For Better or Hearse

by Ava Hunter

“Kill,” she gasps into his mouth when she pulls back. “Not kiss. I was going to say kill.” “Not yet,” he rasps against her lips. “I’m not done with you.”

“We can’t do this.” “Why not?” “Because we hate each other.” “Liar,” he murmurs, smug.

If she lets him get too close, there’s no telling what she’ll let him do to her.

At this rate, she’ll never get him out of her horny nightmares.

She bites her lip. Glances down. “I apologize for your raging boner.”

Jesus. That bikini, that thigh tattoo haunt him. In the best possible way.

Suddenly, he’s hit with a desperate need for her to look at him.

Nathaniel arches a brow. “Says the girl who scares little children.” Briefly, her gaze flicks to his. There it is. That glimmer of a smile. Or annoyance. Either way, he’ll take

That slow curl into him, hands on his shoulders, that red mouth landing on his lips like a bomb.

She gives him a slight smile. God help him. The warmth that pours through him is shameful.

She scoffs. The flash of mischief in her eyes makes his dick twitch.

He leans in. Notes the shiver that goes through her. “Had to find some way to get you speaking to me again, Bigfoot.” Lips curving in a smile, she lifts a creamy white shoulder. “Hasn’t been that long.” Twelve hours and two minutes. That’s what he wants to say, but he doesn’t.

She’s driving him wild, and she’s completely oblivious. Or maybe she isn’t. Maybe she just loves torturing him. Speaking of torture… Ash strips out of her tank top, shimmies out of her shorts, in one quick motion. And there it is. Her yellow bikini shines bright. The beacon of his ever-constant erection.

He stares, entranced.

His breathing grows shallow. She’s so damn beautiful. With her bright red lips and long black hair that curls down her back, she looks like wilderness. Like chaos.

Ash should come with a disclaimer. Catlike and beautiful, with random acts of violence.

“Careful,” he calls out as he’s hit with a jolt of concern. Those gray-green eyes slice to him. “It might not be deep e—” Holding up her middle finger, she runs. Jumps.

She’s smiling.

She snorts. “Admit it. You were secretly hoping I cracked open my skull.” “No place to bury the body,” he says, wading into the water. “How would that look?”

She twists away from him. He follows.

Nathaniel tries not to stare. Fails miserably.

“You want to play?” he asks.

The touch of her silk, fire.

“You notice when I’m nervous?” The words roll off his tongue before he can stop them. “I notice everything about you.”

The tantalizing flush on her face ruins him.

She runs her hands through his hair. Whimpers into his mouth. The sexiest, neediest sound he’s ever heard.

“Yes,” she gasps, the word only for him. “Yes, yes.”

As she rocks against him in a silent plea for more, he kisses her. Senseless. Endless. He can’t be satiated. He’s coming undone. Utterly whipped and ruined.

On a growl, she snares his bottom lip with her teeth, tugging savagely. “Fuck,” he grits out, liking her violence.

Ash moans at the same moment he does.

When she lifts her face, he smooths away that cloud of dark hair, skims a thumb over the delicate arch of her cheekbone. “Ash.”

“That was…kinda fucking everything,” she murmurs.

He swears to God she’s purring.

Framing his face in her hands, she kisses him fiercely. In response, he wraps his fist in all that black hair. A fire erupts within him. Fuck. It’s just as good as he expected. She kisses like a monster. Hungry and electric and savage.

“Your dick,” Ash hisses as they come into sight of his family. His eyes drop to the bulge in his shorts. She smirks.

Ash looks up at him from beneath thick, fringed lashes. Barefaced, beautiful.

She’s never been looked at that way. Ever. Partly like she’s roadkill, but also…with wonder. Wanting.

When did she go from fuck that guy to I want to fuck that guy?

Ash bites her lip. Smiles. Whispers, “He looked up cryptids. For me, I think.”

“Okay, I admit I am grudgingly impressed by his jawline, and if he wants to tie me down and whisper his murderous intentions to me while I’m half-naked, then who am I to argue? It’s just for the rest of the trip.”

“Lizzo was right. The truth hurts.”

She’ll save herself for those that deserve it.

He arches a brow. Leans in the doorway.

He’s infuriating. God, she loves it.

The ridiculously sculpted pectorals are just a bonus.

She doesn’t know what to do with her hands. Her lips. She wants them all over Nathaniel.

The thorns around her heart soften.

Ash lingers in the doorway of her hotel room. Nathaniel stands on the other side of the threshold like a blood-sucking vampire who hasn’t been allowed to enter.

Nathaniel leans in. One muscular forearm rests on the wall above her, pinning her against the doorframe.

“What do you feel when I do this?” His blue eyes sear hers. Hungry and heated. “Everything,” she whispers. “I feel everything.” “Yeah,” he murmurs. “I do too.”