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"What are you doing, Elisa?" he asked Caught between thrilling anticipation and abject terror, she heard the aze that said he ht know the answer better than she did herself

She didn’t care She wanted to touch his hair, bury her fingers in it, hold it tightly to draw him to her She wanted to stroke the lines of that tattoo Put herthere, feel his hands on her as he took away any fear, burned it ahat he could do to her body She saw a rapidkisses, Danny and Dev’s carnal eht, Mal’s hand on her throat, eyes so closeVictor’s viciousness

Mal had given her permission to take, but it was more than that He’d approved her desire to take No one had ever done that She could choose

She made another visual pass over his upper body, wondered if he was already aroused in the jeans he wore, if his arse and thighs beneath the deni, bare to her avid gaze

"Elisa" The one as a near growl, so like his cats she alh that she shivered with it "What are you doing?" he repeated

She ," she whispered And bolted out the French doors

15

MAL had heard her on the stairs, of course Figured she was co down for a snack, and forced hi out what she was doing She’d been wrong, earlier today She thought he was unaffected by her aroused state, when entirely the opposite was true But he knew enough to curb unwise desires Danny had sent her to hiirl was messed up in too many ways, too much like the cats that came to him

But then he’d heard her steps turn in his direction He’d expected the quick, efficient step of the dutiful servant, coh of course the dutiful servant hadn’t gone to bed like he’d told her to do

Instead, her approach had been like that of the bobcat, stalking ser beast Then she’d paused at that deht He’d s and un of her heart, the hitch of her breath, and his blood had run hot

Now she gave hi earlier in the day If you run, I will take you down He didn’t have to think Before his accelerated heart could beat more than twice, the cadence of a full-out pursuit, he was over the desk and after her

She ht her about the waist Elisa let out a startled yelp, a little a strength of that one ar up his body to reach his ht his lips with clu her down, steadying her so their o about things, he took over

The heat of hispressure that had her lips parting, inviting hiht to do so She strained on her toes to reach hirip around her back and waist to cradle her buttocks He hitched her up so her bare feet left the tops of his and curled around his thighs, her heels hooking there Digging his long fingers into her curls, he pulled her head back, broke the contact between their ue, a curiously inti the length of her nose, he passed over each of her brows, kissed her eyes and traced his tongue along her cheekbone, the shell of her ear

Her fingers dug into his back, her thighs tightening, and his voice was as tactile as his ether, mind toforof ainst his entle fierceness, the raw language Her body had been aching for what he’d shown her with Shira’s th reined in, but no less able to pin her beneath hi in you for a while, hasn’t it?" His voice was a hot wind, coursing through her body He intensified it by speaking in heryou have now, it would have been there whether you were born a er, ever since you came into the service of a vampire You crave a Master’s touch, don’t you, Elisa?

She didn’t kno to answer that She knew only that tonight, she wanted, needed, to belong to him As she always had, she’d take the joy of theh tomorrow