Until the Sun Falls from the Sky(92)
“You’re already through,” I lied and he chuckled which made me want to throw something at him.
Of course, I didn’t.
“I’m not,” he declared.
“You are.”
“I’m not.”
I pushed against his arm, surprisingly it loosened and I turned to face him.
I looked up at him in the dark and I said my next in a whisper, “If you want me to beg you to fuck me, I will. I’ll do anything you want me to do. Try me. I’ll prove it to you. Lucien, you have me.”
I held my breath, not really wanting him to make me do anything he wanted me to do but prepared to do it nonetheless.
His face dipped closer to mine but stopped a breath away giving me the impression he could see in the dark.
“I don’t want you to beg, sweetling. It isn’t about that. That was just a test, which you failed. If you’d let go, just a little bit, I’ll show you what it is about.”
“Tell me,” I urged.
“There are no words.”
“Okay, try to tell me.”
He hesitated then he said, “Trust.”
I blinked in the dark. “Trust?”
“I’ve told you this before, you need to trust me, Leah.”
“With what?”
“With everything.”
Was he crazy?
He wanted me to trust him? With everything? Then, when he was sick of me, he’d let me go and move onto his next concubine, doing this for eternity.
He had to be crazy!
He would, of course, throw me birthday parties and maybe, as decades passed, recruit me to help him stalk his next obsession.
Boy, that would be fun.
It took a lot out of me and it was really not a nice thing to do but self-preservation forced me to curl closer to him and lie yet again.
“You have my trust.”
It was nearly imperceptible but I could swear I felt his body give a small jerk.
“You don’t think I know how it feels?” he asked and his voice was no longer mellow and amused, it was edging toward anger.
I had, inadvertently, made a tactical error.
I attempted to salvage the situation.
“Lucien –” I started.
I failed to salvage the situation. He kept right on talking.
“When the taming is complete, Leah, it isn’t completed with words or a ceremony. It happens through actions and feelings.”
His words took the breath out of me. Or, I should say, one particular word.
“The taming?”
“The taming,” he said calmly. “I’m taming you.”
I felt Old Leah slipping back into place.
“You’re taming me?”
His body tensed and his arm tightened around me in a way that felt like containment.
Even so, his voice was still calm when he replied, “Yes.”
“Taming,” I repeated.
Now he sounded like he was smiling when he repeated, “Yes.”
“Does that mean what I think it means?” I asked.
“I’m guessing that’s unlikely,” he answered.
This did not make me feel any better.
“Have you done this…” I could barely bring myself to say it but I forced myself to say it, “taming business a lot?”
“Not recently, no. But I used to do it before The Revolution on occasion. But only if my prey was special,” he held me closer and his voice got softer, “like you.”
I figured he thought that this was one of his profound compliments.
I did not.
“I’m tired,” I announced suddenly.
And I was. Very tired. Of my crazy life!
Most especially the crazy vampire who was sharing my crazy life (against my will, I might add).
He was silent for several moments.
Then his body moved like he was laughing. I ground my teeth together when I realized he was, indeed, laughing. He must have heard my teeth grinding because his laughter became vocal.
I visualized myself kicking him in the shin. It was childish, but it worked.
“That wouldn’t be a very nice thing to do, my pet,” he whispered and my body went still.
He’d seen me visualizing.
God, I hated him!
I tried to pull away but his arm locked.
“Will you please let me go?”
“Why?” he asked, still chuckling.
“So I can get comfortable,” I snapped.
Myrna would never snap but screw Myrna. If there was a snapping moment, this was it.
He settled his heavy weight into me, shifting me to my back, his legs tangling with mine, his arm still caging me in, keeping me close.
“This isn’t comfortable,” I declared on yet another lie.
“Mm,” he murmured against my temple and a happy trill glided across my skin (something else I ignored), “I disagree.”
Okay, I had to get control. As much as I detested asking it, I had to.
What would Myrna do?