Darkness Revealed Page 0,24
through her eyes. “The woman sitting on the throne…she seemed to be staring straight at me…and then…”
“And then?”
“And then she said she was going to rip out my heart. I believed her.”
She trembled, and pressing his hand to the back of her head, Cezar tucked her close to his body. There could be no doubt the woman in her dreams had been Morgana le Fay. And that the woman was determined to see Anna dead.
Never.
The word branded onto Cezar’s heart. He would kill anything, anyone who dared to harm Anna.
“No one’s going to be ripping out your heart, querida,” he rasped, his voice raw. “That much I can promise you.”
She gave a choked laugh at his arrogant pledge, but thankfully made no move to try to pull away.
“You’re so certain you can protect me?”
“Yes.” His lips brushed her forehead. “But beyond that, you’re a dangerous woman in your own right. I still have the aching ribs to prove it.”
She tilted back her head to meet his smoldering gaze, the fear fading from her eyes. “A dangerous woman, eh?”
“Absolutely.”
“I like that.”
He deliberately brushed his arousal against her hip. “Me too.”
“I can tell,” she said dryly.
“What can I say? Dangerous women are hot.”
“You think every woman is hot.” She frowned as he gave a sharp, humorless laugh at her ridiculous words. “What’s so funny?”
One hundred and ninety-five years without a woman. Without the least stirring of desire. And now that he had at long last recovered his mojo, it only worked for a female who was determined to keep him celibate.
Yeah, he was quite the ladies’ man.
“Dios,” he breathed. “If you only knew.”
“Knew what?”
He gave a shake of his head. “Tell me of your life, querida,” he instead prompted. “You said that you’ve lived quietly, but you must have done something to keep yourself occupied.”
She studied his face, surrounded by the heavy fall of his black hair. “Are you really interested or are you just trying to distract me so you can stay in my bed?”
He smiled, not bothering to hide his fully extended fangs. “Both.”
“There isn’t much to tell.”
“Humor me, por favor.”
She rolled her eyes at his insistence. Cezar ignored the taunting gesture. She was warm and soft in his arms, and for the moment he wanted to think about nothing but the sensation of her beating heart against his chest and the scent of her warm skin.
“I moved around a lot, which wasn’t all bad since I managed to see a great deal of the world over the years,” she at last confessed in a soft voice. “Venice, Amsterdam, Cairo…I even spent a few memorable months in Tokyo before traveling to America.”
“How did you survive?”
“I took whatever job I could find. In the early days I usually worked as a maid, since it was the only respectable job open to a woman. Later I began waiting tables at cheap restaurants.” She grimaced. “A job I don’t recommend to anyone. Even today the smell of hot grease makes my stomach heave.”
Cezar resisted the urge to skim his hands over that stomach. Or maybe he would skim his lips over that stomach. Oh…yes. Definitely his lips. And then he could explore down to the tiny thong and between her legs…
“What of men?” he abruptly demanded.
Her eyes widened. “Excuse me?”
An odd tension gripped him as he suddenly realized just how important her answer was to him.
“Did you ever marry?”
“Good God, no,” she breathed in shock.
“Why not? You’re an incredibly beautiful woman.” He gently cupped her cheek, his thumb brushing over the fullness of her lower lip. “I don’t doubt that you’ve had to fight the men off.”
Her tongue peeked out to touch the precise spot his thumb had caressed, sending a zing of electricity through his body.
That tongue could no doubt make a vampire howl in bliss.
The mere thought of it was nearly enough to make him howl.
Swallowing a groan, Cezar forced himself to concentrate on her low words.
“And just how do you expect me to explain the fact that I’m some bizarre Superman clone?” she demanded.
“Don’t you mean Wonder Woman?”
“That’s not funny.” She gave his arm a pinch. “I couldn’t risk being close to anyone.”
A strange pain lanced through him. “Did you want to be close to someone? Was there someone special?”
She shrugged. “Does it matter?”
“Yes.” His teeth ground together. “It matters.”
Their gazes tangled and for a moment Cezar feared she might refuse to answer him. Then, with a frustrated shake of her head she conceded defeat.
“No, there was no one special.