Page 124 of Cursed Lifeline

Soon, her right hand gracefully reaches high and pulls a hairpin free from her ebony locks. Mesmerized by how her thick hair falls in waves down the back of her emerald evening gown, I watch with growing need as she clumsily lets the pin fall from her fingertips. It drops with the sharp end pointing down and cuts into her collarbone. Blood pools instantly in the dip of her clavicle. Quickly, I pull my handkerchief from my pocket and cover my nose.

Controlling her pleasure always helped control my hunger for her in centuries past. It’s been too long since I’ve been forced to master such cravings. If we’re both not careful, I’ll have her skirt pulled up, and my tongue pressed deep inside her pussy before she ever remembers our past or my name.

“Oh my,” she purrs innocently as her hand rises and smears the blood across her pale skin, coaxing more delicious ruby plasma to the surface. The pressure of her fingertips breaks the sweet atoms making them more fragrant as they penetrate the air around me. My mouth waters as the smell of her draws closer.

She’s calling me out of hiding.

Stay away - I remind myself.

This time, keep her safe.

Turning around quickly, I bump over a vase and attempt to breathe in fresh air through the fabric of the handkerchief. The porcelain antique falls to my feet and shatters into a million pieces. Glancing over my shoulder, Esme looks my way, stands from her chair, and starts to saunter out of the room.

Her walk towards the casino doors is quick, and I take off after her before I can stop myself. She knows exactly what she’s doing, and although my plan in this life was to watch her closely from afar and stay away until the time was right, I can’tnotfollow after what she’s done, and she fucking knows it.

Her strides eat up the space between her and her freedom at an alarming rate. But she’ll never truly be free. Not from her past. Not from me. Not from us.

Heart pounding, matching the frenzied rhythm of her own, it becomes apparent she’s eager for the chase, the hunt, more than she’s ever been before.

Sensing so, my body bolts into action. Misting silently through a secret corridor, I burst through the back door and quickly wind my way through dark hallways and out into the voyeur. Waiting for her by the staircase, I straighten my tie, adjust the periwinkle cufflinks that match the blue of her eyes adorning my sleeves, and grin when she pushes through the large doors, and those mesmerizing irises meet mine for the first time in over a hundred years.

“Felix,” she gasps.

She knows my name?

The watchers have been training her longer than I thought.

Question is, what have they been telling her?

And until tonight, why haven’t I known she was alive again?

“Slayer,” I provoke as I take a bold step toward her.

She eyes me curiously and steps back, reminding me of my nightmare and how even though I know I need to stay away, Dimitri was right. Her soul is destined to always find mine, just like I’m forever cursed to wander the earth in search of her.

Desperation builds under my skin. Control forgotten, I mist towards her and pin her up against the nearest wall. With her hands held above her head, I lean forward and breathe in the scent of her heart’s delicate liquor as it rolls south between the curves of her breasts. Turning her around harshly, my body presses firmly into hers. I force her submission and pull her raven hair over her shoulder. My lips hover above the mark our blood seared into her skin almost two hundredyears ago, and I groan, “It’s been a long time since my eyes have feasted on such a promising sight.”

As my breath feathers against the heart-shaped mark, a shiver rushes up her spine.

Against the selfish need rising inside me, my mind once again warns - stay away.

Attempting to listen to reason, I give her space and brace my hands against the wall on either side of her frame. She spins back around slowly, curling herself into my chest, where she fits perfectly like she always has.

God, I’ve missed her.

“Esme,” I whisper, studying the confusion and disbelief in her eyes. “How am I supposed to stay away when holding you in my arms finally brings me home?”

Her eyes brim with tears. Anger fills her gaze. Reading her thoughts, they run over every misfortune I brought her before. Unlike her last life, the bad times overshadow the good as memories hurl quickly to remembrance. She starts to fight against me and pushes at my chest, but I tighten my grip and force her to be still. A strangled cry leaves her lips as my mouth falls to her neck. She sucks in a sharp, bitter breath as my lips linger over her exposed cut.

“You know how to make a man crave, baby. Draw out the beast in him. Turn him mad, crazy, eager, for just one taste...”

“She’s not ready yet,” a voice insists behind us, breaking through the haze in my head.

I should’ve known. Where Esme is, he’s always close behind.

My eyes rise and find hers. Her breathing quickens. Her chest rises and falls quickly. Gone is the feisty fire from earlier. In its place, a submissive trance quickly engulfs what little fight she has left.

She wants me to take her.

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