What the Heart Haunts by Sadie Hart Page B

and tugged on a small gold chain, freeing
a necklace that had been hiding under her shirt.
    Cissy had to be shitting him. Fucking
shitting him.
    How the hell was he supposed to get the horn
when it was less than two inches tall and hanging from her freaking
neck?
    Nalla cocked her head. “You cool?”
    “Yeah.” His gaze dropped to the gold necklace
dangling over her shirt, just a hair higher than the dip between
her breasts. The symbols spelling out the Hunt were etched in the
side. This couldn’t be a coincidence, a human female wouldn’t know.
Damn. A witch, maybe?
    “Well, then let’s go.” She swerved into him,
her shoulder bumping his and he staggered, anticipation flaring
through him. He felt the Hound inside him leap at her touch, felt
the dog want to play and he was ready to race after her, barking
into the full moon sky.
    But she didn’t take off into a sprint. Of
course she didn’t. She wasn’t a Hound and humans and witches didn’t
have a mad longing to kill themselves by running blind in the woods
at night. Khost stuffed his hands into his jeans pockets and
playfully knocked back into her, keeping his breathing even. Play
along. Wait for an opportunity to snatch and grab.
    Pine needles broke under his shoes as he
followed her into the forest. Her steps were light, quick, as if
she were fighting back a jog. That or it was his imagination. His
instincts were screaming at him full tilt. Run , he wanted to
shout at her. Shivers trailed through every muscle in his body and
his bones ached with the need of it all. Nalla reached up and
snapped a branch off a tree, waving the twig in the air.
    “I love nights like this. So...feral.”
    She rolled the word off of her tongue and
Khost closed his eyes, clamping his jaw shut to stave off a howl.
His head tipped back and the muscles in his throat constricted, but
Khost held the sound back. Nalla moved closer. Her leather jacket
brushed his stomach. Her breath was hot against his neck. Khost
automatically went to step away, to put distance between him and
her, when she caught him by his shirt and pulled him closer.
    She curved a hand around the back of his
neck, pressing his head down as she stepped into him. “Khost?” she
whispered against his lips, making his name sound like a sigh of
the wind. An ancient howl, sounding deep, lost in time. Faint.
    He trembled. His throat worked twice before
he managed, “Yeah?”
    “Sorry about this.” Then she closed the
distance between their lips and kissed him.
     
    ***

Chapter Two
    Nalla felt him tense against her, his breath
hissing out between his teeth. His muscles bunched as if he were
ready to bolt, and for a second she thought she’d misjudged him.
But when her palms slid to cup his face on either side, holding him
to her, he broke. A staggered gasp spilled from Khost as his hands
found her hips and dragged her flat against him. His whole body
shook, but he didn’t run.
    There was power in his hands, strength. An
answering wildness she hadn’t felt in so long. A keening whine
spilled out of her lips. She shouldn’t...this poor man didn’t have
a clue. Didn’t stand a chance. She was going to ruin him, for one
night, for a chance at revenge, but when she swept a tongue at the
seam of his lips and they opened, Nalla couldn’t stop herself from
slipping inside. He tasted sweet, like cinnamon and spun clouds,
and sweet Herne, like a wild night of running through the sky. It’d
been so long since she’d tasted stars and moonlight that she didn’t
want to stop.
    Nalla stepped into him, shoving him against a
tree. Khost gave a low grunt, his arms winding around her hips as
she pressed herself tighter to him. Loving the way the muscles in
his stomach clenched when her hips touched his, loving the shiver
that trailed through his thighs. Nalla broke the kiss and nipped
over his jaw. The ache to run pouring out of her. It’d been so long
since she’d had anyone else.
    Khost sucked in a hard, ragged breath,