Lover Avenged (Black Dagger Brotherhood 7)

His lips were soft and his kiss softer. And he pulled back too fast, in her opinion. Way too fast.

"If you want more," he said in a low, husky voice, "I want to give it to you."

Ehlena stared at his mouth and thought of Stephan-and all the choices he no longer had. Being with Rehvenge was something she wanted. It didn't make sense, but right now that didn't matter.

"Yes. I want more." Except then it dawned on her. He couldn't feel a thing, could he. So what would happen if they took this even further?

Yeah, how did you bring that up without making him feel handicapped? And what about this other female of his? Clearly, he wasn't sleeping with her, but there was something serious going on.

His amethyst eyes dropped to her lips. "You want to know what I get out of it?"

Man, that voice of his was pure sex.

"Yes," she breathed.

"I get to see you like you are now."

"What...am I like?"

He brushed a finger down her cheek. "You're flushed." His touch went over to her lips. "Your mouth is open because you're thinking about me kissing you again." He went lower with that soft stroke, going down over her throat. "Your heart is pumping. I can see it in your vein here." He stopped between her br**sts, his own mouth falling open and his fangs elongating. "If I keep on going, I think I'd find your ni**les are hard, and I bet there are other signs you're ready for me." He leaned into her ear and whispered, "Are you ready for me, Ehlena?"

Holy. Shit.

Her rib cage tightened hard around her lungs, a sweet, dizzying sensation of suffocation making the rush she suddenly felt between her thighs even more stunning.

"Ehlena, answer me." Rehvenge nuzzled her neck, running one sharp canine up her vein.

As her head fell back, she grabbed onto the sleeve of his fine suit, crushing the material. It had been so long...forever...since she'd been held by anyone. Since she'd been something other than a caregiver. Since she'd felt like her br**sts and her hips and her thighs were anything other than parts to be covered up before she went out in public. And here this beautiful, not-just-anyone male wanted to be with her for the sole purpose of pleasing her.

Ehlena had to blink quickly, feeling as if he'd just given her a gift, and she wondered how far what they were about to start could go. Back before her family had fallen out of the glymera's graces and been torn apart, she'd been promised to a male and he to her. The mating ceremony had been scheduled, but didn't come to pass after her family's reversal of fortune.

When they had been together, she had lain with the male even though as a female of worth in the glymera, she shouldn't have because they had yet to be formally joined. Life had seemed too short to wait.

Now she knew it to be even shorter.

"You have a bed in this place," she said.

"And I would kill to take you there."

She was the one who stood up and put out her hand for him to take. "Let's go."

What made it okay was that this was all about Ehlena. Rehv's lack of sensation took him completely out of the equation, freeing them both from the nasty implications of him being involved.

Man, what a joy this was. He had to give the princess his body. But he was choosing to give Ehlena...

Well, shit, he didn't know exactly, but it was a f**kload more than just his cock. Worth so much more, too.

Palming his cane, because he didn't want to have to rely on her for balance, he took her to the bedroom, with its swimming pool-size bed and its black satin duvet and its view.

He shut the door with his mind, even though there was no one else in the penthouse, and the first thing he did was turn Ehlena to face him and take her hair out of its twist tie. The deep strawberry blond waves fell to just below her shoulders, and though he couldn't feel the silken strands, he could smell the light, natural bouquet of her shampoo.

She was clean and fresh, like a stream he could bathe himself in.

He paused, an unfamiliar spike of conscience reining him in. If she knew what he was, if she knew what he did for a living, if she knew what he did with his body, she wouldn't choose him. He was sure of this.

"Don't stop," she said, tilting her face up. "Please..."

With force of will, he compartmentalized himself, putting the bad things and the vicious life he led and the dangerous realities he faced away from the bedroom, locking them out, shutting them down.

So that it was just the two of them.

"I won't stop unless you want me to," he said. And if she did he would, no questions asked. The last thing he ever wanted to do was make her feel the way he did about sex.

Rehv bent down, put his lips on hers, and kissed her carefully. As he couldn't judge sensation, he didn't want to grind on her, and he had the sense she would press herself closer if she wanted more-

Ehlena did just that, wrapping her arms around him and melding them hip-to-hip.

And...shit, he felt something. From out of nowhere, a flare of sensation broke through his numbness, the radiating wave dim, but very definitely warmth he could sense. For a split second he pulled back, fear spearing into him...but his vision stayed in three dimensions, and the only red he saw was from the glow of the digital clock on the nightstand.

"Is this okay?" she asked.

He waited a couple more heartbeats. "Yeah...yeah, it totally is." His eyes traced her face. "Will you let me get you naked?"

Oh, God, did he just say that?

"Yes."

"Oh...thank you..."

Rehv unbuttoned the front of her uniform slowly, each inch of flesh a revelation, the act not so much dishabille, but an unveiling. And he was careful with his hands as he slid the top half of what she wore off her shoulders and down over her hips to the floor. When she stood before him in her white bra and her white stockings, with the hint of her white panties showing beneath the hose, he was strangely honored.

But that wasn't all. The scent of her sex lit off a buzz between his ears that made him feel like he'd been doing lines of coke for a week and a half straight. She wanted him. Almost as much as he wanted to serve her.

Rehv picked her up by wrapping his arms around her waist and hugging her to him. She weighed nothing at all, and he knew it by the fact that his breathing didn't change in the slightest as he carried her over and laid her out on the bed.

As he pulled back to look at her, Ehlena wasn't like the females he'd been with. She didn't stretch and part her legs, didn't play with herself, didn't arch up and do some whorish variant of come-and-get-me-big-boy.

She also didn't want to cause him pain and didn't have any interest in degrading him-there was no hot, erotic cruelty in her eyes.

She just stared up at him with wonder and honest anticipation, a female without artifice or calculation-who was one trillion times sexier than anyone he'd ever been with or been around.

"Do you want me clothed?" he said.

"No."

Rehv ditched his jacket like it was made of nothing more than shopping circulars, tossing the Gucci work of art to the floor without a care. Kicking off his loafers, he undid his belt and dropped his slacks, leaving them where they landed. His shirt came off quickly. So did the socks.

He hesitated at his boxers, his thumbs tucked into the waistband, ready to do the shuck, but failing to move.

His lack of an erection embarrassed him.

Rehv wouldn't have thought it mattered. Hell, arguably his limp c**k was what made this possible. Still, he felt like less of a male.

Didn't feel very male at all, actually.

He took his hands out and put them over his flaccid sex. "I'm going to leave these on."

Ehlena reached for him, desire in her eyes. "I want to be with you any way you come."

Or didn't come, as the case was. "I'm sorry," he said quietly.

There was an awkward moment, because what could she possibly reply? And yet, he waited anyway, wanting...something from her.

Reassurance?

Christ, what the f**k was wrong with him. All these bizarre thoughts and reactions were crisscrossing the landscape of his temporal lobe, blazing trails to destinations he'd only heard others speak of, places like shame and sadness and worry. Insecurity, too.

Maybe the sexual hormones she was stirring up in him were like the dopamine, hitting him in the opposite way. Turning him into a chick.

"You are beautiful in this light," she said in a husky tone. "Your shoulders and chest are so big, I can't imagine what it would be like to be that strong. And your stomach...I wish mine were that flat and hard. Your legs are so powerful, too, all muscle, not an ounce of fat."