Until the Sun Falls from the Sky(62)

“Um…”

“Offer me your breast, Leah,” he repeated.

“Er…”

“Cup it in your hand and offer it to me.”

“Couldn’t we just, you know, carry on like before, natural-like?” I suggested.

He shook his head and his arms stole around me, tensing fiercely, crushing me to him.

“Today, if it takes all day, if it takes into tomorrow, if it takes the next month, you’ll learn to submit to me. You’ll learn to give me what I want when I ask for it. You’ll learn to offer me what I desire when I demand it. You’ll learn to beg me for your own release when I require it.”

I felt my temper rise. Really, he was such a jerk.

“I don’t think –”

“Give me your breast, pet.”

“Lucien, seriously.”

“Do it!” he snarled, his voice turning dangerous, his patience waning.

Obedient Leah evaporated and Real Leah glared.

“You want it, take it! I’m not giving you anything,” I snarled back.

He rolled into me, his massive weight crushing me to the couch and, for some unhinged reason, regardless of the fact we were locked in our usual battle, I found I was wrong about his patience waning.

It had been a test. A test I failed. A battle he won.

And he looked triumphant.

“I was hoping you’d say that,” he muttered.

Great!

Then it began, my punishment for disobeying – his hands on me, his mouth on me everywhere, hard, hot, ravenous, demanding my response and getting it in spades.

He lit me on fire. I fought it but I didn’t win. My defenses were puny and they collapsed within minutes.

I pulled up his tee and he took over, arching away from me, tearing it over his head and tossing it aside. With all his delicious skin exposed, a craving so intense it felt like it would shatter me tore through my system. My mouth sought anywhere it could touch, taste, lick, bite, suck and I liked the way he tasted.

No, I adored it.

When we kissed again, my fingers curled into his hair, holding him to me like I’d never let him go.

He broke our kiss and his mouth traveled the length of me, pushing the robe wide, exposing me to him and I didn’t try to hide. I kept my fingers in his hair as he explored, tempting, pressing for a reaction, taking it when it happened but not giving that first thing back. He blew against my nipples, they hardened, peaking with a beautiful pain. His tongue swept along my skin, under the swells of my breasts, across my midriff, circling my belly button, lower, until it teased the edge of my black lace panties.

Then his mouth was on me between my legs, sucking for an instant, hot and hard, over my panties.

The pleasure seared through me, rocking me to my soul and my hips surged upwards, an instinctive demand for more.

His mouth disappeared and all of a sudden his body was on mine again, his lips against my mouth, the flavor of me a hint on his.

“You want my mouth between your legs?” he growled, even his voice, rough with desire, trilled through my system, making me squirm.

I did. I wanted his mouth between my legs. I wanted him inside me, his tongue or anything else he choose to put there.

I didn’t answer, instead I panted against his mouth.

“Do you want me?” he pushed.

“Lucien –” My voice was a breathy plea for release.

“Beg me,” he demanded.

It would be so easy to give up, to give in, to take what I wanted knowing it would be, by far, the best I ever had. It would be so easy to humble myself and deal with the consequences later.

But I couldn’t. If I did, I knew I’d lose myself, all that was me. The mass of bad traits, stubbornness, impatience and sometimes fumbling idiocy and all the good traits too, my loyalty, sense of humor and compassion. I wouldn’t hold onto me anymore. I would be giving it to him and I didn’t trust him to take care of it.

And I knew that even if he kept it safe, he wouldn’t keep it long. He’d release me as he did Cecile and countless other concubines. By then, everything I was would be gone. He’d retain it for centuries, likely uncaring he held such a precious gift but, for me, all would be lost.

Instead of explaining any of that, or giving him the demand he asked for, I gave him another kind of entreaty. “Don’t make me do that.”

His face grew hard. “I have eternity, pet, to teach you this lesson.”

“You won’t last that long. You’ll give up,” I told him, my body still burning for his touch, wriggling underneath him.

At my words, he looked a mixture of amused and surprised.

His head cocked to the side and he asked, “Do you think that’s true?”

I nodded, being honest for once. “You’re a vampire but you’re also a man. You’ll need to get it elsewhere and you will. Eventually you’ll tire of me.”