4
Lissa’s heart pounded so hard she felt the beat of it pulsing in her slick, hot, feminine core. Pulsing. Pounding. Demanding. She was in such trouble. Tomasso’s voice was pitched low. So low it was only the fact that his mouth was against her ear when he spoke that she could hear him. She felt his breath stirring tendrils of hair. His lips brushed her skin intimately. Teeth slid down the curve of her ear and then tugged on her lobe. A million butterflies took wing. There was a definite spasm in her sex. Very definite. Strong. Maybe a quake more than a spasm.
He’d issued the threat so casually. Matter-of-factly. That frightened her more than anything else. He wasn’t making an empty threat. He was capable of killing every one of her uncle’s bodyguards and even Luigi himself.
“You wouldn’t do that.” She needed air. Needed to breathe. Because she believed he would. She absolutely believed that this man was capable of killing them all in a fight, and more, she knew the Prakenskii brothers. Each and every one of them, when cornered, would be capable of killing and walking away without a backward glance.
“I wouldn’t have a choice, and you know me. You know exactly what I am. Don’t play games and get someone hurt because you’re afraid. You know I won’t hurt you. You came into my bedroom at night. In the dark. Alone. You forgot to change your perfume, but I’d know both scents anywhere.”
She closed her eyes and allowed her head to fall back against the door. It was him. She’d been right all along. He had saved her life tonight. She owed him thanks, but the words just refused to come. He was too close, his body too hot. The air still pulsated with danger, and suddenly she wasn’t altogether sure why she’d come to his room alone at night. She had told herself she wanted a confrontation, that she intended to lay down the law to him, but she didn’t need to do that in his bedroom.
Lissa had suppressed her own passionate nature for so long she hardly recognized the well deep inside that was already waking. Coming back to life. There was no stopping it now. For so long she refused to operate on any level but calm and peaceful, with little or no emotion, and she’d almost convinced herself that that was who she was. Now, the real Lissa was back with a vengeance. One couldn’t have hair the color of hers without having the passion to go with it.
“Tell me your name,” she whispered.
His tongue touched the soft skin behind her ear. His lips followed. The touch was light. Barely there. But she was branded. That soft stroke sank deep into her bone, sent little darts of fire streaking through her bloodstream.
“Casimir Prakenskii.”
“You left the book behind for me to find. You did that on purpose knowing I’d know exactly who you were. What changed? Why are you doing this?”
“Because you’re mine. You belong to me, and I’m taking what’s mine.”
Her heart stuttered in her chest. Simultaneously her stomach flipped and her sex spasmed. Went damp. Wanted him. She tried to make herself smaller, shrinking back against the solid door without appearing to do so. She couldn’t think clearly with him so close. And he was close. The more she pressed her body into the door, giving ground, the more ground he took.
“You didn’t feel that way a few hours ago,” she pointed out. Why in the world didn’t she just knee him and run for her life instead of standing there like a ninny waiting for something huge to happen? Something irrevocable that she could never take back?
She hadn’t allowed herself to come alive, to be a woman. Not once. Not ever. She didn’t make mistakes like that. She didn’t dare. Her life was one of playing a role, and that meant she couldn’t ever get close to anyone. Her sisters – were different. Still, they didn’t know who she was. They couldn’t know. To protect them. To protect herself. So she could have them, have some semblance of a family. People to love her the way she could love them. Fierce. Loyal. Still, they didn’t know her.
The temptation of his heat was unbearable. She was pure fire – bound to that element – and she responded to heat. To fire. She tried to suppress her nature, but it was already loose, already answering him. Her body, of its own accord, went soft and pliant. She felt the rush in her veins, like an addicting drug. Fiery passion burned at her deepest core, and now, with one touch of his tongue, the whisper of his lips against her skin and his body close, he’d opened the cage and allowed her true nature freedom.
“You met with Ivan Belsky. There would only be one reason for you to do that, Lissa. You’re planning on killing Uri and Kostya Sorbacov. Don’t bother to deny it. Gavriil made me suspicious, but I didn’t really believe it. Not after I laid eyes on you. Not when I flew all those miles with you. I established my cover here and then traveled to Sea Haven to meet with my brothers.”