Blood Knot by Tracy Cooper-Posey Page A

fault for producing me. When he was drunk he would say she had slept with the devil to get me. Because of my parent’s examples, my older brother would steal my food and also beat me whenever he could find me, so I spent most of my time hiding in my room, or escaping through my window and roaming the city. That brought its own dangers, of course, so I quickly learned the ways of the streets and how to use my talent to defend myself. I learned very fast that I was different. Not precisely human.” Winter bit her lip.
    “ Then the war came and everything changed. Not for better or for worse. It just changed. I met my first Americans a few years later and decided I wanted to go there. I had to wait until I was eighteen and could lie about my identity and emigrate as an adult, but I landed in New York in February the year after I turned eighteen. I was mugged two hours later and found out that nothing had changed, everything was the same…so I picked up where I left off and here I am, the world’s best thief and con artist.”
    She looked Nial in the eye. “I don’t find much joy in life, Nial. Life hasn’t accepted me in any way. I just live on the outside, peering in, pretending to be part of it. So do you, now.”
    Nial rested his hands around her waist. “Is that what you think I do?” he asked. He lifted her with ease and lowered her onto his lap, spreading her legs over his. With his thighs already spread by his cross-legged posture, Winter found herself opened up and accessible in a way that made her clit throb with the possibilities. The only barrier was her panties.
    Nial’s hands cupped her ass, moving restlessly.
    She linked her hands around the back of his neck. He was tall enough that even perched like this, she didn’t have to look down too far to look into his eyes.
    “ You’re breathing quickly,” he murmured.
    “ Your heart is racing,” she countered.
    “ Yours would too, if all you could feel is bare flesh underneath a pretty skirt.”
    “ I’m wearing a thong, Nial.”
    “ Hence the racing heart. Those things are a menace to a man’s heart beat.” His hands slid higher. “Mmm. Lace, too. Just like your stockings. You do not play fair.”
    “ No,” she agreed. “But you’re stronger and faster. I need my advantages.”
    His eyes looked sleepy with arousal. “Take off your jacket thing.”
    “ This?” She tugged at the knot at the front of the soft cropped knit jacket with its ruffled sleeves and fronts, untied it and dropped it behind Nial. She wore now the tartan pleated skirt and a green stretch silk camisole and the bra beneath. But the bra was a shelf bra and her nipples were already hard, erect nubs pushing at the thin, sensual silk.
    Nial let out a soft breath as he saw them and his reaction made her body clench and her clit bloom. She drew in a shaky breath.
    “ The top,” he whispered.
    She could feel his own heart thundering in his chest. His body straining with a sudden and overwhelming arousal. But he was holding it back. Damming it.
    The knowledge fed into her own arousal, increased it. Winter moaned as she reached for the hem of her top and tugged it upwards. She could feel Nial’s gaze on her bare midriff as it was revealed, then her bra and the naked tips of her breasts as she pulled the top over her head. She shook her hair out and found Nial was watching her face.
    “ You packed with me in mind, didn’t you?”
    “ No.”
    His gaze was steady.
    “ Perhaps,” she conceded. “But you did say to pack for every contingency.”
    “ I didn’t have seduction in mind when I said that.”
    “ I did,” she replied simply. “You had just finished kissing me not so long ago. It may look like it, but I really don’t switch off so easily.”
    He brought a hand up to slide it into her hair. “Truth, Winter?” He brought her mouth to his. “Neither do I.” His tongue stroked the outline of her lips before plunging deep inside, making her moan.
    His fingers on her