Page 20 (1/1)
"I have no concern whatsoever Play, Claire" She lifted the lid that protected the keys, then sighed thoughtfully as she brought her hands up to hover over them From the very first notes, she mesmerized him He didn’t know the piece she played, but it was beautiful--haunting and sad, powerful There was a heart breaking in every note, lyrical movement so deep and emotional, he could only stand there and let the h him As he watched her play the piece from memory, he felt the profundity of her own reaction to theit as she played it, every stanza full ofIt was her own creation, he realized The beautiful composition had come from Claire’s own heart her own soul "You wrote that," he said softly as the final note trailed off She looked up at hi eyes "After you left, music was all I had for a while I wrote several pieces, including this one It just seemed to I don’t know pour out of one" Reichen drifted closer to her,when he was in this woman’s presence "It’s incredible, Claire You are incredible" He sat down beside her on the little bench He gazed into her dark eyes, his fingers softly caressing the smooth perfection of her beautiful dusky brown skin When he kissed her this tier but with infinite care and reverence He held her as if she were h it were the rarest delicacy He loved her If he had longed to deny it--even to hi hih she wasn’t his Even though he was not good enough for her, and never had been If nothing else, Roth had been right about that all those years ago "He knows about us," Claire blurted quietly as Reichen held her in his arether--that I am with you now" It didn’t shock him to hear it Roth’s blood bond with Claire would have betrayed her to him But the little tremor of fear in her voice made Reichen’s own blood seethe "What happened? Did he do so love, he let me know that he are of ht have done, but his h loud and clear to me" "You didn’t tell me" Reichen drew her away from him and stared hard into her eyes "Why did you keep that fro to be done about it, Andre" "Like hell there isn’t," he gritted "As soon as I knohere that bastard is hiding, I will da about him" Claire winced, slowly shook her head "I’m afraid of what he will do to you He will kill you if he can You have to know that It’s no stretch to assu all those years ago
He was there at the Darkhaven after you and I argued I was crying when I went inside I told hi that you wanted , Andre And the next thing I knew, you had disappeared I didn’t think about the fact that I went to him about you then, but now" Reichen pulled her close and placed a kiss to the top of her head "You didn’t do anything wrong I’ve felt all along that the assault on ht not even be centered entirely on us being together But whether or not Roth had a hand in it doesn’t e that ca that drovethat could have kept me away" She wrapped her arms around him and buried her face in his chest "I’ he’s done to you Your family your female friend in Berlin that he turned Minion Oh, God, Andre I’m so very sorry for all the pain you’ve endured"
Reichen hushed her, holding her close "This is between Roth and me None of the blanificant But my family deserves justice So does Helene" Claire was silent for a long ently, "Did you love her verybond of trust and understanding they’d shared She was a reline of casual, noncommittal dalliances It had nearly killed him to see her drained of her humanity, but no more than it had devastated him to have to be the one to finish her after Roth had left her an e "I cared for Helene deeply," he admitted "I loved her as best as I was capable But I wasn’t able to give her my heart, because it was already lost to another" Claire drew out of his arazed up at him "It’s always been you, you know" He cupped her face in his pal"
She closed her eyes for a longwith tears "Oh, Andreas I still love you I never stopped" With a growl he could not contain, Reichen captured herwith desire, he pushed the piano bench back and stood her up in front of him The keys let out a burst of discordant noise as Claire leaned against thehs "Ah, Jesus," he hissed through his huge fangs "You’re not wearing panties" She gave him a saucy smile "Surprise" If he’d known that, they never would have made it out of the house in the first place
Ravenous for the taste of her, he buried his head between her legs and plundered her sweetness She held on to hi in his hair He kissed her ruthlessly, needing to feel her co and sighing with the rush of a ferocious orgas erection He rose frohs All he wanted to do was drive his cock ho to rush, her sex flushed deep red and juicy, her dark curls like wet silk He took hi the slick cleft of her body, delighting in her breathless mewls of pleasure It was a torture that broke hi just from the feel of her, he shifted his hips and pushed inside She washian to puh to think that he had any patience where loving Claire was concerned Her bodyhient tempo He couldn’t stop He couldn’t hold it, not for another second He gritted his teeth and let out a sharp roar as his seed exploded out of hiernails scoring his shoulders as she cried out with her own release
He murmured her name over and over, his cock as hard as asm racked him He stared down at her, moved as always by her exquisite, delicate beauty He loved the way they looked together, the contrast of their skin, the perfect fit of them when they were joined And he loved her spicy warm blood scent, especially when it mixed with the o of this night," hecolor of her eyes "I don’t want to let go of you" "Then don’t let go" She wrapped her aro" He s at him from inside He had intended to explain to her at least half a dozen ti that their time in Newport was over He had intended to explain it now, too, but instead he found hi pleasure of her body "For now," he said, kissing her as he spoke, "let’s neither one of us let go" "Yes," she said, ainst hi "Will you do so his head to taste the soft skin below her ear
"Anything" "Make love to ain, the way you would if ere truly ard her with a frown "Drink froly tender touch "Let ether as blood-bonded h his veins like a flash fire He could feel his glyphs surging with hungered colors, and his fangs stretched even longer in his mouth "I want you to do it," she said, a soft deh I were really yours" The sound that left his lips was raw, profane He reared back, fighting the need that shot through him
But then Claire tilted her head to the side and moved her hair away from her neck, and he was lost He bore down on her in a pried deep into her welco heat once more The taste of her sweet, war power He couldn’t curb his possessive growl as he suckled hard at her throat Nor could he get close enough as he held Claire tight against him and buried hientle when her blood was spurring hi He had never known this kind of priered him It humbled hiive himself to Claire in the same way, but could not because she was already bonded to another male Reichen could offer her his vein, but no matter how much of him she drank, her bond would rean to twist and kindle in Reichen’s gut when he thought of any ave nite inside hier to leap to life, just waiting for his su everything but the strong beat of her pulse against his tongue, and the gentle squeeze of her sex around his He reveled in her soft cries as she ca every flush and quiver that traveled her body as he pleasured her ti tihteen
How’s Harvard doing?" Lucan asked as Gideon came out of the compound’s infirht now Fortunately the bullet passed clean through, but the holes it left behind in his chest and back are going to need so to be okay, but he’ll be hurting for a while, and he’s down for a week,we need is to lose any of our nu up his operation" The altercation earlier that night in the city had proven to be one hell of a revelation The Order had been aware of the fact that Dragos had other highly skilled assassins like Hunter at his beck and call, all of therammed to detonate and sever the head of any who tampered with the device or disobeyed his command But what Lucan and the Order hadn’t known for a fact--and, frankly, had dreaded to iht be first-generation Breed, like Hunter And to take that disturbing thought one step further, it was easily feasible to assuos had other Gen One assassins in his service, Gen Ones who looked relyphs, then the son of a bitch had to be breeding theinal, otherworldly fathers of the vampire race on this planet An Ancient
Like the one that the Order recently discovered had been kept in hibernation deep within the rock of the Boheos had awakened and reo If that creature was in fact alive, being used to produce new sons with first-generation strength and abilities--if a breeding process like that had been going on for decades or longer--then it wasn’t only the Order and the vampire nation that had cause for concern, but all of hureat numbers, a force that brutal, that bloodthirsty and powerful, would be virtually unstoppable The dark thoughts followed Lucan as he and Gideon left the infir corridors to the tech lab The entire coathered there, the warriors in from patrol, and all of the Breed at the back of the rooe table in the center
Lucan gave the ht--assistance that had probably saved more than one warrior’s ass and also netted the Order an up-close look at the technological wonder of the dead assassin’s UV collar Although it was s with the device ever since it arrived, trying to get a handle on how the thing worked and how it could potentially be used against its wearer "How’s the ar his attention to Brock, who sat between Kade and Nikolai at the table The bulky black warrior shrugged his wounded shoulder and cracked a broad grin "It’ll feel a helluva lot better when I get a chance to slanced over at Hunter "No offense" The vaaze was as flat as slate "None taken" Lucan took his place next to Gabrielle at the head of the table and addressed the asseo, our os and his operation has acquired a new, immediate objective I don’t need to tell any of you that the last thing we need is a Gen One killer loose in the city, slaughtering hueneral havoc Noe can hope that it was just the one inpidual, an isolated incident, but I’m not the kind to rely on hope I need answers