Free Kiss Me Deadly by Michele Hauf Page A

eyes and propping his chin on her hip bone, followed the ride as her muscles tightened and released and the pleasure worked her body at its own volition.
    This one really surrendered to the flight. She let out her voice and rode the wave, unembarrassed to give him a glimpse of the marvelous woman who really knew how to take pleasure and give it, too.
    A few giggles slipped out in the wake of her climax, and Ravin finally managed to say breathlessly, “Have you used reverie on me?”
    “Never.” Sliding up alongside her, he stroked stray hairs from her eyelashes.
    The reverie was a way to seduce and calm the vampire’s victim by matching the pace of their heartbeats. Once matched, there was a certain persuasion the vampire could exercise upon his victim’s thoughts. Most often Nikolaus used it to persuade his victims that nothing had happened, no more than a sore neck, and they would never recall the dark stranger’s face, voice, or drinking bite.
    “You want me to?”
    “No,” she said. “I don’t need persuasion.”
    “Not even this kind?”
    Pinching her nipple, he then sucked the hard peak.
    “Drake, you’re killing me.”
    “I owe you one.”
    She smirked. “You make it so difficult to concentrate, to want to…”
    “Come again?”
    “Hate you.”
    He sensed her determination. The fight would not leave the slayer. But she reacted to his touch—likely against her better judgment—and spread her legs. Nikolaus slid inside her.
    The heat and the squeezing tightness of her coaxed him to a quick release. Nikolaus scooped up Ravin under the shoulders and brought her to his chest to hold close. Loose and relaxed, she let him embrace her longer than was necessary. He didn’t want to lose hold of her, to stop this sweet moment. A victory he’d been wanting for months.
    “Looks like there’s a new slayer in town,” he said.
    He’d killed the witch. And he would kill her again, with orgasms, over and over until she cried for mercy.
     
    She’d made love with a vampire. All freakin’ day.
    Ravin lay in bed—next to a vampire. And she didn’t feel compelled to jump away and grab for the stake.
    And yet…
    “This is not how it should be,” she murmured.
    Despite her reluctance, Ravin moved her littlest finger, which traced the smooth muscle of Nikolaus’s powerful thigh. Wandering higher, she drew along the edge of a scythed black curve that formed a sharp tip on the elaborate tribal tattoo positioned mid-back and stretching up from shoulder to shoulder, and wrapping the back of his neck, and—she could guess—across his scalp.
    Must have always been a tough character, because he had to have got this tattoo before becoming a vamp. Vamps couldn’t get inked because their incredible healing abilities would push out the design within hours of the painful process.
    Who was the man beneath the vampire exterior? What had he been before his transformation? How long ago had it happened?
    Oh! She did not care. She didn’t!
    “Of course.” The sheets slithered as he moved in to whisper lazily against her ear, “I should be romancing you.”
    “No, I didn’t mean it that way.” The heat of his breath started that funny swirling feeling in her chest again. Her heart raced and she wanted to—
    Suddenly the warmth of his presence moved away as Nikolaus sat up. Ravin slid her hand over the sheet, but then quickly tugged it back to wrap across her stomach.
    Where are you going? was the question she wanted to ask, but she didn’t want him to think it mattered.
    “We’ve been making love all day. Damn, lazing around in your arms? That felt good,” he said. “But it’s night.”
    “Ah. That makes you a free man. Have you been counting the minutes until sunset?”
    “No. I have a driver. I can leave whenever I wish.”
    “You mean last night when I wanted you to leave? When I was in the shower…?”
    “Yes.” He shot her the rogue’s wink over his shoulder. “I’ll go now. I have something to