When I emerged from the locker room–sized bathroom, my wounds already healing, I found Luc across the room, standing in front of a table and eating chocolate-covered strawberries from a silver tray.
I wore the only pajamas I’d packed, a lacy tank top and short set in a pale peach silk. Luc put down the paper and met my gaze.
The atmosphere was awkward, at best.
“I pushed you away,” I said.
“You did,” he carefully answered.
“You came anyway.”
He ran a hand through his curls. “I can’t shake you, Linds. As much as you push me away, I can’t shake you. I don’t want to shake you. I want you—all of you. If I can’t have that, then I don’t know . . .”
It didn’t matter that he didn’t know.
I knew enough for both of us.
I ran to him, jumped into his waiting arms, and wrapped my legs around his waist and my arms around his neck. And then I kissed him like I might never have another chance.
“Don’t you ever . . . leave me . . . again,” I demanded between kisses.
“You told me to leave you,” he pointed out, between pulling me harder against his growing—and impressive—erection and nipping at my lips.
The kiss deepened, grew breathless. It wasn’t just love. It was need.
Tears slipped from my eyes with the realization—no, the admission—of how much I needed him, how much he centered me, how much better I was when we were together.
“I love you,” I said, pulling back and putting my hands on his cheeks, making him look at me and see the emotion reflected in my face.
And I felt it from him, too, magnified and illuminated. Not just because he loved me, but because—fully and finally—he trusted that I loved him back and that his heart was as safe in my hands as mine was in his.
He looked utterly awed. “Christ, Lindsey. I love you, too.”
We looked at each other for a moment, until his eyes dropped to my lips and we attacked each other again. I gripped handfuls of his hair, tugging until his throat rumbled in a growl, sending white-hot heat through my body. Luc fixed his mouth on mine—sucking, biting, tasting—and maneuvered my body until my back was against the wall and the friction between us had me on the edge of a brutal orgasm.
Without warning, it burst across my body like fire, and I called out his name with a shuddering moan.
“Yes,” he said. “I want more of you.”
My body still wrapped around his, he moved back to the bed and lay me down upon it. My clothing was gone in a flash. His quickly followed, and then his body was atop mine, hot and hungry and hard for me.
He cupped my breast in his hand, teasing and inciting me again, challenging me to go further. “More,” he said.
“I don’t have any more.” My voice sounded love-drunk, spent.
“Liar.”
I hadn’t been lying, but he made a liar of me. With a single, powerful thrust, he emptied me of doubt, his skilled hips proving that he could play my body like a virtuoso.
I wrapped my legs around his waist, watching as his eyes silvered and fangs descended, and arched my neck to offer him the truest gift a vampire could offer.
Blood.
He pierced, sending another wave of pleasure through me, groaning at my neck with the pleasure of it. His body moved faster, his hands still at my body—testing, teasing, lifting—until with a final, single groan he destroyed both of us.
Some seconds later, he collapsed beside me, but intertwined our fingers.
When my breathing returned to normal, I glanced at him. “How do we do it? How do we keep this safe?”
Luc smiled, a curl across his forehead, and nipped at my knuckle. “Just like anything else as a vampire,” he said. “We plan for contingencies, and we take it one night at a time.”
He’d gotten permission to use the Cadogan jet, which meant my second flight was significantly more luxe than the first one had been. Lots of creamy leather and offers from the steward for drinks, food, and reading material.
With Luc beside me, and a new kind of hope in my heart, it wasn’t the worst way to travel.
We returned to the House to find Rachel in the foyer, waiting impatiently with Ethan and Merit for my arrival. Rachel burst toward me and wrapped me in a hug, and I bit back a wince as well as I could.
“Thank God, Aunt Lindsey. I was so worried!”
“That doesn’t say much for my skills,” I pointed out.
“Which are impressive,” Luc murmured, a hand at my back.
Ray stepped back and smiled. “Uncle Luc said you’d be fine. And that was before he left to rescue you.”
There were so many things wrong with those sentences, I goggled.
“Uncle Luc?” I repeated. “And before he came to ‘rescue’ me?”
Merit unsuccessfully bit back a snicker, and even Ethan chuckled.
“Kids say the darnedest things,” Luc said, in his “Aw, shucks” voice, which he usually imagined would get him out of trouble.
“We’ll discuss that later,” I said good-naturedly, looking back at Rachel. “You’re all right?”
“I’m great. Everybody’s been really nice. Helen gave me a tour of the House, and let me use the library to study, which was great. And Merit let me try these little desserts called Mallocakes, which I’d never seen but will now be scouring the Internet for. But, if it’s all the same to you, I think I’m ready to go home.” She winced, and glanced back at Merit and Ethan apologetically.
“Even the finest hotel is second to sleeping in your own bed,” Ethan said. “It was lovely having you here, Rachel.” He glanced at me. “And good to see you back healthy and hale, Lindsey.”
“Liege,” I said with a nod, then looked at Luc. “Is it safe for her to go home again?”
“It is now,” he said. “Your friend at the Green Clare has been taken care of, and the CPD went through the house just in case there were any more booby traps.”
“Did he find anything?” I asked.
“Nothing at all. Targeted attack, mostly to get you to pay attention. Which worked.”
“It did,” I allowed.
“I told the town car to wait,” Luc said, hitching a thumb at the door, “in case Rachel was ready.”
“She is,” Rachel said, pointing to her bag nearby on the floor.
“In that case, I’ll walk you out.” I glanced at Luc. “Could you give us a minute?”
“Of course.” He held the door open and waited while Rachel and I walked through.
“How was your trip?” she asked.
“Educational, I think. The past is never quite what we imagined it to be.”
“That’s awfully philosophical,” she said.
“New York will do that to a girl.”
We reached the car, and the driver put her bag in the trunk and opened the door for her.
“I’m really sorry you got wrapped up in this,” I said. “It was something from the past I never thought would kick up again, and you got dragged into the middle. You could have gotten hurt because of me. I’m sorry for that.”
“Hey,” she said with a smile, “every family has its skeletons. It’s just yours are more likely to be animated super-ghouls or something.”
“I don’t think those exist.”
“You think that now,” she said, pointing at me. “But life usually proves us wrong.”
We exchanged a final hug, and she climbed into the backseat. The driver shut the door, tipped his cap at me, and the car disappeared down the street and into the darkness.
There weren’t many hours left before dawn, but Ethan gave Luc and me both the rest of the night off, promising he and Merit would keep an eye out for intruders. As that would require them to keep their hands off each other, I found the offer dubious. But it had been a long couple of nights, so I didn’t argue aloud.