Free Kai (A Dark Assassins Novel Book One) by Valerie Ullmer Page B

longer, I would have found my release.”
    Unsure whether his heart beat faster from her body’s earlier silent admission, or her verbal one, he stood mute as she stared into his eyes.
    “But I’m not quite sure if it was the pleasure of your venom in my system, or because I was able to touch you.”
    His arousal made the next words harsher than he would have liked.   “It was the venom.”
    “I have to admit that I was attracted to you the moment I spotted you.”
    “You only saw me for a few minutes the other night—”
    “No, months ago, when you first came into the diner.   I noticed everything about you.   You never ordered anything, never spoke to anyone other than Stella—and that was to dismiss her—and left soon after I did.   I sensed that you were near, but I could never catch sight of you anywhere.   It drove me crazy that your hood had covered your face, but I found myself anticipating the moment when you entered the diner and my eyes would search you out, more than I would like to admit, even now.   I remember it was a Wednesday, three months ago, that you finally lowered the hood, and I could see your face and your silver eyes.   I found that handsome was such a pedestrian word for you.   And after all of these months, I still haven’t come up with one that fits.”
    Her words held no deceit.   But in all the times he’d walked into the diner and observed her, they’d never locked eyes or had he even been aware that she’d known of his presence in the eatery she frequented.   Yet, she knew the exact day he had rid himself of the covering and could admit, although to himself, that he’d been following her to keep her safe.   Humans were fragile, delicate, and although she’d shown daring and cleverness, a surge of protectiveness washed over him whenever she was close.   With that need came another, a pull so tenacious that he sensed her in ways beyond the abilities of his vampire form.
    When he’d been short with her in the bedroom, he perceived her sadness at being brushed aside.   When he’d spoken about Jade, jealousy overwhelmed his senses.   As she spoke to Seth, he had been happy and relaxed, and on one occasion, he found himself grinning when Seth asked her about her work.  
    Although he had a mind link with the assassins when needed due to years of training and working closely together, he had never experienced someone else’s emotions, much less as acutely as he seemed to sense her.  
    Each minute he spent with her, he was torn between the growing need to touch and memorize every inch of her luscious body and finding another assassin to keep her safe while he straightened out his jumbled mind.   But the latter thought was dismissed as quickly as it entered.   He would keep her close.
    “Yes, to answer your earlier question, I find you sweet to drink from, but your soft curves and beauty arouse me, inflame me,” he said.
    “I want to kiss you.”
    Despite the pleasure her statement had created in him, he thought it fair to warn her.
    “It might lead to more,” he replied.
    “I’m hoping it will,” she said.
    Within a second, he lifted her into his arms, and he took his first real taste of her lips.

Chapter Eight

    Olivia

    Pure pounding bliss rushed through her veins as his mouth mastered her untried one in a move that left her breathless and aching.   His soft lips sipped at hers, a teasing lick on the corners of her mouth, before he slowly moved his tongue between her lips, seeking permission in a subtle, yet carnal way.  
    She opened for him in an instant.  
    His tongue swept inside, and at her first taste of him, a frosty mint taste that had her shivering in his arms, she understood what she hadn’t before.   A kiss should be intimate and encompassing.   He proceeded to show her as his lips mastered hers; each slide of his tongue weakened her knees and caused a surge of hunger so acute, her body throbbed.  
    She sighed into his mouth each time his