Stryker smiled, and it made her mouth water.
“Part of my job.”
“So I’m a sample subject now? Do you have to run tests on me? I could go for that. I hardly have any water in me, so you might be a little out of your element,” he teased her, and she noticed a gleam to his blue eyes but was distracted by his mouth. His teeth. And even the glimpses of his tongue.
“Your tongue isn’t forked anymore, and your teeth? Aren't they supposed to be sharp?” As she asked him, his mouth shifted and his tongue split apart. His teeth descended into two, long, thick fangs. Norah could almost feel her flesh ripped from her body as she stared at them. “Oh.” It was all she could manage.
His tongue slipped farther and farther out until he let out a hiss. Stryker shifted back into his humanoid appearance before she could jump back. He placed the mask back on as her pulse thumped and her blood ran cold.
“I see why you wear the mask now.”
Stryker came toward her and took her hand, only to rub her wrist. “I’m sorry I scared you.”
She ignored his sentiment. “You can’t control striking out?”
“Most of the time I can’t. And it’s a problem I deal with by protecting myself and others around me.”
“And your venom is poisonous?”
“Yes, and when it releases into my mouth, my saliva can be poisonous too.”
“But you licked me…” Norah gulped.
“I did. I know when I’m dangerous and I would never hurt you, babe.”
“But you won’t let me come close to you with your mask off?” Norah asked, knowing somewhere in her gut that it was important.
Stryker took a step back and crouched down in front of her. “I would never hurt you because I would never take it off with you nearby.”
“I think you should,” she whispered. “We can create an anti-venom, just in case. I think you need to take it off around me.” He gazed up at her and she couldn’t help herself from stepping into his arms and holding his head against her belly. “I can wait until you’re ready,” Norah stroked his hair and held him to her.
“What If I’m never ready?”
“Then I can wait forever.”
“Does that mean I can keep you, Norah Lee?” he asked. Her stomach fluttered with butterflies and she had an insatiable need to wrap herself around him and never let go.
“Yeah. I think it does.”
Chapter Twenty-Three:
***
Stryker lifted Norah into his arms and held her soft curves close, so close that it would be impossible to lose her. Close enough that she wouldn’t be able to get away. He lifted her off of her toes and let his beast nuzzle against her and soak up each twitch and squirm of her body.
She wrapped her legs around his hips and sealed herself over him. Her hands moved up his arms and clasped them around his neck.
He wrapped his hand into her curls and pulled her head back and the look in her eyes told him everything he needed to know. The slip of her tongue over her lower lip and the swallow that preceded it was captured in a memory that he would cherish to the end of his days.
Stryker laid her on the bed, softly, succumbing to her slight smile only to lift above her and tear her lab coat down the middle. The clasps ripped and the cotton shredded, popped and rushed until he had her naked and breathless beneath him.
“Oh, god, so we’re not playing,” she squeaked out and tried to cover herself.
He pinned her hands above her head. “I never said that.”
His eyes slithered lower to her breasts, heaving slightly with each breath. He stared at them until she thrashed under him and her nipples peaked.So sweet.His teeth snapped. He tensed his jaw.
The hot scent of her sex washed over him, strong enough that he could almost taste it under his mask. He shuddered as his body urged him to shift, as his beast readied itself for sex. He tried to control it, but his manhood shot out hard and heavy from his body, painful within the confines of his clothes.
