Free Blood Enchantment by Tamara Rose Blodgett Page B

this is special sauce here.”
    They look at Tessa.
    She slumps farther, attempting to become one with the seat. “So we head to Drek's Lanarre stomping grounds—”
    Tahlia interrupts, “At the edge of the Hoh Rain Forest.”
    Laz cringes. “I am familiar with the area. Very wet.”
    Tessa's eyebrow hikes. “Duh.”
    Faster than Tessa can track, Laz lifts her and seats her on his lap. His nose buries at her throat, and she makes an inarticulate sound. It speaks of deep satisfaction. Damn it all.
    Laz tenses beneath her.
    Tessa opens her eyes to find a talon buried against his insta-erection. Her eyes widen on Tahlia.
    “We can sit here at the side of the road, drawing attention to our deplorable vehicle and its strange occupants, or we can take our chances with the Lanarre of the Hoh Rain Forest.”
    Laz lets out a measured breath, his eyes narrowing at Tahlia, arms still locked around Tessa. “She is my Redemptive. Tessa will be my freedom from hell, Lanarre. Your talon beside my prick won't change anything. Except to incite my rage.”
    “Incite away,” Tessa says, glaring at Laz. “I'm so glad I'm your one way ticked to above-ground living. But I don't know if I'm up for the job.”
    “You must be ʻup for the jobʼ and accept my claim as my Redemptive.”
    Or what? Her desire-laden brain attempts to think.
    His thumb presses above her clit, and she groans.
    Laz groans, too—but in pain.
    I’ve clearly lost my marbles.
    “Do you want to mate with a horned one, Tessa?” Tahlia asks with clear disdain, her talon having sliced through Laz's stiff denim jeans.
    Tessa drowns in the treacherous seas of his eyes. “I don't know,” she finally whispers. Too much has gone unexplained and Tessa finds she can't think when Laz touches her.
    “Then moon help you,” Tahlia replies with disgust, removing her talon. “I can't save you from yourself.”
    Who can?
    Tahlia starts the engine again and turns west, to travel the Hood Canal Bridge, straight for the Olympic Peninsula. Beyond that is the den of the Lanarre.
     
    *
     
    Tessa wakes with a start, completely disoriented.
    They've stopped.
    She pulls away from the damp drool spot she’s made on Laz's lap.
    Oh Moon, terrible.
    She sits up, and his arms slide from around her body. His gaze finds her, and for the first time, Tessa thinks about bad breath, hair, and body odor.
    He scoops her against him, scenting of her deeply. “You are part of me.”
    She says something in her daze of wakefulness, then his hands jerk her hips onto his lap. Again.
    Their position leaves little guesswork to the equation.
    Laz wants her.
    “Where's Tahlia?” Tessa manages. But her hips grind down against his erection. Her shame isn't enough to stop her.
    Gotta be heat. Apparently, when it comes to the demonic beneath her, nothing matters.
    “We're in Port Angeles,” Laz says, spreading his palms at her lower back and pressing her deeper against his hardness.
    Tessa has to pay attention to their surroundings. What if the Were are after her again?
    Tramack will heal anything, even his own evisceration.
    But right now, Laz is doing his best to make a hole through their jeans. “Laz,” Tessa gasps.
    He licks her throat, and she cries out. “Stop.”
    “Your body says yes, Tessa.”
    Hell yes it does. “Maybe I'm in heat ,” she says without thinking.
    “So much the better, my Redemptive.”
    Bad, Tessa. Very bad.
    Tahlia jumps into the truck. “What?” she yells.
    But Tessa barely hears it through the fog.
    “We're at Walmart.”
    Tessa opens her eyes and really looks around while Laz dips between her breasts, licking and kissing. Her head tips back, and she takes an upside-down gander. Wall-to-wall cars are stacked everywhere.
    Her head snaps up. “Laz!” she says, shaking him.
    “Hmm,” he mumbles between her tits.
    Tahlia puts a talon against his neck.
    His face jerks up, his eyes rolling to black.
    Tessa tries to scramble off his lap, but his grip on her back