me four pills and a chaser of water. I swallowed them down and wished he could just knock me out. “I feel like I got hit by a garbage truck.”
The bed dipped as he sat down next to me. “Is it always this bad?”
“No.” I’d pushed myself hard tonight. “Go away.” That’s what my pack did at this point. They cleared out and left me to my pain.
He stood. The lights dimmed and I thought that would be the end of him, but Lucien came back. “Where does it hurt?” he asked, the bed creaking under his weight.
“My head.”
His cool hands slid across my cheeks as if he were preparing to play a delicate instrument. His fingertips found my aching temples and lingered, rubbing hypnotic circles until I felt the tension loosen.
He kept on. Every thought I had focused on the way his hands soothed me. I shouldn’t have let him touch me like that. No one else did. Why should he be any different? He was vampire. Not pack.
He was dead. He was a Predator.
I swallowed and let him touch. To hell with it. I needed this.
His hands moved through my hair, over my aching head, sending tiny chills down my body.
“Not my neck,” I murmured.
“No worries.” I heard him grin as the palm of his hand slid down the back of my head to rest at the aching spot at the top of my spine.
He wasn’t going to bite me. I knew that somehow. And as soon as I decided, I tried to shove it out of my mind. I didn’t want to think of him any other way. I needed him to be a Predator. I was good at having enemies. The rest was too hard to figure out, especially right now.
His hands found my shoulders.
I rolled onto my stomach and let him dig his strong fingers into my aching muscles. Good lord, I hadn’t been petted in a long time. Ever, really. Damn, it felt good.
His hands found the edges of my silk top and I let him strip it off. The air felt wonderfully cool against my skin, his fingers soothing.
I floated above the pain, focusing only on Lucien’s touch. He worked the muscles along my spine, easing away the tension.
He found the back of my bra. “Take it off,” I ordered. My voice betrayed none of the shakiness I felt.
It was no big deal to be naked around pack. But it was different with Lucien. I knew that now.
Still, I needed his skin against mine. It was a werewolf thing. It had nothing to do with the way he was touching me.
The pain had eased somewhat, replaced by ... what—comfort? No, it was more than that.
I had the sudden, maddening urge to touch him back.
Gah. I shoved both hands under my pillow. “Take it off,” I said, voice muffled by the pillow. I wanted to feel his hands and nothing else.
“Heather,” he said, his voice husky.
“Please,” I said, before I could change my mind.
I closed my eyes as his hands slid up either side of my chest, skimming the outer edges of my breasts. Awareness pricked me as his fingertips lingered above my nipples. It was everything I could do not to press forward against his hands.
He wanted to touch me. I knew he did.
I wanted it, too. But it would change everything.
Lucien was too much of a gentleman to press me. Damn it. I let him slip my bra off.
I didn’t even care about my lucky boot knife.
Right now that didn’t matter. Nothing did.
I was facedown, half-naked under a vampire and I didn’t care.
Scratch that.
I wanted him.
It would be so easy to roll over and let him run his hands over my breasts, my stomach, and every other part of me that ached for him.
“Lucien.” I felt the weight of him on the backs of my thighs as I turned over on the bed.
I couldn’t help smiling at his hunger.
“Watch it, werewolf.” He stroked a finger down my cheek, over the pulse of my neck and down to my breast. My breath caught as he found my nipple.
Our eyes met.
His faltered.
“Not like this,” he whispered, pulling the covers over my body.
The crisp white sheets felt smothering. “What do you mean?” I started to sit up until the pounding in my head returned, or maybe it had never stopped and I just hadn’t noticed.
“You’re hurt,” he said, as if that would keep me from wanting to see him naked.
“I’m going to be more hurt