CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN
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Lex didn’t take the stairs; he bounded to the landing in one leap, swinging over the bannister and landing just in front of his bedroom door. His hearing was sharp, and he’d followed her footsteps, but now he had her scent and knew where to find her.
“The thrill of the chase…” he said, walking into the room like a conquering hero. The moment he heard the air displace right next to his right ear wasn’t enough time to duck the impact of the hard metal against his temple, knocking him sideways and spinning him around as he saw stars.
There were two clangs – the first when it hit him on the head and the second when Faith discarded it on the floor. Without thinking, his eyes followed the sound of the second clang, and he tried to focus on the item. It took a moment to get there, but when he did, he grunted with disbelief. “You hit me with a bedpan.”
Faith snorted a chuckle. “Is that what that is?” She threw her head back and howled with laughter before tossing her body forward and bracing her hands on her knees. “That seems fitting!” she said between roars of laughter.
Lex shook his head fast, trying to dislodge the fuzzy, hazy feeling that came with the blow, and it seemed reluctant to leave. He slapped the palm of his hand against his head until his blood healed him. “Uncalled for!”
“But as funny as all hell,” Faith said, reeling in her amusement and pushing up from her knees. “Where’s your sense of humour?”
“Imprinted on the bottom of the damn bedpan,” he said, taking a step towards her.
“Uh-uh,” Faith warned him with a shake of her finger. “It’s all about the chase.”
“But not about the hitting,” Lex bit out.
Faith tipped her head to the side and pouted. “Someone get a boo-boo?” she said, babying him.
“This is not the side of you I want to see,” Lex said, turning on a grin and the charm.
“Too bad you created a monster…”
“You were already a monster, just a different kind,” Lex replied with a cocky grin.
Faith placed her hands on her hips and narrowed her eyes on him. “Then you shouldn’t be surprised when I do this,” she said, launching herself at him, fangs down, claws out, and steamrollered him to the nearest wall.
The crack of the plasterboard at his back made him groan more than the physical jolt to his body and the swift blow of pain that shot through him. But he had her now – gripping each upper arm, he returned the favour – heading for the opposite wall.
At the last second before she hit, Faith gasped with surprise. “My breasts!” she squealed.
Lex hesitated just for a heartbeat. His little brain took over from his big brain, and he looked down at her breasts – that was when Faith turned the tables on him and used the distraction to spin him in place and slammed him against the wall.
Lex groaned. “You cheated!”
“There are no rules in the bedroom…”
Lex moved fast. His arms came up, and he knocked her grip from him. While she was busy getting a new hold, he hitched her up his body and headed toward the bed.
Faith was on her back on the mattress, looking up into his dark eyes and wondering how that had happened. “Unless I make the rules!” she said, locking her legs around his hips, squeezing tighter until he groaned in pain at the vice-like grip, and she flipped him onto his back, coming down over him.
Faith’s fangs were a breath away from the vein in his neck. She snapped her teeth together to show dominance. “Do I feel hungry?” she said teasingly, rousing his ego.
“Go ahead, take a bite,” Lex said, daring her and making her blood lust rise as she considered it.
Lex had just enough time to flip her off him. Faith landed face down on the mattress, and Lex was on top of her in a heartbeat, the length of his body running the length of hers. He brought his lips to her ear. “My turn,” he whispered, drawing her in before the tip of one fang sliced her skin, and he took the scent of her blood. “Smells like true love to me.” He ran his tongue down the length of the wound, tasting her blood on his tongue and revelling in the sweet taste of the woman he’d waited several lifetimes to find.
“Distraction,” Faith said, battling the urge to have him inside her with the desire to win. She rammed her elbow back into his ribs, catching him off guard and shooting him off the edge of the bed.
The sound of Lex hitting the hardwood floor made her grin with delight. “Ah, poor baby,” she said, moving to the side of the bed to peer over the edge and rub salt into the wounds of his ego – but Lex wasn’t there. “Huh?”
Faith snapped onto her knees and spun on the bed, scanning the area and looking for him.
“Lesson one,” he said, scooping her from the bed against his body and locking her against him. “Use all your senses to find your prey.”
Faith pulled her head back and was about to headbutt him when he suddenly launched her away from him onto the middle of the bed. “Lesson two,” he said, coming down on top of her, his hands gripping her wrists and locking them against the mattress. “Don’t have a tell.”
“Now, who cheated?” Faith said, fighting on two fronts to win the battle and to keep the burning desire for him at bay long enough to achieve her aim. It was like a video game in real life, but even by winning, she would eventually lose.
“Lesson three,” Lex said, releasing her wrists and ripping open her shirt, exposing the black lace bra and the swell of her perfect breast. “Live long and prosper,” he said with glee.
“Oh hell, no!” Faith bit out. “A Trekkie – seriously?”
A devilish grin took his lips. “It’s only logical, Captain…”
Faith groaned long and hard. “I’m in hell; how is this fair?”
Lex leaned in, his lips a breath from hers. “I can make up for it in other ways.”
“That sounded like a promise to me…”
“Oh, it is,” Lex assured her with a cocky grin. “Let me show you…”
“About time; all you seem to want to do is pull my pigtails,” Faith said, a wicked smile on her lips.
“Time to make it better,” Lex said before he took her lips with so much passion that it made her head spin.
Faith’s senses were already heightened, but his lips unleashed a firestorm within her that ripped through her body and mind, and every inch of her focused on him.
Desire tore through her. The need to be skin-to-skin against him wasn’t an itch that needed scratching; it was a lust that couldn’t be denied.
“Naked!” she demanded, and clothes were torn from her body just as fast as she was pulling at his.
She craved the feel of him, his body, his tongue, his hardness inside of her as much as she craved the taste of his blood on her tongue.
“Lex!” she demanded – but she didn’t know what she was demanding.
“Focus on your senses,” he said beside her ear, and she felt the breeze of his absence before the feel of him against her thighs. Then, the wet warmth of his tongue ravaged her sex and took her into a world that overwhelmed her.
Lust, desire, passion, and a craven need exploded through her mind and body until there was nothing else, no anchor to cling to, and she was lost in the waves of pleasure that battered her over and over again.
It wasn’t enough. Faith reached for him, her fingers snaked through his silken hair, and she wrenched him up her body, her free hand slammed into his shoulder, turning him onto his back and rolling with him, straddling him and thrusting down onto his manhood as she threw her head back and moaned as he filled her.
Lex pushed up, throwing an arm around her waist; he lifted her body and thrust deep again, over and over; he built a rhythm that matched her need until she was helplessly searching for the moment that would thrust her over the edge into ecstasy. A moment that he kept denying her, building up and then snatching the final prize away again.
Faith’s instincts kicked in; she knew what she needed, and she knew how to get it – and a heartbeat later, she stuck, sinking her fangs into his vein. The taste of his blood washed over her tongue and down her throat, and she savoured it.
Lex revelled in the pain and pleasure of the draw on his blood. He struck fast, his razor-sharp fangs piercing her skin. The first draw on her blood was ecstasy, and he gave over every inch of his body to the rapture, thrusting deep inside her and following her over the edge into eternity.