"So beautiful," he rasped, mesmerized by the flushed perfection of her. He pressed his face against her, opening her to him with his fingers, tonguing her clit and the wet crevices that surrounded it. He brought her to a swift climax, relishing the hard tremors that rolled over her as she curled her fingers into his shoulders and cried out in release.
"God, you wreck me, woman. I can never get enough of you."
He was so fevered to be inside of her, he hardly heard her little gasp as he came back up to cover her with his body. He registered the sudden stillness of her, but it was her voice that made him freeze above her.
"Lucan... your eyes..."
Instinctively, he turned his face away from her. Too late. He knew that she had glimpsed the hungered glow of his transformed gaze. It was the same feral look she had seen in him last night - or, rather, close enough that her human eyes would have difficulty telling the difference between blood hunger and the heated intensity of desire.
"Please," she said gently. "Let me see you..."
Reluctantly, bracing himself over her on his fists, he brought his eyes back to hers. He saw the flicker of alarm but she didn't flinch from him. She looked closely, studying him.
"I won't harm you," he said, his voice raspy and thick. He let her see his fangs as he spoke, unable to conceal any of his body's reaction to her now. "This is need, Gabrielle. Desire. You do this to me. Sometimes just thinking about you - " He broke off, cursing low under his breath. "I don't want to frighten you, but I can't stop the change. Not when I want you so damned much."
"And all the other times we've been together?" she whispered, frowning. "You've hidden this from me? You always shielded your face, kept your eyes averted, when we made love before?"
"I didn't want to scare you. I didn't want you to see what I was." He scoffed. "You've seen everything anyway."
She slowly shook her head, her hands coming up to hold his face still. She looked at him deeply, taking in every part of him. Her eyes were moist, glittering, incredibly bright. Tender with affection, and all of it pouring out for him. "You are beautiful to me, Lucan. I will always want to see you. There's nothing you ever need to hide from me."
Her earnest declaration moved him. She held his wild gaze as she stroked his rigid jaw, her fingers tracing down to play across his parted lips. His fangs ached, elongating further as she explored his face with her tender touch.
As if to prove something to him - or maybe, to herself - she slipped her finger past his lips, into his mouth. Lucan groaned deep in his throat, a harsh, wordless snarl. His tongue pressed hungrily against her fingertip, his teeth grazing her skin with tender restraint as he closed his lips and sucked her deeper into his mouth.
He watched Gabrielle swallow hard. He smelled adrenaline jetting through her, mixing with the scent of her desire.
She was so damned beautiful, so soft and giving, so courageous in everything she did, he couldn't help but feel awed by her.
"I trust you," she told him, her dusky eyes darkening with passion as she slowly withdrew her finger from between his sharp teeth. "And I want you. Every part of you."
It was more than he could take.
With an animal grunt of lust, he came down on her, positioning his pelvis between her thighs and spreading them wide with his knees. Her sex was slick and hot against the head of his cock, a welcome he couldn't resist. With a deep thrust, he impaled her, sliding as deep as he could go. She took every last inch of him, her tight channel gripping him like a fist, bathing him in wondrous, wet heat. Lucan hissed sharply as the walls of her sex shuddered with his first slow withdrawal. He filled her again, hooking her knees over his arms so he could get even closer, delve ever deeper.
"Yes," she coaxed him, moving with him in a tempo that was becoming anything but gentle. "God, Lucan. Yes."
He knew his face was harsh with the force of his lust; he had likely never looked more beastly than at that moment, when his blood was running molten, summoning the part of him that was the curse of his father's brutal lineage. He fucked her hard, trying to ignore the thrumming, rising need within him that called for something more than this immense pleasure.
His focus latched on to Gabrielle's throat, where a strong vein pulsed beneath her delicate skin. His mouth watered feverishly, even as the pressure built in the base of his spine, signaling his coming release.
"Don't stop," she said without the slightest tremor in her voice. God help her, but she actually pulled him closer to her, holding his feral gaze as her warm fingers stroked his cheek. "Take as much of me as you need. Just... Oh, God... don't stop."
Lucan's nostrils filled with the erotic scent of her, and the faintly copper tanginess of the blood that was coloring her breasts and flushing the pale skin of her neck and face. He roared in agony, fighting to deny himself - deny them both - the ecstasy that could be had only through a vampire's kiss.
Wrenching his eyes away from her throat, Lucan drove into her body with renewed vigor, bringing her, and then himself, to a shattering climax.
But his release only abated one part of his need.
The other, deeper one remained, worsening with each strong pulse of Gabrielle's heart.
"Damn it." He rolled away from her on the bed, his voice raw and fevered.
"What's wrong?" Gabrielle put her hand on his shoulder.
She moved closer to him, and he felt the plush warmth of her breasts crushing against his spine. Her pulse hammered audibly, vibrating through flesh and bone until it was all that he could hear. All that he knew.
"Lucan? Are you all right?"