Until the Sun Falls from the Sky (The Three #1)(84)
Author: Kristen Ashley

It was consuming. It was beautiful. I hadn’t had that in three weeks either. It nourished me too.

He imprisoned my hand cupped under his between my legs, lashed the wound at my breast with his tongue, pulled up and rolled into me.

With his weight pressed against my side, his face in my hair, he spoke.

“You’ve broken,” he declared, victory warm in his tone.

I suspected he wasn’t wrong.

I didn’t tell him that.

“Now, you’re mine,” he went on, the warmth of victory turning heated, brutal, savage and fierce.

I suspected he wasn’t wrong about that either.

Boy, was I so f**ked.

His head came up, his hand pulling mine from between my legs, it lifted it, curling my arm around his waist. He tugged my camisole back over my breast, rolled deeper into me so he was almost on top of me and then he rested his hand against my neck, thumb stroking, head up, eyes locked to mine.

“Tonight, we join,” he decreed, his voice still fierce as were his eyes.

I felt something unsettling.

His eyes were blazing, the triumph blatant, searing into me, so hot, so fierce, I felt branded.

But it wasn’t the first time I felt that. I’d felt it before. Even though I knew I hadn’t. Just like earlier, when he’d closed his eyes in pain.

“Leah? Did you hear me?”

My mind was elsewhere but I still answered, “I heard you.”

“Leah,” he called, I shook off my troubling thoughts and focused on him.

“What we’ll have will be beautiful,” he told me, voice back to velvet.

I suspected he wasn’t wrong about that either.

The problem with that was, even though it would undoubtedly be beautiful, whatever it was, it would be temporary.

Tarnished beauty. Could I live with that?

“Sweetling,” velvet still but there was an odd throb to it like an ache, “whatever that is working in the backs of your eyes, let it go. You give this to me; I’ll take care of it.” His voice dipped lower before he finished, “That’s a vow.”

Of course, seeing as I was expelled from Vampire Studies, I had no idea how binding a vampire’s vow was. I had no idea they’d kill to protect it and die before they’d break it. I had no idea they’d quest to the ends of the earth for centuries to fulfill it or that they’d endure torture to keep it safe.

So, even though I believed that he believed he wasn’t feeding me a line, I knew different.

Still, with that thing in me broken, unable to keep him out any longer, I had no choice.

So I looked him in the eyes and whispered, “Okay.”

My submission was immediately rewarded.

He pulled me tight into his arms and gave me one of his demanding, bruising, possessive, branding and undeniably savage kisses that left me breathless.

Then he carried me all the way to the kitchen, deposited me on a stool, ordered a concerned, fawning Edwina and an equally concerned but not fawning Stephanie and Cosmo out of the kitchen and he made breakfast.

Amongst many other things, that morning I found out Lucien could cook.

Chapter Sixteen

The Aunties

I lay curled in the big beanbag in the comfy, seating area off the kitchen while Edwina made dinner and Avery sat on the couch, chatting to her.

Avery was who I guessed was my protector for the evening.

Even though it was Sunday and Edwina was supposed to be off, she didn’t leave.

And even though it was Sunday and ever since our first Sunday together Lucien had made a habit of being with me in some way all day (even these last three weeks when he’d not been pushy, domineering, Lucien), Lucien did leave. He took off with Cosmo after breakfast, and another demanding, bruising, possessive, branding and undeniably savage kiss, right in front of everyone, going to places unknown and unshared with, oh, say, me.

Stephanie hung out until Avery arrived that afternoon then she immediately took off.

This was how I knew Avery was my protector.

The only thing I knew they were protecting me from was what Lucien commanded Edwina and Stephanie to look out for before he left. In fact, he had a load of commands.

“She rests and she doesn’t speak. Got me?” was his first.

His second, “No phone calls. No visitors. She doesn’t go near any door and she doesn’t go outside.”

His third, “She doesn’t sleep, not even a nap, not without me in the house. Not just today, everyday. Am I understood?”

He could, of course, have told me these things. However, it was very likely I’d give him lip which was probably what he was trying to avoid.

Instead, I spoke directly to his mind.

Seriously bossy vampire! I snapped.

His head jerked toward me. I figured I was in trouble but his lips twitched, he walked right into my space and that’s when I got The Kiss.

I had the sneaking suspicion Lucien was providing protection for me not because my own flipping dream nearly killed me and he needed someone around to keep me awake. But because there were other, more dangerous menaces from which he needed to keep me safe.

I didn’t want to go there but I couldn’t anyway. Lucien was gone before I could form a word in his mind.

It would have to wait for that night and the good thing was, it would delay “the joining” something which, I had to admit, I was looking forward to rabidly. In fact, if I let myself think about it for more than two seconds, I’d start panting and my legs would get restless.

It also scared the hell out of me mainly because just thinking about it made me pant, what would happen when it happened? Would I spontaneously combust?

I had a pad of paper in my hands on which I was meant to write whatever I wanted to communicate. I was doing this even though I tested out my voice in the bathroom and, seeing as my throat felt better (because Edwina kept giving me throat lozenges), my voice sounded almost normal. Edwina gave the pad to me and if I even opened my mouth, her hand would shoot up, palm facing me and then she’d point at the pad.

At that moment, instead of using it to communicate, I was doodling on it.

Then I felt Avery’s eyes on me. Mine slid to him.

He smiled.

Really, even though he was somewhat weird-looking, he was also very attractive.

I ripped the doodling sheet off the top, wrote him a note and passed it to him.

He read it and shook his head, handing the pad back to me, “I’m not a vampire, Leah.”

I wrote another note and passed it to him.

He did the reading thing and gave it back to me. “Yes, I’m immortal.”

Wow!

I was guessing!