something like “this” could have happened.” He could almost hear the helplessness that would fill the streets. “There would not be enough churches, or cemeteries, for that matter, in our great city to accommodate the mass casualties I dream of causing. If I were self-indulgent, you wouldn’t see the color of my skin for the blood coating it.”
The stunning color of her skin caught his eye, and he traced his fingertips all the way to the crease below her hip bone. He saw not a blemish. How was it possible the human body could be so perfect? he wondered as he came back down to close his fingers around the fragile bones in her knee.
“Though yours would be in a similar state because after I violently took those lives, I would return to you.” He lifted his gaze to hers, and paying no attention to her stricken expression, shared how that satisfying day would end. “I would use this masterpiece until you were too exhausted even to think of running from me. Then I would bathe you and watch with disappointment the gory evidence of my vengeance flow down the drain.”
Realizing his self-indulgent rhetoric—maybe she’d pegged him after all—had caused her breakfast to cool, he pushed her plate aside and, for the third time, fixed a fresh one. When he speared some eggs and brought them to her, coaxing her to open with a tip of his chin, she was blinking rapidly.
“Do not do it. Open.”
She opened, and it took some time for her to chew and swallow. He offered her some juice, knowing her fear of him had dried her mouth. As he put the glass to her lips, a lone tear overflowed her right eye to slide down her cheek. She dashed it away, but the damage was done.
With a low sigh, he waited until she finished her drink, then he stood and hurled the crystal juice glass into the dishes scattered across the table. It shattered on impact and sprayed shards all around them. None hit his pet’s exquisite face as he’d already placed his free hand over it because he’d known what was coming.
As Sorin flew into the room, Lucian bent and gripped Yasmeen’s quivering chin. He used the hold to bring her to her feet. “You will find the self-control needed to guarantee I will not see this again. I do not want your emotions. Do you not yet understand how pointless they are? Bury them. Destroy them completely. I do not care. But do not reveal them to me again. You will not do things your way by discounting my warnings. You will accommodate me. Do I make myself clear?”
She put a hand over her mouth, trying to smother the sound of the sob that jerked through her chest and made the tendons in her neck tighten as they did when she orgasmed for him. At seeing she was making an effort, his anger was soothed. He scooped her up and walked her out of the glass as she was barefoot. At the door, he handed her precious body off to Sorin. Mainly, because he found he did not want to. His temples pounded as he forced himself to release her.
“Bring her upstairs. You will leave her at the bedroom door.” He lifted Yasmeen’s head when she laid it on Sorin’s shoulder. “You will not lean on him,” he growled, feeling as if it wasn’t only him talking anymore. “He is transportation.” Seeing the glitter of crystal shards in her hair, he sighed once again and felt a calm steal over him. “Run a bath. I will be up shortly to remove the debris from your hair.”
“I c-can do it myself.”
And again she figuratively put her head down and chose to butt back against his will. “Is your need to rebel against me deliberate, draga, or is it something you cannot help.”
“I can’t help it.”
The helpless note of frustration in her voice was endearing, and his acknowledgment of it lasted long enough for him to share a look with Sorin.
“Go. I will join you in a few moments.”
He stood there and watched the only man he trusted enough to carry away a frightened, tear-stained woman Lucian would be inside again in the next few hours. As they disappeared around the corner, he turned back to survey the damage his tantrum had caused.
“You may clean it up,” he said quietly in Romanian.
Three of his staff rushed out from where they’d been hovering at the hidden