Too strong to ignore.
Later, she’d blame that damn wine. She’d curse it. But for the moment, her mouth opened beneath his. She kissed him, her desire blazing inside of her.
The sun had gone down. Stars glittered. So many damn stars. Thousands of them. And his hands were tight around her. His mouth claimed hers, seduced. She tasted that sweet wine on his tongue and maybe it was making her even drunker, but she didn’t care. Mina grabbed his fancy coat and shoved it off him. She reached for the buttons of his shirt and yanked—
The buttons popped and he laughed.
Why did that sound make her feel so warm on the inside?
His hands curled around her hips, he lifted her up, holding her so easily, and he walked back, pinning her against the exterior wall of his home, holding her against the stone with his muscled body in front of her. Mina’s legs wrapped around his hips. She could feel the hard thrust of his cock, shoving against the front of his pants, and she arched into him. She wanted that thick length in her. Wanted to ride him and let go of everything else.
She didn’t want to be a victim. Didn’t want to be a monster. She just wanted…to be a woman, making love, going wild. Feeling pleasure.
Normal.
Maybe that had been her wish, after all. And he was giving her just what she’d asked for.
His hand slid under her shirt. Warm and strong, and when his fingers smoothed up her rib cage, when she felt him touch her breasts, pleasure pulsed through her. Mina tipped back her head, gasping, and he teased her nipples.
That was good…but… “Put your mouth on me.”
His dark laugh rumbled. “I love a woman who tells me what she wants.”
She didn’t usually, though. Usually she had to be so careful with every word that she said. She was always afraid of pushing people to do what they didn’t want to do…but she couldn’t push him. And she couldn’t hold back the truth of her need. She was just saying what she wanted.
He pulled the shirt over her head. Tossed it aside. She was wearing a thin scrap of lace as a bra, she’d hated it when she first put it on, thinking it was a cast-off from his previous lover but now, the bra felt sexy.
She felt sexy as he stared down at her. His eyes were shining with desire—literally, shining in a way that no mortal man’s ever could. The darkness had given way to light, to a glow, the proof of his true nature. She’d only been with human lovers. And even then, she’d worried…
Had they wanted to truly be with her? Or had she influenced them with her voice? Said the wrong thing because she wasn’t careful enough, took away their will or—
“You aren’t with me.” His voice was a fierce growl. “That won’t work.”
“Luke, I—”
But they were moving. He carried her back into his bedroom. Spread her out on the bed and stepped back. His gaze swept over her. “I fucking love the shoes, but they have to go.” He caught her ankle and slipped one high heel off her foot. “Everything has to go.” His fingers slid up the arch of her foot. She’d never thought that part of her body was an erogenous zone.
She’d been wrong.
She’d just never had Luke touch her there before.
“You are so gorgeous,” he said.
Heat spread through her.
“I could just…” He slipped off her other high heel. It clattered to the floor. “Gobble you right up.”
Yes, please.
His hands went to her waist. He unhooked the jeans, pulled them down her legs, taking her underwear with them. She was clad just in the bra and it was too much. She wanted it gone. Mina wanted him to see all of her. For the first time, she didn’t want to hide even a single part of herself from a lover.
There were…marks on her body. Marks that she’d always been embarrassed about before. But Luke was touching her hips, sliding his fingers over the old scars. She didn’t remember how she’d gotten them—they were thin and long, almost like the marks that would come from a knife, slicing against her skin.
For as long as she could remember, those scars had been there, on each hip, on the tops of her legs. A few along her stomach and sides.
Some lovers had frowned at them. They’d looked at her with worry.
Luke was bending his head. He was kissing them, his lips feathering over her. “Fucking gorgeous.”
A smile slipped over her lips. Maybe she’d been wrong to choose human lovers before. Maybe all along, she should have been looking for someone like him.
There was dark stubble on his jaw and it scraped lightly against her skin. She didn’t mind that little burn, in fact, she liked it. Her hips arched toward him and his hand—those long, strong fingers delved between her thighs.
He touched her and she knew he’d find her already wet. She was. With him, it just took a kiss, a touch, and her body reacted. His fingers stroked her, then he was pushing into her core, and her hips jerked against him.