Annoyance fired in her again. She felt the tingle of it skimming along her arms to her fingers. They flexed.
“It was the shard from Akvan’s Obelisk that drew them here, not you,” she said, focusing on the matter at hand. The shard would have to be moved. But since it was almost sunrise, Victoria knew they had at least until the new nightfall to deal with that problem. She would take the shard away today, and she thought she knew exactly where to hide it.
Sebastian’s full lips tipped in half of a gentle smile. “Ah, my suspicions are confirmed. So the shard is still here. Beauregard is unaware that you have a piece of the obelisk, for no matter what you might think of me otherwise, Victoria, I did not tell him that interesting bit of information.”
She believed him, because once she’d realized what had happened, everything made sense. The small piece of the obsidian obelisk on the leather thong had obviously been near Akvan, and likely he’d roused, or somehow imbued it with power. That would explain the blue sparking that occurred when the two pieces had touched in the storage room—the influence had thus been transferred to the larger one, or at least had triggered its own inherent powers.
“Akvan knew where to send his people because he could sense the location of the obelisk shard,” Victoria said, trying not to notice the deep, narrow vee of Sebastian’s open shirt. Somehow he’d moved, and the shirt, which she could have sworn a moment earlier had still been knotted at the neck, had gaped open, showing rich, golden skin beneath. She remembered with startling clarity that moment earlier today when her hands, sliding over the warmth of his skin and the ridges of his belly, had found the small silver vis.
This was not the time to be thinking of that, although from the sudden upswing in her heartbeat, Victoria knew it was too late to push the thought completely aside. Instead she focused on her anger and the vitality that still sang in her veins.
“Victoria.” His voice, low and gentle, was more sensual. And it contrasted directly with her current on-edge nerves, which she steeled against his sensuality.
“It’s not going to work, Sebastian. You can save your flirtations for another day. And another woman.”
“Your rejection devastates me. I thought perhaps you’d come—”
“I just lost two of my own to demons and vampires who had come after the shard from Akvan’s Obelisk. They could have found us, assaulted our sanctuary, and destroyed what we’ve built.”
“And so now you’ve come to flay me with your frustrations and your anxieties? To vent your spleen about something for which only you can be blamed?” Blast him, but the expression on his face was much too knowing, too complacent. Yes, there was guilt bubbling beneath her animation. Guilt, and an edginess that nipped at her, threatening to burst free.
“Did you know the shard would draw Akvan out, call his people here? You knew I had it; you must know more than you divulge. As usual. You could have told me.”
“I didn’t know you had it here in the Consilium—”
“But you knew I had it.”
He shrugged, graceful and unhurried, unaffected by her anger and her accusations. “I am not your keeper, Victoria. Unless you want me to be. In which case we can certainly discuss the terms.” The smile he sent her was lascivious and meaningful.
She whirled away in frustration, nearly cried aloud in pain from her wrenched knee, then spun back, gesticulating in frustration. “Sebastian, can you never—”
Her words were cut off as she found herself suddenly pitching toward him, yanked off balance by a strong hand closing over her arm as she’d pivoted back. The combination of her weak knee and being taken by surprise landed her half on top of him on the narrow bed, hands splayed one on the blanket and the other, the one he’d pulled on, the unbandaged one, smack in the middle of his chest. She barely missed slamming her head into the wall behind him.
“Do you remember, Victoria,” he said, grasping her wrist before she could pull away from touching him, “that first night in the carriage, in London? Before we were interrupted by the vampires?”
She tried to pull away, but he had no reason to hide his Venator strength now, and it was difficult. Especially since he’d quickly scissored his legs around her good knee, leaving only her injured one with any mobility, wrapped in tangling skirts. His fingers were tight over her wrist, holding her hand stamped on the warmth of his chest, half on skin, half on linen. He was leaning over her from his half-sprawled position, and she looked up into his amber eyes.
“Do you remember? You were just as angry, simmering under the surface with frustration and guilt and need, just as you are now.”
“Let me go, Sebastian. I don’t want to hurt you.” She’d stopped struggling, but the tension hadn’t left her body. His weight, half on her, wasn’t unpleasant; nor was it confining or even threatening. She suddenly felt drained and resigned. And expectant. Alive.
“And you might, at that, but not in the way you imagine,” he murmured, never taking his eyes from her face, never giving an iota of release. “You were angling for a fight then, that night in the carriage, just as you are now. That’s why you came down here to me. You can admit it.”
“You’re mad.” Her heart was thumping so hard surely he could see it, feel it, as it pounded through her body.
“Mad…yes, indeed, I don’t deny it. I am mad.” Those last words came out like a confession as, with one smooth movement, he shifted his weight and bent his face to hers.
The smell of cloves came with him, faintly, as it always did, along with tobacco and something else that was Sebastian. He was close enough that his lips hovered above hers, but he didn’t touch her. “This is what you wanted, really, isn’t it?” His voice was low, not quite a whisper, feathering over her skin.
“No,” she replied.
She felt, rather than saw, his mouth curve into a smile. “All that passion and heat and anger…this is the best way to let it all out. You know that. You’ve missed it.”
“It was only one time, Sebastian.”
“Twice.”
“No…we only…just once, in the carriage, last fall.” He was so close, yet he still didn’t kiss her. She would not lift her face that last bit to meet his.
“I seem to recall,” he murmured, now brushing his lips ever so lightly along her jaw in a quick swipe, “having to stifle your cries of pleasure in that small parlor of your villa.”
“But…that wasn’t…” He’d moved back so that when she talked her lips brushed against his when they moved.
“It was enough for me.”
His mouth, just as coaxing as she remembered, covered hers with a deliberate firmness that told her he wasn’t going to let her change her mind. She kissed him back, assuring him she didn’t intend to, and then she gave way and let herself enjoy the moment—and all of the lovely sensations that came with it.
He released her hands and moved her closer, driving his tongue in deep as it swept and swirled around hers. The slick movements tugged down through her belly, sending pleasant little pangs between her legs.
“I want to see your vis bulla,” she whispered against him.
Rolling partly away and up against the wall, he smiled with such pleasure that her stomach dipped again. He pulled off his shirt, and for the first time she saw his golden chest bare—lightly haired and muscled and square-shouldered, tapering into lean hips. The dark blond hair grew down around his navel, where the small silver cross nestled, and a slender line led down into his breeches. The rest of his torso was as bare and firm as Michelangelo’s statue of David.
Victoria’s mouth dried, then moistened as she skimmed her hands up and over his shoulders. Pleasure indeed.
Clearly enjoying her touch, Sebastian pulled her down so that she lay on top of him, her breasts smashed against his bare skin, their legs mingling with her skirts, her left arm scraping against the rough stone wall. He kissed along the side of her jaw to her ear as his clever fingers flipped open the two fabric-covered buttons at the back of her bodice.
The neckline gaped away, and she lifted up from Sebastian’s mouth as he tugged at the edges of her gown, pulling it down over her shoulders. The subterranean air was cool on her bare skin, raising little prickles there in the hollow of her collarbones. With two quick motions he yanked down her corset and her breasts tipped free, hovering and trembling above his face.
Hands sliding to hold her at the hips, pressing the juncture of her thighs into the bulge between his, Sebastian lifted his head to take her breast into his mouth. His tongue slid over the tip of her nipple, sending a renewed rush of pleasure down to where their hips ground together. She was breathing faster now, feeling the sweet build as he tugged and sucked and licked. Her arms trembled as they held her upright, and at last Victoria pulled away from his demanding mouth, sitting back on his thighs to look down at him.
His face was flushed with pleasure and his lips swollen, and when their eyes met a most mischievous grin quirked his lips. “Well, now,” was all he said as he groped under the mess of cotton and lace and muslin to slide his hands up her bare thighs. She lifted so he could pull the skirts up, placing her hands on the center of his chest for leverage and rustling her nails through the hair covering it…but when he slipped his fingers in and around the moistness between her legs, Victoria bent forward to kiss him with a ferociousness that spoke of her impatience.
They breathed together, gasping for air between kisses that moved from mouth to mouth, and then along jaws and cheeks and with teeth and delving tongues…and then he moved his hand, and they were both fumbling at the fastening of his breeches, the string of his drawers. She rolled to the side as he shrugged out of them, his legs solid and muscular, just as tanned as the rest of his skin.
“Shall we?” he murmured, standing over her, for the first time completely undressed, looking lean and toned and all shades of gold and bronze. Her legs hung off the edge of the bed, and with a half smile he lifted her skirts again, parted her thighs, and, his hands on her shoulders, fitted himself into her in one smooth slide.
