Lord of the Abyss - By Nalini Singh Page 0,45

down the sheet enough that he could see how far the marks went.

Thick and white and ridged, he knew they'd been made with a whip.

Not a single beating. It would have taken repeated and brutalizing strokes of the whip to create the pattern of scars that went as far as the curve of her waist. He didn't push the sheet down any farther, though rage made him want to examine every inch of the damage.

Shaking, not trusting himself to touch her, he turned away and stared at the moon. But he couldn't leave the room, couldn't go without having his questions answered. Once he could speak without yelling, he sat on the bed beside Liliana's sleeping form. She stirred at once. Wariness stiffened her shoulders, her hand fisting on the pillow. "Liliana."

"What're you doing here?" Jerking, she went to pull up the sheet he'd tugged down.

He stilled her efforts by the simple expedient of putting his hand flat on her lower back. When she froze, he moved that hand gently over her, his anger a violent thing, but his need to... He didn't have the words. He'd never felt such a rage of emotion. "Who did this?"

She flinched at the ice of his tone. "No one."

"You will tell me." And then he would drag the monster into the Abyss.

Her spine went rigid. "He is no one to me. Do you understand? No one."

He heard her own anger, the pulsating ribbon of it threaded through with pain. "You won't speak his name."

"No." A hesitation. "Not until I need to."

He thought about it. He could push her, bully her - and he was quite capable of that - but he had a feeling that might make her cry. He didn't like it when Liliana cried. So he took a deep, deep breath and crushed his anger into a small, tight ball that he hid away deep in his heart. It would be released when the time came, when he knew the name of the man who had dared hurt the woman who lay so still and wary beneath his touch.

Only when he was certain the black rage within was contained, that it wouldn't hurt her, did he bend his head and press his lips to her shoulder. Her skin was warm, silken where unbroken, sleek where the scars cut across it.

"What are you doing?" A high, breathy demand.

"Tasting you." He hadn't gotten a good taste yet, so he placed his hands palms down on either side of her head and pressed his lips to the curve of her neck, licking out at her skin as he did so.

This time, her jerk was strong enough that she almost clipped his chin with the back of her head.

"Careful," he murmured, nudging her back down with his hand on her lower back. "You'll hurt me."

"I - " She took a trembling breath, her body rising up under his touch. "I will hurt you if you don't release me this instant."

"I'm not holding you down." Maybe he didn't know the rules of civilized behavior, but he knew a woman who bore such painful stripes on her back would hate to be restrained.

A pause. Then, "You know I can't get up." It was a hissed accusation.

Deeply satisfied with the situation, he kissed the top of her spine. Hmm... He kissed the next vertebra, then the next. "Why would that be?"

She wiggled. Fascinated by the movement, he thought about moving his hand lower, stroking over the lush curves that tempted him to squeeze and pet - but that might make Liliana panic enough to forget about her modesty.

"Micah."

"Yes?" He continued kissing his way down her spine.

"I'm all but naked," she blurted out at last. "If you'd leave, I can get dressed and then - "

"Why would I want that?" he asked in genuine puzzlement. "You looked pretty in the silver dress, but I like you even better bare and warm."

Heat under his fingertips, and he wished he'd thought to light a lamp so he could see the color creeping over her body. Since he couldn't, he indulged himself by imagining what her breasts would look like, all hot with her blush. It made his body heavy and hard in a way that had him considering if this was torture.

If it was, he'd take more of it.

"You - " She shivered as he stroked his fingers over the curve of her waist, played them over her rib cage. "You didn't want to touch me, remember?"

He stopped, frowned, decided he