that this is your one opportunity to leave me. I am a covetous creature. I do not surrender the things I desire. And I desire you very much, Miss Parker. As much as I enjoy this game you claim we play of prisoner and warden, it brings you undue strife, and I will not have you conflicted over your actions in my arms. Go. Be free of me. Return to your hunter friends and seek to end my goals here in this fledgling city, or flee. The choice is yours. I will not stop you. I release you.”
He took a single step back, his touch slipping away. The sensation of his soul there against hers, of crimson velvet and black satin, of teeth, and wings, and gore, and passion, faded.
But it did not vanish.
He would always be there with her now.
As a far deeper, far more wicked poison than any hypnotism or imprisonment he could levy against her.
Damn you for showing me what I have been missing.
“There are worse things to condemn me for, believe me.” Vlad smirked with a hint of sharp and too-long canines.
She swore. Yes, right. He could hear her thoughts. Her blood was in his body. No one on the street registered her obscenity—as loud as it was—as they passed. She would go unnoticed by them, no matter what she did.
She took in a breath, held it, and slowly let it out. She shut her eyes and placed her fingers to her temple. This creature before her was going to give her a headache. I am a fool. An utter and complete idiot. She could almost hear the Roma witch who had taken her in yelling at her to turn tail and run. That another day of life was worth more than his embrace.
But was it?
A life alone?
She had become inured to the cold, standing out in the lonely winter night of her life. But now that someone had beaconed her inside to stand by his fire…she looked back out into that frozen darkness and did not know if she could survive it.
She knew she did not wish to try.
“Come to me, Maxine.” His voice was that low rumble that carried without effort, both pleasant and foreboding in the same moment. She looked up to see him holding out his hand to her, palm up. Asking in his own way for her to join him. “The curtain rises soon.”
This is my choice. If I take his hand, I can no longer pretend that I stand against him or the horrors he wishes to commit.
“You may always seek to better my nature, Miss Parker. Walter would certainly love the assistance. The poor bastard has been alone in playing my conscience for a very long time.” He smiled tenderly. “I will never fault you for it, if you do not loathe me for when I do not comply.” And still, he held his hand to her, waiting.
Damn me to the pits where I belong.
She placed her hand in his.
She accepted him, and this, and what they were to become.
He pulled her toward him slowly, giving her every chance to resist. To change her mind. But she did not. He banded an arm around her back and, with the crook of a finger, tilted her head up to meet him.
“Miss Parker…I think you may have stolen my heart.”
He did not wait for an answer. Instead, he kissed her, and she sank against him and into his embrace. He filled her mind even as his tongue danced against hers. The passion that burned in him threatened to consume her. And like a torch to a drum of oil, he lit her aflame in response. Her hands were tangled in his lapel, and she pulled him closer.
His hand slipped down to grasp her rear, squeezing it tightly. She shoved against him, but he didn’t relent. He kneaded her flesh in his grasp, unconcerned by her struggles. She slammed a fist into his chest.
He growled low in his throat, a needy sound, and it seemed to take every ounce of his self-control to finally separate from her. “I will never tire of your kiss. You wish to fight me, and yet you cannot help yourself. You are like stolen fruit from a garden. Sinful and sweet.”
Maxine slapped him.
Not a single person near them even flinched at the sound. The impact rocked his head to the side, although she was certain it was entirely from surprise and not because she had done him