by Marian Tee
Catching Luka’s hand before he could pull away, I made him look at me and what I saw in his gaze convinced me that I was right in what I was thinking.
“You’re thinking of using this as an excuse to leave me.”
Luka didn’t argue.
I knew I should be rejoicing in the fact that he was suffering because of me. If I was smart, I would take advantage of this moment and twist the knife even deeper by telling him I was traumatized by what happened. If I stuck to the original plan, this was one of the best times to extract my revenge because Luka took his responsibilities seriously and I could make him feel that he had failed me.
But I couldn’t. All I could think was that he was leaving me…and the thought was literally driving me insane.
“Leaving me doesn’t guarantee that I’ll be left alone.”
Luka cursed, making me flinch. “Caylie, it’s not that easy.”
“If you leave me, I’ll die. If you don’t leave me, I’ll still die.”
He choked. “That almost made sense.”
My head began to pound. “It does. So promise me.” Those words threatened to take over my mind, but I refused to give in, not until I had secured Luka’s word. I tightened my grip on his arm. “Promise me!”
Luka scowled. “Your head’s hurting, isn’t it? I told you to relax, dammit.”
“Then swear on the Brethren that this won’t be an excuse to leave.”
There was another moment’s hesitation before Luka bit out, “I swear, dammit, now relax!”
I fell against the pillows, my hand dropping limply off his arm.
Luka cursed fluidly, but this time I was so tired and in too much pain to react. “You are so damn stubborn,” Luka muttered.
Fingers slowly began to massage my aching head and I sighed in contentment. “Sleep,” he murmured.
I was in and out of consciousness in the next few days. Sometimes, I caught glimpses of my parents and enjoyed snatches of conversation with them. Once, I was conscious enough to register that Ever and Sabina had visited, with Phillip in tow. I vaguely remembered Jeff visiting as well, but this was more than a little hazy because somehow I could also recall Luka doing nothing to keep his power leashed, using it to intimidate the younger man to quickly bid me goodbye.
But most of the time, it was just Luka and me.
On my third night of confinement, I woke up feeling completely fine, free from the last lingering effects of the headache caused by my injury. Again, I caught Luka coming out of the restroom, his hair wet and fresh from the shower. He wore a light violet shirt, its sleeves pushed up to his elbows. It was my first time not to see him in a suit, and I had to admit that he looked a different kind of sexy dressed so casually.
I swallowed at the way the thin shirt perfectly sculpted the muscles of his body.
Luka’s head shot up, the tiny sound that I made enough to catch his attention. A smile slowly broke over his cruelly beautiful lips and his violet eyes gleamed. “You’re awake,” he breathed softly.
“You changed clothes.” I tried not to sound accusing.
Luka laughed. “Relax, mi vavli. I didn’t leave your side for a second. I had someone from the house bring me a change of clothes.” One golden brow lifted. “Satisfied?”
“Mmm…” I was satisfied, but I didn’t want him to know how much his answer meant to me. That would be the past all over again, and I would never give anyone that much power over me once more.
Luka stood at the side of my bed, bending to run his fingers through my hair. “You are such a spoiled little bauble,” he murmured as he gave me a glass of water to drink.
Pausing between sips, I pouted at him. “Yet you still want me anyway, don’t you?”
Luka rolled his eyes.
It was so uncommon for him to do that I choked on my water.
Luka swiftly took the glass from me, a smirk playing on his lips.
“You did that deliberately,” I gasped.
“Mm…” Oh God of Caros, but that smirk was so sexy on Luka it made me thirst for something else.
Luka handed me a thick leather-bound book. I flipped it open and realized it was the hospital’s menu for Caro patients. “You haven’t drunk any blood since you came here.”
I pushed the menu back at him, uneasy at the thought of taking blood in his presence—or anyone else’s for that matter. Doing so in the throes of lust was fine, but if it was for sustenance? It didn’t seem…proper. “I don’t think—”
“Don’t tell me after everything you’re going to act all shy and demure now?” Luka asked, deadpanned.
A blush stole my cheeks even as I glared at him. “Luka…”
“Are you the same girl who asked me to indulge—”
I snatched the menu from him, snarling, “Cerra ti.”
Yet this time, Luka only released a low sexy laugh that instantly turned my irritation into sexual frustration. Ah, sweet Caro heaven, but this man could so easily turn me on without even trying! Had I really thought I could take my revenge on him?
I thought back on the last few days. Luka had never left my side, not even for his duties with the Brethren it seemed. Was this really the same guy who had discarded me so callously years ago?
Had he changed? And if he did, what had caused it?
The image of Emilia Moretti flashed in my mind.
“Caylie?” Luka’s tone was faintly questioning.
“J-just trying to choose something that wouldn’t make me fat,” I lied even as I did my best to will my fangs to retract without making any sound.
I tapped on the bestselling item under the light and frothy category. “This one please.”
Luka frowned. “That’s no good for an invalid.” He pointed to an item several lines below. “I think you should have this one.”
I made a gagging sound. “Oh come on, Luka! Blood Emerald?” For Caros, Blood Emerald, which was blood type O combined with several herbs, was the equivalent of healthy but disgustingly bland and dressing-less spinach.
“It’s what you need,” Luka pointed out, unaffected by my outburst.
“Fine! I’ll drink it if you do.”
“Deal,” he said without missing a beat.
“Luka!” I wailed. He wasn’t supposed to agree.
Luka gave me a pitiless look. “Don’t be such a baby.” He punched a few digits on the local phone and gave our orders.
“You’re such a monster,” I snapped when he put the phone down.
“It takes one to know one and you, my dear,” Luka murmured, “are a spoiled little monster.”
I made a face. “I hate it when you act all grown up.”
He rolled his eyes. “I have grown up.”
I fluttered my fingers. “Whatever.”
Our order arrived under a minute. The nurse kept on smiling provocatively at Luka as she laid the tray on the table. She bent extremely low just to show Luka what was hidden—or not so hidden—underneath her skimpy little uniform.
“We can take it from here,” I said coldly.
“Don’t you think you were a mite too sharp?” Luka remarked mildly when the door closed behind the nurse.
“Her sluttish ways were offending my delicate sensibilities,” I said sweetly.
Luka choked in his laughter. He handed me my glass and took mine. “Avida,” he said. It translated roughly to a more formal version of ‘cheers’ in our language.
I swallowed convulsively as our glasses made a clicking sound. “Avida,” I replied, but I couldn’t really hear my own voice, not with the way my heart was beating so loudly.
The idea of taking blood sustenance in front of Luka felt too intimate. It was almost easier to undress in front of Luka. Almost.
Luka was the first to tilt his glass to his lips. His gaze locked with mine when he started to drink, and I was lost.
Never had I seen something so beautifully sensual than the sight of Luka drinking blood for sustenance, and I wondered dazedly if this was the real reason that pub
lic intake of blood was forbidden for our kind. The sight of it sent all my senses spiraling out of control, and my hand shook in my effort not to crush the fragile glass between my fingers.
The way his throat worked as more blood flowed into him made me wet my lips, and the way his pulse throbbed with each sip sent a shaft of heat between my legs, making me wet in seconds. Oh, God of Caros—what have I gotten myself into?
Before I lost my courage completely, I brought my own glass to my lips and started to drink.
Luka’s eyes flashed, his body hardening in a perceptible manner at my first sip. As the blood flowed into my throat, I let out a silent whimper of pleasure. Now, I knew. Now, I understood. Now, I hungered.
Taking blood was like going on a high for us—a feeling akin to having new life course through your veins. But if you did it with another person, the pleasure became incredibly sensual and intimate, a liquid aphrodisiac that set your body on fire in an instant.
Unable to help it, I drank more slowly, wanting to prolong the pleasure. Without even thinking about it, I let my gaze slide down, down, down until I saw it. Something shattered, and then Luka was gripping his cock, which had swelled immeasurably to a size that made the blood burn hotter and sweeter against my tongue.
“Drink more slowly.” Luka’s voice was like whiplash, a silken command that my body yearned to obey.
“Touch your breasts.”
I whimpered again, but I was powerless to resist Luka’s command, my fingers slowly drifting over my body before cupping one breast and squeezing.
Luka groaned, and his hand stroked his cock more quickly, roughly.
The sight was impossibly erotic, and I forgot everything inside the fog of pleasure that enveloped me. I drank the last drop of blood from the glass. I closed my eyes, and then suddenly Luka was there, throwing the glass against the wall as he swiftly rolled us on the bed, leaving me on top of his hard, throbbing body.
I moaned and he groaned, our bodies straining against each other. Luka gripped my hair tightly before yanking me down. Our lips touched, and the passion between us flared into a conflagration that burned away every thought until all that was left was just desire.
Luka ground his dick against me.
I tried to wriggle out of my silken panties, but Luka resisted, fingers digging into my bare hips.
“Luka, please,” I begged, having lost all sense of shame and pride.
“No,” he growled. “Not like this.” His hands curved around my ass and after squeezing hard, he started lifting me up and down on his cock, positioning me perfectly so that the head of his cock would rub against my clit.
“Aaah.” The pleasure started to build inside me.
He ground his erection harder against me, knowing exactly how to set my clit on fire.
“Luka.” I screamed his name, no longer caring who would hear me as the pleasure took over, and my body started shaking as bolt after bolt of ecstasy hit the flesh between my legs, leaving me a quivering mess.
Luka growled out his pleasure a second after, and I closed my eyes as I pulled him tightly against me, reveling at the way his lean hard body shook over mine.
An eternity seemed to have passed before Luka gently lifted me off his body and returned me to my bed. He started to take my underwear off, but I shook my head quickly, instinctively knowing that he wanted to clean me…there. But I wasn’t ready for that yet, and I could only blush when he chuckled, the sound too dark and lush for someone who was supposedly cold and ruthless as Luka Georgiades.
“I can do it alone,” I insisted even though I felt incredibly tired.
Luka sighed but he eventually satisfied himself with helping me to the shower. Inside, I quickly set the temperature and switched the shower on at full blast. The tears started to fall right after, mingling with the jets of water pulsing down.
Oh God of Caros, I was in loads of trouble.
I was even more obsessed with Luka Georgiades now.
Chapter Nine
“Smile for the camera, Caylie!”
“Are you completely recovered, Ms. Sonora?”
Question after question was fired at us as Luka guided me out of the hospital late afternoon the next day. Caro reporters jostled with each other as their camera bulbs flashed nonstop. A particularly insistent reporter almost caused me to stumble, and Luka’s face hardened as he gently set me back to my feet and pulled me tightly against him.
I watched him make one barely perceptible nod and Brethren guards once again came out of nowhere. A squad of them escorted my parents into William’s limousine while another squad formed a protection circle around us, effectively keeping any of the press from reaching us.
Even so, we moved at a snail’s pace, the throng of reporters surrounding us too huge and too insistent for us to forcibly get through without inflicting hurt.
The attention on my discharge confused me. Yes, I got photographed for the society pages frequently but I wasn’t close to being the next Kardashian. Right now, everything felt like sheer madness.
“What’s happening?” I blurted out.
“I’ll explain later,” Luka answered curtly as his arm around my shoulders tightened even more while he lifted one hand to shield my face from the blinding glare of camera bulbs that were being shoved at us.
As he helped me inside the limo, one question, shouted so loudly it was impossible to ignore, reached my ears.
“What do you feel about the assassination attempt on your boyfriend’s life?”
The car door was slammed shut by one of our escorts just as my head snapped to Luka in shock.
Luka’s lips tightened.
“Assassination attempt?” I whispered. “You told me last night it was a gas leak or something!”
Luka remained silent.
“Luka!”
He sighed. “I may have modified the truth a bit.”
My eyes narrowed. “You mean you lied, don’t you?” My head was beginning to ache but I stubbornly ignored the pain. This was just too important. “Don’t you go using your smart tricks on me, Luka. I’m not one of those constituents you have to flatter and convince to vote for you.”
Luka actually smiled. “Technically, you are one of your constituents since you’re Caro yourself.”
I cursed.
Luka blinked, visibly taken aback.
It only made me want to strangle him. Sweet Caro heaven, the explosion had been an attempt to assassinate him! How could he think I wouldn’t want—wouldn’t care to know about that? The thought of Luka dying was like having the ground crumble under me, leaving me afloat in despair and confusion.
Someone was trying to murder Luka.
Just the thought alone was enough to put things in perspective.
I couldn’t lose Luka. I couldn’t.
“Luka, was it an assassination attempt?”
“Yes.”
I collapsed against the seat at his flatly voiced admission. “The explosion was meant to kill you.”
His eyes flashed. “And whoever it was behind it didn’t seem to care if you were killed, too.” When he saw me shudder in response, he quickly pulled me on his lap and I burrowed in his arms without hesitation.
“I’m sorry for endangering you,” Luka said harshly.
“I’m not worried about that,” I snapped impatiently. “It’s you I’m worried most about. Why would someone want to kill you? You haven’t even run for anything.”
“But I will and everyone knows it.” Luka pressed a kiss to my forehead.
My fingers curled against his chest as I clutched his shirt. “Don’t do anything stupid.”
I could feel him smiling against my hair. “You’re seriously advising me that.”
“Yes. Because you could be stupid by being noble.”
Luka’s smile widened.
“I’m serious. When I heard the press ask…” My voice trailed off when a belated realization hit me. I jerked away and would have almost fallen off Luka’s lap if he hadn’t ca
ught me in time.
“What?” he demanded, alarm on his beautiful face.
I stared at him in consternation. How could Luka, the man with the so-called finest mid in Caro history, not know what was making me flush red in awkward embarrassment?
Luka’s face was perfectly blank. “What is it?”