Phantom Shadows (Immortal Guardians #3)

She slid up his body, creating as much friction as she could, and leaned over him, her weight propped on the hands she planted on either side of his head. Her hair fell down around them, forming a curtain around his beautiful face. Her lips hovered inches above his. She lowered herself until they were only a breath apart. “What’s it like to make love as an immortal?”

“With another immortal? I wouldn’t know,” he admitted, voice low. “I’ve never done it before.” He settled his hands on her hips. “But I wouldn’t mind finding out. Care to educate me?”

Melanie smiled and kissed him. His lips were soft. Warm. Aggressive as they took control and claimed her with the same rising passion she felt for him.

“Mmmm,” she hummed her approval. “I thought you tasted good before. Now you taste so good it’s ridiculous.” Almost good enough to make her forget the toothache still plaguing her.

His chuckle turned into a moan as she leaned back and straddled his hips. Only the loose material of his sweatpants separated them.

“I wonder if all of you tastes so good.” She rolled her hips, ground her core against his erection. Pleasure shot through her.

Every muscle in Bastien’s body tensed as he clamped his hands on her hips and held her still. “Are you sure you’re up for this?”

Her heart pounded in her chest. “You can feel what I feel, can’t you?” Again she rolled her hips.

He groaned. “Yes.”

“Then there’s your answer.”

Because she could feel . . . everything. And hear everything. His heart raced, thudding against his broad chest as he slid his hands up her sides beneath her shirt and closed them over her breasts. Sizzling lightning zigzagged through her.

Could he feel that? The sparks that burned her as his thumbs found her nipples? Could he feel her arousal through his gift? This vividly?

He lunged upward, slid his arms around her, eyes bright with desire that more than matched hers.

Oh, yeah. He could feel it.

He yanked the shirt she had borrowed over her head.

Melanie smiled what she hoped was a siren’s smile.

Bastien growled and lowered his head. His lips hovered before her breast. Every breath was like a touch, the brush of warm fingers.

She moaned. “You don’t play fair.”

The low chuckle with which he responded was so full of sensual promise she nearly climaxed then and there. “I’ve only begun to play.”

His lips closed on the hard, tight bud. Sensation shot through her as he drew on it, laved it with his tongue, teased it with his teeth.

Melanie cried out and buried her fingers in his hair. His long, soft, beautiful hair.

She hadn’t realized immortals’ sense of touch could be so acute. Every nerve ending in her body tingled. By the time this night was over, she may very well become the screamer Sheldon had accused Bastien of being.

He palmed her other breast, drew his thumb over the taut peak.

Her head fell back. She rocked against him.

Bastien had never felt anything so good in his long existence.

Until Melanie leaned forward and urged him down onto his back.

Her eyes glowed a bright amber. Her dark brown hair fell down around her flushed face as she leaned over him with the smile of a temptress. Her lips, swollen from their kisses, parted, revealing the tips of her new fangs.

She was more beautiful than ever.

He surged up against her, felt the answering flare of passion that claimed her.

Her head dipped. She touched her lips to his chest, explored. When those dainty teeth closed on his nipple, he groaned. And felt the shock of pain that struck her.

Abandoning his nipple, she continued her exploration, trailing a searing path of licks and kisses down his stomach. But every nip that sent fire roaring through his veins also caused her discomfort.

He curled his hands around her arms. “Melanie.”

“Hmm?”

He bit back another groan. “Melanie, honey, as much as I love where you’re going with this”—just the thought of her warm, wet mouth closing over his cock nearly made him come—“you need to stop.”

She raised her head and frowned. “Why?”

“Because I can feel how much your teeth and gums are hurting and know that any pressure at all makes it worse.”

Frustration shadowed her pretty face as she sat up. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. We have eternity to explore each other, remember?”

That wrung a smile from her. “We do. I just wish my damned fangs would come in so my mouth would stop throbbing.”

“They already have.” Which was another good reason to stop her, now that he thought about it. Until she gained control over her fangs, she probably should steer clear of his—

“I have fangs?” she blurted. Eyes wide, she brought both hands up to her mouth and gingerly felt her teeth. She sucked in a breath.

Scrambling off the bed, she raced for the bathroom.

Bastien groaned and grinned at the same time, thrilled by the view of her bare body as she hurried away.

“Holy crap! My eyes!”

Stripping off his sweatpants, he joined her in the bathroom, as bare as she was.

“Look!” She leaned forward to peer into the large mirror above the sink. “They’re glowing like yours.”

Frankly, he was more interested in the view of her bare bottom as she bent over the sink. Damn, that was tempting.

“And my teeth!” Wrinkling her face up in a snarl, she hissed at her reflection.

Bastien laughed, utterly charmed.

She spun around. “What do you think?”

“Beautiful and fierce,” he declared.

Grinning, she looped her arms around his neck and jumped up, wrapping her long, lovely legs around his waist.

Bastien caught her against him with a groan.

Face glowing, she pressed her mouth to his for an exuberant kiss. “Ow!” She drew back with a frown and touched the fingers of one hand to her lips again. “Damn it! This sucks! I can’t even kiss you!”

“It doesn’t suck,” he said, carrying her back into the bedroom, breath shortening and body burning as she rubbed against him with every step.

“It doesn’t?”

“Nope.”

“Why?”

He tossed her onto the bed and gave her a wicked grin. “Because my mouth works just fine.” So saying, he knelt on the bed, grabbed her ankles and parted her thighs.

He heard her heart skip a beat.

His own did the same as he leaned down and claimed her with his mouth.

Pleasure careened through Melanie.

Moaning, she buried her hands in Bastien’s hair and held him to her as his tongue swept across her clit, then returned for another taste.

He slid a finger inside her.

So good. So damned good she couldn’t catch her breath, panting as he bit and licked and sucked and stroked.

“Bastien.”

“Come for me,” he coaxed, his breathing as labored as hers.

Did he feel everything she felt?

He slipped a second finger inside her, stroked her in time with those long draws of his mouth.

Melanie gasped.

Bastien moaned.

Every muscle in her body stiffened as an orgasm shook her. “Bastien!”

On and on it went, prolonged by the eager flicks of his tongue and magnified by her heightened senses. She collapsed against the sheets.

Bastien fisted his hands in the covers and fought for control. Melanie’s orgasm had nearly sent him over the edge. And her shouting his name in ecstasy . . .

He needed to be inside her. Needed to feel her inner muscles squeezing him. Needed to experience the same ecstasy he had just felt consume her.

Every muscle trembling, he kissed a path up her pale abdomen, paused to delight in her lovely breasts, then stared down at her.

“Melanie?”

He loved the satisfied smile that graced her face as much as the purring rumble that drifted from her throat as she opened glowing amber eyes and stared up at him.

“That was unbelievable,” she murmured and combed her fingers through his hair.

“How do you feel?” he asked. His own emotions were clamoring so loudly now he really didn’t know. If she felt sick again . . .

Abandoning his hair, she dropped her hands to his hips, slid them down over his ass, and drew him down to her. “Eager for more.” Leaning up, she gingerly captured his lips and stroked them with her tongue. “Are you going to come for me now?”

Hell, yes!

He opened his mouth over hers, careful not to apply too much pressure, and settled his lower body in the cradle of her thighs. Melanie reached between them, curled her fingers around his sensitive cock, and guided him to her entrance.

Bastien didn’t hesitate to plunge inside. So warm and wet, squeezing him tight. He felt the same pleasure that engulfed him blaze through Melanie.

“More,” she begged.

He drew back and plunged again. And again. The friction too good.

She gripped his ass and urged him on. “Harder.”

Oh, yeah.

Melanie met him thrust for thrust, loving the feel of him inside her. Looming over her. His hair falling down and caressing her breasts with every stroke as he drove himself into her over and over again. Her breath shortened.

Weight supported by one strong arm, Bastien reached between them and teased her clit. A brush. A stroke. A tug.

Another hard climax rippled through her.

Bastien shouted as Melanie’s muscles clamped down around him. Pleasure seared him as an orgasm swept over him.

Both gasped for breath, bodies bathed in a fine sheen of perspiration.

Bastien had never known the like.

Utterly sated, he withdrew and lay beside her.

Melanie rolled onto her side and snuggled up against him.

A peace he hadn’t known since his sister’s murder enveloped him as he soaked in Melanie’s warmth and contentment. Her breathing deepened, evened.

Closing his eyes, Bastien let sleep claim him.

The voices of the immortals and their mortal friends wafted up to Zach. Sitting quietly above their heads, his butt parked on the icy roof, he carefully modulated his body temperature so shivers wouldn’t jar his wounds.