hers.'
He was rubbing his tongue over his fang, making her want to melt. 'Tease?'
'Y-you can drive a woman wild from just a kiss if you do it right. Think, um, slow build.'
He moved in even closer, until they were sparking electricity between them. 'When would I get to touch her?'
As she stared up at his eyes, she saw them not as blood red, but as the red of flames. 'If she moans, you could touch her neck. Maybe run the backs of your fingers from her ear down past her collarbone, then lower to the beginning swell of her breast. And if she likes that a lot, you might try following the same path with your lips.'
'And then?' he rasped.
'What does your instinct tell you?'
'My instinct tells me'—his consuming gaze flickered over her ear, then dipped to her collarbone and lower to the swell of her breast—'to keep going down. To do whatever I have to in order to get my lips on your breasts. Her breasts.'
Imagining that had Néomi subtly arching her back to press her chest up. 'How would you kiss them?'
'I'd kiss all around her nipples, dragging my lips over her skin. Would she like that?'
'She'd probably be cradling the back of your head, moaning.'
'Then I'd close my lips over one of your nipples—'
'You mean her, your Bride's.'
He shook his head slowly. 'When I think about kissing anyone, I imagine you. Only you. I can't pretend that this isn't so.'
'That pleases me, Conrad. Because I don't want you kissing another woman,' she murmured.
'Why?'
'I'd be jealous, wanting to scratch her eyes out for kissing my vampire.' He frowned and opened his mouth, but she cut him off. 'Je suis sérieuse. Now tell me what you'd do to me next.'
After seeming to determine whether she was telling the truth, he said, 'I'd take one of your nipples between my lips, sucking it in... .'
'Hard?' She gasped the word.
'Do you like that?' When she nodded, he didn't stifle his groan. 'Then I would suckle it hard, licking you with my tongue at the same time.'
Her eyelids threatened to slide shut. He was so sexy and manly. All intensity. How could she ever have been attracted to soft, docile businessmen with their yes, darling mentality? 'I've fantasized about how your lips would feel on them.'
A short, rough sound erupted from him. 'I try to imagine what your breasts would feel like from what you'd shown me.'
'Do you wish you could touch them, too?'
'God, yes,' he quickly answered, then flushed.
'Do you think about them a lot?'
He briefly inclined his forehead near hers. 'Some minutes less than others.'
She gave a throaty chuckle, and he seemed surprised that he'd amused her.
'What would you be doing while I kissed them?' he asked.
'My hands would be rubbing all along your back.'
Her eyes fluttered closed when he drew his hands down to reach for her. His palms were so big, fully covering the outline of her breasts.
She moaned softly when she felt tiny electrical shocks over every inch of them. 'I'd sigh from the way your muscles worked beneath my hands. Then I'd clutch your hips to signal that I wanted more of you.' He raised his brows at that, and she murmured, 'I'd be getting desperate for you by this point.'
'So you wouldn't stop me if I'—he swallowed and his voice dropped an octave lower—'if I tried easing my hand up your dress?'
'Stop you? I'd place your hand on my panties.'
He gave another groan. 'I'd hook my finger under that black lace and pull them aside.' He'd clearly been thinking about more than just what her breasts would feel like.
'Conrad, I'd be wet for you.'
The deep rumble of his voice had turned to a husky rasp. 'I'd be so fucking hard for you.'
'Would you want to bite me?'
'Yes,' he hissed. 'Would you let me?'
If he needed, she would give. 'I'd deny you nothing.'
'Then I'd take your neck and your breasts. I'd bite your white thighs right above your stockings.'
Intense male. She stifled a whimper. 'We're doing it again, exchanging comments, bandying.'
'Like dancing.'
She shook her head and whispered, 'Like sex.'
He stared down into her eyes, making her feel like she was drowning in fire. 'Néomi, you make me want to be blooded. But only by you.'
21
This was Conrad's second sexual encounter, if he counted the time in the shower with her.
The female didn't have a body that he could feel, he couldn't get erect, and yet it was powerful. If they were this way now, he couldn't imagine what it would have been like if they'd met when they'd both been truly alive.
Of course, he'd known there was pleasure to be had. But he'd never suspected the rush, the savage thrill of discovering that a woman wanted him sexually. He'd never known the confidence that if he moved to take a female, she would be wet for him and clutching his hips for more.
She leaned up and brushed her cheek against his. He felt the same electricity but had no perception of her skin. He tried to imagine how soft her flesh would be. 'I want to feel you, Néomi. I want to be inside you.'
She closed her eyes and rubbed her lips near his. 'My God, I wish I could be flesh and blood for you.'
He groaned at the yearning in her tone. Their situation frustrated him to no end. He wanted her more than he had any other woman—he was convinced that she would have blooded him when she'd still been alive. And he truly believed she would receive him.
But I can't take her... .
With a bitter curse, Conrad dropped his arms through her, turning away. He prowled the room, pausing only to punch the wall with frustration—
He just stopped himself an inch from the crumbling plaster. He shot a glance at her, and she looked like he'd hung the moon. Damn, he could get used to looks like that.
Would she think him ridiculous if he asked her for more? They'd only known each other for a short amount of time. She was experienced and he... wasn't. To hell with it—he had to know. 'Would you want to be with me? If you could? For more than sex.'
She gave him a sad smile. 'You have a destined Bride out there awaiting you.'
'Néomi, you might be... mine.'
At his words, her heart skipped, but she forced herself to ask, 'Then why haven't you been blooded? Your heart hasn't started beating, and you still take no breaths. You don't... react to me in a physical way.'
'I think my vampire instinct doesn't recognize you as my Bride because you're not technically alive,' he said. 'I need to know if you're merely playing at this, with me, because I'm here and you can.'
'I am not playing with you. But Conrad, even if we had no physical limitations, I don't know that we could make this work between us. We're too different.'
'How the hell are we too different?'
