She blinked, wondering if the wine was affecting her vision. “Your tattoos are special, aren’t they?”

“All tattoos are special. People might get one on the spur of the moment, but everyone cares about the design they put on their body.”

“No, I mean… they do something for you.”

She thought he was going to clam up, but instead, he surprised her by shedding his jacket, somehow making the process tantalizing, an unintentional strip tease. He tossed the tux coat to the bed, and those long fingers went to his dress shirt. She couldn’t look away as he unbuttoned it and then made the shirt join the jacket.

Man, oh, man. Didn’t matter that she’d seen his bare upper body before… she didn’t think she’d ever grow used to all that magnificent artwork. His Seal, mounted on a fine gold chain, lay flat between his pecs, perfectly outlined by a Celtic knotted tattoo.

“These are scenes taken out of my head and transferred to my skin.”

“I knew tha“I knet, but why?”

“How did you know?” He moved toward her, slowly, his gait rolling, and she got the sense she was being stalked.

The tingly feeling in her limbs spread, both energizing and relaxing her. “I saw it when I touched you before. I can read tattoos the way I can read ink on parchment.”

The tingle turned into a pleasant burn unlike anything she’d ever felt. What had the vamp said about the wine? Magic. Right. No more for her.

Thanatos stopped when he was standing so close that she had to look up to see his face. “Can you control your empathic abilities?” His voice was husky, wonderfully deep, and it rumbled through her in a curiously erotic wave.

She put down the glass, feeling disconnected, like she was watching someone else set the glass on the dresser. Then she watched as he took her hand and placed it on his throat, over the scorpion that always appeared to be stinging his jugular when he spoke.

“Yes,” she whispered. “I can turn it off and on.”

“Are you… turned on?”

Oh, she caught the wordplay, was very aware it was intentional.

“No,” she said, and it was both truth and lie. She hadn’t switched on her empathic ability, though she could read a faint energy radiating from the scorpion. She was, however, extremely aroused.

Being here now had nothing to do with seducing Thanatos for The Aegis. She wanted him. It was that simple. The fear that she might let her soul-sucking ability loose during an uncontrolled moment didn’t apply here. Thanatos’s shadows would protect him, and for the first time in her life, she wanted to unchain her carnal side and let it hunt.

As if sensing her thoughts, Thanatos fastened his hand to the back of her neck and jerked her close, so their bodies were plastered together, and he mashed his lips against hers. His arousal was a brutal, huge presence against her belly, and his tongue was an assault weapon, breaching the barrier of her lips and taking what it wanted. Everything inside her went liquid and hot. Her br**sts tightened, her skin burned, and between her legs, her sex ached.

“And now?” he murmured against her mouth.

“God, yes.” Her pulse leaped in her throat, in time with the throbbing low in her pelvis.

“You drive me crazy.” He rolled his h*ps against her, and he thought she was the one who was doing the crazy-driving? “I want you, Regan. More than I’ve wanted anyone, and damn you, I’m about to give in.”

“Yes,” she breathed. “Do.”

His hands dropped to her waistband, and suddenly, it was a frenzy of who-could-strip-fastest. Her mind was fuzzy, her emotions blurry, but she knew nothing but a driving, primal need to get this man on his back.

And he would be on his back. She needed to be in control, and she would nevehe wouldr, ever be under a man.

When the last item of clothing dropped to the ground, they both stood there, facing each other, their breath sawing in and out, fists clenched. Good God, he was gorgeous. He had a runner’s body, sleek and toned. Twin nipple rings decorated his tattooed pecs, his abs rippled with deep, muscular grooves, and his slim h*ps tapered to powerful legs. And between them, his arousal rose up, thick at the base and ridged with veins all the way to the smooth head.

“I can’t,” he rasped. “Can’t go all the way.”

Disappointment sang through her, but hell, she’d take what she could get at this point. Wait… why couldn’t he go all the way—?

His powerful arms came around her, caging her against him, and all thought stopped. His kiss was hard, hot, desperate. His c**k speared her between the legs, rubbing against her sex as he pumped as though he was inside her.

“Bed.” She spun him, clipped his calf with her ankle, and shoved against his chest. Off balance, he hit the mattress on his back. Before he could recover, she leaped on top of him, straddling his thighs.

Surprise registered on his face, but then she started to rock, letting his shaft slide between her folds, and his head fell back, his lips fell open, the very picture of male ecstasy. She ran her hands up his abs, his chest, and over the hard planes of his arms. He responded, lifting his hands to place them on her shoulders…

His fingers dug almost painfully into her skin, and he held her very, very still. His gaze was glassy, drowsy, and his words were slurred. “You want to play, Aegi? I’ll play, but keep in mind that I play rough.”

“Yeah?” Dropping forward, she slipped out of his grip to take one of his nipple rings between her teeth. She tugged so hard he hissed. “So do I, Horseman. So do I.”

Thirty-one

Thanatos was on fire.

A sluggish burn worked its way through his muscles, flames licked at his skin, and smoke clouded his mind. Regan was churning on top of him, her core way too close for comfort, and why the hell had he let it get this far? He’d never, ever, gotten fully undressed with a female. But here he was, on a bed with a woman—another first—and rocking his h*ps upward to get to her wet heat.

Regan squeezed him between her thighs, and he moaned. Those legs would feel good wrapped around his waist.

“I need to be on top. Driving into you.” Somewhere deep in his brain, he knew the words were his, but he couldn’t believe he’d spoken them.

“Sorry.” She reached between their bodies and stroked his erection. “I only do it this way.”

He hissed at the friction of her palm on his hard member. “I can deal with that.” Hell, he’d deal with it any way srhe wanted it. If he was going to lose his virginity…

No.

God, what was he thinking?

“Regan.” He groaned, arching into her touch. “Stop.”

“No chance of that.” Her voice was as soft as her lips as they kissed their way up to his throat, where she nipped the scorpion tattoo before laving it with her tongue.

Thanatos squeezed his eyes shut, enjoying the way she was caressing him, using her entire body like a big cat to rub him all over. Her br**sts slid against his chest, her inner thighs brushed softly against his hips, and her hands roved far and wide, stroking, petting. He shouldn’t let himself enjoy this, but he was starved for a female’s touch. This was something he’d dreamed about his entire life, and he wasn’t about to stop it yet.

Maybe he wouldn’t stop it at all.

He frowned, wondering where that notion had come from. His body had never overruled his brain, at least, not when it came to sex. Too much rode on his ability to hold onto his virginity. Maybe the mead…

Regan tongued his nipple, and his thoughts fractured into shards of lust. Virginity be damned.

“Ah, yes,” he hissed, and hissed again when she trailed her tongue down his body. When she reached his navel, she rimmed it, and he swore nothing had ever felt so good. But would she go lower? Please, please, please.

She did. He started panting before her mouth reached his hipbone. Her silky hair cascaded over his skin, and her cheek brushed his erection, and as much as he wanted to look, he couldn’t. He was too close to the edge, and the sight would send him right over.

“What do you want me to do, warrior?” she murmured against his inner thigh.

A lump the size of his fist clogged his throat, and he couldn’t say anything. He wanted… oh, he knew what he wanted. But this was a new experience, and he’d never been this intimate with a female. No, not even in the seedy back room at the Four Horsemen. Every female he took back there got off, but only because he touched their minds as he touched their bodies, and when he was through, they believed they’d either f**ked or sucked him, but nothing could be farther from the truth.

“Hmm,” she said, as she teasingly brushed the tips of her fingers over his balls. “I guess you don’t want anything…”

“No,” he croaked. “I do.”

“Tell me.” He finally opened his eyes and looked at her. The sight of her crouched over him like that, her mouth so close to his arousal that her warm breath whispered over it, nearly undid him. Hunger glowed in her gorgeous eyes, and a sinful smile curved her lips. “What do you want?”

He swallowed the lump in his throat, but that did nothing to ease the dryness. “Put your mouth on me.”

Her smile widened, and she put her lips put her to the sensitive skin on his hip. “Like this?” She was killing him.

“On… my cock.”

“Oh, I see.” She dragged her lips down his shaft. “Like this?”

“Yeah, but…”

“But what?” She kept her mouth where it was, and his c**k kicked in both protest and pleasure.

“But… suck it.”

She winked. “Now we’re talking.” She dove into her task, taking him into the depths of her wet mouth.

He cried out, a strangled rush of air, and fisted the sheets so hard his hands cramped. Slow, strong pulls met tender, light licks, and all the while, one hand slid up and down his shaft as the other cupped his balls and massaged gently.

He was almost there… his entire body arched, his h*ps rolled… oh, yeah…

“Touch yourself,” he whispered.

Regan moaned around his shaft, and the vibration made him lick the ceiling. Cracking his eyes open, he watched her slip her fingers between her legs. He’d taste her there in a minute. He’d tongue every inch of that battle-scarred body. And that glow on her skin… something about it made the souls in his armor writhe.

Right now they were agitated, but it only increased the sensation inside him. The light on her skin seemed to blanket him as she swiped her tongue over the head of his cock, and just as he thought she was going to take him in her mouth again, she surged up his body. Straddling him, she took his shaft in her hand. Oh… shit.

“No!”

The light slammed into his chest, melting over him like shrinkwrap and then disappearing. The souls inside him pushed back in a war that raged just under the surface of his skin, one that pinned him to the bed. He couldn’t move, couldn’t summon control over his muscles as Regan poised the head of him at her entrance.

“Don’t do this. Regan!”

Too late, she sank down on him, taking him all the way to the root. Pleasure and terror mixed, and as she started to move, all he could do was try not to hyperventilate. He imagined his Seal breaking, could almost feel the evil tremor begin in his soul.

Regan moaned, grinding on him, the silky slide of her channel around his shaft nothing short of amazing, and he wished he could enjoy it more, but his f**king Seal…

Hadn’t broken.

What the hell? And how was she holding him down? Nothing could hold him.

Regan’s nails scored his chest, and she threw her head back, eyes closed, mouth open, and against his will, his h*ps came off the bed to take her deeper. He shouldn’t be enjoying this, but she was moving faster now, her br**sts lifting and falling with her increasingly rapid breaths. Magnificent. Magnif… she was breathtaking in her passion. His own passion spiraled out of control, his pleasure searing, intense. His balls felt tight, achy, ready to explode. His shaft swelled, and the first pulses of cl**ax vibrated his nerve endings.

Oh, shit… what if it wasn’t the penetration, but the orgasm that broke his Seal? Spilling your seed inside the female will change your life. The voice of the demon who had whispered in his ear when he’d been cursed clanged in his head, and his throat seized.

“Stop,” he rasped, but Regan only moved faster, undulating against him in graceful waves. “Regan, stop now!”

“No way… oh, oh, yes.” Her body convulsed, and her core grabbed onto him, squeezing, milking, and then it was over. He was done for. The orgasm hit him like a whirlwind, lifting him violently off the bed. Regan yelped as he bucked so hard she had to cling to his shoulders or go flying.

He roared in exquisite ecstasy, in futile anger… and in sheer devastation.

Regan could hardly move. Her body was sated, and yet, she was oddly still… wanting. Beneath her, Thanatos’s chest was heaving, the smooth, tattooed skin glistening with a fine sheen of sweat. She wondered if he’d felt her ability raging like an electrical storm. She could have sworn she’d released it at some point, but when she opened her eyes, there’d been no light, no screeching, no telltale sign of the creature that extracted souls like a surgical instrument.

Maybe her fear of losing control during sex had been for nothing.

She listened to Than’s heart beating in her ear as she lay plastered against him, one hand petting his silky hair. She loved the braids, and as she wound one around her finger, she sighed in weary resignation.

As much as she’d like to remain like this, maybe go again, she had to leave if The Aegis’s plan was going to work.