Blood of the Wicked by Karina Cooper Read Free Book Online

bored into hers. Lightning and headlights illuminated the alley, painted him in demonic orange and gold. Every line of his body radiated tension. Tension wrapped in rangy, chiseled muscle.
    “Don’t,” he said again, the one syllable vibrating with something bottomless and raw.
    Jessie’s fingers curled into fists. “Go to—”
    “ Christ ,” he gritted out, and caught her face between his palms. Before she could think, react, breathe , he seized her mouth in a kiss that left no room for anything else but stark, raw heat.
    It was awkward. It was almost painful, with her head half tilted on her neck, her shoulders suddenly flattened against the cold wall. It was forceful and angry and it should have frightened her.
    It was like setting a match to dynamite.
    Arousal simmered from her lips to a pulsing warmth between her legs so fast, so intensely that she gasped. He swept in to claim that sound, to taste the damp heat of her mouth with a groan every bit as angry as his tense fingers twisted into her tangled hair.
    He electrified every soaking wet nerve until she thrummed to life in his hands. Ached under his angry, desperate, demanding assault.
    She caught fistfuls of his thin T-shirt, twisted the fabric tighter against the hard expanse of his chest. Dragged the sodden fabric up to reveal hot, wet skin and that amazingly defined muscle.
    He fed on her incoherent moan, slid his tongue between her lips. There wasn’t anything refined or gentle about it. He didn’t seduce; he took, claimed, forced his way inside her mouth as if he’d absorb every last iota of heat she had to give. He let go of her head to grab her hips, to seize her close and pull her hard against the undeniable ridge of his erection.
    Every inch of her body clamored for more, ached for more of that pressure just where she needed it. She cried out in mingled pleasure and shock.
    Silas wrenched his mouth away, cursing. It was a strangled sound, even as his fingers flexed at her waist.
    She blinked. Jerked her hands away from his shirt as if they burned. As her heartbeat hammered in her ears, Jessie fought to even her breathing.
    What was she thinking?
    Obviously sex in an alley, with a man who frightened her. Who tempted her. Who’d kill her if he ever found out about her gifts. Stupid .
    Jessie tried to straighten, tried to reclaim what ground she’d lost as she lifted her chin, but he didn’t let her move. He caught her arm before any words coalesced in her spinning brain.
    A conflagration of arousal and pure confusion gave way to icy shock as cold metal banded around her wrist.
    She half turned under his shove, gasped when her other wrist joined the first behind her back. “What are you doing?” she demanded, struggling against the same hands she’d been struggling to put herself into not sixty seconds before.
    “Taking you back,” he replied, his voice edged with ice. “Move.”
    Fury ignited, a sudden rage of heat that made her shake with it. “You have some nerve.” She wrenched at his grasp. Didn’t care that her shrill voice rebounded off the alley walls around them. “Who do you—”
    “You can yell at me later,” he cut in. She stumbled under a hard push to her lower back. “Move it.”
    Common sense barely managed to keep her from doing something stupid, like kicking him squarely where it counted. Instead Jessie dug her feet in. “I’m not moving,” she began, and cursed as blue as she knew how when he caught her upper arm and yanked her down the road instead.
    Silas didn’t even look at her as he half dragged her beside him. “You are. Now shut up, Jessie.”
    Her lip curled. “Fuck you, Agent Smith.”
    Mouth thinned, he didn’t say another word as he marched her all the way back to the run-down complex. Wet, furious, handcuffed for God’s sake, Jessie tried to ignore the way her lips felt swollen in the stinging rain. How they tingled as if she’d pressed them to a live conduit crackling with electricity.
    She held