Lord of the Abyss - By Nalini Singh Page 0,29

the dress on the bed. The red, red dress.

Walking forward with disbelieving steps, she touched her fingers to the delicate, silky material, curling those fingers into her hands as sheer want washed over her. She'd never had a dress so saturated with color, so very pretty. Dull browns and grays, those were what suited her "nightmare of a face." Her father's words, but in this he was right.

"I'll give you three more minutes." The ultimatum came from the other side of the door.

Biting back a startled cry, she stared at the wooden surface. "I'm not the kind of woman who wears a red dress." Oh, but she wanted to.

"Do you not like it?"

"It's the most beautiful dress I've ever seen," she said, because to lie would be a desecration of his gift.

"Then you'll wear it. Or you will be naked." A pause. "Hmm..."

Every inch of her skin skittering with sensation at that considering murmur, she dropped the towel and pulled on one of the two identical pieces of flimsy underwear laid out beside the dress - there was no slip, nothing for her breasts, but then she didn't need it. Such luxury, she thought as the cloth whispered over her thighs to cup her behind.

"Oh." It was a shivering whisper as she realized the undergarment, cut high on her thighs and of a near-transparent material, exposed more than it covered.

"I'm coming in very soon."

"Wait!" Grabbing the dress after stuffing the extra pair of underwear in a drawer, she pulled it on over her head. Only to find that it laced up the back. Twisting to clench the sides closed, she stared at herself in the mirror. Her hair hung damp and sleek around her face, but it was still a shapeless mat, and her face hadn't changed. It remained that of a wicked witch right out of a nightmarish tale.

But the dress...oh, the dress.

It cupped her breasts, nipped in at the waist and flared out at the hips to give her a form that made her, for a bare moment, feel almost, if not pretty, then not ugly, either. Her lower lip quivered and she might have given in to tears had the door not pushed open behind her.

She swiveled to face him. "I need Jissa."

He stared at her, those green, green eyes lingering on her breasts. "Why?"

It suddenly felt as if her modest attributes were twice as large. "The back needs lacing."

"I will do it." Closing the door, he dared her to contradict him.

She couldn't think when he had his hands on her, her body reacting in ways that were simply not acceptable if she was to complete her mission and take him home. "It would be unseemly."

"We are in the Black Castle. The only rules that exist here are the ones I make."

"Just because you enjoy being a bully," she said, pointing at him with her free hand, "doesn't mean I intend to take it."

His eyes dipped to her chest, his expression intrigued, and she realized that by moving her arm to gesticulate at him, she'd caused the bodice of her dress - her gorgeous, precious red dress - to slip, revealing the upper curve of one breast. Face flaming, she pulled it back up and glared. "It's rude to stare."

He raised his eyes to her with such slowness that the heat in her cheeks spread throughout her body, a heavy, languorous warmth that was as terrifying as it was unfamiliar. When he began to stalk toward her, those winter-green eyes filled with dark, unknowable things, she backed up. He kept coming. She kept stumbling back.

Until the backs of her thighs hit the vanity.

He stopped so close she was scared to breathe for fear her breasts would press against the black armor that no longer seemed so very thick. "Turn around." A quiet order, his hands braced palms down on the vanity on either side of her hips.
Chapter 9

Realizing she'd well and truly lost this battle, she turned. Tall as he was, she could glimpse his face above hers in the mirror, saw his gaze dip to her back. Her stomach clenched. Shutting her eyes in an effort to lessen the impact of his nearness, she continued to hold the back closed, and waited for the ties to pull tight.

Nothing happened.

Chest painful, she exhaled, sucked in another jerky breath. "My lord?"

"I've never before done this," he murmured, and she was almost certain he was talking about something other than lacing a dress even when he pulled at the