Page 83 of Lady Killer

He refused to let go. “Let me be very clear, Luz.”

Lucian’s pronunciation was flawless, my name sounding like a confession on his lips.

“Killing you will bring me no joy. But I will do it to protect my family legacy if need be.”

My heart beat so furiously in my chest I swore we both could feel it despite the space between us.

“Until then you are mine to protect.”

I didn’t hold back. “You sound just like your brother.”

The muscles of his jaw shifted, but he swallowed whatever sharp retort was on his tongue and shifted his weight forward to bear down on me.

“You are mine,” he repeated, and a heady sensation rushed through me at the declaration. “Just like Everest, just like every other member of my family. I will keep you safe. That is part of the deal, but it would behoove you to show me the respect I deserve.”

The respecthe deserves . . .

I pursed my lips into an ugly sneer. “I’m yours?”

“Yes,” Lucian said, one brow creeping up slightly as I stepped forward, pressing my body into his.

Every inch of Lucian Blackwell seemed as though carved of granite, including the impossibly large shaft pressing into my belly button that I ignored as I stared him down.

“Until you have to kill me?”

His expression was unaffected by the venom in my voice as he leaned forward, angling his head toward my own.

I shuddered as he brought his lips to the top of my forehead, pressing a featherlight kiss there.

His voice was full of promise as he whispered, “Until I have to kill you.”

Chapter twenty-four

Luz

Unable to face another Blackwell, I made a tactical retreat to my room.

It took two more wrong turns to find the stairs, but from there my room was a straight shot down the hall on the side of the landing with a painting of a particularly ugly gentleman who resembled a pug.

I barely managed to force myself into pajamas before I collapsed into bed, worn raw by the evening’s events.

Unfortunately, my body was still strumming with adrenaline, and I spent the next two hours tossing andturning while endlessly ruminating on what everything meant.

Everest should have told me, and I wanted to know why he hadn’t.

Alister? It wasn’t his secret, but he shared me with Everest when we played truth or touch, and that complicated things for me.

Then there was the toxic magnetism between me and the others. Every time my path crossed with the Blackwells, there was this inevitable pull that dragged me into conflict with them.

It couldn’t be healthy, to experience that intensity of feelings with five different men, most of them related.

Like attracts like, so be careful what energy you put out, mija.

The Blackwells were circling me, like predators who’d trapped their prey.

But who was the trap for, if I wasn’t prey at all but a predator too?

I woke up the next morning to a knock on my door.

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