He created a seal over the wound and began to suck, his hips pushing his cock against her ass, his hands working her breasts and the soft wetness between her legs.
He needed more.
Spread your legs, Claire. Let me give you release like this. I want to feel you come on my fingers.
She made that
unh
sound of hers as she parted her legs. He slid two fingers inside and started to pump, teasing the place on the upper inside of her well, the place where pleasure sparked for a female.
Lucian. So much pleasure.
Her breathing grew ragged, so he drove his fingers harder. He pinned his arm over her breasts to sustain the hold on her throat because she writhed as she came, crying out repeatedly, deep cries as ecstasy took hold of her body and pleasure flowed.
When her body settled down, he relaxed his grip on her then released her neck. He watched the holes shrink quickly to nothing the moment he let go.
He wrapped his arms around her and held her. She covered his arms with her hands and rubbed back and forth. He’d never had this, not in his long life, the feel of a woman in his arms, someone he’d had more than once, whom he’d fed from this many times in a row.
His throat grew tight.
He didn’t want this to end and that was a first. He’d never been so tempted as he was now, but Claire needed to go home, wanted it desperately. And she deserved to be back with her family and to pick up her life.
Making this about her helped, because he didn’t want to think about the other truth: that he could never ask her to stay, that the darkness in him would live there forever because of Daniel, that he couldn’t really be trusted, that one day the darkness would escape and he’d never be able to bring it back.
He picked her up and laid her out on the bed. Still standing, he leaned close. “What do you want, Claire? I’ll do anything you ask.”
Tears brimmed in her eyes. She touched her hand to his face, something she did often. She leaned up and kissed him, then thumbed his lips. “Just make love to me like I’m your woman, like we’re two regular people who’ve been together for a while, and just want to make love.”
He nodded, despite the fact that he’d never had that kind of relationship. But something about Claire seemed so easy to him, as though he couldn’t make a mistake with her, even if he tried.
He climbed on the bed and forced her knees apart. She smiled and took a deep breath, her arms wrapping around his shoulders as he stretched out on top of her.
He kissed her, all the while wishing for what he couldn’t have.
She responded, her fingers digging into the muscles of his shoulders, his arms, his back. She suckled his tongue, biting his lips gently, kissing down his throat.
At last he held his cock to her opening, then glided into all her wetness, watching her mouth open wide and a heavy moan leave her throat.
He stayed in just that position above her so he could watch her as he flexed his hips and thrust, driving in and out, fast then slow, then fast again.
He liked working her body and watching her pleasure float across her face: the lift of a brow, a wince that looked like pain but was just the opposite, then another moan.
He lowered himself, forearms to either side. He could still watch her but his body had become demanding. He could have split into two parts, he could have bitten her again, he could have moved at lightning speed, but right now he wanted to give her what she’d asked for, to make love to her just like she’d asked, like they were a couple and had been together a long time.
She was breathing hard and staring into his eyes. He was feeling so much, and the chains vibrated heavily so he knew she was just as caught up as he was.
Claire.
Tears fill her eyes.
I know. Just fuck me, Lucian. Let me feel you come. I want to watch you come. Keep looking at me.
He pushed deeper, strong heavy pushes, his body ready. He thumbed her cheek.
He was so hard.
He felt her tighten down low and gasp. She gripped his arms, holding his gaze.
I’m ready.
He moved faster, then with a few pumps more he started to release, the pleasure gripping and streaking as his cock jerked.
She cried out, but stayed with him. “I’m coming.” Her voice was hoarse, and tears tracked down her face. “Lucian. Lucian.” More tears. “God this feels good, so good.”
His hips began to slow and her hands moved to his neck then his face. She still looked at him, though tears flowed. “That was perfect. Exactly what I wanted.”
“You’re perfect.” The words left his mouth before he could stop them. But he’d spoken the truth.
Her brows lifted in surprise. She wiped her face. “Thank you for saying that. Oh, God, Lucian, I’ll treasure this night forever.”
The ache in his chest hadn’t eased up, so he took a deep breath and pulled out of her. “I’ll get you something.”
“Lucian?”
Sitting on the side of the bed, he looked back at her.
She dipped her chin. “It’ll be okay. We’ll both be okay.”
Like hell, but he nodded anyway, trying not to think too much, feel too much.
He left the bed and returned with a washcloth, then without saying anything else he got in the shower. He breathed hard while he soaped up and was grateful for the running water because he’d turned into a weeper. He didn’t want her to see him this way. He scrubbed his face and was actually grateful when the soap stung his eyes. He could blame the soap.
He chuckled softly then slammed his fist against the tile.
To Claire’s credit and maybe because the chains told the tale anyway, she said nothing in response. In every way possible, she’d grown very quiet.
After a few minutes he set his sights on the trap he meant to lay for Daniel. Time to finish off dear old Dad once and for all.
First, of course, Santa Fe.
* * *
Claire showered and dressed like she was in a fog. The chains already told her that Lucian had shut down and shifted focus.
It was time, long past time, to return to her life, to the human world.
Lucian told her that Rumy had already arranged to set her up in a hotel in Santa Fe so that she’d have a place to live until she was ready to contact her family, something Lucian had asked him to do. He’d transitioned a lot of humans back to their world; a separate residence sometimes helped, especially if the captive had been gone a long time, like Claire.
She nodded her appreciation, but her hearing had sort of shut down. When she asked about his plans with the extinction weapon, he brushed her off. She didn’t need to worry about that kind of thing anymore.
He was right. She needed to let go of him and of his concerns. She needed to turn her face to the future.
But the fog remained, even as he flew her back to The Erotic Passage and Rumy’s office.
Once there, Claire recognized the chain-removal expert and something inside her spasmed, a twist of pain that stunned her.
She didn’t want the chains off. They’d become part of her. They connected her to Lucian, and she didn’t want to let go.
But she had to.
She closed her eyes and ignored how she felt. She focused instead on the complete blankness that Lucian had become, a wall of closed-off vampire. That was what she needed to do as well, to shut down once and for all.
Removing the chain turned out to be a simple process. The expert slid a thick leather band beneath the chain all the way around, then one by one made a hairline cut through the side of each link, small enough that the chain still held together. With each snip, Claire felt some of her connection to Lucian fade, one by one, link by link.
“I’ll be doing the last one now. You might experience a sudden dart of sensation, a little bit like electricity, but nothing more. You ready?”
“Yes. Go ahead.”
He made the final snip, cutting through the larger link at the nape of her neck, which broke the chain. A jolt passed through her that arched her neck and made her gasp, but she couldn’t describe it as pain exactly.
“You okay?” Lucian asked. He reached a hand toward her, then let it fall away.
She touched her neck as the specialist pulled the leather away, still holding the chains in his hand. Claire took them from him and glanced at Lucian. “I’d like to keep this, if it’s all right with you?”
He swallowed hard as his gaze fell to the limp collection of severed loops. He nodded several times in a row. “Of course.”
It felt so strange not to have the connection to him anymore. And yet she still felt connected. In fact, she could have sworn she still sensed what he was feeling, but maybe that was an afterglow effect of having been chain-bound for the past several days.
“You really gonna leave us, Claire?”
She turned to Rumy. “I have to go home, to see my family. I have a different life to live.” But the words tightened her throat all over again.
He smiled, the tips of his fangs as absurd as ever on his callused lips. “Well, you can always come visit.” He handed her his card, which had his phone number on it. She took it and tucked it away in the pocket of her jeans, but she doubted she’d ever see him again.
He snapped his fingers. “Wait, I have something for you, a little going-away present. It’s not much, something smallish from one of my shops.” He reached into the drawer at his desk and pulled out a box with a big pink polka-dot bow on top. “Just something to remember us by.”
“Rumy, thank you. You didn’t have to do this.”
“Oh, yes, I did, because I want you to look at this all the time and feel guilty as hell about leaving us. No, don’t open it here. When you get to the hotel will be soon enough.”
“Okay.” Tears once more bit her eyes. She felt an impulse to hug the vampire, but she knew, chains or no chains, that Lucian wouldn’t like it.
Instead she extended her hand. He shook it once firmly, then let go, because Lucian was suddenly next to her, his hand on Rumy’s shoulder, pushing the small Italian vampire back a few feet.
Claire glanced at Lucian, surprised. The connection was gone, but he was still behaving as though she belonged to him.
He looked down at her, equally as surprised. “Claire, I’m sorry. Rumy, apologies.”
Rumy waved a dismissive hand, but Claire threw herself into Lucian’s arms once more.
I’m going to miss you more than words can say.
He wrapped her up in his arms and hugged her hard.
I feel the same way.
The next moment, without another word, she was flying to Santa Fe.
CHAPTER 14
Half an hour later, Lucian stood in the middle of Rumy’s security briefing room. One of Rumy’s team, Alan, explained the explosives setup for the extinction weapon. He’d spent decades studying and making bombs, mostly as a hobby. Both Rumy and Lucian knew him well and trusted him.
Lucian had left Claire in Santa Fe, but apparently his heart had remained behind. He’d never felt worse in his life and he hated not sensing what she felt because of the chains. He’d gotten used to
feeling
her one minute out of two.
At the same time, he was surprised at how much still came through, apparently a sort of leftover effect of having been bound to Claire for the past several days. He could still feel her, if just to a small degree.
“I’ll attach the trip wire to the bottom of the weapon.” Alan showed him a diagram. “All you have to do is to lift it up by the crane-loop, the way you did at Four Diamonds. And, boom.”
Lucian was only half listening, but he needed to pay better attention. He nodded. “Got it.”
Alan would help him rig up the extinction weapon to a boat, a twenty-foot vessel that Lucian planned to take to the center of Lake Como, surrounded by a disguise.
Daniel had already agreed to meet with him, to talk things over.
Lucian had suggested the location: a boat out on the lake.
With his arms crossed over his chest, Lucian’s biceps flexed. The plan would work as well as anything else—maybe better, because Daniel wouldn’t easily be lured to the depths of a cave where all sorts of traps could be set, especially involving electrical fields. But he could easily flee a boat on open water.
Daniel had indeed thought the idea perfection, no confining cave walls to hinder either of them. Maybe he wanted to pick up where they’d left off in Siberia.
Bastard.
He’d called Daniel, just to let him know he had the weapon and that he wanted to talk because certain possibilities had come to mind.
Daniel had grown silent, then finally agreed. “Son, if you’re interested in a trade, I know I have something you’d be more than willing to exchange for the weapon.”
His first thought was Claire, but Rumy had a security detail on her in Santa Fe and they’d been reporting in every fifteen minutes that all was well.
Knowing, therefore, that Daniel wasn’t offering up Claire, he couldn’t imagine what could possibly tempt him. He’d already killed Marius and as far as he knew, Adrien was still hidden away in the Amazon cavern system.