16. Bella

Ifound Lore asleep in the library the next day, in the same seat I liked to use. I leaned over as I stole a glance at his resting features. He appeared softer, less lethal in the early morning light, and that damn auburn lock of hair fell into his eyes once more as I gave into the desire to brush it away.

His hand grasped my arm before I could pull away, and his gaze flitted open to reveal crimson eyes. With a deep voice that resonated with his dragon”s power, he claimed, ”Mine.”

Before I could even respond, he swiftly flipped me onto my back, positioning me on the chair beneath him. His intense gaze locked onto mine as he lowered his head, resting it gently on the flat expanse of my belly. Inhaling deeply, he seemed to imprint my scent into his memory, marking me as his own.

“You smell exactly as I imagined you would,” he murmured from above my thighs.

“How do I smell?” I asked through quickened breaths.

His nearness to my center was doing wild things to me. I was again in another nightshirt, having run down here in the morning light to check on him like a fool. For a moment, I thought perhaps this was another dream. I”d had a few lately that left me sweaty, needy, and unsatisfied as I longed for something only he could give me.

”I want to know if you taste like you smell,” he murmured before trailing soft kisses down my body.

I didn”t stop him as I moaned and arched into him. I was tired of fighting this attraction that pulled me to him. His hands lifted the fabric of my gown, finding me bare underneath, and a growl escaped his lips. I gasped when his tongue touched my center and pressed myself closer into him, begging him to feast on me, to take me. I was wanton in my desire and no longer cared to fight him.

”Like sweet nectar.” He murmured against my thighs.

Goddess, did he feast like a man starved, rolling his tongue between my thighs until I was thrashing and bucking. Pleasure built inside me, taking me higher and higher until it crested, and I fell over a cliff of intense feeling that rocked my body. My cries became louder and as animalistic as the noises of approval Lore”s dragon made against my center.

My body began to loosen as I melted into the chair. As Lore lifted his gaze to mine, red eyes no longer stared back at me. Instead, the cerulean blue of a winter”s cloudless day stared into my soul. As I drifted back down, panting and spent, Lore, not the dragon, stared back at me, his gaze awash in wonder and horror. At that moment, I knew things between us had irrevocably changed. For better or worse, our fates were now entwined.

Lore ran his hands down his face and quickly moved back.

”I…” he began, opening and closing his mouth as if at a loss for words. ”I”m sorry. That has never happened before. He hasn”t appeared in my body in…” He stopped, shutting his mouth quickly. As if a dawning understanding washed over him, his body went rigid, his face closed off as he took one look at me, turned, and stormed off again, running away.

I tore after him, closing my robe angrily as I went.

”Don”t you dare run away!” I bellowed at his back, anger hitting me like a searing pan. ”We need to talk.”

”Forgive me,” he gasped. ”I cannot...we should not…”

He turned from me then, muscles rigid with restraint. Disappointment pierced me, quickly followed by doubt. Did he not want me after all? Or did he fear where this dangerous pull between us led?

I watched the rigid set of his shoulders as he retreated, mourning the loss of what we had almost shared. Yet a tiny, traitorous part of me thrilled at having glimpsed desire in those crimson eyes. However, Lore fought it. That hunger yet burned for me. Next time, I vowed I would set it free.

I pursued him as he stalked through the rows of bookcases into the library, stopping briefly to look at my discarded blanket and half-read book. I grabbed his arm, holding him with all my might. As if I let up just a fraction, he would slip between my fingers. That he would leave me.

”Did you want to do that?” I demanded, refusing to let him go. I planted my feet in place.

He turned, his gaze tortured. ”Did you?” he demanded as his features fell into horror as if he had done some unspeakable deed with me, the evil vampire.

I stilled, thinking about his question, and realized I had. I had wanted it. I didn”t understand why. I planned to kill him, and yet, standing this close to him even now, I wanted him. His rejection was a deep cut, and I glared.

”I did want you, but now I”m having instant regret!” I snapped as I locked my legs in place and lifted my chin, my muscles quivering as I held the emotions in a tightly contained box.

Lore turned, staring at me. Everything changed. The horror and fear evident in his gaze changed, and I realized then that it wasn”t disgust I”d seen or even regret. He felt he had done something wrong—to me. It was in the tense set of his shoulders and how his eyebrows drew together in a pained expression. ”I am not a good man. You should run from me.”

I regarded him for a moment. ”No, you”re not a good man, but you aren”t evil either. I”ve seen evil. I”ve stared into it. You are not it.”

”You”re wrong,” he breathed, moving closer to me. ”Just because you don”t see it doesn”t mean it”s not there.” He stopped, his eyes going hard as he considered me.

I didn”t know why I did it, why I pushed the beast and tested the man. Some driving force within me screamed against my common sense; some creature had taken me over, and it purred, my chest rattling as I pressed up against him. That thought entered my mind once again: MINE.

It was a declaration, a claim that reminded me so much of what the dragon had said to me. This came from me, deep inside me, as if I, too, had a creature stretching out and unfurling her claws, testing the shell that was me as she scratched along the edges of my mind.

It was then I questioned whether I was indeed descending into madness.

Lore grabbed me roughly, pulling me toward him, his hands going to my face, cupping it, searching my gaze as if searching for answers. I had none.

There was a clash of teeth born of desperation as he pulled me toward him, and our lips molded together. This intense desire was created through a deep-seated loneliness that matched my own. Our souls tuned to each other as they sang together in perfect harmony. Our bodies craved the other”s touch. A touch that burned our desires into a raging inferno. I could no longer deny it.

We might have been enemies, we might have hated each other, but there was a passion between us that demanded to be sated. It screamed to feel the bare touch of the other”s skin. Refusing to be ignored and not being given what it wanted so badly. He kissed me deeper, our tongues clashing, not in gentleness but in a war that left us breathless and panting. Yet, still, we wanted more. I didn”t care if he was my enemy. I didn”t care what the future held. Here, in this moment, I just wanted him.

I could want him, I told myself, and we could have today together, leaving tomorrow’s troubles for another day. Because tomorrow, we would be enemies once again.

“We don’t need to be more than just lovers. I want you, and you want me. Let’s just leave it at that.” That little vixen deep inside me seemed to speak without my permission.

“Are you…” Lore broke the kiss as he spoke into my mouth, pulling back slightly. “Are you innocent?” he asked, his eyes filled with concern.

I shook my head. My brief one-time had been nothing like this, though. The passion of this moment was so foreign to me that it felt like I was still a virgin.

“I have once,” I admitted, biting my lip.

It had been a far cry from the experience earlier, and Lore hadn”t even entered me. The wolf, that wretched Gideon, had taken my virginity and had turned me around, slamming my face into the bed only to ride me from behind until he had found completion. It left me unsatisfied and no longer a virgin.

I had told myself it was fine. It was okay sex. No, that was a lie. It hurt, and it was horrible.

”Once?” he asked, his gaze flashing, first in anger, then smoothing out to a jealous possessiveness as if he were also going to spout declarations of ownership.

”It was brief and not really…” I paused, noting his features, that red flashing in and out. ”It was not good. It was just okay.”

”I have not been with a woman in a very long time, but just okay should not be how it is described. What happens between us will not be just okay.” He paused, trailing his hands down my body to cup my breasts and pinch my nipple as I gasped. ”Nothing we do will be even close to unsatisfactory,” he said with a seductive grin.

He stepped back and tore the robe from my body, then ripped the chemise down the front until I stood naked, the rainbow glass reflecting on my body, the swell of my breasts moving with each ragged breath I took.

”Beautiful,” he breathed as his eyes trailed down my body. I felt the cold chill of the morning as my breasts began to pebble, even as my body heated up to a furnace because, in his gaze, I knew he meant it. He liked what he saw. ”You are a goddess.”

He lifted me into his arms, taking me back to the bedroom we had just left, only this time, it was Lore ready to explore my body, to claim my pleasure as his.

I stood before the bed, trembling as he held me to his body. Giving me time to say no and ask to go. I didn”t. I wanted to feel wanted. For just a few fleeting moments, I wanted to know what it felt like to be in another”s tender embrace. I wanted to know what it would be like to understand passion—true passion. I wanted him.

Yes, he was supposed to be my enemy, but if I was honest with myself, my body knew every time I looked at him because my heart sped up, and all rational thoughts escaped me. There was a need there that I could no longer deny.

So I sucked in a sharp breath and fell into his embrace. I resolved to take what I wanted, to live in this world with some form of pleasure when I had known so little thus far in my life. The same resolve reflected back to me in his gaze. In this moment, this fragment of time, we could just be together.

I grabbed his neck, pulling his lips down to mine as I claimed him as he had claimed me. Only to break the kiss to pull his nightshirt above his head and help him take off my thin robe. He did this inch by inch with a tenderness that ached inside me, marveling at my body with his lips as he went.

My breath hitched, heat swirling low in my belly. ”Lore...” His name escaped my lips in a breathy sigh.

In an instant, he was upon me, a starving man who was presented with a feast. His kiss seared, full of unspoken promise. My knees weakened, and I clung to him, dizzy with yearning.

With deft fingers, he pulled me close, baring my most private areas to his needy caresses. I reciprocated in kind, my hands exploring the taut musculature of his torso, tracing each ridge and valley. Lore groaned against my throat, nipping and sucking the tender flesh there. Expertly, he divested us of all barriers between our fevered skin.

This time, instead of my lover taking me like an animal, he laid me gently on the bed just as he had done earlier, and he kissed me until I was panting and arching into him. Each breath was a begging sound as I wanted more. His hands caressed my body before he settled in between my thighs.

He paused again to ask without words if this was okay, giving me one last option to say no.

I wasn”t having it. I burned for Lore to fill, take, and claim me as he said he would. I wrapped my legs around him to keep him from pulling away or running out the door as he had earlier. As I felt him press into my entrance, I sucked in a sharp breath, ready for the pain as he slammed into me. There was only pleasure. He stopped halfway as if checking to make sure I was still okay. Oh, goddess, was I ever.

He stretched me to the limits of what I believed was possible, filling me in a way that surpassed all expectations. With each gradual movement, he expanded my senses, pushing me to the brink of overwhelming pleasure. Intense sensations caused me to writhe and vocalize, a soft whimper escaping my lips as he paused, prolonging the anticipation.

”Are…are you okay?” he asked with such concern on his face that my heart melted a little.

I could not allow that. I could not care about this man even if he was inside of me. As my body moved, I could feel my heart follow suit as he entered me. Goddess, did it feel so right.

”Yes,” I moaned, and then, with my legs, I thrust up until he was fully sheathed inside me.

Lore groaned in my ear as he settled himself there, not moving as I adjusted to his size. So I began to move against him, wanting more, wanting him to take me to new heights, to new ecstasy like nothing I”d ever known. I wanted to feel him inside of my soul.

”Not so fast,” he groaned against my ear. ”It”s been a very long time for me and if you keep doing that, I”ll spill my seed inside of you before we”ve even begun.”

”I-—I just need you. I burn?—”

Lore cut my words off as he captured my lips in a punishing kiss, his tongue thrusting inside of me. Soon, his hips matched the thrusts of his tongue as I met them both with my own. We began a dance that was as old and magical as time itself as a building pressure started in my center.

One of pleasure.

We moved together in a tangle of limbs and impassioned cries. Lore worshiped every hollow and curve, wringing gasps and moans from my lips as he learned my most intimate secrets. Finally, movements became harder and deeper, and our bodies fused in exquisite harmony. Lore swallowed my keening cry with a searing kiss as he claimed me fully, irrevocably. As the building intensified to a crescendo, I could no longer handle it. It peaked and crested until it exploded—and I with it—into a million tiny fragments.

My pleasure burst through my body as I shook and screamed Lore”s name like a promise. I could feel my body convulsing around him as he became almost brutal, and his thrusts became deeper and more demanding. They carved out a place with my center and within my fallible heart as he took me. With a cry of his own and a jerk of his body, he found his release, slamming hard inside of me one last time.

After, we lay replete in each other”s arms. The silence between us was weighted with unspoken truths. This was more than lust and convenience—our souls had collided and melded into one.

He lay next to me, his arms around me. He held me as if the day didn”t exist and only that moment mattered.

”How do you break the curse?” I asked, breaking the bubble of our cocoon of languid pleasure. I hated doing it, but a new idea wrapped its sticky fingers around my dark thoughts.

What if his mate showed up one day, and I had given him everything I had to offer? What would happen to me then? After what we had just done, I knew that the magic we created together had done something no one had ever done to me before.

In the jagged pieces of my rough, hardened heart was a place for Lore to make its home. Caring for people was a weakness that terrified me, and I feared this would be how I finally found the end of my miserable life. It was a mistake to care about someone. Falling for the enemy was a grave mistake, but planning to kill them was an even bigger one. It was at that moment I knew I was in serious trouble.

”The curse is not your concern,” Lore muttered, his voice sharp and cold as he answered me, instantly releasing me and pulling away.

He was cold again, all traces of tenderness gone, and my heart plummeted. I was such a fool.

”It does concern me. I”m stuck here,” I said sharply. ”At least tell me who this ”true love” of yours is. Do you know her? Have you met her?” The questions spilled out before I could stop them, tinged with bitterness and insecurity I didn”t want him to hear.

Lore remained silent for too long as I lifted from the bed and glared at him.

Lore withdrew entirely then, the coldness of his retreat more painful than any blow. ”You know we are enemies and nothing more. This changes nothing.”

His words pierced my heart, even as anger roared through me. I flung bitter words, channeling my anguish into rage. How dare he use me so callously!

In the end, he retreated to the solitude of the castle. I snatched up my clothing, keeping merely the blanket from his bed wrapped around me as I stormed out of his bed-chamber, weeping tears that seared like dragon fire. What cruelty, to find bliss in his arms only to realize I had been a fool. All the more to harden my heart further and burn that little part he had found his way into, only to cut me deeper than I”d ever been cut before.

I lay awake long after Lore was gone, my mind spinning. Did he see me as a mere distraction, a way to pass the endless days until his supposed true love arrived? The thought pierced my fragile heart like a dagger. After opening myself so completely, the idea of losing him to another threatened to break me. Yet what choice did I have but to accept it?

All the more reason to kill him,I seethed.