Free EmbracedbyaWarrior by Marisa Chenery

takeout
instead?” he asked.
    Brisa shook her head. “No way. I’m starving. You promised a
meal out at a nice restaurant, and I’m holding you to it.”
    As if on cue, the waitress returned with their orders.
Wearing a smile, Brisa picked up her fork and dug into her food with gusto.
Darius settled for watching her eat. Even though she wasn’t doing anything
overtly sexy, she was still turning him on. His gaze followed her tongue as she
licked the melted butter off her fingers after dipping the crab she’d ordered
into it. He got so caught up in Brisa, he ate without really tasting anything.
The throbbing in his cock—and the person who caused it to be in that
condition—demanded too much of his attention.
    Brisa held out a bit of her food. “Would you like some crab?
It’s really good.”
    Drawn to her like a moth to a flame, Darius leaned forward
over the table. He opened his mouth for the morsel she offered. She placed it
on his tongue. He closed his lips around Brisa’s fingers before she could pull
away and licked each one thoroughly clean, then released her.
    He didn’t miss how much faster she breathed. Her cheeks had
a splash of color on them that hadn’t been there a few seconds ago. And her
scent had become more potent, telling him he’d gotten to her.
    “Feed me something off your plate,” Brisa said.
    Darius selected a plump shrimp, using his fingers instead of
his fork. It had been cooked in lemon butter, so he ran it through the extra
sauce before he picked it up. Brisa leaned forward as he’d done and opened her
mouth. Instead of waiting for him to give it to her, she took it from him,
closing her lips around his digits.
    He had to hold back the moan of pleasure that threatened to
break free when she pushed the shrimp to the side of her mouth, then sucked and
licked his skin. She pulled back, scraping her teeth along his fingers. Too
much more of that and he’d be making a mess in his jeans. Something he hadn’t
done since he was a young teenager.
    “Give me another one,” Brisa said after finishing the
mouthful, her eyes taking on a slumberous look.
    He shook his head and cleared his throat. “If I do, you’ll
find yourself dragged outside, put up against the nearest wall away from prying
eyes and have me between your thighs before you know what hit you.”
    “Oh my,” she breathed and waved a hand in front of her face.
“Did it just suddenly get very hot in here?”
    It had, at least between him and Brisa. Darius was surprised
not to see waves of heat rolling off them. Passion had flared to life in an
instant, growing more intense by the second. He needed to get her out of the
restaurant. His hunger for her was outdoing his need for food.
    “I suggest we hurry up and finish our meals,” Darius said.
“Then we can have our own dessert back at my place, which doesn’t necessarily
have food involved.”
    “Then what are you waiting for? Stop talking and eat.” Brisa
attacked her plate, eating at a faster pace than she had before.
    The bill paid and the waitressed tipped, Darius walked Brisa
out of the restaurant. It was now evening, the sky just starting to darken.
They were halfway to his car—he’d managed to have the window fixed on the way
to the restaurant, since Brisa refused to ride on his motorcycle—when he felt
it, the familiar pull on him. Given how he wasn’t on the verge of a shift
coming on, he figured the evil he sensed wasn’t in the middle of a criminal
act. But that didn’t mean he could just drive away with Brisa and ignore it.
Once an evildoer had been sensed he physically couldn’t walk away until he’d
dealt with the individual.
    “What’s the matter?” Brisa asked as he slowed their steps.
    Fighting to not follow where the pulling would take him,
Darius racked his brain to come up with a reasonable excuse as to why he had to
leave her for a little while. Something that wouldn’t have her wanting to go
with him. He’d never told a mortal about