might as well have been hiding the moon for how much good it did her. He could see through her.
“You fear rejection. You fear I will abandon you like all others have done.”
She remained silent, knowing that was well enough a confirmation for him. Still his fingers traced circles along her ribcage. The sensation was distracting. It made her feel something like electricity was crawling over her. It sparked something in her that was exciting and terrifying in the same breath.
“My darling Maxine…” he purred as he kissed her jawline, his breath growing warmer. “I will never spurn you. I do not give up an inch once taken. Once you are mine, I will never let you go.”
She wanted this.
She wanted to run away.
She wanted desperately to remind herself that she was his prey. She was his prisoner. He had threatened to take all that she was. She fought hard to cling on to that thought, but it shattered and fell away like a shield made of thin ice.
So, she sought another defense. “I might hurt you. I might lose control.”
“You might. You can harm me. I may not be as fragile as a mortal soul, but you could do me damage if you wished it. Do you?”
“What?”
“Do you wish me harm, my sweet? Do you wish to rend my soul to smithereens and send it to the void? Rid both me and this world of my curse?”
“I…I don’t understand.”
“You hold me in the palm of your hand, even as I hold you in mine. I am trusting you with my very being. Do you mean to end me? Remember our accord. No lies between us.”
Any lie would be pointless now. He could hear her, feel her, sense all that she felt. And in return, she did him. And his words were the truth. She could destroy him.
And she found she despised the idea of even trying. “N…no.” It was true.
“Even to spare this city?”
“Please, do not be so cruel to me.”
He did not heed her plea. “Even to spare this world?” He leaned down and kissed her throat again, rolling his tongue along her. She let out a gasp and arched into him, pressing herself against his hand still roaming her side.
“Please—”
“Go on.” He slid his hand farther north, over the swell of her bare breast. She gasped as he squeezed the flesh that he found. He was not shy in his embrace, and she found her back leaving the coffin to seek out more of him as he cupped and toyed with her. “Save this world from my curse.”
She could only moan as he groped at her, his touch firm and insistent. His fingers found the hard peak and pinched it lightly. She bit back a howl, tossing her head away from him, squirming. He had thrown kerosene into the fire that had already been left smoldering. It roared to life, and she felt as though she could barely breathe.
Destroying him was the last thing she wanted. It was the last thing on her mind. She wanted him. She wanted to feel him. Gods be damned, she was beginning to yearn for his touch. “No. No—I can’t—I—”
“Good girl…”
She whimpered at his sultry words. He did not let up from his attentions. His lips were at her throat again, kissing and lapping at the closed wound, sensual and seductive, that low purr rising again. She clung to him in desperation, her hands seeking the bare skin of his chest underneath his shirt. He felt like velvet over marble. Just the slightest softness over what rippled beneath.
She should tell him to stop. She should push him away. She could not find the words. He gave her ample opportunity. He had not bitten her. He had not placed her in his thrall. There was no one to blame for this but her.
She had never known such need. And she did not know what to do.
“What do you wish from me?” His breath against her throat was no longer cold but hot, pooling against her. “I could take you as a man, as a vampire, or as both…all this will come to pass in time. I can be gentle, or I can be cruel. Whatever you desire, it will be yours.”
His hand released her breast, sliding back down her stomach, slipping underneath the drawstring of her undergarment. She gasped, her eyes flying wide as he unabashedly slid his hand between her legs and cupped her core.