He grinned and I didn’t like it. It was his smug grin and I reckoned it foretold very bad things for me.
I wasn’t wrong.
“Oh, I won’t tire of you, Leah. But, you’re right. If you force me, I will indeed get it elsewhere.”
At the thought of him getting anything elsewhere, a different kind of heat slashed through me, washing away my desire in a wave of pain. This was unexpected, not only the reaction but the excruciating intensity of it.
Before the razor-sharp edge of this sensation could subside, his head snapped up. He drew in a deep breath through his nostrils and his eyes narrowed, focusing on something but not me, not something close.
I sensed the danger instantly.
Our current situation forgotten, I whispered, “Lucien, something’s wrong.”
His eyes locked on mine.
For some reason communicating nonverbally, he replied straight into my brain, Yes, pet.
Without further reply, his body knifed off mine and he moved away. He was holding himself tense, his powerful musculature standing out, more defined. The way he held his body was menacing, even sinister. I could sense he wanted to move with vampire speed but was forcing himself to go slowly.
I heaved myself up and followed him, closing my robe, tying it tightly. The doorbell rang but he was already pulling the door open as the bell sounded. I stopped five feet away.
A woman stood there. Gleaming black hair, ice-blue eyes, her beauty so extraordinary, her sexuality so explicit, I couldn’t stop myself from sucking in a stunned breath at the sight of her.
This was a mistake.
When I gasped, her eyes, which were fastened on Lucien, sliced to me.
She, too, pulled in breath through her nostrils.
In an instant, her face contorted with primal rage.
In the next instant, she attacked.
Her target?
Me.
Chapter Ten
The Confrontations
She flew at me and when I say that I mean it literally.
She was a streak, a blur, my mortal eyes couldn’t make out the lines of her body.
She didn’t get close.
Three feet away from me, she came into definition.
This was because she was halted, Lucien’s arm around her waist.
Then Lucien twisted, executing a near-blur, full on, powerful hurl that would have been awe-inspiring if it hadn’t been so freaking scary. She was a streak again, going backwards with tremendous velocity until she slammed against the wall. The plaster behind her buckled in a body-like shape, white dust and paint chips raining down around her as she fell to a graceful crouch, completely unharmed.
Her head snapped back, her seething eyes pinned on me. With only a moment’s delay, she sprang toward me again in another blurry attack. And again she was stopped, this time when she was, her whole body still swayed toward me.
Her whole body, that was, except her head and her neck.
Lucien had her by her throat. Just one hand at her throat, the muscles in his arm and back bunching as he took two steps and slammed her against another wall, more plaster breaking, more debris falling.
Lucien got close to her and I saw his fingers squeeze.
“You just made a fatal mistake, Katrina,” he gritted from between clenched teeth.
His fury matched hers, maybe surpassed it. I knew this because his jaw was working so hard a muscle leapt there.
I stood frozen not only from what I just witnessed but that I was just almost attacked by what amounted to Lucien’s wife.
His wife!
And she was stunning. She was the most beautiful creature I’d ever seen. I had to admit that even if she wanted to tear me limb from limb.
Her incensed gaze slid from me to Lucien.
“You’ve fucked her. I can smell it.” Her voice was deep, throaty, seductive. It wasn’t throaty because her husband held her by the throat but just because it was.
“I haven’t fucked her,” Lucien replied truthfully and I thanked God at that moment that it was, indeed, the truth. Then, presenting more evidence he was the demented sort of vampire, Lucien finished with, “Yet.”
Her fisted hands slammed into the walls at her sides breaking clean through the drywall before her body started thrashing wildly to gain release.
In a delayed effort of self-preservation, I took several hasty steps back.
Settle, pet. I’ll not let her hurt you. You’re safe. Lucien’s voice sounded in my head and it was just his voice, not a command, my body was at my will.
Even so, I stopped moving.
Suddenly, Katrina tensed from the top of her head to her toes. She tilted her head back and let out a wild screech that hurt my ears and it felt like it even shook the windows.
After she was done, her eyes sliced to me.
“I’m going to kill her,” she screamed.
My body grew tense but I stayed still.
Lucien’s voice was a snarl. “You touch her, fuck, Rina, after this you even look at her, you’ll fucking burn.”