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Insatiable lust is the sign that you’ve graduated to two-legged food? Phoebe’s dark eyes narrowed as she considered Françoise’s words, which usually carried hidden
“Va but desire, you see” Françoise returned to the tray and poured some coffee “Can you not scratch what itches yourself? Your mate cannot always be around, after all”
But Phoebe wanted Marcus’s deft fingers, his softat her flesh, the nip of his teeth when he wanted her attention, the way he teased her until she was insane with longing and only then gave her the heart-shattering cliht her to that precipice, over and over, until she was —Phoebe wanted those intimate, dark, seductive words most of all
“No,” Phoebe said shortly She eyed the top of the wardrobe
“If you call hihed
“Call him?” Phoebe tried to look innocent
“Yes With one of the telephones in the bag on top of the ar, and a touch of hu out tonight, so I suggest you be quick about it”
“I don’t think I’ sweet nothings to Marcus (which always turned into very sweet sos) on someone else’s timetable
“Give it a few minutes,” Françoise said as she departed “You’ll be in the ain in no time”
Françoise was right Her footsteps had barely faded before the throbbing between Phoebe’s legs returned Before she was consciously aware of forone to the arly easy feat, she discovered), and dialed Marcus’s number
“Phoebe?”
The effect of Marcus’s voice on Phoebe’s raw nerves was electrifying She pressed her legs tightly together
“You didn’t tell h
“Just a minute” There was a conversation, muffled and indistinct, and then footsteps Then Marcus’s voice cah the speaker once more “I take it your vampire hormones have kicked in”
“You should have warnedwith her desire
“I told you, quite explicitly, about the pleasures and proble,” Marcus said, lowering his voice
Phoebe racked her brains for the details of this conversation Dierous—not that I was going to feel an insatiable need toyou know”
“Tell me”
“I can’t” Pillow talk was not her department
“Sure you can What is it you want, Phoebe?” Marcus was teasing—but only in part Most of him was deadly serious
“I needwantto” Phoebe’s words drifted into silence, replaced by startlingly clear ies of just what she would do to Marcus if he were to walk through the door One encounter took place in the shohere Marcus slipped inside her while the water flowed over their bodies Another involved pinning hi hie of Marcus taking her from behind, fully clothed, while she was splayed, facedown, across the end of his dining room table, which had been set for a roian silver candlestick
“I want you in every way iinable,” Phoebe whispered, her cheeks red with honesty There was nothing tender in her first wave of vaer
“And then what?” Marcus’s voice turned to gravel
“Then I want to make love, slowly, for hours, in a bed hite sheets, and curtains that blow in the breeze froination was now captured by an altogether different i, one driven not so ether, and arden, under the stars with no moon”
“Summer or winter?” Marcus asked
She was pleased by his request for further details It showed he was paying attention
“Winter,” Phoebe said pro underneath us as we move”
“I’ve never htful
“Have you made love in the ocean?” Phoebe’s erotic dreams were carried away in an undertow of jealousy
“Yes It’s fun You’ll like it,” Marcus said
“I hate your previous lovers—all of them And I hate you,” Phoebe hissed
“No, you don’t,” Marcus said “Not really”
“Tell me their names,” she demanded
“Why? They’re all dead,” Marcus said
“Not Veronique!” Phoebe retorted
“You already know Veronique’s name, and her phone number, and her address,” Marcus said mildly
“I hate that you’reabout our equality, but in this”
“I sure as hell hope you aren’t intending to level the playing field” Marcus’s voice held a sharp edge
Phoebe was slightly mollified She was not the only one in the relationship who experienced a pang of jealousy when other lovers, real or iined, came up in conversation
“I feel like a teenager,” Phoebe confessed
“I remember that phase well,” Marcus replied “I was hard for a solid week in November of 1781 And I was on a ship full of ht the rest of us were asleep”
“It sounds dreadful,” Phoebe said withwith your aunt and Miriam is no picnic, I assure you Tell ether”
“I’ve already told you,” Marcus replied with a laugh
“Tell ain,” Phoebe said
“It will be like a very long honeymoon,” Marcus said “Once you’re sure it’s ether”
“Where e go?” Phoebe asked
“Wherever you want” Marcus’s response ift
“India No, an island Somewhere on’t be disturbed,” Phoebe said “Somewhere there are no people to bother us”
“We could be in don Beijing, surrounded by millions, and ouldn’t care” Marcus sounded very sure “It’s one of the reasons Ysabeau wanted us to wait a full ninety days”
“Because it’s easy for newborns to get lost in their mates” Phoebe recalled the conversation that had taken place in Ysabeau’s apartrand lovers who had starved to death in their houses, so intent on the pleasures of the flesh that they forgot to feed There were tales of jealous rages, too, in which onelook at another creature passing by the , or the ht emotional situations between newlyabout death and destruction
“So they tell ht have been in love before, but that was very different froether again
Just like that, her mood shifted
“I wish it were August,” Phoebe said wistfully, her heart kicking up a notch in excitement
“It will go by quickly,” Marcus promised, “far more so than your first teeks There will be so much to do, you won’t have a chance to think about me”
“Do?” Phoebe frowned “Françoise says I will have to feed fro else”
“You’re growing up as a va, meet other members of your new family, choose your names, even spend son that you’ve graduated to two-legged food? Phoebe’s dark eyes narrowed as she considered Françoise’s words, which usually carried hidden