The Darkest Kiss

managed to bathe and change after she left.

Had he sensed her and kept himself hidden?

'If I didn't know better, I would think you were Bait, as my men do,' he said tightly.

'And what makes you know better?'

He arched a brow. 'Are you?'

Had to venture down that road, did you? If she assured him she wasn't Bait, she would seem to be admitting that she knew what Bait was. She thought she knew him well enough to know that, in his eyes, the acknowledgment would negate the claim that she wasn't. He would then feel obligated to kill her. If she claimed that she was Bait, well, he would still feel obligated to kill her.

Total lose-lose.

'Do you want me to be?' she said in her most seductive tone. ''Cause I'll be anything you want, lover.'

'Stop,' he growled, that ever-calm mask loosening its hold on his features for the briefest of moments and revealing a stunningly intense fire. Oh, to be burned. 'I do not like this game you are playing.'

'No game, Flowers. I promise you.'

'What do you want from me? And do not dare lie.'

Now, there was a loaded question. She wanted all of his masculinity focused on her. She wanted hours to strip and explore him. She wanted him to strip and explore her. She wanted him to smile at her. She wanted his tongue in her mouth.

At this point, only the last seemed achievable. And only by playing unfairly. Good thing Devious was her middle name.

'I'll take a kiss,' she said, gazing at his soft, pink mouth. 'Actually, I insist on a kiss.'

'I didn't find any Hunters nearby,' Reyes said, suddenly standing beside Lucien.

'That doesn't mean anything,' Sabin replied.

'She's not a Hunter and she is not working with them.' Lucien's attention never wavered from her as he waved his friends back. 'I need a moment alone with her.'

His assurance stunned her. And he wanted to be alone with her? Yes! Except his friends stayed put. Jerks.

'We are strangers,' Lucien told her, continuing their conversation as if it had never ceased.

'So? Strangers hook up all the time.' She arched her back, pressing the core of her into his erection. Mmm, erection. He hadn't lost it, was still aroused. 'There's no harm in a little bittie kiss, is there?'

His fingers sank into the curve of her waist, holding her still. 'You will leave? After?'

His words should have offended her, but she was too caught up in the tide of pleasure that simple embrace elicited to care. All of her pulse points began a wild dance. A strange, luscious warmth fluttered inside her stomach.

'Yes.' That's all she could have from him, anyway, no matter how much she desired more. And she'd take it any way she could get it: coercion, force, trickery. She was tired of imagining his kiss and craved the reality of it. Had to have the reality of it. Finally. Surely he would not taste as amazing as she dreamed.

'I do not understand this,' he muttered, eyes closing to half-mast. Dark lashes cast shadows over his jagged cheeks, making him appear more dangerous than ever.

'That's okay. I don't, either.'

He leaned into her, hot, floral-scented breath scorching her skin. 'What will a single kiss accomplish?'

Everything. Anticipation beating through her, she traced the tip of her tongue along the seam of her lips. 'Are you always this talkative?'

'No.'

'Kiss her, Lucien, before I do. Bait or not,' Paris called with a laugh. Good-natured as the laugh was, it was still edged with steel.

Lucien continued to resist. She could feel his heart beating against his ribs. Was he embarrassed by their audience? Too bad. She'd risked everything for this, and she wasn't about to let him back out now.

'This is futile,' he said.

'So what. Futile can be fun. Now, no more stalling. Only doing.' Anya jerked his head down to hers and smashed her lips against his. His mouth instantly opened, and their tongues met in a deep, wet thrust. There was an intense rush of heat through her as the addictive flavor of roses and mint bombarded her.

She pressed deeper, needing more of him. All of him. Plumes of fire infused her entire body. She rubbed against his cock, unable to stop herself. He fisted her hair, taking complete control of her mouth. Just like that, she was caught in a whirlwind of passion and thirst only Lucien could quench. She'd entered the gates of heaven without taking a single step.

Someone cheered. Someone whistled.

For a moment, she felt as if her feet were swept off the ground and she was without any kind of anchor. A moment later, her back was shoved against a cold wall. The cheers had somehow suddenly died. Frigid air nipped at her skin.

Outside? she wondered. Then she was moaning, unconcerned, and winding her legs around Lucien's waist as his tongue conquered hers. One of his hands crushed her hip in a bruising grip—gods, she loved it—and the other tunneled through her hair, fingers once again curling tightly around the thick mass and angling her head to the side for deeper contact.

'You are—you are—' he whispered fiercely.

'Desperate. No talking. More kissing.'

His control vanished. His tongue thrust back inside her mouth, their teeth banging together. Passion and arousal were a hot blaze between them, a raging inferno. Truly, she was on fire. Frantic. Achy. He was all over her, already a part of her.

She never wanted it to end.

'More,' he said roughly, palming her breast.

'Yes.' Her nipples tightened, throbbing for his touch. 'More, more, more.'

'So good.'

'Amazing.'

'Touch me,' he growled.

'Am.'

'No. Me.'

Understanding dawned, and with it an intensification of her desire. Maybe he did want her. After all, he yearned to have her hands on his skin, which meant he longed for more than just a kiss.

'My pleasure.' With one hand, she gripped the hem of his shirt and lifted. With the other, she caressed the ropes of his stomach. Scars. She felt scars and shivered, the jagged tissue wonderfully hot.

His muscles clenched against each stroke, and he bit her bottom lip. 'Yes, like that.'

She almost came, his reaction like fuel to an already blazing fire. She did moan.

Her fingers traced the circle of his nipples before dabbling at the tips. Each time she grazed them, her clitoris throbbed as if she were touching herself. 'I love the feel of you.'

Lucien licked his way down the column of her throat, his tongue leaving a trail of sensual lightning. Her eyelids cracked open, and she nearly gasped when she realized they were indeed outside, leaning against the club's exterior in a shadowed corner. He must have flashed them there, the naughty boy.

He was the only Lord capable of transporting himself from one location to another with only a thought. A skill she possessed, as well. She only wished he'd flashed them to a bedroom.

No, she forced herself to add, fighting a wave of despair. Bedroom bad. Bad, bad, bad. Bad Anya for thinking otherwise, even for a second. Other women could enjoy the electric press of skin against skin and naked bodies straining for release, but not Anya. Never Anya.

'I want you,' he bit out roughly.

'About time,' she whispered.

He raised his darkly haloed head, blue and brown irises intense, before pinning her with another scorching kiss. On and on it continued, until she was willingly, blissfully drowning in him. Branded to her very soul, where she was no longer Anya but Lucien's woman. Lucien's slave. She might never get enough of him, would have allowed