The actors flitted across the stage as they sang, while the crowd below watched, unaware of what was happening above them.
That risk, that danger, only made Kitty more excited. She nudged her legs apart and tilted her head back. “Yes.”
His questing fingers reached her hip and paused at her thick outer dress.
“I had not thought this through,” he said. “May I move you to my lap?”
Her head pounded as she imagined draping her legs on either side of him and leaning against his chest, wrapping her arms around him, bringing their mouths together.
She licked her suddenly dry lips. “Yes.”
Then he lifted her and she landed atop him, with her legs to one side, as if she were riding a horse.
God, this was so dangerous. Not only because of the crowd, but also the people sitting in the other boxes. If any of them turned their opera glasses, they might catch a very different show than that which they’d paid for. That thrill made heat curl into a tight ball in her abdomen, and when he touched her ankle, she startled.
He chuckled. “So eager.” He pressed his nose into her throat. “I like it.”
Oh, God, what was she doing? She wasn’t innocent, but she was an unmarried woman, and a dressmaker, not a member of thedemimonde. But as his chilly fingers curled around her ankleand moved up her shin, she realized that nothing else mattered as long as he continued to touch her.
“I want to kiss you,” he whispered.
She tilted her head. There was something odd about his voice, like his mouth was full, and his irises were once again a bright blue. That should have been important, but then he captured her lips, and all rational thought disappeared. She touched her tongue with his, matching him stroke for stroke. Sitting in his lap, his arm wrapped around her back, his fingers sliding along the soft skin of her inner thighs, she felt as if she would come apart at any moment.
He drew back, pressed a kiss to her cheek, then more down to her neck, until he was nuzzling and suckling the tender flesh of her shoulder. His fingers were doing remarkable things beneath her skirts, too, although his feather-light caresses weren’t nearly enough. She squirmed, wanting more pressure but unsure how to ask.
“Is this what you want?” he whispered.
She moaned. “More.”
He touched her entrance with one finger while rubbing slow circles over her sensitive bud. Then something sharp pierced her neck, as if he’d jabbed her with the tines of a fork. It should have hurt, but the pain amplified her pleasure, and she came apart so powerfully, her toes curled. When she returned to herself, he was watching her with eyes that were back to a warm brown and smirking.
“What about you?” she asked.
The bulge of his erection was pushing insistently into her bottom.
He licked his lips. “Not here. I am already quite… satisfied.” Then he kissed her again, but there was something strange about his mouth. She clasped his face in her hands and touched hisupper lip, where there were two distinct bulges. “What is wrong with your teeth?”
His throat worked. He grabbed her hands, kissed her knuckles, then grinned, revealing a set of perfectly normal, if unusually white, teeth.
“I apologize,” she said. “I thought I saw…” She rubbed her oddly tender neck but felt nothing wrong. “It doesn’t matter.”
She returned to her seat but spent the rest of the performance wondering why their last kiss had tasted very different from the others.
Chapter Ten
Cordon stood ina frigid alley outside Kitty’s shop, watching her shadow move. His saliva had healed the wound he’d left on her neck, but after drinking her blood, he wasn’t willing to leave her alone until he was certain she was safe, and not about to faint from anemia.
At least there had been no sickly smell of illness or fear emanating from her during the ride back. Still, he waited, ignoring the growing tension in his chest that urged him to return home before the sun rose, until the light above her shop flickered out. Only then did the tense muscles of his back relax.
He drew a deep breath and vividly recalled how it had felt to have her sweet blood, thick with pleasure, trickling down his throat as she writhed and moaned in his lap. His cock had been so hard, it had been painful. Much like his current condition. Then he’d lost control, something that hadn’t happened since he’d been a fledgling. It had taken every bit of his willpower to withdraw his fangs.
He didn’t even want to think about how close he’d come to exposure. He’d been forced to flee from cities with only the clothes on his back several times in the past century. It was never pleasant, especially when an angry mob pursued.
Unfortunately, her blood had failed to stir anything but hunger in him. As per Marguerite’s journal, Kitty could not be his fated mate, or they would have formed the telepathic matingbond already. He’d already assumed that was the case, but the confirmation was still crushing.
After losing control tonight, he had to be more careful. If he let his vampiric instincts take over, he might accidentally drain her to where her body would not recover on its own. Then she would either die, or he would be forced to turn her.
Careless. That’s what he’d been. It would not happen again.
