Succubus Unchained - Heather Long Page 0,64

nudged my head up so I’d show him my throat. His eyes darkened as he studied it. How bad did it have to look for his expression to turn so forbidding?

“How are you?” The gentle words and tone were utterly at odds with his expression.

“I’ll live,” I croaked out, and then grimaced. I sounded worse if possible.

“Yes,” he agreed, then trailed his fingers down to my throat, and I didn’t flinch so much as wince at the cool touch there. “He must want you badly, Hellion, to risk coming here.”

“I have no clue why.” I didn’t owe him any explanations. None. Yet, I wanted to tell him. “I definitely didn’t invite him.”

“I know,” he soothed, then wrapped his hand around the side of my neck. The coolness was almost heavenly against the ache there, and my eyes fluttered closed. Cool lips pressing against my forehead should have startled me, but I just leaned into the contact. “He hurt you. That will not be forgiven.”

A shiver raced up my spine.

“My only question for you, Hellion, is will you let me help you?”

Will I…?

I blinked slowly and met his gaze. Was he asking my permission?

Holy shit.

Chapter 13

“It’s not enough to conquer; one must learn to seduce.” - Voltaire

A dozen answers formed and died unspoken on my lips. Alfred and I were not friends. I wouldn’t even classify us as lovers. Yet, his presence calmed me in the most unexpected way, even as his touch eased the pain radiating from the bruises on my neck. The cooling caress of his palm as he wrapped his hand around my throat soothed when it should have threatened.

Hadn’t I just been choked out by someone holding me the same way?

The difference, however, was in the way he tipped his head and how he watched me as he moved his fingers lightly into place, as though he were laying his hand into the impression left by Anton’s grip. I swallowed once and almost instantly regretted it. Pain flash-fired along the inside of my throat. Just how much damage had Dorran done?

Alfred waited. He didn’t ask me again, and he didn’t press. No, he simply held my throat and waited for the answer to his question.

“How?” I managed to croak out. Maybe it was my imagination, but I thought there was a hint of concern in his cool eyes as he studied me. “More blood?”

“It would be the simplest method,” Alfred admitted. “But I have some other skills.”

Surprise flared through me. “Other skills?” Okay, I needed to stop talking. It was like my voice grew more hoarse with each attempt. Or like I was still being strangled, just infinitely slower. Even the air getting into my lungs seemed too thin.

Eyes narrowing, he closed the last bit of gap between us. “Hellion, is it getting worse?”

I wanted to tell him no and to back off. But it was… “It’s getting harder to breathe.” I’d rather have my fingernails pulled one by one than admit I needed his help. “Can you help?”

“Yes,” he said, sliding his free hand to cup my cheek. “You won’t like it.”

“Blood then.”

“We’ll try this first,” he murmured, his eyes darkening as he dipped his head. It had to be a testament to how bad I felt that I didn’t see what was coming until his lips brushed mine. Just a brush. No real contact. The coolness of his lips touching mine were there and gone again. He flicked his gaze to mine as he used his thumb to tilt my head, and then his mouth closed over mine.

The firmness in his kiss demanded an answer. I covered his hand on my throat with my own as I opened my mouth to the invasion of his tongue. Tingles radiated out at the contact as he pressed his fingers into the marks on my throat. White-hot pain sizzled along my nerve endings, but it was almost craven how much I wanted it.

There was no room to breathe in the kiss as he kept control of my head, and then I was against the window itself. The cold seeped in to combat the heat, but was losing rapidly against the fire as his tongue swept in, staking its claim. There was no mistaking it—the kiss burned all the way down to my soul, the imprint searing into my bones as he threatened to consume.

All of my oxygen cut off, and my eyes flashed open. Alfred’s stare held mine, even as his pupils seemed to swell. Then he pushed