Soulless (Starcrossed Lovers Trilogy 2)

I guess it was the intensity of the surroundings, but Lucian Morelli looked even more of a god in this place. His opulence and class was obvious against the cheap backdrop.

I leant against the counter and watched him.

“You’re going to really make me suffer, aren’t you?” I asked.

“Yes, sweetheart,” he said with an evil smile. “I’m going to make you suffer. I’m going to enjoy every second of it. Morelli against Constantine in the most intimate of ways.”

Somehow, even through the dread and the fear churning inside me, intimacy with Lucian Morelli gave me a shudder of something different.

I expected him to fire up the coffee machine, but he didn’t. He crossed the room to the refrigerator and pulled out two mineral waters, pouring them into glasses from the shelf.

“Drink,” he ordered, and handed one over.I did what he told me, but because I was thirsty, not because I was his meek little servant. Not yet, anyway.

He watched me while he sipped at his.

It was another clear light and dark between us both. Another polarity in our souls. He drank mineral water in life while I drank champagne. I’d never seen him touch a substance, let alone have a dependency on it.

Control.

He was all about control.

I was all about losing mine.

“I hope your ass is still hurting,” he said. “I’ve plenty of pain to be adding to it.”

I laughed. “It’s had worse. I’m not quite so virginal as you think I am. My life hasn’t been all that sheltered, asshole.”

That angered him. He straightened and stepped on over, bristling in his hate of me.

“You’ll be telling me all about who’s been pawing you, Elaine. By the time I take the last of you, I’ll know every one of your dirty little secrets.”

He was wrong.

I wouldn’t tell him anything I didn’t want to. He could tear me apart, and I’d still keep my mouth closed tight.

He tipped my face up to his. “I just know there are plenty of dirty little secrets behind those pretty blue eyes.”

He wasn’t wrong on that front. I had enough dirty little secrets to fill a bookshelf.

His fingers slid down my throat, squeezing just a little before slipping my coat from my shoulders and letting it drop to the floor. I didn’t fight him.

“Such a pretty little Constantine bitch,” he whispered.

I felt like a pretty little Constantine bitch. It was a beautiful darkness, to be wanted by such a demon.

My words were out of my throat before I even realized they were coming, nothing but a breath from my lips.

“Hurt me, monster. Show me what you really are.”

I couldn’t hold back a gasp as he raised his hand to my face. I was expecting pain, but I didn’t get it. No. I got anything but pain. With a slip of his fingers as he gripped my face, Lucian Morelli pushed his thumb inside my mouth.

It was the strangest thing to have the monster’s thumb so intimately between my lips, probing so gently. I’d been touched and groped and abused in the most intense of ways through my life, and yet nothing had ever made me feel as vulnerable as the way he invaded me so softly. His thumb was strong as it explored my mouth, commanding me in the most intimate way. I tried to pull back from him but he pinned me to the counter, making me moan as he petted my tongue.

“Suck,” he hissed, but I didn’t suck.

I moved my tongue in nothing more than a flicker, tasting him. I wanted to taste him. I wanted to taste the monster’s thumb.

“Suck,” he hissed again, but I didn’t.

He swapped his thumb for two thick fingers, and I tasted him fresh. Flickering, flickering, flickering with my tongue.

He liked it. I could see it in his eyes. The monster liked it.

“Dirty girl,” he growled, and I loved the tone in his voice. “Show me that hungry little tongue, I want to see it.”

I did show him. I opened my mouth nice and wide and showed the beast my tongue, still brushing against his fingers as he pulled them free.

I wasn’t prepared for him to lower his head so quickly. I wasn’t prepared for the way he nipped his teeth around my tongue hard enough to make me squeal. I tried to pull away, but he grabbed my hair in his fist, held me still as he sucked on my tongue.

I tasted blood at the same time he did.

He let out a moan. I knew he was smiling.

Lucian Morelli really was a monster.

His lips were red as he pulled away.

“You’re fucked up,” I told him, with that hint of spoiled little cow back in my voice. “Did you know that, Morelli? You’re a fuck-up.”

I thought he’d take offence, but he didn’t. He smirked at me.

“Yes, I know that,” he told me. “I’ve been a fuck-up since the day I was born. I enjoy it. Regular life is so fucking dull.”