Chapter Seven
The minute they entered the apartment, Lucan flipped the locks in place. Kresley tried to dart across the hardwood floor only to find herself under Lucan’s control, her back against the hallway wall, his hands pressed to the navy-colored wall on either side of her head. He wasn’t touching her, but he didn’t have to. He was close, so close she could feel the heat of his body, damn near taste the scent of angry male.
Refusing to be intimidated by his obvious strength, his dominating presence, she tilted her chin upward. He didn’t give her time to argue. “You don’t belong here, Kresley.”
“Funny,” she rebutted. “Last time I looked, the lease had my name on it.”
He grimaced. “Smart ass doesn’t suit you any more than the lying back in that bar.”
“How would you know what suits me?” she demanded.
“I know more than you give me credit for,” he proclaimed stiffly.
“So do I,” she countered. “No one is granted a meeting with the Seer by chance. I’ve studied that world. I know how to get around in it.”
He shook his head. “Why?” he demanded. “Why are you involved in that world? No human survives long in the Dark Circle.”
“Yet, I have,” she hissed through her teeth. “I have, Lucan. What does that tell you? What does that say about me? My fire draws evil to me. It drew Adrian and his Guardians, and you paid the price.” She shook her head. “I won’t let anyone else be hurt by my fire. I won’t let you be hurt by it.”
The hard lines of his face eased; his expression softened. “Your fire is a gift, Kresley, a powerful weapon to defeat Demons. You saw that tonight. The exact reason you cannot be allowed to end up in Adrian’s control. To trade yourself for me would be turning yourself into his weapon. Surely, you must know that.”
“I know that,” she said, and she did. “Until recently, I thought you were in a snake pit being tortured. I couldn’t leave you there. I had to take your place. I –-"
Suddenly his hands slid into her hair, his legs brushing hers. Warmth spread through her limbs, overwhelming her. “You’re terrified of snakes,” he said, staring at her intently. “I held you through hours of hallucinations, of you thinking snakes were crawling all over you. I saw the hell you lived.”
She remembered the snakes all too well. Even now, if she let herself, she could remember the feeling of their slimy skin against her body. They hadn’t been real, but the terror had been.
“Exactly why I couldn’t leave you to suffer that same way. I couldn’t. Surely you have to understand that.” Her eyes latched onto his, silently willing him to stand up to the challenge she offered, to admit what she so desperately needed him to admit. “Could you have left me?”
Torment flickered across his handsome face, settled in the depths of those richly hued eyes. Resistance clung to him, because he knew that admitting the truth would mean he would have to let go of his anger; it would be out of his power to make demands.
Seconds passed before his shoulders slumped ever-so-slightly, and he admitted, “No. I couldn’t have left you. I wouldn’t have left you.”
Respect filled her at his honesty but did nothing to wash away the reprimand that slid to her tongue. “Then,” she hissed softly. “Stop yelling at me for coming here. Stop trying to bully me into leaving. I won’t apologize for my decision to come after you, and I won’t leave without you.”
His eyes lit with challenge. “Nor will I apologize for doing everything in my power to protect you.” Fierce possessiveness laced his words.
She tilted her chin upward in defiance, but her hands remained on his wrists, fingers tightening. She couldn’t bring herself to release him, still couldn’t believe she’d finally found him. “I can protect myself.”
“You sought me out, Kresley,” he was quick to remind her. “Now that you found me, you’ll find I’m not so easy to escape.” Steel and fire lanced those words with promise. A very female part of her melted with his protectiveness, melted with the fire in his eyes.
Kresley told herself to withdraw, to protect herself emotionally, that depending on someone else for protection, for security, for safety of any kind, only brought heartache. But in that moment, she found herself melting into Lucan. The roped muscles of his thighs pressed to hers, his broad shoulders framing her body, the intimacy with him welcome in a way that reached beyond comfort. She found warmth sliding through her limbs, found herself melting into him.
“Who said I wanted to escape?” she whispered, unable to keep the sensual challenge from her voice, unable to hide the heat rushing through her from the inside out.
The truth was, tonight, just this once, she wanted everything to disappear; she wanted the world to slide away and leave only them… a woman and a man.
***
Lucan stared down at Kresley and forgot all the reprimands on his tongue. Their bodies were aligned, legs intimately entwined, teasing him with how easily he could mold her hips to his. Everything inside Lucan cried out for this woman and not because she was his mate. They were kindred spirits beyond that bond, two lost souls who needed each other, but could never fully join.
Kresley was young, but she’d lived lifetimes of loneliness, of feeling secluded and lost. He saw that in her eyes, felt it in her presence. Lucan knew what it felt like to be lost. Spent far too much time feeling those things himself. But fate had moved in a way that had led them apart.
Still, his soul knew Kresley, knew her beyond time, beyond the moment, perhaps beyond this life. But there would be no next time, for his destiny was an eternity in captivity. He and Kersley had now, but there could be no forever. And suddenly, now held all-consuming emotion that reached deep into his soul, the very essence of burn that was absolute understanding between one man and one woman.
Lucan brushed a wisp of hair from her eyes, eyes that held a forlorn look, of needing to belong, needing to be found. With all his heart, he wanted to rescue her from the turmoil of what she felt, rescue her far beyond just keeping her safe. He wanted to send her on a path to happiness, to make sure this time that he left her with the peace he himself had never found in life.
“I hate that you put yourself in danger.” His hand slid down a long strand of fiery red hair.
Her throat bobbed, her words husky with the effort to speak. “I hate that you traded yourself for me. More than you could ever understand.”
A deep desire to understand her, to know her, filled him. A desire he’d felt from the moment he’d met her. Yet the possibilities of what that desire could have matured into had been stripped away after only days of being with her. His gaze swept the beauty of her pale skin, traveling the lines of her high cheekbones, the fullness of her sultry lips. He wanted to kiss her then, wanted to kiss her more than he wanted to breathe. Emotion welled inside him, because he knew that he could not change the obstacles that separated them.
Lucan willed himself to have restraint, yet found himself powerless to step away. He reminded himself of how the Guardians had pressed him to claim her. But he didn’t feel them now, and he reasoned away any concern. They had a temporary hold on her; they didn’t need him to get to her.
And because he couldn’t help himself, because he burned to touch her, he allowed one finger to travel the elegant line of her collarbone. Their eyes burned in a simmering connection, fire and desire, longing for what might have been but never could be. He felt her shiver beneath his touch, and something inside him snapped. He felt the swift rise of a primal urge to take her, unlike any he had ever experienced. He acted without knowingly doing so, acted on instinct and need. Wasn’t sure if he moved first or if she did.
Suddenly, his lips were slanted over hers, tongue sliding past her teeth, stroking, tasting. He lost all sense of self, all sense of time. She melted into him, whimpered as his hand caressed her back, pressed up her spine to mold her breasts to his chest. Her hair tickled his face, a silken caress, his nostrils flaring with its sweet floral scent – honeysuckle, he t
hought. Honeysuckle that spiced his blood with fire, with need. He deepened the kiss, his hands traveling her soft curves. She was warm; she warmed him where he’d been cold. And he’d been icy cold for one hell of a long time. Suddenly, he hungered for that warmth more than he hungered for life. Desire turned primal, wild.
Somehow, Kresley’s leg ended up at his waist, her skirt pressed up her thigh, his cock pressed to the core of her body. He was hard, he was desperate to bury himself inside her, to escape to this woman.
“You shouldn’t be here,” he rasped between kisses, his words laden with emotion, with desire.
A petite hand pressed gently to his face, even as another hand slid around his waist as if she feared he might escape. “And if it were the other way around?” she challenged. “Would you have left me to endure your fate instead?”
His mouth came down on hers, lips firm, his mouth hot, punishing her for the truth behind her challenge. For leaving him with no answer he wanted to speak.
She met his demands with her own, panting into his mouth, wiggling against him, breathlessly calling his name. His hand slid around a perfectly round butt cheek, fingers sliding along the silk strip, seeking the wet heat of her arousal and finding it.
“Lucan,” she gasped, fingers digging into his shoulders, again offering a plea, but this time more urgently, more demanding.
He swallowed that plea, kissing her with long, demanding strokes of his tongue, his finger working that strip of silk and the sensitive flesh beneath it. Feeling that silky proof of her arousal beneath his touch was driving him wild with possibilities. No. More than wild. Insane with lust.
Suddenly, with unexpected force, his inner beast flared. He drank of her, took from her, hungered for what only she could give him. Desire began to shift to something darker.
Abruptly, the Guardians were in his mind, forceful, demanding, taking him off guard. Time stood still – they owned him fully, completely, directed each stroke of his tongue, each caress of his hand. Take her, claim her, make her eternally yours. The words repeated over and over.
Kresley’s hand traced his arms, his back, fueling the Guardians' demands, as though offering her approval. He groaned with the pleasure seeping through his limbs, down his spine, thickening his groin. It would be so easy to rip that piece of silk from the v of her body, to remove the barriers and bury himself inside her. He pressed his hips to hers, rotated slightly, imagined what she would feel like wrapped around him, all wet and tight. As if she, too, imagined the same thing, she moaned and arched her hips. And then his worst nightmare happened, the Guardians resurfaced.
Take her, they urged in the deepest, most vulnerable recesses of his mind. Take her. Feel her. Be with her. Yes. Yes. He had to have her. His lust-filled gaze latched onto hers, and his hand rasped up her thigh and reached for the silk panties. She didn’t shy away from it, from the primal heat that had to be in his eyes. She was boldly staring back at him, silently telling him to take what he wanted. And he did want. He did take. He ripped her panties from her body, tossed them aside, pressed two fingers along her silky wet core. She whimpered beneath his touch and he sought more of her.
His gaze dropped to her breasts, to the rise and fall of those high, full breasts. He trembled as he contemplated ripping away the dress, exposing her bare chest. Imagined the weight of her breasts in his palms, imagined the color of her nipples, the pleasure of suckling one into his mouth. He kissed her, devoured her with his mouth, even as his fingers slid inside her core, inside the heat he would soon find with his own body.
But something happened in the midst of that lust, in the midst of the lost reality. Lucan’s gums tingled and ached. He could feel his cuspids starting to elongate; the fangs–present only once in a Knight's life during mating–began to emerge. He ripped his mouth from hers, jolted by the realization, and buried his face in her neck. The beast inside him screamed to life, clawing at his inner self, reaching for his mate. He could hear his own breath heaving from his chest, feel the pressure to draw in air. Man and beast began to do battle.
Nature demanded he sink his teeth into her shoulder, to claim her as his mate. In those moments, sealing her fate to his felt right. It didn’t matter that the Guardians owned him, that they would own her as well if he did this. He wanted this. Wanted his life to be hers, and hers would be his. And she was his, the woman meant to bind his beast for all of eternity.
Eternity. The word ripped through his mind followed by more seductive whispers of the Guardians. Make her yours. Take her now. You will never be alone again. He could hear Kresley calling his name, a distant voice, a plea for more. She wanted him to claim her. She wanted to be his. All you have to do is bite her shoulder. Claim her, Lucan, the whisper urged. Claim her now.
Chapter Eight
“No.”
Kresley heard Lucan’s murmured word against her neck a moment before he pushed away from her, distanced himself, pressed his back against the door as if he would have gone farther if he hadn’t hit a barrier.
“No,” she repeated, the one syllable choked out with effort and laced with complete, utter disbelief. Embarrassment and confusion ripped through her. She didn’t know what else to say, didn’t know what to do. She just stood there, legs wobbling. Her gaze searched his downturned head, his refusal to look at her, to explain. “Lucan.”
He did not look up. “I . . .need . . a . .. minute.”
Her gut twisted in fear. Was something wrong? Were the Guardians hurting him? She pushed off the wall, walked toward him. His gaze cut to hers, hands motioning for her to stop. “No, Kresley. Don’t touch me. Not. .. now.”
“Are you hurt?” she asked desperately. “Is it the Guardians?”
“Yes. No." He lifted his head, his eyes half-veiled, a raw edginess radiating off of him. “You should never have come here.”
“Why are you so angry all of a sudden?” she asked, baffled by the change. "I had to come. We just talked about this.”
“By putting yourself in danger, you disregarded my sacrifice. You threw it in my face, as if it didn’t matter.”
Kresley froze, the harshness of his words like an acid burn. Embarrassment over what had just happened, over a reprimand following their intimacy, rushed through her limbs, settling in her stomach with a hard thud.
She started to back away, not sure what to do, what to say. Her heel snagged something and she looked down. She saw what was left of her thong pooled on the floor. She squeezed her thighs together, mortified at her actions, at his rejection, the ache of need still thrumming within her core like the soft purr of a guitar played with expert hands – his hands. Anger came hard and fast to match his, a replacement for the vulnerability eating her from the inside out.
Kresley reached down and grabbed her panties and shoved them at his chest, challenge rolled from her lips, an accusation in the form of a hissed reprimand. “You sure didn’t seem to mind me being here when you were ripping my panties off.”
She turned away, started walking away, needing distance from the ache that had moved from her thighs to her chest. Lucan reached out and shackled her arm but didn’t pull her close. She whirled around in confrontation. “I thought you just said don’t touch you? Or does that rule only apply to me. Not whenever you want to manhandle me?”
His jaw was tense. “Everything I had under my control to bargain with is gone. I can’t save you on my terms this time, and operating with Adrian’s playbook is a lethal proposition."
“This isn’t your negotiation anymore, Lucan. It’s mine." Kresley cut her gaze, willed the burn in the back of her eyes to go away before looking at him again. She didn’t know what she’d expected from him, but it wasn’t rejection. “Let go of my arm.”
“I’m trying to protect you, Kresley,” he said, his voice low, grippingly intense. “That is all I’ve ever tried to do. I don’t want you hurt.”
Right. Protect her. “If this is what you call protection, I think you should stop while we’re both ahead.” She looke
d at her arm and back at him. “Let go.”
His expression hardened into silent refusal. “There are things you don’t know, Kresley. Things are ... complicated.”
"If anyone understands complicated, it’s me.” Anger over his bullying her, over his coded words, and his silence, flared red-hot. That’s all she’d gotten from the Knights. Now, that’s what Lucan was offering as well. “Let go of my arm!” He ground his teeth but complied, and she instantly took a backward step, going on the verbal attack, “Whatever I don’t know, I should. I deserve to know what is going on.”
She stared at him, willed him to answer. Willed him to make her understand why he had pushed her away. Instead, his eyes clouded with distance, his jaw firming with the resolve of silence. Where there had been fire moments before, there was only ice now. She stood her ground, staring at him in confrontation, trying to remain angry so she wouldn’t feel the hurt. She motioned toward the door he still leaned against, as if he were afraid to move, afraid to get any closer to her. “Part of me wants to kick you out of that door you are leaning on.”
“I know,” he said in a low, rough voice. That primal edginess she’d noticed minutes before seemed to deepen, as he took on the unyielding presence of the hunter from back at the bar. “But we both know I wouldn’t leave if you tried.”
Kresley’s eyes narrowed on Lucan, something in his demeanor prickled along her nerve endings, a sense of barely contained emotion. In the heat of embarrassment, she’d missed the obviously unnatural quality about him. His eyes were dilated, almost completely black where they were normally blue. A white line framed his top lip, and his jaw flexed in a barely perceivable back-and-forth movement. Guilt jabbed at her. He wasn’t simply rejecting her and being a jerk.