He waited until the light vanished from her room, until she had crawled into bed.
Elias dropped from the roof, staying within the shadows as he crossed the street. Making his way to below her window, jumping until he could lift himself onto the sill.
At her window, he lingered, the open pane yawning before him. The curtains stirred with the night breeze, beckoning him inside, while the scent of her wrapped around him, warm and heady.
His Lamb. His undoing.
He leaned against the frame, letting the shadows conceal him, listening. She was there, her breathing unsteady, as though she knew what she had done—what she had invited.
“You leave yourself exposed,” he murmured into the dark, knowing she could hear him. His voice threaded through the silence. “Do you know what sort of monsters come creeping when a window is left open?”
The silence that followed was answer enough.
And so, slowly, deliberately, Elias stepped inside.
The risk of being caught, the thrill of the forbidden, the ache of desire—it was intoxicating. And in that suspended moment, everything he had ever wanted seemed close enough to touch.
Penelope rolled over, her eyes never once opening, laying on her stomach as a soft breath escaped her.
She threatened to destroy every ounce of sanity he held within himself.
Elias stalked closer, the air shifting with his weight as he leaned against the bed frame. The mattress dipped beneath him, enough that her eyes fluttered open as he straddled her back. A sharp gasp slipped from her lips before his hand slipped over her mouth as she began thrashing wildly beneath him.
He caught her gaze, steady and unyielding.
“Such violence, Lamb,” he murmured, voice low and silken. “I came only to speak with you. Yet you make it far too easy, leaving your window open, begging monsters to come inside. Should I teach you what such carelessness earns?”
Elias removed his hand from her mouth, leaving her a gasping mess as she fought to catch her breath.
“No,” she spat.
Elias released his hold on her, though before he could pull away completely, her taunts fell upon him like a curse, stilling his already dead heart.
“You are a vampire. How dare you break into a ladies quarters,” she said with her sharp tongue all the while lifting her hips to grind against him, pressing the curve of her ass against his hardening cock. “Leave now, before my father comes.”
Ah—his Lamb. His cunning,eagerLamb. So this was the play she wished for? The same play he had mocked her with the first night he had broken in…
Elias growled, finding her hands and pinning them behind her back as she fought against him.
“Well,Miss Adams,” he said, his voice low, edged with something cold and dangerous. “I am a vampire. Care is not in my nature. You are my prey tonight. And if you wish to see the sunrise—” his mouth brushed close to her ear, “I suggest you stay very,veryquiet.”
“I do not want this—want you!”
The frantic thunder of her heart, the way her scent flowered sharp with desire—it dragged him closer to that dangerous, delicious edge.
“Protest all you wish, no one will hear you scream,” he advised, placing kiss on her ear, he whispered, “if it becomes too much, say red and we will stop immediately. Blue means you are okay.”
And there it was—
The corners of her mouth betrayed her, lifting despite her effort to hide it from him.
“Say it,” he ordered, his voice a low snarl. “Tell me you want me,Mortal.” Freeing his cock from the tight restraint of his pants, he slowly ran his hand up and down, making sure she could see what she was antagonizing.
“Never,” she whispered.
Elias chuckled, dragging the fabric of her dress up her legs until her bared sex was exposed to him, already slick with her pleasure.
“You should be more honest with yourself,” he chuckled. “Call for your father, then—if that’s what you truly want. Be a good little daddy’s girl, and alert him to the vampire defiling his daughter… or, be still, and be quiet, and take my cock like thegood girlyou are. And then no one will know the way your face looks when amonsteris using your body for his own pleasure.”
