“Life has a lot of unanswered questions,” Lucien said, his voice low and husky.
She nodded and watched as his amazing eyes turned to a smoldering forest green.
“Whatever the reason,” Evee said, trying to get her wits about her, “please accept my gratitude for your help.”
“Accepted,” Lucien said with a soft smile.
Something inside Evee told her to move on. To go upstairs and shower as she’d proposed earlier. Instead, she stood staring at him. Neither of them said a word.
Before she knew it, Evee sensed what almost felt like human hands push her closer to Lucien, seemingly without her consent. Suddenly, she found her lips on Lucien’s, kissing him fiercely. His hands cupped the sides of her face and he returned the kiss, matching her ferocity.
The moment her lips touched Lucien’s, Evee felt such a thirst overtake her, it was like every ounce of moisture in her body had been depleted, her body suddenly dehydrated. So much so she could have drunk the entire Mississippi River and would still be craving more.
His full lips, so delicious, succulent.
Lucien’s lips moved over her chin, down the side of her neck.
A moan escaped Evee’s lips, and she whispered, “Don’t let me go...don’t.” She tangled her fingers into his collar-length black hair and pulled him closer.
Without warning and in one fell swoop, Lucien dropped his hands to Evee’s waist, then lifted her up onto the dryer. He cupped the back of her head and kissed her long and deep.
Evee wrapped her arms around his neck, tangled her fingers into his hair. Her hair and clothes were still soaked from the river, but neither seemed to notice or care.
Lucien’s hands moved at what felt like an infinitesimally slow pace, from her waist to the top of her thighs.
She groaned reflexively, and Lucien broke their kiss, studied her face, his eyes smoldering green, hypnotic.
Their eyes remained locked, their faces only a few inches away from each other. Lucien’s eyes seemed to call on something deep inside her.
Locked in that moment, Lucien moved his hands to rest near the top of her thighs. He placed his thumbs between her legs, and she felt heat roll from her with the fierceness of a bonfire. He pressed his thumbs down a bit harder and began to rub his right thumb left and his left thumb right in the center of her legs.
Evee gasped loudly. She heard a loud humming in her ears and suspected the sound to be her own blood rushing hot and fast through her body. She arched her back, pushed her hips toward him.
Evee’s mouth found Lucien’s again and she took his tongue into her mouth and sucked hard as his thumbs moved faster, pressed harder against her.
Fire roared through her until Evee broke their kiss and arched her back, crying out, “Yes! Lucien, yes!” And in that moment a tsunami of all orgasms overtook her, washing away the fear that had held her captive earlier, shoving away every insecure thought, every inhibition she’d ever known. Shaking, she clung to Lucien once more.
“I need you,” she said unabashedly. “I need you inside me.”
Lucien took her face into his hands. “There’s nothing I want more. You’re one of the most beautiful women I’ve ever known, Evee. But taking you now, after all you’ve just gone through, would make me feel...” He smoothed her hair with a hand. “Not now. Trust me. We’ll have our time together. When and if it’s right. I promise.”
With that, Lucien gently moved his hands from between her legs, wrapped them around her waist and lifted her off the dryer and placed her on the floor.
Evee wobbled once, and he caught her. He held on to her arms until her feet felt steady beneath her.
“Go now,” Lucien whispered in her ear. “Shower. Get into some dry clothes. I’ll let Ronan know what happened—except for this part, of course. We’ll regroup.”
Evee nodded slowly, then made her way clumsily back into the kitchen and through the foyer. As she headed up the stairs, her body still humming from Lucien’s touch, she was grateful Hoot had made himself scarce. The last thing she needed was her familiar giving her a morality lesson and killing her buzz.
Three steps up the stairway Evee suddenly realized she’d stepped into a huge pile of shit. For it was then that she felt just how badly she wanted Lucien.
She walked slowly. Each step brought different emotions. The need for Lucien. God, he must think her a slut. She’d all but attacked him. All but begged him to screw her right there on top of the dryer.
Evee started to feel ashamed of herself. She should have shown more restraint. She had no business wanting any of the Benders. They were human, and her body hungered for more than a one-time fuck. That Evee could make happen at any time. But the Benders were different. Not only were they handsome, intelligent and powerful, but any woman would be stupid not to desire their heart along with their body.
And there lay her downfall.
No Triad shall marry or live intimately with a human.
The curse of the ages. If it was broken, they were assured it would cause the destruction of the world. That was the purpose for the mirrors inside their Grimoires. They replayed each day since they were created, scenes of Armageddon.
Except as of late. Over the last week, the mirrors inside their Grimoires had stopped replaying the destruction of the world. All three showed nothing but swirls of gray smoke. And no one, including their Elders, had any idea as to why. When Evee stared at the mirror in her Grimoire, she felt hopelessness, helplessness. As far as any of them knew, the end of the world might already have begun.
Heaven help her if she had had sex with Lucien. It might have been the match that lit the fuse to a bomb that would blow the hell out of everything.
Herself included.
Once his clothes were dry enough for him not to look like a drenched rat, Lucien quickly dressed while Evee was in the shower. He felt guilty for leaving without saying goodbye, but after the incident on the dryer, he thought it best to be on his way—quickly.
Lucien couldn’t quite wrap his brain around what exactly had happened on Evee’s dryer. One moment they were staring at each other, and the next her lips were on his. Her body so close to his sent more messages than he’d been able to sort through. He sensed passion pent up like a pressure cooker without a release valve inside her. So he’d provided one. Anything beyond that, and he’d have forever considered himself a schmuck. It had taken what felt like superhuman strength to control the need he had for her. Sending her off to shower while he waited for his clothes to at least half-ass dry, then leave, made him feel like chicken shit. But he figured better chicken shit than regret.
Instead of going to the hotel to shower as he’d told Evee he would, Lucien decided to scout for Ronan first and give him a heads-up on the Cartesian attack. With that in mind and visions of Evee burned into his brain, Lucien automatically reached for his left wrist to initiate the locator implanted in his watch. It took a second for him to realize it wasn’t on his wrist.
Lucien stopped abruptly. “What the hell...?” Then he remembered. He’d taken it off at Evee’s, right