Page 169 of Devil Inside

“Slow,” I say. “I want to savor this. All of this. All of you.”

This brings her back. Lilith looks—sees me—and protests. She pushes into me, ready for more—another bite—but I keep my grip around her arms, tight, and hold her back. It takes everything, all my strength, just to keep her from collapsing upon me.

“Slow,” I say. The word sinks in. Her chest rises and falls, her lungs desperate for breath. The bloodlust sends her eyes rolling up into the back of her head.

I draw her in. I maintain my grip, pushing back against her body, that exertion of pressure, of flesh and muscle, and slowly ease back, letting her chest press against mine.

Her kiss is tentative. Searching. She’s exploring now. Tasting everything my skin has to offer. Each kiss sends her foraging for another across my neck. My chest.

I want to give her everything. Share everything.

Let her in.

She’s about to sink, her knees bending, but I hold her up. Bring her back to my mouth. I want more. Need more.

Our lips never leave each other, consuming one another. There isn’t an inch of her skin that I don’t want to devour.

I leave her lips and bury my face in her neck. She runs her hands over my head, fingers weaving across the back of my scalp, through my hair.

Then she seizes. Grips tight. She yanks my head back, hard, exposing the slope of my throat.

I see her. Not her host, not Cara, but her. Lilith. Her eyes just below the surface of her host’s stare. A second set of eyes, superimposed on the other.

“It’s you,” I say.

“Me.”

Lilith licks the length of my Adam’s apple, still gripping the back of my head. She works her way down to the base of my neck, that nest of bone, licking the clavicles.

I grab her by the waist and lift. Her feet are off the ground. I pivot away from the door, spin two steps, before slamming her back against the hallway wall.

Lilith lets out a gasp of surprise. She finds my eyes, grinning a drunken grin, delirious and blissful, channeling the faintest pant from deep within her chest—these abrupt huffs of air, animalistic, aggressive, rising and falling so fast—before she kisses me again.

There are no boundaries. No limits to our skin. Our limbs go on for miles. Our bodies blur and blend, becoming the horizon. We are racing after one another, intertwining.

I won’t let go of her arms. Her hands push back, but I won’t release her, not yet. She senses that she’s pinned, unwilling to relinquish control. She stares at me, her lips inches away from mine. Her teeth snap, once, then twice. She wants to bite, but I won’t let her.

“Not yet,” I say.

“When?” I can hear the plea in her breath, the word weighed down.

“Soon.”

I release her. Her hands immediately work their way down my chest, stopping at my waist and pulling up on my shirt until the skin along my stomach is exposed.

She’s unfastening my belt. Then my pants. Her hand plunges down the front of my boxers, reaching in deep. Her fingernails scrape skin before finding my cock. She has ahold of me, tightening her grip, face to face, full of desire, that delirious need inside her eyes, the grin she gives, the exultation.

I grab her hand by the wrist and pull. A flare of anger, that thwarted desire, spreads across her face. I hear her hiss, just the faintest exhale, sizzling in spit.

I’m not going to make it easy. I’m not going to let go and lose myself just yet. “Slow.”

“No.” Lilith bucks against the wall. Her pelvis pushes off, followed by the rest of her body, shoving me back. She takes hold of my pants and yanks them down, dropping to her knees.

I drop along with her, the two of us now on the hallway floor, kneeling before one another in supplication. Praying at the altar of each other’s flesh.Eat, for this is my body.

“When?” she beseeches.

“Now.”