Angered, Val jerked her to her feet. "Don't debase yourself. Don't…" His words trailed off as Lucy pulled his head down and kissed him with all the hunger she had shelved and saved for so long. His lips were better than anything she had ever tasted. His body was firm and hard with muscle. His erection jutted against her thigh, causing the heat already growing between her legs to intensify. She wanted him hot and hard and now.
She rubbed her body against him, hearing him moan. "I need you, Val. I need you," she whispered as she kissed his neck. Then she bit down, knowing that he loved such foreplay. But then, what vampire didn't?
He groaned. Lucy was so soft and warm, and his longing increased. He needed and wanted to hold her tight, to forget their past and to hell with the future. The traitor in his jeans was clamoring for Lucy's attention.
His hunger ignited, Val began caressing her breast, finally moving to take it in his mouth. He shoved her robe back off her shoulders. She tasted like the same wild spice she always had, and he wanted to lick and suck on her all night long. She made him so hot that he thought he would explode before he even got his jeans off.
As if she could read his mind, Lucy unzipped his pants, dragged them down his hips. He helped her, shoving them off his legs as she grabbed hold of his sex.
"I love your body," she murmured. "So big and hard. I love it when it comes into me over and over, the tightness and the heat."
The words shredded his control, and Val forgot that Lucy didn't trust him and had shattered his heart. He forgot everything but his need for her, because his body was screaming at him to possess her thoroughly and all night long. " 'Tite ange—my little angel."
Picking her up in his strong arms, he sped through the living room into the large bedroom at the end of the hall. Placing her on the bed, he followed her down, his lips sucking on her rose-tipped nipples as his hand delved between her legs. She was hot and wet with wanting him.
He growled possessively as he moved over her and thrust home into her hot, liquid depths. She climaxed immediately, and it took great restraint for him to not follow her. He gasped, "My jolie fille, your skin is so soft and sweet, like golden honey." He could not find words for his joy.
Lucy felt tears slipping down her cheeks as Val thrust into her body over and over, his mouth feasting on her breasts and neck. This was heaven to her—heaven lay in his arms. This was her man, and his loving was like hellza-poppin. She would never be the same. It was strange what a little moonlight, danger, and an apology could do.
"I love you, Val—oh, how I love you." Lucy moaned as she kissed his neck, rubbing her hands across his buttocks, feeling their strength as he pumped into her.
"Mon coeur."
"My heart," Lucy repeated back to him.
His eyes were tender as she spoke, her body taut with the upcoming release, her hips pumping in wild rhythm with his own. Her senses were so alive; and she was cresting high on the wave of a whirlpool.
The tension in Val built and built, cresting until his blood burned like a raging wildfire. Then, with a loud shout, he climaxed.
As he rolled over onto his side, Lucy stared at him and knew that if she lived to be a hundred years old, she would never find a more perfect example of the male animal, unless it was a werewolf. Val was magnificent in his nakedness, what with his marbled pallor and beautiful symmetry.
Sitting up, Val reached for his jeans.
"Where are you going?"
He glanced back her, his expression resolute. "I've got a murder to solve and an incubus on the loose."
Her eyes filled with confusion. "I know that. But our lovemaking was so wonderful, and you used to…" She hesitated as he turned away and zipped his jeans. "You used to love to cuddle afterward."
Val hesitated a moment, then spoke as if he were fighting some internal conflict. "This… shouldn't have happened."
Lucy was confused. They had made love, and it had been even better than before. Surely everything was all right. She believed in Val now. She would never distrust him again, and she had wholeheartedly apologized. "Why shouldn't this have happened?" she asked carefully, terribly afraid that his answer was going to crush her heart.
"Because we aren't a couple anymore, and we aren't going to be a couple."
"But why not? I apologized to you. I meant it. I love you. You must love me. At least, you made love to me like you do."
"I may still love you, Lucy. But love isn't enough." He pulled on his shirt and headed toward the living room.
Heedless of her nakedness, Lucy followed him like a rat terrier nipping at his heels. Val felt her presence behind him, smelled her sweet earthy smell, the aftermath of love. Yet he didn't look back, because if he did, he just might weaken and take her back to bed.
"Love's not enough?" Lucy shouted. "What is that? The slogan for Stupid-asses of America? If love isn't enough for a relationship, then what the heck is?"
"Trust." Val jerked on his jacket, feeling cruel. He could hear the tears in Lucy's voice, but he just didn't want to go through all this again.
"I do trust," Lucy wailed. "I really do."
"Tu menti."
Lucy snarled. "Oh, for crying out loud, speak English if we're going to fight."
Val turned to look at her, at war with himself. He forced himself to verbalize his fears. "You lie. About trusting me or anyone."
"What? Do your vampire powers now give you the ability to read minds?" Lucy snapped. "I didn't lie, and I mean it. Not about lying, about meaning that I didn't lie. I trust you. I really do. You should trust me to trust you, because I do."
Val's eyes almost crossed from her convoluted speech. She was driving him so crazy, he didn't know his right foot from his left—as evidenced by him putting on his boots incorrectly.
"You say you do right now," he said, "but wait until something happens that makes you lose that trust. Then where will we be, when you no longer are trusting because I did something that made you think I couldn't be trusted, but didn't really?"
This time it was Lucy staring at Val with a dazed expression in her eyes. He knew it well. He had worn that look often, whenever Lucy went on a rant.
Hitting his forehead with the palm of his hand, he remarked remorsefully, "Merde, I'm beginning to sound like you! That's all I need."
Lucy took that cue. "What you need is me. Do you know that when you used to kiss me I could hear violins playing? Now someone's pulling the wrong strings. What you have is a hole in your head. How dare you lecture me about trust? You can trust me to know that I made the biggest mistake of my life when I let you go. You can trust me enough to believe in me. I will trust you, Val. Forever. I give you my word that I won't ever doubt you again. And Campbell women don't lie about something so important."
"C'est assez," Val muttered, his hand slashing down. "That's enough. This does neither of us any good." And with that, he opened the door.
"Don't go like this, Val," Lucy pleaded. She hated begging; Campbell women didn't. But then, Campbell women weren't usually stupid enough to get rid of the best thing that ever happened to them. "Forgive me."
Val glanced back once, then walked out the door. "I do forgive you, Lucy. But I can't forget. You tore my heart to shreds when you left me. I don't want to go through that again, not even for you."
The closing of the door was symbolic. Lucy felt as if it had slammed shut on all of her hopes and dreams of a happily-ever-after with Val, and only after five minutes of stunned bewilderment and a boatload of tears did she think of a few things she should have said.
Opening the door, she shouted, "Don't let the door hit you in the butt."