“Lucien, I can’t breathe,” I wheezed in all truthfulness but I’d lost his attention.
His head shot to the side and his mouth got tight right before his hold dropped away. I nearly collapsed but his hand seized mine again and he started striding swiftly back toward the club. Not long after I saw a couple coming our way down the hall and I knew Lucien heard their approach.
As they got closer, I noted it was a man and a woman. They were both so gorgeous I had no idea which was the vampire or if they both were (or weren’t).
“Lucien,” the man called from several feet away.
“Jordan,” Lucien replied.
It was clear Lucien didn’t feel like conversing.
It was just as clear Jordan did for he stopped, halting the striking redheaded woman at his side.
Her gaze flickered nervously over Lucien right before she gave me the once-over and, to my shock, right in front of me, the haughty bitch let her lip curl.
I returned the favor but without the lip curl.
Instead, when Lucien stopped, I moved into him. That alone was going to make my point but Lucien went one better.
His arm slid around my shoulders, brushing my hair with it so it all fell to the front where he mindlessly grabbed a tendril and started twisting it on his finger. Even in the dim light, I saw her eyes focus on Lucien’s hand and her face went pale.
I just stopped myself from giving her a “so there” grin.
I looked up at Lucien and saw his eyes were on Jordan. I looked at Jordan and saw Jordan’s eyes were on me.
“So this is Leah,” Jordan noted.
What?
How did he know me?
“It is,” Lucien agreed.
Jordan’s eyes gave me a once-over too. When they did, the air in the hall went thick and the animosity rolling off Lucien was the cause of it.
The redhead took a step back, my body involuntarily braced and Jordan’s gaze swung to Lucien.
“Easy, Lucien,” Jordan said in a low, conciliatory voice.
“Don’t tell me easy, Jordan,” Lucien returned in a low, anything but conciliatory voice.
“You’re amongst friends,” Jordan noted and I might have been wrong but it seemed there was deeper meaning to his words than the one that seemed obvious to me.
“That might be put to the test,” Lucien retorted.
“I’ll pass or I’ll burn,” Jordan replied.
They locked eyes and the redhead and I were powerless to do anything but look on and hope they didn’t tear each other limb from limb.
Jordan broke the macho vampire staring contest and he looked again at me. I didn’t think this was a good idea but I couldn’t tell him that.
“I can see she’s worth it,” he muttered, his eyes going back to Lucien even as his words made the redhead’s face twist into a pout that I wish I could say wasn’t pretty but it made her look damnably cute as a button.
What I wanted to know, but didn’t ask, was what I was worth.
It was like they were talking code!
Lucien didn’t respond to Jordan. Instead he looked at the redhead.
“Cecile,” he murmured.
“Lucien,” she whispered in a breathy voice.
“Now, Lucien, you released her, remember?” Jordan said and his tone was lighthearted but his words felt like a kick to my gut. The redhead looked like she felt the same and this look was not cute as a button at all. It was anguished.
She recovered before I did, damn the woman.
“I remember.” She spoke up.
Jordan turned to me. “He always gets the best ones. Luckily, sometimes the rest of us can pick up the scraps.”
Everyone tensed then.
Me in an all of a sudden feeling of camaraderie for my female brethren.
Lucien because he could be a jerk but I suspected he was a gentleman.
Cecile because his insult wasn’t veiled, not in the slightest.
“Perhaps you should be on your way,” Lucien suggested from between clenched teeth.
Jordan, clearly a new kind of vampire to me, the demented kind, grinned in the face of certain peril (namely Lucien). “Perhaps I should.” His eyes came again to me. “Leah, it was a pleasure.”
I didn’t know what to do so I simply lifted my chin. This made his grin widen to a smile, he nodded to Lucien and he took Cecile’s arm and moved to pass us.
Lucien moved too. Keeping me to his side with his arm around my shoulders, he shifted us around and his hand shot out and wrapped around Cecile’s upper arm.
Jordan and Cecile stopped.
“Cecile’s going home,” Lucien declared and I felt my mouth drop open as Jordan’s eyes narrowed on Lucien’s hand then on Lucien.
We were almost home free and now foiled by Lucien who was also obviously of the demented vampire sort.
“I beg your pardon?” Jordan asked Lucien.
“It’s okay, Lucien,” Cecile whispered.
“Don’t do this,” Lucien clipped to Cecile.
“It’s okay,” she repeated.
Lucien dropped his hand but he didn’t admit defeat. “Your family won’t agree.”
I watched as her face paled again.
“I’m not sure this is your business,” Jordan butted in, coming closer to the threesome that included Lucien, Cecile and me.
“I’ve selected three of her line, not including her, it’s my business,” Lucien returned.
“You released her just over a week ago,” Jordan snapped. “You had your fill, you’re out.”
My eyes turned to Cecile. This was Lucien’s last concubine.
I didn’t want to meet any of Lucien’s concubines but definitely not the gorgeous, willowy redhead that was his last concubine.
Why did my life suck so much?
Why?
However at that moment I suspected Cecile’s life sucked more which made my heart go out to her, regardless of the earlier lip curl.
Lucien ignored Jordan and kept focus on Cecile. “You know what you lose if you walk down that hall.”
“Lucien –” she started.
He cut her off. “I’ll take it from you.”
Her eyes fell to the floor and she whispered, “I know.”
“Go home,” Lucien ordered.
Her eyes lifted and they were pleading when she repeated, “Lucien.”
“Go home.”
Her gaze flitted to me then back to Lucien and she pulled her arm free of Jordan.
“I miss it,” she whispered.
“You’ll find someone to give it back to you but not here,” Lucien replied. “Go home.”
“I don’t believe this shit,” Jordan hissed.