“Drink some of this. You will feel worse at first but then much better.”
“It’s not cranberry juice, is it?”
He shakes his head at me, a tiny smile edging his mouth. That monstrously sexy mouth was all over me last night, and my body was in a dark heavenly trance while my mind reeled with terror.
“Just drink,” he says, putting the glass in my hand.
I start with the tiny sip, but then I get that feeling like this is exactly what my body needs for nourishment right now, and so I suck it down like water.
“Carbonated blood,” he says as I belch guiltily.
“I shouldn’t like it,” I say. “What the hell have you done to me?”
“Don’t worry. You are not a vampire, Leena. But that could certainly be arranged.”
I shudder at the dead serious look in his stormy eyes.
“You wouldn’t do that to Rachel.”
“No, Leena, I wouldn’t.”
“You loved her?”
“As a cousin, yes. I love you as something more.”
“No, it’s all a fantasy. I want the hell out of this house, this town. I want to go home.”
His eyebrows pinch as he climbs back in bed beside me. I scoot away from him toward the edge of the bed, cradling my legs under the blanket.
“I saw your mind, Leena. Home was no more a home than this place for you.”
“That isn’t true.”
“You felt isolated and bored. You wanted a change.”
“How the hell can you know that!”
He raises his hand to my arm, and I close my eyes at the feel of his touch. He tugs at me as he shifts closer. I know him too well now. He’s familiar in every way. His scent, taste, the lingering memory of his body inside my body, his mind inside my mind. I know him so well now that I crave him deep down, wanting more. Wanting closeness. Goddammit!
I lower my head, crying, and instantly he sits up, pulling me into him while he kisses me. “Mmm. I do love the taste of your tears, Leena. I want to give you pleasure and pain over and over, tasting your tears until you are mine forever.”
He peers dreamily into my eyes, and I stare back like a doe-eyed deer stunned by this dangerous flicker of light in the darkness.
“Stay with me, Leena. There is no going back from what we share. I have claimed you. You are bound to me.”
My heart is heavy as I pull away from him, climbing from the bed.
“This can’t be life. This can’t be it.”
I dress in silence as he watches me. He lets me leave his cottage, but I hear his voice rumbling again through my body and mind.
“Run if you want, my love. But Iwillfind you.”
Sneak Peek
Book #2 (Leena)
Burn, baby burn.
