Please.His mouth formed the word against her cheek, but she pulled up and away and yanked off her shirt.
Her breasts were free and high, and his hands closed on them. She bent forward for one more swipe over his bloodied lip and then let herself go…increasing the rhythm, lifting her hands above her head as they shifted and slammed together.
She cried out first, the taste of his blood mingled with her own as she bit her lip, his mouth suddenly fastened onto one of her nipples. Her body tightened around his, and he arched beneath her in a final exertion and heartfelt groan.
“Mmm,” he said as she shifted to the side, collapsing next to his warm, still-clothed body. A lean hand stroked along her hip and he turned toward her. “What a fool am I,” he murmured in a voice not quite low enough to hide the wryness. “Taking up with a vampire.”
She closed her eyes, but stretched like a waking cat beneath his hand. Being touched with gentleness was something she craved more than he could understand.
“I’m not certain who is more the fool, Chas. The hunter or the hunted.” She heard rather than saw him smile, and sensed the cynicism there.
He shifted next to her and sat up. “There is something I must tell you.”
Narcise’s heart skipped but she kept her eyes closed, kept her body languid. It had been a matter of self-preservation to learn that skill. “You’re going to confess how many Dracule you’ve killed?”
“I’ve lost count,” he replied, an answering hint of humor there. “But you needn’t fear I’ll turn on you. I’ve no energy left after this last bout.” His hand had stopped stroking her hip and now he moved it away from where it had rested on her waist. “I’m meeting someone below.”
Narcise’s eyes flew open.
“What?” He’d promised he’d keep their whereabouts secret. Completely secret. That he’d tell no one they were in England, let alone where they were. “Chas, what have you done?”
He sat up fully and looked down at her. “I have three sisters. I have to?—”
“But Dimitri is seeing to them—and isn’t one in a convent school? Cezar will never get past either Dimitri or the holy walls.”
Chas was nodding. “Yes, but I must at least let them know I’m alive. And I need to know they’ve been taken care of. I assure you, no one will be the wiser to our presence here. Only one person knows of the meeting, and I trust Cale with my life.”
Giordan? Narcise’s heart stopped. Her lungs froze.No.
“Perhaps you don’t remember Giordan Cale, but he’s a confidant of Dimitri. Not titled, but rich as Croesus and”—he gave a gentle laugh—“more than a match for me. I met him when I sneaked in to stake him. Obviously, we both lived.”
Narcise found her voice. “Obviously.” And just as obviously, one thing Chas didn’t know was the history between Cezar and Giordan. And her.
“I can meet him below, but it wouldn’t be as private if I asked him up here,” Chas was saying. “Less chance of us being seen.”
She couldn’t swallow. That was the very last thing she wanted or needed: her former lover meeting with her current lover. In this very room, where the smell of their relations permeated the chamber, the sheets, the air.
“No,” was all she said.
He measured her with his look. “Very well, Narcise.”
And she wondered then, if, after all, he did know.
10
CORVINDALE’S CHAMBERS INVADED
The Earl of Corvindale swept into the chamber like a violent storm.
Angelica leaped up from her seat on the chair—not the chair on which Voss had…oh, God, on which he’dattackedher, but the other one.
Corvindale scanned the room quickly, then looked at her with dark, piercing eyes. “You’re unhurt?”
Angelica nodded, catching herself before reaching toward the soreness at her neck. Despite it beinghis,she’d pulled the cloak Voss had left up and around her shoulders, hiding the bite marks and dried blood.
Without another word, Corvindale gestured to the door through which he’d come and she walked toward it. Her heart felt heavy and her head pounded, and she wished for nothing more than to quit this place.
She was relieved Voss was nowhere to be found as she stepped into the corridor; not that she’d expected him to be, considering what she knew about his interactions with Corvindale. The back of her throat burned and tears threatened her eyes.How could he?
