"Why can't I touch you?" she asked.
"We are touching." He moved his fingers. "I'm right here."
Oh, God, could she get any hotter? "No, you're not."
She tried to withdraw from him and sit up, but his free arm shot out. His palm landed on her chest, pushing her back down onto the bed.
"I'm not finished," he said in a deep rumble.
"I want to touch your body."
His gaze flared brightly. But then just like that, the glow was gone and a quick emotion passed over his face. Fear? She couldn't tell, because he lowered his head. He kissed the top of her thigh, nuzzling her with his cheek, his jaw, his mouth.
"There's nothing like your heat, your taste, your softness. Let me pleasure you, Mary."
The words gave her a chill. She'd heard them before. Back in the beginning.
His lips moved to the inside of her leg, closer to home.
'Wo. Stop it, Rhage." He did. "One-sided isn't sexy to me. I don't want you servicing me. I want to be
with
you."
His mouth tightened, and he got off the bed with a sharp surge. Was he going to leave her?
But he just knelt on the floor, arms braced on the mattress, head hanging off his shoulders. Collecting himself.
She stretched out her leg, touching his forearm with her foot. "Don't tell me you're going to say no," she murmured.
He looked up at her. From the low position of his head, his eyes were mere slits in his face, spitting out brilliant beams of neon blue.
Arching her body, she shifted her leg, giving him a little flash of what she knew he wanted so badly.
She held her breath.
In one mighty, fluid movement, Rhage sprang up from the floor and leaped on top of her, landing between her thighs. He undid his pants and—
Oh, thank you, God.
She came immediately, clenching on to all that hardness in waves. When the thundering receded, she felt him shaking above her, inside of her. She was about to tell him to let go of his self-control when she realized restraint wasn't the problem. He was having some kind of miniseizure, every muscle in his body spasming.
"Rhage?" She looked up into his face.
His eyes were glowing white.
In an attempt to calm him, she ran her hands up his back, only to feel something on his skin. A raised pattern. Lines, almost.
"Rhage, there's something on your—"
He vaulted off her and went straight for the door.
"Rhage?" She grabbed the nightgown and threw it on as she went after him.
Out in the hall he paused to put his pants back together, and Mary nearly screamed. The tattoo was alive. The thing had lifted up from his back, the design throwing shadows.
And it moved even though he was still. The great dragon seethed as it stared right at her, the head and eyes trained on her as its body undulated.
Looking for a way out.
"Rhage!"
He took off like a bullet, going down to the foyer and disappearing through the hidden door under the stairs.
Rhage didn't stop running until he was well inside the training facility. When he got to the locker room, he punched open the doors and went to the communal shower. Turning on one of the showerheads, he slid down the tile and sat under a spray of cold water.
It was all so terribly clear. The vibrations. The humming. Always around Mary, especially if she was aroused.
God, he didn't know why he hadn't figured it out before. Maybe he'd just wanted to avoid the truth.
Being with Mary was different because… he wasn't the only one who wanted to make love to her. The beast wanted her, too. The beast wanted out so it could take her.
Chapter Forty-two
When Bella got home she couldn't settle down. After writ-ing for an hour in her diary, she changed into some jeans and a sweatshirt and put her parka on. Outside, flurries were falling in a disorganized rush, swirling in eddies of cold air.
Zipping up the parka, she walked into the taller, rougher grass of the meadow.
Zsadist. She couldn't close her eyes and not see him lying on his back in that bathroom.
Ruined. Not broken.
She stopped and watched the snow.
She'd given him her word that she wouldn't bother him, but she didn't want to keep the promise. God help her, she wanted to try again with him…
In the distance she noticed someone walking around Mary's house. Bella stiffened in fear, but then saw the dark hair, so she knew it wasn't a
lesser
.
Vishous was obviously working on the security-alarm installation. She waved to him and headed over.
After having talked with V at the party, she liked him tremendously. He had the kind of smarts that usually sucked the social skills right out of a vampire, but with that warrior, you had the whole package. He was sexy, all-knowing, powerful, the kind of male that made you think of having babies just to keep his DNA in the gene pool.
She wondered why he wore that black leather glove. And what the tattoos on the side of his face were about. Maybe she'd ask about those, if it seemed okay.
"I thought you wouldn't have to finish now," she called out as she came up onto the terrace. "What with Mary—"
The dark-haired figure that stepped in front of her was not Vishous. And it was not alive.
"Jennifer?" the
lesser
said in awe. For a split second Bella froze. Then she turned and ran, moving fast over the ground. She didn't stumble; she didn't falter. She was quick and she was sure as she crossed the meadow, even though she was terrified. If she could make it to her house, she could lock the
lesser
out. By the time he broke in through the glass, she'd be down in the basement where no one could get in. She'd call Rehvenge and take the underground tunnel to the other side of the property.
The
lesser
was behind her—she could hear the pounding of his stride and the rustle of his clothes—but he wasn't closing as they tore across the crispy, frosted grass. Training her eyes on the cheerful lights in her house, she reached down into her muscles for more speed.
The first shot of pain hit her in the thigh. The second in the middle of her back, through the parka.
Her legs slowed and her feet became flippers of enormous size. Then the distance she had to close got greater, stretched to infinity, but she kept going anyway. By the time she made it to her back door, she was weaving. Somehow she got inside, but she struggled to engage the lock with fingers that had gone boneless.
As she wheeled away and lurched for the basement, the sound of the French doors being kicked in was oddly quiet, as if it were happening somewhere far, far away.
A hand closed on her shoulder.
The fighting urge came up strong in her and she hauled off and smashed the
lesser
in the face with her closed fist. He was momentarily stunned and then he hit her back, sending her spinning to the ground. He rolled her over and hit her again, his open palm clapping on her cheekbone, kicking her head back against the floor.
She felt nothing. Not the slap, not her skull's impact. Which was good because she wasn't distracted as she bit him in the arm.
Flailing around together, they knocked into the kitchen table, scattering the chairs. She got free by grabbing one of the things and knocking him in the chest with it Disorientated, panting, she crawled away.
Her body gave out at the foot of the basement stairs.
Lying there, she was conscious, but incapable of movement. She had a vague thought that something was dripping into her eyes. Probably her own blood, maybe some of the
lesser's
.
Her scope of vision swung around as she was turned over.
She looked into the
lesser's
face. Dark hair, pale brown eyes.
Good God.
The slayer was crying as he lifted her from the floor and cradled her in his arms. The last thing she was aware of was the sight of his tears falling to her face.
She felt absolutely nothing. O carefully lifted the female out of the cab of his truck. He wished like hell he hadn't agreed to give up his own place so he could live at the persuasion center. He would have preferred to keep her away from the other
lessers
, but men again, if she were here he'd be able to make sure she didn't escape. And if any other slayer got near her… well, that's what they made knives for.
As he carried the female through the door, he looked down at her face. She was so like his Jennifer. Different-colored eyes, but that heart-shaped face. The thick, dark hair. And the body—lean, perfectly proportioned.
Actually, she was more beautiful than Jennifer had been. And she hit harder, too.
He laid the female on the table and fingered the bruise on her cheek, the split lip, the marks on her throat. The fighting had been tremendous: all-out, nothing spared, no stopping until he won and held her spent body in his arms.
Staring at the vampire, he thought back to the past. He'd always been afraid he'd be the one to kill Jennifer, that some night all the hitting would cross the line. Instead he'd ended up murdering the drunk driver who'd nailed her car head-on. The bastard had been liquored up at five in the afternoon, and she'd just been coming home from work.
Taking her killer out had been easy. He'd found where the guy had lived and had waited for him to come home shit-faced. Then he'd beaten the man's head in with a tire iron and pushed him down the stairs. With the body cooling, O had driven north and east, all the way across the country.
Where he'd fallen into the Society.
A car pulled up outside. Quickly he picked up the female and carried her over to the holes. After slipping a halter around her chest, he opened the lid of one and dropped her inside.
"You got another?" U asked as he came inside.
"Yeah." O made a show of looking into the other hole, at the male Mr. X had worked on the night before. The civilian was shifting in the pipe, making little scared, mewing noises.
"So let's get to work on the fresh capture," U said.
O put his boot on the cover over the female. "This one is mine. Anyone touches her and I will skin them with my teeth."
"Her? Excellent Sensei will be psyched."
"You say nothing to him about this. We clear?"
U frowned, then shrugged. "Sure. Whatever, man. But you know he's going to find out sooner or later. When he does, just don't think it came from me."
O could actually see U keeping the secret, and on impulse he gave the slayer the address of the converted barn he'd been breaking into. A little boon in exchange for the
lesser's
integrity.
"The name of the female who lives there is Mary Luce. She was seen with a brother. Go get her, my man."
U nodded. "Will do, but it's close to dawn and I need to crash. I've been up for two nights too long, and I'm getting weak."
'Tomorrow then. Now leave us."