I stood up and began pacing as his words sank in, resonating inside me. “How many lives? How many times have I died and been reborn?”
“Hundreds. Sometimes we only get a few days before I lose you again. Sometimes we get many happy years together.” He stood, but didn’t come any closer, like he sensed I needed space. “I’m hoping this will be one of the better lives.”
“And we’re together in all of them?”
“Yes, Hannah. Every time you die, I wait for you to be reborn. Those years without you feel endless, and my heart withers and dies, only to return to life once I find you again. And I always do. I find you, I claim you, and I love you, in an endless cycle.”
“Why?” I asked, the only word that came to my lips. “Why me?”
“Because you’re mine.” He stepped forward and took my face in his hands. “You've been mine since you took your first breath, and you'll be mine after you take your last. We are inevitable.”
The truth settled over me like a warm blanket. I still didn’t remember anything from before the accident, but everything he said felt…right, somehow. Like a truth I’d always known deep inside me. Some part of me had recognized him from the first time we’d met, and even though I should be terrified of Lucifer, I wasn’t. Not anymore.
“You find me.” It wasn’t a question. My soul knew it was true. “Every time.”
“Always.” He looked at me with such longing, it cracked a piece of my soul. Something kept me from remembering him, a bitter torture that wouldn’t clear from my mind. Maybe this would do it.
Pushing my mouth against his, I kissed the devil with everything I had in me. I was ready to give it all to him. He cupped a hand around the back of my neck and drew me in close, taking control of my mouth. His tongue slipped past my lips, and I knew the feeling. I’d felt it before. Not from another man, but from him. Always him. Lucifer.
My mind might not remember him, but my body sure did. And it craved more.
15
Hannah
Need pulsed inside my veins and heat pooled in my core as Lucifer’s kiss dominated me. His arms shifted around my waist, and he lifted me with an ease I still couldn’t believe. My nipples ached as they pressed against his hard chest, and he carried me across the room while plundering my mouth with his tongue like he owned it.
He set me on the very edge of the large, black piano and finally broke the kiss to look at me with his infernal eyes. His hand found the thigh-high slit on my long dress, and he dipped a finger under it, stroking my skin. Teasing me. A master of temptation.
Then he grabbed the slit and tugged the fabric, grunting in pure male satisfaction as it ripped easily in his strong hands. The act was so surprising and carnal, I gasped. Then he removed his own jacket with quick, determined motions, like a man about to get down to business. The business of claiming me.
With strong hands he gripped my thighs and spread them apart, flashing him a peek of my dark red thong. I reached out and grabbed his expensive white shirt, the buttons digging into my palms as I pulled him close. The piano was the exact right height for him to fit between my legs and press his hard bulge against my core. I wrapped my legs around him, and his reaction was visceral as he let loose a low growl.
His lips brushed my ear. “I can’t hold back if you do that.”
I ground myself against him slowly, looking up at him with a challenge. “Don’t hold back.”
That glorious fire glinted in his eyes again, a turn-on even now that I knew what it was, and he pulled me closer, lifting me from the piano. I tightened my legs and twined my arms around his neck, running my tongue over the dark stubble along his jaw as he carried me toward his bedroom. Need pounded through my body. I couldn’t remember ever being this desperate to be with someone.
When my mouth reached Lucifer’s ear, I bit it— perhaps a little bit harder than I would’ve if I hadn’t known he was the devil. His growl returned, and the next thing I knew, my back hit his plush mattress hard. Lucifer stood above me in the low light of his room, radiating power and control in his black suit, his face dark and his eyes hungry. For me.
With slow, measured movements, he yanked at the tie on his neck and removed it, while his eyes never left my face. My mouth watered, and I hoped he would continue removing his clothes, but he only stared down at me like the predator I instinctively knew he was.
And tonight, I was his prey.
He grabbed the hem of my already ruined dress before tearing it in half in one quick motion. The sound of the ripping fabric filled the room, and cool air rushed over my bared skin, heightening my desire. My pulse raced faster as I lay before him in nothing but my red lace bra and panties with my black heels. I waited for him to do his worst.
“So lovely,” he said, with that sexy accent that drove me wild. “In every life, you manage to stun me with your beauty.”
Heat rushed through as he finally lowered himself over me, then claimed my mouth again. His kiss was hot and desperate as his hands trailed down my naked skin, and then his lips followed, moving from my neck to my collar, then even lower. I tangled my fingers in his dark hair as his tongue glided along my skin over the top of my bra, my nipples so hard it was almost painful. Then he gripped the edges of the
