Lothaire (Immortals After Dark 12)

She had a pretty good idea of what. "Fair enough."

"You're not going to press?"

"You'll tell me when you're ready," she said.

This really seemed to please him. He snatched her close to nuzzle her hair. "You smell like salt, sun, and tequila. Exotic to one like me." He inhaled deeply, as if he wanted to take her scent into him-

Suddenly his body jerked with tension, and he set her away. "Why do I still scent a trace of Thaddeus-even when we're away from him?"

"I'm sure we hugged." But she could feel her cheeks getting flushed. Was her heart speeding up?

"You're . . . lying. Why would you lie, unless . . ." His eyes shot flame-red.

"No, Lothaire, it isn't like that!"

"Tell me what it was like," he said softly before roaring, "or I'll do murder!"

"I-I kissed him."

"Then you've killed him."

"Thad didn't kiss me back! He was bewildered, just stood there. Afterward, he was mortified."

"Then I'll punish you more, slattern! I should string you up na**d to a pole at the demon crossroads!" With a crazed bellow, he launched one of his fists into the wall, hitting it like a wrecking ball. The room shook. Another punch before he faced her, yelling, "Did you touch him?"

"No! In any case, why would you care? You keep telling me that I am not your Bride. Saroya is! What is one harmless kiss for a woman you're gonna kill soon?"

"Tell me why you did it! Why in the f**k would you kiss him?"

"My reasons are my own!"

He laid his bleeding hand over her throat. "Tell me or I'll wring your pretty little neck."

Nothing had changed with Lothaire. Nothing. "You can't." She flailed from his grasp. "So take the needle off that record, vampire!"

"No, but I can kill your family! Shall I make you pick one relative over another to live?"

Oh, God, not them! "Please don't, Lothaire-"

He was already tracing her to the mountain.

"Take me back to the apartment, and I'll tell you . . ." She trailed off when she saw that the place was like a ghost town.

No lights, no voices, no TVs going in any of the trailers on the entire mountain. The Peirce family had gotten themselves lost.

"Where the hell are they?" he snapped, tracing her inside her old trailer.

The first time she'd been back since the night of the murders.

Belongings were strewn about. Mama had gotten them out in a hurry, and they'd clearly been gone a while.

Empty. Ellie checked a look of victory.

Lothaire swung his gaze on her, tracing her back outside to gaze down the lightless mountain. "Tell me where they are!"

"Gone." She breathed deeply of the country air, squaring her shoulders. "They're out of your reach forever."

Back here on her mountain, she soaked up strength. This place had seen hundreds of years of struggle and hardship, of blood lost and pain found.

Right now, Ellie believed she'd been honed by life here, as if she'd just been waiting to go toe-to-toe with a fiend like Lothaire.

"Hmm." She tapped her lip. "Can't kill them. Can't hurt me. Seems you're holdin' a shit hand of cards, Leo."

The last time they'd been at the doorstep of this trailer, Elizabeth had risked her life to kill Saroya, running into a hail of bullets.

Now, after all he'd done to her, she was taunting him.

Did I truly think her cowardly?

"So what's worse, Lothaire? The fact that I'm an ignorant hillbilly human?" She jabbed his chest with her forefinger. "Or the fact that you were just bested by one?"

This boldness in her . . . delicious.

No, you're enraged at the slattern!

And enthralled with her. Possessiveness and lust and something else he couldn't define warred inside him.

Then he remembered her kissing that boy years ago. How easily Lothaire could envision Thaddeus's look of wonderment!

Jealousy-seethed. "Hag would never let you call them."

"Nope."

"It couldn't be Thaddeus." Her family had been gone too long. "Tell me how you warned them!"

"Or-what?" She laughed derisively.

"I will find them."

"They are hidden, as only mountain folk can get. Face it, Lothaire, you've lost this match. You play your offense; I play defense. I set this plan into motion half a decade ago."

Lothaire traced her back to the apartment. "What are you talking about?"

Chin raised, Elizabeth tried to fling herself away from him. After a moment, he let her.

"I reckoned you'd dole out that punishment you'd promised if I succeeded in killin' your queen. So I made my mother swear to make herself and the entire family scarce for a spell."

To clear off an entire mountain of Peirces?

Like scraping an anthill completely clean. Yet it'd happened.

"You want your reputation as the Enemy of Old to precede you, to make your enemies fear you?" When she jabbed at his chest again, his gut clenched with want. "My greatest asset is that I'm forever underestimated-by people like you." She pinned his gaze with her own. "I'm the sucker punch that you never saw coming."

Unexpected Elizabeth, with her fierce gray eyes. Saroya might be vicious and lethal, but Elizabeth was cunning, beguiling.

Quietly running circles around him at every opportunity.

Because wasn't unexpected just another way of saying underestimated?

Sucker punch? She'd left him reeling.

"So no, Lothaire, there will not be any harm done to my family by you tonight. Or ever. Are-we-clear?"

Crystal, he thought as his lips parted. I know exactly what you are now. I know what you will be.

It was apparent what he had to do. Even he could recognize that he was experiencing some unknown-before need for this mortal girl, something even more than desire. And it was despite the goddess inside her.

"Lothaire, I asked you a question!"

He narrowed his eyes as a dim thought occurred. "If you suspected your family was safe, why did you go along with my plans? Why did you act afraid for them?"

She shrugged, casting him a queenly look that dared him to do something; a growl of lust burst from his chest.

Her peccadillo forgotten-for now-he leaned in to kiss her.

Chapter 41

Get off me, freak!" Ellie futilely shoved at him. "I'm not kissin' you! You were just about to harm my family!" And you took me away from my mountain yet again. . . .

"I wasn't going to harm anyone," the vampire said. "I'd planned to get you outside the trailer and scare you. Then you'd see reason."

He can't lie.

"But it seems I am holding a shit hand of cards." He stabbed his fingers through his hair. "You refuse to do as I predict."

"You're one to talk about that." He wasn't homicidal that she'd gotten one over on him-he was impressed.

And seeing that look in his eyes affected her. Coupled with the rush she'd just experienced from smelling the crisp air of her home-the woods, the very earth-she could almost feel . . . hope.

He took me away from my home, but maybe one day the male before me will bring me back there.

In a weary tone, he said, "Tell me why you kissed the boy."

"To find out if I desired just about any male after my prison stay, or if it was only you-"

"And?"

He's holding his breath. Dear God, she might truly have a shot at Lothaire. "I didn't feel any desire for him, because I was wantin' . . . you."

"Me." Pride fired in the red depths of his eyes. "Good. I don't . . . I didn't want to have to behead Thaddeus. Or to string you up at the demon crossroads."

"Really? Oh, Lothaire, this is huge! This is what I'd call a breakthrough moment."

"Shut up."

She grinned.

His gaze dipped to her mouth. "You want a real kiss now? From your own male?"

My own male. She nearly swayed. Lothaire had never treated her like his Bride; now his gaze upon her was heated and possessive. "I do, Leo, but I'm gonna want it for a lot longer than a week." I want to live!

He cupped her face with pale hands. "I'm keeping you, Lizvetta."

"Do you mean"-Elizabeth's eyes started glinting-"I don't have to die?"

What monster could kill such a one as she?

I'd been planning to. No, worse than death. "You'll never die! Keeping you forever."

Because she would be . . . his queen.

At Helvita, he'd recognized Elizabeth as the Bride fate had chosen for him. Now he gazed upon the cunning queen he'd chosen for himself.

Somehow he would figure out a way around his vows to the goddess. He was Lothaire, after all. He could figure out anything.

"But what about Saroya?"

"I'll take care of her."

"How?"

"The ring's still in play, is it not?" he said. "You will live, and I will take care of Saroya, but in return, you must . . ." He grabbed her shoulders. "I'm ordering you to forget what went on between us before."

"What do you mean?"

"Hag told me you wouldn't be able to get past my treatment of you."

"Ohhh. Like the threats against me and my loved ones? Like the mental anguish and never-ending mockery? Like putting me on death row?"

He scowled. "If you want to live, then all that must be forgotten, just as you've done with your miseries in the past. You told me you've done this before!"

"I have, and I will now. All I ask is that you vow never to hurt my family, by your hand or order. Do we have a bargain?"

"Always with the vows," he muttered. "I add my own condition. In the next few weeks, you do not question me about my plans and actions. You trust me to decide what is best for both of us."

She hesitated. "Agreed."

"Then I vow to the Lore never to harm your family by action or order."

"And I vow to let you decide what is best for us. For three weeks."

He narrowed his eyes at her qualifier, but let it slide. "You also told me you could make me happy." He curled his finger under her chin. "You've got your work cut out for you."

"I've heard-probably just a wacky rumor-that sex makes males happy. You wanna seal this deal, Leo?"

He drew her tightly into his arms. "You think I don't want to claim you?"

She tilted her head up at him. "But you believe you'll hurt me."

"When a human male hurts a female during sex, what happens?"

"I guess she might walk funny."

"I can lift a f**king train, Lizvetta. What would happen to you?" For the first time in his long life, he regretted his strength-though he'd paid so dearly for it. Now it was an obstacle.

Not to mention his vampiric instincts. He was no turned mortal; he was of a different species, a born vampire with no human impulses to temper his predatory behavior. "Imagine if you tried to wrestle with a butterfly, but knew you couldn't dust its wings. It's equivalent to our situation."

She dragged her forefinger down his chest, saying in a sexy drawl, "What if the butterfly rode you like a lazy horse?"

He stiffened all around her. "Continue."

"Instead of grinding on you like I did when we were on the sofa," Ellie said, "I could ride you."

The vampire's interest was definitely piqued. But then he shook his head. "I haven't had sex in millennia. What makes you think I won't lose control?"

"I just know you won't." Ellie had made up her mind that this was going to happen. She believed that she was his Bride-though he hadn't specifically acknowledged the fact yet-which meant she believed he wouldn't hurt her.

Plus, in the back of her mind, she did want to seal this deal. To steal him from Saroya completely. Just guard your heart, Ellie. His jealousy earlier had done funny things to her.

"This is your first time, Elizabeth, and far, far from your last. I cannot risk your being hurt or frightened."

Her hand slipped down to stroke him through his pants, earning a growl. "You haven't scared me in the times we've been together." Much. "All I've felt is pleasure." After a bit of pain.

"I have been denying my instincts with you."

"What do you mean?"

He scrubbed a hand over his tired face. "Vampires don't f**k like human males. The act for us is all about possession, blood, dominion. Those drives will be stronger if I'm inside you. When you become a vampire, I won't have to hold back as much."

"Me? Become a vampire?" Whoa. She'd never thought it would happen to her, only to Saroya.

"When I told you I was keeping you forever, I meant it."

She swallowed at the intensity in his words, the flash of fang. Clearly a discussion for another day . . . "I have an idea. Let's take off our clothes and fool around on the settee. If I trip and fall and land smack-dab on your cock, then it won't be your fault."

"Lose your virginity while on top?"

"I've already kind of lost my virginity."

Had his face flushed? "It would be easier for you if I lay upon your body-once you are turned."