Trygg chuckled. “He was. Chiara has gentled him somewhat, but I’m sure my half-brother is still a pain in her ass.”
Sia laughed. She gazed at him, tilting her head in amusement. “And is Scythe as handsome as you?”
Trygg felt his face harden into a stony mask. “Don’t play me, Tamisia.” His low voice came out like a lash. “I’m well aware of the way I look, and I’m not as easily fooled as the men fawning at your feet back at the JUSTIS station.”
“I’m not playing you.” She sounded utterly sincere, even stung. “Do you think the scar makes you ugly? It doesn’t. Not to me. Only someone’s actions can make them ugly, Trygg.”
He took no comfort in that opinion. “Then if you knew everything I’ve done in my life, you’d think I was hideous.”
“So tell me, Trygg. Why not let me decide for myself?”
He turned his head on a curse. “I didn’t come up here to talk about me.”
“Then why did you come?” Her fingers were at his chin, drawing his gaze back to her. “You could’ve just as easily taken that envelope out of my hands. You could have walked away tonight like you threatened to do, but you didn’t. Why not?”
It took more control than he thought possible not to yank away from her light grasp and head for the door. But that would only confirm his worst fear—that this woman was getting under his skin. That she was getting perilously close to his heart.
“Don’t push me, Sia.”
She shook her head. “I think a push is exactly what you need.”
Without warning, she took his mouth in a hard, hot kiss.
Chapter 7
He moaned sharply as their mouths came together. His hands were at her shoulders, his fingers like iron, so immensely strong. For a moment Sia thought for certain he was going to shove her away.
She had overstepped her bounds by kissing him. She knew that. She might have even lost her mind, pushing a dangerous Breed male like Trygg. A Hunter. A cold, emotionless assassin.
But he felt anything but cold.
He didn’t feel emotionless, either.
He was hot and wild against her lips, as powerful as a storm. His hands came up to cage her face as he took their kiss deeper. She opened to his tongue, eager for the invasion.
She was on fire too. For this killer with the haunted, dark eyes. This Breed male who was like nothing she’d ever known before.
As he kissed her, all she felt was need for the man who made her crave his darkness the way she needed light—for strength and nourishment, for survival at its most elemental.
She was immortal, as formidable as any Breed, but she had never felt more delicate and small than she did now with him. And she marveled at the feeling, savored it.
Liquid fire shot through her and she groaned as her nipples tightened into stiff peaks. Primal, unadulterated power flowed from him, his strength and vitality drawing her in, making her ache with a desire so consuming it astonished her.
He drew back then, his eyes blazing with fiery amber, his fangs enormous between his parted lips as his breath rushed out of him, scraping and raw. “It’s been too long for me, Sia. And the way you look…so fucking beautiful. Christ, the way you feel.”
He broke off on a groan, bringing his hands to her shoulder and the ripped sleeve of her blouse. He toyed with the frayed edge for a second, then rent it loose, tearing the garment away from her body and pushing her down onto the mattress. Sia gasped at the sudden rush of cool air as her heated skin was exposed to him. But his heat filled the space soon enough, and then his mouth was on her shoulder, her clavicle, the swell of her breast still encased in the lace of her bra.
“You’ve consumed me since I first saw you,” he murmured, his tongue hot and wet on her sensitive skin. He closed his lips over the clasp at the front of her bra, then he caught it between his teeth and bit it open. His moan as he swept the thin fabric away from her was pure male, utterly possessive. “You’ve been a torment, Sia, but tonight? Fuck. The way I felt when you came into that station looking like someone’d had their hands all over you—”
He bent his head to kiss her breast, taking her tight nipple into his mouth while he reached between her legs to cup her sex through the denim of her jeans.
She writhed at the spike of need that arrowed through her as he suckled hard and caressed her ruthlessly, punishing her with his tongue and teeth and hands. When he finally drew his mouth away and glanced up at her, his pupils were narrow slits, his irises like an inferno of need and something deeper that she could not name.
“Was I worried that something had happened to you?” he snarled thickly. “Hell, yes. Was I pissed when I realized your game? I swear, I wanted to kill you at that moment, Sia. I could’ve throttled you with my bare hands.” He bared his fangs in a threat that made her shiver, though not with anything close to fear. And with every harsh word he growled at her, his hands continued their tender assault on her aching body. “I wasn’t prepared for what seeing you like that did to me. Ever since, I can’t decide if I want to drive my fist through a wall or my cock into you.”
She couldn’t curb her desire-drenched smile. “If you’re asking me to choose, I’d much prefer the latter.”
To prove her point, she reached down to cup his huge erection over the zipper of his pants. The shaft more than filled her grasp, surging even bigger as she stroked him. He uttered her name in a low, otherworldly snarl, then claimed her mouth in a deep, urgent kiss.
