Page 63 of A Dance of Water

Bastian’s sensual threat rang out between them: "I will not harm her, but she will be calling out—just not for you."

Az’s angered face haunted her as she was stolen away into the shadows—the very same alcove Graves had hidden her in last night. Her steps faltered. Did he know? Not for the first time, she wondered how much they shared with each other…

A flush overtook her. Again.

She found it difficult to look at the vampire in his knowing eyes, so she focused on the alcove.

At least this time, the small table held a decanter of liquor to go along with the empty glasses. A tiny, weak laugh left her, and Bastian watched her with amusement.

Yes, she felt he did know. If not for Graves telling him, then simply because she felt the softest brush of his magic.

He pulled the silken curtains shut, trapping them in darkness. It was a mirror of the night prior, only this time, she had a deal to uphold.

Her lips tingled, hand fluttering to skim over her mouth. She had only kissed one male before, and it had been…

A shiver wracked her.

"No, don’t stop. Tell me of your first kiss." Bastian held her shoulders and pulled her into his body. She fell with the slightest of protests, her hands coming up to rest against his cold, marble-like chest to stop herself from falling further. "That won’t do, pet. I want you to fall." He gathered her hands up and placed them on his shoulders.

She was forced to rise onto her tiptoes to relieve the strain on her arms, to reach him. He towered over her.

Luella swallowed thickly, wide eyes searching his red-tinted ones. "What do you intend to do to m-me?"

Bastian breathed in deeply, eyes falling closed. A groan escaped from his chest. It was an utterly masculine sound, making her knees weak.

As his lids opened and he stared down at where she was trappedagainst his chest, the red in his eyes grew to be a deep scarlet—the same shade as the rouge on her lips. Fear gripped her, startlingly strong. For not the first time, she found herself alone with a vampire gripped by bloodlust. Az had promised to come for her if she called, but would he be fast enough?

"I will not have your blood this night, Luella." He said her name like a promise. "Soon, but not tonight. When my fangs slide inside you and I take your blood, you will be begging me for it."

A soft breath escaped her. "I don’t know how… I will never beg you forthat."

His mind brushed against hers; the picture he painted was vivid—lips against her neck, his tongue tracing her pulse, white fangs piercing her delicate skin, the hot and wet slide of blood trickling down her pale flesh, over her breasts. She knew… it would feel good.

The idea tempted her.

But then Bastian pulled away from her mind, leaving her curious, bothered.

And bereft.

"Stop that," Luella protested. He raised a brow in question, so she added, "Stop going inside me."

It was as she said it that she realized how sinfully tantalizing the words sounded.

A boisterous laugh shook his shoulders. "When I am inside you, you will know."

"I didn’t mean—" she started.

Bastian shushed her with a finger pressed against her lips, making them puff out. She went cross-eyed as she stared down at the offending appendage. She had half a mind to bite it.

"Your mind is so entertaining," teased Bastian.

Swift as rainfall, all the playfulness left him, swept away like the tide. The room filled with heaviness, and she desperately wished for the teasing vampire back. This half-lidded, sultry male before her made her feel wholly out of her depth.

She had only kissed one male before. A stolen act in a library of secrets.

Would she evenenjoykissing Bastian?

The side of his lip quirked up—he definitely had heardthatthought.

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