But then that had happened the moment he’d first seen her, when his father had sent him in to slaughter her and her sisters.
Just like now—one second they were cleaning water off the floor, the next Urian was in the tub, naked and holding her as he fed and cradled her in his arms in the warm water. He didn’t know what it was about Phoebe, but she held magick over him.
Sighing in contentment, Urian savored the sensation of her fingers playing in his wet hair while she held him nestled between her bare thighs and breasts.
“Urian?”
Blood-drunk, he could barely recognize the sound of his own name on her lips. “Hmmm?”
“Would you let me make love to you tonight?”
Urian licked her neck as he struggled for sense and control. He wanted to deny her. They were playing a dangerous game that would blow up in both their faces. He knew it.
It wasn’t fair to either of them.
His father would kill him. But his gaze drifted over her glistening body—down her damp, golden hair that curled around her impish face. Her creamy, bare shoulders where droplets of water caught and glittered like jewels on her alabaster skin. And those breasts that begged for a lover’s touch …
He was damned and he knew it.
“Phoebe,” he breathed. “What if—”
“Shh.” She kissed him to cut off his words. “Not another word.” She raked him with a ravenous hunger in her eyes. “I promise you, I won’t change my mind.”
Maybe not, but Urian knew this was a profoundly bad idea. In every sense of the word. If he had an ounce of decency in him, he’d get up and leave.
But then, he wasn’t sure if he’d ever been noble or decent. If he had, those traits had died a long time ago.
And before he could find some semblance of decency inside him, she became treacherous to his cause and reached down to run her hand over his chest, across his own taut nipple, dragging her nails ever so gently over his flesh. A thousand chills erupted in the wake of her caress, burning him from the inside out.
She moved her hand from his lips, then dipped her head to where she could draw his nipple into her mouth and suckle it ever so tenderly.
And by that, he was undone.
Urian moaned from the pleasure she gave him. Especially when she dipped her hand beneath the water and cupped him there with gentle fingers that danced and played with the tenderest part of his body.
Dizzy and on fire, he was past the point of rational thought. All he could think about was finally sating the deep hunger that had gnawed at him incessantly since the moment he had first seen her on that fire escape and she primly left him there.
Cupping her face in his hands, he tilted her head up so that he could claim her lips with his own. Brushing his fangs with her tongue, Phoebe moaned into his mouth as she continued to stroke his swollen cock with her hand.
She feared she might faint as her head swam from the taste of her dangerous Daimon, from the silken feel of his rigidness under her fingers. Never had she imagined what a man would feel like. He was so strangely soft and hard at the same time. Like velvet stretched over steel.
“You had this all planned, didn’t you?” he asked with a light, humorous note in his voice.
She nodded.
“What if I had turned you away?”
“I wouldn’t let you,” she whispered, then wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled his head to hers for another long, deep, and satisfying kiss.
Urian didn’t disappoint her as he deepened his passion and kissed her until she lost her breath from it. She sighed in contentment and ran her hands down his lean, hard back.
Oh, but the man felt good and he tasted even better.
He left her lips and trailed a scorching kiss to her neck, where he suckled and teased her flesh with his fangs and tongue. Phoebe arched her back, writhing in pleasure as his hands skimmed over her body. Down her arms, over her waist to where he cupped her hips in his hands.
As he moved toward her breasts, she stopped him. He looked up with a frown.
“This is my fantasy,” Phoebe said with a smile. Then she forced him to the opposite end of the oversized tub and straddled his waist.
Stunned and excited, Urian stared up in awe of her as he felt her hairs gently teasing the flesh of his belly. “And just what does this so-called fantasy of yours include? Hot wax? Whips? Handcuffs?”
Blushing at his suggestions, she dipped her head toward his and instead of giving him the kiss he expected, she lowered her mouth on his throat.
Urian tensed as he felt her fangs scraping his skin. “Don’t bite me, love.”
“I know. Relax. I promise I won’t break the skin.”
Forcing himself to trust her, Urian groaned at the heat of her mouth as she slowly explored his body with her lips. Her tongue darted over the stubble of his neck, teasing and tormenting him with wave after wave of pleasure.
She leaned forward until her breasts were flattened against his chest. Then she moved lower. Slowly, thoroughly, she covered his chest and arms with her scorching kisses.
Phoebe savored the sounds of Urian’s pleasure. She should probably be worried about her actions, given that he was a Daimon, but she had made her mind up. Her life had a ticking time bomb on it. Unlike her sisters, she didn’t want to get married and have kids to give them this miserable life that had been theirs.
Running scared. Dreading every day and night. Always looking over their shoulders as they were uprooted and relocated because someone or something was trying to kill them. In spite of all their father’s money, their life had been misery and fear, and she’d hated every fucking minute of it.
Until Urian.
For the first time in her life, she had happiness. Someone she loved, who loved her. With him, she felt like she belonged. And when they were apart, all she did was count down the heartbeats until she saw him again.
She didn’t live when he was gone. She endured.
And she was over it.
No, Urian was what she wanted and she was going to do this. Completely and without reservations. Before this night ended, she wanted to know him from the top of his head all the way down to the bottom of his Daimon toes.
That thought foremost in her mind, she began draining the water so that she could dip her mouth to the flesh of his hip bone. Urian sucked his breath in sharply between his teeth as he quivered beneath her. Phoebe laughed as she continued her relentless exploration of him.
She was going to claim him tonight. And she made a vow to herself that when he left here after this, he would forever be hers and no one else’s.
And it must have been working since a second later his eyes flashed red and he transported them from the tub to the bed.
Phoebe looked up with a startled gasp. “How do you do that?”
He shrugged. “A lot of practice and a little prayer that I don’t fuck it up.”
Laughing, she returned to nibbling that succulent hip bone and exploring a six-pack of defined abs she didn’t think a man could have unless they were airbrushed in by an artist.
Urian buried his hand in Phoebe’s hair as he fought the urge to take control. He wanted to be inside her so badly that he could barely stand it. It was an overwhelming craving. But he refused to take this from her, especially because it was her first time and he wanted it to be as special as she was. She meant so much more to him than his base urges. So he would hold back, even if it killed him.
And the way he felt, right now, it damn well might. Because this was hard. And getting harder by the minute.
Along with a certain piece of his anatomy …
Curious and sweet, she moved her hand again to cup him as she explored his body with the inquisitiveness that was part science experiment and passion. He’d never had a lover be so strangely attentive to his body. Almost as if she wanted to commit it to memory.
And then to his utter amazement, she moved her head and took him fully into her mouth.
With a fierce, deep growl, Urian shook all over as her tongue toyed with him. Oh dear gods! Panting and weak, he stared in awe of her golden head buried between his thighs.