Page 39 of Cursed Lifeline

As I step closer, this time, instead of backing down, she straightens her spine as the beast within her rises to meet my own.

Staring into her eyes, my hand coated with our blood rises and gently brushes across her bottom lip, coating her mouth in a scarlet allure. As my depraved touch falls away, she eyes me with heated mischief, licks where I’ve just stroked, then bites down on her plump lip hard enough to draw more blood. The riveting sight almost sends me over a carnal, fatal edge as my body presses greedily into hers.

“You left yourself vulnerable to a higher power tonight, Esme,” I growl, as my face falls and my mouth hovers over the delicate skin of her clavicle, “When are you going to learn, in less time than it takes you to draw your next breath. I could easily stop your heart.”

My hand drifts to her neck. Her pulse beats wildly against my blood-soaked fingertips as the vein in her throat pulses underneath her porcelain skin and my hand brushes hungrily across the thundering rhythm of her anxious heart. It’s the most intoxicating sight I’ve ever seen.

Yet, somehow, I’m able to stop myself from taking what I really want.

I’ve never had this much control before. Never been able to restrain myself like this before.

Curse between us be damned. What I feel for her is real. She’s not the prey. She’s the hunter. And I’ll forever be her willing victim.

As my eyes lift to find hers, the fire in her gaze, the knowledge of her control over me steals my next breath as her chest rises and falls rapidly.

“And,” she grits out as her right hand brushes between us, “In less time than it takes a man to make up his mind,” her palm flattens against my chest, and she pushes me back a step. Drunk on her smell, I lean back and realize my mistake too late as her right hand sharply places a stake in the middle of my chest. “I could take your immortality.”

A low growl escapes my lips as my eyes hood over and hold her brazen stare.

“But, in your defense,” she sasses, “every man does think he’s a God. Especially when it comes to women.”

Before she can blink, I have the stake knocked out of her hand and quickly spin her around to face the tree she was just leaning against. With my right arm wrapped tightly around her waist, my left grips her throat and anchors her to me.

Resting my lips against her ear, I whisper, “Not God, mon cheri, more like the devil himself. Be honest with yourself. If you were really intent on killing me, you wouldn’t have staged such an elaborate production to test my limits. Rest assured, Esme, my practiced restraint, my control, is only reserved for you.”

My mouth lowers to her neck. She doesn’t say a word. Doesn’t fight me. Trusts me with her mortal life.

Before now, I would have told her she shouldn’t. But as I look down and see my hands soaked with our blood, breathe in and hold her smell deep inside my burning, aching lungs and don’t act on instinct, I realize that what I’ve just told her is truer than either of us might believe.

My grip around her throat loosens. I wet my lips as Esme’s rushed breaths surge blood through her veins. Placing a tender kiss on her shoulder, I hold my lips against her skin and challenge myself. Taking another deep breath, my mind dangerously hangs on the edge of all reason as my free hand falls to her hips. Snaking my arm around her middle, I flatten my palm against her pelvis and pull her hungrily into a tight embrace.

“You make me pray for mortality,” I growl. “For a chance to make you mine. If only for one night. The way the good Lord intended.”

“Funny,” her voice shakes as I lazily run my fingertips across her womb. “I didn’t think your kind believed in God.” Anger simmers underneath my skin. “I didn’t think you believed in anything but yourself and...”

I quickly swing her back around.

“Everyone believes in a higher power. Even if they spend their whole lives denying it.”

She eyes me with challenge before leaning forward. Her lips come within a breath of mine. I pull back quickly.She grins.

Something about the taunting smirk pushes me closer to the edge of losing all control.

Hungrily leaning forward, this time Esme pulls back just before my mouth can claim hers.

Tip-toeing around the truth, she brazenly asks, “And what are you denying, Felix?”

Can I answer her honestly?

A cursed madness boils in my veins as our bodies tangle, hands roam, memorizing every safe inch of each other's bodies as my lips hover above hers.

“Is this what you desire?” I ask urgently, barely able to stop myself from taking her kiss. “To take a man to the brink of all self-control with no intent of fulfilling him?”

“My intentions have always been earnest and forthcoming,” she pants, arching her chest into mine. “What about you, Felix? Why won’t you give us what we both want?”

“You shouldn’t want this,” I hiss. Leaning in, my lips brush achingly across her soft mouth, but they don’t claim it. “And neither should I.”

“Don’t stop the inevitable,” she softly cries. “If you weren’t so stubborn, maybe you’d see what I see.”

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