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I did, taking my time about it.
His fingers curved around my throat. Not hard, just showing me who was in charge.
My nipples tightened and a shiver went over me.
The man exerted some kind of sexy black magic on me. More than the usual vampire magic pheromones, I mean. Or maybe it was just that I knew how good he could make me feel.
His nostrils flared in a slight inhale. He knew exactly how he affected me—you can’t hide that sort of thing from a vampire.
Still with that light grip on my throat, he rubbed his lips over mine, his thumb caressing the sensitive skin over my pulse.
My insides heated. It was like a pinball zinged from my mouth to my breasts to my sex and back again, setting off flashing lights and ringing bells all along its path.
My lips parted, and his tongue swept inside, deepening the kiss until I was dazed with lust.
Talon released me. I touched my tongue to my lips, shaken.
His sensual mouth curved in an arrogant smile. “I wouldn’t fight me if I were you. You won’t win.”
Fortunately, the jet touched down at that moment, saving me from responding, so I settled for a glare. I wasn’t sure what I would’ve said anyway.
I want you but I also hate you for making me want you?
I love you but I can’t tell you because holding it in is better than seeing that smile morph to pity.
God, I was pathetic.
The pilot cut the engines, and Talon unbuckled my seatbelt and pulled me to my feet. “Let’s go.”
The foyer of Leclerc Castle had been built to impress, but in a tasteful way, like a museum or a cathedral. A temple to the Maritime Syndicate’s wealth and power.
As Rio and I followed Talon and the soldiers inside, sea-serpent sconces, their metal teeth clamped around frosted glass pearls, glowed to life, illuminating the French tapestries hanging on the rough stone walls.
“Holy shit.” Rio hitched up his backpack. His gaze traveled from the tapestries to the arched ceiling, where a bright crescent moon shimmered in a star-drenched sky.
“My mom says it was painted by a vampire artist,” I told him. “She says it’s how they see the night sky.”
“Wow.” He spun in a slow circle, awe on his sharp-boned face.
My gaze was drawn to Talon, who’d turned aside to talk to Adrian and Nathan.
He looked so in control. So darkly handsome. So out of my league.
I recalled what else my mom had said. “They may look human, but they’re not. They see things we don’t, hear sounds we can’t. To them, we’re pets. They take care of us, they may even feel affection for us, but we’re still pets. Don’t ever forget that.”
A former thrall, she knew what she was talking about.
Too late, Mom. I did forget. I fell in love with a vampire and now I’m fucked.
Rio eyed the curved mosaic of a great white shark that bisected the marbled granite floor. “This is something. It’s an actual freaking castle.”
I grinned despite my tangled emotions. “They didn’t tell you?”
“Nathan said something like that, but I didn’t figure it for a real, live castle. I thought it’d be more like one of those big-assed, Real Housewives of Whatever mansions. The outside is so Goth—all that black stone. I mean, who lives like this?”
“Vampires,” I said.
“Right.”
