Page 73 of Gilded Wicked Mirrors
And that could not happen.
So, instead, Quinn asked, “Why were you fighting the night she died?”
“Jane found the second Blood Mirror but refused to tell me where it was.” His voice sent a prickle of anxiety down Quinn’s spine. It was hard and filled with immense sorrow. “I was tooforceful and upset. I wanted to find the mirror to protect the paintings inside it. If the murderer gets to them first, it will mean disaster.”
“What are the paintings? I gather they are the secret inside the mirror.”
Emrys sucked in a breath and placed a hand on the wall beside Quinn’s head as if he were steadying himself. “A vampire’s life is tied to their Blood Painting. When a marked human dies, the blood spilled during death forms into a painting that contains their life force. It looks like a normal painting once formed. However, vampires must sustain their life force by drinking blood. The painting feeds off it. If a vampire doesn’t feed, they will become weak until they eventually turn solid like a true painting or statue.”
He stepped back, and his unfeeling mask slipped more. “To kill a vampire, you must destroy their painting.”
“If the murderer gets to the paintings before we do, what will happen?” Quinn asked, her throat bobbing.
“They would be able to control us or kill us.” Emrys’s eyes sparked like thunder clouds gathering beneath a murky ocean of raging waters. “If someone holds our painting, they can compel us like we can with humans.”
Quinn’s veins pulsed with lightning, and her skin prickled as if thousands of fire ants stormed along the surface.
The killer absolutely could not get access to more of these paintings. It could be terrible. They were already an unstable murderer. What would they do if they could control all the vampires? “I’ll help you find them and protect your people.”
“Thank you, Quinnevere,” he said with a whisper, his hot breath caressing her cheek. Emrys moved his face to meet hers, his amber eyes grasping and holding on to her like prey. No, not prey. It was a lustful embrace.
They stood so close. Her chest rose with the nervous beats of her heart, her stomach tumbling with fireflies.
“You’re so beautiful.” Emrys’s eyes restedon her lips, and she gulped. “Your aid means more to me than you could possibly know.”
He laced his fingers into her hair and tipped her chin up, tension eating at her core.
Silence hung in the icy air between them. A silence deeper than the greatest depths of the Kardic Ocean. Her chest quivered as she scrutinized his body, starting with his silk lapels and his purple cravat. She marked his unnatural existence scientifically. Surprisingly, he had a slight stubble on his chin, framing the hard edge of his jaw. Apparently, vampires' hair grew. Her study turned medical as she reached up and touched his jugular. Feeling for a heartbeat and then counted it as she felt it.
Unfortunately, he didn’t give her enough time to figure out the beats per minute because his fingers curled around her wrist and pulled her away. Her fingertips grazed his chin in the process. Their attention focused on each other like a gentle caress, and his lips moved toward hers, hovering too close.
“Are lessons in passion still forbidden?” he asked.
Her breath hitched. All at once, she wanted him both to move closer and further. It was a strange battle in her mind—an unfamiliar one. “No.”
His lips grazed hers. Soft and gentle, light and tender, exploring her and the moment. But shock stitched her lips together, tight and unyielding, until he ran a highly experienced tongue across her lower lip, and she gasped.
Opening her mouth to him, he deepened the kiss and pressed his fingers into her hair, cupping her head as he invaded all her senses.
Emrys tasted of peppermint and daydreams. He smelled like a mix of dry cedar, ginger, and longing.
Her body trembled, and she wondered if she was kissing properly. She was so inexperienced, and she didn’t want to get it wrong, but he was a brilliant teacher, patient and tender. With every stroke of his tongue, he taught her and coxed out her bravery and passion.
Kissing was new and exciting, like the first time she’d learned a pirouette or walked on pointe. It was exhilarating and terrifying. But more than anything, she was lost in it. Her thoughts, her fears, her control faded away—locked in a deep cave, and she only knew this moment, and she melted into it.
His kiss was a spell, an enchantment consuming her soul.
Quinn whimpered as her hands curled into the small of his back, pulling him closer. He laughed against her lips, enjoying the pleasure he pulled from her. As he plundered deeper, his fingers stroked her waist, exploring and learning her body like an impossible puzzle.
The sensations he coaxed and the way his hands moved were like nothing she’d ever experienced before, and she should’ve been horrified, but instead, she was intrigued. It was a different kind of science experiment. A better, more tantalizing one.
Quinn’s toes curled in her shoes, and she wanted to be even closer to him. He must have felt the same way because he lifted her up by the waist and pressed her against the door. Her legs wrapped around him, the process pushing her skirts up to her pelvis, allowing him to slide a hand up her nearly naked thigh.
He deepened the kiss with both his talented hands and experienced mouth. It was like pure possession, claiming her—all of her, and she wanted it and more. Emrys’s hands cupped her ass and squeezed as he asked, “Do you want more of me, sweet Quinnevere?” His lips pulled away, but his eyes locked on hers, sparking with sensual delight.
Yes. Oh, mirrors, she wanted everything. She was a student of passion, and she needed to learn it all from him. She wanted to feel his hands touch her most sensitive parts. Quinn had studied her own body enough to know the magic of an orgasm, but she’d never allowed anyone else to give her one. Would it feel different if his mouth stroked her clitoris? Her hands were talented, but she imagined Emrys’s tongue far outmatched her, especially after he had just used it to destroy her composure so thoroughly. But more than anything else, she wanted toexperience his hard length inside of her. Twenty-three years was far too long to stay a virgin.
Yet all of it was still utterly terrifying.
