The Vessel - Jenika Snow Page 0,30

addicted to Lucius, had been before our first kiss. Now, there really was no going back.

“Let me take you out,” he whispered against my lips, his warm, cinnamon-scented breath brushing along the sensitive flesh he’d just been devouring. He still had his forehead resting against mine, and I could hear so much need in his voice. “Let me take you out properly, show you off, Elise.”

Show you off.

But as I let those words sink in, as reality finally settled inside me, I knew our worlds were so different. I was so different.

He was used to the rich and famous, models dripping with diamonds, their social standings and the way they were raised putting my meager upbringing to shame—in their eyes at least.

And that’s what Lucius had known and grown up around.

But he wanted me. He touched me like he was starving, like I was the oxygen he desperately needed.

“Hey,” he said softly and cupped the side of my face with one of his big, warm hands. He stroked his thumb along my cheekbones, looking into my eyes, his face so close all I smelled and felt was him.

I closed my eyes for a moment and breathed out slowly. I didn’t want whatever this was between Lucius and me to end. It was like a fairy tale, my own happily ever after. But I also wanted to be realistic. I opened my eyes again and looked into his bright blue ones. They seemed darker in the interior of the car, the buildings blocking out the sun, the shadows from the skyscrapers on either side of us dimming the inside so it gave everything a murky appearance.

“I’m not like the other women who run in your circles, Lucius.“

His brows pulled down low as if he were confused by my words. “I know,” he responded. He kept stroking my cheek with that lone digit, continued to stare into my eyes and let me finish.

“I’m not rich, not beautiful like the ones I’m sure you’ve been with all your life.” Something flickered across his face, and a second later, he leaned back against his seat, his hand falling from where he cupped my face. I saw the way his jaw worked under his smooth, masculine, square-cut jaw.

He was upset. At me.

For long moments, he said nothing as he stared out the front windshield. I was feeling awkward for even bringing it up as the silence stretched on.

“You think I don’t know who you are, where you come from, or the fact that you’re unlike any of the women I’ve been surrounded with all my life?” he finally responded. My body was tight despite his words being softly spoken, gentle.

I didn’t know what to say, so I said nothing at all.

“I know what I want. I know I want you, Elise. And I’ve never wanted anything more in my life.” He exhaled slowly, roughly. “I’ve had anything, everything I’ve ever needed or wanted at my fingertips, but it has all been empty. I work hard for where I’m at in life, make sure the people around me are taken care of.” He was silent for a second. “But I’ve never wanted anything more than you.” He looked at me then, so much truth in his eyes, in his tone, that I gasped from it. “I’ve never wanted anything more than you,” he said again, softer this time.

“You understand me, Elise? You understand what I feel for you, how deep it runs?”

I swallowed, knowing he spoke the truth. I felt it. “Tell me,” he demanded. “I need to hear you say you understand that what this is between us, how I know you feel this connection too, is real.” His gaze was penetrating, intense.

Tell me, he said—roared—without saying the words again.

“Because you feel it, too. I know you do, don’t you.” He didn’t ask it as a question. He leaned forward an inch. “Because anything but an affirmation from you is a lie, Elise.”

I wouldn’t lie. Never. Even if I worried things weren’t supposed to be how it was between us because of how different we were, I did want Lucius. I cared for him, and it was clear he cared for me too.

“I won’t lie,” I whispered. “I want you, Lucius.”

His smile was slow, satisfied. “And you’ll let me take you out, show you off?”

I couldn’t help but smile in return as I nodded. “Okay,” I said just as softly as he had so many times during this exchange.

This was more than just what was