Read The Hunter for Free Online Page B

mind with curiosity about what it would be like to kiss her—not just slow or quick, but soft and deep.
    He ran his finger along the edge of his stubbled jaw, trying to ignore the snap of energy that fizzled and sparked in the air between them. Every normal male reaction in him said hell yes, but his brain was pulling back on the reins with a determination he couldn’t ignore.
    “Surely a kiss isn’t too much to ask.” Her voice was fine and smooth, and seared a path right to his belly just like aged whiskey.
    “That’s what worries me. Every other demon I’ve ever met has asked for my soul.”
    Her sensual mouth curved into a subtle smile, just a bare uptilt of the lips that made his heart pound hard first in his chest, then down lower in his groin. “Well, perhaps I’m different from any other demon you’ve met.”
    Colt eyed her up and down. She sure as hell had that right. His mouth suddenly seemed desert dry.
    She shifted, turning and putting her back against the solid invisible barrier of the circle. The barrier pressed against the curve of her ass, making the silk there look like it might have been painted on her skin. He swallowed hard.
    “Surely you’ve kissed a girl before?”
    “’Course I have.”
    She glanced over her shoulder with a long, lingering look. “Then what’s stopping you?”
    “You’re not a girl. You’re a demon, and if I kiss you I’m sealing a pact between us.”
    The soft pink tip of her tongue slicked a slow, glistening trail over her top lip. “That’s right. You kiss me. I open your door.”
    “What about my soul?”
    She shrugged. “It’s not part of this accord.”
    “But you want it.”
    Hunger flared in her eyes. “Of course I want you .”
    Colt leaned forward, then abruptly stopped and shook himself. What the hell was he thinking? She was a demon, and there was no way a demon was going to just blithely go on its way without his soul. But for that brief space of a second, she hadn’t seemed like an unnatural thing at all. She’d seemed like the most enticing woman he’d ever met.
    He stepped back a pace from the circle and tried to think on something that didn’t have to do with how she looked. Not that the distance was going to do him any good. The smooth, warm wood of his revolver usually soothed his nerves when he was on edge, but not tonight. He began to pace.
    “What kind of demon are you?”
    “Does it matter? Or were you looking for something particular?”
    Colt turned, pacing back the other way. “Nah. Guess it don’t matter much.”
    “You’re stalling, Hunter. Why is that? Do we have an accord? My help for your kiss?”
    Colt’s brain spun trying to think of all the possible ways this could go wrong, and there were plenty. But he’d battled far worse all on his own than one lone demon who looked like sex personified. He stopped pacing and stared hard at the demon. “Why would you help me?”
    “Maybe I like you.”
    “You don’t even know me.”
    “Maybe I’d like to.”
    Colt stepped closer to the invisible barrier formed by the circle that held her his prisoner, pulled by some magnetic attraction he couldn’t resist. Up close her skin was even smoother, almost the texture of rose petals, and damn, but she smelled just as good.
    “I thought demons all smelled like sulfur.”
    Her husky laugh made him want to lean in and sample her lush mouth. “Only certain demons.”
    “And you’re different.”
    “I’m a lover, not a fighter, if that’s what you’re asking.”
    “So how do you steal souls?”
    “Oh, I never steal them.” She batted her eyelashes at him in absolute innocence. “Men give them to me willingly.”
    “Why would they do that?” Even as the words left his mouth, gut deep he knew why. She was the damn near sexiest thing he’d ever been this close to.
    Her lips formed a beguiling Mona Lisa smile and her words came out a sultry whisper of promise. “Because I can do things for them. I can offer them