No, I adored it.
When we kissed again, my fingers curled into his hair, holding him to me like I’d never let him go.
He broke our kiss and his mouth traveled the length of me, pushing the robe wide, exposing me to him and I didn’t try to hide. I kept my fingers in his hair as he explored, tempting, pressing for a reaction, taking it when it happened but not giving that first thing back. He blew against my ni**les, they hardened, peaking with a beautiful pain. His tongue swept along my skin, under the swells of my br**sts, across my midriff, circling my belly button, lower, until it teased the edge of my black lace panties.
Then his mouth was on me between my legs, sucking for an instant, hot and hard, over my panties.
The pleasure seared through me, rocking me to my soul and my h*ps surged upwards, an instinctive demand for more.
His mouth disappeared and all of a sudden his body was on mine again, his lips against my mouth, the flavor of me a hint on his.
“You want my mouth between your legs?” he growled, even his voice, rough with desire, trilled through my system, making me squirm.
I did. I wanted his mouth between my legs. I wanted him inside me, his tongue or anything else he choose to put there.
I didn’t answer, instead I panted against his mouth.
“Do you want me?” he pushed.
“Lucien –” My voice was a breathy plea for release.
“Beg me,” he demanded.
It would be so easy to give up, to give in, to take what I wanted knowing it would be, by far, the best I ever had. It would be so easy to humble myself and deal with the consequences later.
But I couldn’t. If I did, I knew I’d lose myself, all that was me. The mass of bad traits, stubbornness, impatience and sometimes fumbling idiocy and all the good traits too, my loyalty, sense of humor and compassion. I wouldn’t hold onto me anymore. I would be giving it to him and I didn’t trust him to take care of it.
And I knew that even if he kept it safe, he wouldn’t keep it long. He’d release me as he did Cecile and countless other concubines. By then, everything I was would be gone. He’d retain it for centuries, likely uncaring he held such a precious gift but, for me, all would be lost.
Instead of explaining any of that, or giving him the demand he asked for, I gave him another kind of entreaty. “Don’t make me do that.”
His face grew hard. “I have eternity, pet, to teach you this lesson.”
“You won’t last that long. You’ll give up,” I told him, my body still burning for his touch, wriggling underneath him.
At my words, he looked a mixture of amused and surprised.
His head cocked to the side and he asked, “Do you think that’s true?”
I nodded, being honest for once. “You’re a vampire but you’re also a man. You’ll need to get it elsewhere and you will. Eventually you’ll tire of me.”
He grinned and I didn’t like it. It was his smug grin and I reckoned it foretold very bad things for me.
I wasn’t wrong.
“Oh, I won’t tire of you, Leah. But, you’re right. If you force me, I will indeed get it elsewhere.”
At the thought of him getting anything elsewhere, a different kind of heat slashed through me, washing away my desire in a wave of pain. This was unexpected, not only the reaction but the excruciating intensity of it.
Before the razor-sharp edge of this sensation could subside, his head snapped up. He drew in a deep breath through his nostrils and his eyes narrowed, focusing on something but not me, not something close.
I sensed the danger instantly.
Our current situation forgotten, I whispered, “Lucien, something’s wrong.”
His eyes locked on mine.
For some reason communicating nonverbally, he replied straight into my brain, Yes, pet.
Without further reply, his body knifed off mine and he moved away. He was holding himself tense, his powerful musculature standing out, more defined. The way he held his body was menacing, even sinister. I could sense he wanted to move with vampire speed but was forcing himself to go slowly.
I heaved myself up and followed him, closing my robe, tying it tightly. The doorbell rang but he was already pulling the door open as the bell sounded. I stopped five feet away.
A woman stood there. Gleaming black hair, ice-blue eyes, her beauty so extraordinary, her sexuality so explicit, I couldn’t stop myself from sucking in a stunned breath at the sight of her.
This was a mistake.
When I gasped, her eyes, which were fastened on Lucien, sliced to me.
She, too, pulled in breath through her nostrils.
In an instant, her face contorted with primal rage.
In the next instant, she attacked.
Her target?
Me.
Chapter Ten
The Confrontations
She flew at me and when I say that I mean it literally.
She was a streak, a blur, my mortal eyes couldn’t make out the lines of her body.
She didn’t get close.
Three feet away from me, she came into definition.
This was because she was halted, Lucien’s arm around her waist.
Then Lucien twisted, executing a near-blur, full on, powerful hurl that would have been awe-inspiring if it hadn’t been so freaking scary. She was a streak again, going backwards with tremendous velocity until she slammed against the wall. The plaster behind her buckled in a body-like shape, white dust and paint chips raining down around her as she fell to a graceful crouch, completely unharmed.
Her head snapped back, her seething eyes pinned on me. With only a moment’s delay, she sprang toward me again in another blurry attack. And again she was stopped, this time when she was, her whole body still swayed toward me.
Her whole body, that was, except her head and her neck.
Lucien had her by her throat. Just one hand at her throat, the muscles in his arm and back bunching as he took two steps and slammed her against another wall, more plaster breaking, more debris falling.
Lucien got close to her and I saw his fingers squeeze.
“You just made a fatal mistake, Katrina,” he gritted from between clenched teeth.
His fury matched hers, maybe surpassed it. I knew this because his jaw was working so hard a muscle leapt there.
I stood frozen not only from what I just witnessed but that I was just almost attacked by what amounted to Lucien’s wife.
His wife!
And she was stunning. She was the most beautiful creature I’d ever seen. I had to admit that even if she wanted to tear me limb from limb.
Her incensed gaze slid from me to Lucien.
“You’ve f**ked her. I can smell it.” Her voice was deep, throaty, seductive. It wasn’t throaty because her husband held her by the throat but just because it was.