Page 49 of The Doctor and the Devil
“Be easy, Mina,” I said, draining the glass and pouring myself another. I had to get a handle on myself—on the raging emotions warring in my head. With the smooth, salty tang sliding down my throat, my ire lessened and I felt my eyes shift back to normal. I sighed, strangely fatigued given that I’d slept and fed more in the last day than I had in the previous week.
“You promised me you wouldn’t invade my mind—my privacy,” she said quietly.
I cocked a brow. “I did not invade your mind or betray your privacy. I was merely answering a summons. I was unfortunate enough to overhear what I suspect the duchess wanted me to hear.”
Mina tilted her head, confused. “What do you mean? Daphne wouldn’t do that. She wouldn’t purposely…”
“Wouldn’t she?” I snapped. “To protect you, I suspect, from me.”
“I don’t need protection from you,” she replied.
I rushed forward in a blur of supernatural speed, pushing her back into the heavy wooden door.
“Are you so certain?” I growled. “Perhaps she is right. Perhaps the rumors are true. Maybe I am a hedonistic rake—selfish and bent on serving my needs. A murderer and a devil, summoning demons and using hellish magic to torment humans while I infect the world with my cursed plague. Is that what you think of me? Is that what you think I have always been—what I’ve become? Is that why I am only good enough for another?”
Her heart pounded in her chest, but I could tell it was from excitement, not fear. I dropped one arm to her waist and swept my fingers from her leather-clad hip to her ass and lifted my knee to part her legs. Her blue eyes widened, and a gasp of pleasure escaped her lips, testing my restraint.
“Perhaps you do need protection from me, Mina. You already know how I want you—what I would do to get you. Maybe the devil in me that bays for your sex will one day bay for your blood. It seems even your friends mistrust me—fear me—and they have no idea what I can do. I could make you my willing slave, Mina. I could mesmerize you, compel you to strip for me, force you to your knees to suck my cock until I said stop. I could have you bouncing naked on my lap, your breasts in my hands and your perfect little clit stroking my shaft and even then, I could invade your mind and keep your release at bay. Could you imagine that, my Persephone? Endless days and nights of sex without an orgasm, all because I might have a torturous whim.”
Fire sparked in her gaze, and her cheeks grew pink. Her breath came in panting huffs and her lust made me wild. I pressed my knee higher into her groin and felt the damp heat pooling between her legs. I grinned wickedly, my fangs long and sharp.
“I can smell your desire, little goddess, and it tells me I wouldn’t even need to ask. I wouldn’t need to compel you. I could just take it.” I leaned forward and licked from her collarbone up to her delicious throat. The tips of my fangs grazed her skin, sending shocks of pleasure along my nerves—exquisite torment.
“I could take it like I could take your life, beloved. One slip of my fangs and I could bring you to Death, taking away your sunshine and your summer afternoons. I could turn you against your will and tie you to me for eternity. Perhaps I’m tired of waiting for your forgiveness. Perhaps I’m still the spoiled, selfish, reckless prince. Perhaps I will change my mind and give up caring for the hope of humanity because you are the only human worth saving, and you despise me.”
I shifted my knee, and she moaned slightly, her eyes clouding with emotion.
“I don’t,” she whispered. “I don’t despise you.” Her breath was coming quickly, ragged and raw.
“You do,” I said, resigned. “You may like what I can do with your body, but you do not want me, Mina. After everything, you have found your own path, and it is not through the underworld with me.”
I pressed a lingering kiss to her throat, loving the feel of her pulse beneath my lips.
My thoughts clanged and crashed and rattled through my skull. I wanted her with a need so powerful, it dwarfed every thought. Every emotion. Every ancient, eternal piece of me.
I could take much from you, love, but I won’t. No matter what, I will give you what you desire. If you consented to be mine, I would burn this world down and rebuild it stone by stone, brick by brick to suit your tastes. If I had a heart, I would cut it out and give it to you, if you wished to possess it. If you wanted the end of every vampire on earth, I would stake them all without a thought.
Words I could not—would not—say anymore.
A tear slipped down her cheek, and I reached up to wipe it away.
“If your wish is that I give you up—well and truly—I will leave you to your peace and never darken your doorstep again.”
I didn’t tell her it would kill me to do so.
She swallowed, intent on saying the words that would probably damn me to an eternity of misery.
“I…”
The door swung open with a loud thud, smashing into the opposite wall. I briefly entertained the idea of ripping out the throat of the person who’d done it.
Merde, does no one knock in this household?
A young woman stood in the doorway, bloody, bedraggled, and panting. She choked out a sob and looked around wildly. Mina pushed off the wall and hurried over to her.
“Charlotte!” the young woman yelled. “Where is Charlotte? I have news for her.”
Charlotte rushed into the room behind the woman, a whirlwind of dark purple skirts and the acrid scent of fear.
