Desmond yanked my top off and tossed it across the room, then captured my mouth in a jarring kiss which I couldn’t have escaped if I tried.
I didn’t want to try.
Now that he was unbound, I pushed his shirt the rest of the way off, and he kicked his legs free of his pants.
“Are you going to stop tormenting me?” His lips were at my throat, the words vibrating against my skin as he spoke.
I grasped a handful of his hair, pulling his head back so I could show him my defiant smirk.
“Make me. ”
He released me long enough to rip my panties off and lift me from the ground before he chucked me back onto the bed. The welcome weight of his body on top of me pressed me into the mattress, and I met his searching mouth with a desperate, anxious kiss that stole my breath and left me gasping.
Desmond rose, balancing on his forearms so only the faintest contact remained between us.
“Over,” he commanded, and I no longer cared which one of us was being the dominant one. I rolled over beneath him, and when he lowered himself I let out a sigh at the feel of his hardness nestled between my legs.
I arched my hips up, and he held them off the bed as he used his knee to spread my thighs farther apart. He placed one wide palm on each side of my waist, and before I had a chance to utter a single command, his grip tightened and he drove into me so fiercely I cried out.
He slipped one hand under me, fingers deft and full of memory. He found the sensitive, aching place between my legs, and with each new thrust discovered a matching stroke, until I had no sensible sounds left to make and merely panted and repeated his name over and over till it had no meaning.
When we were both spent and lying next to each other, slick with sweat and our skin rubbed raw, I let out a short, breathless laugh.
“What?” He sounded worried my laughter might be at his expense.
“Remind me next year…” I began, and got lost in the giggles, “…that mistletoe has more than one valid use. ”
We must have drifted off, because when I opened my eyes again the clock on my nightstand told me over an hour had passed. Desmond was on his stomach, snoring softly, and for a few moments I lay next to him and listened to the sound of his breathing. It was almost enough to soothe me back to sleep.
Then I heard the knocking.
It wasn’t as loud as it had been earlier, but it was definitely the same sound, and the closeness of the noise made me go rigid. Before, it had come from my front door. Now the tapping was mere feet away, in the hallway outside my bedroom.
Tap, tap, tap, it demanded.
Had it been steadier I might have written it off as another foible of my aging apartment, like my banging pipes. But there was enough pausing and alteration in the sound to make it much more mysterious than bad plumbing.
“Holden?” I didn’t think it was him. He was far less subtle about his entrances. But for the time being I would rather it be a vampire in my boudoir than anything else. Or a burglar. A burglar would be awesome. At least that would be something tangible that I would know how to handle.
There was no response from the hallway.
I climbed out of bed and did my best not to interrupt Desmond’s slumber. He didn’t move. Taking a cotton chemise out of the dresser, I covered myself up. No sense in running naked into an attempted robbery.
There was a soft glow from the hall, and I assumed it was from the Christmas tree until I reached the living room. The tree wasn’t lit up. I reached for the nearest light switch, but the lights didn’t respond. From under the couch Rio was yowling in a low, drawn-out wail.
My katana was still lying beside the tree, so I picked it up but kept the blade pointed at the floor. I didn’t yet know what I was up against, and I didn’t need to accidentally skewer a burglar when a good ass-kicking would suffice.
I could picture Tyler’s face if I ended up back at the police station, this time having killed a human. He’d never let me leave. The shift from his being spurned to now having it in for me was shocking and more than a little meddlesome. And now that the Tribunal was watching my every move, I didn’t think a nosy detective would last long if he kept getting involved in my business.
Tyler needed to butt out for his own good.
The knocking began again, but before I could turn to find it, my figure was silhouetted against the living room wall, an unfamiliar blue-white light emanating from behind me the source of the illuminati
on.
Now would be a good time to raise the sword.
I complied with my inner critic and lifted the katana as I spun around to see what was casting the eerie light. It took me a moment to adjust to the localized glow and look down to see where it was coming from.