Demon Hunters » Changed

His voice filled with gravel, coated with an unexpected lightness, he said, “I knew training on the roof was risky, but the rocks digging into my ass have officially sealed it for me. I’m fully inspired to get a bigger place. Something with plenty of room to train, add a gym, library, design my own living quarters. Maybe some outdoor furniture for more comfortable rooftop sex.”

“Bennett?” Adair murmured, her porcelain skin warm against his, yet her voice was colder than the sleet that teased in the air.

“Yeah?” He knew that tone. Well, not from experience, but he’d known it was inevitable. As she’d put it, minutes before thrusting her tongue down his throat the first time, their ages and lifestyles were insurmountable barriers.

F, these guys were fast. Stronger than humans, but vampires had nothing on a well-trained hunter. Holding his ground, Bennett winked at the last of his prey.

Rapidly cooling as it trickled down his skin, his own blood pooled at his lip from a blow he hadn’t been fast enough to dodge. Licking it off, he tasted the coppery drip, shaking his head and rolling his eyes. “Mmm, tasty. Sorry, but I’m not sharing.”

Through the floor-to-ceiling windows, the gray of the Seattle sun wasn’t telling if it was sunrise or sunset. Not that it made a difference normally, but today… today he had to travel.

He clicked the coffee pot to brew on his way past the kitchen, stalking into the bathroom. The slope of the brick tile floor declined as he crossed into the walk-in shower and flipped the faucet to steaming, the water defrosting his fogged-over brain. Pressing his palms against the wall, he bent forward and let the heat pool in the recess of his broad shoulders, before washing away the useless memories that were nearly fifteen years expired. Yet those damn pouty lips still haunted him.

“Missed me?” she snorted, holding her ground. “Oh, I’m sorry. Last time we saw each other I had a knife embedded in your jugular. Was that what you were lamenting? I’ll be happy to do it again.”

Her pulse skipped a beat and accelerated. Grinning, he stole one last kiss, savoring the taste of her skin in an entirely non-vampire and purely aroused desire, then pulled away and downed the last gulp from his mug.

The spark left her gaze as she watched him left less satisfied by this glass of blood than the last. She scowled but didn't say anything, then finally reached for his empty mug. Shaking his head, he swallowed. “You don’t have to wait on me. I got it.”

Sliding his legs out of bed, he held the sheet over the goods and glanced around for pants.

She reached for the mug again. “I’m not waiting on you, I’m just not ready for a show quite yet.”

A wicked grin teasing at his mouth, he pounced on her word choice. “Yet? So maybe later? Like, in a few minutes or a few days?”

“Are you nuts? Vampire or not, the naïve young hunter I used to know or the… whatever you’ve become these days,” she really, really didn’t want to use the words of what she actually thought of him. That ego was massive enough. “I’m still me. Not interested in a forever outside of my own. Forever’s too long to invest in another person.”

“Go back a few steps. What am I these days?” He rolled onto his side and teased his fingers at the hem of her shirt.

“You know.”

“Hot?”

“Maybe.”

“Broody and sexy and badass demon hunter?”

And for the first time in over five centuries, maybe ever, she giggled. Bubbling from deep in her belly and pinching her cheeks as the mirth flooded over her. “Maybe,” she managed to squeak out.

Flipping her underneath him, he trailed his lips along her jaw as she tried to calm the delirious giggle fit.