“Nervous?” he murmured.
Nervous? No.
About to have a cardiac arrest? Yes!
“No,” I lied to save face.
He grinned and told me, “I can hear your heart, pet.”
Why was I always forgetting that?
I wrinkled my nose and informed him, “You’re very annoying.”
He put pressure on my neck, enough for my arm to buckle and get trapped between us as he lifted his head and buried it in my neck.
“You’re very adorable,” he replied against my skin.
I was pretty certain my heart was accelerating past the point of cardiac arrest straight to cardiac explosion.
Regardless of this fact, since I was me, I retorted, “That’s part of you being annoying.”
His lips slid up the side of my neck and I did a full body tremble.
“What is?” he asked the underside of my jaw.
“You calling me adorable,” I answered, tilting my head back to give him better access.
I felt his smile. Then I felt the tip of his tongue move along my jaw and then down my throat. I held my breath while he did this and my female parts rippled.
“Are you going to feed?” I whispered.
“No,” he answered.
This surprised me. He hadn’t fed that night except on roast chicken, stuffing, potatoes, rolls and Edwina’s whipped up at the last minute strawberry pie.
“You’re not?”
One of his hands slid up to cup the back of my head, the other one glided down my back. He guided my mouth to his and touched his lips to mine.
Eyes holding mine captive, he replied, “If I feed, the numbing agent will release. I don’t want any part of you numbed with what I do with my mouth tonight.”
Oh my God.
Another full body tremble, female parts ripple and goose bumps formed on my flesh. He felt it, he knew it, he grinned his smug grin and then he kissed me.
It wasn’t a claiming onslaught. It wasn’t a wild, ravenous duel. It was sweet and soft, coaxing and discovering, a new kind of kiss that was quite like our first one but a whole lot better.
My body melted into his and I kissed him back.
His hand at my back slid over my bottom, down my thigh and then started to bunch the robe in his fist. From somewhere far away, my naughty-girl undies popped right into my head and I jerked straight up to straddling him.
He allowed this, why, I didn’t know. He just laid there looking up at me, his eyes alert but not angry, his hand now caught in the crease of my leg, his other hand coming to rest on my other thigh.
I stared down at him thinking one thing.
I needed to change clothes. Like, now.
“There’s something I forgot,” I muttered.
“Leah –”
I prepared to move and while I took the nanosecond to do this both his hands settled firmly on my hips.
“Leah, you aren’t going anywhere.”
I was mentally inventorying my lingerie drawer (he’d filled it full himself, he had to like those things, he bought them!), when I replied, “This won’t take a second.”
His hands tensed, his face gentled, his eyes grew warm just as his voice dipped low, a killer combination. “Sweetling, there’s nothing on this planet you have to worry about right now.”
“Lucien –”
His hands slid up my sides at the same time putting on pressure to pull me toward him.
“Just relax,” he muttered.
My mind searched wildly for ways to delay.
“Can I…?” I muttered, coming up with nothing as his face got closer. “Can I…?” I repeated stupidly. Then it came to me. “Will you let me… explore?” I whispered.
The pressure stopped.
Thank God.
His hands drifted down my sides, my waist, my hips to come to rest on the tops of my thighs.
“By all means,” he murmured, my heart skipped, his eyes had gone hooded and now I was really in trouble.
Since I’d been really in trouble before like, lots, as usual, I just winged it.
And, anyway, his chest was right there. And I’d never really touched him before. He touched me but I’d never got the chance to have a go at him.
I took my chance.
I lifted up to straddling again and, using my fingertips, I explored. Drifting softly as my eyes followed my movements, I touched all the planes and angles of his chest, his abdomen, brushing my fingers across the top of the bedclothes under his navel.
I discovered he felt good. His skin was soft, his muscles hard. The angles fascinated me. The planes fascinated me more. I lost myself so much, it came as a surprise when he took in a sharp breath and his fingers tensed on my thighs as I ran the pad of my thumb across his nipple.
My eyes flew to his and his were intense, so intense they were blazing.
For the first time since I met him, I felt power.
And I liked it.