Part 21 (1/2)

He wondered if Charlotte knew, really knew, what she was getting into. He didn't want one night. Just as he'd threatened, he planned to suck her dry.

Her head tilted and dug into the pillow, her fists clenched in the bedcovers. Glorious. Doing everything to burn her from the inside as she had requested. He wanted her writhing and screaming, and as the thought trickled, he couldn't help himself and circled her with his tongue, pus.h.i.+ng at just the right angle. She arched violently, pressing against him, a cry escaping from her lips.

”Shh, shh . . .” He immediately was at her side, lips on hers, drinking in the reactions as he continued to touch her. He should spirit her away-to somewhere where she didn't have to be caged. Why had he thought to have her here first? He hadn't been thinking at all, that was the problem.

He should wait. Should stop.

The thought didn't leave him, even as thirty minutes later she was writhing on the covers, hands clenched around his neck, lips clamped to his, making the most deliciously m.u.f.fled sounds, and soaking wet below, as he slowly pushed into her.

He shuddered, and she paused, midarch. He stroked her hair, murmuring in her ear. Small, unintelligible noises. She felt like liquid fire around him. And he wanted to slide slowly within her over and over-to make it last forever. Then to take her wildly, savagely-to shake the very foundations of the house with it.

s.h.i.+t, what was he doing? He paused, completely unnerved again.

He hesitated long enough that she pulled back and met his eyes, head pressed to the pillow. Then she smiled, a beautiful smile, and her fingers dug into his nape, and he completed the motion, pus.h.i.+ng deep inside, closing his eyes and feeling the wonder of it. Of being inside her.

She clenched around him automatically, pus.h.i.+ng her body up for more, the motions innate. Exactly the reactions he had carefully sown. Exactly the promise he had observed in the shopkeeper's back room. Observed even before that, in every memory he had of her.

Wild and wanting. On the edge of losing and taking control.

”It feels . . . I feel . . .” She lifted her hips, allowing him to slide deeper, and another shudder wracked him. ”Wonderful.”

In his experience, men who caused actual pain for women-mature women, at least, even if it was their first time-had no idea what they were doing. And men who relieved immature women of their virginity didn't survive long in his world. He had a special way of punis.h.i.+ng them.

He nipped her throat, pleased beyond measure once more at the things that emerged from her beautiful lips. Ecstatic that he was here, with her, like this. Slightly disbelieving, even with all of his overly grown arrogance, that he was here, with her, like this. ”Good.”

And with all the confidence and skill that he possessed, hiding the other, more troubling, feelings below, he made sure that the sensations built within her, that she was flying long and high and out of control as he pushed her over the edge, convulsing around him, easily taking him with her as he watched her face, caught her cries.

He buried his face in her neck, shuddering, hiding his face for a moment until he regained control. Then he rolled to the side, taking her with him and watching as she stretched over him, smiling. Her face was soft-softer and gentler than he had witnessed before. A light in her eyes that made his spent body twitch to a semblance of life again.

A look that caused the coil to burn and strange uncertainties to rise.

He stroked her hair without looking away, a gentle embrace in the wild storm that was suddenly raging through him.

Trying to convince himself that he didn't know the meaning of fear. That nothing in the situation suddenly scared the blood out of him.

Chapter 14.

”Y ou are actually going tonight?”

Roman hummed lightly and put his feet up on the empty faro table that had just been cleaned. Andreas would never be fooled, but there were others in the gaming room, and even if they were cleaning staff or direct reports, appearances had to be maintained. Even if Andreas was angry enough to discuss this outside of their private rooms.

”I can hardly decline, Andreas.”

His brother gave him a dark look and snapped an order to one of the boys moving chairs. The boy violently straightened, then rushed from the room to complete the request.

”You are abusing the staff again,” Roman said lightly, rolling a pair of dice between his palms. ”Besides, you should join me. Give those vultures a right shock.”

Andreas narrowed his eyes. He ground a finger into the newsprint. ”Did you read the other column?”

Roman glanced casually at the paper tossed his way. There were many things in today's paper for them to discuss, but he knew to which Andreas referred. It was the smaller of their problems, in Roman's estimation. A slim reference as opposed to the glaring two-headed vulture on the third page that involved Andreas. ”So?”

”I thought you said you had the situation in hand?”

”I do.”

Andreas's fingers curled around the back of the chair behind which he was standing. Roman wondered if the wood would hold. They had plenty of other chairs, if not. ”Trant is drafting legislation against us.”

”It's a rumor.”

”It's a fact .”

Roman laughed unpleasantly. ”It's a threat. He won't say a word-or do a thing-as long as they marry at the end of the summer. And they undoubtedly will.” He rolled the dice in his palm, bones suddenly cracking against bones.

”And you can't wait until then?” his brother hissed.

Roman thought of that night, in her bedroom, and the three weeks' worth of nights since. Heated liquid gold. ”No,” he said simply.

”I'm trying to understand.”

Roman tipped his head. ”There isn't anything to understand.” He smiled his charming smile, but his eyes didn't obey. ”My actions lack sense.”

Andreas hated things that didn't fit into his cold, rational world. Anyone else admitting such things to him would have been derided, banished, or worse. ”And what will you do if it becomes more than a threat ?”

”I have contingencies in place. Trant will prove himself beyond stupid if he doesn't take what is offered. You know I have taken care of it. You are acting like a hen.”

Andreas's eyes narrowed to slits. ”Lately, edge players have been s.h.i.+fting far too rapidly in both arenas for me to feel anything but snappish.” He threw the paper away from him. ”Not that you would have taken notice.”

Roman surveyed his brother. ”Especially peevish today, aren't we? I've dispatched cleaners to take care of the edges.” He took in Andreas's tightened shoulders, his skin fairly humming with tension. ”But you know this too. What has really lodged up your a.s.s?”

”Cornelius doesn't just court the night edges. Whispers point to someone with power backing him. He will move swiftly-”

”And I'll take care of him, when he does,” Roman said coldly. He thought of the man who threatened their empire. Who was trying to buy pieces, planting seeds against them-seeds that Roman had helped to water lately with his actions. But Cornelius was just a man-flesh, blood, and bone-who wanted to improve his own slice of the pie. And men could be dealt with.

Andreas pinned him with a dark look. ”You go after Cornelius by yourself, and I'll cut off your ballocks with my own knife.”

”That hardly sounds pleasant.”

”Cornelius doesn't do his own dirty work. And he doesn't hire just one person to complete his tasks.”

And neither does anyone of my flesh and blood , was left unsaid. For Andreas would never speak such a thing.

”I've never considered either man stupid,” Roman said, affecting a light tone and pretending to ignore the tightening of Andreas's shoulders. ”I'd like to think I am not either. I know Cornelius as well as you do, so why are you repeating things to me as if I am unaware of the dangers?”

”Because lately you don't seem to acknowledge the danger.” And it was as if every emotion in Andreas was pushed into the statement. ”You go out w.i.l.l.y-nilly, as if you are a forgettable yardsman courting a barmaid. You aren't. You don't pay attention to your own safety when she is near. Have you considered what would happen if you were attacked on one of your outings?”

”Yes,” Roman replied, watching his brother, trying not to let his own tension show. Unwilling to admit that he had forgotten himself at times in the past few weeks. That if he were killed in the next few weeks, it would a.s.suredly be near her. At her feet, in her bed. Inside of her.