Page 26 of You Only Love Twice
Flinging the shard toward Obsidian, she bolted for the dining room in the next room, her fingers wet with blood and the craving virus itching beneath her skin as it sought to heal her.
"Damn you, Gemma." Glass shattered against the wall. He must have smashed it aside.
She'd never beat him on flat ground.
Scrambling under the dining table, Gemma crawled across the floor, shoving chairs out of the way as she tried to flee.
A chair was wrenched from the table and shattered against the wall. Gemma kicked the one in front of her out of the way, and then did an abrupt about-turn in the direction she'd come as Obsidian launched himself toward her decoy.
Cursed skirts. Panting hard, she slipped as her knee trapped her skirt beneath her. Gemma shot forward, throwing herself into a roll as she came out from beneath the table. Lace ripped as she launched to her feet, but she sprinted back toward the foyer as a roar of rage bellowed behind her.
"You're not going to escape!"
"We'll see!"
She caught a glimpse of a dusty coat stand out of the corner of her eye and lashed out, throwing it behind her as she bolted past.
A hand locked around her arm before she'd taken three steps, and as he hauled her back toward him, Gemma spun, driving the flat of her palm up into his chin.
Obsidian's head snapped back, and she swept low, taking his feet out from under him. She turned to flee before he'd even hit the floor, but a hand snatched at her skirts and hauled her back. Staggering over the top of him, she went down in a crush of silk, struggling to kick free.
Curse her damned fashion sense. Why had she not worn one of her training outfits today?
A hand slammed between her shoulder blades, pinning her flat to the floor where she got a mouthful of dust. Coughing it out of her lungs, she felt herself being hauled to her feet, an iron shackle of a grip snagging her by the bustle.
Arms as strong as iron bands wrapped around her, hauling her up over his shoulder. Gemma kicked, but Obsidian drove her backward.
Her back slammed against the tabletop, the breath smashing out of her. Gemma cried out, trapping her legs around his thighs, but it was too late. Moonlight flashed off the flat of his blade as he drove it toward her throat—
And held it there.
Gemma froze, heart racing and her chest heaving.
The prick of the tip of the knife pressed against her carotid. Barely a whisper of a threat, but she took it seriously. She didn't dare move. Barely dared breathe.
"Not you." The words broke from her lips.
Not like this.
She captured his gaze, forcing him to look her in the eye. Her chin tipped up. Obsidian's hand curled around her throat, his weight leaning forward, which dragged her skirts up between them.
Look me in the eye and do it. She captured his hand, sliding hers over the iron grip on her throat. Holding it there. Feeling the hatred vibrating from him as the razor-sharp edge of the blade nicked her skin.
Adrenaline hammered through her veins. A certain kind of rush that seemed destructively intimate. The rich, coppery scent of her blood flavored the air, and she knew he smelled it too, for his lashes fluttered, his gaze dipping to her throat.
Suddenly, that restless feeling beneath her skin began to make sense. The hunger roused within her, the predator swimming to the surface. She saw the same stark need in his own eyes.
He was not immune to her.
Gemma squeezed his hand and arched her spine. As if drawn by a magnet, his gaze dropped lower, almost as silky as a caress as it shivered over the upthrust mounds of her breasts, his eyes bleeding to black as the hunger roused within him. Pressed as he was between her thighs, she felt the rising bulge of his cock and stilled again.
Barely three layers of clothing separated her skin from his.
Five years of betrayal and pain.
The skin between her breasts ached, as if the bullet wound there remained like an invisible wound. He'd done that to her. But in some deep, dark part of her, it didn't matter.
Three layers of clothing. Skin on skin. Obsidian's brows drew together, as if he sensed it too. He seemed just as confused by his reaction as she was.
