I looked down at myself. “I didn’t know I was until Ulfur told me—”
He jerked me forward, spinning around. “Ulfur? You know Ulfur? A ghost about my height, with brown hair?”
“He has brown hair, yes, but he wasn’t a ghost. He said he was a . . .” I bit my lower lip, trying to dig the word out of my memory.
Alec’s gaze flickered to my mouth. Stop that.
Stop what, trying to remember?
No. Stop tempting me with your mouth.
I’m not.
You are. You’re flaunting your lips at me. Stop it.
A little warm kernel of feminine pleasure glowed inside me at his mental growl. “I hardly think a bad habit like biting my lip is deliberately flaunting, but if it amuses you to think that, knock yourself out. Lich. That’s the word. Ulfur is a lich.”
“That’s right.” Alec looked beyond me, his eyes unfocused. He rubbed his chin with his thumb as he thought, the rasping noise sending little shivers down my back. “Pia said something about them trying to bring him back, but the Ilargi had him by that time.”
I couldn’t stop looking at him. I tried to look at his shoulder, or the rocks beyond him. I reminded myself that he was a man who didn’t think twice about murdering people, not that I didn’t feel sympathy with the fact that the ox lady had decapitated me with her cart and left him without his only salvation, but still, he admitted he’d murdered other people. He was bad to the bone, and I didn’t give a damn what my swoony inner bad girl thought—I was going to tolerate him only until he got Diamond and me out of this hellhole.
Dear god, I wanted him again. He just stood there, his brain whirling away with some thought, all smoldering sensuality and raw male attraction that made my body hum with happiness.
“Stop that,” I said, unable to stand it one minute longer.
He looked startled. “Stop what?”
I stared at his thumb. “Stop tempting me with your manly stubble. And chin. And jaw. But mostly your chin. Did I mention stubble?”
A little frown pulled his eyebrows together. Merciful heaven, even his eyebrows were sexy. I wanted to lick them. “What in the name of the saints are you going on about now?”
It was too much. It was all suddenly too much. “You’re too damned handsome, OK? I don’t like handsome men! They’re always halfway in love with themselves, and they use their looks and their seductive bodies to sway women into doing whatever they want, and I won’t have it, do you understand me! I will not have it! Stop being handsome!”
“Corazon—”
“Garrgh!” I yelled, and with both hands, mussed up his hair until it stood up in clumps.
He looked deliciously tousled, like he’d just been engaged in a wonderfully energetic romp between the sheets.
“I hate you!” I yelled, and stomped off, muttering to myself that I would not let him affect me. Sex, I told myself. We just had sex. Not even real sex, more a quickie, just a purely physical reaction to me giving him blood. What right did he have to go around looking all steamy hot and gorgeous?
“I sense that you’re angry with me about something,” he said drily, falling into step beside me. “But since I also sense it has to do with my hair and beard, I’m at a loss as to how to placate you. If you are through having a temper tantrum, would you mind telling me how you met Ulfur?”
“I might. But first, let’s discuss this plan of yours to get us out of here. I assume the exit place is where you’re taking me?”
Alec sighed, and stopped. “You’re part of my punishment, aren’t you? It’s not bad enough the council banished me to the Akasha—they sent you here to drive me insane, didn’t they?”
“What council? One that oversees the killing of innocent women?”
“No.” He started forward again. I watched his back for a moment, absently noting that he had a very, very fine walk, before hurrying to catch up with him. My little devil had me taking his hand before I realized what she was doing, but I figured it would be rude to suddenly drop it like it was full of worms or something, so I pretended I didn’t feel all warm and fuzzy when his fingers threaded through mine in a way that made my little devil happy. “I was sentenced to remain in the Akasha for crimes committed against Dark Ones.”
“But you’re one of them,” I said, looking at him.
His jaw tightened. “Yes.”
“What did you do?”
“How did you meet Ulfur?”
“How are you getting us out of here?” I countered.
“If you don’t stop asking me questions instead of answering them, I’m going to make you stop,” he threatened, his voice a low, sexy growl that I felt all the way to my toes.
“You’re going to kill me, too? ” I asked, surprise kicking in when I realized that I wasn’t afraid of him. He was a murderer, yes, but somehow, I knew he didn’t pose a threat to me. Not that sort of a threat, anyway . . . my peace of mind was another subject.
“Tempting as that thought is, no, I would simply kiss you until you couldn’t think anymore.”
My eyes widened as he thought about doing that, my breasts, suddenly becoming strumpets, demanding that I walk them right over to his chest, and let them have their way with him.
“Stop it,” I said, looking down at my shirt. My nipples had hardened at the thought of Alec’s chest, my breasts feeling heavy and very, very needy.
“Now what have I done?” he asked with a distinct note of exasperation.
“It’s not you. I’m having some trouble with my breasts.”
His gaze instantly dropped to my upper parts. “Problematic, are they?”
“Right now, yes. They want an introduction to your chest. I’ve told them no, that what happened before was simply a reaction to me feeding you, but they won’t listen.”
“Perhaps I can be of some assistance,” he said in his polite, slightly accented English. “Would you like me to take up the discussion with them?”
“It wouldn’t do any good,” I said, shaking my head. “They wouldn’t listen. They’re headstrong.”
“We won’t know until we try, hmm?” he said, suddenly stopping, turning me around so I faced him. My breasts cheered as his gaze caressed their upper slopes visible through the lacy part of my top.
“Oh, I think I know . . . hooobah!”
Alec didn’t bother to introduce himself properly—he just slid both hands underneath my shirt to cup my boobs, and did a cleavage dive. The sensation of his stubble on my now highly sensitized breasts left me clutching his head, my breath caught in my throat as he snaked his tongue between my breasts, his thumbs gently rubbing where my nipples were trying to burst free of my bra.
This is just the blood, I said somewhat desperately. It’s just because I gave you blood that my boobs want you so much.
This isn’t due to you feeding me, mi cielo, he answered, his voice rubbing against my brain in a way that threatened to tumble me into another pit of need and desire. This is something else.
What? I asked, shielding from him my secret.
I don’t know, but I will enjoy myself fully finding out what. Do you want me to make love to you again?
You didn’t make love to me before. We had a mutually desired quickie, brought on by bloodlust.
You just keep telling yourself that, love. He pulled his head from my chest, his grin downright cocky as he pulled down my shirt, giving my breasts one last caress before taking my hand again. “What’s this nonsense about me getting you out of here?”