Damn.
She shoved her hand into her hair and it stuck where a plait started. Too weak this morning to do anything but drink his blood, she hadn’t done this. Pulling it over her shoulder, she looked at the crooked braid.
Tears sprang from her eyes and slid down her cheeks.
Alek. She drew the hair under her nose, breathed in his scent. He’d come back and fixed her hair.
“God help me, I’m in love with him.” Saving her life, sharing his blood and his innermost thoughts had already chipped at the wall she thought she’d built around her heart. Imagining his strong fingers doing something so simple as braiding her hair sent the weak façade of bricks crashing away. “Now what?”
It wasn’t just a mating call anymore. Her heart wanted him as much as her mind and body. This man, beast, whatever he was—Alek—was the rest of her life.
Viviana didn’t want to be without him.
Wiping away the tears and cleansing her body, she magically redid her hair. Viv left it loose because he liked it that way. Tonight, no leather. She donned a short, fitted peach-colored dress in silk. It complemented her brown skin and showed off her legs. She flashed on a pair of spiked heels in the same color.
Feeling like a girly-girl, she said aloud, “I do not want to be a hairy-assed cat, damn it.”
The mantel over the fireplace held a bunch of candles and, finding some matches there, she lit the candles and spaced them out around the room.
Minus the ability to dematerialize, Viv still had some magic at her disposal. She snatched two champagne glasses from thin air and placed them on the table beside the bottle then sat in a big leather chair facing the door with her slender legs crossed.
She waited.
Hearing his steps in the hall, she was glad he hadn’t used powers. Viv wanted to watch his face when he walked in, see his eyes light with the desire she’d smelled on him before he left. Her heart beat so hard, pumping the new blood around, she felt like it would jump out of her chest.
The doorknob turned slowly and he walked in. Stopping dead in his tracks, he stared at her. “Jesus.”
The pleading note in his voice shook her to the core. Maybe he doesn’t want me. Pushing the thought from her mind, she rose from the chair and slowly pivoted on her heels toward the table where the champagne sat with the glasses. Filling both, she spun around and, as sexily as a lithe warrior could walk, she carried one to him.
“You take my breath away.”
His hand brushed hers as he took the glass, sending a spark of lust right between her legs. She’d decided to go braless and the thin, cool silk rubbed her nipples each time she breathed.
Viv needed to do something so she tipped the glass up and swallowed it all.
She swished back to the table and sat the flute down. Twisting around, she rested her butt against the edge and gripped the wood for balance.
“Thank you for saving my life.”
“Viv, I—”
She cut him off. “Come here.” She noticed his outfit for the first time. He’d chosen to forego the normal leather too. He wore a white vee-neck shirt highlighting the dark hair on his chest. His charcoal slacks hung perfectly from narrow hips.
He reached her and she leaned into him, planting a light kiss on his mouth. Her tongue caressed the sparkling flavor left there. The wood her hands had latched on to kept her knees from buckling. Alek had a powerful effect on her senses. Having him, tasting all of him was what she needed.
His mouth held no more secrets. She knew every sweet corner and explored them all. Letting go of the table with one hand, Viv reached for the front of his slacks.
Alek groaned and his cock sprang to life under her hand as she peppered his face with kisses then moved her lips down his corded neck.
“You don’t owe me anything.”
“I want this,” she said. Raising her head, she stared at him. “I’ve never done anything I didn’t want to.” It was her turn to laugh. “Right now I want to do you. You owe me.”
Viv intended to take payment in full as she lifted the shirt over his head and tossed it into the chair. No magic, no rushing. Slow. She tweaked his nipples, teased them into hard nubs. His moans reverberated around the room as her lips captured one then the other.
“Give me a break.”
“I’m not done yet.” Another throaty chuckle slipped through her lips. “Not by a long shot.”
Unbuckling the only strap of leather on him, she undid his belt, slid the button through its hole and unzipped his pants. Reaching in, she grasped his heavy cock and nudged the tight skin up and down, letting her fingernails scrape over his sac.
Viv had him right where she wanted him—in the palm of her hand.
“Christ almighty,” he growled through clenched teeth.