Taboo Kisses(38)
“Like what?” He didn’t look her way, but he could hear her confusion.
He snagged the tray of eggs, a packet of diced ham, and a bag of cheese. “I want to know everything.” Even the littlest details…like her favorite color. If she owned any pets, what were their names, and their breeds? The name of her best friend? What’d she do for fun? What was her favorite food? “Want to join me for an omelet?” Maximus indicated the items he’d set on the table.
“You eat?”
“Don’t you?” At her silence, he peered at her. Eyes narrowed quizzically on the contents scattered across the counter she approached him. “I especially get the munchies after having fantastic sex.” Their gazes locked, and she froze like one of his victims in his sights. “For the record, Sameya, what we shared was phenomenal.”
She glanced away quickly and shrugged. “I suppose.”
Maximus chuckled. “Shame on you for lying.”
“In comparison to my other lovers, I guess it was okay.” She leaned a hip against the island and watched him as he set a skillet on the stove and sprayed it with non-stick oil.
“You experienced multiple orgasms.” From what he’d read, not many women could say that. Neither could they claim to have men that cared about their satisfaction. “Who doesn’t think that’s phenomenal?”
Using a whisk, he beat eggs in a bowl.
“Those were…disturbing.”
The serious note to her voice had his gaze whipping up to meet hers. “How so?”
Sameya shrugged. “You wouldn’t understand if I told you.”
“Try me.” Dumbfounded by her confession, he poured the battered eggs into the skillet. He waited a moment for them to cook before sprinkling cheese and ham in the pan. “You might be surprised by how well I understand.”
“It doesn’t matter. I’ll be gone soon.”
Sameya shifted to walk away, and Maximus caught her wrist. “Please, Sameya. Our relationship isn’t built on sex with you.”
“Yes, it is.” A minor twist of her wrist. He understood the hint and released his hold on her. “Neither of you asked if I wanted a liaison with you.” It was a lot more than a liaison, but Maximus let it slide. “All I’ve heard from you both is caveman grunts of mine, mates, mine.”
“That was only to prove to you that you’re our mate.” And it wasn’t like she hadn’t been doing the same thing with Gabriel’s mother before she figured out the woman wasn’t one of their former lovers.
“Let’s get something straight, vamp. I am no one’s property.”
“Mates are not property, Sameya. For your fellow sirens to enslave theirs, that’s…atrocious.” He folded the omelet in half over on top of itself and flipped the food. Enslaving a partner was worse than atrocious, but it was the best he could come up with. He really wasn’t a man big on communication.
She stared at him as if she were trying to figure him out. He was pretty simple really, but he’d let her discover that on her own.
Keeping his movements measured so as not to alarm her, he casually met her eyes. “I want to know the woman you are. Inside and out intimately. What makes you laugh? What makes you cry? What—”
“I don’t cry.”
She almost had earlier when he’d been undressing her, but he wouldn’t remind her of that. “What is your favorite food? I’m a chef. I want to cook what you love.”
A tiny smile tweaked the right corner of her mouth. “I don’t eat. Or drink for that matter.”
“Hmm….” Interesting. He’d heard stories timerelics no longer required nourishment, but he’d, also, believed them myths. He retrieved a plastic container off the counter and popped the lid. Washed strawberries created hills and valleys within the dish. “Allow me to tempt you to indulge.”
Holding the fruit up by the top, he rested a forearm on the counter and leaned toward her. Her gaze riveted to his mouth, while her tongue swiped across her blood red ones.
Didn’t like orgasms? Pfft…he suspected she liked them more than she’d admit, but since she couldn’t lie, there was something about them that bothered her. The quick lick to her lips however, signified her desire to be kissed. Even if unknowingly, she invited his attention.
Maximus ran the pebbled tip of the strawberry along her bottom lip. Her otherworldly purple eyes brightened, and her lips parted. An open solicitation, but he suspected she held no knowledge of the temptation she projected. Declining her offer equated to self-mutilation, and he felt it in the longing of his cock.