Page 11 of Ruby Red Sky

The tension left her shoulders, and she sat back as I massaged her leg. No one would have done a thing if I went straight to biting and fucking her, but I enjoyed the ritual of seduction.

Her wine was quickly consumed; thanks to the spell I’d placed on it to encourage her consumption. Her movements became languid and slow, while my fingers trailed higher and higher along her warm flesh.

Her panties were soaked. As I reached around the elastic, a soft sigh left her lips, and I began stroking her.

Pushing her long hair to the side, I placed feather light kisses against the soft skin below her ear, letting my fangs descend. The pointed edge of one of my fangs scraped along her column, leaving the faintest pink line.

Melody shivered in my arms, and I tested her, pressing just a little bit harder while I thrust two fingers inside her, between her thighs. My stomach ached with hunger as I unfastened my belt.

When I pulled the woman onto my lap, I glanced up and froze.

Cassia was standing at the bar, watching.

CHAPTER 5

Cassia

The man with the green eyes loomed over me, standing much too close and familiar for the stranger from the coffee shop. Warmth coursed through my body as I swayed. His grip increased, steadying me. White, blonde hair that appeared almost pearlescent fell over his shoulder as he leaned in.

“Tell me,” He ordered, his voice deep and warm.

A short breath escaped me, before I could answer. “Nothing that concerns you.” My words were sharp but my tone light. “But thank you.”

I moved to leave, but he stopped me again, his leg blocking any forward movement. “Your gaze keeps falling on the group at the end of the bar.”

He swung himself behind me, both palms on my shoulders now, the fabric of his clothes brushing my bare back. I felt a button trip over my spine, the intimacy of the sensation sending a tremor down my leg.

It felt forbidden, my bare flesh rubbing against the fine fabric of his outfit. Illicit. Without warning, a vision of myself climbing over him like a cat ran through my head.

“My companions,” I stated, trying to shut out my imagination. “I need to get back to them.”

“But you don’t want to. Why?” His voice was firmer than before while his thumb caressed the base of my neck. He shouldn’t have been touching me, and I shouldn’t have wanted him to continue doing so.

A severe case of word vomit threatened to pour from my lips, the urge to tell him all my frustrations near impossible to resist. Instead, “Bad day at the office,” was what I told him.

I gasped as he spun me around. He stared straight down at my face. He was so tall that I had to crane my neck to meet him. When he spoke, his voice held an authority that didn’t let me do anything but listen to him.

“You don’t understand, Cassia.” He nodded towards Bryan and his friends. “Either they all die, or you tell me who to kill.”

My head jerked to the side. Not only did he somehow know my name, but he’d just threatened to kill a bunch of people. The seductively beautiful stranger waited for a reply, his green gaze burning a hole right through me.

“Nobody... uh, nobody, please. Did you just...” My voice trailed off, and I licked my lips, the motion sending his eyes straight to my mouth. “Why would you kill anyone? You look like an angel.”

He did, with his shining hair and immense stature. He almost didn’t look human, the perfection of his image seeming to have been carved straight out of the pages of a glossy magazine.

His chuckle was deep and dark, and the air around him turned heavy. “I am anything but holy.”

“Who are you?”

“Lukas,” he replied, taking my hand and kissing my knuckles with a gentle brush of his lips. All the blood in my veins rushed to my stomach before it headed farther south, making my knees weak once again.

Bryan and his group hadn’t looked my way once, not that I’d been aware of. Lucy and Miriam had their heads together, drinks in hand, laughing over something. Me? Were they giggling over my stupidity? I’d been made a fool of—and who knew for how long.

The relationship could have been going on for months. Years, even. Maybe it was just this past weekend... but it didn’t matter. It was wrong and I deserved better.

Lukas released my shoulder and dropped my hand when the man I’d noticed earlier walked up. He was quite tall as well, but not as tall as Lukas.

“This is her,” my would-be avenger announced.