He ceased his movements, cupping her breast in one hand, stopping his thumb but allowing himself to keep his fingers inside her with the other. She trembled once, again, then again, before she stilled, spent, her body leaning heavily against his.
He held her close, his face in the hair at the back of her head, listening to her racing heart as it settled and breathing her scent, letting it consume his senses.
After a while, his hand left her breast and curled around her stomach, pulling her closer as his fingers slowly slid out of her and he cupped her between her legs.
He lifted his head and touched his lips to the now-pink wound.
“How are you feeling, pet?” he murmured there.
She didn’t move or speak.
He lifted his head to look at her profile. Her eyes were closed, her head tilted slightly forward.
“Leah? Are you asleep?”
When she spoke, she didn’t open her eyes and her voice was both very quiet and completely dead.
“You did that to me and I can smell her perfume on your skin.” His body froze and she kept talking. “And when you kissed me, I could taste her blood in my mouth.”
“Leah –”
She cut him off. “You forced me out of my home and my life. You’ve made me leave my friends and my job. During my initiation you caused me more pain than I’ve ever felt in my life. You’ve controlled my mind and my body. You’ve humiliated me. Today, you betrayed my trust. Tonight, you betrayed me.”
“Leah –”
“You win,” she whispered in her dead voice. “I can’t fight you, Lucien. You win.”
Remembering his oath to be patient with her, he rolled her to her back and got up on an elbow to get a better look at her.
“You don’t understand the way of my people, pet –”
He stopped speaking when she closed her eyes slowly in a gesture of defeat that seemed foul when done by Leah.
“Please give me one thing. Just one.” She opened her eyes and he was alarmed to see they were dead too. “Don’t call me pet and please, never, ever again call me sweetheart.”
“Leah –”
“May I go back to sleep?” she asked with genuine, not false, consideration.
In spite of his earlier vow, his temper was rising and with it the feeling he’d had when he saw her discarded lingerie.
“Leah, I’m within my rights to attend A Feast.”
She turned her head and looked over his shoulder. “I know you are. Of course you are,” she said wearily. “You’re within your rights to do anything.”
He decided to try a different tactic and his hand moved to cup her jaw.
Gently, he said, “I wanted to give you something tonight, sweetheart.”
When he uttered his endearment, she winced, her head jerking as if he’d struck her.
At this reaction, the strange, vile feeling was overtaking his temper and he didn’t like it. It felt like pain. Twisting, burning pain and it was magnifying quickly.
He lost hold of his patience but held tight to the anger. If he didn’t the pain would begin to be unbearable.
“Leah, goddamn it, look at me.”
Without hesitation she did.