Primal Pursuit

“Maybe later.”

He puts his drink down, picks up a to-go cup, and pours the contents into another ceramic mug. The chipped poppy one.

He holds it out to me. “Milk and sugar at your disposal. Didn’t know how you take it.” A wicked smile curves his lips. “Well, I know exactly how you take it, just not your coffee.”

“Black like your heart.”

“You fucking assume I have one, Rabbit.”

I take a sip, and it’s heaven in a cup. Rich, strong, and perfect. But I set it down. “You drugged me, Davian. That was a real fucked-up thing to do.”

He sighs. “You couldn’t come with me last night.”

“What did you do?”

“Cleaned up some issues. Then came back here to make sure you were okay.”

For a moment, I can’t speak as warmth from his words spreads through me, from my belly outward. Davianwanted to make sure I was okay? Why do I find that…comforting?

He clears his throat. “So, are you? You know…okay?”

The softness of Davian’s words knocks the breath from me and the warmth spreads further.

He’s a killer, and I’m… I’m not meant to feel warm and fuzzy about him.

It must be the drugs.

“I’m…ah—” I pick up my mug and take a sip “—I’m good.”

He nods as his phone buzzes, but he only sighs and doesn’t look at it. “Good.”

He drains his mug, places it on the counter, then takes mine from me, setting it down next to his. I swallow hard as he crowds me against the sink, a hand on either side of me.

My heart starts to beat erratically as he closes the distance between us, his frame tall and towering over me, his green eyes glittering as his closeness sucks all the oxygen from around me.

Then Davian does something completely unexpected, more unexpected than him spending the night at my apartment just to make sure I’m okay.

He kisses me.

I know he’s done that before. But this feels different. Almost like there’s no other agenda behind it.

His kiss is neither hard nor rough. It’s tender, slow, like he’s pouring genuine emotion into it, something intimate, like a warmth somehow created from every depraved act we’ve done.

There’s light to it, a certain singing sweetness. Likedark chocolate where the bitter is good, the bite wonderful and rewarding.

My heart races as he takes his time, exploring my mouth with his tongue. My insides flutter and dance, and the ground’s no longer solid beneath my feet. I’m swept away, drifting, melting into him, and I don’t want to stop.

I kiss him back, fingers tangling in his sweater, clinging to him like a lifeline.

It’s a long moment of warmth, a facsimile of caring and even affection. It’s crazy, but it’s good. It’s madness, but it’s heaven. On his lips. In his kiss. All around us.

When he ends it, my head spins as I look up at him, confused, slightly dazed, his emerald gaze staring into my soul for a single goddamn second. And then he steps back. Just turns away and leaves. The door clicking shut behind him.

And me?

I start to shake.

I’m a fucking mess because I don’t know what the hell just happened.