Involuntarily, his arms tensed, He knew it was too much and he didn’t care. He felt her pulse soar as her breath went out of her.
“How can you say that?” he hissed.
Breathing with difficulty, she went back to her earlier theme. “Release me.”
“I’ve been waiting for you for twenty f**king years,” he reminded her.
“Don’t worry, Lucien.” Her tone was cutting. “I’m sure another sweet-smelling pu**y will happen along.”
Controlling his fury by a very weak thread, he twisted. She landed on her back, him on top, his h*ps between her legs.
“You haven’t listened or paid any attention to a f**king thing I’ve said or done,” he grated.
“I haven’t missed one freaking thing!” she shouted in his face.
“You’ve missed everything. So I’ll say it so you can understand it. I’ve been waiting to have you since I knew you existed. But I’ve been waiting for someone like you for five f**king centuries.”
“I doubt the earth is going to crash into the sun anytime soon. You’ll get another chance.”
Good Christ she was stubborn.
He growled.
“Release me,” she demanded.
“No.”
“Release me!” she yelled.
“Never!” he shouted back.
His last word made her face change. It twisted, contorting in a look of pain so raw, so severe, it caught him off guard and translated into a kindred slash of pain through his gut that was so intense he felt instant nausea.
Which meant her fist connecting with his jaw came as a surprise.
His head wrenched to the side on contact and he stayed that way, looking unseeing across the room.
It didn’t hurt. She was a female mortal in a disadvantageous position on her back with him close.
But he was a vampire.
And concubines were meant to respect vampires.
He gave her her head in many things because he knew what he’d bought into when he’d selected her.
But she had just crossed the line.
Slowly, his head turned back to her. She was panting, her heart racing, rampant fear in her scent but obstinacy and rage was in her eyes.
“You struck me,” he said, his voice deceptively soft.
She ignored the danger in his tone, bucked and demanded, “Get off me!”
He did as she asked but only to sit at the side of the bed, pulling her roughly into his lap and locking her to his body with his arms.
She struggled. “Let me go!”
He shook her with enough force to get her attention. She stopped struggling, her eyes jerked to his and he heard her heart spike as her breath caught.