Alyssa snorted in disbelief. “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.”
“As much as I’d like to fuck you…no. I do not joke about our history.” He took another long pull of the water and she was fascinated by the way his throat worked as he swallowed. She resisted a sudden urge to run her tongue over the dip in his throat where his Adam’s apple bobbed. His eyes glinted with mirth and she was afraid he knew what she’d been thinking.
Mercifully, he continued without mentioning it. In one fluid movement, he stood and pulled her to him, pressing her against the long line of his body. Her breath caught in her throat and every inch of her body screamed for her to rub herself shamelessly against him—or maybe just throw him on the floor and impale herself on his cock.
The sudden urge slapped her back to reality and she bolted from his grasp, putting the couch between them. He merely chuckled and continued. “The word ‘cunt’ is used as a slur because witches interact with humans and they pick up on our language. ‘Cunt’ has become synonymous with ‘traitor’ and ‘outcast’ to any witch. Although the humans use it in a slightly different way. Now come and kiss me, Alyssandra, I want to finally feel your lips in the physical world.”
When he started around the couch after her, she held up a hand. “Wait.” She gave her traitorous body a firm talking to, this can’t be real so work with me here, and pierced him with her most skeptical stare. “What do witches have to do with this? You mean like Wiccans?”
He leaned forward resting his forearms on the back of the couch, causing the already tight black T-shirt to mold over the best shoulders she’d ever seen. Shoulders she knew she’d seen before—and felt before. She licked her lips at the sudden urge to trace each inch of his muscular shoulders with her tongue.
He continued, breaking her out of her thoughts. “Wiccans are humans who choose to practice a set of beliefs. Being Klatch is what you are.” He shook his head and sighed. “I can see the Cunts withheld from you your heritage. This must be remedied.” His hand snaked out to grab her arm and he pulled her to him across the back of the couch. When he cradled her in his lap on the couch, his strong arms bracketed around her, a sexual thrill zinged straight to her pussy. The fact that a very large bulge swelled against her hip only served to scramble her thoughts further.
He smiled, his eyes darkened dangerously. But a dangerous she knew from ten years of dreams that meant wonderful sexual things, not anything to harm her. Every erogenous zone in her body rejoiced, drowning her in a sea of sexual energy.
She put her fingers against his lips when he lowered his face to hers. “Please, tell me about the Klatch.” Anything to keep him talking until she could figure out how he evoked these feelings inside her.
“A Klatch witch is a being who needs sexual energy to survive. We also eat and drink, but in order to thrive, we must imbibe sexual energy.” He kissed the fingers still resting lightly against his lips and then pulled one into his mouth. He sucked on the tip and swirled his tongue in a familiar pattern she remembered him using on the soft underside of her clit—which throbbed in response. She pulled her finger away, her breathing coming in short gasps.
His voice was a low rumble when he spoke. “Intercourse is the best and easiest, but any kind of sexual energy will do: masturbation, voyeurism, or even sexual dreams.”
Alyssa found herself laughing despite the sexually charged atmosphere. “You’re trying to tell me I’m some kind of sexual vampire?”
“Good God, no.” He looked horrified at the suggestion. “You are no succubus, Princess. You are my betrothed and a full-blooded Princess of Klatch.”
“Betrothed?” She gasped, and her mouth fell open. “As in engaged to be married?”
He nodded. “Yes, most Klatch never marry. They will either have half-breed children with humans or just feed from humans sexually their whole lives. But the full-blooded Klatch are betrothed at birth to another of full blood to retain the line and our heritage.” He lowered his mouth to hers, but at the first jolting and very familiar touch of his lips, she squirmed out of his grasp and put half the room’s distance between them.
Alyssa’s mind whirled. When he was near her, it felt like all her circuits were on overload. She looked up into his darkened lavender eyes. The hunk of testosterone who sat across from her thought he was her fiancé? How lucky could she get? Her body immediately wanted to claim its conjugal rights. But then her overly logical mind weighed in and ruined everything.
“Look, I don’t even know you. You follow me home from work, scare me half to death and now you’re trying to tell me I’m some sort of witch who feeds off sex?” She paced back and forth in front of the coffee table. A large ball of lead settled in her gut and she knew at least some of what Stone said was true. She could feel it deep inside her. “Why did you wait until now to find me?”
“Alyssandra, I have searched for you for ten years. You were well hidden among the humans. When the civil war ended, they stole you as a bargaining tool so the king and queen would not hunt down the remaining Cunts. Then they slithered away to the human world to hide.” He stood and laid a comforting hand on her shoulder. “I know you believe and I also know you don’t want to. But tell me this. Did you fit in growing up? Are you like your parents or your siblings or even your friends?”
The awful truth hit her like a sledgehammer. She squeezed her eyes shut as tears burned at the back of her eyes. He was right. She’d never fit in and she never had any true friends. Her mother and father had fair hair and she had dark. Her pale lavender eyes had always been a topic of fascination or outright teasing and her early development of full hips and breasts had set her apart from her model-thin mother and sisters. She figured that’s why she’d dreamt of a handsome man who made her feel as if she belonged. But now, with him standing so close she could smell the woodsy musk of pure man, she knew better. “Are my adoptive parents…” She struggled with the word, “Cunts?”
He nodded and gestured to a family picture hanging on her wall. “The civil war came partially because of physical differences. The offspring of Klatch and humans who called themselves Cunts are fair of hair and skin and usually have thin bodies. The remaining faction of Klatch are dark haired, olive skinned and blessed with curves.” He stared down at her body as if he could see through the baggy clothes. She thought he would devour her whole.
“The Cunts thought themselves more attractive, superior and better breeding stock, so they tried to overthrow the king…and failed.”
Alyssa thought back over her life. Her family had always treated her more as a pet who wasn’t very smart than a part of the family. College was never an option. Her father convinced her she just couldn’t handle the higher learning and it wouldn’t be worth wasting the money. The same thing happened when she wanted to get a driver’s license.
So, she’d gone to bartending school. The pay was decent and she enjoyed interacting with the customers—most of the time. As for her personal life, her sisters still teased her about being fat and her long dark hair was always downplayed as less attractive than their lighter tresses. If everything Stone said was true, it made a lot of things more clear. Go with your gut!
“What exactly do you want me to do?” Her mind whirled.
“Your twenty-fourth birthday grows near and you will be coming of age. Because of your heritage, you’ll be an extremely powerful witch in her own right. Come with me and meet your real parents and then you can decide.”
She closed her eyes and searched inside herself for answers. Should she trust Stone? This entire situation was too crazy for words. She went with her gut. “Prove to me you are who you say you are, and I’ll go.”
Chapter 2
Stone’s desire reached a fevered pitch and he reined it in hard. He very much wished he could reenact their joint dream last night—then she would be a true believer. However, he needed to get her back to Klatch as soon as possible